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IMOGEN: Welcome to THE BROADWAY.COM SHOW, filmed in New York’s historic Brill Building.
I’m Imogen Lloyd Webber. RYAN: And I’m Ryan Lee Gilbert. This week,
we get the scoop on the off-Broadway productions of RELEVANCE and FIRE AND AIR, head backstage
at SCHOOL OF ROCK and more. IMOGEN: And later, we sit down with Eve Ensler
to discuss her newest solo show, IN THE BODY OF THE WORLD. But first, let’s get started
with the news. What’s the buzz, Ryan?
RYAN : Broadway has officially got the beat! HEAD OVER HEELS, the new musical featuring
the songs of The Go-Go's, has found a home on the Great White Way. The production will
play the Hudson Theatre, with previews slated to begin on June 23 and an opening set for
July 26. HEAD OVER HEELS will first play an out-of-town engagement at San Francisco's
Curran theater from April 10 through May 6. The cast will feature Rachel York, Jeremy
Kushnier, Alexandra Socha, Taylor Iman Jones, newcomer Bonnie Milligan, Andrew Durand, Tom
Alan Robbins and RuPaul’s Drag Race star Peppermint, who will be the first trans-woman
to create a principal role on the Great White Way. We can’t wait to get up and go see
this one.
IMOGEN : They’re invited! Beth Level, Brooks Ashmanskas and Christopher Sieber will reprise
their roles from the Alliance Theatre world premiere in the Broadway production of THE
PROM. They’ll also be joined by Caitlin Kinn-u-nen, Angie Schw-orer, Courtenay Collins,
Isabelle McCalla, Josh Lamon and Michael Potts. Directed and choreographed by Casey Nicholaw,
the buzzed-about new musical comedy features a book by Bob Martin and Chad Beguelin, with
music by Matthew Sklar and lyrics by Beguelin. THE PROM is scheduled to open on November
15th at a Shubert venue to be announced.
RYAN: : The 2018 Grammy Awards took place at Madison Square Garden this past weekend,
and Broadway certainly came to play on music’s biggest night. Two-time Tony winner Patti
LuPone offered a show-stopping performance of “Don’t Cry for Me, Argentina” from
EVITA and earned a standing ovation. HAMILTON mastermind Lin-Manuel Miranda nabbed his third
Grammy for his MOANA tune “How Far I’ll Go,” which earned the award for Best Song
Written for Visual Media. And DEAR EVAN HANSEN garnered the award for Best Musical Theater
album, making Grammy winners of Benj Pasek and Justin Paul, Ben Platt, who also took
the stage to perform the WEST SIDE STORY tune “Somewhere” on the big night. In other
DEAR EVAN HANSEN news, Taylor Trensch joined the Grammy-winning cast—yes they all received
trophies—a little bit earlier than expected, stepping in for previous headliner Noah Galvin
on January 30.
IMOGEN : Look out because here she comes! WAITRESS alum and GREATEST SHOWMAN breakout
star Keala Settle is set to belt out Benj Pasek and Justin Paul’s Oscar-nominated
song “This Is Me” at the 2018 Academy Awards. If her performance of the number as
Lettie Lutz, AKA “The Bearded Lady,” in the P.T. Barnum biopic is anything to go by,
Settle will stop the show on the telecast. The Oscars is scheduled to air live on ABC
on March 4th and oh, we’ll be watching. RYAN : One of Broadway’s great ones is coming
to a city near you! The hit new Broadway musical A BRONX TALE will launch a North American
tour during the 2018-2019 season, including engagements at Los Angeles' Hollywood Pantages
Theatre, Fort Lauderdale's Broward Center and additional cities to be announced in the
coming weeks. Casting for the touring production will be announced at a later date. Keep an
eye out for when this thrilling doo-*** musical brings Belmont Avenue to your town.
IMOGEN: : With frozen fractals in the New York air comes exciting news for FROZEN fans.
Four brand new songs written for the Broadway production will be released on consecutive
Fridays beginning on February 23rd, the day after the musical’s first Broadway performance
at the St. James Theatre. Penned by Oscar-winning songwriting team Kristen Anderson-Lopez and
Robert Lopez, the four new numbers include “Monster,” a new Act Two solo for Elsa,
“What Do You Know About Love?,” a new duet for Anna and Kristoff, “Dangerous to
Dream,” a new number sung by Elsa and “True Love,” a new Act Two solo for Anna. The
songs will be recorded by the Broadway cast, featuring Caissie Levy, Patti Murin and Jelani
Aladdin. This is when we mention the cold never bothered us anyway, right Ryan?
RYAN: : When we come back, we get a sneak peek at the Encores! production of HEY, LOOK
ME OVER!, check out SCHOOL OF ROCK frontman Justin Collette’s dressing room and more.
BETH: This week on Broadway.com, THE PHANTOM OF THE OPERA’s Ali Ewoldt celebrates 30
years of the record-breaking show with Sierra Boggess, Norm Lewis and more in the latest
episode of DEAR DAAE, THE LION KING star Jelani Remy kicks of his new vlog PRIDE OF BROADWAY
and more.
on the other side always
hi I'm Rodney Ingram I'm Ally you all and I'm Peter Gavin and you're watching
the Broadway comm show.
RYAN: Welcome back. Onstage, Justin Collette
brings down the house as wannabee rock star Dewey Finn in Andrew Lloyd Webber’s SCHOOL
OF ROCK with his exuberant stage presence and killer comedic timing. We recently went
backstage with Collette, and it’s safe to say he’s as hilarious and rock n’ roll
as his character. Check out his five favorite things (and learn all about his Hootie and
the Blowfish obsession) in his dressing room. hi I'm Justin Collette and I play Dewey
Finn at School of Rock and Broadway and I'm gonna show you five of my favorite
things in my dressing room at one of my favorite things is I I split the role of
Dewey with my friend Connor Gillooly and a couple of other guys and after every
show we leave a little post-it for us for the next Dewey who's coming in the
next day and as you can see they're gathering around the mirror and that's
that's thing one that cheers me up second favorite thing is my gear so we
have acted like music gear not head gear so this is a Fender Stratocaster that I
got I brought in and we had it mounted which is pretty cool these are a couple
of amps a guitar one and a bass one for when we jam so the kids come down
usually at 15 minutes and we jam before the show which is really fun this is
another one of my amps fender one here we have an acoustic guitar over there
that's a a Tanglewood another one of my favorite things is I get a shower in my
dressing room and there's a thing in it if you want to come in to check I have a
little speaker that I warm up with with before the show and I also use it to
listen to my Hootie another one of my favorite things is I
have a secret stash of Canadian candy that I have people smuggle here for me
Linda they come ketchup chips Hickory sticks a bunch of Joe Lewis I'm the
character that I play another one of my favorite things you won't find if you
look around but if you look down I got this awesome
carpet that after this show this is such an exhausting show and it's like a
really stressful role and so just having a nice carpet after the show just to do
this just do better this then oh my name is Jessica let thank you for coming in
to do it in this dressing room please come see School of Rock the musical the
Winter Garden Theatre Broadway New York City New York Earth
get yourself a rug PAUL: This production is going to put a whole
lot of dream stage scenarios on our wish list. HEY, LOOK ME OVER! is a collection of opening
numbers, grand finales and other excerpts from beloved shows that have not yet bowed
on the City Center stage. We got a sneak peek at rehearsal with the superbly starry cast.
Take a look! Hey look me over is about I think it's
about eight different Broadway shows two or three songs from each one very
cleverly put together into an evening it's a chance to show man in chair this
character I created it in The Drowsy Chaperone in the real world he's a
subscriber two encores and he's had some issues with the programming over the
years and so he's he's come and he's going to present his own evening and
that's that sort of the conceit it's wonderful to be back last time I did a
show for on courses 20 years ago in 1998 so it's been a while I've never done an
on course before so this is my very first time so I'm very excited you know
it's an amazing group of people and everybody just kind of throws their
talents into a mixing bowl and it comes out a show in a week and you're like how
did that happen it's a celebration of 25 years of encores but instead of looking
back it's looking ahead to shows that haven't yet been done at encores and
ones that the man in the chair feels really have been neglected it's an
opportunity to take a jewel that has been buried and put it back on stage and
make it alive again and that's the wonderful thing about theater
PAUL V.O.: With so many big Broadway names, there is a whole lot of talent heading to
the City Center stage. According to the cast, it’s a total lovefest offstage.
you get to be in a room with all these friends and
colleagues and also new friends and colleagues so you've never gotten to
work with before so you get these wonderful people and great reunions and
good times Nancy opal and I went to Juilliard
together come on Carolee you know I've known for years bebe and Judy so it's
kind of old home week but also you realize how small the community is and
how talented and awesome everybody is IMOGEN: In the world premiere production of
FIRE AND AIR, acclaimed playwright Terrence McNally explores the rich history of the Ballets
Russes, Sergei Diaghilev’s ground-breaking dance company. We headed downtown to Classic
Stage Company to check in with star Douglas Hodge, who plays the tempestuous impresario
at the heart of the drama. fire is really
the story of Diaghilev and Lee Ballet Russe Diaghilev was an incredible
producer really he said he didn't have any talent of his own but he clearly did
he was a brilliant pianist and he loved ballet and he formed the synthesis of
music art and decor design he employed people like Picasso Stravinsky Debussy
you could almost say that they are loved ballet wouldn't exist anymore probably
would have died if it hadn't been for him working the John Doyle he's Scottish
which means his mean and tough and economical but his whole artistic
impulses to take away constantly to strip away and Constantine you know I
mean he'd love it if the audience came in and used their own imaginations he
feels that on the bare floor boards with a few chairs and a few lights and the
audience in full sight they can just get very close up to the acting and intimate
and Terrence yes latterly in his life has written this
extraordinary love letter really to DLF and to that period and he seems to know
everything about it but it is essentially it's extremely poetic and
it's a pian to all the the things that we're sort of missing at the moment you
know the Grace and harmony and beauty and elegance and manners and that whole
world that is so important that redresses the levels of barbarism in the
world I believe you know he has written this love letter to quadruples what is
like for him to be at the center of a cast filled with acclaimed talents well
they're fabulous and also it's um well nigh yeah Marin mazzie is a miracle
yeah Marcia for Oscar nominations I think John Glover a legend in his own
right those three are just extraordinary stanchions to base a play on and then
there's these two young guys who can incredibly both ballet dance and act
which is something I have never to my life so yeah we do have the young
Andy and then the more experienced actors in the cast it's a play about
arts and play about poetry and a play about beauty and it's written as a poem
and I think these are tough brutal unpoetic times there's lots to discuss
it's current and relevant I think but essentially it's a gentle beautiful
piece about beautiful things PAUL: We have a feeling audiences will be taking to Twitter
after catching this play's world premiere. JC Lee has penned RELEVANCE, which stars Tony
winner Jayne Houdyshell and Tony nominee Pascale Armand at odds as a celebrated author and
veteran feminist warrior. When a heated exchange between the two women goes viral—well, you’ll
just have to see the play and find out. We chatted with the cast to get the scoop on
this brand new work. relevance is about an older feminist
thinker who at a literary conference on stage with a younger african-american
feminist thinker comes into conflict what drew me to this project is how
relevant it actually is I feel like it is literally in the center of
conversations that I have been having for the last you know two years about
intersectional feminism about how the Left deals with each other what
attracted me to the role itself was its complexity there's not very much gray in
her it's kind of black and white but also the actual themes that are
discussed in the play are very prescient important and that was stimulating and
challenging and exciting to me it's a great time for this coming off they need
to movement or right in the middle of it so I'm very happy to be doing my part
for the movement it's an extraordinary piece of writing becoming more and more
extraordinary as we go JC Lee's work is not only his work with his way of
working as it's so collaborative and so just
frightening ly intelligent I started writing the play back in 2015 and it was
sort of a Polito polite critique of liberalism on a certain level and in the
wake of the election took on a different kind of urgency and now it feels like
it's a reckoning for progressives to play on some level in terms of how
people move forward politically in this new environment
PAUL V.O.: Feminism, the #MeToo movement and social media are among the hot topics RELEVANCE
will bring center stage. The cast shared what they hope audiences take away from the show.
I hope that audiences are challenged I hope that what they think they know
about themselves and their friends and colleagues get some you know shake it up
a little bit Oh audience is to take away the idea of having discussions again I
think I think social media is great and as this play points out it makes
people have a voice who wouldn't otherwise have a voice but I think
sometimes we lose just a dialogue I hope people go home examining their own lives
and where they stand on the issues that are discussed in the play and perhaps
the play will have opened their eyes or their minds or their hearts in ways to
things they thought they knew they believed but needed to reexamine well I
want them to have a good time but then I also want them to take this conversation
outside of the theater and find out what their place is in the discussion in the
debate it doesn't just stop once you leave the theater when we return even
says house is all about her autobiographical one-woman show in the
body of the world go ahead throw rocks at me baking a pie is easy
and you know how if only life were as easy as pie waitress is a hip raise in
New York Times with songs like grammy-nominated artist Sara Bareilles
an uplifting celebration of love and laughter
Eve Ensler is a playwright performer and activist known for the global phenomenon
The *** Monologues her newest theater piece is adapted from her memoir in the
body of the world now playing at Manhattan Theatre Club the solo show
connects her cancer diagnosis to her work with female survivors of violence
in the Democratic Republic of Congo her own childhood trauma and more i sat down
with Ensler to talk about bringing this deeply personal story to the stage Eve
it is an honor to have you here today because I am such a fan and such an
admirer of your work your new play is so moving it leaves no feeling unfilled
tell me why you wanted to take the story of yours which is so deeply personal and
write a memoir and then adapt it for the stage well I don't know at the beginning
that I was planning to do this on stage I did it as a memoir I think I wrote it
for many reasons I think having gone through this huge process when I had
stage four cancer eight years ago it was just this incredibly powerful emotional
political spiritual mystical experience and I wanted to write about that and and
I in a weird way the book was really the completion I what I thought was the
completion of the experience and then Diane Paulus up at a RT American
Repertory Theatre read it and she just suggested to me wouldn't this be an
amazing woman show and I think secretly there might have been that idea embedded
in me somewhere but when she said it it was like wow that would be really
intense and really exciting to see if we could make this into a theater piece and
so we embarked on that I actually I'm really beginning to see performing it
every night how this is really the completion of that whole kind of
alchemic journey that I had when I was both working and supporting and being in
solidarity with women in Congo where we were opening the city of joy which
coincided with me being diagnosed with stage 4 cancer
let's talk about that connection because so much of this play is about connecting
the inner and the outer tell me how that occurred to you how that used to talk
about being in your body I want to know
exactly what that means one thing I know from my own experience having been
molested and beaten very severely as a child is that when you are attacked when
violence happens to you you have to leave your body because your body became
it really becomes this landscape of terah trauma of loneliness you can't
bear to be in it because all the memories are there all the trails
protection in a way yeah it's self personal you disassociate from yourself
and I think the the sorrow of that and the bad news of that is that when women
are not in their bodies they're not in their sexuality they're not in their
imaginations they're not in their power they're not in their energy and so we're
losing you know massive amounts of brilliance intelligence Drive energy
that could be turning this whole world that we're living in around and I think
I thought having written the *** Monologues intermittent the good body
then written play after book that okay I think I'm in my body now and then I got
cancer and I woke up after her a nine-hour surgery missing seven organ 70
nodes things replaced cut rearranged but it was really amazing I was lying there
with tubes coming out of me and I was in my body I was a body and I think what it
means is that we're not disassociated from ourselves we're not living someone
else's life we're not living through someone else's experience we're actually
having our own experience and trusting our own experience what I love about
your work is that you often say what is unsaid and you confront what people are
denying and because of that I think you have become the receiver of other
people's stories I mean I'm sure the *** Monologues was of course a global
sensation and you did it all over the country as well how do you grapple with
all of these women and men telling you about their trauma I'm glad I heard
those stories I'm glad I heard those stories I'm glad I went to Afghanistan
and Congo and Haiti and Kosovo and India you know I I got to go to 75 countries
and sit with women in all kinds of refugee camps and war zones and in
beautiful situations in difficult situations and I got to see
this incredible story of women both the horror story but also the vitality of
women and the fierceness of women in the imagination of women I got to see that
around the world and I think now I am getting a bunch of emails since the show
started it and it's it's amazing to see the kind of things people are sharing
with me particularly men one of the things that really struck me about the
show is how personal it was not just about your cancer diagnosis or about
your work with women which everyone pretty much knows about but about how
you had to deal with your own sister your own mother because so many people
can work for women or talk about sisterhood but then dealing with their
own family members is often the toughest thing you know there's always a divide
you're great in the world and then you go home to your family you're like
anything that I preach um you know for me the whole journey with cancer was
unbelievable it was almost like the great divine mother said okay I'm gonna
throw you everything so you can just blow out every socket and be and be
changed and so my mother died during chemo which was really hard but it was
also like I had an opportunity to really go down and be with her and love her and
make peace with her and my sister came back into my life and was totally
nurturing and beautiful and that was this incredible so there was a lot of
healing that happened and there was also a lot of stuff I had to face and I
didn't know if I was gonna die like I really didn't all through and up until
three years after you know so when you're on that perch it's a very
incredible place it's a very up chemic place it's very it's a very shamanic
place because you are you're so close to your death that you can actually see
your life in a very different way and all that is insignificant and petty and
it just falls away and the what matters becomes uttermost you know and that's
amazing it surprises me that you said that you
didn't think this was going to be a theater piece because that is so fun to
me to who you are you are a playwright
first I always think I know you're an activist as well well you know it's
funny I think it's probably because what this play there was like some part of me
it was it's wrong oh my god I mean this this is it's you cannot do it but to
give everything to this you can't pretend and so I think probably I wasn't
opening my eyes yet to the reality of what this would mean and and what it
would call up and what it would demand because this is your story and it's
personal in a way that the *** Monologues was not although that had
personal pieces in it what did you learn from Diane Paulus in taking a look at it
with fresh eyes Oh Diane's such a brilliant director and such a wonderful
person it's one of the best experiences I've ever had in my vehicle life I think
what Diane did first of all I never saw myself as an actor I kind of saw myself
as this person who performed my work so usually I had cards and and she was like
now we're going for it like you're gonna you're gonna be an actor so she really
pushed me to do things I never thought I could do what was the writing process
like for you because this was something that was so personal to you I assumed
you weren't taking notes while you were going through
it was very did you have to relive it while you were I did and now you're
reliving it I used to live in Paris and and I went to Paris and I was there for
months and then literally writing the book was like like my body wrote the
book and there'd be days where I'd be wailing on the floor there'll be days
where I would just cry the whole day because my body remembered it I didn't
remember it so I had to just be in my body to write the book it's so
theatrical and you have people get into their own
bodies in the audience because you get people on their feet does that fun for
you to do is so much fun I was a little scared in New York because we know that
you know the New Yorkers are sometimes you know refuse errs in nature but you
know what I realized everybody wants everybody wants to connect we can
pretend in the city in our black and our cynical news that were but you know
everybody here wants to connect we're all lonely in this neoliberal capitalist
culture we're all isolated we're all by ourselves everyone's busy feeling they
didn't add up or measure up they're not good enough you know everybody I don't
care who you are and it's all what keeps us in our place which keeps
us beholding to these autocrats and these billionaire politicians who are
ruling our world and when we connect when we feel each other when we dance
together when we laugh together then we were all reminded of our power of our
not the power over but our power to love a power to connect our power to care and
I think that that's really what's happening in the theatre there's just a
lot of connection happening and I'm not in a small t way but in a way where
we're going through something together I love that your bio says that Eve Ensler
lives in the world what's more truthful than that that's
where I live that's where you live yeah yeah I don't I don't know that I believe
in countries you know I believe in people
I believe in hearts and I think any places where we have to have borders or
walls or divisions or subdivisions they really don't interest me you know I want
to live in this world where everybody's in it and everybody's included and no
one gets left out and no one gets thrown out or deported you know Eve thank you
so much and congratulations on this piece it's really beautiful thank you so
much and happy to talk to you BETH: When we come back, we watch Ben Platt’s
incredible performance from the 2018 Grammy Awards.
on the other side always waiting through it all
hi I'm Lily Cooper and I play Sandy Cheeks in Spongebob Squarepants and
you're watching the broadway.com show IMOGEN: Thank you for watching THE BROADWAY.COM
SHOW. RYAN: We leave you with Ben Platt’s amazing
rendition of “Somewhere” from WEST SIDE STORY from the 2018 Grammy Awards. Good luck
not watching it on repeat all weekend long. IMOGEN: See you next week!