Tony Nominee Writer/Director joins Behind the Awards to discuss the creation of The Picture of Dorian Gray alongside Sarah Snook.  Kip shares how his vision married technology and art to create Oscar Wilde’s novel for this generation.

Also in this episode - Eila & Bruce discuss the announcement of Darren Criss and Renee Else Goldsberry as the hosts of The Tony Awards streaming on PlutoTV at 6:40pmEST, Sunday June 8th.  As well as Montego Glover taking over the role of Rose for 8 performances in Gypsy from Monday June 30th - Sunday July 6th while Audra McDonald is on vacation. 

Kip Williams is a multi-award winning writer and director of theatre, opera and screen, who has revolutionised the stage with his ‘cine-theatre’ productions. His hugely critically acclaimed gothic trilogy of The Picture of Dorian Gray, Strange Case of Dr Jekyll & Mr Hyde, and Dracula has been seen to date by a global audience of over 350,000 people and has brought him international acclaim, with The Economist calling his work “the future of theatre” and The New Yorker hailing Williams “an Australian megatalent exploring the cutting edge of video onstage”. Following its sold-out run in the West End in early 2024, Williams’ adaptation of The Picture of Dorian Gray opened on Broadway at The Music Box in March 2025 to huge acclaim, with Sarah Snook reprising her Olivier Award winning performance. The production was nominated for six Tony Awards, including Williams who is nominated for the Tony Award for Best Direction of a Play, along with nominations for Outstaning Director of a Play at the Drama Desk Awards and Outstanding Direction of a Play at the Drama League Awards.
Williams’ professional career began with Sydney Theatre Company (STC), Australia’s largest theatre company, when in 2012 he was appointed STC’s Directing Associate by then Artistic Directors Cate Blanchett and Andrew Upton. He was subsequently made Resident Director from 2013-2016, and in November 2016, Williams was appointed Sydney Theatre Company’s seventh Artistic Director & Co-CEO, a role in which he served for eight years. His appointment, at the age of 30, made him the youngest Artistic Director in the company’s history. During his celebrated tenure, Williams transformed the company’s production of new writing, with over two thirds of the 101 shows he programmed written by Australian writers, whilst also achieving gender parity for writers and directors across all seasons for the first time in the company’s history.
In addition to STC, Williams has directed for many of Australia’s leading theatre companies and festivals, including Melbourne Theatre Company (MTC), Malthouse Theatre, Adelaide Festival, Perth Festival, and Melbourne’s RISING Festival, as well as internationally for Auckland Arts Festival, Princeton Summer Theatre, Michael Cassel Group, Kindred Partners, Theatre Royal Haymarket in the West End, and The Music Box on Broadway. Williams’ will direct his adaptation of Dracula at the Noel Coward Theatre in the West End, starring screen and stage virtuoso Cynthia Erivo playing all 23 roles.

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Eila & Bruce bring you the fifth and final installment of their 2025 Tony deep dive. They are joined by expert Matt Stashin and share who will win and who they want to win in the following categories: Best Musical, Best Play, Scenic Design of a Musical, Lead Actor of a Musical, Lead Actress of a Musical.

Audra McDonald, Megan Hilty, Jasmine Amy Rogers, Nicole Scherzinger, Jennifer Simard, Darren Criss, Andrew Durand, Tom Francis, Jonathan Groff, James Monroe Iglehart, Jeremy Jordan, Rachel Hauck, Dane Laffrey, George Reeve, Derek McLane, Buena Vista Social Club, Dead Outlaw, Death Becomes Her, Maybe Happy Ending, Operation Mincemeat, English, The Hills of California, John Proctor is the Villain, Oh, Mary!, Purpose, Swept Away, Just in Time, Sunset Boulevard, A Wonderful World, Floyd, Collins, Gypsy, Boop! The Musical

Make sure to check out Eila's book, "The Tony Awards", and all her other amazing books: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://amzn.to/43WMu5Y⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠.

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5 time Tony Nominee Ben Stanton stops by Behind the Awards to share his process on lighting such shows as Maybe Happy Ending, The Notebook and Spring Awakening.  Ben goes into detail about the innovative tech that went into Maybe Happy Ending and his collaboration with the video design.

Also in this episode - 2026 Broadway Season announcements are in full swing. Revivals of Ragtime, Chess and Mamma Mia lead the way. 

Ben is a lighting designer for theater, concerts, dance, installations, and events. He is a four-time Tony Award nominee as well as an Obie, Lortel, IRNE, and Ovation Award winner. Ben is currently represented on Broadway by Maybe Happy Ending at the Belasco Theater. Recent Broadway credits include The Notebook (the Schoenfeld Theater) Mary Jane (starring Rachel McAdams), Days of Wine and Roses (Starring Kelli O'Hara & Brian Darcy James), Goodnight, Oscar (starring Sean Hayes); The Collaboration (Starring Paul Bettany & Jeremy Pope); Charles Dickens’ A Christmas Carol (Featuring Jefferson Mays);   The Rose Tattoo (starring Marisa Tomei); Derren Brown: Secret (James Earl Jones Theater); Regina Spektor: Live On Broadway (Lunt-Fontanne Theater); Ayad Akhtar’s Junk (Lincoln Center);  Six Degrees of Separation (starring Allison Janney, Corey Hawkins, and John Benjamin Hickey); Deaf West Theater’s Spring Awakening (Lena Horne Theater); Fully Committed (starring Jesse Tyler Ferguson); and Fun Home (Broadway, Off-Broadway, 1st National Tour, London).

Ben has designed concerts and tours for recording artists including Beirut, Ben Platt, Iron and Wine, The National, Regina Spektor, Sufjan Stevens, and St. Vincent, and has collaborated on several large-scale concert/theater hybrid performances including Road Trip featuring Bang On A Can All-Stars (BAM Opera House / Ford Theater, LA), Reconfiguration – An Evening with Other Lives (BAM Opera House), Planetarium featuring Bryce Dessner, Nico Mulhy, & Sufjan Stevens (BAM Opera House / Disney Concert Hall, LA / Sydney Opera House), and Black Mountain Songs featuring Bryce Dessner, Richard Reed Parry, & the Brooklyn Youth Chorus (BAM Harvey Theater / Barbican, London).

Ben serves as an Assistant Professor at Brooklyn College where he teaches lighting design and programming, and he’s the founder and principal designer at Stanton Collaborative, a full-service design firm specializing in concerts, events, and art installations. Ben graduated from the University of Massachusetts at Amherst with degrees in theater and jazz performance. He lives in Brooklyn with his partner, the projection designer Lucy Mackinnon, and their two children.

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Just in Time’s Caesar Samayao visited Behind the Awards to discuss his multiple roles in the show including the legendary Don Kurshnier.  Caesar recounts his time creating his track in Come From Away, The Pee Wee Herman Show and How to Dance to Ohio.  

Also in this episode - Real Women Have Curves Tony Nominee Benjamin Velez comes back to Behind the Awards to share what the process has been like since BroadwayCon when they were just getting into the theater to rehearse and put the show together to where we are now. 

Caesar Samayoa most recently starred as Dr. Emilio Amigo in How to Dance in Ohio on Broadway. Original Broadway Companies include Come from Away (Kevin J./Ali), Sister Act (Pablo), The Pee Wee Herman Show, Hot Feet. Off-Broadway/Regional: Evita (Perón - A.R.T./STC), Los Otros (Carlos - A.R.T./New York), Love’s Labour’s Lost (Don Armado - The Delacorte Theater), Bernstein’s Mass (Carnegie Hall), Seared (Harry - Capital Rep). Other: Yale Rep, La Jolla Playhouse, Goodspeed Musicals, Tectonic Theater Project, Seattle Rep. Film/TV: Come from Away (Apple TV+), “FBI” (CBS), “Ray Donovan” (Showtime), “The Blacklist” (NBC). Awards: 2022 HOLA José Ferrer Tespis Award, 2024 Harold Prince Award (Third St Gala). CaesarSamayoa.com @CaesarSamayoa

Make sure to check out Eila's book, "The Tony Awards", and all her other amazing books: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://amzn.to/43WMu5Y⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠.

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Emily Bergl takes a break from Just in Time: The Bobby Darin Musical to break down the two characters she originates in the show.  Emily gives us the low down of working with Jonathan Groff as well as working on such TV Series as; The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel, Shameless, Desperate Housewives and Gilmore Girls.

Also in this episode - Tony Nominated Just in Time Orchestrators Andrew Resnick & Michael Thurber join Behind the Awards to discuss creating the environment that is a Jonathan Groff/Bobby Darin Concert at the Copa.

Emily Bergl is a unique actress among her peers, known for her ability to transform from role to role. With versatility across genres, she has had a flourishing career in television, film and theater. As a young actress understudying on Broadway, Emily was chosen from a nationwide casting call to play the lead in The Rage: Carrie 2, her very first job on camera. Wary of being typecast as a scream queen, she returned to the theater to play Juliet opposite Neil Patrick Harris, then starred in The Lion in Winter on Broadway opposite Laurence Fishburne and Stockard Channing. Emily’s roles on television are so transformative, she is often unrecognizable from one character to the next: Alex Borstein’s ditzy, resourceful sister in “The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel,” a hardnosed investigator on “Mindhunter,” and a gun-toting, trailer park Chicago mother in “Shameless.” On “Desperate Housewives,” she shocked audiences as the suicidal housewife Beth Young. Other regular television roles include “You,” “Dirty John,” “The Knick,” “American Crime,” “How to Get Away with Murder,” “Scandal,” “Grey’s Anatomy,” “Southland,” “Men in Trees,” and “Gilmore Girls.” True to her original roots, Emily has combined a thriving television career with equally diverse roles in the theater. She recently starred on Broadway opposite Sean Hayes in Good Night, Oscar, for which she was nominated for a Drama Desk Award. Other Broadway appearances include The Ferryman, Cat on a Hot Tin Roof opposite Scarlett Johansson, and A Touch of the Poet opposite Gabriel Byrne. Off-Broadway she has starred in Shakespeare in the Park, and has originated roles in new works by Gina Gionfriddo, Christopher Shinn, and Wendy Wasserstein. She has played iconic parts in classic dramas from Molière to Thornton Wilder at Lincoln Center, the Roundabout Theatre Company, and the Williamstown Theatre Festival, among others. Perhaps the most unique aspect of Emily’s career is that she has reinvented herself as a cabaret singer. She has played the premier nightclubs across the country from Cafe Carlyle to Yoshi’s and made the last album to be recorded in the Oak Room, “Emily Bergl: Live at the Algonquin.” She can also be seen in the upcoming film The History of Sound, starring Paul Mescal and Josh O’Connor. 

Make sure to check out Eila's book, "The Tony Awards", and all her other amazing books: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://amzn.to/43WMu5Y⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠.

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Eila & Bruce bring you the fourth installment of their Tony deep dive. They are joined by expert Matt Stashin and share who will win and who they want to win in the following categories: Director of a Musical, Costume Design of a Musical, Lead Actress of a Play, Lead Actor of a Play, Lighting Design of a Play, and Revival of a Musical.

Laura Donnelly, Mia Farrow, LaTanya Richardson Jackson, Sadie Sink, Sarah Snook, George Clooney, Cole Escola, Jon Michael Hill, Daniel Day Kim, Harry Lennix, Louis McCartney, Saheem Ali, Michael Arden, David Cromer, Christopher Gattelli, Jamie Lloyd, Dede Ayite, Gregg Barnes, Clint Ramos, Paul Tazewell, Catherine Zuber, David Bengali, Heather Gilbert, Natasha Chivers, Jon Clark, Natasha Katz, Hannah Wasileski, Nick Schlieper, Floyd Collins, Gypsy, Pirates! The Penzance Musical, Sunset Boulevard, The Hills of California, The Roomate, Purpose, John Proctor is the Villain, The Picture of Dorian Gray, Good Night and Good Luck, Oh, Mary!, Yellow Face, Stranger Things: The First Shadow, Buena Vista Social Club, Maybe Happy Ending, Dead Outlaw, Death Becomes Her, Boop! The Musical, Just in Time

Make sure to check out Eila's book, "The Tony Awards", and all her other amazing books: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://amzn.to/43WMu5Y⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠.

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Burke Swanson visited Behind the Awards to give us the low down on his show Stranger Things: The First Shadow.  Burke shares his first hand experience in the creation of the magical theater experience and what it is like to step into the shoes of James Hopper Jr.

Also in this episode - Tony Nominated Sound Designer Dan Moses Schreier gives Behind the Awards a glimpse into what it takes to create the environment that is Floyd Collins at the Vivian Beaumont Theater at Lincoln Center.

Burke made his Broadway debut, immediately following his graduation from the Savannah College of Art and Design (SCAD), when he originated the role of “Jack” in the Roundabout Theatre Company’s revival of Tennessee Williams’ The Rose Tattoo, which opened in October 2019. He most recently wrapped up the First National Tour of Back to the Future: The Musical where he starred as “George McFly”.  He is now returning to Broadway as James Hopper Jr in Stranger Things: The First Shadow.

Make sure to check out Eila's book, "The Tony Awards", and all her other amazing books: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://amzn.to/43WMu5Y⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠.

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Tony Nominee Joy Woods stops by Behind the Awards to talk about playing Louise in Gypsy alongside Audra McDonald. Danny Burstein, and her Notebook co-star Jordan Tyson.  Joy shares her way into the title role through Director George C Wolfe’s stories during rehearsal and her meteoric rise from Little Shop to Six to being a Tony Nominee.

Also in this episode - Millie Shapiro and Keri Rene Fuller from Last Bimbo of the Apocalypse now running at The New Group join us to give listeners a looking into the show and their characters.

Joy Woods originated the role of Middle Allie in The Notebook on Broadway as well as at the Chicago Shakespeare Theatre and received The Joseph Jefferson Award for Performer in a Supporting Role – Musical for her performance. Previously, Woods made her Broadway debut as Catherine Parr in Six: The Musical. In 2023, Woods starred as Martha Mills in the Off-Broadway revival of I Can Get it For You Wholesale. The production won the Drama Desk and Outer Critics Circle Awards for Outstanding Revival of a Musical. Woods made her Off-Broadway debut in 2019, originating the role of Chiffon in the Off-Broadway revival of Little Shop of Horrors. She then returned to the show in 2023 as Audrey. Woods resides in New York and graduated from the AMDA College of the Performing Arts.

Make sure to check out Eila's book, "The Tony Awards", and all her other amazing books: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://amzn.to/43WMu5Y⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠.

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Tony Nominee Jasmine Amy Rogers joins behind the Awards to give a deep dive into Boop The Musical where she is making her Broadway Debut.  Jasmine also shares the process of working with Jerry Mitchell on the workshop and then into the out of town as well as working with David Foster.

Also in this episode - Octavia Spencer’s 2012 Oscar win for The Help

Jasmine, in her acclaimed Broadway debut, has earned nominations for the Tony Awards, Drama Desk Awards, Outer Critics Circle Awards, Drama League Awards, and Chita Rivera Awards — and winning a Theatre World Award. She originated the role of Betty Boop in the pre-Broadway Chicago run. Additional credits include Anita in Jelly’s Last Jam (Pasadena Playhouse), Gretchen Wieners in Mean Girls (National Tour), Melody Green in The Wanderer (Paper Mill Playhouse), and Francis in Becoming Nancy (Alliance Theatre). A Jimmy Awards finalist, she studied musical theater at the Manhattan School of Music.

Make sure to check out Eila's book, "The Tony Awards", and all her other amazing books: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://amzn.to/43WMu5Y⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠.

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Eila & Bruce bring you the third installment of their Tony deep dive. They are joined by expert Matt Stashin and share who will win and who they want to win in the following categories: Featured Actress in a Musical, Book of a Musical, Scenic Design of a Play, Best Revival of a Play, and Sound Design of a Musical

Natalie Venetia Belcon, Julia Knitel, Gracie Lawrence, Justina Machado, Joy Woods, Will Aronson, Hue Park, David Cumming Felix Hagan, Natasha Hodgson, Zoe Roberts, Itamar Moses, Marco Pennette, Marco Ramirez, David Bergman, Marg Horwell, Miriam Buether, 59 Productions, Marsha Ginsberg, Rob Howell, Scott Pask, Jonathan Deans, Adam Fisher, Peter Hylenski, Dan Moses Schreier, Buena Vista Social Club, Dead Outlaw, Just in Time, Real Women Have Curves, Gypsy, Maybe Happy Ending, Operation Mincemeat, Death Becomes Her, The Picture of Dorian Gray, Stranger Things: The First Shadow, English, The Hills of California, Good Night and Good Luck, Sunset Boulevard, Floyd Collins, Eureka Day, Thornton Wilder’s Our Town, Romeo & Juliet, Yellow Face

Make sure to check out Eila's book, "The Tony Awards", and all her other amazing books: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://amzn.to/43WMu5Y⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠.

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