Breaking the Curtain

Our 2023 Tony Interview Series continues with the highly talented and kind, Taylor J. Williams, who is nominated for his work on Broadway's Ain't No Mo!

Taylor J. Williams is a musician and sound designer who has been nominated for a Tony Award for his work on Broadway’s Ain’t No Mo’ along with Jonathan Deans. He has worked as an electronic music designer on more than 30 Broadway productions including Moulin Rouge, Beetlejuice, Be More Chill, King Kong, Disney’s Frozen, Falsettos, and The Who’s orchestral tour: The Who Hits Back.

Taylor’s role as Co-Sound Designer for Ain't No Mo was integral in bringing this vision to life, as his perspective as a Black man allowed him to serve on the sound team as a voice and advocate for the Black community. With his input, he was able to ensure that the sound design of the production accurately represented Black culture and history within the play. 

Working alongside three-time Tony Award nominee Jonathan Deans, Taylor’s specific focus for the project was to compose original music, build sound cues to appear between vignettes which were in dialogue with the play, and to speak for Miss Bag, a prop character who embodies the creations of the Black community in the U.S.

Hello Gorgeous! We're joined by our new friends, Fiona and Julianna, from the Drama Fiends podcast, to break down the history behind Funny Girl! From Babs launching into stardom playing the iconic Fanny Brice, to the film, the Broadway revival, casting drama and everything in between - we discuss it all!

Check out our episode with the Drama Fiends on their podcast!

Click here to listen

We had the absolute pleasure of speaking with the incredible Tom Kitt, who is nominated for the 2023 Tony Award for Best Original Score Written for the Theatre for Broadway's Almost Famous!

As huge fans of the show and score, we were thrilled to have an in-depth conversation about Tom's work with the piece.

Tom Kitt is a two-time Tony, two-time Emmy, Pulitzer Prize and Grammy Award winner.  As a musical theatre composer, he has written the music for six Broadway shows: Next to Normal (Tony Award), If/Then (Tony Nomination), Flying Over Sunset (Tony Nomination), High Fidelity, Bring it On, The Musical, and Almost Famous. His work for the stage has also been seen Off-Broadway at 2nd Stage (Next to Normal, Superhero), The Public Theater (The Visitor, Shakespeare in the Park) and he has worked at some of the most prestigious regional theatres including The Old Globe, Arena Stage, Berkeley Rep, The Signature Theater, and ART.  In addition, Tom’s Broadway credits as an orchestrator include: Next to Normal (Tony Award), The SpongeBob Musical (Tony Nomination), Jagged Little Pill (Tony Nomination), Almost Famous, Head Over Heels, Everyday Rapture, and American Idiot.

Tom has also been active in the world of film and TV. As one of the vocal arrangers working on the Pitch Perfect films, Tom most notably helped create the classic “Riff-off.”  Tom also served as music supervisor/arranger/orchestrator for Grease Live and contributed songs for Royal Pains and Penny Dreadful.  He also provided music supervision for the NBC series, Rise and has written numerous songs for Sesame Street.  And he is known for his two original opening numbers for The Tony Awards, Live in 2019, written with David Javerbaum for James Corden, and the Emmy Award winning, Bigger in 2013, written with Lin-Manuel Miranda for Neil Patrick Harris.  Tom is also proud that his musical adaptation of Freaky Friday, co-written with Bridget Carpenter and Brian Yorkey was turned into an original movie musical for Disney Channel.  Most recently, Tom served as a Supervising Music Producer on the new Bobby Lopez/Kristen Anderson-Lopez/Steven Levenson/Thomas Kail musical television series, Up Here.

We're delighted to be joined by Benjamin Durham who plays the iconic role of Winnie the Pooh in the new musical adaptation now touring around the UK & Ireland!

The show features many of the original songs written by Richard M. and Robert B. Sherman, who composed most of the music for the Winnie the Pooh franchise over the years. The puppets were lovingly crafted within the walls of Rockefeller Productions by a talented and dedicated team of artists, designers, patternmakers, builders, welders and fabricators; all influenced by Disney's seminal character designs with nods to E.H.Shephard’s original illustrations.

We're so thrilled to be joined by Jonathan Cullen to discuss playing the role of rockstar Stacee Jaxx in Toronto's Rock of Ages!

Jonathan Cullen has wowed audiences on stages across North America since 2010. Most recently he played a leading role on the 1st National Tour of the Broadway Smash-hit, The Book of Mormon. Jonathan helped Grammy Nominated Steven Page, formerly of Barenaked Ladies, workshop his new musical, Here’s What It Takes. Previously in his career, Jonathan worked with Tony Award Winning Director Stephen Daldry and Tony Award Winning choreographer Peter Darling along with multiple Academy and Grammy Award Winning artist Elton John on their ground-breaking Broadway success, Billy Elliot.

We're so excited to be joined by Emily Kristen Morris!

Emily is currently the Elphaba standby on the Broadway National Tour of Wicked. Some of her other favorite theatre roles include Bea in Something Rotten (Broadway National Tour), Daisy in Side Show, Nellie Forbush in South Pacific, and Sophie in Mamma Mia. Emily has performed as a solo vocalist with symphony orchestras, including the Guangzhou Symphony Orchestra in China, and the Norwalk Symphony. Her voice is also featured on Joey Contreras’ new album “In Pieces.”

In 2019 Emily began her studies with the Institute for Vocal Advancement, and founded her voice studio EKM Vocal Studio. Since then, the studio has grown exponentially, and Emily has become a highly sought-after, world-renowned vocal instructor! She teaches lessons, masterclasses and workshops to passionate singers both virtually and in person in New York City.

TikTok: @EmilyKristenMorris
Instagram: @EmilyKristenMorris
Website:  www.EmilyKristenMorris.com

EXTRA! EXTRA! Calling all Fansies! We've got an exciting interview with Bronté Barbé and Michael Ahomka-Lindsay who play the roles of Katherine Plumber and Jack Kelly in the UK production of Newsies!

We're thrilled to be joined by Louise Camilleri who is currently playing Justice Charlier in the Toronto production of Rock of Ages!

Louise has been an entertainer for over 3 decades with appearances in television, film and commercials. Career highlights feature her in Musical Theatre shows throughout Canada to the Broadway stage. These include performing as a featured dancer in the U.S. national tour of Sophisticated Ladies produced by Mercedes Ellington, the role of Anita in West Side Story, the world premier production of The Lord of the Rings, the role of Tanya in Mamma Mia!, and the world premier production of Show Boat at the Gershwin Theatre on Broadway. Film and television highlights include the movies Superstar, Blues Brother’s 2000 and Disney’s Sharpay’s Fabulous Adventure. Vocal highlights include performing as a guest soloist with The Tenors, a featured singer with Josh Groban in concert, performing and recording with The Parachute Club, and as lead vocalist with her band Mark Camilleri and The CT Project on their debut album.

This is weird. It's weird. Very weird. F**king weird.

When RENT opened in London’s West End in 1998, the poor reviews from the British press would eventually become the least of their issues surrounding a UK-based production of this iconic musical.

In 2007, Jonathan Larson’s work would be flipped into a tragic, reworked West End production named Rent Remixed. Yup, you heard that right. We’re going to dive deep into the history of the first non-replica production of RENT and give detailed accounts of the remixed songs and scenes. We also discuss what we believe the differences are between British Theatre VS American Theatre and why certain shows flop following a transfer to the West End/Broadway.

As a special bonus, we play a game called 'NAME THAT RENT REMIX' where Jocelyn, a massive 'renthead', listens to the remixed clips and tries to guess which song it is.

The Bat is back in London! We're thrilled to be joined by returning guests Glenn Adamson (Strat) and Kellie Gnauck (Raven) to chat about their recent journey with the show's Arena tour in Australia and New Zealand, exciting new information about the upcoming London run, overcoming anxiety, what they think Strat and Raven would gift each other for Valentine's Day and more! 

Bat Out of Hell The Musical is a Rocky-Horror, Romeo-and-Juliet celebration of star-crossed lovers from opposite sides of the tracks caught in a city teetering on the brink of disaster. When Raven falls in love with the rebellious Strat, all bets are off in this love-at-all-costs, rock-and-rollercoaster story based on uncompromising youth.

Bat Out of Hell plays a limited season at the Peacock Theatre beginning Feb 17 - April 1, 2023!