I Wanna Be Like You with Elbi Cespedes

Kevin Adams is a 4 time Tony Award winning lighting designer who's currently nominated for his 9th Tony Award for his lighting design on the 2025 Broadway revival of Chess! His previous credits include the Off Broadway and Broadway productions of Hedwig and the Angry Inch and Spring Awakening (for which he won his first Tony Award for). He's also worked on the original productions of Next to Normal, American Idiot, SpongeBob Squarepants, and The Cher Show! His work transcends musicals having worked on operas, Broadway plays, and one person shows including John Leguizamo's Sexaholix! Upcoming, he's working on a new book charting his career to be released plus lighting designing the Broadway musical Galileo starring Raul Esparza coming this fall to the Shubert Theatre. As our first lighting designer on the podcast, we get to talking not only about his career in the theater but also how lighting has evolved moving from the incandescent era to the more energy efficient era we're in now!

Maulik Pancholy is currently starring as Reverend Howard Layton/The Leprechaun in Schmigadoon on Broadway! Onscreen he's best known as the voice of Baljeet in the Disney Channel sensation Phineas and Ferb and Sanjay in Sanjay and Craig on Nickelodeon. He's also well known as Jack Donaughy's assistant Jonathan on the hit NBC comedy 30 Rock! His former Broadway credits include It's Only A Play and Grand Horizons! Coming up, he'll be starring alongside Paul Giamatti, Julianne Moore, Bernadette Peters and more in Jesse Eisenberg's new untitled movie musical from A24. His new novel Will They, Won't They? will be released in January 2027 but right now you can catch him eight times a week at the Nederlander Theater in the musical tied for the most Tony Award nominations of the season, Schmigadoon!

Beowulf Boritt is a 2 time Tony Award winning scenic designer! His charity The 1/52 Project which focuses on amplifying marginalized designers has won the 2026 Tony Award Honor For Excellence In Theatre! Some of his work on Broadway includes Act One, New York, New York, On The Town, A Bronx Tale, Flying Over Sunset, The Scottsboro Boys, Sunday in the Park with George (2017), Prince Of Broadway and many more! His book Transforming Space Over Time released in 2022 and features a detailed look to the scenic design process as well as featuring interviews with legendary theater directors including Hal Prince, Susan Stroman, James Lapine, Jerry Zaks and Kenny Leon! Upcoming, he’ll be scenic designing the new musical Wanted and The Imaginary Invalid both transferring to Broadway this fall!!

FIFTH DREAM GUEST! Susan Stroman is a 5 time Tony Award winning Broadway director and choreographer! Her most iconic work includes directing and choreographing The Producers (working alongside Mel Brooks), Contact (for which she won multiple Tony Awards including Best Musical), the 2000 Broadway revival of The Music Man, Bullets Over Broadway (alongside Woody Allen), New York, New York and many more! As a choreographer, she's responsible for the original choreography of the smash hit Crazy For You, the 1994 revival of Show Boat, Oklahoma starring Hugh Jackman and directed by Trevor Nunn, Liza at Radio City Music Hall, and Steel Pier to name a few! Her work on screen includes directing and choreographing the film adaptation of The Producers as well as choreographing numbers in Curb Your Enthusiasm! Upcoming, she'll be at the helm of the new Ahrens and Flaherty musical Little Dancer which will open in the West End in 2027 with many more projects in development! We get to talking about the biggest things she learned from Hal Prince , what she looks for in new work, why she's made a pointed effort to only work on new works and much more.

Two-time Grammy Award nominee Lisa Lampanelli was known for more than 30 years as “Comedy’s Lovable Queen of Mean.” A constant on the comedy scene, with countless tours, 13 NBC “Tonight Show” appearances, and sold-out performances at Radio City Music Hall and Carnegie Hall under her belt, she became well-known for her roasting skills, publicly lambasting everyone from David Hasselhoff to Flavor Flav to Pamela Anderson on Comedy Central. In 2016, Lisa decided to do something a little different. She wrote “Stuffed,” a four-person play about food and body-image issues, which enjoyed two off-Broadway runs! Her charitable efforts -- she raised $130,000 for the Gay Men’s Health Crisis during season 5 of NBC’s “Celebrity Apprentice” and won $50,000 for the same organization on Fox’s “Celebrity Weakest Link” – are among her proudest achievements. She is currently serving as Associate Producer of “The People Versus Lenny Bruce," which has begun performances Off Broadway at Theatre Row now until June 28th!

Stephen Kramer Glickman is most well known for the beloved role Gustavo Rocque on the hit Nickelodeon series which created the boy band of the same name, Big Time Rush, a band and TV show Elbi was absolutely obsessed with growing up! His theater history is also vast having originated the role of Shrek in the pre Broadway developmental workshops of the musical rendition for YEARS as well as helping develop the role of Frankenstein's Monster along with Mel Brooks and Susan Stroman for Young Frankenstein! His voice can be heard as Pigeon Toady alongside Kelsey Grammer, Jennifer Aniston and Andy Sandberg in the animated film Storks! He also has a long time history as a stand up comedian having came up with Gilbert Godfrey and Dave Chapelle to name a few! Most recently, he reunited with the Big Time Rush guys to join them on their international tour, In Real Life where he toured multiple continents performing some of his hit renditions of songs like Crazy, Bad Guy and Pink Pony Club! We get to talking all about his theater history, his stand up career and of course all things Gutavo Rocque and BIG TIME RUSH!

Jeffrey Seller has impacted the theater industry forever. Best known as the lead producer of Hamilton, Rent, In The Heights, and Avenue Q (all of which won him the Tony Award for Best Musical), Jeffrey is the only person to have produced two Pulitzer Prize winning musicals. On top of this, Jeffrey alongside his former producing partner Kevin McCollum created the rush and lottery discount ticket options 30 years ago with Rent! He's now written a memoir titled Theatre Kid which is available on paperback beginning May 6th! In this very special episode, we get to talking about the state of the industry, the job of a producer and how it's evolved over the years and what shows he's interested in producing.

Carey Renee Sharpe is currently starring in the Off Broadway show which she also co-wrote, Blood/Love at Theater 555! A former nurse from Wisconsin, Carey decided to pivot her career after renovating a venue in her hometown. Alongside her writing partner Dru Decaro (Grammy nominated producer for Snoop Dogg, John Legend, Sabrina Carpenter and many more) the two have spent the last 6 years developing and writing the world premiere vampire pop opera Blood/Love which is open now to May 10th!

Claybourne Elder is a Broadway star whose work spans decades on stage and screen. His new album If The Stars Were Mine is streaming everywhere now and you could also look out for his solo shows where he performs songs from the album, sharing their relation to his journey to Broadway, his childhood, current fatherhood and beyond! He originated the role of Hollis in one of Stephen Sondheim's final musicals, Road Show. Aside from Road Show, his work on Sondheim projects includes the most recent Broadway revival of Company (Andy), Sunday in the Park with George, Passion, Sondheim on Sondheim at The Hollywood Bowl and more! He was also a part of the original cast of Bonnie and Clyde having seen it through from the very beginning. Most recently, you may have seen him as John Adams on all three seasons of The Gilded Age on HBO. We get to talking about his entire career, his relationship with Sondheim personally and professionally and why this new album is one of the most creatively fulfilling projects he's ever worked on.

Mark Evans is an actor whose stage work spans multiple continents having starred in multiple West End AND Broadway shows! His Broadway debut was The Play That Goes Wrong which he's now the Associate Director of Off Broadway at New World Stages. Some of his other Broadway credits, include Waitress, Mrs Doubtfire, and Tammy Faye! His West End credits include originating Troy Bolton in High School Musical, Sam in Ghost, Fiyero in Wicked, and swing in the Original London Cast of Spamalot amongst many more! He currently runs his own acting studio, Mark Evans Studio which holds weekly classes as well as workshops and masterclasses with industry professionals! We discuss the many differences between West End and Broadway, the biggest lessons in comedy from Jerry Zaks, and the key to The Play That Goes Wrong's success!