The first time Elisabeth saw Stephanie J. Block was in “The Pirate Queen,” back in 2007, and she loved every second of it. (Do fans of this show have a name? Queenies? Whatever, Elisabeth is one of them.) Since then she has seen Stephanie in “9 to 5,” “Anything Goes,” “By the Way, Meet Vera Stark,” Little Miss Sunshine,” “The Mystery of Edwin Drood,” “Falsettos,” “The Cher Show” (twice). That’s a lot of Block goodness but Peter saw this episode’s guest in “Wicked” at the Kennedy Center in 2005 so that’s some serious cred right there.

Now Stephanie is playing the Baker’s Wife in “Into the Woods” on Broadway until Jan. 8, and guess what: it’s her first Sondheim show! We’re very lucky she found the time to drop by our virtual studio for a chat that covered a lot of ground, from being asked to audition to play the wife of her real-life husband, Sebastian Arcelus, on “Madam Secretary” to what it’s like to portray real people, and a ton more fun stuff.

And obviously she and Peter talked about Branson, where Stephanie worked at the start of her career.

* Elisabeth’s feature about “The Cher Show”

* Peter’s feature about Branson and his review of “Into the Woods” (from July, so before Stephanie was in it)

Thanks to Christian Huygen for our theme music.

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