The Ensemblist

Gabi Campo made her Broadway debut last season as one of two female swings on The Prom, where she covered the lead roles of Emma and Alyssa as well as all eight ensemble women and their features. A graduate of Pace University, she will be back on Broadway later this season in the upcoming revival of West Side Story.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Christopher Rice spent more than four years as a swing on the Broadway production of The Book of Mormon, where he covered the seven men in the Mormon ensemble. He’s also toured the country as Baby John in West Side Story and in Irving Berlin’s White Christmas. Chris has spent this summer as a vacation swing on the soon-to-close Broadway production of Pretty Woman, so we caught him in the middle of his rehearsal process to tell us what the experience has been like. Here’s our conversation…

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Welcome to a new mini-series from The Ensemblist where I sit down with folks on the other side of the casting table to ask them what they’re really looking for in a Broadway ensemble. As performers, we hear time and again that the folks casting shows want auditioners to succeed. But what does that success actually look like? 

Spencer Liff began his Broadway career as a dancer, performing in the original companies of Big, The Wedding Singer and Cry-Baby. But for the last ten years, Liff has worked on the other side of the table creating staging for both stage and screen. He’s an Emmy nominee for his work on “So You Think You Can Dance” where he has been a resident choreographer for a decade. Back on Broadway, he’s created the staging for Hedwig and the Angry Inch, Spring Awakening, Falsettos and Head Over Heels. 

I recently was able to speak with him on a short trip to New York where he was here casting a new workshop of Reefer Madness. Here’s our conversation…

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The Band’s Visit is one of those Broadway musicals that does not have an ensemble, per se, but in which every actor is working together to present a cohesive point of view. Yes, there are leading roles and supporting roles, but more than in most musicals the entire company of actors, musicians, and actor/musicians create a mood, a feeling and a sense of place. And so we honor their remarkable run on Broadway with this show, featuring some of our favorite stories about The Band’s Visit. 

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

For seven years and 2,507 public performances, Kinky Boots has been raising up audiences at the Al Hirschfeld Theatre on Broadway. For those of us at Ensemblist HQ, the show has a special place in ours hearts because of the ways it showcases its ensembles actors onstage, and has treated so many of them like honored family offstage. 

Of the 61 actors who have played ensemble roles in the Broadway production, we’ve been lucky enough to have eight of them in the studio during the show’s run. So, as a special tribute to them and their fantastic achievement, we’ve put together some of our very favorite stories about Kinky Boots for you.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Today we share with you three great stories from three great women, all of whom have understudied leading roles on Broadway and tour. Over the last year, each of these performers shared their stories of going on as understudies with The Ensemblist on our blog. And today we share these stories again with you, read by the actors who wrote them. 

First up is a story from Christine Cornish Smith. Less than a week after opening Kiss Me, Kate at Studio 54, she received a surprising text. Every actor who’s understudied a leading role knows what it feels like to receive this text. You know, the one where the stage manager writes that the leading lady is out and you’re going on in the role?

The next story we have to share comes from Shereen Ahmed, who became the first woman of color to play Eliza Doolittle on Broadway. While she’s a trailblazer in terms of representation, her love of the show My Fair Lady is something she developed at a very young age. And while the role isn’t one that she imagined playing, there are reasons why she was the perfect choice to take on the part as an understudy in the Lincoln Center Theatre revival.

Our last story is from Hannah Florence, who was so inspired by her friend Shereen’s story that she wrote her own piece for us inspired by it about going on as Anya in the national tour of Anastasia.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

For more than 16 years, the Gershwin Theatre has been home to the most Ozmapolitan of musicals, Wicked. And over the years, the show has been home to literally hundreds of ensemblists, not only on Broadway but on two national tours and in regional sitdown productions across the country. Today, we are sharing some of our favorite stories about Wicked from our blog, read by the actors who wrote them.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

For almost a decade, The Book of Mormon has been delighting and shocking audiences at Broadway’s Eugene O’Neill Theatre. As both Ugandans and Mormon missionaries, the show’s ensemble works together to make a very funny show even funnier. Today we share stories from three of the ensemblists who have graced the production over its tenure. 

Our first story comes from Tommar Wilson, who joined the Chicago company of Hamilton. after almost seven years in the ensemble of The Book of Mormon. As an original member of the show’s Ugandan ensemble, he had seen the show through years of transitions. And the show also ushered a number of personal transitions for Tommar as well.

Our next story is from Kenny Francoeur. As dance captain for the national tour of The Book of Mormon, he helped guide dozens of actors into the production while on the road. He used his signature writing style to write an original piece for us about the do’s - and don’ts - for rehearsing as an understudy.

Our final story is new to the podcast from Marja Harmon. Like Tommar, she left the Broadway company of The Book of Mormon to join Hamilton on the road. Upon her departure, she wrote a story for us about the family she experienced at the Eugene O’Neill Theatre.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Today on the podcast, we speak to Chris Medlin about his journey from Broadway to Netflix and back again. An original cast member of Mean Girls, he took a four-month leave from the show last fall to film the role of Isaac in the new Netflix series Sweet Magnolias. Currently in the cast of Diana: A True Musical Story, he spoke to us over the phone about how his experiences on Broadway influenced his work on set. Here's our conversation...

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

“Who’s Got the Pain” premiered on April 16th, 2019. Like the pilot, it was written by Steven Levenson, and directed by Tommy Kail. As always, the numbers featured in the episodes were choreographed by Bob Fosse himself, but were reconstructed by members of his artistic progeny: Dana Moore recreated the choreography to “Who’s Got the Pain” and “Whatever Lola Wants,” and Lloyd Culbreath recreated the choreo and rehearsal staging for “Two Lost Souls.” All the featured songs in the episode, including “Heart” in addition to those previously mentioned, are all from the musical “Damn Yankees,” with music and lyrics by Richard Adler and Jerry Ross.

Featured in the rehearsing cast of Damn Yankees are a legion of Broadway vets, including Ryan Vandenboom, Kyle Brown, Darien Crago, Haley Fish, Shonica Gooden, Afra Hines, Evan Kasprzak and Adrian Lee. Rounding out the cast performing “Heart” are also Broadway’s PJ Benjamin, Brain Cali, Nick Blaemire, and Aaron Kaburick.

The viewership for this episode was down from last week all across the board, with a live viewership at 425,000, and a DVR viewership of 597,000. The total viewership was 1.023 million, down 321,000 from the premiere. At least its still in the millions though!

During production of the film of Cabaret, Joan Simon is so glad that Gwen and Bobby have escaped to Majorca with them for some time away together. But Gwen has been burned by Bob one too many times - cheated on so often that she practically has a script in place for how he will apologize. He doesn’t see why he shouldn’t be able to see his German translator on set and then come home to Gwen, and offers that she should be able to do the same. But Gwen isn’t the cheating type. Or at least, she isn’t now.

We flash back to 1955, when Gwen learns that her new Broadway musical, a baseball-themed show called Damn Yankees will be choreographed by a young talent named Bobby Fosse. She’s concerned that he won’t be dark enough for this modern-day Faust, but the producer promises her there is a real sense of humor in his work. Gwen swallows her pride and agrees to a work session with the young upstart. After making small talk about each other’s significant others, Bob begins to teach Gwen the seductive steps to “Whatever Lola Wants.” They bond over witty banter and their childhoods working in burlesque houses and Gwen - obviously - lands the job.

The new team quickly begins seducing each other in the rehearsal room as well as in the bedroom, until it becomes too complicated for Gwen to be fooling around with her choreographer behind the back of his ailing wife. Things get more complicated when the Damn Yankees producers threaten to cut Bob’s Act I finale because it isn’t landing with audiences. Knowing he has to prove himself to both the creatives and the critics, he wakes up Gwen in the middle of the night and takes them both away from their respective spouses to get to work on a new number.

Working through the night, Bob and Gwen are out of ideas. That is, until the pianist suggests a silly mambo and Bob realizes that the lighthearted number can be a cover for characters in agony. And with that, “Who’s Got the Pain?” is born. But while Bob is solving problems onstage and making a name for himself with Gwen as his new muse, Bob’s current wife Joan McCracken lets Gwen know that this scene has been played out before - when Bob left his first wife for Joan.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices