The Roundtable with Robert Bannon

Peppermint’s star continues to rise thanks to her smashing success as the first out trans contestant to be cast on RuPaul’s Drag Race (Season 9) where she finished as runner-up in one of the series’ most-talked-about finales Click Here.  Soon after, her talent led her to become the first trans woman to originate a principal musical role (Pythio) on Broadway in the hit Head Over Heels and in 2024 as the first trans woman to compete in the hit series, “The Traitors” on Peacock. 

Recent projects include; recurring role in the Netflix series, Survival of the Thickest with comedian Michelle Buteau, Stand-up comedy special Peppermint: So-SIGH-ety Effects, starring role in “A Transparent Musical” at the Mark Taper Forum in Los Angeles, guest starred in Hulu’s hit rom-com movie, "Fire Island" alongside Saturday Night Live's Bowen Yang, Joel Kim Booster & Margaret Cho, co-star in OUTtv’s “Call Me Mother”drag competition series, co-host of Amazon Prime talk show “Translation,” guest star in season one & two of Amazon’s “Harlem,” hosted (New York & San Francisco) and presented (Los Angeles) at the 2020 & 2022 GLAAD Media Awards, hosting/moderating Black Queer Town Hall with and Town Hall podcast with co-creator Bob The Drag Queen, guest appearance on Ryan Murphy’s Emmy award winning series “Pose," recurring role on the CBS series “God Friended Me” and a guest role on the Fox scripted drama “Deputy.”

Peppermint, who is the ACLU’s first-ever Artist Ambassador for Trans Justice HERE has raised six-figure sums for prominent LGBT rights groups, partnered with MAC Cosmetics’ “M.A.C. AIDS Fund” and is involved in the HIV Vaccine trials network. She partnered with RuPaul Drag Race Winner Sasha Velour for a college speaking tour that focused on the challenges faced by transgender and non-binary people in today’s political climate among various other topics. Peppermint takes every available opportunity to speak at universities and to various communities on the issues. 


Peppermint was nominated for a 2022 GLAAD Media Award in the Outstanding Online Journalism category for her contribution to the Discovery+ “Legendary” series. Previous honors include; GLAAD Media Award nomination alongside Lady Gaga & Kehlani for Outstanding Music Artist (2021), “Best Songwriter” by World of Wonder’s Wowie Awards 2020, Conde Nast’s “Queeroes” award (2018), Variety’s prestigious “New Power of New York” list, and was named one of Out magazine’s “OUT100” portfolio of the most influential LGBTQ people of the year.

Get your fans ready! Pride is coming!

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We have Tony Nominated Superstar In Our Midst Today!

Marjan Neshat lit up the boards off & on Broadway this season with "English!" She tells us all about the dream experience she had in the show!

Sherecently starred in the one-woman thriller Sandra by David Cale at the Vineyard Theater. She led the cast of Sanaz Toossi’s new play Wish You Were Here at Playwrights Horizons, and also starred in Ms. Toossi’s Pulitzer Prize-winning play English at the Atlantic Theater, for which she won an Obie Award. She originated the role of “Afiya” in the Pulitzer Prize Finalist play Selling Kabul by Sylvia Khoury at Playwrights Horizons and Williamstown Theater Festival. Other theater includes the Shakespeare in the Park production of Julius Caesar (NYSF), and The Seagull (with Alan Cumming and Dianne Wiest).

Marjan’s feature film work includes leading roles in the multi-award-winning film Rockaway as well as in the indie features Almost in Love, Cry Funny Happy and Happy For You. She has played supporting roles in many films, including Robocop, Sex and the City 2, Alfie, and Love-40. Marjan’s TV work includes a recurring role on season 2 of the upcoming hit series The Night Agent (Netflix), New Amsterdam, For Life, Bull, Elementary, Quantico, Law & Order: SVU, and Fringe among others. She is a 2022 recipient of the Sam Norkin Drama Desk Award for her portrayals in Selling Kabul and English in the same season.

The Tony Awards are June 8th at 8pm on CBS!

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Double Bill: Witches and Aliens, a comedic, entertaining and otherworldly evening of two hysterical theatrical works directed and choreographed by Jen Wineman. Three performances of Zena Wood’s ENCOUNTER: A Space Cabaret, and Kit Goldstein Grant’s CHRISTMAS EVE IN DIKANKA: A Musical In-Concert will be staged June 12, 13, and 14, 2025, at 7:00 p.m. at The Duplex Cabaret Theatre, 61 Christopher Street, New York, NY 10014.

About Encounter: A Space Cabaret

They come in peace…and for the eggs. A comedy-driven space cabaret that lands somewhere between a late-night weather show and a cosmic fever dream where nothing is linear. Live from New York, it’s Space Weather Girl! What if an alien encounter was more human condition and less lasers? Add some old-time Hollywood charm, a historical “mating program,” and you’ve got yourself a show! As a studio audience, you will witness the mysterious broadcast sparking an interplanetary moment. You’ll wonder at a spectacular alien dance performance and you’ll do all of this in a fraction of a second (60 minutes). It’s a science thing. Come for the facts, the songs and the comedy, and find yourself unexpectedly heart-warmed. Featuring Brandon Weber as Greg.

Loosely based on a pilot episode script of a similar theme written by Zena Wood for screen, Encounter also borrows inspiration from various projects Zena has created since 2018 as the fictional character Space Weather Girl, including on YouTube, two music videos filmed and recorded: Space Christmas, and All I Want for ChristMars is Mars, a Christmas solo show performed at the Drama Factory in South Africa - Space Weather Girl Christmas Extravaganza, and multiple comedy open mics and videos performed as the character.

About Christmas Eve in Dikanka: A Musical In-Concert

A new musical based on the story by Ukrainian novelist Nikolai Gogol. It’s Christmas Eve in Dikanka, and a blacksmith must find fancy shoes like those worn by the Czarina in the next few hours or lose the heart of his lady love. But when the Devil comes to town, will he give up his soul for a sole? And what will he do about his mother, who is a promiscuous witch? No really, an actual witch. This loosely adapted take on Nikolai Gogol’s story sets the show in a meta-theatrical universe which combines a Ukrainian 19th-century absurdist tone and a modern sensibility, plus a lotta slapstick.

Playwright Kit Goldstein Grant shares, “I first read CHRISTMAS EVE by Nikolai Gogol when doing research for another musical based on a Gogol story. That show went on to productions in NYC and South Africa, but I couldn’t shake my memory of CHRISTMAS EVE, and the sheer exuberant fun of the piece. Yes, there was a love story, but most intriguing to me was the relationship between the blacksmith and his mother, a promiscuous witch. Now, this, THIS was interesting! Not to mention, funny. Is it relevant that I was mom to a fairly-new son myself when I started writing this piece? Possibly. Relevant that I was approaching the 40-year mark when women suddenly become irrelevant, and I had something to say about that? Possibly. But probably not. Probably I just wanted to write a fun show."

The writers Kit & Zena are here to tell us all about it! Do not miss a moment!

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Club44 Records has announced the release of Jim Caruso’s The Swing Set: Deluxe Edition – the urbane baritone’s smart and sophisticated romp through the Great American Songbook – in streaming and digital formats today, Friday, May 16. The album’s lead single “Avalon,” Caruso’s swinging version of the classic standard, featuring the vocal talents of Caruso’s labelmates Jane Monheit and Billy Stritch, hit #3 on the Spotify “Jazz Vocal” chart when it was released last month. The remastered Deluxe Edition also features Caruso’s newly recorded version of the hilarious breakup song “One More Minute,” Weird Al Yankovic’s longtime crowd favorite. To stream or download The Swing Set: Deluxe Edition, please visit: c44.lnk.to/SwingSetDeluxe

On The Swing Set, Caruso brings a warm intimacy and playful exuberance to standards like “If I Only Had a Brain,” “Manhattan,” and “Pick Yourself Up.” There are surprises galore, such as Martin Mull’s “Flexible,” “The Doodlin’ Song” by Cy Coleman and Carolyn Leigh, and Kay Thompson’s swinging “I Love a Violin.” Caruso is joined by special musical guests Michael Feinstein, the late guitar legend Bucky Pizzarelli, violin sensation Aaron Weinstein, pianist and singer Billy Stritch, jazz vocal phenom Jane Monheit, and Tony Award-winning Broadway leading lady Stephanie J. Block.

To celebrate the album, Jim Caruso’s “Cast Party” – his popular open mic night – will be performed at Catalina Jazz Club in Los Angeles, CA on Wednesday, May 28; The McCallum Theatre in Palm Desert, CA on Thursday, May 29; with upcoming stops at London’s Crazy Coqs in September and Las Vegas’s The Smith Center in October. “Cast Party” also continues its 20+ year run at New York’s legendary Birdland Jazz Club every Monday night. In addition, Caruso performs every Sunday with Billy Stritch at Bemelmans Bar at The Carlyle Hotel.

JIM CARUSO most recently performed the role of Theodore Whitman in Follies in Concert at Carnegie Hall. He is the host of “Jim Caruso’s Cast Party,” the wildly popular weekly open mic night that has brought a sprinkling of Broadway glitz and sparkling wit to Birdland in New York City every Monday night since 2003. The Mayor of the City of New York recently proclaimed, “Whereas, I am enormously proud to lead a city renowned as a global capital of the arts, ‘Jim Caruso’s Cast Party’ has enriched our dynamic cultural landscape since 2003, and on the occasion of its 20th anniversary, I am pleased to recognize the weekly show's tremendous contributions to our performing arts and nightlife sectors.” “Cast Party” has been seen at Jazz at Lincoln Center, across the country, and, most recently, on YouTube as “Pajama Cast Party.”

Jim made his Broadway debut alongside Liza Minnelli in the Tony Award-winning Liza’s at the Palace!, singing, dancing and celebrating the music and arrangements of Kay Thompson and the Williams Brothers. He has won six MAC Awards and eight BroadwayWorld Awards for his work in nightclubs, performed with the New York Pops in a tribute to Kander & Ebb, with Rosemary Clooney celebrating Bing Crosby, and sang the songs of Hope & Crosby with Michael Feinstein at Carnegie Hall. Jim was honored to sing with Barbara Cook, Lauren Bacall, and a bevy of Broadway stars at President Clinton’s First State Dinner at the White House. He also books and produces the “Broadway at Birdland” concert series. Jim’s debut album, Caruso Live and In Person, is also available.

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Check out "The Roundtable with Robert Bannon" here on BPN on the daily, on YouTube, Broadway World, and on social media! Like, comment, share, & subscribe!

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We have an up & coming one for you here! Writer & Actor Jack DeCerchio is here! He has a brand new short on Apple TV that you must check out called "The Last Role of Charles LeBlanc!"

Charles LeBlanc is a legendary movie star in his twilight years. A young drifter, Luke Harkins, is hired as his new groundskeeper. Coincidentally, Luke bears an uncanny resemblance to Charles' best friend and perennial co-star, the late Stuart Benedict. Luke soon discovers that Charles believes that he and Stuart are about to begin shooting their 1951 film noir classic "Gangsters Don't Go To Heaven."

Doesn't this one sound fun! Go to Apple TV and watch today!

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Check out "The Roundtable with Robert Bannon" here on BPN on the daily, on YouTube, Broadway World, and on social media! Like, comment, share, & subscribe!

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Just in time for the 50th anniversary of Steven Spielberg’s Jaws, an intimate and richly-told portrait of the iconic actor and writer Robert Shaw, from his portrayal of the legendary shark hunter Captain Quint and beyond, written lovingly but honestly by his nephew.
“Go for the Jaws, stay for the Shaws.” —Nat Segaloff, author of The Exorcist Legacy

Robert Shaw unforgettably commanded attention as the weathered seaman Captain Quint in the blockbuster sensation, Jaws. But what came before and after that landmark film is as dramatic as the hunt for the great white shark itself.

Capturing the many facets of the vibrant, generous, and sometimes polarizing man is his nephew, Christopher, who explores the forces that shaped a dynamic personality—including Robert’s indomitable mother, his deeply troubled father, and his activist sister, Joanna, with whom Robert shared an unbreakable bond. Out of the traumatic events of their childhood in the Orkney Islands and Cornwall, Mrs. Shaw pushed her children to pursue their dreams. For Robert, that dream was acting and writing.

Despite a storied career on the British and American stage—as both performer and playwright—and a string of hit films including From Russia with Love, A Man for All Seasons, The Sting, and The Taking of Pelham One Two Three, international celebrity eluded Robert . . . until he was summoned to star in “a little horror film” called Jaws.

What happened on-screen was unforgettable. What happened off-screen was chaos. Now Christopher Shaw Myers reveals the true story of the making of the classic. Jaws would become both an artistic success and a worldwide triumph for Robert Shaw. Tragically, for a man shadowed by his father’s demons, it would also signal the beginning of the end.

Drawing on family recollections, personal letters, scrapbooks, recordings, extensive interviews, and a lifetime of his own memories, Christopher paints a unique, intimate, and honest portrait of a man he was proud to call his uncle.

The book, now out, is available wherever books are sold!

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Tim Murray isn’t just a comedian — he’s a full-blown comedy multihyphenate, blending musical theater, sharp-witted sketches and a flair for storytelling that’s all his own.

From Sandusky, Ohio, Murray has turned his Midwestern upbringing into comedy gold, going viral with his Real Housewives parodies and earning critical acclaim with his live musical comedy show Witches.

Michael Henry is a hilarious and sassy comedian who is always serving up the best bite-sized commentary on queer life and culture. His YouTube videos have been seen millions of times!

Now, they are hitting the road (literally) in Wish You Were Queer, a new reality series in collaboration with Trixie Mattel premiering May 22 and available for streaming on OutTV.

We have them both with the full scoop about what life was like on the road!

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Check out "The Roundtable with Robert Bannon" here on BPN on the daily, on YouTube, Broadway World, and on social media! Like, comment, share, & subscribe!

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We were live for a very special night! As you heard last week on our show, Town Hall honored Lin-Manuel Miranda with special guests from all his projects. What a giant special undertaking it was! We sent Adrienne out to the carpet to chat with Lin and friends!

We hear from Weird Al, Chris Jackson, Mandy Gonzalez, Priscilla Lopez, Kalen Allen, Lesli Margherita, Javy Munoz, Jordan Fisher, and more!

What a night for a special talent, place, and cause! Wait For It! This one is special!

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Check out "The Roundtable with Robert Bannon" here on BPN on the daily, on YouTube, Broadway World, and on social media! Like, comment, share, & subscribe!

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We love Kevin Ross! We have seen Kevin Ross in concert and he is fire!

He’s a standout R&B singer, songwriter, producer, and independent label owner who’s crafting a new lane for himself and for the genre.

Kevin just released his new EP Love Uptempo Vol. 1, an energetic and joyful return to feel-good R&B that’s already connecting in a big way. His single “Love in the Middle” is currently climbing the Billboard R&B charts, several tracks have been playlisted across major DSPs, and his Love Uptempo Tour is selling out—with fans belting his entire catalog from start to finish.

He’s also made noise with his Vets Only: The Mash-Up series, collaborating with R&B legends Slim (112) and Case, bridging generations and celebrating timeless artistry in a fresh, creative way.Beyond the music, Kevin’s story is incredibly inspiring. After being dropped from Motown, he chose to bet on himself—launching his own label, Art Society Music Group, and building success on his own terms.

We talk all about his art, new music, and what's next for Mr. Ross here on the Roundtable!

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Check out "The Roundtable with Robert Bannon" here on BPN on the daily, on YouTube, Broadway World, and on social media! Like, comment, share, & subscribe!

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Paul Guilfoyle commands the screen as Marty Lyons in Any Day Now. Born in Boston, is best known for his role as Captain Jim Brass on “CSI: Crime Scene Investigation.” His film credits include L.A. Confidential, Air Force One, and Spotlight, while his TV roles range from “Miami Vice” to “Star Trek: Discovery's Guardian of Forever.”

Guilfoyle has established a substantial theatrical reputation on and off Broadway, including 12 years with the Theatre Company of Boston, appearances on Broadway include in David Rabe's The Basic Training of Pavlo Hummel, Those The River Keeps, Richard III with Al Pacino, David Mamet's Glengarry Glen Ross, Death Defying Acts, and Search and Destroy.

Starring Taylor Gray (Saturday Night), Paul Guilfoyle (L.A. Confidential) and directed by Eric Aronson, ANY DAY NOW is based on the art heist of the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum and the thieves who used the distraction of St Patrick’s Day in Boston and walked away with hundreds of millions of dollars’ worth of art – the single largest property theft in the world. To this day, the thieves are still at-large and the museum is offering a $10 million reward for information leading to the recovery of the stolen works.

Any Day Now will release digitally May 20th with pre-order beginning May 13th. More information on the film can be found HERE. 

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Check out "The Roundtable with Robert Bannon" here on BPN on the daily, on YouTube, Broadway World, and on social media! Like, comment, share, & subscribe!

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