When Lightning Strikes!

Frank DiLella is the host of “On Stage” on Spectrum News NY1. He won a Best News Magazine Emmy Award for his special on the musical “Come From Away.” Frank has interviewed everyone including James Earl Jones, Vanessa Redgrave, Bono, Lin-Manuel Miranda, Jane Fonda, Lady Gaga, Andrew Lloyd Webber and on and on and on. Most recently Frank played himself as a theater reporter in the Netflix film “The Prom” getting his close-up opposite Meryl Streep.

This episode was recorded on January 4, 2021.

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Jonah Platt is a prolific performer and creator who has appeared on stages around the country. On Broadway he played Fiyero in Wicked. He did Hair at the Hollywood Bowl and was also in Floyd Collins, BARE, A Walk on the Moon and Found. Platt is also co-writing the music and lyrics to the musical The Giver with Andrew Resnick with a book by Martin Zimmerman. The musical is based on the wildly popular novel by Lois Lowry. Go on his instagram and watch him sing “Wish,” one of the songs originally in the show as part of Lincoln Center’s #HumanityInConcert series.

On television, Platt’s TV credits includes Jesus Christ Superstar Live, the Netflix animated series, Trolls: The Beat Goes On, Curb Your Enthusiasm, Parenthood and The Office.

This episode was recorded on May 26.

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David Lindsay-Abaire is a Pulitzer Prize winning playwright, screenwriter, lyricist and librettist. He won the Pulitzer Prize for his devastatingly beautiful play Rabbit Hole. As the Hollywood Reporter said about his play Good People: “It is that rare play that is both timeless and completely keyed into a specific moment in American life…Bringing the same clear-eyed emotional observation that distinguished his Pulitzer winner, Rabbit Hole, David Lindsay-Abaire has crafted another penetrating drama about deeply relatable issues.” Some of his other plays include Fuddy Meers, Kimberly Akimbo, Wonder of the World, A Devil Inside and Ripcord. 

David wrote the book for the musical High Fidelity and the book and lyrics for Shrek the Musical. And if that’s not enough, he is also a very prolific screenwriter. Some of his film credits include Robots, Inkheart, Rise of the Guardians, Poltergeist, The Family Fang and the film versions of Rabbit Hole and Shrek The Musical. Most recently he has written a plethora of monologues for The 24 Hour Plays: Viral Monologues writing pieces for Rachel Dratch, Marcia Gay Harden, J. Smith Cameron, Johanna Day, Cynthia Nixon, Aymee Garcia, Michael Urie, David Hyde Pierce, Marylouise Burke, T.R. Knight and Jake Gyllenhaal. He will also be writing a play for the 20th Annual The 24 Hour Plays Broadway Gala. The virtual performance will stream LIVE on Tuesday, December 1st at 8:00 PM. Learn more at http://www.24hourplays.com/broadway  David’s home is called “the most impressive halloween house in Brooklyn.” Just Google him and the word “halloween.”

This episode was recorded November 2, 2020.

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By the time she was a student at Bennington College, Elizabeth Swados was already a force, considered an exceptional talent as a writer, composer and director. In 1978 when she was in her twenties her musical Runaways, about teenage runaways began at the Public Theater, moved to Broadway and earned her four Tony nominations. 

Swados had a gift for introducing new forms to the mainstream. She wrote in a variety of musical genres including world, folk, rap and experimental music. She delved into topics not usually seen in musical theater like racism, murder and mental illness. In 2016, Swados passed away after battling esophageal cancer.

This past May, “The Liz Swados Project,” a tribute album devoted to Swados and her legacy debuted on Ghostlight Records. The album includes 20 songs from Swados work and is performed by some of the theater's most inspiring artists working today. To stream or download the album, or order the CD, visit ghostlightrecords.lnk.to/lizswadosproject.

On Tuesday, November 24 at 8pm, Ghostlight Records and Joe’s Pub will present a free virtual celebration of “The Liz Swados Project.” The event will feature several artists who appear on the album who will perform and personal insights into Swados’ work. Learn more here, https://publictheater.org/productions/joes-pub/2020/j/the-liz-swados-project---joes-pub-live

Guests Roz Lichter, is one of the executive producers on the album and was also Liz’s longtime partner. Also with us is singer, composer and musician Shaina Taub, who was a student of Swados at New York University and then a collaborator. Taub also performs on “The Liz Swados Project.” 

Produced in part by the Broadway Podcast Network.

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For more than three decades Christine Ebersole has dazzled on stage, screen, in television series, concert appearances, recordings and on and on. A two-time Tony winning actress, her eclectic career includes everything from joining the cast of Saturday Night Live to being in the films The Wolf Of Wall Street, Amadeus and Tootsie to starring on Broadway playing Dorothy Brock in 42nd Street, captivating audiences in the dual role of ”Little” Edie Beale/Edith Bouvier Beale in Grey Gardens and playing Elizabeth Arden in War Paint. Ebersole is currently starring as Bob’s mom Dottie in the CBS hit comedy, Bob Hearts Abishola. The second season premieres November 16, 2020.

This episode was recorded September 21, 2020.

Produced in part by the Broadway Podcast Network.

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Rolling Stone magazine calls Krista Detor’s soul-nourishing music "A small miracle.” A singer/song-writer, her solo albums have reached national and international prominence on the Euro-Americana and Folk and Independent Music charts. She was one of the few artists to perform in the Emmy nominated TV concert Wilderness Plots for PBS where she wrote and sang songs inspired by the book Wilderness Plots by American College of Arts & Letters inductee Scott Russell Sanders.

Krista has performed extensively throughout the United States and Europe. She has been commissioned to write musical theater and choir pieces around the world from the Indiana Arts Commission to the U.S. Department of State in New Delhi. Krista and her partner, David Weber created the non-profit theater residency The Hundredth Hill Artist Residency in Bloomington, Indiana. From August to October The Hundredth Hill hosted an emerging theater residency, housed New York University graduates who created two new theater pieces, which are being safely staged outside on the majestic property. For more information visit https://www.thehundredthhill.org.

Produced in part by the Broadway Podcast Network.

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There are musicians, composers, arrangers, orchestrators and then there is James Sampliner. He is a pianist, composer, arranger, orchestrator, conductor, music producer, percussionist and music copyist. 

Much beloved by the New York theater community, James has collaborated with Audra McDonald, Billy Porter, Leslie Odom Jr., Patina Miller, Chuck Cooper, Shoshana Bean, Annaleigh Ashford, Norm Lewis, Sara Ramirez, Lillias White, Mandy Gonzalez, Rob McClure, Tracie Thoms, Eden Espinosa, James Naughton, Debra Monk, Tituss Burgess, Will Swenson, Bebe Neuwirth, Jason Robert Brown, Susan Stroman, Hal Prince and many others. Most recently he co-produced, arranged and music directed the album “Along the Way” with Bobby Conte Thornton.

This episode was recorded on June 2, 2020. 

Produced in part by the Broadway Podcast Network.

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In his thirty year career Patrick Boll has performed on Broadway, off Broadway and around the country. For nearly three years he starred as Bill Austin in Mamma Mia! on Broadway. Patrick was also in the Coen Brothers film Burn After Reading with George Clooney and Brad Pitt and How to be Single with Dakota Johnson and Rebel Wilson. A few of his TV credits include FBI, Gossip Girl, Law and Order and their many spin-offs. Patrick has taught acting at Universities and conservatories like Playwrights Horizons at New York University, Western Michigan University and the New York Conservatory for Dramatic Arts. Patrick is also an author. His first book, Product: You - The Workbook and Guide To An Actor's Life, is all about what it takes to be an actor. 

This episode was recorded on June 5, 2020.

Produced in part by the Broadway Podcast Network.

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As New York Times theater critic Ben Brantley wrote, Marin Ireland is “one of New York theater’s most inspired and entertaining interpreters of people programmed to self-destruct.” Just a few of her theater credits include Happy Talk, Blue Ridge, Summer and Smoke, Ironbound, On the Exhale, Kill Floor, Marie Antoinette, The Big Knife, Three Sisters, Miss. Julie, A Lie of the Mind, Reasons to Be Pretty, Far Away and Nocturne. On TV, Ireland starred in the series Sneaky Pete and the Umbrella Academy. She was also in Mildred Pierce, Homeland, The Divide, Girls and on and on and on. Next up Ireland stars in The Dark and the Wicked, The Empty Man and the highly anticipated TV series based on the comic, Y: The Last Man.

This episode was recorded on June 17, 2020.

Produced in part by the Broadway Podcast Network.

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Astrid Van Wieren is an original cast member of the the hit Broadway musical, Come From Away. She has been in the show since it opened in 2017. Van Wieren also co-wrote, co-produced and stars in the indie feature film, The River You Step In. Her other credits include This Wide Night, Belles Soeurs, The Musical, The Colony of Unrequited Dreams, Myth of The Ostrich, The Way Back to Thursday and Baal. This episode was recorded in May, 2020, when the world was in a much different place.

Produced in part by the Broadway Podcast Network.

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