When Lightning Strikes!

Charlotte Moore and Ciarán O’Reilly founded Irish Repertory Theatre in 1988. Ever since they have been passionately devoted to bringing Irish and Irish-American works to the stage. The Irish Rep presents everything from classics to contemporary works as they nurture new generations of Irish and Irish-American playwrights. Now in its 31st season, Moore serves as Artistic Director and O'Reilly is Producing director. They have won the Drama Desk Award, Outer Critics Circle Award, the Lucille Lortel Award and the Jujamcyn Theatres Award for their excellence. In 2019, Moore and O’Reilly were both inducted into the Irish America Hall of Fame and received Ireland’s Presidential Distinguished Service Award for the Irish Abroad. Irish Repertory Theatre has presented over 190 productions and worked with more than 500 company members. The theater now has entire online component and thriving online summer season.  Love Noël: The Songs And Letters of Noël Coward, starring Steve Ross and KT Sullivan and directed by Charlotte Moore, will be online from August 11 to August 15. For more details visit, https://irishrep.org/show/irish-rep-online-2020/love-noel-2/

This episode was recorded May 19, 2020.

Produced in part by the Broadway Podcast Network.

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Michael Zegen stars as Joel Maisel in the beloved Amazon hit series, The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel. His vast theater resume includes Bad Jews, The Spoils, A View From The Bridge and most recently Bob and Carol and Ted and Alice with The New Group. On Television he had a recurring role as Benny Siege' on HBO's Boardwalk Empire and has also been in The Walking Dead, Girls, How To Make It In America, Happyish and Rescue Me. His film credits includes Frances Ha, Brooklyn, Adventureland, Taking Woodstock and the film adaptation of Anton Chekhov's The Seagull. Earlier this year, he wrapped production on the independent feature The Stand-In. 

This episode was recorded May 19, 2020.

Produced in part by the Broadway Podcast Network.

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Tedra Millan appeared on Broadway in Present Laughter. Her Off-Broadway credits include: Happy Talk,The Wolves, On the Shore of the Wide World, Nassim. On television you can see her in Fosse/Verdon, Tales of the City, Almost Family, Katy Keene and The Goldbergs. She is directing the upcoming short film, We Can Voyage There, written by David Lerner Schwartz.

This episode was recorded May 11, 2020. 

Produced in part by the Broadway Podcast Network.

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Katie Brayben won a Olivier Award playing Carole King in the West End premiere of Beautiful. Just a few of her theater credits include Girl from the North Country, Honour, A Walk on The Moon, The Spoils, My Mother Said I Never Should, King Charles III and American Psycho. On television she has appeared in Luther, The Alienist, Doctor Who, King Charles III and Vera, You can see her in the riveting film, A Serial Killer’s Guide To Life which is now streaming online. 

This episode was recorded May 18, 2020.

Produced in part by the Broadway Podcast Network.

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Aneesa Folds shares how she went from being a student at the Freestyle Love Supreme Academy to starring on Broadway a few months later in Freestyle Love Supreme. Her other theater credits includes Sistas The Musical, Seussical, Freaky Friday and Ragtime. She has performed at North Shore Music Theatre, Goodspeed Opera House, Arrow Rock Lyceum. Aneesa also appears in the new documentary, We Are Freestyle Love Supreme, which premiered July 17th on Hulu.

Produced in part by the Broadway Podcast Network.

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Jonathan Marc Sherman has been a professional playwright since he was a teenager. At 18 his play, Women and Wallace, was part of the Young Playwrights Festival and directed by James LaPine and then Don Scardino. The play was made for television audiences for PBS-TV's American Playhouse with a cast that included Josh Hamilton, Debra Monk and Cynthia Nixon. Sherman has been writing ever since. (He also has a long list of acting credits which started when he played the Artful Dodger at the Pittsburgh Civic Light Opera). Most recently Sherman wrote the book for The New Group’s production of Bob and Carol Ted and Alice with music and lyrics by Duncan Sheik. Sherman co-founded Malaparte theater company with Josh Hamilton and Ethan Hawke. His work has been presented at The Public Theater, Playwrights Horizons, Williamstown and around the world from Australia to Istanbul to Japan. He has written several pieces for 24 Hour Plays, Viral Monologues including The Conversationalist, the musical Fear of Frying, and Painting 

This conversation was recorded May 15, 2020.

Produced in part by the Broadway Podcast Network.

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Asmeret Ghebremichael is a force on Broadway, off Broadway and the West End. A Drama Desk winner, she has been working on Broadway for twenty years. Just some of her credits include The Book of Mormon, Elf, In The Heights, Legally Blonde, Spamalot, Wicked, Dream Girls on the West End. She was nominated for both the Lucille Lortel and Chita Rivera Awards for playing Nikkie in Sweet Charity and was in The Wiz Live! on NBC. Watch her in the web series Submissions Only or on the BBC television show Get Even. Asmeret recently wrote a powerful opinion piece for Broadway News called “I’m tired of being the token Black friend.”

https://broadwaynews.com/2020/06/04/opinion-im-tired-of-being-the-token-black-friend/

Produced in part by the Broadway Podcast Network.

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There are singers and then there is Anika Larsen. Known for her ferocious belt, she made her Broadway debut in Rent and was nominated for a Tony award playing prolific songwriter Cynthia Weil in Beautiful: The Carole King Musical. Her other theater credits include Avenue Q, All Shook up, Xanadu and Closer Than Ever. Larsen’s autobiographical musical Shafrika, the White Girl, is based on her own experiences growing up one of ten siblings in a family where six children were adopted from all over the world. She is currently artistic director of Plays in the House Teen Edition. The play reading series benefits organizations which brings theater to underserved youth. It is part of Stars in the House, created by Seth Rudetsky and James Wesley.

Larsen will next star in the Broadway bound Almost Famous. Based on the Cameron Crowe film, the musical is directed by Jeremy Herrin. Crowe wrote the book and lyrics, Tom Kitt composed original music. Larsen is Elaine Miller, the conflicted mom, who Frances McDormand played in the film. 

Larsen does volunteer virtual Q&As inspiring students from around the world from Amarillo to the Netherlands to Iowa City. With her husband, professional trumpet player Freddie Maxwell, she also created socially distant porch concerts which she performs for her community in the suburbs outside New York City. “Art will not be stopped. It can’t be,” says Larsen. “A government can try to oppress it. Or a pandemic can try and shut it down. But artists are going to make their art. Whether it’s floating out their windows or coming out of the woodwork. We can’t stop doing the thing we do.”

Produced in part by the Broadway Podcast Network.

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Tiler Peck was dancing before she could walk. By the time she was four-years-old she had a talent for remembering three minute dance solos. “I was dancing all the time,” says Peck who has been a principal dancer with the New York City Ballet for over a decade. "My mother put me in soccer and I would leap and dance down the field.”

Working professionally since she was a child, Peck made her Broadway debut when she was 11 in Susan Stroman's revival of The Music Man. Currently living in her family's home in Bakersfield, California, she is hosting daily ballet classes on her @tilerpeck Instagram.

Peck also has a new children’s book, Katarina Ballerina, (Simon & Schuster), which she cowrote with Kyle Harris (The Inheritance). In the book Katarina has a love for dance but her feet turn in and her curly hair doesn’t always fit into a sleek bun. Katarina isn’t perfect, but at every turn, people tell her she is beautiful. “Katarina has one thing that you can't teach. She has a light within her that makes people want to watch her dance,” says Peck. “While technique can be taught, love and passion can’t. The message is for kids to own their unique gifts. That makes you stand out.”

Produced in part by the Broadway Podcast Network.

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Annie Golden got her start in the 1970s as the lead singer of the CBGB headlining band, The Shirts. 

In the 1970s director Milos Forman “discovered” Annie Golden singing at CBGBs with her band The Shirts. He cast her in his 1979 film adaptation of Hair. 

She has been working and thriving ever since. 

Click here to see Annie Golden shared her "work station" which contains her "fancy schmancy" microphone to record the new Bleeding Love podcast.

You may know Golden from playing Norma Romano in Orange Is the New Black. You may know her from countless roles on and off Broadway. Her vast credits include Hair, Leader of the Pack, Ah, Wilderness!, On the Town, The Full Monty, Xanadu, Violet, Assassins and Broadway Bounty Hunter. You may know her playing Jeannie Ryan from Milos Forman’s film adaptation of Hair. You may know her from Desperately Seeking Susan, Baby Boom, Longtime Companion, Strictly Business, Prelude to a Kiss, 12 Monkeys or I Love You Phillip Morris. Golden currently co-stars in the new Broadway Podcast Network series, Bleeding Love. The Post-Apocalyptic musical takes place in a world where it’s too dangerous to go outside. Golden stars with Rebecca Naomi Jones, Marc Kudisch, Sarah Stiles, Taylor Trensch and Tony Vincent

Be More Chill composer Joe Iconis even wrote the musical Broadway Bounty Hunter as a love letter to Golden. (The original cast recording was just released last month, https://ghostlightrecords.lnk.to/broadwaybountyhunter). “She has been my muse,” says Iconis. “The thing that has always comes through is her authenticity. She is such a real New Yorker and so authentically herself. And I love that she has had such a wild life.” 

Produced in part by the Broadway Podcast Network.

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