When Lightning Strikes!

Marcia Cross stars with Ron Canada and Bryan Batt in Pay the Writer. Written Tawni O’Dell and directed by Karen Carpenter, Pay the Writer is now playing at The Pershing Square Signature Center. Cross, who starred as Bree Van de Kamp on Desperate Housewives and was on the series Everwood and Monarch, is a graduate of the Juilliard School. She has performed at Williamstown Theatre Festival, the Hardford Stage Company and the Old Globe.

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Valisia LeKae stars as LaVern Baker in Rock & Roll Man. The hit musical is playing at New World Stages. Valisia was nominated for Tony and Grammy Awards playing Diana Ross in Motown: The Musical. Some of her other Broadway and off-Broadway credits include Three Penny Opera, 110 in the Shade, Ragtime, Book of Mormon, Superhero and Almost Heaven: The John Denver Musical. On TV Valisia has been seen in The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel, FBI: Most Wanted, The Blacklist, and Blue Bloods. On March 15 Valisia will be making her Carnegie Hall debut in the show Hittsville: Celebrating Motown with the New York Pops.

This episode was recorded August 10, 2023

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Marilee Talkington stars as Morgan Le Fey in the musical Camelot now playing at Lincoln Center Theater. A prolific actress on stage and screen, some of her other theater credits include A Nervous Smile, The Middle Ages, The Last Day and her solo show, Truce. She has acted in film and on TV in The Home, Extrapolations, SEE, FBI: Most Wanted, NCIS, New Amsterdam and Law & Order SVU. Marilee, who is legally blind, founded Access Acting Academy which offers actor training for blind and low vision adults and children. 

On July 26 1990 the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) was signed into law to commemorate that date, July is Disability Pride Month. In the court of Camelot at Lincoln Center Theater Marilee is one of two disabled actors in the company. Anthony Michael Lopez, a congenital above-knee amputee, plays one of the main knights, Sir Dinidan. Both these roles were not written to be played by disabled actors. They are non-disability specific. In this episode Marilee reflects on her struggles and triumphs.

This episode was recorded on July 17, 2023

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Alex Edelman is a comedian and writer whose Orthodox Jewish upbringing has informed his critically and commercially acclaimed work for the stage and screen. He is known for both his TV writing and his solo stage shows, all three of which have been award-winning, sell-out hits in London’s West End and the Edinburgh Fringe Festival. His current solo show, Just For Us, is now playing at the Hudson Theatre on Broadway through August 19, 2023. Visit https://www.justforusshow.com/.

This episode was recorded on December 21, 2021. 

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Joel Thurm is known as one of Hollywood's most accomplished casting directors. He played a key role casting some of the most important shows and films including Cheers, Hill Street Blues, Taxi, Grease, Airplane!, and The Rocky Horror Picture Show. He has worked with celebrities ranging from Judy Garland, Pearl Bailey, and Ethel Merman to Ted Danson and John Travolta. His new book is Sex, Drugs And Pilot Season: Confessions Of A Casting Director.

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Arian Moayed was nominated for a Tony Award for his dazzling performance playing Torvald in A Doll's House opposite Jessica Chastain. An Emmy and Tony nominated actor, writer and director, in 2002, he co-founded Waterwell, (www.waterwell.org) a risk-taking and civic-minded non-profit theater company. Some of Arian's other theater credits include The Humans, Guards at the Taj and Bengal Tiger at the Baghdad Zoo. His TV and film credits include playing Stewy in the HBO hit Succession, Love Life, Spider-Man: No Way Home, Inventing Anna, Ms. Marvel and most recently, A24's You Hurt My Feelings.

This episode was recorded June 15, 2023.

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Martyna Majok was recently nominated for a Tony award for her riveting, profound and funny play "Cost of Living." The play delves into the lengths we go to care for others and what it means to fight for ourselves. Presented by Manhattan Theatre Club, "Cost of Living" was nominated for five Tony Awards and has already won a 2018 Pulitzer Prize for Drama. Martyna's work, which also includes the plays "Sanctuary City," "Queens" and "Ironbound," has been performed in theaters around the world. Martyna is currently writing a musical adaptation of "The Great Gatsby," with music by Florence Welch and Thomas Bartlett.

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NaTasha Yvette Williams was just nominated for a Tony Award originating the role of band leader Sweet Sue in the new Broadway musical Some Like it Hot. She is also featured in the musical's original cast recording. NaTasha's other Broadway credits include Tina: The Tina Turner Musical, Chicken and Biscuits, Waitress, Chicago, A Night with Janis Joplin, The Gershwin’s Porgy and Bess and The Color Purple. You can see NaTasha in the historical thriller Alice, the Disney+ movie Better Nate Than Never and Partner Track on Netflix. NaTasha is also a founding member of Black Theatre United. This episode was recorded on May 23, 2023.

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A most prolific actor, just a few of Stephen McKinley Henderson's credits include Fences, A Raisin In The Sun, A Doll's House Part 2, Lincoln, Manchester By The Sea, Lady Bird, Dune, Causeway, Beau Is Afraid and the upcoming Dune: Part 2. He was last on Broadway at Second Stages' Helen Hayes Theater in the riveting play Between Riverside and Crazy by Stephen Adly Guirgis. Directed by Austin Pendleton, Stephen was just nominated for a Tony Award for his riveting performance. Returning to the role that he originated back in 2014, Stephen played Pops, a retired police officer and devoted widowed father, who is doing his best to hold on to his beloved and massive rent-controlled Riverside Drive apartment.

This episode was recorded on April 26, 2023.

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Steven Boyer currently stars in the dazzling hit musical Kimberly Akimbo now playing at the Booth Theatre. He also received a Tony nomination for the play Hand To God. Some of his other credits include Time and the Conways, I'm Not Rappaport, Assassins, Moscow, Moscow, Moscow, Moscow, Moscow, Moscow, WeCrashed, Love Life, Borderlands, Hustlers, Chicago Fire, Trial & Error and more! He also plays lead guitar for the band the US Open.

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