Theatre Interviews with Top Broadway Stars

Kevin Del Aguila almost said no to 'Some Like It Hot' on Broadway

Most of us disregard texts and calls from unknown numbers, especially when the sender offers an opportunity that's too good to be true. Like, say, a potential part in a new Broadway show called Some Like It Hot. Kevin Del Aguila, naturally, was caught off guard. "I was on vacation at Disney World, and Some Like It Hot composer] Marc Shaiman texted me. And I don't know Marc Shaiman, so I said, 'How did you get my number?'" he recalled. "He said, 'Look, somebody recommended you; I'd like you to...

J. Harrison Ghee contains multitudes in 'Some Like It Hot' on Broadway

On May 2, J. Harrison Ghee and the Some Like It Hot Broadway cast were in the green room of The Today Show, on which the cast was about to appear. That would have been exciting and nerve-wracking enough, but it was the day of the Tony nominations, which were being announced at the exact same time. Best Leading Actor and Actress nominations were up first, so Ghee and his co-star Christian Borle got to perform with the joy of knowing they were both nominated for Best Actor in a Musical — and that...

Lorna Courtney's '& Juliet' Tony nomination celebrates representation on Broadway

Lorna Courtney is stronger than yesterday. One Tony Award nomination stronger, that is. On May 2, Courtney earned a Best Actress nod for playing the title character in & Juliet, a spunky spinoff of Romeo & Juliet in which the heroine gets a new lease on life and love instead of an untimely death thanks to rewrites by Shakespeare's wife, Anne Hathaway. The show earned nine total nominations, including Best Musical, and you could hear the cast and creatives roar. "We were all screaming, sending...

Oscar Isaac and Rachel Brosnahan follow ‘The Sign’ to Broadway

"There was a night where Oscar was saying something like, 'Well, if we transferred to Broadway], I would do this and this and this,'" recalled [The Sign in Sidney Brustein's Window director Anne Kauffman. At the time, the Oscar Isaac and Rachel Brosnahan-led revival of Lorraine Hansberry's drama was in the middle of its six-week run at the Brooklyn Academy of Music. With both stars in demand in Hollywood, everyone expected the production — The Sign's first New York revival in 50 years — to begin...

Chris Perfetti on what 'King James' has taught him about theatre, basketball, and friendship

Ten years before the Emmy-winning sitcom Abbott Elementary made Chris Perfetti (who plays Jacob) a household name, he was an up-and-coming stage actor making his professional debut off Broadway in Sons of the Prophet. Though onscreen fame has since found him, stage acting remains his first love, and he never strays from it for long. Perfetti’s latest stage project is Rajiv Joseph’s King James. The New York production, which was postponed in 2020, arrives off Broadway after premiere productions...

JoJo on becoming 'Moulin Rouge! The Musical''s Sparkling Diamond

It's never too little, too late to make your Broadway debut. Just ask Joanna Levesque. Nearly 20 years after first making her name as the pop singer JoJo, she's taking the stage as Satine, the performer who falls for the bohemian writer Christian in Moulin Rouge! The Musical. She fulfills her long-held dream of being on Broadway, and gets to put her own mark on the star-crossed showgirl she’s loved since Nicole Kidman played the role in the 2001 film. At 13, JoJo got her start with the hits...

D'Arcy Carden on making her Broadway debut in 'The Thanksgiving Play'

D'Arcy Carden is in a good place. No, not The Good Place — though she did play Janet in that hit NBC show and scored an Emmy nomination to boot. She's in a good place in her acting career, following up her sitcom success by starring as Greta Gill on A League of Their Own, the 2022 TV series adapted from the 1992 film of the same name. Now, Carden makes a pilgrimage to New York for her Broadway debut — a dream she's held for years — in Indigenous playwright Larissa FastHorse's The Thanksgiving...

Brittney Johnson on how playing Glinda in 'Wicked' has changed her for good

Anyone familiar with Wicked or its source material, The Wizard of Oz, knows what to expect from Glinda the Good Witch. Bubbliness, cheer, and, well, goodness, all of which also describe the current actress in the role, Brittney Johnson. She lives up to her social media handle, @sunnybrittney, and the trending hashtag #BrittneyTheGood, with a bright playfulness in her voice that all but burst through the phone from the first moments of this interview. But Johnson's run as Glinda is defined by...

Jinkx Monsoon on playing a woman in a man's world in 'Chicago'

The category is: Broadway. From January 16, two-time RuPaul's Drag Race champion Jinkx Monsoon is trading Rusicals for musicals to make her Broadway debut in Chicago through March 12. But the theatre scene isn't new to Monsoon. She holds a BFA in theatre from Cornish College of the Arts in Seattle, and she's performed in multiple major musicals in that same city. Hairspray, Rent, Hedwig and the Angry Inch, and Spring Awakening are just a few of her high-profile musical credits (aside from her...

Marla Mindelle on celebrating Celine Dion in 'Titanique'

"Love can touch us one time, and last for a lifetime," sings Celine Dion in "My Heart Will Go On." Marla Mindelle knows how true that is. She's been a Dion fan "as long as she's] been living," and as a teenager, the actress would spend countless hours "trying to belt 'All by Myself' in [her] bedroom over and over and over again." Now she's channeling her love for the singer in [Titanique, a revisionist parody version of James Cameron's Titanic film. Mindelle stars as a goofy, scene-stealing...