Theatre Interviews with Top Broadway Stars

Tony winner Joaquina Kalukango on the Black theatre artists that lift her up

Mid-show standing ovations are rare on Broadway — unless you're at Paradise Square. When leading actress Joaquina Kalukango sings the penultimate number, a power ballad called "Let It Burn," she's met with a standing ovation nearly every night.So it's no wonder that when she performed the song at the 2022 Tony Awards, holding an impossibly long final note as tears rolled down her cheeks, the audience at Radio City Music Hall, too, rose to their feet. (It's worth seeing for yourself.)Kalukango's...

Hugh Jackman on 'The Music Man': 'There's nothing like doing a musical on Broadway'

"The thrill is mine, trust me," Hugh Jackman said, when told it's thrilling to see him on Broadway for the first time in seven years. Since December 2021, Jackman has been leading the big parade as Professor Harold Hill in The Music Man, and he was just nominated for the 2022 Best Leading Actor in a Musical Tony Award for his performance.Jackman, whose roots are on stage in Australia, achieved A-list Hollywood stardom by playing Wolverine in X-Men and leading other high-profile films like Les...

Rachel Dratch on going from 'Saturday Night Live' to 'POTUS' on Broadway

In some ways, Broadway's Shubert Theatre, where the farcical play POTUS: Or Behind Every Great Dumbass are Seven Women Trying to Keep Him Alive is currently playing, isn't all that different from the Saturday Night Live stage. It's in New York, lots of celebrities are there, and Rachel Dratch is one of them, doing political comedy. But in other ways, according to Dratch, it's very, very different. In a good way."The biggest thing I noticed was the laughs are louder because it's such a big...

Brandon Victor Dixon on how ‘Black No More’ brings a 1931 novel to 2022

Brandon Victor Dixon is currently playing the lead in Black No More. In the new musical, Dixon plays Max Disher, a Black man who chooses to step into a machine that makes him turn white, and he admits it's taken him a while to get a clear grasp on his character. "I'm still looking for him," Dixon said with a chuckle. "This character is still in development." Black No More has a book by Oscar-winning screenwriter John Ridley, lyrics by two-time Grammy winner Tariq Trotter (of The Roots fame), and...

'Sex and the City' writer Candace Bushnell on her new solo show, working in theatre, and the HBOMax reboot

Candace Bushnell calls her new one-woman show Is There Still Sex in the City? Carrie Bradshaw's origin story. Bushnell created the iconic New York character decades ago as an alterego for her own sex and relationships column, but the character went on to lead an acclaimed television series, a film franchise, a series reboot, and generations of women who identify with her. "What's striking to me is how much Sex and the City is my life's work, really," Bushnell says. "And I think that's something...

Steven Levenson on honoring Jonathan Larson’s legacy in ‘tick, tick…BOOM’

When Steven Levenson heard that Lin-Manuel Miranda was directing­­ a film adaptation of tick, tick...BOOM!, he was like, "Well, how can I possibly be involved with that?"At the time, Levenson was working on the mini-series Fosse/Verdon, on which Miranda was a producer, and the two started a years-long process and excavation into writer/composer Jonathan Larson's semi-autobiographical work. The film adaptation of Larson's show, which he wrote just before Rent turned him into a household name, is...

Lin-Manuel Miranda on coming full circle with directing 'tick, tick... BOOM!'

Directing tick, tick... BOOM!, the Netflix film adaptation of Jonathan Larson's 1990 musical, was at once a familiar and unfamiliar process for Lin-Manuel Miranda. The project marks his directorial debut, but it's by no means his first time on a film set, as he's fresh off the release of In the Heights, the film adaptation of his own 2007 musical, this past summer. (He's been involved in films like Mary Poppins Returns, Moana, Encanto, and Vivo as either a composer, lyricist, performer, or a...

How Andrew Garfield became Jonathan Larson for 'tick, tick... BOOM!'

Andrew Garfield's career has taken him from England to America and back, from the stage to the screen. He's earned a British Academy Television Award for his film work in Boy A, an Olivier Award nomination and a Tony Award win for starring as Prior Walter in Angels in America in the West End and on Broadway, and critical acclaim for films like The Amazing Spider-Man series and plays like Death of a Salesman. For all his range, the one thing Garfield hasn't done, professionally at least, is a...

Ali Ahn of 'Letters of Suresh' on monologuing her way into audiences' hearts

When the casting notice came out that Letters of Suresh, the new play from Rajiv Joseph being produced at Second Stage Theater, actor Ali Ahn texted every Asian American actor friend she knew working in New York City. It was because the show had two prominent East Asian roles and one Indian role. "It's very rare to have a story that centers around an Asian American character's growth," said Ahn.Ahn ended up getting a role, and her character now opens the new play Letters of Suresh, currently...

Jocelyn Bioh is the queen of African comedy

Jocelyn Bioh continues to reign supreme in a lane she created for herself. Bioh is comedic playwright, focused on telling stories of the African diaspora. Her play School Girls; Or, The African Mean Girls Play debuted at MCC Theater in 2017 and instantly moved her name into conversations of theatre's finest playwrights. The Ghanaian-American's newest play, Merry Wives, a modern adaptation of Shakespeare's The Merry Wives of Windsor, opened at the Delacorte Theatre to rave reviews that solidified...