BroadwayWorld Launches BACKSTAGE WITH RICHARD RIDGE Podcasts- Listen to Episode 1-2 with Laura Benanti & Christine Ebersole!

Since 2011, BroadwayWorld has been bringing you Broadway's favorite talk show- BACKSTAGE WITH RICHAD RIDGE. In the series, fans can follow Richard as he visits the theater's best and brightest in their dressing rooms, on their stages and favorite hang outs to talk about their lives, careers and all of the things you don't know, but want to know. Now we're giving you the chance to keep up with Broadway's finest on-the-go, with our new podcast companion series!

CLICK HERE to subscribe today and listen to Episodes 1-2, chats with Tony winners Laura Benanti and Christine Ebersole! To watch the interviews check out the video versions of Benanti and Ebersole!

Benanti was honored with the Tony, Drama Desk and Outer Critics Circle Award, and a Drama League nomination for her portrayal of Louise/Gypsy Rose Lee in the Patti LuPone revival of Gypsy. She previously starred in the Encores! production. Broadway: The Sound of Music (Maria, opposite Richard Chamberlain), Swing! (Tony nomination: Best Featured Actress), Into The Woods (Cinderella; Outer Critics Circle, Drama Desk, LA Ovation and Tony nominations), Nine (Claudia, opposite Antonio Banderas; Outer Critics Circle, Drama Leauge nominations), The Wedding Singer (Julia Sullivan), In The Next Room, or The Vibrator Play(Lincoln Center), Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown (Candela, Lincoln Center; Drama Desk and Outer Critics Circle Awards; Tony and Drama League nominations).

One of Ebersole's first jobs was as an understudy in the Broadway musical On the Twentieth Century, followed by her turn as Ado Annie in Oklahoma. From there it was on to Ryan's Hope, One Life to Live, and Saturday Night Live before landing the high-profile role of Guinevere opposite Richard Burton in Camelot. Christine then shifted her focus from stage to screen and soon headed to Hollywood, appearing in many hit movies, including Amadeus, Tootsie, andRichie Rich. She added an extensive list of television credits as well, including The Cavanaughs, Valerie, and the title role in Rachel Gunn, R.N. Additional New York stage performances include her Tony Award-winning performance as Dorothy Brock in the smash hit revival, 42nd Street, Steel Magnolias, The Best Man, and Dinner at Eight for which she received both Tony and Outer Critics Circle nominations. Christine received virtually every Off-Broadway award and her second Tony Award for Leading Actress in a Musical for her dual role as both Edith Bouvier Beale and "Little Edie" Beale in Grey Gardens.