Interview: Oliver Prose Talks Working With John Kander & More in NEW YORK, NEW YORK

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Oliver Prose is currently making his Broadway debut as Alex Mann in New York, New York on Broadway! 

Prose's recent theatre credits include Master Harold…and the Boys at Arizona Theater Company, Kimberly Akimbo (AEA 29-hour Reading), and The O’Leary Theory at ArtéMakar Productions.

In the latest edition of BroadwayWorld's Debut of the Month, Prose tells us about working alongside theatre legends, his favorite song in the show, how it felt to take his first bow, and much more.  

What were your first thoughts when you found out you would be making your Broadway debut in New York, New York?

I was definitely shocked at first. It was a very fast process for me. I sent in a self-tape right before Christmas, I did one in-person callback and got a call from my agent that night. It’s my Broadway debut, and before this I had very little that was equivalent to it, so, it felt a bit meteoric in terms of my progression. I was shocked, I was surprised, but I was also really ready to take that step. I was really excited. The creative team, and the minds behind this project, are some of the greatest to have ever existed in our industry, and to be able to say that I’ve worked with John Kander, and Lin-Manuel Miranda, and Susan Stroman in any capacity is incredible, let alone for my debut when I’m 25 years old. It’s a dream come true in many ways.

On that note, what has it been like going through this process with this incredible company?

Honestly, I’ve learned an incredible amount, more than I thought I would. And I think one of the main things that I’ve learned is that these people that are such legends, and are such incredible minds and incredible people, they are more down to earth than we could ever really imagine. And the reason that they are who they are is because of what they do behind the scenes. I could have never imagined that John Kander would be in the rehearsal room almost every day, giving us musical directions and telling us about the context of which a lot of these songs were written, and telling us his life story and about how that is put into this musical.

As people I’ve gotten to know them more than I really thought I would, and I’ve connected with them more than I thought I would, and that has been the most incredible part for me. I can leave this process and say that John Kander is a friend, and someone that helped me create this character on Broadway. And that’s something I will take with me for the rest of my life.

What is your favorite thing about the character you play, Alex Mann?

I think my favorite thing about playing him is there is definitely a wide-eyed… that thing of when so many things are new to someone and so you have to take everything in as a first-time experience. And as an actor that’s always really fun and fulfilling to play, someone who is having all of these experiences for the first time. I play off of wonderful actors and characters in Emily Skinner and Colton Ryan, who are my two main scene partners, and I get to experience new things every night. It’s fun to play young people, who—as I feel I do in real life too—have their whole lives ahead of them.

Do you have a favorite song in the show?  

'I Love Music'. Colton and Anna [Uzele] have this really beautiful scene and song where he plays all these instruments and they talk about their love for music and where it derived from, and it’s such a fun moment between the two of them. They have such great chemistry, and watching them every night, it’s such a treat. The song is an incredible amount of fun, and Colton is such a talent. Watching him play all those instruments and do things that are seemingly impossible, it’s kind of thrilling, especially from an actors’ perspective. I really love that song.

How did you feel when you took that opening night bow?

I didn’t know how I was going to feel, I thought I might feel a lot of things. I had a bunch of friends and family texting me being like, “Are you nervous? How are you feeling?” And honestly, I felt very calm and grounded. Even in college, whenever I would perform, there is so much nerves that go into it, and you finish, and take that first bow, and it’s sort of this culmination of all these nerves that you felt, and how you got past it.

I felt really good about what I was doing, and what we were doing as a show. And I really had very little nerves. It felt like the beginning of the process. It was the first of what I knew was going to be many bows with this show. The energy that was there on the first preview, there has been no audience like that, so that will be something I will never forget. The energy our first preview audience was giving us was actually insanity, like we were Beyonce up there. In terms of me personally, I felt like I was taking everything in, and it felt right, it felt good. It felt like what I hoped to be one of many bows for me in my lifetime.

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