Interview: Tyler Talmage Debuts BACK TO MY ROOTS at The Green Room 42 on His Birthday

After taking a break from performing, Tyler Talmage is ready to return to the stage with Back To My Roots: A Benefit Concert for Team To End AIDS. The show is a mix of favorite musical theatre songs and stories that honor all those moments and people who shape our lives. All proceeds will go to support Talmage’s Team to End AIDS fundraiser for the 2026 NYC Marathon.

Below, read a conversation with Talmage about the show.

This conversation has been condensed and edited for clarity.

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How did you originally get started in the world of theatre and cabaret?

Cabaret is a new adventure that I'm kind of getting into, but with theatre my first intro was, comically, High School Musical. I come from a family that was never into theatre, but I saw the movie, ended up doing the talent show that year, and got bit by the bug. Then it wasn't until a few years later, when I hit middle school, that I got pulled in to do the school musical. From there, it just kind of accelerated, and I’ve pretty much been doing it since. 

As far as the cabaret side of things goes, I've taken the past few years off from performing after COVID. Now I’m trying to rediscover the joy that theatre should bring, and it's just really helped me find that part of myself in that joy again.

After taking a step back from performing, what's it like coming back and doing your solo show debut?

Absolutely terrifying. 

No, it's been a really interesting experience. I've had this idea for the concert in my head for a few years now. The week everything shut down with COVID, I was supposed to go out on my first contract. I had done some theatre admin stuff and then went back to performing, but I had a bit of a bad contract that pushed me away. But the entire time I've been putting this concert together because I wanted to do one back home. 

So like I said, terrifying, but it's brought a lot of joy. It's been really profound to trust myself and believe in myself again. Even though it was circumstances outside of my control that caused me to step back, it was easy for me to put up these walls and completely stop performing. This process has reminded me that if we don't believe in ourselves, how are we going to do what we want to do? It's also reminded me of what the core purpose of theatre is supposed to be: to be moving and allow people to express themselves, but also allow us to experience these joys with other people on stage, whether that's in a proper show or in a cabaret setting. 

I think being able to find those relatable moments and applying them to ourselves and spreading the joy is what has been the best part. That and allowing so many people in my life that haven't seen me perform before see this true side of myself. So that's been fun, to get back to my roots and really find that part of myself again. 

And you get to do it on your birthday, too!

I do! Which was totally coincidental. I was trying to do it the day before or another date, but they were booked up. I tried to do this concert last fall as part of my fundraiser for last year's NYC marathon, but I was trying to do it back upstate and it ended up being a little difficult because I only had 97 days from when I found out about getting accepted into the race to race day. So it was a bit of a tight squeeze, but when I got accepted into doing it this year, I was like, ‘Okay, we're going to do this concert.’ Everything was ready to go, so all I needed was to lock down a venue. They gave me the available dates, and it was either the 20th or the 27th. I was like, well, what better day is there? And then, about a week after, I was going through a bunch of papers in my closet, and I found a notebook that had a page about things to do in my 26th year. And one of the things was birthday concerts. So it really was a fun little moment. It sent little chills up my spine that the universe put that into motion without me even remembering.

You mentioned the marathon. All of the proceeds of your performance are going towards your Team to End AIDS fundraiser for the 2026 New York City marathon. Can you tell me a little more about that? 

I was a runner in high school, and a few years ago, I started doing it again. I'd always get emotional on the marathon day, running by and thinking that I wanted to do that. Because I was on this break from performing, I wanted to pick something else up, find something to really focus on. I stumbled into doing half marathons and then ended up doing the marathon last year. All of the four races that I've done have been with Team to End AIDS—the AIDS Foundation in Chicago—and it has been an incredible experience to put so much effort into helping other people.

Last year with the marathon, it was the largest amount of money that I've raised with all the races so far. Especially having been in such a short amount of time, it was such an emotional experience to see the community rally together to not only support me but also support this cause. Having been someone that's personally impacted from the situation, it's been so fulfilling to be able to know that I'm helping other people who are going to go through the same journey. No matter if it's a small impact, just knowing that it could be something that helps them through some of the worst times of their lives means a lot . 

“Back to my Roots” is described as a night of music and stories. How did you decide what to include? 

It was a bit of a difficult journey. I’ve definitely gone back and forth with some of it, but the whole sentiment of it is getting back to performing and rediscovering the joy of all of this. I've been very, very lucky that upstate, we have a very good theatre community. I definitely put so many walls up, but as I was trying to get myself back into it, I just started at the beginning of when I began doing theatre. I was writing down in a notebook all of the pivotal moments that really shaped my theatrical journey so far, but also my non-theatrical journey—just kind of big life moments and things like that. 

Originally, I went all the way back, but I had to start limiting it for time constraints. There are certain shows that have had a huge impact on my life and have kind of followed my journey in a few different ways. There are certain composers that I’ve performed a lot and even met, like Ahrens and Flaherty, so I have a number that's for them. There are numbers that are homages to people, including some of my mentors upstate. There are also some songs that are standalone theatre songs that everyone loves but also hold deeper meaning for me.

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Tickets for Back to My Roots: A Benefit Concert for Team To End AIDS at The Green Room 42 on July 20 at 9:30 PM are available here.

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