SAN FRAN / BAY AREA Interviews - Page 6

Ariela Morgenstern's story is a variation on the old chestnut 'local girl makes good.' The San Francisco native returned home a few years ago after a fruitful decade based in New York. BroadwayWorld spoke with her shortly after she had begun rehearsals for that Mount Everest of a role, Gypsy's Momma...

Filmmaker Robert Townsend has truly had a singular career ever since coming to prominence with his groundbreaking 1987 film a?oeThe Hollywood Shuffle.a?? That satirical comedy about Black actors dealing with racial stereotypes in the film and TV industry was famously self-financed by Townsend maxing...

BroadwayWorld spoke with Jackie Evancho in advance of her November 1st concert in San Jose. It's hard to believe, but the little girl with the big voice who rose to instant fame on 'America's Got Talent' is now a young adult. Her most recent album is titled 'The Debut' and is comprised entirely of c...

Following on the rousing success of Antigona, their acclaimed and wildly popular flamenco adaptation of Sophocles' Antigone, Noche Flamenca returns to San Francisco's Z Space with their latest program Entre Tú y Yo (You and I). Conceived, choreographed, and directed by Noche Flamenca Artistic Direct...

Director Mina Morita spoke with BroadwayWorld the day before Lloyd Suh's a?oeThe Chinese Ladya?? started performances at the Magic Theatre. Ms. Morita has a thriving career as a theatre maker, serving as Artistic Director of Potrero Hill's Crowded Fire Theater, which is devoted to the creation of ch...

Keith Pinto is one of those fortunate stage actors who seems to work almost constantly. If you attend Bay Area theater with any regularity, chances are you've seen him, most likely in a role that showcases his energetic performance style and talent for movement. His latest role is the iconic a?oeswe...

BroadwayWorld recently caught up with Bay Area theater mainstay Dan Hiatt while he was in the midst of rehearsals for TheatreWorks Silicon Valley's new musical a?oeMark Twain's River of Songa?? in which he plays the title role.  Mr. Hiatt discussed his process for finding the character of Twain, and...

42nd Street Moon opens its 27th season on September 7th & 8th with a concert staging of Maury Yeston & Peter Stone's a?oeTitanica?? with full orchestra. BroadwayWorld spoke recently with Moon's Artistic Directors Daren A.C. Carollo and Daniel Thomas about the show and Moon's upcoming season. The two...

Director Leslie Martinson of THE 39 STEPS at TheatreWorks talks about finding the comedic rhythms in a 'nutball farce' and shares her experiences as a casting director. Martinson has been a TheatreWorks mainstay for decades, starting as an usher while she was still in school, then working as an act...

Melissa Gialdini is thrilled to be playing stepsister Gabrielle in 'Rodgers & Hammerstein's Cinderella' at Foothill Music Theatre now running through August 4th. Melissa recently spoke to BroadwayWorld about the show, her love of performing and her rich life outside the theater....

Maria-Christina Oliveras takes us through her involvement with the world premiere musical KISS MY AZTEC!...

Broadway and TV actor Frances Jue is currently starring in TheatreWorks' production of Julia Cho's 'The Language Archive.' Mr. Jue recently talked to BroadwayWorld about his lengthy and surprising career path, from his formative experiences with Stephen Sondheim and TheatreWorks to working with Tony...

Melissa Momboisse is thrilled to be returning to her favorite role of Penny Pingleton in Bay Area Musicals' new production of "Hairspray," running from July 6th to August 11th at San Francisco's Victoria theater. Ms. Momboisse (pronounced "mom-boyce") is a veritable fixture of the Bay Area musical ...

San Francisco's 42nd Street Moon is currently presenting the final production of its 2018-2019 season, Michael Patrick Gaffney's original one-man show 'The Oldest Living Cater Waiter.' Written and performed by Gaffney, it offers up delicious insights into his complicated and hilarious careers as bot...

Acclaimed playwright Luis Alfaro talks to BroadwayWorld about revisiting his 'Oedipus El Rey' currently playing at San Francisco's Magic Theatre, how he forged a path for himself in the theater world, his influences along the way, and the role of artists in creating change....

The 2019 National tour of Lincoln Center Theater's production of FALSETTOS has already begun in San Francisco, with its next stop the Ahmanson Theatre in Los Angeles (beginning April 16, 2019). I was afforded the most opportune chance to chat with Nick Blaemire in between shows at the SHN Golden Gat...

Already a few cities into their 27-city national circuit, the touring company of COME FROM AWAY has landed in Los Angeles at the Ahmanson. Helmed by its Tony Award-winning director Christopher Ashley, COME FROM AWAY runs through January 6, 2019. Still fresh and reeling from the audience's passiona...

'If you allow your ego to kind of let go of the expectation of what you think your performance is supposed to be, you can open yourself up to finding so many richer and deeper colors and dimensions that will take you in places you never thought you could go.'...

DEAR EVAN HANSEN, the winner of six Tony Awards (including Best Musical) makes its second stop of its 23-city national tour at the Ahmanson Theatre with opening night set for October 19, 2018. I had the opportunity to sit down with two of the leads of DEAR EVAN HANSEN. I joined Ben Levi Ross (Evan H...

BroadwayWorld-San Francisco Senior Editor Robert Sokol takes Creel on a trip down memory lane to revisit his Main Stem alter egos in advance of his debut at Venetian Room at the Fairmont Hotel as part of producer Marilyn Levinson's fifteenth anniversary season of Bay Area Cabaret in San Francisco....

San Francisco native Francis Jue (M. Butterfly and Pacific Overtures on Broadway) reflects on becoming an actor, being an Asian-American actor, and the intersection of THE KING AND I and SOFT POWER, the new 'play in a musical' by David Henry Hwang and Jeanine Tesori....

Conrad Ricamora is best-known to millions of TV viewers as Oliver, the cute computer whiz, on ABC's 'How to Get Away With Murder.' But this 2013 Theatre World Award winner also can slay an audience onstage as he has proven Off-Broadway in 'Here Lies Love' and on Broadway in 'The King and I.' And Ric...

This weekend marks the world premiere of UNBREAKABLE, an original work by composer and lyricist Andrew Lippa, co-commissioned by a nationwide consortium of ten gay choruses and featuring Lisa Vroman, Britney Coleman, and Marcus J. Paige....

Tony-nominee Carmen Cusack is returning to San Francisco to perform May 19 at the annual 'A Twist of Limelight' gala for Bay Area Musicals followed by rehearsals for this fall's VICTOR/VICTORIA in Los Angeles, part of the Reprise 2.0 relaunch season....

SOFT POWER, the first collective creation of Tony Award winners David Henry Hwang and Jeanine Tesori, will world premiere at the Ahmanson under the auspices of Center Theatre Group, in association with East West Players and the Curran, opening May 16, 2018. We had the wonderful opportunity to chat w...

The musical, The People in the Picture, is getting a makeover as a new production is being mounted at 3Below in San Jose, California with performances beginning April 26th. Making its west coast premiere, it's the first time the show has been back on stage since its 2011 debut on Broadway at Roundab...

Most people know Del Shores as the creator/writer/director of the play and film SORDID LIVES, which morphed into the TV series Sordid Lives: The Series. Del also has utilized his producing and writing talents on Showtime's Queer As Folk and ABC's Dharma & Greg, among others. Del has been touring his...

Peaches dishes on future projects, her time in drag, and the importance of loving yourself first. 'It's just suspending reality and letting yourself go. In a way, I feel like, more than art, these days, what we do could be considered therapy.'...

Caissie Levy shares some thoughts on fitting in some cabaret gigs between Frozen runs and how motherhood has changed her approach to her career....

The first stage production of THE PRINCE OF EGYPT, based on the Dreamworks animated feature, will premiere next month at TheatreWorks Silicon Valley....

Actor Riley Costello makes the directing leap with a regional production of The Hunchback of Notre Dame and reveals his favorite character. It's not who you might guess!...

The very unique, very outrageous, very out-spoken, and always very funny Margaret Cho has begun her new tour FRESH OFF THE BLOAT, with European dates following the U.S. stops. Named this year by Rolling Stone magazine as one of the '50 Best Stand-Up Comics of All Times,' Margaret will be tackling cu...

With the challenges of putting a brand new musical on its feet, finding a moment where actress Alysha Umphress could steal away from rehearsal for this interview was a challenge of its own. And when we did connect, it was not without technical difficulties on my end, and a coffee spilling fiasco on ...

'Monsoon Wedding,' the new musical based on Mira Nair's acclaimed 2001 movie, has been showered with praise at Berkeley Repertory Theatre in Berkeley, Calif. Karen D'Souza of the San Jose Mercury News writes: 'You are swept up' by its 'swirling typhoon of sound and color.' This Indian musical has cu...

South Bay Musical Theatre, a renowned Bay Area company for over 50 years, will present CHESS IN CONCERT May 28 and June 3. We speak with the creatives about the show's appeal and have a little fun with the material....

Nikita Burshteyn, 22, is an award-winning actor who's making a name for himself in the San Francisco Bay Area, and not just because he's got a tricky name to pronounce. When he played Judas in 'Jesus Christ Superstar' at STAGE 1 Theater in Newark, Linda and Nick Hodges of BroadwayWorld.com raved: 'T...

BroadwayWorld San Francisco spoke with Evan Rees about the national tour of Sondheim's Into the Woods. Rees not only music directs the tour, but also plays the piano on stage with the actors. The new production takes an eclectic, minimal approach and recently played off-Broadway at Roundabout Theatr...

BroadwayWorld San Francisco spoke with Christian Thompson, who plays Benny in the 20th anniversary tour of RENT, coming to San Francisco February 7 - 19. Thompson tells us about the universal themes found in the musical, his own favorite Bohemian activity for each tour stop and, of course, love....

BroadwayWorld San Francisco talks with Crystal Kellogg, Mary Barrie and the understudy for Sylvia in Finding Neverland. Kellogg joins the tour after performing in the Broadway production and tells us about changes to the musical, the history behind the story and her own personal connection to the Ba...

When Jose Llana was 19, 'Something Wonderful' happened: The Filipino-American actor made his Broadway bow as Lun Tha, the mellow young lover, in Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein's 'The King and I.' Lou Diamond Phillips played the titanic and titular ruler of Siam in that 1996 Tony-winning reviv...