While attending the Vancouver Web Fest this March, I discovered a brilliant web series called “Empty Space.” This comedic look at the inside world of theatre features a full-out fight between the actors and the technical crew, each blaming the other group for the play’s issues.

As a theatre artist, this moment was both hilariously extreme and bitingly realistic. Why does it so often seem like those in all black and those donning costumes stand at opposing sides of the stage?

During the rehearsal process for a play, most actors spend time digging into the psychology and physicality of their character. How do they sound? How do they move? What was their childhood like? For Brian Owen, star of “Baskerville: A Sherlock Holmes Mystery” at Long Wharf Theatre, that process is a little more difficult than normal. That’s because he plays 17 distinct characters in Ken Ludwig’s madcap retelling of the famous mystery.

Kyle Scatliffe is currently starring in the second National Tour of Hamilton, playing the roles of Marquis de Lafayette/ Thomas Jefferson which recently began performances in Seattle at The Paramount Theatre. Mr. Scatliffe is known for playing Enjolras in the 2014 Broadway revival of Les Miserables, and Harpo in the 2015 Broadway Revival of The Color Purple.  He also has performed on the West End in The Scottsboro Boys playing the role of Haywood Patterson which earned him an Olivier Award Nomination for “Best Actor in a Musical”.

I had a chance to chat with Kyle about his journey as an actor. But first, I had to ask him what went through his mind when he got the call that he was cast in Hamilton. 

I'd like to offer some suggestions of musicals that I feel would be better suited to Spielberg than the dance-heavy, New York City set (Spielberg just doesn't scream NYC to me), ultimately very intimate West Side Story.

Jan Maxwell deserved more. She deserved to win the Tony in 2012. She deserved to be just as highly praised on screen as she was on stage. 

She deserved many more years on this planet than 61, dying of breast cancer last week. 

But she certainly didn't deserve the treatment she initially received from the Broadway League in the ongoing guessing game that is who is deserving enough to have the tribute of Broadway dimming their lights. 

There are a ton of factors to mull over before even beginning to produce a musical on Broadway. Given the financial risk, it's no wonder that a lot of great material gets left out. Even though they may have had legendary Off-Broadway, Regional or even West End productions, something about moving them to Broadway seemed a bit too far fetched. 

So here is our list of the 10 best musicals that have yet to get their shot at the Great White Way. 

Quality matters, but quality does not automatically equate to having the most money to throw into something.

Take heart, dear high schools, college and community theaters, this is good news for you:  if you have the talent, if you have the heart, and if you (and this is the most important part), pour the effort and care to detail into something, it doesn’t matter at which tier it is being done.

“Complicit” was Dictionary.com’s 2017 Word of the Year – and if the 2018-19 musical lineup continues as planned, it may define Broadway’s upcoming season as well. It’s a trifecta of shows featuring so much gaslighting, outdated gender norms, and straight up domestic abuse that it feels like a season straight out of 1960, at best.

I so appreciate everyone coming out tonight, especially the women in this audience who put down their pot roasts and babies to celebrate Broadway’s illustrious and ongoing history of Feminist Musicals! As I’m sure you all know, 2018 has been a difficult year for women, so my friend SKEEZY PIANIST here and I thought we should thank Broadway for stepping it up in the wake of the #MeToo movement by presenting a triad of envelope-pushing revivals.

I’m going to now perform a song from one of these upcoming beauties. Let’s see if you showtunes nerds can figure them out! Hit it, SKEEZY PIANIST!

My name is "Julio". I am currently 29 years-old. From 2009-2011, I was sexually manipulated by a local community theatre director who promised me that if I went along with his sexual advances, he would not only give me roles in all of his shows but also help me build a career in the theatre. I should probably start from the very beginning.