Behind the Awards with Eila Mell & Bruce Gotlieb Broadway Podcast Network

Water for Elephants swings into Tony season!
Shana Carroll and Jesse Robb discuss combining dance and circus choreography to thrill Broadway audiences. We learn how learn how Grant Guston jumps from a train, Isabelle McCalla flies from a trapeze and performers give life to horses and elephants that steal our hearts. Listen to find out how this show operates differently than any other show on Broadway.
Eila & Bruce also discuss Eddie Redmayne’s Oliver win for Best Actor in a Musical for Cabaret. Not to be missed is their coverage of the Drama League Awards including Sarah Paulson once in a career win.
SHANA CARROLL (Circus Designer & Co-Choreographer).Co-founding artistic director of The 7 Fingers, where she created over a dozen shows including Traces, Sequence 8, Cuisine & Confessions, Passengers. Other directing: Cirque du Soleil’s Crystal; circus component of Queen of the Night; Cirque du Soleil performance on 84th Academy Awards. Other circus design/choreography: Paramour (Broadway); Cirque du Soleil’s Iris; Sochi Olympics Opening Ceremony. 
JESSE ROBB (Co-Choreographer) has worked at The Alliance Theatre, The Stratford Festival of Canada, Theatre Calgary, Ogun[1]quit Playhouse, Opera Philadelphia, Cirque du Soleil and MOMIX, among others. He is the movement director for the Cameron Mackintosh production of Les Misérables (U.S. national and South Korea) and was the associate choreographer for Miss Saigon (Broadway, U.S. tour, Vienna). Thanks and love to MF, PP, KZ, Les and Roberta Robb.
Make sure to check out Eila's book, "The Tony Awards", and all her other amazing books: https://amzn.to/43WMu5Y.
Connect with Eila and Bruce:

Instagram @behind_the_awards


Eila @eilamell


Bruce @cominghomewithbruce



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Will Lindsay Mendez Merrily Roll Along to her second Tony win?
Feature Friday! Eila & Bruce bring you the third installment of their Tony deep dive. They are joined by expert Matt Stashin and share who will win and who they want to win in the following categories. Featured Actress in a Musical, Book of a Musical, Scenic Design of a Play, Best Revival of a Play.
Shoshana Bean, Amber Iman, Nikki M James, Leslie Rodroguez Kritzer, Kecia Lewis, Lindsay Mendez, Bebe Neuwirth, Hells Kitchen, Lempicka, Monty Python’s Spamalot, Merrily We Roll Along, Cabaret, Suffs, The Notebook, Water for Elephants, The Outsiders, An Enemy of the People, Appropriate, Purlie Victorious, Jaja’s African Hair Braiding, Stereophonic
Make sure to check out Eila's book, "The Tony Awards", and all her other amazing books: https://amzn.to/43WMu5Y.
Connect with Eila and Bruce:

Instagram @behind_the_awards


Eila @eilamell


Bruce @cominghomewithbruce



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Tom Kitt’s got something cooking in Hell's Kitchen with Alicia Keys.
The Pulitzer Prize winning composer of Next to Normal discusses working with everyone from Alanis Morrissette (Jagged Little Pill), The Go Go’s (Head Over Heel), Green Day (American Idiot), and Lin-Manuel Miranda (Bigger). Tom shares the journey of Next to Normal from its infancy as a 10 minute musical class assignment with Brian Yorkey. Tom Kitt recounts working with an array of recording artists to bring Spong Bob Square Pants to Broadway and the thrill he had working with a James Lapine on Flying Over Sunset.
Also in this Episodes - Shemar Moore announces Susan Lucci’s iconic Daytime Emmy win for Best Actress after 19 nominations.
Eila & Bruce delve into an already packed 2024/2025 Broadway season which they are dubbing the Kenny Leon Season. Highlights include; Othello starring Denzel Washington & Jake Gyllenhall, Sunset Boulevard starring Nicole Scherzinger, and Elton John’s Tammy Faye.
Tom Kitt is a two-time Tony, two-time Emmy, Pulitzer Prize and Grammy Award winner. As a musical theater composer, he has written the music for six Broadway shows: Next to Normal (Tony Award), If/Then (Tony Nomination), Flying Over Sunset (Tony Nomination), High Fidelity, Bring it On, The Musical, and Almost Famous. His work for the stage has also been seen Off Broadway at 2nd Stage (Next to Normal, Superhero), The Public Theater (The Visitor, Shakespeare in the Park) and he has worked at some of the most prestigious regional theaters including The Old Globe, Arena Stage, Berkeley Rep, The Signature Theater, and ART. In addition, Tom’s Broadway credits as an orchestrator include: Next to Normal (Tony Award), The SpongeBob Musical (Tony Nomination), Jagged Little Pill (Tony Nomination), Almost Famous, Head Over Heels, Everyday Rapture, and American Idiot. 
Tom has also been active in the world of film and TV. As one of the vocal arrangers working on the Pitch Perfect films, Tom most notably helped create the classic “Riff-off.” Tom also served as music supervisor/arranger/orchestrator for Grease Live and contributed songs for Royal Pains and Penny Dreadful. He also provided music supervision for the NBC series, Rise and has written numerous songs for Sesame Street. And he is known for his two original opening numbers for The Tony Awards, Live in 2019, written with David Javerbaum for James Corden, and the Emmy Award winning, Bigger in 2013, written with Lin-Manuel Miranda for Neil Patrick Harris. Tom is also proud that his musical adaptation of Freaky Friday, co-written with Bridget Carpenter and Brian Yorkey was turned into an original movie musical for Disney Channel. Most recently, Tom served as a Supervising Music Producer on the new Bobby Lopez/Kristen Anderson-Lopez/Steven Levenson/Thomas Kail musical television series, Up Here.
As a recording artist/producer, Tom has worked on numerous original cast recordings, winning a Grammy award for his work on Jagged Little Pill. In 2019, he was signed to a recording contract with Sony Masterworks, and his debut album, Reflect featured a number of brilliant Broadway artists with whom Tom collaborated to create a song cycle touching on the challenges brought on by the pandemic. One of Tom’s compositions, She Has Hope was co-written with Danny Burstein and his late wife, the brilliant and gifted artist, Rebecca Luker. Featuring Brian D’Arcy James on vocals, a video of She Has Hope was filmed in 2021 in collaboration with Project ALS to bring more awareness and support to finding a cure. Reflect was also chosen by the Library of Congress to be featured in an exhibit showcasing art created during the pandemic. 

Make sure to check out Eila's book, "The Tony Awards", and all her other amazing books: https://amzn.to/43WMu5Y.
Connect with Eila and Bruce:

Instagram @behind_the_awards


Eila @eilamell


Bruce @cominghomewithbruce



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Is there a clear winner this Tony Season…Doubt it?
Magnificent Monday! Eila & Bruce bring you the second installment of their Tony deep dive. They are joined by expert Matt Stashin and share who will win and who they want to win in the following categories. Featured Actress in a Play, Lighting Design of a Musical, Costume Design of a Play and Best Original Score..
Quincy Tyler Bernstine, Juliana Canfield, Celia Keenan-Bolger, Sarah Pidgeon, Kara Young, Appropriate, Stereophonic, Jaja’s African Hair Braiding, Purlie Victorious, An Enemy of the People, Illinoise, Cabaret, Hells Kitchen, The Outsiders, Water for Elephants, Days of Wine and Roses, Here Lies Love, Suffs, The Mother Play, Doubt, David Byrne, Fat Boy Slim

Make sure to check out Eila's book, "The Tony Awards", and all her other amazing books: https://amzn.to/43WMu5Y.
Connect with Eila and Bruce:

Instagram @behind_the_awards


Eila @eilamell


Bruce @cominghomewithbruce



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How do you get Clint Eastwood’s attention…Ask a Jersey Boy with a great falsetto
John Lloyd Young told us how to succeed in show business. From seeing Big River as a kid- produced by Dodger Theatricals and directed by Des McAnuff to interning with the production firm and later making his Broadway debut in Jersey Boys helmed by the same director and producers. John Lloyd Young shared what it took to land the role of Frankie Valli in the file version, directed by Clint Eastwood.  
What does Barbara Cook, Ertha Kitt and John Lloyd Young have common? The Cafe Carlyle where John Lloyd will be appearing May 14th-18th. John Lloyd Young tells us that he returns to The Cafe Carlyle every year because its a piece of New York City history that is frozen in time.
Also in this episode - Sally Fields Oscar win for Best Actress in a Motion Picture for Places in the Hear in 1985.
Bruce & Eila discuss JT Rogers’ new play Corruption at Lincoln Center’s Mitzi E. Newhouse Theater.
Film, stage and concert artist, John Lloyd Young, is a Tony and Grammy winner, multi-Platinum recording artist and Presidential Appointee. As the original “Frankie Valli” in Broadway’s Tony Award-winning Best Musical, Jersey Boys, Young garnered unprecedented accolades from the New York and national media, going on to become the only American actor to date to win all four major Broadway Leading Actor in a Musical honors for a Broadway debut: the Tony, Drama Desk, Outer Critics Circle and Theatre World Award. Young starred in Jersey Boys on London’s West End, and was hand-picked by director Clint Eastwood to reprise his role in the Warner Bros. film adaptation, becoming one of only a select-few actors in entertainment history to take his Tony-winning role to the big screen.
Over the years, Young has sung selections from Jersey Boys several times at the White House, in the halls of Congress, and to Kennedys, Clintons, Bushes, Obamas, Bidens, Trumps, Pences, the Prime Minister and First Lady, Shinzo and Akie Abe, of Japan and the President and First Lady of Finland, Sauli Niinistö and Jenni Haukio.

As a concert artist, Young has taken his expertly-curated repertoire of classic pop and R&B to filled-to-capacity rooms, thrilling his audiences with a “disciplined one-in-a-million high tenor shading into falsetto that he can direct through the stratosphere” (The New York Times). He has played The White House, Carnegie Hall, Lincoln Center, The Hollywood Bowl, The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, the U.S. Embassy in Finland, Mar-a-Lago, Clint Eastwood’s Tehama Country Club, New York’s Café Carlyle, Feinstein’s in NY and San Francisco, Radio City Music Hall, the Macy’s Thanksgiving Parade and New Year’s Eve in Times Square.
Appointed to the President’s Committee on the Arts and Humanities by Barack Obama, Young was sworn in at the Supreme Court of the United States by Justice Elena Kagan. As a member of the Committee, Young represented the United States on the first U.S. Cultural Mission to the Republic of Cuba, along with fellow Committee members Kal Penn and Alfre Woodard, guest artists Usher, Smokey Robinson, Dave Matthews, violinist Joshua Bell, playwright John Guare, U.S. arts officials, including the Chairs of the NEA and the Smithsonian Institution, and members of Congress.
A resident of Los Angeles, Young was educated at Brown University and in Spain at the University of Salamanca. He knows fluent Spanish, conversational and written Mandarin, and sings in several languages, including Spanish, Mandarin, Hebrew and Italian. Trained by world championship title holders and Chinese Shaolin monks, Young holds a brown-belt in Shaolin Temple-style kung fu, and is a student and practitioner of Chinese Chan Buddhism. 

Make sure to check out Eila's book, "The Tony Awards", and all her other amazing books: https://amzn.to/43WMu5Y.
Connect with Eila and Bruce:

Instagram @behind_the_awards


Eila @eilamell


Bruce @com

Will Harry Potter cast a spell on Tony voters?
Magnificent Monday! Eila & Bruce bring you the first installment of their Tony deep dive. They are joined by expert Matt Stashin and share who will win and who they want to win in the following categories. Featured Actor in a Play, Featured Actor in a Musical, Sound Design of a Play, Choreography and Orchestrations.
Daniel Radcliff, Roger Bart, Brandon Victor Dixon, Steven Skybell, Joshua Boonem Sky Lakota-Lynch, Jim Parsons, Corey Stoll, Will Brill, Eli Gelb, Tom Pecinka, Hells Kitchen, Here Lies Love, The Outsiders, Illinoise, Water for Elephants, Merrily We Roll Along, Back to the Future, Cabaret, Jaja’s African Hair Braiding, Mary Jane, Grey House, Appropriate, Stereophonic, The Mother Play

Make sure to check out Eila's book, "The Tony Awards", and all her other amazing books: https://amzn.to/43WMu5Y.
Connect with Eila and Bruce:

Instagram @behind_the_awards


Eila @eilamell


Bruce @cominghomewithbruce



Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices