The Theatre Enthusiast

I, like most of the theatre world, am completely captivated by the new Broadway superhit Hamilton . I have listened to the cast recording on repeat nonstop for the last several months. I know every word to every song. The cast members have all become celebrities in my house. I am also extremely lucky to have seen Hamilton, and it completely blew me away and exceeded every expectation. I also luckily only paid $57 for my ticket. That sentence usually is greeted with gasps, dropped jaws, and “HOOOOOWWWW?!” That kind of price for this show is completely unheard of these days. If you buy a Hamilton ticket face value, the cheapest you can get is $139. StubHub and Ticketmaster Resale is filled with people re-selling their tickets for as much as $1,500 or more PER TICKET. Why are people doing this? Because people are so desperate to see the show that they will pay 10x the original ticket cost to see it! This alone is where our problem lies and created the whole reason why I am ...

 Over the summer I got a text from a friend that read, “What are you doing tomorrow night? Do you want to go see Dear Evan Hansen with me?” The show was on my radar as one I wanted to see, so obviously I said yes. We bought Pay Your Age tickets, took the Metro into Washington DC, and that night our lives changed. For the couple months Dear Evan Hansen performed its world premiere at Arena Stage, everyone in the DC theatre community had one thing in common – we were all obsessed with this show. It seemed as if everyone saw the show at least once. When it was announced Dear Evan Hansen would transfer to Off-Broadway in the spring of 2016, we were relieved and thrilled. This incredibly powerful show will live on, and New Yorkers get to see it now as well, and they have no idea what is about to hit them. Here are 5 reasons why you need to see Dear Evan Hansen . 1)       Pasek & Paul wrote the music. You know, the guys who wrote Dogfight ? James and...

 If you’re following Lin-Manuel Miranda on Twitter… Wait – you did NOT just ask me who Lin-Manuel Miranda is. Seriously?! If you don't know who Lin is stop reading this right now, go educate yourself, then come back and return to my good graces. Bye. If you’re following Lin-Manuel Miranda on Twitter (if you’re not you need to seriously analyze your life choices), you’ve probably seen that he’s constantly asked to sort the characters of Hamilton into Hogwarts houses. You may have also seen that a few months ago, Harry Potter star Daniel Radcliffe saw Hamilton and sorted the characters with Lin backstage. Last week, Lin and Radcliffe’s Potter co-star Emma Watson teamed up to sort the Hamilton characters as well (and also beatboxed and freestyled, but that’s another story). So, I decided that I’m going to let myself completely geek out on two of my favorite things and have my own little Hamilton sorting ceremony. Firstly, to help you Harry Potter amateurs, I’ve cop...

  All theatres have a stage door. It’s primarily where the actors, musicians, crew, etc. enter the theatre. At Broadway and large regional theatres, it’s also where the audience gathers after the show to get autographs and pictures with the actors. Stage doors can be very fun, but can also cause some people to reach an unacceptable level of crazy. I have waited at dozens of Broadway stage doors over the years and have many stories to tell. I will share some of these stories to help teach you all proper stage door etiquette, because let’s be honest – a lot of people in the theatre world need to be taught how to property act. 1)       Don’t be bitter because you’re not at the front of the crowd. For those of you who have never “stage door-ed” a show before, typically the theatre puts up police barricades that the fans wait behind, to provide crowd control and safety for the actors who come out to sign autographs. If you’re lucky, you’ll get a s...

  Two weeks ago I went up to NYC with my mom and a friend and had a marathon Broadway weekend. From Thursday to Sunday, we saw five Broadway shows: School of Rock, The Color Purple, On Your Feet!, She Loves Me, and Noises Off . I’m taking the time now to post my reviews for each show we saw, because there’s much to be said about each. 1)       School of Rock: I heard this show was good. I just did Jesus Christ Superstar late last year, so I felt an obligation to see Andrew Lloyd Webber’s new show. I had a feeling Sierra Boggess would be wonderful and the little kids would be ridiculously talented. What I didn’t know was that the show would be THAT good. I absolutely LOVED this show. As I predicted, the kids were incredible. The little girl who sang “Amazing Grace” in Act 2 blew my mind. She couldn’t be more than 10 years old but she had the voice of a 25-year-old. Each kid had such well-developed characters, and the fact that they played all t...

On Sunday afternoon I was sitting in my dressing room at the theatre I work at, laughing with my castmates about the newest live musical. We were predicting what of that night's broadcast would be the most catastrophic. Would it be the singing? The production value? Carly Rae Jepson? I mean, could you blame us? The live musicals of the past have left much to be desired. The one thing we did agree on was that we wouldn't hate on Vanessa Hudgens, since as we all know, her father passed away Saturday night. We finished our show and headed our separate ways to watch Grease Live  unfold. With this being Fox's first attempt at a musical (NBC having produced The Sound of Music Live, Peter Pan Live, and The Wiz Live the last three years), I was expecting a tragedy. Boy, was I wrong. Within five minutes, I was completely drawn in, and knew that this would not be your ordinary musical broadcast. The opening number had barely finished and Fox was already sending the message to ...

What is BroadwayCon, you ask? You know in The Big Bang Theory when Sheldon & co dress up like comic book characters and go to ComicCon? This is the exact same thing, except everyone is dressed up as either Alexander Hamilton, Jack Kelly, or Elphaba. Today marks the first day of the first-ever BroadwayCon, and if you're not one of the lucky few who are in NYC heading to the convention right now, you may be feeling like life pretty much sucks. All week, Playbill.com has been posting articles to help convention attendees make the most of their weekend, but what about the rest of us stuck in the cold, huh? Don't we deserve some love even if we can't be there? This post is for you, you poor unfortunate souls. (Heh heh. See what I did there? No? Okay. Moving on.) To help you forget about the panels, the Newsies master classes, the karaoke sessions, and brushing elbows with Broadway elite, I have provided this guide to help you cope with your BroadwayCon depressio...