EPISODE 528- BETSY WOLFE IS BACK

At the time of this conversation Tony Award nominated actress Betsy Wolfe is starring in Little Shop of Horrors and just before that she starred in Death Becomes Her on Broadway. Betsy also earned wide critical acclaim starring as Joy, the title role in the new musical JOY. She previously wrapped her acclaimed tenure with the hit musical & Juliet as Anne Hathaway where her performance was nominated for the 2023 Tony Award for Best Featured Actress in a Musical. Previously, Wolfe starred in the Tony nominated musical Waitress, where she gave a multi-faceted performance as Jenna. Prior to that, she played Cordelia, one of the lovable “lesbians from next door,” in the Broadway revival of Falsettos, which aires frequently on PBS. She is perhaps best known for her critically acclaimed performance as Cathy in the Off-Broadway revival of The Last Five Years. 

Wolfe most recently starred in the holiday film Esetella Scrooge: A Christmas Carol With A Twist. She can be seen in the indie feature First One In (on all streaming platforms) and had a guest starring role on the CBS series Instinct. Wolfe performed her one woman cabaret show All Bets Are Off to sold out crowds at Feinstein’s/54 Below in NYC, Las Vegas, San Francisco, New Orleans, and more.

Originally from California, Betsy received her BFA in musical theatre from the Cincinnati Conservatory of Music. At age 20—she made her Carnegie Hall debut with the Cincinnati Pops Orchestra under Maestro Erich Kunzel. After receiving her BFA, Betsy quickly moved on to star as Rona Lisa Peretti in the San Francisco and Boston companies of The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee. Soon after, she made her Broadway debut in the revival of 110 in the Shade. Betsy gained attention for her next role in both the Off-Broadway and Broadway productions of Sherie Rene Scott’s Everyday Rapture, where she played one of the two Mennonettes. 

Betsy’s other Broadway credits include Ellen in the 2014 production of Bullets Over Broadway, directed by Susan Stroman, and Rosa Bud in the revival of The Mystery of Edwin Drood.

Other notable productions include Beth in the City Center Encores! production of Sondheim’s, Merrily We Roll Along, a world premiere production of Bobby Lopez and Kristen Anderson-Lopez’s musical Up Here, and Mary Ann Singleton in ACT's world premiere of Tales of the City.

Betsy made her Metropolitan Opera debut in Die Fledermaus (Ida). She has been a guest artist for over 50 symphony, pops, and philharmonic orchestras across the U.S. and internationally, including the New York Philharmonic and BBC Symphony Orchestra. She has collaborated with The New York Pops and played to sold-out crowds at Carnegie Hall and the Kennedy Center with their Broadway Today and Women of Notes concerts. 

Recordings include & Juliet, Falsettos, Bullets over Broadway, The Last Five Years, The Mystery of Edwin Drood, Everyday Rapture, Stage Door Canteen, 35MM, and Merrily We Roll Along. She can also be seen in the film adaptation of The Last Five Years.

EPISODE 527 - DANA BASH

Dana Bash is CNN’s chief political correspondent, anchor of Inside Politics with Dana Bash weekdays at 12pmET, and co-anchor of State of the Union with Jake Tapper and Dana Bash, the network’s Sunday morning newsmaker show. Bash is an award-winning journalist who plays a key role in the network’s political coverage, conducting high-profile interviews with candidates, serving as an anchor for CNN’s Election Night in America special coverage and frequently moderating presidential debates and town hall specials. In 2024, she co-moderated CNN’s historic Presidential Debate between President Joe Biden and President Donald Trump.

Bash’s first book “America’s Deadliest Election,” which she co-authored with David Fisher, details the 1872 Louisiana gubernatorial election. It debuted on the New York Times bestseller list. In 2021, Bash launched her CNN series, Being…, which features in-depth conversations with individuals affecting American policy, politics, and culture, giving viewers an understanding of the human being behind the public face. Her digital CNN series, Badass Women of Washington, profiles women from various backgrounds and generations to show how they have shattered glass ceilings on their way up the ranks. Her CNN Special Report Rising Hate: Antisemitism in America is an in-depth look at how antisemitism, once the hate of extremists, became mainstream and explores ways to curb it.

During the 2024 election cycle, Bash secured the first joint interview with Democratic presidential nominee Kamala Harris and vice-presidential nominee Tim Walz. She also moderated CNN’s Republican Presidential Primary town hall with former Vice President Mike Pence.

Bash moderated CNN’s first debate of the 2020 election cycle in Detroit, as well as the last Democratic Presidential Debate of the cycle in Washington. She played a key role in CNN’s 2016 presidential primary debates, serving as a moderator for six of the network’s seven primary debates on both sides of the aisle. As part of her coverage of the 2016 presidential campaigns, Bash conducted sit-down interviews with majority of the candidates including Donald Trump, Senators Ted Cruz, Marco Rubio, and Bernie Sanders, and Governors Jeb Bush and John Kasich.

Bash also continues to be instrumental in the network’s Capitol Hill coverage. In 2015, she broke news on live television that House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy would not be running for Speaker of the House and conducted Speaker John Boehner’s final interview on his last day in office. Bash also served as the lead correspondent covering former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s 11-hour testimony before the House Select Committee on Benghazi.

Bash won the Radio and Television Correspondents Association’s Joan S. Barone Award for her original reporting on a STOCK Act loophole that led Congress to pass legislation to close it. She is also a winner of the National Press Foundation’s Sol Taishoff Award for Excellence in Broadcast Journalism and a three-time recipient of the Foundation’s Everett McKinley Dirksen Award for Distinguished Reporting of Congress. Raised in New Jersey, Bash is a 2025 inductee into the New Jersey Hall of Fame.

Bash graduated cum laude with her bachelor’s degree in political communications from The George Washington University.

EPISODE 526- ETHAN SLATER RETURNS

Tony Nominee Ethan Slater can most recently be seen in the feature film Wicked, where he portrays the role of Boq. The film will be followed up by Wicked: Part 2, where Slater will reprise his role, and will be released by Universal Pictures in November of 2025. In another recent film, Slater also stars in the drama film Lost on a Mountain in Maine, based on the novel. He is currently in production on the indie feature The Designer, alongside Gina Gershon and Katherine Waddell.

Slater is best known for his Broadway debut as SpongeBob in SpongeBob SquarePants: The Broadway Musical, for which he was nominated for a Tony Award for Best Performance by an Actor in a Leading Role, and won the Drama Desk, Outer Critics Circle, Theatre World and Broadway Beacon Award. He recently starred in Spamalot on Broadway as The Historian / Not Dead Fred / Prince Herbert. His additional theater credits include an Off-Broadway revival of Assassins, and a Williamstown Theatre Festival performance of Marcel on the Train.  At the time of this interview Ethan is playing Seymour in the long running Off- Broadway hit musical, Little Shop of Horrors.

In television, Slater has starred in The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel, Law & Order: Special Victims Unit, and as Joel Grey in FX’s Fosse/Verdon.

Slater’s musical achievements include the concept album Edge of the World with Nick Blaemire in 2021, featuring Norbert Leo Butz and Lilli Cooper. He additionally released two EPs “Life is Weird” in 2020, and “Wanderer” in 2019.

EPISODE 525 - ORFEH IS BACK!

Orfeh is a Tony and Grammy Award-nominated New Yorker. Last summer she completed a run in her West End debut in “Burlesque The Musical” as Tess. On Broadway, she is best known for originating the role of Paulette in “Legally Blonde: The Musical” (Tony nomination) and was most recently seen as Mama Morton in “Chicago.” Other NY stage credits include Kit De Luca in “Pretty Woman: The Musical,” Janis Joplin in “Love, Janis” and Annette in “Saturday Night Fever.” TV appearances include roles on “Law & Order: SVU” and “Sex and the City,” among others. As a producer, she is Tony-nominated for this season's "The Lost Boys" on Broadway. A singer, songwriter and recording artist, Orfeh and her band have performed everywhere from Jazz at Lincoln Center to Theatre Royal Drury Lane in London. Upcoming projects include Heidi in the Heidi Fleiss musical "Little Black Book." She began her music career as a teen, when she landed on the Billboard charts with her album “Or-N-More.” Her latest singles “Live My Life” and “Back In Love Again” are available on all streaming platforms. Instagram: @orfeh, tiktok: @offical_orfeh

EPISODE 524- JOE TIPPETT

Joe Tippett is an actor who starred as John Ross in the Emmy Award winning series Mare of Easttown. Joe starred in Airline Highway and Waitress on Broadway, and  recurs as Hal Jackson on The Morning Show for AppleTV+. In this conversation Joe talks about how he made the transition from jock to actor, how he approaches characters who may not always make the most "likable" choices and  with honesty and humility he recounts his sobriety story along with  his love and admiration for his extraordinary wife the singer, songwriter, actress and storyteller-Sarah Bareilles.  

EPISODE 523- FRANKIE GRANDE

Frankie Grande is a true multihyphenate: a singer, songwriter, actor, Broadway performer and producer, television personality, digital creator, philanthropist, and activist whose career has taken him from Broadway stages to reality television, film, music, and beyond.

A lifelong performer, Frankie has appeared on Broadway in beloved productions including Mamma Mia! and Rock of Ages, and he is currently starring in the Broadway production of Titanique, playing Victor Garber and Luigi. His work in theater extends behind the scenes as well: he has produced acclaimed Broadway productions including Hamlet, La Bête, and Born Yesterday.

Frankie became known to millions of television viewers when he competed on Big Brother 16, and he later appeared on Celebrity Big Brother UK and Big Brother Reindeer Games. He has also appeared on television in Henry Danger and Danger Force as the unforgettable villain Frankini, and his screen work includes films such as Spree, Summoning Sylvia, and Henry Danger: The Movie. 

 Frankie’s creative life has entered an exciting new era with his music. Signed to Casablanca/Republic Records, he released his debut album, Hotel Rock Bottom, bringing together infectious pop music with deeply personal storytelling. The project reflects a more vulnerable side of Frankie and the journey that has brought him to where he is today. His recent releases include the Pride anthem “I Drove All Night.” 

Frankie is also a passionate advocate for the LGBTQ+ community and has devoted significant energy to philanthropy and arts education. He is a founding member of Broadway in South Africa and has worked with buildOn, supporting communities and educational initiatives around the world. 

In 2026, Frankie added another deeply personal accomplishment to his extraordinary résumé with the release of his memoir, Supergay! A Memoir. The book explores his journey through identity, coming out, addiction, recovery, sobriety, family, and ultimately learning to embrace himself fully. Frankie has spoken openly about rebuilding his life after addiction and about the joy and gratitude he feels for the second chance his recovery has given him.

EPISODE 522 - ZACH HEINZERLING

Zach Heinzerling is an Academy Award-nominated and Emmy Award-winning director based in New York City. He began his career at HBO working on four consecutive Emmy Award-winning documentaries and the Emmy Award-winning series “24/7” as a Field Producer and Cinematographer. In 2012, he left HBO to complete his feature debut, the multi-award-winning film, “Cutie and the Boxer”, which he both directed and shot. “Cutie and the Boxer” was nominated for the 2014 Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature. The film also won a 2015 Emmy Award for Best Feature Documentary. In 2015 he was enlisted by Beyoncé Knowles-Carter to direct the five-part web series “Self-Titled” for her album, “Beyoncé.” In 2019 he directed an episode of “Dirty Money” for Netflix. In 2021, he directed the critically acclaimed 6-part series “McCartney 3,2,1” starring Sir Paul McCartney and Rick Rubin for Hulu. Salon called it “quite simply, the most engaging documentary ever made about the songwriting exploits of popular music’s most successful composer.” His latest docu series entitled “Rafa” is a four part show for HBO that follows Nadal through his final professional season. He is also the director of “Stolen Youth: Inside the Cult of Sarah Lawrence” which the The New Yorker calls “a remarkable work, advancing the prestige true-crime genre’s slow but steady reorientation toward centering victims,” while Variety raved “…with a startling rawness and directness, Heinzerling’s work makes a case for itself as an unusually sensitive and strong outing in its genre.”

EPISODE 521- PAULINA ALEXIS

Paulina Alexis is an award-winning Indigenous Canadian actress and a proud member of the Stoney tribe of the Alexis Nakota Sioux Nation in Alberta. She first gained recognition for her performances in Beans, Ghostbusters: Afterlife, and Bones of Crows, before earning widespread acclaim for her breakout role as Willie Jack in the FX series Reservation Dogs. Her work on the series earned her a Critics’ Choice Television Award nomination, while the ensemble received multiple honors for its groundbreaking representation and storytelling. Alexis has become known for bringing authenticity, humor, and emotional depth to her performances, while helping expand opportunities for Indigenous talent on screen.

Most recently, Alexis stars as Zoey Bear Child in the new USA Network mystery drama Anna Pigeon, based on Nevada Barr’s bestselling novel series. The series premiered August 7, 2026, and follows national park ranger Anna Pigeon as she investigates crimes across some of America’s most remote and breathtaking landscapes. Alexis’s character, Zoey, is a young ranger who looks to Anna as a mentor as she finds her footing in the park service. In addition to acting, Alexis continues to champion Indigenous representation and storytelling, bringing her distinctive voice and perspective to every project she takes on.

EPISODE 520- BEN WANG

Ben Wang is best known for the titular role for Sony Pictures’ “Karate Kid: Legends” where he was selected from a worldwide search of over 10,000 actors. He stars opposite David Jonnson and Cooper Hoffman in the Lionsgate’s thriller “The Long Walk,” based on the Stephen King novel and directed by Francis Lawrence (“The Hunger Games.”) Ben was also the lead of the Disney+ series “American Born Chinese,” based on Gene Yang’s graphic novel, where he played opposite Oscar winners Michelle Yeoh and Ke Huy Quan. And Ben will rejoin Francis Lawrence as Wyatt Callow in the upcoming Lionsgate blockbuster “The Hunger Games: The Sunrise on Reaping.” Wang recently wrapped lead roles in two independent features. First is the coming of age film “Brian,” directed by Will Ropp and produced by Seth Meyers where he plays the titular role opposite William H. Macy, Randall Park, and Edi Patterson. The second film is David Wain’s R-rated “Gail Daughtry and the Celebrity Sex Pass,” written by Wain and Ken Marino, where he plays opposite Zoey Deutch, Jon Hamm, and John Slattery. Previously, Wang was part of the ensemble in the musical “Mean Girls” for Paramount Pictures, and he co-starred in the coming-of-age feature film “Chang Can Dunk” for Disney+. He is a graduate of the NYU Tisch theater program.

EPISODE 518 - CLYBOURNE ELDER

EPISODE 516 - JEN SCHRIEVER

Jen Schriever is a Tony Award–nominated lighting designer working across Broadway, the West End, Off-Broadway, regional theatre, and opera.

Most recently, Schriever received the Drama Desk Award and Outer Critics Circle Award for Outstanding Lighting Design for The Lost Boys at the Palace Theatre, a 12-time Tony Award–nominated production that earned her a Tony Award nomination for Best Lighting Design, shared with co–lighting designer Michael Arden.

She received two Tony nominations for her lighting design of A Strange Loop at the Lyceum Theatre and Death of a Salesman at the Hudson Theatre. She is also an Obie Award-winner for Sustained Excellence in Lighting Design and received an Obie Award Special Citation as part of the creative team and ensemble of A Strange Loop.

On Broadway and in the West End, her work includes Art (Music Box Theatre), Glengarry Glen Ross (Palace Theatre), Eureka Day and Lackawanna Blues (MTC, Samuel J. Friedman Theatre), Death of a Salesman (Hudson Theatre), 1776 and Birthday Candles (American Airlines Theatre), A Strange Loop (Lyceum Theatre, The Barbican), Mother Play; Grand Horizons and What the Constitution Means to Me (Helen Hayes Theater), The Lifespan of a Fact (Studio 54), Eclipsed (Golden Theatre), and John Leguizamo’s Ghetto Klown (Lyceum Theatre and HBO).

Off-Broadway and New York credits include Antigone (This Play I Read in High School) and The Other Americans (Public Theater), Strategic Love Play (Audible, Minetta Lane Theatre), Spain (Second Stage, Tony Kiser Theatre), Shhh (Atlantic Theater Company), Power Strip (Lincoln Center Theater, Claire Tow Theater), Usual Girls (Roundabout Theatre Company), Strange Interlude (Irondale Theatre, Transport Group), Emmet Otter’s Jug-Band Christmas (New Victory Theater), and Selling Kabul (Playwrights Horizons).

Regionally, her work includes Uncle Vanya (Berkeley Repertory Theatre), Highway Patrol (Goodman Theatre), Hippest Trip: The Soul Train Musical (American Conservatory Theater), A Transparent Musical (Mark Taper Forum), A Strange Loop (Woolly Mammoth Theatre Company). She earned a Helen Hayes award for Private Jones at Signature Theatre DC.

In opera, Schriever has designed A Thousand Splendid Suns (Seattle Opera), Iphigenia (tour), The Pearl Fishers and Die Fledermaus (Metropolitan Opera), and La Traviata, Faust, and A Midsummer Night’s Dream at the Mariinsky Theatre in Russia, as well as The Pearl Fishers for English National Opera in London.

Photo Credit- Bruce Glikas for BroadwayWorld

EPISODE 515 - E. Lockhart

E. Lockhart is the author of the  New York Times bestselling series that includes We Were Liars, Family of Liars, and We Fell Apart.  We Were Liars is also a TV series on Prime Video.  Lockhart invented a superhero for DC Comics: Whistle: A New Gotham City Hero.  Her other books include Again Again, Genuine Fraud and  The Disreputable History of Frankie Landau-Banks.  She has been a finalist for the LA Times Book Prize and the National Book Award, and an honoree for the Printz Award.  She has a Ph.D in English literature from Columbia University. Visit her online at emilylockhart.com. IG and TikTok: elockhartbooks  

EPISODE 514- RACHEL CHAVKIN

RACHEL CHAVKIN is a director, sometime writer and founding artistic director of Brooklyn-based experimental collective, the TEAM (www.theteamplays.org) whose work has been seen all over NY, the U.S., and internationally, and whose consensus-driven writing process was the subject of a feature length documentary. She won the 2019 Tony Award for her work on Anaïs Mitchell’s Hadestown (Broadway, NYTW, National Theatre, London). She is a three-time Obie Winner, and received Tony and Lortel nominations, and a Drama Desk Award for Dave Malloy’s Natasha, Pierre & The Great Comet of 1812 (Broadway, Ars Nova, A.R.T.). Select projects: Carson Kreitzer’s and MattGould’s Lempicka (Broadway), the TEAM’s Mission Drift (National Theatre), Arthur Miller’s American Clock (Old Vic), the TEAM’s RoosevElvis (Royal Court), Larissa Fasthorse’s The ThanksgivingPlay (2ST, 1st play by a known Native American woman on Broadway), Lilianna Padilla’s How to Defend Yourself—co-directed with Padilla and Steph Paul (NYTW), Marco Ramirez’s The Royale (LCT; Obie Award, Drama Desk and Lortel noms.), Bess Wohl’s Small Mouth Sounds (Ars Nova and national tour), and multiple collaborations with Taylor Mac, Heather Christian, the Bengsons, and Manchester-based writer/performer Chris Thorpe. Her first short film, Remind Me, was an official selection of the Venice and Beverly Hills Film Festivals. 2017 Smithsonian Award for Ingenuity. @rachel.chavkin

EPISODE 513 - ELISA ZURITSKY & JULIE ROTTENBERG

Julie and Elisa have been collaborating since they were nine years old, when they met at a Saturday morning acting class in Philadelphia. A few years later, they became writer/producers for HBO’s Sex and the City, where they earned three Emmy Award nominations and three Writers Guild Award nominations for Outstanding Writing in a Comedy. Since then, they’ve gone on to write for Smash, Divorce, and Odd Mom Out, where they were co-showrunners, and were writers/Executive Producers on HBO’s And Just Like That... where Julie also directed. They’re currently writing for Amazon’s Every Year After, based on the best-selling Carley Fortune novel Every Summer After. They’re finally writing a screenplay based on their lifelong friendship and partnership, entitled Ampersand, and Elisa is working on her first novel. They both live in Brooklyn; each has one husband and two children.  

EPISODE 512 - BRIAN PLATZER

Brian Platzer is the critically acclaimed author of the novels The Optimists (Little, Brown), Bed-Stuy Is Burning and The Body Politic (both Atria/Simon & Schuster), as well as the parenting book Taking the Stress Out of Homework (Avery/Penguin Random House). 

He has written frequently for The New York Times, NewYorker.com, New York Magazine, The New Republic, and many other publications.

As a novelist, Brian has toured the country discussing the craft of writing as well as the issues at the heart of his work, such as education, gentrification, chronic illness, relationships, and American politics.

As a humor writer, Brian has frequently written for The New Yorker’s Shouts and Murmurs and McSweeney’s Internet Tendency.  He recently wrote the viral article “Paw Patrol Is Contemptable Trash”; in New York Magazine, and he has performed comic essays on NPR as a featured guest on Live From Here.

As an educator, Brian currently teaches 8th and 12th grade English at Grace Church School in Manhattan, having previously taught literature and writing at Johns Hopkins. Brian is a CNN contributor on education, and wrote, with Abby Freireich, the weekly “Homeroom”; column in The Atlantic as well as various articles on study skills for the New York Times.

Brian is also the co-founder with Abby of Teachers Who Tutor|NYC, New York City’s only tutoring company where all the tutors are classroom teachers with master’s degrees.

Together, Brian and Abby are among the city’s leaders in education-consulting, tutoring, and executive function coaching.

Brian suffers from chronic dizziness and has written a series of essays for the New York Times chronicling his experiences and those of fellow sufferers. Brian is a graduate of Grace Church School, Dalton, Columbia, and Johns Hopkins University.

He currently lives in Bed-Stuy, Brooklyn with his sons and his brilliant wife, Alex Hardiman.

EPISODE 511- NICOLE TRAVOLTA

Nicole Travolta is the creator and star of the critically acclaimed solo show Nicole Travolta Is Doing Alright, a high-energy blend of stand-up, confessional storytelling, and transformational character work that has toured nationally and internationally. Originally developed in Los Angeles, the show has since played sold-out engagements Off-Broadway and at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival, earning 4- and 5-star reviews and coverage in Vanity Fair Italia, The LA Times, BroadwayWorld, The Daily Beast, Broadway Baby, and Outloud Culture. Travolta trained at The Groundlings and Upright Citizens Brigade, where she developed her signature character-driven style. Onstage, she seamlessly shifts between raw confession and razor-sharp impressions — including Jennifer Coolidge, Carrie Bradshaw, and Drew Barrymore — creating what critics have described as a singular comedic voice. Her television credits include Anger Management, Two and a Half Men, and The Middle. She is currently developing Nicole Travolta Is Doing Alright for screen adaptation.

EPISODE 510- GERALDINE HUGHES

Geraldine Hughes is a Northern Irish film, television and stage actress. Geraldine Hughes might not be an easily recognizable face for most, but she has quietly accumulated a long list of film, television and theater credits, most notably as the character of Little Marie in 2006’s film Rocky Balboa. Born in West Belfast, she moved to America after receiving a scholarship to attend university, graduating from UCLA’s School of Theater, Film and Television.

In 2005, she wrote and starred in the critically acclaimed play Belfast Blues, a true story from Hughes’s perspective about coming of age in Belfast in the 1980s. Performed in New York, Chicago, Los Angeles, Belfast and London, the play received the Los Angeles Ovation, Garland and Drama Critics Circle Awards, and Hughes won a Drama League Nomination for Outstanding Performance.

Most recently, she appeared in the Irish Repertory Theatre’s production of Ulster American with Matthew Broderick. The production transferred to Ireland in the summer of 2026.

EPISODE 509 - DANE LAFFREY

Dane Laffrey is a Tony Award-winning designer, creative and producer based in New York City. He studied at Australia's National Institute of Dramatic Art and resided in Sydney from 2002 - 2006.

On Broadway he’s designed the set for The Lost Boys (Palace) Maybe Happy Ending (Belasco) which won the 2025 Tony Award for Best Musical and for which Dane won Tony, Drama Desk Awards and Henry Hewes Awards, Parade (Jacobs) which won the 2023 Tony Award for Best Revival of a Musical; set and costumes for Charles Dickens’ A Christmas Carol (Nederlander), which he co-conceived with director Michael Arden and for which he is nominated for Hewes and Tony Awards; the 2018 Tony-winning revival of Lynn Ahren's and Stephen Flaherty's Once On This Island (Circle in the Square) for which he received Henry Hewes, Drama Desk and Tony Award nominations; set and costumes for the acclaimed Deaf West revival of Duncan Sheik and Steven Sater’s Spring Awakening (Brooks Atkinson); set for the Broadway premiere of Sam Shepard’s Fool For Love (Friedman).

In New York, around the US, and internationally Dane has designed world premiere plays and musicals by writers including Todd Almond, Will Aronson and Hue Park, Nell Benjamin, Rachel Bonds, Nilo Cruz, Lindsey Ferrentino, David Greenspan, Noah Haidle, Lucas Hnath, Sam Hunter, Sarah Jones, Tom Kitt, Michael John LaChiusa, Dan LeFranc, Matthew Lopez, Craig Lucas, Charles L. Mee, Alan Menken, Kim Rosenstock, Martin Sherman, Jenny Schwartz, Stephen Schwartz and Jen Silverman.

Dane’s work in New York has been seen at theatres including Roundabout Theatre Company, Manhattan Theatre Club, Lincoln Center Theatre, The Public Theatre, Second Stage Theatre, Atlantic Theatre Company, Transport Group, MCC, Playwrights Horizons, B.A.M. Harvey, Vineyard Theatre, The Joyce, SoHo Rep., Labyrinth, The New Group and Rattlestick Playwrights Theatre, among others.

His work has been seen at major theaters around the US including Center Theatre Group, The Geffen Playhouse, The Goodman, The Humana Festival, The Hollywood Bowl, The Old Globe, Huntington Theatre Company, Arena Stage, Dallas Theatre Center, Actor's Theatre of Louisville, Williamstown Theatre Festival, Baltimore Center Stage, Deaf West / Wallis Annenberg Center, Shakespeare Theatre D.C., Denver Center Theatre Company, Cincinnati Playhouse in the Park, South Coast Rep., Baltimore Center Stage, Seattle Rep., Woolly Mammoth, Two River Theatre, Goodspeed Musicals, The Studio Theatre D.C, Yale Opera, Long Wharf Theatre, Chautauqua Theatre Company, Signature Theatre Company, and others.

Internationally, Dane has worked in Hamburg, Tokyo, Osaka, Fukuoka, Oslo and throughout Australia.

Dane has served on the advisory committee for Lincoln Center Theatre's LCT3 and as a guest artist / guest designer at Yale School of Music, The Juilliard School, NYU, Carnegie-Mellon University,  Interlochen Arts Academy, The University of Western Sydney and NIDA. He has served on the faculty of Purchase College.

Dane won a 2017 Obie Award for Sustained Excellence of Set and Costume design and has been nominated for 3 Tony Awards, 3 Drama Desk Awards, an Outer Critics Circle Award, 9 American Theatre Wing Henry Hewes Design Awards, 5 Ovation Awards (winning 2), and a Sydney Theatre Award, as well as numerous regional accolades. 

EPISODE 508 - ZHAILON LEVINGSTON

Zhailon Levingston  is a Louisiana-raised storyteller, director, and activist who co-directed CATS: The Jellicle Ball, an immersive reimagining of the classic musical that premiered in 2024 at New York City’s Perelman Arts Center. The production earned him an OBIE Award (co-directing) as well as a Drama Desk, Drama League and Outer Critics Circle Award nominations for Outstanding Direction of a Musical. 

Zhailon’s first “Broadway” job was selling tickets to Broadway shows in Times Square. In 2017 he sold concessions for multiple Broadway theaters. At 27 years old, he became the youngest Black director in Broadway history, directing the Broadway production of Chicken and Biscuits. His other directing credits include Wonderful Town at New York City Center Encores!; Reconstructing at Brooklyn Academy of Music (co-directed with Rachel Chavkin); Little Miss Perfect (Olney Theater Center); Patience at Second Stage Theater; and Table 17 at MCC Theater (Lortel Award nominee for Outstanding Direction) and currently at Los Angeles’ Geffen Playhouse. 

Levingston is a board member of the Broadway Advocacy Coalition, Artistic Director of Inheritance Theater Project, and co-created a ‘Theater of Change’ course at Columbia University School of Law that is still being taught today. Once a year he returns to his hometown of Shreveport, Louisiana to direct.

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EPISODE 507- MICHAEL JAMES SCOTT

Michael James Scott plays Nurse Francois on Scrubs.

 His previous television credits include Apple TV’s critically acclaimed animated series CENTRAL PARK, Showtime’s BLACK MONDAY and Hallmark’s A HOLIDAY IN HARLEM.

Michael is no stranger to commanding an audience. He is currently making history as the longest-running Genie in Disney’s Aladdin, a performance that has earned him critical acclaim and a devoted fan base. A powerhouse in the theater world, he was also an original cast member of The Book of Mormon, Something Rotten!, and Hair, cementing his reputation as a versatile, scene-stealing performer.

Beyond the stage, Michael showcased another side of his artistry with his 2020 holiday album A Fierce Christmas, featuring beloved classics like “Christmas Time Is Here,” “This Christmas,” and “Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas.”