Download Tag: big fish

Laura Heywood Interviews Ben Crawford (Phantom of the Opera)

Ben Crawford is currently and creepily embodying Broadway’s favorite malformed and maladjusted romantic hero: The Phantom of the Opera.

Is hero the right word? He’s certainly the leading man. But that Phantom, he’s a dark dude. And I can’t wait to dig into his complexities with the actor who brings him to life on Broadway eight shows a week.

Ben Crawford has been playing The Phantom for nearly two years, and he brings the same freshness every performance that he did when he first took on this “monster” of a role.

Believe it or not, The Phantom of the Opera just celebrated its 32nd anniversary on Broadway. Only 16 actors have been cast as the Phantom in that time, so this is an elite club. 

It is an “unparalleled delight” to welcome Ben Crawford to Laura Heywood Interviews!

Laura Heywood Interviews Norbert Leo Butz (“The Long Haul”)

Two-time Tony Award winner Norbert Leo Butz has appeared on Broadway in My Fair Lady, Catch Me If You Can, Wicked, Rent, Dirty Rotten Scoundrels, Big Fish, Dead Accounts, Enron, Is He Dead, and Speed the Plow. The Last Five Years off-Broadway provided an equally pivotal role.

In addition to his legendary career on the stage, Norbert Leo Butz is a wildly talented songwriter, and his album “The Long Haul” is the first full-length album he has written entirely by himself. 

“The Long Haul” is a country/ blues record that has a deep, beautiful sadness running through it along with a sense of perseverance and a heart determined to keep on loving.

It would be easy to believe this record was written by a long-haul trucker with a million miles behind him and thousands more to go — which is why “The Long Haul” is the perfect name for this heartbreaking, hardy collection of songs.