Download Tag: Todrick Hall

Laura Heywood Interviews Jim Caruso (Broadway at Birdland)

Jim Caruso is a man every Broadway actor knows — as one of their most dedicated supporters and as one of their own.

Jim made his Broadway debut alongside none other than Liza Minnelli in Liza’s At The Palace in 2008, which won a Tony Award for Best Special Event and also earned a Grammy nomination. 

He has performed at the White House, Carnegie Hall, Lincoln Center and in Times Square for a crowd of 100,000 theater fans.

He is the winner of multiple MAC awards, BroadwayWorld Awards, BackStage Magazine Bistro Awards, and a NightLife Awards.

And on top of all of this, he is MOST beloved for his acclaimed weekly series “Broadway at Birdland,” a staple of Monday nights in New York City. Since 2003, Jim has curated and hosted a concert series followed by “Jim Caruso’s Cast Party,” possibly the classiest and most star-studded open mic night of all time, featuring drop-ins from the biggest stars of Broadway’s last half-century. 

Laura Heywood Interviews Marty Thomas (“Slow Dancing With a Boy”)

Marty Thomas has basically been a star since he was a child. His first Broadway credit was when he was only eleven years old, in The Secret Garden; since then he has appeared in Xanadu and Wicked, and has created and performed hundreds if not thousands of shows on New York stages as a stalwart of the NYC nightlife scene.

His new album “Slow Dancing with a Boy” is out as of December 6 — for those of you listening live on DNR Studios, you’ve got to wait a couple of days (but you can preorder the album now!). If you’re listening a week later on the free podcast version of Laura Heywood Interviews, you can find “Slow Dancing with a Boy” EVERYWHERE.

The album features soaring vocals in genres that range from pop to gospel to country, with some showtunes too — re-arranged and orchestrated so they have a different feel than ever before.

Laura Heywood Interviews Todrick Hall

Todrick Hall is known for a ubiquitous YouTube presence, the epic “Straight Outta Oz” visual album, judging and choreographing for RuPaul’s Drag Race, and countless pop hits including the newly remixed “Nails, Hair, Hips, Heels” with Ciara — and he’s back on Broadway, stealing the show at WAITRESS on Broadway, as the quirky, elfish, history-nerd Ogie. Hardly his first Broadway rodeo, Waitress is Todrick’s fifth Broadway role — he starred in the original production of The Color Purple way back in the early 2000s, before the world-at-large got to know him on American Idol season 9. He has since been seen in Memphis, Chicago, and starring as Lola in Kinky Boots — which is when we first become friends. Todrick is a big-hearted, unapologetic, awe-inspiring figure who dreams big and somehow manages to achieve bigger every time.