Behind the Awards with Eila Mell & Bruce Gotlieb cover art

Behind the Awards with Eila Mell & Bruce Gotlieb

Behind the Awards with Eila Mell & Bruce Gotlieb

By: Broadway Podcast Network
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About this listen

 Celebrating extreme excellence in theater, film and tv, this podcast takes listeners all over the world on a journey behind the scenes featuring never-before-heard stories from Academy Award winners, Tony Award winners, Golden Globe Award winners, and so much more. Co-Hosts Eila Mell, bestselling author (The Tony Awards: A Celebration of Excellence in Theatre) and renowned podcast host, and Bruce Gotleib, who has never met an Awards show he doesn’t like, take guests through their experience of being nominated and subsequently winning their award(s), highlighting interesting and intimate details about their awards experience that will leave everyone happy to be a part of the experience. Visit http://bpn.fm/behindtheawards to learn more.Broadway Podcast Network Art Economics
Episodes
  • #97 - Ben Stanton - Lighting Up Broadway

    #97 - Ben Stanton - Lighting Up Broadway
    May 30 2025
    4 time Tony Nominee Ben Stanton stops by Behind the Awards to share his process on lighting such shows as Maybe Happy Ending, The Notebook and Spring Awakening. Ben goes into detail about the innovative tech that went into Maybe Happy Ending and his collaboration with the video design. Also in this episode - 2026 Broadway Season announcements are in full swing. Revivals of Ragtime, Chess and Mamma Mia lead the way. Ben is a lighting designer for theater, concerts, dance, installations, and events. He is a four-time Tony Award nominee as well as an Obie, Lortel, IRNE, and Ovation Award winner. Ben is currently represented on Broadway by Maybe Happy Ending at the Belasco Theater. Recent Broadway credits include The Notebook (the Schoenfeld Theater) Mary Jane (starring Rachel McAdams), Days of Wine and Roses (Starring Kelli O'Hara & Brian Darcy James), Goodnight, Oscar (starring Sean Hayes); The Collaboration (Starring Paul Bettany & Jeremy Pope); Charles Dickens’ A Christmas Carol (Featuring Jefferson Mays); The Rose Tattoo (starring Marisa Tomei); Derren Brown: Secret (James Earl Jones Theater); Regina Spektor: Live On Broadway (Lunt-Fontanne Theater); Ayad Akhtar’s Junk (Lincoln Center); Six Degrees of Separation (starring Allison Janney, Corey Hawkins, and John Benjamin Hickey); Deaf West Theater’s Spring Awakening (Lena Horne Theater); Fully Committed (starring Jesse Tyler Ferguson); and Fun Home (Broadway, Off-Broadway, 1st National Tour, London). Ben has designed concerts and tours for recording artists including Beirut, Ben Platt, Iron and Wine, The National, Regina Spektor, Sufjan Stevens, and St. Vincent, and has collaborated on several large-scale concert/theater hybrid performances including Road Trip featuring Bang On A Can All-Stars (BAM Opera House / Ford Theater, LA), Reconfiguration – An Evening with Other Lives (BAM Opera House), Planetarium featuring Bryce Dessner, Nico Mulhy, & Sufjan Stevens (BAM Opera House / Disney Concert Hall, LA / Sydney Opera House), and Black Mountain Songs featuring Bryce Dessner, Richard Reed Parry, & the Brooklyn Youth Chorus (BAM Harvey Theater / Barbican, London). Ben serves as an Assistant Professor at Brooklyn College where he teaches lighting design and programming, and he’s the founder and principal designer at Stanton Collaborative, a full-service design firm specializing in concerts, events, and art installations. Ben graduated from the University of Massachusetts at Amherst with degrees in theater and jazz performance. He lives in Brooklyn with his partner, the projection designer Lucy Mackinnon, and their two children. 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
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    35 mins
  • #96 - Caesar Samayoa - Takes Us Back to the Copa

    #96 - Caesar Samayoa - Takes Us Back to the Copa
    May 28 2025
    Just in Time’s Caesar Samayao visited Behind the Awards to discuss his multiple roles in the show including the legendary Don Kurshnier. Caesar recounts his time creating his track in Come From Away, The Pee Wee Herman Show and How to Dance to Ohio. Also in this episode - Real Women Have Curves Tony Nominee Benjamin Velez comes back to Behind the Awards to share what the process has been like since BroadwayCon when they were just getting into the theater to rehearse and put the show together to where we are now. Caesar Samayoa most recently starred as Dr. Emilio Amigo in How to Dance in Ohio on Broadway. Original Broadway Companies include Come from Away (Kevin J./Ali), Sister Act (Pablo), The Pee Wee Herman Show, Hot Feet. Off-Broadway/Regional: Evita (Perón - A.R.T./STC), Los Otros (Carlos - A.R.T./New York), Love’s Labour’s Lost (Don Armado - The Delacorte Theater), Bernstein’s Mass (Carnegie Hall), Seared (Harry - Capital Rep). Other: Yale Rep, La Jolla Playhouse, Goodspeed Musicals, Tectonic Theater Project, Seattle Rep. Film/TV: Come from Away (Apple TV+), “FBI” (CBS), “Ray Donovan” (Showtime), “The Blacklist” (NBC). Awards: 2022 HOLA José Ferrer Tespis Award, 2024 Harold Prince Award (Third St Gala). CaesarSamayoa.com @CaesarSamayoa 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
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    56 mins
  • #95 - Emily Bergl - Just in Time

    #95 - Emily Bergl - Just in Time
    May 28 2025
    Emily Bergl takes a break from Just in Time: The Bobby Darin Musical to break down the two characters she originates in the show. Emily gives us the low down of working with Jonathan Groff as well as working on such TV Series as; The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel, Shameless, Desperate Housewives and Gilmore Girls. Also in this episode - Tony Nominated Just in Time Orchestrators Andrew Resnick & Michael Thurber join Behind the Awards to discuss creating the environment that is a Jonathan Groff/Bobby Darin Concert at the Copa. Emily Bergl is a unique actress among her peers, known for her ability to transform from role to role. With versatility across genres, she has had a flourishing career in television, film and theater. As a young actress understudying on Broadway, Emily was chosen from a nationwide casting call to play the lead in The Rage: Carrie 2, her very first job on camera. Wary of being typecast as a scream queen, she returned to the theater to play Juliet opposite Neil Patrick Harris, then starred in The Lion in Winter on Broadway opposite Laurence Fishburne and Stockard Channing. Emily’s roles on television are so transformative, she is often unrecognizable from one character to the next: Alex Borstein’s ditzy, resourceful sister in “The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel,” a hardnosed investigator on “Mindhunter,” and a gun-toting, trailer park Chicago mother in “Shameless.” On “Desperate Housewives,” she shocked audiences as the suicidal housewife Beth Young. Other regular television roles include “You,” “Dirty John,” “The Knick,” “American Crime,” “How to Get Away with Murder,” “Scandal,” “Grey’s Anatomy,” “Southland,” “Men in Trees,” and “Gilmore Girls.” True to her original roots, Emily has combined a thriving television career with equally diverse roles in the theater. She recently starred on Broadway opposite Sean Hayes in Good Night, Oscar, for which she was nominated for a Drama Desk Award. Other Broadway appearances include The Ferryman, Cat on a Hot Tin Roof opposite Scarlett Johansson, and A Touch of the Poet opposite Gabriel Byrne. Off-Broadway she has starred in Shakespeare in the Park, and has originated roles in new works by Gina Gionfriddo, Christopher Shinn, and Wendy Wasserstein. She has played iconic parts in classic dramas from Molière to Thornton Wilder at Lincoln Center, the Roundabout Theatre Company, and the Williamstown Theatre Festival, among others. Perhaps the most unique aspect of Emily’s career is that she has reinvented herself as a cabaret singer. She has played the premier nightclubs across the country from Cafe Carlyle to Yoshi’s and made the last album to be recorded in the Oak Room, “Emily Bergl: Live at the Algonquin.” She can also be seen in the upcoming film The History of Sound, starring Paul Mescal and Josh O’Connor. 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
    Show More Show Less
    1 hr

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