Mary-Mitchell Campbell is one of the busiest musical directors on Broadway. She is the resident MD at Encores! and is currently readying The Queen of Versailles with Kristin Chenoweth. But there is another side to her life that gives her invaluable perspective as an artist and human, and it is all about serving the most vulnerable among us. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Tiffany Mann is an extraordinary singer and actor who is often hailed as a powerhouse - and so it might seem surprising that she battles uncertainty just like the rest of us. She shares what it was like to develop her talent in the context of family who are highly successful artists in their own rights, as well as the ongoing uncertainty of navigating a business that both values and minimizes the extraordinary talents of marginalized artists. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/...
Christian Coulson is an actor and director - an all around thinker of great thoughts, and one of Bobby's favorite people to talk to. The two friends share the complexities of a self-conscious watchfulness that was borne out of difference and an early experience in the performing arts, as well as a mutual effort in cultivating creativity and experience that is freer from self-observation and richer in presence. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices...
Nicholas Barasch has been performing on Broadway since the age of 10. He is now 27 and making his adult debut in Pirates! While there is a generational divide, Bobby and Nicholas share how both of their inner children sought belonging and achievement on the Broadway stage, but agree that it is only through embracing the inner child in adulthood that freedom is ever truly possible. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices...
Jenny Anderson has built an astounding career as the preeminent photographer of Broadway culture - she and Bobby started in the business at around the same time, when she was working at Broadway.com . Over the years, she has relied on her talent, and moreover, her easy way of connecting- the friendship and intimacy she has fostered with so many of the artists she captures - to help her become the most trusted photographer of the private and backstage lives of actors. Learn more about your ad cho...
Host Bobby Steggert takes a break from interviewing to share his story of learning to play the cello. It turns out that learning something hard in middle age is a lot more confronting - and ultimately satisfing - than he ever could have imagined. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Tally Sessions is a Broadway actor of immense commitment and passion for his work, and even more, for his community. His willingness to live openly and without shame within the complexities of experience makes him the perfect person for Bobby to share an honest and nuanced conversation about grief. Old friends who have done five shows together over the years, Tally and Bobby discuss what it truly means to face devastating loss. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices...
Josh Breckenridge (Come From Away, Book of Mormon, The Scottsboro Boys) is one of the most employed actors on Broadway. He has a particularly complex relationship to code-switching that likely makes him a wonderful actor. It is also a pattern in his life that emerged from a confluence of identities that consistently made him feel othered. He is black and gay, but grew up in largely white communities, where it was a constant and multi-dimensional challenge to find belonging - not only in the grou...
Patti Murin is an actress most notable as the star of Brodway’s Frozen. In addition to a practically glowing personality and upbeat optimism, she has also navigated depression that many people might think directly contradicts these qualities. Patti emphasizes how she has worked towards change through acceptance. It was the acknowledging, understanding, and embracing of the largeness of her experience into her identity - the idea of who she is- that set her on the path towards integration. Ultima...
Eden Espinosa (Lempicka, Rent, Wicked) has been a powerhouse on Broadway for decades. She has also experienced the very human contradiction of struggling to own her power in certain areas, where shape shifting to avoid conflict and to maintain the status quo of an imbalanced power dynamic has kept her from stepping into the personal power that she is known for on stage. It is through the hard work of breaking old patterns and prioritizing independence where she is finding a new path forward. Lea...
Lonny Price is Broadway royalty and just happens to be one of Bobby's best friends. They have shared several professional successes together, but in the end, it is their deep and enduring friendship they value most. Lonny shares the evolution of his ambition - one that was singly focused on professional success as a young person, and that has balanced into a philosophy based in kindness and perspective. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices...
Host Bobby Steggert is back with an update for 2025. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Sara Gettelfinger (Water For Elephants) shares the harrowing story of an addiction that brought her to her knees and interrupted a highly successful career on Broadway. After a decade of struggle and recovery, she has returned to performing with a new perspective and hard-earned wisdom that is an invaluable lesson to us all. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Cody Renard Richard is a highly respected and singularly visible Production Stage Manager on Broadway who has carved out a multi-faceted career in the theater that includes producing, teaching, and advocacy. He shares how his faith, both religious and personal, has fueled his purpose and given larger and wider meaning to his contributions. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
David Cromer is one of our finest directors. His gift for simple yet profound observation of the human condition makes for must-see theater. He’s won all the awards, is sought after and one of the rarest of talents - and, like so many of us, he has experienced depression. Leaders often feel required to set themselves apart from the struggles of the rest of us, and perhaps it is his willingness to speak the bare truth of his experience that makes him a leader worth following. Learn more about you...
Lisa Gajda (Fosse, Movin' Out) is a veteran Broadway dancer who is now a therapist to many artists. Bobby and Lisa share in their similar paths, as well as their mutual focus on IFS, the model of therapy that is the inspiration for this podcast. Lisa's worker part, much like Bobby's drive for achievement, was single-minded in keeping her afloat through productivity. The rest is a journey towards healing and self-acceptance while, hopefully, working a little less. Learn more about your ad choices...
Mary Testa is a theater legend with a storied career spanning 50 years, and it is her natural grit, intuition, and boldness that contribute to her smarts - a part that has enabled her to stand in her power and to know exactly who she is- onstage and in life. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Jenn Colella (SUFFS, Come From Away) has always been a natural born leader, whether it's with her friends, her cast, or her community. Bobby and Jenn discuss the essential quality of leadership that often goes unnoticed - self-compassion. It is through a commitment to inner grace that Jenn nurtures every aspect of community with genuine optimism. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Brent Comer (The Outsiders) is from Frederick, Maryland - the same small town that Bobby grew up in 15 years earlier. Brent and Bobby explore what it means to come from the very same place, where they had the same teachers and performed on the same high school stage. They discover what bonds them together and how one community molded each of their lives a generation apart. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices...
Mike Wartella (Wicked, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, Tuck Everlasting) found theater as a kid and discovered a sense of power that would change his life, but a career in the arts is filled with uncertainty and powerlessness. Mike and Bobby discuss how overcompensation for fear and insecurity often lead to addictive validation-seeking that can lead us down harmful paths, and that a redefinition of personal power is essential for healthy and sustainable relationships to ourselves and others. ...
Lilli Cooper (POTUS, Tootsie, Spring Awakening) has always relied on defiance as a source of personal power - essential to her life as an artist, as someone who has often been the only black woman in the room, and now, as a mother, whose very presence as an actor who is visibly navigating motherhood at the same time is an act of defiance in itself. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Alex Brightman ( Beetlejuice, School of Rock ) and Bobby have been friends since they were in the Broadway production of Big Fish together. They were both quietly struggling with mental health, not knowing where to turn or how to address it. Alex shares how his drive to entertain and succeed was ultimately an obstacle to authentic wellbeing. A decade later, their reunion celebrates the growth and relief in finding paths towards authentic connection, self-care, and life balance. Disclaimer: For a...
Ana Nogueira is an actor, playwright, and screenwriter whose way with words is just one aspect of her enormous intelligence. She reveals a complex relationship to her intellect, growing up in a family where her emotional and interpersonal understanding of the world were always nurtured, but in school settings where they were minimized. Ana and Bobby explore how artistry requires simultaneous confidence and doubt in one's capacities in order to truly succeed. Learn more about your ad choices. Vis...
Krysta Rodriguez (The Collaboration, Smash, Spring Awakening, The Addams Family) explores a complex history of trust (and mistrust) as influenced by many factors in life - religion, family addiction, and a cancer diagnosis at the age of 30. She shares how the journey to self-trust is about continuing to center autonomous choice over reliance on external forces. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Alex Puette (Hadestown) shares his story of addiction with honesty and transparency, exploring both the initial benefits of substance use for coping with life's stressors, and the ultimate shame and isolation that inevitably results from it. Opening up about his experience is a reconnection to the world, and central to his recovery. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Cara Rose DiPietro is an accomplished performer and advocate whose influence on social media has fostered a career in both musical theater and mental health awareness. She opens up about her struggle with an eating disorder that has been a means of control in otherwise uncontrollable circumstances, and how she has evolved towards a more healthy and sustainable control over her life through sharing her story with the world. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices...
Alexandra Silber guest hosts as Bobby turns the tables on himself - sharing a part of himself that was central to the isolation and struggle that he navigated for much of his life, but that was also the proving ground for his eventual work as a therapist. Bobby and Al share more about friendship, family, shame, success, and the windy road towards healing. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Michael R Jackson (A Strange Loop, Teeth) is a writer and composer whose prodigious talent combines with a depth of observation that results in powerful, personal storytelling. He shares how his history of inner criticism has been a response to feeling excluded and on the outside, and how his journey towards self-acceptance has been a complicated one. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
John Tartaglia (Avenue Q, Fraggle Rock) grew up with the single-minded goal of one day working for Jim Henson and the Muppets. Now, forty years later, he is the creative supervisor for Fraggle Rock, the very show that helped him heal from his parents' divorce and envision a future of creative success. John shares how his imagination has always guided him with optimism and kindness, allowing him to manifest his childhood dream into reality. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adc...
Gavin Creel is a Tony winner and all-around Broadway royalty, but he is not immune to a history of shame and self-doubt. Bobby and Gavin share a common story of growing up gay and being rejected by a culture that led to patterns of self-rejection that they both still navigate, while also sharing how they've healed through self-acceptance and community. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
