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You’ve seen her Emmy- and Golden Globe Award-winning television show Crazy Ex-Girlfriend, you’ve downloaded her songs, you’ve bought her sheet music. (I know you have – you’ve asked me to transcribe her sheet music for you, and she has generously allowed me to do that.) You’ve even seen her in her viral, break-through, Youtube channel... As her hit show sets off on its fourth and final season, I sat down with the one and only Rachel Bloom... and asked her the nine most pressing questions I had. Here’s what she said:

The article 9 Questions for Rachel Bloom appeared first in 

Musical Theater Today, Volume 2.

When I was twenty years old, one of my high school friends got drunk and fell through the open window of a college dorm room and died. Everyone was drunk that night because it was one of those school-condoned “first-day-of-spring” rituals that colleges love. Community bonding, right? I took the call in my boyfriend’s dorm room. He had a single that year. It was small, impersonal. I rubbed my feet against the cold linoleum while I listened to another friend sob through the information. The phone can ring and your life can change. Except it doesn’t change all that much because you’re still alive. 

The post Behind the Lyrics of "Go Tonight": Grief and Nothingness appeared first on The NewMusicalTheatre.com Green Room.

If we are being honest, we didn't expect to receive any responses at all to our blog post calling for stories. After all, we were asking strangers to share intimate details of their struggles with mental illness—specifically anxiety and depression—in a world that still holds a firm grip on stigma towards those who suffer. We had no idea, really, what we were going to do with these stories. 

We are not doctors. We are not psychiatrists. We are musical theatre writers.

The post When You Feel It's Too Dark to See: Lessons Learned from Three Years of Writing a New Musical About Anxiety and Depression first appeared on The NewMusicalTheatre.com Green Room.

Let's face it, dancers: singing solo pieces in auditions can be frightening. We spend so much of our lives learning to speak with our bodies that we don't always feel comfortable opening our mouths! But remember— in musical theatre, it's all about storytelling, engaging the audience, and embodying the character. 

Here are eight ideas to get you off on the right foot at your next audition.

The post (5,6,7—) 8 Options for a Dancer's Singing Call appeared first on The NewMusicalTheatre.com Green Room.

It's a weird week to be going Behind the Lyrics on any song I've written because I'm not interested in looking back right now. I want to walk the streets of New Jersey one district over from my liberal neighborhood (the town's motto is "a stigma-free town," if such a thing exists) and explain to white women why we need to get our shit together and vote for our own interest and agency.

But maybe this is just as important. I guess I wouldn't write it if I didn't think it was.

I’m about to say something that no actor has ever admitted out loud: Auditioning is hard, you guys. Sure, I know it’s difficult to believe, but waking up at 5 AM and standing in a line on the street with disgruntled actors while being gawked at by German tourists to hopefully get the opportunity to sing 16 bars of “Out There” at a table of homosexuals (and the women who love them) can sometimes be trying. It almost makes you want to give up. But do you want to know why we don’t? Because of the audition studios.

The post The Definitive Ranking of the NYC Audition Studios appeared first on John Wascavage's Facebook Profile.

At Actor Therapy, we find that actors often feel confused about what they need in their book — trying to reconcile the dozens of things they’ve been told over the years, and in a variety of different places (both geographically and emotionally). Once and for all, Lindsay Mendez and I offer you our discoveries on what an actor truly needs to cover all their bases.

The post Audition Book Checklist (From your friends at ACTOR THERAPY) appeared first on The NewMusicalTheatre.com Green Room.

Do you ever follow what songs your favorite broadway singers sing and you think they just make the song sound 10x better because you just love their vocals so much? I do, and Ben Fankhauser is one of those singers for me. His voice is insanely gorgeous, limitless, and as Natalie Weiss describes it, “His voice is like butter,” (and I totes agree)...

The post Top 10 Songs Featuring Ben Fankhauser (By 10 Different Composers) appeared first on The NewMusicalTheatre.com Green Room.

Like any relationship, our relationship to music can function as a distraction, or it can be a support system. There are a ton of songs out there to help us shake it off, but what about songs that meet us where we are?

 The post NMT COUNTDOWN: Top 10 Songs About Social Anxiety appeared first on The NewMusicalTheatre.com Green Room.

Before it was an earth-shattering, heart-rending groundbreaking musical, Be More Chill was the late, great Ned Vizzini’s debut novel. If you had told me, the first time that I read the book—after a recommendation from my high school librarian somewhere during sophomore year—that its musical adaptation would be a viral phenomenon, I would have laughed. Judging by the date stamps, I was one of the only people reading that book.

The post 5 YA Books that Deserve the Be More Chill Treatment appeared first on The NewMusicalTheatre.com Green Room.

A new musical is a tricky beast. It comes with all the challenges of a new play--the problems of dramatic build, character, denouement, economy of dialogue--plus a suite of other potential pitfalls. Is the opening number suitably energizing, and if it is, does it still adequately introduce us to the world of the show? How many ballads is too many ballads? Not to mention solos versus duets or ensemble numbers, male versus female voices, and the question of choreography...it’s enough to make a well-intentioned Lin-Manuel Miranda-wannabe throw in the towel.

Dear Theatre Critics,

July has been a dark month for you. It seems you can say nothing right! After years of artists cowering in fear of what you might say about them, artists are standing up for themselves (and for each other) to call you out on the way you abuse the hand that feeds you. 

In the last year, my school has begun a new tradition of producing musicals in 24 hours. Yes, it sounds completely crazy, and it completely is. While a lot of schools do “Combat” or “Guerilla” theatre where they write and produce short plays in 24 hours, our 24-Hour Musicals are fully costumed, set, and produced. […]

The post 4 Rules for Picking Your College Group’s Next Show appeared first on The NewMusicalTheatre.com Green Room.

When I graduated from university, my first theatrical adventure outside of school was at a Fringe Festival. I left my campus full of confidence, excitement and an idea of how I thought Fringes worked. Together with a team of my fellow graduates, we enjoyed a successful run but met some challenges during the process. In […]

The post On the Fringe: An Artist’s Guide to Preparing for Fringe Festivals appeared first on The NewMusicalTheatre.com Green Room.

Gioia To the World (The #Lorte Has Come / #Gioiatress) The first time I met Michael Gioia, I was upset. I was upset because I had just finished playing the Piragua Guy in In the Heights and since I was seventy pounds heavier at the time, it’s easy to be upset for no reason. Mostly, […]

The post When Friendship is More Important Than Being #Famous: An Expose-heyyy on Playbill.com’s Michael Gioia appeared first on The NewMusicalTheatre.com Green Room.