[Music] Hi everybody and welcome to The
Balancing Act, I'm Julie Moran and I'm
Olga Villaverde-- Today our very own Amber
Milt is making her Broadway debut in
Chicago the musical.
What an amazing
experience for her, Chicago is after all
the longest-running American musical in Broadway
history, and I remember when I saw the movie
with Renee Zellweger and Catherine
Zeta-Jones That's right!
Phenomenal right?
They were fantastic.
Yes.
Well get this, 21 years and still
going strong-- razzle dazzle girlfriend!
(singing) Give them the old razzle dazzle, razzle dazzle
,em!
Oh, they should call us.
We should audition and as for some
razzle dazzle in the kitchen chef Stuart
O'Keeffe has some superstar ingredients
that'll have you canceling those reservations.
Hey ladies I got my
restaurant inspired dishes using my favorite Star extra-virgin
olive oil.
Ooh, love that.
Yum-yum.
Thanks Stuart.
All right so The Balancing Act
starts right now.
[Music] Broadway Balances America
brought to you by Broadway Across America,
bringing the best of Broadway to a city near
you.
Okay it's time now for Broadway Balances
America, now this is our series that
takes you behind the scenes of some of
the most beloved Broadway musicals as
they appear across the country in your
local theaters and today we've got
Chicago.
Oh my gosh, it's a true New York
City institution-- Chicago has everything
that makes Broadway great Okay let's start; a universal
tale of fame, fortune, and all that
jazz, songs great songs, amazing dancing,
and for one night, one night only-- how
jealous are you.
I'm so jealous Me too-- Amber Milt gets to razzle
dazzle.
All right take it away Amber.
Ladies and
gentlemen you're about to see a story of
murder, greed, corruption, violence,
exploitation, adultery, and treachery, all
those things we hold near and dear to
our hearts.
And so it begins the longest
running American Broadway musical.
[Music] For 21 years the award-winning
show has been razzle-dazzling
theater-goers both here and abroad, from the
creative team, to its leading ladies, this is
one production that definitely has
legs.
Fran and Barry Weissler are the show
producers.
You both have such an illustrious career
and are really Broadway royalty.
Focusing on Chicago which yes, you are
Broadway royalty.
The king and queen.
Yes, the kind and queen.
What do you think it is
that's so magical about the show?
We felt that the audience was ready
for something performance driven, so
this is about the actors and so the set
is on stage the orchestra is on stage
and it features the actors, and it's
their show and we thought it was time for
that, for that to happen.
Well I, I think it's
timeless material.
The subject matter is
universal the, the, the conflict between
men and women-- Our shows are about people who
are beautiful enough and rich enough
to get away with murder.
At the heart of the
show, set in the razzle-dazzle of the
roaring 1920s are two rival vaudevillian
murderesses, Roxie Hart and Velma Kelly,
who are locked up in Cook County Jail.
Over the last two decades they've been
played by the best of the best.
Are these your shoes?
No, these they gave me
downstairs I met Kevin downstairs who was so uh Do you
get to keep them?
I mean they might have to pry them off of me
So Charolotte, you've been with the show 20
years-- on and off, touring, what do you
think it is about Chicago that, that
people find so magical?
One reason is
because of people coming in and out and
different celebrities and different
people, it's always fresh and also it's
just timeless-- it's about the media and
being successful and being famous and
that's all that seems to be what people
care about, it's being successful by
being famous and, and beating the system.
It was Bob Fosse,
Kander, and Ebb, and we had an incredible
first cast but I think it's universal,
I think it's visual, I think it's the
music, it's exciting to watch, it's got
danger, it's got sexy, it's got all those
things and so we end up really crossing
all the cultural boundaries.
So this is
my view.
This is unbelievable.
I know right?
With one great showstopper after the
next, John Kander and Fred Ebb's now
classic score, keeps the story moving at
a razzle-dazzle pace.
So Tom it's 21
years now that this shows been on
Broadway.
Like 21 years today.
I know can you believe they're
letting me on.
Don't worry, we'll take care of you, don't
worry.
And take care of me they did.
Okay so we've got two
weeks to go until Chicago, so I'm headed
to the gym now.
I've be going enough but I
thought you guys might want to see what
I'm doing to get ready, check this out.
Have you seen those ladies in their
William Ivey Long design costumes, or lack thereof?
Sexy indeed, with their fishnets and bowler hats, a tribute to
the original Bob Fosse choreography.
Okay everybody so it's show day, it
is finally here!
I've got so much to do, I've gotta get in
hair fittings, I've got to go get into
costume fittings, what little there is of
them, and then I've got to rehearse
because they've sent me some lines to
practice but I haven't done any rehearsal yet and we are
literally hours away from the show so I gotta
go [Music]
Take the hat, and you can come to
remember the 10 and the gold, which
naturally you did.
If you're farther up or
down right, don't worry about it this is,
this is the alignment that we were
looking for.
Since this is in your right
hand take your left hand put it on the
other end of it-- Boom.
Boom.
Yes.
All those things we hold
near and dear All those things we hold near and dear to our
hearts Yep.
So they just put me through my
paces for learning a little bit of
choreography How am I doing?
Um you
should be in the show.
Oh, I mean well
tonight I'm going to be.
I mean right, right, right.
[Music] Mr. Billy Flynn.
Crossover.
If I fall into you, ,hi how you
doin', we're just gonna keep going with
it.
The show must go on!
Give ,em the old
razzle-dazzle boom.
Razzle-dazzle ,em.
Then we'll go back
step, step, nice little back bump, the Fosse back
bump.
[Music] Give ,em an act with lots of
flash in it and the reaction will be
passionate.
Right here is gonna be a lady.
Oh.
So you're
gonna be going up stage of her.
Got it-- thank you.
She's gonna be upside down in a split.
Okay no bigs.
Do you have any advice, I'm
going on tonight my first performance,
and it's really close now I think we're
like just hours, hours away from this do you
have any advice?
Just stay in the moment
and have a good time that's what I would
say and let people lead you, you know
what I mean like if you get lost or
anything they're gonna be people they're
helping you.
It's really emotional
actually to be doing this-- I haven't been
on stage in years and TV is different so I'm feeling really
blessed today just a dream come true.
[Music] What goes over this?
Where's the rest of
the costume?
Ladies and gentlemen presenting the
silver tongue prince of the courtroom
the one, the only, Mr. Billy Flynn.
So can you tell people about Billy
Flynn, what's his character like.
Billy Flynn
you know what's the phrase I could use,
morally challenged?
No I wouldn't even
say that, you know he's a really good
lawyer and brings with him all of the
character flaws and assets that come
with being a really, really good lawyer
and winning the case is what it's all
about and he has the sort of
self-awareness and self-knowledge that it's all
a show, life is a show, so make it a
good one.
It's all a circus kid, a three-ring
circus, these trials, the whole world,
it's all show business.
Kid you are
working with a star!
Give ,em the old
razzle-dazzle, razzle-dazzle ,em [music]
[Music] Give ,em an act with lots of flash in it and the
reaction will be passionate.
More relevant today than when it was
first written, the press and audiences
everywhere have given the show many
well-deserved ovations.
We're ahead of
our time because this is a show where
women become empowered and when they
become angry with the situation between
the males and females in their world
they they kill him they do him in.
They do in the bad guys, there's no trial,they're on
trial but the other fellow is gone.
It's Broadway in
every way it has dancing, it has singing
and it's all incorporated beautifully
into storytelling.
You get to see
brilliant actors performing brilliant
material and you get a great story along
with it that is just not told and sort
of the dangerous fun tale and I think
that that's just universally exciting.
[Music] Could I have one last picture
please.
Whoa it is, it's a lot of work-- They
make it look so easy but this is not
easy but I do feel like I am in the best
hands tonight everybody Mikey, he
literally has my back, Malin has just been
amazing, Charlotte, Tom, everybody has
been so welcoming.
It was more.
Everything and then some, thank you all.
Thank you guys.
The North American tour of Chicago is coming soon to a
theater near you.
Check out Broadway Across America,
Broadway Balances America, or you can
always go to our website thebalancingact.com for all the
show information, tour dates and more
[Music]
[Music] Well cancel those reservations
and toss out those takeout menus That's
right chef Stuart is in the kitchen
with some restaurant inspired dishes
including chicken caprese pasta.
Caprese pasta?
Caprese pasta!
Caprese!
You got it.
Let's turn your kitchen into your favorite
bistro okay today we're making some
delicious appetizers and one tantalizing
main dish all using Star extra-virgin
olive oil and balsamic vinegar.
I'm chefs Stuart
O'Keef and welcome to In the Kitchen-- all
right so let's get started.
So today
we're making a Mediterranean crescent
ring, now before I even go near that, I'm going to
take a little sip of wine, we're at a bistro right at the
end of the day so mhmm that'll get me going.
Okay so what we have here is we have
some sun-dried tomatoes, we're just
gonna add just dump it into a bowl, we
have some spinach, some artichoke that's
marinated and some feta cheese in there,
we got our mozzarella cheese it's gonna
make it nice and creamy because there's
saltiness in that feta cheese and the
mozzarella will make it nice and creamy and
just cut through the saltiness.
Get some, some olives stuffed with
pimentos, and of course Star extra-virgin olive oil and we're
just gonna mix all that together and
Star's one of the largest exporters of
olive oil in the world, ultimately a trusted
Authority in a Mediterranean food.
when we get it
right around, this is our filling for
the crescent ring.
All right that looks
good for me, okay so I got my filling, I
have my puff pastry now I have a bowl
that I'm gonna use as a guide and what
we're going to do is we're going to
scoop the filling around the bowl I'm just gonna
use that as a guide.
Now as you can see I have a
lot of filling here so you can make two
or three of these, or pop these in a
Ziploc bag into the freezer-- you can make
another one again later on the week-- so
I'm just gonna lift that out of there
I'm gonna get some egg wash, go right
around.
The thing I love about this is it's such
a simple recipe and it just looks so
impressive when you put it down on the
table so I'm just gonna fold this around
here okay that looks good.
So what I want to do now is do some, some cuts
here.
So you want to do four just like that.
Okay now what we're gonna do is we're
gonna kind of twist it over like this
if you want it to stick you can pinch the
pastry together that'll help it stay as
well.
All right that's pretty much it so what
we're gonna do is we're gonna finish
with some egg wash because we want a
nice and golden brown when it comes out
of the oven and of course to finish it
off, of course we're going to put some more cheese in there.
All right we're gonna sprinkle some cheese
on top right here, that'll brown up
too.
Okay I have my oven on at 350 degrees.
of course the magic of television, okay
as you can see it's browned up beautifully this is exactly how
you want it to look.
And as you could see you can be kind
of messy as you're making it in the
beginning but it does come out beautifully at the end.
Okay so to show
you a few other things that you have at
these bistros, what's the first thing you
get?
You get bread.
So I have some just
thyme leaves here, salt and pepper,
we're gonna add some balsamic vinegar--
Now I always remember with the ratios
with things like this, and vinegars as
well, three to one, so three parts olive oil to one
part vinegar.
So a lot of people may not
know but there are 3 different types of
olive oils; there's extra-virgin olive
oil that's used in lots of salads and
dressings, there's your classic olive oil
that you can cook like you know pasta
sauces with and of course the light tasting
olive oil that if you're going to use
to saute vegetables.
Right over here in a mason
jar, I have a honey balsamic Dijon
vinaigrette here.
We're just gonna shake
it and what I've done is tossed it in, in
the asparagus, put it on the grill, you
get nice marks, grill marks.
Balsamic vinegars are great marinades,
salad dressings, and bread dipping.
If you want
to you can just finish it, just drizzle
on top just like that, done that's the
secret to success with asparagus, if you
go to a steakhouse or Bistro wherever
you go.
Right here we have bruschetta, we
all know bruschetta has tomato generally-- we
have some roasted red bell peppers here,
some mozzarella and olives stuffed with
pimentos right there super-easy, toasted bread, spread it over.
And finally we have a caprese salad, but
it's a pasta.
So we have some penne pasta, we have some
roasted garlic, mozzarella cheese, some
chicken here if you wanted to create a
short cut you can buy a rotisserie
chicken, shred it up toss it in there.
And of course I just made the
crescent circles so I'm just going to dip
this in-- and this is the honey balsamic
vinaigrette I just made there too as a
dipping sauce-- Mhm super delicious.
So your bistro starts with these
delicious ingredients and you don't really
need much as long as you have good
ingredients to work with.
Check out Star
Fine Foods dot com and Star is a trusted
authority in a Mediterranean food or
balancing act website for more recipes
and don't forget to share your recipe
with us too.
If you want to check out
more great recipes, you can check out my
cookbook The Quick Six Fix.
Thanks so much for watching and we'll see
you all soon.
[Music]
[Music] Online education at the
collegiate level is more popular than ever, and
women are heading the charge.
Here with all the
insight and personal experience are
Renee Hamilton-McNeely and Columbia
College's senior director of marketing
Brad Wucher.
You're a veteran, you're an
artist, you're an entrepreneur, tell us a
little bit about yourself.
Thank you, so
I've been in the Army for 19 years and
made the rank of Master Sergeant,
I also advocate for veterans, and ran for
Miss Veteran America in 2016.
And as an artist the human body is my canvas, so I
body paint life or events, and different
things of that nature.
Wow!
Yes.
Brad, tell us a little
bit about Columbia College.
So Columbia
College was founded in 1851 as the first
institution of higher learning for women
west of the Mississippi.
And what do you
think sets your online program apart
from everybody else?
Three things;
flexibility, cost, and speed.
Renee, what inspired you to, you know want to get
your online education at Columbia College?
When I was called to duty after September
11th, I pulled out of the traditional
college that I was attending, and I met one
of the education service officers for
Columbia College and I started with two
classes and it just was awesome-- I love
the pace, everything about it.
And Brad you said it's affordable right?
For a non-profit, private institution,
we're about half the cost of the
national average.
Where can folks go to find out more?
They can go to CCIS dot edu And to find
out more you can also go to the balancingact.com for more
information Great having you guys here
today.
[Music]
[Music] You know such a great show
today.
I know!
I love that we got to give a little
razzle-dazzle.
Speaking of razzle-dazzle did you
see what Amber Milt was
wearing?!
oh my gosh!
Would you wear that?
Maybe in my bedroom.
Don't speak.
Oh my TMI, I'm picturing this now.
All right everybody check out our website, Twitter,
Facebook, we are everywhere!
Thanks for watching everyone, we'll see you
next time.
She really is a razzle-dazzle lady
[Music]