--Hey everybody welcome to Broadway.com's Live at 5:00 is Tuesday May 8th 2018 and
I am Ryan Lee Gilbert. --I'm Paul Wontorek.
--And we are joined
here in the studio by Eric King once again. --Hello!
--He's back appearance number two on Live at Five
Welcome back --Welcome back, Eric.
--Hey we also have some CDs. - ---We do we have CDs
--Because Adam Kantor's here everybody from the Band's Visit
--Telephone guy is here with us --He's awesome
--Absolutely
and we will get to Adam in just a second first let's go through today's top five.
--Okay it is officially officially awards season. --Now it is?
--It arrived --Now. --Well okay
so one element the Theater World Awards which is a really cool honor given to
newcomer -- Newcomers yeah people
--Rules are a little vague sometimes, but newcomers
people bursting on the scene
--Exactly --They will so some of the people that you
know Anthony Boyle Jamie Brewer. Noma-- --You know it -- I know
literally said it to her face Ethan Slater Denis Gough Harry Hadden Paton
and Hayley Kilgore go on the site to see all the honorees. It's really great
event. And it's gonna be at Circle in the
Square Theatre on June 4th at 2 p.m. is where these people are gonna get their
awards.
Yeah so congratulations everybody
--Some mega Broadway stars are going
to be announcing the Broadway.com audience choice award nominations
--Yeah, speaking of it officially being award season. Right here, something very
exciting is happening in a very little bit we have Aaron Tveit and Karen Olivo
we're currently rehearsing for Moulin Rouge in Boston Satine and
Christian they were going to be right here telling you all of the nominees
--Is she gonna be on a swing?
--I hope so! Yes, with rose petals just showering down
over they're gonna no they're gonna be announcing the nominees for the Broadway
.com Audience Choice Awards that is happening today at 7 p.m. We're
gonna be streaming it on Facebook and our Instagram account. Former I mean
they're both BACA winners yeah I know they're gonna tell you who
you have chosen as the nominees for this year.
Very exciting and then you get to
start voting for who you want to win
--Yes vent and vote. Okay so I have a joke are
you ready? Once on this Island is saying so long-a to one of its stars.
--Who is
this guy? Lea Salonga Tony winner is leaving Once on this Island she plays Erzulie and sings The human
Heart every night and it's beautiful. She'll play her final performance June
24th and her understudy Darleesia Cearcy
--Cercy? --Cersei
--She's taking over the role on June 25th so congratulations
Darleesia and I hope to see you soon Lea
--Okay Gavin Creel is back where he
belongs. --He has put his sunday clothes back on --Oh my god.
--And he is headed back to the Schubert Theatre as Cornelius Hackl
yes Santino Fontana has been in the role for a little bit while Gavin has been
recovering from back surgery, but he's. --I think he's recovering form awards
season.
--I mean I get it
--He won the Tony
--Yeah he did but he's back and he's better than ever he's
back on his feet and he is headed back into the show tonight. We're excited to
have Gavin back Santino did an amazing job but he's gotta get he's gotta get
ready for Tootsie!
--Oh my god I can't wait for that.
--I know so welcome back --Speaking of David
Yazbek
--And do we have a word season fatigue yet? Because now it's officially
officially award season.
--Wait it's award season? --With these awards.
--Yeah Clarence Derwent awarded another cool award also not really newcomer,
most promising performers I think that's what they call it.
Ashley Park is just you know
--She's sweeping
--Raking up the trophies this week. Save
some for other people Ashley. I'm very excited for her of course she was in
Kpop. She's in Mean Girls and she is Tony nominated and Sean Karvajal
who was in Jesus Hopped the A Train
also won. So this is Actor's Equity.
They get some money I think. And it's very fancy
--Get that money and also before we let you go the very first episode of
Icebreaker backstage at Disney's Frozen with Jelani Alladin. The first episode
just went up so make sure you go check that out.
Welcome to the vlogging community Jelani Aladdin.
Paul thank you so much for doing
the news with me, but we got to talk to Adam ---Okay I'm out.
--So, Eric, tell us a little bit about today's guests
--Yeah we've got a
former vlogger on our hands today. Adam Kantor went to Northwestern
University in 2008 and then he went to star as Mark closing out the final
months of RENT on Broadway. A native of Great Neck New York Kantor
has also been seen on Broadway in Next to Normal and Fiddler on the Roof as
well as off-Broadway in The Last Five years in Avenue Q. He's currently
starring as Telephone Guy that's what it says in The Band's Visit on Broadway and
that's what we're chatting about today. Leave your questions for Adam in the
comments below and we'll get to as many as we can. Now here is Ryan and Adam.
--Hello there sir!
--Oh hello hello hello hello. --How's it going?
--It's going great thank s --First of all thank you so much for coming
--Thank you so much for having me.
--We're so excited to have you. You're part of the broadway.com family as Eric
mentioned you were former vlogger indeed when we vloggers yeah ten years ago you
made your Broadway debut sir
--Oh yeah
--I was like we didn't vlog 10 years
ago. Was that even a thing ten years ago?
--I don't know maybe --Were we vlogging back then? I sure did some kind of backstage
situation -- Tours all that
--But who knows probably on one of those like flip cam
we have because we didn't know yet that you could combine those with phones.
--No we weren't there yet, but ten years and now you were in one of just the most
acclaimed shows to hit the great white way in so long.
The Band's Visit. 11 Tony Award nominations how are you, are you riding
that award season high?
--We're so pumped about it. I mean, it's like this little
show that could you know. And it's like it's this it's not your traditional
Broadway musical, you know it's so different and unique and special and
weird in so many ways and so to see it
recognized in such a way it's like very exciting. I love it.
I love it. --A lot of people do clearly with all of those nominations and I mean
it's just everywhere it's been it was extended all that time off-Broadway and
now it's here. And you were involved pretty early on right like in 2014 you
are a part of some workshops
--Oh you did your research .Oh, hello, we do our
research here.
--We do.
--Do you have people get l
--No I do it myself --That's
very very impressive yeah I did an earlier workshop that Hal Prince
directed and yeah I think I read a bunch of roles. I think I read like Sammy
and Zellgur and yeah a whole bunch of people and and then I did a reading of
it when David Cromer directed it before the Atlantic production. I didn't do the
Atlantic production. I was doing Fiddler at the time and then I was able to come in
for Broadway
--And the only song you heard then was Answer Me
--The first reading the
only song was Answer Me yeah and it was played on some like boombox
probably from like the RENT era ten years ago next to a weird
flipcam yeah it was yeah they're like yes because I think I working on stuff
but I just wrote this song and it was him playing it sounds like a
Casio because it was just like I don't know it was an early early iteration of
it. But I was like wow that song is pretty freaking...
--Yeah it's incredible
like as in the process of doing my research I once again just watched you
know a video of you and now it's been in my head all day long
you have been
inside of my head
--Yeah yeah yeah and I've been singing it all day long cuz
I'm doing I'm sure I Tiny Desk NPR next week
--But in that very first time did you
know that it was something special and you know... I'm sure you did, like you must
have. I knew it was special and different I had no idea... I mean music has added
such an incredible... I can't even call a layer because it feels so intrinsic to
the whole thing, but I loved the film and this reading, this initial reading was
sort of just like an extract of the film and Itamar Moses did a brilliant job of
adapting that and we were sort of playing with those scenes. But
now having like all this incredible music part of it has just elevated it to
this transcendent kind of place --You don't look quite like this in the show
you know you have
--No because I'm under a beautiful wig
--It's gorgeous --It's really
beautiful. It's worth the price of a premium seat. She's real
shaggy, she she's a little oily. She hasn't
washed
Hasn't been washed since RENT closed
--The marker for all of these
--And that's actually what what I'm waiting for that yeah the revival no the...
Ghostlight records... did a really amazing job with this album yeah no she's really uh she's an
amazing wig.
--And as we know yeah I mean you're telephone guy your your scene
partner is a telephone booth. --Best scene partner I've ever had.
Steady, sturdy you know, always there yeah but as but we joke but you do
you have the you have the 11 o'clock number. It elicits tears that I
think a lot of people not audience it didn't even know they still had in them
throughout their show. And then it's an incredible number. Do you I mean it does
it still give you chills to perform that song because it really is just.
--It does. I mean yeah and it's not like I give myself chills when I say...but it's it's
because no I mean it what I love about it is is the singing together with this
brilliant company and this group of musicians who are also on stage with us
some of them. It's just this it's the only moment in the whole show when we
are all kind of doing this thing together yeah and this show is so
restrained David Cromer did such brilliant work at keeping it restrained
and keeping the audience kind of on the edge of their seat through this very
quiet piece, and then for it to kind of blossom into this full hearted explosion
of longing it's like it's it's it's really special and it's
it's why I feel so grateful so many ways to be part of this to be to be you
know part of that moment is special.
--Eric, what are the fans --What are the fans saying
--What are the fans asking about? --Okay um Nicolette wants to know and I
was kind of curious about this too since you are standing there staring at a
telephone for a long time with your great scene partner yeah what's
like what's going through your head while you're standing there?
--Yeah
ring damnit!
It's it changes you know it's like I think about my own longings,
I think about I think about what this guy is going through, sometimes, you know,
because it's eight shows a week in a long run sometimes I might be thinking
about absolutely nothing. And often I'm in a meditative place you know and also
this guy would be standing at this phone at like all hours of the night you know
it could be 4:00 in the morning and he might be half asleep. And so I'm sort of
getting into that zone of just like okay this sort of inactive like empty vessel
and sometimes I'm thinking well how my lower back really hurts right now I'm
just gonna shift slightly and give special shoes I have orthotics hope nobody notices
--Do you have special shoes? --I have orthotics in the
shoes. I'm not looking directly at the light, which people.. --So you have to be in
the right place -- But it's I'm grateful for that daily meditation sometimes twice
daily meditation. It's hard enough to be still in my own life you know to have
something that is like forcing me to okay like just Center myself and be that
still, and to be part of a musical that is a in so many ways about stillness and
this idea of waiting and David Cromer often talked about like an active
waiting and how that is sort of what we're all doing in our life anyway is
like you know this active waiting hoping reaching for something some kind of
catharsis so I tried to activate this standing in a way and keep it on the
edge of my toes a little bit
--Do you love working with David Cromer -- I love him
Awesome.
--I haven't met one person that hasn't that has worked with him and
doesn't have the best things to say.
--Yeah that's good yeah it's a good track
record
--Absolutely.
--And I've been a big fan of his for years. I remember seeing
Our Town and yes and I was I went to school in Chicago so like you know he's
such a big Chicago president so I've been a longtime fan. I've been waiting to
be able to do a gig with him, you know.
--Here its is. --here it is
--Okay I have a
question about the Telephone Guy do you guys have a name for him backstage?
[laughs] Can we, should we contribute?
--His name is, off, it changes it's often Benjamin Shlomo
--Okay --Ben Schlomo, Which was
the former last name of someone in my company. I'll leave that to you to
research.
There was a last someone in our company's last name was Ben Shlomo
before he or she changed it .
--Oh and I wanted to ask you about something you
are the you are revolutionising dinner-theater
--Yeah! Thank you for asking --Story Course NYC of course what
tell us about this and how this began?
--Well actually had we had a whole
workshop last night and I barely have slept, so this is great to talk about. So
it's it's interactive immersive dinner experiences. So we're telling migration
stories of the, we take a chef who's come from somewhere around the
world, and we tell their story of migration through a plated dinner
experience. And each course pairs with that section of the story. So we tell a
section of the story through performance interactivity around the table, servers,
musicians, whatever it may be. And then we serve the course that pairs with that
section of the story. And throughout the evening you're getting the journey of
the chef's migration
--That's so cool so any of that show like on Netflix which I
can't think of
--Chef's Table that's kind of what inspired it love that show. So we we just had our
workshop last night we're developing our next round of this experience with an
amazing Iranian chef named Bezah Jemshidi.
Our last round we had original music by Shaina Taub and Wow yeah so been working
with some awesome folks. Banj Pasek is helping out,
and a whole slew of incredible creative talent.
--Fantastic. --I love it. Joanne would like to
know what was it like to close out rent in those final months
--Speaking of those ten years. --Full circle well
that was incredible because it was my first foray into not only Broadway but
professional theater at all. I mean I was a student at Northwestern and then all of
a sudden I was starring in his iconic show that I loved, that I grew up loving
you know. So I, it really changed my life. That show became so much more meaningful
to me than I ever thought possible. It its mantras became my mantras and it's
humans became my humans you know. Some of my best friends in the world are
from that company, and I still get emotional thinking about it. And we still
sometimes perform together. The other night I did seasons of love with some of
them at a benefit concert and it was like this very special moment you know.
It's it's really become a profound part of my life.
--Right, yeah, and now ten years
later in one of the most Tony nominated shows of the year, The Band's Visit at
the Barrymore Theatre. Adam thank you so much,
--Thank you Ghostlight Records --Yes get the CD,
go see the show, go see Adam. Are you on social media? Where should they...
--Yeah, AdamJKantor on Instagram Twitter
--Follow this guy thank you so much --Thank
you great to be here!
-- Come always and yeah Eric tell us take us out
tell us about tomorrow...
--Will do. Okay thank you so much for tuning in you can
watch live at five every single weekday live at five pm on Broadway.com's
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podcast so type in Live at Five search for it wherever you get those. You
can tune in tomorrow when we're hanging out with Leslie margarita.
All right everybody. You have a great night. Bye-bye.