--Hello guys! Welcome to Live at Fiive. It's Tuesday February 20th. I'm Beth Stephens.
--I'm Andy Lefkowitz.
--And we are here with producer Matt Rodin.
--Hi everybody! --And a
fabulous fabulous guest Mr. Ben Fankhauser is here.
--That was a good one, but first
let's get started with the news Matt? -- Yeah
--All right so we found out today that Torch Song is officially transferring to
Broadway. Very exciting.
--Yep, so this is the reboot of Harvey Fierstein's Torch
Song Trilogy that played Second Stage last year.
--Just called Torch Song.
--Just Torch Song, but actually the title has been expanded to Harvey Fierstein's
Torch Song.
Yes.
--His name in there.
--Yes and it's going to be playing the Helen Hayes
theater, which was recently acquired by Second Stage. Michael Urie and Mercedes
Ruehl are going to repeat their performances for the run.
--Hallelujah.
--Yes and it's gonna kick off performances on November 1st.
--Wow. -- Very very exciting we
also today got more casting for MTC's, it is MTC right I'm not...
--It is MTC
--Saint Joan.
I'm like that would be bad if I mess that up. Saint Joan got more casting
today,
--Right so we knew Condola Rashad three-time Tony nominee
was playing Joan of Arc in Saint Joan. This is the George Bernard Shaw Saint Joan.
We have the casting. All the guys so Jack Davenport, who you know from SMASH is
making his Broadway debut as Warwick. We also have Walter Bobby in his first, can
you believe this you guys?
--Oh my god.
--First acting role on Broadway in 26 years . The
last one was
--The 92 revival of Guys and Dolls.
I saw that revival. It was amazing!
--That was amazing revival. I loved it too.
--You were too but it's fine.
--And also we have Adam Chandler Berat, and Tony winner John Glover, and Tony
nominee Daniel Sunjada,
You're excited about that.
--Take me out! --And Patrick Page, wonderful
wonderful cast supporting Condola Rashad and Daniel Sullivan's directing. This
opens, I'm sorry begins previews April 3rd at the Samuel J Friedman Theater, and
opens on April 25th.
--Yes yes yes a bunch of off-broadway shows we found today are
getting extensions. It was a good day for off-Broadway shows.
--Indeed, so Sara
Burgesses new play Kings has been extended at the Public Theater.
It is now going to run there through April 1st and Cruel Intentions the
Musical is going to run at Le Poisson Rouge through, pardon me through
April 8th.
--I like the way you say that Le Poisson Rouge.
--But it's going to run through April 8th, final extension for
Cruel Intentions. --Yeah yeah.
--See it. --It's very good. It's very fun.
And if you
--And you might have a crush on the lead. It could happen.
--And he was here
last week so if you want to see Constantine, he was here last week if you
want to go check that out.
--Some new leads starting tonight in Book of Mormon, and
Aladdin. Very exciting for them.
--This is really exciting because both of the
previous people who are in these shows were there forever, so some new fresh
people in Aladdin. That is Arielle Jacobs begins as Princess Jasmine, and
the Book of Mormon welcomes Dave Thomas Browne as Elder Price and the return of
Cody Jameson as Elder Cunningham.
--Very exciting. I like having you know new new
new fresh people.
--New fresh people in great sold-out amazing hit shows.
--It's like it's these shows are like running and will probably run now and
forever now and forever.
--I love it
--And last but certainly not least, we put up a
slew of a spring previews over the weekend. A new one today.
--So we have a
great feature with Condola Rashad who Beth interviewed for Saint Joan.
--She's a smart
lady.
--Oh my goodness fantastic piece. She's so smart.
Daphne Ruben Vega, whom we all love from RENT and a bunch of other shows, and
Gizel Jimenez are featured in the new musical Miss You Like Hell at The Public
So we have a feature with them.
--I talked to Dame Diana Rigg. We drank Prosecco together. Don't be jealous! And
today, LaChanze, who's in Summer the Donna Summer Musical, and that is a
fabulous feature. She's got her hair out, she's looking like a diva. Amazing.
-- And that's it. -- And that's it. All right.
--S o we'll be right back with Mr. Ben Fankhauser.
--Okay so I'm I'm thrilled to tell
you, Ben is appeared on Broadway and Disney's Newsies and in the national
tours of Spring Awakening and Beautiful the Carole King Musical. In his 54 Below
show Ben reimagines Broadway standards and pop hits
with brand fankin, that's very clever, new arrangements like you've
never heard before. Join Ben and the Fank 5, I love it, for an unforgettable evening
of your favorite songs all fanked up. We're just gonna keep with the fank puns,
and if you have questions for Ben, you can leave them in the comments right now,
and we'll get to as many as we possibly can. And now, here is Beth and Ben.
--Thank
you Matt.
I really thought you're gonna say if you want to leave some fankin
questions, it's possible. Anywa, welcome Ben Fankhauser.
--Thank you for having me.
--Oh you've done that before. --Maybe once or twice.
----How are you doing? --I'm great.
Thanks so much for having me.
--I think you should just say hi to the fansies
right now because I'm sure they're watching. I hope so! Hi you guys.
Great to see you as always.
--Tell me about your new show.
--So like Matt said, I've reimagined like my favorite
Broadway standards and a couple pop tunes, and anyone who knows me closely,
knows that I sort of sit at my piano in my living room and like do this on a
daily basis anyway. And now I have a seven-piece band to back me up, and I
have, yeah, I have an amazing arranger and music director Charlie Rosen, who's got a
big band himself and he's a big jazz er and he's put together this incredible
band for me. And I have a special guest vocalist Natalie Weiss, who joins me
--You can actually, if you go to your Instagram account,
we can hear you vocalizing with her.
--Yeah we had a couple practice sessions. We're
going to be doing some riffing in harmony and
--Some seizing of the day? --Yeah yeah we're gonna
we're gonna seize a day or two, yeah. But you have to come to 54 Below to see the seizing.
--So tell us when your show is.
--The shows are, I have two more this week. I have one on Thursday and one on Sunday
both at 9:30. And I think there are still a few tickets left available, and I would
love to see you guys there .
--The late show.
--That's right it's the Late Show it's a party up
in there.
--Where it gets funky. -- That's right.
--Tell me how you choose your songs and give
us a little sneak peek.
--Well mostly it was like I said this idea was born out
of like me on The Late Night with my friends sitting around my apartment sort
of like reimagining, I don't know, like oh what a beautiful morning, for example,
which is that classic like true golden age standards that I
--Is this why you're so dressed up? You're wearing a tie. You're looking very sharp.
--Yes well for Broadway.com of course.
--That's what I thought. --Yes and yeah yeah and so and
so we do a lot of like jazz funk, like think like sort of Michael Buble meets
Broadway, meets pop and it's sort of like straight from the soul.
--Sounds very classy, Ben.
--It is really classy and it's a lot of fun too. And like I said, it's it's it's
just I poured my soul and heart into this show, and it's it's authentic to who
I am, so I I'm really enjoying sharing it with people.
--You're doing what you love. --That's right that's right.
--We have to
talk about Newsies.
--Yes we do.
--How did it feel to watch yourself on the big screen?
--Man, it was bizarre. I mean it was like great.
--And I'm talking about the the
stage I mean the screen version of Newsies that you all got to be in.
And then you all went and saw it together.
--Yeah we did. They had a nice
screening for us and that was so much fun because like everyone and their
family were at the screening and so like every time someone like got
shown on the screen you'd hear like a cheering section like whoo! But it was amazing
and it was it was great to see the whole thing finished because our camera
directors, you know, brilliantly added you know tension and moments of comedy with
like the close-ups and all that stuff, which you can't normally achieve in a
show, in Broadway style show, and so it was really neat to see the finished
product cause I hadn't seen it until we were in the theaters. It was very moving.
--And now we have that record that's always there.
--That's right go on Netflix, iTunes,
That's right yeah.
--So I know everyone's wondering this, so I'm just gonna ask is
there a big group text of the Newsies?
--I think there are a couple group texts. --Can we
be on them?
--Oh absolutely.
--We're all going to sign up for that. That's good.
I know you all have so many questions, the Facebook
Live people are just foaming at the mouth trying to ask you questions Ben
watching that scroll frantically so Matt what kind of questions we have
for Ben?
--Facebook Twitter all the things. We're gonna start off with Twitter and
then we'll hop over to Facebook. Have you would you ever release an album and go
on tour says Sincere-lay, I think her name is Lee or Leigh, underscore me. Would you
ever release an album?
--Yes and yes. First of all, I love the
Twitter handle. I'm a big fan of the puns. --I'm shocked by that.
--And yes I'm working on a solo album. A lot of the things from my show will be
included on that, and I've spent I guess maybe like three and and a half years on
the road. So I'm happy to get back out on the road maybe with my new show.
--So, you toured with Spring Awakening of course, and then you toured with
Beautiful the Carole King Musical
--Yeah. --You were Barry Mann
--I was.
--Did you get to hang out with Barry Mann and talk to him?
--We did in LA, and Becky Gulsvig and I, who played my
opposite Cynthia Weil, we got to do this great press event in San Francisco where
we got to hear Barry at the piano like sing On Broadway, you know like he's the
guy who wrote On Broadway singing on Broadway. It was like a total
mind-blowing experience.
--And are you as much of a hypochondriac as Barry Mann is
in Beautiful? I don't know him personally but in the show he's quite a
hypochondriac.
--He is and I wouldn't say I'm like quite a worrier, although like I
do stress out about certain situations, and my health you know of course it's
like day-to-day different no I I do think I have some tendencies towards the
hypochondriac. Maybe not as as like characterized, I guess, as Barry man but
boy was it was a ton of fun to play.
--Matt I know we have a million more so I won't interrupt again.
-- Sophie wants to know what inspired you to get into musical theater?
--All right let's go back.
--You've been doing this forever.
--I have like since as long as I can remember.
--I um, you know, my Hanukkah present every year was the season subscription to the
road shows. I grew up in Cleveland that came through Playhouse Square,
--So what were the early shows you got to see? --My early shows? Oh my
god there are so many. I saw, I saw Starlight Express okay? That came through.
I saw... --TBT.
--Yeah yep, another one for ya, Bombay Dreams. That came through.
--Oh yes. Chaka laka baby. --We're all just going to say random things.
--Umm,
I think I saw ... --Were you
inspired by Starlight Express and --And Bombay Dreams.
--Just to answer your question.
--The reason I got into theater. I don't know
I always loved being in the audience and being just transported, and I wanted to
give that feeling back to people, so that's why I did it?
--You can't remember when
you weren't doing this?
--That's right. There was no like aha moment. It was just
like I know this is what I'm gonna be. I don't know how, there was not there's not
a how yet. I didn't know how I was gonna do it, but I just knew I was gonna be on
stage in front of people.
--Here you are. --Here I am.
--Jenn wants to know, during moments
of self-doubt what inspired you to keep working towards your dreams?
--Oh my gosh
that's a great question.
--Someone else asked like what's the greatest life lesson you've
learned so I feel like we can loop those two in together.
--Yes, we want your life lessons.
-- I didn't know this was going to be.. Oh boy. --Do you want to lie down on the couch?
--Yeah, do you guys mind? What inspires me to keep
going..... I you know, I just have such a passion for what I do, and for theater in
general, and art, and it's really hard sometimes when you're feeling like you
can't go on, but you got to just think positively, and have faith, like my mom
would say, like you just got to have faith, not faith in anything in
particular just this general notion of like I know that this will come when you
know....
--Faith in yourself. --Yeah totally faith in yourself.
And other than that, yeah, like positive
thinking, I think is huge. And like trying to like shush that like negative voice
in your head that's like this people might not like this, or you know you
might get laughed at for this or something like that. So yeah just just trying to
have faith and well --Seize the day people!
--Hey, come on
bring it right on back.
--These are all these are classics, onstage bloopers some
onstage mishaps any good stories?
--Many many good stories. In in Newsies,
during the King of New York, the tap dance number, I had quite a few spills
because like it's a slippery stage, and the taps are like these slippery metal
things in your shoes. When you're like a you know a two-year trained dancer, you
know, you can't like --His whole life.
--Yeah exactly. Yeah so I had some spills in Newsies.
--Should we talk about Jesus Christ Superstar in high school? Go on.
--Oh, his face. Jaw dropped. --Wow. That face
--Because that was a real on stage blooper for you I heard.
--Oh my god. -- I do my
research everyone. --Yo, that's so funny.
--Okay so I was able to be Jesus in
Jesus Christ Superstar.
--The most Jewish Jesus
--Thank you so much. And I had
there's a picture of me on the internet. I had like this long hair. This like
Farrah Fawcett like. And I had just gotten my braces off, so I was like
was like. And I think Cory Cott was in that production, too, I wonder if this is
how you know this.
--Okay. --I'm not telling you. I can't reveal my sources.
--Right okay. So I'm at the end, spoiler alert, there is
a crucifixion and um and I had to wear this like loincloth made out of the
dance belt. And if you don't know what a dance belt is...
--Look it up. -- Look it up. I and
like I don't know what happened. I guess it was like a fast sort of change and I
put my leg into the wrong like you know when you're putting on like underwear
basically, I as if I put both my legs into one foot hole.
--It was an explicit
crucifixion.
--Yeah yeah. There was some there was some some good cheek action if
you will .
--Wow. -- Wow.
--Um Ashley wants to know if there were a movie or a musical
of your life who would you choose to portray you? --Wow
--Oh boy. I guess it couldn't be me it would be too much.
--Why not? --It could, but that would be redundant.
--If it was a song and dance moment, I'll say me.
--Yeah great love that um who's someone that you'd
like to get chance to work with who you haven't worked with in the past?
From Jazlyn.
--Thanks Jazlyn. Oh, boy I know she would never do it, but Beyonce.
--Oh, aim high. -- Why not?
--She might want to do the Broadway thing, maybe.
--She loves a Broadway standard fanked up.
--That's right hey!
--New Jess, what's your opinion on
pineapple on pizza?
--Mm-mm. No.
--Oh oh you say no. --Uh-uh
--He says no. -- I mean if
that's the only pizza at the party, yes I'll eat it.
--That's a strong answer. --It's just like
the sweet. I'm like a pepperoni, like
--He's a classic dude. --Yeah that's a lot of flavor going on.
--I'm gonna combine some questions again current TV / movie / music or band
obsessions at the moment? Who are you listening to what are you watching?
--That's a lot of slashes.
--I'm watching Schitt's Creek
/ Shoshanna Bean /
--Always. --Yeah always. / RuPaul's Drag Race
/ what was the other one?
--I don't know. --Movies.
--Movies. Oh boy. Oh I, Tonya. Did you guys see I, Tonya.
--I think these could all be combined. I really do. One one one amazing piece
of art. --One big thing.
--Yes. --Any favorite backstage memories or
favorite backstage
shenanigans that you can share?
--Oh my gosh there are so many. These this is
always like such a stumper because there are just so many. When in Newsies, Andrew
and I would always get into some Andrew Keenan-Bolger and I would get into some
ridiculous antics. And there was one time we were making a video for something and
we decided it would be funny like if someone walked in on us and we were like
shaving our legs for some bizarre reason. I don't know why that's coming to mind
right now, but many bizarre antics.
--I did not see that coming.
--Last but certainly
not least, dream role?
--Many many people asked, so
--Dream roll. -- Put it out there
because a lot of things come true, people that say things on Live at Five.
--Is this the place to do it? -- Yeah
--Can I say Evan Hansen?
--I knew that was coming!
--Is that bad?
--Not a stretch at all. Not a stretch. Hey Ben thank you for
coming.
--Thanks for having me.
--Go see Ben at 54 Below Thursday. --Thursday
--Thursday
and Sunday at 9:30.
--Get fanked up Broadway.
--That's right come on through --With the Fank Five.
Fank you for coming. --Fank you for having me.
--Oh, very very nice. --Matt take us out.
--I'd be happy
to. Thank you guys so much for tuning in if you're watching us live. And you can
watch us Live at 5 every single weekday on Broadway.com's
Facebook page.
--If you like podcasts, maybe you're listen to this right now, or you just
want a different way to consume this show. You can subscribe to the Live at 5
podcast. Comes out every single day right after Live at 5. And be sure to join us
tomorrow for a very special Live, it's at 5:00, but we're not calling it Live at
5:00. Some of the cast of Spongebob Squarepants the musical is going to be
coming into the studio to play Never I Ever Live. That is sure to be craziness.
Happy Tuesday everybody! We'll see you tomorrow. Bye!