When Lightning Strikes!

Asmeret Ghebremichael is a force on Broadway, off Broadway and the West End. A Drama Desk winner, she has been working on Broadway for twenty years. Just some of her credits include The Book of Mormon, Elf, In The Heights, Legally Blonde, Spamalot, Wicked, Dream Girls on the West End. She was nominated for both the Lucille Lortel and Chita Rivera Awards for playing Nikkie in Sweet Charity and was in The Wiz Live! on NBC. Watch her in the web series Submissions Only or on the BBC television show Get Even. Asmeret recently wrote a powerful opinion piece for Broadway News called “I’m tired of being the token Black friend.” https://broadwaynews.com/2020/06/04/opinion-im-tired-of-being-the-token-black-friend/ Produced in part by the Broadway Podcast Network. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

There are singers and then there is Anika Larsen. Known for her ferocious belt, she made her Broadway debut in Rent and was nominated for a Tony award playing prolific songwriter Cynthia Weil in Beautiful: The Carole King Musical. Her other theater credits include Avenue Q, All Shook up, Xanadu and Closer Than Ever. Larsen’s autobiographical musical Shafrika, the White Girl, is based on her own experiences growing up one of ten siblings in a family where six children were adopted from all over the world. She is currently artistic director of Plays in the House Teen Edition. The play reading series benefits organizations which brings theater to underserved youth. It is part of Stars in the House, created by Seth Rudetsky and James Wesley. Larsen will next star in the Broadway bound Almost Famous. Based on the Cameron Crowe film, the musical is directed by Jeremy Herrin. Crowe wrote the book and lyrics, Tom Kitt composed original music. Larsen is Elaine Miller, the conflicted mom, who Frances McDormand played in the film.  Larsen does volunteer virtual Q&As inspiring students from around the world from Amarillo to the Netherlands to Iowa City. With her husband, professional trumpet player Freddie Maxwell, she also created socially distant porch concerts which she performs for her community in the suburbs outside New York City. “Art will not be stopped. It can’t be,” says Larsen. “A government can try to oppress it. Or a pandemic can try and shut it down. But artists are going to make their art. Whether it’s floating out their windows or coming out of the woodwork. We can’t stop doing the thing we do.” Produced in part by the Broadway Podcast Network. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Tiler Peck was dancing before she could walk. By the time she was four-years-old she had a talent for remembering three minute dance solos. “I was dancing all the time,” says Peck who has been a principal dancer with the New York City Ballet for over a decade. "My mother put me in soccer and I would leap and dance down the field.” Working professionally since she was a child, Peck made her Broadway debut when she was 11 in Susan Stroman's revival of The Music Man. Currently living in her family's home in Bakersfield, California, she is hosting daily ballet classes on her @tilerpeck Instagram. Peck also has a new children’s book, Katarina Ballerina, (Simon & Schuster), which she cowrote with Kyle Harris (The Inheritance). In the book Katarina has a love for dance but her feet turn in and her curly hair doesn’t always fit into a sleek bun. Katarina isn’t perfect, but at every turn, people tell her she is beautiful. “Katarina has one thing that you can't teach. She has a light within her that makes people want to watch her dance,” says Peck. “While technique can be taught, love and passion can’t. The message is for kids to own their unique gifts. That makes you stand out.” Produced in part by the Broadway Podcast Network. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Annie Golden got her start in the 1970s as the lead singer of the CBGB headlining band, The Shirts.  In the 1970s director Milos Forman “discovered” Annie Golden singing at CBGBs with her band The Shirts. He cast her in his 1979 film adaptation of Hair.  She has been working and thriving ever since.  Click here to see Annie Golden shared her "work station" which contains her "fancy schmancy" microphone to record the new Bleeding Love podcast. You may know Golden from playing Norma Romano in Orange Is the New Black. You may know her from countless roles on and off Broadway. Her vast credits include Hair, Leader of the Pack, Ah, Wilderness!, On the Town, The Full Monty, Xanadu, Violet, Assassins and Broadway Bounty Hunter. You may know her playing Jeannie Ryan from Milos Forman’s film adaptation of Hair. You may know her from Desperately Seeking Susan, Baby Boom, Longtime Companion, Strictly Business, Prelude to a Kiss, 12 Monkeys or I Love You Phillip Morris. Golden currently co-stars in the new Broadway Podcast Network series, Bleeding Love. The Post-Apocalyptic musical takes place in a world where it’s too dangerous to go outside. Golden stars with Rebecca Naomi Jones, Marc Kudisch, Sarah Stiles, Taylor Trensch and Tony Vincent Be More Chill composer Joe Iconis even wrote the musical Broadway Bounty Hunter as a love letter to Golden. (The original cast recording was just released last month, https://ghostlightrecords.lnk.to/broadwaybountyhunter). “She has been my muse,” says Iconis. “The thing that has always comes through is her authenticity. She is such a real New Yorker and so authentically herself. And I love that she has had such a wild life.”  Produced in part by the Broadway Podcast Network. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices