Humans of Broadway

Meet the humans behind your favorite broadway shows! Follow on instagram @humansofbroadway, Twitter @BroadwayHumans and Snapchat @humansofbway

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Follow @broadwayunderstudies for a special new collaboration! Humans of Broadway Understudies will feature one new Broadway understudy every week so keep an eye out for your favorites! "I cover seven different Cats in the show and I have seven different makeups, seven different wigs, seven different unitards and I have fourteen different pairs of shoes because I have my jazz shoes and my tap shoes. They were built for me, and they all have to be painted differently according to which Cat they're for." - @aaronjalbano Swing in @catsbroadway #HumansOfBroadwayUnderstudies

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"The fundamental thing that you've got to do is be in as many rooms as possible. Including your own. You have to be assisting, or interning, or building props, or ushering, seeing theater, talking with playwrights, and then making your own work wherever the hell you can make it, constantly. As much energy as you possibly have in your twenties, you should spend doing everything that you possibly can, and obviously working whatever jobs you need to so you can make a living to allow you to buy a roll of toilet paper that you use as a costume piece in whatever show you're doing in a closet. It's just about making work nonstop, whether it's yours or other people's, and then seeing work when you're not making." - @rchavkin Director of @smallmouthplay and @greatcometbway #humansofbroadway #Broadway #director #smallmouthsounds #greatcometbway #natashapierreandthegreatcometof1812 (at Small Mouth Sounds)

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"I work eight shows a week, and I go to school where I take six classes a semester. This summer I'm also taking a summer course and doing a week internship. People always say 'there's not enough time to do this' but there is. There's always enough time. if you have to call out of work one night to go see your family or your friends, then by all means do it. If you have to miss a class for a cool internship opportunity then do it. You just have to put in effort to balance. There may be deadlines and stuff, but I think there's always enough time if you make time."- @cnaffiscoool Bartender at @fiddlerbroadway #humansofbroadway #bartender #fiddlerontheroof #broadway (at Fiddler on the Roof)

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"I received the Gypsy Robe for this show which is my tenth show. It's my second time getting it, my first time was for my fifth show On a Clear Day You Can See Forever. I've been in some shows that have lasted like two months, so I think that's added up to my Broadway credits. It's an honor to be a part of that club. It's like an honor society type of thing( where once you're part of the club, you're there forever. So I can always go to any Broadway show's opening night Gypsy Robe ceremony for the rest of my life. It's really cool. People from the original Peter Pan and the original Wizard of Oz come back and tell stories about when they got the Gypsy Robe. It's a great thing to be a part of that history and that legacy."- @gray_sandy Adam and Buster in @bwaycolorpurple #humansofbroadway #thecolorpurple #broadway #gypsyrobe (at The Color Purple Jacobs Theatre)

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"I made my Broadway debut a few weeks before we closed and it was nuts. It was so much fun and the cast was incredible the whole day. The show ended and it was such a blur that I barely remember what happened. The coolest part about it was after our whole company bow when we walk offstage and Ben comes out for his own bow, he pulled me out with him. To him it was probably just a kind gesture and he's probably forgotten about it already, but that's something I'll always remember for the rest of my life. I had a full, single bow in front of the thousand people who came to see the show that night. It was very much like a dream come true, a wow moment that doesn't get to happen to everybody."- @anthony_sagaria Swing in @apthemusical #humansofbroadway #broadway #americanpsycho #americanpsychothemusical #swing #understudy (at American Psycho - The Musical)

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"I have a pretty unusual backstory for this business. I come from a large family, I have ten brothers and sisters in total, and I was a homeschooled kid growing up. I think it prepared me in a lot ways for this industry. It allowed me to be a theater nerd in the biggest way and I really learned to be a life learner. That life curiosity that my parents have fostered in me since I was a little girl has served me well as an actor. I have seven brothers and three sisters, and one of my brothers who as seven at the time came to see the show and his first Broadway experience was seeing his older sister in a show. Growing up with so many siblings, you always have somebody to talk to and it's sort of like growing up in a sorority or a fraternity. There's always someone cooking in the kitchen or playing music in the living room or playing sports outside. There are just always people around and that prepared me well for theater too. Every show you're in is like a big family and I literally know what that's like because I literally come from a big family. When they asked me if it would be ok if I shared a dressing room I was like 'I only have to share a dressing room with one person?' That's nothing compared to how I grew up."- @hannahelless Margo in @brightstarbway #humansofbroadway #brightstar #broadway (at Bright Star: A New Musical)

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"I met my husband doing Little House on the Prairie the Musical, I was playing Laura and he was playing her love interest Almanzo. We fell in love doing that show every night, it was a show-mance turned romance. He proposed to me eight shows a week and then he really proposed to me in real life. It was amazing, and we got to see the world together because that show toured. The musical theater business takes us to the most amazing places and lets us meet the most amazing people who stay our lives forever. My husband currently plays Monty in the tour of Gentleman's guide, and it's great because I get to go visit him in all these beautiful cities and we reap the benefits of his job and explore all these cool places together. He and I are actually about to do a Disney cruise and do our own concert together. Kevin worked for Disney when he understudied Tarzan on Broadway, and I worked for Disney when I did Newsies so we both have this connection. We haven't worked together since we met so it's very exciting to get to perform together again."- @karalindsay1 recently Glinda in @wicked_musical and Katherine in @newsies #humansofbroadway #newsies #wicked #broadway #littlehouseontheprairie #gglam

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"I've loved dancing since the age of 10, and I went to dance academy, but back home in Slovakia there's only one dance school, not like here. My whole life was basically just dancing all day long and that's it. When I turned 18 I felt like I had done all I could back home and wanted to go somewhere new. So 19 years ago when I was 20 I came here not knowing anything, but I just knew that there was something special about New York. When I went to auditions I was never the most talented dancer in the room. At dance auditions they look at your turnout, or your flexibility, I didn't have any of that. But somehow they saw in me this joy of dancing that made them feel like they had to hire me, even though it gave them more hard work. If you have passion for something, go after it no matter what and don't feel like you're beat down just because you don't get hired for this or for that. I'm so good at doing that to myself, even now at this age. But you can't listen to that"- Silvia Vrskova, Swing and understudy for Chava in @fiddlerbroadway #humansofbroadway #fiddlerontheroof #dancer #broadway #fiddlerbroadway #slovakia (at Fiddler on the Roof)

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"I once ate two Chipotle burritos in one sitting, and I *wasn't* completely miserable at the end of it. That was the thing I had to lie to everyone about, I had to be like 'Ohhh I'm so full!' But I was not. I still had an appetite, and it was so embarrassing. I could have eaten more food."- @bkalm Swing in @apthemusical #humansofbroadway #americanpsycho #apthemusical #broadway #chipotle (at American Psycho - The Musical)

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"My grandmother would have loved this show. I really do feel her, even in things like the costumes. I put on one of my costumes and she had that very lace all over her house, and I was just thinking 'All right Grams, you told Greg Barnes to make this, I know it.' She really would have loved this show, and especially now with my niece being three and a half. She was also very close to my grandmother who she called Nana, and I was with my sister when she tried to explain that she was no longer with us and what was happening. My niece has never seen me in a Broadway show and the fact that she gets to come and maybe even understand the life cycle a little bit more, it's very special. My grandmother never missed a performance of mine. I have a photo of her at my very first dance recital and she was there cheering me on, no matter what I did. I know she's watching me every night onstage. She's got the best seat in the house now."- @jessicaleegoldyn Ensemble in @tuckmusical Go see Tuck Everlasting before it closes this Sunday! #humansofbroadway #tuckeverlasting #broadway #tuckmusical (at Tuck Everlasting)

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"There's a poem by Oriah Mountain Dreamer, and it says 'If you are faithless you are therefore truthful.' I didn't understand what that statement meant until I experienced it and read one of her books. If you have faith in something and you build something up and you think you can trust it, you can sort of trick yourself into thinking that's the truth no matter what, even if it's not your personal truth anymore. To know that sometimes you have to give up on something to open another door, to be willing to give up on your truth or what you thought was your truth to really find your own authentic self, is a really scary thing to do, but I think it's very important."- @morgankei Co-Dance Captain and Swing in @hamiltonmusical #humansofbroadway #hamiltonmusical #broadway #theroomwhereithappens #hamilton #oriahmountaindreamer (at Hamilton: An American Musical)

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"Many people will refer to my job as a 'dream job' because it is a very cool job to have, and people assume that it's a magical path to get there, but I think people don't know that I had the same years as everyone else did as far as juggling day jobs and things that I wanted to do. There were definitely some years of struggle where I didn't know if I was going to get to do the things I wanted to do., when I just graduated from college especially. But those years end up being so great, and most of my best friends were made during that time, and the foundations for some of the best collaborations that I still have to this day were laid then. So much of what I do now is because I had to make opportunities for myself during the years when I couldn't get to the places I wanted to get, or get the jobs I wanted to get. I try to tell young people who are just starting out that everyone has those years, even people who you think have their dream job, even stars on Broadway, everyone has those times where you don't know if you're going to get to do the thing that you love, and you just keep going and figure out ways to make it happen for yourself. I did everything from SAT tutoring to nannying while I was trying to find theater history and producing opportunities.. Sometimes people think that you materialize in your dream job and that's just where you are, but that's not what happens and the years leading up to that can be the best years of your life. I wouldn't trade them for anything."- @jenashtep Director of Programming at @54below and Author of The Untold Stories of Broadway series #humansofbroadway #54below #broadway (at Edison Ballroom)

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"Sara Bareilles was in my audition, and the first thing she said to me when I walked in was 'What's on your dress?' So in my mind I was freaking out thinking I had dropped something on myself. It was this cute little halter dress with a fox hunt pattern on it, and she was talking about the pattern, not something I had spilled, which was a relief. She was like 'Come here!' And she touched my dress and was holding it and the only thing by brain was thinking was 'Holy crap Sara Bareilles is touching my clothes and now I have to sing. Omigosh I have to sing now.' And then I had to sing her own songs in front of her and try not to cry or break down. It was pretty scary, but a 'this is amazing' kind of scary."- @ragan_pharris Swing and understudy for Jenna and Dawn in @waitressmusical #humansofbroadway #waitressmusical #sarabareilles #cantwaitress #broadway #pie #sugarbutterflour (at Waitress the Musical)

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"Musical theatre is weird AF but that's what I'm doing RN. Wait, can that please be my quote?"- @maxcrumm Scott in @disastermusical Congrats on a great run Disaster! #humansofbroadway #disaster #maxcrumm #broadway #disastermusical (at Disaster - On Broadway)

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"I love God. I'm Christian and I totally believe that there is a plan for everybody who walks on this earth. It's just about connecting with God and finding out what the plan is that He wants you to walk through, and walking through it keeping your head down and staying focused. I struggle like the next person. I was having a bad day today, but nobody knew that. I showed up to work and was feeling like I wasn't in it, but I have to get up there and there are thirteen hundred people who came to see a show, who can potentially leave this theater changed and I have a responsibility to them. People ask me all the time if I'm having the time of my life, but every season is the time of my life. I've had seasons where I've felt happy, and I've has seasons where I've felt sad. This is just a season in my life that I'm doing my best to enjoy. I'm not trying to look at it as the best time in my life because then I can't look forward to the future. If I just put this up on a pedestal and say it's never going to get better than this, it ruins what might come."- @anthony_ramos_nyc Laurens/Phillip in @hamiltonmusical #humansofbroadway #hamiltonmusical #anthonyramos #hamiltonmusical #broadway (at Hamilton: An American Musical)

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"I barely graduated high school. I almost didn't get through it. I had like a 1.8 GPA my junior year, and a guidance counselor saw something in me and told me to pull it together and helped me get through the last couple years. People know me now as an incredibly dedicated and focused worker and I think it surprises them when they learn that I have this background, where my parents thought at my age I'd be living in their attic. I just want everyone to know that if you're the weird kid in middle school who hasn't figured out what your path is yet, then you're on the right track. You don't want to peak in middle school.Peak later. Everything that got me picked on in middle school gets me paid now. I was always in the principal's office, or stage managers were always telling me to stop talking on stage. Now as a writer I get to take that class clown instinct and I get to apply to something wholesome that isn't getting in the way of the job I'm supposed to do. I feel like I'm checking things off my bucket list that were never even on my bucket list because I wasnt quite audacious enough to dream I'd have all this. So now it all kind of feels like frosting."- @timfederle Co-Book Writer for @tuckmusical Happy Opening Night to Tuck Everlasting!! #humansofbroadway #tuckeverlasting #broadway #writer #timfederle #tuckmusical (at Tuck Everlasting)

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"I cover ten tracks, so in order to keep them straight I have a lot of paperwork for each of them. I learned them one at a time. when I came into the show, and I had four days of rehearsal for one track, then opened with that track and performed that track at night while learning a different track during the day. I created a book with a series of packets that outline the whole show and what my guy in that track does. So every time they call me and say 'Hey you're on for Monsieur Reyes' I will go to that packet and read the whole show to remind myself where my entrances and exits are, where I change, who's my dresser and those kinds of things. But also you see the show so many times and do the show so many times that you really know where to slide in. I do mix up my blocking sometimes, but mainly offstage. So many times I'll make an exit as one character and go to the wrong dresser who has to point me in the right direction to get me back on track. Onstage it's not so hard because everybody around you knows what they're doing and they keep you focused."- @bronsonbiz Swing in @phantombway #humansofbroadway #phantomoftheopera #broadway #phantombway #swing #understudy (at The Phantom Of The Opera - Broadway)