Theater

Smith's new show is about her great-great-grandfather, a free Black man who reburied the Union dead at Gettysburg and prepared the ground for Lincoln's most famous speech.

Actor Wendell Pierce. Over a career spanning four decades, he's played some of the most memorable characters on television - Detective Bunk Moreland on HBO's "The Wire," the trombone player Antoine Batiste in "Treme." And in 2022, he became the first Black actor to play Willy Loman in "Death Of A Salesman" on Broadway. He's currently starring as Captain Wagner on the CBS series "Elsbeth," is back as a CIA officer, James Greer, in "Jack Ryan: Ghost War" and in the final season of "Raising Kanan" on Starz.

The original stars of "The Book Of Mormon," Josh Gad and Andrew Rannells. This week, as part of the show's 15th anniversary on Broadway, they're making cameo appearances in every performance.

we revisit interviews with two dynamic Tony-winning stars from Broadway’s past, starting with ALAN CUMMING who has been acting in television, movies, and theater since the 1980s. He won a Tony for his role as the Emcee in the revival of “Cabaret” 1998, a role he also played in the 1993 London production and again in a 2014 revival. He won a second Tony in 2022 as a producer of the musical “A Strange Loop”. Most recently, he has been the host of the Emmy-winning Peacock reality competition series “The Traitors.”

Rose Byrne spoke with FRESH AIR producer Ann Marie Baldonado. Byrne is starring in the Broadway revival of the Noel Coward play "Fallen Angels."

Producer JEFFREY SELLER. He produced Rent with his business partner. Seller's own company produced Hamilton. He also was a producer of Lin Manuel Miranda’s first musical, In the Heights – as well as the satirical adult puppet musical, Avenue Q, and the revival of Sondheim’s Sweeney Todd, starring Josh Groban. Seller grew up without much money in a neighborhood outside Detroit that was nicknamed Cardboard Village, because the houses were so cheap and shoddy. Seller is the author of the memoir Theater Kid.

Cinco Paul loves musicals — unlike his long-time writing partner. Their Apple TV+ series, now on Broadway, centers on a couple who become trapped in a musical town. Originally broadcast Aug. 23, 2021.

Lithgow, 80, plays an intelligence agent in the FX action series The Old Man, and he's currently starring in the Broadway production of Giant, about a troubling side of children's author Roald Dahl.

Delroy Lindo, an actor whose presence has shaped film and theater for more than 50 years. From West Indian Archie in Spike Lee's "Malcolm X" to the charming and cruel drug kingpin in "Clockers" to a father guarding an unspeakable secret in "The Cider House Rules," for me, Delroy's characters often feel lived in, complicated and hard to shake. In Ryan Coogler's latest film "Sinners," Lindo plays Delta Slim, a hard-drinking, deeply knowing blues harmonica player in 1930s Mississippi.

"Every now and then you bump up against a part that presses you to the wall of your ability," Hawke says of his Oscar-nominated stint as lyricist Lorenz Hart. Originally broadcast Nov. 13, 2025.

Stoppard, who died Nov. 29, wrote Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead and The Real Thing, and the screenplays for Empire of the Sun and Shakespeare in Love. Originally broadcast in 1991.

Paul Tazewell, an Academy Award-winning costume designer whose career includes designing for "Hamilton," "West Side Story," "The Color Purple" and now "Wicked: For Good."

A filmed version of the live production of Merrily We Roll Along will open in theaters on Dec. 5. We listen back to a '24 interview with revival director Maria Friedman and actor Jonathan Groff.

Johansson and Squibb discuss their new film, about a 94-year-old woman who claims her dead friend's Holocaust story as her own. "It's rare to feel surprised when you read a script," Johansson says.

Stamp, who died Aug. 17, was part of a wave of working-class British actors who came up in the 1960s. His films include Billy Budd, The Limey and two Superman films. Originally broadcast in 2002.

My guest, Jeffrey Seller, produced "Rent" with his business partner. Seller's own company produced "Hamilton." He was also a producer of Lin-Manuel Miranda's first musical, "In The Heights," as well as the satirical adult puppet musical "Avenue Q" and the recent revival of Sondheim's "Sweeney Todd," starring Josh Groban as Sweeney.

Ebon Moss-Bachrach. He's won two consecutive Emmy Awards for playing the role of Richie in the FX series "The Bear." The show, which has won 21 Emmys altogether, returns this week for its fourth season. Moss-Bachrach spoke to FRESH AIR's Ann Marie Baldonado.

The Broadway comedy Oh, Mary! is an intentionally ridiculous reimagining of first lady Mary Todd Lincoln. It portrays her as having become addicted to alcohol, not because of the Civil War, but because she's desperately yearning to become a cabaret star. For playwright and actor Cole Escola, the show is deeply personal.

Richard Kind. He's currently in the Netflix series "Everybody's Live With John Mulaney" as Mulaney's side kick.

The 1975 cult classic Rocky Horror turns 50 this year. To mark the occasion, we listen back to a 2005 interview with Curry, who played the cross-dressing scientist Dr. Frank-N-Furter.