- The Five
- Posts
- Origins, Updates, Outside, Variety, Humbled
Origins, Updates, Outside, Variety, Humbled
Hillary Rea
May 02, 2025
Friends,
Long time no see! In all honesty, I was crushed by a 7-week long job interview process for (what felt like) a dream job that I ultimately did not get. I’m starting to feel a teeny tiny bit better and am hopefully moving on to bigger and brighter things. In the meantime, I’ve had lots to share and everything this week is theater themed.
[Queue jazz hands]
No, really, even if you aren’t the biggest fan of the stage, read on.
There’s to more to it…
1️⃣ Origins
Frank Rich’s historical deep dive into the origins, history, and ever-changing landscape of Times Square and Broadway is fascinating. If you live in New York (or just love it!) you’ll get into this piece. I promise.
2️⃣ Updates
As mentioned in a previous installment of this newsletter, my favorite musical of all time is The Last Five Years. I saw the current Broadway production last week and before going, I read up on all of the updates that the composer and lyricist, Jason Robert Brown, made for the show’s Broadway debut.
If you are fascinated by the creative process and iterating an artistic project over time, you’ll nerd out over this blog post.
3️⃣ Outside
The Last Five Years runs 90 minutes with no intermission. When I got out of the theater on Tuesday night, most other Broadway shows were still going. I walked west on 44th Street, intending to make a pit stop at Junior’s for a black and white cookie. But then I saw an outdoor lighting rig and three men who were giving “IATSE” energy.
I realized I was across the street from the St. James Theatre, home to the revival Sunset Blvd. It appeared that the intermission was just wrapping up and Act II was about to begin.
I saw the show in January, knowing a bit about the opening of Act II before going, but didn’t fully live the indoor/outdoor experience until I was sitting inside the St. James that night.
(If you are into spoilers, check out this NY Times break down of the opening scene of Sunset Blvd.’s Act II.)
Well, now was my chance to experience the Act II opening scene from outside of the theater!
I confirmed with one of the crew members that this was indeed what was happening, and when he said “Yes”, I asked him where to stand and he said, “right here.”
He then gave me a forced spiel about how the show would love if I shared whatever I filmed on my phone about the this outdoor scene on social media.
I told him I didn’t have a smart phone.
Once the outdoor scene was back inside, the crew member turned to me and said,
“Wait, so you don’t have a smart phone? What kind of phone do you have?”
I pulled out my light phone and showed him all of its features. He got so caught up in my alien device he realized he was late getting back inside for the rest of the show.
An all around magical New York City moment!
4️⃣ Variety
Variety expanded their “Actors on Actors” web series with a Broadway edition. Speaking of Sunset Blvd., I loved this conversation between Nicole Scherzinger and Jonathan Groff. I admire both of them as artists and as grounded, present human beings.
5️⃣ Humbled
My favorite podcast of the moment is the twice monthly The Quiet Part Out Loud by Broadway actor turned therapist, Bobby Steggert. His episode with Sara Gettelfinger is astonishing and brave. It delves into the complex before-during-after throes of addiction in a way that I have not heard before.
Be back soon!
Cheers,