The Breakdown with Robbie

045. Producer: Tom Kirdahy

Tom Kiradhy is a Tony and Olivier Award-winning producer whose projects have spanned Broadway, off-Broadway, the West End, and national and international tours. He most recently produced the Broadway production of the epic two-part play THE INHERITANCE (4 Tony Awards including Best Play), the smash-hit HADESTOWN (8 Tony Awards including Best Musical), the off-Broadway revival of LITTLE SHOP OF HORRORS starring Tammy Blanchard, Jonathan Groff, and Christian Borle (Drama Desk, Drama League and Outer Critics Circle Awards, Best Revival of a Musical), Terrence McNally’s FRANKIE & JOHNNY IN THE CLAIR DE LUNE starring Audra McDonald and Michael Shannon (2 Tony nominations including Best Revival of a Play), and the ANASTASIA national and international tours. Select Broadway credits: ANASTASIA, the box office record breaking IT'S ONLY A PLAY starring Nathan Lane and Matthew Broderick, THE VISIT starring Chita Rivera (5 Tony nominations). Select West End credits: THE INHERITANCE (4 Olivier Awards including Best New Play), THE JUNGLE, Edward Albee's THE GOAT, OR WHO IS SYLVIA? Select off-Broadway credits: THE WHITE CHIP (N.Y. Times Critic’s Pick), THE JUNGLE (N.Y. Times Critic’s Pick), WHITE RABBIT RED RABBIT (N.Y. Times Critic’s Pick). Additional Tony nominations: MOTHERS AND SONS, AFTER MIDNIGHT, RAGTIME, MASTER CLASS. Kirdahy serves on the Broadway League Board of Governors, the Board of Trustees of Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDS, the Advisory Council for the Harry Ransom Center at the University of Texas at Austin, and is a founding director of the nonprofit Berwin Lee London New York Playwrights, Inc., which supports emerging playwrights. He is the 2019 recipient of the Robert Whitehead Award for Outstanding Achievement in Commercial Theater Producing. As an attorney, he spent nearly two decades providing free legal services to people living with HIV/AIDS and served for many years on the Executive Committee of the NYC LGBT Center.

044. Catch Up: Steven Sater

Steven won Tony Awards for Best Book and Best Score, the Grammy Award for Best Musical Show Album, as well as the Olivier Award for Best New Musical for Spring Awakening. His other musicals include Alice by Heart produced at the National Theatre of London, MCC in New York and is also a novel from Penguin Random House, The Nightingale produced at La Jolla Playhouse; Prometheus Bound at A.R.T; and Some Lovers with music by Burt Bacharach at the Old Globe and the Adirondack Theatre Festival. His plays include Arms on Fire, New York Animals, and a reconceived musical version of Shakespeare’s Tempest. Additionally, Sater works as a poet, screenwriter, and a pop lyricist. He has created television projects for HBO, Showtime, FX, NBC, and is currently creating a musical TV series for Amazon.

043. Actor: Michael Benjamin Washington

Michael Benjamin Washington is currently filming the new NBC comedy, American Auto. Broadway: The Boys in the Band (also the Netflix adaptation); La Cage Aux Folles; Mamma Mia! (original company). Off Broadway: 2019 revival of Anna Deavere Smith’s Fires In the Mirror at Signature Theatre (NY Outer Critics Circle Award; NY Drama League Award; Inaugural Antonyo Award for Best Solo Performance); and, Stephen Sondheim’s Saturday Night at Second Stage. Television: Ratched and Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt (Netflix); 30 Rock; Glee; Law and Order; 100 Questions to name a few. He is an alumnus of New York University’s Tisch School of the Arts and the National Young Arts Foundation. He is also a Presidential Scholars in the Arts. Mr. Washington currently serves on the 2020-2023 Tony Awards and Screen Actors Guild Nominating Committees.

042. Director: Jack O’Brien

Jack has won three Tony Awards and been nominated for seven more, and won five Drama Desk Awards. Select Broadway credits include All My Sons, Carousel, Charlie and the Chocolate factory, The Front Page, Its Only a Play, The Nance, Catch Me If You Can, A Catered Affair, How The Grinch Stole Christmas, The Coast of Utopia (TONY), Dirty Rotten Scoundrels (Tony nom), Henry IV (TONY), Hairspray (TONY), the Invention of Love (Tony Nom), The Full Monty (Tony Nom), Damn Yankees, Porgy and Bess (Tony nom), Two Shakespeare Actors (Tony Nom) The Piano Lesson, The Most Happy Fella, The Little Foxes among many, many more. According to the Internet Broadway Data Base, Jack O’Brien has 52 Broadway credits to his name. Jack served as the Artistic Director of the Old Globe Theatre in San Diego, California from 1981 to 2007Additional select credits include Il Trittico at the Metropolitan Opera; Guys and Dolls at Carnage Hall; and Much Ado About Nothing at the Delacorte Theater in Central Park. London credits include: Love Never Dies, Hairspray (Olivier Award nomination) and His Girl Friday at the National Theater. He has directed six movies for PBS's "American Playhouse." O’Brien has aslo directed the critically acclaimed national tour of The Sound of Music and the world premiere of the Jake Heggie/Terrence McNally opera Great Scott for The Dallas Opera. Jack was nominated for an Emmy Award for his documentary "Becoming Mike Nichols" (HBO). And if you have not read his book, Jack Be Nimble, please do yourself a favor and grab a copy.

041. Stage Manager: Cody Renard Richard

Cody Renard Richard is an advocate, educator and professional Stage Manager with a career that spans many genres including Broadway, Television, Cirque Du Soleil and Opera. On Broadway, he has worked as a full time and substitute Stage Manager on 12 productions, most recently serving as the Production Stage Manager for Freestyle Love Supreme. Other Broadway: Hamilton, Dear Evan Hansen, The Lion King, Cirque du Soleil’s Paramour, Kinky Boots, If/Then, After Midnight, Motown the Musical, Ghost the Musical, Cyrano de Bergerac and Lysistrata Jones. TV: 2019 Tony Awards, 2020 & 2019 MTV VMAs, Jesus Christ Superstar Live!, Hairspray Live!, The Wiz Live!. Cirque du Soleil: OVO, Wintuk. Off Broadway/NY: Porgy and Bess (Metropolitan Opera – Assistant Stage Director), Candide at Carnegie Hall, 5 productions with NY City Center Encores!, The Public Theatre, Atlantic Theatre Company, 2nd Stage, Transport Group, Pearl Theatre Company. Selected Regional: Lempicka at Williamstown Theatre Festival, The Kennedy Center, The Muny, TUTS, Stages STL, Kansas City Rep, Alley Theatre, Repertory Theatre of STL. In addition to his production credits, he has served as adjunct faculty at New York University, Columbia University and Fordham University. As an advocate for change and equity, Cody has appeared live on CNN and has been interviewed on WNBC. Cody has been featured by Variety Magazine as one of their 2020 Broadway Players to Watch, Out Magazine as a 2020 OUT100 honoree and in Forbes. He launched The Cody Renard Richard Scholarship Program in partnership with Broadway Advocacy Coalition in Sept of 2020 and holds a BFA in Stage Management from Webster Conservatory. He is a proud member of Actors’ Equity Association and the Directors Guild of America. www.codyrenard.com @codyrenard