Podcast appearances and mentions of jonathan tolins

Dennis is joined via Zoom by actor Emerson Collins who is currently starring in the one-man play Buyer and Cellar by Jonathan Tolins at the Whitefire Theatre in Los Angeles. The play is a "What if?" story about an underemployed actor who gets a job working in the mall in Barbra Streisand's basement. Emerson talks about what drew him to the play, shares his favorite moment in the show and recalls his harrowing first audition, which happened days after he had emergency appendix surgery. He also talks about working as a producer for writer-director Del Shores (Sordid Lives), getting discovered by Del in a Dallas production of Del's play Southern Baptist Sissies, then taking a leap of faith and moving to LA to appear in the LA production. Other topics include: whether famous people can have real friendships with non-famous people, Emerson's memories of the late, great Leslie Jordan, the shooting permit disaster that almost shut down the film of Southern Baptist Sissies, working retail aa a Banana Republic display visionary, driving for Lyft when he found out he got cast in Rent: Live for Fox TV, why he posts Speedo shots on Instagram and the curvacious and hard-to-read title font Barbra picked for the book that inspired Buyer and Cellar, My Passion For Design. www.emersoncollins.com

In this week's episode of The Envelope video podcast, "Lessons in Chemistry" star Aja Naomi King opens up about overcoming her fears about launching a career as an actor and Michelle King and Jonathan Tolins take us inside their popular new procedural, "Elsbeth." 

It's the final episode of our first season (sob), and there is no better artist, soul, human to help us close it out than Michael Urie. We talk about the crazy time we all find ourselves in, the value - and the work - of real self care, how to pay attention to the signals we are given, and how our understanding of spirituality has evolved individually and over the course of this podcast. A self-proclaimed agnostic, Michael never thought he'd be invited to the show (even though he's our hashtag number one listener), so we were thrilled to go deep, share some laughs, and sit in the warm glow of his charisma. As an actor, Michael is most well known for his television work as Marc St. James on Ugly Betty, Gavin Sinclair on Modern Family, Redmond on Younger, roles on Partners, Workaholics, Hot in Cleveland, The Good Wife, and The Good Fight. Movies include: Single All The Way, Swan Song, The Decoy Bride, Petunia, Beverly Hills Chihuahua, Lavender, the upcoming Jersey Boys Live starring Nick Jonas. On Broadway, Michael has appeared in Douglas Lyons' Chicken & Biscuits, Bess Wohl's Grand Horizons, Harvey Fierstein's Torch Song and How To Succeed in Business Without Really Trying. Off Broadway, on tour and in London, he did more than 600 performances of Jonathan Tolins' solo play Buyer & Cellar - including one from his living room early in the pandemic streamed live on Broadway.com, raising nearly 300k for Broadway Care Equity Fights Aids. Other Off Broadway plays include Jane Anger, The Temperamentals, The Government Inspector, Homos or Everyone in America, Shows for Days, High Button Shoes, The Cherry Orchard, and two Tony Kushner plays: A Bright Room Called Day and Angels in America. Behind the scenes, Michael directed Bright Colors and Bold Patterns and produced Happy Birthday Doug (both plays written and performed by Drew Droege and both available on BroadwayHD), directed the short film The Hyperglot, feature comedy film He's Way More Famous Than You and co-directed Thank You For Judging an award winning documentary about High School speech tournaments. He's narrated the audiobooks Lily And The Octopus, Hero, Midnight Cowboy and The Editor. He is the recipient of two Drama Desk Awards, two Lucille Lortel Awards, an Obie, an LA Drama Critics Award, Actors Equity's Clarence Derwent award, as well as GMHC's Howard Ashman Award, The Broadway Beacon Award, Coach Art's Coach Champion Award and Juilliard's John Houseman Award. He lives in New York with his partner Ryan and their children, a dog and cat. Follow Michael: On IG: @michaelurielikesit On Twitter: @michaelurie This week's Do: Support Equality Florida - https://www.eqfl.org/   Follow us! On IG: @art.fully.grounded On FB: @art.fully.grounded On Twitter: @AFGpod Podcast's website: www.sweptbythewind.com/podcast 

Dennis is joined via Zoom by actor Mike Millan who is currently starring in the play Buyer & Cellar by Jonathan Tolins at the Celebration Theatre in Los Angeles. The play is a hilarious and poignant flight of fancy about a young gay actor who takes a job working in the mall in Barbra Streisand's basement. Mike talks about the self-tape audition that got him the role, his favorite moment in the show, how he learns all those lines and how much fun it is to argue with oneself on stage. He also recalls making his Broadway debut in Jimmy Buffet's Escape To Margaritaville in 2018, his unconventional approach to the dance audition that landed him a role, how the audience was often wasted and his favorite memory of Jimmy Buffet. Other topics include: the CBS diversity showcase that changed the game for him, the BFA program he wishes he hadn't signed up for, the observation that Newsies dancers tend to have sizable asses, his history with wardrobe malfunctions and why the movie Funny Girl kind of bummed him out.  www.celebrationtheatre.org  

Lucille Lortel award-winning author of Buyer & Cellar which has had over a hundred productions and was shown on the WNET series, Theater Close-Up.

Playwright Clare Barron, a New York theater artist with a fast-rising reputation for crafting quirky comedy-dramas with the ring of truth and an affection for damaged people, is finally getting her shot in the North Bay, where Left Edge Theater has just opened the West Coast premiere of her oddball play ‘You Got Older.’ Skillfully directed by Argo Thompson, ‘You Got Older’ follows a struggling, twenty-something lawyer named Rae, who’s recently lost her job, her apartment, her boyfriend, and her self-esteem, at the very same moment that her father is diagnosed with a mysterious, possibly fatal throat cancer. She’s also got a truly terrible-sounding rash. Rae is played with meticulous sensitivity by Paige Picard, a first-rate performance in a play full of them, and Joe Winkler, as Rae’s kind but befuddled father, is frequently astonishing, particularly so in a key scene at the end where his steady bravado suddenly crumbles. Barron’s writerly kookiness manifests itself mainly through the stunningly candid dialogue between her characters. The awkward but believable way that Rae converses with Mac, a rash-loving stranger she meets in a bar. He’s played nicely by Jared Wright. There’s sexy-but-menacing Cowboy (played by Chris Ginesi) who Rae conjures up in a series of increasingly disturbing sex fantasies. Then there’s the way Rae makes wobbly plans for the future with her loving, easily distracted siblings, all while waiting at the hospital bedside of their post-surgery dad. The convincingly familiar siblings are played by Sandra Ish, Devin McConeell, Victoria Saitz, all good, though the apparently twenty year spread in ages seems a bit unrealistic, given other details of the script putting them closer together than that. That one weirdness aside, there is a palpable honesty and “realness” to the story that sneaks up on you, and delivers a surprising impact. As hinted in the title, You Got Older is actually a play about growing up, about the ways that facing our losses, disappointments and the eccentric irritations of life, in time make us all older - and sometimes, a little wiser, too. Meanwhile, 6th Street Playhouse’s Buyer & Cellar, which also opened last weekend, is a one-actor exploration of the affluent eccentricities of singer-actor Barbra Streisand. Written by Jonathan Tolins, directed with energetic simplicity by Sarah Muirhead, Buyer & Cellar takes a well-documented fact about Streisand—that she built a miniature shopping mall in her cellar to hold the costumes and kitsch acquired over the years—and uses it to launch a flight of fancy about an unemployed actor named Alex who is hired as a make-believe storekeeper in Bab’s bizarre basement playground. The enjoyable, joke-packed script contains a truly effective play-ending twist, but its insights into Streisand’s psyche mostly tend toward the obvious—her mother never told her she was pretty, she grew up in poverty so she now likes to flaunt her wealth. And the story itself, while definitely funny and affectionate, sometimes strains for purpose and relevance. It doesn’t matter. The real reason to see Buyer & Cellar is Patrick Varner’s outstanding performance as Alex. Jaw-droppingly good, Varner’s inventive characterizations and clear emotional arc carry this kooky comedy along on a wave of energy and sweetness, with only occasional lapses of momentum. Taken together, both new shows show extraordinary humanity and compassion for their messy, identifiable characters, and at a time when its sometimes hard to recognize the commonalities between us, a bit if humanity and compassion are exactly what the world needs more of. 'You Got Older’ runs Friday–Sunday, through Feb. 3 – Feb. 19 at Left Edge Theater, www.leftedgetheater.com. 'Buyer & Cellar’ runs Thursday–Sunday through Feb. 19 at 6th Street Playhouse. www.6thstreetplayhouse.com

AFTERBUZZ TV -- Grease Live edition, is a weekly "after show" for fans of Fox's Grease Live. In this show, hosts Marisa Serafini, Dakota T. Jones, and Maria Provenzano discuss the Grease Live special. Grease: Live! will be broadcast by Fox on January 31, 2016. The director is Thomas Kail, with the TV adaptation written by Robert Cary and Jonathan Tolins, choreography by Zach Woodlee, set design by David Korins. costumes by William Ivey Long, music supervision by Tom Kitt  and TV direction by Alex Rudzinski. The show will be performed with a studio audience. Kail said that Grease: Live! is a combination of the original stage musical and the 1978 film. The television production will include songs from the film, including "Hopelessly Devoted to You". The theme song, performed on the 1978 film soundtrack by Frankie Valli, will be sung by Jessie J. Follow us on http://www.Twitter.com/AfterBuzzTV "Like" Us on http://www.Facebook.com/AfterBuzzTV

AFTERBUZZ TV -- Grease Live edition, is a weekly "after show" for fans of Fox's Grease Live. In this show, hosts Marisa Serafini, Dakota T. Jones, and Maria Provenzano discuss the Grease Live special. Grease: Live! will be broadcast by Fox on January 31, 2016. The director is Thomas Kail, with the TV adaptation written by Robert Cary and Jonathan Tolins, choreography by Zach Woodlee, set design by David Korins. costumes by William Ivey Long, music supervision by Tom Kitt  and TV direction by Alex Rudzinski. The show will be performed with a studio audience. Kail said that Grease: Live! is a combination of the original stage musical and the 1978 film. The television production will include songs from the film, including "Hopelessly Devoted to You". The theme song, performed on the 1978 film soundtrack by Frankie Valli, will be sung by Jessie J. Follow us on http://www.Twitter.com/AfterBuzzTV "Like" Us on http://www.Facebook.com/AfterBuzzTV https://anchor.fm/app Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Bob Wilcox and Gerry Kowarsky review (1) BUYER AND CELLAR, by Jonathan Tolins, at the Rep Studio Theatre, (2) JERRY SPRINGER THE OPERA, by Richard Thomas & Stewart Lee, at New Line Theatre, (3) PAUL ROBESON, by Phillip Hayes Dean, at The Black Rep, (4) RADIUM GIRLS, by D.W. Gregory, at the Kirkwood Theatre Guild, (5) SIGHT UNSEEN, by Donald Margulies, at the New Jewish Theatre, (6) THE PHANTOM OF THE OPERA, by Andrew Lloyd Webber, et al., at the Fox () Theatre, (7) YOU CAN'T TAKE IT WITH YOU, by George S. Kaufman, at the Theatre Guild of Webster Groves, (8) OTELLO, by Verdi & Boito, at Winter Opera Saint Louis, and (9) THE LITTLE PRINCE, by John Scoullar & Rick Cummins, adapted from Antoine de Saint-Exupery, at COCA Presents.

Dennis sat down with playwright Jonathan Tolins (Twilight of the Golds, The Last Sunday in June, Queer as Folk) on the day after his smash Off-Broadway play "Buyer and Cellar" opened in LA at the Mark Taper Forum.  Inspired by Barbra Streisand's book "My Passion for Design," the play imagines what it would be like if Barbra actually hired an out of work gay actor (Ugly Betty's Michael Urie) to work in the Main Street USA-style mall she has the basement of her Malibu compound.  Dennis and Jonathan also discuss Outfest pool parties, Mitt Romney's downfall, Queer as Folk, the importance of mentors and getting the hell out of LA.  

Well, here we are. A new Jewish year and what have we learned? Well, we're about to learn a lot about Barbra Streisand. She, and her bizarre fake basement shopping mall, are the subject of the fantastic play BUYER AND CELLAR, and its playwright JONATHAN TOLINS and its star MICHAEL URIE are our guests for this week's show. Therefore! This week's show features an examination of: whether or not Barbra truly likes to eat; why it was a blessing that The New Yorker rejected Tollins's idea as an essay originally; what James Brolin must really be like based on the time he tore an ad out of a magazine that one time; how Barbra would sound on the phone if she were applying for a job at Souplantation, and so, so much more. Furthermore: enjoy the following things, also, which are discussed in cartoonish abundance. The preference of being happy over being healthy! The weird nature-objects that comprise a Sukkos celebration! A lot of talk about Charles Manson and how shitty the '60s must have been if you were black or female! And a major guilt trip concerning the upcoming release of the Citibike photos. A legendary show studded with Divadom.

Theater Talk has "Buyer & Cellar," actor Michael Urie and playwright Jonathan Tolins, plus "A Visit to The Nance" with actors Nathan Lane and Jonny Orsini, playwright Douglas Carter Beane and director Jack O'Brien.

Theater Talk sits down with actor Michael Urie and playwright Jonathan Tolins of "Buyer & Cellar," Tolins's new hit comedy with a unique inspiration. Also, critics Adam Feldman and Suzy Evans give us a Broadway Update.

The panelists - playwright/director Edward Albee ("Marriage Play"), director Arvin Brown ("The Twilight of the Golds"), agent Joyce Ketay, playwright Tony Kushner ("Angels In America"), playwright Timothy Mason ("The Fiery Furnace"), and playwright Jonathan Tolins ("The Twilight of the Golds") - talk about playwrights directing their own work, how directors and playwrights collaborate, gauging audience response, and the evolution of their respective productions.

The panelists -- playwright/director Edward Albee (Tony winner for Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? and the 2005 recipient of the Special Tony Award for Lifetime Achievement in the Theatre), director Arvin Brown (The Twilight of the Golds), agent Joyce Ketay, playwright Tony Kushner (winner of two Tony Awards for both parts of Angels in America), playwright Timothy Mason (The Fiery Furnace), and playwright Jonathan Tolins (The Twilight of the Golds) -- talk about playwrights directing their own work, how directors and playwrights collaborate, gauging audience response, and the evolution of their respective productions.