BWW Blog: Jeff Blumenkrantz of Broadway's BRIGHT STAR

Hello, Broadway World!

As one of your new guest bloggers, allow me to introduce myself with this first installment! For those of you who don't know me, I'm actor/composer Jeff Blumenkrantz, and if you want to know more about me, you can scope me out at my website and/or hear my songs on both The Jeff Blumenkrantz Songbook Podcast and the CD I've Been Played: Alysha Umphress Swings Jeff Blumenkrantz.)

I'm currently performing in the new Steve Martin/Edie Brickell musical Bright Star, which opened on Broadway not even a month ago, so I'm/we're still in that honeymoon phase. I'd thought I'd take this opportunity to write about some of the magical things one only gets to experience as a member of a new Broadway show.

While Bright Star is my sixth Broadway show, it's been 15 years since my last Broadway appearance, so I was particularly thrilled to rejoin this incredible community.

Here are My Top Four Favorite Things about Being in a Broadway Show:

Opening Night - Of course, the day a show opens is particularly exciting! It marks the end of rehearsals (except for the understudies, that is), it's typically a great audience (although sometimes the opposite is true), everyone dresses up, you get a big party, there's a step-and-repeat! But for me, the real thrill of the Broadway opening is the first glimpse of backstage. It is virtually impossible to describe how special the backstage of a Broadway opening night looks like. My first Broadway show was Into the Woods (yes, the original!), and I'll never forget the feeling of walking through the Martin Beck (!) stage door and laying my eyes on the unrecognizable surroundings. The whole stairwell, every landing, every shelf, every surface, every inch of every dressing table was overflowing with a combination of flowers, presents, cards, bags, bottles, boxes, etc. It's a celebration wonderland! And to add to that, now there's a new (for me) thing where all the Broadway shows send each other opening night best wishes on a page with their show logo and messages from the cast, and these are really fun to sift through.

(Here's ours.)

For those of you aspiring to a career on Broadway: when/if you have your first Broadway opening, plan to get to the theatre good and early that day. For the opening of Bright Star, I was actually thrilled to see that we were called two whole hours before curtain for the...

2. Gypsy Robe Ceremony - You probably already know what this is. If you don't, you can read all about it here. Suffice to say, it's one of those only-on-Broadway kinds of things that make you feel warm and fuzzy and appreciative of the history of the Broadway musical and all those that have come before.

3. The two annual Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDS (BC/EFA) fundraising drives which culminate in the Easter Bonnet Competition and the Gypsy of the Year - You probably already know what this is too. If not, you can read all about it here. It fills me with pride to be part of a community that took action 28 years ago when there was little to no support and found creative ways to raise money for those who needed it so desperately. Now, not quite 30 years later, BC/EFA has grown to be able to fund over 450 organizations nationwide, distributing as much as $12 million a year in grants. Broadway does care, and it shows. And the Easter Bonnet and Gypsy of the Year presentations are always crowdpleasers, chock full of wit, fun, and talent.

4. One of my favorite perks of being in a Broadway show is occasionally being offered complimentary tickets to other Broadway shows. It's a wonderful professional courtesy that shows sometimes extend to one another when they're not on the exact same schedule, most often when a show is in previews or early in the run and sales are still on the slower side. I love seeing theatre, and it's nice to get a freebie once in a while.

Honorable Mention: If I were interested in sports, this would be the perfect place to mention the Broadway softball and bowling leagues, but I'm not, so nevermind...

The only other thing it occurs to me to mention about being in a new Broadway show is how grueling the schedule can be, particularly for the principals who are typically called upon to participate in countless publicity events and performances. I marvel at the way our leading lady, Carmen Cusack, has been able to squeeze in recording our cast album, singing the national anthem at the Yankee's first game, appearing on The Tonight Show, The Today Show, The Late Show, my concert at Birdland this past Monday, and giving any number of interviews, and still, she pulls out a heart-stopping, tour de force performance eight times a week without fail. Come to think of it, that'd be my final favorite thing about being on Broadway: working in this uniquely wonderful community made up of the most outrageously gifted, generous, fun, hard-working, and tireless people you could meet. What a privilege....