LISTEN: Ruben Santiago-Hudson Talks SEVEN GUITARS & More on AND THE AWARD GOES TO...

Have you ever dreamed of winning a Tony Award? Did you ever practice your Tony acceptance speech in the bathroom mirror? Did you grow up watching the Tony Awards every year ? Do you have a collection of Tony Award shows on VHS tape that you refuse to throw out?

This is the podcast for you. Every week actress and podcast host Ilana Levine interviews your favorite Tony Award winners and together they go down memory lane as guests share intimate and never before shared details about their Tony experience.

You will hear their reactions as they listen to their Tony speech again and feel like you are reliving the experience with them. Tears are shed- laughs are shared and it is a rare glimpse into what it really is to sit in Radio City and hear your name called and all the emotion and relief that comes with that rare moment where fantasy and reality come together and the thing you have wished for your whole life has just come true and suddenly you have to walk down an aisle and step up on that stage and try to put into words how much this award means to you.

Welcome to "AND THE TONY GOES TO..." By the end of each episode listeners will feel like THEY have just won a Tony!

Ruben Santiago-Hudson had dreamed of being in an August Wilson from the first time he was in the audience of Ma Rainey's Black Bottom. He found himself crying during the play and realized he was not just deeply moved by the play and the actors in it but the tears were connected to this feeling that for the first time in his life he was seeing people on stage who were so familiar to him and he wanted to be a part of that kind of storytelling. It took a few tries but finally he was cast in Wilson's Seven Guitars and that began a brotherhood and an artistic marriage between Ruben and the great playwright that lasted until the death of August Wilson. It was Wilson who encouraged Ruben not just to act in his work but to be one of the few artists he trusted to direct his work. Since then Ruben has directed his plays on Broadway and adapted Ma Rainey's Black Bottom for the screen. This is an artistic relationship that will be a part of theater history.

Find out more at https://broadwaypodcastnetwork.com/.