Feature: The Days Of Cabaret Gratitude - Day Fourteen - The Historian

The Days Of Cabaret Gratitude

Day Fourteen:  The Historian - Charles Kirsch

He has a lifelong devotion to Broadway, and not just the Broadway of today, the Broadway that stretches out over the last century.  He is dedicated to the history of the theater, the trivia of the musicals, and the stories behind the productions.  He is focused on preserving all of that information in his brain and in ways that are accessible to the public, so that the tales can be told, the facts shared, and The Great White Way celebrated.  He sounds like any number of gentlemen that most of us know, gentlemen who have made their healthy obsession with theater their life for all the many years that they have been alive to indulge in that healthy obsession.  There’s only thing different between him and all those other men we know.

He’s sixteen years old.

Charles Kirsch is in the 11th grade and will, soon, be off to college, where he intends to follow a line of study that will set him up in the industry as a theater director.  Having been exposed to theater when Mama and Papa Kirsch took him to see the age-appropriate ANNIE, Kirsch confesses that it was the revival of ON THE TOWN (slightly less age appropriate for a seven-year-old) that fired his attention to and affection for all things theatrical, Broadway and beyond, an affection that Mr. and Mrs. Kirsch were happy to nurture by gifting Young Mater Kirsch with some Broadway reference books, at which point, all bets were off.  Shortly thereafter, Charles Kirsch joined Broadway World as one of the Kid Critics, giving him access to a world of Broadway wonder.  A few years into his obsession for The Great White Way, Charles caught a concert staging of YOU’RE A GOOD MAN, CHARLIE BROWN at 54 Below and, since then, has taken in as many 54 Below concert stagings of old musicals as possible.  And then the lockdown hit.

During the quarantine, an idea that had been rolling around inside of the Kirsch mind took deeper and deeper root, leading Charles to launch a Broadway-themed podcast, something along the lines of similar podcasts he had heard.  Suddenly, at twelve, Charles Kirsch was chatting up the stars whose work he had admired on cast recordings about the history with which he had become obsessed, the history they had a hand in creating.  Four years have passed and Charles Kirsch has one hundred and seventy (170) episodes of his podcast, upon which he has interviewed working actors, theater creatives, and Broadway legends.  He has also become the host of his own series at 54 Below, BACKSTAGE BABBLE LIVE.  During his Broadway variety show, Charles welcomes the stars to the stage for a brief chat about their life and the show that is the subject of the moment, and then the celebrated artist performs a number from that show.  Charlies Kirsch isn’t just keeping history relevant, he is bringing it back to life.  He is not just keeping the actors in the public eye, he is giving them a place to perform.   He is not just talking theater, he is making theater.

Podcaster, historian, Master of Ceremonies, and director to be - that is Charles Kirsch and everyone, from the legends to the audience members, is so much the better that he has come our way.  And it all started because a seven-year-old was allowed to pursue an interest that truly captured his attention.

Thank goodness for precocious children and the parents who tend their gardens.

Read a Broadway World Cabaret review of Charles Kirsch HERE

Charles will appear at Backstage Babble Celebrates Joe Allen Restaurant at 54 Below on Monday, April 29, 2024 at 7 PM. Backstage Babble has upcoming interviews with Kelli O’Hara, Cherry Jones, and Casey Nicholaw.

Charles’s pronouns are he/him/his.

Charles can be found online at the following links:

The Backstage Babble Podcast:  HERE 

Instagram:  HERE 

Facebook:  HERE  

YouTube:  HERE

Photos by Stephen Mosher

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