It was crunch time during tech at Thoroughly Modern Millie when the deluge curtain opened up and flooded the stage and the Director, Michael Mayer, had to figure out what to do.

As the Company Manager, I’ll never forget the look on everyone’s faces when they found out that costumes were ruined, the stage couldn’t be used, etc.

And under Michael’s leadership, everyone buckled down, mopped up the mess, and went on to create a Tony Award-winning musical.

Michael has put a few more Tony-Award winning shows on his resume, including Spring Awakening, and we talked about all the show(s) he has captained, as well as . . .

• The GOOD review that made him stop reading reviews altogether.
• Why he convinced everyone to wait for Neil Patrick Harris to be available for Hedwig and how we got that performance out of him.
• How he can still feel like a fraud, even with a Tony Award on his shelf, and how he gets through that when he starts a new show.
• Plays versus musicals and the skills you need for both.
• The day he knew to hang it up as a performer because there were bigger things that he could do.

Listen to it on iTunes here. (And if you like the podcast, give it a great review while you’re there!)

Download it here.