Former Book of Mormon star PJ Adzima (nine years as Elder McKinley!) joins the pod to talk about Slam Frank, the off-Broadway musical everyone in New York is debating.
Slam Frank is a play-within-a-play satire of woke politics, inspired by a 2022 tweet asking whether Anne Frank ever acknowledged her white privilege, and PJ is one of the lead producers who took it from a wild internet idea to a sold-out run at the Orpheum Theatre.
PJ goes from a fourth-generation farm in Massachusetts to New York at 18, survives a years-long international Book of Mormon tour, lands his Broadway dream job, and then launches Stage Time, his production company for drag, burlesque, circus and comedy. And then signs on to produce Slam Frank.
We get into mid-performance walkouts, surprise celebrity guests, what the message of the musical is and what “woke” even means anymore. Plus the big question: has Broadway gotten too polite?
In this episode:
How Book of Mormon gave PJ the blueprint for a hit
Going from a scrappy downtown run to the Orpheum
Walkouts, outrage and wildly different audience reactions
Celebrity sightings in the crowd
What it takes to produce a musical with no marketing budget
Broadway etiquette
Is Hamilton cringe?
Whether musical theater has gotten too safe
*This interview was independently organized by me. This is not a partnership, collaboration or endorsement
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