The new musical “Lempicka” has inspired a love-it-or-hate-it response from critics and audiences alike — and its two newly-minted Tony-nominated actors, Eden Espinosa and Amber Iman, love that everyone seems to have strong feelings at all — positive or negative.
Listen to this week’s “Stagecraft” podcast below:
“It’s been a while since a show has taken the risks and the big swings our show has,” said Espinosa, the fan-favorite star nominated for lead actress in a musical. Speaking on the latest episode of “Stagecraft,” Variety’s theater podcast, she continued, “The show is so epic. There’s so much information. It’s brand new. And because of that, it’s going to stir different things in different people. That is the kind of art that I always want to be a part of. So I’m just happy people are feeling strongly either way about it, honestly.”
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She added, “Art is supposed to spark debate and controversy, and sometimes be polarizing.”
Iman, up for featured actress in a musical, noted that one of the things that audiences have responded to has been the casting of their two roles.
“You have a show led by two women of color, which you’re not seeing anywhere else,” Iman said. “Some girls said to me last night, ‘I feel like I have a future in musical theater because of this.’ These girls whose voices are large or different or they do something that people don’t know what to do with. Now they’re like, ‘Oh, I can do that show. I can be like them.’ It’s really touching a lot of people.”
Espinosa and Iman spoke to “Stagecraft” before the Tony nominations were announced Tuesday morning. At that point, they were at peace with however the nominations turned out.
“If I were to say that it’s something that I haven’t wished for or wanted in my career, I would be lying,” Espinosa admitted about the Tony Awards. “Of course it’s a goal and an honor, and an accolade that in this community that you can’t help but hope to achieve. But it’s one of those things that, over the years, you hear that’s it’s everything and it’s nothing all at the same time. If we were to be recognized, what an honor. It’s also at this time, oddly enough in my life at 46 years old, when I don’t actually need it anymore.”
Also on the new episode of “Stagecraft,” Espinosa and Iman reveal their feelings about the critical discourse around “Lempicka,” explain why each of them has felt so committed to the musical over the years and shared which onstage moments they love — and which make them tense.
For Iman, counterintuitively, it’s when her character is asleep. “Laying in the bed is stressful to me!” she said with a laugh.
To hear the entire conversation, listen at the link above or download and subscribe to “Stagecraft” on podcast platforms including Apple Podcasts, Spotify and the Broadway Podcast Network. New episodes of “Stagecraft” are released every other week.
