Hi, listeners! Enjoy this throwback to 2019 and the very first guest from our My First Time miniseries. Our first guest for this miniseries was Ben Crawford. In April 2018, he started creeping ‘round the Majestic Theatre as the title character in The Phantom of the Opera. But before headlining this show, before Charlie and the Chocolate Factory and Big Fish and Shrek, he was a replacement in the first Broadway revival of Les Miserables, covering both the roles of Valjean and Javert.

We discussed making his Broadway debut, what he learned understudying two of theatre's most iconic roles and how he brought those lessons to playing the title character in Broadway's longest running show.