Closing shows are just part of the big, beautiful cycle of musical theatre. And yet sometimes those closings are so sudden that they defy explanation. Such was the case last fall with the North American tour of Bat Out of Hell - The Musical. While playing its opening stint in Toronto, the show’s producers announced that the multi-city run would shutter its doors before even reaching its second city. Left in the lurch were dozens of performers, including this week’s guest Emilie Battle.
Emilie was a member of the original off-Broadway company of Dear Evan Hansen understudying the role of Alana Beck. But in the last twelve months, she’s been a part of two productions that closed prematurely Bat Out Of Hell and this summer’s off-Broadway run of an entirely new commercial musical Broadway Bounty Hunter. I asked her into the studio to share these two very different experiences, and how they were at all united. Here’s our conversation...