This transcript was automatically generated and might contain errors.

[0:01] Mo Brady: You're listening to The Ensemblist, the only podcast that shows you Broadway from the inside out. I'm Mo Brady.

[0:15] Mo Brady: It was one of the most arresting and uncomfortable moments I've experienced in the theater in quite a long time. There I sat, in the Public's Newman Theater, watching a performance of the show Soft Power. Wildly theatrical in conceit, Soft Power is billed as a musical within a play. The show uses multiple framing devices to explore America's love affair with democracy. And the phrase, a musical within a play is putting it lightly. The show breaks down and rebuilds the proverbial fourth wall multiple times over the performance. But it was the production's final song that made me so uncomfortable. In the song, a reprise of a number called Democracy, the full company of actors comes down to the edge of the stage.

There, standing shoulder to shoulder, 15 performers look directly into the audience to recognize our presence in the space. As they look us in the eye, they sing about their experiences with the concept of democracy, how they've been burned, how they've been championed, and how they believe in it, despite its faults.

[1:57] Mo Brady: And as the actors stood staring at me, I felt remarkably uneasy. And not just because shows with audience participation make me feel icky. I felt uncomfortable because I felt seen. I felt like I was being asked to be accountable for my presence in the space. Part of what contributed to my feeling accountable is the design of the Newman Theater itself. It's a 299-seat theater built with the audience at a slight rake. So, if you're sitting four or five rows back as I was, you're literally eye-level with the performers on stage. It's impossible to escape being seen, being recognized, being made accountable. And in Soft Power, this moment of performers standing in the line is long. At least 30 seconds, maybe even a minute, which is a long time to feel uncomfortable.

[3:10] Mo Brady: The experience brought me back to early 2015, which was the last time I had been in the Newman Theater. There, on a Saturday evening, I sat two rows closer and a few seats to the left to take in what would become the show that turned the theater world upside down. Hamilton. On that evening four years earlier, I remember feeling put on the spot. And not just because Jimmy Fallon was sitting next to me. I felt seen because Hamilton's opening number uses the same staging device. 17 performers standing shoulder-to-shoulder, acknowledging the audience as they introduce a man who never backed down and never learned to take his time.

[4:13] Mo Brady: And as I thought about these two similar moments in musical theater history, my mind then took me back to another musical that premiered in the same exact space 40 years earlier. A musical built entirely around the concept of a line, where actors stood shoulder-to-shoulder across the width of the proscenium. A musical that, like Hamilton has and perhaps Soft Power will, changed the trajectory of our art form. What is it about this line? Why is it that, in an industry known for spectacle, does stillness provide the most arresting visual images? Why is it, in an art form full of Ziegfeld's follies and falling chandeliers, nothing is as effective as doing nothing? Does it have to do with the egalitarianism of the device?

In A Chorus Line, Cassie stands sixth from the left between Greg and Sheila. In Hamilton's opening, Eliza stands between woman three and woman four, with the line flanked offstage by George Washington on one side and Aaron Burr on the other. In Soft Power, DHH and Hillary stand shoulder-to-shoulder with the unnamed ensemble. There is no star billing in this staging device. In this moment, all storytellers are created equal.

[5:53] Mo Brady: So, I wanted to explore the history of the line. Is there a connection between these musical moments? Have they inspired each other, either explicitly or implicitly? And why does this device just work? Over this miniseries, I'm going to attempt to figure that out. I'm going to reach out to some of the theater makers I admire the most to learn about the creation of these musical moments, and hopefully, learn something about the power of musical theater along the way. So, to quote Alexander Hamilton in Nonstop...

[6:28] Mo Brady: The Ensemblist was produced today by Anna Altide, Jackson Klein, and me, Mo Brady. There are two great ways you can be helping The Ensemblist right now. One is by leaving us a rating and review on Apple Podcasts, and the other is by becoming a Patreon member at patreon.com slash The Ensemblist. Please follow us wherever you listen to podcasts, on Spotify, on Apple Podcasts, or at bpn.fm, the home of Broadway Podcast Network. You can also follow us on Instagram. Thanks for listening. Until next time.

[7:07] Mo Brady: Do we have his eyes on you? I am not throwing away my shot. I am not throwing away my shot. I am Alexander Hamilton, Hamilton just you wait. I am not throwing away my shot.