Kate Baldwin Looks for Deeper Creative Purpose Than Just Performing

For only the second time in my career, I’m doing back to back shows at the same theater. First there was Anne of Green Gables this past summer and now there’s 42nd Street here at the Goodspeed Opera House. It’s a show I’ve did a few years back and in the same role as too, only this time there’s a lead producer who’s working to bring this production (and hopefully its cast) to Broadway. It has Carina-Kay Louchiey as the young starlet Peggy Sawyer and Max von Essen as the hard-nosed director Julian Marsh. I’m in the role of Pat Denning, playing opposite one of my favorite leading ladies of Broadway... Kate Baldwin, who plays the veteran actress Dorothy Brock, joins the podcast to talk about this current production of 42nd Street and why it means so much to the both us. Then we take a surprisingly candid and unvarnished look at her career and why she was told she’d probably never have one in theater. We also discuss the ways we performers often compare ourselves to others and how to handle those times when someone else books the show instead of us. As Kate mentions in this episode, she and Georgia Stitt have worked together for years. And it was back in 2017 that MAESTRA MUSIC was formed by this composer/lyricist and music director to give support, visibility, and community to the women who make the music in the musical theater industry. Their membership is made up of female-identifying, non-binary, and gender non-conforming composers, music directors, orchestrators, arrangers, copyists, rehearsal pianists and other musicians who are an underrepresented minority in musical theater (Back in Season 4, Stitt came on WINMI podcast to talk about her career and this wonderful organization). FINAL FIVE QUESTIONS WITH KATE BALDWIN In addition to our main conversation, Kate answered the five final questions on topics that we only briefly touched on in this episode. She shares her definition of "making it" as well as what annoyed her most about some singers (riffing). She also discusses music directors, her early days in Thoroughly Modern Millie, and the importance of going where you are loved. Read it all on the WINMI Blog. --- Subscribe to get access to bonus episodes and extra content . You can also make a one-time Donation to support podcast production. If you’d like to support WINMI but have limited funds to do so, then contact me directly for reduced-price or even free access to the bonus content.  Why I’ll Never Make It is an award-winning podcast hosted by actor and singer⁠ ⁠⁠Patrick Oliver Jones⁠ and is a production of WINMI Media. Background music is by John Bartmann, used under a Creative Commons⁠ ⁠⁠Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License⁠. Follow WINMI: Website | Instagram Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices