Music's Elite Seat // Episode 6 // Ben Cohn

Music's Elite Seat: With Dan Lewis

[MISSING INTRO]
How is the show going?
It’s going great…you know, we’re rolling, we’re heading towards a year, which is unbelievable. It’s going great! We have lots of new cast members on the horizon and things like that…
Yeah! There’s a cast change coming up, right? Ben Platt being one of the major changes…
Yeah, so Ben leaves November 19th is his last show and we’ve got like an interim Evan Hansen in between I guess like November to January-ish, and then we have a full time one coming in January.
That great! So, talking in almost major steps, how did you get to the position you’re in now?
Well… it’s been a long journey [Laughs]. I came here for grad school mainly and while I was there I worked as a pianist and, you know, anything from auditions to classes, to working with individual actors and performers and musicians and things like that. Just any kind of freelance work with any musician I could, and, you know, I sort of built up a reputation as I went and then started to slowly get different jobs, and I started subbing in to orchestras and bands on Broadway and then sort of slowly made my way in to a permanent position at Wicked…I was there for a very long time…and then Dear Evan Hansen was actually something I was working on over the past few years, they brought me in early on during readings and workshops, and then just stayed with it, and then when time came for it to go to Broadway, I sort of had to make the decision whether to leave Wicked and do it, and I did, and here I am. That’s the quick version [Laughs].
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Ben Cohn is one of the top Musical directors on Broadway today currently the MD for the highly acclaimed, 6 time Tony Award winning musical ‘Dear Evan Hansen’. Having previously spent 10 years at Wicked on Broadway, Ben has many incredible stories and advice for many wanting to go into similar careers. I caught up with Ben from his home in New York just after an evening performance of Dear Evan Hansen.
[Episode Recorded In 2017]