I'm Anna Lee Ashford.

Hi, this is Queen Leslie Bolger.

Queen, Leslie, Margarita.

Hi, I'm Eden Espinoza.

Hi, I'm Laura Osniss.

I'm Katie Finneran.

Hi, I'm Tanya Pinkins, and you're listening to the Theater People podcast. Hello, fellow theater people.

Welcome to episode 19 of the Theater People podcast.

I'm Patrick Hines, your host.

This is how I saw my best friend, today's guest, Ellen Marie Marsh, make her Broadway debut.

It was early on in the run of Priscilla Queen of the Desert,

and Ellen was a standby. That night, she'd be going on for one of the divas, the show's belting

narrators. She'd done this dozens of times in Toronto during the show's out-of-town tryout,

but this was her first time going on on Broadway. She'd had her fair share of Broadway heartbreak.

You'll hear more about that during the interview, and that made this particular debut even more triumphant. Steve and I were in the cheap seats up in the balcony,

and as the chords of the show's opening song, its reigning men began to echo through the theater,

I totally lost it, you guys. And then there she was in a silver dress and an orange beehive

wig being flown in from the rafters tearing through her solo.

It was magnificent.

I can't say enough about this woman who at this point I've known half my life.

Personally, she's at least partially responsible for most of the good things I have in my life.

Professionally, I've watched her grow from college black box theater performer to

...