Producer Mark Cortale has announced that stars of the stage and screen who will join the April 2021 line-up of The Seth Concert Series, the live weekly series based on Seth Rudetsky’s international Broadway series that began at The Art House in Provincetown ten years ago are: Matt Doyle, Ali Stroker, Stephanie J. Block, and husband Sebastian Arcelus, and Mandy Gonzalez.
Matt Doyle star of Broadway’s new revival of Company, as well as Spring Awakening, War Horse and The Book of Mormon, makes his series debut on April 4. It was a pleasure to sit down with Matt for this exclusive Hotspots interview.
At what age did you begin performing, and how did it happen?
I started performing when I was about 13 years old in community theater. I was bullied pretty badly in middle school and needed to find a community of my own. From that moment on, I found my home.
What was your first professional/paid role?
I had my first professional gig on Broadway when I was 19 in Spring Awakening.
In the last decade you starred in two of my favorite shows on Broadway, Book Of Mormon and War Horse. They are so different. Can you tell me about your experiences and compare the two shows?
What is unbelievable is that they were in the same season, Best Musical and Best Play! I was so enamored with Book of Mormon/ I workshopped it with a small role. I opened in War Horse at the same time Book of Mormon came to Broadway, so it was amazing that less than a year later I would be playing the lead in Book of Mormon.
What has been your favorite role to play?
Oh my gosh, I would say Jamie in Company. We were just getting started and the role felt closest to my heart, a 30 something Gay male trying to make it in NYC. I just loved Company and Stephen Sondheim so much and I am excited to get back to it.
For a long time it was Claude in “Hair,” but now I am too old for that role, so my fantasy role is George Seurat in Sunday in the Park with George.
Describe yourself in three words?
Passionate, blunt and loyal.
You are in a relationship with Max. How long have you been together, how did you meet and what makes him the perfect guy for you?
Max and I have been together for almost 6 years now, and we met at a Starbucks in line. I recognized him from the industry and said hello to him. A short while later, he got my email from a mutual friend and asked me out, but I was seeing someone else at the time. I then got stood up by that person 2 weeks later and I texted Max, and we have been together ever since. We are the perfect combination; I am serious, and he is positive and goofy. We balance each other out.
What should our readers expect from your Virtual Broadway Series with Seth Rudetsky?
I am doing a completely musical theater set. A set of all the shows I have done over the years as well as songs that have influenced me over the years. I am so excited to do this set because I love Seth, and because I never do sets like this. It’s been so long since I have been on stage that its so nice to embrace that side of me and celebrate it.
Is there anything else you want to talk about?
Yes, my biggest focus right now is the other side of Covid and bringing back the arts and Broadway. There are 90,000 jobs that are missing in New York form the Broadway community. I can’t wait to see my co-workers again and I don’t just mean the actors. The best thing in my career will be to be involved in the Broadway comeback.
Each weekly show premieres live on Sunday afternoons at the new time of 3pm with a one-time rebroadcast on Sunday nights at 8pm, except where otherwise noted. Tickets are available at thesethconcertseries.com for $25 each. Premium VIP tickets that include “behind-the-scenes” access to the artists’ soundcheck are also now on sale for most of the April and May lineup’s shows.
