PJ Adzima: From The Book of Mormon to Stage Time CEO
This transcript of my interview with PJ Adzima is linked to the podcast and video versions, as well as the show notes with all the links!
PJ Adzima:
But he saw a property and a show that was looking for someone. He saw a kid with hunger and talent and a drive and he picked up the phone and it changed my life. I've dedicated my life to building and giving opportunities in a similar fashion because it happened to me. I think that that is the biggest lesson and why I get back to showing up and being a person and being a person that people want to work with because that is in fact where all the magic is because without him picking up the phone, I would not be sitting where I am today and I certainly wouldn't be dressed in this fabulous coat.
Leah Roseman:
Hi, you're listening to Conversations with Musicians, with Leah Roseman. I was fascinated to meet PJ Adzima and learn about his path from his childhood on a farm to his career as a Broadway performer in the Book of Mormon. A chance encounter with a legendary composer changed his life forever and now as the CEO of the production company Stage Time, he's paying that forward by discovering and curating talent across genres through many projects. He talked about how embracing vulnerability and studying drag has been transformative and helped him take up space, challenge norms, and create with purpose. A joyful and deep appreciation for the performing arts certainly has driven his excellence and helped him transform his side project into his full-time business. And I'm sure you'll find PJ's energy infectious. Like all my episodes, you can watch this on my YouTube channel or listen to the podcast and I've also linked the transcript.
It's a joy to bring these inspiring episodes to you and I do all the many jobs of research, production, and publicity. Have a look at the show notes of this episode where you'll find all the links, including different ways to support this podcast.
Hey, PJ, it's so great to meet you. Thanks for joining me.
PJ Adzima:
The pleasure is mine. Thank you so much for having me today.
Leah Roseman:
The only other Broadway actor I've had on is Dewitt Fleming Jr. Primarily a tap dancer. Did you ever run into him?
PJ Adzima:
Yeah, I do believe I know Dewitt. That's fabulous.
Leah Roseman:
Yeah.
PJ Adzima:
Yeah, I'm a big fan of the tapdancing community. I tap danced in the Book of Mormon for my big number. And so I'm a huge fan of the art form and anybody who does it professionally, it's an amazing thing to get to do.
Leah Roseman:
Yeah, you were with Book of Mormon for many years.
PJ Adzima:
That's right. Yeah. I started originally in the national tour and then from there I was moved to the Australian company where I opened the Sydney production. And then from there I got shipped over back around the world to Broadway where I played the same role the entire time around the world and then got to finish here in New York for about three years.
Leah Roseman:
Okay. Now I have not seen the Book of Mormon, but some people will who are listening.
PJ Adzima:
Someone will.
Leah Roseman:
So do you have like a favorite moment in the show ?
PJ Adzima:
Absolutely. So for viewers at home like yourself and for anyone who is not familiar with the Book of Mormon, I get to play the role of Elder McKinley. And Elder McKinley is a closeted gay missionary and sings the famous song about repression called Turn It Off. And so I was very fortunate to get to play that dream role of mine around the world. And so every day that was my favorite part of the show, selfishly because I got to sing this song, but it really was my favorite song from when I heard the soundtrack for the first time. I remember where I was when I heard that song for the first time and to get to then go on this amazing journey around the world and perform it and then bring it back to Broadway was and continues to be a dream come true.
Leah Roseman:
And how long were you in Australia?
PJ Adzima:
About a year. Yeah. So I lived in Sydney right in Darling Harbor. It was magnificent. I mean, it's such an extraordinarily beautiful place, but anytime that you get to travel for your work, especially when you do what you love, it's a dream.
Leah Roseman:
Okay. Yeah. There's a lot of listeners of the podcast in Australia. I've featured a lot of Australian musicians. So what do you miss the most about living in Sydney?
PJ Adzima:
Oh, it's beautiful. It's the most spectacular place. It feels like it's the best of LA. It's like if Seattle was Los Angeles in a Dr. Seuss book is how I describe Sydney. You feel like you're in this amazing metropolitan town and then you go to the park and it's the most staggering foliage you've ever seen and there's a galamphala bird or something crazy that's squawking at you and strutting past. It's really a head trip to spend that much time down under.
Leah Roseman:
So you'd mentioned you learned tap dancing, right, for that role? Like you hadn't?
PJ Adzima:
I did actually. That was a big part of my journey is I'd never tap dance before and it was this extraordinary like opportunity to ... I had about two weeks before the tap dance audition and I practiced - a friend of mine. I cheated actually, to give away the secrets. My friend of mine had been in the show previously and knew exactly the choreography that I would be tested on. So it's like having the answers to the test ahead of time. I realized I didn't have to become the best tap dancer. I just had to become the best at that one tap dance and those are two very different skills and I practiced until my feet bled and it all paid off and I got the role.
Leah Roseman:
Right. Yeah. Do you have any audition tips for people in general?
PJ Adzima:
Yeah, have fun. At the end of the day, if you're not having fun, we're not having fun. I think at least in the performing arts as I see it as a Broadway entertainer, I think it's a joyful experience or at least a lot of the work that I do is. Since being on Broadway, I've also worked a lot in nightlife and in entertainment and it really is about that exuberance of performance. And if you can tell from the way I'm dressed today, I believe in being an exuberant personality in general. And I think that the world needs a little bit more of that these days, especially to kind of shake us up and wake us up and to be that lighthouse. And so I think when you walk into a room and you have the opportunity to have that stage, that moment that's yours, it's not about pleasing the people on the other side of the table.
It's about having as much fun as you possibly can with that opportunity. And if that happens to be what they're looking for, great. And if it's not what they're looking for, at least you had a great time.
Leah Roseman:
And in terms of getting experience actually being on stage, Stage Time is providing that.
PJ Adzima:
Yeah, Stage Time. So Stage Time is my company that I started while I was doing Broadway 8 shows a week. Really kind of this realization that all there's so much similarity in the live performing arts. It feels like there's a time of great silos. People are really stuck in their different lanes, right? Especially when you get so specialized. I feel like the opera world, everybody really hones in, all you do is opera, the ballet world, all you do is ballet. And that is the same for magicians or circus artists or burlesque performers or Broadway performers. And what I realized, especially living in New York City, is that it's the best of the best in the world all live in New York or passes through New York, right? But there's no overlap. So I really had this idea for a show, an old school Vaudeville variety show that brought together the best of all of those categories.
What if you took the best Broadway singer you could find and the best burlesque performer or circus or magician and you presented a night of entertainment that had all of those verticals, Broadway, drag, stand up burlesque, circus magic, and presented it in one old school Vaudeville variety show. And I called it Stage Time because the one thing that you need more of to excel in every single one of those verticals is time on stage. So just like an Olympic swimmer needs time in the pool, a Broadway performer needs hours on stage and it's that amount of time and that amount of reps and that amount of literal stage time that's going to make you make the difference and really make you the best at what you do.
Leah Roseman:
I was checking out Stage Time's YouTube channel and I'll link that in the show notes for people and a lot of the sort of comedic bits you're doing like with song like Seasonal Depression.
PJ Adzima:
Yes, I love that one.That was an early one that we did very much in the style of ... Basically since that Stage Time, that original Vaudeville show, right? So I had this idea and I was doing it while I was performing eight shows a week and it became so popular that actually that it really took off on a life of its own. And from there we started selling out these shows downtown and then it became so popular we actually featured on NBC News and offered a weekly show as well. So this Vaudeville old school art form had really resonated with people as I refer to it as like TikTok on stage, right? It's the modern equivalent of this old thing. But once we had captured these shows, we realized that there was actually an amazing opportunity to get them online so they could be enjoyed by a wider audience around the world.
So Seasonal Depression is an original song that I had commissioned by two of my favorite composers in New York City that we filmed in our theater, the Slip Room Theater as a bit of a tribute to what everybody feels from January to February every single year.
Leah Roseman:
So PJ, I mean, obviously in New York you have the numbers of performers. I mean, so you say the best of the best. I mean, there's a lot of cities around the world with great artists. I think the difference might be like, because your lineup was changing all the time, maybe just the sheer number of performers that you could have a little more variety.
PJ Adzima:
Oh, of course. I mean, New York City is the greatest city in the world and it has every single piece, every single vertical, right? If you want to find something, you will find something in excellence in that category, right? It's just sheer variety of what this artistic mecca is, is you can find the greatest, you can find someone from the Met, you can find someone from the New York City Ballet, you can find someone, you can find these magicians from the depths of Brooklyn or these secret parlors that are doing tricks with Penn and Teller. It's everybody, even if you're not based in New York, you will be passing through New York at some point. So really, when I say best of the best, it's about finding who is in town and who is really at that peak level that I consider to be the Broadway standard and being able to then experience how similar and different these amazing communities are.
That's what I've loved is learning the specificities of like, let's say, a drag performer and what it's like to be doing drag as your profession every single night and the difficulties of that versus a ballerina who they both make their living on a stage, they both perform, but just the difference in demands and rigor and skill and in mindset to make a living in the arts on stage.
Leah Roseman:
So you got involved with drag but not that long ago, right?
PJ Adzima:
Oh, I'd say I've started practicing drag in 2023. It was one of my first experiments in broadening my own horizons. I believe in being a multi-hyphenate artist and breaking those molds of being put in a box. I moved to New York City to be a comedian actually. I was an actor and a comedian and I booked The Book of Mormon, which is a comedy show, the funniest show of all time, right? And then all of a sudden I found myself pigeonholed over here as a musical theater performer and I was like, "Whoa, no, no, no." I do everything, right? I think that everybody sticking to your lane, I actually find to be a detriment these days. This over specialization can really be a hindrance, I believe. And so I started practicing drag the same way someone starts taking tango lessons. It's a new hobby. It's something that's available to you like painting or like dancing and it really cracked me open and I taught me a ton as a performer.
It taught me what it's like to move to the world as a woman, what it's like to just see yourself and flex your own muscles as an entertainer in the world.
Leah Roseman:
And how do you think your drag performances have deepened as you've done it more?
PJ Adzima:
Oh, I love it. It's so fun. Moving through the world, especially in New York City, I don't know, I'm used to moving through the world as a masculine presence and for the first ... I'm not used to being pretty or having the attention of us or especially like when I don't have my mustache on, I scramble some brains because I'm a very pretty woman and so just even feeling like how firsthand, like instead of just intellectualizing what it's like to move through the world as a feminine presence, but to actually be on the streets in a skirt and pair of heels and be turning heads in a way that is just so foreign to my actual lived experience, it's an immediate lesson of that vulnerability and that kind of exposed thing that you can intellectualize, but until you are actually in that place with your body, it's like the amount of immediate downloads that you get from even just walking in someone else's shoes literally for a day, it's an experiment that I recommend for everybody.
I think every single person should do drag at one point in their lives. It's an incredibly illuminating art form.
Leah Roseman:
Yeah. Well, and the importance, especially now in the States with allyship and the younger generation feeling seen and feeling safe
PJ Adzima:
Absolutely. I think that it's really important to model that as well. I think that again, like I mentioned earlier, drag is like painting. Drag is like an art form. Drag is like photography. It is something that is practiced and is a skill that you can do regardless of your identity, regardless of your sexuality. It's an empowering art form that has a storied tradition dating back to the first performing arts. It is an ancient thing to dress up and pretend to be someone else of various genders and we've absolutely politicized it and it's absolutely taken on something so different, but I think there's so much power in that expression and in enjoying being beautiful and having fun with makeup, it's changed and taught me so much about my own expression and I've really blossomed as a person and become comfortable in my own masculine flamboyance because of the hours I've spent as a drag queen.
Yeah.
Leah Roseman:
So like this jacket you're wearing now, would you have worn that before?
PJ Adzima:
Absolutely not. No, that's a huge part of my identity and how I'm now showing up as a nightlife performer and I'm a curator of a brand new nightclub that just opened up on 57th Street called Masquerade Nocturne. And so my career has really exploded because of my experience working in nightlife and working with drag artists and working with burlesque artists and just learning from and being a part of a community that is so beautiful and in their power in expressing themselves fearlessly and exactly how they want to show up in the world and by taking up space. I think that taking up space is something that people are really bad at these days in this digital age and that people are afraid to do, especially in a country that is going through what is feeling like a really big cultural crackdown. And I actually think now is the time to be leaning into this expression flamboyantly, to be peacocking more than ever as a visual representation of that resistance and to be doing that, to be showing up confidently in spaces in times when people want you to be smaller than ever.
Drag has always been an act of rebellion, but even showing up in something that is so flamboyant or what some might call effeminate and bucking this cultural trend that is rearing its head right now is a proud act of defiance that I really enjoy incorporating into my daily life.
Leah Roseman:
Love that.
PJ Adzima:
Yeah. So
Leah Roseman:
This new nightclub.
PJ Adzima:
Yes, new nightclub. So my time in Broadway and opening Stage Time and running all these different productions has led to several projects that has let me leave Broadway as a performer full-time, though I am still a full-time performer. When I was able to say goodbye to the Book of Mormon, this like very safe government job and venture out on being a producer and a creator full time. And one of the opportunities that came my way, I was asked to run the nightlife program of Masquerade, which is the new, brand new immersive production of the Phantom of the Opera. So are you familiar with Masquerade and what they're doing with it, this revolutionary new production?
Leah Roseman:
Well, I looked into it, but my listeners may not know.
PJ Adzima:
Fabulous. So if you're familiar with The Phantom of the Opera, it's the longest running Broadway show for 35 years it dominated Broadway and then left recently and has now returned in a brand new state of the art six story immersive production that is like nothing you've ever seen before. It's absolutely extraordinary. It's an incredible hot ticket right now, a rave hit and that wasn't enough for these creators. They said, "Not only are we going to make such a revolutionary production of a classic musical, but now that it's open after hours, we have this opportunity to really continue the adventure." So in Masquerade, there's a production of the Fanta of the Opera from seven o'clock until 10:30 and then they gave me the keys and said, "Let's turn it into this nightlife theatrical space that is still in the world of the Phantom of the Opera from 10:30 until four in the morning." Old school, right?
And I said, "Yes, please," because that's exactly the center of my big philosophy, which is, I'm a Broadway performer in nightlife, but Broadway is nightlife, right? People forget, again, this gets back to this siloed thing. We are all under one umbrella of being in entertainment in New York City at this time and as far as I'm concerned, if you make money on a stage with your body between 5:00 PM and 5:00 AM, that's one team.
So now I'm the director of Nightlife for Masquerade. We are curating and building original nightlife programming after hours that is accessible to you, both if you've seen the production of Phantom of the Opera or as a different, like a place to come and see it in a show or dance after you've seen a Broadway show, like anything. So we've been open for about a month. It's a brand new, new experience and it's incredibly popular already. The lines are around the block. It's very fun, it's very cool to see where we're going and in the same spirit of Studio 54, it's a thriving nightlife hub in Midtown, which we have not had in a very long time. So it's a pleasure to be on this adventure now as well.
Leah Roseman:
Well, congratulations. That's really fun.
PJ Adzima:
Fun is the word. I'm having the time of my life and we are hoping that everyone else does too, because again, back to the why, right? These are hard times. This is a challenging cultural moment and I think traditionally, as you see, when things get harder and the culture starts to tamp down, it's actually when people get more expressive. It's when the need to go out and to gather and to celebrate and you see these flourishes of Bohemia and you see these flourishes of culture and all of the artists that I admire and the art that I model my art after all came up in protests to Vietnam and in the reactionary period of the '70s. And I think that we have an incredible duty as culture makers and entertainers to meet this moment with that same level of passion and flamboyance and enthusiasm.
Leah Roseman:
Okay. Should we talk about The Stuppets?
PJ Adzima:
I would love to talk about The Stuppets, yes. So to that end, I'm a hyper creator, I can't be stopped. I get an idea in my head and I must see it through to completion and all of it is rooted deeply in the politics of this moment. When this administration announced the defunding of PBS, the first thing I did was pick up the phone to my friend, the puppet creator and said, "Hey, we need a new puppet company because if Sesame Street and the Muppets are going to be silenced and pushed down, we need someone to take the mantle." And so I had the idea for The Stuppets, which is the Stage Time puppets and the whole joke being we've taken in all of the laid off PBS puppets that are newly unemployed. They've been around since the '70s, they weren't the most popular ones and the Henson Bunch.
There's enough money in the budget to keep on Elmo and Big Bird, but Grumble and Milton and Toffee, the ones that haven't really been pulling their weight, they're on the street and they've lost their healthcare and they've been drinking and they're mad. So we've created this punk rock PBS puppet company, which I thought was funny and essential for this moment. And it turns out the internet did too, because at this point we've got over 40 million views online for all of these like very, very political protest songs that are taking the heritage of PBS and in a very tongue in cheek way paying homage to the style and being very, very outward and political in protest to what's going on right now. I think that the lesson that I see as a culture maker is the current administration is telling you what it is that they're afraid of and that they don't want you to be enjoying or leaning into.
And I think that one of the things, the first things that they did the second time around, the second Trump administration was to fund the arts, come for the Kennedy Center and it was a signal to me immediately that, oh, now is the time to be creating and building the things that will then take their place because we can't wait and think and trust that these institutions that have always been around will be around going forward. And so that has been the motivator for a lot of my work is to be in reaction to these scary and uncertain times.
Leah Roseman:
Puppetry can be so powerful.
PJ Adzima:
Everyone loves puppets.
Leah Roseman:
Yeah.
PJ Adzima:
Everybody old, young. There's a reason why kids can't take their eyes off of it and adults too.People listen to a furry creature talking to them. I don't know what the science is, but it works. Well,
Leah Roseman:
Whether they're furry or not, as an art form.
PJ Adzima:
Yes, yes. They light up a different level of your imagination. You're bought in in a new way that there's something ... Yeah, it ignites the imagination and I think it's ... Yeah, they're the most thrilling medium. I think that puppets are also a symbol of where we're going. As a culture maker and as someone who makes a living looking ahead, trying to be ahead of the curve, I foresee an amazing return to the live performing arts and to the tactile immediacy of something that is handmade with the rise of AI, with where they want us to go with the metaverse and all of these spaces I really do see a big pendulum swing to the retro, to the DIY, and to something that exists in a tactile space in the real world and that's puppetry, right? Like that is something that is the authenticity of a puppet existing in the world and kind of tricking your mind is exactly in line with where I think I see the pendulum swinging right now.
Leah Roseman:
PJ, I did want to ask you, because you refer to Vaudeville in terms of Stage Time, but I mean, there's this racist history, so it makes me kind of uncomfortable even to talk about Vaudeville.
PJ Adzima:
Oh, funny. When you think of Vaudeville, it has automatically a racist connotation to you?
Leah Roseman:
Yeah, in terms of the things that come up about it.
PJ Adzima:
Funny. What specifically is it conjuring to your mind? What acts specifically? I think I know, but for viewers listening, I think the problematic history of that is actually something that's important to untangle.
Leah Roseman:
Well, people in blackface making fun of Black people. Something came up like we were doing a kids show and Turkey and the Straw was programmed and then someone pointed out it was really one of the most racist songs and I looked up the history and it really went back to Vaudeville and ice cream parlors and the lyrics and like a lot of ... And then I was looking up potentially racist songs. I was kind of curious how, as a white person, I just want to understand and it was like a lot of Vaudeville references
PJ Adzima:
So the important thing, and thank you for bringing this up, right? The important thing to think about Vaudeville is ... Vaudeville is a catchall term. It's a variety show that encompassed all these different genres. So instead of television or a circus coming to town, basically these Vaudeville troops would travel through and on the slate of performances that you would see in an evening, either a singer or a juggler or a clown or something, one of those acts might be a minstrel act, right? Now that does not mean that the entire evening was that, but it also is an important thing to know more deeply about minstrelsy as a whole and how it is related to the Broadway art form, right? You cannot have the big Broadway tap dance number or the big Broadway show number without seeing how it ties directly back to the American history of live performance in minstrelsy.
So uncoupling that history is actually something that is, if you look deeply in the bedrock of the DNA of every big Broadway show and it is a very American problem to go, how far back can we look at our history before we start running into some uncomfortable things? And then what is our responsibility with that legacy, right? How do we move forward? Do we not put on a big Broadway chorus line show because the roots are in minstrelsy or do we do the work to educate ourselves and to do so with reverence and to be careful when bringing back old pieces or reviving old pieces and do you wear the glasses of a historian or is it important to ... What is that choice? How do you move forward? So while Vaudeville did have elements of minstrelsy, everything in entertainment at that time had a color of racist depictions because it was what popular culture depicted so problematically across many different verticals, not just live entertainment, but in advertisement, in music and just like you just mentioned, there's like a lot of songs that we don't realize have these roots to him.
So like any art form, the further you go back, you're going to find some unsavory things and it's up to us to be stewards of that art form and to decide how to ethically move forward with that. Because I do genuinely believe that I'm an American, right? A big thing that I think about is where are we now? Where have we been? Where are we going? And there's a lot of tendency, especially with this current administration, is to suppress where we've been and I'm of the complete opposite. We have to stare it in the face. You actually have to spend time in the uncomfortable thing and then make an informed decision about where you're going. It's when people make decisions out of ignorance or willful ignorance that I think you find yourself in problems. But if you're able to go, "No, actually if you're able to confidently make a choice around something and then back it up with your own reasoning and research and to be able to defend that choice to the highest level of artistic merit, I do believe that that is what everyone should be able to do.
Leah Roseman:
Well, let's talk about the grind. I mean, you've been in New York since you were basically a teenager.
PJ Adzima:
Yeah. I moved here at 18. So I grew up on a farm in Massachusetts. I moved to New York at 18 with big dreams of being on Broadway and I did it baby, but the work doesn't stop there. I love the grind. I think you have to and it's a huge part of who I am and my identity and the work that I do.
Leah Roseman:
What were some of your early obstacles?
Hi, just a really quick break from the episode. I wanted to let you know about some other episodes that I’ve linked directly to this one in the show notes, with DeWitt Fleming Jr., Shakura S’Aida, Kat Raio Rende, Jah’Mila, Matt Zimbel and bad snacks, among so many since 2021. In the show notes you’ll also find a link to sign up for my newsletter, where you’ll get exclusive information about upcoming guests, a link for my Ko-fi page to support this project directly, where you can buy me one coffee, or every month, and my podcast merchandise store with a design commissioned from artist Steffi Kelly. You can also review this podcast, share it with your friends, and follow on your podcast app, YouTube, and social media. All this helps spread the word! Thanks. Now back to my conversation with PJ.
What were some of your early obstacles?
PJ Adzima:
Everything. I moved from a farm to New York City. I thought a Carnegie Mellon was a fruit. I had no idea how to get to Broadway, but I had no problem working hard. Like I said, I grew up on a farm and I always just had a really strong sense of work ethic and I'd figure it out and I wouldn't let anything stop me. And so when I got here and started stacking boxes in a warehouse in New Jersey and driving trucks to pay the bills, I didn't know how I was going to get to Broadway, but I knew I'd work hard and figure it out. So my obstacles I considered to be many and the way that I and the best advice that I have for anyone breaking into any industry is I just started making a lot of friends and hanging out with peers and people who had aspirations and had talents and who were going after the same thing and were pushing me and who I wanted to keep up with because I do believe that you become the company you keep.
And it's through that generation, through that scrap of this pack that you run with that you are able to rise. And I believe that you rise as a class, you rise as a generation. And this gets back to kind of my mantra again of working across verticals. We are going to be remembered as a decade of people and artists that are making the most of this time. And so instead of thinking of it as an individual pursuit of my dream, it's like, how are we all rising and meeting the challenges and demands of making it in this moment because no one's ever done it like this before. The days are changing the industry's changing left and right and you're going to learn more from your peers than anyone else.
Leah Roseman:
So did you take acting classes?
PJ Adzima:
So I went to college for theater. I went to Marymount Manhattan College, which is an extraordinary, extraordinary college. And I got an amazing education there, but I was really able to start networking and working in New York professionally. That was the biggest part for me. More than anything, I was just able to be in New York and hustling. And the hustle from those, I mean, I've gotten every single major artistic opportunity in my life basically on referral because of people who I've met and befriended along the way, who have then found themselves in an opportunity later on to consider me for a job. And now vice versa, I pass the baton all the time. I'm always setting a ladder down when I get an opportunity to go, "Oh, you know what would be great for this? " And giving it to somebody who I love and trust because that's really how and why I think I want to be making art with the people I love and that has always worked very well for me.
Leah Roseman:
And I'm just going to ask because primarily I have musical guests, right? It's Conversations with Musicians. So you had to take singing lessons at a certain point?
PJ Adzima:
Of course. So I've been taking singing lessons. I started taking singing lessons in high school and I've been singing and dancing ever since. The musicality of what I do is an important part as a lead in a Broadway show. And yeah, my journey with music has been and continues to be one of my favorite parts of being a live performer and a musical entertainer in New York City. There's nothing better than a good song and dance.
Leah Roseman:
And do you find that studying vocal technique as a singer helped your acting chops in terms of understanding vocal production?
PJ Adzima:
Funny. I'd say it's helped my instrument. I think that it's the other way around. I think that acting has helped my singing shops.
I think that for me, I'm a singer and I sing for money and I do so around the world, but I consider myself to be an entertainer because some people are born with a gift, some people are born with something that you have and I've got a beautiful singing voice and I love to do it, but you are there because I'm telling you a story through song. And I think that I've come up with people who've got the best voice, but I don't know. There's something about having even like the greatest voice in the world with dead eyes ain't worth nothing to me. I personally prioritize someone who can share a story and tell a tale and weave. I think like Mandy Patinkin is one of the greatest musical theater performers of all time and he's got like the most unique, stunning, weird voices you've ever heard.
And was he classically trained at Julliard? Yes, but as an actor. And so the idea of, especially in my industry right now, there's a lot of people who pride themselves on having a perfectly musical voice, perfect sound, a perfect belt, but for me I do find that to be thoroughly uninteresting without the gravitas of story behind it.
Leah Roseman:
So in terms of lucky breaks, was there like a story you could share?
PJ Adzima:
Of course. Yeah. I had an extraordinary lucky break. So like I mentioned, I started in a show called The Book of Mormon. And the Book of Mormon was written by someone named Bobby Lopez. Bobby Lopez is an extraordinary double Egot winning composer. He also wrote for Frozen and Avenue Q and Coco, the Pixar film, he's the guy. And back in 2016, I was in a children's theater puppet show downtown in New York City, non-equity, grinding it out, working, stacking those boxes in that warehouse, doing puppets for kids during the day. And it's in that show that I was discovered by Bobby Lopez who picked up the phone and said, "Hey, I think I found somebody who would be really great for the Book of Mormon."
Leah Roseman:
Fantastic.
PJ Adzima:
This double Egot winning man did not have to do that at all, but he saw a property and a show that was looking for someone. He saw a kid with hunger and talent and a drive and he picked up the phone and it changed my life and I've dedicated my life to building and giving opportunities in a similar fashion because it happened to me and I think that that is the biggest lesson and why I get back to showing up and being a person and being a person that people want to work with because that is in fact where all the magic is because without him picking up the phone, I would not be sitting where I am today and I certainly wouldn't be dressed in this fabulous coat.
Leah Roseman:
That's wonderful. That's really great. You mentioned your childhood on the farm, but you were involved in musical theater in high school, like you had some opportunities.
PJ Adzima:
So I've been this creature since I was born, right? So I've been this theatrical fish out of water farm kid from the beginning and was very fortunate to discover a love of Shakespeare at a very young age and the performing arts at very young age and just became ravenous. So I would drive a pickup truck an hour after school to like the nearest musical so I could start practicing this craft at a very early age, as soon as I could. I found it very young and like a little kid who picks up a baseball and hits it across the yard and like at the age of three, it was a lightning bolt moment when I discovered that this was an option for me and I've never looked back.
Leah Roseman:
Do you learn lines differently now than you used to?
PJ Adzima:
I've picked up speed in a really amazing way. Like I mentioned, I think of what I do as being an athlete. I'm an athlete of what I've done. I've put in hours and hours and hours of it. So I have the ability to, my brain can pick up stuff very fast. I don't have a photographic memory, but it does not take me a long time to look at something and know what it is because I just have the reps in. So Shakespeare was a big part of that. I've performed in over 15 different Shakespeare shows and have just like trained my mind to be able to handle large passages of complex text and that's a muscle I like to keep fresh and back when I had more downtime, I would learn sonnets and monologues for fun and just like keep those muscles fresh. But now, I mean, I'm writing and producing a new show pretty much every week at this point and so the reps of getting that up and just staying in the gym that way has made me very, very sharp.
Leah Roseman:
Okay. Well, I thought it'd be interesting to talk about comedy with you.
PJ Adzima:
I would love that.
Leah Roseman:
Comedy can be hard. It's very cultural, there's improv, there's mime, short form, long form.
PJ Adzima:
Yes. So comedy is wildly difficult. I think it's the hardest thing to synthesize because it's absolutely cultural, right? What some people think is hilarious, others don't balk at. I mean, my gosh, with a show like Book of Mormon around the world and across the country, certain jokes hit harder in certain cities and that's the fun too. I think you're always playing with an audience in what they think is funny and it's walking the fine line between not pandering but also getting them over the line. It is the most rewarding thing that I do.
Leah Roseman:
Did you do a lot of improv in your early training to kind of work out muscle?
PJ Adzima:
Yes, again, I'm a child of South Park. I went to the school of South Park doing Book Mormon for 10 years, but even before then I grew up watching their films and studying their craft and really, I've been a comedy nut since I was very, very little. So yeah, like anything else it is, there is a certain set of skills. There's a certain like, again, back to Vaudeville, there's nothing new. You can watch the Marx Brothers. The Marx Brothers came up on the Vaudeville circuit or the Three Stooges.That's how these routines grew out on Vaudeville and the mechanics of it are very simple. There are beats and formulas to hitting a good joke, but like anything else, it's, can you deliver it? The mechanics of hitting a baseball can be known and understood intellectually, but that you still have to actually have the hand-eye coordination to do so.
So comedy is the exact same way and there's a lot of people who understand comedy but aren't funny. So the same way that you could be a fan of baseball and not be able to get to first base, it's a very similar problem.
Leah Roseman:
Have you ever tried standup?
PJ Adzima:
Yes, actually I did try standup. The first time I tried standup, I was about to go on an amateur night in Gotham Comedy Club in 2016 and I got a tap on the shoulder because the host was letting me know that Louis C.K. was cutting me in line and this was 2016 Louis CK when he was God and he walked past me and he said, "Sorry kid." And he went out and killed for like an hour just doing new material and I was next. So my dreams of standup, I really peaked because Louis C.K. was my opener, but from there, I've since gone on and have done quite a bit of live performance and open mics and things here in the city because I like to be familiar and able to dip my toe in every single vertical performing that I can. As I mentioned, like I practice drag.
Am I a drag queen? No, but I practice drag. Can I get up and do a type five? You bet. Am I standing a comedian? No. But this ability to be a renaissance person in the live performing arts, I think everybody should be able to have a type f. The same way I think everybody should be able to do a waltz. It's a skill to be learned and to be demystified in that way.
Leah Roseman:
Yeah, that's really cool. I just had a question, Falling Forward, this came up.
PJ Adzima:
Oh, sure. Yeah, Falling Forward is a musical concept album that I'm on written by my friends Carl and Emily that they asked me to do. And a musical concept album is a very, very common way to workshop a new musical
Where someone will have the songs ready and maybe they're looking for investment or they're looking for a theater or something and so they'll go, "Let's record this. Let's make this, let's record the songs so we can have it in posterity." It's a better way to get people to listen to the thing instead of going, "Here, read my script and trust me, the songs are good." You can say, "Hey, listen to this album." There's a few of those. So I'm in a song on Falling Forward, which I love called The Sweet Midwestern Life, and it's an ode to the Midwest and how wonderful it is and how many different types of corn there are out there
Leah Roseman:
Yeah, I think that's why in my notes it was like Falling Forward a new musical question, because I wasn't clear about the album so I get it now. It's a promotional-
PJ Adzima:
Yeah, there's a lot of fun new musicals and I developed them as well. So now with Stage Time, my production company, I'm an incubator. As someone who's now built a vehicle to discover and curate the best of New York City as I've set out to do, once you find the best of New York City, what do you do with them? Well, surely they all have a million projects in the work that are brilliant and are stalled in various ways of development or they don't really know where to go because we've got a million different creators. We've had a surplus, a dearth of talent in New York and so very few opportunities and so very few mechanisms to discover those talented people. I say all the time that the greatest, the next great, like the next Lady Gaga, the next Chappell Roan is a barista right now banging her head against the wall wondering when that big break's going to come.
And it's not because she's not talented, it's because we do not have the proper mechanisms to find that person and curate them and give them that opportunity. So I'm doing that same thing similarly with my own production company now. I'm really invested in discovering and curating and nurturing and mentoring this next generation of artists and working to showcase that art. The prime example of which is a little musical that I've found and producing called Slam Frank, which is my Anne Frank hip hop musical, which I found written by an incredible artist named Andrew Fox and I found it as a script and at a reading that I was lucky to be a part of and I said to myself, "This is the funniest and most daring groundbreaking musical since the Book of Mormon and I would know. " And that was the first musical that I got to lead produce and I got to nurture from page to stage and go on that ride, which ultimately proved very successful as we brought it downtown for an off Broadway developmental workshop last year that was supposed to run for four weeks, ran for four months, it gained international attention including being named by the most important new musical in New York City by Ben Brantley, who was the lead critic from New York Times for a very long time.
And then the New York Times included it in its 2025 roundup of best comedy things, not just in theater, but best comedy things next to Steven Colbert and Jimmy Kimmel. So this extraordinary piece is the first in what I am having be a pipeline of pieces that are in this phase of development that are scrappy and weird and daring and cutting edge and that is the type of work that I want to be known for making in these times, as I mentioned, that are requiring us to be bolder and more fearless in the work that we put out as the culture is clamping down.
Leah Roseman:
So it's a show within a show, this production.
PJ Adzima:
Yes. I would love to tell you a bit about Slam Frank. Slam Frank is essentially what if a well-intentioned regional theater company thought it was a good idea to Hamilton Anne Frank? This then is the tipping point where everything is in question as far as what is identity, what is sacred, what about history is safe to reinterpret? What about history is not safe to reinterpret who decides what is off limits and how far does protecting and supporting certain groups and identities go before the best of intentions paints you in a corner you never expected to be in. So it's an incredibly thought provoking piece. It is a lot of controversy around it and it sits right in the center of what I like to say is like the sweet spot, which is you have to see it for yourself to make up your mind.
Leah Roseman:
Yeah. I was curious. I actually got an invitation to come to a show, but I'm not in New York, I'm not going to your country right now, but I was like aware of it.
PJ Adzima:
That's fine. Don't worry
Leah Roseman:
And I understand the satire wasn't really acknowledged so people were objecting to it before it was even-
PJ Adzima:
Well, this is the fun. This is the dance. The secret's out now. People kind of know a bit more about what it is, but being off, not knowing how you're supposed to feel about something is not an experience we're used to right now culturally. And I'm tired of making art that tells a message that the audience already believes in to a room full of people so they can pat themselves on the back. I don't think that's not a progressive night out at the theater to just reaffirm everyone that we're all good people. I want to go to the theater to be challenged. I want to go to the theater to be in a room and be in a piece that's making me think and that is believing me with something that I can then go have more questions about than answers. I think that that's not something that we do very well right now and I don't think that that's something that musical theater does very well, period.
Musical theater loves to stand on stage and sing the moral to you. And so I was really drawn to this piece as something that was really jagged and ambiguous and really in the tradition of downtown theater and something that is more akin to something you might find at La Mama or these pieces from the village or like Hedwig that is going to be more transgressive and punk rock. I think that we are in need culturally for some stuff with more bite to it these days.
Leah Roseman:
And do you connect with people like in the West End and London and other musical theater scenes? Oh,
PJ Adzima:
Of course. Yeah. It's a global society now, right? Yeah. What I really love about this moment and why I'm so happy to be having this conversation with you is my audience is really, it's about people of similar cultural tastes around the world. Yes, I'm a hyper local New York creator, but I've got friends and collaborators in Berlin and in Paris and in Italy and we really are making up a web of artists globally, like I said, that are sharing this cultural moment. When you think of the '70s, you remember as a time block of 10 years that people are all lumped into together. And that does not matter whether you're in one country or another. It's like you were sharing this moment in time that is so unique. And so I really love having peers on the West End and comparing notes, especially with what's happening internationally right now, especially with what's happening in this country right now going, "Hey, how's it looking out from out there?" And they say, "Not good." And I said, "Cool, just checking." And we have the ability and responsibility to be leaning on each other more now as culture makers and creatives than ever because God knows we've got blind spots from where I'm sitting these days and we're going to need some people from the outside with a more objective perspective more than ever.
Leah Roseman:
Yeah. And in terms of learning entrepreneurship for yourself,
PJ Adzima:
Hard, tough, fun, challenging. I like a challenge if you haven't noticed. I think what's been really nice for me is I started Stage Time as a hobby. I started as just a really fun idea with my friends and now it's grown into my full-time business and that switch of being like, "Hey, we're all having a good time to, oh, I'm in charge and I've got a responsibility to deliver a product and to be doing these things." It's like I've really had an incredible level up both personally and professionally to meet the demands of that challenge. But the same way that I had to learn to tap dance to get that dream job, I really run head first into an opportunity to push myself and to really meet the moment. And so it's been the most rewarding professional thing I've been able to do is to step into the role of an entrepreneur and a CEO and to really feel comfortable in that role as well.
Leah Roseman:
Okay. And in terms of, you have done TV and movies and I'm curious, I'm guessing you prefer live performing or is it just different?
PJ Adzima:
I do. I do. It's a different art form. It's chess and checkers. But for me, I also, I think to the point of, like I mentioned earlier, that in- person thing is the thing you can't fake. It's that experience of holding a room's attention or seeing someone sweat. There is something so personal about being in the room with an incredible artist that takes your breath away. A great tap dancer looks great on YouTube, but being in the room with the best tap dancer you've ever seen in your life and being three feet away and just having that percussion, like being in the room for the vibrations of the percussion of a man's foot hitting the stage and watching his sweat hit the stage too, there is nothing like that. That is not something that is coming through the TV screen. I don't care what high res you're catching it on.
So I truly am just, I'm a zealot for the live performing arts and always will be.
Leah Roseman:
Yeah, that's great. I so agree. Well, let's talk about keeping fit. I mean, when you were doing Book of Mormon and dancing, that was sort of more part of your job. How do you manage it now?
PJ Adzima:
Tough. It's hard. It's hard right now. I'm actually in a very interesting part of my health journey there because yeah, I was doing eight shows a week and it was my gym. I climbed 15 flights of stairs per performance. It was amazing and I am still running and moving around New York City, but honestly, because I just opened a nightclub, I'm on the dance floor six nights a week. I am absolutely keeping in shape, but I definitely need to be eating more and lifting weights every now and then. Thank you for the reminder. I need to get back in the gym.
Leah Roseman:
I was just curious about boundaries and self-care too, because like these crazy hours ... I shouldn't say crazy, different than mine.
PJ Adzima:
Crazy. Crazy is crazy. I'll be the first there to affirm that this is a crazy lifestyle, but yes, I think doing it holistically is a big part of it, especially just your self care with your instrument as well. I'm learning a lot about how I can maintain this speed and what I need to do in terms of filling my cup. So I'm in the middle of actually learning those lessons. I'm on a vocal steroid right now because I just opened a nightclub and I'm screaming six nights a week and I've got a very important workshop for a brand new musical in two weeks that I have to sound great for. This is a challenging art form and in order to meet the demands of that, you do have to treat yourself like an athlete. So I'm taking my own medicine here in talking about it.
Leah Roseman:
Well, let's save your voice. I won't keep you too much longer.
PJ Adzima:
No, I'm having too much fun with you, Leah.
Leah Roseman:
So is there anything we didn't talk about that you want to get into?
PJ Adzima:
I mean, yeah, all of it. Honestly, this has been a really wonderful retrospective and I really appreciate these thoughtful questions. It's been wonderful to kind of talk through everything that I'm doing right now and also I so rarely get to tie it to this moment. I am creating because of this cultural moment that we're in America and I'm a very optimistic creator and I do believe that that is kind of our big gift and our responsibility is to try to keep that hope that actually this is going to yield even better times on the other side of this uncertainty. And so yeah, I think that that's the through line that I really want to touch upon is it can look like all I'm doing is running around and having fun and partying in New York City, but my big why is very, very intentional and every single piece that I put my name on and I work towards is, I believe, an important piece that has something to say about this moment and is moving the needle in one direction or another.
Leah Roseman:
Great. Well, thanks so much, PJ. Really appreciate this chat to talk to you.
PJ Adzima:
Truly, pleasure's mine. Thank you very much.
Leah Roseman:
I hope you enjoyed this episode. Keep in mind, I've also linked directly several episodes you'll find interesting in the show notes of this one. Please do share this with your friends and check out episodes you may have missed at Leahroseman.com. If you could buy me a coffee to support this series, that would be wonderful. I'm an independent podcaster and I really do need the help of my listeners. All the links are in the show notes. The podcast theme music was written by Nick Kold. Have a wonderful week.
