Stephanie J. Block

No Longer Shape-Shifting

By John Amodeo

“WARNING! To all my acting friends! Do not play a living, breathing icon on a Broadway stage,” cautioned Tony Award-winning actress Stephanie J. Block, who spoke from experience. She has played not one but two legendary living celebrities in her storied Broadway career: Liza Minnelli and Cher (some 15 years apart). It was in her Broadway debut, The Boy from Oz, that she played Minnelli, opposite Hugh Jackman as Peter Allen. Appearances in nine other Broadway productions, several national tours, London’s West End, and the Kennedy Center would follow.

Between musical-theater productions, Block enjoys performing in cabaret and concert settings as well, having performed in the Jazz at Lincoln Center series, at 54 Below, and at the 92nd St. Y. Of her show last year at the 92nd St. Y, Ron Fassler of Theater Pizzazz said “Her natural gifts have only improved with time. [Her show included] a rousing rendition of ‘I’m Breaking Down’ from Falsettos that stopped the show.

Block has always felt as much at home on a cabaret stage as she does on a musical-theater stage. “Nothing pleases me more than when it is just myself and my musical director at the piano,” she declared. “There is an intimacy, a clean and clear dialogue between him and me and the audience and I’m excited to bring that to audiences everywhere.”  Boston-area audiences will have an opportunity to enjoy Block in concert at the beautiful Groton Hill Music Center in its magnificent concert hall on Saturday, December 6 with her longtime music director and pianist Ben Cohn.

“Broadway was always my passion,” Block confided from her California home. “But being born and raised in California, anytime someone came out here looking for Broadway talent, they kept telling me to move to New York. I finally moved when I was 22 and I was just intimidated by anyone and anything.” She felt the need to shape shift for each audition, convinced she needed to look and sound like what the casting directors expected rather than being herself. “But it was with Wicked when I auditioned back in 2000, I was ready to move to New York,” she recalled. That began her journey to develop her sense of self, which she was able to do over time. “Once that happened, I could move back to California and spend time with my family and just come to New York when the project is right, like Into the Woods with my husband,” she stated.

Block was the first to sing Elphaba’s songs, having done the workshop for Wicked,” but she lost the Broadway role to Idina Menzel. Instead, she was cast as her understudy, a role she would leave before the production started to take a principal role in The Boy from Oz. “I was 29 years old in Oz; it was my Broadway debut. Looking back, I would like to have included my own voice, sensibility, quirks. When you play someone famous, you almost sign a contract to put aside yourself and carry the energy, presence, character of the person,” she granted. “It wasn’t Liza’s story, it was Peter’s story. But Liza leaves the most cultural impression, so most of the audience connected to Liza more, because she’s still with us. It was my debut, I didn’t have the voice at the time to say, ‘no, that’s not going to work, let’s try something else.’ I was a young amenable actor, ready to try anything, even to my detriment. Still, it was a fulfilling run. Liza never saw the show. But I thought she would have loved it because it was a love letter to her and Peter.”

Playing Cher was different for Block. “Fast Forward to 2017, [book writer] Rick Elice (Jersey Boys, Water for Elephants) came to me to say he had written The Cher Show with a part for me: Star, the old Cher. After Falsettos, I didn’t think I was ready to do a big show like The Cher Show. I declined it three times, because I had already climbed the mountain of playing a famous person,” she recounted. ‘But [director] Jason Moore took me to dinner and told me that with three Chers on stage that it wouldn’t be the conventional depiction of the life of a famous singer. So, I took it.”

The Boy from Oz and The Cher Show are only two of the 10 Broadway productions in which this three-time Tony nominated actor has performed (she won the Tony for The Cher Show). Her other Broadway roles include Elphaba in Wicked, Reno Sweeney in Anything Goes, Edwin Drood in The Mystery of Edwin Drood, Judy in 9 to 5, Trina in Falsettos, and the Baker’s Wife in the latest revival of Into the Woods. In Wicked and Into the Woods, this Broadway baby played opposite her husband Sebastian Arcelus, an accomplished Broadway performer.

Throughout her Broadway career, Block has worked with the best in the business. In both Wicked and 9 to 5, she worked with director Joe Mantello. “[During Wicked], I was soaking everything in and trying to learn. It was a pressure cooker. Wicked was Joe’s first musical to direct. It wasn’t easy-breezy,” admitted Block. “But you could see his passion and vision. He is a once-in-a-lifetime director. I adore him completely. For him to still create art, even though, because of Wicked, he doesn’t have to work anymore, it’s clear he just loves the craft.” (Mantello is presently directing Laurie Metcalf in Little Bear Ridge Road on Broadway.)

In 9 to 5, Block also starred opposite Allison Janney, who is currently giving a searing performance as the U.S President in the Netflix series The Diplomat. Block felt privileged to work with her and was somewhat in awe. “There is such a still intensity to her. I never feel that she is acting. She is the best example of being a character while maintaining the essence of herself in every role,” she marveled. “During 9 to 5, she confided in me: ‘You should always hold a secret behind your eyes, because the audience will want to know what you’re thinking.’”

That theme of no longer shape-shifting, and bringing oneself to one’s work, keeps coming up with Block. Whether intentional or involuntary, this worked to her advantage in her Tony-nominated performance as Trina in the 2016 Broadway revival of Falsettos. “The Trina I brought to Falsettos was both a mirror and a window into what was happening in my life,” she disclosed. “I had given birth to our daughter not 16 months before. All my emotions were at my fingertips because of this new little life we had brought into the world. Everything was heightened for me. I was both more tender and more thick-skinned. I could get angry or vulnerable at the drop of a hat on stage.”

Bringing more of herself into her roles began even earlier than Block may have realized. In 2006, during her last three months as Elphaba in the national tour of Wicked, Arcelus stepped into the role of Fiyero, and sparks flew. In Act II, when Block and Arcelus launched into their characters’ love song “As Long as You’re Mine,” their ever-so-real romantic chemistry brought a riveting authenticity to that moment. A year later, when she opened as Elphaba on Broadway opposite Arcelus, it happened again, and this time they eloped. “We went to City Hall the morning of my opening, in secret. ‘As Long as You’re Mine’ that night was a good one,” she said, giggling.

Family life plays a big role in her career choices, especially now. Block has enjoyed working with her husband Arcelus, most recently in Into the Woods as the Baker and the Baker’s Wife. But Block says it comes with its challenges. “There is always a cost-benefit, and it changes with every stage of your life,” she explained. “When we were married but without a child we loved working together. You don’t even need to use words, there’s just a quiet, unspoken understanding. When we look back on Wicked, we were freer [then]. But now, with a 10-year-old, we ask what the personal balance is. Your kid still has to wake up at 6 am for school and we both have to be alert and alive for our kid.”

Doing cabaret and concerts makes it easier for Block to schedule and for her not be away from home for as long, and she enjoys doing her cabaret and concert shows, mostly because of the intimacy. “Lately, I’ve found that bigger isn’t always better,” she remarked. “Maybe because our world is so noisy we need the quiet.  So maybe, just voice, piano, storytelling and opening up a lot of hearts is just right.”

Block’s program in Groton will naturally touch upon some of her Broadway roles, but there will also be some welcome outliers. “Sondheim will always be a part of my show [as will] honoring my friend Gavin Creel, who we lost last year and miss desperately,” she sighed. “I don’t know if I can do a show without ‘Don’t Rain on My Parade.’ And Wicked will always be in my show, and the film will have just opened. I will do a few songs I’ve never sung before, like ‘She Used to be Mine’ from Waitress; I felt this is the time I have to sing this.”  Also, given the time of year, Block will perform at least a few songs from her holiday recording, Merry Christmas, Darling.

Some roles Block would still love to tackle include Mama Rose, Mame, and Maria Callas in Master Class. She also ponders doing a production of The Bridges of Madison County with Arcelus. Again, family and being bi-coastal play their own roles in her choices. “They were looking for replacements for Death Becomes Her, and the timing didn’t work,” she told us. “Living in California, you have to ask yourself,  ‘Is it too artful, joyful ,or lucrative to say no?’ If it is two of them, we think about it. And if it is all three, we will move heaven and earth to make it happen.”

Stephanie J. Block will perform Merry Christmas Darling, Saturday, December 6, 2025, 8 PM at Groton Hill Music Center, 122 Old Ayer Road, Groton, MA 01450.  Tickets: $79-$89. For reservations, visit Stephanie J. Block: Merry Christmas, Darling—Groton Hill Music Center