Little Known Facts with Ilana Levine

At the time of this conversation Tony Award nominated actress Betsy Wolfe is starring in Little Shop of Horrors and just before that she starred in Death Becomes Her on Broadway. Betsy also earned wide critical acclaim starring as Joy, the title role in the new musical JOY. She previously wrapped her acclaimed tenure with the hit musical & Juliet as Anne Hathaway where her performance was nominated for the 2023 Tony Award for Best Featured Actress in a Musical. Previously, Wolfe starred in the Tony nominated musical Waitress, where she gave a multi-faceted performance as Jenna. Prior to that, she played Cordelia, one of the lovable “lesbians from next door,” in the Broadway revival of Falsettos, which aires frequently on PBS. She is perhaps best known for her critically acclaimed performance as Cathy in the Off-Broadway revival of The Last Five Years.

Wolfe most recently starred in the holiday film Esetella Scrooge: A Christmas Carol With A Twist. She can be seen in the indie feature First One In (on all streaming platforms) and had a guest starring role on the CBS series Instinct. Wolfe performed her one woman cabaret show All Bets Are Off to sold out crowds at Feinstein’s/54 Below in NYC, Las Vegas, San Francisco, New Orleans, and more.

Originally from California, Betsy received her BFA in musical theatre from the Cincinnati Conservatory of Music. At age 20—she made her Carnegie Hall debut with the Cincinnati Pops Orchestra under Maestro Erich Kunzel. After receiving her BFA, Betsy quickly moved on to star as Rona Lisa Peretti in the San Francisco and Boston companies of The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee. Soon after, she made her Broadway debut in the revival of 110 in the Shade. Betsy gained attention for her next role in both the Off-Broadway and Broadway productions of Sherie Rene Scott’s Everyday Rapture, where she played one of the two Mennonettes.

Betsy’s other Broadway credits include Ellen in the 2014 production of Bullets Over Broadway, directed by Susan Stroman, and Rosa Bud in the revival of The Mystery of Edwin Drood.

Other notable productions include Beth in the City Center Encores! production of Sondheim’s, Merrily We Roll Along, a world premiere production of Bobby Lopez and Kristen Anderson-Lopez’s musical Up Here, and Mary Ann Singleton in ACT's world premiere of Tales of the City.

Betsy made her Metropolitan Opera debut in Die Fledermaus (Ida). She has been a guest artist for over 50 symphony, pops, and philharmonic orchestras across the U.S. and internationally, including the New York Philharmonic and BBC Symphony Orchestra. She has collaborated with The New York Pops and played to sold-out crowds at Carnegie Hall and the Kennedy Center with their Broadway Today and Women of Notes concerts.

Recordings include & Juliet, Falsettos, Bullets over Broadway, The Last Five Years, The Mystery of Edwin Drood, Everyday Rapture, Stage Door Canteen, 35MM, and Merrily We Roll Along. She can also be seen in the film adaptation of The Last Five Years.
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Dana Bash is CNN’s chief political correspondent, anchor of Inside Politics with Dana Bash weekdays at 12pmET, and co-anchor of State of the Union with Jake Tapper and Dana Bash, the network’s Sunday morning newsmaker show. Bash is an award-winning journalist who plays a key role in the network’s political coverage, conducting high-profile interviews with candidates, serving as an anchor for CNN’s Election Night in America special coverage and frequently moderating presidential debates and town hall specials. In 2024, she co-moderated CNN’s historic Presidential Debate between President Joe Biden and President Donald Trump.

Bash’s first book “America’s Deadliest Election,” which she co-authored with David Fisher, details the 1872 Louisiana gubernatorial election. It debuted on the New York Times bestseller list. In 2021, Bash launched her CNN series, Being…, which features in-depth conversations with individuals affecting American policy, politics, and culture, giving viewers an understanding of the human being behind the public face. Her digital CNN series, Badass Women of Washington, profiles women from various backgrounds and generations to show how they have shattered glass ceilings on their way up the ranks. Her CNN Special Report Rising Hate: Antisemitism in America is an in-depth look at how antisemitism, once the hate of extremists, became mainstream and explores ways to curb it.

During the 2024 election cycle, Bash secured the first joint interview with Democratic presidential nominee Kamala Harris and vice-presidential nominee Tim Walz. She also moderated CNN’s Republican Presidential Primary town hall with former Vice President Mike Pence.

Bash moderated CNN’s first debate of the 2020 election cycle in Detroit, as well as the last Democratic Presidential Debate of the cycle in Washington. She played a key role in CNN’s 2016 presidential primary debates, serving as a moderator for six of the network’s seven primary debates on both sides of the aisle. As part of her coverage of the 2016 presidential campaigns, Bash conducted sit-down interviews with majority of the candidates including Donald Trump, Senators Ted Cruz, Marco Rubio, and Bernie Sanders, and Governors Jeb Bush and John Kasich.

Bash also continues to be instrumental in the network’s Capitol Hill coverage. In 2015, she broke news on live television that House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy would not be running for Speaker of the House and conducted Speaker John Boehner’s final interview on his last day in office. Bash also served as the lead correspondent covering former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s 11-hour testimony before the House Select Committee on Benghazi.

Bash won the Radio and Television Correspondents Association’s Joan S. Barone Award for her original reporting on a STOCK Act loophole that led Congress to pass legislation to close it. She is also a winner of the National Press Foundation’s Sol Taishoff Award for Excellence in Broadcast Journalism and a three-time recipient of the Foundation’s Everett McKinley Dirksen Award for Distinguished Reporting of Congress. Raised in New Jersey, Bash is a 2025 inductee into the New Jersey Hall of Fame.
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Tony Nominee Ethan Slater can most recently be seen in the feature film Wicked, where he portrays the role of Boq. The film will be followed up by Wicked: Part 2, where Slater will reprise his role, and will be released by Universal Pictures in November of 2025. In another recent film, Slater also stars in the drama film Lost on a Mountain in Maine, based on the novel. He is currently in production on the indie feature The Designer, alongside Gina Gershon and Katherine Waddell.

Slater is best known for his Broadway debut as SpongeBob in SpongeBob SquarePants: The Broadway Musical, for which he was nominated for a Tony Award for Best Performance by an Actor in a Leading Role, and won the Drama Desk, Outer Critics Circle, Theatre World and Broadway Beacon Award. He recently starred in Spamalot on Broadway as The Historian / Not Dead Fred / Prince Herbert. His additional theater credits include an Off-Broadway revival of Assassins, and a Williamstown Theatre Festival performance of Marcel on the Train. At the time of this interview Ethan is playing Seymour in the long running Off- Broadway hit musical, Little Shop of Horrors.

In television, Slater has starred in The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel, Law & Order: Special Victims Unit, and as Joel Grey in FX’s Fosse/Verdon.

Slater’s musical achievements include the concept album Edge of the World with Nick Blaemire in 2021, featuring Norbert Leo Butz and Lilli Cooper. He additionally released two EPs “Life is Weird” in 2020, and “Wanderer” in 2019.
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Orfeh is a Tony and Grammy Award-nominated New Yorker. Last summer she completed a run in her West End debut in “Burlesque The Musical” as Tess. On Broadway, she is best known for originating the role of Paulette in “Legally Blonde: The Musical” (Tony nomination) and was most recently seen as Mama Morton in “Chicago.” Other NY stage credits include Kit De Luca in “Pretty Woman: The Musical,” Janis Joplin in “Love, Janis” and Annette in “Saturday Night Fever.” TV appearances include roles on “Law & Order: SVU” and “Sex and the City,” among others. As a producer, she is Tony-nominated for this season's "The Lost Boys" on Broadway. A singer, songwriter and recording artist, Orfeh and her band have performed everywhere from Jazz at Lincoln Center to Theatre Royal Drury Lane in London. Upcoming projects include Heidi in the Heidi Fleiss musical "Little Black Book." She began her music career as a teen, when she landed on the Billboard charts with her album “Or-N-More.” Her latest singles “Live My Life” and “Back In Love Again” are available on all streaming platforms. Instagram: @orfeh, tiktok: @offical_orfeh
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Joe Tippett is an actor who starred as John Ross in the Emmy Award winning series Mare of Easttown. Joe starred in Airline Highway and Waitress on Broadway, and recurs as Hal Jackson on The Morning Show for AppleTV+. In this conversation Joe talks about how he made the transition from jock to actor, how he approaches characters who may not always make the most "likable" choices and with honesty and humility he recounts his sobriety story along with his love and admiration for his extraordinary wife, Sarah Bareilles.
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