Broadway NewsHadestown's Rachel Chavkin Discusses Her Tony Acceptance Speech and the Push for Representation OffstageThe Broadway powerhouse director appeared during the segment “Know Your Value.”
Rachel Chavkin made waves when she accepted the 2019 Tony Award for Best Direction of a Musical for her work on Broadway’s Hadestown, declaring, “I wish I wasn’t the only woman directing a musical on Broadway this season. This is not a pipeline issue. It is a failure of imagination by a field whose job is to imagine the way the world could be.”
On August 5, NBC’s Mika Brzezinski greeted Chavkin as her guest for her segment “Know Your Value.”
Chavkin spoke about Hadestown and how she carves a path for her own success while elevating other women. “This is something that has become an increasing core value of mine over the years, and as I've gotten more established in the industry I have more say over,” she said. “So I do try to prioritize working with both women and more artists of color when I can. And I love collaborating with women.”
But she was also clear about her perspective on theatre’s blind spots: “I think that theatre and the arts in general, people think of as being amongst the most progressive industries, and yet there is the same systemic white supremacy and patriarchy that we see operating in so many different industries around the world.”
Chavkin has multiple projects in the works, including her collaboration with The Great Comet writer Dave Malloy on a musical adaptation of Moby Dick. “Our work on great novels continues,” she said.
