Emma Weiner: Keeping the Show Running for F. Scott Fitzgerald Musical, "Diamond as Big as the Ritz"

Creative team and cast of The Diamond as Big as the Ritz. Emma Weiner at far right. Photo by R.C. Staab

Whether it's lights going down or sound effects in the new musical-comedy, The Diamond as Big as the Ritz, (www.ritzmusical.com), Emma Weiner, Stage Manager, is pulling the strings, turning the knobs and pulling the dimmers.

Here's more about Emma and her life in the theater:

• Unlike many people in theater, it took awhile for Emma to be find her way. She says, "The moment I discovered theater however, I fell in love with it. I did acting for my tween and teen years and it was very fun but it was never a calling. When I was going into my senior year of high school, I helped out with a strike and it just felt right. So I helped out building sets and running the lights and sound and the rest is history.

• In terms of what she has seen during the rehearsal of the show, "Honestly the talent of this show blows me away every time I watch it. They get better and better every show, which at times I didn't even think was possible yet they do it anyway."

• Her previous few shows have taken her all over Manhattan. She has worked at Hudson Classical Theater Company in Riverside Park on their productions of Twelfth Night and The Complete Works of William Shakespeare (Abridged). Before that she worked on Aftershocks and The Boy Who Listened to Paintings at Theater for the New City on the Lower East Side of Manhattan.

• In terms of what she hopes to do in theater in the future, she says, "I don't know if I have a show per se. My job is more often in the problem solving department rather than the creation department. I always enjoy any musical that has an interesting sound and storytelling with new ways to tell the human experience. If I can ever work on something written by Dave Malloy, it would be a dream."

• Emma lives White Plains in Westchester County, New York. 

The Diamond as Big as the Ritz is playing through September 29 at the ATA Sargent Theatre in Midtown Manhattan, New York City. Based on the early 1920s F. Scott Fitzgerald comic novella of the same name, The Diamond as Big as the Ritz, is told through the eyes of young couple seeking to immigrate to the U.S. as they imagine Fitzgerald’s characters appearing before them on stage.

From September 13-29, there are 16 performances at the ATA Sargent Theatre on 54th Street in Midtown Manhattan. Dates and more information about the show are at ritzmusical.com. This is 100-minute, no intermission musical with catchy melodies. Take a minute to listen to this dynamite all-star Broadway cast sing, “Enough Already,” a song from the show that was nominated in England for Best New Song. (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=706ExF-sdJQ).

Veteran director and Broadway actor John Hickok directs a cast of five that includes Johana, Ethan Yaheen--Moy Chan, Megan Lomax, Bobby Barksdale and Richard Rowan. The Diamond as Big as The Ritz features music and lyrics by Seth Bisen-Hersh and book and lyrics by R.C. Staab.  

Tickets are only $29 with the code FRIENDS at https://tinyurl.com/SeeRitz. For more information, check out ritzmusical.com.