Anyone who’s wondered what it’s like to tour with a rock band has likely obsessed over the 2000 film Almost Famous, written and directed by Cameron Crowe. The hard-hitting dramedy gets a Broadway makeover this season with a musical adaptation featuring new music and lyrics by Tom Kitt.
Brandon Contreras, known to Queerty readers for their hilarious web series The Homo Sapien Experience, makes their Broadway debut after more than a decade in the business. We caught up with them in between shows for an insider’s look at the musical, what it’s like to finally have that Broadway credit, and what can be found at their dressing room table…
QUEERTY: This moment best captures the 1970s in Almost Famous:
CONTRERAS: This one is hard because there is no ONE moment in the show. Overall, it has to be the sound–the music and the vibe. The music ebbs and flows with classic ’70s sounds that it’s so brilliantly hard to tell what is original and what is previously epic. Also, the costume design is some of the best I’ve worn in my career. We all look and feel so incredibly sexy and fun. These things really help create the world that is the ’70s, a world where you’re surrounded by epic sounds and people and sex and drugs and love.
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The biggest difference between the film and stage version of Almost Famous is…
I think the biggest difference between the film and stage is that we get to really elevate a lot of these cherished characters. In the film, you get a very specific lens of who these people are, and on stage, you get to see them interact more, choose more, love more, cry more, and laugh more. There is always something and someone to look at in this show, and you can fully see a full spectrum of an arc from these people. You get the whole picture.
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I’ll never forget when Cameron Crowe said in rehearsal…
“This is my home. You are my family.” He was standing in the back of the audience house, and we had just frozen the show, and no changes were to be made from then on before we opened and he gave a tiny speech. Now, Cameron Crowe has said A LOT of incredible things to me. He’s a walking vessel of powerful words, masterful intelligence, EPIC stories and just overall loveliness — those things I’ll just keep for myself. But one thing that Cameron Crowe is, is powerfully kind. And to have the legend himself care so deeply about this piece and us individually and specifically in it meant the entire world to me. I’ll never forget that moment.
The thing I’ve learned most making my Broadway debut…
The one thing I’ve learned most from making my Broadway debut is how being authentically yourself is absolutely enough.
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Before a performance, I always…
Check in with my dressing roommate, Libby Winters, to see how we’re feeling and to discuss taking over the world. Warm up the voice and the body a bit. I visit the female swing dressing room because they consistently make my day brighter and better while getting me pumped for the show. And finally, more often than not, I have a Celsius energy drink (the nectar of my life) to get me through the day/performance.
The LGBTQ+ creative I’d love to collaborate with…
My best friend Matt Curiano and I are the co-creators of The Homo Sapien Experience, a Queer sketch-comedy platform (Queerty featured and nominated, thank you!), and we are constantly manifesting collaborations. There is never just one, and they so deeply include: Dan Levy, Bowen Yang, The Wachowski Siblings, Alok, Lena Waithe, our favorite Drag Race Besties — Bob & Monet and Trixie & Katya and Joel Kim Booster.
At my dressing table you’ll find…
Lots of pictures of my family, friends, and mementos hung on my mirror, my disorganized makeup, Disney’s Encanto figurines, a religiously themed J.Lo candle, and a pair of drumsticks signed by Questlove.
The show that changed my life…
In The Heights. Hands down. It not only spoke to me so deeply about the experience with my family and as a Latino but to finally see myself represented on stage. It also jumpstarted my career when I joined the first national tour during college. I still consider people in that cast family. In a full circle moment, the first person I met on that job who taught me my first professional show, Michael Balderrama, was also the creative consultant for Almost Famous, for which I made my Broadway Debut with him over 12 years later.
Almost Famous runs through January 8, 2023 at the Bernard B. Jacobs Theatre.
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