Marriage Feeling Dull? Have You Tried Starring in a Multi-Million Dollar Production Together?

by Keeley Bell. @omgitskee.

NEW YORK, NY – Marriage Therapist Dr. Shoshana Mance has discovered the secret to a healthy marriage, and she’s sharing it in her new book Take a Bow, Not a Break: How a Big Budget Broadway Show Can Save a Marriage. 

“Couples are constantly chasing the high of having the same amount of attention on their relationship as they had on their wedding day," states Dr. Mance in the book’s first chapter, “The First Stage (In This Scenario, ‘Stage’ is a Pun)." "And what is a wedding if not a limited run of a very expensive, interactive play?”

Take a Bow, Not a Break features multiple case studies of successful professional theatre couples. For example: Chapter Five, “It Takes Two (Musical Tours About Witches),” centers on an insightful interview with Stephanie J. Block and Sebastian Arcelus.

“Our relationship started in the crazy, confusing, passionate world of Wicked’s first annual tour,” Block reminisced, gesturing to the bootlegged copy of their Wicked run that she keeps on her mantle. “So the Into the Woods tour in 2022 was like reliving that. The BroadwayWorld message boards buzzed about our duets, audience members commented on our chemistry at the stage door and called us ‘couple goals’…It was a return to form. A return to delicious, glorious, enviable form.” 

While Block and Arcelus have been married for nearly 20 years, Dr. Mance also turns to more recent newlyweds. And who better to include than Broadway’s inaugural Orpheus and Eurydice: Reeve Carney and Eva Noblezada!

Their perspective appears in Chapter 21, “We Raise Our Cups…Again. (And Again? AND AGAIN?).”

“I like to think we’ve perfected the Packaged Deal booking,” Reeve told us while practicing songs from The Great Gatsby on guitar, despite Eva assuring him it’s not necessary for the role. “Plus, it’s a great way to make sure we both stay working so we don’t get a Last Five Years on our hands. Who knows? Maybe Jamie and Cathy could have worked it out by starring in Cabaret together—on the West End, of course."

Dr. Mance reached out to several other couples for advice on sharing the stage with their spouse. However, Orfeh/Andy Karl and Taye Diggs/Idina Menzel all declined to comment. It was then that Dr. Mance realized some of her research may have been out of date.