Ep 74: Alan Muraoka on Sesame Street, Aladdin, Gold Mountain, Disney, Kaftka's Metamorphosis

Ep. 74 of BACKSTAGE PASS with Lia Chang airs 4/28/24 at 6:30pm on FIOS 34, RCN 83, Spectrum 56/1996 and streams on MNN2.

Alan Muraoka is a Two-time Emmy Award winning director, producer and veteran of 7 Broadway shows. He is most familiar to television audiences as Alan, the proprietor of Hooper’s Store on Sesame Street. A member of the ensemble for 26 years, he has also produced and directed segments of show, and recently garnered his second Emmy Award. I have known Alan for many years and have collaborated with him on his directing projects and his popular appearances with puppeteers at The Metropolitan Museum of Art for Lunar New Year. He recently returned from the White House's Celebration of Easter. This summer he's off to Edinburgh to direct a new musical, Kaftka's Metamorphosis The Musical.

Congratulations on receiving your second Emmy Award. Can you tell me about each of the episodes that you won the Emmy Awards for and how they were conceived?
How involved were you with the introduction/and or programming around Ji-Young, the first Asian American muppet in the “Sesame Street” canon? And with the first Filipino American muppet, TJ.?
You have been a cast member of Sesame Street for 26 years and just finished shooting the 55th season of the show. What does it mean to you as an actor, an activist, a producer and director in terms of Asian American representation?
You are a veteran of 7 Broadway shows. I last saw you on stage as Iago in Aladdin. What was it like to celebrate the 10th Anniversary of the show on Broadway?
What was your first professional job?
In addition to directing for Sesame Street, you are an in-demand theater director for musicals, straight plays and cabaret? When did you start directing and what do you enjoy most about it?
What was it like to work with Jason Ma on the evolution of Gold Mountain?

Alan Muraoka joined the Sesame Street ensemble 26 years ago. His stage credits include the Broadway productions of Disney’s Aladdin, Pacific Overtures, The King and I, My Favorite Year, Shogun, Mail, and Miss Saigon, where he played the lead role of the Engineer, as well as the national tours of Miss Saigon, M. Butterfly, and Anything Goes. Muraoka’s numerous network television and film credits include: It Could Happen to You, City On The Hill, Curb Your Enthusiasm, 30 Rock, Brotherhood, The Tonight Show, As the World Turns, Guiding Light, One Life to Live, and Day of Independence. He has performed with the Boston Pops, Pink Martini at the Hollywood Bowl, and the New York Pops at Carnegie Hall.

As a director, his 1998 production of Falsettoland for the National Asian American Theatre Company received high praise from The New York Times. He has directed episodes and segments for Sesame Street including co-directing See Us Coming Together, Sesame Street’s first Asian American special; The Power Of We (2021 Daytime Emmy Winner: Outstanding Preschool, Children’s or Family Viewing Program; 2021 NAACP Image Award Nominee: Best Director with Chuck Vinson); and co-directing Family Day (2022 GLAAD Media Award- Outstanding Preschool Program) and 2023 Emmy Award for Outstanding Directing for a Multiple-Camera Program.

Other directing credits include Clue (Dallas Theatre Center), Awesomer & Awesomer (Legacy Theatre), Gold Mountain (Utah Shakespeare Festival), Elf (Pioneer Theatre Company), Gentleman’s Guide to Love and Murder (2022 Telly Award), the virtual holiday musical The Nice List, Elizabeth Ward Land: Still Within The Sound of My Voice (2019 Bistro Award- Best Tribute Show), South Pacific & Once on This Island (Olney Theatre), The Report (NYC Fringe), American Songbook-Ann Harada (Lincoln Center), Kung Fu (Assistant Director-Signature Theatre), Urinetown (Trinity College), The King and I (Lyric Theatre of Oklahoma & Harbor Lights Theatre), Xanadu (Lyric Theatre of Oklahoma – Oklahoma City), Disney’s High School Musical (Casa Mañana – Ft. Worth, MUNY – St. Louis, and the Lyric Theatre of Oklahoma), Disney’s High School Musical 2 (Lyric Theatre of Oklahoma), Up In The Air (Associate Director, The Kennedy Center), and John Tartaglia’s Ad-Liberty (Joe’s Pub).

Visit his website at: www.alanmuraoka.tv and you can follow him on Instagram (@alanathoopers).