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For actor  G’22, the best part of working on the Broadway musical “” is making people smile every night.

VanAntwerp, a member of the show’s ensemble and understudy to two of the leads, and the rest of the cast performed at the Tony Awards on Sunday, June 11. “Shucked” was nominated in nine categories, including Best Musical, and castmate Alex Newell won the award for Best Featured Actor in a Musical.

“The best part is listening to 1,000 people laugh together,” VanAntwerp says. “I’ve done big comedies before and something about it now hits differently. In such a divided world, ‘Shucked’ gets people who come from all over the country.”

He began working on the show in 2022 while earning a master’s degree in (TRF) from the. VanAntwerp had already been acting for about 15 years, including the longest-running portrayal of the character Bob Gaudio in Tony Award-winning musical “Jersey Boys” and recurring roles on TV shows, including “The Affair” and the critically acclaimed “Better Call Saul.”

But in evaluating his career during the pandemic, VanAntwerp decided he was ready for something new. The TRF program offered an opportunity to sharpen his storytelling skills. A year later, he’s working a grueling eight shows a week in the Broadway hit, but had fun getting ready for the Tonys.

“All the lead up to the Tony Awards, doing promotion with other shows and rehearsing for our performance at the awards, is almost just as much fun as the event,” he says, “which are kind of the perks that nobody tells you about.”