As the proverbial curtain finally goes up on Prince of Broadway at Manhattan Theatre Club (we have it on good authority there is no actual show curtain), Playbill asked the show’s nine cast members to spill the details about the rehearsal process. After all, it’s not every day you get to work with a 21-time Tony Award recipient like Harold Prince.

A retrospective of Prince’s prolific career—one that continually changed the genre of musical theatre—the show includes excerpts of 16 musicals. But what is amazing about working with the original creator is the history that could be mined to inform the new incarnation of each of these characters and songs. Before working on the piece from Cabaret, Prince shared the story of the real-life inspiration for the Emcee. Turns out, the rehearsal room was more like a fascinating course in Musical Theatre.

In the video above, cast members share the stories that most inspired their performances.

Prince of Broadway, co-directed by Susan Stroman and featuring additional musical material from Jason Robert Brown and a book by David Thompson, begins previews August 3 at the Samuel J. Friedman Theatre. It officially opens August 24. The cast includes Tony winner Chuck Cooper, Drama Desk winner Janet Dacal, Bryonha Marie Parham, Tony nominee Emily Skinner, Tony nominee Brandon Uranowitz, Kaley Ann Voorhees, Michael Xavier, Tony nominee Tony Yazbeck, and Tony winner Karen Ziemba.

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