Robert Hartwell dishes on ‘Breaking New Ground,’ Broadway, & ‘Song Of Achilles’ musical dreams
Hello, Dolly! & Memphis) and national touring companies (Once On This Island, Motown The Musical), an acclaimed director and choreographer, and founder/artistic director of The Broadway Collective training academy, he’s dedicated his time, talent, and passion to the theater.But, a few years back, he began a project that saw him laying a new foundation for himself.
Literally.Subscribe to our newsletter for your front-row seat to all things entertainment with a sprinkle of everything else queer.In 2020, Hartwell went viral when he revealed he had bought a plantation-style home in Massachusetts, one that was originally built in 1820, at a time when slavery was still legal.
Not only was it a fixer-upper, in need of some serious work, but the house’s fraught history left many confused: Why would a Black queer man like Hartwell want to have anything to do with such a space?But what he saw was potential—the potential for renovation as a grand act of reclamation. “There are rooms in the home I would not have been able to step into.
How beautiful that we actually get to wake up this space! That’s life to me.”Four years later, Hartwell is sharing that journey with the world on Max’s one-of-a-kind home makeover show, Breaking New Ground, taking on an ambitious renovation project (his first one, mind you!) and learning just how deep his roots go in the process.
