Just a few years after graduating from college and still building his own career as an actor, singer and dancer, Elbi Cespedes feels like he’s in graduate school by spending a few hours each week talking with and learning from some of Broadway’s biggest and most honored directors, choreographers and actors.

He’s the host of the weekly podcast “I Wanna Be Like You,” in which he explores artists’ career highlights, what led them into entertainment, the breaks, disappointments and struggles on their way to prominence and stardom.

Even while he’s performing in Sarasota in the ensemble of “Sophisticated Ladies” at Westcoast Black Theatre Troupe, he continues to work remotely on new episodes. The program’s episode count is nearing 100.

“I’ve looked at this as getting my PhD in musical theater,” Cespedes said during a recent afternoon off from the musical. “There are shows that I didn’t know about but now I know.” Among them is the groundbreaking 1983 musical “La Cage aux Folles.”

“That’s a show that went over my head but I had guests who worked on it and there are people who know them from that show. I love bringing light to history,” he said.

Among his guests have been four of Broadway’s most prominent directors – Jerry Zaks, Susan Stroman, Jack O’Brien and Jerry Mitchell, who have collectively won 14 Tony Awards. He has also spent hours talking with Howard McGillin (who played the title role in “The Phantom of the Opera” longer than any other actor), producer Ken Davenport, actors Jim Walton, Randy Graff, Brad Oscar, Andy Karl and Lee Roy Reams. Some may not be household names but they are familiar to those who follow Broadway theater.

It started with actress Michele Pawk, who was one of his professors at Wagner College and became a mentor. She agreed to be his “guinea pig. It went really well and we just went from there,” he said. 

Pawk appeared on the podcast shortly before beginning rehearsals for the Broadway hit “Just in Time” and she reflected on a career that included prominent roles on Broadway in “Chicago,” “Crazy for You,” “Cabaret,” “Seussical,” “Mamma Mia” and “Wicked.”

“Michele said, ‘You’re serving as this oral history now, collecting these stories. Jerry Zaks told us some Zero Mostel stories that he never put in a book. It’s lucky we were able to take those stories and put them on the internet,” Cespedes said.

The host is especially appreciative of an interview with actor and singer Aaron Lazar during his run in the national tour of “Dear Evan Hansen,” because Lazar is now battling Lou Gherig’s disease. “We have a record of him, now.”

Episodes range from roughly 90 minutes to more than 2 ½ hours.

“I don’t have a time limit on the podcast unless my guest has an out,” he said. That means he has the time to get his guests to really reflect on the arcs in their lives and careers. In a May episode, Stroman Stroman shared stories about how Mel Brooks coaxed her into directing and choreographing “The Producers” after the death of her husband, Mike Ockrent, who had originally planned to stage the show.

“I just thought it was over when Mike died. The grief was under my skin,” she told him, recalling that Brooks came to her apartment to convince her to direct.

“He said, ‘You’re grieving now. So you’ll cry in the morning and cry at night and in between I will make you laugh and that’s what will save you. And it saved me,” she told Cespedes.

“I Wanna Be Like You” didn’t start as a theater-related podcast, but it has morphed into that with occasional guests from other entertainment fields.

Cespedes knows listeners and viewers tune in for his guests, but “if you’ve listened for this long, you’re listening for me as well as the guest, whether it’s my sense of humor, my research or things like that. I’m always thinking about quality and not just phoning it.”

He attends as many shows as he can and spends time watching past productions at the New York Public Library’s Theatre on Film and Tape Archive to help broaden his knowledge of theater history.

“I take research very seriously,” he said. “I don’t want you telling me things everybody listening already knows. I think I come in with a levity and sense of humor and I try not to take myself too seriously.”

He begins each episode by asking his guests who they wanted to be like when they were young and ends the conversation asking who they want to be like now.

One recent guest, dancer, choreographer and director Larry Fuller, wanted to be like actor/dancer Gene Nelson early in life and now. Now in his 80s and retired, Fuller said he’d like to be like director and choreographer Jerome Robbins, thought without his reputation as a tyrant in the rehearsal room. Fuller choreographed the original productions of “On The Twentieth Century,”  “Sweeney Todd,” “Merrily We Roll Along” and “Evita,” after years as a dancer in a handful of Broadway shows.

Zaks spoke about wanting to be Lou Costello of the comedy duo Abbott and Costello because their films and TV shows made him laugh, a rare thing for the oldest son of Holocaust survivors. He went on to a career that has emphasized comedic plays and musicals, including “Anything Goes” (with Patti LuPone), “Hello, Dolly!” (with Bette Midler), “Guys and Dolls” (with Nathan Lane and Faith Prince) and “Lend Me a Tenor.”

Building an acting career

Cespedes, who grew up on Staten Island, has had roles on screen in “Better Nate Than Ever,” “Bros” and “Girls5Eva,” and has performed in regional and college productions of “The Mystery of Edwin Drood,” “Holiday Inn” and “In the Heights” among others.

After playing character roles in some of these shows, he wondered how much he would enjoy being part of the dance and vocal ensemble in “Sophisticated Ladies,” but he has found it more fulfilling than he expected.

“Being in the ensemble, at least for me, is harder, an underrated, underestimated job. I’m quick-changing costumes more than I’ve ever quick-changed in a show, and there’s as much happening backstage as there is on stage. People think of it as background, as filling space and if you’re not noticing us individually, that’s better. We’re supposed to be united but we can still bring our individuality to it.”

He had initially auditioned for the Westcoast Troupe and artistic director Nate Jacobs in 2024 for the world premiere of the tap dance show “Syncopated Avenue,” which opened in the spring of 2025.

“I remember tapping up a storm,” he said. “There’s something about tap dancing that feels so internal, so expressive from the bottom up. You’re tapping as a way to express yourself without using words.”

Cespedes didn’t get the job, but said Jacobs was “super welcoming and so wonderful, so when this came show around, I said, ‘Let me challenge myself with this tap call.” He also was somewhat surprised that Jacobs remembered him from his earlier audition.

He has been tapping for almost 10 years and knew the person running the dance audition.

He recalls thinking, “Let me see what I can do. If I walk out of this audition and feel I did well, that’s enough. It’s easier said than done. I remember walking out of the audition and I felt good but thought I’m not getting this job. Everybody around me was so good and picking up things so much quicker. That challenge felt exciting.”

So he was surprised when he got the job offer and knew it was “not going to be a walk in the park. It’s been really challenging. For some in our cast, it’s their first musical and they’re learning how to read sheet music. That’s as much of a challenge as picking up choreo was for me.”

“Sophisticated Ladies” will keep him in Sarasota until Nov. 22, and he’s enjoying visits from various family members and his fiancee Kirsten Kaiser, who is touring the country as the mother in the musical “A Christmas Story.” They became engaged earlier this year.

Working on shows that take them to different cities at the same time can create another challenge, but “we’ve been navigating long distance for a while now. We would love to do a show together. We haven’t done one since college, but when she books a job, it feels like I’m booking a job because I know I’m going on tour, too, to visit.”

Creating new episodes

Even while he’s in Sarasota, he’s been recording episodes of “I Wanna Be Like You” from a room in the Westcoast administrative building. He prefers when he can sit down with guests together in person, but makes the most of the remote connections online.

He’s not making a living on the podcast, but does make some income from clips that are seen on Facebook, Instagram, YouTube shorts or TikTok. Full episodes can be found on YouTube, Spotify and Apple.

“If we do a 90-minute episode, we can get 30 clips, and we’ll post a minimum of four a day, so that brings attention,” he said.

Learning from the artists he’s interviewed can only help him when he auditions for future shows, he believes.

“If I’m going to audition for ‘La Cage’ I’m going to be much more prepared now. And I’ve learned about musical theater and tenacity.” He especially appreciates talking to artists “in their 80s who are still trying to figure it out. On one hand, I find some of that disheartening, but on the other hand it’s comforting. We all don’t quite know what makes something a hit. Some people have more experience than others, but that doesn’t mean they have the answer to why that song works or doesn’t work.”

One of his podcast guests was the actor he wanted to be like, actor Andy Karl, who has starred in such shows as “Wicked,” “Jersey Boys,” “The Wedding Singer,” “9 to 5,” “Rocky” “Groundhog Day” and “Pretty Woman: The Musical.”

“I’ve always looked up to Andy Karl. I had a friendly relationship with him before the podcast, but to have the chance to sit down and really talk with him was unbelievable,” he said.

“Sophisticated Ladies” continues through Nov. 22 at the Westcoast Black Theatre Troupe, 1012 N. Orange Ave., Sarasota. For more information: westcoastblacktheatre.org; 941-366-1505