Kate feels most at home in the labyrinthine hallways of La MaMa in the East Village, where some of the city’s scrappiest artists have made improbable work for so many generations. That said, there’s a kid in her who is “still totally dazzled just standing in the middle of Lincoln Center.”

When it comes to her pre-show ritual, it’s: “An ice-cold martini and the perfect, perfect fries at Joe Allen. Where, surrounded by posters of Broadway’s most storied flops, one is reminded that the path to greatness is never linear!” Her girlfriend Celia is her favorite date because, “love it or hate it, agree or disagree—we leave the theatre ready to talk about the show all night long.”

Daniel Fish’s spectacular 2019 revival of the musical Oklahoma! might have changed her life, and when asked who she would kill to see on stage, the answer is immediate: “Elaine Stritch!!!!!” In a landscape increasingly devoid of good, old-fashioned cabaret stars, Kate points us in the direction of Natalie Walker as one to watch: “Sitting ringside and witnessing her delicious mix of genuinely blinding talent and wry vulnerability feels like getting in on the ground floor of Judy Garland’s career.”