Aaron Lazar’s ‘Impossible Dream’: Healing from A.L.S.

Aaron Lazar on the stage at Carnegie Hall

On a recent day in January, the singer and actor Aaron Lazar was exploring one of the rooms tucked away in the storied New York venue Carnegie Hall. “I hated history in high school,” he told Broadway.com’s Editor-in-Chief Paul Wontorek on The Broadway Show. “I opted out of it in college. You could opt out of one subject. Maybe the dumbest thing I’ve ever done. Actors need history. Now I kind of love history.” Lazar was in between rehearsals for a concert tribute to Stephen Flaherty and benefit for the University of Cincinnati – College-Conservatory of Music (CCM), where Lazar studied musical theater. He spent some time inspecting the venue’s archival photo collection: Maria Callas, Celia Cruz, the Rolling Stones, Bob Dylan… “Now I’m like, wait, should I be nervous that I’m performing on stage at Carnegie Hall where all these people performed?”

Earlier this year, Lazar—whose extensive Broadway credits include roles in The Phantom of the Opera, The Light in the Piazza and Les Misérables—revealed to the Broadway community that he has been diagnosed with the neurodegenerative disease Ameotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (A.L.S.), also known as Lou Gehrig’s disease. “I did the podcast, people heard, and the next thing I know it was out there. And so here we are. And I feel good. I feel ready to talk about it. And the Broadway community has just opened their arms and their hearts to me so much. I’m so grateful.”