Interview: Master of Harmonies Anthony Gargiula on His & Juliet Broadway Debut

If Anthony Gargiula is in your algorithm, you’ve seen him perched on a kitchen counter in some combination of oversize sweatshirt, baseball cap, and white socks that casually dangle next to a musical superstar. He had his first round of viral fame in 2007 when, at 7 years old, a performance of the National Anthem uploaded to YouTube landed him on Ellen and The Today Show.

But his Kitchen Singing TikTok series, launched in 2023 with collaborator Jonathan Tilkin, is a growing phenomenon that has artists from Kristen Bell to Ne-Yo clamoring to sing Gargiula’s close-harmony arrangements into a whisk.

Between his precision riffing and deep bench of pop covers, & Juliet has been a too-good-to-be-true way for Gargiula to make his Broadway debut. Through December 6, he plays François “Frankie” Du Bois, the shy son of a domineering father (currently played by Joey Fatone) who gets absorbed into Juliet Montague’s Max Martin-scored hot girl summer. Read the interview below to find out how this Broadway baby is enjoying life beyond the kitchen corner.

This interview has been condensed and edited for clarity.

How did & Juliet come your way? Have you always had your sights set on Broadway?

Before things really blew up on the internet in 2020, I was actually working at Disney and Universal, doing a billion shows a week. Having the experience of working in the theme parks in Orlando was such a Broadway boot camp. I feel like it really prepared me for this moment. Theater was the big dream, and then the whole world shut down, so I shifted my focus to the internet. I’ve had so much fun doing it for the past six years, but it was the most incredible full circle to be able to come back to the world of theater on the biggest stage. I’m truly so honored.

Your friend and fellow content creator Cheryl Porter made her Broadway debut in & Juliet last year. How did she react to the news that you were going into the show?

I called her the second that I heard that it was even a possibility, and she and I just screamed and cried together. It was something I wanted to be a part of so bad. I got to see her in the show last October and immediately I just fell in love with it. I’ve seen a lot of Broadway shows, but I don’t think I’ve ever left a show feeling as ready to take on the world as I did when I left & Juliet.

Take me back to the origin of your Kitchen Singing series. How does a pandemic project turn into literally billions of online views?

Jonathan [Tilkin], who I sing with for the series—we met on TikTok in 2020 and started a socially distanced a cappella group with a bunch of people around the world. When the group fizzled out, we were just making our own content again. He reached out to me because he had an opportunity to sing with Duncan Laurence, one of the winners of Eurovision. I was arranging all the harmonies for our group, so Jonathan called me and was like, “Hey, I’d really love for you to come and arrange the harmonies for this and sing with us.” That first video got like 15 million views. There’s a very famous text that I sent to Jonathan that night where I was like, “Hey, this is a series now, right?” And then it just took off. The kitchen corner only happened because the lighting was good there. [laughs]

You’ve brought a lot of Broadway stars to the kitchen over the years. Who has been your favorite guest from the theater world?

I think one of my favorite moments that we’ve had at the kitchen is when we got to sing with Nicole Scherzinger. She was doing Sunset Boulevard and still made time, which I think is such a testament to how much of a hard worker she is. When we got the chance to see her in the show, I called my mom after and was like, “Hey, so I think that’s actually maybe the most talented person in the whole world.” [laughs] Outside of Nicole, when we did “Wait for It” from Hamilton with Leslie Odom Jr.—that was a moment that I will truly never forget. I don’t understand how such an incredible voice can come out of a person.

Any dream Broadway guests?

There’s a bunch. I definitely want to sing with Jordan Fisher. He’s been a dream forever. I’m such a fan. We’re both Disney adults. I feel like that moment has to happen. I’m also a huge Jeremy Jordan fan. He’s here right now, so maybe we could make that happen.

Some people might remember that your history with viral videos goes back to 2007 when you were just 7 years old singing the National Anthem at a basketball game. What got you started singing that young?

I was very famously obsessed with American Idol. It was just all I wanted to do. I ended up entering a singing contest when I was 5, and it was an American Idol-type thing at the local mall in Albany [New York]. I sang “Midnight Train to Georgia” by Gladys Knight, and I ended up winning for my age category, which was 5-18. I just fell in love with being onstage in that very moment. And then throughout my childhood, I did a bunch of theater in upstate New York, and I also had such a love for pop and R&B music. Twenty years later, I couldn’t ask for a more incredible mash-up of all of my interests on a Broadway stage. I keep telling people that I’m kind of just playing myself up there because I have so many similarities to this character.

You brought up youth theater, so now you have to tell me your best childhood roles.

I think my most legendary moment was when I was Rooster in Annie … Annie Jr., of course. And then we did this probably-not-real version of Aladdin, and I was famously the Genie. I was painted blue and there was this giant lamp that I came out of.

You were landing all the character roles.

I think that’s kind of who I’m meant to play. I know that I don’t give leading man. I know that I am there to do the funny thing, and I think that’s the best way to do a show.

So much of your career is online. How has it been getting to meet your fans in person at the stage door?

People are a lot nicer in person. [laughs] A lot of people have been following my story since I was like 8, so it’s been really cool to talk to people who have been watching this whole thing. It’s hilarious though, going to the stage door with Joey Fatone is maybe the most incredible thing ever. Somebody brought an *NSYNC fan doll the other day. It wasn’t a doll of Joey—we have one of those backstage, don’t worry. It was a doll of a girl dressed as a fan of *NSYNC. His fans … they ride so hard.