The Broadway.com Intern Glow-Up: Jenny Anderson’s Photo Book Captures a Theater Life

Photographer Jenny Anderson is a well-respected part of the Broadway community—a colleague I trust and admire when I see her at industry parties, opening nights or holding down a prime spot on the Tony Awards red carpet.

But back in 2007, I met a very different Anderson when she came in to interview for a Broadway.com internship. She was young, charming and very Southern, wearing a polka-dot dress and carrying a binder of theater photos she’d taken as a student at Ole Miss in her home state of Mississippi.

After some stalling (she now says I kept her hanging on far too long), I brought her onto the team—and she quickly started to stand out. At the time, few journalistic outlets were doing backstage photography, but Anderson was eager to take advantage of the trusted access we had and began quietly documenting what she now calls “the in-between" moments.

Now, nearly two decades later, her new book, The In-Between, captures the intimacy, spontaneity and deep connection that has come to define her work. And yes, I’m proud that some of the striking photos inside began as Broadway.com assignments.

With The In-Between: Intimate and Candid Moments of Broadway Stars, Anderson reflects on the journey that began with that internship—and the quiet, determined way she carved out a space for herself as one of the defining visual storytellers of modern Broadway.

When she arrived in New York City in August 2007, Anderson was a 22-year-old with a camera, a theater obsession and a Craigslist internship ad that would change her life. A recent college graduate from Mississippi, she was crashing with a friend, juggling odd jobs—including a brief stint as a Circle Line Cruises “photographer” where she wasn’t allowed to touch a camera—and desperately trying to break into the Broadway world that had inspired her from afar.

Then came that job interview at Broadway.com.

“I remember being so nervous,” Anderson recalls. “I just kept saying, ‘This is my job. I need to be here.’” When she didn’t hear back right away, she panicked. But persistence paid off. “I think I just wore you out,” she laughs. “You were like, ‘This girl’s never gonna shut up. Just give her the job.’”

What followed was a whirlwind—editing other photographers’ work, juggling restaurant shifts but quickly getting the opportunity to hit the theater scene with her camera herself. Her first real assignment was “Wicked Day” in October 2007. “I was still an intern,” she remembers, “but I was obsessed with Wicked. I called out of my Circle Line job to shoot it. My boss said no, so I quit on the spot. I was like, I’m here to work in theater. Not to herd tourists into photo lines.”

It wasn’t long before Anderson’s eye—and her unique sensitivity to performers—became clear. In 2008, she got assigned to photograph Gypsy star Laura Benanti backstage during her transformation from Louise to Gypsy Rose Lee. “That was the first time I really got to be backstage, and it clicked,” she says. “I thought, ‘This is where I want to be.’”

From there, Anderson’s approach began to take shape. Inspired by documentary photographers like Dorothea Lange and Margaret Bourke-White, and fueled by an instinct for intimate storytelling, she carved out a new space for backstage theater photography—one defined not by glamor or polish, but by trust, connection and humanity.

That approach leaps off the pages of through her debut photo book, The In-Between: Intimate and Candid Moments of Broadway Stars, a collection that captures everyone from Cherry Jones sneaking a cigarette in an alley to Gavin Creel clutching a protest sign at the Equality March in Washington, D.C.

Creel, a longtime friend and subject, was among the first to push her toward a book. “He’d always say, ‘When are you going to do this?’” she says. “He was the first person I told when I signed the deal.” That moment with Creel—taken during a bus trip with the cast of Hair—resulted in one of Anderson’s favorite images. “There’s a black-and-white shot of the cast sitting on a wall with the Capitol behind them. It looks like it could’ve been taken in any decade. It’s timeless, and it reminds me why I do this.”

The relationships are the point. Anderson credits her southern upbringing—and years spent surrounded by adults as a child—for her ability to connect quickly and deeply with her subjects. “I used to say, I’m not a great photographer, I’m just good with people,” she says. “It’s not about the equipment. It’s about the moment.”

Those moments have led to some extraordinary images: Rondi Reed, arms folded, caught mid-conversation in full Madame Morrible makeup but barefoot and exhausted. Cherry Jones, in a robe and show shoes, inhaling a cigarette like the epitome of a bad-ass theater diva. “That photo is Broadway to me,” Anderson says of the Jones portrait. “That’s the image I dreamed of capturing before I even knew this job existed.”

If her early years were about discovering a voice, the last decade has been about defining it. Today, Anderson is the official backstage photographer at the Tony Awards, capturing private moments amidst Broadway’s biggest night. “I used to watch the Tonys with my mom, back in Mississippi,” she says. “Now I’m back there with them. That full-circle moment is never lost on me.”

Looking ahead, Anderson’s ambitions remain rooted in the work. While she’s open to larger projects, she knows where her heart is. “Being backstage is still my favorite place to be,” she says. “It’s usually just me. It’s quiet, it’s raw—and it’s real.”

As Broadway prepares for another dazzling award season—one led by a constellation of powerhouse women—Anderson is ready with her camera. “Some of these legends, I’ve never even shot backstage,” she says. “Audra. Idina. And Cynthia Erivo’s hosting the Tonys this year. I’m like, pinch me!”

And with The In-Between, Anderson has created something tangible and lasting—her own contribution to Broadway’s legacy. “Everything I’ve done has lived online,” she says. “This book… it lives in the world. People can hold it. They can come back to it. That’s everything.”