The Price of Bravery Remains the Same with Every Generation

Laura Osnes, celebrated Tony Award-nominated actress, sets the record straight and offers a story of hope to those who choose to stand by their convictions.

By Rebekah Iliff

The irony of walking into the Woolworth Theatre in Nashville, Tennessee to hear the story of ousted Broadway darling Laura Osnes was not lost on me. It was November 2022, and Osnes was at the beginning of the gut-wrenching journey faced by many famous targets before her: setting the record straight.

Tonight at the Woolworth, along with the official release of her first solo album “On the Other Side - Part One”, she would tell her side of the story to an audience of supportive fans—shedding light on what transpired roughly a year earlier, when the New York Post’s gossip column, Page Six, published a falsified version of an incident in which Osnes was the main attraction. What ensued was the polar opposite of what the Tony Award-nominated actress had experienced her entire Broadway career: praise, acceptance, support, and rounds of applause. As a result of the fall out, she and her husband, photographer and film producer Nathan Johnson, moved halfway across the country to Tennessee. In Nashville, they were met with open arms and a welcome wagon as only Southerners can do.