E346: Brenda Braxton - From Broadway to Midlife: Finding Joy in the Pause
Tony Award-nominated, Grammy Award-winning Broadway veteran Brenda Braxton has spent decades performing in iconic productions including Dreamgirls, Cats, Smokey Joe’s Café, and Chicago. At 70, she is still performing, creating, building businesses—and refusing to let age define what comes next. In this episode, Brenda shares the realities behind a life in theater, the moment the industry began seeing her differently as she aged, and how her own experience with menopause inspired PAUSE by BBRAXTON™. We talk about reinvention, caregiving, self-care, finding the right information for your own menopause journey, and why taking time for yourself isn’t something women should feel guilty about. Her message is simple: life doesn’t stop at midlife. Protect your joy, find your community, and give yourself permission to take the pause you need.
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RSS Feed Learn more about Brenda at: https://pausebybbraxton.com
IG: https://www.instagram.com/pausebybbraxton_/
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SHOW NOTES
🎓 2:39 Hearing about Performing Arts High School catapulted her dream.
🎓 7:26 Broadway is no longer making stars, it's plugging them in.
📖 16:53 The Little Black Book of Backstage Etiquette – what they don't teach young performers
💔 18:25 At 50: divorced, business closing, had to sell her brownstone in Harlem
🛍️ 20:12 Pause by B Braxton is a full ecosystem for women in menopause
🚫 29:05 Women used to be put in asylums for menopause symptoms.
🎭 31:47 Theater started seeing her differently as she aged.
💡 34:07 Information is key – find a doctor who specializes in what you're going through.
🛑 35:03 Be selfish with yourself.
👩👧 40:24 At 70, caring for her 89-year-old mother.
💄 43:41 Developing the Brenda Braxton Red Lip collection: five reds named after characters she's played
❤️ 49:19 The world is hard enough on women, be gentle with yourself.
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Broadway Actress and CEO/Founder of PAUSE by BBRAXTON
Brenda Braxton is a Tony Award-nominated, Grammy Award-winning actress, director, producer, and entrepreneur whose distinguished career has spanned more than four decades across Broadway, television, and business.
A celebrated Broadway veteran, Braxton has appeared in some of American musical theater’s most iconic productions, including Dreamgirls, Cats, Legs Diamond, Jelly’s Last Jam, Smokey Joe’s Café, and Chicago. Her acclaimed performance in Smokey Joe’s Café earned her a Tony Award nomination for Best Featured Actress in a Musical, and she is a Grammy Award winner as part of the production’s celebrated cast recording. She is perhaps best known to generations of Broadway audiences for her powerhouse portrayal of Velma Kelly in Chicago, a role she performed for many years.
Her work extends beyond the Broadway stage to television. Braxton appeared in Nurse Jackie and Smash and had a recurring role as Madeline Gilford on The Good Fight, bringing the same depth, presence, and versatility to the screen that have defined her theatrical career.
Beyond entertainment, Braxton is an accomplished entrepreneur. She founded BBRAXTON Exceptional Grooming for Exceptional Men, an upscale men’s grooming business in Harlem. Today, she is the founder and CEO of PAUSE by BBRAXTON™, a lifestyle and wellness brand dedicated to bringing joy, confidence, and possibility to women navigating perimenopause, menopause, and beyond.
Her expanding PAUSE platform includes On PAUSE: Kitchen Conversations, a lifestyle series bringing together food, friendship, wellnes… Read More
