Romance, in its many forms, takes center stage in almost every single beloved musical. The Phantom of the Opera pursues Christine from the depths of the opera house, Laurey and Curly wonder whether “People Will Say We’re in Love,” Motel celebrates his relationship with Tzietel as a “Miracle of Miracles.”
In turn, musicals have taken center stage in the romance between Bay Ridge residents Dylan Berkshire and Winter Commander.
The two met while performing, moved to New York City to pursue theater professionally, and now perform side-by-side at the Ellen’s Stardust Diner in Manhattan — an eatery famous for its singing waiters, many of whom are chasing their own Broadway (and Broadway-adjacent) dreams.
“Ellen’s is a very competitive restaurant to get into, just because there’s so many people there, and there’s such a history of the people that are there,” Berkshire said. “And, the glory of Ellen’s is being welcomed back after a contract. The point of Ellen’s is to keep performers always in work, and never out of work.”
But their story doesn’t start at the diner. Berkshire and Commander both grew up with a passion for theater and decided to make it a career — Commander a little earlier than Berkshire. She saw her first musical, “Hairspray,” when she was five years old, and immediately fell in love.
“I told my parents, ‘This is what I want to do,’ and they were all for it,” she said. “They signed me up for summer theater, community theater. I started taking voice lessons, I attempted dance classes — I’m not much of a dancer, but the attempt was there — and I just delved right into it.”
For Berkshire, theater was his “escape,” but his small hometown wasn’t as encouraging for artists. He headed to Kent State University as a pre-med student, but bailed out to audition for the musical theater program — which he got into — and decided that as long as he had a roof over his head, he was happiest performing.
They met in New Jersey in 2021, performing onboard a moving train in a “The Polar Express”-themed holiday show.
At the time, Commander was living in Manhattan, and Berkshire was getting ready to move to Brooklyn from Pennsylvania. It was Commander who made the first real move.
“We were using the Snapchat app a little bit in the beginning to talk to each other and chat,” Berkshire said. “I wasn’t really responding to her liking, and she came up to me one day and said ‘You know, if you’re not going to answer my Snapchats, I think I need to get your number before you move here.’”
“I was like, say no more, say no more,” he laughed.
They went on a date after the contract ended, and the rest was history. Berkshire moved to Flatbush, and the pair commenced what many New Yorkers would consider a long-distance relationship, journeying over an hour between boroughs to see each other.
That same month, Berkshire visited Ellen’s with his family as they prepared to head back to Pennsylvania. They saw another performer auditioning to work at the eatery, and Berkshire’s mom encouraged him to go up and see if he could try out, too.
“So I go up to this very tall man, I was like, ‘Hey, I’m Dylan,’ I just moved here … can I send you my stuff?’” Berkshire said. “And he was like, ‘Sure, sure, send me your stuff.’”
The “very tall man” was Ellen’s artistic director Scott Barbarino. Berkshire sent in his materials, got called for a formal audition, and, a few months later, got hired.
Commander, meanwhile, got a job at The Iridium, a famous blues and jazz club right under Ellen’s. One summer, Barbarino emailed her about auditioning to work at Ellen’s. The audition was a success, and now the two spend their days performing side-by-side.
They’re always workshopping new duets and love songs, but for now they have a few standards they like to sing together — a “Grease” megamix, the sweet classic “Suddenly Seymour” from “Little Shop of Horrors.”
“I just think it’s really cool that I get to work with my best friend, and we’re both doing what we came to New York to do, at least in our everyday work setting together,” Berkshire said.
In the middle of it all, the trek between Flatbush and Washington Heights became cumbersome, and Berkshire convinced Commander to move to Brooklyn. After about a year together, they found an apartment in Sunset Park — then, searching for something a little different, settled in Bay Ridge with their one-eyed cat, Patch.
The nabe is tight-knit and has plenty to do, the couple said, but it’s also a welcome change from their daily routine in Manhattan.
“It just feels nice, when you’re working in Manhattan, right in midtown, the hustle and bustle, it’s so loud and chaotic sometimes,” Commander said. “Just taking an hour train tide, getting to read on the train, and then coming home to quietness — it’s like a completely different environment.”
Last spring, the “Hopelessly Devoted” pair got engaged when Berkshire popped the question at a resort in Pennsylvania, and they’re in the throes of wedding planning ahead of their November nuptials.
Will they perform at their own wedding? Maybe, Commander said — it’s not set in stone. But their Ellen’s colleagues will play an important role in the day. One will play the piano during cocktail hour, Commander said, and another might sing for their first dance.
In the meantime, the two plan to stay put in Bay Ridge, sing at the diner and audition for roles — including at some of Brooklyn’s “really cute” local theaters.
“As corny as it is, the thing that’s really sweet about our relationship and just being together is our love of musicals and performance in whatever caliber that is,” Berkshire said. “We would love people coming into Ellen’s … to just escape daily life and daily worries just for an hour or two hours. I think it’s really cool that we get to share in that love of storytelling.”
