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[0:01] Martín Acuña: Hi, everyone. I am Martín Acuña, and this is Backstage Talk.

[0:11] Martín Acuña: Hello, everyone. Welcome back to this in-between seasons special episode. Today's guest is Bekah Walsh. I know her as Bekah from Baltimore. She is a Baltimore-based ally who is obsessed with all things Broadway and beyond. When she is not at a performance or organizing her playbills, Bekah can be found rehearsing with the New Wave Singers of Baltimore, enjoying stoop night with friends or quality time with her husband and pets. Bekah, I've been following you on TikTok for quite a while. I love the content that you do. I'm so excited for this episode. Welcome to Backstage Talk.

[0:51] Bekah Walsh: Thank you, Martín. I'm thrilled to be here, thrilled to finally get to talk to you too.

[0:55] Martín Acuña: Oh my god, yes. We've been following each other around for quite a while. We've been teasing this episode too. So I'm so, so excited. The first thing I want to know is what else do we have to know about you? And why and how did this Broadway obsession start?

[1:16] Bekah Walsh: Well, we have to go way back in time for that. My mother was obsessed with all things musicals, and one of my core memories, if you remember this, I think you're a little younger than me, but there used to be a box set on VHS of the key Rodgers and Hammerstein musicals. So you could buy this box. It had South Pacific, it had Oklahoma, it had Carousel, it had The Sound of Music on two VHS tapes, kind of like Titanic. And so those were played in my house on repeat, and I just love them. And to this day, Golden Age musicals are some of my favorite because she always watched them. So I always loved them. I always loved to sing. I've always been like a choir and theater kid in some capacity, but it wasn't until I was an adult that I really had the opportunity to go see live theater for myself and really immerse myself and appreciate everything that's going on there. So it's been a long time coming, but it was always where I was going to end up.

[2:07] Martín Acuña: I love that. Besides, you are also like a TikTok influencer in the theater space. So how did you end up doing that?

[2:15] Bekah Walsh: You know, it's funny. I guess after 2020 decided it's time for me to challenge myself and get outside of my comfort zone. So for years and years, I've always written in some capacity. I used to run a blog. I used to write for local magazines, local papers, do all these different things. I had social media that went along with that. But the one thing that I always said no to, that I was always uncomfortable with, was being on video, hearing my voice on camera. Even if you look at my TikTok, if you go back to the first videos, you can see I'm really stiff. I'm reading off of this script. I'm really just trying to push myself out of my comfort zone. It really just started as that. One of my stupid trivial goals, which I actually reached recently, as I found, oh, here's my corner, here's my people.

There's all these other theater people on TikTok, which I couldn't find at home. But two influencers who I really love are Kate Reinking and Brian, the business analyst. And as a kind of a ha-ha to myself, I was like, when the two of them follow me back, that's when I'll know I've made it. And thankfully this year they both followed me back. So now I have to find a new goal to set, which I think we're going to talk about a little bit today. But yeah, ultimately it was just about challenging myself, getting comfortable with this thing I was uncomfortable with, and just finding people to talk to about theater, this thing I love. Because I have friends who go to shows with me, but nobody is quite as nerdy about it as me. I'll be like, look at the lighting cues, look at this, look at that. And they're like, okay, lady, that's fine. But they, not quite the same.

[3:43] Martín Acuña: Yeah, I feel you. And big shout out to our friend Kate, which we had a very cool episode with her a couple of weeks ago. And Brian, the BA, the business analyst, who is obsessed with Kimberlia Kimbo. I loved, loved Brian's content around the Tony Awards, because it was all things Kimberlia Kimbo. And I love it. So shout out to both of them, both also inspirations to you and to me. Let's double click on this huge project that you have going on with POTUS. This show that closed a while ago on Broadway, but it was iconic, political, avant-garde in some way. And now it's going, it's, the rights were released, so we can have other regional productions across the United States. So tell us about the Broadway run, POTUS, and your project, The POTUS Theater Trail.

[4:51] Bekah Walsh: Yeah, absolutely. So POTUS is a play written by Selina Fillinger. This woman is under 30, she's made her Broadway debut. She is fabulous. And she's written several other plays. But this one is hysterical. I also didn't know much about it. I was in New York on a weekend trip with my friend and I saw the market. And I was like, you know, that looks funny. Next time we're up, maybe we should see it. Grabbed a ticket on CDF, had no idea what I was in for. And I was like, holy cow. This is amazing. This has made my day. I want to watch this again and again. And one of the things that happened the first day I saw it was I went down to the merch booth, and I see this shirt right here that says, there's a cutty Don coming.

I don't know if you have to censor this. But I saw this shirt and immediately said, oh, my goodness, this is the funniest thing I've ever seen. I must have this shirt. And then I let my inner adult take over and say, but where are you going to wear this? Like, this is irresponsible. Why would you buy this? What are you going to do with it? So I left without the shirt. Instant reverse buyer's remorse. And so I am at a stoop night. I live in Baltimore. It's something we like to do here. We literally sit on our stoops with our friends. We have a drink. We just talk, especially in the warmer months once a week. It's just a great way to hang out with people. But I'm talking about the show and what a great time I had.

And I did buy this pen that also has that headline on it. But I'm talking about the shirt and how sad I am that I didn't buy it. And what I'm about to say next is, oh, I realized it's online. So I'm going to go ahead and order it because I really want this shirt. But before I can say that, my husband, who typically does not like theater, especially musicals, there's a whole shtick about that. He's a very good sport. But he packs up and he's like, do we need to go back to New York and see it? And for me, this is a huge opportunity because this man does not like New York, does not like a lot of my theater. So I'm like, well, yeah, if you're offering, we're absolutely going. So thankfully, we plan a last minute weekend, we go up and see the show, we finish the show.

And he looks at me, he says, I thought you were overselling it. That's literally the best thing I've ever seen, which is the highest praise this man can give. I knew we were onto something. But by then, it was a limited run. We knew this was always going to be a short thing. So it ended shortly after that. I want to say it ended in August of last year. And at the time, given the language, given the mature themes in my head, I'm like, this probably isn't going to tour. This isn't exactly a family friendly show. But it's so valuable. It's so fun. There's great themes in it, great feminist energy. And thankfully, shortly after that, I saw this announcement that it was going to be licensed through Concord Theatricals.

And so after that, it was just a matter of seeing, okay, where's it going to go next? I hope I get another chance to see it. And Arena Stage, who is a regional theater in DC near me was the first one I saw to announce it. A friend of mine knew I loved it. And earlier this year, as theaters started dropping their seasons more and more started dropping POTUS. And I was like, wow, this, I wasn't expecting this. I'm thrilled with this. Wouldn't it be cool if I could see how all the different people approach it? Because the big difference if you have a tour, right, it's the same from city to city, they're taking the production with them. It'll be fairly consistent. But when it's regional, every theater, right, they have this book as their guidelines.

But there's a lot in here that they can make their own choices. Their costumes can be different. Their casting can be different. They can pick different songs for the playlist that's indicated in the show. So there's so many new choices to see. And it's more announced. And as we started to realize coming out of the pandemic that regional theaters are still in a bad place and still really need our support, it kind of became this project of I can see it all and I can help them at the same time. Like, I can use my platform to bring attention to these theaters and show people, like, in no way is a regional theater less than a Broadway theater. There's so many cool things they can do. I hope people realize that these places in their backyards are destinations.

I hope more people see this and they go. So ultimately, you know, it's selfish for me because I get to see this play in many different iterations. But at the same time, I really hope it draws attention to these theaters and starts bringing people back into these houses.

[8:38] Martín Acuña: Yeah, absolutely. Now that you are like this big POTUS connoisseur, I want to ask you, why is this show relevant and right now? And after the Broadway run, which had an iconic cast, why is this show having such a big impact?

[9:02] Bekah Walsh: Well, you know, it's funny. It's something I talk about a lot. Cabaret is one of my favorite musicals. And there's absolutely no coincidence that that play had a major resurgence, not only in a tour and a revival during the previous administration, if you will. But regional theaters everywhere were performing this play, producing it at the same time. I literally, within two years, I saw seven different productions of Cabaret. And so what that tells you is people choose theater and what to produce as an indicator of what our current climate is. And so while that's a great example, POTUS was intended to come out also during that time. And obviously the pandemic changed things, but they brought it.

And one really viral moment, if you go to the POTUS Instagram, there is a line about women's reproductive health care. And the play happened to be running on Broadway when last year's Roe v. Wade ruling was overturned. And that became kind of this hot button moment in the show where literally the show would stop standing ovation, constant applause, because it is. This is a feminist show. The show is called POTUS. We never see the man. This is a cast of seven women diffusing issues, saving POTUS's rear end, if you will, and just diffusing crisis after crisis and showing their own power and realizing their own power while at the same time fighting with the fact that, you know, people are trying to take their rights away.

And especially in this time, that's a big issue in the show. There's other issues, but I think women will recognize what this means for us and our own rights and our own power. And that theme never goes out of style, regardless of the administration, but it's become especially relevant in the wake of circumstances that are happening in POTUS right now. So I think a lot of people are going to find it very relatable.

[10:44] Martín Acuña: Yeah. Plus, I think that true political change comes through comedy.

[10:53] Martín Acuña: Like, you can have two branches. Either it's something big and maybe sometimes unfortunate, like the Roe v. Wade overruling, or the whole Black Lives Matter movement that we had during the pandemic. Those are things that are very violent and are very huge and affect a lot of people. Or you could have change through a softer side, if I may call it like that, which is through comedy. Because a lot of people usually laugh at the things that deeply resound in them. So it's like very on point what you said that this show is so relevant right now. And it's so needed with the current political and the current society that we are living in. So I totally agree with you. Let's now chat about your POTUS theater trail.

[11:56] Bekah Walsh: Yes. So starting right now in September, but it's looking like August, there are at least 20 theaters across the country that in their upcoming 2023-2024 season are producing their own productions of POTUS in multiple states. There are several in Florida, Texas, Boston, Chicago, California, everywhere. So my concept is twofold. I also write for a local publication called Baltimore Outloud, which is a queer publication. I'm their theater writer here. And so while that focuses on local theater, the whole trail is going to culminate in kind of a future article about the state of regional theater, about how this pipeline works and what it looks like. But in the meantime, I'm going to be hopping production to production to each of these theaters and taking the time to make content at every stop, A, about their production, but B, about their theater.

Is there something unique in particular about their production, about their theater? I've already seen, just in researching these theaters, some amazing things. Arena Stage in DC, again, is my home theater. They have three stages. They've chosen to stage that in a round, which already is a unique decision. It's different from Broadway. And then on the other hand, there's a theater up in New England. And a lot of theaters do this. They have a pay-as-you-can special performance or a certain amount of allotted pay-as-you-can tickets. This theater somehow has managed to be 100% pay-as-you-can for every ticket, which blows my mind. I love the accessibility for people. And so that already is a great conversation.

Why do you do this? How do you do this? How can we make theater more accessible to people to get them in? Because yes, it is an expensive thing to do, and we need to reinvestigate this whole model so people can have access to it. But you guys have somehow found a way. What can we learn from this? So I think there's going to be something different to learn at every stop. I think there's going to be a new creative take at every stop. And so I'm excited to highlight that. And I hope people say, wow, you're in my state. I didn't know this theater was here. I'm going to go see the production now. I'm hoping for each one I can go early enough in the run that there's time for people to be able to get their tickets and go. Some of these are two, three-day runs, just over a weekend. Some of them are a month long. So we're going to see all sorts of different things, and I'm so excited.

[14:08] Martín Acuña: That is amazing. And it is exciting to see the new creative artistic take each theater has, the performance making they will do according to the stage, according to the house. I love that. I absolutely love that. Do you have any other thing planned while you are on the trail?

[14:29] Bekah Walsh: Something else I'm just excited to notice is the audience response to this. If you have ever seen theater in DC at all, the DC audience, especially for political comedies, is unmatched. Their energy, they laugh at everything. There's just things we know, right? Because we're immersed in this. But the show is going to be in states where I think it's particularly risky to kind of put it on, and I'm thrilled to see how they react. For instance, there's a theater in North Carolina that I had a phone call with when I was planning the trail, and they said, you know, there's a certain word that occurs many times in this play, and we're really nervous about it, because we can say some swear words, and the audience is okay, but we say other swear words, and they freak out, and they told me a story about how an actor in a play said GD, and the people were so upset at the end of act one that they threatened to leave the show if they said it again.

People tried to go to the actor's dressing room and tell him to stop, which is, right, it's terrifying, and it shows how necessary it is, but it's interesting, because I feel like if I saw that show in DC, that wouldn't be such an issue. People would laugh. Some people might be uncomfortable, but they wouldn't take it that far. So going between traditionally red and blue areas and seeing the audience reception is going to be really fascinating, and something my husband pointed out, he has a friend who is very opposite of us politically. He said, I really want to bring him to see the show, and my instant response was, oh, this is a this-way-leaning show. I think he's really going to hate it, and he said, no, I think it's for everyone, and when I thought about it, you're right.

The play allows you to take things as you will. There's some implications of who POTUS might be, but it's meant to be a generic concept. It's not pointing directly at anybody. I think it's something you can take what you will from the material and kind of interpret it your way. So I think that's going to be fascinating. There are going to be periods on the tour, time-wise, where it's such a quick overlap. September and October, it's show after show after show, where I might only have a day or two to spend in the city before I move on. So it's going to be wild times. There's going to be some slower times where hopefully I can spend more time in the city, get to know the people there, really highlight them in their communities, but I'm excited for all of it.

[16:46] Martín Acuña: Yes, it sounds exciting, and I cannot wait to see your content, your videos around the whole theatre trail, the audience response to things. It sounds like a really exciting time. I'm really excited.

[16:56] Bekah Walsh: Yes, and I'm still playing around with it, but I'm hoping that there's an opportunity here also to help and give back to these theatres, and I'm exploring the best way to do that. But for instance, one of the theatres I'm talking to now that might become the first stop on the trail, they're in Fort Myers, Florida. They are still recovering from Hurricane Ian. So for instance, how do we help them? How do we support them? How do we solicit donations as they're trying to rebuild after this crisis and bring people in seats? They're doing this work. What can we do? How do we encourage, you know, giving, getting people in seats, but also donations? So I'm hoping that I'll have more announcements in the future of ways we can give back as the theatre community to all of these theatres.

[17:30] Martín Acuña: Yeah, absolutely, absolutely. And that is amazing, amazing job. And I cannot, truly, I cannot wait to see how the trail goes. But Kat, my last question for you is, what are your top five favourite musical theatre shows?

[17:43] Bekah Walsh: I knew you were going to ask this, and this is so hard. Number one, by far, anybody who's seen my channel knows it's Come From Away that's always had a very special place in my heart. Yeah. It's very funny. My friend Jen Lin also has a podcast called At This Performance, and I was listening to a Super Swing episode. And that person, actually, I thought I was listening to myself for a minute, because this woman was like, I want to be in this show so bad. Like, I would pay a regional production to be in their production. They don't even have to pay me. And that's how I feel. Like, it's just so special. It says a lot about the human condition and what we could be. And it just inspires me, especially when I'm in the worst of moods, to kind of turn things around, approach things with kindness.

You know, we all have our hard times, but it's such an inspiring story. So that's always it. On the flip side, the second one would have to be Cabaret. I've seen it a lot. And it's funny, because the first time I saw it, I went in knowing nothing about the show. My friend was going to be cast in a local community production. So I was like, well, let me see who these characters are, see who she's getting called back for. And I just remember I felt physically ill the first time I saw it. I sincerely thought I was going to vomit, because it's just such heavy content. And the fascinating thing about it is every production is so different. I think it's the best example of the creative process, because there's always a different character choice, different blocking, different lines, different endings.

Like, there's always a different choice. But like, every time I see it, my head starts spinning over again. I have to start reevaluating what I know about it and what I'm supposed to think about it. And I just think that's how theater should be. It should constantly be challenging you. So I love that. The next three is when it gets really hard. I'm going to place third places like the entire Rodgers and Hammerstein catalog, because that is the basis of my love for theater. And those are classics. They continue to be revived for different reasons. And I will always be watching that. Four, I might say On Your Feet. I tend to be on the team of like, do we need so many bio jukebox musicals? Do we need so many movie musicals?

But On Your Feet just such a great story, great music. By far my favorite bio jukebox musical. I love the story of Gloria Estefan. I love seeing how far the show's been able to go. A lot of them don't go that far, but she had a great three-year run on Broadway. They had the equity tour. They still have non-equity tours. They still have other productions going on. And I just think there's a lot of inspiring content in the story, but at the same time, it's so entertaining. You can't help but go back because it lifts your spirits and it breaks your heart at the same time. Hands down a favorite. Probably unpopular, but I don't care. It's one of my favorites. It's so much fun. I will watch it whenever it's in town.

I got one more. This is so hard. I've got books and books. I would say POTUS, but it's not a musical, even though it gives musical energy. I'd say lately I've really been feeling Six. I think it's nice to have a balance of compelling theater and fun theater, and Six is very intelligent while being very fun. And that's also something that's easy to watch on repeat and just have a good time with. So I'm going to say that, but honestly, the list could go on and on and on. There's so many shows. I love them from every era.

[21:07] Martín Acuña: Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Basically, we could pick one favorite show by year. We could have a lot of choices, but yeah. There's so many I've yet to see that I'm dying to.

[21:14] Bekah Walsh: Yeah, absolutely. Pekka, thank you so much for being here. I wish you the best with the POTUS Theater Trail. I cannot wait to see the content, the audience reactions, everything we talked about today. Thank you so much for being here.

[21:24] Bekah Walsh: Thank you for letting me talk about it. It was great meeting you. Thanks, everyone, for listening to this new episode of Backstage Talk. Remember to follow us on Facebook and Instagram at Backstage Talk Podcast.