This transcript was automatically generated and might contain errors.

[0:00] Martín Acuña: Hi, everyone. I am Martín Acuña, and you are listening to Backstage Talk.

[0:15] Martín Acuña: So, welcome back, and we have today one new guest. We have here Sam Leicht. So, hey, Sam, how are you?

[0:31] Sam Leicht: I'm doing so well. How are you?

[0:33] Martín Acuña: Good, good. How's everything back in New York?

[0:38] Sam Leicht: New York is good. You know, we're in the middle of like a slight spike in coronavirus, so that's not the best, but hopefully, you know, this little spike is just gonna make people be a little bit more cautious, and, you know, they won't be too detrimental to the city, you know.

[0:56] Martín Acuña: Yeah, hopefully, we're not back in a big lockdown.

[1:00] Sam Leicht: Exactly, right. Yeah, hopefully, we can just be responsible, and we can like still keep on trying to go about our normal quarantine lives. Yeah, hopefully, we're not back in a big lockdown, so fingers crossed for that.

[1:15] Martín Acuña: Right, right. So, Sam, introduce yourself, please, for a bit.

[1:25] Sam Leicht: Yeah, so my name is Sam Leicht. I am from Appleton, Wisconsin, which is one of like the very internal states in the U.S. We have a lot of farmland there, lots of cows. We're known for our cows, and I went to school for music theater. I have been very active in health and wellness throughout my life, and moved to New York probably four years ago now, a little over four years ago, and have since been doing a lot of wellness, but then also been doing theater, and kind of just like taking whatever opportunities come my way and running with it, so.

[2:13] Martín Acuña: Cool. How did you end up in theater?

[2:18] Sam Leicht: I always liked theater, but I was kind of a late bloomer. I didn't really start doing music theater until later in high school, and my parents were very supportive, and I said to them, you know, what if I wanted to do this in college, and they were like, do it. So then I did, and that's kind of it, you know. Like, I feel like once I got to music theater school, it was kind of just like, you just keep going. Like, you know, it wasn't, there was no looking back anymore. You like, finish your degree, you go to New York, you like, audition for shows, and like, that's what you're gonna do, and only after being in New York for a while did I realize that you don't necessarily need to follow like, the standard path that has been set for any career, really, but especially for actors.

Like, you don't have to like, go to music theater school, and then like, have a survival job in the city as you're auditioning, and like, you know, hate it, and end up resenting theater, and like, all that. You don't, it doesn't have to be that way, right? So it took me a while to figure that out, but now that I have, I feel super lucky, and I still love acting, and I love health, and I love, or health and wellness, and yeah, I feel super lucky in that way.

[3:43] Martín Acuña: What was your first show back in high school?

[3:46] Sam Leicht: Les Mis. Of course, Les Mis.

[3:48] Martín Acuña: Were you Marius?

[3:50] Sam Leicht: Yeah, I was, yeah.

[3:52] Martín Acuña: You're fit for Marius.

[3:54] Sam Leicht: Yeah, yeah, it was, it was the show that kind of gave me the bug, you know?

[4:02] Martín Acuña: Nice, cool. The theater bug. But you also did gymnastics.

[4:10] Sam Leicht: Yeah, so I did gymnastics really early growing up, and you know, I've actually been unpacking this a little bit more lately. I remember when I started gymnastics, I was in, I must have been in kindergarten, and I remember saying to my mom, I really like this, but you can't tell my friends that I'm doing this, because I just like, it was like, inherently feminine to me. I don't know what it was about it. I didn't know what being gay was, but like, I definitely knew that gymnastics was like, not, not like, not masculine. Men should do, yeah, right? But I loved it, and I was, you know, like, I think that was coupled with me just like, being very good at it, you know? Like, when you're good at something, you just really fall in love with it, and it's still one of those sports that I wish that I would have like, followed through with. I wish that I would have continued it, because I just loved it, and I still like, I watch it on YouTube all the time. It's like, my guilty pleasure, for sure.

[5:03] Martín Acuña: And you're going back to it?

[5:10] Sam Leicht: I don't know if I'm going back to it. I've tried to go back to it a couple of times, and my body's like, no, but in my workouts that I do, I do a lot of gymnastics, and I can do more than I used to be able to do, so I mean like, that's a good thing, you know? But I definitely will never go back to like, competitive gymnastics ever. Not only for a nice workout session. A workout session, or like, every once in a while, my friends and I will go to a gymnastics center in New York City, just like, to like, have like, a fun class or whatever.

[5:42] Martín Acuña: Nice. Cool. Yeah. Cool. Sounds fun. I've always loved gymnastics, but never had the bug. Plus, I don't, I don't even, there must have, we must have a center here in Columbia, but actually, I don't know if we do. What I did when I was younger was archery, and it was fun.

[6:02] Sam Leicht: Oh, I mean, so cool.

[6:03] Martín Acuña: But that was because I was obsessed with the Lord of the Rings.

[6:06] Sam Leicht: Me too, yeah.

[6:08] Martín Acuña: So yeah, I wanted to be an elf, more like Orlando Bloom, being Legolas, but, so yeah, I tried archery.

[6:14] Sam Leicht: Orlando Bloom as an elf was like, my sexual awakening.

[6:20] Martín Acuña: I feel you.

[6:22] Sam Leicht: Like, I'm not kidding, and my boyfriend thinks that I'm insane, but like, I make him re-watch those movies all the time, and I'm like, uh, that, that's my type. Orlando Bloom as an elf.

[6:33] Martín Acuña: And that, that was, that was the year and the moment in life when I knew.

[6:38] Sam Leicht: Yeah, exactly. Exactly, yeah.

[6:42] Martín Acuña: So, you graduated from Baldwin Wallace, for music theater.

[6:48] Sam Leicht: For music theater.

[6:49] Martín Acuña: Then you moved to New York, and you started working in the industry as soon as you got there, or how did it start?

[6:57] Sam Leicht: Yeah, actually, again, I had kind of like a non-linear path for music theater. Normally, in my program, you would just do the four years. At the end of the four years, you do a showcase, where agents come to your showcase, and then you get an agent, and that's how you get your auditions in New York. You move to New York, it's great, right? My senior year of college, I kind of decided, I was like, maybe I want to take a step back here, and I want to do some more like directing and producing stuff. And so, I started directing shows. I directed a show at Baldwin Wallace called Theory of Relativity. I directed, or I co-directed West Side Story, which is one of our main stage productions. And when one of the producers from New York was coming to Baldwin Wallace to do a master class, he came to see West Side Story, and I was with him.

I was kind of like his chaperone, kind of like bring him to dinner, and then bring him to the show. And he became my mentor in New York. And it got to be November, and my mentor was like, he's the executive producer for Cameron Mackintosh North America, and so he was like, we're starting Miss Saigon in January. Would you want to graduate early, skip your showcase, and be a production assistant on Miss Saigon? And I said, yeah, absolutely. I'm like ready to get out of here. So, I graduated early. I graduated at the end of 2016, and then moved to New York, and started Miss Saigon two days after I moved there. So, that was a great experience, and I learned so much of kind of just how the industry works.

And I learned a lot about working with my mentor, and I ended up doing another show with my mentor. We did Ragtime at a Gun Quit. I assistant directed it. And then, long story short, one of our ensemble members had a funeral, and so I swung into the show, and that's when I was like, shit, this is really what I want to be doing. It was a good break. I needed that break, but this is it for me.

[9:23] Martín Acuña: And so, I, again, took the nonlinear path to send some cold emails to agents who I knew and managers who I knew, and I happened to get a response back from one of the top agents that I knew of. And so, I auditioned for them a few times, and then finally I signed with them, and that's kind of how my path went. It was very nonlinear, very not traditional. You go to showcase, you get an agent, and then you start auditioning. But it was just kind of the path that I needed to go through so that I knew what I wanted to do.

[10:02] Martín Acuña: And right now, you're with the same agency.

[10:05] Sam Leicht: That's CGS?

[10:06] Martín Acuña: Yeah, yeah, yeah.

[10:08] Sam Leicht: Cool.

[10:10] Martín Acuña: I sent a couple emails to them last year when I was trying to get an internship, and I love them. I really love them.

[10:16] Sam Leicht: Yeah.

[10:18] Martín Acuña: And how did you end up in Lion King?

[10:21] Sam Leicht: Oh, so I was not in Lion King. I was, like, the same job that I had for Miss Saigon. I had a very similar job for Lion King. I was a production assistant. So when Lion King North America was revamping their tour, I was the production assistant on that tour. So in that process of me, like, finding an agent, I was also working as the production assistant for Lion King until, like, it was, like, a couple weeks after Lion King had finished that I got my agent, and I started, like, auditioning full-time.

[10:57] Martín Acuña: Great. Let me get my curtain because it started raining madly.

[11:03] Sam Leicht: Yeah, no, no, no. Please. Give me a minute.

[11:20] Sam Leicht: I don't know if you can still hear the rain, but let's hope the mic doesn't get it.

[11:24] Martín Acuña: Yeah, yeah, yeah. And, okay, so you jumped in in this show, and that was Rack Time.

[11:32] Sam Leicht: Yeah.

[11:34] Martín Acuña: And on stage, you decided, this is what I really want to do. You were trained in that in college, but...

[11:40] Sam Leicht: Yeah, yeah.

[11:42] Martín Acuña: Jumping from performing to production assistant to back to performing, it was the moment you said, this is what I want to do with my life.

[11:51] Sam Leicht: Yeah, it was terrifying.

[11:54] Martín Acuña: Yeah, it was terrifying because my mentor was the director of the show, and I remember them being, like, well, you have to do this. And them, like, knowing that I was talented, but also, like, being terrified to sing in front of them and, like, to, like, act in front of them because I just, like, that's not how I presented myself to them. I presented myself as, like, a very put-together, like, director, and then they were asking me to, like, kind of, like, flip the switch into, like, a creative actor role. And that was so vulnerable. And I remember being, like, just terrified.

[12:33] Martín Acuña: But that's nice. I mean, a lot of us, we jump from performing to directing or producing.

[12:41] Sam Leicht: Yeah.

[12:41] Martín Acuña: And that, I think that's a skill that we need.

[12:45] Sam Leicht: And you had it.

[12:47] Martín Acuña: Yeah, yeah. And how did you end up in The Lightning Thief?

[12:54] Sam Leicht: Yeah, so I had, like, a solid six months of auditioning, and, you know, like, I did, like, a regional production of Hairspray, but like, not quite hitting, right? It just wasn't exactly right. I got close to a few different jobs, one of them being Marius and Les Mis. Marius and Les Mis, you know, just always coming back to that first show. And, but it wasn't really hitting. And I go back to this idea that, like, I was not working in health and wellness yet. And so I had a lot of crazy survival jobs, right? Like, at a job where I was, like, counting pennies for someone, and like, packaging pennies, and like, it was insane. I had a job where...

[13:53] Sam Leicht: I don't remember, but I have like a list in my phone. I was like, you don't want to forget all of these jobs that you've had that were absolutely insane. I'll define it. And so I went through a good phase of my life where I was like doing survival jobs. And then after about six months, I started shifting into health and wellness. And when I say shifting, I wasn't like shifting away from acting, but I was definitely shifting away from a survival job because I knew that that was not going to be conducive to my auditioning. And it was pretty immediate. As soon as I started taking personal training clients, and as soon as I started coaching, it was really, really easy for me to walk into the audition room and kind of say like, I would love this job.

I would love to play Percy in The Lightning Thief, but like, I don't need this because I love my clients. I love what I'm doing in health and wellness. And that was kind of like the absolute deciding factor that like flips the switch for me of like taking the pressure off because I think I was just so anxious all the time. And I needed something to like lower the stakes a bit and say like, this is not all about like you giving me a job anymore, because I don't need this job anymore. So, so long story short, I was doing a lot of health and wellness stuff. And I was training as an athlete myself and doing mostly that. And then I auditioned for The Lightning Thief, which was just really funny because one of my really good friends was playing Percy, Chris, who also went to Bald and Wallet.

And I was like, God, I don't want this job. Like, I don't like I've set up such a good base in New York City. I don't want to leave right now. And of course, that was the job that I got. And I want to like, you know, really reframe that. When I was doing it, I fully came to the realization of being like, you're an idiot. Of course, you want this job. It was amazing. It really was. But like at the time, I was just like such a brat. And I was like, God, do I want to do this? I might like not make as much money or like something like that. It's like, it's so stupid. It was absolutely a phase. And I'm glad I got over it. And I'm so glad that I did it. So but I fully believe that like, young actors, the best thing that you can do is make sure that you don't have a survival job.

You have to have a job that aligns with acting that allows you to do both in a positive way. Because I think that when you are waiting tables and you hate it, which some people love it, in which case, like, that's not what I'm talking about. But like, if you are doing a job that you hate, because you have to pay your rent while you are auditioning, you are absolutely setting yourself up for failure in the audition room, because casting agents, directors, they can smell that desperation. You walk in and you say, I really need this job. They're like, good, I don't want you, you know. So I think that the biggest thing that you can do as a young actor to make sure that you're setting yourself up well is to just like, find what else you like, find what will be conducive to the flexible schedule that you need for acting, whether that's graphic design or web design or, you know, like, entrepreneurship or consulting or marketing, like, things that you can do remotely, things that you can do on your own schedule, things that allow you to have autonomy that you can, like, you're not constantly worried about paying rent, you know, like, that is the absolute best thing that you can do for your acting career. So, wow, what a tangent. I'm so sorry.

[17:53] Martín Acuña: No, it's great. I mean, I got to you thanks to The Lightning Thief.

[17:59] Sam Leicht: Right.

[18:00] Martín Acuña: And I didn't get the chance to see it, unfortunately, but I think that since last year and this year, two shows have been really revolutionary for the industry and more setting a generation of people that not only met musical theater for the first time, but went back to books or music released a lot of time ago. And it's The Lightning Thief and Jagged Little Pill. I think those two have been such amazing musicals and such amazing productions that are revolutionizing the industry.

[18:39] Sam Leicht: Right.

[18:43] Martín Acuña: One being an original musical like The Lightning Thief and one being a jukebox musical. And I got to you, I got to Chris, I got to Kristen, I got to all the cast, thanks to social media and thanks to the work of Ashley.

[19:07] Sam Leicht: God, she's amazing.

[19:10] Martín Acuña: I don't know her. I love her. And I really want to know her because her job on social media and creating community is so amazing. And I want to go back to your experience being the CrossFit Percy, because I know that was your nickname when the show was on.

[19:32] Sam Leicht: Yeah, yeah.

[19:33] Martín Acuña: How was it for you to be on stage for that specific musical?

[19:39] Sam Leicht: You know, it was interesting because, first of all, just going back to Ashley, she's like absolutely changing the entire social media game. Like if every Broadway show is not doesn't have her like on their radar right now, they are insane because what she did with The Lightning Thief is incredible. You know, like she turned this like little show that could into like a Broadway show. It's insane. It's insane. And she did that. You know, like I truly like I dedicate so much of the success of The Lightning Thief to Ashley Latimer. But in terms of my personal experience as CrossFit Percy, God, it was such a blast. I was terrified. Most of it, you know, I have to be totally honest and say like, I had the time of my life, the best acting experience I've ever had playing Percy, and I found playing Luke and Ares to be so unbelievably challenging.

It was, you know, it's trying to cover two roles that are just complete opposites. And, you know, like Percy and I, we can totally say that like acting is so much more than this, but like Percy was playing myself on stage. It was great, you know, like maybe like a little bit heightened Sam, but like it was mostly just Sam. Right. And Ares was like putting on something and Luke was putting on something. And it just goes to show that like, you know, understudying is a weird thing to do because, you know, like I would never have been cast as just Luke. You know what I mean? Like it happened that I could cover that role, but I don't think that I would ever, ever be cast as that. Right. And I think that's fine, but it does put you into like a little bit of like a mental quandary when you think about like, God, why does it feel so good with one of my tracks and the other track makes me feel like a complete amateur, like, you know, just like pulling down the show and making it trash, you know, like it, it wasn't really, it was, it was hard.

It was definitely hard. Yeah. But it was a nice challenge. It definitely was a really good challenge. I, and honestly, like everyone is always like very, very helpful. We were really lucky because our creative team is just like incredible as well. You know, like there's, they are Steven and Patrick were always just about like, you know, okay, so this doesn't work for you. Let's change it. You know what I mean? Like, it doesn't need to be exactly how James did it. Or like, you know, with other understudies, like it doesn't need to be exactly how they did it. If it's not right for you, because like the worst thing is going to be an audience seeing you try to be something that you're not, you know, like that's going to be like a little horrible.

[22:56] Martín Acuña: All right. I want to shift a little bit to one topic that I know you're really passionate about. And it's the body image in the industry. Because you've been really an advocate of changing that traditional or stereotypic image of how a body should be to be on stage or to be on screen. Let's go deep, deeper on that. What's your point of view to a body image in the industry or a body for the entertainment industry?

[23:30] Sam Leicht: I think when you enter the health and wellness space, you have a pretty big decision you have to make right off the bat. And that decision is whether or not you are going to go into image or whether you're going to go into this idea of like, how do you feel? How are you doing? How are you moving? You know? And I think that for a lot of people, it's incredibly tempting to go the image way, because it's super marketable. It's super clickbaity to say like, I'm going to get you a six pack in six days. Or it's super marketable to like, use your clients' before and after pictures and say like, this is what I can do to your body. I can transform your body, like whatever. And I think that's why most of the health and wellness space is saturated with these like, very, very aesthetic based trainers.

I think Broadway has traditionally been so much about like, a certain body type. It's been ingrained in us. Like if someone says like, let me help you get a Broadway body. It just like, it makes me cringe. And yet, it's something that has been around for so long. You know what I mean? Like, that's not like a new term that's actually been around for so long. And we're just now starting to like, kind of phase it out and say like, what the fuck is a Broadway body? Like, are you kidding me? Like, it seems like the bodies that are best playing the roles are a Broadway body. You know what I mean? And like, and I know that that's not necessarily what people mean. But sometimes it kind of is like, they're saying like, are you going to be like, like a strong girl where you're like, six feet tall, like super long legs, and you look like a rockette?

Like, that's kind of what they're talking about with a Broadway body. And with a man, they're like, are you going to look like Hugh Jackman? Or here's another good example. It's like, recent. Patrick Bateman? Wait, is he the actual character? Or is he the actor? Anyway, anyway, so like, these like, very like, jacked, like leading men on Broadway, and like, Oh, yeah, that's the Broadway body. And you're like, I think we're just past that. I think that we're so we are finally starting to like, try and tell stories how they actually are. Which is why we have to like, get rid of this idea of like, Broadway body, right? That being said, there is like a fine line between like, and I think that we have to like, stay really positive about this.

But like, I'm saying like, when you have to do eight shows a week, you absolutely need to be training your body in a way that will allow you to do that, right? Because it's not easy. Honestly, like, seeing my cast have to do eight shows a week, you're like, No, no, no, this isn't just like, the two and a half hours that you're on stage, right? It's like, you know, it really catches up to you doing that week after week after week of two, two show days a week. And like, you know, and I think that it's really important that we're focused on health and wellness as Broadway performers, right? Like, dissociating that from weight or body image is one of the best things that we can do for Broadway. And I don't know if I'm being very clear with that, basically saying like, we need to be training our bodies for Broadway. It has nothing to do with how you look.

[27:46] Sam Leicht: Something that has been very important to me, even though I honestly am not even super big in the Broadway industry with my personal training clients. I have a few people doing my online program who are in the Broadway industry, but I mostly work with New Yorkers and people across the country, right? But I had to make the decision very early on to say, no, I'm not going to have you make aesthetic goals. I'm not going to have you weigh yourself because I just don't see those as being part of a sustainable program for you. Like, okay, say that you lose 10 pounds and that was your goal. What's the next goal to lose another 10 pounds? Is that healthy for you? Is it achievable for you? And if it's not achievable for you, are you going to continue working out or are you going to stop and binge?

And that's kind of how I look at any of those aesthetic goals. So I decided to focus on doing better, feeling better, and moving better. And just to break that down a little bit more, focusing on doing better, I want you to be able to run a mile faster, or I want you to be able to walk upstairs and not get winded. When I'm talking about feeling better, I'm talking about, I want us to focus on eating better and sleeping better and making sure that we are emotionally healthy. And then when I talk about moving better, I'm talking about making sure that we have the movement mechanics so that when we're 80 and we're standing up from our couch, we can do that safely because we learned how to properly do a squat, right?

We weren't too busy looking at ourselves in the mirror doing bicep curls. And I've found that when we do that, when we focus on doing, feeling, and moving better, we end up looking better. It's amazing. It's great. But when we focus on looking better, we don't do, feel, or move better. So it's been like an uphill battle for sure, because it'd be so much easier to just say like, do my program. It'll get you a six pack in six days. But it's just not, it's not leading to sustainable health. And that's not what I believe in. And I mean, going back to the Broadway thing, I don't think that's what Broadway needs either. Broadway doesn't need to look like they need, like Broadway doesn't need another six pack, you know?

[30:15] Martín Acuña: And that's something I actually love about your program and about Lightning Health. I'm personally not in your program yet. I want to do it. But the shifting the mindset from your worth is on your weight to your worth is actually on what you feel and feeling better. It just blows my mind because I think it's a game changer. And I think it's really important right now to start having people that advocate for how you feel, how you move, instead of you're going to wait and we'll check the number every single day. I love also that you don't say exercise, you say movement. That is something because personally, the word exercise exhausts me since I say it. And I really like that mindset of it's movement, not exercise. It's not gym. I actually love that.

[31:28] Sam Leicht: I try and be really careful about the verbiage for sure. Because when I look at movement, it encompasses so much more than exercise or fitness. The biggest thing that I say to my clients is I don't want you to be doing something that you don't like, because if you don't like it, you will not continue to do it throughout your life. So what if you don't like lifting weights, but you do like playing tennis? I would so much prefer you to play tennis. I would so much prefer you to play tennis. I would so much prefer you to do the movement that you like to do. And sometimes that may not be what we categorize as exercise. Tennis may not be like exercise to us because it's not a spin class or it's not lifting weights at the gym.

But doing something is so much more important than doing nothing. And if it means that you will exercise at the gym for two weeks, but then drop off and not do anything, or you could play tennis and continue doing it for the rest of your life, I would absolutely choose tennis every single day, which is why the movement verbiage is just so much more important to me. And I love that. How and when did you start this program? Because I don't know if you started it before or after the pandemic.

[32:56] Sam Leicht: Yeah, so I was starting to write it unconsciously last year, and I was making Jared do the workouts. And Jared's my boyfriend. And over quarantine, it kind of like got a little bit clearer of what I was doing. I had like, you know, just like a note of all these workouts that I was like programming and doing and like kind of like testing out. And then over quarantine, it got like pretty serious. And then, you know, these past four months, especially because the program actually came out just about a month ago. And over the past four months, especially, I was like, oh, yeah, this is what we need to be doing, especially because there's going to be a second wave. Gyms are going to shut down again.

We need a way of working out at home that we don't hate. You know, like we need something that is sustainable and allows us to move our bodies. And like, it's going to kind of like pull us out of the quarantine funk because, God, I felt it. I'm sure you felt it. So many people have felt it. And we just have to like really, really be trying to fight against that.

[34:12] Martín Acuña: So, Jared was your guinea pig for all the exercises.

[34:16] Sam Leicht: Yeah.

[34:17] Martín Acuña: And now you have them on your website, right?

[34:22] Sam Leicht: Yeah. So, you sign up to the website, but then you download an app and all the workouts are, you know, served to you through the app. So, some of it is self-directed. Some of it is you doing a video with me because I think that you need both. I think that you need to be responsible for yourself and be able to like self-motivate. But then also, you need to like sometimes need a little help and do it with me. You know what I mean? And I love that it's both of them. So, that's how it's set up right now.

[34:49] Martín Acuña: That's awesome. I'll definitely try it soon because I really need to go back to working out because I'm only like doing yoga and sometimes spinning.

[35:01] Sam Leicht: Movement is great. That's great.

[35:03] Martín Acuña: Yeah. But I think sometimes I need something more intense. So, I want something more fiery.

[35:12] Sam Leicht: Yeah.

[35:13] Martín Acuña: And the last part I want to talk to you about is what are your future plans? I mean, your program is going great. Your social media channels are going great with all your videos and stuff. Where are you headed?

[35:29] Sam Leicht: Who knows? Honestly, you know, I'm excited for theater to come back. I think it'll be we had such a long period of reprieve. And I think it made us reprioritize and kind of think about why do we love this? Why do we need this? You know, I think going through college, going through music theater, I would always question myself and say, why am I doing this? Because it seems pretty vain. You know what I mean? It seems like I am performing in a show because I want people to see me sing, you know? And I was like, God, this is really tough for me because it doesn't seem like I'm serving anyone but myself right now. And that was part of the reason why I started health and wellness because it was so gratifying to be able to help people find sustainable health and wellness, right?

But I think that quarantine has done a really, really good job of reminding me just how powerful the arts are. You know, like, I mean, people see this all the time, like, okay, before you say that, like, we should cut arts funding, like, think about all of the forms of media that you consumed today, this podcast, you know, like the TV that you're watching, the movies that you're watching, the live theater that you're going to see, the music that you're listening to, like, all of it is part of the arts. And it's not just for us as performers, and we're not just doing it for us. It's because it allows us to, it allows communities to be able to empathize in a way that we sometimes aren't able to do.

I think that, like, my best example of that is, like, that, you know, that phenomenon of when your parent is like, well, I don't, I don't agree with being gay, like, I don't agree with it. And you say, like, Oh, well, what about my friend, Michael? You love Michael? He's like, Well, yeah, I, I am okay with it. Because like, I know Michael, you know what I mean? And I think that theater kind of allows us to have some of the experiences of the stories that we're telling without that directly happening to our lives. And it allows us to like, really empathize in that way. And that's something that we're really missing, especially in the United States right now, you know, that empathy and that trying to see the perspective of people who are less fortunate than you. That's what theater can bring to communities. And we need that.

[38:15] Sam Leicht: And I think theater heals. And yeah, the whole world needs a lot of healing right now.

[38:22] Martín Acuña: Yeah.

[38:24] Martín Acuña: Okay, I want to ask you one last question. And I asked this to every guest. What's your top five favorite shows?

[38:32] Sam Leicht: Okay.

[38:40] Sam Leicht: Les Mis.

[38:41] Martín Acuña: Of course.

[38:45] Sam Leicht: Ordinary Days is one of them by Adam Guan.

[39:01] Sam Leicht: God, this is a really hard question.

[39:02] Martín Acuña: You're thinking a lot. Choose no brainers.

[39:07] Sam Leicht: No, I mean, I loved Next to Normal. But like, I don't know if that's like, one of my favorite shows, you know, like, wait, let me go through my...

[39:21] Sam Leicht: I'm sure it's like, right on the top, you know, like, I'm just forgetting, you know.

[39:28] Martín Acuña: What are your top five favorite shows?

[39:30] Martín Acuña: Uh, okay. Next to Normal, Singing in the Rain, Lion King, Dear Evan Hansen, and Billy Elliot.

[39:40] Sam Leicht: Okay, those are the top five. But recently, Lightning Thief, Jagged Little Pill.

[39:48] Sam Leicht: And I recently found...

[39:52] Sam Leicht: Actually, my brother jokes a lot with this because I have a playlist in Apple Music that's called A Very Musical Playlist, and I made it myself with my favorite shows. And I recently found Sing Street. And I loved it.

[40:08] Martín Acuña: Yeah, yeah.

[40:09] Sam Leicht: It breaks my heart that I think it couldn't open on Broadway. And it really breaks my heart.

[40:15] Sam Leicht: It may come back. I auditioned for that show six times.

[40:22] Martín Acuña: Okay, I've got some more. I've got some more.

[40:24] Sam Leicht: Back Boy by Laurence O'Keefe. If you haven't listened to it, you gotta listen to it. It's just so perfect. It's such a good show. Wild Party by Andrew Lippa.

[40:36] Sam Leicht: Okay, because there's two...

[40:37] Martín Acuña: Yeah, there's two. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And then I would say probably Sunday in the Park with George.

[40:46] Sam Leicht: Sunday in the Park with George.

[40:50] Martín Acuña: Cool. Cool, cool, cool. Well, Sam, thank you so much for being here. It's been amazing having you as a guest.

[40:54] Sam Leicht: Yeah, thank you for having me.

[40:57] Martín Acuña: I love what you're doing with your health and wellness program. And I'll leave all your social media in the description of this episode. So thank you so much for being here. I enjoyed it.

[41:12] Sam Leicht: Of course.

[41:13] Sam Leicht: I really enjoyed it. Thank you.

[41:15] Martín Acuña: I really did, too. I'll talk to you soon.

[41:17] Sam Leicht: Bye-bye. Thank you.

[41:24] Martín Acuña: Thanks, everyone, for listening to this new episode of Backstage Talk. Remember to follow us on Facebook and Instagram at Backstage Talk Podcast.