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[0:00] Sean Allan Krill: Thank you. I salute my fellow nominees and non-nominees. I'm very proud to have been a part of a very exciting season. This means a lot to me because, as you know, I'm an emotionally unstable, desperately needy little man.

[0:22] Eila Mell: Hello and welcome to Behind the Awards. I'm Eila, and I am here with Bruce.

[0:27] Bruce Gotlieb: Hey Eila, how are you?

[0:29] Eila Mell: I'm good. So we were just listening to Nathan Lane there.

[0:32] Bruce Gotlieb: Yes, 1996 Tony Award for A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum.

[0:36] Eila Mell: So I interviewed Nathan Lane for the Tony Awards book.

[0:39] Bruce Gotlieb: Yes.

[0:40] Eila Mell: And we talked about this win. He said almost everyone who plays this part wins the Tony for it.

[0:45] Bruce Gotlieb: He said if you don't win a Tony for it, you're doing something wrong.

[0:48] Eila Mell: Uh oh.

[0:49] Bruce Gotlieb: So no pressure.

[0:50] Eila Mell: No pressure. But he said the best person to ever have played Pseudolus was Phil Silvers.

[0:56] Bruce Gotlieb: Okay.

[0:57] Eila Mell: And he saw him in a free performance, like when he was in high school.

[1:01] Bruce Gotlieb: Wow.

[1:01] Eila Mell: They did like, I think it was a Fourth of July. It's in the book, the story, but like a special free show for PR. And um Rory, you know, our friend Rory, he went to that same performance.

[1:12] Bruce Gotlieb: Very cool.

[1:13] Eila Mell: Isn't that funny?

[1:14] Bruce Gotlieb: That is, that's great.

[1:15] Eila Mell: And then so all these years later, then get the opportunity to play the role.

[1:18] Bruce Gotlieb: Right.

[1:18] Eila Mell: Exactly. How full circle for him.

[1:20] Bruce Gotlieb: I know.

[1:21] Eila Mell: I know. And no one is a better speaker, I think. I've seen him speak twice, do speeches in real life, two times, and he's just incredible.

[1:31] Bruce Gotlieb: You know what? He has that balance between, you know, heartfelt if he needs to be, and he's just so funny always.

[1:38] Eila Mell: So it gives you that nice balance of levity and, you know, heart.

[1:42] Bruce Gotlieb: Yes. He just won the Hal Prince Award at the Drama Desk Awards, and he made a speech and it was like a full play. It felt like he went through every emotion. It was just so well done.

[1:53] Eila Mell: That's amazing. So I am excited because we went to see a performance of Here There Are Blueberries.

[2:00] Bruce Gotlieb: Yes.

[2:01] Eila Mell: You know, we were lucky enough to get invited to the closing show yesterday.

[2:05] Bruce Gotlieb: Right. I can't believe that I almost missed this show.

[2:08] Eila Mell: You know, we in speaking with some of the producers after the show, they, you know, didn't tell us exactly what was coming, but they are working feverishly to get this to continue a life after New World, a life after the New York Theater Workshop.

[2:23] Bruce Gotlieb: And I can see it done at, you know, colleges, at, you know, regional community theaters and even Broadway if they had wanted to do that.

[2:31] Eila Mell: Well, I think, yeah, I think it's very appropriate for Broadway. I hope it moves.

[2:34] Bruce Gotlieb: I know that there is rumor that it may, so I hope that comes to fruition.

[2:40] Eila Mell: So let's talk about what the show is, because it's by Moisés Kaufman and Amanda Gronich, and they collaborated on Laramie Project.

[2:47] Bruce Gotlieb: Yes.

[2:48] Eila Mell: Previously. And this show is very much in the style of Laramie Project, wouldn't you say?

[2:53] Bruce Gotlieb: Oh, a hundred percent. Even down to the cadence and the, you know, a character or an actor would come out and literally just say the person's name in their title, very much like they do in Laramie to introduce a new person because the two shows utilize a cast of I don't know, seven to ten people.

[3:13] Eila Mell: Yeah.

[3:14] Bruce Gotlieb: And they're all playing maybe seven to ten characters. So they're not changing, you know, it's not like they go off and put on a hat to represent somebody else. It's just fluid.

[3:22] Eila Mell: Yeah. But I have to say, even though it's very much in the style of Laramie, it's different in terms of this one is more of a like you're investigative and you're on the edge of your seat waiting to hear what happens.

[3:36] Bruce Gotlieb: It's different because I think that the world knew the Matthew Shepard story more than we know this story going in to see the play.

[3:43] Eila Mell: Yeah, I mean, and even if it's not more, it's at least more current, right? So it happens much more recently than this story did. So you have people that would be going to see this show that may not have really had any touch to the blueberry story.

[4:02] Bruce Gotlieb: Right, of course, which is about the Holocaust, we should say.

[4:06] Eila Mell: Yes. You know, I didn't know anything about this particular story about the Holocaust, so it was fascinating. And it could easily be a documentary too. So I hope all of it happens. I hope it's just everywhere. It's really such good work.

[4:20] Bruce Gotlieb: It could. It's, you know, like you said, it's telling a different side of the story or a different angle of what you learn.

[4:26] Eila Mell: Right.

[4:27] Bruce Gotlieb: Something that you never considered about the Holocaust.

[4:30] Eila Mell: Right, right. Yeah. And I have to say the projections by Dave and Bengali were so incredible because the story really relies on the projections so much because they use real photographs. So that's the most important element, I think, in this story. And it was just so well done. That really told the story.

[4:48] Bruce Gotlieb: Well, yeah, and especially with like, you know, highlighting or different shading of, you know, what they wanted you to draw your eye to was helpful too. Otherwise, you could just get lost in, you know, oh, there's a picture and now you're taken out of the moment. It really helps you to focus, you know, and not distract from the storytelling.

[5:08] Eila Mell: Yeah, exactly. It makes the storytelling very fluid and easy, and you don't have to work. You just can sit back and really absorb it.

[5:15] Bruce Gotlieb: Yeah, so we'll see. I'm curious to see what the next, you know, so to speak, announcement is. We do try as we might to get that scoop for everybody. But you know, they were tight-lipped, which they need to be.

[5:28] Eila Mell: Of course. Because we saw what happened with Tammy Faye.

[5:31] Bruce Gotlieb: Right.

[5:33] Eila Mell: They once you say something, you know, and you could look bad if it doesn't actually happen.

[5:37] Bruce Gotlieb: Right. Make sure the ink is dry.

[5:39] Eila Mell: You know, they went the Audra McDonald route and didn't say anything.

[5:43] Bruce Gotlieb: That's right.

[5:43] Eila Mell: Although she denied.

[5:44] Bruce Gotlieb: She did deny.

[5:45] Eila Mell: She flat out denied it.

[5:47] Bruce Gotlieb: She did. But you know, she said because it wasn't happening yet.

[5:51] Eila Mell: It wasn't a definite yet.

[5:52] Bruce Gotlieb: So that's why she denied.

[5:53] Eila Mell: Misled.

[5:55] Bruce Gotlieb: That's your girl.

[5:57] Eila Mell: That is. I can't wait to see it.

[5:59] Bruce Gotlieb: I know. All right, but we have a great guest today.

[6:03] Eila Mell: We do.

[6:03] Bruce Gotlieb: A Grammy Award winner.

[6:05] Eila Mell: Well, that's amazing. You know, I think when you go into musical theater, you probably don't expect that you're gonna win a Grammy.

[6:11] Bruce Gotlieb: Right, right.

[6:12] Eila Mell: You know, if you're a singer-songwriter or you love music, maybe that's your trajectory more than if you're an actor or even musical theater, even, you know.

[6:20] Bruce Gotlieb: Right.

[6:20] Eila Mell: You're not like one day.

[6:23] Bruce Gotlieb: Right.

[6:23] Eila Mell: That Grammy is a sure thing.

[6:25] Bruce Gotlieb: Right.

[6:26] Eila Mell: So yeah. And we have somebody, you know, like we've had other guests that have talked about working with iconic people, you know, he also had the pleasure of working with Alanis Morissette on Jagged Little Pill.

[6:38] Bruce Gotlieb: I mean amazing, right?

[6:39] Eila Mell: Tom Kitt also worked on Jagged Little Pill.

[6:42] Bruce Gotlieb: That's right.

[6:43] Eila Mell: Alanis Morissette, our former guest.

[6:46] Bruce Gotlieb: So um our current guest, Sean Allan Krill, will have to get stories about both of them.

[6:52] Eila Mell: The Alanis scoop.

[6:54] Bruce Gotlieb: That's right. All right. Well, I think we should bring him out. What do you think?

[6:57] Eila Mell: Absolutely.

[6:58] Bruce Gotlieb: All right, let's do it. We are very excited here at Behind the Awards to welcome Grammy winner, Sean Allan Krill.

[7:07] Sean Allan Krill: How are you?

[7:08] Eila Mell: So good. It's so nice to be talking to you both. Thanks for having me.

[7:11] Bruce Gotlieb: Thanks for joining us. Is it crazy to be called a Grammy winner?

[7:15] Sean Allan Krill: Yeah, it is. It's never really sounds real. I've been so fortunate to be a part of Jagged Little Pill, and it's just kind of the gift that keeps on giving, even though we didn't get to run it nearly as long as we had hoped because of COVID. But um joy that that the show was recognized in so many wonderful ways, you know.

[7:32] Eila Mell: Absolutely. It was a really great show. I saw it actually twice.

[7:36] Sean Allan Krill: This album that was so part of my life when it originally came out, now to take on this revised musical theater-esque version, but still rocking. You know, you got to live your inner rocker, which is kind of cool too. And it was so fun.

[7:48] Sean Allan Krill: Yeah, I mean, in my dad way, yes.

[7:53] Eila Mell: Right.

[7:53] Sean Allan Krill: That's right. Yeah, you still had to play the grown-up.

[7:56] Sean Allan Krill: In my own Steve Healy way, but that cast, I am forever bound to my little, you know, my Healy family, and especially Elizabeth Stanley. And you know, she's just become a dear friend of mine. And yes, it's funny that you said that, Bruce, because Alanis, it was very much a part of the process, especially when we went to Cambridge for the out of town. She said some really interesting things. She's just so generous and forthcoming with her thoughts and her feelings and her emotions. How this album, especially Jagged Little Pill, was such a seminal and formative part of her life and her career. And I'll never forget her saying after watching the first run-through or something, she said, It's as if I never knew when I wrote this when I was so young that it was always meant to be what I just watched. But I just I had no idea. So she always just felt like we were taking what she wrote and furthering and enriching it in a way that it was kind of always meant to be.

[8:51] Eila Mell: That's so interesting. It was such an album of its generation, and it was one of those huge albums that you really could not escape. Not that you'd want to, because every song on it is so good.

[9:01] Sean Allan Krill: Same. It was such a part of my life. For me, it was right after college. I'm just a couple years older than you know, every breakup, every, you know, you both end up thinking of the album as an angry album, but there's sort of enlightenment involved. Especially she wrote You Learn when she was 18 or 19, whatever it was. It's just it blows my mind. But yeah, you know, falling in love in my early 20s and Head Over Feet was like my song, you know.

[9:28] Eila Mell: So I'm guessing that a Grammy was not the dream growing up.

[9:33] Sean Allan Krill: No, you know, it's so funny, but I love to sing. I love singing. I've always I grew up singing with my family, like on car trips and around campfires. My granny, my mother's mother played the guitar and she was always singing and taught me how to harmonize. But I never really fancied myself a singer. And I've been so fortunate to end up in these shows that happen to be musicals. I always just sort of feel like an actor. I got into this because I love to be on stage. I like to sort of inhabit a character if I can as best I can. And if it happens to be musicalized, that's cool and challenging for me and so jagged and then just recently Parade was just it was just a joy to have the world sort of tell me I am a singer.

[10:14] Eila Mell: So you didn't know that you were not a musical theater kid growing up?

[10:17] Sean Allan Krill: No, not really. I always loved music, but the thing that really drew me to theater and acting was the sort of craft of that. And I keep saying it, but I just feel so fortunate that these wonderful, beautiful musicals I've been able to be a part of throughout my whole career, not even just the fancy one.

[10:33] Eila Mell: Yeah.

[10:34] Sean Allan Krill: No, I get that. But it makes total sense because at least, you know, the last couple on Broadway have been these acting roles in musicals. You know, sometimes you don't get a meaty acting role in a musical, but you certainly did in Parade and you certainly did in Jagged Little Pill.

[10:47] Sean Allan Krill: It really is, it's nice and it's the way I approach it. And I really do. I enjoy sort of getting down to the nitty-gritty of what each character is going through and what they want and what they're doing, why they're doing it and all that. It's especially so fun to play a villain because it's fun to sort of try to understand their reason for doing the horrible things they're doing. I've been lucky enough again, also to play sort of like a spectrum of that. You know, I get to play like the sort of dear, sweet earnest dad. And then the other side of the spectrum is, you know, the guy like...

[11:11] Bruce Gotlieb: Exactly. We had Duncan Sheik on recently, and he was, you know, saying that it was so much fun getting to write for Patrick Bateman in American Psycho. Because certainly that's not who he is, but he got to play. You know, he loved that.

[11:29] Sean Allan Krill: You know, yeah.

[11:34] Bruce Gotlieb: And that's what it is. It's just play.

[11:36] Sean Allan Krill: Right. Like when you were a kid.

[11:38] Bruce Gotlieb: Right. You just get to pretend.

[11:40] Sean Allan Krill: I know. I still just like just pinch myself every day. I can't believe this is what I get to do. I always enjoyed it so much when I was a kid. I was always that kid that was like, Mom, come in. I wrote a play, you know, everyone come in and watch my little five-minute play, you know, and it was it's ridiculous. So I guess I did always kind of have the acting bug, but singing is kind of like the cherry on top for me. I just I feel fortunate that people let me sing on stage.

[12:05] Sean Allan Krill: Well, uh, you know, there's a good reason that they're letting you. You're pretty good at it. But when did you realize that that was a skill you also had? Honestly, I learned to sing through doing. I kind of fell into musicals in college, and I've had these amazing musical directors throughout my life that have coached me and taught me along the way, starting, like I said, in college, and one of my very dearest experiences was getting into the original company of the Chicago production of Forever Plaid when I was a baby.

[12:37] Bruce Gotlieb: Oh wow.

[12:38] Sean Allan Krill: Uh, the musical director in that was Kevin Cole, and he's this Gershwin aficionado. He's just he's he's a brilliant musician and such a kind, dear man, and he just taught me so much about singing and performing as a singer. So as I've moved through my life and my career, Tom Murray, who was the musical director for Parade, but I met him, he's a Chicago person, so I believe the first time we worked together was Sunday in the Park at Shakespeare Theater, you know, 20 years ago. And uh, he's another one that's just taught me a lot.

[13:08] Bruce Gotlieb: I was gonna say, our sound engineer Sarah actually knows you from Chicago because her mom and she were in the costume department on a show that you worked on.

[13:17] Sean Allan Krill: Oh my god. I wish I had to talk about it.

[13:19] Bruce Gotlieb: Yeah, we have to talk about it after, yeah.

[13:21] Sean Allan Krill: She said, I saw you in Brigadier and Marriott.

[13:24] Bruce Gotlieb: Oh my god, I love that production.

[13:25] Sean Allan Krill: That was with Abby Mueller, one of her first out of college. She was fresh out of Northwestern, and we've been friends for life after that. Just she was brilliant in that and always has been. You know, the nice thing about being involved in theater is that you bond with people in a way that you really don't get to in other jobs.

[13:43] Bruce Gotlieb: So true.

[13:43] Sean Allan Krill: You know, like so time intensive. You really you really do become truly a team. It's like you're in the trenches together. It's it's like a pressure cooker, and then like everything gets melded together, and then you're done.

[13:54] Bruce Gotlieb: Right.

[13:55] Sean Allan Krill: Exactly. I agree. We'll be right back. We have to listen to some commercials.

[14:03] Bruce Gotlieb: So was Mamma Mia your Broadway debut?

[14:06] Sean Allan Krill: It was.

[14:06] Bruce Gotlieb: So, how did that come about? Was that just uh an open audition?

[14:09] Sean Allan Krill: No, it was that was that was a magical moment in my life too. I had toured with it for two years and always played Sam. I've always wanted to play one of the other dads, but they wouldn't let me. So I've always played Sam. I had toured with it for two years. So, uh, I've always played Sam and uh, I finished the tour after two years. And at that point I was still based in Chicago and because I was starting to feel the pull to New York, and so I started making plans to move, and the date was September 1st. And Mama Mia called sometime I would say maybe in June and said, Would you like to come play Sam on Broadway?

[14:44] Bruce Gotlieb: Wow, no audition.

[14:45] Sean Allan Krill: No, well, I mean, you know, my two year tour. Yeah, right. They said we we need to start September 3rd. So I said, Wow, well, okay, finished unpacking my boxes and I'll be there. So that was the dream come true right there. Because I was just sort of taking the leap, see what happens in this brand new city for me. So it didn't take long for something to happen and something huge. Yeah, it was it was very exciting. It was really a nice way, I think, for it to happen looking back on it, because I was so familiar with the show, so I didn't really have to focus much on my job. Of course, I had to explore the relationships with the new actors, especially, you know, most of my work was with Carol Lee.

At that point, she was playing Donna, Carolee Carmello, and uh, the actors going in as Sophie and Sky were also new. So we really bonded in that, you know, two or three week period that we had. But ultimately, it was nice to be able to just focus on that and not be like having to cram lyrics and worry about a new job, you know. And I, you know, I knew the lines, I knew the I mean I literally had been just three or four months since I left the tour. So muscle memory kicks in and you could just get going.

[15:50] Bruce Gotlieb: Exactly.

[15:51] Sean Allan Krill: Exactly. And as a Chicago actor, it wasn't really uh a huge dream of mine. It wasn't like I was sitting in Chicago going, like, I gotta get out of the city and be on Broadway. Of course, Broadway was always a thing, but I couldn't say that it was necessarily the ultimate goal. But when it presented itself, I was just overjoyed, of course, because I never I guess I just never really imagined it would happen. It was it was thrilling. You're stepping into the winter garden, which is also iconic in and of itself.

[16:18] Bruce Gotlieb: Yeah, I mean, I walked in and I was like, you know, there's Barbara Streisand dust in here and Sheena Rivera. So many amazing actors had graced that stage going all the way back to the beginning of the last century. And it was truly humbling and so thrilling. And it must be nice to be in a show that is enjoying a long run. So you don't feel like, you know, you're gonna close at any moment.

[16:41] Sean Allan Krill: Yes, yes. And again, I didn't I was naive to the way New York theater works that I that never really even occurred to me, but looking back on it, yes, it was just a given that I would have this job.

[16:51] Bruce Gotlieb: As long as you wanted it, yeah, right.

[16:54] Sean Allan Krill: So let's get back to Jagged Little Pill because it's such a huge, huge show. Alanis, what was it like getting to work with her?

[17:00] Sean Allan Krill: She is everything I think you would imagine her to be and more. She's wickedly smart and wise. She's just this earth mother, so connected to her feelings and filled with understanding about the human existence. She wasn't precious about her writing. As I said before, she was thrilled and excited and wanted us to go further and further and further with this thing that meant so much to her. She just kept saying, Yes, do that, do that. I mean, I'll never forget after she saw that first run through and she was going around this story always makes me tear up a little bit. She was going around sort of connecting with everyone as she would do, and um she came over and gave me a hug, and I was all, of course, I was thinking was, Oh my god, I'm hugging Alanis Morissette.

This is crazy. And you know, that thing happens where you're like, Well, I'm I can't hug Alanis Morissette too long, so I should let go. And I let go, and she did that thing where she's like, No, I'm not done. So just kept hugging me and then whispered in my ear, thank God it's you.

[17:53] Bruce Gotlieb: Wow. What a gift.

[17:54] Sean Allan Krill: No, I hope it's okay that I share that, Alanis. She's a really remarkable person. We should all feel very lucky that Alanis Morissette is in the world.

[18:01] Bruce Gotlieb: Yeah. Was she part of the rehearsal process at all?

[18:04] Sean Allan Krill: Yes, as much as she could be. She was a big part of the initial production in Cambridge. When we were going to Broadway, she was hugely pregnant and so couldn't be around as much with her third child. She came to our opening night and she popped in whenever she could to rehearsals. And there was always a chain of communication between Diane and the entire creative staff, especially like Tom Kit. They were always emailing. It's really sort of what it turned into for Broadway. But she was around a lot in the Cambridge production. So I mean, you're singing music that was written as you know, a very young woman for a very young woman. And so was there any talk with how you reinterpret it as this character of this dad?

[18:43] Sean Allan Krill: There was never any specific talk about how to do it, but she would always address it. She was really, really captivated, especially with Derek and myself, in the idea that it was men singing her music. And she had never really imagined that would be the case. She was always wildly impressed and so supportive. You know, it was really nice to hear that she just loved hearing her music reinterpreted by men.

[19:07] Bruce Gotlieb: Yeah, I would think that that's almost the most exciting art because it's so different from how it was originally intended. So I, you know, I would think that as a creative person, that gives you the greatest opportunity.

[19:18] Sean Allan Krill: That's exactly how she felt. That's what she expressed to us anyway. I do have a really funny uh story about the first time I ever sang in front of her. Again, it was that same first run through as we were going to Cambridge. When I when Elizabeth and I did So Unsexy in Cambridge, it was very different than it was on Broadway. It was this big set with these two big giant sort of the idea was that it was our walk-in closets, and we each had a big mirror that we were looking at. It was like a split scene. We were in our own worlds and uh basically looking in the mirror and really hating what we saw. And of course, kind of grieving our failing marriage. It was very sort of theatrical in that when I was singing my verses, she was looking in the mirror and I would walk around her.

But the scene started with me walking in as if I had just taken a shower. So it was in my underwear. And it was the first time that we had run the show. We were doing it with as much costumes as we want. And there's Alanis Morissette just four feet in front of me. I'm already nervous enough having to sing her music in front of her, and I'm doing it in my underwear. I remember at one point we had to stop in So Unsexy in that run through because the panels weren't moving correctly. So we just everything stopped for a second, and I'm just standing there. And I walked over to Elizabeth and I was like, you know that nightmare you have where you're in your underwear?

[20:36] Bruce Gotlieb: Right.

[20:38] Sean Allan Krill: It was just absolutely mortifying. And I, you know, I wish I could say that I was so like, you know, in the character that didn't matter, but it I just all I could think was I'm in my underwear and Alanis Morissette is right there, and I have the first song.

[20:51] Bruce Gotlieb: Yeah, oh, of course.

[20:52] Sean Allan Krill: Before she was lovely and as I said, she was so gracious. And you talked about Diane, that's Diane Paulus, of course, who directed the show. I really loved her Pippin, her reimagining of Pippin. I feel like she's a director who has her own style and thinks outside the box. How do you think she is a director really impacted that show?

[21:11] Sean Allan Krill: I loved working with Diane, and I always think that theater is especially theater, because it's such a collaborative art. You know, there are so many cooks that have to come together and their ideas have to meld in a certain way, but there has to be someone at the helm that's really truly running the show. They're making the decisions, the last decisions. But she was so wonderful about looking at Larvey, the choreographer, CeeDee Larvey, and saying, This is great, but I would love it to be a little bit more this. You know, she would delegate, in my opinion, a perfect way. And for my experience on Jagged, her number one goal was to tell this story as best it could be told. And I always respected that so much, even when it meant something that I necessarily didn't want.

When we moved to Broadway, for example, the idea was that Steve needed to be more distant. He needed to be absent more in order to raise the stakes for MJ, because she's dealing in act one with everything that's going on with the two kids by herself, and that's the point of it, that it cracks her wide open because she just can't. But that ultimately meant that I was sort of more absent from the play, you know.

[22:16] Bruce Gotlieb: Right.

[22:16] Sean Allan Krill: So that was that was a difficult thing to accept as a performer, just because I had already kind of fallen in love with the way we did it in Cambridge, you know, and looking back on it, it was the absolute correct decision. And I think she's incredible. I think it's very, very important, as I said before, that there is someone that is making the decisions, not nine people making the decisions. And she was always the one to go, No, this musically should be this, choreographically should be this, this scene should ramp up emotionally to this. And I think she told the story beautifully. As collaborative as it is, there has to be a leap. Because I think that's when theater can go really wrong is that too many ideas, too many sort of visions happening, and her vision was always first and foremost. And that isn't always easy to accept when you're an artist, but it's the nature of theater. You have to let the director be the director, you know.

[23:07] Bruce Gotlieb: Right. And don't you feel like, you know, it's not your job to see the whole picture. So you have to trust them.

[23:12] Sean Allan Krill: It's a big problem of mine. I have a director brain, and I always have to sort of like, Sean, Sean, turn it off, turn it off.

[23:18] Bruce Gotlieb: Will you be directing?

[23:19] Sean Allan Krill: I mean, I would love to. I dabbled when I was learning in college, and I did a couple things right after college. I've always just been and thankfully stayed so busy as an actor, I haven't had the opportunity to direct. But 100% moving forward, I would love to direct. I'd love to direct Jagged Little Pill, you know.

[23:36] Bruce Gotlieb: Oh, that would be amazing. When it's time for a revival you should be the one.

[23:40] Sean Allan Krill: Yeah. Let's take a minute to hear a word from our sponsors.

[23:48] Sean Allan Krill: Obviously, you do more than just Broadway. Can you tell me what you get from doing film and TV that you don't get on stage?

[23:54] Sean Allan Krill: Wow, I've never heard that question put that way before. That's so interesting. When I was in college, the notes I would get, because I was studying acting for the stage. The notes I would always get were your work is very filmic.

[24:06] Sean Allan Krill: And so my sort of mountain to climb in college was learning how to act in a large space. And then I was lucky enough in college to do a wide range of things. I did Hot El Baltimore, which is a very kind of gritty, natural kind of play. And then you'd do a Shakespeare play. And it was always at the Bonstall Theater in Detroit, which sadly is no longer a theater, but that was our undergraduate space, and it was basically like a large Broadway house. It was, I believe it was 1,200 seats. So that's a lot of seats, no amplification. So it was old school, you know, you had to learn how to fill that space with your voice. So it was great. The reason I brought that up is because my take on acting on camera is that it's all about the size of your audience.

I think most actors naturally adjust. You walk on a stage, you feel, and if it's a 200-seat black box, you're gonna feel a little odd, you know, being too big, being too large. Film really is a medium that is designed for one person. The camera is one. I think it's why people love watching TV and movies, is that it feels like it's for you. Sure. So for me, acting on camera is basically your audience is one person. It's a joy. I get to sort of go back to, I think what was in my always my natural instinct to be very filmic and everything is focused on you. It's just your face, and usually, and you can yeah, you barely have to talk. It's crazy how different it is than theater, but it really is, as I said, I really do believe it's about your audience, who you're performing for. Always keep that in mind, and you're gonna be gold.

[25:37] Sean Allan Krill: Oh my gosh, when I was in college, I couldn't stop watching One Life to Live. I was obsessed with it. And there was this stage actor, his name was Donald Donnelly, and he was doing this role, and he was horrible on the show because he was so big. It was crazy. So I used to watch it just because it was hilarious what he was doing on the show. And you know, it's interesting because it's really a challenge to play a larger than life character on camera. That's an insane ask. All you can do is sort of trust the director. You know, I go back to that. You trust the director. If it's too big, they're going to tell you. I'm right, because otherwise you're running the risk of being a caricature. Absolutely.

But you know, some people just really know how to do it. I gravitate toward those film actors that are really good at playing large. Meryl Streep is, of course, the first person that comes to mind. You just think, how are you getting away with and how do you know how to do all of it? You can play the most intimate scene where all of the acting is happening in your eyes, and then you can be in Devil Wears Prada and steal the movie. I mean, that kind of acting is an inspiration to me, especially film. To go back to your initial question, that's what I get out of it, is it's the challenge. I feel very galvanized when I'm acting on camera because it's still kind of new to me ultimately. I learn every experience I get and love it.

[26:50] Sean Allan Krill: There's absolutely different rewards because when you're on stage, you have that play with the audience. There's nothing like that. But then when you do something on film, it's there forever. It is kind of a terrifying part of it. I think I got very without really realizing it, I got very sort of used to the idea that theater is so ephemeral. You know, people and that's what I love about it. I mean that's what I think is truest joy of theater for the audience, especially the performance you see. No one else will see that. It will not. Yes, the show might happen even that night if you're at a matinee, but it won't be the same show. The audience changes it, the actors, you know, who knows? The cast could change that night.

There are a million reasons why it's such a beautifully ephemeral thing in the best way that it's something that is specifically yours as a theater patron. And as an audience member, you remember a show that you saw live in a much different way than you remember a TV show. That's almost like, you know, disposable. But when you're there for the experience, it's very special. You know, most of the time you can't just say, oh, well, I'll watch it later. You have this idea of like how we used to feel about, you know, back in the day, kids, you know, I know, right? You know, the movie's out, I gotta go see it or it's gonna go away and I won't be able to watch it ever.

[28:00] Sean Allan Krill: Yeah. Oh my god, as a kid, I remember telling my parents, well, we have to be home because there's a new roommate on Three's Company, and I'm not gonna miss out. And who knows when you could watch a rerun? You never knew when reruns were gonna be off. You had to watch Three's Company, but now it's so accessible, and so you know you can pretty much stream everything, which is a very cool thing. Also, to me, that makes it more special. Do you remember the show that you saw that you felt that impact that you're talking about?

[28:24] Sean Allan Krill: Yes, I do. I saw the tour of Les Misérables at the Fisher Theater in Detroit, and I was sitting like in the back row, way up in like the ninth mezzanine, I swear. I remember sitting up there and thinking, this is just so magical. This whole experience is so magical. I remember thinking someday that's my goal. Someday I want to be on that stage. I did get to play the Fisher actually when I toured through with Mamma Mia, which was a very big moment in my life to have that actually happen. There were two points in that show. I remember Fantine singing "I Dreamed a Dream" was just one of the most beautiful things I'd ever seen. And then Javert's suicide, that was when I fell in love with I think the craft of theater because there were so many elements that were happening in that moment, and I don't think it's the way they do it anymore.

But at the time, what they did was there was this bridge unit that was on the stage, and he was singing the song, and then he just stepped forward two or three feet. The bridge flew out so fast. So that sort of technical aspect was happening, but also the way it's sung sounds like a scream, and then the music swells up and meets that note of the scream is just one of the most beautifully musicalized things I've ever been witness to. And I mean, that's a bucket list. Like TikTok, I've got probably like two minutes left to play Javert, but I would kill to play that role. That was always the role for me when I watched it was just, oh my gosh, Javert. But yes, I fell in love with theater watching that. And of course, I went back and saw the tour like three more times. I was that fan. Yeah, and I had the French concept album. Of course. And I had every recording I could get, and I was obsessed.

[30:00] Sean Allan Krill: And then, okay. Tag, side story. Flash forward probably 15 years. I'm doing the national tour of Thoroughly Modern Millie, and the actress that was playing Mrs. Meers was Hollis Resnick, this amazing dear friend of mine, unfortunately, who's no longer with us. She was this amazing Chicago-based actor. She was my travel buddy. We would tour all the time. And one point we had a break in the tour, and I went home and down in the basement. I was going through my old theater programs. Of course, I bought the fancy program. She was Fantine. Wow. Yes. And I called her, I said, Hollis, you are never going to believe this. Do you remember me telling you about seeing Les Mis? And she said, yes, yes, yes. And because she was, you know, she was in it. And I said, you were Fantine. You're the reason I'm doing musical theater right now. And she said, I'm so sorry.

[30:48] Bruce Gotlieb: That's perfect.

[30:49] Sean Allan Krill: Yes. That's amazing.

[30:51] Bruce Gotlieb: So did you see the original run of Parade?

[30:54] Sean Allan Krill: I didn't. I wish. I remember seeing it on the Tony Awards. That was the closest I came to the same. You obviously got to star in Michael Arden's version of Parade. That must have been a wonderful experience for you.

[31:06] Sean Allan Krill: Michael is so sweet. He did such a fantastic job because he just cast it, in my opinion, so beautifully. And he really just kind of let us go and do what we did. And then occasionally would step in and say, go this way instead of that way. And I love actually getting a literal direction from a director that always makes me happy. And then the sort of trusting that I would figure out where that will end up. But the direction is nice. I think all of us were just so grateful and honored to be part of the revival of that show and to be telling that story, especially unfortunately in these particularly turbulent times, to be telling this story that clearly needs to be told.

[31:45] Bruce Gotlieb: Yeah. The story is even more relevant now than when it premiered.

[31:48] Sean Allan Krill: Sadly, did you have any idea that there were going to be protests?

[31:52] Sean Allan Krill: I assumed, sadly, really assumed there'd be some little group that was gonna have a big old problem with it. And not to sort of belittle what happened, but it was only the very first preview that they ever came to. And it was just this small group of people that were very loud, and they stayed for you know half an hour and antagonized a bunch of people, patrons and actors. And I did, I did expect that that might happen just because of the subject matter. And I had done so much research at that point about Jack Slayton, the governor, and I knew how divisive it was for Georgians at the time, and it still is. I mean, to this day, there are people that absolutely believe that it was Leo Frank and that Governor Slayton was, I don't know, that he was some co-conspirator or something, you know? It's absolutely insane. It's like that times QAnon.

[32:41] Bruce Gotlieb: Yes, that's what it sounds like.

[32:42] Sean Allan Krill: And there are websites that they're presented like they're about Leo Frank and the story of Mary Fagan, and the more you read, the more you realize how sort of misleading and there's so much misinformation and it's crazy. So, yes, I expected there would be that there could be. And luckily the theater and the producers really stepped up and ramped up security for us as we left the building and entered the building and the patrons, you know, all the theatergoers that were coming to see the show. I just there was that tiny little inkling of something could go really wrong here. These people are off their rockers.

[33:15] Bruce Gotlieb: Yeah. Did you feel any sense of vulnerability coming out on stage, knowing that there could be someone like that in the audience?

[33:22] Sean Allan Krill: I did, because I know Slayton is definitely one of the people that they target as not even one of the people. He was the one that freed Leo Frank. So it isn't necessarily in the play, but you know the truth of what happened was it was basically an insurrection. Five thousand people after he pardoned Leo Frank, stormed the governor's mansion. And Jack and Sally Slayton had to be escorted out of the state by the Georgia militia because they were that mob was out for blood. They hung Slayton in effigy outside the mansion with, you know, a sign that said King of the Jews. Just absolutely hateful and disturbing, you know.

[33:55] Bruce Gotlieb: Yeah, so disturbing.

[33:56] Sean Allan Krill: But it was so interesting because the show is so timely because what happened was it was this sort of media-led, one of the first sort of media-led witch hunts. They just decided who their scapegoat was, and the media really was largely responsible. And that's a big part of Parade, the show, you know, that it's big news, you know. I remember seeing Peter Gallagher play Leo Frank in a TV movie called The Murder of Mary Fagan.

[34:20] Bruce Gotlieb: That's right.

[34:21] Sean Allan Krill: I did, I know. I love his work. And then you got to work with his daughter in Jagged Little Pill.

[34:26] Bruce Gotlieb: It was really cool to meet him.

[34:27] Sean Allan Krill: Bruce knows how much I love Peter Gallagher.

[34:29] Bruce Gotlieb: It's true.

[34:29] Sean Allan Krill: But that's, you know, that's just a whole other story.

[34:32] Bruce Gotlieb: Oh my god, Zoe's Extraordinary Playlist.

[34:34] Sean Allan Krill: He was so good.

[34:35] Bruce Gotlieb: So good.

[34:36] Sean Allan Krill: I still love The Idolmaker.

[34:37] Bruce Gotlieb: I don't know it.

[34:38] Sean Allan Krill: Oh my gosh, he played like I think it was like a Fabian.

[34:41] Bruce Gotlieb: Yes, it was Frankie Avalon and Fabian, but as these fictional characters, and he was Fabian, and oh my gosh, he sings, he's amazing, and he's like a baby in it. You have to watch it.

[34:50] Bruce Gotlieb: Okay, uh, The Idolmaker.

[34:52] Sean Allan Krill: Okay, great.

[34:52] Bruce Gotlieb: And Tova Feldshuh is in it, so how can you go wrong?

[34:55] Sean Allan Krill: That's amazing. Yeah, okay, all right.

[34:57] Bruce Gotlieb: All right, so that's your assignment. Sean, thank you so much for joining us. We've kept you so long.

[35:02] Sean Allan Krill: I just want to keep talking. We'll have to have brunch or something and continue the discussion.

[35:06] Sean Allan Krill: I would love that. I would love that. And thanks so much for having me. It was such a joy to talk to you both.

[35:11] Bruce Gotlieb: Oh, and you will have to come back the next time you have a project, because I'm sure that's soon. Do you want to tell us what we should be looking for next?

[35:18] Sean Allan Krill: Well, I just shot a little short film called Champions that I was very proud to be a part of. And the other thing is I'm actually voicing a character on what is going to be a new Netflix animated show.

[35:28] Eila Mell: Oh my gosh, that's amazing.

[35:30] Sean Allan Krill: With Ali Wong and Bowen Yang and Lucy Liu.

[35:35] Eila Mell: This is huge.

[35:36] Sean Allan Krill: Yeah, so I'm very excited about that. It's called Gentry Chow versus the Underworld. It is supposed to be coming out sometime, you know, imminently, like in the next few next two, three, four months.

[35:47] Eila Mell: So okay. Well, we'll remind people when it is ready to come out.

[35:50] Sean Allan Krill: Great, thank you.

[35:51] Eila Mell: Absolutely. But you'll have to come back and remind people yourself.

[35:54] Sean Allan Krill: We would love to have you back.

[35:55] Sean Allan Krill: I would love to be back.

[35:56] Eila Mell: Okay, wonderful. Well, thank you for joining us, everyone, and we will see you next time on Behind the Awards.

[36:02] Sean Allan Krill: Bye bye.