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[3:00] Bruce Gotlieb: Now she's kind of linked with Bill Cosby forever.

[3:02] Santino Fontana: Forever.

[3:03] Bruce Gotlieb: Do you think that she is now so I mean, because first she was defending him.

[3:07] Santino Fontana: That was early. Do you think she's rethought that?

[3:10] Bruce Gotlieb: I wonder. I mean, I I'm sure it's not a topic unless people bring it up to her.

[3:15] Santino Fontana: She's not walking around talking about it.

[3:17] Bruce Gotlieb: And I don't think people really want to bring it up to her.

[3:19] Santino Fontana: No, it's a little a little taboo.

[3:21] Bruce Gotlieb: I know. But they had, I mean, they had similar paths, right?

[3:25] Santino Fontana: I mean Yeah.

[3:27] Bruce Gotlieb: She was the original Dina in Dream Girls, and Felicia Rashad was her understudy.

[3:30] Santino Fontana: Right. So it, you know, they definitely ran in the same circles and and same type.

[3:36] Bruce Gotlieb: Absolutely.

[3:37] Santino Fontana: Yeah. Similar talents.

[3:39] Bruce Gotlieb: Absolutely. Yeah. You know, you would wonder is that a rivalry? Is it a friendship? And then over the years, how that develops because I'm sure, especially when you're trying to get started and you're trying to make a name for yourself.

[3:50] Santino Fontana: Every time you walk into an audition, right? This girl, you're like, uh, her again.

[3:55] Bruce Gotlieb: Right, right, right. Like Jason Alexander would always see Nathan Lane at every audition.

[4:00] Santino Fontana: Right. Exactly.

[4:01] Bruce Gotlieb: And Danny Bursting too. He was in that mix also.

[4:05] Santino Fontana: Yes. Yes.

[4:07] Bruce Gotlieb: So, Bruce, what are you watching these days?

[4:09] Santino Fontana: It's summer.

[4:10] Bruce Gotlieb: Well, I haven't started anything new. I just finished Palm Royale, which I was a little late to finishing, but that's finished.

[4:18] Santino Fontana: And I think next is gonna be loot, also on Apple, which is Maya Rudolph's new show.

[4:24] Bruce Gotlieb: She's up for an Emmy for it. So I'm curious to see what it is. She normally brings the funny.

[4:29] Santino Fontana: So I didn't know about that show until you started telling me about it.

[4:33] Bruce Gotlieb: And it sounds like she plays like a Melinda Gates kind of type.

[4:37] Santino Fontana: Yeah, I mean, it looks like just based on the brief little bit that I read, because I like to kind of let things unfold as they happen.

[4:44] Bruce Gotlieb: Right.

[4:45] Santino Fontana: Um, she's a divorcee who comes into a large substantial sum of money.

[4:51] Bruce Gotlieb: Yeah.

[4:51] Santino Fontana: And starts like trying to figure out like, well, well, what is my life and how do I find myself?

[4:56] Bruce Gotlieb: All right. Well, you have to tell me how it is. Let me know if I need to watch it.

[5:00] Santino Fontana: I certainly will. I just got a new TV, and one of the things that I had to have in this TV was Apple, and now I I can't access Apple.

[5:16] Bruce Gotlieb: And so then when I try to reinstall it, it won't go. It's very frustrating.

[5:20] Santino Fontana: I so I don't know, I have to get the geek squad or something.

[5:23] Bruce Gotlieb: I was gonna say you need a geek squad for sure.

[5:25] Santino Fontana: Oh my gosh, it's so frustrating.

[5:27] Bruce Gotlieb: So I'm behind on my Apple TV shows right now.

[5:30] Eila Mell: But what are you watching now?

[5:31] Santino Fontana: So I'm watching Ugly Betty which I'm so late to the party on.

[5:35] Eila Mell: Oh my god, Ugly Betty was so good.

[5:37] Santino Fontana: I'm watching it for the first time ever, what, like almost 20 years later? But it's so much fun.

[5:44] Eila Mell: Wow, I love it.

[5:45] Santino Fontana: I mean, America Ferrera is just perfect.

[5:45] Santino Fontana: She's just perfect.

[5:50] Eila Mell: I know, I know. I just watch her and I think Oscar nominee. You know, it's funny because the part of Betty obviously is supposed to be a bit of a caricature.

[6:00] Santino Fontana: Yeah.

[6:00] Eila Mell: Um, and obviously you can't have somebody in the role that's taking themselves too seriously.

[6:05] Santino Fontana: Right.

[6:05] Eila Mell: Otherwise you'd never make it. But she just has this way of balancing like just being utterly like embarrassing. Like you would think it's so embarrassing, but just not caring. And I remember when I was watching it to be like, I wish I could walk around with that type of, I guess, obliviousness, right? Like to just be like, I'm comfortable with myself and who cares?

[6:27] Santino Fontana: Yeah, yeah, I get that.

[6:28] Eila Mell: Although she doesn't seem all that comfortable with herself, but I guess she is, I don't know. And then one of my all-time favorite people is in it, Judith Light.

[6:35] Santino Fontana: So that was a treat. I didn't realize that she was gonna be in it. And our guest Lorraine Toussaint, who she'll be an upcoming guest for us.

[6:44] Eila Mell: She's in it. Lots of great guest stars.

[6:47] Santino Fontana: So that's always so much fun to me.

[6:50] Eila Mell: It is. It's so fun to see those people pop in and out and you're like, oh wait a minute. But I mean, Vanessa Williams is just so good.

[6:58] Santino Fontana: I know, I know. She and America Ferrera are just perfect in that show.

[7:04] Eila Mell: Yeah.

[7:04] Santino Fontana: And I feel like we're getting a preview of Devil Wears Prada when we watch Ugly Betty now.

[7:09] Eila Mell: Oh, yeah.

[7:10] Santino Fontana: I mean, there's gonna be definitely whole pieces of Wilhelmina Slater that speak to or form her Miranda Priestly.

[7:21] Eila Mell: It just has to be.

[7:22] Santino Fontana: I know.

[7:22] Eila Mell: So, um, I can't wait to start seeing clips from that when that starts in London.

[7:27] Santino Fontana: That'll be fun.

[7:28] Eila Mell: I know. And if it's, yeah, I hope it's gonna come here and I hope it comes here with her.

[7:32] Santino Fontana: I know.

[7:32] Eila Mell: Otherwise, I might just have to book a ticket.

[7:36] Santino Fontana: Well, that's a good excuse.

[7:37] Eila Mell: I would go for that too.

[7:39] Santino Fontana: But if it comes, she's gotta come.

[7:41] Eila Mell: How could she not?

[7:42] Santino Fontana: Yeah, you would think.

[7:44] Eila Mell: And that was Beth Level originally, right?

[7:46] Santino Fontana: Yeah, in Chicago when they when it was up.

[7:48] Eila Mell: But it's also a new director. It's like got a complete overhaul.

[7:52] Santino Fontana: I feel like the only one of the only people that, you know, is Elton John that stayed with it.

[7:57] Eila Mell: Yeah.

[7:57] Santino Fontana: On that side.

[7:59] Eila Mell: I also think Shayna Taub did the book.

[8:03] Santino Fontana: Oh, really?

[8:03] Eila Mell: Well, that's interesting.

[8:05] Santino Fontana: I mean, she knows how to write, right?

[8:06] Eila Mell: I mean, she certainly didn't do too badly this season.

[8:09] Santino Fontana: Yeah, she did all right for herself.

[8:10] Eila Mell: That's Shayna Taub.

[8:12] Santino Fontana: Couple of Tonys.

[8:13] Eila Mell: Yes, in one night.

[8:14] Santino Fontana: She was so cute there.

[8:16] Eila Mell: So we have our friend Santino Fontana on today, which is very exciting.

[8:21] Santino Fontana: Yes, and he shares some Tony stories with us of the night that he performed and won and all that went into it.

[8:28] Eila Mell: Should we just bring him out?

[8:29] Bruce Gotlieb: We should bring out Santino.

[8:30] Eila Mell: All right, let's do it. Timey Awards is just so excited to welcome Santino Fontana.

[8:38] Santino Fontana: Hello.

[8:39] Santino Fontana: Hello, how are you?

[8:40] Eila Mell: I'm so good because you're here.

[8:42] Santino Fontana: Thank you so much for joining us.

[8:44] Santino Fontana: My pleasure. Thanks for having me.

[8:46] Santino Fontana: I know we've been trying to do this for a while, so I'm happy to finally make it work.

[8:49] Eila Mell: So, Santino, um, you know, everyone knows you from Broadway and TV and movies, but let's talk a little bit about how you and I know each other because it's a very important cause to me.

[9:00] Santino Fontana: And you too, I know.

[9:02] Eila Mell: Yes, it is.

[9:03] Santino Fontana: So Carol Burnett and I have a campaign to name a theater for Hal Prince.

[9:07] Eila Mell: It was supposed to be the Majestic, but the Schuberts weren't so thrilled with the idea. They felt that Hal Prince wasn't the right person to name the theater for, if you can believe that.

[9:17] Santino Fontana: Carol and I cannot believe it.

[9:18] Eila Mell: But anyway, so Santino, you came on as like one of our biggest supporters in this campaign.

[9:24] Santino Fontana: Really?

[9:25] Eila Mell: Oh, I didn't know that.

[9:26] Santino Fontana: I felt like everybody was supporting it.

[9:28] Eila Mell: Everybody was.

[9:29] Santino Fontana: Everybody was hugely supportive.

[9:32] Eila Mell: But I mean, you well, you texted me last week. So tell everybody about it.

[9:35] Santino Fontana: I feel like I just feel like the sheer amount of shows from, you know, Pajama Game to The Band's Visit. You could go through it's 50 years, what, 60 years of shows that there's just no one else that even compares to having touched so much of theatrical and not just theater history, you know, history for the arts.

[9:59] Santino Fontana: There's just no, there's no one person other than that I can think of, other than Hal Prince that has had some type of connection to all of that art, which informs all the art that is being made today. So it seems to me very simple to acknowledge what he did and or what he was a part of and to remember that.

[10:16] Eila Mell: And I also feel like I think it's amazing that Carol had the idea to do it. I think she's right. But also, even if it doesn't get done right away, it will eventually because his track record won't go away.

[10:28] Santino Fontana: That's a good point.

[10:29] Eila Mell: You know what I mean? You can't like think about if you go through all those shows. I mean, I can't list them all right now because we would be here forever. But it is insane.

[10:34] Santino Fontana: It's insane.

[10:36] Eila Mell: Right. Well, look at what won Best Revival of a Musical last night at the Tonys, Merrily We Roll Along.

[10:42] Santino Fontana: Without Hal Prince, there is no Merrily We Roll Along.

[10:44] Eila Mell: Absolutely.

[10:45] Santino Fontana: Go through the, I mean, Ariana DeBose, who was hosting one Oscar for West Side Story, who was a part of West Side Story, Hal Prince.

[10:45] Eila Mell: Hal Prince.

[10:53] Santino Fontana: Um, you could go through, I, you could talk, you know, I could do this for days.

[10:58] Eila Mell: It's, you know, seven degrees of Hal Prince, you know, but I think it's like five-exactly theater.

[11:04] Santino Fontana: Yeah.

[11:05] Eila Mell: Right. And you know, without Hal Prince, maybe we don't have Sondheim in the same way we had Sondheim.

[11:10] Santino Fontana: We know we don't.

[11:11] Eila Mell: We know we don't, because if you didn't have, I mean, this is so nerdy, but if you didn't have Merrily We Roll Along, which in the early 80s was considered a, you know, a huge disappointment to them, right?

[11:23] Santino Fontana: And they stopped working together, right?

[11:25] Eila Mell: And it wasn't until James Lapine drew Sondheim out of what Sondheim thought was retirement to do Sunday in the Park with George, which led to Into the Woods, which led to Passion, which led to Sondheim reaching out to John Weidman about Assassins and Road Show. And I mean, and then the most recent Here We Are with David Ives.

[11:43] Santino Fontana: That, that there is no, there's no version of the American theater the way we know it without Hal Prince, period.

[11:50] Eila Mell: There's just, according to me anyway, that without Hal Prince, New York history is different because Broadway history is different.

[11:57] Santino Fontana: A hundred percent.

[11:58] Eila Mell: So you so generously brought this campaign into the Drama Desk Awards when you were asked to sing. So tell us about that.

[12:04] Santino Fontana: So I got a call a couple weeks ago or a text from Lauren Lataro, who is a friend who was directing, and Steve Rosen and David Rossmer were writing the show, and they texted that they were like, hey, we're short a song. We need someone to sing. We know you're gonna be there because I was nominated. And do you want to sing something? Kelly O'Hara is singing, Nikki James is singing. Do you want to sing something? And I was like, well, sure, if I'm gonna be there, what do you want? And they didn't give too many, I didn't know about the details of this of the awards, but I said, you know, I do have something that it's very hard to find places to do because it's so specific.

[12:41] Santino Fontana: And there's this medley of Hal Prince songs, which starts from Pajama Game and goes right on through everything up to Love Music, where you sing, I sang like a line of each, and Rob Berman and Fred Lassen and Joel Fram helped me put it together many years ago. And I sang it for Hal Prince, actually, initially. And so I pitched them that and they were like, This is perfect. This is what you're gonna do. We'll figure everything out later. And I didn't realize at the time, and they didn't tell me that there is a Hal Prince award. So that they were giving it to Nathan Lane. So I said, Oh gosh, this is perfect. And I said, you know, Carol's trying to get a theater named after Hal. I bet she would do an interview.

I bet she would introduce it. So they were like, what? First of all, they're like, how do you know Carol Burnett? And they were like, you think she would do it? I was like, why wouldn't she? It's a, you know, she could do it on her phone. And then I texted you and I texted Angie and I emailed Carol and there we go, you know. So, but I mean it was like an whole operation to get it together. So we had to get Carol. It was so much fun that we had to get Carol to make the video, which was easy. As soon as I called her, she was like, absolutely. But then the reason that she couldn't make a video is because she had a toothache and her face was swollen. Right, which is fine. But the audio was fine.

Oh, it's great. And I emailed her because I was backstage right before that with Matthew Broderick was giving the award to Nathan Lane. And I was back there with them, and I know them a little bit, and I'm obviously a huge fan and kind of nerding out over them. And I said, You guys know about Carol? And they were like, What? Carol Burnett's introducing you. She said they were like, What? Where? Why? I was like, Yeah. I text it's amazing to see them as thrilled as I was. And Sutton was sitting right there, and she mentioned Sutton in What's Wanna Mattress. Yes. Um, it was really cool to be able to watch them all kind of react to hearing Carol's voice. Oh, how nice. And I was so thrilled to, you know, have some little part of that.

[14:33] Eila Mell: So you were quite the orchestrator the past couple of weeks.

[14:36] Santino Fontana: I know. I was sometimes lately, you know what I will say? Lately, I've been like, I'll just text them. Why not? I can't tell you how many times that's happened lately. I mean, where I've been like, you know what? I'm just gonna text them. It's amazing how easy it actually is when you don't think somebody else has to kind of orchestrate everything. Yeah, you can do it yourself. Right. We each had our role and it just worked out perfect.

[14:57] Eila Mell: Yeah. So thank you for that. And Carol, thanks.

[14:59] Santino Fontana: My pleasure. We'll be right back. We have to listen to some commercials.

[15:07] Eila Mell: Since we're behind the awards, let's talk about some of your awards, like your Tony Award for Tootsie.

[15:13] Santino Fontana: Sure. Sure. So, what's the whole Tony experience like? So you're doing this show. I'm sure you're not thinking Tony's immediately. So tell us.

[15:22] Santino Fontana: No, no. I mean, the, you know, Tootsie started in 20, oh god. I mean, we did by the end, we did I think seven workshops and readings of it over five years, six, seven years maybe. And it had been around before me. So no, you know, it's a roller coaster ride. I'm in that day, the Tony, the day of the Tony's, my year, this most recent year, the 2019, my wife was six months pregnant, my grandfather was sick, as well as my grandmother. Eight shows a week, six days a week. I was on all the drugs at the time. I was super sick. I got sick, and I was on, I call it the full Judy. It was on antibiotics, steroid. I was on everything to be able to because I was like, no, I'm not gonna call out until the past the Tonies if I don't have to.

The joke was when I got off stage, because also people don't know. So we had two shows on Saturday the day before. The producers were kind enough to put me up at the Marriott Marquee, which is where we were in a hotel room, because in the morning we had rehearsal at six, or I had to get ready at six because I had to shave, do the make, right? It took a long time. And we do the show full out for the dress rehearsal, then you do it again, yeah, and they film it in the morning, then you go get ready for the and then keep in mind and more everyone on the Tonies is performing a song they just learned. Because it was just written, the opening. Right. So you're performing something you don't know, and then you're performing the song from your show, but it's not the same as from your show.

Because they can't do the version from your show. So you have to do a different version in which everyone else is lip syncing except for you, because the ensemble it's too many voices to mix. So I'm singing everyone else's lip syncing the entire time and laughing at me, kind of like uh. And I know that I have this crazy uh costume change that I only have 20 something seconds or whatever it was. Oh my god. And know that it's national television. No pressure. So people ask, what is it like? It's hard to put that into words, but you do feel like, wait a minute, what are we doing? Like, this is so much stress. And I'm sick. My wife is pregnant. There was other things going on in my life, and it was kind of just a blur, I gotta be honest.

[17:29] Eila Mell: Yeah.

[17:29] Santino Fontana: It was a blur. And by the end, my category was at the very end of the night, which I didn't think about. Right. And I had to go to the bath. And which is lame, but it's true. And it was like 11 o'clock, and I'd been up at five. It's a crazy day. And I got off stage. This is so lame and embarrassing. And trust me, I've talked about it in therapy. But the I got off stage and the publicist who I was working with at the time was there, and she was lovely, and she said, How are you doing? Congratulations. Am I gonna be okay? She was like, What? What do you mean? I was like, Yeah, that's the first thing that came out of my mouth. I think I was just overwhelmed and I wanted to sleep. And then, you know, the next day had to go and do the show. Because we had because we had Sunday off and Monday was the show. So we're that.

[18:14] Eila Mell: Oh, okay.

[18:14] Santino Fontana: Oh, okay. Well, that at least you have to.

[18:16] Eila Mell: Yes, but I you know, people ask, and you want to give them all of the sunshine and rainbows that they want the story to be. And it is that. But it's so complicated.

[18:26] Santino Fontana: It's complicated. Well, I think people like the real story. Well, Sutton said to me once when I was talking to her for the book, she said, you know, even though we're nominated, we're still the help that night. We're still performing. Everyone else gets to sit and relax. Yes, the shows that close early. Sometimes I always feel like they have it the best. They have it the right. And I remember seeing as a kid, not that well, I remember seeing award shows, and you watch like the Emmys or the Golden Globe or the Oscars, and everyone seems pristine and like relaxed. And then the Tony Awards, everyone's sweating. And everyone looks a little harried. And it's because, you know, at the time Radio City, they'd turn off the air conditioning because it makes too much noise for the cameras.

And you know, and now I know, oh, they were working at five in the morning and that day. Right. And some of the times they just did a matinee. Right. The people whose shows closed months before sometimes I feel like, or the people who know their show is gonna close soon. You can see like a glow of relaxation on them. But yeah, no, it's it's nuts. Talked about the costume change. When I saw the show, I remember being like, it has to be impossible, you know, watching it. And then seeing, you know, watching at home the award show, and then I'm like, oh, they're doing this number? And like you said, 20 seconds, and not only 20 seconds running off the change, you also coming up an elevator on the floor.

So you have a technical element that has to work as well that you have zero control over. So I just you're talking through it. I'm like remembering all those like nuances sitting there going, having seen the show, so you kind of not that you know what's going on behind the scenes, but you have an idea of the fever that's going on there. It's like literally all the stars have to align in order for it to go well.

[20:08] Santino Fontana: So and if it didn't, it's live TV. Right national live TV. Right. Um, yeah, no, they were like seven, I think seven, there were seven dressers, Lauren Galitali was my dress and a very close friend, and Brian Sremosser who did the hair and makeup and Margot Lawless. The entire it took like seven people, one person just had fingernails, one person just did the, you know, we had it all worked out. There's a great photo that we have that John Bellman took of it happening live.

[20:38] Eila Mell: Oh wow.

[20:39] Santino Fontana: And it is amazing. Yeah, and they wanted to film it, and I was too terrified. I was like, no, I don't want this filmed because I have to go to a disassociated place in my body that has to like just pray that this works, and the idea that anyone would ever see that very scary private moment ever. Is not okay. And it also would ruin the magic trick. Like that's part of the trick. So but there are times that I'm like, sometimes I wonder, should we have filmed it? Uh I'm glad we didn't.

[21:10] Eila Mell: Yeah. Was that William Ivy Long who did those costumes?

[21:13] Santino Fontana: Yes, William Ivy Long. Yeah. And um, you know, he did uh and he did Cinderella.

[21:17] Eila Mell: Oh, that's right.

[21:18] Santino Fontana: Which I was also in. He also did my wife's wedding dress.

[21:21] Eila Mell: Really?

[21:22] Santino Fontana: Wow.

[21:22] Eila Mell: Wow.

[21:22] Santino Fontana: Yeah, I know.

[21:23] Eila Mell: That must have been gorgeous.

[21:24] Santino Fontana: He's a master.

[21:25] Eila Mell: Yes, he is.

[21:26] Santino Fontana: Yeah. It was. He's very sweet.

[21:28] Eila Mell: Yes.

[21:28] Santino Fontana: He just sent me a Father's Day card.

[21:29] Eila Mell: Oh, how sweet.

[21:31] Santino Fontana: Yeah. So, you know, we can't talk to you without talking about Frozen. That was a big moment.

[21:35] Eila Mell: Sure.

[21:36] Santino Fontana: So how did Frozen come to you?

[21:40] Santino Fontana: I was auditioning. I just got it was an audition. We were doing the workshops of Cinderella at the time. And I just got an audition for I had auditioned for Tangled and was called back for that, the Rapunzel animated feature. And then there was a version of Frozen, but that was called the Snow Queen that I had also auditioned for. And then that went away. And then it came back in this other form called Frozen, and there was a different role. And I think there were like four auditions totally. By the end, I found out I got it the day we finished the workshop of Cinderella. And the casting director from LA called and told me. And then we were recording it during the run of Cinderella. So I would do like once we opened, had we opened.

No, we were in previews. We were in previews for Cinderella. So like we'd finish a Sunday matinee, I'd run, I'd get on an airplane, I'd go to LA, and then like recorded the song Loves and Open Door with Kristen Bell. And then I'd fly back to New York and go right back into the Tuesday night show.

[22:42] Eila Mell: Oh wow.

[22:42] Santino Fontana: Um, or a rehearsal if we were in previews. So yeah, that it was nuts. And then it came out in the middle of our run.

[22:50] Eila Mell: And was that crazy? Life and career changing for you when that movie was so enormous?

[22:56] Santino Fontana: Uh, I mean, I'm sure it was I'm sure it is and was. Yeah. It is a crazy thing to be a part of something that has touched the entire world. Right. You know, it's amazing to have like this huge secret when you get on an airplane and a kid is watching it next to you.

[23:09] Eila Mell: Well, that's the thing. Kids forever.

[23:12] Santino Fontana: It's these Disney movies don't go away. So kids forever are going to be watching this.

[23:17] Eila Mell: Yes.

[23:18] Santino Fontana: It's a great gift. It's a very cool club to be a part of. It's also very private because no one knows, you know. So but like I know I've said this before, but I think as a kid, as an actor wanting like dreaming to being like, oh, I want to be a Disney prince and I want to be a Disney villain. Really? I got to be both.

[23:38] Eila Mell: Wow.

[23:39] Santino Fontana: You know. So uh no, it's super cool. There's no downside to that. It's really an awesome thing to be a part of.

[23:45] Eila Mell: Now, was there a moment when your kids like the realization of wait a minute? I know that voice.

[23:51] Santino Fontana: Yes. It just happened. You know, last year, it just happened not even a year ago. My daughter, who's now she's about to turn five, she came home from preschool one day and said, Who's Hans? And I was like, Oh god. And I looked at my wife and I was like, what are we gonna do? She was like, nothing. We just waited out. Let's see what you know happens. And then her little her friend at preschool was talking about Frozen, and she wanted to watch Anna and Elsa. And I was like, what do we say? Do we prep her for I don't know? Yeah, there's no book on this. What do you do when your dad was the villain of a, you know have a sword over a girl's head? So we watched it, and I was probably the I was nervous about how to what's gonna happen. And it finished, and she said and she loved it, but she said, he has the same voice as you. But she didn't ever, I was not him, he was not me. There was no like what he did is what you did. No, there's no confusion about that.

[24:47] Santino Fontana: No, there's no confusion about that.

[24:49] Santino Fontana: It's just like that's so funny. You guys have the same voice. But I think for kids, the visual is so powerful that you don't look the same. So it does, it can't be you. Yes, and before she watched it, her friend at preschool, Nora, who's one of her best friends, said she told her eventually. She told her, My dad is voice is the voice of Prince Hans. My dad is Prince Hans. She said something like that. And Nora said, No, he's not. And she came home and she came home and she said, Nora said, You're not, you're not Prince Hans. And I was like, You tell Nora I am Prince Hans.

[25:20] Santino Fontana: I was so like something came up within me that was so like, how dare that it's like, oh God, this is so strange.

[25:27] Bruce Gotlieb: You're worried about five-year-old.

[25:29] Santino Fontana: Oh, it's so weird. I mean, there in my home in this in where we live now, uh, there's uh there was a princess party at a park.

[25:36] Santino Fontana: My wife was like, We're gonna go to this party in the park. And I was like, okay, what is it with all these kids? And all these girls are dressed as Anna and Elsa.

[25:42] Santino Fontana: Wow. You know, I have all these photos of me, like, just this is so weird. It's weird.

[25:47] Bruce Gotlieb: Yeah.

[25:47] Santino Fontana: No, of course they don't know. It's just the most bizarre, amazing. It's amazing, but it's bizarre.

[25:53] Bruce Gotlieb: Wow.

[25:53] Santino Fontana: Yeah. That that is crazy. Do the parents know?

[25:56] Bruce Gotlieb: Probably not.

[25:56] Santino Fontana: No, of course not. How would they know? No one knows. I don't know.

[26:00] Santino Fontana: I mean, last a couple months ago, I got asked to do this convention with Ken Page, the Oogie Boogie Man from Nightmare Before Christmas, as well as all those Broadway credits.

[26:09] Bruce Gotlieb: Yeah.

[26:10] Santino Fontana: Jonathan Freeman, the voice of Jafar.

[26:12] Santino Fontana: All those amazing Broadway credits, also. And Richard White, the voice of Gaston.

[26:17] Santino Fontana: Also a ton of Broadway credits. So we all stayed at a hotel in Sacramento and had dinner in the hotel restaurant.

[26:24] Santino Fontana: And I'm looking, and I'm sitting looking at the four of us, like, this is so weird. And so cool. And none of these people know.

[26:33] Santino Fontana: You know, the waiter is coming around, and they might have done a double take when they heard Jonathan make his order for a steak or whatever.

[26:40] Santino Fontana: But um, such a cool, weird club to be a part of it. Nobody knows.

[26:44] Bruce Gotlieb: Gaston, yeah.

[26:46] Santino Fontana: It's it's so weird.

[26:48] Santino Fontana: Well, it's the best because you get to still be anonymous and have this huge hit.

[26:52] Bruce Gotlieb: Yes, that is very good.

[26:53] Santino Fontana: It's very cool. Very, very cool.

[26:55] Santino Fontana: Let's take a minute to hear a word from our sponsors.

[27:02] Santino Fontana: So the other night, Rachel Bloom was at the party that we were at.

[27:06] Bruce Gotlieb: You're a co-star in My Crazy X Girlfriend.

[27:09] Santino Fontana: Yes, the creator.

[27:10] Bruce Gotlieb: Yes.

[27:11] Santino Fontana: Yes, yes.

[27:12] Bruce Gotlieb: How much fun was that show to do?

[27:13] Santino Fontana: It it just looked like a ton of fun anyway. It was fun.

[27:16] Santino Fontana: It was right after I was doing that J-Lo show, Shades of Blue, and I was about to get married, and Crazy X came along.

[27:25] Santino Fontana: We got married, uh, went to LA, started the and started the show.

[27:30] Santino Fontana: And then a year later, my contract was I only had a one-year contract long boring story.

[27:35] Bruce Gotlieb: Right.

[27:35] Santino Fontana: But no, while I was there, I had a great, I had a really good time doing it.

[27:38] Santino Fontana: You know, shooting a musical sequence without what a theater actor is used to, with like weeks of rehearsal, and I mean, that is scary.

[27:48] Bruce Gotlieb: Uh huh.

[27:48] Santino Fontana: So, you know, there was a song that I did that was shot with in one take.

[27:53] Santino Fontana: I mean, we did more than one take, but it was shot in one. You know, we didn't no stops.

[27:58] Santino Fontana: No stops. And which is the good part about being on TV, is that you can stop and do it again if it doesn't work.

[28:04] Santino Fontana: So that was scary. I mean, I remember staying up to like three or four in the morning drilling those lyrics because you know, there's no sheet music to those songs.

[28:12] Santino Fontana: You get the demo, you go and you record it line by line, and then you get the MP3 of that you're gonna be lip syncing to.

[28:18] Santino Fontana: It's it's a lot, you know.

[28:20] Santino Fontana: So you can't even look at the notes to see there are no notes.

[28:23] Bruce Gotlieb: No, you're exactly right.

[28:24] Santino Fontana: There's no sheet music, it's just lyrics, and you recorded it a couple days ago, then you've been shooting something else.

[28:31] Santino Fontana: You get the MP3. I was l I mean, my wife was worried about me.

[28:34] Santino Fontana: I was like, I gotta we're trying to do this in one take. I have to I have to know it inside and out.

[28:39] Santino Fontana: And I have to know how I performed it in the recordings that they chose. Because I don't know what I'm doing once we get on set.

[28:46] Santino Fontana: There's no rehearsal to figure out what you're gonna do. You show up on the set, then you block it, then you go.

[28:51] Santino Fontana: So I was terrified. But I think it turned out pretty great.

[28:54] Santino Fontana: I'm not great at watching myself, so I haven't gone back. But oh my gosh, it's so much fun.

[28:58] Santino Fontana: I watched it only recently. I didn't watch it at the time.

[29:01] Santino Fontana: So I you know, it was a pandemic watch for me, and it was so much fun.

[29:05] Bruce Gotlieb: Yeah.

[29:06] Santino Fontana: Thanks.

[29:06] Santino Fontana: Yeah. They're very talented.

[29:07] Bruce Gotlieb: It's always such a thrill to see Broadway people on TV for me.

[29:10] Santino Fontana: Donna Lynn uh Champlin, who was in the show.

[29:12] Bruce Gotlieb: Yes, yeah.

[29:12] Santino Fontana: She came into Billy Elliott with me about a ways in because Stephanie Kurtsuba, who played my girlfriend, I guess, in the show, although it wasn't really written in.

[29:20] Santino Fontana: But um, she got pregnant, and so she had to leave. And then Donna Lynn came in.

[29:25] Santino Fontana: So that's actually how I met, or not met, but that's how I reconnected with Donna Lynn.

[29:29] Santino Fontana: And then so to be in that, you know, the odds of us being on a television musical together.

[29:34] Bruce Gotlieb: Right.

[29:35] Santino Fontana: That's so I mean, there's only a couple of television musicals anyway.

[29:39] Bruce Gotlieb: You're correct.

[29:40] Santino Fontana: It's very hard.

[29:41] Santino Fontana: They're very hard.

[29:42] Bruce Gotlieb: Yes.

[29:42] Santino Fontana: And how fortunate it wasn't Cop Rock that you were on.

[29:45] Bruce Gotlieb: I've heard all about Cop Rock.

[29:47] Santino Fontana: I do think I've heard about it.

[29:49] Santino Fontana: It was before my time, but I remember like thinking, this is nuts.

[29:53] Santino Fontana: Like I don't I I don't even understand what Cop Rock was supposed to be.

[29:57] Bruce Gotlieb: Yeah, I yeah.

[29:58] Santino Fontana: Everything about it was wrong.

[29:59] Santino Fontana: It was like NYPD Blue singing, musical.

[30:03] Bruce Gotlieb: So weird.

[30:05] Santino Fontana: Whatever.

[30:05] Santino Fontana: Watch it, it'll come back. There'll be a reboot.

[30:07] Bruce Gotlieb: Of course.

[30:08] Santino Fontana: And you'll be asked to star.

[30:11] Bruce Gotlieb: I'm good.

[30:12] Santino Fontana: No, I'm all I'm good.

[30:14] Santino Fontana: Let's go back a little growing up. Was Broadway always the dream?

[30:19] Santino Fontana: No, I didn't have any, I had no awareness of what Broadway was.

[30:23] Santino Fontana: I mean, I I was I was born in Stockton, California. We lived there until I was 10.

[30:27] Santino Fontana: That's the central valley of California, San Joaquin Valley.

[30:30] Santino Fontana: So it's like an hour from Sacramento. It's a lot of agriculture, agricultural people, you know.

[30:36] Santino Fontana: My dad was an agronomist. My mom was a teacher.

[30:39] Santino Fontana: No one in my family did anything in the arts, and no one near me.

[30:43] Santino Fontana: So it didn't seem realistic.

[30:44] Bruce Gotlieb: Mm-hmm.

[30:45] Santino Fontana: I also, again, didn't know what it was.

[30:47] Bruce Gotlieb: Right.

[30:48] Santino Fontana: So how did you figure it out?

[30:50] Santino Fontana: My grandfather babysat me a lot, and we he would go to uh we'd go to Blockbuster, which for children listening, that's like Netflix, but with a store.

[30:58] Santino Fontana: You had to actually show up.

[31:00] Santino Fontana: Yeah, you have to go and pick the videos, right?

[31:02] Santino Fontana: So he would pick the movies that he loved, and uh we would watch them, and then he would just kind of rewind them and we'd watch them again.

[31:09] Santino Fontana: But his love for them, I got it. You know, I caught it.

[31:11] Santino Fontana: He wore off on me. His love for storytelling, and he had a very varied taste, which was great.

[31:19] Santino Fontana: So it would be we'd watch like Days of Wine and Roses, speaking of the Tony Awards.

[31:23] Bruce Gotlieb: Ah.

[31:23] Santino Fontana: We watched Days of Wine and Roses, which a child should not be watching.

[31:26] Bruce Gotlieb: No.

[31:27] Santino Fontana: And uh, as well as Singin in the Rain.

[31:29] Bruce Gotlieb: Yeah.

[31:29] Santino Fontana: And then we'd watched Bridgeover River Qui and Twelve Angry Men and The Apartment.

[31:35] Santino Fontana: Again, children should not be watching.

[31:37] Santino Fontana: And we'd watch West Side Story, and we'd watch uh American in Paris.

[31:41] Santino Fontana: The, you know, we watched everything.

[31:42] Santino Fontana: And I loved how much he loved it.

[31:44] Santino Fontana: And I think uh that wore off on me.

[31:47] Santino Fontana: And then it became well, when do I I want to do that?

[31:50] Santino Fontana: And so, you know, school plays, movies in your basement or movies in your garage, stuff like that.

[31:55] Santino Fontana: But it wasn't until fast forward to we moved when I was 10 to Washington State, and I was in the jazz band.

[32:02] Santino Fontana: I played piano, and the horns would rehearse a lot, and I would go take a break out by the water fountain.

[32:07] Santino Fontana: And above the water fountain was a poster for Interlock and Arts Camp.

[32:11] Santino Fontana: And this is before the internet. So, you know, you had to tear off a thing and send your address and they'd mail you a pamphlet.

[32:17] Santino Fontana: And I did, and it looked cool.

[32:19] Santino Fontana: And like, what is this? Like, they do a play and they do a musical and they do a Shakespeare and they do they do everything.

[32:25] Santino Fontana: And I submitted an audition and I got in, and um, it was very expensive.

[32:29] Santino Fontana: And I remember being like, This is crazy.

[32:32] Santino Fontana: And went to Michigan the the summer before my senior year of high school, and I was in West Side Story with Alex Michaels as Bernardo, who is now known as Alexis Michelle from RuPaul's Drag Race.

[32:44] Bruce Gotlieb: Oh, yeah, yeah.

[32:45] Santino Fontana: And Michael Arden was Tony.

[32:48] Santino Fontana: Oh, wow.

[32:51] Santino Fontana: How crazy.

[32:52] Bruce Gotlieb: Yeah.

[32:52] Santino Fontana: And that was the first time that both I felt like, oh, I think I could do that.

[32:57] Santino Fontana: I could I have a chance at doing this.

[32:58] Santino Fontana: And it was the first time teachers there, like you know, authority figures in some sense, who kind of knew what was going on and said, you could do this if you wanted to do it.

[33:07] Bruce Gotlieb: That was it.

[33:08] Santino Fontana: That was the first time.

[33:09] Bruce Gotlieb: Many people don't get that encouragement, so that must have meant a lot to you.

[33:12] Santino Fontana: It did.

[33:12] Santino Fontana: And they also were very honest.

[33:14] Santino Fontana: They weren't saying, like, oh, you have to do this, you'll be, you know, you're right. You're making it. New York is waiting.

[33:19] Bruce Gotlieb: Yeah.

[33:20] Santino Fontana: No, no. They were very like, I think they could tell I had no one in my life that was connected to the realities of pursuing this as a career.

[33:31] Bruce Gotlieb: Right.

[33:31] Santino Fontana: They didn't know how to be supportive in that way.

[33:33] Bruce Gotlieb: No one knew.

[33:33] Santino Fontana: Yeah, of course. What are they gonna say?

[33:35] Santino Fontana: I mean, granted, my I mean, my parents were nothing but supportive.

[33:38] Santino Fontana: They never were like, I think you should get a serious job, or I think you should do something.

[33:42] Santino Fontana: Never. Never.

[33:43] Santino Fontana: And and no one did.

[33:44] Santino Fontana: I mean, that's lucky.

[33:46] Santino Fontana: Um, which was great.

[33:47] Santino Fontana: Everyone was very supportive, but also completely unaware of all of it.

[33:51] Santino Fontana: You know, so I think people, teachers that came across my path really did jump in and help and say, if you want to do this, you can try to do this.

[34:00] Bruce Gotlieb: You should, you should, you can.

[34:02] Santino Fontana: Then did you go to college as a theater major?

[34:05] Santino Fontana: Yeah.

[34:05] Santino Fontana: So I went to, and this is all see, it's all, and it's everything's connected.

[34:09] Santino Fontana: It's so crazy that the Interlock and experience led to all the people there, all the students, but also the teachers.

[34:16] Santino Fontana: Everyone was like, they wanted they could see, you know, fresh meat.

[34:18] Santino Fontana: So they like gave me all these cast recordings to listen to and all these plays to read and uh movies to watch, stuff that I had no real awareness of, and other uh scholarship competitions and things like that, colleges, all that.

[34:32] Santino Fontana: And one of them was this scholarship competition, which is still around called Young Arts that Andrew Rannells went through.

[34:37] Santino Fontana: Yeah, and Josh Groban went through, and Kerry Washington went through, Terrell Alvin McCraney went through.

[34:44] Santino Fontana: It's amazing.

[34:44] Santino Fontana: Or Raul Esparza, Vanessa Williams.

[34:46] Santino Fontana: It's an amaz uh uh Viola Davis.

[34:48] Bruce Gotlieb: Wow.

[34:49] Santino Fontana: It's crazy when you look at all the people that have gone through it.

[34:51] Santino Fontana: But very similar to Interlock, and you like submit a tape doing monologues, songs, whatever you want to do.

[34:59] Santino Fontana: They chose 20 people.

[35:00] Santino Fontana: This is at the time, I think it's the same, but uh 20 people from across the country.

[35:05] Santino Fontana: They fly us all to Florida.

[35:07] Santino Fontana: I'm a senior in high school and I'm there in Florida for a week.

[35:12] Santino Fontana: You do like exercises, theater games.

[35:15] Santino Fontana: Anthony Rapp was one of the the panelists, kind of adjudicating everybody, as well as Kimberly Scott, a great actress you would be.

[35:21] Bruce Gotlieb: Oh, I know.

[35:22] Santino Fontana: Tony nominee.

[35:23] Bruce Gotlieb: Yeah.

[35:23] Santino Fontana: Yeah, maybe.

[35:25] Santino Fontana: Maybe.

[35:26] Santino Fontana: Yeah, she is.

[35:27] Santino Fontana: Great.

[35:27] Santino Fontana: Uh August Wilson plays.

[35:29] Santino Fontana: And um.

[35:30] Santino Fontana: Great actress.

[35:31] Santino Fontana: And uh, and Ken Washington, who became my mentor, and he pulled me aside.

[35:37] Santino Fontana: Again, very similar as what happened at Interlock and said, Who are, you know, uh who are you? Where are you from?

[35:43] Santino Fontana: And it wasn't in a creepy that sounded like it could be creepy if you read it.

[35:46] Santino Fontana: It wasn't.

[35:47] Santino Fontana: It actually sounds very Boys in the Band.

[35:49] Bruce Gotlieb: That's what I'm afraid of.

[35:50] Santino Fontana: Yeah.

[35:51] Santino Fontana: I was like, no, it wasn't that at all.

[35:53] Santino Fontana: It was genuinely, what do you want to do?

[35:55] Santino Fontana: Mm-hmm.

[35:56] Santino Fontana: And I said, you know, this very idealistic, you know, I want to do this and that if I can.

[36:01] Santino Fontana: And I said, but I think I'm gonna go to music school at the time, because I was focusing more on that.

[36:06] Santino Fontana: And he said, I think that'd be a mistake.

[36:08] Santino Fontana: And he just walked away.

[36:10] Santino Fontana: And I was so mad.

[36:11] Santino Fontana: And I kind of chased him down.

[36:13] Santino Fontana: I was like, what the hell is that?

[36:15] Santino Fontana: What do you mean that would be a mistake?

[36:17] Santino Fontana: And he said, You're an actor.

[36:19] Santino Fontana: You're an actor.

[36:20] Bruce Gotlieb: Mm-hmm.

[36:21] Santino Fontana: You should be studying to be an actor.

[36:23] Santino Fontana: Or he said, he said, you should either be getting a liberal arts degree, or you should be studying to be an actor, or you should be doing both.

[36:28] Santino Fontana: And then he kind of took me under his wing and kind of helped me.

[36:31] Santino Fontana: You know, and I get it.

[36:32] Santino Fontana: I must have been a strange I was strange showing up.

[36:35] Santino Fontana: I did like a Treplev monologue from the Seagull.

[36:39] Bruce Gotlieb: Right.

[36:39] Santino Fontana: And I sang Something's Coming for West Side Story.

[36:42] Bruce Gotlieb: Those are weird, you know?

[36:44] Santino Fontana: And I did a Chris, I think I did a, was it Chris Durang? No, David Ives.

[36:46] Santino Fontana: And I did a David Ives monologue.

[36:48] Bruce Gotlieb: Oh, wow.

[36:49] Santino Fontana: So that's a strange pairing.

[36:51] Santino Fontana: You know, that wasn't there were They're like, who's this person?

[36:54] Bruce Gotlieb: They're like, who are yeah.

[36:55] Santino Fontana: Well, so when he said who like it's it's weird.

[36:57] Santino Fontana: I get it now.

[36:58] Santino Fontana: And um anyway, he uh helped me through the like college thing, and he was actually helping start a training program at the time at the Guthrie Theater in Minnesota in Minneapolis, where they were starting a new program.

[37:11] Santino Fontana: I was in the first class of it with Aya Cash, who was from, you know, You're the Worst, and you've seen her on TV and a bunch of stuff.

[37:17] Santino Fontana: She's about to be in a big HBO show.

[37:19] Santino Fontana: I went there.

[37:21] Santino Fontana: I studied classical theater.

[37:22] Santino Fontana: It was all classics, no music, and really not until the very end.

[37:26] Santino Fontana: No, even not even any contemporary plays.

[37:28] Santino Fontana: A lot of Shakespeare and language based stuff, you know.

[37:31] Santino Fontana: And that was it.

[37:32] Santino Fontana: So I went to school there.

[37:33] Santino Fontana: I was in the first class, and then I stayed on as a company member uh for two years after I graduated.

[37:38] Santino Fontana: So I was in Death of a Salesman, which traveled to Ireland with a festival, and then I was in Christmas Carol, and then I was in As You Like It, where I played Sylvius, and then I assistant directed His Girl Friday, that John Guare had rewritten, starring Courtney Vance and Angela Bassett.

[37:38] Bruce Gotlieb: Oh wow.

[37:38] Santino Fontana: And then Hamlet.

[37:38] Santino Fontana: And then I was like, okay, I gotta move.

[38:01] Santino Fontana: Well, you had done all the classics, so you were right.

[38:04] Santino Fontana: Well, I loved it. I mean, I think the idea of being in rep or, you know, in a company of is what so many actors really would love to do. We don't, you know, it's kind of what Carol had on TV.

[38:11] Bruce Gotlieb: Yeah, exactly.

[38:14] Santino Fontana: Unlike the old studio system where, you know, you're just in a company of actors.

[38:20] Bruce Gotlieb: Yes, exactly. Let's take a minute to hear a word from our sponsors.

[38:28] Bruce Gotlieb: So then what made you take the leap over to the musical theater side from the classic side?

[38:33] Santino Fontana: Because I just done okay, so this is great. So Mel Marvin, who wrote the music for How the Grinch Stole Christmas, as well as Tin Types?

[38:41] Santino Fontana: Okay. He runs the graduate musical theater writing program at NYU. He also does a lot of, did a lot at the time, a lot of incidental music at the Guthrie. And he wrote the incidental music in As You Like It. And As You Like It, Sylvius is, you know, pining over Phoebe, the girl that wants nothing to do with him. And there's he has like some poems in the Shakespeare. And Mel wrote them as songs. So he knew I sang through that. And then he did the incidental music for Hamlet. And we finished Hamlet, we were finishing Hamlet, and he came up and he was like, Do you want to sing when you get to New York? I was like, I don't, I just don't want to be a waiter. I mean, that's the goal, which has still been the only goal was like, I don't, I just don't want to have to do any. I just want to do this. Even if I make no money, I just want to do this.

[39:31] Santino Fontana: He said they're bringing back the fantastics, and I'm friends with Tom Jones. I can get you an audition. Do you want an audition? I didn't know the fantastics at all. I read it. It was in verse. I was like, well, that's nice. Yeah. There's a lot of like Shakespearean imagery. And I was like, maybe this is a good thing. I just played, you know, the Danish prince who everyone dies. And maybe this will be a nice change of pace. So I got I moved to New York. He got me an audition. And I think it was super lucky. Ten days later, I got the job and that was it.

[40:02] Bruce Gotlieb: So is this El Gaia or Matt?

[40:04] Santino Fontana: No, no, no, Matt. I was the boy in the 2006 revival that we did a recording of. I was sick during that day, so be kind. But uh at the Snapple Theater above the Dwayne Reed on 50th Street.

[40:19] Bruce Gotlieb: Oh, amazing.

[40:20] Santino Fontana: Yeah, yeah. It was it was crazy. Sarah Ford was the Luisa, she was fantastic. Leo Burmeister was my dad. Marty Vidnevic was her dad. Great cast.

[40:30] Bruce Gotlieb: Yeah, those are great actors.

[40:31] Santino Fontana: So that was my first job in New York. That was the and that was the first musical. And then I went back to doing, I did Hay Fever in San Diego and then Sunny in the Park, and then, you know, tried to just keep it as a mix of both.

[40:42] Bruce Gotlieb: Right. Because you don't want to just do one thing, I'm sure.

[40:45] Santino Fontana: Exactly. But do you do you feel like you get pigeonholed as a musical theater actor?

[40:52] Santino Fontana: You know, everybody's entry point to me is very different. And I love that. And I have to remind myself of that. Because I think everybody has their own. And I had an actor friend who said this, an older actor friend kind of say to me, you know, as you keep going, there are going to be casting directors and directors that think of you as one thing. But you're going to come across someone else who sees you as the other thing and just don't stop. Just keep doing what you want to be doing.

[41:16] Santino Fontana: So, you know, there were times there are people who've come to theater performances I've done who know me from audiobooks where I play a serial killer. You know?

[41:25] Bruce Gotlieb: Amazing.

[41:25] Santino Fontana: I did all those audiobooks for you, Y O U, the T that turned into a TV show. But before it was a TV show, it was a novel. And there have been people who have come to plays I've been in. Someone came to the importance of being earnest, only knowing me from playing a serial killer. And they were weirded out. And I was like, yeah, I get it. I mean, I also had people who were huge fans of Cinderella that came to see me in it. You get what I'm saying. Everyone has their own thing. So I think everyone has the risk of being or is afraid of being pigeonholed. I think you just have to keep going, right?

[42:02] Bruce Gotlieb: I mean, yeah.

[42:04] Santino Fontana: And the fun is doing different things, not the same thing.

[42:07] Bruce Gotlieb: Absolutely.

[42:07] Santino Fontana: If you know, if I wanted to do the same thing all the time, I wouldn't have become an actor. I mean, you know, I've been avoiding an identity my whole life. This is what this is about. I just try to remind myself of that. It's a tricky balance, but there are so few people who get to be leading men on Broadway, and you're one of them. I'm sure that is not lost on you.

[42:24] Santino Fontana: No, it's not. Listen, I'm incredibly grateful and very lucky. I've done more than I thought I ever would be able to. And I didn't, you know, I sometimes wish I had bigger dreams in some ways at the start because of my because again, the dream was like, make a living doing this, period. Don't have to work three jobs, you know. Uh so I'm really lucky that that happened. But that was it. I didn't have the bigger aspirations at the time.

[42:55] Bruce Gotlieb: But that's a hard goal to accomplish.

[42:57] Santino Fontana: So, you know.

[42:58] Bruce Gotlieb: It is.

[42:59] Santino Fontana: That's it. It really is.

[43:01] Bruce Gotlieb: Yes.

[43:02] Santino Fontana: Yeah, no, it is. It is amazing. And it's good. Thank you for reminding me. Because it I I've been very lucky, very lucky and very, you know, blessed in so many ways.

[43:10] Bruce Gotlieb: So Yeah, we were we were talking to Celia Keenan Bulger recently, and she said that, you know, the fact that she gets to do this as a career is not lost on her. And, you know, having conversations with her child and explaining like if you're lucky enough to find something that you love to do and be able to make a life from it, that that's the win. That's the goal of it all. You know, in the middle of the craziness, like, you know, awards and finding a job and like all of these things and the mix of it all to stay grounded that way, just as you are, is I mean, that's huge.

[43:21] Santino Fontana: That that's the win.

[43:45] Bruce Gotlieb: Yes, that's exactly right. And it's a thing I think we probably all have to remind ourselves about. Because it there is also a lot of uh realities about choosing this that is insane. That if you explain to somebody you're gonna choose something where you're gonna be looking for work after every job. You're you're gonna get a job, and then you're not gonna have a job, and that's gonna happen forever. That's crazy.

[44:09] Santino Fontana: Right.

[44:09] Bruce Gotlieb: No matter how successful you are, no matter how many things you get or do, or awards or hit movies or TV, doesn't matter. It never ends. That like sense of needing to find something else, you know, that is that is nuts. Like that is a form of insanity to choose that. And yet it's the only thing that makes sense to people who love this.

[44:32] Santino Fontana: Exactly.

[44:33] Bruce Gotlieb: And I'm sure that your wife is a big part of why you're able to do what you do.

[44:37] Santino Fontana: She is, yes, all parts of what I do. Yes. She knows me better than I know myself, a hundred percent.

[44:43] Bruce Gotlieb: Well, that's so nice to have someone like that in your corner.

[44:46] Santino Fontana: It is. It really is. I don't know what I'd be doing.

[44:50] Bruce Gotlieb: Yes.

[44:51] Santino Fontana: It wouldn't be good. Let's say that if I didn't have her. It wouldn't be good.

[44:54] Bruce Gotlieb: So can you tell us anything about what you're doing next?

[45:00] Santino Fontana: Yes. Well, there's some stuff I can. There's some I know. Some stuff I can hint at.

[45:05] Bruce Gotlieb: Okay, good. Which we just found out about, which is very exciting.

[45:08] Santino Fontana: All right. Tell us what you can. There's a TV gig that just I just found out about, which is very exciting, very, very, very, very exciting. Not sure I can talk about it. But I'll be on your TV soon with a bunch of very cool group of people that will make sense when you find out.

[45:21] Bruce Gotlieb: Amazing. Can you tell us? Is it is it an hour long drama, half hour comedy situation? Are you allowed to go there?

[45:26] Santino Fontana: Here's the weird uh yeah, I think. I mean, what are they gonna do? Throw me in showbiz jail? There's I think uh it's uh you know, here's what's weird it's a half hour thriller horror drama thing with someone, but with somebody in the cast who was um and has been a mentor of mine, which is what I'm super.

[45:47] Bruce Gotlieb: That's amazing.

[45:48] Santino Fontana: Wow. Who you would know we can't talk about. But that's one little thing. Then there's um, let's see what else. I've been commissioned by um Concord Theatricals for this idea I have for uh a new musical, which is which I've been working on.

[46:03] Bruce Gotlieb: Are you writing music?

[46:04] Santino Fontana: Potentially.

[46:04] Bruce Gotlieb: Okay.

[46:05] Santino Fontana: No, I'm writing the book. And then there's uh another idea, which I don't know if we can. Well, there's a cut there's okay. There's another writing thing, which is cool. Then I just finished this uh short film that I wrote and directed and I'm in with Reed Bernie.

[46:19] Bruce Gotlieb: Oh, he's amazing.

[46:21] Santino Fontana: Yeah. And uh Oscar nominee uh Chris Sarrandon, as well as Oscar nominee Mayor Winningham and Maria Ramirez, Anne Horada, Vella Level, Donald Champlin, Aya Cash, Dennis Bootsucaris, Brooke Bloom, Lily Cooper, Julie Halston, Brooke Seshmanskis, Peter Barton. There's somebody else I'm forgetting. Anyway, so I wrote this thing, it's like we were talking about earlier, and I just started texting them like, hey, do you have a couple days? Mm-hmm. Do you want to do this thing? Sending it to them. They're like, yeah, I'll do it. Nico Muli is gonna write the score. Anyway, it's done. And now I'm just through the post stuff. It's about after losing his grandfather and his job to COVID, an enraged delivery man decides to do the only logical thing hunt down every disease-spreading, non-mask wearing asshole one person at a time.

[47:10] Bruce Gotlieb: Oh my goodness, that sounds incredible.

[47:12] Santino Fontana: So we shot that, super fun. Sarah Styles is in it too. And then um, so that's gonna have whatever it's gonna have. And then there's this movie I did called Lost and Found in Cleveland with June Squibb and Stacey Keach and John Lovitz and Martin Sheen and Dennis Hayesbert. It's an amazing cast, uh, Jeff Hiller is in it.

[47:30] Bruce Gotlieb: Oh wow.

[47:31] Santino Fontana: I don't know when that's Kevin McCollum is one of the producers. Yeah, I just saw him last night.

[47:35] Bruce Gotlieb: Yeah.

[47:35] Santino Fontana: So that'll come out at some point. I don't know when. And then I have an album of music, which I've been working on so long I'm calling it the eventual album, which will probably at this point be two albums.

[47:45] Bruce Gotlieb: Greatest hits.

[47:46] Santino Fontana: Yeah, well, it's a it's a there was a concert I did at uh the appel room for the American songbook series that Charlie Rosen, Tony and Grammy Winner, and Brian Carter, I think also both Tony and Grammy Winner, and Steven Feifke, Grammy Winner for Big Band jazz music, before they won any awards. They did all the charts, all the orchestrations and arrangements. We recorded everything right before the pandemic, and then I was supposed to do the vocals and then the world shut down. So and then I had children. So you you do the math.

[48:14] Bruce Gotlieb: Yeah.

[48:15] Santino Fontana: So it's finally we're we're almost done. So that that will come out soon.

[48:19] Bruce Gotlieb: Wow. Well, that's a lot going on.

[48:21] Santino Fontana: Yes, and no. You know what I mean? It feels like also like I'd rather be in a play. This is the problem. Every time I go to see something, I told my manager this. I was like, I see a play or a musical with friends of mine in it, and I want someone just like, throw me a script. I want to go. Go give me up there. He's like, Yeah, but not just let's calm down. So I guess there does have to be a strategy about planning when you have time to do a play.

[48:43] Bruce Gotlieb: Yeah, I mean, I did this, you know, I did I can get for you wholesale last fall. And that was the first time dipping my toes into the eight shows a week with two kids and a life. And it's hard. It's really hard, you know. So I have to figure that out how to balance what I love with what I love, right?

[49:00] Bruce Gotlieb: Right. We can't wait to see everything that you're doing. And um, hopefully you will be back on stage because we have to be there.

[49:07] Santino Fontana: Thank you so much for joining us. We would love to have you back when you're ready.

[49:11] Santino Fontana: Thank you. Sure, absolutely. You know, one of my missions in life, and I told Carol this, said Carol. Because she was a big um, when I was a kid, my grandmother and I, we would watch, which I'm sure everybody tells her these stories. But my grandmother and I, we would watch both the reruns, but also the new show, the show from the early 90s, the one that like when she did the reboot of her show. That's my first book report was on Carol Burnett. We went to the library.

[49:35] Bruce Gotlieb: Yeah.

[49:35] Santino Fontana: So I was like, so when I met her finally, and she knew who I was, yeah, bizarrely, and then became friends with her. I was like, yeah, listen, my only goal is to be in something with you. I could be the coffee boy. I could be a waiter. I don't care. Just a frame where we're in the same frame in something. That's the goal.

[49:54] Bruce Gotlieb: That's the goal.

[49:55] Santino Fontana: So I have that on my list. Write it for her.

[49:58] Bruce Gotlieb: I know, maybe. I don't know. I'm just gonna call whoever's writing that show she's on and be like, and I'll be a waiter. I'll do whatever you want.

[50:06] Santino Fontana: I know. Feed her grapes.

[50:09] Bruce Gotlieb: You are a Mrs. Mazel. That was fantastic.

[50:11] Santino Fontana: Yes, thank you. I well, hey, yeah. I don't know who writes Palm Royale, but I'm gonna find out now.

[50:16] Bruce Gotlieb: Why not?

[50:16] Santino Fontana: I am DB Pro.

[50:18] Bruce Gotlieb: There you go.

[50:19] Santino Fontana: Yeah, exactly.

[50:20] Bruce Gotlieb: All right, Santino. We will just be watching you in the future and currently and always, and thank you so much.

[50:28] Santino Fontana: My pleasure. Thank you.

[50:30] Bruce Gotlieb: Thank you, everyone, and we will see you next time on Behind the Awards.

[50:34] Santino Fontana: Bye-bye.