This transcript was automatically generated and might contain errors.

[0:08] Al Malafronte: Hello and welcome to the Break a Bat Podcast where baseball meets Broadway, an attempt to show that my two favorite mediums don't have to live in such separate worlds and maybe even break some stigmas.

[0:19] Al Malafronte: We're happy to have you with us. Now let's play ball.

[0:27] Al Malafronte: Hello and welcome to another edition of Break a Bat where baseball meets Broadway and sports meets show business. I'm your host, Al Malafronte, coming at you for the Broadway Podcast Network.

[0:37] Al Malafronte: Uh today we're gonna welcome a star of stage and screen who we've wanted to have on the show for quite a while. Uh she got her start in the big leagues at the age of 12 when she was cast as Louisa Vontrapp in the Broadway touring production of The Sound of Music. When she graduated college, she originated the role of Catherine Plummer in the first North American tour of Disney's Newsies. And in 2019, right around the time we started Break a Bat, she made her Broadway debut as Lois Lane in Kiss Me, Kate, and certainly endeared herself to audiences as much as any first year player when she won the Broadway.com Audience Award for Favorite Breakthrough Performance.

[1:13] Al Malafronte: Uh on screen, she had a recurring role as Autumn in Zoey's Extraordinary Playlist. And in addition to all of her accomplishments as a performer, she's also got a large number of varied interests that I believe have really helped shape her as a true star with a personality that I think all the folks at home will really enjoy getting to learn more about. So with that being said, I ask you all to please turn your attention to home plate. Just beyond the marquee. Now batting Stephanie Styles.

[1:36] Al Malafronte: Stephanie, welcome.

[1:40] Stephanie Styles: Wow. My dimples are out. All four. I that I truly, I mean, after listening to the pod a few episodes, the intro is truly worth coming on to the pod for because you just you never feel better about yourself ever than after an Al introduction. It's Chef's Kiss.

[1:57] Stephanie Styles: But you say it's like a Texas sized introduction.

[2:02] Stephanie Styles: Oh, wow, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, wow. It's it's I think this whole thing is just gonna be bringing it back to all the things of our Venn diagram and you bringing back center to where I think at the end of this pod, it's just gonna be a giant circle. It's not even a Venn diagram. It's all the same. You are me, I am you. It's all the same.

[2:19] Stephanie Styles: We really are. And you even called me out on a Houston Astros hat that I was wearing in, you know, an Instagram photo from high school. And I know you're a big Astros fan, so obviously you you you just had to rub that in and try to embarrass me.

[2:30] Al Malafronte: Yeah, yeah, yeah. And I understand. I mean, the thing is is that you were saying that I believe in the caption that you were an Andy Pettit fan, which, you know, we're obviously gonna get into this, but I was a huge Astros fan in this one point in time where I was going to every single game with my family, and it happened to be when it was Pettit, Clemens, it was the killer bees, Brad Lidge, Lights Out Lidge.

[2:57] Stephanie Styles: And um, that time, so like that's the Astros that I know. Whereas now I feel like it's a giant question mark other than Korea of who is on the Astros. But you know, I that was my favorite time as an Astros fan. So I'm glad that that's when you were wearing the hat and we were all into the whole Pettit moment.

[3:16] Al Malafronte: So I'm very much into that.

[3:18] Stephanie Styles: I think those are well, thank you. Those really were the glory days, which is why it like pains me that you know, we've seen what's happened over the past few years because it's not the Astros as an entity that I dislike right now. It's some of the players on the field. And I I know that uh you're not as into it now as you were back in 04 and 05, but w overall, what do you think of this whole trash can gate thing?

[3:41] Stephanie Styles: I truly, I I truly I I mean, I don't like cheating, obviously, but I just I I don't know enough about it to comment on it, truly. And I just hope that you know, and that was it is a weird thing, and that I used to like wear Astros stuff all the time. And then, and then probably starting when I was in college was when like I just wasn't living in Texas anymore, and I wasn't going to the games.

[4:07] Stephanie Styles: And uh primarily uh, you know, I was a big killer bees fan, and I feel like the the it kind of my love of the Astros kind of not my love, but my being an invested fan kind of ended once Biggio got out, like once he retired and everything. So I, you know, I hear about these things and stuff, and it sucks, and I hate that. But you know, at the same time, it's like I don't have another baseball team. Like that's my baseball team.

[4:40] Stephanie Styles: And I do, I am dating someone who's a Rockies fan. So I do feel myself knowing more about the Rockies, and you know, that apparently they're going through something now with uh one of their players that they like, I see. I sound so ignorant when I'm talking about this, but there was someone at the Rockies who there's miscommunication, I think, through management and this player that was great, and then they gave the player to someone else.

[5:07] Al Malafronte: Nolan Arenado, uh, who they traded in the offseason was that I think that sounds familiar.

[5:12] Stephanie Styles: So terrible. I'm like, that's not familiar. Well, what's interesting is like the way my boyfriend describes that dynamic was with the passion, fervor, insight, and knowledge that I describe like the either like Walt Disney and the Oswald, the lucky rabbit controversy or like the Taylor Swift Kanye West controversy.

[5:33] Stephanie Styles: Like I feel like I can talk about those things, and you know, if someone needs to know about those things, like I can do it with the passion fervor that he has. So like I have had people explain to me the whole Astros trash can situation, and yet I'm still like, uh yeah, that sounds bad, but hopefully there's some good eggs still there, and yay. So I think they're I think they'll be great now, and it's all okay, hopefully. I don't know. I'm just ignorant bliss.

[6:02] Al Malafronte: They're playing great. I mean, I honestly it's worth getting to see them live because they're one of they're right now. I think at the time of recording this best record in the American League, when you go to the games, you big into the ballpark food.

[6:13] Stephanie Styles: Oh, uh, I mean, famously, love a hot dog. I generally only eat them on 4th of July and baseball games. So, yes, big big fan of the hot dog. That's probably my favorite baseball item. What's yours? Are you like a cracker jack person?

[6:31] Al Malafronte: No, too sweet. I I love the hot dogs, and I love they have them at Yankee Stadium, the Nathan's fries, just like greasy and delicious and salty, everything I love.

[6:42] Stephanie Styles: What type of a fry are we talking like very crispy, more steak fry? You said greasy, so that makes me uh assume that they are soft.

[6:51] Al Malafronte: Yeah, they they are soft. Um, they're like soft and crinkly and just delicious. You can get cheese on them.

[6:59] Stephanie Styles: Yeah, like it's you buried the league on the crinkly.

[7:03] Al Malafronte: Yeah, it's fantastic. I do they have like barbecue and like Tex Mex spots at Minute Maid Park? I've never been there. Again, I'm gonna say that the time of me going to these games was around when I was 13.

[7:17] Stephanie Styles: I would say probably like 12 to 18 is like when I was really, or after I guess tour that I was really going to these games. And I just I remember the hot dog.

[7:29] Stephanie Styles: Okay, this is a big deal. When I started going to the games, is when I can't even dibs, isn't that what it's called? Became a big deal. Those are these like bite-sized things of ice cream covered in chocolate, but like they're like one at a time. So that kind of like came out. And grant you, it was I mean, originally in Ronfield, which is wild, and then now it's Minute Maid Park.

[7:53] Stephanie Styles: Um, and so of course, many Minute Maid, like always everyone's having a frozen lemonade, like that was always a big deal. But yeah, no, I was just like really into the hot dogs and dibs, I think is what they're called. D I B S dibs, those were like my my hits.

[8:09] Stephanie Styles: Yeah, sometimes they had like barbecue, but I don't really maybe I had like fried chicken once that was really good. I'm now like kind of remembering that. So that's you know, good stuff.

[8:20] Al Malafronte: Heck yeah. Now I know you come from a bit of a sports family. Your brother played ball at Stanford, right?

[8:25] Stephanie Styles: Okay, so Al, here's the deal is that I am so baseball adjacent, like so baseball adjacent, and yet I still you asked me about the Astros, like I have these giant like holes of knowledge, and like I have been to more baseball games. My brother played Little League Baseball. He was in the Pony League World Series. He went to high school. He was a he's a lefty pitcher, throws a great cutter, first base, uh like Pettit, by the way, lefty with a great cutter.

[8:54] Al Malafronte: Yes, yes.

[8:55] Stephanie Styles: And um, so he, you know, played high school, they went to like state or one state, like uh, and then he like I remember I was actually like at a Broadway show or like eating somewhere in midtown that was Mexican food to be exact. And he like got drafted by the Washington Nationals while we were like on a New York trip, but then he ended up going to Stanford.

[9:17] Stephanie Styles: He played baseball at Stanford, and yeah, and so like not only was like so that was my whole relationship with my brother going to games, like sweating in a chair, just like what in Texas, watching all of these games, traveling with the team, watching all these games. I went to Cooperstown with them.

[9:35] Stephanie Styles: And then, but then even so, so while my brother's playing all this baseball and is amazing, and like I'm Rudy him on his team, one of his best friends growing up was Kevin Biggio. So we became friends with the Vigios. So then we would go to spring training every year in Kissimmee. Every year we went to spring training. I'm sitting at the spring training games, we went to every single Astros game.

[9:58] Stephanie Styles: And we also, unless I was working, we basically like toured with the Viggio family watching Craig get his 3000th hit. Like, so basically, like if they were out-of-town games and he was close to getting the 3000th hit, we would like go to that out-of-town game. It was, it was a whole thing.

[10:18] Al Malafronte: And so there was, I'm telling you, there's this time in my life. I've been to World Series games, I've been to Cooperstown, I've been to spring training. And yet, I'm like have to look around to wait to see people's reactions to where I'm either like, or ooh, like I'm like, I don't know if that's a ball or a strike, but people seem upset about it.

[10:42] Stephanie Styles: So I'm assuming it's a strike.

[10:45] Al Malafronte: I love these holes of knowledge that you have though. The fact that you just pulled out the fact that you were on Biggio's like 3000 hit tour, basically, that is insane. That is absolutely insane.

[10:54] Stephanie Styles: Yep. And uh and I appreciate it. I love it. I love the culture of baseball. I love the kiss cam. I love the mascots. I love the, you know, I I love it all. I love like the funny interviews of the players during I'm basically talking about everything that happens between innings. But I I love it.

[11:16] Stephanie Styles: And and I do believe, like when I'm paying attention, it's something that I get and I understand, but I cannot tell you like what a different like what someone's throwing this. I mean, I only know like that of my brother throws a good cutter because one time we had a conversation where he was like, So, like, what are you good at?

[11:36] Stephanie Styles: And I was like, I mean, I don't know, what are you good at? And we had to like phrase something to where we were like, if anyone asks what you're good at, this is the thing you say. And so, and like I didn't really give him a good answer, but I remember one time he like asked me what's the difference between belting and mixing.

[11:55] Stephanie Styles: And so I told him, like, I was like, well, for example, at the end of Watch What Happens, I go, wait, I go, um, so whatever happens. I was like, that's you know, depending on the show, either belt belt or belt belt belt mix. And so then he one day he saw a matinee and he was like, Great belt belt belt mix.

[12:23] Al Malafronte: Oh wait, so you would only do belt belt belt mix on your during the matinees for the afternoon shows?

[12:28] Stephanie Styles: I I don't even remember. I I don't even remember what I did. I I think it I think he thought that's what I did that matinee, but I was like, it's mainly only if I'm like vocally fatigued or something, but primarily, but I also still didn't really know how to mix during Newsies.

[12:44] Al Malafronte: So that was something I learned on the road, as they say, Al.

[12:48] Stephanie Styles: You were no stranger to the road, though. I know you had a uh you had your start at age 12, which I think I can only imagine how much that conditioned you for that pretty amazing tour that you did fresh out of college.

[13:01] Al Malafronte: Uh you mentioned the Oswald the Lucky Rabbit thing earlier. That's so very impressive that you knew about that whole Al Michaels trade, by the way. That's like that's one of my favorite little known facts in sports.

[13:11] Stephanie Styles: But you've you and I were talking before the show. We both love Disney and like it, I'm sure the way it was for me, the same way it was for you is really your introduction to musical theater in some ways, right?

[13:22] Stephanie Styles: Oh yeah. I mean, I always say every um podcast interview I do, I'm like, well, they're like, how'd you get started? I'm like, well, I'm a you know, Renaissance Disney kid and grew up in the 90s, and that's when Disney went back to doing, you know, basically book musicals instead of just doing either, you know, just no singing animated films or a song here and there.

[13:46] Stephanie Styles: And so that's like the medium I grew up with and for storytelling. And so I think that that only laid the foundation to what I became interested in. And I think it's just like primarily what I was watching was Disney movies and The Sound of Music or Mary Martin Peter Pan.

[14:04] Stephanie Styles: And so that was like really what I just grew up thinking was, you know, was the content I was being fed. And I wouldn't have had it any other way.

[14:14] Al Malafronte: So you were what were your favorite Disney films growing up?

[14:18] Stephanie Styles: Now, um, this is gonna be an obscure one, but I bet you know it because you're a huge Disney fan. What do you think of when I say fun and fancy free?

[14:28] Al Malafronte: Oh, fun and fancy free. That is so random, and I love that for you.

[14:32] Stephanie Styles: That one and Mary Poppins, because that was the first play I did, or first musical I did in sixth grade, but fun and fancy free with Jiminy Cricket, and I mean Donald Duck's my favorite character. He was there, like that whole Mickey and the Beansaw saga.

[14:46] Stephanie Styles: And remember like Edgar Bergen and Charlie McCarthy, like would do the the cutscenes.

[14:50] Stephanie Styles: Yes, um, where they would like kind of narrate along with Jiminy Cricket, and those little scenes there were just so like brilliant. That like punchy humor, you know, it was a little bit edgy for you know a Disney film that you're watching at you know seven years old at the time. I just love that. Is Fun and Fancy Free where Jiminy Cricket sings I'm no fool? I remember no three, it's too low for me. Oh, I think that might might have been like don't melody time, maybe. I don't know. I know melody time, but I haven't watched that in a long time. I do remember like one they were like something about peeping around the corner until you're there or something, something like that. I don't know if that if that's the same thing.

I'm looking it up real quickly on this iPhone as we're talking. I'm like fun and fancy free. Oh, yes, it's yes, yes, yes. Oh, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes. Okay, okay, okay, okay. I feel good about this. Yeah, good one. Proud of you. Good to go. Thank you. What's your favorite though? Because I mean, you're talking about the Renaissance era, you have a lot to choose from.

[15:45] Stephanie Styles: Well, I was just listening to your Susan Egan podcast, and I this isn't, you know, her film, but this is her Broadway debut. I am very much a Beauty and the Beast BB. I love Beauty and the Beast, Tale is old as time. I aim to be a beauty but a funny girl. It's just, it's it's what it, it's the best thing ever. So I love Beauty and the Beast. And I I there's just so many I love. And I think like even as an adult, I go through phrases. But um, yeah, Beauty and the Beast will always be my favorite. So I love her.

[16:20] Al Malafronte: Yeah, I Beauty and the Beast is a classic. And I think the music in that I would actually put up there in the top two or three. I mean, I'm not, I'm not the right guy to be ranking Disney films because I'm I don't, you know, I'm not on the up for echelon of fandom the way you are, because I know you're like a charter D23 member and everything of like the Disney royalty here. But how do we feel about putting Muppet movies into the class of Disney films now that they own them? They didn't really produce most of them up until the 90s. But how do we feel about do we consider that Disney?

[16:49] Stephanie Styles: And so you're considering Muppets, not Jim Henson. So we're not talking like Labyrinth.

[16:55] Al Malafronte: Not Labyrinth. We're talking like Great Muppet Caper, Muppet Sake Manhattan, like that catalog.

[17:00] Stephanie Styles: Here's what I'm gonna say, Al is that I basically I I say I love Disney, Taylor Swift, Cirque du Soleil are basically like the three things that I love so much. But you know, even last night, my boyfriend was like, well, don't you have to say like Marvel is one of those? Because like you love Marvel so much. I was like, yes, but like when I'm boiling it down, I just put Marvel under Disney now, even though obviously like the original Iron Man wasn't necessarily produced by Disney. But it's like I just think we love Disney. You can say all these things that are Disney adjacent. I don't think you can say uh I wouldn't say Anastasia, even though it's now owned by Disney is a Disney movie, but I think you can lump it in there.

I personally, to make it easier for myself, always um like put them in different compartments because it's easier to answer when people are like, who's your favorite Disney character? I'm like, well, who's my favorite Disney Princess? Who's my favorite Disney Fat Five? Who's my favorite Disney villain? Because it's just like too hard for me to choose. So I can definitely think you can say, like, some of my favorite Disney movies are Fun and Francy Free, Mary Poppins, the Great Muppet Caper. I think that's fine.

[18:10] Al Malafronte: Okay. All right. I I'm gonna start doing that. I'm gonna compartmentalize it.

[18:13] Stephanie Styles: Is that the is that even a word? Compart compartmentalize.

[18:15] Al Malafronte: Can I tell you something? I went to the exact same brain arc right before I said put them into different compartments because I was like, I'm not gonna try and say this word.

[18:25] Stephanie Styles: I was like so you can go back, go back, rewind, hit the like 30 minutes before thing on your podcast right now, and you can hear me think through am I gonna say compartmentalize and do what I just did with my mouth and not say it right. So it's a fun Easter egg for those people listening. Scroll back.

[18:46] Al Malafronte: Oh my gosh, I was laughing so hard. He's falling over his chair. He's he's crying, tears are falling down his face. Everyone, help.

[18:57] Stephanie Styles: You see, you know, you she's lying, folks, because I am not even sitting in a chair. I'm sitting on the floor of my closet so I can have a high quality audio session with Stephanie today. I wish I was sitting in a chair. Yours is much better than mine. You you are an all-star of sound quality in the closet.

[19:14] Al Malafronte: Well, thank you for that. I appreciate it. I wish I had like a uh, you know, the views of sunny California right now where you are. That must be pretty amazing. How do you like it out there?

[19:23] Stephanie Styles: It's lovely. I love it so much. I mean, I think it's very similar to when people ask me, do I look world or land better? Do I like theater or TV and film better? It's like I love New York and I love LA. And right now I love LA right now. It's where I am, and it's beautiful. And it's it is very close to Disneyland, which I love.

[19:46] Al Malafronte: So you've always been a land girl.

[19:48] Stephanie Styles: I've was born world and um I went to World all the time. I had only been to land like probably five times total before I came to live in Los Angeles for the times that I've lived here. But um now it's just it feels like home because it's you know where I go often. It's the first time I've ever owned an annual pass was when I bought one in 2019. But like world, I feel like I know like the back of my hand, even though I've never lived in Orlando, and that's where all my memories were made. But I feel like as an adult, like I can just, you know, more or less back in 2019 than now, but it's like I can just go to Disneyland whenever I want and like go, even if it's just for fireworks or to do a few rounds of Toy Story Mania. It's like it just feels like so um accessible.

[20:46] Al Malafronte: Well, it did, but you know.

[20:49] Stephanie Styles: Well, I saw that you made a trip recently, so I appreciate the fact that you obviously brought some of that magic to the batter's box because I'm just having such a good time with you already. This is awesome, honestly.

[21:00] Al Malafronte: Of course, of course. I mean, uh, Casey's Casey Jr., I mean, I know that there's the train, but like Casey's is like the hot dog stand in not in land, but in world. Like, that's like the everyone's like freaking out about it right now because it just reopened in World, and that's like a big baseball like mecca of Main Street, which is so interesting because it's like, you know, Walt Disney made Main Street to be his, you know, quintessential Americana based off his childhood. And it's like quintessential Americana ends right before the castle in a hot dog baseball restaurant.

[21:33] Stephanie Styles: So I've never been, and I don't, I don't think I've ever been there because it's been probably 20 plus years since I went to World, but I was actually just watching, and you'll appreciate this. I was doing a marketing project for grad school about Disney's America. And obviously there were all kinds of issues, but they were going to build an actual baseball field and stage a baseball show for the patrons of their park because it was supposed to be an homage of like when Walt Disney was growing up in earlies, earlies America. So there's there's little nods to it here and there.

[22:05] Al Malafronte: I still believe that's that's what was so cool about when the Disney company owned the Angels. There was a little bit of that presence in the park. And I I always love that.

[22:15] Stephanie Styles: Yeah, that's I mean, uh one thing that probably one of the things I love most about Disney is their thoroughness when it comes to theming and the imagineering. So anytime where they're like, okay, we're owning this baseball stadium, then let's be thorough and theme this out. And so like anytime they take control of something, take control, anytime they, you know, have a project that's I just love how thorough they are and how imaginative. It's so consistent.

[22:46] Al Malafronte: Yes, I could not agree with you more. And I mean, I have to know because you are such a big Disney fan. I know you got your starting performing at a really young age, but you're a senior at UMish, you're about to graduate. Were you nervous as hell when you have to audition in front of an Alan Mankin?

[23:05] Stephanie Styles: Oh, yeah. I mean, my whole Newsies audition process, I thought was just an opportunity to have a first audition as a professional actor graduating from college. I never thought I'd get it. And so, and I mean, and you know, a lot of people from my class, like different people taped for it and things, but I was able to, because I wasn't in the university production that semester, I was able to fly and go in person. And so I thought, well, like, I'll just go and see some shows and like see what you know, Ripley Greer looks like, and do all these things. And they then I would fly back to Michigan and they'd be like, okay, come back next weekend. And that was just all like, oh, okay. So then this is just gonna be my first callback experience, and I'm gonna have that under my belt.

So by the time I was auditioning for all of them and doing a final callback for all of these people, it was I mean, I was so nervous, and it was so scary but exciting. And yeah, it was wild and truly working with Alan Mankin and Michael Coseran and even Jack Feldman who did the lyrics, who did a goofy movie and so many other amazing projects. It's like, I mean, they're all legends, and that truly was, I mean, to this day, it's like it was one of the greatest opportunities I could have ever dreamed of having and to have had it right after school. I was so lucky and I was so just so happy all the time. And it was, it was great, but very nerve-wracking, very nerve-wracking.

[24:50] Al Malafronte: Is that more nerve-wracking than I mean, you've dabbled in television quite a bit in recent years. Is like the show business side of television any tougher than theater? Do you prefer going out for one as opposed to the other? Because you obviously you do a great job on screen, but I know the stage has been your wheelhouse for quite some time. Is that is like uh does one come more naturally to you than the other?

[25:12] Stephanie Styles: I I don't know. That's a good question. I don't know. I think I truly get more nervous auditioning for musicals than I do on camera. And I think that's because I don't know. I really don't know. And it's the sort of thing where uh like I just shot something here, and I realized I was like, wow, I wasn't nervous the entire time. I was never nervous. I was nervous setting up my uh technology, which we can laugh about because I was nervous about this technology before we started. So a lot of it is still some of it like the table reads were remote and everything. So like I was nervous about like getting the technology right. But I did think I'm like, wow, I'm not nervous about this at all. Whereas I do think, like, I don't know, I just feel like musical theater is so hard in ways that it's there's so much, it's such a collaborative thing.

I mean, on-camera acting is too, but it's a you know, you have your accompanist, you have your singing, you have your acting in an audition, you have like all of these different elements. You're I I've been way more likely to do a chemistry read for a musical than I have for on-camera work. So it's just like there's so many elements at play that are out of your control. Maybe that's the thing that makes me nervous. And I also feel like you know, preparing a song can take longer than preparing sides that you don't know. So maybe that's part of it too. And there's some auditions like I'm not nervous at all for. Like I wasn't as nervous to audition for Kiss Me Kate as I was terrified to audition for New Zealand. So it's all interesting.

[26:55] Al Malafronte: It is. Does your voice lend itself more to that like kiss me Kate classical sounding music as opposed to like that poppiness of newsies? Is that part of the reason why you think?

[27:06] Stephanie Styles: I don't, I don't even know. I think you know what I know, I do know what it is. And it's talks, it's what I just said, it's like preparation, how long you have to learn a song. It's like I hadn't been singing Watch What Happens as long in my life as I had been singing Always True to You, because I randomly chose Always True to You to be my sophomore evaluation song at the University of Michigan. And so I had been singing that for years. So like it just felt so second nature to me, whereas Watch What Happens, I was still, you know, getting comfortable with maybe. And like by the end of Newsies, I felt so comfortable with Watch What Happens, but that was always just so daunting to me. It's such a daunting song.

But I think that's too like to keep up with it. It's so easy to screw up a lyric. I it's so it's so everything, it's so hard, but it's so satisfying. And I I remember like looking at it and being like, this is such a well-written song and so satisfying, and gives you so much as an actor, as a singer, and that's why it's a lot of work. It's like because the reward is so great. And I think like even in like the original New York Times review of newsies, like they talked about how good Watch What Happens is, which you know says a lot for this show where you see it and you're like, this dancing is unbelievable. These guys are hitting such high notes, the stakes are so high of the plot. But that girl's song in the act one, man.

Like it's it's just exciting. And I think that's why I love newsies, is because everyone really has everyone's feels really fleshed out, I think. And it's just such a good show. I love it so much. Love it. See's the day, man.

[28:48] Al Malafronte: I wish I would have gotten to see you performing it live on the tour. You know, some audio of your performance has leaked out on YouTube a little bit. I know people aren't supposed to record that stuff when they're in the theater, but it sounded great. We did uh I have a particular love of that song because one of like the very first baseball parodies we did was for Watch What Happens. And I think we did it about a Ralda Shatman. It's like, you know, the fastest throwing man ever. We captioned it. Like the fact is he's also the face of the strikeout throwing a hundred miles per hour, or something like that. It made very little sense, but people still kind of loved it. So I always thought that that was like a huge part of you know, bringing the worlds of baseball and Broadway together for our audience in the early days.

[29:28] Stephanie Styles: Wait, I have to, you have to link this to me. I have to see this. That's amazing.

[29:44] Al Malafronte: That's amazing. She's Queen. I listened to her episode of the pod. I did my like little pod research before, and I was like, I'm, I can listen to it. It's like, uh, of course, the queen, the OG. You came prepared.

[29:54] Stephanie Styles: I am honestly so like pumped about that. Because I said in the intro, I've wanted to have you on forever. And largely because I know what a big talent you are. You've got such like a fun personality, but I actually would love nothing more than this show tonight to be an opportunity for you to join a little something we call the baseball meets Broadway winner circle here on Break A Bat. Are you familiar with a little segment we do called seventh inning stretch, Stephanie?

[30:21] Stephanie Styles: I am, and I'm nervous, but it's gonna be great.

[30:24] Al Malafronte: What if I told you it went beyond baseball meets Broadway? And maybe I threw in a little Disney, a little Muppets all intertwined within the questions somehow. Some of them are a real stretch, but honestly, nonetheless, it's like an ultimate crossover trivia game. And there's a prize that you might be able to win. And I'd love to give you that opportunity.

[30:44] Stephanie Styles: I'm so excited. Remind me, how many do you have to get right?

[30:47] Al Malafronte: So the golden rule with this one. Enough of them right, and you win the prize. That's how you're gonna do it. How about if you get like the first three right? We'll just be like, all right, you a winner. We don't need you to get a fourth one.

[30:59] Stephanie Styles: Um I don't think I will, but let's go for it.

[31:03] Al Malafronte: I'll start off with something that I think is kind of easy. My friend of the show, Steve Whitmire, performed Kermit the Frog at the New York Yankees home opener in 2012. That day, the Yankees were facing which Major League Baseball team that was formerly owned by Disney.

[31:22] Stephanie Styles: Oh, Angels.

[31:24] Al Malafronte: Ding ding ding. You're one for one. Yes. The Yankees won that day. Fantastic. All right, so you're like a third of the way there. Let's see how you do on this one. Very, very good job. Um, one time Muppet Show host and Broadway book and music writer Paul Simon paid homage to which Yankee legend in the hit Simon and Garfunkel song, Mrs. Robinson. I'll give you multiple choice. Is it A, Mickey Mantle, B, Yogi Berra, C, Joe DiMaggio, or D, Whitey Ford?

[31:54] Stephanie Styles: Oh, my like truly have no idea. My gut said not the last one. I don't know that person. But what are your your face is saying that it is the last one?

[32:05] Al Malafronte: No, it's not the it's not, it is not the last person. Now, usually we don't do process of elimination, you know, between hosts and guests, but okay. So Joe DiMaggio's Marilyn Monroe. Who's the second Yogi Berra sounds like Fozzie Bear? So I could see some maybe some puns there. Okay, and then who's the first one? Uh Mickey Mantle was the first one.

[32:25] Stephanie Styles: Uh-huh. I've heard of these three people. This is so.

[32:28] Al Malafronte: Okay, and the fact that you've heard of them. Wait, what year was this?

[32:32] Stephanie Styles: Uh, he wrote Mrs. Robinson for the graduate in 1968 or 69. It was still Simon and Garfunkel then. Um isn't there a song about Joe DiMaggio?

[32:42] Al Malafronte: Yeah, maybe Yeah, there is a song. Well, there is a song about Joe DiMaggio.

[32:47] Stephanie Styles: Oh my god, I just gave away the answer.

[32:49] Al Malafronte: Yes, Joe DiMaggio is the uh is is who he wrote it about. Great. Um let me give you a lot of things. I totally I totally got that one right. See, there is so I get points for like also getting you to help me without you realizing you're helping me.

[33:05] Al Malafronte: You're manipulating me through the screen. Thank you, Sarah. We try, we try, we try. All right, here's a here's a kind of fun one. Um, only one pitcher in baseball history has won a Cy Young Award for both your Houston Astros and my New York Yankees. Is that pitcher? A, Garrett Cole, B, Dwight Gooden, C, Octavio Dotel, or D, Roger Clemens.

[33:30] Stephanie Styles: I'm gonna go with Roger Clemens.

[33:31] Al Malafronte: Ding ding ding. That is correct. It is Roger the Rocket Clemens won a Cy Young for the 04 pennant winning Ash. No, actually, they won the pennant in 05. I saying correct it, but yes, he won a Cy Young Award in 2004. Um, I think that I mean, I could give you one more, but I feel like we just have to.

[33:49] Stephanie Styles: Let's do it. Let's do it. Let's do it.

[33:51] Al Malafronte: Okay, okay. Um, this this would actually be really fun if we got it without multiple choice. Jose Altuve hit a pennant-winning home run against a certain pitcher who's known to many as the face of the baseball and Broadway community during the 2019 ALCS. Um, who was the pitcher he hit the home run off of?

[34:12] Stephanie Styles: Uh, known to those in the newsy world as um, you know, the face of the strikeout. We might have just mentioned him earlier.

[34:19] Al Malafronte: Wait, what? The face of this he's in newsies?

[34:23] Stephanie Styles: Well, no, no, no. He went in in our in our baseball means Broadway parody, he was. He played Jack in uh a Photoshop that we did.

[34:32] Al Malafronte: And you said words that I didn't know. I was like nodding along, being like, Yeah, tell me who that is.

[34:37] Stephanie Styles: Yeah, so I don't know this person, unless you're about to say like you're like, you're a cheater, Stephanie.

[34:43] Al Malafronte: No, no, no, no. It was um his name was Aroldis Chapman.

[34:48] Stephanie Styles: Can you say that? Aroldis Chapman?

[34:50] Al Malafronte: Aroldis Chapman.

[34:51] Stephanie Styles: Compartmentalized.

[34:53] Al Malafronte: Yeah. Wow, that's the word, that's the word of the day, folks. Compartmental. I was trying, I was like, if I could say this one, I could try to say the other one.

[35:01] Al Malafronte: All right, I'm gonna give you one uh to that'll officially welcome you to the winner's circle. I have a feeling that you're gonna get it.

[35:06] Stephanie Styles: Oh, wow, oh, wow, okay. Oh god.

[35:10] Al Malafronte: The current shortstop for the Houston Astros toured Disneyland in a parade when the Astros won the World Series in 2017. Who is that shortstop?

[35:26] Stephanie Styles: Carlos Correa.

[35:27] Al Malafronte: Ding ding ding, you got it right. So you know more than you thought. Welcome to the winner's circle, Stephanie.

[35:32] Stephanie Styles: I'm very proud. As you do a happy day.

[35:36] Al Malafronte: Well, for you, for you, what I'm doing, what the audience can't see is I'm gonna do one of those like Kermit the Frogs, like that's my favorite thing.

[35:47] Stephanie Styles: That was so awesome. And I am very proud, I know. Listen, I know that I don't think your boyfriend will get offended because it there's no rivalry with the Rockies here, but you're gonna get your very own. I hope you can see the picture of the prize. Uh Chapman on Broadway, break a bat, long sleeve t-shirt.

[36:02] Stephanie Styles: I left it in the city because I am like I said, recording on the floor of a quiet Long Island closet, right?

[36:09] Al Malafronte: Beautiful. Well, I'll get it eventually.

[36:12] Stephanie Styles: I'm so honored. I'm so excited. I'm honored. Thank you. Thank you for everyone who has helped me get to this point. Truly, it's been amazing. And I'm really honored. So thank you.

[36:26] Al Malafronte: I am thoroughly impressed by your performance there. You were telling me before the show that I think you said, like if anything that you could have that you've done before your parents really wanted you to get break a bat right. Was it was that what you were saying?

[36:38] Stephanie Styles: Yeah, I mean, it's the sort of thing where I was like, so I'm doing a baseball podcast. And they're like, Stephanie. Like you that's just gonna be so funny because you should know so much about baseball, and yet you totally do not. So, you know. So I did like, I asked some like uh questions before being like, I just want to make sure, like this was this thing that we went to, like, what was the name of this? And who was this person? And yeah, right? Okay. So I just had some clarifying questions before before the pod.

[37:08] Al Malafronte: But um, yeah, so I hope that they're really proud of me whenever this comes out, and that um, yeah, so I hope I'm I hope they're proud.

[37:18] Al Malafronte: I'm I'm sure they will be, Stephanie. And you have a lot to be proud of yourself. Um, you know, you I I have to know this because you've had success at such a young age. I mean, you literally performed for Disney, which was a lifelong dream of yours. Um, you you got to perform on Broadway. Like I said, you won the Broadway.com audience award for favorite breakout performance. Um, given all the success that you've had at such a young age, do you just have like a really high bar set for yourself? Like, like, how do you like top what you've done before? Like, how do you find the motivation to keep pushing yourself?

[37:53] Stephanie Styles: I don't know. I mean, I think it's that uh, well, thank you. A. B, I I talk about how familiar are you? How familiar are you with the film Tangled?

[38:05] Al Malafronte: Um, I uh what's the uh I know Brad Garrett and Jeffrey Tambor did the voiceover of like that fun band at the Lodge, like I've got a dream. I remember that song.

[38:14] Stephanie Styles: Ugly Duckling, the snuggly duckling. Um I um so entangled, you know uh Rapunzel has this moment, she's always wanted to look at the floating lanterns, right? So she looks at the floating lanterns and Flynn Ryder's like, what's wrong? And she's like, you know, what if it wasn't what if it's not gonna be as amazing as I thought it would? And he goes, Don't worry, it will be. And then she's like, and then what do I do then? Like, what if it is? Like, what do I do if that's like the most amazing thing I've always dreamed of seeing and I see it? And he's like, that's the fun part. You get to find a new dream.

[38:46] Stephanie Styles: So that's a moment that was is was very at front of mine when I finished Kiss Me Kate, because I was like, whoa, I've done the two things that as a kid, and I'm very lucky that the things I've dreamed of doing since I was four years old were somehow be involved in Disney Magic and to be on Broadway. And I was like, whoa, I've done both of those things. And that was like a really weird feeling, but also this like freeing, exciting thing. And then I'm just like, okay, we've got to find a new dream. And my dream is still to, you know, I just want to tell good stories with great people. Like that is what I want to do. And I want to keep on learning in whichever ways that I can, like, that's what's most exciting to me.

And I think, you know, just aiming for that. And I think there is this sort of thing in that once I I still want to do Broadway shows, I still really want to work for Disney, but like I can go to sleep at night being like, wow, I did those things. I will always have those like good old days of those two different projects and all the other projects in between, Roman Holiday, like Zoe's. Like, there's so many moments where I tried to be very present to be like, this is one of the things you'll like tell your grandkids about, hopefully. And so just trying to make more of those memories and do more of those things and just working with really cool people, hopefully on really cool stuff. Like that's and cool has a lot of different, you know, varieties of what that means. So I think that's just what it is. It's that's not really like a good formula, or maybe I should have more structure and how I set bars high, but kind of just going with the flow.

[40:28] Al Malafronte: Honestly, it's probably that's probably best. Otherwise, you could very much overwhelm yourself.

[40:33] Stephanie Styles: I could certainly speak to that. I try to map out how things are gonna go sometimes. And when it doesn't happen that way, it discourages me from my path. So I think sometimes you know, you let your well, what's the line that oh yeah. Joe Torre, I remember told Alex Rodriguez, like, don't worry about how it looks. People are watching anyway. If you just go with the flow and let your talent do the talking, I think that there's a lot to be said for that, and a lot of uh success is a lot more attainable that way.

[40:59] Stephanie Styles: Yeah, and I think especially with I would both with, you know, I'm talking about an industry I don't know anything about, but I would assume with, you know, baseball and Broadway, it's like there's so much you can't plan. Like even talking to people I know being like who either are married to people who are baseball players or you know, are baseball players, they're just like, you know, I don't know where I'm gonna live next year. Like I don't know where we're moving to, or injuries and things like that. It's like so much about both industries, you just can't plan. Like you can't, you think you can and then you can't. And so I think I learned that early on. I mean, I am a giant planner, I love to plan.

So it's kind of this whole idea of that like know you're going with the flow and control what you can. Send the emails that you can send, and you know, go the places you can go to, meet the people that you can meet, and otherwise just be like, do your best, show up, know your lines, stand where they tell you to stand and tell the truth, you know. Just do what you can.

[41:57] Al Malafronte: Well, I can't wait to see what you accomplish next, Stephanie. I mean, your resume beyond impressive, like I said, but uh I do have to warn you, it might get a little tough here on Break A Bat for uh a little something called fastball derby.

[42:11] Stephanie Styles: Oh boy, oh boy.

[42:13] Al Malafronte: It's no more trivia, I swear. It's just but this means that I have to have my own answers right quickly.

[42:19] Stephanie Styles: Yeah, but I'm sorry. I want to think of Chapman on the Mound, throwing 105 miles an hour. Uh, you gotta think quick. I'm gonna ask you a question. You tell me what comes to your mind. Feel free to sprinkle some stories in where necessary, and uh, I think you should be able to hit this out of the park. You were I just know to say Derek Jeter when if that ever comes up. That's all I know.

[42:39] Al Malafronte: You know what? The probably the most planned part of the show besides the trivia is often the questions for fastball derby, but no, I don't have any Jeter questions in the first time.

[42:48] Stephanie Styles: Okay, good. Usually uh well, if you ask people Alex Water User Derek Jeter, and I know that I think you prefer Derek Jeter. And don't you also prefer Beach Boys?

[42:57] Al Malafronte: Yeah, okay. There was a beach boy. Well, I'll I'll say that when we get to that part. And but I also have a reason, but okay, let's go for it.

[43:04] Stephanie Styles: Oh, even better. Perfect. Um, on that note, America's been the Beach Boys and the Eagles.

[43:09] Al Malafronte: Beach Boys, because is it John Stamos Beach Boys adjacent, and John Stamos is Disney adjacent? So that's what I say.

[43:09] Stephanie Styles: Beach boys.

[43:16] Al Malafronte: That's right. Now that he's part of uh the big shot universe on Disney Plus, he is. That's correct. Great and uh great answer. Um, thing you miss most about Houston, Texas.

[43:26] Stephanie Styles: Um, the food and my friends.

[43:29] Al Malafronte: Any tattoos?

[43:31] Stephanie Styles: No.

[43:33] Al Malafronte: Not right now.

[43:34] Stephanie Styles: Not right now. I'm always showing you. Listen, right now we're going to. I always wanted to get like a hidden Mickey tattoo, like get like one of the like little dots on my body and get two other dots and make like a little hit of Mickey. Who knows? Maybe when I'm like 80.

[43:49] Al Malafronte: Go to drink at the bar.

[43:51] Stephanie Styles: Uh lately, Manhattan.

[43:55] Al Malafronte: Got into those in quarantine.

[43:57] Stephanie Styles: Interesting.

[43:58] Al Malafronte: Okay. Your Broadway dream role.

[44:01] Stephanie Styles: Uh another Disney musical. Would love to do another Disney musical.

[44:09] Al Malafronte: You're a big Swifty. Favorite Taylor Swift album.

[44:13] Stephanie Styles: Album? Oh my god, did I just hit the red on my audio? Sorry. My favorite Taylor Swift album is a tie between Red and Fol.

[44:28] Stephanie Styles: Putting them both together, folklore and Evermore. I guess folklore, red, and then like kind of reputation. I can't choose. Don't make me. Don't make me. Don't make me truly. Wow. You see, see, I told you this is gonna get tough. Um I'm glad you said red. Um, like is one of like your first instincts. I'm not a big reputation guy, but I think Red is the definitive album of early college for me. Oh, same, same, same, same. Like walking through like the leaves of Michigan listening to Red was like a big deal. Um, Red was amazing. I love Red. Red will always be up there. And Reputation I just love because that was kind of around like right when Katherine Gallagher and I got really, really close and started to become friends.

And so I have so many memories with her and things that funny things that happened between us in our lives with Reputation. So I will always and we ended up going to the Reputation Tour together, which was kind of which was several years after we had like become friends when the album came out. So it's just like it reminds me of her and of us being young and in New York together. Love it. Absolutely love it.

[45:35] Al Malafronte: All right, Muppet question. Gonzo or Rizzo?

[45:39] Stephanie Styles: Oh my god. Um, I love Gonzo, however, I think my comedy is more Rizzo. So I guess I'll maybe go with Rizzo, which seems wild that I'm saying that, but interesting. You would be good friends with uh my friend CJ if that's the case. He's the type of uh person who's like the wise cracker who cheats you into getting something that he wants, but also has a sensitive side. So I don't know if it's like what I would say, but he just gets me. I'm just laughing at Rizzo. Rizzo just gets me. But I identify as a beaker.

[46:12] Al Malafronte: I I don't see it. I don't see you as a beaker.

[46:17] Stephanie Styles: Steve Whitmeyer would be proud. He did uh beaker for a little bit as well.

[46:20] Al Malafronte: Very nice. That would that's amazing.

[46:21] Stephanie Styles: No, I identify as a beaker, and there was a moment in Kiss Me Kate where I was like, Corbin, like what's our like if we were like another like a Disney couple or something, like what do we look like in Kiss Me Kate? And I was like, I think we're Professor Honey doing beaker as Lois Lane and um Bill Calhoun. I was like, I think that's like who we are, and so I like to think of that.

[46:46] Al Malafronte: Favorite New York City meal?

[46:49] Stephanie Styles: Uh um a gluten-free plain bagel with um the salmon locks and all the fixings at Sadell's in Soho. And then also maybe uh brûled grapefruit on the side, one of their Waldorf salads. Uh just love Sadell's. Sadell's bagel locks, but I do avocados at a cream cheese. And but oh, they have the most thinly sliced cucumber and onion and oh that's all scoops. I bet you and you probably scoop the bagel out, which I should do, but I don't it depends on the day.

[47:18] Al Malafronte: It depends on the day.

[47:24] Stephanie Styles: I have one almost every Monday during Kiss Me Kate, and sometimes I scoop. Well, I only scoop because you can get more on it, I feel. Like you can put the stuff in it to where you're getting more toppings, which is why I like scooped. But that's a good trick. I'm gonna, I'm gonna, I've never thought of it that way, but I will give it a try this weekend. I mean, it's just like it's I just think I like the ratio of toppings to bread when when I do get it scooped. But like at Sadell's, like, to be fair, they don't like scoop that much. Like, at least when I've gone, but I also get this gluten-free bagel. I am not celiac. I just, you know, that's the choices I make in my own life. But um, they have really great bagels all the way around. It's great, it's amazing. Basically any major food group, I'm restaurant, I'm a big fan, also love carbone, but I would say Sadell's is it. I love Sadell's.

[48:13] Al Malafronte: Awesome. What foods do you dislike?

[48:18] Stephanie Styles: Um, I tend to not like peanut butter. So anything that has peanut butter in it, which is very controversial because I'm also primarily I love dogs, but I love cats. So like these are the the roads that I walk in life, knowing that like I don't love peanut butter. But what I like to tell people is instead of people going, how because you don't like peanut butter, I'm like, but if I don't like peanut butter, that means there's more peanut butter for you in the world. So don't really like peanut butter. And um yeah, that's probably like the main thing that I don't that's that like if it's on the menu, I probably will opt out of ordering something. But I like peanuts. Like I've eaten peanuts before, and I like, I just don't love peanut butter.

[48:59] Al Malafronte: So aside from not liking peanut butter, which is, I guess, decently surprising, what is the fact about Stephanie Styles that would surprise people the most?

[49:08] Stephanie Styles: Oh, I don't, I wonder. I don't know. I I think I'm pretty much how people would assume I would be in that I walk around life listening to Disney music and Taylor Swift and Cirque du Soleil and go to Disneyland in my free time and watch Marvel movies. Let's see. I think that I did karate as a child. I uh have recently become a good bartender during quarantine. I um yeah, I think those are probably some interesting. Oh, I'm a bit okay. Something I've never really talked about that I've recently gotten into. I'm a big um uh mythical, good mythical morning fan. And I watch good mythical morning on YouTube every week. And I love Rett and Link and I listen to Earbiscuit. So it's an exciting thing about my life. I'm trying to think of anything else. Um, yeah, I would say that I'm either dressed in sweats or I'm like dolled up. I'm only one or the other. I'm rarely in between.

[50:04] Al Malafronte: This is a weird in between though. This is like the bare minimum.

[50:05] Stephanie Styles: That's but like I'm wearing sweatpants.

[50:10] Al Malafronte: Oh, wow, okay.

[50:11] Stephanie Styles: But like I have for the audience listening at home, I have a lot of accessories on. I have a nice colored sweater and I have a headband on, but then on the bottom is I'm barefoot sweats. It's it is a nice balance here, folks. And yeah, I know you can't see it, but uh Stephanie looks great for the folks at home.

[50:26] Al Malafronte: Oh, thank you, thank you, thank you.

[50:28] Stephanie Styles: And I put on makeup.

[50:30] Al Malafronte: I have a feeling that you're gonna like this question.

[50:32] Stephanie Styles: And I'm actually really curious. Your most magical Disney trip or moment in the park.

[50:40] Al Malafronte: Um, I've had a lot of amazing moments. Uh anytime a cast member or a character does something just kind of um of their own, like trying to make magic, those are the things that are amazing. Anytime walking into the Grand Floridian at Walt Disney World and being greeted by Richard, who's sadly no longer with us, he was this greeter for years. My entire life, Richard was this friendly old man that just stood in front of the Grand Floridian and welcomed people to the Grand Floridian, like that was his job. And then he would like take pictures of the brides and like all of these things. So love Richard. And um, yeah, just like any magical moment with a character or a cast member kind of doing something special.

I remember before the pandemic, I went to Disney with a group of friends, and we rode the carousel. And as we were getting on the carousel, Bell got on the carousel with the entire um Main Street band, and they just ended up doing a live medley of Beauty and the Beast songs, and Belle was right there. And that was just like we couldn't have timed it. No one knew it was gonna happen. Like, I don't even know if they knew it was gonna happen, but just like riding this carousel with some of my best friends with Belle and like having them do like a medley was just like it was so amazing. So basically, any time that there's like a little extra magic because it's already so magical, but those are the moments that really stick out.

[52:13] Al Malafronte: Two takeaways from that. First off, that whole carousel scene, that's like literally something that only happens in the commercials, it seems like. So I can't believe you guys experienced that. That is amazing. And the other thing about quick note about the Grand Floridian, you talk about loving John Stamos and the Beach Boys. Uh, go check out the Kokomo music video, which was filmed at the Grand Floridian Hotel.

[52:33] Stephanie Styles: No way, I didn't know that.

[52:34] Al Malafronte: I'm a big Grand Floridian fan fan.

[52:36] Stephanie Styles: That's so funny.

[52:37] Al Malafronte: And then that's a cocoa.

[52:39] Stephanie Styles: That song.

[52:40] Al Malafronte: Yeah.

[52:41] Stephanie Styles: You know, Carlton does a version of it too. It's also really good. And Steve Whitmire was still performing them then.

[52:46] Al Malafronte: So wow.

[52:47] Stephanie Styles: That's amazing. Ugh, well, I have all these links to go look up after this. I can't wait.

[52:51] Al Malafronte: Homework after the episode.

[52:56] Stephanie Styles: Oh no. What's your favorite Disney magical?

[52:59] Al Malafronte: Do you have a favorite Disney magical moment?

[53:02] Stephanie Styles: I do. And don't judge me. Actually, no, you won't, because we kind of talked about this before the show started about the last time I went, and that's when that magical moment came. Having not been at the park between 2005 and then 2011, when I turned 21, seeing for the uh Phantasmic for the first time as an adult. That was, and I was with my buddies. That was really, really magical. Like it it took me back to a place in childhood that I didn't think I could feel again. Um, and I wasn't expecting that going into it, which was really awesome. So I think that, yeah, like nothing, nothing ever tops that for me. Not even like the not even the trips as a kid as much as I love going with my family. That that that for me, it's phantasmic as an adult with some of my best buddies at 21 years old. I mean, I'm a giant phantasmic fan. It used to be my ringtone. It was like my special skill was like I'm doing the choreo.

[54:03] Al Malafronte: Um, but it it so uh, you know what I do think that there's this beautiful thing that obviously Disney is for dreamers of all ages, right? Like that's their big thing is that it's for the young and the young at heart, but still I think that there's a special thing growing up loving Disney, like just that being what you love, but then like choosing um, you know, to be a Disney adult and to realize that you still love those things, and I love all the constants in life because we grow and change so much as we you know go through life, but it's getting to see things through through age, but then having the things that transport you to these like pure feelings of like joy, imagination, wonder, amazement that I think Disney is so great at.

And again, I think it's Disney is for dreamers of all ages, and I'm just I love hearing about those moments. That and again, like the Bell thing happened when I was, you know, older. So just those moments that you can still like be like, wow, the world is magical. Those are sometimes just just as cool as you know, seeing everything for the first time as a kid.

[55:20] Al Malafronte: Heck yeah. Well, if I make it out there this fall, I'm going to let my sister Megan know that we are going to like have someone who's gonna make help her rediscover, you know, that you're Disney as an adult. Maybe I'm gonna say, listen, Stephanie Styles is gonna show you what you've been missing and change your whole outlook because what you just said really hits home for me. And I think hearing it from a voice like yours should it should validate it for everyone, not just my sister. This is the PSA for Megan.

[55:47] Stephanie Styles: Megan, I can show you the world shining, shivering, splendid. You tell me what you don't like about this idea of going to a Disney theme park, and I will turn that right around and we will we will make it happen, and you will have the best time ever. And you'll be like, when can we go back?

[56:04] Al Malafronte: Megan.

[56:05] Stephanie Styles: Love it, Steph.

[56:06] Al Malafronte: I love it. Now, uh, this is the one that we use to wrap every show, and I'm also excited to hear the answer from you. Um, what's the best piece of advice anyone ever gave you?

[56:16] Stephanie Styles: Huh. Um, I think the best piece of advice anyone's ever, and I've been asked this before, and I've had answers, and now I'm totally blanking. You know, Kelly O'Hara gave such great advice. And she just, she, I think the reason why I'm just like, I will do anything Kelly O'Hara ever says, because she's the type of person that says thank you to her Alexa. And so, like, she would give a command to Alexa, be like, Alexa, can you play this music louder? And they'd be like, Yes, and she'd go, Thank you. And I'm like, Alexa can't hear you, say thank you. Alexa can't hear you say anything unless you say Alexa before it. But um, you know, she just was always such like a walking uh piece of advice, and just was like always about being present, and that I think it's this whole idea that there are, and this is, you know, an oxymoron, I guess, in a way, it's like there are so many things that matter in life, and there's so many things that don't matter in life, and it's just I think it's just trying to be present through all of that. So that's kind of an amalgamation of advice, but those are, you know, just being really present and just caring about the things you should care about and not the things you shouldn't.

[57:28] Al Malafronte: So kind of vague, but that's where I am at 12 on a Thursday in July in Los Angeles.

[57:38] Stephanie Styles: You could be in much worse places and our audience is definitely gonna be in a great place after hearing this chat, Steph. You were so awesome. Thank you for coming on today.

[57:45] Al Malafronte: Thank you, Al. I'm so excited we did this, and I'm a big fan of the pod. So thank you for having me. And I'm excited about my t-shirt.

[57:56] Al Malafronte: Heck yeah, absolutely. And uh for all the folks at home who may want to connect with you on social media, where's the best place for them to find you, Steph?

[58:03] Stephanie Styles: You can find me on Instagram at B-Y-S-T-Y-L-E-S by Styles.

[58:10] Al Malafronte: Perfect. I absolutely love it. And um, thank you so much again. And thank you to all of the awesome listeners in the audience tonight. I can't thank you enough for joining us over the past hour. Uh, be sure to subscribe to Break a Bad and follow us wherever you get your podcasts. This is Al Malafronte signing off from the Broadway Podcast Network. We'll see you next time.

[58:33] Al Malafronte: Thanks for listening to Break a Bat. This is produced by the fine folks at the Broadway Podcast Network. Visit and subscribe at bpn.fm slash breakabat. You can find me online at break underscore a underscore bat underscore podcast. And you can also find the Broadway Podcast Network on Instagram at Broadway Podcast Network. It's been so great having you here with us today, and we'll see you next time.