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[0:24] Joe Rosko: Hi, welcome to Built for the Stage Podcast.

[0:26] Joe Rosko: This is Joe Rosko, founder of Built for the Stage, Broadway's number one fitness platform.

[0:26] Joe Rosko: If you want to try a free trial, go to the website builtforthestage.com or click the link in the description of this episode, and you can work for seven days with your own Broadway fitness coach on an online app.

[0:26] Joe Rosko: So check it out. No catch, no gimmicks.

[0:26] Joe Rosko: Built for the stage.com.

[0:28] Joe Rosko: If you like Built for the Stage podcast, please rate, subscribe, and leave a comment.

[0:32] Joe Rosko: It'd be greatly appreciated.

[0:34] Joe Rosko: Alright, please enjoy this conversation.

[0:46] Joe Rosko: We're in Times Square and we're gonna have a great chat.

[0:49] Joe Rosko: Sarah is from the great state of Florida, right?

[0:53] Sarah Meahl: Orlando.

[0:54] Joe Rosko: Oh, she's so proud. Listen to her.

[0:56] Sarah Meahl: I am, I'm proud.

[0:57] Joe Rosko: Um tell me about Orlando, like growing up.

[1:00] Sarah Meahl: How many times have you been to Disney?

[1:02] Sarah Meahl: 18, 19, 35.

[1:04] Sarah Meahl: My mom worked there.

[1:05] Sarah Meahl: So I would go to school on the premises.

[1:10] Sarah Meahl: Um they've got something called Kindercare for Disney.

[1:12] Sarah Meahl: So I went to I went to kindergarten, kinder care, all of that on site at Disney World.

[1:18] Sarah Meahl: And Mickey would come during lunch and we'd all be like, hi, Mickey.

[1:22] Sarah Meahl: It was not exciting.

[1:23] Sarah Meahl: And we were so over it because we were children of Disney.

[1:27] Sarah Meahl: And so if I was good on Saturdays, my mom would let me go to one, she'd take me to Magic Kingdom, and I was allowed to ride one ride.

[1:35] Sarah Meahl: So I caught the bug early, and I was like, why am I not doing this?

[1:38] Sarah Meahl: My mom's like, well, you're tiny.

[1:41] Sarah Meahl: So I always knew I wanted to perform.

[1:45] Sarah Meahl: I feel like usually the episodes are around like 30 to forty-five minutes.

[1:50] Sarah Meahl: I kind of want to talk about Disney Kindercare for the entire episode.

[1:54] Sarah Meahl: Like I have never heard of such a thing.

[1:58] Joe Rosko: And uh it's like being a military brat, but instead of military, you're like a Disney kid.

[2:04] Sarah Meahl: Exactly.

[2:05] Sarah Meahl: That's what it felt like. Incredible.

[2:07] Joe Rosko: What did she do at Disney?

[2:08] Sarah Meahl: She was in charge of conventions at the resorts.

[2:12] Joe Rosko: Okay.

[2:12] Sarah Meahl: So she ran those and which gave me my love for themes and inviting people over and theming a party.

[2:20] Joe Rosko: Okay.

[2:21] Sarah Meahl: My father all began with a little hostess.

[2:25] Sarah Meahl: Yeah.

[2:25] Sarah Meahl: My mom did that on a you know, big scale.

[2:28] Sarah Meahl: So that's something I love.

[2:30] Joe Rosko: Alright, so you said like you just got immersed in it immediately.

[2:34] Joe Rosko: So what did you start doing when you were younger as far as performing goes?

[2:38] Sarah Meahl: I wanted to dance.

[2:40] Sarah Meahl: And so my mom said, well, you have to be potty trained.

[2:44] Sarah Meahl: So I quickly potty trained.

[2:47] Sarah Meahl: Um I could, you know, put on the little shoes and so then I was like doing ballet and tap, which is hilarious because not like the greatest tapper right now.

[3:00] Sarah Meahl: But um anyway, so yeah, I was doing little baby ballet and tap and I loved it so much and I ended up um being more of a gymnast at the beginning.

[3:10] Sarah Meahl: I was training for the 2018 no 2008 Olympics.

[3:16] Sarah Meahl: Um and then decided I didn't want to do that, but kept dancing.

[3:21] Sarah Meahl: So I joined the dance competition team.

[3:23] Sarah Meahl: I did that for ten years, and at some point during that time I met uh somebody who worked for Showstoppers, Dance Competition, and he told me that I should start voice lessons if I ever wanted to be on Broadway.

[3:36] Sarah Meahl: So I did.

[3:37] Sarah Meahl: Started voice lessons when I was like twelve, 11 or twelve.

[3:40] Sarah Meahl: And then I didn't really put all three together until high like late high school.

[3:45] Sarah Meahl: I did one of the musicals and I was like, yep, this is it.

[3:47] Sarah Meahl: This is mine.

[3:48] Sarah Meahl: This is for me.

[3:49] Sarah Meahl: And then I went to musical theater college.

[3:58] Sarah Meahl: So Point Park in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.

[4:01] Joe Rosko: Yeah.

[4:01] Sarah Meahl: Yeah.

[4:02] Joe Rosko: That's where you went to school for musical theater.

[4:04] Sarah Meahl: Yes.

[4:04] Sarah Meahl: And I was a dance minor.

[4:06] Joe Rosko: There you go.

[4:07] Sarah Meahl: It's a very um it had the reputation of being the quote unquote dancing musical theater school.

[4:14] Joe Rosko: Right?

[4:14] Sarah Meahl: Yeah.

[4:14] Sarah Meahl: At least when I was auditioning.

[4:17] Joe Rosko: I think it still does.

[4:18] Sarah Meahl: Yeah.

[4:19] Sarah Meahl: Maybe more weight to it now.

[4:20] Joe Rosko: I haven't followed up, but when I was auditioning, I remember Point Park being like, oh, that's the school where the dancers go for sure.

[4:26] Sarah Meahl: Yeah.

[4:26] Sarah Meahl: It's where the ensembles come from.

[4:28] Joe Rosko: There you go.

[4:29] Sarah Meahl: I like to think.

[4:30] Sarah Meahl: Yeah.

[4:30] Sarah Meahl: Of course.

[4:32] Sarah Meahl: It doesn't have to be.

[4:33] Sarah Meahl: I mean, there are plenty of people in the business that are thriving in, you know, with their principal contract.

[4:40] Sarah Meahl: But I ha I've had the experience that all the people I I was looking up to and people that I'm presently working with are in the ensemble of Broadway shows.

[4:51] Sarah Meahl: And they all went to Point Park and I looked up to a lot of them, and a lot of them looked up to me, and now we're all here together.

[4:56] Sarah Meahl: It's funny how that works, you know.

[4:58] Sarah Meahl: People seem so old or young to you when you're in college, and then you get into the real world, and age just goes away.

[5:04] Joe Rosko: Yeah.

[5:05] Joe Rosko: Completely.

[5:06] Joe Rosko: I find.

[5:07] Joe Rosko: What what did you think of Pittsburgh?

[5:09] Sarah Meahl: Um, it took me a minute because I was coming from Florida where there was always sun, and suddenly there was gray and and daunting gray, like you know, seasonal depression gray.

[5:20] Sarah Meahl: And I didn't appreciate it at first, and I also didn't have a winter coat.

[5:26] Sarah Meahl: Um I didn't have a proper winter coat, and I had Nikes that had cutouts in them, they were for the beach.

[5:39] Sarah Meahl: And uh my roommate and current best friend um still she took me out to Macy's and we got me a puffer coat.

[5:47] Joe Rosko: I really got off topic.

[5:49] Sarah Meahl: Pittsburgh.

[5:50] Sarah Meahl: So that's that's on topic.

[5:51] Sarah Meahl: I think Pittsburgh The struggle is real in Pittsburgh as far as the cold goes.

[5:55] Sarah Meahl: But I have to say, I ended up loving it, and by ended up, I mean it didn't take me long to love Pittsburgh.

[6:01] Sarah Meahl: I just needed to, and I feel like this is the same with any city.

[6:04] Sarah Meahl: In order to love something, you have to have your own memories there.

[6:07] Sarah Meahl: So the second you can establish some memory of joy in a place, then you begin your relationship with the city.

[6:15] Sarah Meahl: So at first when I moved to New York, I didn't know if I loved it for the same reason I didn't have any memories here.

[6:20] Sarah Meahl: Now I'm like sitting in the middle of Times Square, and I actually my heart swells because I remember being 16 over there, taking a picture with that view, and I I remember watching myself on the marquee for the first time right over there in Paramount, and I've been on this one too, but right now this one's not functioning.

[6:41] Sarah Meahl: But I've also watched the ball drop from here, and and this is my actually my stop.

[6:46] Sarah Meahl: I live down the street, so this is my subway, and this is my hood.

[6:51] Sarah Meahl: And I've done a show in that Broadway theater and in that Broadway theater, and now you know, so now you have memories in a place, and now it feels like home.

[6:58] Joe Rosko: Yeah.

[6:58] Sarah Meahl: So I feel like any place you can adapt to.

[7:01] Sarah Meahl: And that's how I felt with Pittsburgh.

[7:03] Sarah Meahl: Just the people between the people and my lessons learned there.

[7:06] Sarah Meahl: I I actually miss it and I crave it, and sometimes it makes me kind of sad and sentimental.

[7:13] Joe Rosko: Well, it's just a quick five and a half, six hour drive on 80 West, and you could be right there in Pittsburgh.

[7:19] Joe Rosko: It's not that far.

[7:20] Sarah Meahl: I actually went back last summer for hours to see to say bye to the playhouse.

[7:26] Sarah Meahl: They're tearing it down.

[7:27] Sarah Meahl: And I had a lot of firsts and important things happening that theater, and I just wanted to pay my homage to it before they tore it down.

[7:44] Joe Rosko: Um so speaking of adapting, you had mentioned that you had a knee injury come up in your career.

[7:50] Sarah Meahl: I did.

[7:51] Sarah Meahl: And you had to obviously make some adaptations in the midst of that.

[7:54] Joe Rosko: Tell us a little bit about that.

[7:56] Sarah Meahl: Um well, I call it paying my dancer dues.

[7:59] Sarah Meahl: You know, every now and then you what you do doing this job, you know, you can get hurt.

[8:05] Sarah Meahl: And I did when I was 24, and um I dislocated my knee during Can Can, the Broadway-bound musical that never came, sadly.

[8:17] Sarah Meahl: But I was doing a lot of tumbling and a lot of gymnastics in the show, and my I was tired and I had I was like kind of overstretched, and my muscles were loony tunes, and I just slipped out and my knee wrapped around the back of my leg.

[8:30] Sarah Meahl: And um, it took me eight months to to come back uh to be fully in a show again.

[8:36] Sarah Meahl: Um so that was hard for me, but I took the time to work on other things, and um by other things I mean like I sang more, and I took the time to do some things that I had been missing.

[8:49] Sarah Meahl: Like I remember making jam.

[8:52] Sarah Meahl: Like I had I wanted to cook and you can't do much, so you just accept the healing, and I think the best way to heal is to heal happily so that your spirit's happy, and you can't really heal with bad energy.

[9:05] Sarah Meahl: So I tried to find a way to do everything I could to heal graciously and happily, and part of that was food.

[9:15] Sarah Meahl: And then I came back and I and it was fine, and at first it was a little scary, and it took a few auditions, and then I was in a show and hit the ground running, and I have not had a day off since then.

[9:27] Joe Rosko: Maybe sometimes those things come as like uh secret blessings where it was that little bit of uh an extended rest you needed before hitting the ground running for this extended amount amount of time.

[9:40] Sarah Meahl: Exactly right, because right after that I booked my first Soft Broadway show, and then during that time I booked my first Broadway show, and then I and honestly, the trick the momentum was crazy and it still is kind of like happening.

[9:53] Sarah Meahl: So I needed that downtime.

[9:57] Joe Rosko: Yeah, it was nice.

[9:58] Joe Rosko: Well, here's to some more running on the ground.

[10:01] Sarah Meahl: Yes, absolutely.

[10:03] Joe Rosko: You rested enough, right?

[10:04] Sarah Meahl: Oh, I'll sleep when I'm dead.

[10:07] Joe Rosko: Uh speaking of eating and enjoying things like jam, I saw that you wrote once that you taste food better when you work out.

[10:17] Sarah Meahl: Oh yeah, I believe in that.

[10:19] Joe Rosko: What does that mean?

[10:20] Sarah Meahl: I think that I love that.

[10:22] Sarah Meahl: I I do everything better when I'm uh what's the I I want to use the right word because I was going to say when you feel like you deserve it, but that's not even it.

[10:33] Sarah Meahl: I think when you are when okay, when I, because I don't know what other people feel, but when I am uh using my greatest potential and I'm sweating every day, and I am I love exerting energy, like nothing, even just like I do this a lot.

[10:50] Sarah Meahl: I squeeze everything in my arm because I like the way it feels to have everything.

[10:55] Sarah Meahl: Uh I love that feeling when my muscles are being activated.

[10:59] Sarah Meahl: I it's sick.

[11:01] Sarah Meahl: I love it.

[11:02] Sarah Meahl: So I want to keep doing that.

[11:04] Sarah Meahl: And and when I do it, I want it more, and then that makes me breathe deeper, it makes me happier.

[11:10] Sarah Meahl: I can feel things better, like my senses are heightened, my all my senses are heightened.

[11:15] Sarah Meahl: So I taste food better, I see better, I hear better, I feel this wind better.

[11:20] Sarah Meahl: The sun looks prettier to me, um, I look better to me.

[11:23] Sarah Meahl: Everything is heightened.

[11:24] Joe Rosko: Yeah.

[11:25] Sarah Meahl: When I so yeah, and I love food.

[11:28] Joe Rosko: Makes perfect sense.

[11:29] Sarah Meahl: Yeah.

[11:29] Joe Rosko: You love food.

[11:29] Sarah Meahl: I love food, and so then I feel like I can eat it too proudly.

[11:33] Joe Rosko: What's your favorite? What's your go-to?

[11:35] Sarah Meahl: One of them.

[11:36] Joe Rosko: Okay, one of my go-to's.

[11:37] Sarah Meahl: I love a Thai situation.

[11:39] Joe Rosko: Like a well, I you know, basic, yes, pad Thai.

[11:43] Sarah Meahl: There's this like Thai curry noodle soup situation that's like coconut.

[11:46] Joe Rosko: Oh god.

[11:47] Sarah Meahl: I'm like sweating. Um that's one of my faves. Also, just like a good old spaghetti and meatball.

[11:54] Joe Rosko: I think it down.

[11:56] Sarah Meahl: I'm really old school. I also love a wedge salad and like a steakhouse dinner.

[12:01] Joe Rosko: So definitely uh, I didn't say pizza, you know.

[12:05] Sarah Meahl: Most people say pizza.

[12:07] Joe Rosko: I am a pizza whore though.

[12:09] Sarah Meahl: Like, no, I get it. I will some you know, old school and sometimes simple is also a way to go like pizza's classics.

[12:18] Joe Rosko: Did you see the Green Book yet?

[12:20] Sarah Meahl: No, you have to see it.

[12:22] Joe Rosko: Um I watched it on the flight home from Europe, and anyways, the driver, little sidebar, he has a whole pizza.

[12:30] Sarah Meahl: You know, like a slice, people will fold the slice and he just folds the entire pie.

[12:35] Joe Rosko: It just starts.

[12:35] Sarah Meahl: It was epic.

[12:36] Joe Rosko: It was epic. Uh but anyways.

[12:39] Sarah Meahl: So I saw you in a commercial for this thing called Belt Box.

[12:45] Joe Rosko: Oh yeah, Belt Box.

[12:46] Sarah Meahl: I'm I never saw it until then.

[12:49] Joe Rosko: I'm obsessed with it after seeing the commercial.

[12:51] Sarah Meahl: Oh god, they're amazing. Um, so for those of you listening, you don't know what it is, basically like a sound muffler that you put over your face while you may be like like uh rehearsing for an audition or singing.

[13:05] Joe Rosko: Or it's 8 a.m. and you have uh a final callback and you don't want to wake up your roommate.

[13:09] Sarah Meahl: Exactly. Um it shuts out so many decibels. It's um they're amazing. Do you have any embarrassing or funny moments of like warming up for an audition in public?

[13:20] Joe Rosko: Yeah, my final callback for Frozen.

[13:22] Sarah Meahl: Um I I really needed to sing a high C really quick.

[13:27] Joe Rosko: I had warmed up, but I just hadn't gotten that high yet.

[13:31] Sarah Meahl: And I needed to go into anywhere and and do that. So I found myself this sad little broom closet at the New Amsterdam Theater, um, which is where they were holding the final callback, and I went in and went, I sing like, you know, I screamed basically, and came out and they were the entire male ensemble, like auditioning for the male ensemble, just like 45 beautiful chorus men were looking at me as I came out and just laughing.

[14:01] Joe Rosko: Because I l I went in there and I was like, ah, anyway, uh they were like, really, Sarah?

[14:08] Sarah Meahl: That one no, that's all just hit the one note and I left and I didn't know they were all there.

[14:13] Joe Rosko: Yeah.

[14:14] Sarah Meahl: Um I'm sure I could think of a more embarrassing one, but I'm I'm not very embarrassed.

[14:20] Joe Rosko: Right.

[14:20] Sarah Meahl: So it it would be funny f like, oh, that must have been funny for them, you know.

[14:27] Joe Rosko: Oh, I feel like I mean that was still good.

[14:29] Sarah Meahl: I mean that was great.

[14:30] Joe Rosko: I mean, was it?

[14:30] Sarah Meahl: I don't know.

[14:31] Joe Rosko: I can just imagine that you coming out and like the whole line of them just starting to applaud you or like that would have been a better story.

[14:37] Sarah Meahl: I should have told it that way.

[14:38] Joe Rosko: Well, let's just wanna go back and say it again and say, and then I came out and they all were applauding for it.

[14:46] Sarah Meahl: Uh I'm actually thinking, I don't know if I if I really have anything that's like a warm-up story that's I mean, listen.

[14:55] Joe Rosko: I I lost my skirt on stage the other day, and that was pretty embarrassing.

[15:00] Sarah Meahl: For really for everyone else.

[15:05] Joe Rosko: They had to look at it.

[15:06] Sarah Meahl: Right.

[15:07] Joe Rosko: I'm sure it made them embarrassed.

[15:08] Sarah Meahl: But yeah.

[15:11] Joe Rosko: That's great. Just wanted to ask after seeing the little commercial about Belt Box, but uh this was in KISS ME KATE that you're in right now, right?

[15:19] Sarah Meahl: Yeah.

[15:20] Joe Rosko: We'll get to that in a second.

[15:21] Sarah Meahl: Um but I wanted to this is like getting to know you uh before we get into kind of like the current stuff, but you s uh I think it was your resume said that you proudly serve on the advisory board of the uh Academy of Music and Business based out of Sweden.

[15:40] Joe Rosko: Is that true?

[15:41] Sarah Meahl: It's not a lie, yeah.

[15:43] Joe Rosko: It is what is that?

[15:44] Sarah Meahl: Um I did that happen. I worked with someone who um is in circuit was he wrote Cirque du Soleil, like wrote Paramour.

[15:53] Joe Rosko: Yeah.

[15:53] Sarah Meahl: Um, he wrote some of the songs and he asked me to be on his board.

[15:57] Joe Rosko: Uh huh.

[15:57] Sarah Meahl: And um I don't do too much work for them.

[16:00] Joe Rosko: I do based uh on what is asked of me.

[16:03] Sarah Meahl: Yes.

[16:03] Joe Rosko: But yeah, I serve on his board.

[16:06] Sarah Meahl: Um so pretty much when a student needs advising, uh um, especially when it comes to Broadway and New York and stuff, because a lot of them don't have connections there.

[16:16] Joe Rosko: It's it's me that uh me and Reed Kelly.

[16:19] Sarah Meahl: Bradway's Reed Kelly.

[16:21] Joe Rosko: So the two of us serve on this board, and I like being a part of advisory boards because I have a lot to offer.

[16:27] Sarah Meahl: Um students and kids coming through who are new to New York.

[16:31] Joe Rosko: Yeah.

[16:33] Sarah Meahl: Uh you were recently married.

[16:36] Joe Rosko: Yes.

[16:37] Sarah Meahl: Saw fabulous photos. You guys looked wonderful.

[16:40] Joe Rosko: Thank you.

[16:41] Sarah Meahl: You wore Laducas at your wedding, is that true?

[16:43] Joe Rosko: There were my Paramour, there were some shows.

[16:46] Sarah Meahl: Ah.

[16:47] Joe Rosko: They were just white and pearl.

[16:48] Sarah Meahl: No thanks.

[16:49] Joe Rosko: Um still no.

[16:51] Sarah Meahl: Listen, I love comedy.

[16:53] Joe Rosko: Um, yeah, there were these beautiful white lajucas that I wore when I would go on for indigo, the lead in Paramour.

[17:01] Sarah Meahl: And I love them.

[17:03] Joe Rosko: I love them so much.

[17:05] Sarah Meahl: You guys met when you were doing the funny thing, right?

[17:08] Joe Rosko: Yeah, yeah.

[17:08] Sarah Meahl: Yeah, in DC.

[17:10] Joe Rosko: Very cool.

[17:10] Sarah Meahl: Um, which was like six years ago.

[17:13] Joe Rosko: I was a tiny baby.

[17:14] Sarah Meahl: But yeah, we're married now, and it's great.

[17:17] Joe Rosko: Thank you.

[17:18] Sarah Meahl: I I like we just did a so we hadn't done a show together since we met.

[17:24] Joe Rosko: And then we got to do the Grinch together at the Old Globe this past Christmas.

[17:29] Sarah Meahl: And he played the Grinch and I was like Fonty Hoo, and it was amazing, and we get to finally do a show together again, which is so fun.

[17:29] Joe Rosko: Cool.

[17:29] Sarah Meahl: Finally do a show with your person.

[17:37] Joe Rosko: Yeah.

[17:38] Sarah Meahl: After having met doing that.

[17:40] Joe Rosko: Yeah.

[17:41] Sarah Meahl: Six years.

[17:42] Joe Rosko: Yeah.

[17:43] Sarah Meahl: Um did you uh first get to New York City?

[17:49] Joe Rosko: And when let's see.

[17:52] Sarah Meahl: You debuted Paramour in 2016.

[17:54] Joe Rosko: Yes.

[17:55] Sarah Meahl: Basically, my question's coming what's our timeline look like? You get to New York City, you're here to chase the dream, and then like how does the road lead you to the dream?

[18:07] Sarah Meahl: It took me longer than it takes some people.

[18:10] Joe Rosko: Um, and I'm proud of that because it makes it taste better.

[18:15] Sarah Meahl: I worked for it, you know.

[18:16] Joe Rosko: Uh the dream, if you will.

[18:18] Sarah Meahl: So I got here um after a summer at the Muni, and I booked um, I I left immediately to do a regional theater gig.

[18:27] Joe Rosko: Um, I booked Walnut Street Theater Zenita in the Music Man.

[18:30] Sarah Meahl: So I went out there pretty much immediately after coming here, and that kept happening.

[18:36] Joe Rosko: I would go to, you know, an audition for a regional theater gig, like at Tuts or Tots, or you know, DC Shakespeare Theater, and I'd booked this awesome show that I really wanted to do with a really cool choreographer, and then I'd go away, or I worked at Paper Mill twice.

[18:53] Sarah Meahl: Um, so I just I kept leaving the city, and I did the Little Mermaid co-production tour that took them to Atlanta and uh Texas.

[19:01] Joe Rosko: So I did all I have all these regional theater credits.

[19:04] Sarah Meahl: Like I think I worked at 15 regional theaters between my time that I got to New York, which was the day after I graduated, and fulfilled a summer at the Muni, and then after that I went just from job to job to job.

[19:17] Joe Rosko: I was never in town.

[19:18] Sarah Meahl: Um, I would try to stay in town for a minute and then I'd have to leave.

[19:22] Joe Rosko: So that happened for four years.

[19:25] Sarah Meahl: The last time I was out of town, it was La Jolla Playhouse.

[19:28] Joe Rosko: I was doing an out of a Broadway, you know, an out-of-town run for a show coming to Broadway that never came, and I had a lot of bills.

[19:28] Sarah Meahl: I had a lot of times that I had booked a Broadway show, but it didn't come.

[19:39] Joe Rosko: Or uh, you know, I booked it and then the show didn't end up happening.

[19:42] Sarah Meahl: And that happened to me four or five times before Paramour.

[19:45] Joe Rosko: Oh, great.

[19:46] Sarah Meahl: Let's talk about that.

[19:48] Joe Rosko: I love to try to parallel people's career stories with either just life or fitness, you know, just because it they uh all three are a journey life, career, fitness, and yeah, I just love to hear people's like hiccups, if you will.

[20:06] Sarah Meahl: Yeah.

[20:06] Joe Rosko: To give people listening something to hold on to.

[20:10] Sarah Meahl: Because it's not just uh I showed up.

[20:15] Joe Rosko: Said here I am, and and that was that, you know.

[20:18] Sarah Meahl: No, um, I have been in the room for pretty much every show that's come through this town.

[20:26] Joe Rosko: Anything I I could be right for.

[20:28] Sarah Meahl: I was in final callback for it and didn't get it.

[20:31] Joe Rosko: Except for my three Broadway credits.

[20:33] Sarah Meahl: You know what I mean?

[20:34] Joe Rosko: Like there's so much happening and there are so many things I I wanted to be part of and tried to be part of, and it doesn't happen all the time.

[20:43] Sarah Meahl: Um Tuck Ever I remember thinking I was gonna book Tuck Everlasting, wanting to book it so bad, and I got the call that I didn't book it.

[20:51] Joe Rosko: And I just cried, walked down the street and cried.

[20:55] Sarah Meahl: And then a couple days later I booked Paramour.

[20:59] Joe Rosko: It just was that wasn't my journey, and I didn't know it at the time that that was not what I was supposed to do.

[21:04] Sarah Meahl: So that happened so much, but I I think big hiccup was my knee.

[21:10] Joe Rosko: The the knee thing put me out for a long time, took me out of a season of auditioning.

[21:15] Sarah Meahl: Um and that sucked.

[21:16] Joe Rosko: But that's hard of being a dancer.

[21:18] Sarah Meahl: Sometimes you get hurt, you gotta pay those dues.

[21:21] Joe Rosko: Did you stay in the city when you were hurt?

[21:23] Sarah Meahl: Yes.

[21:23] Joe Rosko: Yeah.

[21:24] Sarah Meahl: I I lived in Astoria at the time, and I had to commute to the Upper West Side via Uber for my physical therapy.

[21:32] Joe Rosko: And it was the most expensive injury of my life.

[21:37] Sarah Meahl: But I really got strong going to West Side Dance Physical Therapy.

[21:43] Joe Rosko: Oh my recuperation to those people.

[21:45] Sarah Meahl: Love them over there.

[21:46] Joe Rosko: Shout outs.

[21:47] Sarah Meahl: Yeah, shout-out.

[21:48] Joe Rosko: Um you make your debut in Paramour a very unique show.

[21:54] Sarah Meahl: Yeah, it was weird.

[21:55] Joe Rosko: Right?

[21:56] Sarah Meahl: Yeah.

[21:56] Joe Rosko: Um after like years and years and years of regional theater and an off-Broadway show.

[22:02] Sarah Meahl: Standard time.

[22:03] Joe Rosko: And then yeah, and then Paramour happened like we I slid into Paramour, and it was the first time anything like that had been done where Circus Olay was marrying uh, you know, a Broadway like musical theater, and it was the first time it had ever been done, and it didn't happen gracefully because it was the first time it had been done.

[22:26] Sarah Meahl: We were pioneers, yeah.

[22:27] Joe Rosko: It was tricky.

[22:28] Sarah Meahl: We were on different contracts, some of us were on uh actors, we were a part of the union, um the equity, and some of us were a part of um the the acrobats were part of a different union, so our rules were different and our pay was different, and it was weird.

[22:48] Sarah Meahl: So in the show you had 13 different countries represented?

[22:54] Yes, yeah, I think more at the end.

[22:56] At the beginning it was more like 20.

[23:00] What uh what cultures seem to be your favorite?

[23:05] Like obviously the person themselves could like play a role in it.

[23:10] But you know that's exactly what happened.

[23:12] Okay.

[23:13] So yeah.

[23:14] Tell me a little bit about like, oh, I this person made me want to move to Paris and live or whatever.

[23:21] Um my best friend who I met one of my best friends who I met doing Paramour, her name's Amber.

[23:29] She is from Belgium.

[23:31] And she sold Europe to me so hard.

[23:36] Because she she was from Belgium and grew up in a small town outside of Antwerp, but had the ease and ability to go to Germany and to be in France when she wanted, to go to the Greek islands when she wanted.

[23:50] She was just so close.

[23:51] So she just gallivanted wherever she wanted, um, for and did a lot of it for, you know, with Cirque or through her hand-to-hand.

[24:00] She um she is like a contortionist who balances on other people's hands.

[24:05] Yeah.

[24:05] Um, there was a person named Martin, who I just loved.

[24:09] Um he and his wife, his wife was Sicilian and he was French.

[24:14] And they so I got I hung out with them a lot and had a lot of uh now I just really want to go to the coast of you know, I want to be on the Mediterranean doing what they do, which is just enjoy life.

[24:26] The the what I really took away from Paramour because of those acrobats and the people from other countries was that there's so much the world revolves around not just New York City.

[24:41] And actually, Cirque du Soleil, it's like circle around the sun, you know, it's it's about the actual Earth.

[24:49] You know, there's so much more to the world than just New York.

[24:52] And I have entered that Broadway show feeling like it was all about New York and it was all about Broadway, and I I just didn't have my priorities straight.

[25:01] And those people taught me that you know humanity is more important than Broadway.

[25:06] You know, I was so cutthroat, and I was so ready to be in New York and have this dream that I had planned.

[25:13] But what I really needed to do was take a step back and just enjoy this experience for what it was.

[25:18] Paramour was very different than um, you know, the other Broadway shows I've done.

[25:22] So I I really just relaxed into enjoying the people and the time, and I tried.

[25:27] Yeah, maybe another blessing in disguise like perspective.

[25:30] Oh, I needed the perspective so bad.

[25:32] It was so time for me to have some perspective in my life.

[25:35] There you go.

[25:36] Yeah.

[25:37] Uh now you're in the revival of Kiss Me, Kate.

[25:40] Yes.

[25:41] And you just did your cast recording yesterday.

[25:44] Yesterday.

[25:44] Was that your first one that you've done?

[25:46] It was my second.

[25:47] Okay, so tell walk us through uh a cast recording day.

[25:50] Okay.

[25:51] A lot of waiting, right?

[25:52] Yeah, lots of waiting.

[25:54] Jumping into the booth.

[25:55] Yes.

[25:56] Um, so usually you're at some incredibly uh, you know, some incredible studio that is known for being a studio where everyone goes to New York um to record their albums and stuff, and that's really special.

[26:10] So they're Hallowed Halls, if you will, and you know, you you get there and your cast is there, and everyone's really excited.

[26:17] There's just so much energy and excitement, and they put you in front of a microphone.

[26:21] Usually there's two to a microphone.

[26:23] Um, they don't look like normal microphones.

[26:26] Um, and you you put on some headphones and you're tuned in so you can hear everyone in your cast through the headphones, or everyone in that song.

[26:34] And the orchestra's in there, and you you start at the top usually, and you or sometimes not, sometimes you jump around, but you sing the song that you sing every night on Broadway into the mic, and then usually you stop and you have to go back a bunch and record.

[26:54] We really flew through ours because Paul Gemignani, uh, our music director and just champion of a man.

[27:01] I love him.

[27:02] He is famous, he's a legend, and he was like, No, we got it.

[27:05] We just moved on, which was cool because in my experience with cast recordings, you know, you kind of do it in nauseum, but that was not the case this time, and it was really exciting, and I definitely cried during Too Darn Hot a couple times because it just you I know I grew up being obsessed with cast recordings.

[27:23] Um, like Thoroughly Modern Millie was a big one for me, legally blonde.

[27:26] All those I kind of learned how to sing from, and they shaped and developed my desire to be on Broadway, The Little Mermaid, cast recording.

[27:35] Um so all of those got me, and I just know that some kids can listen to Too Darn Hot and hear it and want to be in theater, and they I it was I was watching him sing it and it was ripping me up.

[27:48] I just I looked over and I thought I was like I was kind of embarrassed that I was crying.

[27:53] I looked over, and the girl next to me was crying too, and I was like, okay, cool, okay.

[27:57] I can cry now.

[28:00] Just a really cool moment in time.

[28:02] Uh that's a great segue for you were you were in Hello, Dolly!, yes, with Bernadette Peters as Dolly or no?

[28:11] Yes, and and Beth and Donna.

[28:14] Okay, they all just Oh that's right.

[28:16] I was there pretty much the entire run.

[28:18] That's right.

[28:19] Okay, now yeah.

[28:20] Uh you also were in this uh this benefit, right, with Sutton Foster.

[28:26] Yes, we did Thoroughly Modern Millie one night only.

[28:29] So I'm I'm bringing this up now, especially after you saying like you grew up on cast recordings and you grew up kind of like just looking up to these people or having them shape you in some way as you were aspiring to be a performer.

[28:42] You know, how was that?

[28:44] How was that sharing the stage with uh some of these ladies in those shows?

[28:48] I had like goosebumps on my face talking about it.

[28:51] Um I just it was everything in the world.

[28:56] Because especially this you know, Bernadette Peters, I my confirmation name is Bernadette 'cause I was so obsessed with her when I was little.

[29:04] I'm sorry.

[29:06] So to be on stage with Bernadette and that it was everything.

[29:11] It was absolutely everything in the world to me.

[29:14] And every day it was that loaded.

[29:17] It was that loaded every day for me.

[29:19] It it made my job so exciting and fun and also terrifying in a way because there's so much to live up to.

[29:26] And I wanted to bring my best self every day.

[29:28] And that's hard to take sometimes.

[29:30] But um the Sutton Foster thing was the coolest thing in the world because I, you know, as someone who grew up listening to Thoroughly Modern Millie, I knew every word, and then I got to do the show three times and then finally got to do it with Sutton the fourth time.

[29:47] I mean, and the original cast.

[29:48] It was it was everything.

[29:50] It was everything.

[29:52] And um I'll never I'll never uh really come back from that.

[29:59] Yeah, um I one of my first musicals as a kid was Annie Get Your Gun.

[30:05] So listening to the cast recording to learn my Frank Butler songs, I'm listening to you know uh Bernadette as Annie Oakley over and over and over again, uh, or her in Into the Woods.

[30:15] Yeah.

[30:16] I I was in that as well as a kid, so you're listening to her over and over and over.

[30:19] Over it and over it gladly.

[30:22] The early modern Millie, everyone is singing all their songs for their auditions as a kid.

[30:26] Yep, I did everyone so I sure did.

[30:29] That's really cool.

[30:30] Um now you're with Kelli O'Hara and in Kiss Me, Kate, so another kind of like stapled name in the business.

[30:39] Um you've said some great things about you know Sutton and Bernadette and what they did.

[30:45] Gavin, I didn't even say Gavin.

[30:46] Gavin Creel who I did Dolly with after, and that you know, that was mind-blowing too.

[30:50] When you've had yourself a career, or maybe still in the midst of it and you've you've made that name, you know, what what would you want to be remembered for from like maybe a Sarah Meahl that's your age right now that might be working with you later?

[31:11] Like who do you hope to become to those girls that you are right now?

[31:16] What a beautiful question, and something I've actually thought about from time to time, and I'm still trying to figure it out.

[31:23] I'm not gonna lie, I don't I haven't figured that out yet.

[31:26] Um I think if I can stand for anything for future of chorus girls or the future of you know, people who work on Broadway or are loving the dance in New York City or anywhere, I guess I I want them to know that they can just be who they are and they don't have to apologize for that and they don't need to be a certain way.

[31:52] There's not a way to be.

[31:54] Um, and and I because I don't I've thought about this.

[31:57] I'm not like the best at anything, you know.

[31:59] I'm not the best dancer, I'm not the best singer, I'm not the funniest person in the room.

[32:04] I'm not I I'm but I'm doing what I can, I'm just being me, and that's like literally all we're capable of is just being ourselves.

[32:12] And um, and I I'm tired of apologizing for who I am.

[32:16] And I'm tired of other people apologizing for who they are, or thinking that they have to apologize for who they are, or trying to change.

[32:24] I'm I wear my heart on my sleeve, I have shit, I have baggage, we all do, and I'm proud of it.

[32:30] It's I I can't take it back, so I might as well just that that's me.

[32:34] That's who I am, and we all have it, and it makes us human.

[32:37] And I'm in to being human.

[32:39] I am into humanity and not pretending like I'm perfect.

[32:42] I'm so tired of pretending of seeing people who are pretending like they had their life all figured out.

[32:48] I'm so tired of seeing people in like you know, filtering their babies on Instagram and all of that.

[32:54] I'm so tired of this perception that we all pretend that we're supposed to be this one way.

[33:00] No, we're all whatever way we want to be.

[33:02] I eat meatloaf for breakfast.

[33:03] I'm not gonna pretend that I make like this acai bowl.

[33:07] Like I don't do that.

[33:15] I love that from Sarah, just saying to be human, to be yourself, to be loving and accepting of yourself, to be real, to be genuine.

[33:23] I can't stress that enough for all of us to do that to not only ourselves, but to everyone else around us to love one another.

[33:30] That's not the end of the interview with Sarah.

[33:32] It actually segues into an interview on my Instagram TV channel.

[33:37] And you can find that on Instagram at BuiltForTheStage.

[33:41] And you can check out that IGTV link right on my profile.

[33:46] So head on over to Instagram at Built for the Stage to check out the second half of my interview with Sarah Meahl.

[33:53] Once again, if you enjoyed, please subscribe, leave a comment, or rate the podcast.

[33:57] It'd be greatly appreciated.

[33:59] Have a great one out there.

[34:00] It's me, Joe Rosko signing off.