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[0:04] Joe Rosko: Hi, welcome to Built for the Stage Podcast. This is Joe Rosko, founder of Built for the Stage, Broadway's number one fitness platform. 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. So check it out. No catch, no gimmicks. BuiltfortheStage.com. If you like Built for the Stage podcast, please rate, subscribe, and leave a comment. It'd be greatly appreciated. Alright. Please enjoy this conversation.

[0:46] Joe Rosko: We have Jenifer Foote on Built for the Stage podcast. Broadway's Jenifer Foote. I mean that in all sincerity. This fierce boss woman has racked up an amazing career. She seems very pleasant. I just met her, but she has a golden smile, so I trust her on that. I think she's a really good girl. You guys got time? Because I'm gonna list off her credits right now. On Broadway, she debuted in Annie Get Your Gun, went on to Dracula the Musical, Hair, On the TWENTIETH CENTURY, A Wonderful Life, Dirty Rotten Scoundrels. Love that one. A CHORUS LINE, everyone loves that one. Rock of Ages, Follies, The Mystery of EDWIN DROOD. Have no idea. Um, She Loves Me, Holiday Inn. Love that one. Hello, Dolly. Everyone loves that one. And now Tootsie. Welcome to Built for the Stage Podcast.

[1:38] Jenifer Foote: Thank you for having me. Thanks for listening to me ramble on. But uh really, really enjoyed uh Tootsie. You're a swing in the show. Did I see you? Uh, about I feel like I did. I can't remember exactly, but I think when you messaged me, I think I was on that day when you said that.

[1:57] Joe Rosko: Yes, because when I reached out about you being on the podcast, I was looking for the insert and your name was there. So you were on the stage. Special day. Alright, good. Thank you for taking the time. Um, how's Tootsie been?

[2:13] Jenifer Foote: Oh, it's fantastic. It's such a good group, and it's such a fun show. You know, it's great to be in a comedy where people are laughing and enjoying themselves, and it's a really, it's a great time. It's a little easier to show up to the theater when you're doing a comedy, right?

[2:26] Joe Rosko: Yeah, it's just different. You know, it's not better or worse, but there is something great about being in that in the finale and the bows and just seeing everyone like jumping to their feet and having a fun, great time and hearing that laughter. It's a fun, fun time at the theater.

[2:40] Joe Rosko: Cool. Alright. Well, let's jump in. Anxious to see what you have to say about some of these questions. Um, just really excited to have you on the show. So what was one of the most demanding shows out of that long list that you've been a part of to perform eight shows a week? So physically, mentally, whatever.

[2:59] Jenifer Foote: Well, I've been a swing probably half of my career, kind of back and forth between being an on-stage tracker or a swing. So there's a different challenge physically in both of those things. Um, the show that comes to mind when you ask that question is Holiday Inn, which I did just a few years ago. And I was a swing in that show, so I wasn't performing eight times a week, but as a swing, it's so mentally challenging and draining in a lot of ways. The stress of having these tracks in your head and you're about to go on at a minute's notice and things like that. So that show was particularly hard because it was physically very demanding. It was, you know, that show is just dance number after dance number after dance number.

That is really the star of the show, in my opinion, was the choreography by Dennis Jones, and those dancers were so wonderful, and people loved those numbers, and a lot of it was tap and all kinds of partnering and things like that. So it was physically hard when I was on, but it was also very hard to know these eight very intricate tracks. And there weren't any singer tracks, they were all dancers, and every dancer has a different partner and different tap and things like that. So I found that very stressful. One of my more challenging experiences in that way. And then the other, the only other thing I can think about just pure physically challenging, which was not a Broadway show, was when I first moved to the city, I was a raquette for two seasons, and that is demanding on my body. So that was challenging in a totally different way.

[4:28] Jenifer Foote: In my career, I've always relied on singing and acting and dancing, and that is just pure dance and precision dance, and that was very, very challenging physically.

[4:37] Joe Rosko: Yeah. So I've been cast in all of these shows. What makes you a reliable performer, in your opinion? Um, if you're gonna highlight anything, is there anything that like you do that you bring to the table inside of the proscenium? And do you take from anything that you habitually practice in your life that might help this trait of yours?

[5:04] Jenifer Foote: Well, one of the things that I'm most proud of in my career is being re-hired by lots of people. I always feel like you get your first job on talent. It's a blind audition, no one knows you, so you must have been great in the room, let's say. And so, which is wonderful. But to then be re-hired by someone from that same creative team in another way, I feel like that is a testament to them saying, yeah, she's talented enough, but I want her in the room for various reasons. And for me, I think I'm probably talented enough in a lot of ways, but I'm not, I'm certainly not the best one on the stage. But I think that I have been rehired in a lot of ways because I'm bringing to, I'm positive, I'm super grateful at all times.

I am reliable as a performer in a rehearsal room, things like that that I think carry you from job to job to job from someone who wants to work with you again. And I think I think that I have a sort of broader view of this business than just my specific track in this show and what I'm doing as an actor. I think I see the bigger picture of theater and Broadway in particular, um, just probably from my experience and also who I am in the world. And um, I think that that helps. I think that that's valuable in a room. I think that people trust my opinion in the room or trust my energy in the room. That's not about me. It's more about seeing the fuller picture and how a choreographer might look to me for do you think this is right? What do you think of this? Or things like that. And I think that I can bring a fuller picture sometimes.

[6:41] Joe Rosko: Yeah, can you zoom in on that even more about like what that means to you, the broader picture of all of this?

[6:47] Jenifer Foote: Well, I mean, I've been working on Broadway for 19 years, so that is something that you that experience lends itself to at a bigger view. But I also am a huge fan of theater first and foremost. Like I'm still listening to show tunes as I walk down the street. And I think that that sense of joy and gratitude really buoys you through this career. And then I have in the last several years, I've started doing a lot of associate work as associate director and choreographer and choreographed a few things on my own. And I think that experience clearly brings a lot of you know something to the room in that way. And then I'm married to um a woman who was a company manager for many years, is now on the producing side of things, and I feel like she is sort of giving me a better sense of the bigger picture of just the business, which has helped me as an actor. It sort of takes you out of your actor smaller world and sort of sees the whole thing, and that I think has helped me a lot.

[7:45] Joe Rosko: Yeah, probably valuable when you step into either an audition room or just the rehearsal process.

[7:50] Jenifer Foote: I think so, yeah. Because at times you can kind of be weight, you can weigh yourself down with uh anxieties that might be rightfully so, but when you know the greater scope and you can kind of step out of like your little world, yeah, it could it can kind of help in that way, definitely. And I think I mean, just as me as a person, so I care about sort of um my spiritual life and my sort of bigger picture life of me as just a human being, and I think that that only can help you, particularly in this business that is so easy to get all about yourself and all about you and your product and your whatever, and it's it's sort of that has sort of helped me get out of my own way and just sort of see life in general as a as a you know see the bigger picture of that.

[8:37] Joe Rosko: Yeah. Well, how do you just wasn't on my list, but I'm super into this kind of conversation as far as the business goes. How do you remain as selfless as you can be in a selfish business?

[8:52] Jenifer Foote: I think that that question actually just applies to everyone, and no matter what job they were doing. That's sort of the goal, I think, is to sort of get out of our own self, you know, little world, our ego sort of world, and see us all together and we're all one and things like that. So I think that could apply to everyone. Yes, but in our business, I think it's hard because you do have to. It is about your, you know, you put your product as yourself and you're putting yourself out there in a lot of ways. And that's very vulnerable, and that's I can see, I can understand how we get all about ourselves, and I'm certainly guilty of that as well. But I practice really hard at um mindfully not doing that as much as I can.

And I'm certainly not perfect at that. But the more I can sort of just get out of my way and just I don't know. I I think that just the simple fact of like gratitude has helped me a lot. Like I'm very thankful to live in New York City. I can't believe I can be on Broadway. I can't believe I get to, you know, walk through a stage door. Like that's never ever gonna be lost on me. And that has served me in a big way, I think.

[9:55] Joe Rosko: Yeah, might be kind of what you were touching with before about maybe you're not the most talented in the room, but you're the most probably reliable in the sense of what you're gonna bring to the room. And and that one of those things would be a greater perspective of gratitude, positivity, positivity, a solid team player.

[10:16] Jenifer Foote: I think so. I hope so. I mean, I it's easy for me to say that about myself. I don't know what anyone else thinks, but I I hope that is something I try to bring that to you.

[10:23] Joe Rosko: Yeah, I mean, after all these shows, I'm sure I'm sure you're I'm sure you're spitting the truth right now. Well, let's move on uh to this next one that I've been thinking about a lot with kind of going with what you just said about how you never take it for granted, like living in the city, being on Broadway, walking through a stage door. There's this Jim Carrey quote where he talks about, I'll just paraphrase it, but he just wishes that everyone could be rich and famous so that they could find out that you still could be unhappy even if that happened. So the audience out there on Built for the Stage podcast, it's pretty um, it's varied. And I know that there's some out there that are aspiring performers, or maybe they're young performers, even on Broadway, maybe show number one or whatever.

Is there any like light you can shed for them that even though you've you've essentially seems like booked show after show, like can you just real talk with us about like, hey, once again, greater picture. The consumption of like, oh, I have to get on Broadway, I have to do it, I have to do it.

[11:27] Jenifer Foote: You know, I mean, when I growing up, that was a really singular goal of mine. I had laser focus on I wanted to be on Broadway. Or actually, that's not true. I had laser focus on I wanted to be in a touring show because that seemed achievable. Broadway seemed unachievable to me. So I didn't want to dream that big. So I finally, I said I moved here, I got a national tour, and then soon after that I made my Broadway debut.

[11:52] Jenifer Foote: I was so thrilled and so happy, and it's you know, all the things I dreamed it would be, and getting that call and being in the show. And my Broadway debut, I was a replacement in Annie Get Your Gun, and the show closed like a month after I started, which you know is a super high to could be a super low, obviously. Thankfully at the time, it didn't rupture my world. I sort of took it in stride even then. But I'm so thankful that that happened that way for me because it did teach me instantly of this is the greatest thing, I'm on Broadway. Everything, you know, all the doors are opening, everything's great. To it, you're done, and it's closed. And how do you get that next show? And it was a real quick high to a low.

And that taught me in that moment of this job, this business is fleeting, and you can't count on anything. And so it made me super, super, super grateful every chance I get to do a show. And I don't know that I would have known that so quickly had my first Broadway show been a huge hit that I was in for a few years, and I felt very celebrated and whatever that was. I think having that first thing happen that way, I wouldn't have changed it because it taught me instantly to be thankful for the next. And then it took me a couple years to get my next show. It took me about two years to get my second Broadway show, and that was hard.

[13:15] Joe Rosko: Can you talk about that?

[13:15] Jenifer Foote: Yeah, I mean, it's a long time ago now, but it was hard. And I that's when I was a rockhead, which I love Radio City, but it was not for me a great fit, it wasn't my dream of a job, and so feeling like I'm doing these jobs that aren't my dream, aren't you know, I'll any original show I could get, you know. And I didn't do a ton of those things, but it was hard to feel like what if another show doesn't come? And I felt I felt so lucky that I at least had that one show, and I felt like if I never get another Broadway show, at least I did it. You know, I did it one time, and that seemed big enough in a way. The point is there are tons of lows in this business, and I Tootsie will close, albeit zero again.

You go from a hundred to zero. It doesn't go back to great, what's the next show? Who wants me to know? It's like starting every time it feels like you're starting all over. And yes, like now, you know, 19 years later, I have a lot more connections and I have a lot more things that help me along the way, but still, when you're employed, you're unemployed, and that's even. There's no like better version of unemployed than another. It's you're even at sort of at the bottom in that way. So it's really up and down. It takes tremendous will and self-worth and sort of things that if I feel like you have to have tremendous confidence in this business that can't be based on your stage credits. Your confidence has to be based on who you are as a person, the balance in your life, relationships in your life, how you see the world, whatever that is, I think will serve you because if all you care about is the credits you have, that's very fleeting and it's really easy to your highs and then your lows. And so I think that that's important to have a lot of cultivate a lot of other things in your life besides just a Broadway show credit.

[14:57] Joe Rosko: Yeah. Yeah, I think that's a great parallel for my fitness fam out there where it is a rented, never owned type of deal where you could be in the best shape of your life, and if you let it go for six months or aka your show closes and you don't put the work in, you're back to square one before you even knew that it had left you. And you just have to keep plugging away and nothing is guaranteed. The word resilient really comes up when you're talking about that, where you have to be a dog on a bone about it, where you're gonna fight and scratch for it all day, every day, whether you have it or you don't. I was just talking to my clients about if you're in the front, keep running because people are on your heels, and if you're in the back, then you better keep running or you're still you're gonna stay in the back. So yeah. Out of all the shows that you've done, Broadway, not Broadway, what was one of your favorites and why?

[15:54] Jenifer Foote: I could make a case for each Broadway show as to why it was the greatest, because there were amazing things about each, obviously, of course. But without question, my favorite show will always be A CHORUS LINE. That was I felt like A CHORUS LINE was something bigger than I could have ever dreamed. I wouldn't have even dreamed I could have done it in Summerstock somewhere, let alone on Broadway. It just seemed such a far reach and it was so incredible. And it's you know, it's a show about who we are, and that's such a rare thing to be able to be on stage and say the things that you feel for an audience. You know, it's these stories really, really resonate with me. And each character in a different way resonates. And it's just it's so powerful and so magical. And it's mind-blowing. That will forever be. I could never I'll be fine if I never do another show because I got to do that. That was so incredible.

[16:48] Joe Rosko: You were a part of every little step then, or no?

[16:52] Jenifer Foote: I know. I was a replacement in the show, so you can like find I can find me in that movie, but no, no, you would never know I was there.

[16:59] Joe Rosko: But you what I mean is you were there in the audition process where like that was very much in the room, like it was going on.

[17:07] Jenifer Foote: Yeah, I mean, A CHORUS LINE is truth. It is, you know, you're just that your own rehearsal process is the same as the show. Everything about it is I heard, I mean, it just rings true. Like what I did for love, that rings so much, it's so different now. You know, that show was ten years ago, maybe that we did it on Broadway. It rings I keep thinking of the lyric in that song, The Gift was ours to borrow, and feeling like, yeah, like we're just I'm just part of the Broadway community for this little blip, a tiny blip of these, you know, 20 years or whatever, and it'll go on much longer than me, and it's been way before me. And it's just you feel like you just get to be on this ride and how lucky we are to make our mark and this like legacy of people before and after us, and feeling like that's why I feel so grateful at all times. It just it's Broadway is bigger than your one show or who you are, or whatever, and it's bigger than all of us and creatively, and just feeling like so lucky to be a part, just even a blip on it.

[18:09] Joe Rosko: Yeah, A CHORUS LINE is kind of like the actor's anthem as far as like be like if you were to pick a show of like what show represents us as a community.

[18:20] Jenifer Foote: Yeah, I think so.

[18:21] Joe Rosko: Yeah, yeah. Cool. Can you I was I was I've been in A CHORUS LINE regionally, so yeah, everything you say definitely rings true. How fun was Dirty Rotten Scoundrels? Was Norbert Leo still in it when you came into the show?

[18:37] Jenifer Foote: I was a replacement in the Broadway company, which was fantastic. I loved that show, really loved it. And it was all the original cast was there. And then I went on tour and played one of the characters, Jolene, on the tour with Norbert. So it was so fun, and it's such a great show. And it's David Yazbek's show who wrote Tootsie, so it's very full circle to be back in with a David Yazbek show. And there was a moment in Tootsie, there's a scene in a bar, and there was like background piano music being played. And in rehearsal, they were just playing the background music, and the piano players started playing a song from Dirty Rotten Scoundrels, but just like in loungy versions, and it felt like it's not, it's not, it didn't make it to our version. It was there in Chicago, but it felt like such a little Easter egg of a moment, like a nod to if you knew Dirty Rotten Scoundrels, you would maybe hear this background music.

[19:27] Joe Rosko: Which song was it?

[19:28] Jenifer Foote: They were playing Nothing Is Too Wonderful to Be True in the background. But again, it's no longer an art New York show. But it was such a cool. I loved, I just I love David Yazbek and I loved that show. It's such that it was like Tootsie. It's such a fun, funny, great show, and the cast was tremendous. It was great.

[19:45] Joe Rosko: So I coach a lot of people, actors in fitness, and I talk to them a lot just about the everyday grind and the mental battle of it all. So if you were a coach and you had your clients, not fitness, but like actors out there, what's something that you would tell them as they're going about their career or just their everyday?

[20:10] Jenifer Foote: I mean, it's what I've already touched upon, I think is just having a sense of gratefulness. And I, you know, I've said this before to people, but I live on the Upper West Side and I walk every day from my apartment to the show. And it's like 30-minute walk, and that's my favorite part of the day. And it's walking, and I listen on shuffle to my show tunes, and it will make and it's you know, passing Lincoln Center and you know, passing some, you know, the billboards and just feeling like I can't believe I get to live here. And it's I could cry sometimes out of happy gratitude of feeling like what an amazing magical life. You know, I'm living that sort of fantasy that I had, and just so I would tell people to just be thankful for the journey.

And the journey is up and down, and there's times when I really thought that's the show I have to be, and that's the show I'm gonna get, and that's the one. And feeling like once I release that, I could be open to something else. It took me in a whole other way and gave me a show that was a better fit for me. Or, you know, and just sort of trusting that the journey isn't always exactly the laser focus you think it is, and to trust that it kind of goes around corners and trust that. And I just try and stay in my flow of life. And I feel like when I do, then doors sort of open and life feels good. And just sort of like giving way to that and feeling thankful for the journey of it all.

[21:34] Joe Rosko: Yeah, that comes up a lot, it seems like with these interviews of just like if I had not gotten that show, I would have never had this happen to me.

[21:46] Jenifer Foote: Yeah, I'm a big, I used particularly used to be a big believer in like a vision board, you know, sort of thing, and I would really pin certain things to it and of course upset if something didn't come true. And so one day I just took everything off and felt like how about my vision board is just you show me the way. And that was a real it sort of changed the way it looked at things and sort of wanted things job-wise and things like that. And it really helped me sort of open myself up to maybe I don't know what's best, and you, you know, universe, show me, show me what's best for me.

[22:20] Joe Rosko: Yeah. All right, Jenifer, thanks so much for coming in. Thanks for being on the podcast. Guys, you can check out Jenifer Foote in Tootsie the Musical right now, and you can go to her Instagram and check that out, Jenifer Foote, J-E-N-Y, F-O-O-T-E. You could give her a follow. I don't know if she's public or private.

[22:36] Jenifer Foote: I'm public.

[22:41] Joe Rosko: All right, you can give her a follow, check out her gram. And um, yeah, thanks so much again.

[22:46] Jenifer Foote: Thank you.

[22:49] Joe Rosko: All right, and that'll do it with Jenifer Foote on Built for the Stage Podcast. Once again, if you want to try a free trial, go to the website, BuiltfortheStage.com or DM me on the Insta at Built for the Stage. Would love to chat it up with you about your fitness goals. All right, until next time, it's me Rosko signing off.