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[0:10] Richie Grasso: Welcome to Half Hour with Jeff and Richie. I'm Richie.

[0:11] Jeff Malone: And I'm Jeff. And today on our show, we have the extraordinary Gabby Beans, a Tony-nominated actress whose Broadway debut in "The Skin of Our Teeth" on Broadway set stages ablaze. Her performances extend to all Broadway hits as well, like "I'm Revolting" and "Mary's Sequel." And she's currently shining in "Jonah" off-Broadway at Roundabout Theatre Company. Gabby's screen presence is equally impactful with roles in "Succession," "The Good Fight," and "Ray Donovan." She's soon to be seen in Apple TV Plus's "Presumed Innocent." Her award-winning film work highlights her storytelling prowess. And with a rich educational background from Columbia University and Lambda, Gabby's diverse experiences and passion for the arts promise a fascinating conversation. Let's give a warm welcome to Gabby Beans.

[0:54] Gabby Beans: Oh my gosh. Thank you so much. I feel scared that you promised an enriching conversation. I now feel immense pressure to deliver on that promise, but I'm gonna try.

[1:06] Jeff Malone: I thought you were going to.

[1:08] Richie Grasso: I know you will. It's gonna be great. Thank you for being here. We really appreciate your time.

[1:11] Gabby Beans: My pleasure. That was really lovely. Thank you.

[1:13] Jeff Malone: Yeah, of course. It's really great to have you on this show. And before we jump into your current role of Anna in Roundabout's off-Broadway production of "Jonah," can you tell the audience a little bit more about how you got started in the industry?

[1:26] Gabby Beans: Absolutely. I mean, the main thing is I just was a ham. I loved attention, I love telling jokes and doing weird stuff and getting attention for it. And then when I discovered that that could be a monetizable skill, I was like, haha, there we go. But it was a little bit of a circuitous route to actually, you know, doing acting as a career. I was more of like a sciencey, matchy kind of kid. And in undergrad, I was studying science. I was kind of on a pre-med track, but then had this come-to-Jesus moment where I realized that if I didn't give performing a chance, I would probably regret it forever. And so, you know, by the grace of the universe, I applied to graduate school and got in, and then kind of the rest is history. But well, mostly just a bottomless need for attention and validation.

[2:19] Gabby Beans: Just a quick overview for our listeners about "Jonah," and just reminding everyone there are spoilers ahead. So if you haven't seen "Jonah," go check it out. But we are going to give a little bit of spoiler here. "Jonah" tells the story of Anna, a young student far from home and deeply alone. When Anna and Jonah meet, everything she's longed for begins falling into place, but soon she realizes that Jonah is not all that he seems. What begins as an exploration of thrilling desire shifts into more complex negotiations of intimacy and survival that will keep you guessing until the final twisting moments. "Jonah" is written by Rachel Bonds and directed by Dania Tamore.

[2:52] Richie Grasso: Okay. So we thoroughly enjoyed your performance of Anna in "Jonah." What initially drew you to Anna, and how do you personally connect with her story?

[3:05] Gabby Beans: Yeah, that's an awesome question. I mean, so when I was reading the play initially, the first reaction I had was like a kind of emotional one. I was just moved to tears, and I felt like the play was articulating some very subterranean feelings that I had not encountered in a play or just even in myself. And I was very compelled by that experience. And then upon thinking about like what the demands of the role would be and whatnot, I was like, wow, this is a huge challenge. And I was honestly not, I was unsure as to whether I could pull this off. Because, you know, from an acting perspective, you're looking at playing one person from the age of like six to the age of like 38. And you don't leave the stage, and it's emotionally challenging material.

So that's a lot to do. But I think it's always a gift to be offered an opportunity to do something that really stretches you and genuinely challenges you. And I was excited about that challenge. And also, I've always admired for many years Dania's work. And after meeting with her and talking about like how she wanted to go about working on this piece, I was kind of sold. And so, yeah, and then also I just think that the discussion of intimacy and depiction of real sensuality on stage is not something that we see so much in New York as much. And so I was excited about the prospect of being part of a piece where that is so central to the storytelling.

[4:50] Jeff Malone: Totally. And you bring such raw emotions to life. Were there challenges with the role in different moments of you playing the role in terms of some of those intimacy moments or just some of the comedy moments, or what was more of a challenge to you as you were developing the role?

[5:06] Gabby Beans: For me, it was less about like these individual moments and more about what like the challenge of the event of the play. Because I don't want to sound like I'm beating a dead horse, but I do not leave the stage. And so what was the biggest challenge was learning as a performer how to just move through that experience and understand what like how to move from one moment to the next and understand what my prep is on stage to move into a new moment. And I think it was just a really it was a matter of repetition, because I think that this piece is very, for all of us, not just me, is you know, emotionally and technically very athletic. And so a lot of it was just having enough familiarity with the piece to then feel free inside of it and be able to reach for those or at least inhabit those emotional demands of the story.

[6:06] Richie Grasso: Totally. So I feel like you're touching on something here with Anna's relationship with Jonah, and one of our burning questions here is like, are we as the audience supposed to feel like Jonah is real or Jonah is the ideal person that Anna wants to be with?

[6:27] Gabby Beans: I think it's both. I'm sorry to give kind of a cop-out answer, but I remember early on in rehearsal asking Dania, so is there a tonal difference between these Jonah scenes and the other scenes for reasons I won't divulge explicitly right now? And even though you did give that very generous spoiler warning, I'm still gonna be a little curious.

[6:52] Richie Grasso: That's okay.

[6:53] Gabby Beans: But yeah, like what she said was that it shouldn't, there shouldn't be a discernible difference in the playing of it between how I am with Jonah and how I am with the other characters. I think a lot of the heavy lifting of like giving that sort of rule perhaps more imaginative vibes comes from the tech, you know, comes from the lighting and the sound and how we're supported by the technical elements in that moment. But yeah, in the playing of it, we were just playing it like it is as you would any other scene.

[7:29] Jeff Malone: Yeah, it's super cool because even like when we're leaving, we still don't really know necessarily. Like I feel like that's so the beauty in the writing of this play in general that it's like, oh, Jonah could be real or Jonah cannot be real, or like what is Jonah to Anna. So it's like, I don't know. And I feel like you really narrate that for us throughout this whole show.

[7:54] Gabby Beans: Well, I think that like one of the cool things about the play that you're kind of hitting on is that all of the things that we see are real for Anna. Anna—oh, I mispronounced my own character's name. I told you I was gonna do that.

[8:08] Jeff Malone: No, it's okay.

[8:10] Gabby Beans: Oh man. It's tough. It's a tough day because it could go either way. Anna is just so fancy, and I think I just sometimes that nasal end just creeps over. But yeah, no, I think that like all of the things that we see happen on stage are real for Anna, even if they may be questionably real in an objective sense. And so for me, a lot of my work had to do with just getting really specific about who she was at certain points in her life. And there are certain technical elements, like I think for me early on, I realized that vocal storytelling was gonna probably help a lot because there's just things that change as you age, you know, your voice gets deeper as you age, it speaks more slowly as you age. And I was like, okay, these are like things that are both helpful to me as the actor to be able to lock into a certain period of her life, and also hopefully helpful for the audience to be able to tell the passage of time.

[9:09] Gabby Beans: But yeah. And it's so interesting because what a lot of times when I leave shows, I say to Jeff a lot, I say, oh, so many shows, the directors and the narration and the plot are kind of like beaten into your head, like this is what we're trying to say. And I feel like with this piece, the audience was trusted. I always say, I wish directors and playwrights like this trusted their audience more to start connecting these dots without having to say, now we're in this location, now we're in this. And so this was so trusting for me to say, oh, oh, oh, oh, and be able to connect it all. So, with that said, how are you finding that audiences are reacting to this? Are you finding audiences reacting the way like, wow, oh, that's the brother?

Oh, that's the—that Jonah is real or not? Like, I don't leave there feeling confused at all. I leave there feeling like, okay, I think I know what this is about, and now I want to talk about it. Like, are you finding a lot of audiences are reacting this way?

[10:07] Gabby Beans: We'll be right back.

[10:11] Richie Grasso: Welcome back.

[10:13] Gabby Beans: Thank you so much for saying that. I also appreciate, like, you know, I appreciate nuance in work. And I think that Rachel and Dania are both people who are not afraid of nuance. And I think that that is in service of the work in a way that is very refreshing as a performer. And as to the audience response, I think what I've been noticing is that people engage with it as deeply as they want to and as they're able to. Because there are some very challenging themes in the show. There are moments that could bring up certain stuff for people. And so there's some people I talk to after the show who it's almost as if they're like trying to figure out a whodunit. And they're like, well, was this and they're engaging it on it, they're engaging with the show in this very sort of schematic, almost like mystery story way.

And then there are other people who come up, and you know, the twisty-turny narrative is almost secondary to them, and they just want to speak about how it made them feel or what it opened up for them, or how meaningful it was to see a certain experience represented on stage. So it's really been a wide range of reactions from our viewers.

[11:33] Richie Grasso: I bet. I can see that because I feel like I'm the kind of theatergoer that likes to put a puzzle together, and I feel like there were so many puzzling moments in this piece, but also I could see like on the surface level, like just people feeling one way or another. And I did want to kind of talk about that in a little bit of like this is set in the boarding school where you've now left the home. How do you feel like this environment is really helping kind of tell the story of Anna as well?

[12:07] Gabby Beans: I think that the boarding school is representative of a space of like where she can radically self-actualize. Because if you think about it, like I connected the way I sort of connected it into my own life was when I left home to go to college. Because I did not go to boarding school. I was living at home during high school. But when I went to college, it was the first time as a person, you know, aside from brief stints doing programs or something like that, where I was, you know, living with other people my own age, kind of left to my own devices and with a bunch of people who didn't know me and they had no previous history of me. And so that was a space of like self-exploration and discovery and like kind of trying out different identities. And I feel like that's what the boarding school space is for Anna too, is that it's a space for her to imagine a version of herself that feels really, really good with this person who also really makes her feel really good.

[13:11] Richie Grasso: Yeah. And it was, and the set, I feel like the set design was just enough of we understood where we were, but I liked that the set didn't change in different locations. And that these characters mysteriously through the wonderful lighting design too appeared and disappeared. And it actually took me a while to realize, oh, that's like one big curtain. It's not a wall, right? Like it was like cool to kind of explore some of that throughout the piece, you know.

[13:37] Gabby Beans: Yeah. And what was—yeah, the designers really did their thing. Let me say the designers.

[13:41] Richie Grasso: Totally.

[13:43] Gabby Beans: Morgan, who was also—Morgan Gould, I believe, who did the—actually, I should really get his name correct. Let me give just give me one second.

[13:51] Richie Grasso: Yes, no, that's okay.

[13:53] Gabby Beans: Yeah, totally, totally. Because there are so many amazing designers on this, along with their director and writer, too, of course. I mean, the sound design, the lighting design, the costumes. I mean, every design works so well together. And that's one thing about Dania is that she—I think she has a lot of folks that she works with on the regular, and so they have sort of a—Morgan Ald did the illusions. So the incredible illusions that you see of people, you know, appearing and disappearing and stuff. That was his really, really beautiful work.

[14:26] Richie Grasso: Really cool.

[14:27] Gabby Beans: I just wanted to make sure I found his name correctly. Yes. And it was super smart. But totally illusions like that.

[14:34] Gabby Beans: And like what you're saying too about Danya. Like sometimes when we go to shows, we're starting to realize like the creative team ever talk to each other. And this one was one that we left and we were like, oh, they cohesively really worked together along with the cast. And it just was great. Can I just say that that's actually something very unique to Danya? Where like I have never had an experience. Like we got to go to the theater and see them building the set. Um and Danya would ask us for our opinion about how to stage certain things. And it's like I it was almost it took me aback at first because as an actor, sometimes you can feel very infantilized. You know, people treat you sort of like okay, you just do just go to your place and say your thing, less so in the theater than in TV and film, I would say, but um, but to feel like the spirit of true collaboration that we could all sort of uh comment on any piece of the you know production, even outside of our specific job was really cool, and I think really um enriched the work. She's an incredible director. It's very clear on in this production that she's working so well with the writer and you all, and it's truly amazing stuff that she's doing.

[15:49] Richie Grasso: And it kind of leads me into a little bit of uh your keeping you just don't talk about your your portrayal of Anna and the revelations you have with Jonah and these other characters. I kind of feel like she's she's for it's gotta be difficult for you to have to play different emotions and energy levels with three very different actors up there. You know, you have Jonah, you have Danny, and you have Steven, and some of them are so comedic and lighthearted and wonderful, and some are very abusive and sad. And and then it's at the three second light change, and now you have to change to like what is that like? I can only imagine for that long. Like you said, you never leave the stage.

[16:32] Gabby Beans: First of all, I just gotta give every single prop there is to give to my castmates. Each of these three guys not only are like just talented, gorgeous, kind, amazing people, but like the whole like part of what makes the play work is these male characters coming in with very, very strong intentions and ways they want to affect Anna. So the diff the the difference between the energies of the three men in the show is actually so helpful to me because the strength and the specificity of how they're showing up in the scene is what really allows me to be able to inhabit a different time and place. So that's actually such a huge gift to me. Like them coming up and immediately changing the temperature in the room means that I don't have to then manufacture uh, you know, some sort of shift.

So they are all extremely gifted and extremely lovely and wonderful to work with. And I couldn't be more lucky, honestly, to just be doing this with those guys. And at first it was really difficult, you know, like doing those quick pivots and gear shifts. And there were definitely moments of doubt where I was like, is this possible? Like you're really like, you're really asking me to like go from here to here. And but I will say that like the athleticism element, I can't stress that enough. Just getting the reps in and really learning the contours of the piece. It's like a dance. It's like you know, like, okay, like my big solo is coming, so I need to like get rid, you know, even though I'm right here in this moment with this person, I'm also thinking a few moments ahead about where I'm where I need to end up.

So it's kind of like calibrating your energy and having that sort of split performer mind where you're very much present in the fictive moment with your with your scene partner, but then you're also having the meta awareness of like what the demands of the event are and where you need to go. So it's really cool in that way.

[18:42] Gabby Beans: And when Steven comes in, you know, I when you have such serious subject matter, it's almost like you need comedic relief somewhere. And I remember thinking like, not to to, I mean, his character is so complex and deep too, but I always think like when we see so much difficult stuff that we get to the end, and Steven, I mean, he's wonderful. The character is so wonderfully written, and it's so it it's it's almost in a way nice that like we see that, but then there's some deep relationship there with religion. It's so so hugely talked about between the two characters. I mean, even the name, you know, going back to a name like Jonah, Jonah is a biblical name of sorts to this, all this rooted religion here.

And then when you your character is talking to Steven's character about religion at the end and what you each want, it's just in a way nice to kind of end. I don’t want to say lighthearted, but maybe a little like okay, she's met this new guy, we'll see what their relationship's like, right? Like it was nice that he kind of comes in later with that comedic element of sorts.

[19:39] Gabby Beans: Absolutely. I think that Rachel's really smart because she's not, you know, one of her superpowers as a writer is that she doesn't shy away from the darkness, but she takes care of the audience, she takes care of the performers, and she takes care of the characters. So she knows that, like, at that point in the story, you need a little bit of like, you know, I call I I always tell John who plays Steven, I'm like, you're like an amuse-bouche, you're like a little like like a taste of citrus to just like wake everything up after all of this like rich but like dark sort of material.

[20:12] Richie Grasso: And it's something that uh, you know, I do want to praise you because I feel like you can flip through characters so easily. Um, not that you're changing character in this show with Anna, but you are changing like the moments in her life very quickly back and forth, which is great, which wants me to lead to uh my next question here because we know that you were part of Skin of Our Teeth. We saw you in Skin of Our Teeth, and I left that theater absolutely blown away by you. I just have to say it, praising you. But you also had to flip through there in characters, and you just every time you were on that stage, you captivated the stage, you owned it. And how do you feel like that role kind of has helped you now playing Anna in Jonah?

[20:58] Gabby Beans: We'll be right back. Let's jump back into things. It's so funny you should ask that question because um I was having dinner with my castmates, and they were like, Is Jonah the hardest thing you ever had to do as an actor? And I was like, 100% yes. And that's crazy to me because when I was doing Skin of Our Teeth, I remember, you know, thinking about when we were rehearsing that show and doing that show, I was like, there's nothing that's harder than this. You know, like I'm like it, and it's so much fun, but just technically very challenging. I was doing this crazy character voice. It was very physical. It was like the first show that I ever did where like I had to be on vocal rest when I wasn't performing and stuff like that.

And um, but that role really did prepare me because it gave me the confidence to know that I could that I enjoy challenges and that I could take on a challenge and I could face like all the doubt and discomfort that comes from stretching your abilities and come out on the other side like a better person and a better performer. So I think that's the main way that it that it prepared me is like to like actually not lead with fear.

[22:12] Gabby Beans: And and your role, your character in Skin of Our Teeth was I mean, just the maid in act one, the whole thing is hilarious. I it's funny because Jeff, I had read the play when I in my in my undergrad when I studied theater, and I remember it's such an old play. It's been around for so long. And Jeff was like, was this written yesterday? I'm like, no, like this is like you would think it was really truly written because it's so timely when in chaotic times, which I feel like we're in now, or I feel like we're kind of always in, but it's it's such a commentary piece and it's so smartly written. And then to just dive into that eight times a week on Broadway, it must just be like, oh, I just thought that was such an amazing revival of that. You're Tony nominated, you find out you're Tony nominated for this role. Tell us what that process was like to find out you're Tony nominated and go through the whole Tony Awards process.

[23:00] Gabby Beans: Absolutely. So basically, like I like, so the whole experience of the Skin of Our Teeth was sort of a dream experience in that I was working with a director that I have a really strong relationship with Liliana Blaine Cruz, who is a genius and is a friend and has really the reason why I have a career. Um and and so I was just really enjoying doing the work and having fun on stage and acting absolutely like just doing insane stuff. And then people kind of come up to you after the show and they start saying things like, Oh, you're gonna get nominated for Tony. And for me, I'm like, it's already unbelievable I'm on Broadway because you know, who what sort of unknown person gets to play the lead in a Broadway show that's a straight play at Lincoln Center?

Yeah, yeah. You know what I mean? Like that just isn't gonna happen. So it's already crazy that I'm doing that. And then people are like saying, Oh, you're gonna get not you're gonna get nominated for Tony. And I'm like, okay, what I hear that as is you think the show was good. So I'll take it. Thank you. That's very nice. But that's not real. So on Tony morning, like when they're making the announcement, I literally didn't even watch them. I just got up and like did the dishes and like washed my and my phone was on do not disturb. And I was like, Well, okay, I'll guess I'll turn my phone off, do not disturb now, around like 9:30. And I saw I had like 53 text messages and like however many calls. And I'm like, well, I don't think people would be texting me to say sorry you didn't forget.

[24:25] Richie Grasso: Yeah.

[24:25] Gabby Beans: So that was a really beautiful day. It was very surreal. And then yeah, the whole process is just really fun. It's fun to be about around the theater community. It's fun to have, you know, there's no expectation in this business that your work will ever be acknowledged, especially on that scale. So it's just an immense honor to have been part of a project that people responded to in that way, and to go through that experience with all the you know the designers and Liliana and to be able to like celebrate the work. It was just a really, really beautiful experience.

[24:58] Richie Grasso: Incredible, wonderful.

[25:00] Gabby Beans: Oh my gosh. Well, we do have to get ready to wrap up because we're almost out of time. But we always ask our guests one final fun question.

[25:07] Richie Grasso: So the question we're coming at you with here is we'd love to hear a funny behind-the-scenes story from either Jonah or Skin of Our Teeth, or anything you've done, rehearsal room, performance, um, just something fun that our audience would love to hear from any of your behind-the-scenes funny moments.

[25:22] Gabby Beans: Yes, absolutely. So wait, I okay. I'm gonna give you dealer's choice because I have one from Jonah, and I also have one from Skin of Our Teeth.

[25:30] Richie Grasso: Oh, that's hard because I oh, oh gosh, what do you think, chap?

[25:35] Gabby Beans: I feel like we should do Jonah because we're talking about Jonah being Jonah.

[25:40] Richie Grasso: No, it's Jonah.

[25:41] Gabby Beans: Okay, cool. Okay. On our first preview. So I should actually preface this story by saying that a Dustbuster plays into the show.

[25:52] Gabby Beans: Yes, sweet. On our first preview, John, who plays Steven in the show, runs out with the Dustbuster, kind of brandishing it wildly, and it falls apart.

[26:04] Gabby Beans: Oh no. Half of the Dustbuster flies into the audience. There is a moment of like the most pristine pristine silence you've ever heard, and then uproarious laughter. John and I are looking at each other with our mouths wide open. We have no idea what to do. We can't do the show if the dustbuster doesn't work. There's not an extra dustbuster. So some intrepid and kind audience member throws the the half of the dustbuster on stage. And then there's a hilarious moment where I'm watching for about maybe like 15 seconds as John tries to put the Dustbuster together, but he doesn't know how. So I'm just watching him do that. And then after a while, I kind of like, I'm just like, give it to me. And then I put it back together. I give him the Dustbuster back, and then we just keep along with the show.

[26:53] Richie Grasso: Oh my goodness.

[26:54] Gabby Beans: It was one of the craziest moments I've ever experienced on stage.

[26:58] Richie Grasso: I love it.

[27:00] Gabby Beans: It's ADF Live Theater. There we go. You never know. And I bet you every time he picks up that Dustbuster every show, he thinks twice about before he's gonna be.

[27:05] Gabby Beans: Well, now there's now that can never happen again because there's an extra dustbuster, and they've like reinforced it because that was such a crazy moment. But yeah.

[27:13] Richie Grasso: And if your skin of our teeth story is quick, we can maybe get that one in quick too.

[27:17] Gabby Beans: If you're it's super quick. Basically, there was like one time late into the run where the leg of the dinosaur fluffed.

[27:25] Gabby Beans: Oh no. So hey, me and Raz, the incredible Raz Ruff, who plays Mrs. Antrobus in the show are on stage, and there's this moment where the dinosaur is supposed to like peek in, but we only see the head. And so we're like, what's going on? And it's like, and then we look backstage and they're like, the leg fell off. The leg fell off. And so the stage manager has to be like, hold. But the thing is, no one knows if it's a real hole because the stage manager's in and out of the piece, right? It was a really crazy and hilarious moment. Poor dinosaur fell apart for a second.

[28:02] Richie Grasso: That was such a technologically heavy show. I'm sure at some point something could have bounced a bit happening there.

[28:07] Gabby Beans: Oh yeah. Oh my gosh. That is hilarious. Well, we are just about out of time. I can feel like I could sit here all day and talk to you about all these wonderful things. But that is our episode today on Half Hour. We thank you so much for listening, everyone today.

[28:20] Richie Grasso: Yes, and we hope you enjoyed our conversation with Gabby Beans. We will share all information on where you can learn more about Gabby and how you can get tickets to Jonah in the description.

[28:31] Gabby Beans: Yes.

[28:32] Richie Grasso: And to all our listeners as well. If you have any suggestions for future episodes you'd like to listen to, we'd love to hear from you. You can connect with us on Instagram and TikTok at Half Hour Podcast.

[28:41] Gabby Beans: Yes.

[28:41] Richie Grasso: Thanks for watching.

[28:42] Gabby Beans: Thank you so much, Richie and Jenna.

[28:44] Richie Grasso: Thank you so much.

[28:44] Gabby Beans: Yeah, we really appreciate it. Thank you so much for being here. Good luck to you with the rest of the run and all your future projects. We can't wait to see you on stage again and something or on screen because you're doing so many screen things too.

[28:46] Gabby Beans: So thank you.

[28:46] Richie Grasso: Thank you.

[28:56] Gabby Beans: Yes, there we go. Well, signing off for now. I'm saying ta ta for now.

[28:58] Richie Grasso: I'm Richie.

[29:01] Gabby Beans: And I'm Jeff.

[29:02] Richie Grasso: Saying bye bye.

[29:03] Gabby Beans: Bye.