This transcript was automatically generated and might contain errors.

[0:08] Jessica Rush: Hey everybody, welcome to this episode of Mama's Talkin' Loud.

[0:11] Cara Cooper: I'm Jessica Rush.

[0:12] Cara Cooper: And I'm Cara Cooper, and you're listening to our episode with Queen Elsa herself, Caissie Levy.

[0:18] Caissie Levy: Uh uh oh, uh uh oh.

[0:22] Caissie Levy: Uh oh, oh Mama's talking loud.

[0:25] Caissie Levy: Mama's talking loud, mom is talking tough, mom is talking, have a being good with good enough.

[0:33] Caissie Levy: Mama's talking life, mom is talking proud, mama talking trash.

[0:38] Caissie Levy: Mama's talking.

[0:43] Jessica Rush: Hi everyone, welcome back to Mama's Talkin' Loud.

[0:46] Jessica Rush: I'm Jessica Rush.

[0:47] Cara Cooper: And I'm Cara Cooper.

[0:49] Cara Cooper: And today we have the one and only Caissie Levy with us.

[0:52] Jessica Rush: Welcome.

[0:53] Caissie Levy: Thank you so much for being here.

[0:57] Jessica Rush: Um, you may know Caissie from just a few different Broadway shows. I think um most currently she is Elsa in Frozen on Broadway, which little girl dreams, I'm sure. Um, she's also, you've seen her in Les Misérables and Ghost and Wicked and Hairspray and coming up, she's gonna have a busy spring as she is in the revival of Caroline, or Change.

[1:20] Jessica Rush: So thank you for making time this morning to come be with us before two show day.

[1:24] Caissie Levy: Total pleasure. Happy to be here.

[1:26] Jessica Rush: Um, so obviously Caissie is a mom. Uh, tell us about your son.

[1:31] Caissie Levy: So my son is almost four, his name is Isaiah, we call him Z. Um, or Zaya or a million other things. Um, he is the best. It's um, uh doing Frozen's the first time I've done eight shows a week on Broadway as a mom.

[1:46] Caissie Levy: Um, and I've been doing it for three years of his life. So I started the lab after he turned one.

[1:52] Caissie Levy: So he's only ever known me as Elsa.

[1:55] Caissie Levy: And um, what is that for a case?

[1:57] Caissie Levy: It's crazy.

[1:58] Caissie Levy: Elsa.

[1:58] Caissie Levy: Yeah, he sleeps with his Elsa doll every night and calls it Mama Elsa.

[2:01] Cara Cooper: Oh yeah.

[2:04] Caissie Levy: So sweet.

[2:05] Caissie Levy: Yeah, there's been like a whole host of um special little things like that tied up in this experience. But yeah, he's um, he's a real, like boundless energy boy running around. Um, he's really into music.

[2:19] Caissie Levy: He knows all the words to all the songs in Frozen. Well, all the rhythms and melodies, I should say, and some of the words. Um, he's super musical and uh, and super funny, and yeah, he's just been the best.

[2:30] Cara Cooper: Has he seen the show?

[2:30] Caissie Levy: He's seen you in the show.

[2:31] Caissie Levy: Yeah, he's seen it a few times. He's seen it, I think he's been out front three or four times.

[2:36] Caissie Levy: Um, and then he also one time watched Let It Go from the wings with David, my husband, and um our whole stage management team like set it all up and um, he was able to like watch the dress change.

[2:48] Caissie Levy: And we have some really special pictures from that.

[2:50] Caissie Levy: Magical sense. But yeah, he thinks he owns the theater.

[2:52] Caissie Levy: Like when he comes, he runs, he wants the crew to turn on the turntable, he runs all over the stage, he goes to the basement, he wants to look at all of the mechanics.

[3:00] Caissie Levy: He's really into like how things work.

[3:02] Cara Cooper: So yeah, it's pretty cool.

[3:03] Caissie Levy: Oh boy, that's exciting.

[3:05] Cara Cooper: Yeah.

[3:06] Cara Cooper: So let's start at the beginning, right?

[3:08] Cara Cooper: So, what got you there? You had a little bit of an interesting journey with your pregnancy, so why don't we kind of go through that?

[3:13] Cara Cooper: Were you working at the time you got pregnant?

[3:15] Cara Cooper: Let's give us all the goods.

[3:17] Caissie Levy: Yeah, I had just finished Les Misérables, um, which I think was like the show and role that pushed me into really knowing I was ready to be a mom, being Fantine.

[3:26] Caissie Levy: Oh my god. Sort of like a dark come and take little realization.

[3:31] Caissie Levy: Singing it when I would audition for it, I auditioned for it before I became a mother, and then I remember going in after I had become a mother and singing Fantine's death when she's like, take my child, I give her to your keeping.

[3:41] Caissie Levy: I'm like, oh my god.

[3:42] Caissie Levy: Oh yes, oh my god.

[3:43] Caissie Levy: Truly hateful.

[3:43] Caissie Levy: It's got a whole nother level.

[3:45] Caissie Levy: Yeah, exactly.

[3:46] Caissie Levy: Yeah.

[3:46] Caissie Levy: So like I'd just been doing that, and I was exhausted, and um, it was a really great experience, but I was very ready for a break, and um, we got pregnant right away, and we lost that pregnancy, and then um, that was, you know, it's all its own bunch of issues and heartache and everything.

[4:03] Caissie Levy: Um, but luckily we got pregnant again, and um, and that was Isaiah.

[4:09] Caissie Levy: And I wasn't working during the first trimester, but I was set to do a show off Broadway, Michael John LaChiusa's First Daughter Suite at the Public.

[4:17] Caissie Levy: And I was very anxious about telling people I was pregnant because I knew I had that job coming up, but it hadn't started, and I wasn't sure how it all worked with equity and how you know, could I lose my job if I said I was pregnant and I didn't know how my pregnancy was gonna go or how much I was gonna show, and I was playing real people that are still alive, and so as you can see, like a lot of anxiety.

[4:37] Caissie Levy: Um, but I just sort of like uh trucked along and I told them I think the second day of rehearsal, and they were all incredible about it.

[4:44] Caissie Levy: But by that time, I was already experiencing a lot of complications with my pregnancy.

[4:48] Cara Cooper: So how far along were you at that point?

[4:51] Caissie Levy: I was I started right at the top of my 12th or 13th week.

[4:54] Caissie Levy: Oh, wow.

[4:54] Caissie Levy: So I just finished the first trimester when I started rehearsals and it wasn't showing at all.

[4:59] Caissie Levy: I mean, I felt like I was, but I wasn't.

[5:01] Cara Cooper: Of course, right?

[5:01] Caissie Levy: Yeah, I was already like trying on the stretchy maternity jeans, and it gets so much.

[5:06] Caissie Levy: It's exciting to begin with, right?

[5:08] Caissie Levy: Oh my god, wait to remember to wear maternity clothes, and by the end, you're like, yeah, get me.

[5:11] Caissie Levy: Yeah, completely.

[5:13] Caissie Levy: So yeah, I um, we knew early, I want to say like 14 or 15 weeks.

[5:20] Caissie Levy: I think it was the 15-week scan, actually, that um, that I had intrauterine growth restrictions.

[5:25] Caissie Levy: So we knew that the baby was gonna be on the small side and that the baby might not be growing well inside my womb.

[5:31] Caissie Levy: Um, and that I had low fluid and I had placenta issues.

[5:36] Caissie Levy: So it very quickly became like a scary time.

[5:40] Caissie Levy: But it wasn't terrible really until five and a half months, right when I was finishing the run.

[5:46] Caissie Levy: And that's when um, we started to realize that like every two weeks with the growth scan that the baby wasn't growing.

[5:53] Caissie Levy: And my whole world just became about that.

[5:56] Caissie Levy: So David was finishing his second master's degree at the time, and he was constantly out of school, and we were going to doctor's appointments every other day.

[6:03] Caissie Levy: We were getting ultrasounds every three days a week to monitor the fluid, the placenta, the movement.

[6:09] Caissie Levy: There was like a time where he didn't move for a while in the middle of a snowstorm.

[6:12] Caissie Levy: He had to walk to one of the hospitals because we couldn't get a cab and get monitored.

[6:16] Caissie Levy: So all these things that I'm sure many women listening um have experienced varying levels of throughout their pregnancy, where and especially your first pregnancy where you're like, I don't know what's happening.

[6:24] Caissie Levy: And then when of course you have complications and the doctors are like, uh, you know, this is not a typical pregnancy, you start to panic a little bit more.

[6:31] Cara Cooper: Yeah.

[6:33] Caissie Levy: So in the end, um we were really weighing how how long we should keep him in versus when we should pull him out.

[6:41] Caissie Levy: So I had taken, you know, the birthing classes and the every sort of prenatal class, the breastfeeding class, and then I had to sort of um reconcile, knowing that like I probably wouldn't have a vaginal birth, I'd probably have an emergency C-section, all these things that like I would never feel like what it would feel like to labor naturally, all these things I had sort of had to like say goodbye to during the pregnancy, which I found very difficult in the time, probably because uh of the stress surrounding the whole thing, of what I'd sort of um ingested as like how to be pregnant.

[7:15] Cara Cooper: Right this day and age.

[7:16] Caissie Levy: Well, the yeah, the pressure and the judgment and the yeah.

[7:19] Caissie Levy: Yeah, like drinking the Kool-Aid as far as like this is what pregnancy needs to look like, or it's not valid, or it's not good, or it's not healthy, or so I was realizing at the time, like, oh wow, all these things are really like doing a number on my psyche and my psychological health and my my relationship, and you know, and I was just trying to keep the baby chill.

[7:39] Caissie Levy: We kept, you know, telling the baby, like, you just relax in there, we'll do the stressing for you, which only sort of worked.

[7:45] Caissie Levy: But um, anyways, in the end, I had an emergency C-section at 34 weeks.

[7:50] Caissie Levy: We were able to keep him in pretty long, but um, but he was only three pounds.

[7:54] Caissie Levy: So then he was in the NICU for three weeks, which was something else I wasn't prepared for, and I knew nothing about.

[8:00] Caissie Levy: So, all those stories and articles and mom blogs about like when they give you your baby two days after you deliver and you take him home and you're like, what do we do with the baby?

[8:09] Caissie Levy: We didn't have that.

[8:10] Caissie Levy: So I was sitting by his isolate from 6 a.m. until 11 p.m. pumping nursing when he could, because he had a feeding tube, he was so tiny, would fall asleep when nursing.

[8:20] Caissie Levy: So they had to feed him with his little tiny nuggets.

[8:24] Caissie Levy: Yeah, he was like the size of this coffee cup.

[8:26] Caissie Levy: It was nuts.

[8:27] Caissie Levy: But you know, we had the best care in the NICU, um, Mount Sinai Upper East Side.

[8:32] Caissie Levy: They were amazing and they taught us a lot, and um, and it was really scary and really sad to come home to not having our baby at the house.

[8:41] Caissie Levy: But we also knew that we were in good hands there and that he was healthy, he was just tiny.

[8:46] Cara Cooper: And you know, when you're in the NICU, what a relief, I'm sure, after the journey of your pregnancy, not knowing, and yes, yes.

[8:53] Caissie Levy: We were really great.

[8:54] Caissie Levy: So worried the whole time when he was out and he couldn't maybe.

[8:57] Caissie Levy: I mean, it was still he he was still in the NICU, but he was getting the attention he needed.

[9:01] Caissie Levy: 100%.

[9:02] Caissie Levy: Yeah.

[9:02] Caissie Levy: I mean, you see all of the ranges of what can happen in the NICU too.

[9:05] Caissie Levy: And like these NICU nurses, they are angels on earth, what they do, especially like us as actors, we're used to people being like, oh my god, you're changing lives, and you sometimes are like, what?

[9:16] Caissie Levy: No, I'm not.

[9:17] Caissie Levy: Yeah, no, they are literally they literally do.

[9:19] Caissie Levy: They are really, I mean, just wildly amazing.

[9:22] Caissie Levy: And so I was able to find a lot of comfort in that.

[9:25] Caissie Levy: But I was also dealing with like the hormone drop-off after you deliver a baby.

[9:30] Caissie Levy: So uh I'm a little depressive to begin with, plus the anxiety of my kid being the NICU, plus the hormone drop-off, plus breastfeeding and figuring that out, which is a total shit show, pardon my French.

[9:40] Caissie Levy: So uh I was crying a lot, and um my mom and dad were in Canada and they were visiting and helping as much as they could, but they're not really allowed in the NICU, so it was a lot.

[9:51] Caissie Levy: Um, and when we brought him home, it was so joyful and amazing, and he was just a tiny little dude, and and then began the journey of figuring out uh, you know, how to be a working actor and having a new little baby at home.

[10:03] Caissie Levy: And actually, this is a good little tidbit.

[10:06] Caissie Levy: I remember I think the second week after he was born, you know, still have gauze on my C-section scar, um, still taking pain medicine.

[10:14] Caissie Levy: I went in and auditioned for Grizabella in Cats because I was like, well, she sings one song, it's a shitload of makeup, but other than that, it's kind of a good choice.

[10:24] Caissie Levy: And I was in the waiting room of the NICU, being like, practicing it.

[10:29] Caissie Levy: Psycho.

[10:30] Caissie Levy: The things we do, the things we do, and the things we think are expected of us, and the hamster wheel we're on.

[10:36] Cara Cooper: Well, because we also, I mean, let's be honest, what we do, people tend to write us off once we become a mother.

[10:43] Cara Cooper: You know what I mean?

[10:43] Cara Cooper: It's like no matter what level you're on of your career, you know, I think people decide, oh, well, she's a mom, so she's a good one.

[10:48] Caissie Levy: Yeah, or if you take time away for any reason, heaven forbid, you know, it's like the business will still be there.

[10:54] Caissie Levy: I remember my agent saying that to me, you know, when I was stressing about it, and he was like, the business will always be here.

[10:59] Caissie Levy: It's so true.

[11:00] Caissie Levy: But it doesn't feel like life.

[11:02] Caissie Levy: It doesn't at the time.

[11:03] Caissie Levy: And I think back, I was just talking, a friend of mine went to her first audition back after having a baby just yesterday, and she was texting with me, and I remember I said to my husband, I was like, I remember that feeling of like, oh my god, will the baby be okay without me?

[11:19] Caissie Levy: Checking in constantly and like trying to prep, and like everything feels so massive.

[11:24] Caissie Levy: It does, you know.

[11:25] Caissie Levy: And you look back and you go, I mean, yes, it is, but also the perspective of where you've come from, and it's all just life.

[11:34] Caissie Levy: You figure it out, you have to go through that too.

[11:36] Cara Cooper: And you talk to other moms, like you were talking to your friend.

[11:38] Cara Cooper: Like, I'm sure that's it.

[11:39] Caissie Levy: I was like, it's gonna be okay.

[11:41] Caissie Levy: I was like, keep breathing.

[11:42] Caissie Levy: He's not gonna know you were gone.

[11:44] Caissie Levy: You know what I mean?

[11:45] Caissie Levy: Like, he's two months old.

[11:46] Caissie Levy: Yeah, okay.

[11:47] Caissie Levy: It's gonna be okay.

[11:50] Cara Cooper: Yeah.

[11:52] Caissie Levy: Um, I'm trying to think of what you might not audition for Grizabella.

[11:57] Caissie Levy: Yeah, that was heinous.

[11:58] Cara Cooper: Did it two weeks, Caissie?

[12:00] Caissie Levy: Yeah, you know, and with the C-section, I had two emergency C-sections, and I like even the breathing, oh to saying it is difficult with that scar, yeah, and that pain.

[12:09] Cara Cooper: I can't even so after you did that one, did you say maybe I should step back for a minute?

[12:14] Caissie Levy: Yeah, I was like, I'm gonna hold off.

[12:16] Caissie Levy: Um, luckily there's nothing else this season because he was born in February, so like everything was cast.

[12:21] Caissie Levy: And I was like, cool, I'm gonna take a sec.

[12:23] Caissie Levy: Um, but then my friend who sings backup for Rod Stewart was like, hey, one of the backup singers is leaving and we need a new backup singer, and I was like, wow, I'm never gonna work again because this is what I always think, especially after having a baby.

[12:37] Caissie Levy: I'm like, oh, no one's hiring me. So okay, I guess I should try to be a backup singer for Rod Stewart. So I like at when he was five months, we went out to Las Vegas, just me and him and a nanny, and I like put on a shimmy dress and high heels and like was a backup singer for six weeks for for Rod for Sir Rod. Um, and that was actually cool. That was my first job post post baby, and it was terrifying. I was um really convinced that I like couldn't do it. Um which was interesting. I mean, it was out of my wheelhouse, and that I was like dancing the way I hadn't danced since I was in Hairspray when I was 26. So I was like doing all these sexy dance moves that like I've been parking and barking for a while, so I was like, okay, I gotta get that skill brushed up.

But I also was just um really like feeling like I didn't know what I was doing for some reason. And um, I think I had been dealing with some postpartum depression and um anxiety about how Isaiah was doing as a tiny little baby and as a preemie, and so I just I don't think I was totally ready, but it's good that I did it in the end, and I'd had a great experience, and I felt like oh, I can do this once I was out there doing it. But like rehearsing for it was really scary.

[13:49] Cara Cooper: I imagine a lot of moms their first job back after. Well, how mom brain is that? I mean, that's the very real thing. And like yes, trying to learn something, especially like you said, it's not in your wheelhouse, it's not what you do all the time. So having to use different muscles and also still being the mother of a you know five-month old.

[14:07] Caissie Levy: Yeah, yeah, no, totally, and not having my partner with me because he was teaching, so it was a it was a big adventure, but it was a short gig too, and so I could sort of like see an end to it. Um, like, can I do this? Okay, I can do this. It was, yeah. And then I felt very empowered at the end of it, which was great. And we got, you know, we got to spend some time out in the desert, which was cool. And um it was he went to he swam for the first time in Vegas in our little hotel swimming pool. So, like, we have really special um family memories from that time. After Rod Stewart, what was the next step in your journey?

[14:40] Caissie Levy: Yeah, so uh I think I actually auditioned for one of the labs of Frozen before Rod Stewart. I did. I think I yeah, in April. So he was probably like two months old. And I auditioned for Elsa for the first time and had some callbacks when Alex Timbers was still directing, didn't get the lab, went and did Rod Stewart. Um came back in the end of the summer, I believe. Yeah, early fall. And I think soon after that, I had my next Elsa audition when Michael Grandage was on board, and then I knew pretty oh no, then I was going in for waitress. So I was auditioning for other jobs, and um I was gonna do waitress, and then I didn't because I got Elsa, and it was like very wonderful and very sad at the same time. And um I felt I was gonna be the you know the first real mother to have played that role in waitress, and I felt very connected to it because everything changes was playing when Isaiah was born.

[15:36] Cara Cooper: Oh, what?

[15:37] Caissie Levy: Mm-hmm. Ah so because this is actually something maybe relatable to other moms listening, because my pregnancy was such a crazy time. One of the only things I could control was the music that would be playing in the delivery room. So I was like kind of obsessive about the playlist, and I was like trying to make it super chill and super yummy feeling because I knew that the day they said this is the day you have to go to the hospital that we wanted to be like this is our baby's birthday. This isn't scary, this is happy. So the playlist was part of that, and I knew that I wanted everything changes on that. Because I remember when before the show started, Gavin Creel, who's one of my best friends and who's one of Sarah's best friends, had sent me the song and was like, You gotta listen to this.

Look at what Sarah wrote without ever being a mother. And I was like, oh my god, this song. Um so it was on there from her concept album, and it was playing the moment they delivered him. Isn't that nuts?

[16:35] Cara Cooper: Yeah.

[16:35] Caissie Levy: So through my auditions, I was like, I had a little I had Isaiah's little passport photo taped to my sides so that I could like look at him while I was yeah, yeah. So anyhow, Elsa came along, and it was like it just was one of those auditions and one of those moments in the room as we all have had where you're like, oh, this is there's something this is the thing. And um I was so excited that I was getting a chance at it, and I almost didn't go to my audition because I had a cold and I thought I was gonna sound bad. So thank God I went. Good thing just go to the audition, folks. Just go. And um, and then I started it uh when he so he turned one in February, and I started the lab in April. And that was sort of the beginning of the journey. And that was three years ago, yeah.

[17:21] Cara Cooper: That's crazy.

[17:22] Caissie Levy: Yeah. I mean, I remember that time because everybody was well, I remember going in for all those things too, you know. Like it was like everyone all of us, yeah. Going in and doing it, and um, and then you know, word starts to spread, it's like, oh, Casey's doing frozen and Betsy's going into waitress, and like all the people doing all the, you know, yeah, it was a fun time but you um totally I remember I remember personally being like oh Casey's not doing waitress because I just thought your knowing you and the energy and your soul and your spirit who you are I remember thinking oh she would be a fantastic Jedi like singing that and having the connection because I do think about that it's like singing that music as a mother is a whole different yeah I think Nicolette is the only Jordan oh and Jordan's heart yeah she's a mom amazing so two moms it is it is I mean I certainly don't think you need to be a mom to play that part but I do feel because we're all actors and we can do it but like there is something deeper and more beautiful about having been through that in your own life and then getting to do that on stage I think like now when I think back to my roles as Fonteen and also when I was doing murder ballad playing a mom I had I wasn't a mom yet so it'd be really interesting to go back and like reexamine those parts now that I am a mom and just see where you know yeah what choices you make.

[18:38] Caissie Levy: Yeah exactly for sure so then you are Elsa y'all oh boy and just a little pressure on that yeah you know yeah jeez so in some ways it was good to have Isaiah in a lot of ways I mean in every way but like especially as far as the pressure goes with frozen it was good because it didn't allow me to obsess over all the things that could go wrong right which I still didn't you find that like I'm Kara and I've talked about this it's like I find that just in general with auditions now you know I mean there's a certain weight I mean there's a diff I should say there is still a weight with you know oh and I I need a job so I can provide for my child yeah but there's also this sort of feeling of like this isn't the most important thing.

[19:21] Cara Cooper: Totally anymore.

[19:22] Caissie Levy: It's free. Because when you're younger, it's so yeah massive. All of it just feels so heavy in the pressure. And I have to succeed and I have to do this and I have to book this gig. And now you go in the room and it's just like life moves on.

[19:35] Cara Cooper: Yeah.

[19:35] Caissie Levy: And it's a lot easier to leave it at the door. And and please, I mean, the preparation for an audition now. Yep. And they have to be so much more efficient and focused. And I look back at my younger years and I think, God, I wasted a lot of time not preparing for auditions. And I would be prepared. It's not that. But how much better and more efficient I am at doing it now because the time is so finite.

[20:00] Cara Cooper: I I totally agree. I think that's the biggest shift is like now. I'm like, well, I have 20 minutes to learn these sides, so I'm going to learn them. And then I have to make lunch. I have to get this child down for a nap, or the rest of the day is screwed. So like you figure it out. And my agents annoyingly, they bug me when they say this, but they're right. They're always like, oh, ever since you became a mother, everything is so much better. You're way more chill. You're booking everything. You're what because I'm like, I don't have any time.

[20:26] Caissie Levy: Right.

[20:26] Cara Cooper: You know, and you're so much less precious about yourself because you have to be. Because it really isn't the first thing anymore. But then when you get to work on the audition material, when you get to audition, you enjoy it more exactly.

[20:37] Caissie Levy: Exactly.

[20:37] Cara Cooper: It feels like you do.

[20:39] Caissie Levy: Yeah.

[20:39] Cara Cooper: Yeah.

[20:39] Caissie Levy: Well, and you can clue back into that part of you that was there before.

[20:42] Cara Cooper: Yeah.

[20:43] Caissie Levy: Totally. Totally. Because it's so easy to just get swept up in the mom life. And even you're talking about make making it precious. I even feel like my choices insides, it's like easier to make choices because I just like go with that gut.

[20:55] Cara Cooper: Yes.

[20:55] Caissie Levy: Right. Like I don't have to like obsess over every little thing because you don't have the time to.

[21:00] Cara Cooper: No, and you trust yourself in a way that like I don't think I ever trusted myself before.

[21:04] Caissie Levy: Yeah.

[21:04] Cara Cooper: Where I'm like, okay, this is what I got. This is who I am. They'll either dig it or they won't. And that's really cool.

[21:10] Caissie Levy: And that's cool because my kid's at home and she thinks I'm the best.

[21:14] Cara Cooper: That's right.

[21:14] Caissie Levy: That's right.

[21:16] Caissie Levy: So you so you did the lab of Frozen.

[21:21] Cara Cooper: Yeah.

[21:21] Caissie Levy: One of the labs.

[21:22] Cara Cooper: Yeah, the last lab before we went into production.

[21:26] Caissie Levy: So then you guys went to Denver.

[21:28] Cara Cooper: Yes.

[21:29] Caissie Levy: Right? And Z would have been small.

[21:31] Cara Cooper: Yeah.

[21:32] Caissie Levy: It was a year and a half. So did he come with you?

[21:35] Caissie Levy: Yeah, he came with me and a and a nanny again, because David was finishing. Actually, David was teaching. So he's a theater professor in New Jersey at a university. So he was teaching away and he would visit, but I brought um and my nannies are like some of my favorite students from when I taught at Amda, which is my alma mater. So I would teach them musical theater and then I would like sort of pluck the girls and be like, hey, wanna be a babysitter? So they're like part of our family now, which is great. So um so I brought one of our trusted sitters with me to Denver, and we we figured it out, we made it work, and and she pulled a lot of weight while I was um teching and then in previews, rehearsing all day and still doing a show at night. And we were there for I I want to say eight weeks, nine weeks.

[22:22] Caissie Levy: So you've got the the sitters, you're plucking your sitters from Amda, and you've got the nannies, and I'm sure David has been a huge part of the journey as well.

[22:31] Caissie Levy: Yeah, I can't do any of it without David. Um he like he we have such a great partnership that I sometimes it's easy to take that for granted. Um, that co-parenting element of my life, because sometimes I stop and think, well, how does anybody do this alone? Let alone in our business. But like, how does anyone solo parent? And sometimes it feels as though I'm solo parenting, and yet I never am because David's gone half the week, and so we are often trading off time with Z, but there's no way I could do this job, um, be the kind of mom I want to be and manage this like crazy schedule household everything without him. Like he's the most supportive, and he's right there in with in it with me. Like he's it's very equal.

[23:20] Cara Cooper: That's awesome.

[23:20] Caissie Levy: Um, which is cool. And I think I think you find the same thing with your husband, right?

[23:24] Cara Cooper: Yeah. Totally.

[23:24] Caissie Levy: Oh, I mean, Eric is like so hands-on, he's always in it, yeah, unless he's in La Jolla, which he's gone now. But like David's gone like four days a week or something.

[23:33] Cara Cooper: Yeah, he's gone three to four days a week, and then when he's directing this, like in the spring, when I'm opening Caroline, he'll be away directing a show.

[23:39] Caissie Levy: Oh, so but then my parents fly in and like his parents live in the city and they help us a lot. We have like a really good strong family foundation that that helps us, and I just I'm so grateful for that. And it is absolutely the main reason I can keep my head kind of level. Because you can pay people and you can trust people with your kid, but when you've got family around and when you've got a partner that you know you don't have to think twice about.

[24:05] Cara Cooper: Totally.

[24:05] Caissie Levy: Kara and I say that all the time. We're like, we have we have great husbands, and we still get frustrated or feel like we're taking on the whole yeah, you know, that that's but you know, but we're so lucky to have lucky. Oh my god. Because there are some guys who just aren't in so yeah, and I think that's something great about being in the arts too, is like we're all used to the idea of change all the time. Like we are used to not knowing where our next job is and when it'll be, or when we're losing our current job. And because of that, it lets us like pivot in our lives a little easier and kind of roll with the punches, and that's a great um skill to have when you have a kid. But so for both parents to be in the business in some capacity, like it is for me and David, and I know for you and Eric, like it's so nice to not have to explain the business end of things to your partner, they just get it, they're in it too, they know.

[24:54] Caissie Levy: Um, and they can sort of like pick up the slack, and you can do that for them when it's your turn, you know. It's it's a nice thing to have. It's awesome. The ebb and flow, teamwork, yep, yeah. Oh my gosh, I mean, the thought of teching and previewing, yeah, and being Elsa, and just I mean, and we sort of, you know, I know we laugh about it, but it's true, like the pressure, you know, Disney is no joke, yeah, you know, and Frozen, well, Frozen 2 is now I think the most popular animated film of all time. Like you know, gross highest grossing, yeah, yeah. But Frozen was this juggernaut, and the expectations that people had of who was gonna be Elsa and how are they gonna do Let It Go and this and that, and um first off, I just have to say you have to Google Casey if you haven't already seen her, but you have to Google her and watch her sing Let It Go on the Tony Awards.

Uh you I can't when you take it up at the end, that's crazy. First off, that's amazing. And things go, but I remember being at like the Tony rehearsals, and you guys, this is a side note, but we'll get back. But we were at Tony's rehearsal, and you rehearsed in the morning on Sunday. Um, you have to do a whole run through of the Tony's. So I was there with Summer, and you were there with Frozen, and I'm in the house of Radio City, and Frozen is rehearsing theirs, and it's literally like 8:30 in the morning, 8:30. After a two show day the day before, and they're gonna have a matinee that afternoon, and then be on the Atoni Awards that night. So this is an epic, epic day. And I remember Casey knew it, and I and she sang her face off, sounded incredible.

It was awesome, and everyone's cheering. And I like literally texted her. I was like, I'm crying. I was shouting, like, yes, mama, yes. And I was saying to people, I was like, she probably got up at six, you guys. This is insane. Like, she was mom, and then she came here and she did that. I was just so proud, and you know, as not only as actors, but as mothers, like how hard. I know the life that you had before you even got to that rehearsal, and then you were gonna be mom, and then you were gonna do the matinee and probably see Z for dinner and then go to the it's just insane. And you sounded incredible, and I was just like friend girl power. I was I was on such a high. I was just so that's amazing of you to say that I was shouting at you.

I loved that text. I remember when you sent me that text. I was just like, I'm that's amazing. Yeah, you know what? I was like, if I don't do this riff at the rehearsal in my matinee as well, I won't have the nerve to do it that night. Yeah, so I made myself, I think I did it in all the shows leading up to it that week too, just because I was like, if I don't just make this like ain't nothing, yeah, then um, then I'll chicken out at the last minute. Yeah, and I knew I wanted to give a little something extra, so I made myself do that, and actually it was almost scarier to do it in the rehearsal, not just that it was in the morning, but because I knew all my friends were out there.

[27:52] Cara Cooper: I know, I know. It's always that's the hardest part is like seeing for people you know, so you know that everyone everyone's like, Oh, well, I haven't seen the show yet because it conflicts with my running schedule.

[28:00] Caissie Levy: Yeah. What are they? Let me show me what you can do.

[28:03] Cara Cooper: Exactly. Yeah, oh my god, the judge yes.

[28:08] Caissie Levy: But it's funny, it's mostly in our heads though, because mostly everybody out in the crowd is doing what you were doing. Like you're cheering each other on, and actually, you do feel that on the morning of the Tonies, but it it's very pressurized. But when we put our own pressure, we didn't. I mean crazy. The people I hate singing for the most are the people I know.

[28:20] Cara Cooper: Yeah, oh 1000.

[28:22] Caissie Levy: Yeah, especially when you can see them. Like all the house lights are up in those rehearsals, and you're like, Oh, could you just dim the eye? So it's like to see who's out there.

[28:27] Cara Cooper: Right, exactly. Um, I want to before we'll go back to frozen, but um something I want to talk about because this is what I meant to ask you earlier, and I'd forgotten.

[28:38] Caissie Levy: Yeah, did your voice change after Z was born? And also, I know you've spoken about vocal health and what you went through. Like, if you could talk to us about that, and then if you felt a change.

[28:50] Caissie Levy: Totally. Yeah. When I was doing first daughter suite, I was singing in more of a legit place, anyways, more of like a legit musical theater place. And as we know, like as we get bigger and bigger in our pregnancies, like our organs literally move out of the way to accommodate the bump. And and it affected my breathing a lot during that show. So I felt it then while I was pregnant. Um, and I had to find a different way to breathe into my ribs and stuff to get like enough room to support vocally, and then also after giving birth, I definitely felt with the hormone drop-off that uh my whole immune system felt like kind of low. I mean, first of all, you're not sleeping, you're nursing, you're pumping, you're doing whatever you do, or you're bottle feeding whatever you do, fed is best.

But um, you're you know, in a fight or flight mode for so many months, and um your body's trying to recuperate, and it definitely affected my singing as well. So, like also I was rusty, like I hadn't been singing every day. So going in for those auditions or singing at a couple of concerts that I did, like it didn't really feel like my own voice. Um and I went back into voice lessons just so I could like you know have a little tune-up. Um, and the vocal health stuff was majorly part of it because I was also taking uh from my C-section like a ton of ibuprofen, which is terrible for your voice. And um, I have a history of hemorrhaging when and the ibuprofen is blood sending, so I was really wary of taking it for my pain, yeah, even though I really needed it, um, because I was worried about how it would affect my voice.

So there was a lot, and even just those sentences I've just said are very like stressful to hear. So then you imagine like living through all of that and trying to like balance what's good for you as a mom, what's good for your body in this healing mode, and then what's good for your career, um, and trying to match up.

[30:37] Cara Cooper: They totally don't, yeah, yeah.

[30:39] Caissie Levy: No, yeah, but you have to figure it out, like you have to sort of like um sacrifice in one area in order to benefit in the other, and and it's sort of like a um what's the word I'm looking for? It's a bit of a gamble, yeah.

[30:52] Cara Cooper: Compromise.

[30:53] Caissie Levy: There we go. Exactly.

[30:54] Cara Cooper: Yeah, and and what have you done? I mean, having a toddler, I mean, also he's grown from being one and a half to now almost four.

[31:03] Caissie Levy: So major development development, yeah, needing your attention, communication, waking up very early, waking up very early. I mean, and to have been on an HO week schedule as Elsa with the weight of it all, not just vocally, but just to be the face of Disney, you know what I mean? And like you've been doing appearances and all these things, yeah. Um, what have you found? How have you been able to manage that?

[31:29] Caissie Levy: You know, like pulling back because you can't not talk to your child.

[31:32] Cara Cooper: Totally.

[31:33] Caissie Levy: He needs you know, because I'm sure back in the day it'd be like vocal rest, yeah.

[31:37] Cara Cooper: I didn't talk during the day.

[31:38] Caissie Levy: Not now.

[31:39] Caissie Levy: No, you'd sleep till 10. Honestly, I don't know how this has happened as well as it has. And there's been moments that have not been great. But like overall, I think sheer will is like the number one thing. And then having really good systems in place. Like I'm really an organized person. And so I'm a little type A. So like I definitely have a spreadsheet of babysitters and how it all works and scheduling and everything. And like that, that without that, it would be impossible. But even with all that planning, as we all know, like that goes out the window when the kid is sick and has to be home from school all day and you're in previews and you need to scramble to find coverage, or you need and your kid hasn't seen you in two weeks because you're previewing and rehearsing all day.

And so you gotta get someone who can bring him down to the theater, or you gotta go home in between rehearsal and curtain, but you need PT or you need your voice lesson, or you need a nap. Um so there's definitely tears involved. There's definitely um deep breathing. But I think my body, I don't know, I'm sure you guys can speak. This is just moms get moms make it happen. Hashtag moms make it happen.

[32:43] Cara Cooper: That's right.

[32:44] Caissie Levy: I like that hashtag.

[32:44] Cara Cooper: I like it too.

[32:45] Caissie Levy: We just you just do it. You just wake up at five.

[32:48] Cara Cooper: Yeah, you have the child. Moms can never have a sick day, totally it's you just push through.

[32:53] Caissie Levy: Yeah. People at the theater are always like, you know, because they'll be going out, which I don't I mean, we're getting older, so we don't tend to go out that much anymore. Anyway, but like the kids will be going out, and I'm like, you guys, my alarm goes off at 6 45 for Elliot to go to school, and like, I don't know how you do it. I'm like, you just use do it. You just do it, like just know you're gonna have to do it. Like that's what it is. And your body sort of like accommodates, like I think that uh I mean, I there are are many nights where I get five hours of sleep at the most, and I'd still go sing let it go and all the other stuff, and um, and it does work weirdly, but I think it's part of that I think there's something that shifts in you like on a molecular level that like accommodates all the things you need to be to all the people totally I wanted to ask you because talking about previews and tech and everything, we um I've heard well and Court talked about this at a women's council meeting that we which Anne Court, who runs Disney Theatricals, she's the best awesome, she is a mom and she is making changes and trying to make headway in a lot of different ways, and hopefully we'll have her on one day.

[33:58] Cara Cooper: Oh my gosh, she's one of the most inspiring women and people in the show.

[34:02] Caissie Levy: She's fantastic. She touched on uh she mentioned that when you guys were about to open, the Z was sick and they got you a room because we have I mean, yeah, like we were talking about.

[34:14] Caissie Levy: Nossa, yeah. I had booked myself into um the Roe Hotel across the street from the St. James. I had made a reservation for like two weeks around opening just to have because I knew that I would need to be in good voice, and um that and at that point Isaiah was barely sleeping. I mean, he's always in some form of barely sleeping mode, but um, yeah, and I knew I couldn't get sick and I couldn't have like nursery school germs and you know children cough into your mouth. And um, so I was like, I can't have that happen. But I also need to see my kids, so I thought, oh, if I could like control the environment a little bit and like be home with him when I needed to be, and I could hug him and kiss him, and then I could go sleep somewhere else and not inhale the same germs.

And um I'm I it's always hard for me to ask for help. Since I've become a mom, I'm a lot better at it. And I realize you can't do everything by yourself, but before becoming a mother, I would never dream of asking a producer for anything like that or any accommodation. I wouldn't want them to think I was weak or couldn't do it or have any doubts that the person they hired wasn't, you know, able to do what was expected of them. But I think Ann had come in on a particularly raw day, and I was maybe a little tearful with her, and just also, you know, the pressure of opening, coming up and wanting to be the best I could be. And she was like, Well, what can we do? We're here for you. Like, how can we help you?

Like, you're our Elsa. We want to make you. And she's also like, and you know, I'm Anne, you're Casey. It's not just about like, I'm your producer, you're my Elsa. It's that, but it's more than that. I'm a mother too. I get it. Um, your husband works away four days a week, and um, you know, you've got a roster of babysitters rotating in. Like, how can we allow you to do your best work on stage? And so they helped me with that hotel room.

[36:01] Cara Cooper: That's amazing.

[36:01] Caissie Levy: It was something like I will never forget.

[36:01] Cara Cooper: Yeah.

[36:01] Caissie Levy: That's I mean, that's what that's what changes, right? Too, and the to have the support, and this is something we talk about just with equality, like women and the workplace and having someone in that position who could give you that and who could understand your journey a little bit better than someone who hadn't because I don't think that there's um a resistance to that kind of leadership from male producers. I just think that it doesn't always occur to them. I think they're absolutely like wanting their teams to produce the best work they can. And had I gone to Tom Schumacher and said those things, I'm sure he would have had the same reaction, but I just would never have dared to. And because Anne is a mom and we just talk in a way that I don't with everybody else, that came about because of that.

And that's just like that having that um leadership from someone who is so empathetic, who's also a woman in the industry, who's also a mother, um, who's also just an open, kind human being, like open to receiving what her team needs from her. Like that made a huge difference.

[37:04] Cara Cooper: That's amazing.

[37:05] Caissie Levy: Wonderful.

[37:06] Cara Cooper: Holla for Anne Court.

[37:07] Caissie Levy: Yeah.

[37:08] Cara Cooper: We love you.

[37:09] Caissie Levy: For sure.

[37:10] Cara Cooper: Well, you're coming to the end of your time in Frozen.

[37:14] Caissie Levy: I cannot believe you've done it for so long.

[37:16] Caissie Levy: I remember when you were like, I just signed on to February 2020. And I was like, oh my God. That was in November of 2018. I was thinking about that this morning. I was like, and I remember thinking, that's so far away. And now we're here. Now we're here. Because time is crazy. Because time speeds up. It does. It really does. Um, so as you close it out, you know, what memories will you have? Or like what will you take with you? I mean, that's a large what a time. What a time. Like for your child as a mother, as an artist, and to have something. It's so rare in general for us to have things, have jobs that we do for so long. But it really is, I even just thinking about like the pocket of time for Z, it's like his toddler years, and now he's like totally and gonna be moving into like a new phase of his life, and you're gonna be moving into a new phase of your career, which is so yeah.

I totally measure Frozen by him and his age. And so it's and because it's the first time I've done a show that's geared, not geared to kids, but is geared to kids, um, and for that to be the one show I've done as a mom is so fun and interesting, and so it is all like kind of tied up together, but it's weird. It's the longest I've ever done any show, and um, I feel like you know, Patty and I, we really feel like we created this thing, and for sure. You did. Not in a like pat myself on the back way, just like it's so nuts to be leaving it. Not not in a like, it's mine way. Just um that it's crazy that it happened at all, you know. So I think now I I'm doing a lot of um trying to like be sounds so ridiculous, but like be present in it.

Like when I'm in the wings about to go out, I'm like, pay attention, be here, be here now. I say be here now a lot to myself, right these days because it's going so fast, and I have a bunch of like outs coming up for concerts and stuff. So I'm not doing every single show till I'm done. So the ones I'm at, I'm really trying to like appreciate them. And um, but the pictures and the memories and Isaiah being backstage and playing in the snow in the audience with him after the audience clears out, these things are things I will never ever ever forget. And um, and it's good vibes in that building. And Patty and I, you know, I'll take her with me. She's become a guys were like, yeah, couldn't have worked out any better, really.

Um kind of shocking. But like another great example of women supporting women, there was never ever a moment of competition or weirdness or and we made it our mission for that to be so, but it also naturally just kind of happened that way, which is great.

[39:47] Cara Cooper: Yeah, well, and we also like had lived enough life prior to getting these parts where we weren't super ego-y about them.

[39:54] Caissie Levy: Right, which helped. But um, yeah, like our stage managers, I love them so much, and my dresser Fran Curry, who oh my god, Frank. You know what? Let's talk about Frank.

[40:03] Cara Cooper: I know.

[40:04] Caissie Levy: Yes. Because as a mom, our backstage crew and our especially our dressers who see us like when we come in and we dump our purse down and we gotta get into our tights and our spanks and our whatever's and they're with us every change off stage. They really like see how our daily life unfolds, I think, in a way that other people don't. They're like therapists, yes, really are inevitably, you're like talking to them in the dressing room and telling them the things, and they see the tears and they see the things you're most vulnerable. I mean, literally naked. Emotionally and physically. Yes. Like two nights ago, Isaiah was having a really rough bedtime with the babysitter. And I had to call him when I was changing into Let It Go.

So he's on speaker phone crying, I don't want a babysitter. I want mama. I want mama. And I'm literally like putting on the sparkly dress. Fran's dealing with my mic because I got the wig on, and I'm like, I know, honey, I want to come home too. Just like trying, I love you so much. I'll be home in 30 minutes. You know, it's okay. Just trying to tell, I'm gonna sing Let It Go. Do you want to sing Let It Go with Me right now? No, that didn't work. But so Fran is like helping me finagle into this costume. I hang up with him. We go out, she throws water at me. I go out, I sing the song, I come back off. I have to call him back. He's still screaming, because of course I've checked on the camera, which I watch obsessively.

We call it Z TV. And um, and she hears another conference call with you know, conference call, so business-y, another um what's the speaker call? Thank you. Um, you know, I'm hanging up and she's like, Oh God, how do you do this? You know, and I'm like, I don't know, but thank God you're here because I can like, you know, I'm leaning on you. And she really is there for me in such a real way. Like she's a she's a doctor, she's a dresser, she's a therapist, she's a friend, she's a sister. And um, she is a big secret weapon as far as how I've maintained this role in these three years and like gone on stage every night and been a mom. I feel very um grateful to her. I love her very, very much. And she's amazing at what she does, but she's also just a kick-ass woman who is. Yeah, she's awesome.

[42:00] Cara Cooper: Yeah, that's so shout out to your hair dresser. That's really lovely.

[42:03] Caissie Levy: Yeah, it's nice to have a forum in which to sing her praises. Yeah, you know.

[42:08] Cara Cooper: Absolutely.

[42:09] Caissie Levy: So thanks for that. We'll have to tell her.

[42:10] Cara Cooper: Yeah.

[42:10] Caissie Levy: Um, as you look towards your next role, oh my god, do you have you don't have any double duty, right? Or do you do?

[42:16] Caissie Levy: Oh, oh my gosh. I didn't think you would. I know. I was like, maybe this had to have worked out.

[42:21] Caissie Levy: Yeah. I start rehearsals February 3rd. So my last two weeks of Frozen, I'll be rehearsing all day at Caroline.

[42:27] Cara Cooper: Oh, okay.

[42:28] Caissie Levy: So I'm gonna just take that one day at a time.

[42:30] Cara Cooper: Yes, absolutely.

[42:31] Caissie Levy: And know that it will be over at some point. Um Carolina Change Producers were great in that I was like, I can't come in on the two Mondays. So because they're uh the rehearsal day off is Sunday, but I have two shows Sunday. So for those first two weeks, I will not rehearse it for you. For knowing that. Yeah, you know, and good for you for asking and speaking it, you know. I think there's something also so empowering, right? About being like, this is what I need.

[42:57] Caissie Levy: Yes. And then when they give it to you, you're like, oh, they value me as the artist and who they're hiring and as a person and my well-being. And yeah, because it was like I need to wrap up my time at Frozen as best as I can and giving it the attention and the love and the skill it deserves. So I'm not gonna compromise the end of my run for the start of a new run, health-wise. Right in all of its health, right? Yeah, because it's not just physical health for your voice, it's mental health. Um it's not about like having time to like hang out with my kid, although frankly, that's part of it. But it actually, I'm gonna need those Mondays to be silent. Like I'm gonna send him to school and be silent, you know.

Yeah, so um, it was cool that they realized that it wasn't just like a consideration they were giving me, but they were giving it to Frozen too. They were acknowledging the work I'm doing there and saying, Cool, okay, we can make this work. That that's a reasonable request and true. Like you do have to ask. Like my manager always says, you don't ask, you don't get. So but it's also, I mean, did you have any trepidation about asking for those kind of things? Or are you in a place now where because I I you know, we asked for things, there were things I asked for, and I was so nervous. And I remember the Michael's wedding. Michael's wedding, and I was like, Oh my god, are they gonna give it to me? And then they did, which was so lovely. Um, but I think like the wedding, but also like things with Ma, I find myself not wanting to ask for things that have to do with them being a mother.

[44:17] Caissie Levy: I hear you. Because that's different, right? Like anyone can ask for like, oh, I have a wedding, right? Or I have whatever. But when you go to them and you say, I need this off for my child, or I need this off as a mother, then you worry, like, oh, is it gonna put a label on me? Are they gonna think are they never gonna hire me?

[44:31] Cara Cooper: Exactly. Exactly.

[44:32] Caissie Levy: This is something that actually really needs to change the industry because the fact that we even worry about that is total effing bullshit.

[44:40] Cara Cooper: Yes.

[44:40] Caissie Levy: And I also worry about it, but we shouldn't have to, because it's not about like, oh, we're allowed to be mothers, but A, we are. But B, you when you hire an actor, you're hiring a whole person. Yeah. As we know, like our day ramping up to the show is tailored to the show. So people that live in the middle of the country that don't understand what we do when they visit and see this, you know, they're like, What do you do all day? You have all day free, and then you get to know. Actually, like everything I eat, everything I do is in ramp up to the show. But uh they're hiring a human being, and we come with children. Some people come with dogs and they need to hire dog walkers, you know. Some people um come with commutes where they don't live five blocks from the theater and they live in Jersey or wherever they live, and they drive in or they train in, and sometimes New Jersey transit sucks, and then producers have to deal with that too.

[45:30] Cara Cooper: Yeah, fair.

[45:32] Caissie Levy: But it's like this is part of who we are. So and it's an industry. I mean, it's a business, first and foremost. Clearly, we know that, but it's an industry that is built on, you know, telling stories about the human condition. So who are we not to support the humans around us in every way that we can in telling those stories, you know?

[45:53] Cara Cooper: Totally, totally. I think it's something that is starting to change, even just what you what you two have done with um running Broadway baby mamas and bringing visibility to um what it is to be in this career as working parents and working mothers, and that has done a huge amount for the industry, just that it's being talked about by people who aren't parents because they know that what you guys have started is a thing now, you know, like and the meetings you've had with Ancourt and the meetings you've had with equity and trying to change our union and give us more right. I mean, there's so much that needs to be done as far as like maternity leave, but also I think back to when I first got pregnant during uh the ramp up to first daughter suite rehearsal starting and the fear I felt, and that shouldn't exist.

Like the maternity leave or lack thereof policies in our union should be in plain view as far as on the website, they should be talked about on the first day of rehearsal meetings. It shouldn't be something that you have to covertly find out. Um and that needs to change like now. That needs to change like five years ago.

[46:56] Caissie Levy: So you're 2020.

[46:56] Cara Cooper: Yeah, yeah.

[46:56] Caissie Levy: I mean, in some ways it feels like we're going backwards, but some ways, yeah. Um, but that's why I think visibility is so important, and that's something that um, you know, we just Kara and I are thrilled. Like there are so many people now that continue to work as mothers, and we have to change the concept. And not that people didn't before, but I do think there were women felt there were fewer too.

[47:17] Cara Cooper: They were definitely yeah much many fewer, but the need to feel to to feel like you needed to hide the fact that you're a mom.

[47:24] Caissie Levy: And we should not have to no hide.

[47:26] Cara Cooper: No, no, no, because we're all still showing up and doing eight shows a week at night, right we're all still hiring babysitters to put our kids to bed so that's fine we're down for that we'll sign up for that but we also need the other end of things to sign up for helping us to get to the eight o'clock curtain every night right I know someone at the stage door last night was like oh my gosh I don't know how you guys do this which my track and Tina is not that physical but I I'm not exhausted but they were like I don't know how you guys do this are you just gonna sleep you know sleep in in the morning and then I was like no I've got a five year old I was like I'm gonna get up at 645 you know I was like no she'll be up and then they just stare at you and you're like okay bye anyway we're superheroes yeah basically yeah I think so oh my gosh you are the definition of a superhero yeah I for real I mean I well and also that costume change and let it go I mean let's be honest that's like about as close to superhero quick change as you can get it's pretty cool yeah it's pretty cool big big ups to the crew guys who do all of the uh literal heavily heavy lifting I just stand and brace and belt and then they they do the uh the quick change really really cool yeah it's pretty Disney knows what's up they know how to make a moment really matter make the magic right yeah well I mean I'm I think I think we covered a lot yeah awesome good chat yeah thank you so much thanks ladies for being here thanks for doing this I appreciate it anytime we love it got a wonderful energy about you thanks likewise it makes it easy to talk about all these things and fun and exciting because I feel like we are on the brink of making some changes in our industry and it's fun to just have a small part in that, so thanks for letting me chat.

[49:02] Cara Cooper: Of course, anytime.

[49:05] Jessica Rush: Mama's talking loud. Thanks so much for listening to this episode of Mama's Talkin' Loud. Special shout-outs to Rachel Spencer Hewitt for our fabulous graphic, Kristen Anderson Lopez, Bobby Lopez, and Justin Ward Weber for our awesome theme song. Our producers Dori Berinstein, Alan Seales, and of course the Broadway Podcast Network for bringing us to you. If you like what you're hearing and you want to keep the conversation going, you can follow us on Instagram and Facebook, and of course, subscribe and review us wherever you listen to your podcast. Thanks so much for tuning in.