This transcript was automatically generated and might contain errors.

[0:00] Jayke Workman: If Carrie St. Louis can do a no bubble Glinda entrance, you can file your taxes on time.

[0:10] Jayke Workman: Oh my god, did you hear? Did you hear? Did you hear my god guys? Take that hot. Hi, Jake is on. Oh my god! Oh my god, you guys! What is up, everybody? My name is Jayke Workman, and this is Oh My Pod, you guys, a musical theater and pop culture podcast. You guys, my little gay heart was beating pit or patter this week because we got the official teaser trailer for Greta Gerwig's Barbie, and let me tell you, this movie is stacked. The cast is ridiculous. I am so excited for this movie. When I first heard that it was being created, I was like, I don't really understand where we're going with this. I didn't really understand like the tone or like what angle Greta Gerwig was gonna take with this, but it looks so campy.

It looks so tongue-in-cheek and so self-aware. The costumes look beautiful, the scenic design looks just stunning. It looks hilarious. Margot Robbie and Ryan Gosling obviously look the part as Barbie and Ken, but there are so many fun cameos that are gonna happen throughout the movie. I cannot wait to be surprised. I mean, I think my favorite is Kate McKinnon as like the busted Barbie who's always in the splits because you know that Barbie. You had that Barbie, you threw that Barbie down the stairs. And Kate McKinnon is the perfect person to portray that Barbie. So I think it's gonna be absolutely hilarious. I can't wait. There's also a shot in the trailer where Margot Robbie steps out of her high heels and onto the balls of her feet because she has Barbie feet, so they wouldn't go like flat to the ground. It's just genius already. I cannot wait to see this movie. Y'all, let's dive right into this week's Broadway World recap.

[2:02] Jayke Workman: First up, we have to talk about the newest season of Shmigadoon, now entitled Shmikago, that has just dropped on Apple TV. This show stars Keegan Michael Key, Cecily Strong, Jane Krakowski, Ariana DeBose, Dove Cameron, like so many. I mean, Kristen Chenowith, Alan Cumming. All these people are like Broadway icons, and the show is just so good. The first two episodes are out now on Apple TV Plus, and you guys run to watch this show. I loved the first season of Shmigadoon, but this season, I mean, it's kind of my bread and butter. I live for those like 70s and 80s dark Candor and Ebb style musicals. And I mean, these parodies are already just unbelievable. They're so funny and so brilliant. So I cannot recommend this show enough.

Next, we have a little bit of off-Broadway news. It was just announced that Joy Woods is going to take over the role of Audrey in Little Shop of Horrors off Broadway full time, which is so thrilling. I got to see her in the show as one of the urchins, but she has been bumped up to Miss Audrey, and I cannot wait to see her do this role. She's playing opposite Tony Winner, Matt Doyle, and the show, you guys, it's just beautiful. It's so funny, and the puppetry is incredible. I've talked about it on the pod before, but I'm so excited for Joy. I think she's gonna be excellent in this role. She's also randomly the face of Chicago Broadway. Like she's in all of the promos for Chicago, but she's never been in the show, which I think is hilarious. So it's about damn time that she's the lead.

[3:49] Jayke Workman: Next, we have to talk about these incredible promo photos for Camelot on Broadway that were just released by Broadway World. The photos were taken by Joan Marcus, and they come just before the opening of Camelot at Lincoln Center. This show looks absolutely stunning. It looks huge. The stage is broad and wide and beautiful, and it really lends itself to a production of this scale. Philippa Soo looks absolutely stunning as Guinevere, and I cannot wait to see the show and hear this score song. And I think I may have mentioned it on the pod before, but special shout out to my friend Delphi Boric, who is in the ensemble of the show and covering Guinevere. I hope to get to see you in the show. And speaking of incredible production photos, we got a Broadway World exclusive first look at the promo photos for the opening of Shucked the Musical on Broadway, and you guys, this show looks amazing.

We got a first look at Alex Newell singing their song independently owned from this new musical, and it is ridiculous. I mean, Alex Newell, obviously, icon, but the show looks brilliant. I think it's gonna be hilarious and heartfelt and entertaining. And I have a friend in the show, Jimmy Brewer, who is making his Broadway debut, so I can't wait to see the show. But these promo photos look beautiful. The lighting plot looks absolutely exquisite, and I can't wait to see the show. I think it's gonna be the sort of like dark horse that nobody really anticipated being the biggest hit, but I think it's gonna be great.

[5:27] Jayke Workman: And lastly, you guys, it was just announced that Harvey Guillen and Michael Urie have joined the cast of Spamalot at the Kennedy Center, and oh my pod, I am dying to see the show. I love this show. I think it's absolutely brilliant and hilarious. But the fact that these two have joined the cast is insane. I mean, I am obsessed with Harvey Guillen. I love the show, the TV show, What We Do in the Shadows. And he plays just this hilarious and adorable role. If you haven't seen the show, you gotta check it out. It's so funny. And Michael Urie, I mean Broadway vet, my favorite role he's done was in Douglas Lyons play Chicken and Biscuits. But I think he's a gem, and I think that they are going to add to this show so brilliantly. So I guess I have to haul my cookies on down to Washington, DC to check out Spamalot at the Kennedy Center. And you guys, this has been the BroadwayWorld Recap.

[6:27] Jayke Workman: Oh my pod, you guys, I am so excited to welcome my next guest. She is a Broadway diva, and she is currently starring as Rose in the off-Broadway production of Titanique. Please welcome Miss Carrie St. Louis.

[6:41] Carrie St. Louis: Ah, the crowd goes wild. No, I'm kidding. I'm like, okay, thanks guys. How are you guys? I'm so excited to be here.

[6:50] Carrie St. Louis: I'm so good. How are you?

[6:53] Jayke Workman: I'm so good. Where are you calling from?

[6:56] Carrie St. Louis: I'm calling from New York City, baby.

[6:59] Jayke Workman: New York City, baby. Calling calling from?

[7:02] Carrie St. Louis: Yeah.

[7:04] Jayke Workman: Yeah.

[7:06] Carrie St. Louis: New York City.

[7:07] Jayke Workman: Are you in New York right now?

[7:09] Carrie St. Louis: Yes, I'm in New York, but I never know. I never know where my people are. They're like, oh I'm in my uncle's basement in Saskatchewan. I'm like, oh great.

[7:18] Jayke Workman: That's very radio of you to be like, where are you calling in from? Where are you cut? Listeners, where are you?

[7:24] Carrie St. Louis: Um where is home for you originally before New York?

[7:28] Carrie St. Louis: So before New York, I actually grew up in Palm Desert, California. So Palm Springs area.

[7:33] Jayke Workman: Oh yeah.

[7:34] Carrie St. Louis: Which every time I say that, someone is like, oh, my grandparents live out there. But yeah, I grew up in Palm Desert, California. And I love I love it out there.

[7:40] Jayke Workman: Oh my god. I like randomly spent like a three-day jaunt there because when I was on tour with Chicago, we got that was like we were we were like marooned before the shutdown.

[7:53] Carrie St. Louis: Oh, I mean, not a bad place to be marooned.

[7:56] Jayke Workman: No, no, absolutely. It's fabulous. Oh my god. And now so when did you move to New York then?

[8:02] Carrie St. Louis: So I mean I kind of had a I've kind of been all over, but um, I actually went away to a boarding prep school for high school. So I moved to the East Coast, right outside of Boston, um, when I was about 15 years old, and it wasn't because I was a troublemaker. Sometimes people are like, oh, I guess East Coast gets prep school more. West Coast, if you say, oh, my child goes to boarding school, they're like, what did she do? Like that was the vibe.

[8:28] Carrie St. Louis: Yeah. And my parents were like, she is not a troublemaker. Do not worry. It's Carrie we're talking about. Um, but yeah, so I went to prep school and then I came back to LA for college. I went to USC. Uh, and I was an opera major. LOL. What a wild, what a wild time. And then uh, yeah, I moved to New York probably, when was it? 2013?

[8:54] Carrie St. Louis: Oh wow. Okay.

[8:55] Carrie St. Louis: 2013, 2014?

[8:57] Jayke Workman: Yes.

[8:57] Carrie St. Louis: To do Rock of Ages.

[8:59] Jayke Workman: Ten years.

[9:00] Carrie St. Louis: I know. Gosh, it goes by so fast.

[9:02] Jayke Workman: Oh my god. Wait, so did you do okay? So diving right in. If for the listeners who have been living under a rock, Carrie has kind of done fucking everything, but um we must talk about your star turn as Miss Sherry Christian in Rock of Ages.

[9:22] Carrie St. Louis: My star turn.

[9:24] Carrie St. Louis: Yes. Did you um did you join the Broadway company first or did you do the Vegas company before that?

[9:29] Carrie St. Louis: I opened the Vegas company. So I was the OG Sherry in Las Vegas, which was so wild. I was 21 years old uh and living in Las Vegas being a Broadway stripper. We coined it Broadway stripper because it was like but um yeah it was a wild wild ride. And then after about a year and a half of that in Vegas, um they took me to the Broadway company.

[9:52] Jayke Workman: Wow.

[9:53] Carrie St. Louis: So it had already been wrong, yes, yes. I was in it near the end. Um they brought Constantine Maroulis back, so I did it with him uh for a few months and then I got wicked. So I was really in the Broadway company for only about like six months before I left.

[10:09] Jayke Workman: And I mean talk about a fucking like tone shift going from Broadway stripper to bubble entrance extraordinary.

[10:17] Carrie St. Louis: Oh my god, the day I found out I got Glinda I called my mom sobbing and was like, I get to wear a princess dress. I don't have to strip anymore. It's like pretty woman. The pretty woman uh career shift, yeah. But also, I mean, going from going from opera into Rock of Ages was also a why like it was just it's I've just kind of like to jump all over the place, I guess.

[10:41] Jayke Workman: So did you sit interesting? I'm sure. Was your training at USC um did it lend itself to any sort of like physical like dance or anything like that? Or were you was that kind of like part of who you were?

[10:54] Carrie St. Louis: I mean, you can't really dive into Rock of Ages without having like bodily awareness. Yeah, yes, true. Um, yeah, I would always I always say I'm like a dancer fifth. Um dance, I was there was not a lot of dance in uh at USC, but strangely enough, like my first ever audition, like my audition for Rock of Ages itself was just like lightning in a bottle. It's one of those things where I can't believe I look back now and I go, the the young Carrie who had nothing to lose, you know. I just came into that audition room and was just sort of like, this is what I got, you know, and went into the dance call and I remember it so vividly. I it's kind of like I I talk about it all the time. Probably some of your listeners have heard the story, and I'm sorry to repeat it again.

But I um went to the dance call, everyone was in, you know, heeled boots, cut-off shorts, you know, bra tops. I was in a black dress and character heels, and I brought knee pads because the email advised us to do so. No one was wearing knee pads except for me. Uh and we started the dance, and it was to like some sugar that song, you know, and it started with like you know, double pirouette whipping your head around, and I just like went for it. I can do I can dance. Like, I think I sell myself short on it, but I wouldn't say I'm like the most comfortable dancing. Sure. Um, and it got to a point in the dance where I there was a leap of some sort.

[12:22] Carrie St. Louis: I just still don't know what it was, but I kind of gave up, and Kelly Devine, the choreographer, called me up in front of everybody else. She said, Carrie St. Louis, come here. And she whispered in my ear, and she was like, I don't give up. Leap if you can't do that leap, do something and make it work. And I was like starting from the top. And I turned around and was like, oh, cool. Now I'm choreographing something. Cool, cool, cool. We love. And got to that part in the dance, and everyone did the leap. And I just walked in a circle like it was the coolest dance move. Like just selling face, like selling personality, strut, stress, strut. And we finished, and I looked at her and she was like, like crying with laughter.

Like it was truly like she was just like, oh my god. And then like, I don't know. And weirdly, another girl in the audition came up to me at that audition. I'll never forget this. And she tapped me on the shoulder and she just said, You're gonna be an amazing Sherry, and walked out. Like, like some like psychic. Oh my god. I was literally like and I turned around and I went, What? And I feel like she was gone. Like in my memory, it's like then she was gone. It was just like this tap on the shoulder. And when I got it, you know, Kelly was like laughing with me, still laugh about it because she was like, You just were Sherry Christian. Like that is exactly what the character would do in that moment.

And I had no idea. I just was like, here's what I got to offer. So yeah. That's pretty wild. That was that's my dance story. I love it. Well then someone. But I learned a lot. I learned a lot from doing it. We took a pole dancing class when we got to Vegas, and that is hard. Oh. Oh my gosh. The core strength? Out of control. I have so much respect. I was like, because my character just had to be suspended from one, like a pole at one point in the show. Yeah. So I just I know how to climb a pole very quickly, but I cannot get down. I just slide like girl, you're also freaking melting your face off. So that you have other things to worry about. Always, always. Um tell me about then your jump from Rock of Ages to Wicked. Um ROA was your Broadway debut.

[14:37] Carrie St. Louis: Uh yes, Rock of Ages was my Broadway debut. Okay. And then I was, yeah, I was about six months in, and I had gone in for Wicked in college one time, and um was told that I was more of a Nessa Rose. Wow. And I think it's because I hadn't seen it since I was 15. And then when I went in, we do the you do the popular scene at one point, and I was like, that may be your secret Alphabet. That doesn't make it. I mean, I was so heartfelt, like gut-wrenchingly heartfelt. And they were like, she's too emotional to be Glinda. Like that isn't just not. So I took a step back because I was like, she's a Glinda. She's a Glinda. Let's we're all aware of that. Don't get it twisted. Um, don't get it twisted. So uh I actually like went and saw it again, and then was in you know, in the audition process, and luckily, do you know Christy Candler?

Yes, you know her. She's not perfect. She was our dance captain at Rock of Ages, and she was the original witch's mother in um Wicked, and so all throughout the audition process, she really like coached me on this stuff and was kind of telling me, you know, giving me the like this is what is happening here, and just really like helping me put myself in the mind frame of it. Um, and yeah, then did all the auditions and got it. And I was aud I was rehearsing for Wicked during the day from nine to five, 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. And then I was going and doing Rock of Ages on Broadway at night, which was wild. My brain was all over the place. Um vocal that's when vocal stamina comes into real high gear, and you're so thankful for it.

Um even just like your opera training, I'm sure was just like, okay, this is muscle memory. You gotta just fucking Yep. You just you go, you do your thing, you know your placements, you just stick to stick to it. Um and then I yeah, and then I've had my last show on Broadway, and the next day flew out and joined the tour. So it was pretty back to back. It was, yeah. And and between Rock of Ages Vegas and Rock of Ages Broadway, I had four days of rehearsal. So I kind of didn't stop doing eight shows a week. And then between between Wicked on Tour and Wicked on Broadway, I got about four weeks, four or five weeks, which was like my first break in three years.

[16:54] Carrie St. Louis: Three years. Oh my god. So then how how was um being on the road as Glinda? I mean, it's one thing to to do a show where you are the leading lady, like Rock of Ages, you know, and you're in like a sit-down place where you have like your resident, you know, your home and your things and whatever, but like I, you know, being being one of the two most iconic roles basically in like the musical theater female canon on the road, like not having your own home base. What is that like? You know, I learned so much. I learned so much. It's really like trial by fire. You just no one is prepared for that. You just do it and you just figure it out on the way, you know. Um, I I feel lucky that I was so young.

I look back now and I'm like, I do not know. I don't know if I would be able to do it now. Um I was so young, but also I had always wanted to go on a tour. That was something that I just knew that I wanted, and the wicked tour is just so incredible. I mean, it's like one of the only production contracts still left. So um, we got to sit down in places for four to six weeks, which felt really wonderful because you don't, it's not just picking up and going all the time. You kind of do feel like you live there a little bit. Right. Um, and one summer I did, we did a but the summer I was on tour, we did a Pacific Northwest summer. So we did four weeks in Seattle, three weeks in Portland, five weeks in Denver, Colorado. It was incredible. It was like dreams, dreams, dreams, dreams. Yeah. Um, and I loved my company out there. I brought my dog. Uh, so it was kind of I had a little bit of home out there with me.

[18:37] Carrie St. Louis: Um, I will say, like, you learn really quickly that you just constantly, the second you get used to a certain climate, certain allergies, certain everything, you're then switching and all your body shifts like every your whole body chemistry shifts too. So learning how to sing, Glinda traveling in all these different places, you know, like in Denver, they're they've got the oxygen masks backstage, you know. In Arizona, it's so dry, you're in a desert, like everything was just constantly in flux. So I really learned how to take care of myself, how to pace myself. Uh, and the the really the my main takeaway from tour that I think is I'm realizing now as I've gotten older, it in it helped me incredibly.

It was like a masterclass on comedy and timing because every city you go to has a different sensibility, a different they think different things are funny, they they it's just different, right? So we would get show up at a new city, and my Glinda would change my like comedic timing or how I would say certain lines or how they would land would change depending on the audience reaction. In some cities, they were, you know, it's a very liberal place. They some of those lines were they would go wild, and other places a little more conservative. Like it's just so interesting, and it really taught me so much about listening, and it's it's all involved like comedic timing. You work with the audience, and Glinda, that is so much what is difficult about Glinda as a character, is just riding that line of being likable and also kind of coming in as sort of the antagonist at the beginning, but you have to be likable. So it's it's a very fine line, and it was really fun to figure that out everywhere I went.

[20:28] Carrie St. Louis: That's so cool. And who was your who was your first green girl? My first green girl was Laurel Harris.

[20:33] Carrie St. Louis: Oh, yeah. She's the best. Um, and her final city was Durham, North Carolina, where she's from. So we were like celebrities. It was so it was a rock concert every night. It was so cool. It was so cool to watch her do that in her hometown, too. It is the most special thing ever to be Alphabet in your hometown. Like, come on. I mean, that is yeah, yeah. Um, I love her dearly. And then my uh my basically my main full-time tour Alphabet was Alyssa Fox, who's currently Broadway's 20th anniversary. And let me tell you Miss Fox turns the party sang out. Oh, she can sing.

[21:15] Carrie St. Louis: But Jayke, I have to tell you, I saw you do Glinda. And You did? Of course I did. So my God, wait, I didn't know the fact that I get to have you on this pod is like kind of still blowing my mind. Like I'm a little bit like a little bit of a little you know, I'm like that. I'm that gay who's just like I I am obsessed with wicked, I always will be. I know it's like the most cliche thing ever, but like it's just it's iconic.

[21:39] Carrie St. Louis: It's so good. I think like 16 times now, like just dumb. And like every time I see it, I notice something new, and I just like fall in love with it again. But it's so good. And it's so fun to watch everybody make the rules their own. Like there is so much of that where and it and it's always works. It always hits because it is just such a good show. And the message and the story and the it just everything is just done right. Yes. But it's also really fun because it's constantly morphing and changing with all the different casting, and I love seeing how they're casting it now too. They're they've been so much more inclusive in general, and it's just yeah. I just I've I'm a wicked fangirl too, and I don't think that were to go away.

[22:24] Carrie St. Louis: Do you can you tell me about like your your rehearsals and like your first time even just like going up in the bubble? Like, what is it like to step into those iconic costumes? I mean, it's so many, so many feelings. I when I went to the because while they're making your costumes, you know, you're out on the road and they have a warehouse that's like, you know, 20 years of costumes. So there's there's you definitely fit into somebody's something. Yeah. And when I went to the warehouse for my like first costume fitting while they were making my costumes, they were trying on bubble dresses for me. And I put one on, and Alice, who's the um like head of wardrobe, who is iconic, she's like won a Tony Award for wardrobe, which is unheard of.

I think she might be the only person that's ever won that. She's I mean, she's legendary by herself. Like you walk in, and it's just all the things that you expect a Broadway costume fitting to be. And I'm like in this iconic warehouse, and she puts me in the bubble dress, and there's no mirrors anywhere. And she goes, Do you want to go look in the mirror? And I was like, Oh, like, can I? Like, I'm just like, oh my god. And so we go and I look in the mirror, and the second I saw myself in the bubble dress, like burst into tears, like full sobbing tears. And she goes, and she just pats me on the back, she goes, happens to every single Glinda. And I was like, what? It's just so special. It's truly beyond my wildest dreams. And I still have moments where I look back and go, like, that ha did it really just happen.

[24:00] Carrie St. Louis: Uh actually. Um then also a really cool moment for me was Megan Hilty was my first Glinda that I saw at the Pantages in LA. And my family drove me into LA to see the show, and and um while they were getting my custom laducas made. I hate hate myself even saying that, but it's so so the laducas are fabulous. Oh, yeah. Um while they were making those, I again they sent out shoes that were my size from the wardrobe, and I opened up my shoes and they said Hilty Popular on them. And so I was quite literally walking in Megan Hilty's popular shoes when I started the tour.

[24:42] Carrie St. Louis: Which again was a very full circle thing. And those moments happened more often than not.

[24:50] Carrie St. Louis: There's a lot of special little things that, you know, just signing the bubble when you leave, or there's like every Glinda. I don't know if you have heard this before, but every Glinda since Kristen, the bubble on Broadway goes, you know, up at you start the show up in the rafters.

[25:07] Carrie St. Louis: And Kristen started this where she left for who who replaced her? Was it Megan? No, it was um oh forgive me. Oh, um, oh my god, no. I saw her in Dear Evan Hansen.

[25:20] Carrie St. Louis: Yeah, Dear Evan Hansen. Oh my god. Jennifer, Jennifer Laura Thompson. Yes, yes, yes, yes. Right? Yeah, Jennifer. Um, icon, icons only. She left a little quote up there, like on a piece of paper, so that every time when you like you're up there, you see the quote before you descend in the bubble.

[25:39] Carrie St. Louis: And so now every Glinda from then on leaves a quote, picks a quote and leaves it there for the next Glinda to see when they're before they come down. And the head carpenter has every single one of those from the beginning. So that's kind of cool.

[25:55] Carrie St. Louis: That's so cool. I mean, being in a show like that is just how special to get, I mean, because like you said, you see so many new people going into the show, and you know, like the new cast announcement like every year or so of like, oh my gosh, like this person gets the chance to do it, but that is so, so cool.

[26:13] Carrie St. Louis: So it's like a sisterhood that you only know if you know.

[26:17] Carrie St. Louis: You know if you know. Like it's like if you've been through it, it's just like a bond, instant bonding. Like, like we know, you know, it's just a very it's a tribe.

[26:26] Carrie St. Louis: So then was you when you were done with Wicked, were you ready? Were you like, okay, I yeah.

[26:33] Carrie St. Louis: Yeah. And I remember, I remember like nine months in, because I went from tour to Broadway, so it ended up being about two years total. And I remember about nine, they keep the contracts about nine months to a year, usually for the two girls.

[26:47] Carrie St. Louis: And I think people are always like, Why would you want to leave this? Like, why, you know, or why would they do that? And I'm like, I think it's just a lot, it's a lot of work, it's a lot of pressure. It's your whole entire life is that like it is so hard to really do anything outside of it because you're just doing the show, like you're just making it, you're an athlete and you're running a race every day, and that's what you do.

[27:11] Carrie St. Louis: Um, and people had said you start to get burnt out around nine months, and I remember at nine months feeling like I could do this forever. Like, I was just so not ready, and I got a whole nother year, but by the end of that second year, I was like, Oh, my body is just tired. My, you know, and you wanna also you want them to have the fresh there's so much that's great about the turnover and the you know and the energy of it all.

[27:37] Carrie St. Louis: So yeah, yeah. That's I was ready, but it was it was a wonderful, wonderful experience.

[27:42] Carrie St. Louis: And so then how long did you have between finishing Wicked and joining Kinky Boots?

[27:49] Carrie St. Louis: I had a bit. So I left Wicked, and uh, you know, everyone's like, Well, what's next? And you're like, a nap. Like the longest nap of all time. Like, I literally can't even think about doing anything else right now.

[28:01] Carrie St. Louis: Um, and also keep in mind, this is uh like this is this this is from Rock of Ages, Vegas till then. Like it was a long go for me.

[28:11] Carrie St. Louis: Um, and so I was it was kind of whiplashy. It was a little like, and I think there's also this pressure. You're you've like it's the ultimate. Like it was truly like I was like, I have achieved like this is my dream role.

[28:25] Carrie St. Louis: Yeah, now it's happened, now what? And it's kind of a weird, I think it's it's just a weird place to be in a little bit. I had I kind of struggled with it, to be quite honest.

[28:37] Carrie St. Louis: Um, because you you have all this, like everyone's like, wow, you were Glinda, what's next? And you're like, I've literally been in this machine, this corporation for so long that I it's not like also during that time I was like making connections or doing readings of new musicals, like you're just doing that, and so you get out and you're kind of like, I don't even really know anybody besides Wicked Life, you know.

[29:02] Carrie St. Louis: So I I had a little time of like, what am I what am I gonna do next? Where do where do we go from here?

[29:08] Carrie St. Louis: Um, and then cruel intentions happened actually first. And that was like so different from what I mean. We were like in a bar in Soho, you know, like doing this kind of concert thing, and people just loved, I mean, I had so many friends come and be like, This is the best thing you've ever done.

[29:25] Carrie St. Louis: And I was like, this, this you're like, I just love the dress one, but thank you. Yeah, it was so, but it was so fun, and it was like such, and it's so funny now because of Titanic with Constantine, but like Constantine and I we were like best friends, like it was just it actually felt really nice to have no pressure.

[29:44] Carrie St. Louis: It went from the highest amount of pressure to literally no pressure.

[29:48] Carrie St. Louis: Wow. And then yeah, and then kinky boots happened, and kinky boots was truly just I mean, it's so hard. People are like, what's your favorite role you've played? And I'm like, every single, I've been so lucky to be in such great shows.

[30:04] Carrie St. Louis: Totally. But Kinky Boots was so magical. Like it the pe everybody in that building is just the best kind of human.

[30:14] Carrie St. Louis: Like it just everybody was just like, we're doing this because we love doing this, and we, you know, we love sharing this story, and it was so it was such a joyous place to be, really, truly.

[30:27] Carrie St. Louis: And Lauren is the best track of all time because you sing one song and then you just like dance with your friends in the background, and you get to be a fucking clown too.

[30:34] Carrie St. Louis: And you're yeah, and you're like, I'm I'm the leading lady in this Broadway show, but like I'm just clowning around with my friends.

[30:41] Carrie St. Louis: Like there were moments where Jerry Mitchell would be like, and then you just stand here and you just like dance with your friends. And I'm like, oh, just like whatever I want to do.

[30:47] Carrie St. Louis: Yeah. Like, wow. Dreams.

[30:50] Carrie St. Louis: That's amazing. I mean, I was so sad. I remember seeing um, I think it was the Tony Awards performance for Kinky Boots, and I um was like, why am I so young?

[31:00] Carrie St. Louis: I want to be one of those.

[31:02] Carrie St. Louis: Yeah, I know my god. It was like I was one of my pain. It would have been incredible.

[31:07] Carrie St. Louis: Oh, you would have been incredible.

[31:08] Carrie St. Louis: Oh, thank you. But I hope to do it um like regionally or something, because I I love it.

[31:12] Carrie St. Louis: That's the thing, it's gonna be everywhere.

[31:13] Carrie St. Louis: I know. It's it's truly the best.

[31:17] Carrie St. Louis: I I love that show.

[31:19] Carrie St. Louis: Well I love that show. I must say, I did get to see you um as Glinda, but I have to be honest, when I saw Titanic, the musical, what, like a week and a half ago, two weeks ago, all thanks to my just dear wonderful friend Luke, Luke Neville, who is the associate.

[31:38] Carrie St. Louis: Wonderful choreographer, yes, he's truly the assistant. Obsessed with him.

[31:42] Carrie St. Louis: But I cannot tell you, Carrie, you in this show are off the rails in every sense of the word.

[31:51] Carrie St. Louis: Like singing just uh duh. The house down boots. Like just giving vocals out the ass.

[31:59] Carrie St. Louis: But your comedy is so genius. How do you even go about like taking on a role like this or or um like rehearsing for a show like this that's you know been running and then it switched to this this new fabulous theater?

[32:17] Carrie St. Louis: Um so that like I'm sure changed like the staging and everything, but oh my god, tell me about being put into this this crazy show.

[32:25] Carrie St. Louis: This unhinged chaotic shit show.

[32:28] Carrie St. Louis: Yes. So I mean, it's I it's so fun. It's so fun.

[32:33] Carrie St. Louis: I mean, at the end of the day, I go to work and I'm like, it's not life or death. Like we are here to bring joy. I break on stage constantly.

[32:39] Carrie St. Louis: Oh my god, last night when was yeah, last night. I'm like, what day is it? This is my musical theater brain.

[32:46] Carrie St. Louis: Um last night I broke so many times that what our stage manager always comes out to the group afterwards to the girls' dressing room and is like, any notes, anything, anybody you need and I was like, I am okay if you fire me.

[32:56] Carrie St. Louis: Like I understand. I didn't just like it was that was rough. That was a rough go for me.

[33:01] Carrie St. Louis: Um, the show so I have kind of been following the show because again, Constantine's one of my best friends and like he's one of the writers and it I just every time I've seen it in concerts or anything, I'm like, this is brilliant.

[33:15] Carrie St. Louis: Like it is beyond, and it just kept getting better and better and better. And during the pandemic, he and I um lived around the corner from each other in West Hollywood.

[33:25] Carrie St. Louis: So we would go on walks, and he was like, It got pushed again, it got pushed again, you know, blah, blah, blah, blah. And Alex, who originated Rose, is like, I love her to death.

[33:33] Carrie St. Louis: And I came and saw opening night, and I saw it four. I it got to the point where Frankie Grande literally was like, oh, Carrie's back again.

[33:40] Carrie St. Louis: I was like, guys, okay, I get it. I'm a super fan. But it's just the kind of show that like if any friend was in town, I was like, this is what this is what you have to see.

[33:50] Carrie St. Louis: Absolutely! Like you have to see this, and I have to see it, you see it, because it's so ridiculous, and I want these jokes you're gonna love. And um, and so and then Connie like reached out and was like, so you know, like Alex is going on vacation, we want you to come in and be like almost like an emergency cover, just like to start learning the show, like because I think you know, I think that could be a good thing.

[34:16] Carrie St. Louis: Nudge nudge, you know. And I was like, okay, you know, I um, and then yeah, and then I found out that she was leaving, and and they they let me they let me take it on, and it's been really fun.

[34:28] Carrie St. Louis: I mean, they've given me so much liberty with it. I play it very differently than Alex did, which everyone has been so supportive of, and it's kind of I think that's it's gonna kind of turn into like a Elfa Buglinda thing.

[34:40] Carrie St. Louis: I think everybody that plays it is gonna bring their own sense of comedy to it, which is so fun.

[34:46] Carrie St. Louis: Um, yeah, she's a trip. And I and you know, things it's like anything with comedy. You start you'd start a little bit of something, and then it starts getting laughs, and then it just and then one day you're like, oh, now I'm like fully doing a voice.

[34:59] Carrie St. Louis: Like I'm fully um hinge of of lines that are not.

[35:04] Carrie St. Louis: Yeah, totally, totally. Of course.

[35:06] Carrie St. Louis: But the thing that I love about Titanic is that it really feels like an ensemble show.

[35:12] Carrie St. Louis: Totally. Like it is, it is, we are passing the ball constantly.

[35:18] Carrie St. Louis: So and this company, these this group of actors, like, it is such a team sport, and everyone is so I hate to curse, but so fucking good.

[35:29] Carrie St. Louis: Oh, yeah. Everyone is so good in this cast that it is like you are just everyone is setting up everyone else's jokes.

[35:36] Carrie St. Louis: Nobody's trying to steal it. Nobody's trying, everyone's stealing the show in their own way, but it's just, it just feels collective.

[35:44] Carrie St. Louis: Oh, yeah. And it's really easy to like, you know, be funny and be yourself and be loose on stage when you know that you trust everyone else on the stage to kind of pick up the ball and pass it, pass it on.

[35:57] Carrie St. Louis: Um I just love at the end, like not to give away spoilers, but we all like as a company turn towards the front.

[36:04] Carrie St. Louis: Yeah. So both sing, sorry, spoiler. Um, but at the very end, we all come out and we all like sing this one thing and we all face outwards, and like it just feels to me so much like I get choked up about it like often in the show because it feels like old school theater troops.

[36:21] Carrie St. Louis: Like we don't change costumes, we're not like it's just all and there's so much that's like, ooh, a corset holding up nothing.

[36:29] Carrie St. Louis: Like, there's so much imagination involved.

[36:31] Carrie St. Louis: Yes. And you don't miss it. You're not like, oh, I need this high-tech set. You just you're there, you're in it.

[36:37] Carrie St. Louis: And it, and then at the end we all come together and it's like, thanks for coming to our thing that we just brought, you know, like unpacked off our little car and did our little thing.

[36:48] Carrie St. Louis: Yeah. I don't know. The clown car that just is gonna hide tail you out of town.

[36:52] Carrie St. Louis: Totally, totally. Though I it it is one of my favorite things I have ever seen.

[36:57] Carrie St. Louis: It was so fun. It's so genius. It's um it references so many things, and if you get the reference, you get it, and even if you don't, you're still gonna laugh because it's just like everybody's like delivering on like 110%.

[37:12] Carrie St. Louis: But tell me about being in the show with the two creators of the show, Constantine and Marla, who co-created the show. They're both unbelievable in the show. I mean, Marla literally just is Salandion. But like how has it been to sort of like go about taking a character, you know, that's been played by one person, it's now your turn, but also like getting the permission from the people who you're sharing the stage with to create and make it new.

[37:43] Carrie St. Louis: Yeah, it's really interesting. It's amazing, honestly. I mean, they're both very open to it moving and being a, you know, they're not like stand on two and then put your, you know, it's very collectively like kind of go with it and see what happens. Um I've gone to Marla a couple times and been like, or Connie, I did the other day, and I was like, this line isn't really landing. Like, what would you do? Like, is there something that I need to do, or am I just being, am I just overthinking it because there's so many jokes in the show that like of course like every line can't be just like everything's so funny that it's almost like people have to like pick and choose because they're just coming off of a laugh or something else. But um, and it's not about that. Well, actually, my character's probably the most straight character in terms of like kind of I'm kind of the punching bag of everybody's shows. They just slap Rose around.

[38:36] Jayke Workman: Oh, yeah, which I mean, and you respond so beautifully.

[38:41] Carrie St. Louis: It's hilarious. It's yeah, it's hilarious. It's like the more earnest you are in it, the funnier it is that like everyone just shits on Rose constantly.

[38:48] Jayke Workman: Yes.

[38:48] Carrie St. Louis: Um, but yeah, they've been super open to like figuring things out. And like one of my favorite things, which Marla will kill me for this, but when we were at the Daryl Roth, a lot of the stage, because I opened the Daryl Roth Theater. So the staging is completely different, obviously a whole new space, which I think allows me to have a little bit of ownership over it too, because a lot of the things are like, where did I go when we were blocking that? It was like, okay, then I'll just walk off this way, and then I'm gonna put the scarf here, and I'm gonna do, you know, there's just things that like I just was like, let me just figure out this track for myself.

[39:21] Carrie St. Louis: Um, but there's a moment where he used my mother used to say, Rose, now you strike that bench and think about what you've done or whatever, what you could have cost us. And in the asylum, there they had benches, so she would pick it up and walk off, and it was hilarious. Right. We got rid of the benches for this production, and so it was sort of like, well, what are we gonna say instead? And then he said, you know, okay, you exit stage right sadly, and think about what you could have cost us. And like, I at first I was just like walking off sad, and it just like wasn't really that funny.

[39:54] Jayke Workman: Uh huh.

[39:54] Carrie St. Louis: And so one day, like to this day, and this is me being an idiot, to this day, I still use my hands for left and right. Like when I'm driving or when I'm walking, like, I'll be like, okay, I gotta go left. Okay, L.

[40:06] Jayke Workman: Yeah.

[40:07] Carrie St. Louis: L is left. Like, I still do that. That is how I function. And so I went like this and like did it, and like one person laughed, like in the tech, you know. And Marla was like, that is so stupid.

[40:20] Jayke Workman: No.

[40:21] Carrie St. Louis: And I was like, Marla, I you just gotta let, I was like, trust me, if you know, you know. Like, like if you are one of those people that is so on brand for some people, it's niche, but like the show is full of niche jokes, right? And now it's stuck, and like from our first audience on, it always gets a laugh. It always gets a laugh, and some nights it's like roaring, and it's my favorite thing ever because I come off and I'm just like I should get co-writing credit. Like, I wrote Titanic, like I don't, and she's like shut off, like, oh my god.

[40:52] Carrie St. Louis: So it's just funny, but like that's my only claim to fame, really. But um, honestly being a part of it with them and watching them work too. I mean, this is Constantine's brain on stage, knowing I know that as his friend, so I was like, of course I love it. Like totally, it's amazing, but it's also just so it's so inspiring. It really is so inspiring. We all got choked up on Saturday because we had a crazy crowd, and like it's just wild to think that they just, you know, a group of actors and friends were at a bar one night and we're like, this is funny to us, and now look at what it is. Like it's that thing that they always say, make your own work, make your own work, and they did, and they've been staying the course, and it is just blown up to this degree of like I'm just so proud of them both, and knowing them as colleagues, but also as I guess my bosses, like it's just exciting, and as things keep happening, I'm always telling the, you know, our director Ty, I'll just pull him aside and be like, I just outside of it, outside of me being a part of it, I'm just so proud. I'm so fucking proud of you guys. Like, this is so cool.

[42:00] Jayke Workman: That is so cool.

[42:01] Carrie St. Louis: So it's really fun to be a part of it and watch it grow in the way that it is.

[42:07] Jayke Workman: Yeah, it's cool. I think it's something for the rest of my life that I'm gonna be like, I was a part of it. I did that.

[42:12] Carrie St. Louis: Yeah.

[42:16] Jayke Workman: Well, and I have to tell you too, it's really exciting and refreshing from my perspective and you know, the audience's perspective to see someone like you, who clearly has lots of Broadway credits and lots of like notoriety in the Broadway community and everything, taking on something that may have been looked at as like a step down or a step in a different direction, um, because of this like quote unquote off Broadway like title.

[42:47] Carrie St. Louis: Yeah.

[42:48] Jayke Workman: But I kind of live for the fact because clearly it's a success story. Like this show is brilliant, and the fact that like it doesn't need to necessarily be called a Broadway show to be a success or to attract people like you or Marla or anyone, you know, who has had like these insane like Broadway stories, it's just really exciting.

[43:08] Carrie St. Louis: Um, you know, it's also just I think we just we saw it and we're like this is yeah. I mean, John Riddle left Phantom of the Opera to do Titanic.

[43:18] Carrie St. Louis: Right.

[43:19] Jayke Workman: Like was like, I'm gonna take a break from this and go do Titanic for a while.

[43:22] Carrie St. Louis: Like, because it's just so fun and it's so great, and it's like everyone is showcased in such a great way. Like, I think it's you know, I it's funny. Like some of my friends even are like, they're like, it's not like I forget how funny you are, but like you're so funny.

[43:39] Carrie St. Louis: And I'm like, oh thanks. Thanks, guys, appreciate it, you know.

[43:43] Jayke Workman: Exactly.

[43:44] Carrie St. Louis: But yeah, it's been really great. It's been really fun, and it's been fun having all my friends, you know, especially after the pandemic and stuff, to like just come time and time again and just laugh. Just laugh their asses off.

[43:56] Jayke Workman: Totally.

[43:56] Carrie St. Louis: It's fun.

[43:57] Jayke Workman: So has there been a show for you when you have felt the most beautiful on stage?

[44:05] Carrie St. Louis: Huh. The most beautiful on stage.

[44:10] Jayke Workman: Yeah, I just wondered if there was like a moment for you where you were ever like, hmm. This is it.

[44:15] Carrie St. Louis: I it's funny. I just play a lot of clowns. Like I play a lot of the weird girl. It's who I am to my core, is like just like the weird girl. So like even my boyfriend was coming to see Titanic, and I was like, I am not hot in this show. You are not gonna be like, wow, what a hottie. You're gonna be like she is deeply unwell. Okay, great. Um, I'm kidding. But like, you know, um, I mean, maybe I guess like beautiful I I there's so many ways to feel beautiful. I I guess I'm translating it like physically beautiful is like how that comes across first to me.

[44:50] Carrie St. Louis: And I I don't know, when being wheeled in as Glinda in at Shiz, wheeled in in that white, like uh like what is it, what did you like white uniform, I guess with the with the beret.

[45:04] Jayke Workman: Yes.

[45:05] Carrie St. Louis: Yeah, that is fabulous feeling. It is really fabulous feeling. And also the um the ball gown that is I'm not that girl reprise when she's in that ball, that like sea foam green ball gown.

[45:20] Jayke Workman: That you wear for a very like one scene.

[45:23] Carrie St. Louis: Um, but that cross, and then you do I'm not that girl. And then it goes like bah blah blah and all the fog comes in.

[45:31] Jayke Workman: Oh, like sexy.

[45:33] Carrie St. Louis: Feels sexy.

[45:34] Jayke Workman: Oh, yes.

[45:35] Carrie St. Louis: You're like, I'm in this gorgeous gown, and like I'm bringing on this next, like, I don't know, that felt like sexy physically.

[45:42] Carrie St. Louis: Um for um the scene with Oz, right?

[45:48] Jayke Workman: For use her sister.

[45:49] Carrie St. Louis: I love that dress.

[45:50] Jayke Workman: Yes.

[45:51] Carrie St. Louis: Yes, that dress is so beautiful. You know what? Since you since you're you're a costume, costume gal like me.

[45:58] Carrie St. Louis: Um, one of the most special gifts I got in my time in Wicked was at the when I finished tour, they, you know, they had like a ceremony. Bye, everyone, you know, whatever. And I was going to the Broadway company. And our wardrobe department gave me, it was around Christmas time, gave me a glass ornament, and inside of it are pieces of fabric from every single one of my costumes as Glinda.

[46:22] Jayke Workman: Wow.

[46:23] Carrie St. Louis: Just like a little fabric swab, or what a swatch swatch in this glass ball. And it I put it on the tree every year, and I'm like, it is so cool. It's so cool to me. Because like those fabrics, those costumes, like it's just so iconic.

[46:38] Jayke Workman: Iconic.

[46:39] Carrie St. Louis: Iconic.

[46:40] Jayke Workman: Iconic, truly.

[46:42] Carrie St. Louis: Yeah, yeah.

[46:43] Jayke Workman: Well, one last thing. Will you also um would you tell me about your your upbringing? Were your parents musical?

[46:53] Carrie St. Louis: No. So, no, neither of them, uh, pretty much at all. I mean, my dad is an exceptional whistler, which I I did not inherit that skill, but he is he's got incredible pitch as a whistler. My dad is a doctor, and my mom is a watercolor artist, actually.

[47:10] Jayke Workman: Oh, wow.

[47:10] Carrie St. Louis: So I kind of got both sides of you know, pursue your dreams, but also make some money, like, you know, work hard at it. And they were, you know, they were very much education, was number one to my parents, and I'm very grateful for that. I I have had an incredible education, and that is what they were like, that is all we care about. Um, but they've always supported me since day one. My mom used to do props at our local theater company, and um yeah, they've been they've been very supportive. And it it's been very fun watching them watch this ride because you know they they're so involved in it and so fun for them to bring their friends and have them come see me in all these shows and things.

[47:55] Carrie St. Louis: Um they're they're wonderful. They've always supported me. And now they have notes. You know, now they know and that know so much that they'll be like, I just have a few notes, and I'm like, oh, okay.

[48:08] Jayke Workman: Oh, I see how it is.

[48:09] Carrie St. Louis: Oh my god.

[48:11] Jayke Workman: Yeah.

[48:12] Carrie St. Louis: Well, it's been very fun for them. Thank you so much for being on the podcast.

[48:17] Carrie St. Louis: Thank you for having me.

[48:20] Jayke Workman: Um will you tell the listeners where they can find you on socials?

[48:24] Carrie St. Louis: Yes, you can find me at Carrie St. Louis or uh my I mean, my website is CarrieStLouis.com. I also have a vocal studio that's at the Carrie St. Louis studio. So yeah.

[48:38] Jayke Workman: And stay tuned for thrilling updates on one Carrie St. Louis's Theatrical Endeavors.

[48:46] Carrie St. Louis: Yes.

[48:48] Jayke Workman: Thank you so much. I so appreciate you.

[48:50] Carrie St. Louis: Thank you, Mary. It's such a delight.

[48:55] Jayke Workman: You guys, that's it for another episode of Oh My Pod, you guys. Don't forget to rate, review, and subscribe anywhere you listen to the pod, and follow the show on Instagram at oh mypod, you guys. Also, if you loved Carrie's interview and want to hear an extended version, you can listen to that exclusively on BroadwayWorld.com. Thanks so much for listening. Talk soon. Bye!

[49:17] Carrie St. Louis: Oh my god, oh my god, you guys!