This transcript was automatically generated and might contain errors.

[0:10] Jayke Workman: Oh my god, did you hear? Did you hear? Did you hear, my god, guys?

[0:14] Hi, Lesli.

[0:17] Oh my god, oh my god.

[0:23] Oh my god, you guys. What's up, everybody? My name is Jayke Workman, and this is

[0:27] Jayke Workman: Oh my Pod, you guys, a musical theater and pop culture podcast. Y'all, this week we are diving right into the Broadway World recap because mama, there is a lot going on in the world, Broadway.

[0:41] Jayke Workman: Oh my god, did you like that song? You guys, Miss Jojo, Joanna Levesque, Pop Diva Icon Extraordinaire, made her Broadway debut this week as Satine in Moulin Rouge on Broadway, and oh my Pod, you guys, she looks insane. She looks unbelievably beautiful. I cannot wait to see her in the show. I know she's gonna sing it the house down, but y'all, this video that we got of her first bow, she looks absolutely radiant. She looks so thrilled. I know that she's wanted to do Broadway for so so long, and so this is just so exciting for her, and I cannot wait to see it.

[1:27] Jayke Workman: Next up, it was just announced that Broadway Diva, Ms. Ariana DeBose, will be hosting the Tony Awards for the second time in a row this year. I'm so excited. I thought she did an excellent job last year. She was witty and charming, and obviously she's stunningly beautiful, and um her opening number was Gorgina. She worked it out, so I think she's gonna be great again. I'm really excited for her. And it's just so great that a queer Afro-Latina woman has been put on this platform and has been given the opportunity to host a show as iconic as the Tony. So yay! Good on you, Tonies.

[2:05] Jayke Workman: Next, we must talk about the announcement of a new private reading of Death Becomes Her. You guys, I think that this movie and this story would be a perfect musical. So the fact that they are in the works with this reading is so iconic. But then we get this stacked cast. Nicole Scherzinger, Megan Hilty, Jennifer Samard, Christopher Sieber, and Kevin Smith Kirkwood have all been slated to be leading this private reading of this new musical. And y'all, if that casting is any indication, we are gonna see this show go somewhere. Are you kidding me? Iconic. I cannot wait to see what they are going to do. I mean, Megan Hilty could slap me across the face and I would say thank you, please do it again.

[2:50] Jayke Workman: So also, casting was just announced for a brand new project entitled A Transparent Musical, which is gonna make its world premiere at the Center Theater Group in May. And it's based on the Amazon series of the same name. And you guys, this casting looks wild. Daya Curley, Adina Verson, my friend Liz Larson, and Drag Race legend Peppermint are all gonna star in this new show. The show hinges on themes of a transgender woman being a mom and explores the intersection of Jewish and queer history, and it celebrates the imperfectly human and startlingly familiar aspects of a universally relatable family. I think it sounds beautiful, and I'm so excited that there is trans representation being created in the world of Broadway and theater, and so I think this is gonna be amazing.

[3:45] Jayke Workman: Broadway World also released exclusive first look photos at two plays that are now opening on Broadway. The first is The Thanksgiving Play, which is being produced by Second Stage Theater, and it stars Darcy Cardin. And the second is a play called Summer 1976, which stars Laura Linney and Jessica Hecht, and it's playing at the Manhattan Theater Club in New York. And you can see these photos by Joan Marcus and Jeremy Daniel exclusively on the Broadway World Instagram at Official Broadway World. And you guys, both of these plays look beautiful. They look elegant and simple in design, but really creative and lovely. So I hope to check both of them out, see the shows, and I'll report back to you guys.

[4:26] Jayke Workman: And lastly, it was announced that the cutoff date for eligibility for this year's Tony Awards will be April 27th. So all eligibility will be consistent with the opening night credits prior to April 27th. Meaning that if a show opens after that date, if they were to be considered for Tony eligibility, it would have to fall into the next season's roster of shows. And y'all, this has been the BroadwayWorld Recap. Oh my Pod, you guys, I'm so excited to welcome my next guest to the show. She is truly Broadway royalty, the Queen herself, Miss Lesli Margherita!

[5:08] Lesli Margherita: Kabuno B. How are you?

[5:14] Lesli Margherita: I'm so good, and I love seeing your face. I miss you. It's so good to see your face. Um tell me where you're calling from.

[5:24] Lesli Margherita: I'm calling from very nice actor housing, actually, in Ventura, California. Oh I normally live in LA and this is about an hour and a half away. Little beach town, and I'm doing a new musical out here that's getting um a tryout, which is awesome because it's kind of away from the prying eyes.

[5:53] Lesli Margherita: Sure. So yeah. Gorge. Quiet soft launching a new musical out here, which is super cool.

[6:02] Jayke Workman: Amazing. What how long have you been working on that?

[6:06] Lesli Margherita: Um just like a month so far. I got a call from Christopher Gatelli, Tony Award winner and all around like casual. Right. Like I'm obsessed with him and would do any project he asked me for, and he called me. He was like, Hey, are you out in LA on these dates? And I was like, Yeah, what's up? Because I'm doing a new show. I was like, I didn't even read it. I went in, in and in. And it's rad. It's like these amazing pop writers who wrote like X's and O's and like all these like all these songs are so cool. So yeah, I'm super excited to do it and yeah, it's been like already a month and we have a couple more weeks left and we're still like working it every day.

[6:52] Jayke Workman: Sure. Still new stuff.

[6:55] Lesli Margherita: New stuff. Yes.

[6:57] Jayke Workman: Well, I was gonna say that's how I first came to know you was we worked on a new musical in Hartford, Connecticut. It was called The Flamingo Kid. I just got a flamingo tattoo, and now I'm obsessed. I'm like, it's everything. Thank you. But um, yeah, we met doing a new musical, and so that was like a really eye-opening experience for me, um, just in terms of like coming to rehearsal with new pages in your mailbox every day and like plugging things in and throwing things away. Um, but that was obviously not your first new musical. You've done like tons of workshops and new um like readings and new works. Can you tell me about that um experience? Do you do that a lot in LA, or was that mostly a New York thing?

[7:39] Lesli Margherita: Both. So I ended up going to London because I had done a workshop in Los Angeles.

[7:47] Jayke Workman: Okay.

[7:47] Lesli Margherita: And everybody's like, oh, LA is not a theater town. There's so much out here. Um, and the theater community is rad out here. Um, yeah, I had done a workshop of Zorro, the musical out here, and that's kind of how it got me to London. So it's kind of both. I mean, I started workshopping like Romy and Michelle out here way back in the day. Ian Elizabeth Stanley out here, like way, way back in the day. Yes. Um, so there's tons out here, but yeah, I do a lot of workshops, a lot of you know, labs and out-of-town stuff, and you know, the cool thing is you know, it's so I love working on new things because you can put your stamp on it.

[8:34] Lesli Margherita: Yeah, but then the other side of all of these things go into the ether. They're like TV pilots, kind of like you work so hard and then they go nowhere. Yeah. Like you know, like Flamingo Kid was a fully realized, gorgeous, huge production. Totally. And it didn't transfer, and it's so upsetting and disappointing. And you know, and you just never know. I mean, there's some workshops I've done where I'm like, oh Lord, this is dying the day. And then it goes. You know, you never know. Like it just things that you work on or whatever. It just Totally. So I kind of now learn to take all of these with a grain of salt and try and teach the youngins, because now I'm the freaking elder in the room. I don't know when that happened, but you know, I'm like not old, old, but getting to be like decent performer.

And so I try and tell everybody, like, just don't put a lot of don't put all your eggs in that basket. Because that basket is rotten and falls apart. And then sometimes the basket takes you to London and you win a fucking Olivier Award.

[9:52] Lesli Margherita: Bitch! It's so fucking crazy. I know. That was like the craziest thing that has ever happened. Tell me about it. I mean, I of course did like a deep dive through like the YouTube ether and everything to like find all of the recordings I could possibly find. But um I what was it like to go from originating a role in a workshop you played in as in Zorro and then to go to London and then not only to be nominated but to win an Olivier Award for your performance. Like how do you even I it it like I still can't process it. And it was like right it was probably I think like twelve years ago. So right when like iPhones were coming out, so there's not a lot of footage, and I'm actually I'm happy and bummed because like now the Olivier's there's like you know, you can live stream it and blah blah blah, and but when I was there, the Olivier's weren't like the Tonies in that like people didn't campaign to win, like you didn't like and so I was aware of them, but I was so freaking excited to be there.

[10:59] Lesli Margherita: So law, I'll make this very short. I had done the workshop out here and had done over three more years workshops and workshops, and they kept they kept me, and I really built this character. It was me, like literally from the ground up. It started with one act, and then it just grew and grew, and all the time they were like, We're gonna open it in London because the whole team was British. And I was like, Yeah, yeah, yeah, sure. Sure, sure. When I get there, blah blah blah. And then it ended up happening. Um, equity didn't exchange me because I hadn't done a Broadway show yet. Like nobody gave a shit who I was. So the Zorro producers got me work papers and brought me over there. So the whole thing was crazy that I was there anyway.

[11:44] Jayke Workman: Yeah.

[11:45] Lesli Margherita: Um and then like I got I remember the nominations for the Olivier's came out, and other awards happened, like what's on stage and what and those are super fun. And I just the Olivier's weren't on my radar because then the care the uh category was men and women all in one, so very few people got nominated. And Americans didn't get nominated and or win. Now it's a little more common, but every single person was like, You're not gonna win, you know, because when I got nominated, I was like, oh my god, this unbelievable, unreal. The show was totally, you know, so many nominations, and I just assumed I wasn't gonna win because everybody told me I wasn't gonna win. And I was like, Yeah, it's fine.

No, nothing. My husband was like, write a few things down. I was like, it doesn't matter. And then I won. And that speech is uh I I referenced this speech in like my cabaret shows because it it is so me and so out there. I was insane, insane. But yeah, the whole thing was amazing. But then talking about like, you know, expectation immediately after we closed in London, we were supposed to open in Boston and and and then it was gonna go to New York. And that was finally I was gonna make my Broadway debut. And then um it didn't happen. Like money fell through, it didn't happen. And I didn't make my Broadway debut until like a couple years, three years later. But only because the Matilda people had seen me in London.

[13:19] Jayke Workman: Wow.

[13:20] Lesli Margherita: So just all the roads kind of connected for you in that regard.

[13:24] Jayke Workman: Like the most backward way possible.

[13:30] Lesli Margherita: Yes. Well I always talk about like your path or whatever. It's like not it and there are some people that have a direct path, and I am so envious of them.

[13:40] Lesli Margherita: Oh, sure. But it doesn't really happen that way. Yeah. It's not but it happened. Hell yeah, it did. Well, okay, and I obviously we have to talk about Matilda, but I do want to ask you about one story that I've heard you tell um during Zorel, which is when a certain um rodent made its way uh onto the stage in a a precarious scene.

[14:08] Lesli Margherita: Oh yeah, I I it's the best story of my life, honestly. Like, I don't think I'll ever top this. So my character was funny, but it was it was pretty dramatic, you know, at times, and I had this like horrifying tragic death. Spoiler alert at the end of the show. And so every night I would get shot, die center stage, of course, or crawl back to center stage if I died over. Um London theaters are like New York theaters, like they're fucking old. Can I swear on this? Of course. Of course. Um, but they're so old and they're all underground. So you know from New York, like rats. London, they're not only more of them, but they're bigger. So I'm laying dead on stage, and all the flamenco dancers and all of like the Zorro guy, everybody's surrounding me because it's just like, oh god, it has she's shot.

And all I hear is like Raton, oh, raton. Some like one of the um guys behind me. All I heard was raton, raton. I was like, the fuck is raton. I'm dead, lying dead on stage. A giant rat ran across the stage, made its West End debut, and Victor ran across my body. To which I shot up, sat up, and went, realized, and then died again. And then all you saw was like my shoulder shaking, laughing so hard. The poor Zorro, Matt, his like sword, he was shaking. The audience laughed. Everybody saw what happened. I'll never ever have an experience like that again. So yeah.

[15:58] Jayke Workman: And you went on to win the Olivier Award and then go to Broadway with Matilda.

[16:05] Lesli Margherita: I which was also insane. And my story for that is nuts that I actually can talk about now because it's been so long. But um I had been trying to wick a Broadway show, had been so close, so close. And then when I won the Olivier, I'm like, oh, it's gonna happen. Didn't happen. Um so finally, Matilda, my friends in London were like, this show just opened, and there's this role that you have to play. And I heard the original London um album, and I was like, oh my god. Oh, oh, oh, oh my god, it's me. But was like, it's not gonna be me because I, you know, hadn't done a Broadway show, whatever. But I flew myself out. Um, oh, I knew that they were having auditions, but I didn't get an appointment.

And my pal Eden Espinosa texted me or called me or something, and she was like, I just got an appointment for this role, and it's not me, it's you. And I was like, that's how I knew that they were having auditions. Wow, work, right? Like, that's like get good friends in your life who are and that's why she's so rad, and like, you know, to to be like, listen, I got this appointment, but you need it, it's just was the whole thing was just the best. So I had my agents call, I flew out like four times um over six months and kept kept going back, kept going back. And in the meantime, I was doing Greece at the Sacramento Music Circus, which was also dubbed Ancient Greece because we were all way too old to be playing levels.

Um Beth Malone was uh Marty, like we were just like all the same cast, but ancient Greece. Um I tore my ACL doing the hand dive. ACL in my knee doing the hand jive. Um, and I knew that I was in the running for Matilda. So I had surgery on my ACL three months before I started rehearsal. When I came out of surgery, well, again, only me, is when I got the phone call in post op as I'm drugged up that I got the show.

[18:18] Jayke Workman: Oh my god, you're kidding me.

[18:20] Lesli Margherita: And I all I can remember, my friend told me that I told my manager I was like, Oh, I got a new knee. So here we go, Broadway. And I but I couldn't tell anymore because an ACL is reconstruction is massive. Right. And it usually takes like a year. Right. I had three months and I let nothing deter me. It was the best lesson in like your mind is way more powerful than you think. My husband only let me watch like sports documentaries about athletes that have come back because he's that guy, you know. Love it. I learned more about quarterbacks than I ever wanted to know. Um I did PT eight times eight hours a day, and I didn't tell anybody, and the only person that knew I had been injured was my dance partner Philip, because he had to help me.

And that is how I ended up CUDER slamming eight times a day because the original choreography for me in Matilda was to do an assisted split where like my partner holds my arms, but it put a lot of pressure on my recovering knee. Uh huh. So I was like, you know, I can do a jump split. Like a fake idiot, not thinking it could actually make thousands of performances. But that's how that came to be all because I was injured and didn't want to tell anybody. I'm rambling. But no, I'm living. My life is crazy. The the path of is nuts. And even just like that that pathway like what if that had not been part of the choreography? Like it's probably the most iconic part of that fucking show is you CUDA slamming into the split.

[20:02] Lesli Margherita: And I was so nervous because I was such a massive Peter Darling fan or choreographer. Yeah. I had a one on one with him when I was auditioning. And he it was the most exhausting audition I've ever had because he was gonna build the the new the Mrs. Warmwood number on whoever got Broadway because he wanted her to dance more than she did in London. Right. So I had done all this stuff and blah blah blah. So for me to even suggest like, oh, maybe I can do a jump split took everything out of me because I'm very much a people pleaser and I did not want to like I was sure I was gonna be fired anyway, like my debut I doubled for like six months. Like I was sure they had made a mistake. And so I'm uh he was like, Oh my god, do you think you could do that eight times a week? I was like, absolutely yes. And that's how that was happening.

[20:56] Jayke Workman: Fierce. Well, that's so cool to hear because um I wasn't super familiar with the the London version of the show. Um I mean, I had listened to the recording, but you know, didn't obviously like deep dive into the videos, um and then eventually I got to see you in the show. Um, but I I knew you as a dancer. Can you tell me about like what what your experience was like either growing up or like through school in terms of dance? Because not only are you belting your face off in that number specifically, but you are dancing mama. And like Philip is just flinging you around like how how do you how did you train for that?

[21:38] Lesli Margherita: That dance number was uh that whole number was the hardest thing I think I'll ever do, just in terms of stamina. I know for that show, they made us jog around New 42 Studio, like jog jog while we're singing. Uh-huh. So it was like that legally blonde when they're like on the treadmill. It literally was that we were doing that. Search for Mrs. Wormwood. Totally Yeah. Search for Mrs. Wormwood. Like they just had us doing that. We did a lot of conditioning and a ton of just like building your uh stamina up because it was so hard. And even closing day, I remember Philip and I still there was one section of the song that we called the blackout section, because it was like you're the black was creeping in and like my vision was getting just never got any easier.

Yeah. Um and yeah, you know, that not only it and Tim Minshin has said this loud is I think the hardest song he's ever written to sing. It's insane. Yeah. Because you have to be like shouting, but you can't be shouting, so you're mixing, but then you're bell. It's like it so that was difficult enough. And then you add on this insane dance number. Um, I you know, I I danced first when I was little. I just always danced. I loved it. And then randomly um a production of Annie was coming through San Francisco, and I was like, I could do that. And my parents were like, don't sing. I'm like, I can sing happy birthday. And I did, and then I got that show. I was like, eight. Um, and then it was just kind of a no-brainer.

I never um I don't know. I I think because I didn't really know too much about Showbiz. I grew up on a cattle ranch, but I didn't think that acting, singing, and dancing were separate things that you had. I like I it was kind of all one thing to me. Sure. So I never ever once said, Oh, I'm a better actor, a better singer, a better dancer. It just wasn't in my head. So I think that also goes to like people that I trained with. It was never a thing. I think now it's really hard. Like you, you know, you get told like, oh, you're a you're a dancer third. Well, just because somebody said so. Sure. Exactly. You know, just because somebody said to them. So I was really glad that I never had that in my head.

Um I love roles where I get to use all of it. Yeah. Where I get to actually sing dance dance, and they don't write those very much anymore. So when Matilda, you know, because I grew up like Cheetah in Kiss of the Spider Woman was like my my goal. That was like it. Of course. And I still to this day watch her Tony performance like at least two, three times a month. Cause they just don't have roles like that much anymore. So I was I was more than happy to do that number. But it loud was the hardest. I'll never have anything harder. Wow.

[24:34] Jayke Workman: Uh ever. And then you you went into another show while you were still doing Matilda, if I'm not mistaken.

[24:43] Lesli Margherita: Just a little known show called Dames at Sea and listen Dames at Sea Dams at Seattle yeah um was like the most freaking fun job and it was so good and nobody saw it and then we vote. It was like so disappointing because it was so good. We opened the season of Hamilton and so six white people on a boat wasn't necessarily at the top of everybody's list. Could have been the title honestly six white people on a daddy boat chugalog but it was so good and I actually got to go back um last summer Randy Skinner who's like a tap icon icon I cried because that show opens with me tapping by myself on a Broadway stage and every night I'm in a gold sequin tuxedo tap dancing on Broadway and every night I'd be like this is what I did as a kid I dreamed about this.

Yes by myself tap dancing on Broadway it's insane in a gold sequent tuxedo so every night I was a mess. Um so Randy last summer was like we're he wanted to revisit it and and kind of get it ready to to be a a tighter version that they could tour with so I got to go back and do it at Bucks County and I just I had the best time because the pressure was off. Yeah I didn't have to worry about grosses or you know, people writing shit online or whatever so it was really fun to go back and and do it because the whole that whole dame's experience was so amazing but also so such a bummer.

[26:27] Jayke Workman: I mean I couldn't believe that it claimed when it did only because I I I was part of the generation who was um so familiar with all of you guys because it was when like true social media and like your video like vlogs and stuff came to be so it was really like we got a special like behind the scenes look at those shows, Matilda and Dames at Sea that like we hadn't really had much of before.

[26:57] Lesli Margherita: Those vlogs like I and now people TikTok but it's just not the same.

[27:02] Lesli Margherita: No, I mean I love giving people like backstage view. I love love love like I'll always do talk backs if people have questions and stuff.

[27:12] Lesli Margherita: Cause yeah the TikToks are like a lifetime movie version. They're like dramatic versions of what happened. What I loved about like just sticking a camera on was that you did see everything and it was super fun. I loved doing that and I kinda miss carrying a camera around but now everybody's got one and it's kind of like less special.

[27:37] Jayke Workman: Right.

[27:37] Lesli Margherita: But it was such a fun way to feel like we were getting to know you and those people. I truly did, I really was like wow Lesli Margherita, I hope to be in a show with her someday and now I'm like she's on the podcast baby. What is so crazy is like I forever am such a theater kid and still am and such a fan. It took me so long to get to Broadway, which is supposed to be the success, but it's not.

[28:12] Jayke Workman: Right.

[28:12] Lesli Margherita: Oh, oh wait, my roommate. I'm doing a podcast.

[28:18] Jayke Workman: That's staying in.

[28:19] Lesli Margherita: It's staying in. Kids, when you have roommates in actor housing. And my roommate is the amazing Jennifer Lee Warren, who was like one of the original urchins.

[28:31] Jayke Workman: Oh my god.

[28:33] Lesli Margherita: Like it's crazy. Like, right? Like that's your roommate. I'm like, we're like, keep it down.

[28:39] Jayke Workman: I know my other roommate is like one of the longest running Christines in Phantom, Terry Bibb.

[28:43] Lesli Margherita: Like, oh my god, Terry Bib. Iconic.

[28:47] Jayke Workman: Iconic.

[28:48] Lesli Margherita: So this house, you've got the three of us that were like, well, we're doing a new musical. Like, can I borrow some toilet paper? Which is amazing.

[28:57] Jayke Workman: Oh my god.

[28:59] Lesli Margherita: Oh my god, I totally forgot what you were asking me.

[29:01] Jayke Workman: Oh, well, we were talking about the vlogs.

[29:04] Lesli Margherita: Oh god, the vlogs. Yeah, I um I don't know. I just I miss those. I miss those people. Oh, I know what it was. We're talking about like I'm such a fan of people. So the fact that anybody was coming up to me being like, oh my god, I'm a fan of you, or what you just said, like, oh, someday I'll be in a show with her, is cuckoo nuts to this day. Because I'm still like, oh my god, oh my god, I can't believe I have a job, eh?

[29:32] Jayke Workman: Yeah.

[29:33] Lesli Margherita: And then there's blah blah blah that I'm like freaking out over, you know.

[29:37] Jayke Workman: Totally.

[29:38] Lesli Margherita: So it never, um, which I hope it doesn't go away, because I love that. I don't wanna like I get so mad at people that show up to their jobs and are like, yeah, boo a hiss. But like, oh no.

[29:53] Jayke Workman: Oh no.

[29:54] Lesli Margherita: All have those days and those shows where you're like, okay, not my favorite.

[29:59] Jayke Workman: Of course.

[29:59] Lesli Margherita: Not my favorite. And we're doing it. Here we are. Look at us. Making jokes. Having a good time.

[30:08] Jayke Workman: Yeah.

[30:09] Lesli Margherita: Well because you got it. I have to say, I think getting to know you through working on a show with you was so exciting because it really was that experience for me of like, oh my gosh, you know, it's the first day. I have to put on like a good impression and whatever. And then of course, like through rehearsals and everything, you get to know everybody and it becomes like the playing field gets sort of leveled in that regard. But um you don't just do theater, you are a TV and film actor as well. And so I'm sure that that also happens a lot in your experience working on TV and film sets with like these crazy famous people that's how they're just normal.

[30:51] Lesli Margherita: Yeah. You know, it's the hardest thing I think is the majority of what I do would be like to guest star on a different show. So and a lot of times there's shows that I like. Yeah. And have I walking in and I'm like, oh I've been in this room before. No, I've just seen it on TV. So but they're pe those people are the nicest. Like I've never had a bad experience. I and they're so interested when they find out that you're like a Broadway person, they're like, Oh my god, you sing and dance. Like it's like we're zoo animals.

[31:25] Jayke Workman: Which I mean, where's the lie? We are.

[31:27] Lesli Margherita: I let me tell you, there are at least once a week I'm on stage looking at the audience, being like, I'm a fish in an aquarium. They're just I'm a zoo animal. Like it's just it literally is. You guys. I'm like, I can do anything I want. These people are staring at me. Um but yeah, I uh I just uh have stayed a fan of all genres and I lucked out because I kind of did TV and film first because I didn't know what I was doing. I was at UCLA working doing shows at Disneyland and I got a manager and he was like they're remaking Fame like Fame in Los Angeles. And I was like 17, I was like, okay, whatever. And I like booked this television show because I didn't care.

[31:43] Jayke Workman: Right.

[31:43] Lesli Margherita: I didn't know what I was doing. And at, you know, 17, you're like, uh, of course, because I'm amazing. Like I wish I had that confidence now. But yeah, I lucked out and still am lucking out being able to kind of go back and forth between theater and TV and film. It's it's I'm yeah, I'm very, very lucky.

[32:36] Jayke Workman: Yeah, that's incredible. Well, and you also, I mean, I've talked to a little bit about this on the podcast. Um, my last guest was Carrie St. Louis, and she's had quite a run. I mean, she's just a gem of a human.

[32:49] Lesli Margherita: Yeah.

[32:49] Jayke Workman: And she's currently um she's playing Rose in Titanic off Broadway.

[32:53] Lesli Margherita: Yeah and I wanted to ask Oh my god, Lesli, it's favorite show. It's ridiculous. I could see you in that in a fucking second. I would never when I saw Marla after the show, she was like, Oh my god, you could totally do this show. I'm like, I don't want to because I need to be a fan and watch it. If I was in it, I wouldn't get to watch it. I could never do this with any of the shit. I oh I I think I peed myself.

[33:19] Jayke Workman: I know.

[33:19] Lesli Margherita: Like I gotta see it again now because I saw the original cast and Alex Ellis, who was a friend of mine in play, was doing Carrie's role, but now I gotta go back and see Carrie. If anyone listening, please go see Titanic because it's unreal.

[33:34] Jayke Workman: But you had your own off-Broadway experience doing Who's Holiday, which I was like the most unhinged, I would say like an equivalent to a Titanic experience of playing Cindy Lou Who in this parody show of Who's Holiday. Can you tell me about how did you end up there?

[33:55] Lesli Margherita: Again, a crazy story. So I was actually filming being very dramatic on Homeland and I was filming in Virginia. And I was there for a few months or whatever. I was in a hotel room and I got an email from an agent that was like, You're being offered this show. Um it was originally gonna be in Boston. What all my things in Boston, like don't happen. It was supposed to be in Boston. Um and I was like, okay, it's a one-woman show, which immediately I was like, Oh god, oh god, I oh, I don't know, I don't know. And then I read it and peed myself and was like, I need to do this. Correct. Um and other people had been attached to it. I don't know, I'm sure it was like the fifteenth choice, but I was like, I'm taking it, I love it.

And then like a few days later they said they're skipping Boston going straight to off Broadway, and I was like, in like a month, and I was still filming and for a while I was going back and forth to New York and I had like and and filming Homeland, all that was a mess. But that's how I got involved, and it was the most frightening yet rewarding experience of my life because the one-person show scared the crap out of me. There were three of us, me, stage manager and my dresser, and they had to push me out on stage every night because it was terrifying. Once I was out there, I was fine, but terrifying. Terrifying. I'm it literally is just you. Like if you forget a lot and everything was in Seuss rhyme.

So if I fucked up a line, I had to be like, oh God, oh God, what rhymes with DevOp. Like it was a whole experience, but um I was so proud of it. And I really hope that it comes back at some point. I really, really, I really hope so. You know, you never know. I know they were like you know, it especially those shows they were had been talking about, oh, we're gonna do it again, but they need a star to do it. Please you know, it's just how it is, but I am that remains like one of my favorite things I think I've ever done, and um I'm so glad I did it. If anyone, if you ever get a chance to do one person, and it's different than like your cabaret show because that I'm surrounded by my friends. This was just Obama and the and there was audience participation, and I that scares me too. That had to face all of my demons, like going into the audience.

[36:38] Jayke Workman: Ugh.

[36:38] Lesli Margherita: I think it is like one really big goal of mine is to do a one-person show. And I mean, I've been obsessed with Elaine Stritch at Liberty like forever. She's she's I mean, it's just like the pinnacle of like comic genius. Um and so to do something like that, I mean, I I got to see one of your dear friends, Mr. Tom Lenk, do Buyer and Seller, which was another incredible one-person show.

[37:05] Jayke Workman: Oh, Buyer and Seller is another one that's crazy.

[37:08] Lesli Margherita: It's just a monologue. It's insane.

[37:11] Jayke Workman: Yeah, they're insane, these shows.

[37:15] Lesli Margherita: And you have to you can't zone out. Not that you not that you do at any show, you know, but you just it it's really tough, but it's really rewarding.

[37:27] Jayke Workman: Yeah.

[37:27] Lesli Margherita: But it is weird. After the show, it's just me in my dressing room, like could pat myself on the back. It's like it's something I think everybody should do. It's frightening, but yeah, I loved Who's Holiday. I just thought the idea of Cindy Lou Who as an absolute fucking mess.

[37:49] Jayke Workman: Yeah.

[37:50] Lesli Margherita: Who then but then it's but what I loved about it was that people thought it was just this comedy. It was so heart-wrenching and like her journey of you know, this everybody counted her out and she had drug problems and had been in jail, and then she just picks herself up and got her degree at DeVraye. Like she literally just like pulled herself out of this hole, and it was so inspiring.

[38:16] Jayke Workman: Yes.

[38:16] Lesli Margherita: To this broken person who, yes, it was funny, but it was also like really it had such a great message. So I'm I was very proud of that one. And uh Matthew Lombarda who wrote it, just did and Carl Anderson directed everybody, like that team was so great, and yeah, I hope I hope that comes around again someday.

[38:36] Jayke Workman: Gorge.

[38:37] Lesli Margherita: That's amazing. Well, you have also done lots of regional theater across the country, which I think is really exciting. Um you've worked at places like Goodspeed and like La Mirada. Can you tell me about like what is there a difference for you in um like taking on like a production contract like Matilda versus being like okay, I'm gonna be at this job for three months and that's it? Like, how do you approach those?

[39:04] Lesli Margherita: No, and I think it's because I it took me so long to get to Broadway. Regional theater is no different. Like I love regional theater, and you get to play roles and do shows that you've wanted to do forever. I just did a Damn Yankees out here in Long Beach that I swear was better than stuff I've seen on Broadway. Like the it doesn't matter where you do shows. Broadway is a street. Period.

[39:32] Jayke Workman: Say it again.

[39:34] Lesli Margherita: It is a street. Like it just doesn't matter. So no, I I don't look at I mean the theater that I'm in right now across the street is literally where they're like ten people in a dressing room and where you know it's not glamorous, neither is Broadway to be, you know, to be exactly. But no, there's there's no difference. And I love love regional theater. Um, you know, and like I love playing Adelaide. I'm gonna do it again this summer somewhere. Like it's like I just love you know, you just the people are great. And the thing about regional theater is people want to be there because you're not doing money. You really and I find especially out here in LA, um, like Musical Theater West and La Mirada, like the people in LA really wanna to live here and are amazing performers, and they're so grateful to get a chance to do a big show.

And that I find that in every regional theater. I think like I mean like Hartford where we did Flamingo Kid was was awesome and to get to do a tryout of a show. Yeah at a theater is great. No I love it. There's no difference. There's absolutely no difference. It's just bigger budget.

[40:49] Lesli Margherita: Yeah sometimes and sometimes it is not.

[40:55] Jayke Workman: Yeah.

[40:55] Lesli Margherita: It is not so we touched on it a little bit but um going back to you know the sort of like feeling of like stepping into a room where you obviously know a person's like credits and like a track record or whatever like have there been jobs for you where you have like walked into the room and like there's a person like there's the person that you have like looked up to forever oh I'm an idiot.

[41:24] Lesli Margherita: I'm an absolute idiot I so for yes and when I got to New York and then you see these people all the time it was it's still weird to me. I forever have been obsessed with Donna Murphy.

[41:37] Jayke Workman: Of course of course.

[41:37] Lesli Margherita: Um and she knew it it was like kind of a running joke because I literally would say it in everything and that woman came to my cabaret show I I would shit my pants I did myself and like now we're you know, now we're friends. But I that is the kind of person that I hope to be that that if somebody looks up to me and be like, Yeah, I'm I'm gonna come and support you because I know how that is.

[42:14] Lesli Margherita: So everybody that I've met has been so incredibly amazing. Like I'm always expecting I'm like, oh God, don't meet your heroes because they'll disappoint you. But everybody in the Broadway world has been awesome. And just stuff like that. Like, oh my god. So like I was also um I have been obsessed with Andrea Martin and Pippin was running when when Matilda opened my friend Andrew, who was in Pippin got Andrea Martin to get to film me an opening night video that was like minutes long. She didn't have to do that. Nobody you know, like it's just stuff like that that makes me freak out.

[42:58] Lesli Margherita: I sat next to Bernadette at the Broadway flea market and flipped the fuck out because literally I sat down and she went, Hi Leslie, and I was like, She knows my name, she knows my name. Well, my name was on a a card like right in front of me. I freaked out. I freaked out all the time. All the time. And I'm such an idiot because I will be like, Oh, I gotta learn so much. Like, I of course and then I obsessed about what I've said to them afterwards for like hours. I'm like, did I make of course. I mean, the first time that I like saw Charlotte Dambois backstage of Chicago. I was like, I I have seen an angel. I was like, uh I I can't recover from this. And then you're on the same stage. It's weird. It's all weird.

[43:44] Jayke Workman: Reality.

[43:45] Lesli Margherita: Well, and I love too. Some of my favorite like celeb quote unquote run-ins are with people who like I have never met and uh will probably never meet again. Like the like uh one time I met um Matt Bomer on the street. He was he was in New York doing a pro hi daddy gorgeous. And he had clearly just like walked out of his stage door like after a rehearsal or something. There was no one on the street and it was just me and him, and I looked up and we like locked eyes and I went, Matt And he goes, Yeah.

[44:17] Lesli Margherita: I was like, oh wait, I completely forgot that um we're not friends. We you don't know who I am. Happens all the time. Especially like they call it like the Broadway craw quads, like around like the shoe bird and like where the Marietta Marquis is, there's a bunch of theaters.

[44:32] Jayke Workman: Yes.

[44:33] Lesli Margherita: So I there was one time I ran I saw that actor Leah Schreiber was doing a show like around the corner for me. Came around and I was like, What up, doodle doo? thinking it was like friend of mine. Was so literally what up doodle to do is what I said. He was so confused, like, I don't know you. I'm sorry. I'm so sorry I don't know you. It it's so weird because you do I remember every time I saw Bradley Cooper, I'd be like, Oh my god, oh my god. Oh my god. Insane.

[45:01] Jayke Workman: That's insane.

[45:02] Lesli Margherita: And then of course like the next week.

[45:02] Jayke Workman: Yes, exactly.

[45:02] Lesli Margherita: Like the next week, you're like in the same show and you're like, oh, okay, never, never mind. Never mind.

[45:10] Jayke Workman: Yeah.

[45:11] Lesli Margherita: That's that's so funny. Like everybody. When we were doing Flamingo Kid, um, uh, he was so lovely. Uh Beth Level's uh boyfriend. I don't wanna like out who's with who, but Oh yeah, yeah. Just Beth was like at our performance. And she's another person like oh I'm friendly with and I've worked with her, but she's another one where I'm like, Hey Beth. Hello, hey. And of course. When I met Beth Malone the first time, I was like, Are you fucking kidding me? Ancient Greece, Ancient Greece. All roads lead back to Ancient Greece.

[45:48] Jayke Workman: All roads.

[45:48] Lesli Margherita: Beth Malone and I, like, were she's another LA girl. Like, we had just done shows at the La Marada or whatever. And then it happened that we both were out there at the same time. We were like, and Beth Malone. And if you know Beth Malone, this is the least Beth Malone thing. Matilda thought I was too short. And so before my final callback, Beth Malone went with me to like the JC Penny in Sacramento while we were doing Ancient Greece to buy Kardashian heels.

[46:16] Lesli Margherita: And I made her put them on, and she I've never I cry laugh, cry laugh that Beth was shopping for stripper heels with me like I'll again in my life. I'll never oh my god, iconic. But yeah, but then like and then she becomes Beth Malone, and and you're like, it's crazy. Of course, and you become Lesli Margherita, and then it's just which it's hilarious.

[46:41] Jayke Workman: I I always um I will never forget your your like iconic quote, which is it's like the pizza, not the drink.

[46:48] Lesli Margherita: Yes, I'm I love it. And I think I have to title the the episode like the pizza, not the drink. Um so can you tell me are there are there like aspirations of of new stuff for you? Do you like not to be that the fucking worst question ever, which is like, well, what's next? But like, what do you hope uh panic attack in 15 minutes?

[47:12] Lesli Margherita: That's next walking steward.

[47:16] Jayke Workman: Walking Stuart, yeah.

[47:18] Lesli Margherita: Um, yeah, I mean, I I still I think what people don't realize is that we may look like we have it all together, we we just want to work. It's just it's a constant, you're never at a point where you're like, oh, great, I can coast now. And and it's just not like that. We we unfortunately chose a business that is you're at the highest high and the lowest low in the same day.

[47:45] Jayke Workman: Oh wait, you know, sometimes so as long as I can keep working and and doing cool stuff. I've been really, really lucky knocking on everything. Yeah, you know, um, to get to do this for a living, but you know, it's just yeah, they're always like dream roles and stuff. I just I but the more and more I just wanna keep working. I think also like pandemic, you kind of realized, oh, what we do is really special and could go away at any point.

[48:14] Jayke Workman: Totally.

[48:15] Lesli Margherita: So that changed perspective, I think, on for a lot of people. Um, yeah, I just want to like keep working. And I don't care where it is, it doesn't Broadway is not probably doesn't mean better. Again, say it from the rooftop. It just doesn't, it it doesn't, and no matter where you are, it literally doesn't matter. So I don't care where I'm doing the stuff that I love to do.

[48:43] Lesli Margherita: Um and you know, yeah, it really I I I just I really try and and and make that point that it you know, people are like, Oh, I haven't been on Broadway and I had I was that forever and going, it might not happen, and that's okay too.

[48:59] Jayke Workman: Yeah.

[48:59] Lesli Margherita: It doesn't mean you're less successful. A hundred percent. So and that's hard, you know, it's hard because we now live in a world of of you know, people telling you you have to be such and such to to to I don't know. You know what I mean?

[49:19] Jayke Workman: Yes, worth or you're not or your worth is nothing.

[49:23] Lesli Margherita: Right. So um yeah, it's it's an interesting time. I think social media has gone cuckoo like there's like TikTok theater talk, you know, that's like which is a whole another level of insanity and like because it's like simultaneously musical theater but also um on your phone, so there's no like actual like element of live theater at all, which is crazy.

[49:47] Jayke Workman: Yeah, so silly.

[49:48] Lesli Margherita: It's it's the whole thing is nuts. I you know I I just kind of now just sit back and and and work when I argue about you know, you you can't argue with anybody and I used to like get online and get so mad at people saying stuff and I was like, I just can't just gotta keep on keeping on.

[50:10] Jayke Workman: Totally.

[50:11] Lesli Margherita: Well and that like to that point I I do have to ask you about just like your your social media presence and the way that you have sort of created this like rule your own kingdom brand because I think it's really it's not just um like funny comic relief for people, like people I mean, you obviously know that people look up to you, so the fact that you know, like you're you're keeping it real on a level that some people are not, and I love that. I think it's like so refreshing and um it's so cool that people get to see you be like, Yes, I uh have an Olivier award and now I'm picking up my dog's poop on the side of the road.

[50:52] Lesli Margherita: Well that you know, like I love the fact that that somebody appreciates if I post I just really tanked an audition because I feel like it happened. Of course. You know, there's so much of the I can't say what's happening yet, but watch this space.

[51:13] Lesli Margherita: Your cat in the bag. Jess No one wants to see your cat. Nobody wants to see your cat. The fact that you kept your cat in a bag means that you should go to jail. Like that's animal. I it's just it's it's a lot, and I understand it, because we all do it. Everybody wants to make themselves feel better, but when you are like barraged with I know I spiral. If I go on Broadway sites, I ha I have to limit myself to the amount of Broadway news or entertainment news because it looks like everybody's working but you.

[51:50] Jayke Workman: Sure.

[51:51] Lesli Margherita: And it that's not it's just not real. Right. So I have to like so I'm so happy that that I still can keep it real on social media. And that the queen thing is so you know, it ended up being like a brand that never was intended to be. That started when I was a kid. I wrote as a kid of the 80s, I wrote Lesli Rules everywhere. Everywhere. And my mom has all these pictures, like every theater I went into, I wrote it under the table, Lesli Rules, rules, rules.

[52:22] Lesli Margherita: And I would always call myself Queen and and it was just it has never been like I think I'm better. It is literally like all I can control is my tiny little kingdom of me. Yes. And so I I am the queen of my little kingdom. And nobody can come into it. My mode is up. Like literally I tell people I'm like, give yourself a freaking title because somebody's gonna label you anyway. So call yourself whatever you want to call yourself. I don't care.

[52:50] Lesli Margherita: And so that's where the queen thing came from. And like and remembering that you're the only person that can rule over you. Things that people say about you, opinions that people have about you, you can't control it. Right. And somebody somewhere is gonna hate you anyway. So who you know you already can't please everybody because there is guaranteed to be somebody who hates you.

[53:19] Jayke Workman: Absolutely.

[53:20] Lesli Margherita: And it's that just pressure off. And it helps with auditions too, because I have terrible audition anxiety. I hate it. I will I will like avoid them until I absolutely have to go in. I like I I have panic attacks. But realizing that somebody behind the table is gonna think you suck. It's just the numbers game. If there's ten people, one of them's gonna be like, I don't get it. It takes the pressure off.

[53:45] Jayke Workman: Sure, totally.

[53:46] Lesli Margherita: You know, I'm amazed that any of us get any jobs. The amount of people that have to like agree on who should be cast and anything is not nicely, seriously. So yeah, I'm I'm happy to keep it real on the on the the social media. I love I'll always like address the theater kids from from Auntie Leslie, being like, here's what I've been through. Yes. Here's how it is. It's important. I think it's totally important. People aren't telling the youngins these days to be good people and to like, you know, be grateful and 'cause it's really easy to get a million followers on TikTok and think that means you deserve a career.

[54:33] Lesli Margherita: Yeah. Anything. Yeah. And I don't think there are a lot of people saying like, no, you still gotta work your ass off because that may not translate to a career, you know. So I think it's important and no, I'm glad some of them I get in trouble for, but screw 'em. Some people just take them the wrong way and I'm like, that's still what I meant.

[54:58] Jayke Workman: Well, I can honestly say that you truly have been such an inspiration to me and to so many people I know. So I'm again I'm just so thrilled to have you on the pod.

[55:09] Lesli Margherita: I'm so excited that you're doing this because talk about like somebody you have literally you're so different than anybody else and you have embraced that and like soared with it like thank you.

[55:23] Jayke Workman: Come on. You're incredible and just like I remember meeting you being like and I you had like I think you had a Louis bag, like a vintage when I met you.

[55:33] Lesli Margherita: Yes.

[55:33] Jayke Workman: Like I love him. And we talk and I was like, where do you get that? You were telling me about like the stores that you go to went to in Hartford and I was like th I just thought you were so special and then you opened your mouth and I had that voice. I was like, what the fuck?

[55:51] Lesli Margherita: Oh my god, you are too sweet, making me blush. It's true. It's so like embrace what makes you you. I mean that's that's the tea.

[56:00] Jayke Workman: That's the tea. You never want to anybody else's box.

[56:04] Lesli Margherita: Cause you c i i it's impossible.

[56:06] Jayke Workman: It's impossible.

[56:07] Lesli Margherita: Yeah. Totally. Because you just have to. And that in itself is a hard thing to do. It's getting a little easier now, but I just embrace the weird. It's literally what's gonna set you apart.

[56:22] Jayke Workman: Hell yeah. Well, I have a little segment that I do, which is a musical theater rapid fire questionnaire. Slash like life questionnaire. Um if you would if you would oblige me.

[56:38] Lesli Margherita: Um it's not a it's not a um like a trivia questionnaire. Don't don't fret. It's not about theater knowledge, although I'm sure you would school all of us.

[56:48] Jayke Workman: Yeah, very good at trivia. So here we go.

[56:54] Jayke Workman: Sondheim or Andrew Ludweber?

[56:56] Lesli Margherita: Sondheim.

[56:58] Jayke Workman: Ooh, god no, ee.

[57:00] Lesli Margherita: Yeah, no, I've got yeah, Sonheim.

[57:02] Jayke Workman: I knew you would struggle with that one. Sweatpants or jeans?

[57:06] Lesli Margherita: Sweatpants.

[57:07] Jayke Workman: Do you have a favorite musical?

[57:12] Lesli Margherita: To watch. I freaking love Dream Girls.

[57:16] Jayke Workman: Oh yes.

[57:18] Lesli Margherita: There are too man they are literally too many. Uh I mean, I'm the girl that still buys the t-shirt to every show that I go to.

[57:25] Jayke Workman: Of course.

[57:26] Lesli Margherita: Oh, I like I kind of like everything. Get the magnet. Um but like I yeah, it's like in high school I had a my keychain was a gold phantom of the opera ticket.

[57:36] Jayke Workman: Like incredible. Well, then on the opposite side, do you have a least favorite musical?

[57:48] Lesli Margherita: Yes.

[57:49] Jayke Workman: Hair.

[57:50] Lesli Margherita: I don't like hippies or like that genre. And uh because I didn't live through it, I and I I can't. And just balls in my face when I saw it. So yeah, that one, absolutely. I remember seeing the revival and just like I I'm I'm out.

[58:10] Jayke Workman: You mean to tell me that you didn't want to see Gavin Krill's balls?

[58:15] Lesli Margherita: I think it wasn't Gavin's balls, I'm sure. No, I don't I I just know there's something about lists everything I can't. I can't.

[58:24] Jayke Workman: Incredible. Um would you ever like to do a Broadway play?

[58:32] Lesli Margherita: Yes. I love doing plays. Yeah. I I would love to. Yeah. Correns. Would love to, love to. I keep getting like cool ones out here in LA, and I would I would love to do one in New York. Um yeah.

[58:45] Jayke Workman: Hell yeah. Are you a morning person or a night owl?

[58:46] Lesli Margherita: Night owl.

[58:52] Jayke Workman: Same.

[58:53] Lesli Margherita: Night owl. Although I'm trying to be more of a morning person. But it's so hard. It's you know, and what we do, like you have to be a morning person when you're in rehearsal, but then you're a night owl when you're doing shows. And you know, sometimes you're doing a sh if you're lucky, sometimes you're doing a show at night and then maybe working on something new during the day. So then you're in a constant state of just like, where am I? I'm a zombie.

[59:16] Jayke Workman: Yes. But yeah, I'm more of a night owl for sure.

[59:19] Lesli Margherita: Me too. What is the craziest thing a director has ever asked you to do?

[59:28] Jayke Workman: Or one of them.

[59:30] Lesli Margherita: One of them, seriously. I mean, I have done emoji land. I came down a 15 foot pole. The the the craziest I I will always laugh about it. My friend, amazing director, David Alfred. I was doing a show at uh the New York Festival nymph it that doesn't exist anymore. And for the second act, my head was chopped off. It like so he had me for an entire act in a box. Um and I would pop my head, my head would pop out when I would do my scenes, and then I was on my back like a dead roach in a box. Like literally So that was definitely one of the weirdest.

[1:00:14] Jayke Workman: That's insane.

[1:00:15] Lesli Margherita: Yeah. Oh yeah, that I mean you can't say no.

[1:00:18] Jayke Workman: No, of course. I mean, I again people please are like makes total sense.

[1:00:29] Lesli Margherita: Um Golden Age or Contemporary?

[1:00:32] Jayke Workman: Golden Age.

[1:00:33] Lesli Margherita: Favorite role you've ever played.

[1:00:36] Jayke Workman: Oh, so many.

[1:00:40] Lesli Margherita: Uh probably Inez and Zorro, but I I love Adelaide so much. There's a bunch, but I think Adelaide's my favorite.

[1:00:51] Jayke Workman: Love.

[1:00:52] Lesli Margherita: She's just so good. So good and like especially getting to do it now in this kind of day and age where you're like, oh no, she's like the smartest one in the room. You know, like that.

[1:01:09] Jayke Workman: And Audrey too. I feel like the you know, the the the dumb blondes are are so not.

[1:01:15] Lesli Margherita: Mm-hmm. Yes, totally. Um, coffee or tea?

[1:01:21] Jayke Workman: Coffee.

[1:01:23] Lesli Margherita: Correct. That is the correct answer.

[1:01:24] Jayke Workman: Cool. Um, hardest show you've ever done.

[1:01:30] Lesli Margherita: Ooh. Uh probably again, like Zorro was a ton of stuff, but whose holiday was the hardest, I think, just emotionally and yeah, I think that was the hardest.

[1:01:45] Jayke Workman: And how long did that run?

[1:01:47] Lesli Margherita: It was only like three months.

[1:01:49] Jayke Workman: Well, that's I mean, that's not a short amount of time.

[1:01:52] Lesli Margherita: No. But I mean, you know, it was it was a short God, it wasn't even. It was probably two months, three months. But just I think like in terms of like the rehearsal process and the self-doubt and the oh god, I suck, who's gonna want to look at me for two hours or stage, like those kind of spirals at night? That's what made it the hardest. It wasn't necessarily the hardest to perform, although it is exhausting because you don't get a break. Um but yeah, I think that was the hardest, like overall, just just to deal.

[1:02:25] Jayke Workman: Wow. Because at least Matilda, loud is the hardest number I'll ever do, but I had breaks. Like that was the only so that was good.

[1:02:35] Lesli Margherita: Yes. Um, do you have a favorite costume you've ever worn?

[1:02:41] Jayke Workman: Oh my gosh.

[1:02:45] Lesli Margherita: Um, Dames at Sea, I have this pink Miss Piggy robe that I take off in the middle of the number. It's my favorite though. It is it's giant huge feathers everywhere. It's it's every like dream that you have of of this like boudoir robe. That's been my favorite, I think, for sure.

[1:03:08] Jayke Workman: I know the one.

[1:03:11] Lesli Margherita: That robe. Ugh, yeah. Um, have you ever missed an entrance?

[1:03:19] Lesli Margherita: Yes. Um, and it and I documented it. Uh I pride myself on being like, okay, I'm I'm here, I'm not I'm not missing anything. Um, but when I was vlogging in Matilda, I had been away shooting a movie for like eight weeks or something, and it was my first show back, and I was like, ugh, I got it. I know what it is. I'm literally vlogging, talking, and I have the top part of my costume with this with just a leotard and my tights, and I hear like somebody just banging on my dressing room door. I'm like, what? I am filming, what is happening? I completely missed an entrance. The music like is going. My Mr. Wormwood was like, ah, on stage. I ran stairs with no no skirt, nothing, no shoes, just tights on my leotard, no pants on a Broadway stage.

And I everybody had crowded around in the wings laughing at me because I was trying to hide the fact that I had no pants on and no shoes, and I was so late. And and since then I have never, never missed an entrance. I um I remember the stage manager was laughing. He was like, I'm really sorry to do this. It's like I have to write you up. Because you know, you like you get like three strikes and you're out sort of on on Broadway. You get like it's like detention, but you don't do anything. But if you miss an entrance or blah blah blah, you get a little write up. Um he was laughing when he said it. I was like, I I understand it's never gonna happen again.

[1:04:52] Jayke Workman: I'm very sorry.

[1:04:55] Lesli Margherita: Probably incredible. It happens to everybody. Um especially like shit backstage. My phone, my games, like everything.

[1:05:06] Jayke Workman: Of course. Um, my last question for you is what is one thing you would tell to your younger self.

[1:05:14] Lesli Margherita: Hmm. I mean, I think it would really be it's not gonna happen how you think it is. I I was so sure growing up that immediately I was gonna just like we all do, you know. I'm gonna be this Broadway star, I'm gonna blah blah blah. And it in no way happened that way. And I think if I had said that to my teen self, I would have been like, go fuck yourself. Of course it is, you know. So I don't think I would have listened. The the small me would not have listened, which is probably a good thing. But I I th I would have been like pay be patient and and and know that it's just not gonna be what you think it is. Love it. Sometimes it's better, sometimes it's worse. But it's just you gotta go go with it.

[1:06:05] Jayke Workman: Yeah, nothing you can do but go with it. Well, Lesli, thank you so much for coming on the pod. This was so hot fun.

[1:06:17] Lesli Margherita: Eve, I feel like I've just rambled and ran.

[1:06:18] Jayke Workman: Oh my god, no, I loved every second of it. Um, can you tell the listeners where they can find you on on socials?

[1:06:24] Lesli Margherita: Yes! Everything everywhere is at Queen Leslie, and Lesli is L E S L I. There's no E at the end of my name. I don't know my mom why she did that, but Queen Leslie everywhere, Instagrammy and TikTok.

[1:06:41] Jayke Workman: I thought I don't TikTok often.

[1:06:43] Lesli Margherita: Yours are so good. I just I I I don't I should more.

[1:06:47] Jayke Workman: I like watching.

[1:06:48] Lesli Margherita: Yes, yes, absolutely. That's the T. Like it takes Except when I scroll to one and they're like, Lesli Margherita sucks. What am I about to say that before?

[1:06:58] Jayke Workman: No.

[1:07:00] Lesli Margherita: Yes! Yes, I will like on my for you page. Be like, I saw Lesli Margherita say this on Twitter. I can't believe she said it. You're like, enough. I'm going to bed.

[1:07:10] Jayke Workman: I said it to my Did I make it? Did I make it?

[1:07:15] Lesli Margherita: Oh my god. It's raw. It's just all raw.

[1:07:17] Jayke Workman: All of it's wrong. Hilarious. Well, thank you so much for doing this. You are just such a a treat. I can't wait to get to see you in person again. Come to Niall.

[1:07:26] Lesli Margherita: I know. I know. Soon. I know soon. I'm there all the time. When once we're done with this, I'm I'm back for some stuff.

[1:07:34] Jayke Workman: Love it. Yay.

[1:07:37] Lesli Margherita: Yay! You guys, that's it for another episode of Oh MyPod, you guys. Don't forget to rate, review, and subscribe anywhere you listen to the pod. And you can follow the show on Instagram at oh mypod, you guys. Thank you so much for listening, and I'll talk to you soon. Bye.

[1:07:56] Jayke Workman: Oh my god. Oh my god, you guys.