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[0:00] Quincy Brown: That would have been cringy.

[0:02] Kevin Bianchi: If you stayed in character, Lindsay.

[0:04] Lindsay Heather Pearce: Could you imagine?

[0:05] Lindsay Heather Pearce: I would have quit.

[0:06] Lindsay Heather Pearce: I would have left the business.

[0:08] Lindsay Heather Pearce: I would have gone to Chicago and become a coder.

[0:11] Lindsay Heather Pearce: I would have left.

[0:12] Lindsay Heather Pearce: I would have been like Carla Stickler.

[0:14] Lindsay Heather Pearce: Are there any openings?

[0:15] Lindsay Heather Pearce: I'm done.

[0:16] Lindsay Heather Pearce: Hook me up.

[0:17] Lindsay Heather Pearce: I'm out of here.

[0:22] Quincy Brown: My name's Quincy.

[0:23] Kevin Bianchi: My name's Kevin.

[0:25] Quincy Brown: And this is Sentimental Men.

[0:27] Kevin Bianchi: But keep your thumb away from that skip button.

[0:30] Quincy Brown: Because we're here to talk and maybe scream about our favorite women in musical theater.

[0:42] Kevin Bianchi: Well, Lindsay Pearce, you are here.

[0:44] Kevin Bianchi: Our first ever Sentimental Men guest is back with us at the end of her contract.

[0:49] Lindsay Heather Pearce: Yeah.

[0:50] Kevin Bianchi: And the first time we had you on, we recorded for like two, three hours the first time we had you on.

[0:56] Kevin Bianchi: But then for whatever reason, when we first started, we were like, no one's gonna listen to this for longer than half an hour, so we must cut it down.

[1:02] Kevin Bianchi: So we truncated your like three hours of wisdom to this like very snippy, snappy half hour episode.

[1:08] Lindsay Heather Pearce: Yeah.

[1:09] Lindsay Heather Pearce: Really?

[1:09] Lindsay Heather Pearce: I have no recollection of it being that long, and I also have no recollection of it having been cut down.

[1:15] Kevin Bianchi: Yeah, it was long.

[1:16] Kevin Bianchi: We talked for a long time.

[1:18] Lindsay Heather Pearce: We did all I will also say we didn't just talk about like I mean, we just I feel like we were from what I remember, I was like, wow, it was so nice to talk to theater people about theater.

[1:27] Lindsay Heather Pearce: Yeah, because it was in like the thick of the shutdown.

[1:29] Lindsay Heather Pearce: Yeah, it was in like September or something like that of 2020.

[1:33] Lindsay Heather Pearce: And I felt like I hadn't I and I also hadn't talked about Wicked in the way that we talked about Wicked together.

[1:39] Lindsay Heather Pearce: It's a very different way to talk about Wicked because you guys are so you're so very like woven into the fabric of theater in so many different ways.

[1:48] Lindsay Heather Pearce: You have so many different mediums of being like a part of theater.

[1:51] Lindsay Heather Pearce: So it was really nice to talk to people who not only were like fans of theater, but were also like creators of theater, and you're backstage.

[1:58] Lindsay Heather Pearce: It's just it's great.

[1:59] Lindsay Heather Pearce: It was great.

[1:59] Lindsay Heather Pearce: It was great.

[2:00] Kevin Bianchi: We're so excited to have you back on for an exit interview of sorts.

[2:06] Kevin Bianchi: At the time of recording, you still have two more weeks left in your run.

[2:09] Lindsay Heather Pearce: Yeah, I'm it's May 9th now and my final show is 3 p.m. May 22nd.

[2:15] Kevin Bianchi: And how are we feeling about it right now?

[2:16] Lindsay Heather Pearce: Yeah.

[2:17] Lindsay Heather Pearce: What is you know, I had a cry about it about two weeks ago where I just couldn't believe that after all of this time that it would eventually be over.

[2:26] Lindsay Heather Pearce: And I've known.

[2:27] Lindsay Heather Pearce: I've known since I knew my friend was gonna come in after me.

[2:33] Lindsay Heather Pearce: I've known for months that this was the end date, but you can't quite work towards an end date like that.

[2:39] Lindsay Heather Pearce: You have to just take it every day and every week as it comes, because as I'm sure with all the other people that have played this part or have been in, you know, the green machine that is Wicked, have talked about is there's no week that is the same.

[2:53] Lindsay Heather Pearce: There's no two days that are the same most of the time.

[2:55] Lindsay Heather Pearce: Sometimes you're like flying free.

[2:57] Lindsay Heather Pearce: Ew, hello.

[2:58] Lindsay Heather Pearce: Sometimes you're like really like sometimes you're really feeling on the top of your game, and then sometimes you're like, this is the hardest seven shows I've ever done.

[3:08] Lindsay Heather Pearce: Yeah.

[3:08] Lindsay Heather Pearce: You know, where you're like, you're just like being dragged across coals.

[3:11] Lindsay Heather Pearce: And then sometimes you're like, I did eight, I can't believe it.

[3:14] Lindsay Heather Pearce: Like it's it's so wild.

[3:17] Lindsay Heather Pearce: It's really I mean, it's amazing.

[3:18] Lindsay Heather Pearce: But two weeks ago I was um I was sitting on the floor and I was packing up things in my apartment because I'm leaving soon and I yeah, and I I was like, oh my god, there was some this is so silly, but like I looking at all like folding up all the winter clothes and like folding up things that I knew I wasn't gonna take on my next job on tour, and just like folding up this home that has heard a lot a lot of warm-ups.

[3:45] Lindsay Heather Pearce: She's she's she's held a lot of tears.

[3:48] Lindsay Heather Pearce: Um, you know, this home this home has been there's green everywhere, like there's green all over the place.

[3:55] Lindsay Heather Pearce: And uh I was I just couldn't believe that I was gonna say bye to not only the character but the the company that I've been a part of for two and a half years.

[4:06] Kevin Bianchi: Well, and this life that you've built in New York, because I remember in the first episode in our first interview with you over a year ago, you were talking about you were moving to New York for the first time, you were a fish out of water.

[4:16] Kevin Bianchi: This was your first big job in New York.

[4:18] Lindsay Heather Pearce: Yeah.

[4:18] Lindsay Heather Pearce: Have do you feel like you've settled into New York and you're you live here now, like you are a New Yorker?

[4:24] Lindsay Heather Pearce: Yeah, I feel that way.

[4:25] Lindsay Heather Pearce: My you might know him, my friend Michael Kushner was like, no, you have New York energy.

[4:30] Lindsay Heather Pearce: I was like, oh my god, thank you so much.

[4:33] Lindsay Heather Pearce: I've I've I've become um and uh I do.

[4:37] Lindsay Heather Pearce: There was uh the m the I'll tell you exactly actually, because this is a pretty Sentimental Men moment.

[4:37] Lindsay Heather Pearce: I'll tell you exactly when it hit me that it's all like the chapter is closing.

[4:49] Lindsay Heather Pearce: So I'm at Birdland Jazz Club and Debbie Gravitte is singing, and Steven Schwartz is on stage singing with her playing.

[4:57] Lindsay Heather Pearce: Uh-huh.

[4:57] Lindsay Heather Pearce: And Sam and I had just gone up, Sam Grabbitt, my Fira had just gone up and we'd sung love song from Pippin.

[5:05] Lindsay Heather Pearce: And you know, Steve Steven was the sweetest, and he was like, oh, it's never been the fun fact.

[5:10] Lindsay Heather Pearce: Like, just he's the sweetest, the sweetest, like just get, you know, Papa Schwartz, me and Papa Schwartz.

[5:15] Lindsay Heather Pearce: And um, we had gone back and sat down, and I had a friend with me, my friend Emily was sitting in front of me, and at one point she'd gotten, you know, overcome with emotion about something, and I'd taken her hand, and she turned back to me and she went, how you doing?

[5:31] Lindsay Heather Pearce: And I just went, I I like I felt that like pre-cry breath of you know, like that like that inhale, and I went, I don't want to leave New York.

[5:40] Kevin Bianchi: Yeah.

[5:41] Lindsay Heather Pearce: And I knew that I I had known for like a month and a half that I was gonna go do Mean Girls after this.

[5:45] Lindsay Heather Pearce: And uh I I've known since like second week of March.

[5:49] Kevin Bianchi: Was that a hard decision to be like, I'm gonna pack up and go on tour after being stationed in New York?

[5:54] Lindsay Heather Pearce: Not at all.

[5:55] Lindsay Heather Pearce: Okay.

[5:55] Lindsay Heather Pearce: Not at all.

[5:55] Lindsay Heather Pearce: No, in fact, I'd I had said openly um in like December, I was like, I want to do tour after this.

[6:01] Lindsay Heather Pearce: I think that's gonna be really nice to do.

[6:03] Kevin Bianchi: Why?

[6:03] Lindsay Heather Pearce: What's the reasoning?

[6:04] Lindsay Heather Pearce: I think I just want something different.

[6:06] Lindsay Heather Pearce: I want a different challenge, and I want to see different places, and I think after being quarantined for so long, and then um I say this with love, but playing Alphaba is its own kind of quarantine in a way.

[6:21] Kevin Bianchi: Yeah.

[6:22] Lindsay Heather Pearce: Where you you really do, and and it's a blessing to live by habit in that way.

[6:22] Lindsay Heather Pearce: It's a blessing to you know, the the girls say you you're you're a mock, you know, or you live like a nun.

[6:32] Lindsay Heather Pearce: Um there's a blessing to that.

[6:34] Lindsay Heather Pearce: There's awesome, wonderful things that come along with having a routine like that.

[6:37] Lindsay Heather Pearce: But I think you know, there's a loneliness that comes along with it too.

[6:41] Lindsay Heather Pearce: So there's and that's just the truth.

[6:43] Lindsay Heather Pearce: It's not it's not a negative thing, it's just an observation as someone who has been doing it.

[6:48] Kevin Bianchi: And it's uh were you expecting that?

[6:50] Kevin Bianchi: Like, were you expecting the routine to manifest as loneliness in that way?

[6:55] Lindsay Heather Pearce: No, I think I think I felt a certain loneliness because there were a lot of things that I left behind coming back to this job.

[7:02] Lindsay Heather Pearce: I when you know, last you talked to me, I was engaged to someone, and um, you know, and I hadn't gone through an injury within, you know, moments of reopening, and uh I hadn't I hadn't gone through the roller coaster that was this contract yet.

[7:17] Lindsay Heather Pearce: So I hadn't gone through the the bitter, beautiful cold of a New York winter, which is like, oh my god, the best and worst thing I've ever experienced.

[7:25] Lindsay Heather Pearce: But I love I truly I love New York with my whole heart and there's a lot of that and then honestly also like the you know, the just the the natural anxiety of the COVID of it all.

[7:33] Lindsay Heather Pearce: There's kind of a I think even if I wasn't playing Alphaba, I think there would be, you know, through the time of me being in this, but specifically because the role is so demanding and you have to give it the respect it deserves.

[7:44] Lindsay Heather Pearce: There's like a stay away from me kind of thing, you know, where I don't I don't see a lot of friends.

[7:50] Lindsay Heather Pearce: I don't see and and they kind of have to work around my schedule because some of my friends are not actively performing in this moment, so they have like their other jobs that they do.

[8:01] Lindsay Heather Pearce: So they're like off at night and I'm like, I don't wake up till noon.

[8:05] Kevin Bianchi: Well that's something I've been thinking about as like people have becoming more lax with COVID where it's like, yeah, society's maybe getting more relaxed, but still if you're a Broadway performer and you test positive, then you're out of your job for ten days, so you still kind of have to be staying away and like being mindful of it in a way that maybe not everyone else is being right now.

[8:24] Lindsay Heather Pearce: Yeah, absolutely, you're one hundred percent right.

[8:26] Lindsay Heather Pearce: And I think also it's uh if I've gotten it and we just found out I had it, who have I given it to?

[8:33] Lindsay Heather Pearce: That was when I found out that I had it, I immediately messaged Jenny and I was like, I'm so sorry because she was afraid of giving it to her kid, you know, or that she was gonna have to lose time with her kid, and it was you know, and we were all like, you know, it's no one's fault.

[8:44] Kevin Bianchi: Right.

[8:45] Lindsay Heather Pearce: But it's still shitty.

[8:46] Lindsay Heather Pearce: It's horrible 'cause you just, you know, you feel responsible because it's your autonomy.

[8:49] Lindsay Heather Pearce: You want to like take accountability for like the the space that you inhabit, but at the same time it's theater and we're all basically spitting into each other's mouths.

[8:57] Kevin Bianchi: So you know, it's like what can you do?

[9:01] Right.

[9:01] Lindsay Heather Pearce: The amount of times, the amount of times that I have stepped down, God, this is probably gonna end up on one of your reels, but I don't care the amount of times that I've stepped down on the stage right cog going unlimited, my future is unlimited, and spittle is just flying from my mouth into the audience, and all I'm thinking is like, close your eyes, close your eyes.

[9:25] Lindsay Heather Pearce: I'm not gonna I'm just watching like gobs of my own spit just fly into the audience, and I'm like, wow, it really we really it's projectile.

[9:33] Kevin Bianchi: You can't help it.

[9:34] Lindsay Heather Pearce: Yeah, it's so bad.

[9:35] Lindsay Heather Pearce: And sometimes during scenes, if I'm really if I'm really enunciating, I'm like, oh my god, that made it to at least like roasty.

[9:42] Kevin Bianchi: Like at least Well, we were talking about before we started recording how your contract is very unique because there were a lot of forced pauses in it because of the time that we're living in.

[9:54] Lindsay Heather Pearce: Yeah.

[9:55] Lindsay Heather Pearce: I'm putting myself in the shoes of an actor, and I would personally feel gypped for lack of a better word.

[10:02] Lindsay Heather Pearce: Like, I would feel a little bit like, well, damn, like, why is this all happening to me?

[10:06] Kevin Bianchi: Yeah.

[10:07] Kevin Bianchi: One, did you think that too?

[10:08] Kevin Bianchi: How did you reconcile with that feeling of unfairness because of just the place that the world was in?

[10:13] Lindsay Heather Pearce: I appreciate this question, and in a way, I do relate, but it's not an unfairness.

[10:19] Lindsay Heather Pearce: There was never a why is this happening to me?

[10:22] Lindsay Heather Pearce: It was why can't I do what other people have done?

[10:28] Lindsay Heather Pearce: That's been that was a thing that kept coming up for me.

[10:32] Lindsay Heather Pearce: And God bless all the other green girls ahead of me.

[10:35] Lindsay Heather Pearce: They were like, uh truly, and I, you know, everyone's gonna have their own opinion, and that's really none of my business.

[10:41] Lindsay Heather Pearce: But I've I've given my sweat, blood, soul, and tears to this and I'm having the time of my life doing it.

[10:46] Lindsay Heather Pearce: Oh don't even start crying right now.

[10:48] Lindsay Heather Pearce: We're not even ten minutes into this.

[10:50] Lindsay Heather Pearce: But like truly it's been the time of it's been the time of my life.

[10:54] Lindsay Heather Pearce: I've loved her as much as I could possibly love someone and I've given her everything and I've I haven't done a bad fucking job at it.

[11:01] Lindsay Heather Pearce: So it's I wouldn't ha I wouldn't have the role if I did.

[11:05] Lindsay Heather Pearce: I would have been let I would have been sacked long ago.

[11:08] Lindsay Heather Pearce: So it's you know and my own insecurities as a human being 'cause I am a human being at the end of the day and I do have feelings and I you know, and I do I think I'm the best person ever to play the role?

[11:08] Lindsay Heather Pearce: No.

[11:08] Lindsay Heather Pearce: Do I think I'm the best singer in the world?

[11:21] Lindsay Heather Pearce: No.

[11:21] Lindsay Heather Pearce: Do I think I'm the best actor?

[11:23] Lindsay Heather Pearce: No.

[11:23] Lindsay Heather Pearce: But I'm good enough to do it for as long as I have.

[11:23] Kevin Bianchi: You're more than good I'm serious.

[11:28] Lindsay Heather Pearce: No, but like that's just like the brass tax of that statement.

[11:32] Lindsay Heather Pearce: But what I experienced was it wasn't this is unfair to me, you know, I've been gypped it was why why can't I have uh what everyone else has experienced and what you know what is what is wrong with me that I'm not having a similar experience and pretty much everyone has been like you internalize it as like a you problem?

[11:53] Kevin Bianchi: Of course.

[11:54] Lindsay Heather Pearce: Of course I did.

[11:55] Lindsay Heather Pearce: Interesting.

[11:56] Lindsay Heather Pearce: Of course I did.

[11:57] Lindsay Heather Pearce: You also have to remember that I've I've experienced some really negative feedback while in this job from outside people.

[12:03] Lindsay Heather Pearce: Like people personally sending me screenshots of comments uh that I'm trash like so I I've had to really remind myself that um if you're not in my arena, you don't your opinion doesn't matter.

[12:20] Kevin Bianchi: Right.

[12:20] Lindsay Heather Pearce: It's very bad.

[12:22] Lindsay Heather Pearce: If you're not working in what I I'm working on doesn't mean you're lesser.

[12:26] Lindsay Heather Pearce: Right.

[12:27] Lindsay Heather Pearce: But if you're not doing this, you don't get a say.

[12:30] Lindsay Heather Pearce: Right.

[12:30] Lindsay Heather Pearce: Because you can't look at these women that have all done this.

[12:33] Lindsay Heather Pearce: Because they say it about everybody.

[12:35] Lindsay Heather Pearce: It's not just about me.

[12:36] Lindsay Heather Pearce: Yeah, exactly.

[12:36] Lindsay Heather Pearce: But like you can't everyone gets it.

[12:37] Lindsay Heather Pearce: And that's and that's and that's just the dark side.

[12:40] Lindsay Heather Pearce: Like that's just like the that's just the disappointing end of things.

[12:44] Lindsay Heather Pearce: Because it doesn't matter if it's Wicked.

[12:46] Lindsay Heather Pearce: It's everything.

[12:47] Lindsay Heather Pearce: But it in that same breath, the amount of like unbelievably wonderful messages that we get.

[12:53] Lindsay Heather Pearce: But of course, all we want to do is like focus on the negative ones because it means that we've been right about ourselves all along.

[13:00] Lindsay Heather Pearce: Right.

[13:00] Lindsay Heather Pearce: So that that's been the thing that I have struggled with in this, where I was like, God, I just I feel like a failure.

[13:08] Lindsay Heather Pearce: Feel I feel like I've failed at this.

[13:10] Lindsay Heather Pearce: And every single person that I've talked to about it has said, uh, except no one else has dealt with COVID, did it for three weeks and then it got shut down.

[13:21] Lindsay Heather Pearce: People lo people didn't even get to come back to their jobs for other things that got shut down, you know, and then closed. And not a lot of other people got injured a week into reopening a Broadway show and then had to call out mid-show because I thought I was gonna fall out of the levitator because my leg wouldn't hold me up anymore.

[13:21] Kevin Bianchi: Yeah.

[13:21] Lindsay Heather Pearce: You know, and then and then still had to do the Tonies. And then the wild thing is is that that like leave of absence, that medical leave of absence was only supposed to be six weeks long, but I had to wait for two weeks to get that six week evaluation. Uh and then once that end of that six weeks happened, it was the middle of Thanksgiving. So they had they had no time to rehearse me, and they were doing the Macy's Thanksgiving Day parade. It was that long. It does not feel that long in my memory. I was out for almost ele uh technically almost eleven weeks, I would say. I was out. And then I came back and then immediately got COVID. I came back and immediately got sick.

[14:17] Quincy Brown: So do you feel though, like, like how did the like pandemic COVID of it all and then the injury of it all and then the like your personal COVID of it all and the mental health, like, did you feel like God, I just want to settle into this fucking role?

[14:36] Lindsay Heather Pearce: Yeah. Yeah, there was definitely a moment, like through January, I was like, oh for God's sake, because I was recovering the from like physically as a singer and as a performer, and I still struggle with breathing. I have asthma and a sports induced asthma. So I it was already like a struggle, and I've already had COVID before. So I was like, but I had COVID at the top the height of the pandemic, and I had like a year and a half to get over like to figure out how my body worked. So coming back with like extremely symptomatic COVID um after having it was a total trip and like totally like wild what that kind of stuff can do to your voice and the amount of other singers that I've talked to about it.

[15:15] Kevin Bianchi: Yeah.

[15:15] Lindsay Heather Pearce: Have been like, it's crazy the way that your singing is affected because you've gone through this respiratory situation in your body. So when do you feel like you really settled into Alphabet where you were like, I am comfortable doing this, this is my role?

[15:29] Lindsay Heather Pearce: I think I started feeling the rumblings of comfort around um around like the second week of February. It was like my last week with Amanda Jane Cooper. Yeah, then Brittany started. I would say like February is where I began finding the stride, and March was just like a dream. March was just like the most fun. It just I remember there being a week in March where I couldn't believe that we had gotten to Sunday and I wasn't as tired as I would have expected to be on a Sunday.

[16:00] Kevin Bianchi: Yeah.

[16:00] Lindsay Heather Pearce: Like, and it's not here's the thing is I you know, there are some there's some cords of steel out there, and there are some women that can just like do every single show, you know, and it's or or they've done it on tour, or they you know, they have like I had to completely relearn how to sing in a totally different way in order to sustain alphabet because I've never done anything that required this consistent amount of stamina. I had done I've worked so much in my nearly two decades of professional work, but never every single day, you know, same same kind of quality every day, you know, the people are paying tickets to see this level of etcetera, etcetera, etc.

[16:42] Lindsay Heather Pearce: So when I finally felt like I was not only giving the show that I wanted to give, but the show that I thought was sustainable enough. It was around March. And I was like, yeah. And then April felt pretty good, and then I my allergies went by. One last bump in the road for the go. As we're coming to the end of our alphabet contract, what was the most I assume you had preconceived notions going into the role of what the role was gonna be and what it was gonna mean and how it was gonna feel. What was the most surprising thing to you actually doing the role?

[17:20] Lindsay Heather Pearce: I feel like I get this question all the time, and I I feel like I always answer like, oh, you know, I learned something different from you know, it every day, or something. But I I honestly I feel I feel like I'm drawing a blank. Um I think I expected it all to be a little more serious. Um like I expected, you know, I expected it to be, you know, we are on the wrong way. Right. Like we are like, and the amount of photos that I have backstage of us doing the dumbest things. And like of course I knew. I knew that at the heart of us all, we all are community theater kids. Like I know that at the you know, at the core of my being. But I think there was definitely a it was kind of like what we talked about last time when I I said, you know, I there was a moment where I went, oh my god, I am a fish out of water.

[18:09] Kevin Bianchi: Yeah.

[18:09] Lindsay Heather Pearce: And I don't I don't know anybody, and I oh god, and I had the honor and the privilege and like the wonderful experience to reopen this show and rehearse with this cast and and rehearse with the new people that have come into the cast, and I've gotten to know these people, and there's and I also think through all of the wild things that we've gone through, you know, in these like nine months together, it you really bonds a group of people, and these people are amazing and they're kind and they're considerate and they're generous and um you know the relationships backstage are just warm and they're loving, and I I wasn't expecting to fall in love the way that I have. I I don't think I was expecting to to really bond with these people because my previous experience had been I don't know anyone.

Um and that's been that's been turned on its head. And granted, you know, it's always there's always that joke of like you never leave wicked, but I think that's more of a thing for well, not for Alphabet's lately, because honey, we pulled in everybody we could. Come on, all right.

[19:13] Quincy Brown: Oh my god.

[19:15] Lindsay Heather Pearce: We were limp, we had a bone sticking out of our shins. We were limping along. It was a mess there off and my God. Kind of iconic, bro. Honey, like it said our hours. It was uh God. It was I mean, it truly I mean, it's remarkable, absolutely unbelievable what people are capable of. Like it's it you just you know, you b you have to bow down to it. It's unreal.

[19:39] Kevin Bianchi: Well, speaking of that, we talked to Carla Stickler and she was taking us through her alphabet journey and she talked about how when she first started playing Alphabet, she was going through a really like tumultuous personal time in her life where she was getting divorced and Alphabet playing Alphabet really saved her and that it helped her grow into her confidence. I can't remember if we were talking about this as we were recording or not, but you also went through personal turmoil over the pandemic.

[20:04] Lindsay Heather Pearce: Yeah.

[20:04] Kevin Bianchi: Did having something to come back to and a job and a character to play?

[20:09] Lindsay Heather Pearce: Yeah. Was it helpful or was it harder?

[20:12] Lindsay Heather Pearce: It was yes, the answer is yes. Um, it was both. There is a deep well that I didn't know I had. Um, I always considered myself like a deeply emotional person and you know, compassionate and connected and very afraid that people don't like me, so I will do anything to make you like me, please. Um, but I there was such a I didn't realize that the I hadn't even dug the well as deep as it could possibly have gone. Um I've learned so much about myself. I've certain I've learned so much about getting myself together. I've learned so much about how to truly leave something at the door, and if you can't, you gotta take it out there with you. Um safely.

[20:54] Kevin Bianchi: Were there moments where you took it out the same?

[20:56] Lindsay Heather Pearce: Honey. Honey, there are moments. How can you not? I mean, the the the the line begins to really blur between self and work. Um when, you know, like we said before, when you it deserves attention and respect. I mean, it takes a lot to to play this role. And that's not to like continue to like put quarters in the bubblegum like dispenser that is the lore of wicked, but it really is it's a hard it's not just like the sing can be hard or the acting is hard, it's all of it. You've talked about it. It's the rake, it's the touring, it's the dress, it's the hat, it's the it's the faff is a good thing. It's the other 21 hours of the day. Yeah, that like you wake up and you're immediately going, hmm, like where am I? You know, like it's a lot.

And like, oh god, if I eat that, am I not gonna be able to sing tomorrow? There's a lot of that. But as much as being a part of Wicked has torn down so much of what I thought about myself, it's built it all right back up. Um and I my you know, my big stuff really blew up like three days before we started, we had our first rehearsal. So I I was just so grateful to be um and you know, and again, it's that again 2020 looking around going, God, I don't know these people. Um I knew my principles and and most of them knew it was happening in my life, and most of the people that were closest to me on the creative team knew it was happening in my life. But you know, being like, oh my god, I'm going through one of the hardest things that I could go through as a human being.

Moved across the country, left everything behind, started a new job, had the death of a relationship, like this whole, you know, this thing, you know, and I still I was loved that person for the rest of my life, but like, you know, it's just one of those things, and man, and then like birthing wicked, like with all these like everyone together collectively birthing a green child, like it was it was a lot, and I was just so surrounded, and also it was one of those things of like yes there's a lot going on but we've got bigger stuff to do right now so there was there I was all I could think about and I think I said it to you guys when we had Chipotle down there in the garden. Um God and I was like I'm eating spicy food and I whole paid for it the next day.

[23:21] Lindsay Heather Pearce: Oh my god I paid such a dear press I woke up the next day and I was like no my acid reflects in my throat um but I uh all I could think about was like I just want to give it back to the people in the seats I want to give it like so badly all I wanted you know and every everyone probably felt that way where they were like we just need an audience but I truly I just wanted to give it away I wanted to put all of the time and the pain and the love and the disappointment and the joy and the fury that we had poured into all of this because it wasn't just like whatever had happened in our personal lives. It was what we what happened to us collectively we'd all just been through this thing. So to get to have that I mean you were at opening it was nuts.

[24:06] Kevin Bianchi: Yeah and wicked reopening did really feel like okay Broadway is back now because a couple of shows had opened before but like the staples like the long running staples reopening felt like okay we are here again.

[24:17] Lindsay Heather Pearce: Yeah. Doing that and being a part of all that madness of Broadway's reopening did it feel historic or were you kind of just like I'm doing a job and whatever else is happening outside of me is happening outside of me?

[24:29] Lindsay Heather Pearce: Um it did. It felt it it definitely did. I mean, there was so much how like that morning, bless them. The ensemble and our standbys and our Fiero were on the Today show at like four in the morning. Everything that you feel is taken from you or that you give away for stuff like this. I don't think it's a baseball. I think it's a boomerang. I think it eventually goes out and it collects what it needs to collect, and then it comes back to you and you catch it and you're like, oh, it's still just me. It's just you I truly the amount of the amount of things about myself that I've had to shuck that I've had to like let go of in order to let the new things in. Narrations in my own mind about myself, um, what I am and am not capable of.

Turns out I'm capable of quite a lot. Um the amount of the amount of times that I've shown up to the theater being like, this is the day. This is the day where I am calling out mid show again, or this is the day where I this is gonna end up on one of those the worst of wicked. You know, like this is the day where it's like, ha like it's like it's gonna be like George of the Jungle.

[25:36] Kevin Bianchi: I'll also like to say, I know that we've I know that we've had discussions on this podcast about bootlegging. Y'all, if y'all out there are bootleggers, just get non reflective cases for the love of mother of thank God.

[25:46] Lindsay Heather Pearce: Oh my god. We can see you, babes. We can see you. Also, I have to ask, and then I'm gonna finish that song. I just have to ask, why in God's name is anybody's phone opening up in the photos app and immediately the flash is on?

[26:03] Kevin Bianchi: Always have that.

[26:04] Lindsay Heather Pearce: That's true. Period. In life. In life. Especially if you're gonna record a bootleg.

[26:10] Kevin Bianchi: What are you doing?

[26:11] Lindsay Heather Pearce: What are you doing? Like the amount of times I have seen the uh and then oh oh oh oh I mean there were two, there were two yesterday in our matinee. Brittany and I are in the middle of four good, and you know it's a beautiful picture. Multiple phones go out, and then we see flashes turn on and then immediately disappear.

[26:29] Lindsay Heather Pearce: And I was like, for God's sake. My favorite though, my favorite though is Define Gravity ends, lights go out, and they think we can—well, everyone's gone. Everyone has left me, but I'm still in there. Right. That's just—no, that's not what I'm talking about. Not talking about that particular person immediately after. I was like, they have to know, they have to know. Um, I can't believe that's not online somewhere. It has to be. But um, it has to—someone, if you—here's the thing. If you—if someone is listening to this, it was getting recorded because what I saw, what I always see in the darkness, is everybody's phone glowing with the voice notes open and recording. That's it. I couldn't say I can see you.

It's amazing. I mean, it's really amazing. That's it, that's the thing is it's like, God, this—the love for this show and the dedication of the fans and the people, the messages that I've gotten from people saying like, this helped me through the darkest time in my life, and to see it live, you know, or you're my first alphabet, or this is my first Broadway show, you know, like it's—and not even that, or like I've seen Wicked 13 times and it never gets old. Like, there's someone that's been here, I think, 93 times. Jesus. I think his name is Michael, and he gets like the same seat every time. Oh my god. And he's unreal, unreal. Like the love because it's Wicked and it doesn't get old. And the beautiful thing about Wicked is it changes constantly because it's a moving amiibo with new parts coming in.

And but my point anyway, going back was like the amount of times that I have gone to work going, this is the day where I prove, you know, that mean comment or write or whatever and then I go out and I—and then I blink and I'm like, it's over, that wasn't bad. Yeah. That wasn't bad. Also, Mary Kate Morrissey posted this on her story the other day and it was a—it was Heather Hedley. Enough said. She was like, actor wakes up 8 a.m., there's no way I'm singing this show. It's not happening. And then like 10 a.m., seriously, no way. Absolutely not. 12 p.m., I'm gonna give it a couple hours because I don't want to like call it too early because if I can do it, I'll do it. 2 p.m., you know what? A couple more hours, I'm gonna drink water.

Maybe I'll start warming up. 4 p.m., touch and go. But I—I'm feeling confident. 8 p.m., you get there and you're like, I think my voice is suddenly with me and then 10 p.m., you're like, oh, at 10:30 p.m., oh, it's over, that was one of my best shows. And then the next day you're like, there's no way I'm doing this all over again. And the fact that Heather and Hedley said that is so eye-opening. Like she's a legend, y'all. Right, right. Also, like we're all just people is like what I realize as I get older and older where I'm like everyone is just like a human. It's like doing their best, you know? Yeah. It's like performers and athletes are the ones that get—that everyone gets a say in how they're doing their job, which is also like none of my business.

Right. And I don't—and I don't think I—and that's the thing is like artists are subjective and everyone is entitled to their opinion. Opinions and feelings aren't facts, whether they're my opinions and feelings about myself or anything else. Like that—that applies to everything. And it—I don't—I don't bring up any of that stuff to say like, oh, I was being abused and like I'm a victim. No, it was just—it made me realize, oh, I'm putting a lot of stock in things where like would I even want that person to like me? But yeah. I learned a lot about like someone in the cast, I was having a bad day, and it was one of the principals and I texted them and I was like, I'm just, you know, I'm feeling this way and that way, and they had been feeling a similar way because they were like, I just wanna, you know, I feel like I'm college, I'm nervous about calling out, blah blah blah.

We were having this talk, and finally the day landed where I was the one that was like, I'm feeling this and I'm feeling this, and they went, um, I'm just gonna tell you this. You show up, you do all of this, and you still manage to be kind. And I was like, oh, that's the bar. Like just show up. To be honest, sometimes I'm—I think it's to a fault that I'm—that I—I have been raised to be very, very kind, and it's also not ever as far. But it's also like, but truly, like I—but kindness—kindness makes me feel like my side of the street is clean. It makes me feel like I am—I am putting forward what I really want to see, but also like I—it's what I want to either receive or it's what I want to see more of, so therefore I try to put as much of it out as I can.

Right. Am I a saint? Honey, no. But okay, so from a business like career standpoint, you were a very visible alphabet in a way that like alphabet replacements haven't been visible because of the COVID and Broadway reopening of it all. Did that open doors for you career-wise that lead to opportunities? I have to imagine it did. I think if they did, I'm not aware of them. Um, yet. Um, I think maybe I'm down finding myself because I also do that. I—I auditioned for three shows in the month of March, which was the month February into March, I was auditioning for three shows, and that was when I felt my strongest at the show. Which is really interesting because I think it was because I'm not sure.

Is that kind of when you were like, I'm looking to move on to the next thing, I need to line something up? Well, no, I—I knew that I knew that I wasn't extending. I knew that none of us were accepting. Right. Gotcha. I—we all—we've all known. We've known for a long time. I knew because my replacement is a friend of mine. So it was, you know, it was—Which who told us? Oh, Julia Murney told us that the tour girl, she goes, I heard the tour girl's taking over on Broadway. You have to tell Talia so scour that. She'll actually—she'll be like shot about Julia Murney to die. Julia Murney kills me now. She also—Julia Murney sent me cookies when I came back from my injury. Of course she did. Yeah, she sent me cookies because she told me like, no, no one's gonna give you a cookie.

Oh, if you go, there's no—a cookie show. Like no one's gonna give you a cookie if you don't call out and go and make yourself miserable when you should have called out, like that kind of stuff, right? And um, and so she said when I came back, there was this like party bag full of homemade cookies and a letter from Julia, and the PS was like, sorry the cookies are weird, the oil ended up making them weird. Julia Murney thing. And she was like, I told you I was gonna make you cookies when you came back. And also, how fucking cool—excuse me, am I allowed to grass? Yeah, yeah. Okay, great. I figured. But like how fucking cool is it that not only—not only is like my friend gonna go play Alphabet in Wicked on Broadway, but she's gonna be with me for two weeks in the theater.

Oh, that's amazing. That's really cool. She's gonna come see it tomorrow. With me. Well, she was like, I rehearsal 7 p.m. to 10 p.m. at night, and I was like, we are time to rehearse. Yeah, yeah. But then I guess it makes sense because the show is going on. Yeah, there's a couple nights where like MB will go up to the rehearsal room and then—and the show will be going on and sometimes because I would rehearse at those times as well. And sometimes we would stop and be like, oh, this is the scene we're doing, and we'd watch it and be like, see how they go from here, see how they go here. Because there's a TV up there that's a monitor for everything going on on the stage. It's—it's just so good.

Like she gets to trail me. Yeah, that's really cool. And she's so young too. I think this is like a huge moment for her career. And she's—and there's no one more deserving. And she's worked her freaking butt off. She's so good. She's so good. No way. Like J—when Jenny and I went and saw her in Texas, we were like, absolutely yes. Unbelievable, like she's unbelievable. She's a beast. She's a beast. Okay, so Lindsay, last time you were here, we asked the Alpha Bowl question. Are you a wizard and I define gravity or no good alphabet? Do you remember what you answered? We'll tell you if you don't remember. I remember it like verbatim. I said I'm a Define Gravity Alphabet, but I want to be a no-gade alphabet.

Isn't that what I said? Yeah. Yeah, I love that you remember that. I'll tell you what, I'm still a Define Gravity Alphaba. How do you feel about that? I've been told I'm a no Bad Alpha, but I would disagree. It's not because I don't love No Gaddeek. I just think—I think I feel my strongest in the show at Define Gravity. It just feels—it feels like home. And I love—God, I love Nova D. I love singing it. And it's so—it's in such a wonderful place vocally, and it's so fun to act. And it really is just you and those unbelievable monkeys doing like crazy things behind you till they exit. And you're just walking around in fog looking incredible, you know, and it's—it's so much fun. But Define Gravity just feels—I mean, it's one of the best ends of an act ever.

And also, I—you're kind of doing it with other people as well. Like it gets to end with kind of everyone on stage in a way. So it's—I don't know. There's something about that getting to—because I look down at them as I sing a lot, and I pick a person sometimes to talk to or to s—or to scream at once I'm doing the bring me downs all or the battle cry, I'll kind of like swoop over them and I like look them in the eye. And there's—I don't know, there's something about that just—it scratches the itch for me. No, I love that that stayed consistent during a run. And for a second there, I was a wizard and I alpha but bold. Bold. Bold. And then I went, I literally—and then that week end ended, and I was like, bye.

Okay, so Lindsay, we're going on tour with Mean Girls as Janice replacing Alphabet, Mary Kate Morrissey. Yeah. So you said that like you wanted to go on tour after this. Yeah. What was kind of your thinking of like, okay, my career post-Alphabet? What were you envisioning and kind of planning for? Um, I—it's interesting that I wasn't thinking about my career. I was thinking about my life. That's kind of—that's kind of a thing. Yeah, but I um, I'll be honest with you all. There's kind of nothing—there's—there's nowhere to go after Alphaba. Um, not saying that Alphabet is the be all end all, but that it's not something that you can top because it's not comparable to anything else. How are you gonna top your Broadway debut in which you got your equity card in which you reopened the Broadway show and then you did the Tonies and you did Jimmy Fallon and we did 7,000 shows and you did level—like it's—it's not—and you got through COVID, you know, and you did all these like nevertheless she persisted things that you just don't—like you don't—like you don't top—that's—that this is a once in a lifetime experience, and that's not me coding this like sometimes very harrowing and wonderful experience.

That's not me sugar coating anything, but there's—there is no job yet for me that I have yet to know about or experience that is ever going to top or check off every box the way that Alphabet—this was 12-year-old Lindsay's dream. So I have like—I have fed her her just rewards. I have fed her everything she ever dreamed of. I got to do—I was at the fucking Tony's, you guys, like met SJB at the Tony's. I—I saw her at the Tony's. We like—we locked eyes, we did not meet. We locked eyes, and we both went—and then that was it. But she was sitting like right in front of me when I came out and started screaming at the top of my lungs, and I was like, Sami! Are you triggered? Like you know, but like, you know, like I—I stood next to Lea Salonga and walked off stage and she was like, you better be belting up in the stratosphere for a hot second and then say bye.

Like, okay, yeah, and like—and I—I got to stand backstage with SJB and like Josh Groban, like all of these people backstage sobbing watching Jennifer Holliday come out and sing, and I'm telling you I'm not going. Like wow. You know what I mean? Like I got to witness amazing things. Like I got to—I got to be in a Tony's performance. I got to be in a room with friends and people that I have never dreamed that I would ever be considered in the same industry as, let alone be put in the same room. So going back, I don't think—I think I had to release this idea of like, oh my god, like what do I do after Alphaba? It was—right. Did you feel that at first? What, like when I knew I wasn't gonna keep going? Like pressure to top it? Um, yes, but not from me. It was from us, right? It was from you two.

[39:42] Lindsay Heather Pearce: It was you. Um, it was uh it was like what I've really learned in this is that my own expectations of myself are the only ones that matter. God, I mean, I love the people that support performers are some of the most kind and generous and like caring, and sometimes they're performers themselves, and sometimes they're just like frontline workers or you know, like just people that love theater, and that's the people that we do it for, right? Um, students. I'll never forget the talkable cantina students. If you're listening to this, Cantina. There's a talk about cantina next to Wicked. I know which one you're talking about. Give them all your business. Give them all your business. Prince and I've never been out together without ending up here.

Honey, you can't. It's the spicy potato soft tacos for me. It's a the vegetarian in me is like, I'm not. It's um so I went, I ordered my spicy potato soft tacos, three of them, thank you very much. And I waited, and I was going to turn on a book. I was gonna turn on an audiobook. And I heard next to me. So when Dr. Dylan, like, and I literally was like, I like I pulled it out for a second. Because I wanted to hear what they're asking. But they and they weren't like, oh my gosh, and this person, and then they were talking about the show. They were talking about, but how if they were there and she was there, how did she get to that? It was very it was like dramaturgy, and they were and then at one point they elecanominamined over their fucking food.

The kids are alright, they're they're doing okay. Like they were college sweet baby Gen Zers, and I I literally was there full green, like in the hair, and my master. Well, they did they let me know after that they did know. And I almost went over and was like, I just have to tell you. It's giving bursting into a Denny's or an I hop at midnight after your community theater production, and like only ordering a plate of fries and multiple milkshakes. Like that it's the it was the same energy, and it made me miss my friends in theater back home. Like it made me like it just the theater community is the best part of this. So that's the stuff that like I realized. I was like, I'm doing it for those kids, I'm doing it for them.

And and and I don't, but you also don't need to be for everybody. That's the thing, is what I've learned from myself. And like my codependency. I've learned so much about my codependency, isn't just to myself or my interpersonal relationships. It's it's making sure, like, God, I hope stage management isn't mad at me. You know, or if I call out, what are they gonna think? Or does the cast think that I don't I'm not worthy to be here? You know, like no one's thinking about me. No one. Clearly, as long as there is one person in green makeup with a fucking dress on, the show will happen. Belting like hello. They need a body in that $20,000 gown. That's all funky brown boots and that weird keeper, that yamakka beanie.

God, I love that thing. I'll miss that girl. I'll miss that. Yeah, we got into it where I was like, Alpha's entrance look is not like the look I would have chosen for my first day of school. You know, even being alpha buff. The thing I love about AlphaBu is she's like, no, I'm I'm a serious student. Like that I my glasses. Yeah, like she really she was really like that I am that I am a book bookish girl. And I will play the role and you will exactly know. I mean, it's just that's the thing I love about her though. But I I think going into a new job and like wanting something else after, I said, you know, what do I want to do after Wicked? What will fill my cup? And I had auditions for three shows, and through these audition processes, this one particular one that was gonna be in New York, I got to meet unbelievable women that I would never have met in any other capacity, and now we're friends.

Like because we all we all went through these like wild, like multiple callbacks, work sessions, yada yada. Like I had the moment you asked earlier, Quincy, when you were like, Do you feel that Wicked opened doors for you? I went into an audition for the Le Mez tour for Fontine. And I was like, Oh my gosh, this Fonteen Alphabet pipeline might be happening again. Like we might Lucy and I'll see baby girl. Like, watch out, here I come. Cut my hair off and give me a locket. Um I and I went in, I went in for it, and um, and I I was trained in that kind of singing, so it was really exciting to sing that kind of stuff again and then go sing alphabet afterwards. It was like really informative how like your voice can really navigate through multiple different ways of singing.

And um, I walked in and one of the casting associates for Tara Rubin was like, Oh, I see you every day. And I was like, Explain that. And he uh he was like, I walk, he was like, I walk past the breezeway, I walk past your picture all the time. So it's really nice to like see you. He was like, and I know he was like, You've just been like he was like, We've you know, we've seen you in the show, it's like you're amazing, and it's so lovely to actually see you, and and uh and I thought, my god, that is so wild, like that's so wild. You know, when I went into Mean Girls, they didn't have any moment of, you know, oh weird stuff in your ears or anything like that. Um, and I had actually I had actually been finally cut from that New York project.

I'd been cut and I went home and knew I called my agent, I was like, I know it's not gonna go further. I know it isn't, I just know. And she called 30 minutes later and she said, It's not gonna go further, but Tara Rubin loved you, but Telsey just called. Can you put something on tape for Mean Girls? And Telsey cast wicket. So I was like ha obviously happy to like audition for Kelsey again. And I was like, nobody and I went, nobody watches tapes. The next morning I had another call a callback for it. And I was like, interesting, fun. And I said, God, I would really love to tour. Um, and to be honest, I love Fonteen and and Le Mez is like a dream show. But I got offered meme girls before I could even continue with callbacks for Le Mez.

And I thought, you know, maybe after Alphabet, it'll be really fun to play an artsy weird alien freak, but also maybe not get horribly abused on stage for once. Maybe maybe I won't do a show called The Miserables right after I do a show called Wicked. Like I but truly, I mean, I I had been asking and I sat on the phone with my mom and she was like, you know, because my mom had never heard of mean girls of the musical. She was like, What? And uh and she went, Is this really something you wanted to do you want to do? Because I called her after that first callback and I think I said, I need to get this. I just had this feeling in my heart. I was like, oh my god, I was like Well, it's like such a perfect part for you.

Thank you so much. I'm so excited. It's a good fit. But I genu I was like, I just said I think I'm gonna get this, and I said, and if I don't, I think it's gonna lead to something else. I just feel I can feel this energy, and it seemed everybody just seemed good and loving and kind, and like they were passing my resume around that first audition, that first callback, and and I was like, Oh me, can't you be speaking, Amy Rick? Like I was like, I was like, I hope that they know that like I will work so hard. Um like I did I was that was like that's that's where I go is like god, I hope they know that I'll put in the work. Um and I sat right here on the floor looking out this window and I cried on the phone to my mom because I said I just want I want to meet new people and I want to have a little bit more breathing space and I wanna give this to someone else.

I want to give this role away. Um I love alphabet, and if I ever get an opportunity to ever play her in any capacity again, I don't think I would say no. But I was 28 when I got this role, and I'm 31 when I leave. Yeah. And it's been a lot of life in between. I got to be a part of a really amazing moment for theater and you'll remember forever. Forever, but also and that you'll be a part of for forever. Like anybody who learns about that moment will learn about you, yeah. Yeah, but it was also like I got to be there with that audience. I'll never forget that for as long as I live. People people have asked me, you know, did you black out? I said I was so present, I was so there. The only time I got nervous was when I went up in the air, I was like, I can't hear anything.

So I was just loud because it because people were screaming at the top of their lungs, and it made me want to cry. I was like, because I was so overwhelmed, I could feel it. And it wasn't it wasn't Lindsay Pierce playing Alphaba. It's it wasn't like I'm playing Alphaba. I was like, oh my god, they're watching her fly. Yeah. That night was like insane. It was it was amazing. It was amazing. The sound and like and knowing knowing that I would have to look at one of the monitors, like lit just I remember going up, I went, It's me, and I literally looked down at Dan. And I was like, Where am I? Because I couldn't hear the c I literally was like, Where the fuck am I? But I was also but it also didn't matter because they couldn't hear me anyway.

I didn't care. And we would have kept screaming. We've been like, yes, bitch. You better buy phrase. But that was you know, that was like it was I mean, it was just it was just amazing. And like I was I was there on the 18th anniversary. I was sitting in the office watching, and I went out into the wings and watched Jenny not fly and go forward and like hung out with Bert and like it she and I got to get to know Jenny even better, and I got to get to know all this like the amount of people that have because of these wild circumstances, because of these unbelievable circumstances, multiple people got jobs, multiple people got to come back to work because of these wild circumstances. Like nobody wants anybody to get injured, but other people got to work.

Amanda Jane freaking Cooper, are you kidding me? Like the the amount of morables I've got to have, like, come on. I've had like five or six morables, plus the the women in the ensemble that that covered Marble. I mean, it's just been it's been amazing. I've worked with every Fiero cover. I mean, it's just it's phenomenal. Every chistry under the sun, every possible version of Nessa, like I've it's Bach, it's been phenomenal. Yeah, I've gotten I've gotten like multiple contracts all stuffed into like the six months that I've actually been able to do. Yeah, totally. And it's and it's been a dream. So what is one word or phrase to summarize your Broadway alphabet journey? Spectacular. It's been spectacular.

I wouldn't change a single thing. It's been the time of my life. It's been the hardest, most wonderful thing I've ever done. I will miss it because I will miss the people that make that job so phenomenal. I'm not gonna see these people every day. And I'll probably never work with these exact people in the same capacity ever again. Which is always like it's just it's a Polaroid. I have so many pol mental Polaroids of moments and funny things and like your zippers down, and you know, like just all these like silly, ridiculous things falling over and you know, merely chipping my teeth on Dan Gleason's teeth and like just unbelievable, hilarious, ridiculous things like broom mishaps and hats falling off and things flying into the the audience and like but god I threw I accidentally threw a pair of glasses into the audience once and I was like bye that's a souvenir now, that's never getting back to life.

Um, but like, you know, it's the the people and the laughs and the the chat threads and the the text threads and um the theater of it all. The theater of it all. It's the best. And it'll never be the same. It'll never be that ever again. And I'm also very let ready to let Alphabet go. She's given me everything and I've given her everything, and that's gonna go on for two more weeks, and then I'm gonna take everything out of that room and put it in some boxes, and I go to the tour the next day. Alright, well, Lindsay, we do this segment in our outro bits when it's normally just Kevin and I where we answer a listener question. Because we've run out of things to talk about about this show. So let other people come up with it.

[52:55] Quincy Brown: I love that though, because there's there's so many other people out there that are sentimental men.

[53:00] Kevin Bianchi: I know.

[53:00] Quincy Brown: We are all sentimental men.

[53:02] Kevin Bianchi: Say that.

[53:05] Lindsay Heather Pearce: Dearest darling, it's Cadsian Quincycle.

[53:11] Quincy Brown: Of all of the ensemble line readings in Wicked, which is your favorite or do you consider to be the most iconic?

[53:19] Kevin Bianchi: Things like, look, it's Glinda.

[53:24] Quincy Brown: Why does wickedness happen?

[53:26] Kevin Bianchi: Um is it true you were her friend, or my personal favorite, the um ensemblist in the original cast recording, who sings a little bit louder than Kristen Chenoweth on the final note of the finale.

[53:40] Lindsay Heather Pearce: Thank you.

[53:43] Quincy Brown: First of all, I think I know who that might have been.

[53:45] Lindsay Heather Pearce: Kathy Deech.

[53:46] Quincy Brown: Kathy Deach, the original Shen Shen, um was my coach for my wicked audition.

[53:54] Lindsay Heather Pearce: Wow.

[53:54] Kevin Bianchi: Oh my god, that's right.

[53:56] Lindsay Heather Pearce: I think you told us that.

[53:58] Quincy Brown: She's the best.

[53:58] Lindsay Heather Pearce: Oh my god, and she can wail.

[54:00] Quincy Brown: There's literally there's literally spaces in the original score that just say Deach on top.

[54:04] Lindsay Heather Pearce: Wow.

[54:05] Quincy Brown: Like no there, it's like first soprano, second soprano, Deech.

[54:08] Lindsay Heather Pearce: Deech.

[54:10] Quincy Brown: It's a fun little fun little thing for you, yeah.

[54:13] Lindsay Heather Pearce: My answer is it's not the is it true you were her friend?

[54:19] Quincy Brown: It's the woman who comes up and hits the husband after.

[54:23] Lindsay Heather Pearce: No, you love that part.

[54:24] Quincy Brown: I love it because you have to sell it for the bit to work.

[54:27] Lindsay Heather Pearce: And whenever the ensemblist does sell it, I live for it.

[54:31] Quincy Brown: Because you're like, why would you sully this horror this beautiful moment with your dumb nonsense?

[54:36] Lindsay Heather Pearce: Like, shut the fuck up.

[54:37] Quincy Brown: Yeah.

[54:38] Lindsay Heather Pearce: You get like 20 years of marriage history in that one hit.

[54:42] Quincy Brown: It's like burner, not again, you know.

[54:48] Kevin Bianchi: We can't do this here.

[54:50] Lindsay Heather Pearce: Oh my god.

[54:51] Quincy Brown: I love that.

[54:52] Lindsay Heather Pearce: Oh my god, I love that.

[54:53] Kevin Bianchi: I love that so much.

[54:55] Quincy Brown: Kevin, what about you?

[54:56] Kevin Bianchi: It's not like a singular solitary ensembleist, but my favorite ensemble vocal in the show is in the last section of what is this feeling when it's like clothing, loathing, loathing, loathing.

[55:11] Lindsay Heather Pearce: It's a pure so strong, so strong.

[55:15] Kevin Bianchi: And it's like it's so loud and it's so much sound, and I love it so much.

[55:20] Lindsay Heather Pearce: Like I wait for it when I'm watching that number.

[55:23] Kevin Bianchi: The thing I love about that moment specifically too is it's the sports sound that the ensemble does.

[55:29] Lindsay Heather Pearce: It's it's a pure so strong, so strong.

[55:33] Kevin Bianchi: They do this.

[55:35] Lindsay Heather Pearce: And it's like it's like a sonic wave, and it's just there's so many of them in the show, and it's just so dynamic and musical, and I'm gonna say that was like the best thing about being a reopening night was like everything was just so crisp.

[55:49] Quincy Brown: Crispy tight.

[55:50] Kevin Bianchi: Yeah.

[55:51] Quincy Brown: It I was like, this is exactly the show that wicked LLC wants me to be watching.

[55:56] Kevin Bianchi: Yeah.

[55:57] Quincy Brown: There's there's not a lot of place on this show.

[56:00] Kevin Bianchi: You better believe, honey.

[56:04] Quincy Brown: We were vacuum sealed for three weeks.

[56:08] Kevin Bianchi: Absolutely.

[56:09] Quincy Brown: It was the most incredible and like harrowing.

[56:13] Kevin Bianchi: It's a lot of work.

[56:14] Quincy Brown: It was a lot because it that's what it deserves.

[56:17] Kevin Bianchi: It deserves to have that much work and respect and dedication put into it.

[56:21] Quincy Brown: Yeah.

[56:22] Lindsay Heather Pearce: Alright, Lindsay, what's your pick?

[56:24] Lindsay Heather Pearce: Oh, I have to answer.

[56:25] Lindsay Heather Pearce: Um God.

[56:28] Lindsay Heather Pearce: Well, I I don't think this would be considered ensemble because this is technically a principal role, but Miss Miss Glinda Chistery.

[56:37] Quincy Brown: Oh, she's made me cry.

[56:38] Lindsay Heather Pearce: You love those monks.

[56:39] Quincy Brown: I love the monkeys.

[56:41] Lindsay Heather Pearce: I love them.

[56:41] Quincy Brown: I love my monkey babies.

[56:43] Lindsay Heather Pearce: I love them so much.

[56:44] Quincy Brown: I love your monkeys.

[56:46] Lindsay Heather Pearce: I don't know.

[56:47] Lindsay Heather Pearce: I just can't get enough of them.

[56:48] Lindsay Heather Pearce: And I just can't think.

[56:50] Lindsay Heather Pearce: And then I always loved Jenna Claire going, somebody has to say it, and then looking at Chistery like, because you can't.

[56:56] Lindsay Heather Pearce: And her delivery.

[56:57] Lindsay Heather Pearce: Oh, genius.

[56:59] Lindsay Heather Pearce: Kills me.

[57:01] Lindsay Heather Pearce: She's like, somebody has to say it.

[57:02] Lindsay Heather Pearce: Am I right?

[57:03] Lindsay Heather Pearce: Because all of your fucking helpers are mute.

[57:07] Lindsay Heather Pearce: You got no one talking back to you.

[57:09] Quincy Brown: But I think um, I just and I I really, really love that.

[57:13] Lindsay Heather Pearce: But I also there's there's a there is a track in the show.

[57:17] Lindsay Heather Pearce: I have to shout this out.

[57:19] Lindsay Heather Pearce: Because if Jeff Heinbrock ever listens to this, which he won't because he's too good for everything in the world.

[57:24] Lindsay Heather Pearce: He is so special.

[57:26] Lindsay Heather Pearce: He's so unbelievable.

[57:27] Lindsay Heather Pearce: I will miss him so much.

[57:29] Lindsay Heather Pearce: He is so brilliant.

[57:30] Lindsay Heather Pearce: He does all of our dollar Sundays, and at every dollar Sunday, he he writes out like an entire script about like the weekly digest of what's happened at Wicked.

[57:40] Quincy Brown: So like when I was left up there.

[57:45] Lindsay Heather Pearce: The show entirely.

[57:47] Lindsay Heather Pearce: Give a quick recap for the listeners.

[57:49] Quincy Brown: Okay, so there was a day where Define Gravity happened, and we'd been having like uh like an automation issue that entire day.

[57:56] Lindsay Heather Pearce: It was a double show Saturday.

[57:58] Lindsay Heather Pearce: We we knew that there was an automation issue because during the Lion Cup scene in the first show before I'm not that girl, a huge sound of metal churning was happening behind us, and we were like, are we about to die?

[58:10] Lindsay Heather Pearce: And in the corner of our eyes, we were watching the bridge slowly its way into the scene.

[58:16] Lindsay Heather Pearce: It was like two minutes late, and we were like, okay.

[58:20] Lindsay Heather Pearce: Then I was told if that ever happens again, this is where you hide, blah blah blah.

[58:23] Lindsay Heather Pearce: This is how we would block the scene.

[58:25] Quincy Brown: Great.

[58:26] Lindsay Heather Pearce: Didn't happen.

[58:26] Lindsay Heather Pearce: Didn't happen in the second show.

[58:28] Lindsay Heather Pearce: Did defined gravity.

[58:31] Lindsay Heather Pearce: The lights went out, and normally it's just a blackout, and then the scrim comes down, and then the work lights come up on the stage, and the house lights come up in the house.

[58:39] Lindsay Heather Pearce: No one can see it.

[58:40] Lindsay Heather Pearce: No one's none the wiser that I'm just dangling up there looking like a person on a cream.

[58:46] Lindsay Heather Pearce: I went up and the lights kind of went out, and the blue prisms flash through the audience, which I never see because there's always like that orange-yellow spotlight on Alphabet's face after the button.

[58:57] Lindsay Heather Pearce: And then I can always see the audience in the dark, hence the glowing voice notes and cameras.

[59:03] Lindsay Heather Pearce: I can always see it.

[59:05] Lindsay Heather Pearce: And um, and uh the house lights came up.

[59:09] Lindsay Heather Pearce: And as the house lights came up, I heard the scurrying of little feet, and I looked down and there was no one on stage, not one person.

[59:17] Lindsay Heather Pearce: And uh then the work lights came up on the stage.

[59:21] Lindsay Heather Pearce: So I'm up there with the broom in one hand and my hand up here because I'm supposed to unclip my cape, and take the broom in the other hand and hand it to a prop master.

[59:31] Lindsay Heather Pearce: So I have the room here, my hand here, and someone goes, Hey!

[59:36] Lindsay Heather Pearce: Like, notices, and they're like, Oh, scarier with the lights up.

[59:40] Lindsay Heather Pearce: I wasn't scared because I genuinely don't feel it anymore, but I immediately was like, oh my God, what have I done wrong?

[59:40] Lindsay Heather Pearce: Like, oh my god, what have I done?

[59:48] Lindsay Heather Pearce: What's going on?

[59:49] Lindsay Heather Pearce: And also like, how long am I gonna be up here?

[59:51] Lindsay Heather Pearce: Like that was all I could think of.

[59:53] Lindsay Heather Pearce: And I looked off stage and everybody's in the wings like, you know, on their headsets, looking at me and I was like, they're not gonna come get me until that scrim comes down.

[1:00:02] Lindsay Heather Pearce: I've been pulled back, but I it wasn't coming down.

[1:00:04] Lindsay Heather Pearce: So then finally, like and and mind you this was maybe like 30, 40, five, maybe a minute, maybe 60 seconds at max.

[1:00:12] Lindsay Heather Pearce: Felt like eternity of course.

[1:00:14] Lindsay Heather Pearce: And someone just went you were great stop.

[1:00:19] Lindsay Heather Pearce: And I went thank you.

[1:00:22] Lindsay Heather Pearce: Hi because a bunch of people were like hey like hi.

[1:00:26] Lindsay Heather Pearce: No.

[1:00:26] Lindsay Heather Pearce: I literally the scrim started coming down and I went by and everyone went by you were crazy.

[1:00:38] Quincy Brown: Amazing.

[1:00:38] Lindsay Heather Pearce: And so Jeff Heimbrock, you know, every dollar Sunday he has this like weekly digest of what's gone on in the Gershwin and it's always like a read.

[1:00:46] Lindsay Heather Pearce: Because he is a sentimental man.

[1:00:47] Lindsay Heather Pearce: He's like the biggest wicked fan who's also in wicked.

[1:00:50] Quincy Brown: He is and that's like the beautiful thing but he's also like the biggest theater fan like he's just he's he's he's salt of the earth he's the best and he was like he was like some things are meant to be seen and then very seen smile and bathe Lindsay and I was like oh my god because I was out there like but Jeff Heimbrock he he is in what we call the rat track.

[1:01:16] Kevin Bianchi: Do you know what the rat track is?

[1:01:17] Lindsay Heather Pearce: We love the rat track.

[1:01:19] Kevin Bianchi: We love the rat track.

[1:01:20] Lindsay Heather Pearce: Jeff Heimbrock does this thing.

[1:01:23] Lindsay Heather Pearce: In Shiz Parlor.

[1:01:25] Lindsay Heather Pearce: Okay.

[1:01:25] Lindsay Heather Pearce: It's when Glinda is saying, perhaps you recall my entrance essay.

[1:01:29] Lindsay Heather Pearce: Magic wands.

[1:01:30] Lindsay Heather Pearce: Need they have a point?

[1:01:31] Quincy Brown: And she does like a little flourish.

[1:01:33] Lindsay Heather Pearce: Yeah.

[1:01:34] Lindsay Heather Pearce: Like she goes.

[1:01:35] Lindsay Heather Pearce: She's done this before.

[1:01:36] Lindsay Heather Pearce: Does she have a point?

[1:01:37] Lindsay Heather Pearce: Like, need they have a point.

[1:01:38] Quincy Brown: And sometimes he'll be like, a point?

[1:01:39] Lindsay Heather Pearce: Oh, it's so good.

[1:01:41] Quincy Brown: You know, he does like, oh, I love that.

[1:01:43] Lindsay Heather Pearce: Or she's rehearsed it with him, so he's like, Yeah, yeah, yeah.

[1:01:47] Quincy Brown: And it does not take anything away from the scene.

[1:01:50] Lindsay Heather Pearce: Right.

[1:01:50] Lindsay Heather Pearce: That is just him making a mountain out of a woman.

[1:01:55] Quincy Brown: And it is I noticed I noticed it maybe four days ago.

[1:02:00] Quincy Brown: And I was like, I couldn't, I couldn't believe it.

[1:02:05] Lindsay Heather Pearce: And he now does something when Madame Morrible goes, well, he never mentioned you because he's already seen Elphaba being it to Glinda.

[1:02:14] Lindsay Heather Pearce: He literally goes, Yeah.

[1:02:17] Lindsay Heather Pearce: And walks away.

[1:02:18] Quincy Brown: Character study.

[1:02:20] Lindsay Heather Pearce: It's genius work.

[1:02:22] Lindsay Heather Pearce: It's unbelievably I mean, it is just phenomenal work.

[1:02:26] Quincy Brown: That's the stuff I'm gonna miss the most.

[1:02:29] Lindsay Heather Pearce: As we end this, uh it does just feel very sentimental to have you back on because you were our first ever episode, and now to be speaking to you at the end of your contract feels like the end of an era.

[1:02:42] Quincy Brown: And I just want to thank you for indulging us through this whole era.

[1:02:47] Lindsay Heather Pearce: I mean, I'm sure you guys have have you know been given messages, but you started something during, you know, a really, really hard dry spell, and you passed around water bottles.

[1:02:59] Lindsay Heather Pearce: You talked about theater and you talked about wicked, and you kept Wicked alive, and you've got this you got to talk to Julia Murney and and SJB and like Eden, and I mean it you got to talk to everyone, Jess.

[1:03:10] Lindsay Heather Pearce: I mean, it's just it's really it's really really cool stuff, and you don't often get a chance to have like an inside look.

[1:03:18] Lindsay Heather Pearce: And it's it's an honor to be the first one, and it's an honor to be like saying goodbye, but it's not just me.

[1:03:24] Lindsay Heather Pearce: It's Sam is going and our Dilamond is going, and our Nessa is going and our our wizard is going.

[1:03:32] Quincy Brown: So it's it's a it's the first time we've had like a chunky cast changeover in the time.

[1:03:38] Lindsay Heather Pearce: So it feels like it really does feel like the end of an era because it's the last of the principles.

[1:03:38] Quincy Brown: Is that right?

[1:03:38] Lindsay Heather Pearce: It's the last of the principles since reopening.

[1:03:50] Lindsay Heather Pearce: That got through this COVID pandemic era, you know.

[1:03:53] Kevin Bianchi: Yeah.

[1:03:54] Lindsay Heather Pearce: It's all the all the principles.

[1:03:56] Lindsay Heather Pearce: Once we change over, it will be all the principles that reopened won't be there anymore.

[1:03:59] Quincy Brown: Which is like it's but it's time.

[1:04:01] Lindsay Heather Pearce: We got to experience amazing things and tell the story, which is the most important part of the job, because the best part is I tweeted about it the other day.

[1:04:11] Lindsay Heather Pearce: The best part of these jobs is like we're not free to leave Munchkin land.

[1:04:15] Lindsay Heather Pearce: None of us are, and a child in the front row going, Munchkin land?

[1:04:19] Quincy Brown: Like, it's just that's the best.

[1:04:21] Lindsay Heather Pearce: It's the best.

[1:04:23] Lindsay Heather Pearce: But then it's also time to like let other people have that magic.

[1:04:28] Lindsay Heather Pearce: It's it because it doesn't belong to us.

[1:04:30] Lindsay Heather Pearce: As Joe Mantello said, we're just stewards of these roles while we have them, and then we give them to someone else when we're done.

[1:04:36] Quincy Brown: Well, Lindsay, thank you for coming back to Sentimental Men.

[1:04:40] Lindsay Heather Pearce: Can't wait to see what you do.

[1:04:42] Quincy Brown: Maybe we'll do a Janice episode.

[1:04:43] Lindsay Heather Pearce: Who knows?

[1:04:44] Quincy Brown: I mean, we're just gonna periodically require you to come to come back.

[1:04:50] Lindsay Heather Pearce: Honey, I'll do it.

[1:04:53] Lindsay Heather Pearce: I'll be a sental I'll be a sentimental man whenever you want me to.

[1:04:57] Quincy Brown: Perfect.

[1:04:58] Quincy Brown: You're the standby host.

[1:04:59] Lindsay Heather Pearce: Let me be the standby.

[1:05:01] Quincy Brown: You're the Carla Stickler.

[1:05:02] Lindsay Heather Pearce: You're the Carla Stickler.

[1:05:03] Lindsay Heather Pearce: Let me be your Carla Stickler.

[1:05:07] Quincy Brown: Let me be her.

[1:05:10] Quincy Brown: You've been listening to Sentimental Men.

[1:05:12] Quincy Brown: This episode was produced and edited by your hosts Quincy Brown and Kevin Bianchi.

[1:05:18] Quincy Brown: You can reach us at sentimentalmenpod at gmail.com.

[1:05:22] Quincy Brown: Or on Instagram, Twitter, and TikTok at Scent Men Pod.

[1:05:26] Quincy Brown: You can support the pod by leaving us a rating or a review.

[1:05:29] Quincy Brown: Or by subscribing.

[1:05:31] Quincy Brown: Subscribers get early access to our regular episodes, monthly bonus episodes, and get added to the Scent Men Green Circle.

[1:05:39] Quincy Brown: Which is literally our close friends on Instagram.

[1:05:42] Quincy Brown: Thanks to Julia DiMarzo for our thrillifying artwork.

[1:05:46] Quincy Brown: And thanks to you for tuning in.

[1:05:47] Quincy Brown: Till next time, I'm Quincy.

[1:05:49] Kevin Bianchi: And I'm Kevin.

[1:05:55] Lindsay Heather Pearce: It was Heather Hadley.

[1:05:57] Kevin Bianchi: Did you see this status update?

[1:05:59] Lindsay Heather Pearce: Did you see Into the Woods?

[1:06:00] Kevin Bianchi: No, Hadn't D.

[1:06:01] Lindsay Heather Pearce: Oh, you're in a show.