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[0:00] Quincy Brown: Um, uh listen, we know it's been a long time, and I'm not gonna say we have apologies for it because I think like life just started doing life's thing.

[0:10] Kevin Bianchi: However, we have never once forgotten about you sentiment.

[0:17] Quincy Brown: Oh my god.

[0:18] Kevin Bianchi: I know a major man.

[0:21] Quincy Brown: But this system creating is the best time ever.

[0:35] Quincy Brown: My name's Quincy.

[0:36] Kevin Bianchi: My name's Kevin.

[0:37] Quincy Brown: And this is Sentimental Men.

[0:39] Kevin Bianchi: But keep your thumb away from that skip button.

[0:42] Quincy Brown: Because we're here to talk and maybe scream about our favorite women in musical theater.

[0:54] Kevin Bianchi: Cut print moving on is the only moment in the Smash catalog that makes me go, okay, Catherine McPhee.

[1:03] Quincy Brown: It's that and it's um public relations.

[1:06] Kevin Bianchi: I relate to men of so many nations, but public relations.

[1:13] Quincy Brown: I'm a favorite guy.

[1:14] Kevin Bianchi: She sings, um, but sometimes you have to wrong.

[1:18] Quincy Brown: Oh.

[1:19] Kevin Bianchi: It's so good.

[1:20] Quincy Brown: The placement, it sounds so healthy, and I'm like, okay.

[1:24] Kevin Bianchi: She was warm this day.

[1:26] Quincy Brown: I'm a big Catherine McPhee apologist when it comes to her particular portrayal of Karen Cartwright on Smash the TV show.

[1:32] Kevin Bianchi: I'm a big Karen Cartwright apologist, baby.

[1:35] Quincy Brown: Sure.

[1:36] Kevin Bianchi: Anyways, welcome back to Sentimental Men the Wicked Podcast.

[1:40] Quincy Brown: The first episode of this new era.

[1:43] Kevin Bianchi: So exciting.

[1:44] Quincy Brown: I know, new era.

[1:45] Kevin Bianchi: I think the guest that we have on deck for this first episode back is very appropriate and fitting because she has been the talk of the town.

[1:53] Quincy Brown: Yeah, who else could we have as our first guest back?

[1:53] Kevin Bianchi: First guest back.

[2:00] Quincy Brown: And I know we say this about every guest. I truly have been saying Carla Stickler's name from the beginning of this endeavor.

[2:07] Kevin Bianchi: Yes.

[2:16] Quincy Brown: For Miss D. Rossioli, friend of the pod.

[2:19] Kevin Bianchi: And Nicole Parker, other friend of the pod.

[2:21] Quincy Brown: And Mamie Paris.

[2:22] Kevin Bianchi: Aspirational friend of the pod.

[2:24] Quincy Brown: Carla Stickler, she's here.

[2:26] Kevin Bianchi: Quincy, do you want to run through the resume and then we can kind of talk about the moment of it all?

[2:29] Quincy Brown: I would love to run us through the resume because it is honestly one of the most interesting resumes that we've ever read out loud on this show.

[2:37] Kevin Bianchi: So after graduating from NYU, Carla went on the Asian tour of the Sound of Music as Lisel, which, like straight out the gate, we love an international queen.

[2:47] Quincy Brown: At Jenny Dennoya.

[2:48] Kevin Bianchi: After that, from 2007 to 2009, she was on the Mama Mia second national tour in the ensemble under studying Sophie.

[2:57] Quincy Brown: Kevin, I love Mama Mia so much.

[3:00] Kevin Bianchi: And you know, when I think Mama Mia, I think, well, I think two things. When I was a little kid, I did something bad, and instead of grounding me or taking away my cell phone, my mother took my Mama Mia DVD and threw it in the dumpster outside of our house.

[3:16] Quincy Brown: She said, I'm gonna hit this kid right where it hurts.

[3:20] Kevin Bianchi: So she really had me clocked from the beginning.

[3:23] Quincy Brown: But secondly, when I think Mamma Mia, I think of you because the summer that we met and worked together, Mama Mia too came out.

[3:29] Kevin Bianchi: Continue.

[3:29] Quincy Brown: In 2010, she made her wicked debut on the first national tour in the ensemble under studying alphabet for two years.

[3:38] Kevin Bianchi: And then in 2012, uh, she left the ensemble understudy alphabet and became the Alphabet standby and the an understudy for Nessa Rose.

[3:48] Quincy Brown: We love that track.

[3:49] Kevin Bianchi: And I saw her as Nessa Rose.

[3:50] Quincy Brown: I know, I know.

[3:51] Kevin Bianchi: She was incredible.

[3:52] Quincy Brown: I'll find that audio.

[3:52] Kevin Bianchi: Yeah.

[3:53] Quincy Brown: Another funny story. In that era, I didn't have an iPhone or anything, so there's no voice memo situation. I bought a voice recorder from Radio Shack, specifically so I could record all of the wiki performances I was gonna see while I was in Hawaii.

[4:07] Kevin Bianchi: So those are vintage.

[4:08] Quincy Brown: Do you have to like take those to a shop to like get them converted into a digital file?

[4:12] Kevin Bianchi: No, it had like a weird like USB-C connector thing to like plug it in and put it onto iTunes.

[4:18] Quincy Brown: Oh my god.

[4:18] Kevin Bianchi: It's very crafty.

[4:19] Quincy Brown: Yeah.

[4:20] Kevin Bianchi: In May 2013, she went into the Broadway company of Wicked in the Ensemble and understudying Alphaba.

[4:27] Quincy Brown: In July of that year, she was back out on the tour as an emergency alphabet cover.

[4:32] Kevin Bianchi: Then in November 2013, she's uh back in Wicked on Broadway as the Alphaba standby.

[4:38] Quincy Brown: November 2013 through 14, she's in the ensemble, understudying alphabet, in and out, and then in December 2014, again out on the tour, emergency alphabet cover, August 2016, Wicked Broadway.

[4:54] Kevin Bianchi: She's back in the ensemble, Alphaba understudy, in and out through 2019.

[4:59] Quincy Brown: She's there, she's ready.

[5:01] Kevin Bianchi: So it shouldn't surprise us.

[5:03] Quincy Brown: The writing has been on the wall that she would pull off the impossible.

[5:07] Kevin Bianchi: And come back in the year of our Lord 2022.

[5:11] Quincy Brown: Just two months ago.

[5:12] Kevin Bianchi: She was an emergency cover during the The OMI disaster, I want to call that era.

[5:18] Quincy Brown: But she had not done the role in seven years.

[5:21] Kevin Bianchi: I'm so glad it was her though.

[5:23] Quincy Brown: I was like, Me too.

[5:24] Kevin Bianchi: Oh, it's so good.

[5:26] Quincy Brown: In addition to all of that craziness, um, from 2015 to 2017, she was a principal guest entertainer on Norwegian cruise lines.

[5:35] Kevin Bianchi: It's a nice gig.

[5:36] Quincy Brown: Oh, okay.

[5:37] Kevin Bianchi: You work one night a week.

[5:39] Quincy Brown: You do like your 40 minute set twice.

[5:41] Kevin Bianchi: Gotcha.

[5:42] Quincy Brown: So as Jenny Denoy would say.

[5:44] Kevin Bianchi: She cushy.

[5:45] Quincy Brown: We're up to date with her theatrical resume, but I do just want to include some other like accomplishments of hers because I think these are part of what makes her so exceptional.

[5:56] Kevin Bianchi: Um, so in 2016, she got a master's degree in educational theater.

[6:02] Quincy Brown: In 2001, she graduated from uh a program that like trains artistic or creative people how to like code and like shift into a gear in tech.

[6:15] Kevin Bianchi: And she is, as we all know, like currently working as a software engineer.

[6:19] Quincy Brown: I just feel such a like spark of inspiration with her, because like I got that speech dozens of times. If you can do anything else, do that instead.

[6:29] Kevin Bianchi: And like nobody ever told you do that too.

[6:32] Quincy Brown: There's just a fence built around being an artist, that it's like all or nothing.

[6:40] Kevin Bianchi: It's like really cool to see somebody who not only like can still do both, but does still do both and is excellent at both.

[6:51] Quincy Brown: It's just really cool for me and a nice reminder for me that it's like that at any second you could just I too have not performed the role in the last seven years, but I could.

[7:04] Kevin Bianchi: So yeah, we're very excited.

[7:05] Quincy Brown: She's gonna be here very soon.

[7:07] Kevin Bianchi: Should we do a stuck on SJV?

[7:09] Quincy Brown: We should explain, since it's the first stuck on SJB of the new era.

[7:14] Kevin Bianchi: Yeah, as you know, as you might know.

[7:16] Quincy Brown: We should explain too because some people listening might not follow us on Instagram.

[7:20] Kevin Bianchi: Which maybe you should.

[7:21] Quincy Brown: Maybe you should.

[7:22] Kevin Bianchi: But if you don't have social media, that's okay too.

[7:24] Quincy Brown: This era, we are going to do a wicked interview every other episode and a non-wicked interview in the in between weeks.

[7:34] Kevin Bianchi: We're really excited about that.

[7:36] Quincy Brown: We're excited to talk to some ladies who we've always wanted to talk to, but couldn't find a wicked angle through which to talk to them.

[7:43] Kevin Bianchi: We've already done one non-wicked interview, and let me tell you, there were wicked angles throughout.

[7:49] Quincy Brown: Like we were surprised by it.

[7:50] Kevin Bianchi: So now I think we find the wicked angle with every non-wicked guest we have.

[7:54] Quincy Brown: I don't think there's an actress on this island who doesn't have a single connection to Wicked.

[8:00] Kevin Bianchi: You know what I mean?

[8:00] Quincy Brown: Like doesn't have a touch point, you know.

[8:02] Kevin Bianchi: So anyway, so with Stuck on SJB, we are gonna try this era limiting that to being in the wicked episodes.

[8:11] Quincy Brown: So basically, in the wicked episodes, you're gonna get a stuck on SJB on air.

[8:16] Kevin Bianchi: In the non-wicked episodes, you're gonna get a choices options and bootlegs on air.

[8:19] Quincy Brown: And for both of those episodes, whichever segment you're not getting on air, you're gonna get on social.

[8:24] Kevin Bianchi: So it's like really you're not losing anything.

[8:26] Quincy Brown: We're just trying to keep the time of these episodes down, you know.

[8:29] Kevin Bianchi: Because they get long.

[8:30] Quincy Brown: They get long, and it's long to edit.

[8:33] Kevin Bianchi: Um, anyways, on that note, stuck on SJB.

[8:38] Quincy Brown: Yes.

[8:39] Kevin Bianchi: So my stuck on SJB is a throwback to one of the like OG Stephanie J. Block videos that was really formative in my young gay obsession with her.

[8:52] Quincy Brown: Okay.

[8:53] Kevin Bianchi: It is the obsessed with Seth Rudetsky, where he's at the piano, she's doing a bunch of ridiculous shit. And those are my favorite videos. Those are I love, loved those videos in high school. And honestly, like, is it my dream to just like become Seth Rudetsky? I think so.

[9:11] Quincy Brown: Yeah.

[9:11] Kevin Bianchi: So there's a couple things that I love about this video. This isn't, it's not like a performance video, so I'm not really gonna like break it down into anything super meaningful, but a couple points to look out for as well. Is this a Bible preacher headshot?

[9:25] Quincy Brown: This is yes.

[9:26] Kevin Bianchi: So the pre-J headshot.

[9:29] Quincy Brown: The pre-J headshot. That's what she calls it. She's like, it's pre-J, it's pre-J.

[9:33] Kevin Bianchi: Um, so we have like a gloriously blown out headshot of Stephanie Block. It's very 80s. And Seth says, how do you look younger now than you do in this photo?

[9:46] Quincy Brown: Doesn't she?

[9:46] Kevin Bianchi: Yeah, yeah, yeah. So a couple things to point out. Um, number one, I have always found it hysterical that she's just like holding the mic pack. I don't know why, but that image is like burned into my head. Another thing to check out, come on soprano. Cause she whips out uh not writings on the wall, the other one. Between the very dead of night and moonlight, yeah, yeah.

[10:14] Quincy Brown: And I would like her to put that back in the concert circulation because she sounds gorgeous.

[10:20] Kevin Bianchi: Sure. This video is also the birthplace of the iconic catchphrase, an E doesn't scare me.

[10:27] Quincy Brown: Yes, that's right.

[10:29] Kevin Bianchi: That might have been the first time I like knew what a top was. Like that was like.

[10:35] Quincy Brown: I would love to feel as confident about anything as Stephanie J. Block felt about hitting an E on September 24th, 20120. All of this culminates in Seth Rudetsky assembling this like fever dream of like a 16-bar cut. Very scent men in vibe.

[10:54] Kevin Bianchi: That's a very scent men ask. I'm telling you, Seth Rudetsky, he ran so we could walk as sentimental men.

[11:01] Quincy Brown: Yeah, that's true. So he makes her do a cut from the Pirate Queen. Then she does a little tap dancing because let us not forget Ms. Block is a Reno Sweeney.

[11:13] Kevin Bianchi: She is a Reno Sweeney.

[11:15] Quincy Brown: Send her to the West End.

[11:16] Kevin Bianchi: Oh my god, if she replaced Carrie Ellis.

[11:18] Quincy Brown: Is that his doing it? Why did I think Rachel Dork was going in?

[11:21] Kevin Bianchi: Ooh, but that would also be good. And then it ends with the battle cry, the war cry. Ah.

[11:27] Quincy Brown: Alright. Shall we get into the interview?

[11:31] Kevin Bianchi: Yeah, let's do it.

[11:36] Carla Stickler: Thank you so much for joining us today. Welcome to the pod.

[11:41] Quincy Brown: Thanks for having me.

[11:42] Carla Stickler: So you don't remember this, but we do have a history together, and I'm sorry for ambushing with you once we started recording.

[11:48] Quincy Brown: Okay.

[11:49] Carla Stickler: Back when I was 13-14, the wicked tour came to Hawaii, and I was like searching up the cast, needed to know everyone, became obsessed with you because you were the current standby on tour. And then my high school, I don't know how it happened, was chosen to do the like making magic defying gravity concerts that you had been doing with Michael Mahaney. And I was one of the kids who got to do it.

[12:11] Quincy Brown: Oh my gosh.

[12:12] Carla Stickler: That's why your name looked familiar. That's so funny. It's like, why does it sound familiar? I feel like I know this. No, it's like a really crazy that it came back in this way so many years later.

[12:23] Quincy Brown: Yeah.

[12:24] Carla Stickler: That was such a beautiful show that we did. That was so much fun. Wait, so what like organization was it for again? Because you were doing it for a while, right?

[12:31] Quincy Brown: Yeah, I was working with the Educational Theater Association, which I think now is the Educational Theater Foundation.

[12:37] Carla Stickler: Gotcha. Um, and when we were in like, I think we did one in LA and Seattle and Utah and Hawaii, and we would basically like work with a high school and we would put together a show in 24 hours, and we would raise money for scholarships in the arts for high school students.

[12:54] Quincy Brown: Honestly, being a part of that was such a huge moment for me. It made me realize I wanted to be a teacher, and like I loved working with all of you guys. It was so much fun to watch everyone just like work their butt off and be like incredible high school kids and like live love their whole life in musical theater. I loved it.

[13:13] Carla Stickler: Well, that was the thing. It was like huge for us. Like the six of us were walking around campus for the rest of the week, being like, Yeah, we did that. And also, you sang I'm not afraid of anything from Songs for a New World at that concert, and that's what introduced me to Songs from a New World.

[13:27] Quincy Brown: I love that song.

[13:28] Carla Stickler: Truly foundational moments, Carla. And so I'm honored that I was a part of that for you.

[13:33] Quincy Brown: Yeah.

[13:35] Carla Stickler: Um, okay, so we start every interview with asking how did Wicked come into your life? Not as an actress, but what's your first touch point with the show itself?

[13:42] Quincy Brown: So I'm gonna age myself.

[13:44] Carla Stickler: I think it was my senior year of college. I did not see it right when it opened. Because what it opened in 2004.

[13:53] Quincy Brown: Was it three?

[13:54] Carla Stickler: Oh yeah, that makes sense. When you're a teenager, it's like it's very like you connect to like Jack and the adventure. Yeah, then it's like a different part of it, and then all of a sudden you're hit with steps on the palace in a way that like never clicked with you before.

[14:09] Quincy Brown: And oh, see, and like that hasn't even clicked for me.

[14:12] Carla Stickler: So like it's not a timeline, it's like you're just no, I know. But like okay, so when I saw it at City Center, um No One is Alone really got me at City Center, and when I saw it with you, no more really I was almost near tears.

[14:27] Quincy Brown: We're gonna circle like when you think about like the hairspray movie, that is like very even like Le Miz, like that is the tone of the stage production. Stylistically the same.

[14:38] Carla Stickler: Stylistically, the vibe, yeah, the overall like effect, color palette, etc.

[14:45] Quincy Brown: Yeah.

[14:47] Carla Stickler: But then there are musicals that like are very different from on stage to on screen, like Dear Evan Hansen even is like a big movie, but a very intimate stage production. Or like Chicago is a very lavish movie and a very sleek stage production. You know what I mean?

[15:07] Quincy Brown: Like you get a different style, a different energy with movies.

[15:14] Carla Stickler: So I don't know, it could be either, and I'm excited to see. I mean, all of this is to say that I'm very excited for the movie, but it is still not 100% real in my head yet.

[15:26] Quincy Brown: I need to see more.

[15:28] Carla Stickler: Knowing that it's gonna be two parts, it's still hypothetical to me. But we will wait and see and go on this adventure together.

[15:38] Quincy Brown: Anything else?

[15:39] Kevin Bianchi: Nope, that's all I got. I feel like this was a good little touch base about the state of things.

[15:46] Quincy Brown: I feel like we're gonna be doing a lot of these over the next two, three years about the wicked movie.

[15:52] Kevin Bianchi: Yeah.

[15:53] Quincy Brown: And until then, we can speculate.

[15:56] Kevin Bianchi: Bye.

[15:57] Quincy Brown: Bye.

[15:57] Kevin Bianchi: Talk to you later.

[16:00] Quincy Brown: You've been listening to Sentimental Men. This episode was produced and edited by your hosts Quincy Brown and Kevin Bianchi. You can reach us at sentimentalmenpod at gmail.com or on Instagram, Twitter, and TikTok at Scent Men Pod. You can support the pod by leaving us a rating or a review, or by subscribing. Subscribers get early access to our regular episodes, monthly bonus episodes, and get added to the Scent Men Green Circle. Which is literally our close friends on Instagram. Thanks to Julia DiMarzo for our thrillifying artwork. And thanks to you for tuning in. Till next time, I'm Quincy.

[16:39] Kevin Bianchi: And I'm Kevin.

[16:50] Quincy Brown: Yeah, that makes me sad though. He's not saying my mom was in the wild party.

[16:52] Kevin Bianchi: He's not saying my mom was in the chess concert.

[16:57] Quincy Brown: He should be.