This transcript was automatically generated and might contain errors.

[0:00] Eli Tokash: Hey everyone, and welcome back to episode 22 of Take A Bow.

[0:05] Sydney Lucas: Um I'm Sydney Lucas.

[0:07] Eli Tokash: Guys, we are just pumping right now.

[0:12] Sydney Lucas: We're we have so much energy.

[0:12] Eli Tokash: Um we're we're so excited for this episode.

[0:18] Sydney Lucas: And um, if you haven't noticed yet, it's with the incredibly talented Beth Malone who, by the way, is a Tony nominated actress, and the Tony Noms came out recently.

[0:31] Eli Tokash: So we'll talk about that later, though.

[0:33] Sydney Lucas: So it's kind of like related.

[0:35] Eli Tokash: Um yeah, but this was a great episode.

[0:38] Sydney Lucas: There was lots that we covered, and just like, you know, the rehearsal process through Fun Home and how many different versions of a show there are, and just so many great things, and Sydney is definitely gonna touch on a lot of that stuff.

[0:51] Eli Tokash: So yeah.

[0:53] Sydney Lucas: I love Beth so much.

[0:55] Eli Tokash: She practically raised me um backstage.

[0:59] Sydney Lucas: She's honestly like my big sister.

[1:02] Eli Tokash: Um in the world.

[1:03] Sydney Lucas: She's so hilarious.

[1:04] Eli Tokash: If if you don't know, she's literally hilarious.

[1:07] Sydney Lucas: This episode is so funny.

[1:09] Eli Tokash: And smart.

[1:10] Sydney Lucas: And you will find this out during the interview.

[1:12] Eli Tokash: But if you don't know already, uh Fun Home, obviously, is about the real life story of Alison Bechtel, or as the Fun Home people call it, call her uh T-Rab.

[1:23] Sydney Lucas: Um, and in the show, it paints the story of Alison's life through three different stages of her life as a small child, like a 10-year-old child, as a college student, and as a middle-aged woman.

[1:35] Eli Tokash: Um and Beth and I both played Allison.

[1:37] Sydney Lucas: I played the child Allison, and Beth played the adult Allison, and Beth was in the show for like I think eight years or something.

[1:45] Eli Tokash: She was in the show for so long.

[1:47] Sydney Lucas: I think double the amount of time that I was in it.

[1:50] Eli Tokash: Um, and we got to talk about all of the different iterations of the show and how immensely different each version of the show was.

[2:00] Sydney Lucas: When I came in, it it was uh it was a it was a crazy experience where she will explain exactly um what happened, but it was the most bonkers fun experience.

[2:13] Eli Tokash: And I just I just love her to death.

[2:15] Sydney Lucas: I love her so much.

[2:16] Eli Tokash: She's the coolest person ever.

[2:18] Sydney Lucas: Yeah.

[2:19] Eli Tokash: So Beth Malone curtained up.

[2:42] Sydney Lucas: Today's guest made history in the groundbreaking Broadway musical Fun Home, for which she was nominated for a Tony Award.

[2:50] Eli Tokash: She was in Angels in America, Ring of Fire, and Get Your Gun, and so much more.

[2:54] Sydney Lucas: We're so excited to talk about her journey with her.

[2:56] Eli Tokash: Um and for those of you who don't know, she practically raised me backstage at Fun Home, and I couldn't think of a better role model than her.

[3:03] Sydney Lucas: Everyone, please welcome the one, the only, my big sister, Beth Malone.

[3:09] Eli Tokash: And an older version of you.

[3:11] Beth Malone: I'm mad at life.

[3:13] Sydney Lucas: This is where you're headed, Sydney.

[3:15] Eli Tokash: Okay, so we were talking about before the podcast, um, but we rehearsed the Broadway run of Fun Home in a church, and Beth was telling me something very creepy about this church because we were talking about spooky season.

[3:30] Sydney Lucas: Um Beth, what what was going on with the church?

[3:34] Beth Malone: Okay, this is the cathedral.

[3:35] It's on it's on like, what is it, eighth?

[3:38] Sydney Lucas: Oh, I don't know.

[3:39] Beth Malone: Okay, so it's on Columbus becomes eighth or or I do know it's near Columbus, yeah.

[3:46] Sydney Lucas: Yeah, so it's it's the one that's right down the street from Lincoln Center, and it's the one with the big giant like apostles all carved into the outer thing.

[3:55] Beth Malone: So it's super creepy and like gothic creepy enough, but it's the only place in Manhattan that you can tape out a big enough uh area to rehearse things that go up at Circle in the Square, and it is the only place so the and and um Rockettes also um rehearse there.

[4:16] Sydney Lucas: And whoever and and us and anyone else who works those stuff that goes in circle and square has to rehearse down there because it's a giant, big, huge giant space.

[4:24] Beth Malone: But the thing that uh I think um Michael Cerberus and I discovered is that in the corner in the far corner that's like right underneath the freaking street.

[4:37] Sydney Lucas: So basically right under the street above is a crypt, and in that crypt are all of these filing cabinets, filing cabinet type things with middle names on them of dead priests, and they're in there.

[4:53] Beth Malone: It's oh my god.

[4:54] Sydney Lucas: It's like God.

[4:56] Beth Malone: Oh it's like all of their ghosts in the aisles.

[5:01] Sydney Lucas: Piles.

[5:02] Beth Malone: That's what's talking about this before.

[5:03] Like, oh, remember how there were like dead priests buried right where we were, like right there, and I went, no.

[5:10] Sydney Lucas: So you tried to protect the kids from it, right?

[5:13] Beth Malone: Yeah, because you were itty bitty.

[5:15] Sydney Lucas: Um but you were always sort of a tiny adult, but the other one's like a little bit.

[5:15] Beth Malone: A little bit.

[5:21] Sydney Lucas: Well, I was because I was pretty much raised, I've been been raised by the entire cast for like two years before then.

[5:29] Beth Malone: That is true.

[5:30] You were a very extraordinary tiny person, though.

[5:34] Like even at the age of nine when I met you, you were precocious.

[5:38] Sydney Lucas: But then by the time we did the second one, you were like, oh my God, I'm so sorry for the way I was when I was nine.

[5:47] Beth Malone: And I was like, Sydney, you're 10 now.

[5:52] Sydney Lucas: It was like the day after my birthday, too.

[5:55] Beth Malone: I'm so shipping by my behavior.

[5:57] Sydney Lucas: No, it's actually it's it's appropriate because I mean, if for those of you who don't know, Fun Home stands for funeral home.

[6:05] Beth Malone: So it kind of makes sense that we were sitting like right next to dead bodies.

[6:10] Sydney Lucas: Um it's so funny.

[6:11] I was talking with my mom before I was talking with my mom before this, and I was trying to remember what my first impression was of you.

[6:18] Um and I I can't remember the first time I met you, but I do remember when when we were rehearsing in the Shiva theater at the in the public theater.

[6:27] I remember um you, I don't remember what the situation was, but you basically said, I can do a round off back handspring.

[6:33] And I was like, you can do a round off back handspring?

[6:36] Show me.

[6:36] Beth Malone: And so you showed me and you went, I'm gonna teach you one day.

[6:39] And you haven't taught me yet, Beth Malone.

[6:41] Beth Malone: Well, you know, I remember that uh I was like, I had to do pull-ups in that particular production.

[6:48] Remember when you put the pull-up bar that you had to do.

[6:54] Sydney Lucas: I'm like, okay, you want to do pull-ups?

[6:57] And we'd stick you up on the bar and you'd be like, do you do body strength for a tiny nine year old?

[7:05] Beth Malone: No, I remember you guys helping me.

[7:07] I remember you guys like lifting me up and me being like, I can do it.

[7:10] And you're gonna you're like, yeah, who was the one who played John or Christian, the the blonde adorable?

[7:18] Sydney Lucas: How was Griffin?

[7:19] Beth Malone: He was in Billy Elliott, yeah.

[7:20] Sydney Lucas: Yeah, he could do tons of them.

[7:22] Beth Malone: Like that kid, he he was like really seriously like fit.

[7:25] Sydney Lucas: Oh, little kid.

[7:27] Beth Malone: Remember him.

[7:29] Sydney Lucas: Oh, I remember him, yeah.

[7:30] Beth Malone: Oh, I remember him.

[7:31] Sydney Lucas: I know.

[7:32] Beth Malone: And I I miss Noah Marlowe as well.

[7:35] Sydney Lucas: Oh my god, Noah.

[7:37] Beth Malone: We had a couple of Noah's.

[7:38] Sydney Lucas: Remember we had a couple of Noah's?

[7:39] Beth Malone: I don't know if people were.

[7:43] Sydney Lucas: Yes.

[7:43] Beth Malone: Yeah.

[7:44] Sydney Lucas: He comes on the cast album.

[7:45] Beth Malone: Noah Hinsdale was in Funny Neverland with me.

[7:48] Sydney Lucas: I love Noah.

[7:49] Beth Malone: You were right.

[7:50] Sydney Lucas: Oh my gosh.

[7:52] Beth Malone: Um, did you do you know Laura Laura Michelle Kelly?

[7:56] Sydney Lucas: Yeah.

[7:57] Beth Malone: Ah, I worked with her last summer.

[8:00] Sydney Lucas: I love her so much.

[8:02] Beth Malone: I should call her.

[8:02] Sydney Lucas: She had a baby.

[8:03] Beth Malone: Yeah, I know.

[8:04] Sydney Lucas: I couldn't believe it.

[8:05] Beth Malone: Like all of a sudden she was like had like a man and then like got like, I don't even know if they're married or not.

[8:12] Sydney Lucas: They got married.

[8:13] Beth Malone: Yeah, they got married.

[8:14] Sydney Lucas: Yeah, it was so quick.

[8:15] Beth Malone: I was like, wow.

[8:16] Sydney Lucas: And I was so happy for her.

[8:18] Beth Malone: I know.

[8:18] Sydney Lucas: She she's such an open book, and she was always just like, I love you guys, and I just can't wait to have a kid of my own one day.

[8:25] Beth Malone: So when I saw that she had a kid finally, I was just like so happy because I knew how bad she wanted one.

[8:30] Sydney Lucas: Yeah, and she's an she was an awesome mom.

[8:32] Beth Malone: And you know, it was like weird because we were doing Matilda at the Muni with Mike Isaacson, our Mike Isaacson, as our artistic director, and um she was super pregnant and playing a person who's not supposed to be super pregnant, but then we were all just like, just look away, just pretend like that giant bump isn't there and just play the scene.

[8:54] Sydney Lucas: But she just got super pregnant throughout the summer.

[8:57] Beth Malone: She just got pregnant, and it was like God.

[9:02] Sydney Lucas: Good thing it's a really big big audience.

[9:04] Beth Malone: Like it's like 14,000 pieces.

[9:06] Sydney Lucas: Maybe by the back, you can't even tell she's pregnant, but she also has the best accent.

[9:11] Beth Malone: Like, come on.

[9:13] Sydney Lucas: We all strive for that accent.

[9:15] Beth Malone: Dreamy.

[9:15] Sydney Lucas: Like that voice is nuts.

[9:17] Beth Malone: Like I could hear her sing the phone book, literally.

[9:19] Sydney Lucas: She anything.

[9:22] Beth Malone: Yes.

[9:23] Sydney Lucas: That's a crazy voice.

[9:24] Beth Malone: It's got kind of like this bright, mixy sound, but it's totally soprano-y legit, but she makes it, but that that but that sort of like bright sound almost sounds like she's talking.

[9:34] Sydney Lucas: Oh yeah.

[9:35] Beth Malone: Even though she's singing her face off, it's crazy.

[9:37] Sydney Lucas: It's an amazing voice.

[9:38] Beth Malone: I love it.

[9:39] Sydney Lucas: It's incredibly colorful.

[9:40] Beth Malone: Like it like I don't know like how else to say it, but like it paints like such a beautiful picture, and it's so elegant.

[9:46] Sydney Lucas: You should say that my house song from Matilda, she thinks it's so I mean, like, we could talk about Laura Michelle Kelly.

[9:54] Beth Malone: Let's just talk about Laura Michelle Kelly for the hour.

[9:56] Sydney Lucas: Yeah, look.

[9:57] Beth Malone: Oh my god.

[9:58] Sydney Lucas: I love her so much.

[9:59] Beth Malone: We need to have her on the book.

[10:04] Sydney Lucas: Oh, that is a voice.

[10:05] Beth Malone: Oh my goodness.

[10:07] Sydney Lucas: That's another voice that has that ability to just like flip into kind of this belty poppy thing.

[10:14] Beth Malone: The thing about Judy's voice is it's so um, it is so warm, and it's so uh it it it's got so much information in the sound of it.

[10:25] Sydney Lucas: And it just makes you want to crawl inside of it, which makes you want to go on whatever journey she's gonna tell you.

[10:31] Beth Malone: Yeah, it's got so much depth.

[10:32] Sydney Lucas: I love it.

[10:33] Beth Malone: Yes, she's not.

[10:34] Sydney Lucas: She was the Okahana's voice, right?

[10:36] Beth Malone: Yeah.

[10:37] Sydney Lucas: Yeah, I mean, come on.

[10:38] Beth Malone: That's like Colors of the Wind is like one of the best songs ever.

[10:42] Sydney Lucas: So in the mall in a in a mall situation and you hear Judy Kune because it's because Disney is like the man.

[10:52] Beth Malone: Yeah.

[10:53] Sydney Lucas: So that you know sometimes you're sitting in the middle of like uh Riverside California and Judy Kune is like just about the river.

[11:03] Beth Malone: Yes.

[11:03] Sydney Lucas: Yeah casual.

[11:04] Beth Malone: Yeah I'm always compelled to like call her and like I know we should have her on the podcast.

[11:10] Sydney Lucas: I'm I'm gonna I'm gonna I think I'm gonna ask her after this.

[11:13] Beth Malone: You gotta yeah I gotta okay so we gotta we gotta talk about Fun Home.

[11:18] Sydney Lucas: Okay.

[11:19] Beth Malone: Um well actually let's talk about before Fun Home.

[11:21] Sydney Lucas: Let's talk let's talk about how before Fun Home you were you were doing an am a musical in Asbury Park right that is correct.

[11:30] Beth Malone: I was doing another lesbian musical called um the breakup notebook and Lisa Clone came to see it randomly because she was on vacation she was like what am I gonna do tonight?

[11:41] Sydney Lucas: And they were like oh there's a lesbian musical let's go do that they were there on my opening night and inexplicably but I knew I knew at Lisa before that um but that was how I got the audition for Fun Home.

[11:55] Beth Malone: That's how like when I got home my agent was like hey you put yourself on tape for this thing at the public and and it wasn't even you back then Sydney it was you were you were such a zygote that it was it was Georgie James back then.

[12:08] Sydney Lucas: She was a little tiny kid and then she got big and now she's a ri a rock star.

[12:13] Beth Malone: Like she's a freaking rock star.

[12:15] Sydney Lucas: She plays the bass and sings in a rock band.

[12:17] Beth Malone: She's a rocky rock.

[12:20] Sydney Lucas: Oh a literal rock star.

[12:24] Beth Malone: That's incredible.

[12:25] Sydney Lucas: It's been fun to watch you guys grow up and become the things you're gonna be.

[12:29] Beth Malone: It's amazing.

[12:30] Sydney Lucas: Aww, thanks.

[12:31] Beth Malone: Well, like I said, you literally helped like raise me.

[12:34] Sydney Lucas: Um be as close to three kids as as I was to you and Oscar and Zell.

[12:42] Beth Malone: Like the the three core initial kids.

[12:45] Beth Malone: Um and there were other amazing kids that came and went, but you three and us, like I don't know if I'll ever ha we I'll never have kids like like that that I'm that close to ever again.

[12:58] Eli Tokash: I know we adored each other.

[13:00] Beth Malone: It's just like I have to say I was very excited to hear that you were coming on the podcast because you know like I went to school with Oscar when he was in Fun Home and then I've known Sydney for a long time and of course Zell, of course.

[13:14] Eli Tokash: Um, but they they have nothing but like amazing things to say about you.

[13:19] Beth Malone: So they all admire you.

[13:22] Eli Tokash: Yeah, yeah, yeah.

[13:23] Beth Malone: We really did. I mean we spent a ton of time together, so of course you just end up being like family and you know I remember Zell came over and watched a Steelers game with me once and I'm sitting on the watching the Steelers with He's from Pittsburgh, I'm from Colorado.

[13:39] Eli Tokash: It was they were playing the they were playing the Broncos and they crushed us by the way, but he was very kind about it.

[13:45] Beth Malone: I'm from near Pittsburgh, so I would I I'm sorry to that that happened to you.

[13:51] Eli Tokash: Thank you. The Broncos are really bad.

[13:53] Beth Malone: So Hey, it's listen, it's keep the pity on me. You have a nice team, but it's just injuries.

[14:00] Eli Tokash: Yeah, this is incredible. So uh the fact that like Lisa Crohn just like showed up and then offered you an audition on the spot at your show. Like that's that's a pretty incredible story.

[14:07] Beth Malone: So it was unreal. It was like no, it was when I got back home to LA.

[14:15] Beth Malone: Oh, okay. I really thought, you know, I was at the point in my career that I was like, that must have that might have been it. Because I was in Sister Act, the original before it went, and I thought, oh, I'm gonna take this to Broadway and I'm gonna win a Tony for it because this song is so good, and I am stopping the show.

[14:30] Beth Malone: Like it was the out-of-town sister act. But then when it went, it took really long time for Sister Act to get in. Um and it went through all kinds of changes, including the director who loved me. And so I did not get that part. And because I was literally, I'm gonna say I was 20 years younger than Marla, uh who got it. I can't think of her last name, but she's amazing. But um, I'm 20 years older than her.

[14:55] Beth Malone: So she got the part. I didn't, I was like, my career's over. I'm gonna do this lesbian musical because I made a bunch of bullet points for myself. Like, don't leave the house for less than a thousand bucks. Don't don't do anything that you're not really, really um uh excited about, or and or and if you're not that excited about it, make sure it has legs that it'll go forward. Like, I made myself a bunch of bullet points, and one of them was do some do um do theater uh before I quit because I was like, I quit, I quit the play. Um I was like, I I wanted to like me on stage. I want to represent gay lesbian uh LGBTQ people on stage, which like at that point you just never saw it, and of course you never saw a musical about a lesbian, like you just never saw it.

[15:43] Beth Malone: So this was totally, totally different than Fun Home. It was like a it was a rom-com sort of thing um about a girl who gets dumped. But like that happened, and then and then Lisa said, I think I found the person who I think, you know, because it's a tough, that's a tough role to cast. Like Alison Bechtel's a tough person to cast, especially back then when they really wasn't they weren't sure what they were even writing at that point. You know, it was so vastly different. Fun home was such a vastly different there were there were certain things that were are still in place from that initial reading, like maps.

[16:17] Beth Malone: Maps was like one of the first things that came into my inbox with Janine Tassori singing this crazy beautiful little this is the first thing that came into my inbox, Sydney. Um Janine Tessori going Okay, um bum bum bum bum. You know those chords, and then Janine goes, right angle of the leg, mmm, that gathers in his sweater, were his glasses round, no, square across the top, bum, bum, bump, half moons, and me, striped shirt, Natch, watching dad, thought balloon, daddy, comma, hey daddy, come here. Okay, I need you. The daddy, hey daddy is the only thing that's still left in that show.

[17:01] Eli Tokash: Oh wow. Huh.

[17:03] Beth Malone: But all of that was there, and it was so engaging and so beautiful. And I thought, what is this? What is this weird strange, beautiful thing that I'm listening to? What is it? I I didn't know what it was. I just knew I needed more of it, you know.

[17:21] Eli Tokash: Yeah, the way that show kind of hit me. I was like, oh, wow, what is this odd thing?

[17:27] Beth Malone: And then all of the the monologues were so weird at the time. They were just kind of like taking stuff that Allison had has that podcast, you know. She has video blog.

[17:39] Eli Tokash: Yeah, yeah, yeah.

[17:41] Beth Malone: All this talk was like, I'm I'm photographing myself, I'm videoing myself, photographing myself so I can draw myself. Weird, you know, like that was the that was the thing, and that was part of the audition. Um, do you remember that speech? I think it was gone by the time we got there. But um, so I just thought this is so bizarre. And I put myself on tape for it, and there, and I was like, Well, here goes nothing. And they were like, Yeah, would you do it? And so it was like instant, and then I was on a plane, and then and then, you know, by the time we did the the that first 29 hour reading, it was a 29 hour reading, and I met Alison Beckville at the end of it, and there's a picture of us like standing there looking at each other, just like two people looking in a mirror. It was weird.

[18:22] Eli Tokash: Explain this moment. What happened?

[18:28] Beth Malone: It was up in the Lewester Hall in the public. This this um this theater that can be transformed into all different um ways. But for us, it was just a bunch of folding chairs in a big empty room. And we did a presentation of Fun Home, and it was the very first time the that Fun Home had a beginning, a middle, and an end. Like Janine describes it as like, you know, this this was this is a this is the first time we gave birth to a full body, like it before it was like, oh, it has a head, you know. But Janine is such a sicko. But she says, like, this is like we gave birth to a full body thing, and so they invited Allison for the first time to see it. It was the first time changing my major got in the sh was written for this.

Um Days and Days was written for this. It was written like three hours before the the presentation. Judy was like, Am I gonna get a song or what? And then they were like, boom, days and days, fully realized. Just that. And um, and I remember Alison watching out of the corner of my eye, Allison and Holly. Holly was sitting there in that beaver hat that she has, you know, that freaking weird. Like, who are these I love them? I know.

[19:43] Beth Malone: And so like she's wearing like cat room glasses and her beaver hat, and I was like, and like a full, like I think it's like a full like beaver coat and like a in a weird like Russian hat. Anyway, Holly's really eccentric and amazing. But um, there is Holly and Alison sitting next to each other, kind of like looking at them out of the corner of my eye while I'm playing her, going, This is literally the weirdest thing ever. The weirdest thing ever. And then afterwards, like Janine kept wanting me to meet her, kept pushing me toward her, like physically went over, grabbed my shoulders and pushed me toward her. So I'm like, I don't want to meet her, I don't want to, I don't know. That's a Janine thing to do.

[20:21] Eli Tokash: Yeah.

[20:22] Beth Malone: I don't, I don't think that, and then she was like, and then we sat there and looked at each other, and neither of us spoke. And I felt like the temperature of my body rise from like my feet off all the way up my head, and then my head turned purple, and I was like, I really like it. Like some you're you're so good, and I like you a lot. And and uh and like just like this diarrhea of like really inane shit came out of my mouth, you know. Um and I was like, well, can't take can't undo that moment, can't take that back, you know. Great first impression. I was just like, but she was always so generous. She was always so incredible, and just yeah, so we love her. You know, she was just, you know, it's really scary when you're playing someone who's alive and they have opinions and stuff, but she was always like, Good, good job.

[21:16] Eli Tokash: Oh yeah.

[21:18] Beth Malone: Always. So weird. So you took fun home from like its first ever, you know, lab reading, whatever you can call it. Um, first beginning, middle, and then. Um did you ever like realize, you know, that one day you could wake up and just have been nominated for a Tony.

[21:41] Beth Malone: Uh, you know, it was after the Newman. That but it was like somewhere in the middle of the Shiva. So we had we had three sort of productions of it. Um they were all vastly different from one another, but um extremely in the middle of the Shiva. Remember, Sydney, how famous people started coming?

[22:03] Sydney Lucas: Yeah, I do.

[22:05] Beth Malone: Because we started having this crazy weird buzz around town. Like, yeah, something something's going on down at the Shiva. You should go check it out. Something's something about this thing called Fun House. And everybody's everybody, everybody, what is with that? But it's hard when it was on Broadway. So go to Funhouse down at the Shiva, it's really special. And so I remember one time I'm like sitting there, 'cause remember I had to sit on the edge of the stage. The stage was a little itty bitty thing, and it was it was it was so interesting because we didn't have a backstage. All of the actors just kind of sat off in chairs.

[22:41] Eli Tokash: Oh so we could all see the audience and we just sat over on the side in chairs, just it was so funny. You could just go like look at them and be like, oh Meg Ryan.

[22:50] Beth Malone: Huh. Yeah. It was so funny. They were watching the show and we were watching them.

[22:54] Sydney Lucas: Yes.

[22:55] Beth Malone: But um So the Shiva was the first time I thought, oh, this this is something besides like this thing that lives in my inbox. You know, because fun home fun home fun home for years I was it was my own private knowledge of this special special thing that um I would even try to tell my friends about it and they'd be like yeah anyway you know but until until it became a thing and they were like oh that's what you've been talking about all these years because it had been years by that time. Um but you know the Tony nomination um the the year before we were nominated for a whole bunch of awards for the off Broadway. Um the Tony's came um I didn't know if I was gonna be on that list but I knew everybody was and the show was so the fact that I was also on that list was extraordinary and then we got to go through that really fun season together just like running around in town cars.

[23:49] Beth Malone: So crazy so crazy with Sting like the weirdest thing that happened to me was I got set next to Sting and they served lobster for breakfast. Remember that one I remember that it was the Tony luncheon they served lobster for breakfast. I think I was sitting next to to Terrence McNally.

[24:07] Sydney Lucas: Of course you were oh I know isn't that and I was I was just so starstruck by everyone isn't it like one you got to know Terrence McNally in your life no I love that too and he's I know I know it was it was surreal is is honestly the the word that I always use to describe it.

[24:27] Beth Malone: Um yeah the tone the the Tony season is I want to ask you about the Tony season. How was the Tony season for you? Especially since it was like your first Tony season and and especially because you were the like the lead lead lead of the show.

[24:39] Beth Malone: It was fun. It was a blast. I mean I had so much fun because I was old enough to know how extraordinary it was for someone to come from where I came from and then like end up where I was in that short amount of time I was like this is extraordinary. I'm gonna enjoy every second of it like I won some kind of a reality show.

[24:56] Sydney Lucas: Yeah.

[24:56] Beth Malone: But it was it was like that. It was like um and I bought a whole bunch of clothes. I took money and just like bought three thousand dollars worth of clothes and I was like I'm gonna look fantastic every day and go to luncheon and I'm gonna talk to Bernanette Peters and I did. You know it was like all the things. It was like oh um hi cheetah you know it was fantastic it was like so many fun things and then if you're gonna you like you gotta you gotta live it to the fullest yes I mean I would do things differently if I could do it again um you know because I was a little bit shot out of a canon I did say that I wanted to motorboat Kristen Chenowith which I take back.

[25:38] Beth Malone: I don't want to motorboat, but I did say that, um, that's so funny in an interview. They're like, what do you want to do? What would you do if you met your fellow nominees? I was like, well, I'd want to motorboat Kristen Chenoweth. Yeah, I said that just came out, you know, stream of consciousness. But, um, so that was extraordinary. It was a blast. Um, it was exhausting to also be doing eight shows a week. That's the other thing they don't tell you. It's like, oh yeah, you got a matinee, an evening, and then you have an event, and then the next day you have an event before a matinee. You know, it was just like, it was too much. Yeah, it was too much, but, um, it was almost too much to enjoy by the end of it. You're like, I'm trying to enjoy this because you're just so tired, and you know Tony voters are still coming, and you have to do the best show every single night, you know, so there's all that stress.

[26:30] Eli Tokash: Um, but you handled it so beautifully. You were such a pro. Do you remember when we did the, um, that other thing where we went into a booth and talked for like an hour?

[26:40] Beth Malone: That was the first podcast that I ever did.

[26:42] Eli Tokash: It was technically a podcast, right?

[26:44] Beth Malone: Yeah, what is it? I forget what it was.

[26:48] Eli Tokash: It was for like an AOL, I think something. And you and I, and my, I think Michael and Judy went in together, and you and I went in together, and we just talked for like an hour about anything we wanted.

[27:00] Beth Malone: Mm-hmm.

[27:00] Eli Tokash: I would love to hear that now and hear like little tiny you because you were just so, um, you were always so like lucid and in your assessment of the current situation. You were like, it was really extraordinary. I've never seen anybody like you as a tiny child. I mean, you were, I have said this to you before, so it's not even a surprise, but I tell people all the time, like you cannot teach what Sydney Lucas knows how to do. You cannot teach it and you cannot learn it. Like she cannot be bad. She cannot be dishonest. She doesn't have a dishonest bone in her body. Like, even when you would cold read something, Sydney, if you read some, if somebody plopped something in front of you, plus your reading level was off the charts crazy. Um, and they would plop something in front of her, plus they would write things on the fly and like, here, sing this. Remember that day when they were trying to, um, replace the song "The Alpha Short"?

[28:02] Beth Malone: Yeah, that was nuts.

[28:03] Eli Tokash: Like, Sydney, I wish I had that whole episode on tape. You would be astonished at yourself. You were exquisite and like full on. Like, remember they were giving you all this like rock and roll stuff to sing, and you were just like, I'm nailing this right on the bat.

[28:21] Beth Malone: It honestly was so fun. And I gotta say, Beth, I really truly gotta say, I learned so much from you. I'm not even saying that to be like, yeah, I learned so much. I'm not even saying that to be except for like how to, you know, like how to eat all of the donuts that Judy brings in. But, um, that's how I think it was. I was honestly so amazed by, I think you, I and I always have thought I think you were just the most incredible and mesmerizing and captivating, not only performer, but also speaker and interviewee. I think it's important to me. Like the subject matter was so important to me that whenever you're so passionate about it. And I learned, I like honestly, every single time I got to do an interview with you, I was like, oh, I wish I could, I wish I could do that. Like I wish I could be like her in interviewing.

[29:16] Eli Tokash: You were 11, so you know, you gave yourself a break. But, um, it was, uh, you know, it was important to me. It was still is important to me. What we did, and then where we are now, it's just like come on, it was just so good, and then it all fell apart. Ugh. But you know, we're gonna keep on keeping on, we're gonna keep on keeping on.

[29:38] Beth Malone: Yeah. So Beth, I really want to talk to you about, um, I think the lab fun, which we did at the Ashiva Theater. I think it was the first time that it was like stood up in front of an audience, right?

[29:52] Beth Malone: Yes, it was.

[29:53] Eli Tokash: So I really want to talk to you about that, especially with you, because you are the lead of this show. You don't go off stage. And the lab was so interesting because they would make changes, make giant changes. Um, sometimes small, sometimes giant changes. They would take away songs, add another song, they would take away a monologue, add another monologue, and then we would have to implement them like the night of or maybe the day after. And I really want to talk like about your experience in this being that you had most of the changes out of everyone. That lab, that lab contract is nuts, and that lab um season really pushed people to their breaking points. You remember, like people were dropping like flies.

[30:43] Beth Malone: It was tough. And then great, like from God, literally from the heavens, came Hurricane Sandy, which shut us down just as we were all about to like crumble into like a little pile of dust.

[30:57] Eli Tokash: I remember that.

[31:02] Beth Malone: Yeah. Because, okay, so the lab contract for listeners, it's like you work from 10 a.m. to five, you take a break, and then you do the show. So you work all day, eat, sleep, do the show. Go home, they're emailing you new pages. Don't look at them right before you go to sleep, or you will not be able to sleep. PS. Then you wake up in the morning, you make coffee at 8 a.m. You start working on the new pages at home. Then I was commuting in from New Jersey at the time. So I would like to listen to stuff as I was on the bus, and then I would walk from Port Authority down to the public, and I would try to learn the new song while I walked.

[31:46] Eli Tokash: So, um, because also I wanted to exercise because I was like, I'm gonna be in black box all day long. If I could get like a 45-minute walk, then it would be so good for my brain. And I was learning things while I was walking. I would record them into my phone and listen to them while I walked. I wrote them up and down my arms. I wrote them all over the set. I wrote them on my props. Remember, I, and I would just try to like everywhere, everywhere and say the line like I wasn't reading, like I was thinking, you know, I got really adept at faking that I've been. I found so many ways to write your lines down.

[32:23] Beth Malone: It was nuts. Remember that ending that had me like weeping in a pile at the end of the show? Like there was that really weird ending where I was like, it was like a compilation of all the things that had happened, and it was like fragments of thoughts, and I was singing fragments of thoughts, and then I was like, I remember it, I do remember it, but it's vague.

[32:43] Eli Tokash: It's vague.

[32:44] Beth Malone: Well, and glad you don't remember because it was really intense, and a child should never have even been witnessed to it. It was like so intense, and I ended up like crumbling on the floor weeping. I remember, and I was so tired, so exhausted, like literally, I literally remember just like tears were pouring out of my face and snot out of my nose. It was so unappealing, but I, it was just like, I am really tired. Like no human being should be on stage in front of people when they're this tired. This is too much. But, um, it was extraordinary. It was like, um, who's the, who's that acting teacher who likes to take people and like break them? Um, I can't think of his name. But I, I'll think of it and then maybe I'll text you and you can put it in the thing. I'm sure, uh, maybe future me will just pop in for a second, be like, it's this person.

[33:39] Eli Tokash: Um, yeah, the guy who likes to just like exhaust people so that they do their best work. That is what happened. It was extraordinary because you literally could not act. You didn't have the energy. All you could do was survive the play.

[33:52] Beth Malone: Yeah.

[33:50] Eli Tokash: All you could do is survive it. And that is when the best acting happens.

[33:57] Beth Malone: Honestly, honestly, because it gives you, it gives, uh, stakes, honestly. Like it gives, um, it was like I'm at the end of my rope. I'm really, really need this to happen. I need this to happen so badly, it might kill me. And that's what the show's about. And, and, uh, and we just kind of were like, this is it, this is all I have tonight. And plus like the kind of acting that you have is just like really, um, like naturalism times a thousand because all you can do is just behave. You cannot act, you cannot act. And I think like that was a really good, um, thing to go through to move on to the bigger productions when we were more performative to not be. Remember, Sam just always just in, he really encouraged us to treat every single night like a rehearsal. Remember?

[34:51] Beth Malone: Really? He would go out to give the curtain speech with a beer so that he would say to the audience, you know what? This is a rehearsal, and I'm gonna drink this beer and you're gonna sit over there, but these people are gonna be up here working, so just be cool. Bye. You know, like that was what it was. It was like it was so amazing.

[35:11] Eli Tokash: I find that story of like how you, I mean, it's hard, especially like in a developing project that you know there is new work handed to you every night. So it's fascinating that you were writing it on your sleeve and on your props and on the set. Like I think that's like the coolest thing ever.

[35:27] Beth Malone: It wasn't even, it was on my body. It was like literally on my arm because remember I had no, I had no long sleeve. I was like writing there was, and I would scrub it off and write it up.

[35:41] Eli Tokash: Yeah, I was just gonna say, I was just gonna say, how did you like make sure the changes were added to your body?

[35:46] Beth Malone: But Janine was always sort of fascinated about it. She was always like wanting to look at where I'd written stuff and how it, well, it's like another show that you're basically doing with your body. Like you have to figure out which part is on which part of their body. That's awesome.

[36:03] Eli Tokash: And honestly, Beth, you had it by far, by far, by far worse than anyone else. Like I, to our listeners, um, she would, they would take, uh, oh first of all, Janine and Lisa and Sam, they worked like the amount, the amount of songs that they wrote and these beautiful, beautiful songs that they wrote and then within the day scrapped and then just wrote a new song was insane. And Beth would have this like this amazing, beautiful song, and then, and then Janine and Lisa would be like, No, we're scrapping the song, we're writing a new one. And then Beth would have to learn this song in a matter of sometimes hours, honestly. She would, she would implement the, we would do rehearsals of the new changes in the morning and she would implement them that night, or she would have pages and pages of dialogue changed.

[37:02] Beth Malone: Um, and the speed, the speed at which they worked was, uh, oh my goodness. It was amazing. It was incredible. Um, but seriously, like the, I don't, and I didn't even have it that hard. I mean, I had a great memory, but I, I didn't, I didn't have it that hard compared to you.

[37:21] Eli Tokash: Yeah, but you know, they would change things for you and you would implement them, and it was astonishing to watch.

[37:28] Beth Malone: I can't tell you nuts. But, um, the other thing, like the amount of great songs that are just in a trunk somewhere from that show. I think like wouldn't it be amazing to do a night called Songs from the Coffin? And like instead of the trunk, oh my gosh! Here's a good, here's an oldie but a goodie. Oh remember when it was like where someone was answering the phone and be like, Dad, somebody died.

[37:59] Eli Tokash: Remember that?

[38:00] Beth Malone: I do, I do actually remember that. And there was great song, there was great songs about around that, like the funeral home songs were just so funny and so weird. Um, but like there's a part of the show, I haven't listened to the cast album in a long time, and I was thinking about it recently.

[38:18] Beth Malone: Do you remember the part where you go small hand flying a plane, zoom, zoom, playing a guitar?

[38:27] Sydney Lucas: Mom practicing piano feels like show a pen.

[38:30] Beth Malone: Was that in our show, or did that get cut?

[38:33] Sydney Lucas: Because it was there forever.

[38:35] Beth Malone: Wait, wait, wait.

[38:37] Sydney Lucas: Wait, sing it, sing it, sing it one more time because it lagged the entire time for me.

[38:41] Beth Malone: Okay, ready?

[38:43] Sydney Lucas: Small hand flying.

[38:45] Beth Malone: Yes.

[38:46] Sydney Lucas: Yes.

[38:51] Beth Malone: I don't know. You remember? Do you remember? Um feed our funny.

[38:57] Sydney Lucas: I can draw them right.

[38:58] Beth Malone: Dad will show me.

[39:00] Sydney Lucas: Do you remember that song?

[39:01] Beth Malone: Yes. I was like, that that didn't make it in our show, did it?

[39:06] Sydney Lucas: No, it didn't.

[39:07] Beth Malone: So weird because they're so because it's been long enough now. Things that are in the show and things that didn't make it in the show are just as present in my mind because we held them for so long.

[39:18] Sydney Lucas: There was so many things in Fun Home for so long.

[39:21] Beth Malone: It was when it was when um who was it? It was it was so you know how Helen's playing the piano and and then she stands up and she says, Maybe not right now, and then and then J Joel, um, whichever character that was, because he played a bunch of different characters.

[39:35] Sydney Lucas: Um he started singing like I know this died, this died by Mary guy.

[39:40] Beth Malone: I used to be part of that song. I used to have like I used to be one of those parts, but then they took away my part, and so all of the kids just said like ba ba ba ba for a bunch.

[39:50] Sydney Lucas: Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

[39:51] Beth Malone: Yeah, you know what's funny, like even those ba pa's had so much like intention behind them because it was all saying the kids are and the kids, meanwhile, the kids are sitting here write her hair going so amazing.

[40:09] Sydney Lucas: It was it was so intricately thought of, like every single line, every single line had a deeper meaning behind it.

[40:16] Beth Malone: It just blows your mind. To this day. I'm just like, oh my god. I watched it happen right in front of me, and I still don't know how they did it.

[40:23] Sydney Lucas: Exactly.

[40:24] Beth Malone: It was so masterfully crafted.

[40:26] Sydney Lucas: Yeah.

[40:26] Beth Malone: I love that tree planting scene. If you ever go back and listen to that tree planting scene.

[40:31] Sydney Lucas: The tree planting scene's interesting.

[40:33] Beth Malone: I always talk about it when I do lectures because I do a lot of fun home lectures now. Um because every single line in it, um, the audience learns something.

[40:43] Sydney Lucas: It's not and they never tell you anything.

[40:46] Beth Malone: The authors are masterful at writing dialogue that teaches the audience something important without ever telling them what it is.

[40:56] Sydney Lucas: You should go back and look at that tree planting scene.

[41:00] Beth Malone: I will.

[41:00] Sydney Lucas: Oh my gosh. Thinking of the lines now, you're so right.

[41:04] Beth Malone: It's it's true. Every single line the audience learns oh the mom is an actress she comes in with sewing stuff.

[41:12] Sydney Lucas: The kids are the dad's first line is if we if we do if we play it right it'll bloom it's like the gayest line ever he enters saying the queerest thing ever.

[41:25] Beth Malone: He's like if you plant it right it'll bloom you know it's like homosexual just every single line is like wow wow wow wow it's the gayest line ever truly like so well written.

[41:42] Sydney Lucas: I mean that's brilliant the entire show is just like literally brilliant.

[41:45] Beth Malone: Yeah it is but I wanted to go back to the moment so like you were writing your lines on stage but like considering you never left the stage like were you able to like leave like water or like snacks or something like on the stage.

[41:59] Sydney Lucas: Yeah I got really good at at uh that I actually found a place where if I actually really had to pee, I could.

[42:06] Beth Malone: Oh my god.

[42:07] Sydney Lucas: And it was during the the kids trio, um the uh come to the fun home.

[42:12] Beth Malone: Sometimes I'd leave the stage and go to the bathroom.

[42:15] Sydney Lucas: And it really it didn't matter.

[42:16] Beth Malone: I realized it's like Allison c has to go to the bathroom.

[42:20] Sydney Lucas: And I would walk off stage and joke, you know, and and then I'd walk back on and be like, Yeah, in the meanwhile, I I I drew this entire song.

[42:28] Beth Malone: Um yeah, I I would put uh a mug on stage and my on Broadway my desk moved around because it was circle and square.

[42:39] Sydney Lucas: Um so I had to have one of those like travel mugs with the the base was really big so I could have water in there.

[42:44] Beth Malone: But I just got really good. You know what else I got really good at?

[42:47] Sydney Lucas: Drawing.

[42:48] Beth Malone: Do you remember that, Sydney? I got good.

[42:49] Sydney Lucas: Oh my god, yes, you actually drew.

[42:53] Beth Malone: I did because I was there for fantastic drawing.

[42:58] Sydney Lucas: Now I got better at it.

[42:59] Beth Malone: It's it's one of those things you can get better at, I learned, which I've never thought. I was like, either you're talented or you're not.

[43:03] Sydney Lucas: And I was like vaguely okay, but then I I was like, with practice, you can learn just like acting, just like singing, I think you can learn tricks that are like, oh, if you do that, it looks like shading, or if you do that, it looks like yeah.

[43:20] Beth Malone: So I learned I got I got and then I auction off all the things I drew for like Broadway.

[43:26] Sydney Lucas: I was just gonna ask, like, do you still have them or like did you sell them?

[43:29] Beth Malone: Yeah, I still have them, yeah.

[43:31] Sydney Lucas: They're all over the place.

[43:33] Beth Malone: Remember, I had that helmet that I that I would w wear every day when I rode the scooter or the bike to work.

[43:39] Sydney Lucas: I do, yes.

[43:40] Beth Malone: I have the red helmet, and then I got everyone to sign it.

[43:43] Sydney Lucas: So I donated that also, and they got like 400 bucks for that.

[43:48] Beth Malone: Wow.

[43:49] Sydney Lucas: So that was fun.

[43:50] Beth Malone: We did a lot.

[43:51] Sydney Lucas: Amazing charity stuff too.

[43:54] Beth Malone: Yes, amazing.

[43:55] Sydney Lucas: Truly.

[43:55] Beth Malone: Yeah. Did you have any memorable fan experiences from Fun Home?

[44:00] Sydney Lucas: Oh wow.

[44:01] Beth Malone: I I mean the kinds of stories that we heard and the kinds of stories that people would write to us.

[44:12] Sydney Lucas: Like we got a lot of letters.

[44:15] Beth Malone: Um and you know it's a very dangerous world for gay people still.

[44:21] Sydney Lucas: So to have this kind of representation um and and this kind of honesty and dignity given to a story that wasn't just like the gay persons on on the upright side of the stage being a being a a punchline this is a a story with dignity and substance where the gay person is down center.

[44:47] Beth Malone: It just it was so incredibly powerful to receive all of the the stories the stories the stories the stories.

[44:59] Sydney Lucas: Yeah.

[44:59] Beth Malone: People would bring their mother to Fun Home.

[45:02] Sydney Lucas: I'm like you're braver than I am and I would never bring my mother to Fun Home.

[45:06] Beth Malone: Um or my father um you know it was like uh a movement it wasn't just a show it ended up being like the second act ended up being that um that autograph line.

[45:20] Sydney Lucas: Yeah right it was intense I'm sure that you have incredible stories too.

[45:26] Beth Malone: I mean I have I have a a a manila envelope stuffed full of some of the more beautiful ones, more intense ones, like um people still write me, you know.

[45:37] Beth Malone: It's really um an honor to receive those kind of stories from people and to have been the receptacle for um you know people's uh vehicle for for people to uh you know have courage and and tell their tell their truth.

[45:54] Beth Malone: And it was um it was really powerful, it's really powerful, but it also made me intensely sad because uh of all the work that's still to be done, you know.

[46:07] Sydney Lucas: You think, oh, we've come so far, and then these people are traveling from all kinds of places just to see you and tell you that they s you know you saved their life.

[46:18] Beth Malone: Yeah, right.

[46:19] Sydney Lucas: It's very, very intense.

[46:21] Beth Malone: It's real.

[46:21] Sydney Lucas: And also because of it was not just a musical.

[46:24] Beth Malone: Yeah, no, it wasn't just a musical, and also because I mean this was the I mean the show revolved around a lesbian woman.

[46:32] Sydney Lucas: You played Broadway's first ever openly butch lesbian lead.

[46:37] Beth Malone: Ever.

[46:37] Sydney Lucas: Ever.

[46:38] Beth Malone: Um Yeah.

[46:40] Sydney Lucas: And maybe one only for a really long time.

[46:42] Beth Malone: I can't imagine another musical soon coming out and being like, no, well, another butch woman sings.

[46:48] Sydney Lucas: No, I don't think so.

[46:49] Beth Malone: It's not gonna happen for a while.

[46:51] Sydney Lucas: But yeah, it was amazing to be that to be that person ha has historically has been pretty heavy.

[46:57] Beth Malone: Um, you know, but also like as an actor and casting wise, to not to sort of like go, and now I'm gonna set that down and I want to be another thing.

[47:05] Sydney Lucas: You know, for people to see me as like a legit actor who can play things has been sort of a fight.

[47:13] Beth Malone: I just played um dancing finally, like a heterosexual leading lady in New York, finally, and then COVID came and went one night instead of going to work, I went and cleaned out my dressing room.

[47:26] Sydney Lucas: Sucked real bad.

[47:27] Beth Malone: Yeah, well, we wanted to actually talk to you about that.

[47:30] Sydney Lucas: So how has you know, obviously we're quarantined, and how has that like affected you and your work?

[47:35] Beth Malone: Because we did know that you were in Molly Brown.

[47:37] Sydney Lucas: How many shows did you do like before it got shut down?

[47:40] Beth Malone: Oh, you know, we were up for like five weeks, so we were in the middle of a nice big run and stuff, and was cooking along.

[47:47] Beth Malone: We got tons of like awards, and we got lots of reviews that were nuts, and it was just like this great thing.

[47:53] Beth Malone: It was this beautiful thing, and then it was just like boom, over in the pink and eye.

[47:58] Sydney Lucas: So that was a drag, but at least we got to do it.

[48:00] Beth Malone: Imagine being like um company, yeah, you know, and having all all the rehearsal and not even get open, or or what was the one about Henry Henry VIII's wife?

[48:14] Sydney Lucas: Six.

[48:14] Beth Malone: I I saw six.

[48:15] Sydney Lucas: It was in previews, and they didn't literally just a couple days before they were about to open, just shut down.

[48:21] Beth Malone: They were in I think they had all gone to the theater that night and were sitting backstage and going, Okay, are we going on or what?

[48:28] Sydney Lucas: Oh, there was a clipping boy.

[48:30] Beth Malone: Oh my god, you were so good.

[48:33] Sydney Lucas: Like Patina is my friend.

[48:35] Beth Malone: Oh yeah.

[48:36] Sydney Lucas: Yeah, Patina's my friend because of Sister Act.

[48:39] Beth Malone: Oh yeah, so Sister Act, Patina was in the chorus, was in the ensemble, and I was the nun that sang the the big the big like, oh my gosh, I'm gonna have a life now song.

[48:52] Sydney Lucas: Um so we we did that, we did those productions, um, and we were in Atlanta together, you know, away living in a hotel together, so um, we got really close.

[49:01] Beth Malone: I love her.

[49:02] Sydney Lucas: Oh, that's amazing.

[49:03] Beth Malone: Oh, that's awesome.

[49:04] Sydney Lucas: Yeah.

[49:04] Beth Malone: She's she's so cool.

[49:06] Sydney Lucas: She's so cool, and she makes me want to do push-ups too.

[49:09] Beth Malone: Also.

[49:10] Sydney Lucas: She's so fit.

[49:11] Beth Malone: Like her body is insane.

[49:13] Sydney Lucas: It's nuts.

[49:14] Beth Malone: So it may I was looking at her going, okay, I gotta get some push-ups.

[49:17] Sydney Lucas: I was like, I want to go to Pippin.

[49:19] Beth Malone: But really, what Pippin made me want to do is like get a Pilates coach.

[49:23] Sydney Lucas: Yeah.

[49:24] Beth Malone: No, everyone was like super fit during Pippin.

[49:27] Sydney Lucas: Like you like beautiful people.

[49:29] Beth Malone: I loved that collection.

[49:30] Sydney Lucas: I loved that production.

[49:32] Beth Malone: It was so beautiful.

[49:34] Sydney Lucas: Everyone was so great.

[49:35] Beth Malone: And your mom, oh my god, oh Rachel Bay Jones.

[49:38] Sydney Lucas: Rachel Bay Jones, oh my god, she was so and I didn't know her yet then.

[49:43] Beth Malone: I just knew this person was doing something extraordinary, and I was like, who is this person?

[49:48] Sydney Lucas: I have to know who she is.

[49:49] Beth Malone: And it was Rachel Bay Jones.

[49:50] Sydney Lucas: I was like, no.

[49:51] Beth Malone: Well, it's incredible.

[49:52] Sydney Lucas: Like I like you said, I never heard of Rachel Bay Jones until like I did Pippin.

[49:56] Beth Malone: And she had quit the business.

[49:58] Sydney Lucas: Like she had quit the business.

[50:00] Beth Malone: Right.

[50:01] Sydney Lucas: She's quit the business a few times.

[50:03] Beth Malone: Yes.

[50:03] Sydney Lucas: And then has come back.

[50:05] Beth Malone: And then she's came back and went to Tony.

[50:07] Sydney Lucas: Yeah.

[50:07] Beth Malone: Yeah.

[50:08] Sydney Lucas: Um, but no, like seeing her in Pippin, like, it was just like it was incredible to like be on stage with her every night and everything like that.

[50:16] Beth Malone: And then I go and see like Jarvin Hansen at the music box again, and it's like the complete opposite of what she was doing in Pippin.

[50:24] Sydney Lucas: And it's just absolutely incredible.

[50:26] Beth Malone: Yeah, she's got a big talented.

[50:29] Sydney Lucas: She's got a big arsenal of things she can do.

[50:32] Beth Malone: So Pippin was at the music box also.

[50:35] Sydney Lucas: Yeah.

[50:35] Beth Malone: So she could just like leave her stuff in the dressing room.

[50:38] Sydney Lucas: Pretty much.

[50:38] Beth Malone: It's practically her home now.

[50:40] Sydney Lucas: Last year, I I go to a performing art school and Sydney used to go there as well, and Oscar Williams went there.

[50:46] Beth Malone: Um, so I go to a performing art school, and in class, one of the shows that we dissected last year was Angels in America.

[50:54] Sydney Lucas: Oh and it was I I had never read it before until last year, and it was just such a beautiful piece.

[51:00] Eli Tokash: And like the fact that you were in it, I'm just like so eager to hear about it. So, like, what was it like to be in such like an iconic play and like a two-part play, which is like different from anything else, and like you ultimately like a bunch of characters, like, did you have like a preference in character? Like, I don't know. I have so many questions, sorry.

[51:18] Beth Malone: Okay, so Angels in America was like um to be immersed in the mind of Tony Kushner for that long was so incredibly um fortifying, especially now because it was it was like, Oh my god, now here is a mind at work. Here is someone who can who can wrestle with ideas and have can and have these two-hander scenes where people really go toe to toe over an idea and they and they're both right and they're but and you learn so much and the writing is exquisite and uh and it's a marathon, so again, like Fun Home, you just by the end of it, you just can't even act. Um but so like to be on stage with Andrew Garfield and Susan Brown and um uh uh Nathan Wayne, you know, like it was it was absolutely amazing, but the most incredible part of it was the physical flying of the angel because that was part of it was like I was really really fit because of getting ready to do Molly Brown.

Molly Brown I wanted to make as physical as possible. I wanted it to be like Cirque de Soleil. So I was like really, really going toward like like um trying to be like in Olympic athlete shape when I got this audition, and I was like, Oh, I can do that because right now, I mean, right now I can do that. And um, the audition was like these these incredible dancer people putting their hands like under your armpit, and you go and on the out on the exhale, you're flying. They lifting you up and putting you somewhere else. Your cue is like, and that is like in and the the different kind of flying and the different ways and all the devising the rehearsal was my favorite period of of um like my career in theater ever, because it was exploring, it was playing, it was physical, and it was um it was um just like pushing yourself and uh inventive, it was just so inventive, and plus we got to take like puppetry class.

[53:19] Oh wow because I was essentially a giant puppet. There were puppeteers moving me around, you know, like here's the angel, and she's gonna hover here, and then she's gonna like rah attack and then like float and flaw, and like all this during this astonishing um indecipherable dialogue, which the dialogue also is something I have to speak to because the angel says all this like nonsensical stuff and it's very hard to penetrate, but Tony Kushner knew exactly what he meant. And so, you know, he was there. It wasn't like you're doing this this period piece where the where Shakespeare isn't in the room, like Shakespeare's sitting right next to you, giving you new lines. So he was there, and um, and you know, the only reason I was able to like be in a room with Tony Kushner without like needing an adult diaper was because he was around Fun Home so much because he and Janine were each other. So he was around all the time, so I was used to seeing him and used to talking to him, and he was a fan, he was a huge fan of Fun Home. Um Tony actually tried to get my part cut several times.

[54:23] Eli Tokash: Oh, really?

[54:25] Beth Malone: He was like that adult Allison, like that's not where the story is. The story is, you know, with these other people, the families, what the story is. And Lisa was the one who kept saying, Thank you, thank you for your advice. Please stop saying that. You know, eventually she was like, That's not happening, so you can just stop pitching that. And then Tony was the first time the first one to come up and say, When I'm wrong, I say I'm wrong. I was wrong. It was wrong. Yeah. Um, so but that was always so amazing. I mean, so you know, to be to be able to do Fun Home in your career, and then to be able to also do an Angels in America in your career, it I don't know. I was like, these are the things, like if I want to check some boxes, like the next thing I need to do is work with Sondheim and then I'll be like, okay, so work with Sondheim next time.

[55:10] Eli Tokash: I mean, you've been in the most incredible, like meaningful in like change of life stories, like that you could possibly be in. It's incredible.

[55:20] Beth Malone: And nothing, nothing feels halfway. It's like all in or nothing, and all in or nothing. Everything that requires you to open a vein, that's that's the job for me. Because then I did Molly Brown, and because I said, Let's make this as like physical as possible. Oh yeah. I ended up making it like so hard. And it was really fun to do, but it was really long, and I had all like I was the driving force in the whole show. So I was just like, for like two and a half hours. It was two and a half hours long. Um, but it was amazing to do, and I was honored to do it. But I was also sort of relieved when it closed because I was like, I'm tired. Yeah, I'm a tired.

[56:01] Eli Tokash: Can you can you imagine you almost you almost quit the business? You you almost said like, oh, this is this is this is gonna be it. I'm not, I'm I'm done. To anyone out there who wants to give up on their passion, can you tell them anything? Just just like if you could tell them one thing, what would you tell them?

[56:23] Beth Malone: Well, I would say like the five things, the five I got really good advice right before I quit. Peter was like, Peter Schneider, my friend, who used to be the head of Disney, he told me, um, because he was the one who was directing Sister Act, and he got fired too. So he and I were out of jobs. And he said to me, I get it, but before you quit the business, don't leave the house for less than a thousand dollars. Don't leave, don't leave the house unless it's or and either all of these are ores. Either a thousand dollars or it's a show you've always wanted to do, or it's people you've always wanted to work with, or the thing has legs. Um, you know, you know, even if it's like something, you know, you're not that nuts about what you know it's going in, that um, and or do something, and this is the most important one.

If there's anything left undone, do it artistically. If there's anything you haven't done that is within your power to do, and for me, that was writing a solo show. And so I wrote Death Malone so far, and that was also really, really scary to do, and and that was part of the thing where he was like, Do something that scares you, do something that scares the crap out of you. Um, because obviously you're in a place where you're willing to like throw it all out. So if you're gonna throw it all out anyway, you might as well do this, do this terrifying thing before you s before you quit. And it was excellent advice because it did scare the crap out of me, and it made me feel so alive. Every time I'd step out there to do that solo show, I was like, why am I doing this to myself?

This is awful. This is terrible. And afterwards I would feel like so exhilarated and such a huge weight off of myself because I was telling my own true story of um my parents disowning me when I came out. And I was telling this, you know, through pop songs and with a lot of humor and like me trying to get laid for the first time and failing miserably, and just like all of these stories that were um intensely personal, also really funny, and meant something to somebody else, which is the other part I didn't really see coming. I was like, oh, this actually is helping people. This story I'm telling is actually changing, changing people's like um Janine Tessori always says, You gotta see it to be it, remember? Yeah. Gotta see it to be it.

[58:47] Eli Tokash: So I was being, I was being a thing that people could see, and I was being really visible, and my visibility was empowering other people to to feel better about themselves, their own lives. And so I was like, well, that is a reason to do that's reason enough to do anything on top of all the other benefits that I got from doing it, which was learning how to write a show. Like just the technical, now I know how to write a one woman show. I know how to take pieces from songs that say what I need and throw the rest out and then write dialogue in between and put another piece of a song that says what exactly what I need it to say. I don't need to sing a whole song. I'm not, no one's making me. I'm the boss of this.

You know, that's what I learned. It's like to be I was was, you know, I think it's a lot of actors think, oh well, the business doesn't want me. I'm I'm done. Like, uh, there's no there's no place for me. It's like, there's a place for you if you make it, if you write it. If you make your own, you know so I became my writer and then people you know then the people that were like minded and people who were my people found me I couldn't go out and find them I became the the the beacon for them to to see me in the dark and to go toward me that's what that's what writing that solo show did so um that's my advice that's that's my advice incredible everybody go out and write a solo show but like um be the most you you can be is a good way to say it's like who figure out who exactly you are and what the thing is that makes you you and um and uh give it voice that's so incredible well that's a perfect that's a perfect way to end this episode um we seriously you're an incredible inspiration and an incredible role model for people like Cindy and I and even anyone who's listening literally of any age um you're you're incredible and I can't thank you enough for like your willingness to come on and talk to us and it was thank you so much I I love the heck out of you and I'm still waiting for you to teach me how to do a backflip.

[59:43] Sydney Lucas: Yeah oh my god so wait that was crazy the fact that um Beth Malone was saying that there was a time where they were getting advised to cut her role out of the Fun Home. Meanwhile, she had already been with the production for like three or four years, but at the time. Like I that's crazy to me that they almost cut it.

[1:01:24] Eli Tokash: Yeah.

[1:01:25] Sydney Lucas: That was so interesting. She's she made so many interesting points that like not a lot of people would know, even like some of the cast. I mean, so yeah, I think it was just like a great episode and a look very insightful. I especially if you're a Fun Home fan. She's wonderful.

[1:01:39] Eli Tokash: She always just makes you laugh.

[1:01:44] Sydney Lucas: She always just makes you laugh, man. It it honestly, I learned so much from her. Because I was I was in Fun Home w when I adjust her nine and I end and I and ended my run when I was twelve. And through those, you know, developmental stages of my life, I pretty much spent a lot of it uh doing Fun Home and and backstage at Fun Home, and I learned from people like you know, Beth, Michael, Judy, all of these adults around me, and honestly, I I couldn't think of a better role model than than Beth.

[1:02:18] Eli Tokash: Yeah, I mean, she's literally I don't know if you guys could tell, but she's incredibly smart, she is incredibly hilarious. Um, and she was just like she has like this aura about her that like is so contagious and like so fun. And I think that's why like both you and I are just super excited for you guys to listen to this one, and hopefully you guys enjoy it as much as we did.

[1:02:41] Sydney Lucas: Yeah. Um Sydney, Sydney, I'm curious. Um, you mentioned in the intro, and then you also mentioned a couple times in the interview that you call Alison Bechdel T Rab. Where did that come from?

[1:02:52] Sydney Lucas: So Trab is T R A B the real Alison Bechdel.

[1:02:57] Eli Tokash: Yeah.

[1:02:57] Sydney Lucas: Oh, interesting. I don't know. I love that.

[1:03:00] Eli Tokash: I thought it was like a T slash Rab or something like that.

[1:03:04] Sydney Lucas: I didn't I thought it was like separate.

[1:03:05] Eli Tokash: Yeah, it's it's a it's a pr it's a pretty neat name. I don't know where it originated, though.

[1:03:11] Sydney Lucas: Um, but yeah, every time she would come to the show, we'd always be like, hey Trab.

[1:03:11] Eli Tokash: That's awesome.

[1:03:18] Sydney Lucas: I love that she was in on it and it wasn't like just like a you like a casting that she like knew exactly what you were talking about.

[1:03:25] Eli Tokash: Um yeah, and then like she had some cool references too, like songs from a coffin she was saying, like a Fun Home and the funeral. She was saying like all the songs that weren't in the show that were just beautiful. She wants to have like she wants to bring those back for like a concert series. So I thought that was really cool too.

[1:03:41] Sydney Lucas: It's a great idea.

[1:03:44] Eli Tokash: But the thing is is that like it I it would be really cool to like do that for multiple shows.

[1:03:52] Eli Tokash: Like because every show has a developmental process and all of these amazing things just don't make the cut. And so like when she heard that, I was like, oh my god, that's brilliant. Cause during my time in Trevor, there was like literally by the start of rehearsal and at the end of rehearsal, the show was completely different. And so I was that made me think like, wow, so many shows went through that process, and I feel like that would be such a cool thing for like everyone to do. And if that was like a possibility, it could have like a benefit concert and like donations would go to like Broadway Cares and stuff like that. I thought like, I don't know, I just got thinking and I was like, wow, that's so cool. It's the coolest thing, and it's also not something that a lot of people realize. I didn't realize how quickly the creative team works.

[1:04:39] Eli Tokash: Like they write that, you know it, especially during the Broadway version because in the off-Broadway version I had a song called Out for Short, which is a super funny little just like, hey, hey, how you doing? And it was just a super upbeat little fun song and it got cut for the Broadway version. Obviously, I was heartbroken. But I understood why they cut it and so for the Broadway version, we had to go through tens of different iterations to try and replace Out for Short because the actual scene is important. And we needed something to replace that sort of moment. And we tried so many different things. I remember literally being in the room as just as the gears and Sam's and Lisa and Janine's heads were just churning and I was I just sat back in awe, I was like, I'm not gonna make any noise, I don't wanna disrupt anything.

But they had gone through literally, but I remember a day where they had written like an entire song, threw it out, read and written another one, threw it out and then another one and they just kept doing that and doing that and doing that and it was so cool to watch. But yeah, there are all of these songs, probably hundreds of songs that they wrote that ended up being cut.

[1:06:12] Eli Tokash: Yeah, and it's interesting 'cause like when you're part of a project, you see like the creative team and how they work and how quickly, like you said, their minds are going and how quickly like they have this short amount of time of trying to perfect their story that they're trying to portray. But then like when someone asks you a question and you're as in like, how long did it take for Fun Home to get to where it needed to be, like on Broadway and stuff like that, and you're like eight years and people are like, Holy cow, that's like a long time and meanwhile it's like not like you need every second of those eight years sometimes even more you know like everyone works at their own like every show works at their own pace so like some shows can you know be on Broadway within five years. I think that's like the shortest amount of time to be honest. Five years and then like some shows have been like twelve and sixteen like it's been crazy.

[1:07:13] Eli Tokash: Yeah, definitely. Yeah and when you're not a part of that experience you're like holy cow that's like a long time but when you're part of it even as actors when you still like understand that it takes a lot of time you're still like wow that took a lot of time but like really it's it was. And you also learn not to get attached to anything because things are constantly changing. Like the opening one of the openings in the show I uh Welcome to our house on Maple Avenue, it used to be a song with that the m that Helen the mother and all of the kids sang. We all sang it at the same time we added different harmonies and I think we all sang it for the off-Broadway run and then for the Broadway run they're like no no we're just gonna have Helen sing this and then it became Judy solo.

And like a bunch of like those and obviously the biggest change from off-Broadway to Broadway was the venue, the fact that it was in the round but the change from the Shiva from the beginning of the lab at the Shiva Theater to the end of off-Broadway at the I think it was the Newman Theater, both of the theaters at the public theater, it was a completely completely completely different show both beautiful but both completely different from each other.

[1:08:04] Beth Malone: Yeah, yeah, I mean like like you said I had a similar experience through Trevor because there I performed this song called Whisper at the Trevor Live which is like a beneficial concert for the Trevor Project but when I and it was still in the show up until we got into previews and then it was cut in previews and it was a brand new song and that song I was like so attached to it because like before I even went to rehearsals I performed it and like that was the first song I knew like heard and knew and learned so I had like it had like meaning to me and then I got too attached to it and I was so upset when it got cut so like I feel you when you say don't get attached it's so hard.

[1:09:22] Beth Malone: But you know that's the beauty of being part of developmental readings and labs is you literally have to create the show with them. You get to be a part of that process.

[1:09:32] Eli Tokash: For sure. Um yeah so guys it's been a big week for Broadway. I mean obviously there is no Broadway because Corona but the Tony nominations came out so that gave a lot of people something to look forward to unfortunately there's still not a date for the streaming date of the actual Tony awards but the nominations came out and we are just so excited because Sydney and I both have a lot of friends that got nominated, and we just want to say congratulations to them.

[1:10:07] Eli Tokash: Um I mean, there were lots of surprises. Everyone who I actually saw in Laura Patton was obviously Cindy's friend. Yeah, I saw in her Instagram post that everyone that was eligible to get nominated got nominated. And I thought that was like the coolest thing ever. So cool. Congratulations, everyone. I'm so happy for you. And what a year. It's literally it's interesting because like, you know, there were three shows, but that uh three musicals, sorry, um, three musicals that could that were eligible to get nominated, and you know, like usually like Hamilton's year, you know, like you knew they were gonna get the Tony. You know, like most of the times you know, but like this year, like those three shows, man, they're good shows and like all have like a good chance.

[1:10:59] Eli Tokash: I hope Jagged Little Pill takes it away just because of you know, you know Lauren and then Diane Paulus is the director. Um and she's nominated too, so that was cool. Um and uh yeah, so uh but you know, with Moulin Rouge and Tina, like those are also great great shows that like it's gonna be interesting to see where that one takes us.

[1:11:22] Beth Malone: Oh my god. The person who plays Tina, I think her name is Adrian, I think.

[1:11:27] Eli Tokash: Warren, Adrian Warren.

[1:11:29] Beth Malone: Yes, she is fantastic, she's absolutely phenomenal. Unbelievable, unbelievable. She's so good. And and I Oscar Williams, who I was in Fun Home with and who is a friend of um me and Eli, he came for my 16th birthday. He came to New York to hang out with me for my birthday, and because he lives in Vermont, and he was going we were literally gonna spend like a whole weekend just running around New York City. We'd went to like restaurants and we're we were gonna go to Moulin Rouge, but then the blackout, the midtown blackout happened. We were we were literally like an hour away from heading to the theater and then we were eating in a restaurant and then just up and no way all the lights went out in the restaurant and we you know we thought it was a problem with the restaurant until one of the waiters told us no this is an entire citywide blackout.

This is like a midtown blackout. Well we go outside and none of the crosswalks are working and and it's we went we go to Moulin Rouge and they're like, we're not gonna be doing a show. We don't have any power. And so I never got to see Moulin Rouge, but it's honestly really weird that just these couple of years with the like it's just the blackout and then 2020, everything that's happened with in 2020. COVID. Crazy, man.

[1:12:55] Eli Tokash: Yeah, seriously. Um yeah, and then before we go, we just want to acknowledge that obviously it's October, it is spooky season, of course, but it is also breast cancer awareness month. And we Sydney and I have a lot of friends who, you know, have been diagnosed and have been affected by um having breast cancer, and we just wanted to raise awareness for that because it you know, this is the month to do so. It should be every month, but um yeah, you know, just like just be mindful and you know, get those people in your thoughts and prayers. I'm sure, you know, you know someone that has it because it is quite common. Um, so our thoughts and prayers go out to all of them.

[1:13:45] Beth Malone: And you know, Sydney and I actually a friend of ours, Madeline Jasmoro, who Zell was in Fun Home with you. Um his sister was diagnosed with a form of breast cancer. So it's been you know, I learned a lot because of that. So it's it doesn't really discriminate when it comes to age. Right. And because you know I knew her, I really that was like my first time that I actually did the proper research on breast cancer, and like it was just very difficult for me to like wrap my head around that, and it's been so like I'm very happy that I've done the research and I'm more educated on it, and I hope that you guys can do that.

[1:14:34] Eli Tokash: Yeah, and also this month you can you can donate to different charities that you know help those that have breast cancer, help you know, fund research for breast cancer. I think the national breastcancer.org. You can go there and they have information on it, and they also have um places you can donate to.

[1:14:58] Eli Tokash: Yeah, well, that does it for this week's episode. Thank you guys for listening, and uh we'll hopefully see you back next Thursday.

[1:15:06] Beth Malone: Yeah, we hope you like this episode. Eli, I love you so much. You're like a literal big sister to me.

[1:15:14] Eli Tokash: Um and yeah, see you next week. Bye everyone.

[1:15:18] Beth Malone: Bye everyone. Go vote.

[1:15:21] Eli Tokash: Go vote. Sick beat him, alright?

[1:15:23] Eli Tokash: For our curtain call, we wanted to give a few special thank yous to Nikki Torsha and Corm McCollinon for our amazing music, Giselle Bustos for designing our logo, and Tessie Tokash and Sidney Lucas for editing our episodes.

[1:15:36] Eli Tokash: Feel free to subscribe and leave a review on whatever platform you are currently listening to us from. This podcast wouldn't be possible without the help of Dory Berenstein, Alan Seals, Brittany Bigelow, and Katie Rosen at the Broadway Podcast Network, as well as our top patrons Henry Friedman, Brian Thompson, PCC, and Patrick McNamara.

[1:15:55] Eli Tokash: Speaking of, if you enjoyed this week's episode of Take A Bow, go check us out on Patreon at patreon.com slash T A B and become a patron today. Through our Patreon, you will form a relationship with us and get an inside look on what goes into this podcast.

[1:16:11] Eli Tokash: To learn more about this podcast, visit bpn.fm forward slash take a bow and follow us on Instagram at Take A Bow Podcast, where you can contact us with any feedback, suggestions, or questions, and keep up with all things Take A Bow.

[1:16:25] Eli Tokash: See you next week. Bye everyone.