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[0:00] MARIA-CHRISTINA OLIVERAS: Good evening, ladies and gentlemen. Welcome to the fabulous Feinstein's/54 Below. Before we get started this evening, just a polite reminder. Please take this moment to silence your cell phones. Also, there is no flash photography, please. Hi everyone. This is MARIA-CHRISTINA OLIVERAS, and you're listening to the Feinstein's/54 Below Podcast. Welcome to the Feinstein's/54 Below Podcast, where we take you behind the scenes at Broadway's Supper Club. I am super excited about our guest today. She's an incredible performer, and I'm also very blessed to call her a dear friend. MARIA-CHRISTINA OLIVERAS has performed extensively on and off-Broadway, regionally, internationally, and in film and television.

Her career is distinguished by her transformational character work in a number of world premieres, including most recently the role of Tolima in the musical Kiss My Aztec by John Leguizamo, Tony Taccone, David Kamp, Benjamin Velez, directed by Tony Taccone. Her other notable credits include Amélie, Soft Power, El Huracán, and Pretty Filthy. She has appeared on Broadway in Amélie, Machinal, and Bloody Bloody Andrew Jackson. She caught the attention of New York City theater fans with an explosive show-stopping turn in David Byrne and Fatboy Slim's multiple award-winning musical, Here Lies Love. Maria, welcome to the podcast.

[1:30] MARIA-CHRISTINA OLIVERAS: Thank you, Nella. Thrilled to be here.

[1:33] Nella Vera: So let's start off. Tell me how you've been faring during the pandemic. How's it been the past year for you?

[1:39] MARIA-CHRISTINA OLIVERAS: You know, I am very blessed and very grateful to be on the other side. It was a very, very challenging time. I did get COVID. Oh yes, and my mom, and it was very challenging. I do recommend if you're ever hospitalized for such things, NYU Langone, 12th floor East River views, 75 inch TV, Meditations on Demand, and they took great care of us. And I just feel so blessed that we are healthy and got onto the other side of it because it's been challenging for a lot of people. But yeah, here we stand and moving forward and slowly emerging, getting back out into the world. So that's been great.

[2:17] Nella Vera: Were you keeping busy with projects during this pandemic, aside from the time where you were sick or hobbies, or have you been taking a break?

[2:25] MARIA-CHRISTINA OLIVERAS: Tried to do the combo deluxe of everything. I started baking. I make a very mean banana bread now, and this is brand new to me. So I'm getting requests even for my banana bread. Oh my gosh. Yes, yes, oatmeal raisin cookies, which have been a hit as well. So that was my hobby. I was lucky enough, I actually shot a couple of episodes of NCIS NOLA. So I was in New Orleans for probably about three or four weeks total, just with quarantine timing and all that. So kept busy there, and then also did a bunch of Zoom readings with various off-Broadway companies, Second Stage, Primary Stages. Primary Stages actually commissioned Kate Hamill to do a Zoom play, which was a lot of fun. It was all about multi-level media marketing companies and schemes, and it was basically our big selling conference where we're trying to recruit other members, other sellers, and I got to play a very fun-loving Cosmo-drinking CEO lady boss.

We got to dance to some Beyoncé. So that was a lot of fun, but does not replace live theater in a room. Stay tuned for that, actually. Primary Stages will be launching that in their first season. Kate Hamill's Bad Gal Boss.

[3:42] Nella Vera: Oh wow. I love Kate Hamill's work. And it's also interesting that they're launching a streaming show as part of their season.

[3:56] MARIA-CHRISTINA OLIVERAS: Yeah, I think unfortunately it has to be just because everything's still so tenuous with all these potential variants. And are we gonna really be able to come back fully live? And what does that mean? They also I think commissioned her for the Zoom platform. So I'm not sure if they integrated it if they wanted to do it earlier or later, but they decided to launch it in the fall.

[4:19] Nella Vera: Great. Well, look forward to seeing that as somebody who's in marketing. I'm sure I will enjoy that quite a bit. You made your Broadway debut with Bloody Bloody Andrew Jackson. Can you tell me about that experience?

[4:33] MARIA-CHRISTINA OLIVERAS: Oh, that was wild. And that really came out of the blue. I was doing a show with Target Margin at the time called The Really Big Wants. And we were coming toward the end of our run. And a colleague and friend of mine from college, Alex Timbers, called and said, "My show at the public is extending. We're looking for understudies. Can you come in?" And I said, "Oh, I'm finishing out this run with The Really Big Wants." Serendipitously timed out perfectly with scheduling. I went in and so understudied for the tail end of the public and rode the coattail straight to Broadway. You know, said I teach now, and somebody was soon just like, "Oh, you know, what was it like? Broadway debut." And so did you audition?

Because I thought I'd come to New York, I'd audition, I'd go through the kind of rigmarole and then end up on Broadway. But there are so many different ways in, and I really felt blessed that timing and all that worked out. And it was an extraordinary company and extraordinary cast. So a lot of fun for my Broadway debut. I loved that so many people were making their Broadway debuts. It was spectacular, and that always makes me so happy when new people debut on Broadway. And that was so great about that company. And I think you felt that fresh new energy and excitement, even among Michael and Alex, that was their big first splash into New York. I mean, Alex had Frere Cabaret, his own company, and Michael had certainly been doing work, but this was their big debut too. So there was a lot of beautiful new energy around it.

[6:02] Nella Vera: Yeah, I always felt Bloody was a little bit ahead of its time. That if it had opened a few years later, it might have lasted longer when the quirkier musicals were in style just a few years later. But yeah, it was super fun to work on that project. And I think we all still keep in touch and many friendships and bonds came out of that particular show.

[6:29] MARIA-CHRISTINA OLIVERAS: Oh, yeah. And it still has life in high schools. There are a lot of different productions that people are doing it.

[6:35] Nella Vera: Yeah, colleges, yeah, yeah.

[6:37] MARIA-CHRISTINA OLIVERAS: So it lives on. I think in 2011 and 2012, it was one of the most produced shows in the college high school scene circuit. You worked on another Michael Friedman project, Pretty Filthy, which was a Civilians project. For those who might not know, the Civilians is an on-Broadway theater group that focuses on what they call investigative theater. I like to think of it as documentary theater also. Can you talk about what that means and the show and how it came about?

[7:09] MARIA-CHRISTINA OLIVERAS: Documentary style theater, Steve Cosson, who's the artistic director of the company, his whole thing is we go out, we interview the primary sources, and then we take these sources and put them on stage. Almost verbatim, obviously edited. We had Bess Wohl as our writer for Pretty Filthy to kind of doctor and craft. But Bess also conducted the interviews. So basically it's just going out, really meeting the people, interviewing them, transcribing. What's great is sometimes as actors you have recordings of the people, so you get to emulate. I really honor their true spirit and rhythms and all that. So they went into San Fernando Valley and interviewed a wide range of porn personnel, including directors and the stars themselves.

We didn't get a fluffer. We really, I was curious, like, oh, what's the fluffers' perspective? And then they put it together for an evening of songs. Michael Friedman did a wide range of music in that particular show. So it became very vaudeville in a lot of ways, just different sequences. It was one of my favorite things to work on. And I got to meet some of the people that I portrayed, which was really, really exciting. Careful though, when you meet your heroes and the people that you're curious to meet. One couple that I got to meet, I had a song called "Applesauce" that I did with Steve Rosen. And it was all about how, yes, the baseball bats and the porn and all that. It's fun, but really what I want is a white picket fence and a home in the suburbs. I saw interviews of them early on to hear this woman speak about her husband. She was just so in love. And I found out they got divorced.

[8:50] Nella Vera: Oh no.

[8:50] MARIA-CHRISTINA OLIVERAS: Yeah, after. Because in the show, it is this joyous number of we're gonna go and I'll make applesauce and it'll be great. And then I found out, alas, did not really end in the fairy tale. But that is the docu-style theater, really just integrating the primary sources and the interviews and then crafting them into song and monologues and an evening, a whole night.

[9:14] Nella Vera: Why do you think they decided to focus in on the porn industry for this particular project?

[9:20] MARIA-CHRISTINA OLIVERAS: Steve and Civilians, we lean into just unexplored pockets in an interesting way. I mean, porn is explored, I think on very broad levels and whatever. But as far as what is the industry, what is it like to be a worker in that industry using our bodies? What are the hopes and dreams of those people? The actors, at least Alan Lewis played a porn star who moved to San Fernando Valley in pursuit of this. Then you have the opposite. You have women who do it for the money or who are not in a kind of it's not the dreamscape. So I think to really explore an industry like that and try to understand and investigate all the different nuances and complicated areas of it.

[10:06] Nella Vera: Yeah, yeah, I think that's right. You also worked on Kiss My Aztec, which was a new musical by John Leguizamo and Tony Taccone with music and lyrics by David Kamp and Benjamin Velez. You were with the show through several development phases. Can you tell us about that project and your involvement?

[10:26] MARIA-CHRISTINA OLIVERAS: Yes, I love most of the stuff that I've done in general has been new work and developed over years. So this was one of them as well. I was actually with it when it was called Pain in the Aztec. So there was one reading of it at Pregones Theater before me. This was back in 2013 or 14, I believe. We did it at Atlantic Latino Mix Fest in fall of 2014. The script was freewheeling. John was rewriting in the room. We didn't have set music. So I remember John was like, "I love Patti Smith." So the song that I did at the time, the composer and I just listened to Patti Smith and threw down, and we had a lyric sheet and just sang it through. The reading turned out to be because again, we had no idea what it would be.

I think it was just about three hours or so, and I was rushing to a curtain at Here Lies Love. So I hopped into a cab right after. I think I didn't even bow. I like after the number, which was called "Dark Meat." It was about a princess who really enjoyed dark meat. Uh yes, yes. And so right after I ran. So I've been a part of that, yeah, since 2014. And I started in a different role. I ended up doing Tolima for our world premiere at Berkeley Rep last year, but I actually started as Pilar, and that has often happened too.

[11:52] MARIA-CHRISTINA OLIVERAS: The same thing happened with Amélie. I started in one role, and as the new work develops, they see what serves and where also energies fit the story as it evolves. And it was great. John, Ben, David, they came on. David Camp as the lyricist, and Tony Shacone and Benjamin Velez came on after that Atlantic reading. John built this team, and it's so joyous. What I love about it is I get to be highbrow, lowbrow, uptown humor, downtown music, the musicality that Ben has crafted is yeah, there's hip hop, there's rap, there's really bluesy, there's just a musical theater. Latin music too. Yes, and Latino music, absolutely. It's all infused in there. Sai summer engue, cool and beautiful that's what's so great about Ben.

He really has integrated such a wide, beautiful musical landscape to serve. And also gets John and Tony's humor. Tony also is a huge part of the development and book writing, and yeah, that was just joyous. I got to meet Rita Moreno. I got to be on stage with all Latinos, which rarely happens. And to do that, even in some place like San Diego, where I had grandmothers and abuelas coming up and being like, oh my god, I don't, this is amazing. I this yeah, I'll never forget there was one night at San Diego where for some reason our audience had the widest range of folks. Older people, younger people, the white subscribers, the young BICOC college students, and it was a beautiful dialogue. It was what I thought theater should be.

It was back and forth, laughter here, questions. Oh, what does that mean? Oh, that's great. Those people are laughing. Like it was just so joyous and made me realize diverse stories really can appeal across a wide base. I feel like so many theaters shy away from that because it's not safe, quote unquote. Well, good theater is good theater, regardless of who's making it, who's in it. And John is such a genius, obviously. And when I read about this show, I because I had seen Latin History for Morons that he had done, and I thought, oh, this seems kind of like the next step, and that's kind of the same story that he's trying to tell, but in a more fully developed, non-one man show. Thematically, it seemed like he'd evolved Latin History into this show, which was really thrilling and fun.

And I hope we get to see it. I know that it had such momentum, and then the pandemic happened. So who knows? But we'll all pray that we can see it on the East Coast at least, right? Yes, indeed, put out all the good juju.

[14:26] MARIA-CHRISTINA OLIVERAS: You also did Young Jean Lee's We're Gonna Die at the Ankrum Opera House, which having been to Ankrum myself seemed to me like a very interesting choice of venue for this show. Can you talk a little bit about that and what that was like? And also what this show is. We're Gonna Die. Young Jean Lee did a cabaret of songs and monologues about death, struggling with death, fear of death, but it's joyous. It's a celebration of it. It's not a depressing like Dad or the whole time. It's we're gonna die, we're gonna die someday, and we'll be gone. Woo-hoo! Leading into celebrating death as a passage. And so it was such an intimate venue, and the audiences up there craved this kind of outside the box form of theater and storytelling.

So they were just fabulous, and they tended to be a lot older. So the conversations that I had with them about just mortality and death, and so many of them shared their own struggles with cancer and you know, death experiences. I met a death doula. It was a show that that community particularly embraced and needed at the time. And Paul Riccardi and Jeff Morso, who run that are really trying to make Ankrum Opera House Joe's Pub of Hudson Valley. Taylor Mack was the one who actually referred me to them to do the project, and Judy's gone up there to do his Christmas show. Diana O's been up there, Heather Christian. So they're really, really supporting all these experimental entertainers up there.

It's a beautiful venue, very, very intimate, but a really beautiful home for artists. Yeah, it was surprising because just looking at the community, you don't necessarily think that there's going to be support for this type of work. And Young Jean Lee's show was the last thing that I would think you'd program, especially this one. And yet there was such a great response from the community. So that is really nice to see.

[16:28] Nella Vera: Of course, I am going to ask you to talk about my favorite show of all time, Here Lies Love, which I think I saw seven times. And not only was it a spectacular show, but you had an amazing show-stopping number in it, a song called Men Will Do Anything, I think, right? So let's start with how you became involved with the project.

[16:47] MARIA-CHRISTINA OLIVERAS: I auditioned, ooh, 2001. That was a big or 2013 for a workshop of it, which happened in the basement of NYU. There were some OGs starting there. Ruthie Ann was one of them, Jose, who we all started as babies with that little exploration in the basement, and wrote it all the way to the public. And then it's had so many different permutations. But yeah, it was just initially an audition for this reading, then the reading, we went to a workshop at PS 122, then after PS 122, we went to Mass Mocha, and then the public. For those that are listening and don't know the show well, it was an immersive in-the-round show about Imelda and Ferdinand Marcos and their rise to power in the Philippines. It's probably the most fun I've ever had at the theater despite the story that it was telling. Because that just seems to be what Alex Timbers specializes in. Making you love a show, but also making you uncomfortable.

[18:00] MARIA-CHRISTINA OLIVERAS: Did this show have a special significance to you given your cultural background? Absolutely, absolutely. And actually, I want to go back to just the original development. As with New Work, as with Kiss My Aztec and Amélie, I was originally cast as Romitios, who was Imelda's mother, who in flashback, I had this huge number, precious little children on my deathbed saying Imelda and her best friend or her nanny at the time, you guys have to take care of each other because Imelda ends up turning on her this woman who helped to raise her ultimately. So I had all these numbers, Men Will Do Anything, precious little children. And I think it was at the public. So that number was cut, and subsequently the role Romedios was removed.

But I had all these features left. So we jokingly named her Omnesia based off of omniscient force because she'd come in, she'd have Men Will Do Anything. It almost seemed to be her consciousness throughout with all the numbers. Um but that's just a fun evolution of how it started and then eventually devolved. But people would often ask, like, oh, what was your character? And I said, well, crazy outfit. It was the boat. I think you were. Oh my god, it was like a magical ram, I wanted to say. And Click Ramos's costumes were amazing. So yeah, it was such a fun, fun journey through all of it, the ups and downs at various, you know, experimenting with the form as well. I remember PS1 Shining Two, we were like handing out cupcakes, and we're like, oh, that's not gonna work. Champagne, ballots, so joyous, and so just let's throw some stuff against the wall, see what sticks.

[20:01] Nella Vera: So did you know a lot about the Marcos? Being that you're half Philippine.

[20:07] MARIA-CHRISTINA OLIVERAS: Sadly, no. The shoes, the stereotypical of what you knew of them. I didn't know the bloodshed and how terrible leaders they were and what they did to the Filipino population. And it's funny because I asked my mom, and she actually came here before that. So she didn't have a huge relationship with them, which I thought was really, really just fascinating because I had to project all of these things. She migrated over, she actually just got her citizenship two years ago. But I put all these romanticized ideals of like the immigrant coming over and escaping, and she's like, No, I just wanted to come to nursing school, and it was supposed to, you know, and then I'd be like, Well, what about the Marcos?

What was that like living under that routine? She's like, No, I was in the mountains, and I got that politically. She went unscathed, you know, and it was was yeah, it was such a gift to work with a predominantly Filipino cast, monkey bread, lumpia, and we just we wanted these stories to be amped. There's so few times where we could actually just celebrate the Filipino culture, yes, oddly, through this lens of Marcos, but to really reveal these stories to people and pique people's interest in her and what they've been doing and the genocide.

[21:20] Nella Vera: Yeah, of course, of course. So the show famously featured music by David Byrne with direction by Alex Timbers, whom you had previously worked on on Bloody Bloody Andrew Jackson. Can you talk a little bit about each of them and what they were like as collaborators?

[21:37] MARIA-CHRISTINA OLIVERAS: Alex is great. We've actually known each other since college. He produced a rock version of Two Gentlemen of Verona that we did at Yale when we were undergrad together. So what was wonderful about that is we have a shorthand. He trusts his actors. He gives us the playground and then he lets us play. So that was really, really terrific. It wasn't a lot of talking talking or beats or working through acting. Because I do believe this also the key is in casting, and he casts brilliantly, and he casts beautiful humans in addition to beautiful artists, which is really, really important, at least to me. And David was so great too. Ironically, I had no real understanding of who he was because I was an immigrant's child.

They were listening to Neil Diamond and Harry Connick Jr. And so David, I had just read a biking column that he had written in the Times. When I first meet him, I go to him and I was like, oh, I really I'd love that the biking column that you did. And then we talked about biking in the city and all that. And this was one of the early workshops. And one of my castmates came up and was like, oh my God, what were you talking about to David? And I was like, oh, biking in the city and all that. She's like, oh my God, how can you talk? He's such a rock star. I'm like, oh, I genuinely didn't understand the scope of his rock stardom and the breadth of his work. I wasn't familiar with it. Talking Heads, I knew the songs, but I thought, oh, here's this.

He just didn't put it together. No, I was like, here's this great guy who wants to do this musical. Oh, Alex, Fat Boy Slim, fun. But he's so gentle in his just rendering if he ever has notes. And I still kept this email. He emailed me about my song one day and was very pleased with it. And that has gone into my motivational folder when I'm having a dark day. So how wonderful. Yeah, I love what you said about Alex finding talent and working with great people. But I've also always loved that about him, that he really does find the right people for the roles and does not give in to pressure from casting directors to cast a name or a star.

[23:47] MARIA-CHRISTINA OLIVERAS: And when I think about all the iconic people who have been in his shows from Ben Walker to, I mean, Ruth Ann Miles, what a find.

[23:59] Nella Vera: Yeah.

[23:59] MARIA-CHRISTINA OLIVERAS: When I saw her in that show, I thought to myself, why isn't this woman an enormous Broadway star? How is it that she has been under the radar all of this time? And there she was. Alex, with help from the casting team, obviously found her and she was perfection. I find that about him that he does really find amazing people who embody the roles. And sometimes he sees things that other people don't. And then when they're on stage, it makes complete sense. So I love that about him. I remember when Alex was developing this and the first workshop at PS122, which I did get invited to, having been friends with Alex, and there was only one platform, I think, at the time. And it was still exciting to see it.

It was only 30 minutes, I think, was like act one. There's no acts, but like the first part of it. Did you have a sense early on that this would be such a special show? Or were you just like, oh, this crazy project? When you signed up for the show, did you have any idea what the final product would be at all?

[25:01] MARIA-CHRISTINA OLIVERAS: You know, didn't know what the final product was, but was always on board from the very beginning. The music in and of itself was so fun to sing. Annie B's choreography, again, this amazing creative team of experimenting that was non-traditional outside the box. So it was exciting at every phase. We had no idea where we would land. That's why it went through so many permutations and experimenting with the platforms and Williamstown. Oh, you know, there's the pretty high platforms that you know, and we were in heels, and so just really kind of experimenting with that. But there was always this energized sense of innovation and what are we making? Never felt complacent, and it was never boring. It was always, always truly, truly joyous in the experimentation of it.

[25:55] Nella Vera: Well, the audience reaction to the show was wild and incredible. How was it for the cast to deal with the audience so close to you?

[26:03] MARIA-CHRISTINA OLIVERAS: Huh? Literally in the crowds.

[26:06] Nella Vera: Yeah.

[26:07] MARIA-CHRISTINA OLIVERAS: They're right there. It was great. It had its challenges. Some people were not so game to move. It's like, well, you're gonna get hit by a platform. So we actually, at the public, we had wranglers, yeah, audience wranglers.

[26:21] Nella Vera: Yeah.

[26:22] MARIA-CHRISTINA OLIVERAS: But also it was so great because there was no fourth wall, right? So we really, it was a dance party, it was what I think theater should be, which is we're all in the same room experiencing something. And when there is no fourth wall, there's even more direct engagement. And some people were not so good about it. And so you just kind of okay, don't sing to them. Or we also had balcony seats so people could go up into the balcony and they didn't want to be.

[26:49] Nella Vera: Hather, yes, little cards.

[26:51] MARIA-CHRISTINA OLIVERAS: Which I understand.

[26:52] Nella Vera: Which I totally understand.

[26:54] MARIA-CHRISTINA OLIVERAS: I don't know if I personally that would be my theater going of choice to sit and stand among the crowd.

[27:00] Nella Vera: Well, I'm not one for immersive theater, but as I loved the show and could not get enough of it and could not buy enough tickets, and was so lucky to go to the opening night. And I think I've told you this before, but the biggest compliment of my life is that a man came up to me and congratulated me on my spectacular number, which was actually your number, and he thought I was you, and I thought, okay, I'll take that things on my beautiful, amazing, talented friend.

[27:32] MARIA-CHRISTINA OLIVERAS: And I know some people would be insulted by, oh well, saw two girls who look the same, assume they were the same, but I took it as a compliment and it was just funny.

[27:42] Nella Vera: Well, I would take it as a compliment too, if they were like, Nella, I feel like, oh yeah.

[27:48] MARIA-CHRISTINA OLIVERAS: I just said thank you. I did not say I am not Maria Christina.

[27:52] Nella Vera: So yeah.

[27:53] MARIA-CHRISTINA OLIVERAS: You've worked with some incredible people in your career, just amazing people. Is there anyone that you would love to work with and why? Do you have a fantasy about working with a particular person? Or is there a show or a part that you're dreaming about?

[28:09] MARIA-CHRISTINA OLIVERAS: Well, I still would love a great female version of Willie Lohmann in Death of the Salesman. So waiting for that. I love Tennessee Williams. They actually did one of my favorites, which is rarely done, but they just did it the Rose Tattoo, Serafia delle Rose, is a great role that I love. Evo Van Hove, I recently saw his West Side Story and View from a Bridge. And I would yes, I would love to work with him. I think the athleticism that he brings and the specificity, it's such an interesting form that I would love to experience that at least once. And I love Bart Scheer's hand on the revival South Pacific and King and I, where Ruth In was just sublime, and there's some beautiful, beautiful just renderings and potential for different classics and new work.

[29:00] Nella Vera: Yeah, it's interesting because you do so much new work that I feel like probably the role that some of your dream roles haven't been written yet.

[29:10] MARIA-CHRISTINA OLIVERAS: I agree. No, truly, truly. They're in process in development. So if anybody wants to write a Tennessee Williams Arthur Miller-esque character who maybe sings as well, boom, bring him.

[29:22] Nella Vera: I've always known you as one of the hardest working and busiest actors in the business. You're always in a workshop, you're always teaching, you're always helping somebody develop a show, all while you're still starring in a show at night. Where does that work ethic come from?

[29:38] MARIA-CHRISTINA OLIVERAS: Definitely my parents. My dad came from Puerto Rico when he was 15 via the army as an army chef, and my mom came from the Philippines, and they are just workers, and they had three of us, my two sisters and I, and they really instilled in us just this work ethic of stay busy, forward motion. I also I'm trying to be better about it, actually, and find balance because it is a lot to just kind of I love theater, I love what I do, I love the work. But if the quarantine has taught me anything, there's balance, right? Especially when the work is all of a sudden taken away. So finding other ways to fill your time with significance. But I definitely think it came from my parents, and just also a deep passion and love for storytelling and wanting to have my hand in not only the development of something, but also performing, because I love that.

And more and more, I think it's also important to that we as women of color have power on both sides of the table wherever we can take it, whether it's serving on a board or teaching now. I think my presence also I never had teachers that were not white male generally and great teachers, great mentors, would never undermine that, but it certainly helps when I see people like Rita Moreno that make this whole arts achievable because oh, I see people who look like me.

[31:06] Nella Vera: Yeah, that makes so much sense.

[31:08] MARIA-CHRISTINA OLIVERAS: So you're doing your first solo cabaret show at Feinstein's/54 Below. Can you tell us a little bit about what audiences can expect?

[31:17] MARIA-CHRISTINA OLIVERAS: Yeah, so this is gonna be a celebration of love. We're coming back out of this whole quarantine, a celebration of love in all of its complicated heartbreak and ups and downs, work love, romantic love. I will it be exploring a wide range of singers. You'll hear a little Pink, SWV, Bette Midler, Patti LuPone, because a big part of it, she was as an exploration of love. Is I learned about love from the early 90s, right? So that whole pop sequence. I have two fabulous guest artists, fantastic band. We have our first band rehearsal tonight.

[31:57] Nella Vera: Great.

[31:57] MARIA-CHRISTINA OLIVERAS: Yeah. So it's yeah, yep. So who are your guest artists?

[32:01] MARIA-CHRISTINA OLIVERAS: Elise Alan Lewis, who I chose. I wanted to celebrate friendship love. And she and I have been friends and collaborators on three of my major shows, Soft Power, Pretty Filthy, and Amélie. We have worked together on so many different projects for years. And it was important to me that it was somebody who not only was a friend, but also we've known each other in the trenches of this industry and theater.

[32:27] Nella Vera: And Caesar, who you know.

[32:31] MARIA-CHRISTINA OLIVERAS: Samayoa, right?

[32:32] Nella Vera: Yes.

[32:33] MARIA-CHRISTINA OLIVERAS: Yes, indeed. Who I first met through Kyle Jaro years ago doing a workshop of Hostage Song. And he is my knight shining armor, literally, glory of love. He comes in and we do this really fun. I don't want to give too much away, but 90s medley, which you'll see.

[32:50] Nella Vera: So I am obsessed with Caesar. I feel like in many ways, you and he have similar careers because you're these unique performers who specialize in incredible specific character work that audiences really remember. And for Caesar, I remember first seeing him in the musical Love's Labor's Lost in the Park.

[33:10] MARIA-CHRISTINA OLIVERAS: Also, Alex Timbers.

[33:12] Nella Vera: Yes.

[33:12] MARIA-CHRISTINA OLIVERAS: And he played Don Armado. And he had his incredible showstopping song called Jacanetta, which I still am obsessed with and listen to, and I sing it in my house, even though I know I'm not a singer. And I've just never forgotten him. And he's equally memorable playing all these multiple parts in Come From Away. So I just feel like in many ways he is almost like the male you with that kind of character work that he maybe doesn't play necessarily the lead, but is always the most memorable person on stage.

[33:44] MARIA-CHRISTINA OLIVERAS: Well, I will take that compliment because I'm a huge fan of his too, and that's why he's not only again a fantastic performer, but such a great human. And that more and more, as you've said, I've gotten to work with some amazing people. And I gotta say, top down dictates what the ride is going to be like. And you want to be in the rooms with people who are just generous and kind and good. Yes, talent is great, but come on.

[34:09] Nella Vera: I agree a hundred percent. Life's too short. Work with good people.

[34:11] MARIA-CHRISTINA OLIVERAS: Absolutely. I'm glad that the younger generation is understanding that and not putting up with some of the stuff that you and me had to put up with when we were coming into the business.

[34:24] Nella Vera: Why did you decide to do a solo show now at this point?

[34:28] MARIA-CHRISTINA OLIVERAS: This has been something that I've wanted to do for years now, and timing just never came. I was always just working on a different show, and this came up and I couldn't say no. It's the year of yes, also it's coming out of this pandemic because why not now? I can keep putting it off. So I ponied down, and I was when you all reached out, I said, Oh, oh yes, yes, yes.

[34:53] Nella Vera: Well, we're so grateful that you did say yes. Maria, thank you so much for joining us today. It's been a real pleasure. Sending you so much love. Can't wait to see your show.

[35:04] MARIA-CHRISTINA OLIVERAS: My pleasure.

[35:05] Nella Vera: And for those that are listening at home, you can catch Maria's show at Feinstein's/54 Below on August 6th at 9:45 p.m. And for tickets, you can visit 54below.com.

[35:21] Nella Vera: You've been listening to the Feinstein’s/54 Below podcast, part of the Broadway Podcast Network. Subscribe and rate us on Apple Podcasts or your favorite podcast app.