This transcript was automatically generated and might contain errors.

[0:00] Nella Vera: Good evening, ladies and gentlemen. Welcome to the fabulous Feinstein 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. Welcome to the Feinstein's 54 Below Podcast. I'm Nella Vera, the club's marketing director. This week, we have an extra special episode with a fantastic guest host. Today's episode will be hosted by Alan Seales, who, along with being one of the founders of the Broadway Podcast Network, is also the host of the very popular theater podcast. Welcome, Alan.

[0:39] Alan Seales: Hey Nell, it's nice to be here.

[0:40] Nella Vera: So great to have you. Alan, by the way, is also one of the producers of Is This a Room and Dana H. playing in rep on Broadway at the Lyceum Theater. And I just want to pause for a moment and say congratulations on that.

[0:55] Alan Seales: Thank you.

[0:56] Nella Vera: Those are amazing pieces of theater. I saw them both. And I want to encourage all our listeners to get their tickets. I don't know if I've ever seen anything like that on Broadway before. So for everybody who's wondering what they're about, get ready for something really special with each one of them. They're amazing true stories. You cannot miss this. It's such new theater, and it's very exciting to have them both playing in rep. I love the idea of documentary theater like that being on Broadway. Like real life dramatized on stage.

[1:27] Alan Seales: Yeah, yeah. When you think about like a transcript of an interrogation, you don't think Broadway play, but the way that it's executed and delivered is just brilliant and beautiful.

[1:37] Nella Vera: But anyway, that's not what we're here to talk about. Let's talk about our special guest.

[1:40] Alan Seales: Yeah.

[1:40] Nella Vera: Alan is here today because we are partnering with The Theatre Podcast to release this week's episode. We have a really epic and exciting guest, and one podcast just wasn't going to be enough. So we decided to team up for this interview. And also, Alan, I hope this is going to be one of many future collaborations between our two podcasts.

[1:59] Alan Seales: I hope so too. It's such a great idea.

[2:01] Nella Vera: And now I'm gonna get out of here and I'm gonna let you take over.

[2:05] Alan Seales: All right, here we go. Today's guest is a Tony Award nominated actress, maybe best known for her portrayal of Glinda in Wicked. Other Broadway credits include Doralee Rhodes in Dolly Parton's 9 to 5: The Musical and Brooke Ashton in Noises Off. She became a worldwide triple threat known as Ivy Lynn on NBC's musical drama Smash. Other television credits include recurring roles on Girlfriend's Guide to Divorce, The Good Wife, Braindead, and Louie, among many others, and she can be seen performing across the globe to sold-out houses, including concerts with the New York Pops at Carnegie Hall. I'm running out of breath. And the National Symphony Orchestra at the Kennedy Center and the New York Philharmonic at Lincoln Center.

She's recorded three albums of her own and is now making her 54 Below debut with a six-show series running from November 2nd to 7th. Megan Hilty, welcome to this very special crossover episode between The Theatre Podcast and the Feinstein's 54 Below Podcast.

[3:07] Megan Hilty: Hey, how's it going?

[3:09] Alan Seales: Good.

[3:09] Megan Hilty: I think after all that. That was quite the intro. Wow.

[3:14] Alan Seales: Well, you're welcome and thank you for doing so much for all of us to talk about.

[3:20] Megan Hilty: No problem. So 54 Below. Uh you're coming, it's coming up this concert. Everybody go get tickets to 54 Below uh to your show 54 Below. You can go to your Instagram, get tickets, go to 54 Below, get tickets. Uh, but this is actually your 54 Below debut.

[3:36] Megan Hilty: Yes.

[3:36] Alan Seales: Yeah. So there have been many years of you, many years of 54 Below. Why just now is this coming to be?

[3:43] Megan Hilty: You know, it's only now just worked out to be a possibility because concert contracts are a little different in that you kind of have to sign off on not performing within like 90-mile radius of whatever theater you're performing in for, you know, for at least like a couple months before and after. So that, yeah, so that the ticket sales aren't competing for the same market. And it makes sense. You know, at first it's like, oh that you know, that's weird, but when you think about it, it actually makes sense. You don't want to split your audience between two places. So you know, it just hasn't worked out until right at this moment for this incredible thing that they're doing with the Diamond Series.

[4:29] Alan Seales: Yes.

[4:30] Megan Hilty: Yeah, it's more like an experience than just a concert. It's a four-course dinner, you know. It's not your typical 54 Below show where there's multiple shows in a night. Like you come, you spend some good time eating this amazing dinner, and then you get that one show of the evening for whatever artist you're there to see. I'm hoping you'll come and see mine, but like Kelly's already done hers. Nancy, yeah, Laura Benanti um is well into her amazing run there. And then Jennifer Holliday is gonna be performing, I believe in January.

[5:09] Alan Seales: Can we talk about her Tony performance for a second?

[5:13] Megan Hilty: Yeah, she's amazing. She's an icon.

[5:16] Alan Seales: Yeah. I heard, and you seem you're friends with her, yeah.

[5:19] Megan Hilty: And maybe you know.

[5:21] Alan Seales: Oh, I don't know her. I don't I don't know. I'm just a fan, yeah.

[5:24] Megan Hilty: No, I thought, gosh, I just assumed that like all Broadway divas of which you are part of in my mind, I'll just have this secret Broadway Diva Club, right?

[5:32] Alan Seales: Where you have to do it.

[5:33] Megan Hilty: I've got my club of Broadway divas, but you know, unfortunately I haven't had the honor and pleasure to befriend Miss Holliday.

[5:45] Alan Seales: Jennifer is an avid listener of this podcast. So Jennifer, reach out to Megan, you guys need to be friends.

[5:51] Megan Hilty: Hopeless, yeah.

[5:53] Alan Seales: So where tell me about the story though, because when you're crafting the story of the show, right? Because 54 Below, it's like traditionally cabaret sort of concerts. And everything I've ever seen there has been a story about that person, right? It's which is basically sort of what I guess cabarets are, right? A showcase of what you can do, showcase who you are. And so was this sort of an easy thing for you to put together when you're putting together this show? Because you've got a big swath of content and interests and credits. And so how do you condense it all into one performance?

[6:31] Megan Hilty: Well, um, years and years ago, I did not want to do the cabaret scene. I did the like the idea of like a one-person show just made me so nervous because I was like, I don't have like a story to tell. I don't have like a beginning, middle, and end and something to leave people with. But it wasn't until it became clear that it's not about that. The whole point of doing these concerts is to see an artist as themselves and not the characters that they play. And so once I discovered that that's what it's really about, it became so much easier to approach putting together a set list. And really what's most important is picking these songs that are important in some way to you as the performer. And the songs come first, and then you then the arranging of them to make sure that the energy is flowing correctly throughout the show.

You don't have too many ballads together, you don't have too many of the same type of things together, so that you know you want to keep people interested and kind of go on this almost like roller coaster of an energy journey, you know what I mean? Like that has natural ebbs and flows, and I'd like to think that over the years, I think I've been doing this for like 10 years now. I have a general sense of what's going to work and what things need to be where to in what things need to be in certain places to make sure that I don't lose everybody.

[8:08] Alan Seales: That's really cool. I mean it's more or less like workshopping a Broadway show, right? You want to make sure that the story flows and that the songs are in the right order and whatnot, and adding and cutting. So do you do this? Did you put this all together on your own, or like when you're looking back at your life? I'm thinking from a personal lens, right? If I were if someone were to say, Alan, you've got like two weeks to put together a cabaret show for something, you know, Duplex, 54 Below, Green Room 42, whatever the case is. I don't even know where I would start. So where do you begin with? I mean, do you start at the beginning? Like I'm born, and this is a song that represents the...

[8:50] Megan Hilty: No, no, no. Um, no, I uh so like I said, I started doing these types of shows about 10 years ago, and it's I just learn from each and every show. It's not like this is the first one that I've ever done, and I have to start from scratch. Luckily, I've had, you know, years and years to kind of hone this. And just as these shows are supposed to show you who we are as people, aside from our characters, we're constantly changing. And like, I'm constantly doing different projects which add different repertoire to so like these concerts at 54 Below, will these will be the really the first ones that have stuff from the film that I did with Jessie Mueller, Patsy and Loretta. So, you know, and we've kind of taken those and morphed them into our own arrangements to fit our band, to fit the setting, to fit the context of the show.

So it's not like we had to go and start from scratch. There's a lot of stuff that's already there. What it comes down to is understanding who our audience is. You know, we have a very theater savvy New York crowd, and that's a very specific thing, and that's different from other cities that we might play, you know, that might come in not knowing who I am at all. You know, so that's something to consider too. There's a lot of things to take into consideration. And luckily, I'm coming back to New York, you know, where I feel like for this series in particular, you're gonna buy the ticket because you know the person. You know, there's I don't feel like there's gonna be a lot of people that I'm really introducing myself to for this, so that makes it a very unique set of circumstances, which allows me to pull songs that wouldn't necessarily work anywhere else.

[10:49] Alan Seales: Is that some sort of like inner struggle or inner I guess a dichotomy of sorts in that you you are counting on the fact that people know who you are in this area, but at the same time, there's a little bit of gosh, I it's all on me. Because you said it, you said originally that you were nervous to start doing these one-person shows. So now are you at a point where you're like, I have a reputation, I'm okay, I'm doing all right in this New York savvy theater savvy crowd, or is there still part of you that's like, are people gonna want to come see me?

[11:26] Megan Hilty: Oh, there's always that. It doesn't matter, yeah, there's always that. Um, but what I always come back to, like I'm always nervous for everything, which I think is a good thing. Um, because it keeps me on my toes. I'm always trying to do better. You know, I'm not phoning anything in. And honestly, during the run of this show, if something is not working, I will switch it with something else. Like that's the luxury with these longer runs, is that like I can really feel, you know, not that I I'm not plan, I don't, I don't think that anything's going to fall totally flat, but if it doesn't feel perfect, we have so much stuff in our repertoire that we can change the run for the next night. Or my band is so amazing that I can call an audible during the show and they'll go with me and we'll just do something that wasn't planned.

Wow, you know, but they're right there with me, and they know all of these songs so well. We've been doing a lot of them for a really long time, and everybody's just so in sync with each other that we're able to do that. That's kind of how I've constructed these shows. You know, my band is made up of my husband and three of our best friends. You know, we want you to feel like you have stumbled into our living room and we're all having a really great time together. I just happen to be wearing a really fabulous gown, you know. Um, I forget where I was going with this, but all that to say, yes, I'm always nervous for many reasons, but the great thing is I have surrounded myself with the best people on stage, and what it comes down to is us just having a really awesome time together.

[13:21] Alan Seales: And we hope that that reaches, you know, everybody in the room. Like I said, we want it to feel like you're in our living room. So talk to me about where you started as a little kid and how you got into theater, because uh we're gonna get to the to the iconic never dying family of Wicked. The show was gonna run forever. We're gonna get there. But before that, you had to start somewhere. So where did you grow up?

[13:49] Megan Hilty: I grew up in Seattle. Well, just outside of Seattle in Bellevue, Washington. Um, and I grew up uh always singing, like always. And um my mom got me into voice lessons at an early age, and my voice teacher uh said, You have a voice for classical uh for classical music. And so she started putting me in all of these classical competitions, and um I went to uh an apprenticeship program with the San Francisco opera. I really thought that I was gonna be an opera singer. Um, but at that apprenticeship program, uh they I discovered that you we wouldn't really work until our mid-30s, because that's when a female voice matures. Um yeah, and telling a 16-year-old that is like that felt like forever away.

That felt like I'm I'm never gonna be 35, you know. Um, and so I I went down the musical theater route, but I was always doing community theater. I I was part of a Gilbert and Sullivan theater troupe. Um, and uh and I did during the summers, I did a youth theater that took up the whole summer where we built the stages, we made our costumes, you know, and and uh and performed for the whole school district at the beginning of the school year, right at the end of summer. So it was all I was always a part of um theatrical productions and singing always.

[15:18] Alan Seales: What is it about the culture? Is it culture? Was it chosen family? I I say what is it about the culture, but was was it that that drew you into theater? Because like what is it for you that brings you back to the stage every time? Because I I know that there are so many stage Broadway performers that like go TV and film, and then you do tons of cartoon voices and voiceover work and whatnot. But what I find that, and tell me correct me if I'm wrong for you specifically, but people always want to come back to the stage. They always want to come back to theater because there's something about that live moment.

[15:53] Megan Hilty: Well, yeah, it's a very primal human connection. That's it. Like, that's it. It's a the theater is the only type of arts where you there is a an exchange of energy, you know. So that will never die because we always need people. We always need that connection. You know, um, so yeah, it's it's completely understandable that everybody always wants to flock back to the theater, whether you're doing a concert or you know, a play or a musical or an opera, what have you, any anything. Um we always, always, always need that human connection.

[16:32] Alan Seales: Was that is that what sort of looking back at your life uh as a young child, was it that sort of thing that drew you to it as a kid? Or did you not realize that until like later on in life?

[16:42] Megan Hilty: I don't know. To be quite honest, I think I just it filled certain needs that just children in general have, like feeling feeling like you belong to something. I think that's really important for young people to feel like they're you're connected, uh, and you belong to some kind of group. And for me, it was my my theater pals, uh, most of whom I didn't go to school with. Um I also uh like I said, I was always singing. So having an actual outlet for that was necessary. Um, and it was kind of addicting, you know, and I mean, to be super duper honest too, you know, I got a lot of attention when I was on stage, you know, and never got that, like in life. So as a young person in particular, that was really important to me as well. You know, getting attention, getting to use my voice and feeling like I belonged somewhere. Uh, you know, it checked all of those super important boxes.

[17:47] Alan Seales: Do you have siblings?

[17:49] Megan Hilty: I do. I have two younger sisters, they're twins, and they're gorgeous. They're like five inches taller than me. They have really dark hair and they tan and like they're like just and they're funny and like smart and stuff. So like everybody loves them. So that was another thing is that my uh my family all like to joke that that was the only reason why I became a performer because it was the only way that I could get any kind of attention. Because my sisters got it everywhere else.

[18:15] Alan Seales: Yeah. Well, that's that's why I asked that because you say as a kid you didn't get attention, but but as the old as the oldest child, like I was the oldest child too, and I was always demanding, like, look at me.

[18:24] Megan Hilty: Yeah, I am the oldest.

[18:26] Alan Seales: Yeah, I think I just required extra attention.

[18:30] Megan Hilty: Yeah. Say what you will about what that means about me.

[18:34] Alan Seales: But some people, no, I get it. Some people are like that. And and no matter gosh, it's no matter how many accolades you get and how successful you are. I I always I like the quote that Andre DeShields gave in his Tony Acceptance speech a couple years ago where he said, the the top of one mountain is the bottom of the next. That is that puts perfectly into words how so many of us operate. It's just like we're we're there's something in the back of our heads that like we're just not good enough. We're just not there, we're just not able to fulfill whatever ache that is.

[19:05] Megan Hilty: Yeah.

[19:06] Alan Seales: And then we get where and we think that you know, we're we're continuing on and we get there and like, okay, if I'm here, cool. Now I guess I'll just keep on going.

[19:15] Megan Hilty: Yeah, well, there is no end point. There is no like point of success. Like there it's all ebbs and flows. It's it's gonna come and it's gonna go, and you're gonna be busy and you're going to be like, you know, dying for work. You know, it's you know, it's it's it's a constant, ever changing battle.

[19:34] Alan Seales: Well, how did you then take it back to you then? How did you do sort of branch out and do so much? Because it feels like all of these things you're doing could be one career in on their own, right? So you've got the musical theater, you've got TV and film, and you've got voiceover work, and you've got the independent, the concert, the concert traveling and touring. And being a mom, that's a hard enough job in and of itself. I mean, I know how you got to be a mom. That's pretty simple biology. But um the whole uh all of the other uh roles that you're doing, why why did you keep adding and not saying that as a bad thing? I'm curious to explore this as to say why why continue to grow when all of these require so much so much time on their own.

[20:21] Megan Hilty: Right. Well, a long time ago, actually, when I when I came out to LA with Wicked, which was long time ago. I want to say, like, is it 12 years ago? Uh 13 years ago? It was a long time ago. Um, we'll go with that. Um but I came out to to establish the sit-down company of Wicked out in Los Angeles, and that's when my horizon started to broaden a little bit because for a long time, once I decided musical theater was it, I was like, oh, that's it. Like I don't want to do television movies, like all that, you know, I was real like, I don't know what I had against everything else, but um uh once I came out here, a lot of other opportunities started to present themselves, especially being in that that platform of being in Wicked in Los Angeles.

Um and uh I started to really like question where I wanted my career to go at that point. And and in doing that, I was like, well, whose career do I want to emulate? And the person who came up immediately was Bernadette Peters. And now before I go any further, I want to clarify that I I never the goal was not to be Bernadette Peters because nobody can be Bernadette Peters. She is a singular talent, and nobody, and I think it is foolish for anybody to try to be another person. That is not what I'm saying. What I wanted to emulate was the many different branches her career, you know, the tree of her career had, you know, um, because she did it all. She did movies, television, voiceover, concerts, Broadway, and dominated all of them, you know.

Um, and might I add an amazing person on top of dominating everything, you know, like everybody wants to work with her because she's a phenomenal person on top of her talent. Anyway, um, so I started thinking, oh, maybe the cr the key to longevity in this business is to diversify and to have all those branches, you know. Um and and it was always a dream of mine to be in voiceover and animation. Um, I, you know, like so many people, I wanted to be a Disney Prince princess growing up. I didn't want to like put on the gowns. I wanted to do the voices. I wanted to sing the songs. I didn't want to look like them. I just wanted to like, I want I specifically wanted to voice them. And um, and so I started uh I I started going down that route.

[22:54] Megan Hilty: Yeah, that was like 14 years ago that I got my uh my voiceover agent out in Los Angeles and started really because that is a very different career. Absolutely. Very different, it it's it's just a whole different, it's a different talent. It's a different uh business sense. Like every every sense and I love it. It is probably my absolute favorite thing to do ever. And luckily I started pounding the pavement 14 years ago and just chipped away and chipped away and paid my dues and paid my dues and um and have built this thing that I'm super proud of um in the animation world. But the same thing with uh and all of these things just kind of terrified me, you know. Um TV, film concerts, all of these things, they just sounded like, you know, they're so different.

You know, I I but at the same time, what what I've what I started learning really quickly is that um by doing these other things, these other mediums, it actually makes me better in the other things, if that makes sense. Like it's just I don't know, it it's it's it by opening my my world up, you know, to those different types of mediums, it just fed like like the TV stuff fed the theater thing in a in a host of different, you know, um ways that I mean we could talk all day about that. Um but yeah, I it became a long time ago, apparently like 14 years ago, it became very important to me to diversify so that I could ha actually have a long career in this business.

[24:41] Alan Seales: That's I'm I'm glad that you said the thing about the the TV uh kind of crossing over because that's I wanted to ask about Smash next because that's that's it's been a hot minute since the since that was out. And um that propelled any well, I guess sort of the fortunate and unfortunate part of the Broadway world is that to be it's really really hard to get like super famous and super and therefore some would say super successful um in just on just Broadway stage. So then you add TV and film to that, and that boosts people to a whole different level, right? So you've taken the Broadway, the singing, the performing, and put it on TV, which has to taken you as your career, like you said, one one helps the other. So now on a national an international level, people see you on TV doing what you used to do just for in-person Broadway audiences, and it's pushed everything into a whole new realm.

[25:42] Megan Hilty: Absolutely. Yeah.

[25:43] Alan Seales: Yes.

[25:47] Megan Hilty: Yeah.

[25:47] Alan Seales: So looking, but looking back on that though, like um, I don't know the order of operations of of your TV career. So what were you already sort of um were you already deep into the TV and film world before Smash came along, or did that propel um the TV and film afterwards, after you got well known for?

[25:54] Megan Hilty: No. I was trying, I was trying to uh to like knock down the door to the television world. And before before Smash, I had done some like small roles, some recurring roles and stuff like that. So I so the TV world was not like this totally, you know, unknown thing when I got Smash.

[26:30] Megan Hilty: Um, but it was a very, very um, uh, it it I didn't just like fall into it. It was a very like not calculated, but like I I left New York after nine to five closed. I mean, if we're gonna get real real real about this, I was real real. I was I was really brokenhearted about how nine to five closed. It we it that was one of the biggest heartbreaks of my life was getting our closing notice for nine to five. It didn't make any sense to any of us playing to all of these like sold-out houses that were screaming on their feet, singing with us and dancing at the end of every show to get our clothes. We just didn't, it made zero sense. And I was really um, I I had um come back to New York from LA where I was doing wicked, and we did the out-of-town tryouts uh for nine to five in Los Angeles as well.

And um, and so when we got our closing notice, I decided um because I was so sad and angry to be really honest. I was like, I can't stay here, I can't stay in New York. I need to uh like people will smell the anger and the hurt, you know, I'm not gonna get a job here. I think this is the time to go back to LA and start pounding the pavement and really trying to break into the TV and film world because also by that point, I had done many um readings and workshops and helped like develop these shows for people where at the end they're like, We love you, nobody could do this better, but we have to cast somebody from television or like a pop star or a movie star. You understand, right? You know, because we have to sell tickets.

And so finally, after that had happened a handful of times, at the end of 9 to 5, I was like, fine, if that's what you're going to hire, I'm gonna go be that. I'm gonna go, I'm gonna go do that. I'm gonna get some TV credits so that I can actually like work in these shows that I'm helping to develop, you know, like um, so I, you know, it it was kind of a it was a multiple reasons. I I was I was upset. I couldn't stay in New York, and I knew that um in order to get the roles that I wanted to, I had to diversify and I had to really, really spend the time focusing on the television end of it. Um, so I did, and I came back to LA and I started doing those small, those small roles and gaining people's trust and learning about how to work on camera. And then Smash came along, you know, um, and kind of and we all know how that ended up.

[29:19] Alan Seales: Did you get the did you get asked to audition for Smash based on your contacts in LA or New York? Because I think it would I think I'll let you answer first.

[29:27] Megan Hilty: No, let's be super clear. Nobody asked me to audition. It was in um, it was in uh it was during pilot season. No what was very helpful is that um the uh the person who produced nine to five, uh Bob Greenblatt, what it Smash was his project, and he was he had just taken over at NBC. So he was aware of who I was because we'd worked together for years, but nobody asked me to audition for it. It was one of those, like my agents and manager at the time got me uh an appointment for it, and I went into the Los Angeles associate casting director and put myself on tape like everybody else. I did all the scenes, I did the songs, and um, yeah. So there was no like, yeah, there was no like, will you come in and read for this? No.

[30:21] Alan Seales: I might yeah, my I I would have just figured that there would have been a short list of of people who are amazing on stage that are gonna translate well to camera, and you were on that short list, and then it was just an easy choice, right?

[30:37] Megan Hilty: I I it's a brutal business, and it rarely rarely happens like that. Oh my goodness. Yeah, there's so much rejection and so just so much struggle. Like you said, you pound pounded the payment, and I think it takes a lot of a lot of strength, a lot of a lot of chutzpah to be able to say, you know what, I'm I'm freaking angry with this city here. I'm gonna go to a different one and and be able to bounce back and forth between the two when needed because I've been so angry with New York sometimes, and I just hibernate. I sit in my my office here, and I'm like, well, I'm just gonna wait to feel better.

[31:17] Megan Hilty: Yeah, yeah, and that works. It works too. At that point in my life, I was like, I need to go, I need to switch gears, I need to focus on this. You know, this door has closed, so I need to like burst open some other doors in in LA. And the other part of that was I I had already lived in Los Angeles for years at that point, and I I'm happy here. I'm happy with the sunshine and the space. And, and you know, at that time I was going for hikes all the time. I don't anymore. Um, but uh I I just, you know, I I liked being here. And uh when it really came down to it, I was like, I'm not happy in New York. I'm and I'm happy in the sunshine. I need to go it I need to go focus on these other things in the sunshine and get my get myself together so that I can, you know, when I come back to New York, it's in a it's in a better head space um than how I left it.

[32:17] Alan Seales: Well, then fast forward a little bit to to I guess now and the the wicked fandom, the wicked family. You you help you said you helped originate the sit the first sit down cast out in LA.

[32:29] Megan Hilty: No, so that was for nine to five, not for wicked.

[32:31] Alan Seales: Oh, oh, oh, sorry.

[32:32] Megan Hilty: So yeah.

[32:33] Alan Seales: Sorry.

[32:34] Megan Hilty: So wicked, yeah, but okay, so you're part of this wicked legacy. It really is becoming this legacy of amazing individuals that once you become an alphabet or a glinda, or even to some extent the Nissa Rose and a Bach and a Fiero, like these mean roles that you the show itself gets so much attention constantly, even after 20 years, right? They just had the 16 years.

[32:55] Alan Seales: The 16th.

[33:04] Megan Hilty: Um and I did the first wicked day, uh, where they shut down, you know, the Gershwin like alleyway and 50 first straight. Um yeah, and they did, yeah. So this whole this whole show though has changed so many lives and influenced so many people and inspired so many individuals to to follow the same path. At the time, I guess looking back on it now, you have a lot of perspective, but at the time, were you able to sort of understand the level of importance you were playing in the legacy of the show?

[33:39] Megan Hilty: Well, I mean, there was no way to understand like how it would affect like the future. Like, you know, there I had just come out of college and I was terrified. I was, I was legit terrified. I came in uh uh uh right as Kristen Chenoweth and Laura Bell Bundy were leaving, and me and uh me and uh Jennifer Laura Thompson were coming in. So Jennifer Laura Thompson took over for Kristen and I stood by for her. And um, and I was a baby. I was a baby. It was my first thing. Like I just graduated, and um it it was not lost on me how huge that show was. Um, you know, I was reminded every day when we went out the stage door. Um and luckily I just thank my lucky stars every day that social media wasn't the way it was back then because I don't know if my I don't know if my mental emotional state could have really like handled that.

I can barely handle it now. But with Wicked, there's so much like brutal comparisons and like oh everybody's got their opinions that just must be aired. Um that I don't think I I don't think I could have handled that, you know.

[35:01] Alan Seales: Um I couldn't, yeah.

[35:03] Megan Hilty: That's something that I think uh is worth talking, or at least acknowledging right here is is that the people that are being talked about read this stuff and are also real people and feel things. And and it's not like we're phoning this stuff in. We're giving it everything we have and for people to just like brutally tear it apart for what? Like that it just seems so unfair. I saw the I was at the reopening of Moulin Rouge the other day. Uh-huh and and of course Karen Lee was not there anymore Natal Natalie Mendoza's there and immediately the first thing these two people behind me started talking about as soon as intermission came was this this like debate over who they thought was better.

[35:44] Alan Seales: It was Natalie or Karen.

[35:45] Megan Hilty: That's it I think I think it's it's crazy to me. Um it is crazy to me how people um dehumanize us like that. It it's it's really crazy to me and and really feel a sense of entitlement and ownership over us. This stage door stuff has gotten like crazy out of control like crazy out of control. Like the the amount of uh of like verbal abuse that I have suffered because people thought they were giving me a compliment after I've just like sweated and given all like everything I had for hours on a stage, you know, and people think they're giving you a compliment and think that they have the right to talk about your body and all of these things like it is it is beyond me the sense of like dehumanization that that that people that I it's it's just crazy to me.

[36:47] Alan Seales: And that is so horrendous to hear people doing that in in in a theater in the middle of someone's performance.

[36:54] Megan Hilty: That they're just I yeah, that's that's really it's too bad.

[37:00] Alan Seales: Yeah.

[37:00] Megan Hilty: I I almost I did almost say something and but I didn't want to get into it. To what end? You know, what's that going to do? You know, but it's like it's it's literally her her opening night, her first time on Broadway in forever.

[37:15] Alan Seales: Yeah.

[37:15] Megan Hilty: And and everyone's a different person. Right. And I I just again I I acknowledge the privilege that I have as a cis white man and not having to deal with a lot of the objectification that people are put under, especially women and women of color and and whatnot. And yeah, my mental state, now that you mention that, just people come out and they would say, like, oh, I didn't expect this to be as bad as it as it was, or I like you, I I liked you just as much as Idina, right? Like those types of things, they are backhanded, complicated.

[37:50] Alan Seales: Oh yeah, and they are harmful.

[37:50] Megan Hilty: Words, words are very powerful and they are harmful, and it's hard, it's hard to develop a thick enough skin to let that stuff bounce off, you know, and not stick with you.

[38:04] Alan Seales: What do you what do you do? How do you recharge?

[38:07] Megan Hilty: Uh well, let's see. It's been a long time since I've done the stage door thing, and unfortunately, it was during Noises Off where I wasn't wearing my costume was very revealing, to put it mildly. Um, and so people really thought that they had the right to speak about my body to me, like at the stage door. And that that was so it was so harmful, you know, even when you think you're saying something nice, real like really like say those words to yourself and and really, really think about how that could be received before you actually say them to another human being. It's like it's yeah, uh that one was particularly harsh. And that was a long time ago. Um I don't know what the future of stage doors are after COVID.

Not that we're done with COVID, but like going forward, I don't understand what if I were a producer, I wouldn't let any of the actors in my show be come into contact with uh strangers, you know, like the hordes of strangers and have them speaking in your face. You know, like uh I yeah, I don't know what the the future of of the stage dooring looks like, um, just on a health perspective. That was the other thing. There was a while where like I was trying to I I was trying to take care of my health, you know, so I would I would always go out of the stage door with my own Sharpie.

[39:46] Megan Hilty: And I was like, oh, just so that we don't pass germs around. They were like, that is so rude. That is so rude that you think that you're gonna get germs from me. You know, it was like what first of all, that's science. Second of all, I have to stay healthy to keep doing these shows. And if I don't do these shows, you're gonna go online and say I'm a terrible person and that I don't respect my job. Like it is a no-win situation, you know. Uh yeah, this this is turned into uh be kind at the stage door, you know, type of thing. Um, but yeah, I it's it's really too bad. It's it's hard. People think that doing eight shows a week is something anyone can do. And it is far from that's so far from the truth.

This is yeah, this is the like look at something like Moulin Rouge that has an eight-minute sprint as an opening number, and then you're doing these these 180 degree kicks and splits and dancing and like the whole damn show is it's this two and a half hour marathon that you're doing eight times a week. Yeah. And then you've got, you know, the the the wickeds and and all these other shows that demand so much of their performers. And everyone, especially if you haven't seen a show before or you've been obsessed with a cast album and then you're coming to see the show for the first time, you want it exactly like that cast album. And then the cast in the recording booth, you can do multiple takes, you can tweak it, you could do all sorts of things to make it sound perfect.

And then, like you said, if you don't sound exactly perfect eight times a week, you're gonna get dragged across the coals. Yeah, I I would love it, it would, it would just be such a dream if audiences were just and I I'm reminded of this when I see things too. Like I it even if like I find little errors, not errors or things that I think could be fixed or something, then I'm like, oh wait a second, look at all of this stuff that we got. You know, like yeah, maybe that would that might be better if something this little thing was changed. But like on the whole, aren't we so lucky to be sitting here? Those two people sitting behind you were so lucky to be sitting there. All they should have been talking about is how wonderful it was to be back in the theater again.

But no, it was all about comparing these two actresses that yeah, they're gonna play the role differently. Who's better? I mean, come on. They're different. Everybody's different. Everybody's different. Yeah. And the biggest advice that that I take away, the biggest like uh thing that sits with me after a hundred and literally 180 something interviews I've done in the podcast here is is that you're the more successful you are is a result of how much you embrace what makes you unique. So if you're trying to emulate somebody else in a in a role, like when you step in as an understudy or a replacement or whatnot, you're gonna hurt yourself. You're not gonna be authentic, you're not gonna give your best performance, period.

Yeah. And you're and you're not gonna please everyone anyway, because there might be two people that were sitting behind them who disagreed with everything they said. And to this point, there were there was a whole family of tourists next to me. I say tourists, I assume they were because they were not speaking English. That's my assumption, which is could be wrong. Uh, but they uh gosh, it near the end, and I forget what I think it's come what may, actually. Aaron Tavades out there just pouring his guts out on stage, and they are bawling, just like sobbing. I have not heard anybody cry like that in years. They were sobbing at this stuff. So they're having the experience literally five feet away from the people behind me who are having uh moderately enjoyable experience, but I guess you know, to this point, right?

Like, take take the criticism privately and don't have it in the middle of the show in intermission, because the people next to me are having the time of their lives. Yeah, and don't don't ruin that for them. And I mean, the other thing too, I mean, art is subjective, you know. Like, of course, everybody's entitled to their opinions, but like, of course. And um, and of course, some some performers are going to, you know, um connect with you better, you're gonna have a better connection with them than others. But like, man, can we start to like focus on the good stuff? Like, can we can we please like I have a silly question for you, speaking of good stuff. So uh given where you are now and everything you've done, do you still have pinch me moments?

Who's like the greatest person you've been like, holy shit, I'm I'm I'm working with Steven Schwartz coming straight out of college. Yeah, no, I I have pinch pay moments all the time. Uh one of them is coming up this weekend. Uh I so lately I've been doing a bunch of shows with Brian Stokes Mitchell, um who is like I mean, one of the greatest voices of all time, and I get to do, I get to sing with him, you know, like as a job, you know. I th so yeah, I I have that uh this 54 below series of shows is a huge pinch me moment because I haven't played with my band for almost two years. Right. So the first, so here's a couple things that that make this series very special. November 2nd, uh will be the first time our whole band is back together.

It's gonna be a very emotional moment for all of us and very joyous. So to witness that is going to be, I would think, something special. Because it's gonna be special for us, you know what I mean? Right. Um, and and we're all gonna be really excited and really happy. It's also me and my husband's birthday, birthday, anniversary. Anniversary. It's our anniversary, it's our birthday. No, we don't know the same birthday. Uh, but it's our anniversary. So, and it's gonna be the first time that we've left the house together in almost two years. Um do you know what I mean? Like, and gone out of the city and state. And uh, so it's going to be a really like that's gonna be a real pinch me moment. You know, I'm uh I before everything shut down, I was grateful for these concerts to get to connect with our best friends with my husband and make the music that we want to perform.

The only reason we're doing these songs is because we love them, you know, nobody's making us do any of this stuff. So we're we're it's it's truly like a joyous occasion. And this one in particular is going to be huge for us. Um, because I was grateful before. Now it's gonna be a whole different thing, you know, because we've gone a couple years without. And and once you go without, especially something you love so much, yeah, you know, the the appreciation just deepens. It's perspective. You don't know you're hot unless you've been cold, you don't know you've been in unless you've been out. I mean, it's a very basic level, it gives you perspective and just being back in theaters. I've seen almost every show possible that you know when the opportunities presented itself in the last three, three to four weeks, just because I can and I don't know now.

Tomorrow, Delta variant could just explode and it could be a shutdown again for another who knows how long. So I don't take any of this for granted. And the fact that this is a community, uh a chosen family that that love each other and respect each other and want to see each other succeed. And I I missed it so much just yeah, for the last 18 months. And really one of the few things that kept me going was these types of conversations that we're having right now with the podcast. And some people are like, there's no Broadway. Can you continue doing your podcast? And I said, I have to. I have to. You have to. You have to. Connection, it's a the whole thing is about connection anyway. And at least we had this, right?

Yes. Yeah. So at least being able to virtually see each other and smile. And, you know, I imagine that there's hugs and love and everything going around, but to not be able to actually touch it is as me as an extrovert, it was actually really, really hard. And you know, I still had a group of uh a pod here that I was with, yeah. Um group of people that I was close to, but it's just not the same. I love I love like that experience, that feeling of meeting new people and being in a room of of energy that that that is all focused in a in one direction and heading heading together on the same journey. Yeah. You know what I mean? Yeah. Of course, just to reiterate November 2nd through 7th at 54 below, get tickets to see Megan Hilty show.

We're gonna wrap up here with the three closing questions I ask everybody on my podcast. Oh boy. Oh, they're easy. The first one, just very simply, is what motivates you? Oh. Well, motivates me. I I don't know. Like, this is probably not the answer you're looking for. I just I feel like there is this like freight train inside of me that is just determined to go where it's gonna go. And you know, I I don't I don't know that like there are any outside motivations. There's just something inside of me that's like no, you that you you have to keep going and you have to go after that. I love that. I love that. There's no wrong answer. So that works. That works. Okay. So the next question is what advice would you give to your younger self and younger people listening now, starting out down a similar path?

Uh take it easy on yourself. I um I I look back on on specifically like when I see old pictures of me, you know, and I think of how hard I was on myself, you know, for how I looked, how I acted. Um I wasn't this, I wasn't that. I wasn't, I focused on all the things that I wasn't, you know, instead of really like sitting with and and being content with what I was, you know, and I I focused so much on what I thought other people wanted me to be, um, that I I could never truly be myself. Um and it it took a really long time, and and to be honest, it's still a struggle to um to just to know that I am enough. Where I am right now, I am enough. And what I bring to the table is worth something. Um yeah, I I wish I wish I could say that to my younger self and that my younger self would hear it.

I don't know if I said that to my younger self, if I would fully hear it. Um but that but that's the conversation I would have with her. I have to say that to my present self and I still don't hear it. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. I hear it more now. I hear it more. And the older I get it, the e I don't know if easier is the best way, but uh way to put it, but um I understand it more now. Uh I wish, I wish I was, I could totally uh I wish I could sit here and say, like, that's what I practice, and that's and I am enough. Uh, but but it is it is a practice. It's something that's active that you're actively working on. Um, but yeah, I wish my younger self could have could have known a little bit of that.

I like that. All right. So the last question, hardest one. If you could only see one show for the rest of your life, but you can see it as many times as you want, what would you see? Sweeney Todd. Oh, and we're back. Sweeney Todd. I mean, this is the this is the easiest one. What are you talking about? Like this is the easiest one. Yeah, but before I even finished finished reading the question, you're nodding. You're like, Yeah, I know, I know, I know. Yeah, this is sweet time. Oh, I love it. Okay. Where can we find you online on social media? Oh, uh, I'm on Twitter and Instagram. It's Megan Hilty. I got that little that little blue check. Oh, blue check, it's me. You can get more of me at thetheaterpodcast.com. You can get more of the 54 Below podcast at bpn.fm slash 54 below.

Find me on Instagram and Twitter at theater underscore podcast. Leave a rating and a review of both this podcast and the 54 Below podcast. This has been edited by well-rounded Hoodland Productions. And Megan Hilty, thank you most of all. This has been so much fun. Thank you. This has been delightful. You've been listening to the Quint Science 54 Below Podcast, part of the Broadway Podcast Network. Subscribe and rate us on Apple Podcasts or your favorite podcast app.