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[0:00] Nella Vera: Good evening, everyone. Welcome to the fabulous 54 Below. Before we get started this evening, just a polite reminder, please take this moment to silence your cell phones and also there is no flash photography, please. Welcome to the 54 Below Podcast. I'm Nella Vera, the club's director of marketing. Today's episode is a very special walk down memory lane. On August 7th and 8th, we are presenting a Matilda on Broadway reunion at the club. Matilda Palooza 2023 features the young stars who played Matilda. Today we are thrilled to welcome Bailey Ryon and Milly Shapiro, two of the four originating Matildas from the Broadway company. Bailey and Milly, welcome to the 54 Below Podcast.

[0:49] Bailey Ryon: Hi.

[0:50] Milly Shapiro: Hi.

[0:51] Bailey Ryon: Thank you for having us. We are so excited for this reunion to happen in August. It has been 10 years. Can you believe it?

[1:01] Milly Shapiro: No.

[1:03] Bailey Ryon: I feel like for me, it feels like 10 years because whenever I try to remember things, I'm like, wow, I remember way less than I feel like I should for such an important thing because I was 10 years old, a literal like fetus baby child.

[1:18] Milly Shapiro: Yeah.

[1:19] Bailey Ryon: Yeah, exactly. Well, um, to kick us off, uh, can I ask you to tell us individually, like when you each joined the show and what your audition process was like to get on this huge Broadway musical?

[1:35] Milly Shapiro: Yeah, totally. Um, so I Millie and I both joined at the same time. I think we were both part of the original cast, and I think we auditioned at the same time.

[1:47] Bailey Ryon: I think I might have been after you, because I think I was the last one.

[1:51] Milly Shapiro: Because I started back like like a month before we got cast. We're really one of the last ones to join.

[1:59] Bailey Ryon: Yes, because I was still back home in Florida until like a month before. So I was the last. So you go first. You tell your staffers.

[2:07] Milly Shapiro: That's so crazy. I don't even remember that. Um, I had a really long process. I think I went through about 11 callbacks for my gosh.

[2:19] Bailey Ryon: Yeah.

[2:20] Milly Shapiro: I I think it was over a year for me, or about a year. And I think it took that long because I started auditioning as Matilda. I went to the Matilda Open Call for the character of Matilda, and I went through a few rounds of that. And then halfway through, they were like, actually, I don't know if we want you to play Matilda. We're kind of thinking you for more of Amanda Thrip. And they had me switch to ensemble auditions and had me go through all of those dance calls. And actually, by that time, the dance calls for the girls were already over, so I had to go through all the dance calls with the boy presenting um kids. So I went, all these boys were like, What is this little girl doing in here?

But um, so I went through a few of those rounds, and then they were like, just kidding, we want you back, and the Matilda calls, so then I went all the way back to back where I started um and went through the whole process again with Matilda. So it took a long, long time for me.

[3:22] Milly Shapiro: And I was in rehearsals for How the Grand Stole Christmas National Tour at the same time, and luckily it was in the same building, so I would just run between like the flights of stairs in rehearsal and then down to another audition and then upstairs to rehearsal and then back downstairs.

[3:38] Milly Shapiro: So it was a crazy process.

[3:41] Bailey Ryon: Mm-hmm.

[3:43] Milly Shapiro: Wow, that's a lot for a young person to handle like 11 callbacks. That seems a little excessive.

[3:51] Bailey Ryon: It was a lot. Um how about you, mine was a very different experience, and it's kind of funny because um you Bailey, you left the Grinch tour, right? I think my sister ended up doing it.

[4:06] Milly Shapiro: So that's a really funny thing. Um, but Matilda was my first ever audition. I had just gotten signed like less than a month before the Matilda audition in New Jersey, and I'm from Florida originally, so we came up to do the Matilda audition and the Grinch audition. And um we were kind of doing them at the same time, me and my sister, and um I remember that I really wanted to wear a suit to the Matilda audition. So I literally got on my hands and knees in the middle of a department store and begged my mom to buy me a suit. So I turned up with my like little like baby blonde hair and a full suit and did my audition. And I just remember from my first audition, they were like, Do you like to read?

And I was like, Yeah, and they're like, What are you reading right now? And I was reading the series of unfortunate events, and then I would not shut up about it for like 20 minutes, and I was me like one of the other casting people had also read the book series, so we were talking about it, and then I didn't know what was going on because I was a kid and I was my first audition, and then they brought in like more people, and then they brought in a camera, and then it just kept like building and building and getting bigger and bigger. And my mom thought I like threw up in the room or something. So she was like, Millie's just dead on the floor in that room. And that's why they're bringing everyone in.

They're trying to figure out what's going on. Um, so I had my first audition, and then I I didn't have nearly as many as everyone else because I was the last one in. I had like a month of auditions. I had like four or five, maybe. Um, and I was so antisocial, and everyone else in the audition rooms would be playing all these games, and I would just be sitting in the corner reading because I did not like talking to people at that point in my life. Um, and I remember like now that I'm older, like I'll hear things from my mom, like they were worried I wouldn't know how to get along with the other kids and all of these things because I was so antisocial. Um, but it ended up working out, and we all got in it, and in our last audition, we had to do a cartwheel, and I am the most unathletic person on this planet.

Like, if there was a dance audition for Matilda, I would not have gotten in the show. And um, I was the only one in the final seven that couldn't do a cartwheel, and it was so bad. And so I like left the audition room and told my mom, like, that's it, I've been cut, it's too late for me, and um I ended up getting in it, so it worked out. I guess the cartwheel wasn't important, but they did have me in cartwheel lessons twice a week the entire time I was in the show, and I only did a good cartwheel once.

[6:54] Bailey Ryon: That's hilarious.

[6:54] Milly Shapiro: Well, it's funny, I was a cheerleader in high school, and I could I could do everything, uh split everything, but just could not get the cartwheel for some reason. So it was always me, you know, when if when you look at videos, if I'm the one that's like not quite right.

[7:12] Bailey Ryon: Um hilarious. So you said that there were th seven final people. So you did know some of the others that you were auditioning with. That's so interesting. And also um, did they tell you how many people they were casting, or did you think you you were not knowing anything at that point?

[7:31] Milly Shapiro: I think they were speaking. Especially because at the time the West End was running and they had four of them.

[7:37] Bailey Ryon: Okay, okay.

[7:38] Milly Shapiro: They had kind of mentioned that they were taking everything from the West End and the RSC and were just bringing it to the US. So everything was gonna stay the same. So I think we kind of all figured like there's gonna be four.

[7:51] Bailey Ryon: Yeah.

[7:52] Milly Shapiro: So from the original book to the movie adaptation, um, this is a character that's beloved by so many people. How did it feel to take on such an iconic role when you know, as a young person? I mean, it's a big deal when an adult gets an iconic role in on Broadway, but you know, you were quite you were both quite young. What was that like?

[8:17] Bailey Ryon: Um, for me personally, I don't think I really realized how big of a deal it was because yeah, it's a very British like child actor type of thing that they kind of were orchestrating where they were like, You're just a normal kid. This is a completely normal experience, and because it wasn't just us going through it, I feel like it made it feel so incredibly normal. It was like, at least for me in my perspective, it was just like my extracurricular, like some kids like do this like show in their school, other kids do soccer, and I was just on Broadway, and I was like, That's normal. And like this is the most normal experience of my life, and I was a kid. I didn't know any better. It was my first audition, my first ever time working.

I was like, this is how it works. This is just what you do. And so I feel like I didn't really understand the pressure of taking on a role of that size, and that's so ingrained in c in pop culture, because I just didn't know that it was supposed to be a big deal because nobody had told me that it was.

[9:18] Milly Shapiro: Yeah, absolutely. Like I I think because we were so young, like you just don't realize it was just fun for us. It was you're so fearless as a kid that nothing ever like was that surprising, or it was just like you said, like an extracurricular activity. And for me, like I I never read as a kid. I did not like reading. I was much more of a movie TV kid, unlike Millie, who was always reading. Um, and I definitely lied about it if they asked if I ever read the book. And I was like, yeah, I love to read. I love reading, it's my favorite thing in the world. Um, and my mom tried to get me to read the book, and I think I told her that I did, and I like didn't, because I hated reading. Um, so Matilda wasn't like a character that I knew a lot about.

I definitely watched the movie like while I was in the process. I think about halfway through when my mom was like, Okay, this is getting kind of serious. You should probably watch the movie, loved the movie, um, but still like didn't know at that age how big of a movie it was at the time. Like, didn't even know who Danny DeVito was. Like, he's just a guy in a movie of like this huge star that everyone knows. Um, yeah, as a kid you're going to be able to do. I love that. Don't even really it doesn't even phase you.

[10:36] Milly Shapiro: I still think it's so funny, Bailey, how you didn't read the book, and then meanwhile, there was like the like um Rawdal library that they had at the rehearsal studio. And I was like the only one that checked out every single book. Like I was a purist at that point.

[10:56] Bailey Ryon: Yeah. I think it's so funny.

[10:58] Milly Shapiro: Because hilarious. Everyone had their own way of like portraying the character, and we all brought it up. Definitely different to it. Um I think that's like so interesting. That's why it's so interesting to see different people in the same role. It's because it can totally change your perspective of the show.

[11:15] Bailey Ryon: Yeah. I love what you said about, you know, it didn't really phase you because you know, you do hear stories of actors who from a very young age are very, very focused. Like, you know, famously Leah Michelle from a young age was like, I'm gonna be a star, and you guys were just kind of let me do this thing. That's kind of fun to do, and you know, yay, you know, and didn't have a life.

[11:40] Milly Shapiro: Um, well, since you know, you were talking about the four characters for everybody that's listening to remind them Matilda was played front by four young actors. You were two of them. Together you all received a Tony honor, but your characters were quite different. Um tell us about the how that rehearsal process went. And you know, were you encouraged to make Matilda your own? Were there similarities that you all had and were directed for consistency? How did that how did that work?

[12:12] Bailey Ryon: Yeah, I think like there were like some differences that we had that we each portrayed the character, but at the same time, because it was coming from the West End, there were a lot of things that they wanted to make sure were like that were already set in stone there that were still set step set in stone when we came back. Um because it was even though it was an original production, like it still kind of had didn't have as much of a r original rehearsal process since they already had everything set in stone in the West End and they wanted to keep it that way. But they still let us like have liberties with who we thought the character was. And I remember having like some of the first rehearsals we ever had was just sitting in a little room with our scripts and going line by line, and they would ask us, like, what does that mean to you?

And we would have completely different answers, the four of us, because we're just completely different children, can differ completely different people still. Um so yeah, there were those differences, but there was also some things that they were like, okay, that has to be like specific.

[13:15] Milly Shapiro: Yeah. And I had a very different rehearsal process from everyone else, because I had a broken arm the like most of the time we were in rehearsals for Matilda. So while everyone would go like do dance calls, I'd just like like dance rehearsals, I just like sit in the corner and take notes on the dances. So I had to learn everything by watching it, which was insane. I don't think I could do that now. I don't know how I did that. Um, so for me it was like kind of weird because I was like a outside perspective before some of these rehearsals, so it was so interesting watching how everyone worked so differently and like we had this whole like rake stage built in our rehearsal room with all these like fake set pieces, and it was like so insane to think of now because um that's not completely normal for everything to have everything as detailed in a rehearsal process as it was, and all the choreography was so specific and there was a story, like a reason behind every single movement that was choreographed in the show, which is so interesting because you don't see that that often.

Like none of the dances in the show were like taught as a dance. It was like now your nose itches, and you're tucking your hair behind your ear and you're bored, so you're doing this, and so like not being able to actually like do half the dances in the rehearsal process. It w I think the reason that I learned everything was because of all the reason behind everything, which so much of that was built from like the London team and the London cast, like going through everything in the years and years of building and developing the show. So I feel like we were kind of like guided into it in a very safe way. Like we knew we couldn't fail because we had all these people that have done it a thousand times before and know exactly how to teach someone how to do it, all helping us figure it out.

[15:04] Bailey Ryon: Oh, that race. My knees are still like from that rake stage. I can't yeah. I was like in physical therapy the whole time in that show. Yes. Every single week. I was in therapy. My my like thighs are still like built so much more than the rest of my body from that stage. From when I was like, I will never not have muscular thighs because of that.

[15:33] Milly Shapiro: I saw something the other day on social media where an actor was saying, you know, rake stage is like not healthy and you know, this is like something to negotiate with our union because yeah, for those very reasons. I, you know, I never think about it, right? Because I'm I don't have no act. And so walking down a little rake to me is like, oh, I'll just walk down the scene, but I can imagine when you're I can't imagine doing a choreography on it.

[15:59] Bailey Ryon: Yeah. Cartwheels, everything. Going up the hill with the cartwheel, too. Maybe that's why I never got it. Because it was up a hill. So difficult.

[16:10] Milly Shapiro: That's so insane. Wow. I mean, it was just, you know, the design was so delightful aside from the stage. The costumes and the choreography was unlike any choreography in Broadway. And and and of course, now that you explain it, that makes complete and utter sense. And it it was so true to children, which is what I loved. That is how children would choreograph things.

[16:38] Bailey Ryon: Yeah, that's what Peter and who was the choreographer and everyone on the creative team would always like say things about until he everything was like twitching, everything. You know, he said, I think Peter said he went to a kindergarten class and sat and just watched the kids to see their mannerisms, and that's kind of what inspired um the choreography. Um, which I I think it's so brilliant. I still love that choreography to this day. It's so crazy good. Um, but even everything was like from the costumes to the set, like the reason why the set is so big in scale is because it's supposed to look like it's looking through the eyes of a child, and that's why everything is kind of scarier when you're a kid and why the school is so scary and big, because if you're five, you know, you're really small, and that could be really scary. It's it's amazing when I go back and look at things as an adult, and I'm like, that's so tiny.

[17:36] Milly Shapiro: Yeah, I thought that was huge. My old schoolyard. Uh, you know, we drove by it the other day in New Jersey. And I thought, I don't remember that's tiny. I just remember recess being so awful because I was so shy and did not want to talk to people and it seemed enormous, like with so many children. And it's like nothing at the end of it. It's pretty amazing. But yeah, for a child, it is. Um, yeah, I love that. I love that about the set design.

[18:06] Bailey Ryon: Um, so in addition to your fellow Matildas, you had amazing cast members, Gabrielle Ebert, Leslie Margarita, and the absolutely incredible Bertie Carvel. So tell us what it was like working with them.

[18:25] Milly Shapiro: It was really cool. Um, they were all really nice and welcoming and stuff too. And like I feel like we all had a very good relationship with the rest of the cast, especially the adults. Like, they were so welcoming and so kind to a bunch of random children, which they did not have to be at all. Um, so it was very cool just because it made it all feel so real, and it was so easy to act with these amazing actors because you know, you it's easy to play against them, it's easy to like move with them because they're so good that it's hard to be bad in that situation because you they make it feel like the stakes are really that high, like you're really in that moment, and that was very crazy and cool, and like it's weird seeing people when you're older.

Like I did a reading a while ago, and I just walked in like on the last day, and they're like, Yeah, we're having like someone come in to like read this one part for the actual reading. And I was like, Okay, cool. And then I walk in the day of and Gabe's just sitting there. And I was like, What is going on?

[19:29] Bailey Ryon: It was so weird. And then like it's crazy seeing everyone because like we were only in the show for like a year, not in like including rehearsals, kind of. It was like a year of our lives, but when you're 10, that's 10% of your life. That's a huge, huge time when you're a kid. And so it's like these people had such an impact on our lives because they were a huge part of our lives and our development and our growth. And so it's like insane to think that they're these like amazingly talented actors that we will now forever have a connection to because we all went through this like crazy experience with them.

[20:03] Milly Shapiro: Yeah, it's weird. No, totally, like, and when you're that young, like you kind of idolize the adults that you're working with. Like, I remember being like, I want to be Samantha Strom when I grow up, I want to be Heather Tipei when I grow up. Like, they were just all my favorite people, and I just thought they were so talented. And honestly, like I as a child was very not childlike, I guess you could say. I always wanted to be friends with the adults. I was much more of like wanted to hang out with the adults than I did with the kids, even though I love them and they're some of my closest friends to this day. But like Ben Thompson, who played the escapologist, was was my best friend. He was my favorite person in that show.

And like, I would always want to go hang out with them after the show, and they're like, We're we can't do that. You're young. You can't come out to eat and get drinks with us after the show. But um, but even so, like the kids in the ensemble too, like to this day, I still talk to half of them. And if I don't like it, it's just because I haven't seen them, and literally since I've left the show. Um, but you know, they're they were such an important part of our lives, like Millie said, that they they're still like a family to me, I guess you could say. Um, and I just I love all those people so much. And it's crazy too. Like, I remember we went to um the screening for the Matilda musical movie and got to see a lot of people we haven't seen in a long time.

And Heather, who was one of our swings that covered the kids' tracks and the adult tracks, she was like, Oh my gosh, you guys are the age now that I was when we did the show. And I was like, that's weird, that's crazy.

[21:49] Nella Vera: Well, yeah, you you guys doubled in age practically. Um, how fun. And and you had a good cast too. That that's what's nice. You know, you had nice people and you had amazing, talented, I mean, nothing but the top talent to bring this, you know, property from where it had been a huge hit in London to New York. So um, in in a way, I think that's so helpful for anybody who is either a child doctor or less experienced, you know, actors to have incredible experience and uh people who know what they're doing and surrounding children with those people so that they can bring forward their best performance. Like you said, they're in the moment, they know what they're doing, and they know how to interact with other actors on stage.

[22:43] Milly Shapiro: So yeah, yeah. Incredible. Do you each have a favorite memory from being in the show?

[22:52] Bailey Ryon: Oh boy. Or is there something that you really remember loving, or even if it's just like you came out of the stage door and people wanted your autograph or you know we were anything that we weren't even like yes. I'm kind of glad though because I hear like from other child actors, all these like creepy, weird people would like wait for them and do all these weird things. So we were very protected.

[23:15] Milly Shapiro: Um think of a favorite memory. The only thing I can think of is a sad memory, but like barely related to Matilda. Um, but I'll tell that story. So back when I was in Matilda, I sprained my ankle randomly doing something stupid because I was always getting injured somehow. And um my grandmother who had cancer, she was gonna see the show and I wasn't gonna be allowed to perform because I had a sprained ankle and legally they can't really let you do that. Um, but then they just like like had me like walk around and were like, You're fine, you're fine, it's totally fine. And so they let me perform and everyone was like helping me walk backstage and stuff so I could like do this show, and it was like a really important moment in my life because that was like my grandmother died like a month later, but I they let me do that and have that experience of performing for my family members, and like that's kind of the environment that it was.

Like these were people that genuinely cared about you as a person more so than you as an actor, and you'd never see that in this industry. It's so so rare to have that level of support and that level of care in a within a cast, and not just within the cast, but with the team outside of the cast too. Like they really wanted you to be a good happy person and living a good happy life, and they wanted you to be a kid and have fun. And I think that's like just such a beautiful thing because I think my life would have turned out so so differently if it wasn't that kind of people. Like I don't think I would be the type of person I am now if it was like a normal like ex working kid experience because Matilda wasn't that I think I would probably be an egotistical jerk if it was like a normal experience.

[25:06] Bailey Ryon: Yeah. But we always had people there like teaching us how to be kind and humble and gracious and like teaching us all these things because you don't know when you're a kid and yeah. We had all these people like guiding us it in while we were growing up and whenever we would see any of them after the show they would still be guiding us and it's a beautiful experience.

[25:29] Milly Shapiro: Yeah.

[25:30] Nella Vera: I you know I remember reading what exactly what you're describing about Billy Elliott also.

[25:36] Milly Shapiro: Mm-hmm.

[25:37] Nella Vera: And it started with the movie I remember reading how when Jamie Bell was cast in that movie how that he was almost literally like Billy Elliott very much had never done movie before had never acted and they the director you know really went out of his way to protect him and be his mentor because the you know the family situation maybe wasn't great and and I think that also I heard that about the um the production you know the Broadway and the lesson production as well because it was the same director um how they really took that seriously about trying to make sure the children were okay and it's so fascinating what you said that you weren't allowed to stage door because I personally I'm not a huge fan of stage doors because they've gotten so out of hand right now.

[26:27] Milly Shapiro: But even back then they were they weren't as bad but there were a lot of creepy people hanging around.

[26:33] Nella Vera: Um and now today you know it's lovely for the genuine fans to be able to say hello to to their favorite actors but they have gotten so intense that you know I could I could see so did you have to sneak out through another door or yeah there was a secret door we'd have to go out um which sometimes like if like there was a hardcore fan like they would know where to find us.

[26:59] Bailey Ryon: And it was if it was like a little girl if it was a little girl or something like I'd be like okay like don't tell anyone like and I decided um for her but yeah so there was that secret stage door that we had to come out.

[27:13] Milly Shapiro: But yeah like just like Millie said like it was crazy how much they just treated us like normal kids and like between every show we would go to the park with like every other kid that was on Broadway at the time which was like Annie Newsies a lot of a lot of kids Christmas Carol. There was so many kid shows.

[27:30] Bailey Ryon: We were like the year of the Broadway kids.

[27:34] Milly Shapiro: And in the Tonies they made they made a joke about it that it was Chuck E cheese on Broadway.

[27:40] Bailey Ryon: Which is very funny. I have too many favorite memories I mean the whole experience really was just I could go on and on and on about stories about how many things I love. But I think honestly one of my favorite memories is we got to participate in Broadway Barks um that year.

[28:01] Milly Shapiro: And I A am a huge animal lover Bernetta Peters is my idol favorite person in the whole world.

[28:10] Bailey Ryon: I've been the biggest fan of her since I was like before Matilda and just being getting to stand on the stage with her at the same time like I was peeing my pants secretly I was keeping my composure but I was freaking out and I remember like I don't know about you Millie but I remember like Sophia and Una like didn't really know who Bernadette Peters was at the time like because you know like we were 10 and I remember they were like why are you freaking out they're like what is wrong with you and I was like what do you mean I was like it's Bernard Peters I remember so much about that experience.

[28:44] Milly Shapiro: I remember every detail about the dog that I had yes me too mine was a little gray pit bull and his name was Gabe.

[28:52] Bailey Ryon: Mine was a yellow lab who's paralyzed and his name was Pooh after Pooh Bear and he had no teeth and he was so sweet so he was wagging his tail as they were bringing him on the stage and I just remember it so vividly.

[29:04] Milly Shapiro: Yeah it was a it was an amazing experience and just like getting to be on stage with her and then like all the animals and like ever since like it has been my dream to like be in charge of Broadway barks one day like just do anything anything to help out with it at some point because I just think it's the best thing in the whole world.

[29:21] Bailey Ryon: And like I've done like everything with animals since like I went at Petco like I would do anything to be around an animal at all times.

[29:31] Nella Vera: Well the great thing is that they probably are always looking for help and volunteers so you know that's soon as I graduate as soon as I graduate school I'm probably gonna volunteer in any way I can every time that happens yeah.

[29:46] Milly Shapiro: And maybe you'll walk away with a best friend.

[29:49] Bailey Ryon: I ever it's impossible to go to those and not want to take home a puppy or a kid.

[29:56] Milly Shapiro: It's just crazy. Um, so you said you're in school. Are you both still pursuing acting?

[30:03] Bailey Ryon: Yes.

[30:05] Milly Shapiro: Yeah.

[30:05] Bailey Ryon: So I I'll go first. I um I'm in um I'm going into my senior year at James Madison University in Virginia, Roll Dukes, um, as a musical theater major.

[30:21] Milly Shapiro: Um yeah, I just it's it's amazing. I'm we're about to start Sunday in the park with George, actually, as I just talked about.

[30:32] Bailey Ryon: Yeah.

[30:33] Milly Shapiro: For Minette Peters, which is my dream show and dream roll, and I'm so lucky, honored, and excited to be playing Dot.

[30:41] Bailey Ryon: Um, so I'm very excited. It's incredible.

[30:44] Milly Shapiro: Yes, I'm it's literally the dream.

[30:47] Bailey Ryon: Um, I feel like because of like our childhood auditions for me have always just been like, eh, if it happens, it happens. I don't care if I get it, if I don't. This is just my job. I just love to perform and I'll be happy with whatever I get.

[31:03] Milly Shapiro: I think this is the first show that I was like, oh my god, Sunday in the park with George, I have to be in this show.

[31:10] Bailey Ryon: Um so yeah, I'm very, very excited, and I get to perform with my favorite people in the world.

[31:16] Milly Shapiro: Um it's kind of nice that I before COVID, uh, it was my senior year of high school, it was 2020, and I thought that I just wanted to either go straight back to New York and start working again, or I wanted to go to the school in New York and do like a very conservatory program.

[31:35] Bailey Ryon: I don't like school.

[31:37] Milly Shapiro: I never have.

[31:38] Bailey Ryon: So I didn't want to do any Jen Ed type of things.

[31:41] Milly Shapiro: But then COVID happened, and I was like, ah, maybe New York.

[31:45] Bailey Ryon: Not the best idea.

[31:46] Milly Shapiro: And I found myself at JMU, and I've never been to Virginia before, before that.

[31:52] Bailey Ryon: Um, and I was kind of like, you know what?

[31:54] Milly Shapiro: I have the rest of my life to live in New York and work every single day, just like I did for my entire childhood.

[32:00] Bailey Ryon: Maybe I need a break and I need to like go to a football game.

[32:05] Milly Shapiro: Like I joined an improv troupe, and now they're like my favorite people in the world.

[32:09] Bailey Ryon: Those are my best friends, and I could not be more happy at JMU, and these people are just like the people that I'm gonna spend the rest of my life with.

[32:18] Milly Shapiro: Um and I love it.

[32:20] Bailey Ryon: I love it there.

[32:20] Milly Shapiro: So I'm very excited to start my senior year.

[32:22] Bailey Ryon: I think it's gonna be a really good year, but I'm sad that it's gonna end.

[32:26] Milly Shapiro: Um yeah, so that's what I'm up to.

[32:30] Nella Vera: Great, Millie.

[32:32] Milly Shapiro: Me on the other hand, I'm a college dropout.

[32:35] Bailey Ryon: Yeah.

[32:36] Milly Shapiro: Um, I was going to film school at NYU, and uh film school is one of those things where you can't do anything except for film school while you're doing film school.

[32:46] Bailey Ryon: And I'm the type of person where I like to be doing minimum like three or four different projects at once, because that way I can never have other thoughts ever.

[32:55] Milly Shapiro: Um, so anyways, I was at NYU and I was kind of getting really burnt out, and I was like, I'm just gonna take a semester off. I was in like a band at that point, and we were kind of like reaching our natural conclusion, and so I was like, I'm just gonna take like a semester off, and I became friends with this producer, and I was like, I'm gonna work with her and take a semester off, see what happens.

[33:20] Bailey Ryon: And so I took a semester off and really was great for my mental health. It was my first time ever not being in school, and I was like, wow, that is so nice.

[33:28] Milly Shapiro: I really enjoyed it.

[33:30] Bailey Ryon: Um, and I was working on music and auditioning a lot, and then um I was like, what if I took another semester off?

[33:36] Milly Shapiro: And then I took another semester off and was working on music, and I was on a really great audition streak where I had like eight final callbacks in like two months, which is not normal at all, and it was very crazy and a lot of things that were very fun and exciting, and I was loving auditioning again, which it's so hard to like love that all the time because you're constantly getting told no, we don't like you.

[34:05] Milly Shapiro: Sorry, babes. Um, but I found the joy of it again and um was working on music and then I was filming some stuff, and then the strike happened, and then yada yada yada yada, and now I'm doing more music stuff and living my life and yeah, it's it's great.

[34:25] Nella Vera: It's so it's a journey.

[34:29] Milly Shapiro: Yeah.

[34:30] Nella Vera: I mean, it's awesome that you know, you can each find your way that way and have um, you know, you you have such maturity and such self-awareness. I mean, honestly, I think I would have benefited from taking a gap year at least, because I was not very mature both in college and in grad school, and I love hearing when young people take control of their destinies like this, because the reality is you can always go back to school if that is something you need.

[35:03] Nella Vera: Um, and if this is like when you're hitting your stride with auditions, and this is when you know, for whatever reason your type or the industry wants people like you right at this moment, then you know, you grab that and make it happen for yourself.

[35:20] Nella Vera: And um, and it's you know, that's what I love talking to young people who have you know such amazing perspectives because you know, when I was your age, there were no choices, or it appeared that there were no choices.

[35:34] Nella Vera: I look back and we had plenty of choices, but we grew up in a certain way where you had to go to school or you look like a huge failure if you took a year off, you know, and graduated late and I had been sick in college.

[35:48] Nella Vera: So I graduated in the summer and uh, you know, at the end of the summer at the beginning, and that was even like, oh my god, you know, felt shame over that, which is crazy.

[35:58] Nella Vera: Like it was like a fun summer. Um, but you know, I think you know, the lesson for young people is to it's gonna be okay. If you need, you know, time off, you need time off.

[36:09] Nella Vera: And you know, that helps your creativity long term to have some recharge time and to pursue something that's different. Change is always good.

[36:18] Nella Vera: I mean, Bailey, you went away to school, that's really great. And you're if you pursue New York again, then you come back with a refreshed outlook.

[36:28] Nella Vera: Yeah, um, you know, and likewise with Millie, if school was kind of not a great thing at that moment, you know, you leave that. So I love that. I love hearing that.

[36:39] Milly Shapiro: I mean, I think it's very important for people to figure out what route works best for them because I was not mentally healthy when I was in college, it just wasn't a sustainable thing for me to be in that sort of environment.

[36:53] Milly Shapiro: I don't know why, it just my brain did not mesh well with it. Um, and it was very scary to take off school because then you feel like you're not doing something you're supposed to do.

[37:05] Milly Shapiro: You're told to go to school your whole life. All your life in like from like elementary school, you're told to go to college. That's the goal.

[37:12] Milly Shapiro: Yeah. And then to be there and be like, this isn't working for me. Let me do something else with my life. And it's a very scary thing, but I think for me personally, it was the absolute best decision that I could have made.

[37:25] Milly Shapiro: And it was very scary talking with my family about it. And you know, but I'm very lucky to have supportive parents and they supported me with my decision, and it's been working out for me.

[37:36] Milly Shapiro: My therapist says I'm doing very well. That's always really good. Um yeah, I feel like everyone has their own path, and we're all completely different people, and trying to always do what you think is the right thing for you to do is not always gonna work.

[37:54] Nella Vera: Yeah.

[37:57] Milly Shapiro: Because life is just a bunch of tiny adjustments all the time.

[38:00] Nella Vera: Yeah.

[38:01] Nella Vera: So I think that's what your generation brings to the table to teach the rest of us is you know, you lead you live authentically and choose your own path and don't worry about, you know, about what you're supposed to be doing.

[38:18] Nella Vera: Um, so that's awesome. Um what's it been like to, you know, to do this upcoming show and reuniting with Matildas and you know, kind of creatively having this little reunion where you're all kind of getting together and gonna be on a stage again together.

[38:37] Bailey Ryon: Yeah, it's so exciting. We have what we uh what was it, seven years ago, maybe that we did the first show closed. When the show closed in 2017, we did another Matilda Palooza, and that was kind of the first time that I got to meet all the other Matildas because you know we were the first ones, like we left and I went back to public high school in middle of nowhere, Pennsylvania.

[39:01] Bailey Ryon: I didn't get to meet the rest of these kids. Um so that was the first time I got to meet them. And at that time, you know, I was only a freshman in high school, and I was like, I feel so old. These kids are so young.

[39:13] Bailey Ryon: And now I'm a senior in college and they're like freshmen in high school. And uh it's the same thing all over again. Um, so I'm really excited to see them, especially because they're gonna be grown women now as well, all the other Matildas, and I just can't wait to see what everyone's doing with their lives and hopefully see other members of the cast from our cast, like if they come to see the show.

[39:35] Bailey Ryon: And mostly I'm excited to see Millie, Sophia, and Una. I mean, we just we recently got together and went out to dinner when we saw the Matilda premiere, and that was just the most fun ever.

[39:47] Bailey Ryon: I mean, we sat in a restaurant for maybe like three hours just talking and talking and talking and talking, um, and catching up, and it was just the best. So I'm really excited um to be back with everyone and be back with my three OPCs.

[40:01] Bailey Ryon: Um, because I just miss them so much. Um, and I'm just excited for our futures. I'm excited to see what what the future holds for us and where we go from here.

[40:11] Milly Shapiro: Yeah, I'm excited to compete for who's the coolest Matilda. We're gonna have like a battle royal royale at the end of the show where everyone's gonna fight, see who's the winner.

[40:20] Milly Shapiro: Um, so I'm excited to try to win that.

[40:22] Bailey Ryon: Yeah, it will definitely be between me and Millie at the end.

[40:25] Milly Shapiro: Yeah, I think so. I think we have the most like scrappy energy.

[40:28] Nella Vera: Yeah.

[40:30] Milly Shapiro: Oh, definitely. I it would be it would be very exciting to kind of see how that's gonna go. And I mean, it's always weird seeing everyone because it makes me feel weird.

[40:41] Milly Shapiro: Like these, especially because like all of those girls were taught to copy kind of what we did in a weird, not like copy, but like we were there first, so they knew so much about us, and like well, they were replacing you.

[40:58] Bailey Ryon: Yeah, of course.

[40:58] Milly Shapiro: So they have to honor that in some way.

[41:01] Milly Shapiro: Yeah, and I feel like I feel like I know the round after us the best, because I was the last to leave. And I was like the final one. It was me, and I was always on standby for everyone's last show.

[41:08] Milly Shapiro: I was like the grim reaper. I was like, bye. Bye. I was like, this is your death, this is your last ever show.

[41:23] Milly Shapiro: And so it was very weird to kind of like be the last one in this group of new girls. So I got to see like the first ever full transfer, and I was the last one to go.

[41:32] Bailey Ryon: I was the final, the final pillar of the old regime that was the last to fall for some reason. I don't know why.

[41:40] Milly Shapiro: I was it who knows. So it's just like really weird because like we were the first ones. It's like it's like we were the founders of this like weird secret society.

[41:53] Milly Shapiro: All this things, and like it's weird for me because like these girls, like when we did the last Matilda Palooza, like I would have these girls come up to me and be like, Oh yeah, I'm the I was the queen of the dark side in my run, because when I was there because I was crazy, I created a dark side, light side, and half the cast is on the dark side, other half is on the light side.

[42:13] Milly Shapiro: It was like the smart side everyone had superpowers. It was very weird, and like it kept going like almost the whole entire time the show ran.

[42:22] Milly Shapiro: And I would have like every I would pass it. I passed it down to one girl, and then she passed it down to someone else in the next round.

[42:28] Milly Shapiro: And it was very weird because like so many little random stupid things that we did because we were stupid, weird kids, were like a thing for the entire show, and like some of the girls wore our old costumes, and yeah, like that's insane.

[42:43] Bailey Ryon: No one wore my old shoes because my shoes they had to special build because they kept falling off my feet on every show.

[42:51] Milly Shapiro: But it's just weird, you know, to think that like all the little things that you did had such an impact on these girls.

[42:59] Milly Shapiro: Like they were all auditioning to be the next us. Yeah, which sounds very narcissistic and insane.

[43:06] Milly Shapiro: Um but it's just a weird thing to think about because you didn't realize it in the moment. You were just like, Okay, yeah, hi, bye, I'm leaving. But it's weird.

[43:16] Nella Vera: But what a wonderful legacy.

[43:18] Milly Shapiro: Yeah, it's insane. At least they and also the four of you.

[43:22] Nella Vera: They won't, but also the four of you have such a bond because there's only four of you who know what that was like.

[43:31] Milly Shapiro: Yeah, and that's so amazing. And I think you know, regardless of where life takes you, the four of you have this kind of bond that you can always come back to.

[43:41] Nella Vera: A lot of people sometimes feel very alone and they're like, nobody knows what I went through, and but the the four of you do know that you all went through.

[43:49] Milly Shapiro: We know that's incredible. That's so incredible to have that, you know.

[43:54] Nella Vera: Yeah.

[43:55] Nella Vera: Um, oh, that's so great. Well, I was gonna say, if you think that's weird, that's great preparation for like your high school reunion or whatever in 20 years when it gets even weirder, girls. I'll tell you that.

[44:10] Nella Vera: Oh well, Bailey and Millie, thank you so much for joining us today. Uh do you want to let people know uh how to follow you on social media before we log off?

[44:21] Milly Shapiro: Sure. Um if you have social media, you don't have to, but uh I do. You can find me on Instagram at Millie Shapiro.

[44:29] Milly Shapiro: Um give me a cheeky little follow, put a nice little comment or something. I can use the confidence boost. Um and you can find me on TikTok at Millie Shaperoni.

[44:40] Milly Shapiro: And if you can't spell it, you can just look up Millie Shapiro and you will probably be able to find it. Don't ask me why the name is a joke, and now I've committed to it for like since 2018. So I can't stop. Um but that's where to find me.

[44:54] Bailey Ryon: Yeah. Yeah, you can find me on Instagram at Bailey R Ryan. Ryan spelled with an O. Um, or you can find me on TikTok at I think Bailey R Ryan 17, maybe.

[45:07] Bailey Ryon: But same thing. If you just look up my name, I'm sure I'll show up. Or it might be under Bandit, because also was a joke and I just ran with it.

[45:16] Bailey Ryon: Um so there you go. Um yeah, and if you're in close to Virginia, come see some shows at James Madison University. Totally check out the Forbes Center for the Performing Arts.

[45:27] Bailey Ryon: We got some great things there. Come see us perform.

[45:29] Milly Shapiro: Awesome.

[45:30] Bailey Ryon: And come to Matilda Palooza.

[45:32] Milly Shapiro: Yeah, of course. Everybody comes to Matilda Palooza.

[45:36] Bailey Ryon: Buy us drinks because most of us are 21 now.

[45:40] Milly Shapiro: I will say the four originals will be singing a very funny song that has to do with that, being 21 now.

[45:48] Bailey Ryon: Lots of audience now, so it's gonna be a great time. We're really great.

[45:53] Nella Vera: Well, we just could not be more excited for the show. So please check out Bailey and Millie and Matilda Palooza at 54 Below on August 7 and 8 at 7 p.m. and 9:30 p.m. You definitely don't want to miss it.

[46:10] Nella Vera: And again, thank you, Millie and Bailey.

[46:14] Milly Shapiro: Of course, thank you.

[46:18] Nella Vera: You've been listening to the 54 Below podcast, part of the Broadway Podcast Network. Subscribe and rate us on Apple Podcasts or your favorite podcast app.