This transcript was automatically generated and might contain errors.

[0:00] Nella Vera: Good evening everyone and welcome to the fabulous 54 Below.

[0:03] Nella Vera: Before we get started this evening, just a polite reminder, please take this moment to silence your cell phones and also there's no flash photography, please.

[0:15] Nella Vera: Welcome to the 54 Below Podcast. I'm Nella Vera, the club's head of marketing. Our guest today is Tony Award winner Santino Fontana, who has starred on Broadway in Tootsie, Hello Dolly, Act One, Rodgers and Hammerstein's Cinderella, and many, many more. He is perhaps best known to audiences as the voice of the villainous Prince Hans in the Academy Award-winning animated film Frozen. Television audiences also saw him on the most recent season of The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel and recognize him from Crazy Ex-Girlfriend, Shades of Blue, Mozart in the Jungle, Bossy Burden, and more. Santino Fontana, welcome to our podcast.

[0:55] Santino Fontana: Thank you for having me. Happy to be here.

[0:58] Nella Vera: We're so excited for your upcoming show. It's an encore of a show that you've already done with us and was so popular that we brought you back. Tell me, um, where did you get the idea for that particular show?

[1:10] Santino Fontana: I think, well, I was I always stressed over, uh, I avoided performing in like a solo show for a very, very, very long time, mostly because I the stress of figuring out what am I gonna sing and what's the order and what should I talk about and all of it's all just very stressful to me. I prefer like a script that somebody else wrote. Um, and, uh, anyway, so I also love improv and so I just thought, you know what, why don't I just put this on the audience? So that's what I'm doing. Um, yeah, basically I have about 20, 25 songs that I bring, and I, uh, they correlate to a certain number, and each number is, uh, on a piece of paper in a hat or a bowl or a jar or whatever I end up using. And then the audience kind of picks the order and the songs, and that way, um, if the audience doesn't like the evening, it's kind of their fault.

[2:07] Nella Vera: Well, it was delightful and so, so fun. And I think a lot of people who are used to seeing you, uh, do concerts and a tux were very surprised at how funny and off the cuff, maybe a bit PG-13, um, the show was a totally different side of you.

[2:26] Santino Fontana: Yeah, you know, everybody has a different entry point, I think, to most, uh, performers. Uh, people know me from different things. I mean, I have a, yeah, it absolutely. And I think, um, but that's what's also great is we don't know what's gonna happen when the show starts. So I kind of have to stay on my toes, and I like that. I think that's, you know, I always was taught, um, whatever's actually happening is more interesting than whatever you planned. And, uh, this kind of forces that to happen.

[2:58] Nella Vera: Yeah, no, totally, totally. It definitely was, you know, my favorite show of the year, and I've been telling everybody.

[3:05] Santino Fontana: Thank you.

[3:06] Santino Fontana: Thank you, thank you.

[3:07] Nella Vera: I came back to see it twice because, you know, there were songs that I thought would be, uh, sung on the second time that I saw it that were not the first time.

[3:16] Santino Fontana: Yeah.

[3:16] Santino Fontana: Yeah.

[3:17] Nella Vera: I want to ask you what show was your Broadway debut?

[3:17] Santino Fontana: Sunny in the Park with George, the first revival, the revival with Daniel Evans and Jenna Russell at the Roundabout.

[3:29] Nella Vera: Oh, wonderful. And that was the one that came from the West End, right?

[3:32] Santino Fontana: Yes, it came from London. Um, it was 2007 or 8. Um, yeah, at 50 at Studio 54, just upstairs.

[3:43] Nella Vera: Yeah. So what did it feel like to make your Broadway debut with such an amazing classic like that? Do you remember when you got the offer?

[3:52] Santino Fontana: I remember finding out that they, I remember getting the offer and being very excited. And then I remember them asking or telling me that I would be understudying, and I was like, oh no, I don't want to understudy. I don't think I'd be a good understudy, and that terrifies me. And they were like, you don't have a choice. That's what you're doing, or you're not in it. So I was like, okay. And, uh, luckily I never went on. Uh, again, those Brits are hardcore. And he had, Daniel had, um, his wisdom teeth removed, and I thought, oh, I'm going on. And we did a put-in and everything, and then he still didn't miss.

[4:30] Santino Fontana: Oh my gosh.

[4:31] Nella Vera: Yeah.

[4:31] Santino Fontana: But I do remember the first, my first entrance as the soldier. I remember the way that it worked. I like kind of had to like jump out, uh, for the first time. So you go from like not having any, you don't walk on or anything. And, um, I remember being very, I remember the first time I did it with an audience. It was exciting and kind of like, oh wow, that will never, that will never happen again. But yeah, it was a great experience.

[4:59] Nella Vera: So do you think it's a part that you want to play one day?

[5:03] Santino Fontana: George. You know, I don't know. Uh, I'm not opposed, but I, I mean, uh, sure, but I also feel like it was just done very well. And, uh, you know, I, I don't know. I, I don't know. I try to, you know, so much about being an actor is having your heart broken, whether you're in a role and your job is to have your heart broken, which most of the time it is, or a lot of times it is, or you don't get something that you really wanted and your heart is broken, or you do get something you wanted and it turns out not to be great and your heart is broken, or it's an amazing experience and then it has to come to an end and your heart is broken. So the idea of adding ways to be heartbroken, like having dream roles that you have very little control over making happen, I try to, I try to stop that. Only be not because I don't want to play those parts, but because there are lots of parts and there's lots of opportunities, or hopefully. So I try not to get too fixated on any one.

[6:04] Nella Vera: That's such a healthy attitude.

[6:07] Santino Fontana: Thank you.

[6:07] Santino Fontana: I try.

[6:17] Santino Fontana: You know, when it's over, and it's like, well, that's why it's so special. Um, that it doesn't happen again. And, um, you know, I'm all for streaming shows and giving people who can't make it in person or are not able to leave their homes for whatever reasons a chance to see some shows. But the specialness of theater is always that you know it, that's it. You caught the live performance, and sometimes I say to myself, I don't mind getting older because I re, you know, I was lucky enough to see so many of my favorite shows like live that, you know, I hear young people now saying, oh, I wish I could have seen that show. I'm like, okay, well, I'm old enough that if I have to get older, at least I did get to see, you know, those shows.

[7:01] Nella Vera: I got to see that who's Tommy as an, you know, as a young intern, but I, you know, that'll never happen again. So it's just, um, yeah, I love that.

[7:11] Nella Vera: Um, one of my favorite shows that I saw you do was 1776 at City Center with this crazy fantastic cast that included John Larriquette as Ben Franklin. How was that experience for you?

[7:24] Santino Fontana: Amazing. I loved that experience. That was, I loved it. I met William Daniels, the original John Adams.

[7:30] Santino Fontana: Oh my, uh, Gary, Gary Hines directed it. She was great. Um, I really love the, you know, uh, I didn't know I'm trying to remember, was Zorba, I think Zorba was the first, uh, encores that I did. And I was a little scared or kind of like, what is this? Is this seems very fast and not a lot of preparation? But ultimately that becomes, I think, the one of the its best attributes because you're not able, you're not given the time to second guess everything.

[8:01] Santino Fontana: And they cast them, I think really incredibly well because everybody who is asked to do it, they're not taking chances on can this person do it. Yeah, you know, like it's a matter of let's see what's gonna happen. But everybody, you know, you have like 10 days or something. So, um, you get these great people that are all kind of terrified at the same level and, uh, also good at what they do.

[8:27] Santino Fontana: And yeah, it was, it's great. I mean, I, I love that that book, uh, you know, the script of that musical is pretty, pretty great. Um, it's pretty amazing.

[8:38] Nella Vera: It's amazing.

[8:39] Nella Vera: Yeah. So when you said 10 days, I mean, did do k actors come in off book into that process, or do you just figure it out?

[8:50] Santino Fontana: I guess some people do. I, although I don't think I've ever worked, I've n none of them ones I've done anyone ever has. Um, but it became I, and during the 1776, you know, there's like a 40-page scene in the middle at the beginning of the show where there's no songs, and I think we thought some of that would get cut and it wasn't because you couldn't cut it. But, uh, I was basically begging, I was offering money to the castmates to be like, please do not get memorized, please do not be memorized because I have all the, I have so many freaking lines, and I do not want to look like the only idiot with a book and everyone else is memorized.

[9:29] Santino Fontana: So I remember asking like Geminiani, like begging him, like please, please hold your book, please. And then of course, by the end, we were all off book because you do it enough. Also, if it's really well written, which isn't always the case with an encore show, but if it is really well written, uh, it sticks very easily because it's all logical. Um, but no, I loved, I loved that. And I think also with that particular show, I think not being too rehearsed probably helped it because of the nature of what's happening.

[10:05] Santino Fontana: They're all like, you know, it's so feels so spontaneous, and they're having this argument, and that's the nature of Congress that they all kind of talk over each other and yell at each other, and so it felt so real, and, um, you know, I think that that maybe for an encore show that that was perfect to not rehearse this show to death because it felt really spontaneous and like everybody was just talking and having that conversation.

[10:31] Nella Vera: Yeah, great.

[10:32] Nella Vera: Thank you.

[10:33] Nella Vera: That's fantastic.

[10:34] Nella Vera: I love that.

[10:34] Nella Vera: Yeah, that is exactly what you were gonna doing.

[10:36] Nella Vera: It was so fantastic.

[10:37] Nella Vera: I just loved it.

[10:38] Nella Vera: I wish that it had, you know, gone on because it was so...

[10:38] Santino Fontana: I know.

[10:45] Nella Vera: Oh well.

[10:45] Nella Vera: Do you, um, you received your first Tony nomination for playing Prince Topher in Cinderella in 2013? Playing a somewhat non-traditional prince. Um, when you got the offer for the part, was there any hesitation or did you immediately jump and said, oh yeah, I want to wanna do this?

[11:02] Santino Fontana: No, initially I said Robin Goodman was the producer of Sons of the Prophet, which I was doing at the Roundabout, which was an off-Broadway play, uh, straight play. Uh, she said, you know, people don't know that you can really sing. Do you want to do Cinderella? And I was like, playing who? She was like, she said, the prince. And I was like, I'm not, no, no, I don't want, no one wants me to play the prince. Because in my mind, you know, the prince in Cinderella, all we knew is that, you know, he had a face and, uh, a crown. Like, you know nothing about him in the previous incarnation.

[11:38] Santino Fontana: And, uh, I said that and she said, just read the script. So I read the script, and the of course the first line in the script is, uh, Prince Topher, you know, slays a dragon or a giant. And the dragon, dragon or the dragon falls to the ground, and he puts his foot on the dragon, he lifts his sword in the air and says, I just wish I was doing something more important with my life. Um, and I knew, okay, this is, this is different and it's funny. And Doug Bean, I thought really smartly changed a bunch of stuff, which was great.

[12:12] Santino Fontana: So, um, I hesitated. I also was doing a TV show. I was doing an episode of The Gifted Man, which was Patrick Wilson and Jennifer Ely. And, uh, I played, uh, with I'm playing opposite actually a friend of mine, Aya Cash, who went and went to school with, but, um, he took us to dinner one night towards the end of shooting, Patrick did, which is very kind of him, and wanted to like get to know us a little better.

[12:40] Santino Fontana: And, uh, I told him, I was like, you know, I have this opportunity to be in Cinderella, or there was another play at the time at I think Manhattan Theater Club, and he said, oh, well, you have to do Cinderella. I was like, really? Why? And he was like, because do you know how few people get to sing those songs on Broadway? It's a very small group of people, and no one's ever sung those songs on Broadway because Cinderella had never had a Broadway production. He was like, yeah, it's that's a no-brainer. He's like, you're doing that. I was like, got it. Thank you.

[13:14] Santino Fontana: Um, you know, he should know having done so many musicals and then film and TV.

[13:20] Nella Vera: Exactly as well.

[13:21] Santino Fontana: So he had perspective, I guess.

[13:23] Nella Vera: Um, it seems crazy that there's a time when you weren't known for, you know, being a singer.

[13:31] Santino Fontana: Yeah, well, how did you mention it? I do remember Sons of the Prophet, and there was a play before, was it a Neil Simon?

[13:37] Santino Fontana: Brighton Beach Memoirs.

[13:39] Nella Vera: Yeah, I remember that.

[13:41] Santino Fontana: Yeah, I've been in, and we even still to this day, I've been in more plays than musicals in New York. I mean, I think Act One, uh, Importance of Being Earnest. Um, yeah, it's, uh, yeah, that's great, you know.

[13:55] Santino Fontana: I mean, that's kind of what you want.

[13:56] Santino Fontana: You want to like go back and forth. The irony is that yeah, like I said earlier though, the entry point to every artist is different for everybody, right? So I there's like I have some crazy, which is great, but really great fans who know me from doing an audiobook where I play a serial killer. Like that's their entry point. I'm like, I'm not sure. Listen to that audiobook, Santino. You, yeah, yeah. Because I love audiobooks, but I only love certain artists. So because I some voices I can't listen to for 12 hours, and yours was one that I could. I was like, well, I'm gonna listen to that one. And I I didn't even care what the book was. You know, like there's uh an actress January Lavoy, and she's great.

Yeah, and I love all of Henry's books, and I don't care what it is, I'll listen to it just because I love hearing her voice for 12 hours. And when I saw that you were on there, it was you, right? It was uh Yeah, you YOU, the book you was like, I will I have to listen to that, and you know, listen to that for how many hours it was. So yeah, but that's between it. Yeah, there was a I think actually 1776. There were people at the stage, or was it Rosewater? There was some something at City Center, and there was like there was like a handful of fans who would come from the U books, and then they were next to like a girl who had little girl who had seen me in Cinderella. So it was it was the weirdest.

Everyone has their own, you know, uh point of view. Um that's great though. That's like showing the version of the city. I try to keep mixing it up. Um, speaking of princes, uh frozen, a complete cultural phenomenon. Um I just wanna, I'm curious. Like, did you have to audition, or did they just say Santino is perfect for this?

[15:51] Santino Fontana: No, no, I had auditioned for Tangled the year before the Frozen, and uh, and I'd gotten called back for Tangled, and then the next year they were doing something not, I mean, it was based, it's what Frozen became, but there was a different script of it called The Snow Queen that I had auditioned for for a very different role, like a comedic tour guide role. That and I got called back to that, and then right before the callbacks, they called and said, you know what, they're scrapping that movie altogether. They don't think it works. And uh then the year next year there was a new script for a different version of that same story. Um of course they don't send you the script, so I didn't get a script, but I did audition.

I I auditioned, I think three or four times, and that was before uh we started rehearsals for Cinderella, because I remember the Cinderella workshop ended, and that's still we're talking like a year before the production of Cinderella, and that that's the day I found out that I got it. So um again, this is way before you know, it's a long time ago. Yeah, auditioned, and um that is one of the numbers typically picked every evening in the in this show at Four Boy. Uh, and then I tell my little audition story. But um, yeah, uh, what was it like to like when it became this cute huge hit? What was it like to be part of such a pop culture hit?

[17:30] Santino Fontana: It's so strange. I mean, I think a life in show business is so strange anyway, but that really is the epitome of there's something incredible. I mean, it's amazing, and you feel very lucky to be in something that catches on the way that it did and still does. Uh but it's crazy to be walking through an airport and seeing, you know, toys and you know, juice boxes with these from the world that you're, you know, all of and then you're sitting on an airplane, and the kids next to you are watching it, or um, you have this huge secret, you know, you have a huge secret, and you feel like wow, you are you're so a part of so many people's lives, and yet it's all a secret, nobody knows, you know. So it's also both lonely.

It's it's it's a fascinating, it's both amazing and kind of feels uh you feel isolated in some ways. Um but it's yeah, I mean, I I would say there's so many experiences I've had like that in show business where you realize, oh wow, this is not what I don't know what I thought it would be, but it's it's more complicated than that.

[18:42] Nella Vera: Yeah, it's so popular with kids. Um, are you looking forward to having your own children see this movie?

[18:49] Santino Fontana: My daughter, you know, my four I have a four-year-old and I have a one-year-old. My four-year-old literally just she just watched it this summer for the first time, and I was really hesitant, but there were kids at her preschool who kept talking about it, which already was complicated. Well, she at first wanted to hear she uh she was talking about it, and I think we played the song, and she said, I think she said, like he has the same voice as you. And then, and then and um, but you know, whatever. And then when we watched it, I was like, should we tell her like this isn't real or that I'm not actually, you know, the villain, or what should we say? And I we didn't really know, and then after she watched the movie, which she really enjoyed, all she said is uh same thing as from the song, like you have the same voice as Prince Hans.

You guys have the same voice, but not that I'm the same person. It's it's so and then that's it, never talked about it again, you know, like just dropped it. So it's such a good thing. That's it. Or she thinks that, like, yeah, I don't even know. And I'm not gonna. I mean, I do know there was a kid at preschool who said something about frozen, and Grace told her, uh, my daddy is the voice of Prince Hans, and the girl said, No, he's not and she's and then she came home and she said, I tried to tell her, and she said that you weren't. And what my you know, my wife and I were like, Well, I am, and you know, I don't know what to tell her. Like, what do you want to, you know, and then uh anyway, it's just a strange, strange a preschool fight, and so um, it's so funny. Kids are so particular.

[20:43] Nella Vera: Um, you know, I I when they came out, my own nieces and nephews were obsessed with it, and I said to one of them, you know, uh Auntie Nella worked with uh Queen Elsa on a show once, and then she said to me, Yeah, but do you know Olaf? I said kind of, but no, and then sad. Not when you say I talked to Prince Hans the next time they say that to me. And we could definitely, I'm sure we could set up an introduction with you and Josh Gad. It's not hard.

[21:17] Santino Fontana: Exactly. Well, it's funny, my boyfriend knows him from the Daily Show days. My boyfriend is a writer for the was a writer for the Daily Show. And um he tells me all the time that he saw the Book of Mormon backstage like a dozen times, but he never actually saw it from the audience. Like he just was back there talking to right now.

[21:36] Nella Vera: Wow.

[21:37] Santino Fontana: Yeah, he's never actually seen the Book of Mormon, but he's been watched it from the sides many times, which is crazy.

[21:44] Nella Vera: Wow.

[21:45] Santino Fontana: So uh you won a Tony for the lead role in Tootsie. Congratulations. Amazing performance. And in addition to your spectacular performance, it had an amazing cast. So Lily Hooper, Sarah Styles, Andy Grocian. Had you worked with any of those actors before?

[22:03] Santino Fontana: Oh, Lily. I had worked with Lily. I had written something that Lily did the first reading I'd ever done of something. Uh we worked together, and I worked with her dad, of course, Chuck. I'd worked with on something, and I'd also worked with Eddie, her brother, on something. Rose uh Rosewater. And Chuck was in act one. So I knew Lily. Uh and then you know, the development of a musical is is it can be a very long process. The my first reading of Tootsie, I we did nine nine readings or workshops of Tootsie over several years. So by the by the time we got to production or perform, you know, rehearsals, we all knew each other because we had done at least one of the readings together, if not several. So um, but no, the cast was incredible. Michael McGraw and Reg Rogers and Julie Halston and John Bellman and the great cast. So fun.

[23:01] Nella Vera: And had you were you familiar with David Yazbek's music before the show?

[23:05] Santino Fontana: I just think he's a genius. He is also an Emmy winner for uh uh comedy, uh for Dave Letterman, uh comedy writer. But um he, you know, my first one of my first Broadway shows that I saw, I was in New York, it was 2001, right before it was in August of 2001, and my best friends from home from fifth grade, since fifth grade, came out and visited me in New York, and they were like, let's go see, I'm gonna go see a Broadway show, should we see? And I was like, I think you know, Full Monty is supposed to be really funny, also Patrick Wilson, and uh we got you know rush tickets, which at the time were front row, and I don't know if you remember, but the first moment of Full Monte is Dennis Jones, who choreographed Tootsie, by the way.

Dennis Jones, when he was still dancing, like comes out naked almost practically naked, and does like a strip, it's like right in our faces because we're in the front row, and my friends, these three like normal dudes from the West Coast, were like, What did you bring us to? Um, but and then of course it was fine because it was great. But um, what a great show, yeah. So I did know that, and I also took my parents to see Dirty Rotten Scoundrels, and then I ended up working with you know, Greg Jabara and Joanna Gleason, uh and loved it. So yeah, no, I was a huge David Yazbek fan.

[24:34] Nella Vera: Oh, good.

[24:34] Santino Fontana: Yeah, he's he's a chillin'. An incredible. There's genius, is probably the right word for him. Um, the band's visit is probably the the most beautiful show I've ever seen. I mean, just it was gorgeous, yeah. I explain this to people. I say you can't even call it like a musical. It's like like you you would describe like a casso, you wouldn't say, Oh, that's a painting. It's just like on a whole other level.

[25:01] Nella Vera: Yeah, yeah, I agree.

[25:06] Santino Fontana: So let's look about TV. So you've appeared in, you know, everything from the marvelous Mrs. Mazel to Crazy Ex-Girlfriend to Flossy Verden. Um, did you find it easy to transition to the screen after doing so much theater?

[25:21] Santino Fontana: Uh, you know, the the big you know what helped me the most was uh Kate Weatherhead and Andrew Keenan Bulger's web series submissions only. So when I was doing Importance of Being Ernest, I got a call from Kate saying, hey, I think we're gonna do this. I don't even know if she called it a web series then, because it was like this is 200 uh 10, 11. And she was like, I wrote this part, would you do it? And I was like, yeah, absolutely, why not? What do I care? It would be so fun. And I loved her and Colin Hanlon and you know, all that the casts also was great. And then, you know, we did that for several years. And I think what it forced me to do, and I think other people probably feel this way too, it just forced you to get comfortable in front of a camera really quickly.

Because again, there's no time, you know, all these people, they're all your friends, and then you get to watch, like, oh, what's working, what's not working? Uh, what did they use? What didn't they use in the edit? And uh, I think that was a huge help in getting because it is so different. I mean, the the core is the same, the impetus to tell the story and be playing these characters is the same. But you know, theater, you do everything a gazillion times. You've you've you've walked through every corner of every scene, you know, so many times. And on camera, you you you don't even you barely talk to talk about it at all. You barely read it. You just show up and you gotta do it. Um so yeah, it's a challenge, but I think uh I think it would be far easier, it's far easier going from theater to camera than the opposite. I think that nightmare.

[27:04] Nella Vera: I definitely think that's true. I mean, just you know, sometimes seeing it's interesting. You know, I just spent a week in London and there the actors seamlessly go back and forth, you know, from one to the other. And I guess also because it London is where the West End, and London is where the studios are in. So, you know, they don't, it's not like you have to divide people into West Coast and East Coast. But here I think it's harder because people that do a lot of TV live in LA and maybe that you don't get to be on stage as much. And so I think it's not quite they don't, you know, they don't really uh I think it sounds the realities of being in a show eight times a week, it's not for the faint of heart, you know. It's not this is a grind. You know, you can be a regular on a TV show and work maybe one, two days a week.

[27:55] Santino Fontana: If you're in any role in a play, you're there every day for six days, you know, of the week. So yeah, it's a whole different thing. So on Crazy Ex-Girlfriend, um, there's a lot of fun and uh sort of inventive songs. How does singing for the small screen differ from singing on stage? Like, do they do it all in one take or like how? No, no, it couldn't be more different. I mean, that's one of the things, you know, the uh because the speed, you know, television, the speed at which it moves, it has to be very fast. So, you know, you wouldn't we wouldn't get sheet music of our songs. No, it would be like, hey, you're not in this scene. Can we grab you? You go into the recording booth, you're looking opposite the composer who is kind of either maybe you've gotten a demo at this point of them singing it, but again, nothing written down.

So it's like, hey, can you just sing this little uh this passage, and they'll sing it out loud for you. Ba-bada, just do that. Da-da-da. Got it. Let's move on to the next one. So you're literally, yeah. Yes. Yeah, it's crazy. And then you're waiting for them to, you know, they're gonna edit it together, and then they're gonna hope they're gonna send it to you, because then you're gonna lip sync to yourself with the edits that they chose, and you don't know how we're gonna shoot it, right? My gosh. There was one song in it in the show that I did, which they filmed in one take, and they told me they wanted to film it in one take the day before or two days before we started, uh, shooting it. And I was terrified.

I stayed up to like four in the morning listening to that edited uh, you know, the song that I was gonna lip sync to because I knew they wanted to do it in one take. It was a couple minutes of me like walking and I had no idea what I was gonna be doing. This is uh I could if I wanted to. I was so scared of like, you know, we're in traffic. Granted, they I was they were taking very good care of me and everybody. Um, but it's stressful because there's no rehearsal and it's on camera, so it's gonna live forever. But what happens if your take while you're singing it isn't how you want to play that scene? Like that's it, right? You don't get to know recording how you want to play that scene. You don't even know what scene it's gonna be in.

Like you're you don't even know, like you know what I mean. You have limited information about uh how it's gonna function. That's just the difference. I mean, again, but I would say also Frozen, for example. I never got a script for Frozen, I had no idea what the story was until I saw the movie. Um to be honest, it's fine. No, it's just so it's such a different way of working than uh on stage where we're all on the same page and ultimately we're the ones in control of it.

[31:07] Nella Vera: How do you know how to play like if you don't know the rest of the script, how do you know if he's really a villain or if he's supposed to be like a bull?

[31:07] Santino Fontana: I guess the director tells you, yeah, but it also doesn't matter that that's what's that's also a great um just kind of an acting thing. Like, that's a great the bottom line is in each of those scenes, what do I need for Frozen, for example? You know, if the action is uh, you know, get this girl to like me. You like this girl, get this girl to like me. That's it. If he has ulterior motives, none of those can show up anyway. You know, so it doesn't mat like in some ways that doesn't matter. I'm sure. Uh and again, here's the other thing. Here's the other thing in an attribute of being on camera or the audio stuff for uh animated work. You give so many options that you're arming them, you're arming the editor and the writer and the director with here are all the ways I think this could work.

Yeah. And if you have any ideas or notes that you want me, I'm happy to do it another way. Which is kind of what we do in theater in rehearsals, and we all kind of choose which version do we think is best. I mean, there's a great story, I can't remember who it's attributed to, but there's an actor who had done a lot of theater who goes onto a TV set and says to the director, okay. I could play it like this, or I could also do this, or like, what about if I did it like that? Do, or do you want it more like that? And the director said, We hired you to pick that. We don't care. You do what you think we're supposed to do, and we'll tell you if we don't like it. Um it is uh, yeah, it's just a different, it's like a completely different playground.

[32:45] Nella Vera: I guess it's worked for a hundred years, so who am I to question it, right?

[32:49] Santino Fontana: Well, yeah, but you're not wrong in that it's all different, right? Everybody's the end where every every actor on camera, I'm sure Kristen, I'm sure Kristen Bell had the f knew the full story. She would have had to, I think. She also is in all of it. So um so it's different, everyone has a different, you know. I remember doing um on Shades of Blue, the show I did with uh Jennifer Lopez and Ray Liotta, which was a cop show. We didn't know where it was going by the end of the first season, but she did because and she would remember she would be giving us crumbs of like, oh, wait, but that's not gonna work if we do that, because in episode six, this and we'd be like, wait, what happens in episode six?

Tell us. Um, and I guess also it's the same for shows that have multi-season, you know, like the last like if you did the first season of Lost, you wouldn't know that the last season would end this way. You're just going by what's happening on that script right then and there. You have no clue, and you have signed up to tell the story however they choose to tell it.

[34:00] Nella Vera: Yeah, it's true. It's it is uh it's very different. Fascinating. Um, so in addition to your work in the theater and on the screen, you've also sung with a large number of orchestras ranging from the New York Phil to Sesame Street Muppets. Um, how did you start a career in concerts of this scale?

[34:22] Santino Fontana: You know, this all it's funny, it goes back to when we were talking about before people knew I sang, really. The uh Ted Sperling, uh conductor, you know, music arranger Tony winner himself for Light in the Piazza, he had he was working at the public, and I had done a reading of something where I hadn't sung in a long time, and um he said, you know, would you be interested in ever doing concerts like with orchestras? And I was like, uh sure. If you think I could, like it was also terrifying. My wife, I was dating my wife at the time, and I remember being like, I'm not supposed to be doing this, like I don't know what I'm doing. This is scary. I need a character, I need a rehearsal, I wanna like know, I want to talk about it.

To be honest, now it's one of like the most favorite things I do because if someone calls me and asks me to sing an orchestra, I will say yes. It's just so um special. And Ted is really responsible for introducing me to that world. And I've sung now with him all over the country, all over the country in various, you know, great, you know, venues with great orchestras. I love it. I love it. Very few people get to do it, and I'm lucky to get to.

[35:43] Nella Vera: Um, well, you sing a lot of Broadway and songbook. Uh do you have a favorite genre of music that isn't one of those?

[35:51] Santino Fontana: Um you know, I was I was kind of brought up in the uh I was a jazz kid. So I played jazz piano with uh the jazz band in high school, and that was kind of the music in my household. Um that I grew up with. I also was obsessed with Stevie Wonder, strangely. Um, I'd listen to whatever was on the radio when I was a kid. But um in these concerts, no, I mean typically the concerts, you know, they tell you what you're singing. And you're like, great, all right, can't wait. Um, also if you have a big orchestra of 60 pieces, or you know, the orchestra that I sang with in um in Utah, that was a hundred piece orchestra. Like wow, they're not gonna be, yeah, they're not gonna do a disco number. Like it's not gonna work. It won't it won't make sense.

[36:44] Nella Vera: Yeah.

[36:45] Santino Fontana: An orchestra of a hundred. That's yeah. What a dream.

[36:50] Nella Vera: Yeah.

[36:51] Santino Fontana: Yeah. Cause even on Broadway, I think it's the house minimums like, you know, the biggest theater has like what, 26, I think. Twenty something, yeah, exactly. So you get to go, you know. I mean, I've yeah, Carnegie Hall a handful of times and we did uh New York Philharmonic in Lincoln Center. It's glorious. It's just such a unique. It's also what you were saying earlier about to be in a room with all those instruments and watching it happen live and we don't know how is it gonna go? What's gonna happen? Is someone gonna make a mistake? Is this gonna you know? That's thrilling. It's thrilling. So fun.

[37:27] Nella Vera: So we do a lot of 54 sings tributes. Like we, you know, we do 54 Sings Gaga or 54 celebrates like David Bowie, and then artists also do that. Like we had Jared Spector data Springsteen show, and then um was it Ann Hampton Calloway just did a Peggy Lee show. So if you were to do a Santino Fontana sings show, what would it be?

[37:51] Santino Fontana: Oh god, I don't know. Uh I would need time to marinate on that and get back to you. Um I'm not sure. I don't know. I'll I I will but I will definitely think about it. I'm afraid to say the wrong thing and then be like somehow, you know, stuck to it.

[38:14] Nella Vera: Um I don't know.

[38:17] Santino Fontana: Well, we're whatever it is, we're gonna we'll be here for it. We'll we'll be excited to market it. Uh you it's funny, a lot of um, you know, we get a lot of artists who they just you know want to come here and do their own music or they want to do something super quirky that you know, maybe people are not used to having them sing, and it's like um that's kind of the great thing about cabaret, but also it's a little bit of me as a marketer is like, well, people want to hear you sing this because they love you in this. So you know it's kind of a little bit of a balance, I think. Like, um, and I think somebody like, for example, Norbert Leo Butz is always great about doing his own thing, but also just giving just enough of what the audience really, really wants.

So he draws a line, I think he draws the line at Wicked, but you know, everything else he does, you know, throw in a few things here or there or reorchestrates them, but um, but mostly he does his own stuff that he loves and and it works beautifully because he's you know got the audience gets what they want, and then he gets what he wants. But it's so interesting to me. Um, you know, just kind of the musical choices of artists who come through the door. And sometimes I think, oh, what's that gonna be? Does that artist even have enough songs? You know, and they do. It's incredible. You sit there and you're like, wait, I didn't know that that song was written by so and so, you know, it just turns out to be such a revelation, and those are such great shows um because you you're also learning something as an audience member.

[39:50] Nella Vera: So thanks so much for your time, Santino. Whatever your next show is, we're looking forward to it.

[39:57] Santino Fontana: Thank you. Where can are you on social media? Can people find you on the book?

[40:01] Santino Fontana: Yes, at Santino Fontana, both on Instagram and Twitter or X or whatever we're calling it, and threads.

[40:09] Nella Vera: Oh my god, I just joined threads.

[40:12] Santino Fontana: It is amazing though. I will say having as weird as it can be social media, it is uh people they pay attention. If they want to come out, they come out. It's great. It's amazing. I have, you know, had only good experiences on social media. So I'm a fan. I've met a lot of fans, like of theater, fellow fans. In fact, I was with somebody at 54 Below the other night who I met from theater Twitter. He and I, because we're older, we're on Twitter in two thousand nine together. Met as one of the few people who were on, you know, discussing theater. And after all of these years, we've actually become friends. So I've only had good experiences.

[40:56] Nella Vera: Oh that's great.

[40:56] Santino Fontana: I think nowadays it's a little different, but the the first the original theater crowd who was like on there discussing things and you know, there weren't that many of us initially.

[41:06] Nella Vera: So um we all kind of all know each other from those days.

[41:09] Santino Fontana: Great.

[41:09] Nella Vera: So at Santino Fontana. Otherwise, we will see you here in September, September 10, 12, 13, and 14 at 7 p.m. Thanks again so much. This was so fun.

[41:22] Santino Fontana: I look forward to meeting you in person and thanks to everybody out there listening. Hope to see you uh for Santino's show.

[41:31] 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. To find out more about our upcoming shows, visit us at 54below.org.