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[0:17] Andrew: Hello and welcome to another extra special episode of Make Me a Musical and I have an incredible guest.

[0:24] Andrew: Please join me in welcoming University of Michigan alum who you can currently see making their national tour debut in Beauty and the Beast, Caleb McArthur!

[0:33] Andrew: I went full Oprah Winfrey there.

[0:36] Caleb McArthur: I love it.

[0:37] Andrew: More Oprah in the world.

[0:38] Caleb McArthur: I love that.

[0:39] Andrew: How are you doing today, Caleb?

[0:41] Caleb McArthur: I'm great. I'm doing great. I'm currently in Greensboro, North Carolina, before I have Detroit next week.

[0:48] Andrew: Yeah. How's the tour been so far for you?

[0:50] Caleb McArthur: It's been great. Um, we started earlier this summer and we opened in Chicago in July. And we're still fairly early into the year. This is I think our seventh or eighth stop so far. Um, but it's been really exciting. It's been really fun traveling the country um and just seeing all the different parts of the US. It's been really, really fun.

[1:09] Andrew: So I'm very curious when actors are going up, they're kind of like they have the dream of stage, and you're kind of making you're in professional theater. Is it everything you expected when you saw national tours as a kid? Or is it kind of like ruined it to see how the sausage gets made?

[1:25] Caleb McArthur: No, I think it isn't ruined, but it is so cool to like see how the things that you grow up going to watch or your local touring house, how it is made. I mean, it's so funny how similar like the mechanics and the bells and whistles of it all are actually just similar to going and doing your community theater play. It's on a way higher scale and there's like a billion other moving, you know, forks and enchanted things and all those things, but at the end of the day, it's a very similar mechanic. So it's actually really nice to know that like that muscle that you work as a kid performing is still is working to the right thing. It's still rehearsal, you still get your breaks. So all the same mechanics, so that's pretty fun.

[2:05] Andrew: Yeah. Has there been any shock to the system in this experience?

[2:09] Caleb McArthur: Um, well, the first thing that comes to mind. So my role within the production is that I am a swing. So that essentially means that I am an offstage cover for all of our flats men ensemble. And then I also understudied the Beast and Gaston. So initially coming into it, I think just the shock to the system of covering eight tracks and like what that looks like and how you make these master plan sheets and like how you're tracking all these specific people. That was definitely initially just it was just different than like showing up, learning one track, learning one part in the play, and instead you have to learn eight. So that definitely was a bit of a challenge at first, but it makes it fun, it makes it exciting.

[2:51] Andrew: Is there a favorite track that you have or a favorite role that you've gotten to perform in this production?

[2:55] Caleb McArthur: So far, so in the swing world, we have this thing called swingo, where you can imagine you hit all of your tracks. So we actually recently one of our female swings just hit swingo and hit all six of our tracks. I've done four out of the eight so far. So far, I've had I've gotten to do a lot of time doing Gaston, and it has been really, really fun. He's such a fool, and he gets to like just whenever he's on stage, it's all about him. So it really is a lot of fun to do.

[3:21] Andrew: And I want to talk a little bit about your voice specifically.

[3:24] Caleb McArthur: Yeah, I love a berry tenor, I love baritones and the range of your voice and the clarity of your voice. It's so beautiful, and it's a style that is kind of going away. So seeing you out there doing it so perfectly, just every like your vocal reel one for one, incredible. But also I am so glad that someone's voice like yours is out there and doing it.

[3:52] Caleb McArthur: Yeah. I know what you mean.

[3:54] Andrew: There wasn't a question.

[3:55] Caleb McArthur: Yeah. But absolutely, I know what I remember being at U of M and like working on all this golden age rep that I just love and like fall in love with like all the Rogers and Hammerstein. All that like and I was like I hope this serves me in a way when I like get out there. And I really got as we all are on working actors like I really got really lucky in terms of like this show, this audition showing up at the right time and getting to kind of yeah use more of that golden age berry tenor sort of muscle. It's really it warms my heart to do it. And I'm glad that it's received well as well.

[4:26] Andrew: Now what year did you start U of M?

[4:28] Caleb McArthur: I started in fall of 2020.

[4:30] Andrew: Oh what was that like?

[4:30] Caleb McArthur: It was challenging for sure. I'm originally I didn't grow up in Michigan. I actually grew up in Athens, Georgia. Um, so it was hard already to kind of like do the whole big out of state transition. But yeah, my first year was predominantly online over Zoom. I was doing voice lessons, I was staying in an apartment like 10 minutes north of campus with another classmate and we would just wake up and do Zoom ballet and then we would go to our separate Zoom acting classes, Zoom voice. It definitely taught me resilience in terms of like the BFA program but it also I think made me take the rest of my years at U of M a bit more seriously because I was like yeah this it was so coveted to just like be in the room and do the work. So in a way there was a silver lining of that of I think the weight of the years following when we got to start Morby in first and I really took a bit more to heart and probably threw myself in too a bit more than I would.

[5:25] Andrew: I'm gonna be real mean here. If I were in your position, um, U of M is not a cheap school to go to. And if I were um getting Zoom classes, I may have been a little upset. Um, but I feel that way about everyone during that time.

[5:40] Caleb McArthur: Absolutely, yes. It was yeah, yep.

[5:43] Andrew: And that means we had to graduate high school during COVID times.

[5:47] Caleb McArthur: Yes, I think.

[5:47] Andrew: You missed a lot, my friend. I'm so sorry.

[5:49] Caleb McArthur: Oh, it's all good. Again, like it like, yeah, it obviously has its pitfalls in it. It was unfortunate in a lot of ways, but it made me learn a lot and it was a good way to transition, I think, into just where we be young adulthood of like, all right, it yeah, it's game time. You kinda gotta find for yourself for a bit. So it was good.

[6:06] Andrew: Now I am wondering, you are a bit on the younger side. Um, were you able to see the original national tour or Broadway production of Beauty and the Beast before you ended up being a part of this national tour?

[6:18] Caleb McArthur: I was not able to see the original Disney's Beauty and the Beast on Broadway or on tour. I will say my first ever show that I saw on a national tour or Broadway was Disney's The Lion King. So there's still that Disney drop in there, um, which I just fell in love with. I mean she has a single Lion King go. Just the puppets. I mean it's so great. I call it babies first tourist theater. Like it is really kind of the idea of non-literalism and telling a very famous story. And I think like for people to understand what theater can be, Lion King is perfect. And same with Beauty and the Beast.

[6:52] Andrew: Um, Beauty and the Beast started it and I think kind of perfected what a Disney musical can be.

[6:58] Caleb McArthur: Um, and what changes are you do you see being brought to this production where you're like, oh, this is interesting and new take on the story?

[7:06] Caleb McArthur: Totally. Um, well, one amazing thing about this production, we started rehearsals in May, and we had a lot of the original creatives actually come in and like rework some things. So Linda Woolverton, who originally wrote the screenplay and was also the book writer on the musical, she came in. She actually wrote a couple new scenes specifically for Gaston and LaFou. So that was incredibly exciting to watch our Gaston, Stephen Mark Lucas and our LeFou, Harry Crancis, like work with Linda and figure out ways to like make these new scenes work for this show that has been around for so long. Um, there's a couple of new scenes that I think are more geared to a contemporary audience, but still have that old school Disney charm, which is really hard to pull off. It's amazing to watch.

[7:49] Caleb McArthur: Um, and then yeah, I mean, I think there's a lot of like minor changes if you're a big fan of the original production that you'll definitely spot when you come and see it. But overall, I mean, it is tale as old as time. I mean, it is a timeless story, and the things that you adjust that the creatives adjusted totally makes sense, but they really keep the meat of the story in there. Um, and just the beautiful, like the objects, the romance between Belle and the Beast. It's all just as you remember from the film.

[8:17] Andrew: That's amazing. Um, now I kind of want to talk about you. Like, we've been talking about the production, we've been doing that, we we've been hitting the check marks, but I really kind of want to learn about you and your artistic theater goals. First and foremost, what is your all-time dream role? Like, what is that thing that that white whale of yours?

[8:36] Caleb McArthur: Oh god, I need to get a good answer to this. I will say for the longest time, my dream role is just to be anybody in Falsettos, um, by William Finn. Um, and then my senior year actually, through U of M's student group Basement Arts, I got to play Wizard. And it was, I mean, it was so much fun. It was like a three-week rehearsal, and then we just did a weekend of shows, but it could last me a lifetime. So honestly, just to do that show again in any capacity, even if I'm just like a standby and I don't even go out, just to be in the room to hear that music, hear that story. It's just such it's so well written. Um, what William Finn wrote. So honestly, any part of Falsettos, I think.

[9:18] Andrew: Um, well, you brought up your past role. So I c what we do when I interview folks is I want we are the cheese wheel, which means we give cheese ratings. So at the end of everything we cover, we give a cheese rating of it. So I want you to give cheese ratings for every show that you have publicly on your resume, which I don't think is extensive or a completionist version of that. Because you've done a lot of other stuff. But I'm just gonna go straight down. I want you to tell me about that experience and what your cheese rating for it would be.

[9:47] Caleb McArthur: Okay, wonderful. Are you ready?

[9:48] Andrew: I am, I am.

[9:49] Caleb McArthur: I'm going through my cheese. First and foremost, we have May We All.

[9:54] Caleb McArthur: May We All at the Rev. Ooh. I'm gonna say a oh a white cheddar. It was because it was a very homey, nostalgic show, and it was it was gooey. Um, but it was like it was it was you knew what you were gonna get when going there and it still was tasted and was amazing.

[10:13] Andrew: Yeah. Incredible. And then we've got Beautiful.

[10:16] Caleb McArthur: Beautiful. Oh, I did that at um Wagonwheel Center for the Arts in Indiana. I would say, oh, ooh, um, I'm gonna go with a pepper jack, actually, because it just it it was not at least for me, it wasn't what I expected it to be. I played Jerry and it was it was a lot more spicy than I thought it would be going into it. And it was really like there were parts of it that really challenged me, but I walked away from that learning so much about how I want to portray a character hiring and perform. And I just I really it was a wonderful experience.

[10:47] Andrew: Yes, that show is beautiful. Um, speaking of a different kind of experience, The Wedding Singer.

[10:52] Caleb McArthur: Yeah, I did that the same summer. Um gosh, like um I almost want to say string cheese. It was just fun. It was just like yeah, just string it out. Like it was just I had a lot of fun. I was in the ensemble and I just danced my heart out with a bunch of other college kids. It was really a blast. It was really fun.

[11:12] Andrew: Then of course, Kiss Me, Kate.

[11:14] Caleb McArthur: Um, controversial show.

[11:16] Andrew: Yes, absolutely.

[11:17] Caleb McArthur: Um, that was that was really fun because of kind of what we were talking about earlier. It was nice to work that baritone kind of old school vocal muscle. Um, it was classic, it was but it was no, but so all there.

[11:31] Andrew: Yeah, I love how quickly you've caught on to the cheese rating gimmick.

[11:36] Caleb McArthur: It's so great.

[11:37] Caleb McArthur: I'm sorry, I'm just in it feeling it. Um then Mama Mia. Um I'm running out of cheeses. Um gosh, I'm gonna go with like a Chipotle cheddar sort of cheese. I've only remembered those from like when I've gotten those on sandwiches sometimes, but like it was it was really exciting, and I always it I I've always wanted to do that show. Um, and it was a similar kind of vibe to wedding sick, honestly. I'm just like I was in the ensemble doing this really fun show that was just a whole lot of fun. Um yeah, so I'll say Chipotle. I mean, if ABBA plays at a wedding, do you just whip out those dance moves?

[12:10] Andrew: Yes, I'm sprinting to the dance floor as everybody else should bring.

[12:14] Caleb McArthur: It's the only way I completely agree. And then we talked a bit about this. One of my favorite musicals. I wish I could have had the opportunity to see you play this because I was right down the road. I don't know why I missed out. Falsettos where you played Wizard. Can a cheese equivalent?

[12:29] Andrew: No, I need to think of one that like is really gonna send it home.

[12:32] Caleb McArthur: Um I already sell pepper track. I do love pepper track. Um do you know like the Bay Bell cheese? Like the ones that like have trapped. The red ones.

[12:42] Andrew: Yeah.

[12:43] Caleb McArthur: I'm gonna go with that. Just because that holds such a special place in my heart of like being on car trips and like unraveling them with my siblings. So like it's a nostalgic one, and in a way, like I fell in love with falsettos in high school, and then I just remember like driving down my country road screaming games I play. So I think for the nostalgia, I'm gonna go with Babel. And it just it's oh yeah. Can't talk enough about it. And now I'm gonna skip to the end be for timing, but Beauty and the Beast, the show you're currently in.

[13:13] Andrew: Yes.

[13:14] Caleb McArthur: Um I gotta I yeah, I shouldn't know more cheeses. Um I'm gonna say a provolone, maybe yeah. Um, I haven't said Swiss.

[13:28] Andrew: Swiss actually kind of works for that.

[13:29] Caleb McArthur: Yeah. I'm gonna go with Swiss because I think it's like no, I I'm not as much as a cheese comboer as I should be, but does Swiss have holes in it?

[13:37] Andrew: Yes, it does.

[13:38] Caleb McArthur: Yes. I think there's there's something there with that in terms of like just an allegory. Um originally you're like, oh, I don't like that. Oh, it has holes in it, as we say to the beast, but there's there's more there. Just give it a bite, give it a try.

[13:52] Andrew: That is a perfect analogy. Um, and now the the the reason why we call this show Make Me a Musical. It is time for you to make a musical out of your life. Um, I am curious. What is your pitch? Like, let's just say I'm Jeffrey Seller, and you have to pitch me a musical about your life and how it would be. What is that pitch and where does the story start and where does it end?

[14:16] Caleb McArthur: Okay. So overall, first things that come to mind, I think, just in terms of trajectory, I think act one is gonna be a bit more of a country sound in terms of the score. And then there's gonna be a shift in act two. Um I don't know what it's gonna be, but we're gonna get there. But we're gonna start, we're starting in Georgia, in rural Georgia. Um, and I I think I feel like it'll start at like age like 11. That seems wise. Yes, because that's when I started dancing, and that's when I I originally started out as primarily a dancer, my local studio. Um and honestly, I think that like aha, like I one moment of oh, this is like iron iron storyteller, I'm a performer, I'm gonna do this. Funnily enough, has to be, I think, like after the first time I ever did musical, which it was Strack for Musical, where I played the made-up role of Raggedy Andy.

So I think in some way it's like an I one song of like it's definitely camp and it's a it's ridiculous, and the 11-year-old would be like in like stage makeup still wiping it off, but it would be it would be it would still have a folky sort of vibe to it, similar to that of like the outsiders, but it would be very campy.

[15:20] Andrew: What do you think the title would be?

[15:22] Caleb McArthur: Um gosh. I mean, if you're wiping away stage makeup, like wipe the show away or something like that. Just um I like that. I like wipe wipe wipe it all away.

[15:32] Andrew: Yeah, something like that. I love it.

[15:34] Caleb McArthur: Yeah. Awesome. Okay, so you you were 11, you grow up, um, COVID hits, and then you go to college. Like, how long did you were you in like you grew up in Georgia, and when did you decide I'm headed to the mitten?

[15:48] Caleb McArthur: So yeah. Um, halfway through high school, I was like, I kept hearing about these BFA programs throughout the country, and so I Googled, as anybody else might use would of like what are the best friends? And U of M was consistently at the top. And I was like, okay, oh yeah. Although they which is insane because that's I was so naive. I was like, yeah, I'll just do that. I mean, it's so so difficult to get into that program. Um so uh yeah, something about like me. I'm feeling like a come from a way, like welcome to the mitt. We can't, you know, like steal that obviously, but like something of like I arrive and it's very like all the Michigander things of yeah, okay. Like, what are the biggest Michigander things that were like you know, culture shock?

[16:30] Andrew: Um I mean, well, it was this more, yeah, like culture, the weather, which you know goes without saying, obviously it's the Midwest, but it was really, and I knew that was coming, but I think just just the grays of the winter was definitely a shock at first. Um, I think game days were something that really took me by surprise. I grew up like a football fan being in the south. Um, and so to see Ann Arbor transform on Saturday mornings was surreal. Gosh, what else? You know, I will say I well also fall. I I I always thought I knew what fall was, and I'm so excited to be in Detroit when like it's mid-October. That like blew my mind.

[17:08] Caleb McArthur: Um because we're trying to go to some Apple orchards while you're here?

[17:11] Andrew: Yes.

[17:11] Caleb McArthur: I just exactly right. I think the first week I'm there, I'm gonna be going to some to the Dexter Syrial, which is why which is what I went to all the time. Um so yeah, some the a lot of like I guess it's definitely fall in the welcome to the Myth number, and it's and there's a lot of there's a lot of game day lingo. I think right now, have you ever seen the University of Russians like senior entrance videos? I think that's just what I'm painting in my head. I'm just me. Another one of those numbers. So yeah, welcome to the Myth. Something in there.

[17:40] Andrew: I love that. Okay. And is that the end of act one? Like welcome to the Myth or the start of act two?

[17:45] Caleb McArthur: I think that's the end of act one. Like yeah. I think that's walking through the mid, blackout, curtain. Everyone's like, whoa, like what's gonna happen? And then yeah, I think that's I I think we just uh yeah, I think I think it picks up sophomore year. I think we kind of for timing's sake, we just skip like all it. Nobody wants to see it about COVID right now. We're too soon. So I think we just skip over that. And we just go to sophomore year and like navigating. I had a I think there's a whole number in there about me navigating um my voice and like vocal like tribulations because I came into college really like not being able to say much that was higher.

[18:19] Andrew: Oh really?

[18:20] Caleb McArthur: Yeah, I had like because I like in high school I had a more classical voice teacher. And so we and I naturally have a baritone sort of singing voice. So I think that that was a lot of my time that you have in uh just like navigating that with the I had the same voice teacher all four years. She's also you have been alone, Chelsea Packard. She changed my life and sorry, so just like how to navigate modern musical theater repertoire. And so I think there's definitely uh a musical number in there somewhere with a lot of voice cracks, racing higher, aiming higher.

[18:49] Andrew: Yeah, and ever aiming higher.

[18:51] Caleb McArthur: I love that. Um yeah, and it's and it's it's full ensemble, it's mostly it's not a huge dance number. Um, but yeah, it's a lot of voice cracks, it's near the end for sure. Intentionally, not not unintentionally by the performers.

[19:06] Andrew: So now we're pushing through your college experience, and it's recent. You just graduated in 2024. You are still so early in your career. Um, what do you think the 11 o'clock number, if your musical had to end in 2025 on the national tour of Beauty and the Beast? What is your 11 o'clock number moment?

[19:25] Caleb McArthur: I think oh that being the yeah, yeah, I think when I made my V St U, which was in Durham, which was I think September second. Yeah. And walking out of the stage door and like my beloved family. My mom brought about like 50 to 60 people at it just very emotional because I just it was Yeah, it was everything I really I really dreamed of was performing on an N4 Tour. And it's I'm so lucky to be doing it this and not a college and to see so many people like over the years, like my old high school friends, my mom's friends, aunts and uncles that I didn't see for years. It was all like a culmination of like coming together. So I don't know what I think like I don't want to say it felt like an arrival even like so long ago. So I don't want to like title it something like that, but it just like a like a we're here moment of like a satisfaction for sure.

[20:17] Andrew: Yeah, yeah. It's definitely it would definitely be sappy for sure.

[20:21] Caleb McArthur: Well, congratulations, you just made yourself a musical. I hope Jeff. How do you feel?

[20:26] Andrew: I feel good. I I don't know what Jeffrey Sell I bought it, but we'll see. I I uh you know what? He he's definitely talking to people. Some ground vice. Sure.

[20:36] Caleb McArthur: Yeah. Who do you who do would you pitch to compose the music for your musical?

[20:40] Andrew: Oh my gosh. Um, okay, honestly, just because this is because I was kind of going with the folk thing in the beginning. I think it would have to be a combo of writers due to the Vassarrea, just even school numbers. I think one of them actually would be the Bright Star composing duo of Steve Martin and oh gosh, Raquel, I'm forgetting her first name, who also wrote the music for but Steve Martin wrote the music for Bright Star, which I think is hysterical. And I'd also went in there to like throw in a few jokes. So I think will there be a baby thrown off a train at some point in your musical?

[21:13] Caleb McArthur: Maybe we'll work than in it would be very like cool what's that? Um yeah, I like that. There's a baby throw somewhere in there. Um, and then oh maybe we can ask Alan to come in, Alankin for the epic moments.

[21:28] Andrew: Oh, he he would donate songs from Beauty and the Beast. You'd be like, Yes, let's do this.

[21:34] Caleb McArthur: Alan seems so game for most things.

[21:36] Andrew: Yeah, yeah. We I I still haven't met him personally personally, but he's used.

[21:40] Caleb McArthur: Yeah, yeah. That's shocking. It's gonna happen. I think most of our principals were able to have one-on-one time with him, but yeah, he seems remarkable. So I'm sure he'd be game. I'll talk to him.

[21:48] Andrew: Well, um, I think you all should go right now to Broadway and Detroit and go see and reserve your tickets to Disney's Beauty and the Beast. It'll be playing at the Fisher Theater October 1st through 12th of 2025. Um, I'm I'm excited to see it, and I'm really hoping I get an opportunity to see you perform live on stage. Not that I wish any of our leads any ill will, but you know, I pick favorites.

[22:18] Caleb McArthur: Is there anything else you'd like to promote, whether it's your social media, your website, or anything like that?

[22:23] Caleb McArthur: Sure, you can follow me on Instagram at Caleb B. McArthur. So it's two B's in there. Um, you can look me up, Boongoogle me. Um, yeah, and I really hope you come down to the Fisher. It's a really fantastic show. Um, if you're a big fan of Beauty and the Beast, you'll love it. If you have never seen the film, you'll love it. It is really it is a funny, heartwarming, teary-eyed show. You'll love it.

[22:44] Andrew: Caleb, this has been absolutely wonderful. Thank you for your time this afternoon, and we'll see you next time on Wolf Media Squad.