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[0:12] Jess: Hello and welcome to the Cheese Wheels Make Me a Musical. I have an incredible guest today. I am very excited to welcome multi-faceted actor, director, bartender, and lighting designer who you can currently see in the National Tour of Beetlejuice: The Musical hailing from beautiful Livonia, Michigan. It's Matt Kurzyniec. Hello, Matt.

[0:32] Matt Kurzyniec: Hi, how's it going?

[0:34] Jess: I love for those of you who are not watching the video version of this. Uh Matt just demonstrated exactly where he was from on the mitten.

[0:41] Matt Kurzyniec: Yes.

[0:42] Jess: Um, this is incredible. I every time I'm offered this, I always want to talk to Michigan people. Um Livonia is a beautiful spot in Michigan, and I you are Mich you went to Central, you went to Western Mich You stayed here for that education.

[0:57] Matt Kurzyniec: All around, I did the full Michigan tour, absolutely. I've got friends in Traverse City that I'm gonna go and visit hopefully soon and like, yeah, absolutely. Love it.

[1:05] Jess: Uh I I I I know that we can't be pitting uh theater schools against each other, but that makes me so happy to see people that went to live in Michigan that didn't just go to Carnegie Mellon, you know.

[1:17] Matt Kurzyniec: Exactly, yes.

[1:18] Jess: I um I always yeah, I I love I've got a lot of friends that went to Eastern. I got a lot of friends that went to University of Michigan. My little brother uh went to Michigan State, so like I've I love all the Michigan schools, but um yeah, I love Western, love Central. It's great.

[1:35] Jess: Well now I'm I guess my first question is what made you decide to go to Central and Western, like Central specifically, because I know there's a lot of musical theater individuals in high school right now that are trying to figure out how to get their start in. What made you decide Central?

[1:48] Matt Kurzyniec: Absolutely. Um so I think that like one of the things I really liked about Central is that like the students there and the teachers were all like I wouldn't I I would say it's a fairly newer musical theater program, but from that, the people are hungry. Like they're very um eager to to write their own shows and to produce their own stuff. And so and the professors there were really cool about like giving you the resources to do those things. Um when I was there, one of our professors had found some old writings of this children's book that was that was performed in um concentration camps during during the Holocaust. And so she rewrote and retooled that show, um, restaged it for the main stage, and then ended up taking it to the Czech embassy in Washington, DC, and then took it to I believe it was Tel Aviv um to like perform it there.

So like the people there were really, really wonderful, and um and kind of mm, whatever you wanted to do with your career and your education, you you had the ability to do so. Western had so many connections and like Western had uh a well-oiled uh musical theater school that like I'd wanted to go to from the beginning. Um Jay Burko, who's our was our uh head professor there, um, is uh a dream of a professor and really like gives you the ability to to craft what your what your career is going to be as a as a performer. So he um really got me to where I I wanted to be today, and I couldn't have done it without him.

[3:19] Jess: It's really cool. I I love it. Um and I Michigan has been called the second biggest theater like state, like uh outside of New York. I I fully believe that. Do you agree with that?

[3:30] Matt Kurzyniec: I do, yes. Um, I think uh I would say third because I know Florida has so many theaters, but I do think that like Michigan has this untapped um or like maybe not fully realized like wealth of of theater. I mean, like some of the stuff that they're that they're doing, like even at the Croswell Theater in Adrian, like oh my god, it's beautiful, like multi-million dollar productions and and you know uh the South Peninsula of Michigan. It's really cool. Have you ever been to the Barn Theater um not far from uh King of the Zoo?

[4:03] Jess: Yes, yes, I've gone and seen a couple of shows there.

[4:05] Matt Kurzyniec: Um I've never worked there, but um I remember a couple years ago I went and saw some shows and it's great. And uh like all the stuff they're doing in Ann Arbor is great, and but there's also um the Purple Rose, right? And and there's so and oh um uh the Dearborn uh theater guild. I've seen some stuff there too.

[4:24] Jess: Like it really is. Um I'm I'm happy that like we're putting oh and the and Flint has their Flint rep and God spool, come on.

[4:34] Matt Kurzyniec: Exactly, like, but they're doing new things and like making it really innovative. And I um yeah, I would love to come back hopefully someday to like you know either perform there or direct or or you know who knows, may open my own theater company. We'll see. But like I love love Michigan. I love it.

[4:50] Jess: But now let's move on to professional theater. You made the jump to New York, you did all that. But I I I'm really jumping quite far. We gotta talk bartender.

[5:00] Matt Kurzyniec: Yes, yes.

[5:00] Jess: So I moved, yeah.

[5:02] Matt Kurzyniec: No, no, no, you got this.

[5:04] Jess: Um yeah, I uh so when I moved to New York in 2015, 2016, I think. Um I you know, every actor needs to find a survival job. And you know, like what can you do in between like performing gigs that you can like make money and still kind of be in the world of the industry? And um, I had a friend that told me about bartending at like these Broadway shows. So I got there and applied for all the different uh producing companies, and I ended up getting hired by uh Sandbar Concessions, which is does all the Niederlander houses, and my very first show that I worked on was Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, which was a Warner Brothers property, um, where I found out that they were workshopping this musical version of Beetlejuice, and I was told that, like, yeah, there's this this new musical version.

Um, Eddie Perfect, who uh wrote um King Kong and he's done so many like you know, musical comedy things, big Australian um uh musician, composer, and uh lyricist, and he was writing this musical, and I'm like, oh, it sounds fascinating, especially because working with Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, I'm already seeing like the amount of spectacle and everything else. Um then it came out, and it's always kind of been in like the oh, that sounds interesting. And I uh I saw the show on Broadway, fell in love, and um I've said this before, but I saw it on May 1st of 2019 was the very first time I saw the show, and um, so later on when it closed for COVID, reopened after uh the pandemic, uh, it was at one of our theaters, and so I actually was able to bartend, I was hired, not hired, I was um scheduled to bartend the reopening on Broadway.

So I was at the front of house, you know, making drinks while a couple of my friends here who are on the tour with me were like inside performing. Um, and so it's like I still have to be a part of this show. So I auditioned for the cruise ship production, which was like an hour and a half condensed version, um, but totally like revamped and and flipped on its head um in the best of ways, and I ended up getting that, and then auditioning for the tour was on May 1st, 2024. So five years to the actual day of when I first saw it on Broadway was uh my audition, and here I am now.

[7:10] Matt Kurzyniec: It's a wild journey.

[7:11] Jess: But that is a wild. I mean, I gotta I got follow-up questions on each section. But first of all, what was that night like? That reopening, like because Broadway was it was scary. Uh for the kids there that were not there, it was scary for a while. So coming back masked up, I'm assuming.

[7:29] Matt Kurzyniec: You know what's funny? It was masked up, but like everyone was decked out in in costumes, and it's it's the most I've ever experienced like a full rock concert. Just being like on the outside of it, too, feeling the walls shake from like the amount of cheering and applause that were happening. Um our our creative team and the people that have created this musical have have made such a um a wonderful, heartfelt, funny show that like really has withstood all of this. I mean, uh it went past the pandemic, it went like it's it's it's a runaway train. And I think it's because people have this love for it. They they realize like it has such heart, it has so much um love and and care for the audience, and it's really a cool thing.

[8:16] Jess: I I wholeheartedly agree. This will be when it comes to Detroit in a couple weeks, that'll be my third time seeing it uh once I'm gonna do it.

[8:23] Matt Kurzyniec: Exactly, yeah.

[8:24] Jess: Yeah, yeah.

[8:24] Matt Kurzyniec: Uh um, I I you gotta do it at least three times.

[8:27] Jess: Um so I got gotta ask, what is the as someone that was involved in the tour or the cruise production and the tour? Those are wholly different experiences. What it like I I have friends that do a lot of cruise line work, so this is kind of a loaded question. What was that like in comparison to uh the national tour?

[8:46] Matt Kurzyniec: Uh it was uh an incredible experience. Um so we were fortunate enough to work with the original Broadway creative team to kind of retool and revamp this show because it needed to be an hour and a half. So we had to cut an hour essentially from the show. And um they did such a wonderful job of finding still keeping the heart but um finding ways to tell the same story um in a in a more faster like in a faster pace and more condensed still has all the same great bits and jokes and and magic and spectacle and we actually got back some of the things that uh we didn't have we don't have for the tour um one of them being um the Maitland's death um I don't want to spoil anything but the one that happens on Broadway um can't really happen um because of touring you know being on the road but on the cruise ship because we were built in this this venue um we were able to get some of those magical effects back which is really really exciting um but yeah we got to like fine-tune and okay this isn't working let's let's try this and we got it down to an hour and a half and maybe an hour 35 with laughter but you have to consider that in um exactly of course and how long have you been with this national tour?

[9:58] Matt Kurzyniec: So I a little over a year. Um I joined May of twenty four. Um so I joined last year and I made my debut in Mexico City last August um because there was a long like rehearsal process we had a little bit of a layoff. But yeah I made my debut in Mexico City. It's also where I made my Beetlejuice debut as an understudy um which was a a wild exciting ride. Um and yeah I've been been with it ever since we've gone all over North America we've gone to Canada we've been to Alaska all over it's great.

[10:29] Jess: Um so you correct me if I'm wrong, you cover three roles Beetlejuice, Adam, and Otho. Um you have three different line sets, you have three different like dance tracks, you got all these things going in your head. I I I have nothing but the utmost respect for understudy swings, all of them, because they have, in my opinion, a much harder job of not just remembering one role but remembering three and having to be ready for those three. Um how do you keep sharp with those?

[10:54] Matt Kurzyniec: Um We do, so it's funny. We um our stage management team and it has is so wonderful that like we have weekly rehearsals, and um I know that like people are surprised to hear that, like, oh well the show's been open, why do you and in the professional world rehearsals never stop and they're always much appreciated too because you're right, we don't get to go on as much. Um and so to keep those those tools sharp and to keep all the words that are like stuck up here um fresh, we we have these rehearsals. We have actually we have a rehearsal today at at one o'clock because we're putting in a new cast member. And so we're gonna run through the show. We've got some understudies in and changing it up, and and it's it's fun to kind of see like all the different pairings too, and like, oh, these two haven't done Adam and Barbara together before, so let's see how they do it. And so that's really exciting to see um the different changes.

[11:49] Matt Kurzyniec: But yeah, I mean it's the the joke that I always say is if you if you watch the this show Severance, that like the second you walk into the theater or you know which role you have to turn that part of your brain off and so you don't say the other person's lines, and yeah, it's it's a fun time.

[12:04] Jess: I'm gonna assume you have a favorite out of those three.

[12:08] Matt Kurzyniec: Oh, for sure. I mean, like, well, actually, no, I wouldn't say for sure. I mean, uh I I do I mean I look the most like Beetlejuice, um, with the beard and the dark hair. Um, and I'm anytime I'm mistaken for Justin, I'm honored because what a good looking man, but a great leading leading role. And so if I can be compared, I'll take it. Um, but yeah, no, I actually I love Adam too. I uh I like when I went back on the cruise ship. I so I did the original cast on on the cruise ship. I went back to play Adam, and it's such a wonderful, wonderful role. And you get to have like just the most awesome scene partner, whoever your Barbara is. Right now we have Megan McGinnis, who's like a Broadway like legend.

[12:49] Matt Kurzyniec: And so amazing director herself as well.

[12:51] Jess: Exactly, yeah. So, like getting to play opposite of her was just like like a huge bucket list of mine.

[12:58] Matt Kurzyniec: Um and Otho as well. Otho is like every single Otho that we have here is completely different, which is really fun. Like, okay, what are we getting uh today? So it's really really cool. Um, but yeah, I mean, and Beetlejuice is fun because you get to talk to the audience, you get to like interact with them and and you know, share little moments and jokes, and it's really it I mean, all of my understudies are great.

[13:20] Jess: Do you ever find yourself like you know, having a uh a bad voice congestion day and like, oh, I hope Beetlejuice comes out. I hope that growls come out. For me, like it do I ever have those moments of like is it gonna happen?

[13:35] Matt Kurzyniec: Um yes and no. The nice thing is is that you don't have to sound too pretty with it. So it um yeah, I mean the nice thing is is that our our um our sound department are so well like um skilled that they can make us sound good even on a bad day. But uh, you know, it's it's funny. Um every Beetlejuice has a different way that they do their voice. I've found a way to do mine that's very healthy and like it doesn't uh cause much strain or anything. So that's it's fun to like okay.

[14:14] Matt Kurzyniec: I've definitely taken a long time to craft this. Well, you also do a lot of work with sleight of hand at Beetlejuice, and really as all of them, like there's a lot of technical things, and I'm sure that's part of the rehearsals. But is there like VFX or rehearsals alongside the actual performance rehearsals? Absolutely. I mean, we've got like the amount of flash paper we're using and like, you know, like sparks and sleight of hand and, you know, pulling things from different jacket pockets and hiding—without spoilers—but like, oh, you're right, there's a lot of magic that goes into this show. I grew up, you know, in Livonia and doing magic tricks for my family, like in the basement or in the backyard.

So it's always kind of been in the back of my skill set. I've always known a little bit of how to do that kind of stuff, but to work with this creative team and to learn how to actually do it, it's really cool. Yes, there also have been some mishaps on stage as well, which are very fun and funny moments. But for the most part, yeah, I mean, it's really cool to like you can hear the gasps in the audience with some of the tricks that we do, which is really, really cool.

[15:25] Jess: That's fantastic. I do kind of want to talk a little bit about your direction work, like, and as well.

[15:32] Matt Kurzyniec: Oh my gosh. He's a running, he's a rock star, look at him go. He's back, he's back, he's back. Actors, we always have our water on us.

[15:40] Jess: All right, so we directing.

[15:42] Matt Kurzyniec: Yes, I love actors that direct and vice versa. I really think that they have a better in-tune with how it feels to receive direction than most directors. But I also want to know like what would be your dream project to direct? Like I've seen the photos and images of your Assassins, which looks beautiful.

[16:03] Matt Kurzyniec: Oh my gosh. So I'm curious what would be a directorial dream project for you.

[16:08] Matt Kurzyniec: So actually I need to update my website because I've been fortunate to direct. So I directed Assassins, which I love the show. I also directed a production of Company, which is another Stephen Sondheim show. And so now I kind of want to like do all of the big Stephen Sondheim shows. I would love to do like Into the Woods and Sweeney Todd. Ugh, I love it. So, but also I love doing new work. I love creating something that no one's ever done before. And I think that like my skill set is definitely on the end of like how can we do like more spectacle kind of shows, especially on like a shoestring budget. Shows like Peter and the Starcatcher, which is another show that I've done, that they can like make these fantastic worlds out of like some rope and a couple of chairs and some cloth, and I really like—I love that kind of theater.

[16:58] Matt Kurzyniec: And yeah, I mean, I don't know, there's always going to be a new project and something like ooh, this is really exciting. Also, New York has such a wonderful theater scene of like off-Broadway stuff. So I'm seeing some off-Broadway stuff like when I go back to New York next week, and hopefully I'll see some cool exciting things.

[17:16] Jess: Oh, I guess this would be impossible, but if I were—my favorite thing to do whenever I go to a different state, a different country is just look up whatever is playing at a local community theater and just seeing if I can stop there. I highly doubt you get the opportunity to do that while on tour, but if you have, I'm curious.

[17:34] Matt Kurzyniec: Well, actually here, so I was lucky enough that Lion King is playing here as well, which like I know is in community theater. But there's a lot of Canadian performers in it, one of whom I did a show with before, so I got to go and see them in it, and it was just such a wonderful—my please can I play Timon someday? Like, what a great role. He comes in at the end of act one and then only does act—oh, it's the dream. So it was very fun though to see that show.

[18:07] Jess: That's incredible. Well, that leads well into the next section of this where we play a little kind of improv creativity game called Make Me a Musical, the namesake of the show. Um, so I want you to make yourself a musical about your life. Starting with your early beginnings in Lavonia, what would be the opening number for your musical based on yourself?

[18:31] Matt Kurzyniec: An opening number. Um, I guess okay, going with like what we've talked about, we'll do like starting out in theater and like trying to do like, you know, we see this beautiful handsome good look—well wait for back that far. We'll go like yeah, let's go Matt in college. Let's start there.

[18:59] Matt Kurzyniec: All right. He's 18 years old, he's beautiful. Starting out in theater, trying to do magic tricks. Oh, this is so cringy now. Now saying out loud. It's always interesting, but I think like I think just like if we're starting with an opening number, you're trying to lull an audience in to get to know Matt. And I like the idea of starting with magic tricks. Like just I'm thinking like almost like the opening of Pippin and you just say let's make some magic. And that's like that, like—or we go the Barnum route with make 'em—was that Barnum? Make 'Em Laugh? No, it's not. Oh my god. No, that's singing in the rain. Yes, what's Barnum has a—oh there's a sucker born every minute? That's me.

[19:51] Matt Kurzyniec: Um, I actually it might be more that route of like, you know, just wanting to like make people laugh and telling a story and something along those lines.

[20:00] Jess: I love it. I mean, is that what you would call your I Want song though, like born to entertain kind of?

[20:05] Matt Kurzyniec: Yeah, I think so. I 100% of like there's gotta be like more stories you can tell and more people to make laugh, and getting out of Michigan, which at the time, or at least when I was younger, like I wasn't doing too much, like so I want to bring this wealth of theater and everything back to Michigan. So maybe that's what it is, is I want to go and be the best that I can be and bring it back home with me.

[20:33] Jess: And then you're off to your call to adventure to New York and you're bartending a lot.

[20:39] Matt Kurzyniec: From bartender to Broadway, exactly. Which yeah, I think there'd be some great spectacle. We don't have any shows that have bartenders on stage, so we can have, you know, for like Margaritaville.

[20:51] Jess: Oh, that is true. We do have Margaritaville, absolutely.

[20:54] Matt Kurzyniec: Um, which I also bartended that too. I mean, if there's a place for bartenders, it's Margaritaville.

[21:01] Jess: Exactly.

[21:02] Matt Kurzyniec: Oh yeah, we made so much money during that show because we just sold so many drinks. It was great, it was a blast. Um, but yeah, like cocktail style, like bartending tricks, like that should be a number. It's kind of like Gaston in Beauty and the Beast when they have all the mugs and everything. That'd be perfect.

[21:24] Jess: I like it. And then you're off. And the thing is, I think you're still very early. There's still so much going on in your life and career. So I don't want to wrap it up. I feel like we could only get to the end of Act One for your story, and where do you think we're leaving off there?

[21:39] Matt Kurzyniec: It's new horizons. A lot of exciting things in store. Definitely some cliffhangers, because of course I can't spoil anything. I can't spoil like any possible future things after Detroit, but there's some inklings that yeah.

[22:00] Jess: Can you okay? Try to tell me what these things are just with your face. Let's see how good those acting—like let's put the acting to the test.

[22:08] Matt Kurzyniec: Um, I can—what I can say is that no matter what it is, it's gonna be bigger and more exciting, and who knows, right? It's—I can't say anything. Not that good of a poker.

[22:24] Jess: Not even just a facial expression.

[22:27] Matt Kurzyniec: You've heard it here. Um, we're gonna keep making them laugh wherever I'm at.

[22:32] Jess: I'm gonna do another thing just to kind of round this out and to summarize you. I'm gonna go through your resume and I want you to name first thought off your head a cocktail that you would recommend to go alongside that show.

[22:46] Matt Kurzyniec: Yeah.

[22:46] Jess: All right. Are you ready?

[22:47] Matt Kurzyniec: Yes.

[22:48] Jess: We're gonna go bottom up, so Spamalot.

[22:51] Matt Kurzyniec: Oh, Spamalot. I would say actually a pickleback shot. That's a weird one, but that works.

[22:56] Jess: All right. Then we got Assassins.

[22:59] Matt Kurzyniec: Dark and Stormy.

[23:00] Jess: I love it. Then we got West Side Story.

[23:03] Matt Kurzyniec: Oh, um, I'm trying to think of like maybe hmm like two shots that would be competing. Um, I don't know, like two different like a dark and a light that like you—I don't know, some sort of like mixed—like two different cocktails that like you wouldn't think that would go together, but then work out in the end.

[23:23] Jess: The Producers.

[23:24] Matt Kurzyniec: Oh, a glass of champagne.

[23:26] Jess: Young Frankenstein.

[23:27] Matt Kurzyniec: Hmm. It's very along the lines of Beetlejuice. Um, maybe something—what do I want to do? I would say like I don't know why I'm leaning with the blue, like a blue curacao, like a little bit more of like a tropical. I don't know why that's what I'm leaning towards, but yeah.

[23:45] Jess: Dirty Rotten Scoundrels.

[23:47] Matt Kurzyniec: Oh, Dirty Rotten Scoundrels. Something with maybe Goldschlager with the gold flakes in it.

[23:54] Jess: Yes, you'd be feeling that the next day.

[23:56] Matt Kurzyniec: Then we got Clue.

[23:57] Jess: Clue.

[23:58] Matt Kurzyniec: Oh, this is just—it's gotta be like a mystery shot or a mystery drink where you can't—you don't know what it is until you've had it.

[24:04] Jess: Like the white airhead.

[24:04] Matt Kurzyniec: Rock of Ages.

[24:08] Jess: Exactly, yeah.

[24:08] Matt Kurzyniec: Oh, I mean, take your pick behind the bar. So many drinks. Jameson was the big one for me when I did Rock of Ages.

[24:17] Jess: I'm so curious about this.

[24:19] Matt Kurzyniec: Um, I tried to weasel it into some questions, did not make it in. What is the video games?

[24:25] Jess: Very fun.

[24:26] Matt Kurzyniec: So I did that Broadway debut. It was a stage production very similar to the Hunger Games, but it was with video game characters. So I was, you know, Stanley Tucci's character in the show?

[24:39] Jess: Yes, or in the movie, sorry.

[24:41] Matt Kurzyniec: Um, so I was Super Mario, but I was his character, so I was like very, you know, glitz and glam and the host of the games, and we had, you know, Princess Peach, we had Donkey Kong, we had Master Chief from Halo, we had all these characters that were fighting in the video games, and it was stage combat, but it was tallied and ranked in real time. So people would tweet in like at the audience of like who they wanted to vote for, and then we would have an algorithm in a system that would like put us first, second, third, and we would have to know all the different stage combat battles to know who would be first and second, so that way every show would have a different winner. And then when we closed on Broadway, I was actually Mario can be thrown into the video games because he messes things up, and I ended up winning the overall video games, which is really, really fun.

[25:33] Jess: The video games, what shot would you give with that?

[25:36] Matt Kurzyniec: Um, something to do with Rainbow Road. So, like some sort of like, you know, and they do all those shots lined up where it's like, you know, you pour it and it's like red, the blue, the green, some sort of like relay race.

[25:49] Jess: All right, I love that.

[25:50] Matt Kurzyniec: Um, and then we have Beetlejuice, and we're just gonna merge both the Beetlejuices together. Um, what would we do? Something green apple for the green, a little bit of slime, a little bit of glitter. We have to make it big. So yeah, I would say like some sort of like green apple vodka shot with some spectacle element to it, of course, because it's Beetlejuice is bigger than ever. But yeah, something fun, and then you have to sing Deo afterwards.

[26:21] Jess: Um, Matt, this has been lovely, beginning to end. I want you to be able to promote where can people find you on the socials, the websites if they want to get to know you.

[26:31] Matt Kurzyniec: Yes, absolutely. I'm glad you said that. So, my Instagram is Matt K313. Um, and yeah, I love—I remember being on the other side of like, you know, seeing all these actors and on tours and wanting to reach out, but not knowing if I can or if that's—and I just to let people know, like I respond to pretty much everyone. I think I do my best to respond to everyone. So yeah, have people DM if they have any questions or message me or follow me on Instagram. And or, you know, go to my website, check it out. MattKwho.com is my website. But yeah, I love helping people out and especially people getting started. And if anyone has any questions about New York or about touring or about Beetlejuice or anything that's to come next, like they can totally reach out.

[27:19] Jess: And if you want to see Matt and the rest of the company at Beetlejuice the Musical, it will be playing at the Fisher Theater from August 5th to 10th, 2025.

[27:30] Matt Kurzyniec: I am so excited to see this.

[27:32] Jess: Um, if I—I wish I would love an opportunity to see you perform live, Matt. I think I'm gonna wrap this up. Thank you very much for listening, Matt. Thank you once again for joining me.

[27:43] Matt Kurzyniec: And we will see you next time on the Cheese Wheels.

[27:47] Jess: I know, pretty soon.

[27:48] Matt Kurzyniec: Thank you so much for having me.

[27:49] Jess: Thank you very much.

[28:01] Matt Kurzyniec: That beautiful sound. Shake, shake, shake, sonora.