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[0:00] Mo Brady: You're listening to Way Down Hadestown, a miniseries from The Ensemblist, the only podcast that shows you Broadway from the inside out. Welcome back. I'm Mo Brady.

[0:30] Mo Brady: Hey guys, this is our miniseries from The Ensemblist, where we are speaking to the entire ensemble of a Broadway musical. Yes, there are only five of them, but we've sat down with each one of them to hear one-by-one what it's been like to be in the newest Tony Award winner for Best Musical. They share their thoughts about the characters they've created and the careers that got them there. Kimberly Marable recently completed a five-year residency in the ensemble of The Lion King on Broadway. Beforehand, she had made her debut as a replacement in Sister Act. In addition to her work on stage, she's one of the co-founders of Broadway Serves, an organization for Broadway community members looking to be the change they want to see in the world. In Hadestown, Kimberly plays Worker No. 1 and covers the role of Persephone and the Fates. Here's our conversation.

[1:38] Mo Brady: Good morning.

[1:39] Kimberly Marable: Good morning.

[1:40] Mo Brady: Can you introduce yourself and tell us what neighborhood of New York City you live in?

[1:43] Kimberly Marable: Yes, my name is Kimberly Marable. I am actually born and raised in Brooklyn, New York, Crown Heights, Brooklyn, but I live in Harlem now.

[1:50] Mo Brady: Oh, and you play Worker No. 1.

[1:52] Kimberly Marable: Yes, I do. I sing soprano, in quotes.

[1:58] Mo Brady: Sure, we can get to that part later. What was the first time you heard about Hadestown?

[2:06] Kimberly Marable: The first time I heard about Hadestown was actually about a year ago. A friend of mine is one of the co-producers and was just like, you have to hear this music. I was like, okay. And I sort of pushed it off to the side. But then like a week later, I was called in to audition. They were doing a choreographic workshop type thing before they went to London. And so then I did actually listen to the music and was like, this is unreal. And so I got to do the workshop, which was really cool.

[2:35] Mo Brady: What was that audition process like? Was it fast?

[2:40] Kimberly Marable: Fast. Okay. Yeah. What was great about it is that they had the concept album, they had the New York Theater Workshop recording. But as you know, or as most of our listeners probably know, this music is unlike anything else you will hear on Broadway. So that was super helpful, because we had maybe a 48-hour turnaround, 24-hour turnaround of having to learn material from the show for the auditions. And especially for the London production, they were trying out new vocal arrangements as well.

[3:10] Mo Brady: So it was vocals and movement.

[3:12] Kimberly Marable: Yes. It was vocals and movement, because they were really trying to solidify the purpose of the Worker Chorus. They had sort of experimented with it in Canada, and I think they wanted to take it the next step farther. So we were the guinea pigs a year ago.

[3:28] Mo Brady: And so what kind of things did you work on? Do you remember specific songs, specific pieces of movement?

[3:32] Kimberly Marable: One of them actually is in the show. We worked on Wait For Me, the first one with the lights and the marching and all of that.

[3:41] Mo Brady: Wait, with the big lights?

[3:43] Kimberly Marable: With the big lights.

[3:46] Mo Brady: Okay, that we saw on the Tony Awards.

[3:48] Kimberly Marable: Yes, exactly. We didn't have the actual lights, but we were told that that's what they would be. So we were walking around in circles and showing our lights.

[3:57] Mo Brady: With things hanging from the ceiling?

[3:59] Kimberly Marable: No. No, you're just like...

[4:01] Mo Brady: We were pantomiming the whole time.

[4:02] Kimberly Marable: You were acting.

[4:04] Kimberly Marable: Yes, acting, darling. And what about the vocal parts? Even since then, it's grown so much. There are a lot of arrangements in the whole show, not just for Wait For Me, where we're all singing separate parts. And so you'll find that there are, with all 13 of us on stage, 13 different vocal parts that are being sung. I do believe that we started that kind of interesting work a year ago.

[4:27] Mo Brady: That must be so frightening for your swings.

[4:30] Kimberly Marable: Oh, yes. I'm glad I don't have to do it, but I definitely give kudos to them.

[4:34] Mo Brady: All right, so you did this, was it a two-week workshop?

[4:38] Kimberly Marable: All right. And then you put this experience on the shelf.

[4:41] Kimberly Marable: Yes. And... Not too far on the shelf, though, because I definitely fell in love with the music and with the team. Specifically, our choreographer, David Newman, is just mind-blowingly awesome. And Rachel and just everyone. I was sort of following it in London from afar, just to be like, oh, this is who they brought. This is exciting. Oh, Amber's still there. That's really great. Oh, I really like her songs. Oh, this is really cool. Well, they seem to really love it in London. We'll see what happens if it comes back. And then all of a sudden, they got a theater. I was like, oh my gosh, it's happening. It's happening. It's happening. I need to find all the music. I need to just be ready and be available for when, hopefully, they call me in for an audition.

[5:29] Mo Brady: And so they call you in. When was this?

[5:31] Kimberly Marable: Just before Christmas.

[5:34] Mo Brady: Man. This was so fast. So they found a theater in the late fall while they were still very much in their London run. And we were called in for an audition the last two weeks of December before Christmas. And I think their intention was to cast the whole thing in those two weeks, which was ambitious.

[5:57] Kimberly Marable: Ambitious.

[5:58] Mo Brady: I will say. Because they were looking for you, five on stage, three fates, four swings.

[6:05] Kimberly Marable: Yes.

[6:06] Mo Brady: Got it. It's a lot to do in them. And coverage amongst all of that.

[6:10] Kimberly Marable: I am super excited because I've always identified with Persephone and just her joy for life and nature and just having her own opinions about everything. I got to go in for the Persephone understudy. So how many times did you go in? Do you remember?

[6:29] Kimberly Marable: Over the two week period, we went in a few times, but I was fortunate. And by Christmas, I knew what was happening moving forward.

[6:39] Mo Brady: Good for you.

[6:41] Kimberly Marable: Yes.

[6:42] Mo Brady: So one of the things that on paper seems so incredible about your position in the company is that you understudy the fates. All three of them?

[6:49] Kimberly Marable: Just one.

[6:51] Mo Brady: Okay. Okay.

[6:53] Kimberly Marable: Yes. That makes my heart a little happier.

[6:56] Mo Brady: Me too. Although, I mean, maybe down the line.

[6:59] Kimberly Marable: Sure. Sure.

[7:01] Mo Brady: That would be cool. So I understudy the fate three. She sings the lowest vocal part.

[7:08] Kimberly Marable: So you're the soprano part in your normal track and then you're the tenor, the baritone.

[7:15] Kimberly Marable: Yes. In your understudy track.

[7:17] Mo Brady: Yes. Using my full range.

[7:19] Kimberly Marable: Oh my goodness. And I have to learn how to play the accordion, which I definitely did not know how to play before.

[7:25] Mo Brady: So tell me about Worker Number One. Does she have a name?

[7:30] Kimberly Marable: Oh, I've always thought of her as me, to be honest.

[7:34] Mo Brady: Yeah. Yeah.

[7:36] Kimberly Marable: I think what's great about our show and it being Greek mythology is that we are truly an active Greek chorus. So on the one hand, we're backing people up like a standard musical theater chorus. An example of that would be like, come home with me with Orpheus. And we're sort of singing his backup vocals in the beginning of the song. But then throughout pretty much the whole rest of the show, we get to have an opinion on the action that's happening. And we sort of become the conduit for the audience to be on the journey with us.

[8:10] Mo Brady: Right. Which is exciting. As an actor, it allows me to be my most honest and truthful self.

[8:17] Kimberly Marable: So you see yourself being that's that's Kimberly. You're you.

[8:20] Mo Brady: I'm me. Yeah.

[8:22] Kimberly Marable: And are you you when we go down to Hadestown?

[8:26] Kimberly Marable: I think so.

[15:58] Mo Brady: Special thanks to Kimberly Marable for sharing her stories with us this week.

[16:01] Mo Brady: You can learn more about her and how to connect with her online by visiting our website, TheEnsemblist.com. The Ensemblist was produced today by me, Mo Brady.

[16:10] Mo Brady: Help others find out about The Ensemblist, guys. It's that rating and review. Open up that podcast app. There's those stars. There's like five white stars, and you can fill many of them, three or four or five of them, with color. What an artistic expression that would be for you.

[16:28] Mo Brady: Help others learn about the podcast. That'd be great, too. You can also follow us on Instagram, where we share original photography, new episodes, first-person blogs from actors and other community members. It's a fantastic resource for anyone who just loves theater.

[16:45] Mo Brady: All right. Thanks for listening, guys. Until next time.