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

[0:37] Mo Brady: Making it to Broadway is a dream come true for many. But no matter the show, living that dream will eventually come to an end. Whether your show runs for one month or one decade, eventually every Broadway musical will close. It doesn't matter if it's your first Broadway show or your tenth, closing means a future of artistic and financial insecurity. And yet, closing shows are just a part of the big, beautiful cycle of musical theater. This summer, seven Broadway musicals are shuttering their doors, sending scores of Ensemblists onto the unemployment line. But is there a good side to having your Broadway show close, or at least a silver lining? That's what I'm interested in finding out in this miniseries with three actors who have closed Broadway musicals this summer.

Hannah Florence is no stranger to Broadway, with four main stem musicals to her credit. However, she's also no stranger to closing Broadway musicals, as she was part of the final companies of all four, Scandalous, Gigi, Paramour, and most recently, My Fair Lady. She's also an in-demand actress off-Broadway and across the country, having performed in This Ain't No Disco at Atlantic Theater Company, Grand Hotel at City Center Encores, and playing Meg Giry in the 25th anniversary North American tour of The Phantom of the Opera. Here's our conversation.

[2:07] Mo Brady: Hi.

[2:19] Hannah Florence: Hi.

[2:22] Mo Brady: Will you introduce yourself and tell us what neighborhood of New York City you live in?

[2:27] Hannah Florence: Yeah. My name is Hannah Florence, and I live in Astoria, Queens.

[2:31] Mo Brady: And your most recent Broadway outing was?

[2:35] Hannah Florence: It was My Fair Lady, the revival at Lincoln Center Theater.

[2:36] Mo Brady: And how long were you part of the production?

[2:42] Hannah Florence: Not super long. I joined in February, so about five months. Yeah, I closed it out.

[2:50] Mo Brady: How do you see, as an actor, that butts in seats relates to your ability to create art?

[2:57] Hannah Florence: That's a great question. You know, it's tough. I think as a New York City-based performer, for me, I almost have two lanes going in my head as an artist. And there's one lane that, you know, I have an agent, and my agent is the one, for the most part, getting me the auditions. And I feel that, not in a bad way, but for the most part, we're being thrown appointments, whatever comes our way, whatever casting director or show thinks we might be good in it. And it's not even necessarily about, does Hannah think this is an amazing, exciting, life-changing project that I would like die as a creative person to be part of? Like, there's a side of the business. It's a commercial business. It's show business, you know, and a lot of the times I am inspired when I get into the room and would love to work with these people.

But it wasn't really my choice, like from the top. Do you know what I mean? It's not like if I wrote my own musical and was so passionate about it, and like trying to get butts in the seats, like you said, you know, that's like someone else's job. And I'm sort of coming in as a puzzle piece. But then once you're in a thing, like once you're in My Fair Lady, and it's about selling the tickets, you know, and you have fallen in love with the production. It is hard to the struggle of do I pay attention to the sales? Do I not pay attention? Do I engage in the backstage hubbub about how we're selling or when we're gonna close or do I just do my thing? And people who look at grosses, maybe those are the same people that look at reviews. And then there's other people who just want to sort of do the work.

[4:25] Mo Brady: Yeah, where do you lie in that continuum?

[4:31] Hannah Florence: I think I'm more in just wanting to do the work. I never look at grosses or ticket sales. And yeah, I'm kind of just trying to like, bring myself and joy and the best technique I can on that given day to the show for the audience and for me.

[4:45] Mo Brady: So you've done four Broadway shows?

[4:51] Hannah Florence: Yes.

[4:51] Mo Brady: And closed four Broadway shows?

[4:51] Hannah Florence: Yes, I didn't technically close. I didn't close Paramour. I actually left Paramour a few weeks before closing. You know, I'd been with Paramour for so long. And I went to the closing party.

[5:04] Mo Brady: And what in general are the warning signs that a closing notice might be coming?

[5:10] Hannah Florence: This is a Hannah-ism. But I think me being cast in the show is a warning sign that the show is closed. But you're asking the warning signs and when the warning signs start rolling in, and other people are starting to get worried. I'm always one who's like, I kind of assumed it's coming because, you know, I'm here. So my therapist has told me this is irrational. So I just want everyone to know that I know this is irrational, but you asked, and I told you my truth. The signs were just, we were still selling all right, but it wasn't, you know, as packed. And as the clock kept ticking, we kept not hearing about who was possibly going to replace Laura. No one had heard anything about auditions or potential names, you know, our other principals were also, interestingly enough, in the same boat as a lot of ensemble people kind of asking around and not knowing what was happening or if so to me, those are pretty clear signs, you know, but it did it did come quickly.

At My Fair Lady, it was surprising. I don't think anyone in our company truly expected it to be July 7. A lot of us thought it would be the fall to align when the tour was going to start rehearsing, because that would make sense, you know, and I support this decision, actually, even though obviously the paycheck and the health insurance weeks would be nice. But emotionally, we went out on a high note, which was what the producers told us they wanted to do, instead of like, stretching it out and, you know, really pushing for sales and trying to fill the seats until September or October or something. Ending in July really brought, we were packed, you know, our last month because everyone wanted to come see it before we closed and our audiences were so supportive. It was lovely. It really was. We're loverly.

[6:55] Mo Brady: How did you find out?

[7:02] Hannah Florence: When I got to the show, I signed into the call board, and there was a notice on the call board that, you know, didn't look great, saying that we're gonna have a company meeting immediately following today's matinee. So it was a two-show day. You know, that kind of said it all to most of us, and that matinee was tough. You could tell everyone's demeanor, and it was a tense and kind of, you know, you're scared, you're wondering, you're confused. By the end of the show, everyone's speculating, well, when? Well, when? We know we're gonna close, but when? You know, some people are saying January, some people are saying September, some people are saying July 7th.

[7:40] Mo Brady: And how long before July 7th was this?

[7:44] Hannah Florence: In the spring. They gave us a fair amount of notice.

[7:46] Mo Brady: And so there's the company meeting, you all get out of costume.

[7:50] Hannah Florence: I guess at Lincoln Center Theater, FYI, if this happens, you know what's happening. They do it in the, what we call the cantina, which is sort of the green room area backstage. It was rough, and I remember, now I'm, you know, the images are flying back, and everyone kind of, like, taking a seat, being, it was quiet. It was uncomfortably quiet. Everyone was quiet. I remember that. And it was, it was, it was sad. It was very quiet.

[8:15] Mo Brady: It's always a pretty uncomfortable moment right before you hear.

[8:20] Hannah Florence: And is there a lot of pop-up circumstance, or?

[8:22] Mo Brady: We're closing. Thank you.

[8:24] Hannah Florence: The person who has to break the news, that's an awful position to be in. I don't envy them. But they, you know, they want to tell us, and they have to tell us how good of a job we've been doing on the show. And it's a beautiful production. They're proud of the production.

[8:39] Hannah Florence: And how do you feel at that moment? I wasn't angry and I wasn't shaken, but I was sad and scared and hurt. You're a little hurt in a selfish way because as actors, it's just so hard to book, honestly, any job. We really think in this industry, it's so hard to book literally any job. I think it's as hard to book a regional job as it is to book a Broadway show, honestly. They're all hard to book. It's all timing and right place, right time and right person, right place. I felt sad for myself in that moment because of chorus line feelings of how am I getting another job? When am I going to get another job? Am I going to get another job? Will I ever be on Broadway again? Oh man, I love this job so much. I'm so sad. I've had such a good time here. I could do this show for another year. What a bummer. Those are my immediate feelings, I think. Now I want to take a tea tour and hear about this Paramour experience where the warning signs were different.

[9:42] Hannah Florence: I would say there were no warning signs for that one. None of us saw that coming. Same sort of post on the call board company meeting situation? Correct. Yes, definitely post on, yeah, definitely call board, full, full company meeting, which we're all like, what could that be? Paramour was a crazy show though. We had a lot, we had a few meetings for all kinds of various big reasons that we never could have seen coming. So when this one happened, no one assumed it was a closing. No one assumed it. But a similar thing, you all sit down.

[10:17] Hannah Florence: We all sit down. Producer comes out. Producer comes out. He thanks you for your service. Thanks us for our services. You know, says the show's amazing. It could have run for five years. I meant that when I told you guys that, you know, whenever ago, we've received an offer that we cannot refuse. It was brutal. That's blood boiling. And again, that one hurt me. I thought I, like I said, I was leaving, but I thought I'd come back, you know?

[10:45] Hannah Florence: How soon after that meeting do you stop feeling sad? I think it goes in waves and I think different people react differently. And when you're in an eight show a week situation with a lot of other people, what I think is kind of interesting is everyone's energies, but then the people you're around, either in your dressing room or on stage, you start feeling their feelings about it. And like, you're obviously emanating more feelings. And there's definitely a week or two where like, just the air is thick with some people being really down, you know, and negative. And you feel that some people being just really emotional and weepy about it. Some people being like, I have no feelings. I'm a rock and whatever.

I don't care. I'm tired of this anyways. Like, it'll be nice to have a vacation. You like, you've got all these vibes bouncing around, you know, I'm pretty happy go lucky and looking forward and not dwelling pretty soon because dwelling is not going to help me move forward or be happy, you know? So I'd say in a few days, I'm one of the sooner to be okay about it people.

[11:52] Hannah Florence: Do you want to talk about Scandalous or Gigi? And it's okay. So Gigi and Scandalous, which I did build from the ground, anyone who's put up a show from beginning to end knows how much work that is, you know, whether it's Broadway, tour, regional, anywhere where you start the show from scratch. And, you know, it's a huge process. It takes everything out of you. Every single person on a company from the dressers to all the stage crew, everyone is putting everything into it and accommodating so many changes. Every show goes through so many changes when you start it from the beginning, a new show, you know? So Scandalous and Gigi were harder. I'll admit that I was more negative, and I was darker and more depressed and more angry at the world, woe is me kind of feelings about those two because I'd put so much into it.

And it's just such a bummer to work so, so, so hard. And for you to have this like little engine that you hope could and it just doesn't, you know, let's go back to My Fair Lady. Yeah. And closing performance closing weekend. Yeah. Honestly, closing weekend. Well, the closing show was magical. I mean, I just thought the closing show I was like crying happy tears, like a lot of the closing show. Well, okay, I mean, to start from here. So my, my opening entrance in My Fair Lady, right? So I enter through what's called the left stage left garage. It's very narrow, like not the VOMS we're entering from like below below, but there's kind of a little side entrance. Yeah, too. So I'm entering from there.

And I'm all by myself, whereas a lot of the other cast for the opening scene where they have their places call, there's like groups of them, they get can socialize and you know, talk hang out before the show. I'm all by myself like in this little thing. And every single show from where I am in that little garage, I can see whoever's playing Eliza when Laura's on, she turns her head into the light on this particular part of the music pretty much every time. And it's always moving that always moves me and like shakes me inside and I get so excited. And it's just beautiful. And this closing show when she did that, like the audience lost it, just the applause and the cheers. You could just feel so much love and rooting for us and just it was just a celebration. You know, I loved the last show. I thought it was so it was so warm. There was so much warmth that I felt resonating from everyone and everywhere. I thought it was great.

[16:10] Hannah Florence: So what's going on now? What's going on now? I don't know. I don't know. I'm very open. Very avail. I'm looking to the future. I have like little random appearance giggy type things here and there. But mostly I'm hitting the pavement. I'm auditioning. I'm taking classes, working on my side hustle passion projects.

[16:26] Mo Brady: Special thanks to Hannah Florence for sharing her stories with us this week. 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. You can help others find out about The Ensemblist by leaving us a rating and review on Apple Podcasts. And also download episodes wherever you get your podcasts or at our website, theensemblist.com. And make sure you're following us on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. And as always, thanks so much for listening. We're very busy. It's a great feed. Awesome. Thanks for listening, guys. Until next time.

[16:47] Hannah Florence: What are you hoping? What would you what do you hope is next? I would love to secret more laughter. I feel truly tickled by like my funny bone. You know, there is a lot of comedy in the musical theater landscape, and obviously in TV, film and stuff like that. And I'm really I've not transitioned from being a dancer, actor, singer type, but I've been really kind of trying to get into the like, I've taken so many classes at UCB, trying to really kind of flex my comedic streak. And yeah, if you know, if I'm dreaming, I'd love to just get more opportunities to kind of be funny. I've never been a person who's able to say this is my dream show. This is my dream. I don't know if I just am too scattered and ADD and I have too many interests to like focus like that.

But every year when I look back at the last 12 months, I always look at it and I'm truly amazed and proud about what has happened. I always look at it like I could never have imagined that I would have joined My Fair Lady. I could have never have imagined that I was gonna be in this off Broadway show that I was in previously. I could have never imagined that I would have met these people through this class and then made this fun, little short, like video with them. Like, I think for me, just having a fully open mind, I'm really up for anything and excited about all of it. And also on the flip side, not to be depressing, but if nothing happens or bad things happen, you know, that's life, that's life. And you know, there's upswings, downswings. It all, you know, usually the right things happen at the right time, I think. So I just try to trust that.