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

[0:28] Mo Brady: There are only a handful of moments where you can feel your life change in an instant. The moment you say, "I do." The moment your child is born. But performers get to add another to that list: the moment you find out you'll be making your Broadway debut. In an instant, you feel like your life has changed, as the door you've always wanted to walk through finally opens. There's nothing more heartwarming than hearing these stories from performers. So, I brought together five actors who made their Broadway debuts last year together to share the stories of how and when they booked their first Broadway shows. Here's our conversation.

[1:12] Mo Brady: These five performers all made their Broadway debuts in 2019. I mean, I said that right? So we're going to learn a little bit about their journeys to Broadway and what has surprised them about that thus far.

[1:24] Holli’ Conway: Okay, my name is Holli’ Conway. I live in Harlem. And I'm in Tina, the Tina Turner musical.

[1:29] Karli Dinardo: I'm Karli Dinardo. I'm in Moulin Rouge! the musical and I live in Harlem.

[1:33] Malcolm Atwood: I'm Malcolm Atwood. I'm in Hadestown and I live in Hamilton Heights.

[1:38] Taylor Symone Jackson: I'm Taylor Symone Jackson. I'm in Ain't Too Proud the musical and I will be moving into Hamilton Heights in a week.

[1:45] Logan Hart: My name is Logan Hart. I live in Midtown and I'm in Jagged Little Pill.

[1:49] Mo Brady: What were you all doing a year ago? How were you making money last year?

[1:51] Taylor Symone Jackson: A year ago from, I would say I was babysitting. So that was my side job. And it's around this time where I got the call that I was making my debut.

[2:03] Logan Hart: Sure, a year ago, I had just finished the second workshop of Jagged Little Pill after we had made our Cambridge out of town. And I was soon to be unemployed.

[2:14] Malcolm Atwood: Actually, this time last year, I had just left tour. I was on tour for a couple years.

[2:21] Mo Brady: A show called?

[2:22] Malcolm Atwood: Hamilton. And I had just got back January 1st. I moved back to the city and I was leaving to go to Australia February 2nd or something like that. And in that month, I auditioned for Moulin Rouge! about a million times. But literally this time last year, we were like, wow, this was when it all started. So I was unemployed, but auditioning and doing the New York hustle.

[2:46] Taylor Symone Jackson: This time last year, I was Miss Louisiana. It was a bit different from my theater background, but that's what I was doing.

[2:55] Mo Brady: And Taylor, were you guys, you guys did a lot of pre-Broadway?

[2:57] Taylor Symone Jackson: Yes, I was actually, where was I? Beijing or Thailand? I had to take a break because we toured in four different cities at the time.

[3:07] Mo Brady: Let's talk about auditions, how you got cast. How many times you auditioned over what time frame? Let's start there.

[3:14] Taylor Symone Jackson: I auditioned nine times for Ain't Too Proud. Each time it was different. I think because we were originating the musical, they didn't really know what to look for. And so they asked me to dance. They asked me to sing. They asked me to dance again and dance again and sing again and sing again. Kenny Seymour, we met at the Oregon Shakespeare Festival and he is our MD for the show. And he just told me to keep coming around. They'll see you again. And once the creatives see you, I think that you'll get the shoe-in spot. So I'm glad I stayed.

[3:44] Karli Dinardo: I would say over the span of a month for Moulin Rouge, we had very long, like dance calls where we learned part of a combination, extended the combination. We would sing in between. We would come back to partner. We would do more partnering. We would sing again. And there was one day it was like maybe like 10 to five. So it was like long days, but over the span of a month, I would say. And then like the following week was work sessions because I understudy as well. So it was like principal work sessions and then vocal sessions. And it was at least like close to maybe 15 times in a month.

[4:19] Logan Hart: I have been with Jagged Little Pill since about 2013 as well. I was involved in the very first developmental workshops of Jagged Little Pill. And I auditioned about six or seven times over the course of a week. They were trying to get it cast fairly quickly. But I was in for six or seven times. Around the fifth or so time, I was auditioning for Diane Paulus, our director, and she gave me some sides for one of the roles in the show, which was Andrew, the role that I'm currently playing. But they gave the sides to me in the audition and asked me to come back five minutes later to do those sides. And I came back in with the sides and I thought I blew it. So I sent a little email to the casting director to say, please bring me in one more time.

I know that I can do better than this. If you just give me a day to digest it. I went home, I worked my sides, came back the next day, went through the audition. They didn't give me any adjustments. And I thought I had completely blown it. I thought there was no way in the world I was getting cast. And the next day I got a call from my agent that I had booked it. So you kind of never know in the audition process. Sometimes you think it went fantastically. It's down to you and one other person. You're like, I totally booked it. And you don't get it. Or the complete opposite is true. You think you blew it. And the next day you find out you're going to be in a Broadway musical.

[5:37] Taylor Symone Jackson: That's a lot of chutzpah that you like felt strong enough about what else you could do that you...

[5:43] Logan Hart: That's actually the first time that I had ever done that to reach out and say, hey, listen, give me one more try. And it was at the prompting of a teacher of mine that I had been working the sides with. And they said, you know, they gave you like five to ten minutes. It's worth a shot to send that email. And I'm glad that I did.

[6:03] Holli’ Conway: I have to speak now because my audition was the one where I was like, oh, I did not book this. There's no way. I sent a video to Tina in November. So I was auditioning out of town because of Miss Louisiana, I couldn't move to New York until July. So I sent a video in November and my agent calls me a few days after and she's like, oh, they loved you. They want to know if you can dance. And I was like, yeah, I can dance. I can dance. And that was the last I had heard from them. That was it. I was like, well, I guess they don't care. And so months pass. And I actually believe I was the last person cast in the show outside of the kids. Months pass and April comes around. And at the end of April, April 30th, I got an email that they were having an invited dance call.

And I think they were kind of in a rush to find either a swing or another. I can't because everybody was union in the audition except for me. And I was peeing my pants. I was so nervous. So yes, I went to this invited dance call. I had to take an ice bath afterwards because I hadn't been in an audition in so long. And I was trying to keep up with all these equity dancers who it was just. And then when I got the email that I had a callback, I did not believe it. So I had to fly back up to New York for the callback in which they gave us these packets to learn because I think they were looking for a swing. So it was Eileen, Tina's sister song and a few Tina songs learned. I stayed up all night learning them and I sang none of them.

[7:29] Karli Dinardo: You mean, you mean actually in the room they didn't ask you in the room?

[7:33] Holli’ Conway: They did not ask me to do. And so I'm sitting out there nervous because they're asking the girls to sing the songs and they're cutting them off. I'm like, they're not even letting these girls finish. And so I get in and I sing a song from a book and they cut me off and I didn't even get to the music that they had us prepare. So I was like, this is terrible. And so I read the sides and I'm going to show you embarrassing story. I read the sides and instead of looking at the scene person that was reading, I was just picking a spot. I was so nervous. And so they're like, can you do the sides again, but look at the girl reading for you? And I was like, yeah, yep, yep, yep. I can do that. I can do that.

I can take a note. If I can't do anything, I can take a note. So that's how that audition went. I felt terrible. I felt like I had no name because everybody at the audition knew everybody at Tulsi and I was very, very, very insecure. And when my agent called me, I thought they were calling me about a different job.

[8:51] The Ensemblist & Broadway Podcast Network: The Ensemblist is a production of the Center for Autism and Related Disorders.

[9:21] The Ensemblist & Broadway Podcast Network: The Ensemblist is a production of the Center for Autism and Related Disorders.

[9:51] The Ensemblist & Broadway Podcast Network: The Ensemblist is a production of the Center for Autism and Related Disorders.

[10:21] The Ensemblist & Broadway Podcast Network: The Ensemblist is a production of the Center for Autism and Related Disorders.

[10:51] The Ensemblist & Broadway Podcast Network: The Ensemblist is a production of the Center for Autism and Related Disorders.

[11:21] The Ensemblist & Broadway Podcast Network: The Ensemblist is a production of the Center for Autism and Related Disorders.

[11:51] The Ensemblist & Broadway Podcast Network: The Ensemblist is a production of the Center for Autism and Related Disorders.

[12:22] The Ensemblist & Broadway Podcast Network: The Ensemblist is a production of the Center for Autism and Related Disorders.

[12:51] The Ensemblist & Broadway Podcast Network: The Ensemblist is a production of the Center for Autism and Related Disorders.

[13:01] The Ensemblist & Broadway Podcast Network: The Ensemblist is a production of the Center for Autism and Related Disorders.

[13:21] The Ensemblist & Broadway Podcast Network: The Ensemblist is a production of the Center for Autism and Related Disorders.

[13:41] The Ensemblist & Broadway Podcast Network: The Ensemblist is a production of the Center for Autism and Related Disorders.

[14:11] The Ensemblist & Broadway Podcast Network: The Ensemblist is a production of the Center for Autism and Related Disorders.

[14:21] The Ensemblist & Broadway Podcast Network: The Ensemblist is a production of the Center for Autism and Related Disorders.

[14:41] The Ensemblist & Broadway Podcast Network: The Ensemblist is a production of the Center for Autism and Related Disorders.

[14:51] The Ensemblist & Broadway Podcast Network: The Ensemblist is a production of the Center for Autism and Related Disorders.

[15:01] The Ensemblist & Broadway Podcast Network: The Ensemblist is a production of the Center for Autism and Related Disorders.

[15:11] The Ensemblist & Broadway Podcast Network: The Ensemblist is a production of the Center for Autism and Related Disorders.

[15:31] The Ensemblist & Broadway Podcast Network: The Ensemblist is a production of the Center for Autism and Related Disorders.

[15:41] The Ensemblist & Broadway Podcast Network: The Ensemblist is a production of the Center for Autism and Related Disorders.

[15:51] The Ensemblist & Broadway Podcast Network: The Ensemblist is a production of the Center for Autism and Related Disorders.

[16:01] The Ensemblist & Broadway Podcast Network: The Ensemblist is a production of the Center for Autism and Related Disorders.

[16:11] The Ensemblist & Broadway Podcast Network: The Ensemblist is a production of the Center for Autism and Related Disorders.

[16:21] The Ensemblist & Broadway Podcast Network: The Ensemblist is a production of the Center for Autism and Related Disorders.

[16:41] The Ensemblist & Broadway Podcast Network: The Ensemblist is a production of the Center for Autism and Related Disorders.

[16:51] The Ensemblist & Broadway Podcast Network: The Ensemblist is a production of the Center for Autism and Related Disorders.