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[0:10] Rob Russo: Welcome to DANCIN' Man, a Fabulous Invalid podcast featuring exclusive behind-the-scenes interviews with the cast and creative team of Bob Fosse's DANCIN' on Broadway.

[0:18] Jamie DuMont: I'm Jamie DuMont.

[0:20] Rob Russo: I'm Rob Russo.

[0:21] Jamie DuMont: And we're your hosts.

[0:22] Rob Russo: We're also excited to be co-producers of DANCIN' on Broadway and thrilled to be back in the Rosevale Cocktail Room at Civilian for another conversation with a member of the cast.

[0:30] Jamie DuMont: Yes. Well, joining us this week is Mattie Love, who, in addition to being a member of the company, also serves as dance captain.

[0:36] Rob Russo: Oh, I can't wait to talk to her about that.

[0:38] Jamie DuMont: Being a dance captain seems like doing like double, triple, quadruple duty.

[0:41] Rob Russo: I don't know how you do that.

[0:43] Jamie DuMont: I don't know how you do your show. We have to talk to her about it because it seems insurmountable to me, but yet people do it.

[0:50] Rob Russo: Yeah, well, Mattie Love is doing it. So let's talk to her. Mattie, welcome to the show.

[1:05] Mattie Love: Thank you.

[1:05] Jamie DuMont: You are the first member of the cast we've spoken to since DANCIN' began previews. So to kick us off, please share with us a little bit about your experience performing the final dress rehearsal and the first preview.

[1:18] Mattie Love: Wow. Okay. The final dress rehearsal was electric. So that energy was magic. You know, everyone's like family and friends and loved ones. I don't know that I've heard a crowd that large.

[1:38] Mattie Love: To get into the weeds a little bit, we were there Sunday night, which is unusual to have an evening performance on Sunday. And so it felt like there were people from other shows there, particularly in the mezzanine where we were sitting. And it really felt like a cheering squad. Could you feel that?

[1:53] Jamie DuMont: Could you?

[1:54] Mattie Love: Yeah, it made like every person or every scene get like a roaring applause.

[1:59] Jamie DuMont: Yeah.

[1:59] Mattie Love: And it was just, it was nice. But that electricity from the industry on Sunday night was really nice.

[2:06] Rob Russo: Did you have family or friends in the audience for that dress rehearsal?

[2:09] Mattie Love: I invited my two neighbors.

[2:11] Jamie DuMont: Oh, I love that.

[2:12] Mattie Love: Um, they're maybe in their 70s and they walk my dog for me.

[2:16] Rob Russo: Oh, in my dog walker camp, uh, Robert and Linda. They're wonderful. I just was like, Thank you so much for taking care of my dog. Now can you come see my show so you know why you're watching my dog sometimes?

[2:26] Mattie Love: Exactly.

[2:27] Rob Russo: Yeah. Had they seen you perform before?

[2:29] Mattie Love: No, they said they haven't seen anything like this ever in a long time.

[2:33] Jamie DuMont: Well, that's because there hasn't been anything like this in a very long time. It's an unusual show in the fact that it's an entirely danced, mostly danced piece. Before we get into that though, I'm curious. Do you have a pre-show ritual?

[2:45] Mattie Love: I use this red light therapy and I put it on my lower back, and then I do some exercises to wake up my knee muscles or the muscles around my knee and my metatarsals. And then I like do a couple inhale exhales, four on, six off. And I do that every like pretty much before every show, because it feels like okay, I'm firing some things that don't always fire because my muscles are fatigued, and then the breath helps ground me.

[3:13] Jamie DuMont: And the red light therapy is for the muscles, or is it what does it do?

[3:17] Mattie Love: It fires your neurons to turn on the muscles that may not be firing.

[3:21] Jamie DuMont: And have you been using red light therapy for a while?

[3:24] Mattie Love: I have. My wonderful crazy voodoo doctor from Utah gave it to me. And I use it like anytime I'm like, oh, balance is off, gotta use my red light.

[3:33] Rob Russo: And who knows, maybe it's placebo, but it's I don't think so. I like press against my knees and like they're weak. And then I give it a second, and my red light's still on my lower back, and then I do it again and it gets stronger, and I do it like four times exercise. By the fourth, it is like engaged.

[3:48] Jamie DuMont: Everyone needs a voodoo doctor.

[3:49] Mattie Love: Yeah.

[3:49] Rob Russo: Right. Yeah. It comes in handy. I swear by mine.

[3:53] Jamie DuMont: Well, correct me if I'm wrong, but this is not your Broadway debut, but it's the first time you've been in an original company of a Broadway show.

[3:58] Mattie Love: Yes.

[3:59] Jamie DuMont: Right. How is that different from, you know, stepping into a show that's been running for a long time?

[4:02] Mattie Love: This is my track. When and if the show continues on, someone will be doing what Maddie Love originated. Whereas what's really cool with Wicked, I was doing Ioana's track. And here I am doing a show with her, which is really cool. And you know, my isms will exist in the show in some form in some way, the same way everyone else's isms exist in Wicked, Manny being at the tower, and I find it so full circle that he sits, like as Chistery, he's always up, whether it's on the Ozhead or like on the cog. And then here he sits in one of the towers, like through all of Big Deal, and it's just like it's full circle.

[4:43] Mattie Love: EO uses a cane in Wicked, and she uses a cane in Big Spender. It's just like it feels really, I don't know, full circle for a lot of people.

[4:53] Rob Russo: Yeah. When we talked to André De Shields a little while back about Hadestown, he talked about how he sewed his DNA into the character of Hermes.

[5:02] Mattie Love: Oh, I love that.

[5:02] Rob Russo: You know, and like I feel like this you're doing the same thing in creating a track, right? Like this will always be the Maddie Love track in DANCIN', and you know, knocking on all the wood that it will run for years, and we'll have tours and go internationally, and people will step into your track.

[5:16] Mattie Love: That's a really it's something I'd never thought about, but that's what happens when you originate a role. You know, even if the tracks do change, it's the way that I added a cigarette or anyone added something. Do you know it's just like the choices get inherited?

[5:33] Rob Russo: Well, it's the show, right?

[5:34] Mattie Love: They become the show.

[5:35] Rob Russo: Yeah. It's the DNA. You had the great opportunity to do the show in San Diego last spring, summer, and are now doing it on Broadway. There have been some changes made, you know, between the two versions. But I'm wondering from your perspective as a performer, if audiences in New York are responding differently to the show as a whole, or even specific parts than they did in San Diego.

[5:56] Mattie Love: I think so. I feel like in San Diego, I was shocked that we were received so well because the audience was older and it felt like maybe we would be too much. And I don't think that we were. They seemed to be a little more vocal in response to some of the moments that inspire you to laugh or to engage.

[6:18] Mattie Love: I still feel like this audience in New York is unsure etiquette-wise where to respond. And is it okay? I would I think we all want them to be a little bit more verbal in mid scenes. Like it feels like they're involved afterwards. Or you'll hear like a little giggle, but it's almost like you can feel them going, like, do I want to, do you know? I just like feel like they're on the edge of their seats and they're wanting to, but they're not really as responsive as some of our audiences in San Diego.

[6:51] Rob Russo: Yeah. It's interesting. I wonder if some of that is that a New York preview audience is, you know, I think it's a specific the largely the bulk of the preview audience, they know they're in a preview. They know that it's possibly still being worked on, right?

[7:05] Jamie DuMont: I think where this, whereas the San Diego audience, they know it's a out of town tryout, but it's a different experience. I wonder if the New York audiences are sort of waiting to be told, okay, we can laugh, or we can do this, or we can react this way, right? And because it's still early days, they're finding their footing as an audience in a weird way. Not unlike the company is finding its footing, right? I mean, you've only had a handful of previews, right?

[7:31] Mattie Love: A thousand percent.

[7:36] Rob Russo: What is that like in terms of getting the show under your belt? Do you have a sense of when that clicks? Has it clicked? What is that process like?

[7:45] Mattie Love: For me personally, it has not clicked yet in terms of like the fluidity of coming back to the show the next day. I'm still navigating how much to give and when, and you know, it's been a long time since we've done the show back to back to back. It's only been week one. My body's feeling good.

[8:05] Jamie DuMont: Love that.

[8:06] Mattie Love: That's good. But there are times when this show specifically, because the scenes change and your character changes, once you're in that scene and you leave it, you have to let it go. So, like Crunchy, I feel like we're all trying to, you know, Crunchy is about introducing ourselves. That's our introduction to the audience. This is who I am. And then, you know, it gets big and rock and rolly, and then you're you go from being like Zen to be like and like trying to find your balance and stay grounded is I think like the most wonderful part of the show because it sets you off. But if you have like one bobble, it's hard to not let that trickle through. And that I'm just speaking for myself. And I think I've talked to some other castmates about just letting it go.

You have to like begin again in each scene, but stay on the same train, but you begin again. I'm hopeful that this week, going back to your question, that I can sit in a space where it feels buzzed, but it doesn't feel out of reach, but it doesn't feel comfortable. Because the show doesn't ever feel comfortable. And I think that's so wonderful about it. It's never the same. It's never the same show as for every live show. But this one in particular, because it requires so much physicality and being present and then being aware, being in, but being in invitational, you know, it's just a like a wild roller coaster.

[9:34] Jamie DuMont: I want to stick with Crunchy Genola Suite for just a second because it's the first number in the show. It's the introduction to the cast, as you said. Were you, as cast members, given specific instructions or directions from Wayne Salento, the director, in terms of your character or in terms of being yourself, or in terms of how you what your attitude should be?

[9:55] Mattie Love: Yeah, that's a good question. Wayne always talks about just being you.

[10:14] Mattie Love: Or like holding a tiny secret in my head always to just be like, I have something to tell you, but you don't know what I'm saying. And it can be something so far-fetched, or it can be something really guttural. And then when you know the bass hits all those twitches, tick tick-tick, and then slap, and then the music comes in really large. I think everyone's visceral reaction is just like joy and like fire building up and energy.

[10:41] Mattie Love: So he talks about he talks a lot about not putting anything on because Fosse's work isn't presentational, it is you know, that's why a lot of it is turned in and our heads are down, and he had a hat because he was insecure in some of those things, but he turned those insecurities into power, and by being closed in, it invites someone to be like, but what are you hiding right there? And so I think like Crunchy is that kind of here I am, there's some more. You give them a little taste, and then you pull off. Because you need to save some of it so you can pepper it throughout the rest of the show.

[11:21] Rob Russo: Right. Even when you're playing a character that isn't you, right? Because you do play multiple different, particularly in Big City Mime.

[11:29] Mattie Love: Yes.

[11:29] Rob Russo: Everybody's playing multiple characters, and but what I'm hearing you say is you have to you have to put a little of yourself into each one of those.

[11:37] Mattie Love: Yeah, a little bit of your soul goes along that ride. And I think that's what makes the work honest. And I think Wayne has discussed this, and as far as I know of Fosse's work and intention, is that it is asking to be you. It's asking to be you in that character. It's not getting rid of yourself. It's who would I be if I was living this life? You know, it's and it's so beautiful because you're like, I get to be someone else. I don't have to be like an extra far away removed from myself. I just get to be a little version each scene. And it's fun because like some of those versions are like super sexy, and some of them are whimsical, some of them are shy. And I like that Fosse uses those insecurities.

I don't know, maybe to be like to to be humbled or to be accessible. You don't want to, I don't know. I think as if I'm an audience member, I want to see that I can that I exist somewhere. And so I think that our show really is allowing people to see themselves in every person just because of how diverse our cast is and how unique and eclectic and the proof of that, of course, is that if you ask any audience, if you polled any audience who's your favorite dancer on stage, everybody's gonna give a different answer.

[12:56] Rob Russo: Right.

[12:56] Mattie Love: Right. Because they're relating to something about that performer. It could be their look, it could be their moves, it could be the secret that they're holding that day, right? Like there's so much going on in that energy exchange between audience and cast.

[13:09] Mattie Love: In addition to being a member of the company, you also are a dance captain.

[13:13] Jamie DuMont: And if you could explain for any listener who might not know what a dance captain does, just like nuts and bolts, what is a dance captain?

[13:27] Mattie Love: So I'm co-dance captain with Gabe. I'm an on-stage dance captain, whereas he's off. So I guess right now I'm really navigating how we're gonna do this, but a dance captain is in charge of running rehearsals and keeping the show clean when the creatives are out, in charge of making sure people are on their spots. If there's a problem, if someone is having like this person's a little too close for me, it's my job to then assess and see what's going on. Because we didn't have dance captains until this portion of our run, I'm like relearning scenes that I'm not in. I know the movement very well. I don't know that Ida's on number 12 or 14. So my task right now on my downtime is I'm learning everyone else's show, writing it down, looking at the charts.

So then when it's time to hold rehearsal or also put new people in, it's my job to teach them. And it's my job to know people's backstage choreography. And it's a lot. But I kind of like it. I have swung in the past. And it feels like that just a little bit more heightened. I don't have to do these roles. I just have to know them.

[14:41] Jamie DuMont: So if you're managing the on stage as the dance captain and you're performing on stage, and you're doing your quick changes and all the other things that you're doing. How are you monitoring the evening performance or the individual performances and doing your job?

[14:58] Mattie Love: That's a good question. Right now, since we're only in week one and the creatives are here still, I'm letting them do that. I'm trying to get into my show so I don't have to worry, but I do see myself sometimes being like off on that number. You know, like it's coming in, or also as I've taught a lot, but I have not given corrections to peers that are like older than me.

[15:26] Jamie DuMont: Right. You mean I'm gonna give Ron Todorowski a correction? Or like Diles, who's a legend, that's crazy.

[15:32] Mattie Love: Yeah. But it's a part of the job, and I feel really honored that Wayne and Crin chose me to tackle it.

[15:40] Jamie DuMont: You know, it's really interesting. We um we've been working on developing a play called Fossi at the Minskov.

[15:45] Mattie Love: Cool.

[15:45] Jamie DuMont: By Mimi Quillin, who was the dance captain in 1986 for Sweet Charity, the big revival that Bob and Gwen put together. Um, and she talks candidly in the play about being a dance captain and how you know sometimes it can be tricky to negotiate. I'm a member of the cast, but I have to be, you know, sort of uh uh watching them and giving them notes. And she was in the same situation where she was younger and it was her first Fosse show, and there were members of the cast who'd done the show, he'd been with Fosse for five shows, you know, and she had to give them notes. So it's an interesting position to be in.

[16:18] Mattie Love: But also because of that, she's an encyclopedia of Sweet Charity, and you're gonna be an encyclopedia, well, you already are of dancing.

[16:25] Jamie DuMont: Yeah, right. Mike, and the cast is so responsive and respectful. We have such a good camaraderie going on that I don't think it's in I don't think things will be received well. It will just be like you're saying, negotiating how someone takes and receives a note. When's the best time? What's the language they like to hear? And that will just be trial by error.

[16:45] Mattie Love: You're a diplomat, yeah. In that sense, right? And you have to learn personalities and yeah, how everybody takes notes.

[16:50] Jamie DuMont: Yeah, it's crazy.

[16:51] Mattie Love: It's amazing, yeah. I mean really cool experience. Yeah, you know, checks off a list, and like I do want to continue on this trajectory of dance captain and you know, switching. I love Corinne's career. I kind of see that for myself eventually one day.

[17:08] Jamie DuMont: So you just talked about the um, you know, sort of culture among the cast, and it's very evident for anyone who sat in the audience that like you guys are a tight team, there's a lot of love, you know, you could just you can witness it in the exchanges you all have on stage. I'm wondering, you know, how that culture sort of came to be. Was it organic? Was it intentional? And as dance captain, like what's your role in fostering and promoting it?

[17:34] Mattie Love: I think because we all came back from San Diego. Well, you know, we're all the same cast. We've been together for over a year. The first lab was over a year ago. So the time, I'm gonna say time was the superpower in knowing those answers. I think time knows everything. When you're with people six days a week from 10 to six, and then you're learning a new show, you learn a lot about how people take on a lot of work, or you learn who's having a bad day and you learn how they handle it. They want to be removed or they want to like a held hand. San Diego, because we were there for maybe seven weeks. I can't remember the exact amount. But then you're like, it was like a little college. We were like staying in dorms, you know.

So not only did we spend all working day together, but then we would like sit on the patio and have a glass of wine afterwards, and you know, friendships naturally form. I think because the work is so demanding, it requires a lot of trust from the person next to me. If I show up, they show up. And if someone's feeling down, I see that, and I know that I have to. It's like a wait. When someone's here, the rest of the people go here. And it feels like we're all wanting the same thing, which is to succeed. And I think we all know that the only way to do it is to be together.

[19:10] Jamie DuMont: And I have to imagine there's something to the fact of what the business that you're doing is dancing.

[19:15] Mattie Love: Yeah.

[19:16] Jamie DuMont: Right. Uh with a G. Or with an apostrophe.

[19:20] Mattie Love: Yeah.

[19:20] Jamie DuMont: Um, and it's, you know, you've had the experience of being in a big, you know, musical with a book and songs and story and characters and you know, what have you. Where I imagine, and maybe I'm just, you know, fantasizing here, but you know, there's a lot of different things to hide behind in a show that's this big, like Wicked, or you know, anything like that. Whereas this, it's your bodies, right? Like that's what you are bringing to the task.

[19:46] Mattie Love: Yes.

[19:46] Jamie DuMont: And so I imagine even just that fact would change the nature of how you all bond.

[19:51] Mattie Love: You mean you have to. It's like you're your own instruments to like the nth degree. And it's interesting seeing how every you asked me about my pre-show ritual. Dylis does a headstand before every show. That's her ritual. You know, and Peter, like is always doing like a couple pirouettes. Manny is doing his hat and saying his line. He has to, he has to say the opening monologue once before we start. So, you know, as I'm seeing what everyone's doing, it's they're all doing something different, but it's all for the same reason. We're all oh, it's so good. I just keep like when I think of our show, I think of like just joy and love. I hope the audience sees that, but it really does feel that way.

[20:37] Mattie Love: It reads, what keeps flashing in my mind as you're talking is big noise from Winetka, which is a number you do with um two other dancers. And you had mentioned something about trust, you know, you'd mentioned trust and having to trust the person on either side of you or next to you, is what you said. And I am struck thinking about big noise and how the three of you, the way that's choreographed, there are moments where you are a unit, and then there are moments where you're each doing your individual thing. And it's so fascinating to me that you you break apart and you have your own moment, and then you come back together and you're doing exactly the same choreography. And that goes on and on and on for however many minutes the number is.

But it's so beautifully the three of you are so in sync and it's so fun to watch. And I have a feeling that that's partly about the trust you're talking about, and and and also there's perhaps some friendship in there too, right? Between the three of you, and it just it plays and reads as you're dancing.

[21:35] Mattie Love: That's cool. Yeah, Tony and Nondo. Oh boy. There, I feel like we're the perfect mixed drink. Nondo is like over there, you know, so wild. Tony's over here so wild, and it's just different, different forms of wild. And then I'm in the middle, and I just feel like I'm trying to ring him in. Come on, stay with me. But then I'm also my form of crazy wild too. And I just feel like what you're saying, it feels explosive, and then we like clock back in. Um, we also have like a moment of like little improv. And before we go on every day, we're like, what's our theme? And sometimes it's like, oh, birds, and sometimes it's like, oh, I'm gonna be vulgar. Oh, like I have a heart on, or like something it's something like that that is like driving our thought process, and then it's fun to look at them, and I'm like, that's what you thought. This is that's your version of hard on. Yeah, you know, it's like okay, but I don't have one, so I'm not sure. But like, okay.

[22:39] Jamie DuMont: That's amazing. Well, it's interesting because there are moments, particularly when you come together where I can hear you all saying things to each other, and the audience can hear it, but it's almost like it's not for us.

[22:48] Mattie Love: Oh, yeah.

[22:48] Jamie DuMont: It's for you, it's it's the three of you interacting. We can hear it, we can't quite make out what you're saying. So it is part of the moment, but it feels also private as well, which is so fun to watch.

[23:01] Mattie Love: Thank you. Well, that's good. I think Wayne will like that. Because he was in uh big noise originally, too.

[23:09] Jamie DuMont: Yes.

[23:09] Mattie Love: And you know, he's very passionate about any sort of scene or number that he did in the show.

[23:17] Jamie DuMont: Which is almost every number.

[23:18] Mattie Love: That's correct. But he's very particular about big noise and big deal. Like, and so I feel like we have we've worked a lot on big noise because we are a little bit whimsical and we got a little away, and I feel like we're finally in a place where we land, and it's fun, but not comfy, but malleable.

[23:39] Mattie Love: I have uh a thousand favorite moments in the show, but that is at the top. I love being you're also talking to someone from Winneka.

[23:46] Jamie DuMont: Yes.

[23:46] Mattie Love: Oh, yeah. I'm actually I grew up in Winnetka. So there's that too.

[23:50] Jamie DuMont: But I'd like it even if it was the big noise from Sheboygan.

[23:53] Mattie Love: Yeah, there you go. That's a different dance though, you know, but I'd like to see that dance.

[23:58] Jamie DuMont: I love that.

[23:59] Mattie Love: That's amazing. Well, one of the great joys of the show is that everyone has their own sort of soloist moments or moments where they get to pop. Big noise in act one is a big one for you. In act two, you and Jacob get to dance from this moment on from Kiss Me Kate.

[24:12] Jamie DuMont: Yeah, which is another really standout moment for you. I'm wondering if you could talk a little bit about what it's like for the two of you to step into the shoes of Bob Fosse and Carol Haney.

[24:22] Mattie Love: I know. Wow. Surprisingly, it's not daunting, it just feels like the coolest feeling ever. Feels like Christmas morning. Supposedly, Fosse would wake up and say, It's showtime, or he would tell like his doorman or whoever, it's showtime. And I've been saying that a lot when I when I'm feeling like lethargic and down, and that is one of the numbers that requires it's showtime because it's so explosive. We're down on the knee and up in one second. And I just go back to like how they were doing that back then, and we're doing it now in a in such a hopefully a way that's honoring them. But it feels obviously current and different because our training is different. Like I don't know, they were so free in expression and abandonment that is pretty. But coming from like a very trained upbringing, it requires that I strip myself of that. Jacob's really fun to dance with.

[25:58] Mattie Love: So if you could please show some sort of interest, so I don't look like the only one who likes this number and you like would be really nice.

[26:07] Mattie Love: And I don't know, ever since then it kind of created a bond for us where we're like, we're in it.

[26:13] Jamie DuMont: There's so much humor embedded in a lot of this too, right? I mean, the moment I love is when you're on the floor, sort of reaching for him, and he's just always an inch away from you, tweeting, right? He's got his hands out like a bird. First of all, where did Bob Fosse come up with that? I mean, it's so genius. But it speaks to like, you know, as you were saying, like, you know, all these moments that you find to bring yourself, you know, to the yourself as the character, you know, to the piece. And like we both just pop in that number. I mean, how could you not? But it's really fun to watch.

[26:44] Rob Russo: The scream. I love the scream at the beginning.

[26:45] Mattie Love: Oh, I love it too. It just feels so right. And I'm like, ah!

[26:51] Jamie DuMont: Thank you. Tell us about your audition process and how you got cast in the show.

[26:54] Mattie Love: Well, actually, I was doing Radio City when the audition process started. And I had gotten a call back, and I was like, hmm. And on that day in Radio City's Christmas rehearsal, I didn't start till later. So I could go to this audition, my callback. And I ended up leaving that job when I booked this one. But to start, we did a big combination to begin. Do you know that song? I'm begging, begging. We did all the con, like, there's crunchy in there, like every Corinne and Wayne just pulled, you know, a bunch of material and put it into one. And this was my first audition, my first like audition back after COVID, like dancing in a room. So the energy was fire. Everyone was, everyone wanted this job.

I think they like 800 people or something crazy. Six, I don't know how many, but a lot of people auditioned. You know, when you just know something's right. Like I just knew on that first day. I was like, I think this is like it felt like home. And I'm gonna veer off a little bit. And I'm sorry if I get emotional, but this show feels like home. Um, it feels so safe. And to be on stage is like the safest place to be, especially for us who are constantly auditioning and being told no, not this time, next time. Um, and Wayne and Corinne and Nicole have just I mean, the whole dancing team has done an amazing job at making every single one of us know that we're enough. I come to work and I know I'm enough.

I go on stage and I know I'm enough. Like that's a dancer's dream. So yeah, feels so good. Life's wild, you know, we're not told that we're enough, especially in like um, you know, when you think about a different type of musical, you're someone else, but here I mean, I'm enough. And I hope that the audience can leave with that too. You're invited to feel enough too.

[28:57] Mattie Love: I was talking to Jamie the other day, and I said, I never really understood a chorus line until I saw dancing. Because there's that moment where you know, Zach says to Cassie, you can't be in the ensemble, you're special. And she turns and she says, No, they're all special. Yeah, you know, and I and I understood that, you know, intellectually, sure. It's a great line and a play, and it's a dramatic moment. But looking on that stage, Cassie's right. Yeah, you're all special, and it's rare to have the opportunity to see that right, and to be seen as a performer.

[29:34] Rob Russo: Yeah.

[29:34] Mattie Love: In that way. And we talked about this with Nicole. She brought up the idea that one of the fun things about watching all of you perform is being able to pick a different person to follow, right? And each night it's somebody else. And we're doing that same thing. We've seen the show a few times now, and we will go back. And every time I find myself, tonight I'm watching Maddie, tomorrow I'm watching Jacob. And sometimes I watch, obviously, I can watch multiple people at one time. But what's so fascinating is there's I have no clear-cut favorite because everyone is so special and because it's such an incredible group of dancers on that stage. Everyone pops. And yet the way the show is constructed, everyone pops at different moments. Right. And so you're able to get all of that in one evening and then go back and do it all over again. And it's just make it. And please do go back. Please, but many a times.

[30:28] Jamie DuMont: But I also think, you know, listening, I was actually as you may have noticed, very moved by your story. And I while you were saying it, I was picturing the room, and I was also picturing the time and place, right? Where it's post-COVID, right? We're navigating this new world. Nobody's been in a room in a really long time. And then you have this incredible experience of being able to audition. And I just I thank you for sharing that. I don't have a question there, but that was just that was a really beautiful picture that you painted of what that was like. And I that was lovely.

[31:01] Mattie Love: Thank you. Well, we talked a little bit at the top of the conversation about Wicked, just to circle back again, another full circle. You know, we read an interview from 2019 where you talked about seeing Wicked as I think I believe it was your first Broadway show, right? And that was, you know, the thing that clicked in your mind that said, you know, I want to do this. I'm wondering if you could share with us a little bit about what you remember of that experience of seeing the show and what it was that made you say, Oh, I want to be on that stage.

[31:28] Mattie Love: Yeah. I saw the original Broadway cast, I think I was 10, and it was my first trip to New York, and I just remember sitting there being like, Oh, what I'm doing can be for something. You know, what I love isn't just like my Monday, Wednesday, Friday dance schedule. And the movement, the grandeur of the costumes, the set, the message really stuck with me. As you like, I'm very as you saw, I like, I love feelings. I'm full of them. And I just remember being so moved like their friendship and you know, change for good. And how that show like as a 10-year-old I could connect to that storyline of like, you know, I picture like a rock being dropped and it the ripple effect. That is that show. It stays current to now where we're like we stand up for what's right.

And so I think I just was so pulled to the message of I don't know sharing good. Cause there's you know there's a lot of shit out there. But there's also so much good. And if we can like shed more light on that but we can honor where we are, we can still celebrate the good. I don't know if that answers your question. But I just remember I also saw moving out that same trip.

[32:53] Jamie DuMont: Oh wow and I also remember being like I'm gonna do that.

[32:57] Rob Russo: So you were already dancing at that point.

[33:00] Mattie Love: I was yeah.

[33:00] Jamie DuMont: Well when did you start dancing? What was your early introduction like?

[33:02] Mattie Love: I started dancing when I was three. I have three sisters two older one younger and we all dance. Oh the Love Girls is what we were known for in our competition world. But yeah I grew up competing and I spent a lot of my summers here in New York doing nationals or summer intensives. So once I told my mom at age 10, she was like, all right, we're gonna get you there. And we just my parents have always been anything you want, you can do it. It's like just go put in the work, it will happen. Don't give up. So I have a good support system in the back that makes jumping not feel so scary.

[33:41] Rob Russo: Well, I also think you have the perfect last name for—

[33:41] Mattie Love: Thank you.

[33:45] Rob Russo: I'm sure you've gotten that your entire life, right? But it certainly has informed your personality.

[33:50] Mattie Love: Thanks. I know I love it.

[33:51] Jamie DuMont: No pun intended, but also there was an a love in the original cast of dancing.

[33:56] Mattie Love: Oh, I didn't know that.

[33:56] Jamie DuMont: Yeah, Ed Love.

[33:57] Mattie Love: You can't do dancing without love.

[33:59] Jamie DuMont: They can't do dancing without love.

[34:00] Mattie Love: Yeah. And I know I always get asked, like, oh, is that your stage name? And I'm like, I'm not sure I would pick that for my stage name. But I'm never changing it. Yeah, I'm never changing it. If I if and when I get married, it's staying.

[34:13] Rob Russo: And I told me I couldn't ask if it was your real name.

[34:17] Mattie Love: Yeah.

[34:17] Rob Russo: We talked about this last night.

[34:19] Mattie Love: So you can't interrogate someone's name like that.

[34:21] Jamie DuMont: Oh yeah, it's real.

[34:22] Mattie Love: And like my name is just Maddie. My family calls me Matt.

[34:26] Jamie DuMont: I love that.

[34:27] Mattie Love: I love it.

[34:28] Jamie DuMont: Do you have a favorite moment in the show? Whether you whether it's your moment or someone else's.

[34:33] Mattie Love: I have, I could probably answer that differently every time, but specifically right now, one of my favorite moments is in America when we're singing Yankee Doodle, the two lines go down. I'm in the back row, and I watch my whole cast take the same inhale for the next line. And it's moving because I'm like, whoa, we're all breathing together. Like that has just been replaying in my brain like all weekend. Yeah, that's my favorite right now.

[35:03] Rob Russo: I did not expect that answer.

[35:05] Mattie Love: I know.

[35:05] Rob Russo: That is fantastic.

[35:07] Mattie Love: I love how specific that was. I can just see everyone. And like, I think after at that point, you know, the rocket, like not the rocket, the thank you goes off in the back, but like I can see it illuminating on the audience. And then we take this inhale, and I just see everyone go, and it's just beautiful.

[35:27] Jamie DuMont: Wow.

[35:28] Mattie Love: That's really cool. I love, I think I am a very aware person. And I think that's why I'm gonna be a great dance captain. It's why I was a great swing because it's not just me on there, and it's not me just telling the story. I need to make sure that my peers and cast and everyone knows that like I'm with you too, and I see you, or if you're off, I can scoot around you that time. You know, that's the beauty of it. So the language on stage, we're just communicating.

[35:54] Jamie DuMont: Well, you've talked you've touched on this a couple of times throughout the interview. But I'm wondering if you can share with us your version of what Bob Fosse and his work means to you and what it means for you to be in this show.

[36:07] Mattie Love: It means a lot for me to be in this show. You know, his movements just so exposing, and I wasn't really introduced to Fosse at a young age. And I didn't think that I could be a Fosse dancer because I'm not like the typical body type or you know, version of what we all know Fosse to be, but I'm now learning is just a version because we all have our version. It just requires me to be so present and honest, and I use the word trust a lot because it's physically demanding, but it's also so it it's like kind of like a stove. You have to like touch it and it's hot, or like if it's I don't know how to describe it, but it's it's so palpable on the inside that it's rewarding, but yet feels like I need to come back to it to learn more and to like give more and have it feel different every time.

So I think I just I like I want to just thank him. Sometimes I'm like, I don't like your musicality because I think it's hard to count. Sometimes I like just look up and I'm like, why? Why? Why 18 eights and then a and a 12 after the 11th eight? That's just silly. Why? Why'd you do that? But then I also like want to thank him because I just I feel like I've said seen and understood, and that's a dancer's dream. And also I feel like it's not supposed to always feel good, and sometimes it doesn't. And that's the work. It's not everything should look or feel good. That's what makes it real. And interesting and fun to watch.

[37:49] Rob Russo: Yeah.

[37:50] Mattie Love: And keeps you coming back.

[37:51] Jamie DuMont: Yes.

[37:52] Mattie Love: Yeah. If it felt good every time, then I'd just be bored.

[37:55] Rob Russo: Well, one thing that both performers and audiences of dancing will never be is bored.

[38:00] Jamie DuMont: Bored. Well, thank you so much, Maddie, for sharing so much of your soul with us, not to mention your time on a very busy schedule. It's been a real pleasure chatting with you.

[38:09] Mattie Love: Thank you so much. It really has. And I love um Bob Fosse. That's just silly.

[38:19] Jamie DuMont: Just so you know.

[38:22] Mattie Love: Thank you. I've really enjoyed my time here.

[38:24] Jamie DuMont: Thanks.

[38:35] Rob Russo: Oh my god. Bob Fosse's dancing is now on Broadway at the Music Box Theater. For tickets and more information, visit dancingBWay.com.

[38:44] Jamie DuMont: Dancing Man, a Fabulous Invalid Podcast, is a production of OM Etc. and the Fabulous Invalid LLC, and a proud member of the Broadway Podcast Network. Special thanks to Civilian for hosting us and to our audio engineer, Kyle Moore. If you liked this episode, we've got over a hundred episodes of the Fabulous Invalid Podcast that you can check out, including a two-parter on the life, work, and legacy of Bob Fosse and Gwen Verdon. You can find us online at thefabulousinvalid.com and on social media at Fabulous Invalid, and on iTunes, Spotify, and wherever you get your podcasts.