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[0:00] Josh: And tonight we are hey queens, what's going on? It is Josh here. Welcome back to another episode of the Queendom Podcast. I am really excited to have you here. We are heading back out on tour to catch up with Seymour out there, Miss Lauren Byrne. Uh Lauren, if you don't already know, guys, is running a new performing arts school that is available and taking bookings right now. So if you haven't already, please head over to In3Arts on Instagram. That's IN3Arts. The links are down below. And check out all the things they've got to uh offer because there's some opportunities with some amazing performers. But other than that, you know what time it is. It is time to get down. The Queen of the Castle. Get down, you dirty rascal get down. Hey Queens, how's it going? Welcome back to the Queendom Podcast. I am joined here by the one, the only Lauren Byrne. Hey Lauren, how are you going?

[0:59] Lauren Byrne: I'm very good, thank you. How are you?

[1:01] Josh: I am fabulous. We were just talking about how you were pretty much the most requested queen to come on the podcast. So all the listeners out there, we did it.

[1:12] Lauren Byrne: It really might make me cry on a Tuesday morning. Thanks, guys.

[1:17] Josh: Um, so a couple of easy ones to start things off. Uh breakfast in the morning. Is it cereal or milk first?

[1:25] Lauren Byrne: Oh, cereal. Absolutely cereal. But to be honest, I'm not really a cereal eater. But if I was to have cereal, I'd go for cereal first.

[1:34] Josh: Fair enough. Eating app are you an apple eater?

[1:39] Lauren Byrne: No, I'm actually allergic to apples.

[1:41] Josh: Well, that question's out of the let's turn to Instagram because we've got like 20 questions here. Hold up. No, no, no. Um I'm allergic to most tree fruits.

[1:54] Lauren Byrne: It's very weird. Apparently, it's to do with hay fever and asthma and stuff.

[1:57] Josh: Interesting. Someone asked if you could perform six on roller skates or ice skates, which would you prefer?

[2:08] Lauren Byrne: Rollerskates. I think we should do that. Let's I reckon let's make that happen. Let's like hire a rink and do it like full kind of like roller derby style. Like just that would be so fun.

[2:19] Lauren Byrne: Do you know what? Me and my friend, when I was younger, we used to make up roller skate dances. I doubt I could do it now, but I used to be pretty damn good.

[2:26] Josh: You might need to copyright this idea and uh to tell you the next tour is gonna be done this way.

[2:34] Lauren Byrne: Yeah.

[2:36] Josh: Um now you're a Harry Potter buff.

[2:38] Lauren Byrne: Oh my god, so we know that about you. Um what house are you in?

[2:43] Lauren Byrne: Gryffindor. I've taken every test known to man and they all say the same.

[2:48] Josh: Every time I come out of Hufflepuff, so yeah, I'm gonna shame in Hufflepuff.

[2:54] Lauren Byrne: No, no, no shame in a Hufflepuff. We're great finders. Out of the whole series, favorite book and favorite movie.

[3:02] Lauren Byrne: Oh favorite book. Oh, they change every time I read the series. I think my most read book is Order of the Phoenix. Um I used to read like the beginning section, just like round and round and round, because I loved that like whole section at the beginning where um they were like cleaning the house, and then like I love how many kind of different parts of the magical world you get to see in that book. Like you get to see St. Mungo's or like the Ministry of Magic.

[3:41] Lauren Byrne: So like the world becomes so much bigger in that book. So I loved that one. And I think my most watched film is the Prisoner of Azkaban, um, the time turner scene where they like run through the hospital wing and then out on the music, it's really great. But then actually, recently me and my housemate actually watched it the other night. Classic. Um we watched uh Half Blood Prince.

[4:11] Lauren Byrne: And when I first saw that movie in the cinema, I was really I really didn't like it because it's so different from the book, like just makes up random scenes like Barrel Burrow getting set on fire, and you're like, huh, that didn't happen. But actually, as a film, I think it's really like a great film to watch.

[4:31] Lauren Byrne: So that is a contender as well, but they're all great. Um have you seen Cursed Child while we're on the hike by the train?

[4:42] Lauren Byrne: Um I have not seen it yet.

[4:44] Josh: Oh it's so great. My mum bless her, she so the Christmas that like it the first Christmas after the tickets were released, she got me Harry Potter tickets for that Christmas, but we had to wait like another year and a half before we got to see it.

[5:02] Lauren Byrne: So like the tickets that she could get were like for the April the year, so there was another Christmas, and then we got to see it.

[5:13] Lauren Byrne: So we did eventually get there, but it was so amazing. It's it was just such a spectacle. If I mean if you can see it, I absolutely would recommend. 100%.

[5:21] Josh: Alright. Um boarding tickets after you finished it.

[5:25] Lauren Byrne: Yeah.

[5:26] Josh: Alright. Let's move in to your journey. Um talk to me about how you got into theatre. How did you become an actress on stage?

[5:36] Lauren Byrne: Oh, well, so I it was actually I actually kind of didn't realize until quite late on in my maybe like maybe not late on, like my mid-teens, I'd say, that was when I first clocked that I didn't have to go and be like a banker or like work in the grocery market for the rest of my life.

[5:57] Lauren Byrne: Like my mum actually took me to see Wicked, and it was the first West End show that I'd ever seen. It was kind of the first musical theatre show that I'd ever seen. And I'd always like done, you know, singing and dance classes, and you know, I actually went to like a little stage school on a Saturday, but for some reason in my mind, they always just kind of they were just hobbies and things that I enjoyed doing outside of school, and I would need to go and become some kind of stable, you know, job lady in an office.

[6:29] Lauren Byrne: And so, yeah, and so when I went to see Wicked when I I think it was like 14, 15, um, and mum said I was literally just sat there like mouth completely open, like didn't look anywhere but at the stage for the entire um you know two and a half hours, and I remember kind of watching the actresses and actors and just being like, oh my god, they do that as a job, like what that's a thing I can get paid for that.

[6:59] Lauren Byrne: So that was a real light bulb moment for me, and um yeah, kind of from then on, I just was obsessed with like making sure that I didn't have to go and be a banker like Mark. She hates it.

[7:12] Lauren Byrne: So yeah, but my parents have always been so supportive, like they've they've never, you know, they've always said do what you love and then you'll never work a day in your life. And that is so true.

[7:22] Lauren Byrne: So um yeah, so that was kind of a turning point for me. Um so from then I kind of you know I had a couple of years left at you know school school, did my GCSEs. I don't know what you have in Australia.

[7:36] Lauren Byrne: Right. They're not even GCSEs anymore, I don't think, or maybe they are, but they're scored differently. It's like one to ten now rather than ABC. It's all mental kids sees day, but um so so yeah, so I did my DSEs and they were kind of I did do drama, but they were kind of like lots of academic subjects, and then as soon as I got to a sick form, I was like, give me all the arts.

[7:59] Lauren Byrne: So um yeah, and then from then I was just really lucky. I mean, I say lucky, I obviously I worked hard, but I was lucky in the sense that I auditioned for only two drama schools in my first year of auditioning because I at the time there was only two schools that were um that were that I could apply for um using like a student loan scheme.

[8:25] Lauren Byrne: So the other main schools in London, Mount View, Arts Ed, things like that, I wouldn't have been able to afford to go to to one of those schools if I had got in. So I applied um in my first year for the kind of ones that I knew I'd be able to afford to go to.

[8:38] Lauren Byrne: Yeah. And luckily I got into GSA that year, and that was kind of always my dream school anyway.

[8:45] Lauren Byrne: So um yeah, and then it all just just went from there really. GSA seems to be kind of the hub for six, like at the end of the day.

[8:53] Josh: Yeah, I know.

[8:56] Lauren Byrne: Grace and Mayo were my were two years below me. Obviously they were OG cast. Courtney was in my ear, Courtney Bowman, who's ambling now in West End. She yeah, she was in my ear. Our um resident one of our resident directors, Grace, she was on the MA course in yeah, when I was there.

[9:16] Lauren Byrne: Who else? There is yeah, there's loads of GSAs in. Shout out to Guildford, man, your producer.

[9:24] Josh: Um I just want to backtrack because you mentioned kind of that experience of like your first theatre experience. And I remember I was late to the party as well. I think I saw my first show at 16 and it was a school trip.

[9:37] Josh: Um we went down to Sydney and had fantastic seats for Mary Poppins and like Mary Poppins and kind of wicked have that magical kind of encapture, I think, as shows that are really fantastic introductory shows because they kind of really capture your imagination.

[9:58] Lauren Byrne: Like I remember watching Bert Tap Dance on the roof and being like, oh like it blew my mind.

[10:05] Josh: Like yeah, oh my god. I just love like those the idea of people experiencing this art form for the first time, like knowing what it was like for me, like knowing that somebody else is gonna have that experience, but with a different show, it's like oh just.

[10:21] Lauren Byrne: Oh my god, I know it's so amazing. And like theatre is such a massive form of escapism and for so many people and and definitely for me, once I kind of once I experienced it, I was like, oh my god, I'm so hooked.

[10:34] Lauren Byrne: And um it that's why it's so important, you know, in times like this where the world is so mental. People need that kind of thing that can they can go and watch and or listen to and be kind of taken somewhere other than taken away from what they're dealing with or do you know what I mean it's such an important part of like therapy in a sense you know what I mean and and so I sometimes like have a moment when I'm when we're when we're you know when when we're not in corona land when it's normal times and and we're doing the show and and it's it's six in particular because it's got this amazing amazing fan base where I'm kind of on stage and I'm realizing that that moment might be happening for someone in the audience you know that moment of like oh my god this is the first show I've ever seen and I'm like I can't you know I can't believe what's happening that kind of that feeling that I had when I was sat there watching wicked that that could be happening to someone in the audience right now and I literally pretty much every time nearly cry like it's just so it's so mental that I feel like I might be able to be doing that for someone if I'm if I'm if I'm doing an all right job I might be able to be using that for someone someone that feeling is so so amazing.

[11:46] Josh: Yeah 100% um we'll come back to the Queendom a little later on.

[11:50] Lauren Byrne: Yeah yeah um I'm just looking at your kind of resume now and you've done some pretty amazing shows. Fiddler, company, into the woods, spelling bee, Mondell beautiful like what's it like kind of seeing where you are now and then looking back to kind of then and being like okay cool. Look, like all that hard work right now.

[12:16] Lauren Byrne: Yeah. Look at me. The shows that I've done since I graduated, you know, Into the Woods, um Spelling Bee, um Company, they were all I oh my god. If I get to do those shows again professionally, I would take them in a second. But like those were all shows that I did while I was training.

[12:34] Lauren Byrne: So then the shows that I've done since I graduated, I I don't get me wrong, I had the best time, but I was always um I was a swing in in most of my professional credits.

[12:47] Lauren Byrne: And I found that really difficult, I won't lie. I mean, I think is I think it was um an insanely good learning curve, and I learnt so much about the industry that I had no idea was kind of you know necessary, or it you learn about kind of risk respect, respect for every member of the company.

[13:07] Lauren Byrne: You learn about you know doing multiple tracks or split tracking, or it's it and it keeps your brain so switched on at all times. It's yeah, the people that do that for like massive dance shows, you know, the swings in like Wicked or you know, you know, Mary Poppins, the ones we've that their brains just must be I can't I can't even imagine how I know one of the universal swings for Hamilton, and um I sat down in a bar with him one night and he was talking to me about um his time, like because he would swing between Chicago and New York, and there were nights where uh say Saturdays, two show days, um on for the matinee in New York, and they had needed an emergency cover in Chicago because of an injury.

[13:53] Lauren Byrne: He got pulled out of the show mid-show in New York, flown to Chicago to be in the night show in Chicago that night. Like, this is what I mean. Like it's a whole other portion of your brain that you've never had to use before. Yeah, you know, like it is absolutely mental. And I mean, we've got, I mean, Jen, you obviously know Jen, she's lit fat, like she could she could genuinely be asked to split track all six queens. She could do it, no problem. Like, she I don't understand her brain. In the first week of rehearsals, where I was literally just focusing on my one little track and I couldn't get it. I was like, this choreo is so confusing. And she was like nailing all six queens that she'd learned all six in less time than it took me to learn one.

It's absolutely mental. She's just got her brain just must be wired differently. Maybe she's an alien, I don't know. But like she I can confirm she probably is. Like, I think we need to run tests. Yeah. Yeah. But that's what I mean. These people like they're absolutely insane. And I don't think I actually have a particularly good swing brain. So the jobs that I did as a swing, um, I absolutely loved them. You know, Beautiful is such an incredible show. And Sunny Afternoon was the other job that I swung on. And oh I honestly, I again that's another show that I would like do again in a heartbeat. I absolutely fell in love with the show, and it was that was my first professional job. Um, and so yeah, the experiences were so amazing, but also I found them really difficult because it was that kind of thing where you you know you train for three years or for however many years, you know, not necessarily just the three at drama school, you know.

You know, people train for since they were three to do this thing that they've always you know wanted to do, and then to you know, be sat in your dressing room, you know, maybe five shows out of eight a week, or maybe eight shows out of eight uh eight a week, you know, in Sunny Afternoon. In the I was it was a I had a 10-month contract because I joined late. The whole contract was a year, but I joined a couple of months late. And um I think I did in the space of 10 months, I think I only did something like 15 shows in total, and so those 15 shows I had the best time of my life. It was like so incredible. I felt like a total rock star, and then every other show I was sat in my dressing room like want to be on stage, you know.

It's really hard. So, like dealing with that kind of um, you know, learning, it was a proper learning curve for me, and um really yeah, like I said, really makes you kind of realize how much more there is to um a musical theatre career than just kind of being the being the star essentially. And I say that with in perfect comments, you know, being the um person who gets to go out on stage and and do what they love every night. There's so many more people in a company that are their jobs are equally as necessary and essential to the team, and that you know, um so they were amazing jobs to have, and I would actually recommend being a swing to anyone um who gets given the opportunity because even though you know it is that thing of me personally, I I was always like I want to be on stage every night.

But some people actually love it and they love the night off when they get it, you know. But yeah, like it is such a valuable experience, and I think then it really you know, six was essentially my first on stage role. Well, actually, I did Blondel, which was a little two-month job, but I it's because it was so short, I sent I never seemed to count it, which is that much at the time. Um, but yeah, like six was you know, my first kind of big contract where I was on stage every night, and then the amount of pressure that I felt then was insane because I was like, oh my god, I've never been on stage for an opening night. Like I've always been in the in the audience, like couldn't wait to be there to kind of celebrate after, but never never had the pressure of opening the show.

And so opening night of six, I literally was like panic attack of city over there in the dressing room. But um, yeah, it it it it gave me a massive kind of appreciation when I did get to the point of you know being able to do this job every every night two times a day or whatever. I've never appreciated anything more, you know, you know, and and I think without the experiences of being a swing twice for you know long contracts, I never would have had that appreciation for it, you know. So yeah, they're they're amazing, they were amazing jobs. I loved them all, but yeah, at six is something else.

[18:39] Josh: Speaking of that wonderful show, how did you first hear about six?

[18:45] Lauren Byrne: Oh god, so I actually so obviously when um when when I was coming to the end of Beautiful, um which was what 20 2018, I think. Um they uh they that was when they were starting auditions for the uh the original kind of town queens, their their little, you know, they did a little UK tour, I think they opened in Norwich, um, and then they went into town afterwards, and they were starting auditions for that cast when I was leaving Beautiful, and I didn't actually, I didn't actually get seen for it, I don't think. Um, but lots of my friends did, and and everyone kind of had this opinion of it that it was like not gonna take off, or that it was gonna be a bit of a like, you know, maybe it would it would kind of stick around for a little while and then just disappear.

And I even when you look at like the plan for that town tour, it was like we're gonna go from Norwich back to the arts for a limited engagement, and then it just never left. So, like I know you look at the like the mindset of everyone connecting the project, like this is a lot bigger than it was kind of expected to be.

[19:54] Josh: Yeah, absolutely.

[19:55] Lauren Byrne: And I think that is totally the that is totally it. It was it's it no one ever could have expected you know, maybe maybe the writers did know how how well I mean they're bloody clever, aren't they? But maybe they maybe they always knew that it would connect with so many people, but I don't think other people realised until they saw it. And I was the same, if I'm honest. I didn't even when I had listened to the soundtrack, I didn't get it, I didn't get the hype, I didn't get the kind of um, you know, obviously I thought that the songs were very clever, and I thought the concept was very clever, but I didn't until you watch the show, I don't think you can quite it adds a different element. You know, and um yeah, so I I didn't, you know, Grace and May are obviously got the job, and I I know them both, and I, you know, I was very happy for them that they were working, just you know, fresh grads straight into a job.

I was like, that's amazing, guys. You know, and I always was like, yeah, I need to come and see it, but then I was doing other things, and you know, you just get distracted, don't you? Life, and um, and when was it that I signed auditioning for it? I think it was like April time of last year, 2019. Um, so it'd already been going for a while, and obviously by that point the hype was real. Like, all of my mates were like, Lauren, you've got to go and see that show, and I was always like, I don't know if it's my cup of tea, guys. I don't know. I'm like, maybe I'll go and see it. Like, I need to go see Grace and Mayer in it, obviously. So, like, I I will at some point, but I don't know if I'm gonna like it.

And then I and then I had got called in for it, and I have a thing about I I don't like going to watch a show if I'm in auditions for it because I don't want what I'm presenting in the audition room to be influenced by what other people are doing with that role, or do you know what I mean? And and I also think that like it jinxes it a little bit, like if I spend a load of money on a ticket and go and watch it, then I'm bound to not get the job, you know. So I didn't go and watch it the whole time that I was auditioning for it, and I I think I was seen for it like maybe five or six times. So I was kind of I did my first audition, which was just kind of a singing round, you know. I sang two contrasting pop songs, um, and then I was called back another four or five times, and they were like big all-day events, like that it was it was it was quite a mental cast casting process.

You know, we had like a dance call in the morning, and there was a big old cut, and then in the afternoon it was like um you know, workshopping the scenes and workshopping the songs, and everyone sang in front of everyone else, which is something that I've never experienced in any other audition process, and primarily I was like, This is absolute hell, but then actually, the more I did it, I was like, This is actually really cool because I can like get get you know, it's it's essentially the same as the it's the same vibe as the show, you know. You get to go and watch 20 other badass women like belt and you know top G at 10 o'clock in the morning, you know what I mean? It's insane, and so you kind of leave the audition, like it feeling like, oh my god, there are so many cool ladies in this world.

So it was I can I see what they did there, those casting teams, like clever old clever old sticks but um yeah so and it was quite a intense process I think there was kind of a couple of days like that in one week and then it was the same the next week and then there was a few weeks of silence and then I had to go back in and dance one more time and um and yeah and and actually the day that I found out that I got the job so I was in for another show at the time and like I say I hadn't really I hadn't seen the show see because I hadn't I I my heart was set on this other show that I was in for and I found out that I hadn't got that job through a friend because my friend had got it the track that I was up for so my a I know really rushed so my my agent phoned me a few hours later and I was already like I'd spent the day in tears like I didn't get the job and then my agent phoned and I looked at it and I was like oh here's the I'm sorry phone call like I'm really sorry you didn't get the job so yeah I I looked at the phone thought it was gonna be the I'm sorry didn't get the job phone call and I picked it up and um my agent was like hi Lauren love I'm just calling you the job offer from six and I was like what I was just so confused so many emotions obviously thrilled um and then I went to see the show and then I understood like the hype I I was literally like this show is so clever so empowering so funny like you just until you've watched it you can't understand you know and now listening to the soundtrack I'm like it all makes total sense but I you can't grasp it until you've seen the show and I think it's amazing when people come to see the show and they've only listened to the soundtrack and they've fallen in love with the soundtrack because obviously people that is you know a lot of people have you know experienced it that way yeah and and but then when they go and see the show for the first time it's like what how does it all make sense so good you know I think it's a cooler way to see a show like if I know I'm gonna see a show I'll learn the soundtrack back to front so I don't need to focus on the lyrics when I go see the show.

[25:06] Josh: Cool I know the music what else is going on and like during the songs I can focus on the movement and like this is just my actor brain one.

[25:15] Lauren Byrne: No that's yeah I really yeah um but like when it comes to dialogue like the dialogue in between the scenes in this show is so spectacularly that it blew my mind as soon as I heard Aragon's first like monologue I was like oh damn okay we're taking it to another level here we go all right straight off the bat exactly it's so well put together they they they've absolutely they're geniuses genius genii I don't know what the plural for genius yeah they're amazing and and yeah it's it's just such an amazing show to be part of because every every night you get to see the audience either experience it for the first time or they'll have come for the hundredth time and they like know that no they know your lines and they'll be like you can see them from row like mouthing your dialogue with you.

I just love how much this show has kind of had an effect on so many people or or you know feel like it m it made people feel like they they are part of something this queendom thing that's been created it's so amazing and so like inclusive and and just wonderful I just love it.

[26:32] Josh: Let's go down that rabbit hole now that we've mentioned the key word queendom everybody's just tuned in for this one specific section.

[26:42] Lauren Byrne: The Queendom is intensely amazing I think is best way to put it.

[26:50] Josh: Yeah.

[26:50] Lauren Byrne: Like I've been a part of Hamilton Dear Evan Hansen those kind of fan bases but this there's something else about it. I think the way the show like from kind of Josh's perspective running the account and all of that and everyone that runs those main accounts their interaction with the fans is what drives the Queendom because they know that the show cares about them I think.

[27:21] Lauren Byrne: Yeah.

[27:22] Which is like they see it. They know the show's putting like the dance along the sing alongs like there's so many elements to this show that no other show can really do. This show just has something special about it. And then there's obviously you guys as well that have accepted us into that kind of corner of your life and then let us into that point which is also really cool because sometimes you don't get that connection with the people you idolize. So like the whole from the show to the fan experience to everything it's just very special kind of oh my god, totally. And I do think that the way that the show is written, you know, that obviously we're in character, but on stage you are interacting with the audience constantly.

So it makes complete sense to carry that on off stage, even though obviously, you know, on stage I'm Jane Seymour, off stage I'm clearly not, but like you know, it makes total sense to carry on that relationship with the audience off stage because you've had so much interaction with them, you know, in the show.

[28:32] Um, and it is so amazing to have that opportunity, you know. Obviously, every show is gonna have its own kind of fan base and have people that it speaks to more, you know. Sunny Afternoon when I was in that, there was we had the same, you know, there was fans that came to see the show a few times a week, every week. And so there is still that kind of love for the show, but you never get quite the same relationship like on stage and audience relationship as you do with this show. Like I say, the way that it's written so that there is so much interaction is just completely different, you know, to any other show really, this kind of concert feel where you're addressed as an audience member so many times throughout the 75 minutes.

Um whereas you know, lots of kind of musical theatre shows are it's that fourth wall is very much there, so you're not really acknowledged until the finale, and then it's like, hey guys, we knew you were there this whole time. Let's have a sing song and everyone clap your hands, you know. Like that's the whole way through with SIX. It's so brilliant.

[29:36] So the audience already feel like they have that relationship with you as an actor because they're talking to you, they're having that relationship the entire way through. So yeah, they feel like they get to know you, I guess, through that kind of process, and then the kind of influence that it has on social media is just it makes so much sense seeing as they already feel like they know you if they've seen the show and then they get to kind of know a different side of you. It's like it's like Jane Seymour's my ultimate Instagram is like oh my god that's Jane Seymour's old Rico Lauren hey yeah it's I think it's really clever they it makes total sense and like you say you know the kind of the main pages the so the um Josh with the socials um like you say it is literally giving the fans exactly what they want exactly what they asked for and that is more than anything kind of insight or like into the life of the queen you know um like connection with the queens and that is and that is yeah it's amazing that we we're able to do that because like I say you know other shows sunny afternoon or whatever you'd meet people at stage door if they wanted to stick around and say hi but you know that was it there's no kind of it's just the messages that I receive saying you know thank you so much for you know it every single message like has a massive impact in and yeah I've never had anything like it with any other show or any other experience you know for God's sake like my band did did The Voice last year just before I did SIX and we were kind of thinking oh gosh I wonder what it's gonna be like you know we've we'll have been on like primetime TV and blah blah blah blah and I wonder if that'll you know change anything for us and like in comparison like if I thought The Voice or SIX could have like given me that you know connection to people through music or through you know acting or anything you would you I would have thought it would be The Voice but actually SIX has just given me that ability to connect with people who are you know affected in a positive way by this show or by music in general or yeah it's it's it's so strange but amazing if that makes any sense.

[30:09] Josh: A hundred percent.

[30:09] Walk me through the overwhelming kind of onslaught of love that would have happened after you guys were all announced.

[30:09] Lauren Byrne: Oh my god well I think it's actually nearly oh no it was September time that we were announced wasn't it we so I I'd been offered the job in May and then we were starting rehearsals in like very end of September beginning of October time so we always knew that there would be a bit of a wait before the cast announcement came out but it got to the point where we'd all met we'd had like a photo shoot together and it was still like when are they gonna announce it then because I'm excited and um yeah I think I it just obviously like was announced one morning and my phone like I literally I just had to like turn it off I was like I think it's gonna break it was so crazy but that yeah that onslaught of like yeah of love like you say it was it was absolutely the strangest thing I've ever experienced but it's literally like you kind of gain thousands of family members in like 30 seconds flat and you're like whoa oh okay cool yeah completely exactly like that and and obviously you know my in my cast we have you know a couple of Heathers girls and and so they they had kind of already had some experience with that kind of like love for a show and so they were good kind of at kind of you know saying to us like um obviously acknowledge all the the lovely positive stuff that will come but that you need to make sure that you kind of take a take a uh like a step back from it occasionally because it can be overwhelming you know I and I and I'm I like in my Instagram DM request box I I see every message but like if I if I tried to open them up and reply to all of them I would literally never leave my phone and there is that there is that kind of sense of oh my god I want to interact with everyone and I want to say thank you so much for all your kind of positive messages and and love and support and it truly is amazing to read every single one but you like you have to remember like real life do you know what I mean?

Real life is also important so yeah like if I if I did if I opened up every request I would I would literally just be in phone land 24/7 and my my other half already tells me off for being on my phone too much.

[34:55] Josh: I mean it took us four months to get to this point and I know I'm so sorry.

[35:00] Lauren Byrne: I mean I genuinely like I I go through phases of just being like okay I'm not gonna check the requests for a while and then and then I'll and then I'll go back and that there'll be loads to scroll through and I'll be like, oh it's lovely. So yeah, I I but I try to like stay I try to make sure that I'm not like checking every day because then it's all I would do. It was genuinely all I would do. I would I would absolutely love to spend all my time interacting with people, but I I would do nothing else. I wouldn't eat excuse me.

[35:33] Um we've mentioned the craziness that is the rest of your cast.

[35:38] Um because I think I I'm pr I can't remember who I had this discussion with. It was somebody.

[35:44] Um just kind of how stacked with personality.

[35:50] Yeah, the tour cast is.

[35:52] Lauren Byrne: Oh my god.

[35:53] It looks like they like just picked everyone out and they're like, no, let's just put them all in one cast and see what goes. Like let's just give it a shot.

[36:00] Josh: Oh my god, so true.

[36:02] Lauren Byrne: It literally is. And do you know what? I remember meeting a couple of the girls in auditions. I met Lauren Drew in the auditions, and I was oh my god, I was so intimidated by Lauren Drew because she literally seemed like the like the most larger than life, confident, like didn't didn't care what anyone else in the room was doing. She was just completely like focused on herself and like I really just remember looking at her in this dance call being like, oh my god, I wish I had your confidence. Like I I was there at the back, like trying to learn get down as this like stiff little cardboard lady, and then everyone else is like looking really cool, and I was there just trying really hard not to kind of just to just to be as invisible as possible.

[36:46] Um yeah, and I just remember looking at Lauren Drew and being like, damn, I really wish I had your confidence. But then like knowing her now the way that I do and knowing her so well, like she that that it's um you know appearances can be so deceiving she was she told me later you know she was absolutely cracking her pants in every audience you know so yeah it is but it is crazy the amount of different kind of personalities and and huge personalities that we have in the cast but you know I I actually when the when I found out who the rest of the cast was going to be I was like oh my god so many big personalities in one room like nine girls I still look at your photos next to each other and I'm like I still think I'm like what I know and I remember like thinking oh my god that is a lot of big people in in one room like I hope you know if if there's a diva in the mix like just ask that's gonna be a struggle for the you know whole contract but I've honestly never worked with a cast that get on as well as we do like there's no but I mean I suppose because you know there's only nine of us in the cast obviously there's more of us in the in the whole company but the cast is so small I think if if people didn't get on it would be such a shame and there's no there's no room for like little separate groups because there's only nine of you and we're just so lucky in that we all get on like a house on fire like when we're all in the room I think I mean the poor creative team in our rehearsal process they were literally like girls, we need you to focus on something.

[38:32] Like, can we just try and get through this scene before the end of the day? And we'd be all like, yeah, no, of course, just let us tell like another 17 jokes first. Like we all just have, yeah, that it's just so much fun together. So we were so lucky with our cast.

[38:47] I yeah, and obviously, like for me, you know, Jodie Steele, like I I man, I freaked out when I had her on the podcast. Like I saw her, right? So in so she was she was a GSA as well, and she graduated the year just as I was I was so she graduated in 2013 and I was joining that year, so I just missed her. But I found out that I'd gotten into GSA, and so I went to see Jodie's years graduating show, which was um Footloose, and I went to see and Jodie was playing Rusty, and I remember literally being like, who the hell is that girl? Like, I am a fan, and then like, and then I went to see her in Bear. Like, I I didn't know that she was in it, but when I got there, I was like, Oh my god, that's just that was Rusty in Footloose, and like I've just kind of seen her in so many different things over the years and always just been so in awe, and then when I found out that I was gonna be working with her, I was like, Oh my god, for God's sake, like they couldn't have put me in a more intimidating cast. Like, but yeah, it's just so cool that you kind of got to the point where I'm now like working with people that I've always admired. It's so cool, so so cool.

[40:07] Josh: I love that.

[40:09] So good.

[40:09] Um number one Jodie Steele fan from the get-go, the OG, yeah.

[40:17] Lauren Byrne: Yeah, the OG.

[40:21] Um, so learning this show, um popping it all together from kind of that first read-through and hearing things come together, then doing the choreography, kind of piecing things together. What was that moment for you where things kind of had that click where you were like, Oh damn, here we go?

[40:44] Lauren Byrne: Do you know what? Actually, for me it came it came quite a bit later for me personally.

[40:48] Lauren Byrne: I mean, in terms of like watching the other girls, I literally was from day one, I was literally like oh my god. Like Lauren Oh, we're doing this, okay. Seriously, like the set the the I think obviously because you know in terms of the show, no way comes first after the um after the big opening number. And the the day that Lauren Drew sang No Way in rehearsals, everyone was literally like is that allowed? Is that illegal? God's sake, like it was honestly so shocking. I was like, and you're gonna do that eight times a week, are you? Okay, sure, sure. Where's I like she's gotta be an alien and all. Like, seriously, I don't understand the vocal mechanics. Like I'd love to like see some anatomy like uh drawings there because I don't understand what she's doing vocally.

Um what we're saying is that Lauren Byrne is the only non-alien. Yeah, yeah, everyone's an alien. Um but yeah, so the the second that like Los like started that off, and then like you know, everyone's like, wow, that was incredible, and then Maddie did her Berlin and everyone was like, What the heck, man? Like, how's she doing it so different but so good? And then like, you know, we saw Shaka and Shaka obviously was already in town, and then she came into our rehearsals like every now and again, and she just like breezed in one afternoon. She was like, Yeah, we're running get down, let's do it. And then everyone was like gobsmack, like the sheep ball of energy. It's like she's on vibrant, isn't she?

Um, and then yeah, it's just like everyone just like picked up that energy and ran with it, and it was amazing. But for me personally, I I actually really struggled in rehearsals. I I just I just didn't I couldn't believe that I was there in that position. And I think having had the kind of experiences as swing and and understudy and and always not quite feeling like I was actually good enough to do the part and then been given the part, and I was like, oh my god, so much pressure. Also, for God's sake, following Natalie Bloom in May Paris, like Jesus, I was literally waiting for people to be like comparing. Do you know what I mean? And obviously they do, but everyone's entitled to their own opinion.

But like I knew having seen Natalie's version that I was gonna have to work freaking hard to make it my own and and make it something that is not comparable because it's just different, and and so you know, it's it's not one is better than the other, it's that's that's Natalie's version, and this is the truth with any of the queens, you know, that's that's their version, and no one can top that, and so I have to just do my version that no one can top. Do you know what I mean? Because and like that, and we've spoken about this with Grace and um a ton of other people on the podcast so far, about the um the clear direction to make it your own, like you're not a carbon copy, you you are you in this character.

The character is a part of you, you are not trying to be anyone else, you're not trying to duplicate a role, like this is you. Yeah, completely. So yeah, so that so I've I did really struggle with that in rehearsals, and I and I found it difficult to um you know just believe that I was gonna be able to do that, I guess. And and it was only for me kind of halfway through the show on opening night, I reckon, and then I was literally like, for God's sake, Lauren, like you can absolutely do this, like you don't need to like I think it is just that you know, you question yourself constantly, everyone's their own worst critic, I think, and and for me I was surrounded by so many amazing people, and and you know, even you know, Maddie and Athena, they're both they were these new grads, and they'd they'd they just came into it just fully believing like they were they were absolutely where they were meant to be, and I was so jealous of that, like not jealous, that's the wrong word.

I was never jealous of them. I love them with my whole heart, but I was I did have a moment of like, oh man, I really wish that I I felt that way in rehearsals. I really wish like I I really truly believed that I was meant to be here, and I don't think I did until opening night, and then I was like, for God's sake, like you there's a reason that you're here. There's a reason that you you're you're doing this right now, and and I had to just like bully myself into into believing basically, um, because it is hard, and I think you know, obviously being being a swing is in no by no means like a a lesser than job. I um it's just like like I've said, you know, there is there they are the most clever and valuable people on the in the cast.

Like I and I truly believe that, you know, all of our alternates, like the show simply couldn't go on without them. Like it is they're yeah, totally just different skill set, different everything. So in no way do I kind of think of a an understudy job or a swing job as being lesser than. I think it if anything, they are more important. But having had experiences where I I felt as a swing that I was lesser than, probably more because of my own stuff than because of anything that anyone else was putting out there. There's so much pressure on each of us. Do you know what I mean? So yeah, it was just it was it was a struggle for me. But once I got there, I I was like, oh, okay, you can chill now, you know.

[46:44] Lauren Byrne: Yeah. Um so yeah, it was it it did it did come later. Yeah. And with the swing thing, I think the show um has been the perfect kind of oh my god, I've loved it. Catalyst for swings because it's really helped emphasise how important exactly, exactly. But this, it's like you're like this person is in, like, yeah, and it's that whole thing that you said about you know making making the character your own, and you don't want to do, you know, when when Harriet's on for Seymour, she's just as much Seymour as I am. It's not like she's you know, first cover Seymour, she's not, she's freaking Seymour. And if I'm off the show, like that's the only Seymour you need to be worrying about because she does it completely differently, and just like there's you can't that's the that's the wonderful thing.

Like you said, you you just can't compare any actors in any of these roles, and it's not needed, you don't need to, you don't need to say, Oh, you know, well, I I really loved her version, but actually I preferred her version. It doesn't matter, like that's the wonderful thing about this show is that no matter who you see, there's always gonna be six queens on stage. Yeah, you know, and only six queens on stage. Yeah, like it it's like it's yeah, it's a special show. It really is, and I love the I love the that um they've been so amazing with kind of raising the profile of an alternate and and actually that's that is carrying through to other shows now, and there is being so much more um support and um yeah, love for alternates and and covers and swings in general, like that people are kind of starting to recognise now just how difficult their job is and just how important their job is, you know. Um so it's yeah, it's amazing.

[48:39] Lauren Byrne: And I love that six has kind of commandeered that little uh movement. Commandeering so many different moments. Yeah, the show has been like a catalyst for so many things, and I think it's just because of the sh like the the size of the production, like it's a tiny production, but because it has to highlight so many things, like you really everybody takes notice of everything because the lights aren't hidden behind 40 bodies, like the costumes aren't 40 people deep, like it's literally here, look like, and everyone's seeing the full kind of what's the word? Um value of a production. Um they're not just seeing the show, they're able to look a little deeper, which is really really cool.

[49:31] Josh: Um let's chat about Seymour um as a character because she is one of the more diverse characters from an emotional standpoint, because it's literally kind of nearly two ends of the spectrum from the end of Heart of Stone onto Um I Don't Need Your Love. There's kind of like a comedic flip almost. Um so getting into kind of the Seymour head space. Um how was that journey for you having to kind of connect to a story that is hard to connect to because of the the content of Seymour's story?

[50:11] Lauren Byrne: Yeah. Um but yeah, how did you go about it? Um so obviously, we you know, there was there was loads of kind of suggested reading and watching before we even started rehearsals in terms of research. Um, and that was actually so so helpful and beneficial in terms of like working out how she could possibly love this total arsehole. Do you know what I mean? Excuse me. Like she I I it did kind of take me a while to just and in my very kind of feminist self, it kind of me a while to be like, yeah, I understand that. Do you know what I mean? So I think um, yeah, she in in in my head, the way that I can kind of get around it is that she she is equally and and it this kind I love the way that the show touches on this you know it says that that line about um what is the end of her monologue Jesus haven't done the show in six weeks uh six months now um what is the thing that she says something about um and that wasn't because and that wasn't because I was that wasn't because I was weak or naive or something not script but I think I am uh scrolling scrolling um and that wasn't because I was scared or naive or weak it's because I think in that little section yeah and you know it's like I I I'm fully aware that I've put up with X and Y and Z and I and I know that those things are terrible and so it's almost like she's shot excusing those things that she I I just have to believe that she would disagree with like as as like I say as a as a feminist like I my version of Seymour has to have understood that the things that he did were unacceptable and and then still in spite of that for some reason that she maybe doesn't understand herself loving him do you know do you know what I mean?

[52:09] Lauren Byrne: So it just blew my mind like that like really zones in because like you think heart of stone like but when you think of it on that perspective like oh yeah so I do think that that was helpful for me because I was like my my Seymour could could not have just overlooked it and been like ah well yeah he might have chopped your head off but like it she had to she had to have a complete understanding and I think that she actually did in in j in real life I think Seymour was fully aware of the the danger that she was in and you know having seen the way that Henry treated Catherine and then uh Amberlynn, you know she knew exactly what was at stake and every time she in history tried to kind of maybe call Henry's attention to something that he was doing that she didn't necessarily agree with she had to do it in a very clever way and that's that's why I think she's such an interesting character because you know when you know she was the one who said to Henry you need to get your daughter back in court mate you know you like don't come on now and and she convinced him to do that not by you know doing it in the way that Catherine of Aragon might have which is very forceful or in the way that Anne Boleyn might have which is more manipulative she kind of not manipulate you know what you know that you know but like she she had to do it in a way that was that didn't make Henry feel threatened.

[53:48] Lauren Byrne: Yeah so she's she must have just been so clever to be able to kind of sway him without the you know without getting that kind of defense or from from him without getting that kind of angry response for her trying to change him you know or her questioning the king so I think she was very very clever and and doesn't get enough credit for that you know she may have had to bite her tongue in certain situations but actually I think her her kind of trail of thought would have always been I can't say anything right now but I'm gonna work on that you know that kind of thing where and and and I think you know when you look at so many relationships even these days people do why do why do we fall in love with certain people you know why do we fall in love with the people that are gonna hurt us why do we fall in love with people that we don't trust it just happens all the time and I think that you can't question her um strength or um you know intelligence just because she unfortunately fell in love with a total psychopath you know happens all hindsight is like an amazing thing like at the time she didn't like she would have kind of known considering they pretty much got married on Anne's death day but like to an extent like completely different time yeah exactly and I think as well like you're you know you can always be swayed by uh someone that you but especially back then someone that's offering money safety like a future like back then like that was kind of the holy trio yeah absolutely and I think also you know Jane Seymour's education was much she had a much um not worse she didn't have the education that Catherine of Aragon had that Anne Boleyn had so they were these very well educated women and Jane Seymour's kind of biggest um you know dream her her biggest achievement was was getting to be a lady in waiting and she achieved that and her family were thrilled and her family were like, oh my god, our daughter's a lady in waiting.

[56:14] Lauren Byrne: They never that was never uh being a queen was never like in her head. It was never something that her family believed was in the cards for her, and then when it was in the cards, there was so much pressure for that to happen because it was like, oh my god, our family could have this, and it was so much about you know, uh each family's standing in court, and there was so much pressure on her for that reason as well to do better than they all had imagined that she could. And um she obviously wanted to write by her family, and yeah, there's so so many weird pressures in the Tudor times. It's interesting and like reading back on history in general, it's funny to see how far we've come, but also how not far we've come.

Like it's kind of like we've very much picked and chosen the lessons that we should have learned and decided to ignore a lot of the rest, and it's just yeah, no, it's so true. Very yeah, telling. Um but yeah, I think and someone touched on this in a previous episode with how the show really shines a lot on how smart each individual queen was for this time where female education really wasn't a thing. Um it was very much self-sought after, or if you were born into the royal bloodline, you were put through that. But like each of the queens very much had a self-recognition of who they were and what they needed to do for their time, and um yeah, I think this show really put a spotlight on that, which is really awesome.

[58:03] Josh: Yeah, me too.

[58:04] Lauren Byrne: Agreed. So heading out on tour, um, you'd obviously done two tours. Um so what was it like going out for a third time with this school?

[58:19] Lauren Byrne: Um I uh yeah, like you say, I've I'd kind of done two tours already of long contracts. So I kind of knew the ropes a little bit and I was grateful for that, you know, in rehearsals there were a couple of obviously the Athena and Mads that who had never, you know, that I think Athena had had a oh, they both actually had um it wasn't their first job out of um drama school. They'd both had little couple of month stints in London. Um but this was their kind of big new grad contract, you know, and so for them it was a lot of stress of a learning the show and their characters and then b like how do you book digs and how do you book travel and how you know those kind of things were playing on their minds as well.

Whereas I, you know, I and Jody and Lauren and stuff who already had the kind of experience of touring lots before, we kind of had that, those habits were already made. So that was really helpful because actually it does take a lot of pressure off. Um, you know, if you have digs that you've stayed in before that you liked and you can go back to, that really takes a lot of pressure off because touring can be incredible, and it is incredible, and I love it. And I actually wouldn't have done a third year touring if I didn't love it and enjoy it, but it is so it can be so exhausting because you never get that kind of chance to settle, especially with weekly touring. You know, you're there for five days, six days sometimes, so you don't get that chance to really settle in and kind of get to know your surroundings.

So it's important to make sure that you kind of have like some things that are like home comforts, or do you know what I mean, things that like um can make you feel at ease in constantly living out of suitcase life. So it is good that I already had some kind of habits formed, so that was helpful.

[1:00:18] Lauren Byrne: Um, but I actually what I love about touring with Six is I kind of touched on earlier, you know, there's only nine of us, so you know, we get to kind of swap who lives with who in each venue, and like yeah, it's just really lovely, and we are in like you know, the reason that the drive-in was going to work so well, so sad that it's not happening, but like the reason it was gonna work so well is because we would all we were all gonna have to be in that kind of social bubble and tour all together, travel together and then live together. And I was like, that's basically what we were doing anyway. So do you know what I mean? It was so perfect. Um, and it yeah, we love the thing with touring is you don't you don't get to go home at the end of the day and like relax and see your other half and see your um you know your mum or your dog or your whoever, you know, you live with each other, you work with each other, and you eat with each other and you hang out with each other, and luckily with our cast, that's it's great. We love it.

[1:01:17] Josh: Another reason why it's so good that you guys all go along.

[1:01:18] Lauren Byrne: Exactly, exactly. So, yeah, it was great touring with these girls. I actually can't wait to do it again as soon as the theatres reopened, whenever that may be, yeah I'm really I I'm yeah touring is exhausting but when you've got a good cast it like doesn't matter because you just it's just so much fun.

[1:01:25] Josh: Yeah, I love your cast because the biggest thing um I was hearing from people about why they were excited was the drive-in was gonna happen was not because they were going to be able to see Six it was because they were gonna get like the behind the scenes content from everyone's like yes we're gonna have like lives and oh my god I know and it's it does feel like such a massive part of it because you know because of the amazing kind of interaction that you can have you're right like the behind the scenes stuff is so cool that people can get a little bit of insight into like you know what we do in the dressing room or it is so much fun I like that and that is where we have so much fun to be fair because on stage you know you know what the show's like it's so like compact and there's not a second to like breathe let alone like have a joke with someone else on stage so all of the kind of like cast bonding happens off stage it's so yeah it's that's it's lovely that people want to see that stuff as well as the stuff that we get to show them on stage.

[1:02:41] Lauren Byrne: Yeah 100% um so going into different venues having different crowds how do you find it adjusting because you on like on a weekly basis it's not as easy to kind of um figure out almost how that specific population is going to react to certain things.

[1:03:01] Josh: So yeah yeah um how do you go about like if you're only getting five days, you kind of would pick up on what jokes would land well and delivery and that type of thing in different cities.

[1:03:13] Lauren Byrne: Yeah um is it more just a fact of keeping it the same? Um then trying to figure that out.

[1:03:18] Lauren Byrne: I think shows always kind of evolve anyways. Um and our cast in particular, you know, when we were rehearsing it was very much done on a level that would work at the arts theatre, you know, in that kind of small intimate space. And then like you say, you know, us I think like our second or third venue was Glasgow and in that like massive I I can't remember maybe like it was over a thousand I'm pretty sure seat a theatre and it just you it can't work on on that level that is so right for the arts. It can't work on that level in a theatre that size. And so you're right we have to kind of find ways of kind of keeping it true to itself but almost just like magnifying it slightly um for the kind of reaching an extra like hundred meters to the back of the theatre instead of like 20 meters to the back.

[1:04:15] Josh: Yeah exactly and you know so we had to kind of there is kind of uh on on a Tuesday night when we when we or Monday or Tuesday whenever it is that we um have the get in there is that kind of moment in sound check where we're looking and seeing like okay so how how big do we need to play this tonight then you know and then the audience is obviously so different in every city. If you're up north you're gonna get a rowdy crowd. If you're somewhere like you know Cheltenham or you know Chichester they might be more reserved but actually the amazing thing is that I don't think any audience has ever sat there and not enjoyed it or not loved it in their own way. So you just have to it's really fun and it keeps you on your toes having to find ways to connect to that specific audience and it does you know I know it sounds so like actory but there's a book called um different every night by Mike Alfred um and he basically just talks about how the show should constantly be evolving and and you should kind of have a different thought process every night through through your character and and that's one of the great things about touring is that and touring with a show that's so based on audience interaction is it is always going to be different anyway.

[1:05:35] Lauren Byrne: So it is always going to keep you fresh and and you know sometimes the audience shout things out and and that will influence something that you do later on or do you know I mean it's just so fun because it does feel so interactive. So yeah it's it's it's it's awesome actually I think having to kind of adjust and adapt to to different kind of size audiences and just like audiences that might feel a bit more timid and you kind of have to work to kind of bring them out of their shell a little bit or you know yeah it I think the the fun the most fun we can have with an audience is one that maybe does feel slightly more timid and then after like Lauren's no way monologue where she's addressed so many of them individually and then they're like oh my god should I be even more scared it's so it's so much fun kind of you know working on making an audience feel comfortable, I guess.

[1:06:33] Josh: Yeah.

[1:06:33] Lauren Byrne: Especially after like six minutes in, you're like, hey, yeah, yeah, exactly.

[1:06:38] Josh: Like, okay, by the end, you're gonna be up on your feet. Get ready.

[1:06:41] Lauren Byrne: Exactly. It's almost like a challenge of so yeah, it's so much fun. And obviously it is difficult, and um sometimes it takes us a couple of nights in a venue to kind of fully grasp what that kind of audience needs. But um, yeah, it's definitely a way of keeping us uh present in the moment, you know.

[1:07:01] Lauren Byrne: So I've touched on this a lot recently, but I love talking about the different um cast dynamic that you had with uh Jen leaving to go to town and Alicia coming off the cruise ships and having to kind of adjust to what was the wonderful January of this year.

[1:07:19] Josh: I know.

[1:07:20] Lauren Byrne: Um how was that kind of having that cast vibe kind of thrown into somewhat disarrayed to try and find it again?

[1:07:31] Lauren Byrne: It was hard actually because like I say, we are all so close and and we felt really sad having Jen kind of ripped away from us. But you know, like I said earlier, her brain is something else, and they needed her somewhere else, and that's absolutely fair enough. Like she's super swing, superhero lady, so um it made total sense for them to do that. But um yeah, it was it was it was weird for us.

[1:07:56] Lauren Byrne: It was just weird, it was weird, like how long was she gone for? Um maybe was it two months or a month? Six weeks I think it was around a month and a half, I think it was six weeks or so. Um yeah, it just felt very strange. It felt like there was a big hole, but um Alicia was lovely, bless her. She's and she, you know, she's very young and um kind of had no no but like you know, her first job was a cruise ship, and and cruise ship and touring couldn't be more different. So there was a lot of kind of like working out things for her, like you know, digs was totally new experience, and and also I felt sorry for her because having been the person who had to come into a cast that had already formed friendships, I know how hard that can be.

Like I was saying earlier, my first job sunny afternoon. I joined like two, I think like two months into the contract because somebody had to leave. Um and it's really it's really tricky to kind of find a little place for yourself um where friendships have already been formed. So I felt, you know, my heart went out to Alysia, bless her. She's very sweet, and she did just kind of fit in, she didn't try and kind of like disrupt too much, she just kind of did what she needed to do and then had to go again, bless her. But yeah, she was lovely, but we were all so happy to have Jen back. Um when she came back in Edinburgh. We we'd missed her a lot.

[1:09:24] Josh: Um what's your favourite stopping so far on the tour?

[1:09:30] Lauren Byrne: I change this answer every time I'm asked it. I've got an answer up on the screen that you used once that someone's written down. Really? Oh god. Um I do love Cardiff. Is that what I said before? No, it wasn't. What did I say before? Let's see if we get in there. What was next for? I love Cardiff just because they're with my other half who used to live in Wales. We actually lived together now, but at the time I hadn't seen him in months, so that was nice. Um, and it's an amazing theatre, and the audiences there were so so fun. Um, and where else did I enjoy? Um, well, Guilford, where we opened, is that what I said? It's gotta be I mean, A, I that was my graduating show theatre, like when I was at GSA, and that was the show that I saw Jodie Steele play Rusty in Footloose.

That was the show that I graduated from GSA in. Um Guilford is like 20 minutes down the road from where I've lived my whole life. So, you know, my entire family were there opening week. Um, so yeah, it felt very, very, very special. But then like the show's changed so much since then. I wish that we could like go back and end there as well. Do you know what I mean? Like, I feel like I in particular, me, you know, I've I spoke about it already. I I felt like I struggled to find it, and and I we actually when we were when we were um in rehearsals for the drive-in, um, we were sent some like archive footage to kind of help us remember what we're supposed to be doing. It was from Malvern, which was our second venue, and I was watching myself like, oh, bless your heart, like look for you, you're so uncomfortable up there, aren't you?

Like I just know, like I've evolved so much, so it would be so so so so so nice to be able to like go back to that venue and do it again and just know what I know what I'm doing. Do you know what I mean? Obviously, I knew what I was doing, but like in time inside, maybe know what I was doing. Yeah, amazing.

[1:11:46] Josh: Um, so with the other special part about the show, um, the mega six.

[1:11:50] Lauren Byrne: Oh yeah. Um, what's it like knowing there's hundreds of different versions of you in heaps of different cities doing this three-minute sector um pretty much on the internet forever?

[1:12:03] Lauren Byrne: I know. It's absolutely terrifying because do you know what? So on opening night I did that stupid riff and got a ha da and and and someone like put it online and everyone went mental for that riff and so then every show since I've been like, oh my god, do that riff just as good as and so if it ever like doesn't go as good, I'm always like, okay, so need to track down everyone who I saw had a phone in that audience and like make them talk about I didn't plan to do that stupid riff. It just came out of my mouth, I got excited, um and now I regret it. But no, it's actually really cool, like, you know, I I'm totally I I am like one who's against bootlegs in general. I've I find them very anxiety inducing, especially at this kind of moment in time where um, you know, YouTube is a public place where anyone can comment anything they like and and people aren't nice on the internet, they really aren't. So um yeah, that it it's not it's not something that I feel happy when I see a bootleg.

I'm like and it is very kind of a stressful moment, but I just have to kind of stop looking for them, you know, stop at them. Um but either way, uh you know, I'm I'm not one who's kind of yeah, I'm I'm not one for bootlegs, but they are it is so great, that little mega six and the fact that we know it's gonna be filmed, so it's fine. And um, you know, it's like it's like getting to see the entire show in like three minutes 'cause you get to get a glimpse into the city. It's literally like fast forward. Yeah, it's literally like the show on crack, like it's like in its tiniest form. Yeah, it's it's um it's very clever, and and like like we've said already, it's just another way to kind of um for people to feel like they know the show and they can um you know they yeah, they feel connected to the show because they've seen they've seen everyone do their roles, even if they've only seen a few minutes of them doing, yeah. Yeah, it's so it's very clever.

[1:14:16] Josh: What's it like knowing that that three minutes is gonna be filmed? If say you had a Rocky Heart of Stone or something and you got to that point.

[1:14:24] Lauren Byrne: Oh, if I've had a Rocky Heart of Stone, by the end of Heart of Stone, I'm kind of always just like, ah, well, no one can be perfect every every day, and and you know, and and you have to remember that, and also the good thing about six in the which is different to other shows. If you mess up something in if if if you were on for Carol in beautiful Carol King musical, you've got I mean, she does so much during that show, right? If you mess up at the beginning, you you have little moments of you know when you're off stage and you're just thinking and getting your wig changed or you know, putting your next costume on where you're thinking, oh my god, I can't believe I messed that up. There's no time for that in six.

You don't have to do that. And also, like if you must stop yourself, like you don't have another one three, four, five minutes long. Yeah, so true. So yeah, absolutely, and yeah, you it you just don't have the time to dwell on it. If if something goes wrong, ah well, you got you've got another show about what, like seventy-five minutes. So it doesn't it? You're in a good spot too. Like if if you have a rocky spot, like you go straight into Holbein, you're like, all right. Yeah, yeah, shake up.

[1:15:36] Josh: Yeah, so true.

[1:15:36] Lauren Byrne: Um, but yeah, it's oh god, I remember in Bath. Um, I think it was on our opening night as well. So bearing in mind, like by the time we open in a new venue, we've run so much like that day in the get in, we've run like pretty much the entire show a few times because you know, sound check and lighting checks and blah blah blah. So opening night in bath, we got to the opening chat scene, and uh Lauren Drew goes, um, tonight we're gonna answer your questions once and for all, and Raddy says, and tell you what you want, what you really, really want to know. And I go, that's right, we're gonna answer your questions. And then I realized that I'd just said Lauren's line again and not my own, and then I was like, What the hell is my line?

And I have never been so scared in my life because I haven't done it at that point, and I was looking like at the girls on either side of me, like someone just say any line, like doesn't even have to be my line, just say any words, please, for the love of God. And everyone was just like determined not to look at me, everyone's just like facing out into the audience, like I'm not sure. If I look at you, I'm gonna laugh, and that'll be the end of it. I think it's actually Jen, it was actually Jen on for Berlin, and she was looking at me, she was looking dead at me, like just shaking her head like she bought this up in her episode too. We had a chat about this moment. It was so terrible, and I was looking at her like Jen help, and she was like, I can't, mate.

I don't know why well, I don't know what you've done, but we're on your own here. Yeah, yeah. It was terrible. But then it's like so that so easily could have been a point where I where I would have been like, Oh my god, it's the start of the show, and I've messed up so terribly. Like I could have had a terrible heart of stone, but like you literally can't you've got to as soon as it goes wrong, you've just gotta let it go. And it is really hard to do, but you it's oh god, it's such a the the pace of the show is so crazy, as you know. So, like once it's once it's gone, it's gone. And by the time you get to Heart of Stone, you've got to worry about isolating your neck, your shoulders, yeah by the time you get there, anyway.

So I just remember though, after in that ex in that show, after don't lose your head, and we were in our like final positions for don't lose your head, and I was literally like, what are my monologue words for God's sake? I was literally like, what the hell is the start of the monologue? But I did it, it was fine. And once I got to the end of the monologue, I was like, okay, cool. Now, what's the opening word to my song? Oh my god, do you know how many gaps there are in Heart of Stone where the words just leave my brain, and then luckily my mouth knows them? Like, honestly, it's terrifying. There's just like dun dun dun dun dun dun dun dun dun dun dun dun dun dun dun dun dun dun dun dun. There's so many of those, those that little phrase, and every time I hear it, I'm like, I've sung the first verse already, or am I am I on the second verse? Where are we up to? Am I on have to go? I really I couldn't tell you, and then luckily my mouth seems to know it, even if my brain doesn't.

[1:18:40] Josh: Wonderful, gotta love those.

[1:18:40] Lauren Byrne: So the joy of life is that yeah, 100%. All right, we're on our wrap-up scale now. Um, so with everything going on in the world right now, um, how have you found dealing with the wonderful thing that is gonna be like?

[1:18:58] Lauren Byrne: Oh, it's just rubbish, isn't it? I'm getting really sick of it now, I won't lie. I think it is just one of those things that we have to keep reminding ourselves that we're all we're all in the same boat. We're all kind of it's okay to feel like you have a really rough day and then feel fine the next day and then feel really rubbish again the day after that. Like so weird, hey. Yeah, it's so weird, and humans aren't built to be in lockdown, humans aren't built to be to be in confinement, and it is very stress-inducing and and anxiety inducing, and I think that's okay. Like, we don't have to be the person on Instagram who's being super productive. We can also it's okay if you if you need to stay in bed all day.

Do you know what I mean? And it's difficult to remind yourself of that because you do want to, you know, especially for me, I I haven't I have no income currently, like that is highly stress-inducing. And if if you know I could just completely crumble at that, you know, it is it is one of those things where if you think about it too much, it will really take its toll. So like I always I always have a kind of a a um what's the word? A um can't think of the word. Basically, if like if I don't get a job that I want, I allow myself like 24 hours to feel anything I need to feel, and then I and then the next day I love that. Yeah, after 24 hours have passed, then I get up and I and I work it out, you know.

Same thing when the drive in cancelled, I I was like, okay, so I need 24 hours to just cry and and eat so much so much chocolate like probably probably my body weight I would say at least in chocolate and then the next day I was like okay now I need to make a plan you know and it's that kind of thing that you have to allow yourself to feel the feels because they're not going anywhere you know you just have to accept that you're gonna feel crap about certain things you know if you've lost a job or if you've lost a person like for God's sake we're dealing with a pandemic or you know a completely deadly illness like there's gonna be some horrible things that people are going through at this time and you have to allow yourself to feel those feelings and um and then also there needs to be a time where you go okay so how can I make a plan so that I'm not constantly feeling these feelings how can I ensure that tomorrow I wake up and I feel slightly better about the situation even if it is minutely.

[1:21:38] Lauren Byrne: Do you know what I mean? So yeah, um yeah it's tricky obviously and everyone is gonna deal with it differently and that's okay um yeah I love that and I had a thought the other night that I kind of want to try and unpack because it was a really good thought and I was saying I want to see if I can explain it properly um I was thinking like I in my own head I was just in a really weird spot and um I was thinking through it I was realizing how the things making me feel the worst six months ago would have been kind of really minuscule problems in my life and because I've got nothing else going on those tiny little things six months ago seem really massive right now. Um so I was like, if why why am I letting that worry me if six months ago it wouldn't have?

Um and it was just it was just a weird thought that like we're really magnifying issues that weren't originally magnified and now we're really focusing on those things that are um maybe this is where you're looking internally and starting to kind of look at your own body image or something like that. And I always six months ago you weren't. I think it's really important to remember as well that everyone's struggles are completely subjective and relative to what they've been through in the past. So there's a brilliant example of if if a man lost his leg, you wouldn't say to him, Oh, but you you know, my next door neighbor has lost both of his legs, so you know, get over it. You'd say, Oh my god, I'm so sorry that you've lost your leg.

You know, you can't some someone's struggling. If someone's struggling, the the fact that someone else is struggling more doesn't counteract the fact that that that is still you're okay to feel like you're struggling. Do you know what I mean? You don't have to um make what you're dealing with feel less important just because it's not as bad as what someone else is dealing with. Does that do you know what I mean? Yeah, no, that yeah, but yeah, and it it's just a very interesting time. I feel like on the other side of all this, everyone's gonna be a lot more um jumping to scrutiny, I think. They're gonna be like very focused on I don't know, I just I it's just a weird mindset, I think, at the moment.

[1:24:06] Josh: Yeah, it is a weird mindset. I think in terms of like social media obviously can be such an amazing place, and it can also be like the worst place in the world. Um, and and it can you know it can be an amazing place to kind of obviously everything going on in the world in the world at the moment, COVID aside, is like completely important and and like needs to be happening, everything that's kind of being dealt with, um, and there's so much kind of on on social media, you know, about the Black Lives Matter movement and about um you know uh LGBTQ equality and um equality in women and all of these kind of movements that are it feels like because people are home, they have this time to be researching and they have this time to be um you know connecting with these issues more than they potentially ever have before.

Um and and so it feels like the more people read into these kind of things, the more bad stuff happens in response, and it's a horrible kind of cycle that like the world is is moving in at the moment, and I think again that's something really difficult, you know. You see all these horrible things happening in the world and you think, oh my god, well this is awful, and what what's the point? What's the point in speaking out and what's the point in you know fighting for the for the good causes and and you know it's just all too anxiety inducing, and and I and I totally get that and and feel that myself sometimes, but I think no like you know, we've said it already, no one can be this perfect person, no one can be like the ally 100% of the time and also work on their own insecurities and also you know, be completely environmentally friendly and also you know, like all these things that like are the checklist of the perfect person, as long as you're doing what you can and and speaking out when you can and you know living sustainably when you can and and and you know things like that.

If you're putting any work in that is better than none and and that should help you you feel like you are yeah, you're if you're you don't have to be out in front running a rally, like you can yeah, any any change is better than none.

[1:26:39] Lauren Byrne: And my friend, when I when I spoke to my friend about um it was actually to do with the Black Lives Matter movement, and I kind of had said, you know, I I've been scared in the past to um say something and speak out if it's if it was going to be ignorant or insensitive, and I don't want to add any hurt or anger um to you know things that have already been hurtful and been anger inducing. And and my friend said um if you're speaking out against hatred, if you're speaking on the side of love, then you could never be wrong. And I just thought, oh, that's so it's so such a good way to look at it because actually, you know, all these things that have been circulating online at the moment and about learning and and allowing yourself to be wrong and allowing yourself to make a mistake and and not necessarily even apologizing if you do, it's more about thanking someone for letting you know almost that do you know what I mean?

That we've gone into a real dark rabbit hole of of uh yeah, 100% social issues. I think just bringing it back to the queen I'm like um it's really good to see you guys work through um figuring this out. A lot of the queens have been posting about knowing if or when or how to say something like if it's okay to speak and kind of going through their mindset of why it took them X amount of days or weeks to make a post because and I was in the same spot like I I didn't know on so many issues they all kind of hit you at once and it was very overwhelming because you didn't know where you kind of should speak or how and also it is tricky because you don't want to feel as if it's performative and you don't want to feel as um you know you're only saying it for the sake of it and because it's on trend or do you know what I mean?

That would be if possible worse than saying nothing. Um so it's important to kind of speak about the things that I think I me personally, you know, things like the the Renier Lodge book um why I why I'm no longer talking to white people about race. I read that years maybe two years ago now. So that kind of thing I felt like I already had the kind of education where I could say actually I can speak about this to other people because I understand it and I and I have the kind of knowledge myself.

[1:29:15] Josh: I I where it's tricky is if people don't already have that knowledge and then they want to help but they don't know how that's that's yeah exactly and and that's I was in that spot.

[1:29:27] Lauren Byrne: Yeah and that's really it's really tricky because you want to say I I'm I'm on your side but if you haven't like done the the the learning then you don't know how to say that do you know what I mean? It's really hard so yeah it is important that people just speak out but also that we accept that we're not gonna know everything you know like I I I'm trying to read white fragility at the moment which is an amazing book but actually I'm finding it really difficult to read it just because it it's written so well but like I I I'm having to like reread a paragraph to like understand it. I'm like no no what's so it's like it takes time and effort to learn these things that actually like people don't want to people don't want to learn these things people are very happy in their ignorance and that's that's kind of where the issue is do you know what I mean?

So the more kind of things that are shared on social media that are accessible for everyone you know that white fragility book is top notch like completely on the point like so well written but if someone isn't gonna want isn't gonna understand it then that's going to be an issue as well because it has to be accessible to everyone if if that makes sense.

[1:30:53] Josh: Because people have to fit information in a square.

[1:30:57] Lauren Byrne: Oh yeah and the information that gets put in that square is summarized so well for the many that people understand it. And like just watching all the stories and reading the little posts and it's really beneficial to everybody because it doesn't matter where you're at in life or whatever it is, you can kind of understand what is being said and why it's being said, which is totally the main point. So social media for a win for one team.

[1:31:27] Josh: Absolutely.

[1:31:28] Lauren Byrne: Yeah, total total pro there.

[1:31:30] Josh: Yeah, definitely. All right. We are gonna wrap things up with two more questions.

[1:31:36] Lauren Byrne: Okay.

[1:31:36] Josh: Um best memory of the journey so far.

[1:31:41] Lauren Byrne: Oh she just had like 20 run through her head. Now she's yeah, literally. Um of them has got to be the sing-along in Manchester. How incre oh let's how incredible are sing alongs. Oh my god. We we've only done two, and actually our first one was like relatively tame. It was a in a much smaller theatre, and I think the people just weren't sure like how much they could really go for it. And then Manchester was this massive venue. Northerners. Oh my god, I know I literally I couldn't believe it. I think you know, a lot of the time at the end of Heart of Stone, I'll I'll um be very much acting and and you know, hopefully truthfully, but that at the end of Heart of Stone that time I was literally I couldn't I could barely finish it.

It was it it was I've never experienced anything so amazing, like people are it's it's just amazing because it's that kind of feeling of like I love this music so much and I love this show so much, and like you know, when you like I remember when I was a kid and I would sing Defiant Gravity like at the top of my lungs and just like scream it and like have that like panic in my chest that I liked. And that was like coming at me from like over a thousand different things. Not a little six-year-old either. Not adults that are like this is like an amazing feeling. It was like thousands of people's energy just like hit me, and I was like never never been through anything like that in my life. It was an incredible moment.

Um then yeah, the other other moment has definitely got to be on the in Guilford when we opened my my mum and dad, and I could see them they were like sat like nearly nearly front row and my dad was sobbing, and I was like, yes, made dad cry.

[1:33:54] Josh: All right, Queens. Well, on that note, that brings us to the end of this episode. Um thank you, Lauren, for coming and hanging out.

[1:34:01] Lauren Byrne: No worries, thanks for having me.

[1:34:03] Josh: Anytime. Um, if you guys don't follow Lauren already, please go and do that. Her links are down below. Uh make sure you're following us Osqueenam and the Queenham cast. And to finish us off tonight, Lauren.

[1:34:14] Lauren Byrne: Um, out of every single character in the Harry Potter series, who's your favourite?

[1:34:24] Lauren Byrne: Hermione.

[1:34:25] Josh: I was I was thinking, could it be anyone but Hermione? Because mine is always my go-to, but no, it's always gonna be Hermione.

[1:34:31] Lauren Byrne: No, it's I should have played her. Emma Watson, sorry, but I should have been me.

[1:34:38] Josh: You heard it here, folks.

[1:34:41] Lauren Byrne: All right, Queens. Well, thank you for coming and hanging out with us, and we will see you next week with a brand new episode of the Queen and Podcast.

[1:34:48] Josh: Bye.