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[0:01] Robert Bannon: Are you ready? It's The Roundtable with me, Robert Bannon.

[0:09] Robert Bannon: Well, you know, everybody, this show, the Dancing with the Stars is a staple of pop culture, the world, literally.

[0:18] Robert Bannon: Incredible, man.

[0:19] Robert Bannon: Incredible. Our next guest has danced with everyone from Kim Kardashian to Chicago's —

[0:25] Mark Ballas: Robert, my darling?

[0:26] Robert Bannon: Yes.

[0:27] Mark Ballas: Can I interrupt you for a second?

[0:28] Robert Bannon: Yes.

[0:29] Mark Ballas: Because it says Faith Mitralik on the name.

[0:31] Robert Bannon: What does that mean?

[0:32] Mark Ballas: It shows my name.

[0:34] Robert Bannon: Oh, it does. It does say Faith. Oh, that — what's — it says Faith.

[0:39] Mark Ballas: Are you able to edit that out?

[0:40] Robert Bannon: Yeah.

[0:41] Mark Ballas: How do I change that?

[0:42] Robert Bannon: I can cut it off so that it's just —

[0:44] Mark Ballas: Okay. Yeah, just cut it off then.

[0:45] Robert Bannon: Take a blur over it.

[0:46] Mark Ballas: Yeah.

[0:47] Robert Bannon: Yeah, we — no worries, Faith. You're amazing.

[0:51] Mark Ballas: Well, we're going to hit it again when you're ready.

[0:53] Robert Bannon: Yeah, hit it.

[0:54] Robert Bannon: So, listen, everybody, in pop culture, there's a couple staples in the entire world, like Dancing with the Stars.

[0:59] Robert Bannon: Like, I don't know, 116 seasons of the show that Mark has been there since season five.

[1:04] Robert Bannon: He's danced with everyone from Kim Kardashian to Chicago alum Whitney Levin.

[1:08] Robert Bannon: Then there's Chicago, another pop culture staple that doesn't seem to go away.

[1:12] Robert Bannon: So why not take Mark, bring him back to Broadway with a brand-new show that's coming on ABC where he's going to pick the next Dancing with the Stars pro.

[1:20] Robert Bannon: And in his spare time when he's not being, you know, a husband, father, dancer, superstar, singer, just put him back on Broadway in Chicago.

[1:27] Robert Bannon: Welcome to the show.

[1:29] Mark Ballas: Thanks for having me, man. Appreciate it.

[1:31] Robert Bannon: I hope you take vitamins and take a nap.

[1:34] Mark Ballas: I have been taking my vitamins. I've been taking my vitamins.

[1:38] Robert Bannon: Why, when you got the call that Chicago would love you back as Billy Flynn after you had this incredible run not too long ago, what made you say yes?

[1:47] Mark Ballas: What was like, I want to, I'm busy, but I need to make time for this.

[1:51] Mark Ballas: You know, I am with the other Broadway shows I've done. I've done from four to six months, you know, longer contracts.

[1:57] Mark Ballas: I did a U.K. national tour once for 10. And I feel like the first one, it was so short. It went so fast, four to five weeks.

[2:04] Mark Ballas: So when I got a call from the Weissler seeing if I was interested for the summer, I was it was a no brainer. I love the show. I love being on Broadway.

[2:11] Mark Ballas: I love working with this amazing cast and this crew and the orchestra. So, yeah, it was kind of a no brainer, honestly.

[2:18] Mark Ballas: You have till August 16th. You can get your tickets at Chicago, the musical dot com and get them, get them, get them.

[2:24] Robert Bannon: So when I was reading about you, we know you from your television work and dancing work, but you have done a lot of theater. So when did you discover your love of theater? And do you remember your first show?

[2:32] Mark Ballas: Yeah, I mean, I started going to theater school on the weekend when I was four. So my grandma would take me. My nan, my British nan would take me every Saturday on the train to theater school.

[2:46] Mark Ballas: And then when I was 11, I went full time to the Italian Academy of Theater Arts, the secondary school, high school in American. And then I went to the college full time.

[2:54] Mark Ballas: So I ended up graduating with a diploma in musical theater. That's that's what started it all for me. You know, so first show I went to, I might have been Chicago, you know.

[3:07] Mark Ballas: I saw Colm Wilkinson in Les Mis, that's how long, you know. So, yeah. And I saw like Jesus Christ Superstar at the Lyceum with Steve Balsamoz, Lupin Varla, you know, Joanna Ample.

[3:18] Mark Ballas: I've been a diehard theater fan my whole life. And I think people who follow me on Dancing with Stars would can tell because I my work is pretty successful. And I think that's where it comes from.

[3:31] Mark Ballas: But, yeah, I went to school for this. My first job out of college, I was in the U.K. national tour of Buddy Holly, the musical. I was in the ensemble and I understudied Ritchie Valens, which I got to go on for a couple of times.

[3:43] Mark Ballas: And then when I got out of that, I actually booked We Will Rock You in the West End under Arlene Phillips. And I was about to go into that show when Dancing with Stars offered me the show.

[3:56] Mark Ballas: Derek Hough, who was doing Footloose in the West End. A lot of people don't know that because we went to the same theater school. So we were all doing theater work and we got the offer to do Dancing with the Stars.

[4:08] Mark Ballas: And I almost took We Will Rock You because that is what I went to college for. And it was Arlene, my mom, a couple of my close friends and Arlene Phillips who were like, no, go do that. You can always come back to the theater.

[4:20] Mark Ballas: So I rolled the dice and took the shot because at the time we none of us knew what dance. We knew Dancing with the Stars was a show, but we didn't know what it was going to be. You know, so and here we are.

[4:31] Robert Bannon: That's why since you went to school with Derek, that's why when you are back on Dancing with the Stars, you need to keep winning trophies because you got to have the most. You're in second place.

[4:40] Mark Ballas: We can't let Derek have first place.

[4:42] Mark Ballas: He can have first place, you know, like it's OK. He he had an amazing run at that time. You know, the fan base has changed a lot since then.

[4:53] Mark Ballas: You know, like there's always a joke because, you know, so many there's a lot of like, oh, well, you know, we want someone else to win or like I don't want to see other people who have got the mirror balls. I'm like, you guys would not have survived Derek Hough.

[5:06] Robert Bannon: You would have survived.

[5:09] Mark Ballas: What I find so fascinating is Chicago dance. And what's fun about you being Billy Flynn is he gets to sing these iconic songs. He gets to be this lawyer. You know, you're surrounded in doing this incredible Fosse choreography, which is very different than my husband made me take 10 weeks of ballroom classes for my wedding.

[5:29] Mark Ballas: It's really hard.

[5:32] Robert Bannon: And he picked a waltz.

[5:34] Mark Ballas: It's hard.

[5:35] Mark Ballas: Well, you know, the correlation in that with Fosse is the is the contractions and the and the core strength and the posture of it. You know, like the same thing applies with Fosse work.

[5:44] Mark Ballas: It's very detailed, very nuanced, very controlled. From an audience perspective, I'm like, oh, that has so much ease and it looks easy. It is not. It requires every part of your body when it's done correctly.

[5:57] Mark Ballas: So it's very similar to ballroom dancing in a sense, you know.

[6:00] Robert Bannon: Yeah. Do you have to put on a different hat doing Broadway versus when you do ballroom about technique, style?

[6:06] Mark Ballas: I mean, I've been doing them all for so long. I'm able to switch hats pretty quickly. And like even in my teaching style with my like I teach a lot of like Latin jazz funk classes where you have to switch on the spot.

[6:20] Mark Ballas: Like you're going from this to something that will be more like jazz orientated. So that's a big part of my style in general. So I feel like I'm pretty at this point, pretty adaptable and being able to switch modes.

[6:34] Robert Bannon: Incredible. So what I love about it is you talk about your family and you're born in Texas, but you went to school in London.

[6:42] Mark Ballas: I was born in Houston, Texas, but I moved to England when I was like three or four. I was a baby. So, yeah, my mom's British. My dad's from Houston, American.

[6:53] Mark Ballas: So, yeah. My whole life in England, yeah.

[6:56] Robert Bannon: And your parents are like legendary ballroom dancers.

[7:00] Mark Ballas: Yes, that's correct.

[7:02] Mark Ballas: The incredible ballroom. And your grandfather is an inventor of like the weed eater. Like he's in law. My dad's a landscaper. I don't even know how to turn a lawnmower on.

[7:12] Mark Ballas: Yeah, this is true. In 1972, my grandfather invented the weed eater, which people call the weed whacker today, but it was called the weed eater back then.

[7:21] Robert Bannon: I would have that bronze then hanging up in my house. Like that's my grandpa.

[7:24] Mark Ballas: Yeah, that's a fun little fact.

[7:30] Robert Bannon: So how do you take your family lineage? You have the pressure of your family, either in business or in entertainment, and now you've moved forward and you carry on the legacy of dance and art and all of this. So how does it feel to look back growing up to see what your family's done and now carry that forward in your career?

[7:47] Mark Ballas: I mean, you know, it's very cool. Obviously, very proud of my parents for everything they accomplished. You know, my mom and dad became world champions. I was a young boy at the time.

[7:55] Mark Ballas: So I don't think when you're that young, you don't really understand. Even though my mom danced with me in her belly up to six months, and by the time I was six, I was probably cuing their music at their demonstrations.

[8:14] Mark Ballas: They toured the world. They were very active. They had me young. They were 24 when they had me, so they were still in the middle of their competitive career.

[8:22] Mark Ballas: So when they were on the road and I had school, I would stay home in England with my nan. And then when I had the opportunity to travel with them, I would on my school vacation.

[8:33] Mark Ballas: So I was in Japan. I was in China. I was in Italy. I was in Singapore. I was in Australia, wherever they were teaching, competing, and demonstrating where they put on their own shows.

[8:43] Mark Ballas: So when they were demonstrating, I was cuing their music. I was probably like six. So I knew when dad hit this pose is when you hit play. It's been in the blood. It's in the family.

[8:54] Mark Ballas: It's in the blood.

[8:56] Robert Bannon: Yeah, yeah. But they never put pressure on me to show interest in these things. What was great about my parents is even though they were my coaches, they were also great parents.

[9:06] Mark Ballas: And they knew when to turn it off, for the most part, at the door when we were leaving competitions. And my mom and dad, they had accomplished so much in their time.

[9:18] Mark Ballas: But they were very good at when I showed interest in something. They would push me. They would teach me discipline and the fundamentals of how to become successful at something.

[9:29] Robert Bannon: It's so important and so incredible. What I want people to know is that you may watch him on television, but he sings. Marcus sings. So when I look back, you've got to see him sing in Chicago, everybody.

[9:44] Robert Bannon: He's going to sing these iconic songs that you know and love. But when I look at your career in the West End and then on Broadway, I mean, you did Copa. You did Buddy Holly. You did Jersey Boys.

[9:51] Mark Ballas: Jersey Boys is a sing.

[9:54] Robert Bannon: Yeah, that is a big sing.

[9:57] Mark Ballas: Yeah, yeah, yeah.

[9:58] Mark Ballas: So as Frankie Valli.

[10:02] Robert Bannon: And I love the Copa. Who Needs to Dream and all these beautiful Barry Manilow songs.

[10:06] Mark Ballas: Yeah, I was young when I did that one.

[10:08] Mark Ballas: Wow, that's a deep cut.

[10:09] Robert Bannon: That's a deep cut. That's my Manilow fandom.

[10:12] Mark Ballas: That was like before I got into professional theater. But it was still, you know, still nonetheless, we were doing the shows, you know.

[10:19] Robert Bannon: So you bring what you learn now and you bring it on Broadway. Is there a difference between West End shows and Broadway shows? The audience, the work? How do you compare the two? You've done both.

[10:29] Mark Ballas: Yeah, I mean, I think with the audience, it just depends. It depends on the night. I'm sure you know Saturday Night on Broadway is a good time, you know.

[10:39] Mark Ballas: And it's the same in England. England people, they love the theater and to have a drink. So, you know, people who are interested in the theater, like you have that magical night with that right audience.

[10:48] Mark Ballas: And it's the right show and everything's flowing and it's feeling good. It's always a good time, no matter what side of the water you're on.

[10:54] Mark Ballas: So I'm just honored to be a part of both. Like, you know, I haven't been on the West End in a very, very long time. But being here on Broadway is always a dream come true.

[11:03] Robert Bannon: So you're in New York. You get to be at the theater. You get your tickets, everybody. And then in the meantime, just randomly on Monday nights, you're starting and you're the judge. You get to be the judge, Mark.

[11:15] Robert Bannon: So tell us about the show.

[11:18] Mark Ballas: So here's the show. The show is called The Next Pro, right? And what we're doing is we are looking for a new professional dancer.

[11:27] Mark Ballas: And the winner of this series, the winner, is going to be a pro next season on Dancing with the Stars.

[11:33] Robert Bannon: What a prize.

[11:34] Mark Ballas: Like, if you go back over time and you think about all the dance shows. Dancing with the Stars, you win a mirror ball on a stake, right? That's what you win for Dancing with the Stars.

[11:40] Mark Ballas: And the fact that you won. So You Think You Can Dance, you go on the tour, you become So You Think You Can Dance champion. America's Best Dance Crew, I think you win maybe a cash prize. America's Got Talent, you win a cash prize.

[11:55] Mark Ballas: If this, you're winning a job on Dancing with the Stars as a pro. So that is like the most crazy prize ever.

[12:03] Mark Ballas: And what's cool about this show, and I really encourage fans to look at it like this, is it's not Dancing with the Stars, right? We're not voting for your favorite celebrity.

[12:12] Mark Ballas: It's not a popularity contest of a sort mixed with dancing. This is about skill and grit and determination. Can you teach? Can you adapt? Are you well-versed in the 10 ballroom styles?

[12:29] Mark Ballas: And also, can you hang in some of the other styles that are 20% of Dancing with the Stars? 80% of Dancing with the Stars is the 10 ballroom styles. 20%, you might get jazz, contemporary, and a freestyle, you know.

[12:39] Mark Ballas: But you have to be good at ballroom dancing. So these kids go through a series of challenges that our pros face on the daily on Dancing with the Stars, which the audience does not get to see.

[12:51] Mark Ballas: You don't see all the challenges the pros go through. You see 1 minute 30 package. You see the dance. You see us in the red room or the skybox answering a question, and that's it.

[13:01] Mark Ballas: You don't see the stress and all the music editing and the coming up with the costumes and your version A, B, C, D, E of the routine that you're putting out, you know.

[13:12] Mark Ballas: So in this show, we're getting to see them. Like the first week, it was technique, right? Next week, it's storytelling. The third week, I think it's chemistry challenging.

[13:22] Mark Ballas: The fourth week, they're going to be doing groups because on Dancing with the Stars, you have to dance in a group. You have to be a soldier in those routines. There's going to be teaching challenges, choreography challenges.

[13:32] Mark Ballas: Like they are throwing the kitchen sink at them on this show. And the winner of this, the other cool thing I like to say is people are like, oh, we don't know these dancers. How are we going to get to know them for dancing?

[13:41] Mark Ballas: I'm like, think about this. When you started watching dancing, you didn't know any of us. You don't know us at all. The only way you got to know us is you would see us in the package.

[13:46] Mark Ballas: You would watch us dance. We might get a question from the host at the end. And then the rest you learned on social media. When I started, there was no social media.

[13:59] Mark Ballas: This is the first time a pro dancer is getting a showcase like this ever, ever. So you now have eight weeks to get to know these dancers. And then when they go on Dancing with the Stars, you would have been familiarized with them, you know.

[14:13] Mark Ballas: So I'm encouraging our families because there's a lot of like people loving it, of course. But there's also people like, well, I'm concerned. Like, how do we get to know them?

[14:20] Mark Ballas: Like, look at it through that lens of, wow, we're giving you insight to what all your wonderful pros, every pro you've ever watched on the show, what they have to face. Like, it's pretty fun to watch. It's cool.

[14:30] Mark Ballas: This is going to be must see. This is your summer TV must see moment. It's Mondays at 8 o'clock on ABC. And then Disney Plus and Hulu starts to stream on Tuesdays, Dancing with the Stars, the next pro.

[14:41] Robert Bannon: And then when you come to New York City this summer, or if you're in the Tri-State area, you're going to travel here in the next few weeks until August 16th. You know the show. You talk about standalone, iconic piece of theater and art and history, Chicago the Musical.com.

[14:56] Robert Bannon: I don't care how many times people have seen the show. There's always something incredible to see.

[15:01] Mark Ballas: Oh, yeah. It never gets old. That's why it's lasted 30 years. You know, it's timeless.

[15:07] Mark Ballas: And a fun little thing, too. If you're in the New York Tri-State area, on opening night, Derek Hough is doing a talk back with me. So if you are in the audience on opening night, we're going to hang out after the show.

[15:18] Mark Ballas: We're going to talk all things Broadway, Chicago, Dancing with the Stars, and Next Pro. And we're doing fan questions. So get those tickets now while you can.

[15:26] Robert Bannon: Well, my question is, we're coming for his trophy.

[15:29] Mark Ballas: Look, Mark, we're in this now together.

[15:33] Mark Ballas: Getting six is really hard, man.

[15:35] Robert Bannon: We're getting six.

[15:36] Mark Ballas: Congratulations.

[15:38] Robert Bannon: I'm so excited. It is the best time you can have on Broadway. You need to see him do Razzle Dazzle.

[15:45] Robert Bannon: You need to see him do They Both Reach for the Gun. You need to see Mark take all his skills, his voice, his talent, his dancing, and put it on stage at Chicago the Musical.

[15:54] Robert Bannon: Congratulations on everything. We're huge fans.

[15:56] Mark Ballas: You're making me blush here. Thank you.

[15:58] Robert Bannon: Yes!

[15:59] Robert Bannon: We're huge fans here in our house. And after I took my 10-week class, I became a bigger fan because, damn, this is hard!

[16:06] Mark Ballas: It's hard out here.

[16:07] Robert Bannon: It's hard.

[16:08] Mark Ballas: Dancing is hard.

[16:09] Mark Ballas: I always say that with my partners. I remember last evening with Whitney, we were going through something. And she'd been working really hard. We were sweating. And she was like, man, this is hard. And I was like, dancing is hard.

[16:17] Mark Ballas: Dancing is hard. And he is amazing at it. So go see him do what he does live and in person at Chicago.

[16:24] Robert Bannon: Thank you so much for making time for us. It's such a pleasure and honor to talk to you.

[16:28] Mark Ballas: You too, brother. Appreciate it.