This transcript was automatically generated and might contain errors.

[0:00] Alan Seales: Welcome to The Theatre Podcast, intimate personal conversations with theatre's biggest names.

[0:11] Alan Seales: I'm your host, Alan Seales, and this episode is with Rachel Potter, who you might remember as originating Wednesday Addams in The Addams Family, opposite B.B. Neuwirth, Brooke Shields, and Nathan Lane, and so many others. She was also in Evita, and now is a Nashville, a very accomplished Nashville recording artist. And this episode was so interesting to me, because she got real with me in a way that I really didn't expect, that we don't get into a lot on this podcast, which is a little bit about religion. She was raised very religious and ended up, due to some circumstances that we talked about, kind of like questioning her faith and going off on different ways. And she ended up landing some of the best performing gigs and singing gigs of her life when she didn't go in worrying about them or trying to imitate somebody else who had already done the role in advance.

She just went in and was herself. And we hear that over and over again in the final three questions that I ask people at the end of every episode. A lot of what we hear is advice of just going in and making strong choices, being yourself, what makes you different is what makes you special. This is the through line, and Rachel is another wonderful, wonderful example of this. So as always, before we get into it, please visit me online at theater underscore podcast on Instagram and Twitter, on Facebook at slash official theater podcast. Show your support for this podcast via ttp.fm slash Patreon, P-A-T-R-E-O-N. And now everybody, please enjoy this episode with Rachel Potter. Here you go. One, two, three.

[2:00] Alan Seales: My guest today is both a Broadway star and an accomplished Nashville recording artist. She made her Broadway debut as Wednesday Addams in The Addams Family, playing opposite both Bebe Neuwirth and Brooke Shields as Morticia. Then she originated the role of the mistress in the Tony-nominated revival of Evita, starring Ricky Martin and Michael Cerveris. She is featured on the original Broadway cast recording, singing her standout song, Another Suitcase in Another Hall. She has also had the honor of touring with the smash hit Wicked, where she understudied the ever popular Galinda. She appeared on season three of The X Factor and is now part of the Broadway Buskers concert series produced virtually this year by the Times Square Alliance. Rachel Potter, welcome to The Theatre Podcast.

[2:43] Rachel Potter: Oh, thank you so much for having me. I hope that did you justice. For the record, I did plagiarize some of that from your website, and then I took a little liberty in the end. So I hope it did you justice.

[2:57] Rachel Potter: I think that was perfect. If you stole it from something I wrote, then I love it. You just stroked my ego.

[3:04] Alan Seales: So tell me about, I think I was searching online, you were born in New Orleans. Tell me about like where you were born and where you grew up.

[3:09] Rachel Potter: I was. I was born in New Orleans and I love to claim it, but I really grew up in Seminole, Florida because we moved there when I was one. So just still a young chap. And we moved to Seminole, which is essentially young people and old people. There's nothing in between. So we were part of this, you know, cute little new subdivision and everybody was young families. And I grew up in the same neighborhood in a cul-de-sac my whole life and lived there until I went to college. So it was a very cute little suburban existence. And about 10 minutes from the beach, which was the best part about it, because when we would skip school, we went to the beach.

[3:50] Rachel Potter: I was also born in New Orleans and lived there until I was five. Haven't been back since, which I think is a big detriment to my adult life. And then moved to Clearwater, Florida. So I've got the New Orleans to Florida parallel with you.

[4:02] Rachel Potter: No, I grew up going to Baptist Church in Clearwater, Florida. I went to Calvary Baptist Church. That's where I sang my first solo ever at the ripe age of three. Yeah.

[4:20] Rachel Potter: Wow. There's photos to prove this.

[4:24] Rachel Potter: Yeah. My best friend, Jamie Ray, a vocative of the infamous acapella group, Vocative. He is a brilliant mind and I got to sing with him when we were three years old and his mom held the microphone for us.

[4:37] Alan Seales: Oh, I think my five and a half year old would not do that.

[4:45] Rachel Potter: My four year old whose birthday is right around the corner, my three is about to be four, would love to do it because he's the little hand. But this was the year I was like, this summer, when school's out, we're going to do piano lessons or we're going to do some sports and athletics. And then now we're stuck inside here in Brooklyn for who knows how long.

[5:05] Rachel Potter: Yeah. And this is ridiculous. But you're in Nashville now. I know we skipped over the middle school, high school, college years and we'll come back to that.

[5:10] Rachel Potter: But COVID quarantine right now, you have gone back to Nashville.

[5:19] Rachel Potter: Yes. So my family and I saved our money. My husband and I have a three year old boy named Jude and spent the better part of 2019 preparing for our move to New York in 2020. So February 1st, we moved to New York, got a great sublet in Hoboken and about a month and 10 days later, we're in complete lockdown quarantine.

[5:44] Rachel Potter: Yeah. So my husband was looking for a job and it was just the worst timing ever. I know everyone was affected in some way, but you know, it seemed like all signs were pointing to moving back. I was like, wow, the doors are flying open. This is meant to be. God's pointing all these signs and then nope. So yeah. Disappointed to say the least, but we decided the best thing for now was to come back to Nashville just for the sake of the mental health of my son. He was struggling a lot with such a huge change and then COVID on top of it was just a lot for the little guy. So we came back to Nashville. So here I am.

[6:33] Alan Seales: Yeah. I don't blame you. The kids that I see of my kid's peers, the kids that are my kid's peers that don't have a sibling, it depends on how courageous the parents are. They're like, can we just do like a socially distance play date or something? Like my kids are just going nuts. And then I've been lucky. I realized how fortunate it is that they are so close in age and they have each other because they can play for the most part by themselves, like together for most of the day. So my wife and I are able to work, but I realized that that is very rare and unfortunate.

[7:16] Rachel Potter: That's really lucky. Once we got back to Nashville, you know, we sort of like created a quarantine circle of the people that, you know, we felt good about being around. And one of those is his best friend, who's a four-year-old girl. So thank God for that.

[7:33] Rachel Potter: Yeah, he was going crazy. He was just so scared. You know, that was, it was really couldn't understand it. And when we would go outside, he all of a sudden wasn't allowed to get near people, or if he saw their children, he couldn't play with them and people were wearing masks. And it was just like, I can't imagine what that looked like through the eyes of a three-year-old. It was kind of apocalyptic. So.

[7:55] Alan Seales: My three-year-old tells me, I know this is so far off topic from theater performing, but I love it. My three, almost four-year-old, like almost every other night, he's like, Daddy, when the coronavirus is over, can we go back to Mexico?

[8:12] Rachel Potter: Because the last vacation we took in February was Cancun.

[8:17] Alan Seales: So he misses, he just misses traveling and all that. Can we go back to Mexico? I want to go to the pool. Like, I wish we could.

[8:22] Rachel Potter: I know. So obviously, okay, so you're in Nashville, left, you were in Nashville, left and came back. And so, but let's go back to the earlier story of, you know, started singing in church. And then like, where did the performing stuff start to roll into your life after that?

[8:39] Rachel Potter: Sure. So yeah, I guess where I got my start was, was church. I sang in the choir and my first solo, like I said, was when I was three with my little choir, you know, on the steps of the church. And it just kind of progressed, I guess, a little bit incrementally from there. And when I was 10, I sang this solo, we, that Baptist church in, in Clearwater was known for its Christmas spectaculars, you know, they rented sets from Disney and it was this whole thing. And so this one year I sang a solo when I was 10, I did Jingle Bell Rock with two people dressed as a horse. And the video is priceless because I was terrified of that goddamn horse. I was terrified of it. And it was two people inside. I knew it was two people, but I was so scared.

And you can see it all over my face on the stage. Like every time it moves closer to me, I'm like scooting over. But I remember, you know, kind of feeling that rush. That was the first time where it was like, oh, this is something cool. This is something special, you know?

[9:59] Rachel Potter: And then after that I got involved with chorus. So I was in like show choirs and, and like, you know, auditioned as special traveling show choirs and just choruses in my school. Because we had a great music program in my suburban Seminole public schools.

[10:17] Rachel Potter: So yeah, I did that all through middle school and high school and continued to sing in church. And I wrote songs. And at that time, all I was really inspired by was like God stuff because I didn't really have any sort of experience in life otherwise. So I started writing songs and that led into a record deal. And that's some hard air quotes around record deal, but it was a man who was loved music and he had a studio and created a record label again with the air quotes in, in Seminole, Florida.

[10:53] Rachel Potter: And he was awesome. And he, he was very supportive of my music. So when I was 15, I made a Christian album. And it's, I hope no one looks it up because it's very embarrassing to say the least. You know, what was funny about that, that project was that they just sort of looked at me as like, so gifted, like, oh my gosh, look, this 15 year old can write these songs and wow, you're so creative. Let's take everything that you write and put it down exactly as you wrote it and not edit it in any way.

[11:34] Rachel Potter: Wow. Okay. So, you know, I think I could have really benefited from some co-write action at that point to kind of guide me and mold me, but you know, it was limited resources. So that album is 100% Rachel Potter at 15 years old, but it lives on, on the internet. All right. Well, any brave people out there want to find it, send it my way.

[11:58] Rachel Potter: Well, so then like started in church. Did you, did you start, like, I was going to ask about like a religious upbringing and sort of that, that background and whatnot. But then I was like, oh, maybe she's not, like, I don't know how immersed in it. Cause you were like, I'm scared of that horse. So if you were like a hundred percent, so I kind of interreligion, would you say that? Would you say, no, yeah, I would not consider myself religious in any way anymore. And that is a really, that is a, that's a long conversation, but there was a lot that happened in my teens and early twenties that really caused me to start questioning. And threw up a lot of red flags, just some stuff that had happened.

And, you know, one thing was a really interesting thing that I've circled back to now as a grown woman that happened. I was really outcasted because I wait for it, had sex before marriage. I know, I know. And there was a woman who I took voice lessons from who said that God woke her up in the middle of the night and told her that the reason I couldn't move past this ex of mine was because I had.

[13:21] Rachel Potter: And I had premarital sex. And she confronted my best friend, who also took voice lessons from her, and my best friend cried and confessed what I had done to this woman who was just being a nosy, busybody, right? Now as a grown-up, I'm like, I would never be that invested in some teenage girl's life, but whatever, to each their own. So this woman then turned around and told the pastor of the church. And he was new. He was the college pastor. I didn't know him. I'd been in that church for a long, long time, but I had just moved into the college group because I had just graduated high school. And I was supposed to do a concert for the college group and do my Christian music, right? And he called me into his office and told me that I couldn't perform.

And he said I wasn't welcome to perform because this had come to their attention. And so I, too embarrassed to bring my mother in with me over this, I brought my Bible study teacher who knew that this had happened. And I already lived with tremendous guilt over it because I was indoctrinated from the time I was tiny that that was not okay. And I already was very ashamed. I was living in huge shame over it, right? But this man who was grown sat there and asked me to recount all the details of my sexual experience with my high school boyfriend, like every act that I had done with him, etc. And it really wasn't until I was older that I was like, whoa. Not cool. No, like that was super messed up.

That was crossing some major lines. That's some Me Too stuff right there. And so, yeah. And isn't that crazy? But this kind of religious stuff gets real blurry because they're doing it in the name of God and purity and what's best for you. And it's literal horseshit. People are still creeps and sexual deviants, even though they have a title, you know?

[15:37] Alan Seales: Yeah, yeah. I mean, I am somewhere between agnostic and atheist.

[15:46] Rachel Potter: I'd say I'm the same. Yeah. So, like, I want to believe that there is a connection, a spiritual connection between people. But I know there's like a scientific explanation. It's pheromones and chemicals and oxytocin. When you're looking at people, you fall in love because your brain is releasing things and we're chemically falling in love with our cell phones because it gives us the same satisfaction, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. So, it's all there. It's all science. Well, I guess we can leave it at that, but.

[16:15] Alan Seales: Yeah. And then, you know, things progressed in that way that I, so I'm a, I was a political science minor. And so I entered college as like a, you know, conservative, sheltered Christian Republican. And I left as a liberal atheist Democrat. And I think that a lot of things kind of contributed to that. And, but a lot of it was just questioning. You know, all of a sudden I was immersed. Also, I worked for Disney World. So, that's when I, and I guess we should go back. I never did theater, ever, ever, ever. The theater crew in my school was like, eh, no, those guys can seem kind of weird. Like, why are they always giving each other back massages? Which is true. So, I just was like, not, that was not my bag.

And I went to college in Orlando at UCF and I was working at the mall, you know, like trying to make ends meet. And somebody said, you should go audition for Disney. You can get like a great job and it's so easy. You can still go to college and like make really good money. Cause I was totally on my own. I put myself through college and I did it all on scholarships, you know, and working. So, I went and auditioned, but knowing nothing about theater, I went to the Disney audition. I sang a Christian song and my headshot was like me holding a microphone. My resume, which is the best part, was like, I've worked at the Gap and my job duties were folding clothes and being a cashier. My type speed is 160 words per minute. Like, I literally Googled resume and that was the resume.

[18:03] Rachel Potter: You put it in your business resume. Yeah, I made a business resume and I took it in to the Disney equity auditions. And I quickly realized that my resume looked different than all the other girls sitting around me and I'm pretty outgoing. So, you know, at some point I asked somebody to see theirs and I was like, Oh my God, what have I done? But I'm sure they got a good chuckle out of it. I've never talked to any of them about it. Though some of them are still my friends to this day, but I'd love to know if they remember that. But they still gave me a callback because I was a little tiny Disney princess sounding girl. So they gave me a callback for Ariel and I didn't get the job right away. I think it was like six months. I kept going every month that they had the audition and I progressively changed my resume and my headshot got better and I learned a thing or two or about a thing or two. And then finally they offered me the job.

[19:07] Rachel Potter: So when I got the job at Disney, that was my first theater thing. And I was singing as the Little Mermaid at Hollywood Studios. And they offered me my equity card and I didn't know what that was.

[19:20] Alan Seales: Wow, first job.

[19:22] Rachel Potter: Yeah, first job. It was an equity job and I didn't, and I remember the equity rep sat down with me and said, you know, do you want to take your card? And I was like, I don't know. Do I? Can you tell me? Is this good? And years later I would come to realize it was the best decision I ever made. But, you know.

[19:42] Alan Seales: Wow. What were you originally in college for?

[19:47] Rachel Potter: So that's what I was going in for. I talked to them about going in the music program, but when I had my music auditions for the music program, just to major in like vocal performance, they were interviewing me and they're like, so what do you think you want to do with your life? And, you know, do you want to like go into opera and da da da da? And I was like, no, I think this will probably be like more of a hobby. Like maybe I'll do some recording arts stuff and work at Disney. I don't know, maybe like. I was so not like, yes, absolutely. You know, I didn't know what to do. I had no, no clue what to say in those things. I was just flying by the seat of my pants. And, you know, I was, I think I was just a little too flighty for them.

They were like, oh no, flight risk. She's not serious enough. So I minored in political science and I majored in advertising and PR because I just, yeah, I didn't really know what I wanted to do. I just thought, well, this seems like a good idea, I guess, if I can't do music. And, uh, and so I guess I should mention, I started at community college, so I just did like a general two years. And then when I went to UCF, that's when, um, I auditioned for the voice program. And then I also auditioned for the theater program. And when I talked to them, they were like, great. So you're great. We like you. But all those two years that you just did at community college that count for two years of college normally don't count for us.

So you're going to have to start from scratch. And I was like, bye. No, like I want to get the F out of here. So that was how advertising and PR was born. So I just, I pieced out of anything performance related and I just worked full-time at Disney World. So that was really my training was Disney World.

[21:43] Alan Seales: So many people have done that. And what, I mean, at what point did you start, like make the decision of saying, all right, I want to be a, I'm going to take this seriously. I'm going to go to Nashville of all places and do country very specifically. And, and then, and then also was, was it a sort of a sequential thing or parallel tracks to actually get on Broadway in The Addams Family?

[22:09] Rachel Potter: Okay. Yes. So, but I wanted to, I wanted to loop this back that, um, that was like entering college as this very conservative person and leaving also had a lot to do with that time that I spent at Disney because all of a sudden I was plopped in a cast with a majority of gay men who I never knew any of those types of people before. It was my first, yeah, this was my first experience with, with the homosexual community, any LGBT of any kind, LGBTQ. Um, you know, I met my first lesbian friends and my first gay friends and I was really curious, you know, just so curious about who are you? Are you, so you're not like a bad person? Wait, wait a minute. I really like you. Like you seem awesome. Hold on, hold on.

I need to know more, you know? So, uh, that started really confusing me and really challenging what I had been told my whole life, you know? And so that, that's began the crack in the armor, I guess, uh, along with what had happened, you know, being sort of ostracized by my church for my own sexual sins. Um, and then I just threw myself right into the fire and I started going to gay bars with all these new friends of mine and just learned about them and ask them questions about their childhood and, you know, and God, they were just so generous. Now looking back, like they were so generous with my ignorance, you know, that they would just spend the time to help educate me and allow me to develop new opinions, you know, just based on their individual stories. And I'm forever grateful for that.

[24:19] Alan Seales: Wow. Yeah, I had similar, I guess when I moved to North Carolina in middle school and had something sort of similar where I was, I was ostracized, ostracized. It's different being a guy because you can kind of get away with a lot more, unfortunately. And, and so I was ostracized though, because I did not go to church with the girls that I was dating. So the parents would like, would think I was just a horrible person without ever meeting me because I didn't like, they didn't accept me because I wasn't part of them. And then I was on the outside, like, I thought that this was supposed to be like all accepting, just generally sort of a nice scenario. How come they're making me feel like crap? Like this doesn't make sense. And so any sort of curiosity I had or any willingness to participate kind of just went out the window because I was like, this seems so hypocritical. I don't want to be part of this. And this was me in like seventh, eighth, ninth grade.

[25:21] Rachel Potter: Yeah. Yeah. The hypocrisy was something that struck me hard and fast when I turned 18 and saw a lot of things that had happened. You know, I'd had one man in particular really come down hard on me about premarital sex and stuff. And he was in the church band, you know, the worship team. And it came out later that he was having an affair with another woman on the worship team. I was just like, what? You know? So it was that kind of stuff that was just like, oh, okay. So these people are full of shit. Got it. You know? And I mean, I know everybody's doing the best that they can. And as a parent now, it's like, you don't really know what you're doing. And we all think about our parents as superheroes. And the truth is, now that we are those people to our own children, it's like, oh, no. We're just completely imperfect, just taking it a day at a time with no plans. I'm just reading articles like crazy. Like, I don't know what I'm doing.

[27:42] Rachel Potter: I never stopped asking questions. That's what always I'm trying to get into his head. I've seen them grow in their confidence by being reinforced when we reward them for asking questions, period. Not specifically what the question is that they've asked about, if that makes sense. I wish I had that growing up. I had a rather strange relationship with my parents off and on, just feeling not like a whole person at certain points. Yeah. And I think that we're, our children at least, are lucky to be raised by this generation because I think that we're a generation of question askers. And that we were really the first generation to really buck the system in so many ways and reject the status quo. And I think that that's a really good thing for our kids.

And who knows, maybe it'll turn out to be horrible. We'll find out. But I hope that we're just encouraging them to be true to themselves and really just live in whatever they are and just nurture it. My son's really into dinosaurs and bugs and stuff. And I'm just like, Oh God, I don't want to talk about another freaking dinosaur, please. But at the same time, I'm all about dinosaurs too. I'm all in with him and I know every name. And he asks me, he says, Mommy, what's this one? That's a parasaurolophus son. So it's like, this is my daily routine. And I don't want to look at bugs. I don't want to go outside and pick up bugs, but he does, so we're doing it. And I'm going to nurture that curiosity as long as possible.

And it breaks my heart sometimes because we're in the South. So there's a lot of sameness of what we grew up with, I guess, that still exists even in moms today. And we were in Target the other day and I was getting him a dinosaur and he was talking to this mom with her kids that was standing behind us. And he's like, look, this is a dinosaur. This is a Mosasaurus. Isn't this cool? And the mom was like, just wouldn't speak to him. And I said, honey, it's okay to be so excited about that. But sometimes not everybody's going to be as excited about stuff as we are, but that's okay because we are really excited about it. And it's like, you just got to stay on your island with your people and just tell them that it's okay to be who they are.

And hopefully people aren't going to be assholes when they go out into the world and show them. Well, some of it, nature nurtures, some people are going to be assholes. Hopefully we can do our best, but I want to bring this back to The Addams Family, Nashville, the performing side of this. What was first? Did you try to go to New York and do Broadway first or did you go to Nashville and do the indie thing first? And then of course there's X Factor in there somewhere.

[31:06] Rachel Potter: Yes. So I always loved country music growing up. A lot of people dreamt about the Broadway show that they were going to star in. And I grew up listening to country music. I latched onto it early on for some reason, along with a lot of R&B. So I loved, loved, loved Mariah Carey and Whitney Houston and some R&B singers that were gospel R&B. Because of course I was in the church, so I heard a lot of that too. But then there was something about country that always drew me in, and I loved Faith Hill. And I would scour the inside covers of her records and read every word, and LeAnn Rimes and Suzy Boggess and the Dixie Chicks and all these women who I just, I loved their storytelling. And that's really where I think the draw was for me was that it was kind of theatrical in a lot of ways.

That's where I found a link later that I just love the art of storytelling in music. And country music really did that in my mind. So I used to design my album covers when I was a kid. I remember being seven years old and designing, telling my mom what I wanted my country album cover to look like. And I just never had theater on my radar. It was just never really something that I was exposed to or really desired until I was a little older. So it was more of a detour, to be honest. And so I was in college, I was working at Disney World. So I went on to, I sang as Belle in the Beauty and the Beast show at Hollywood Studios, and I was in the High School Musical shows and Hoop-Dee-Doo Review. And then I also played Nemo in the Finding Nemo musical there.

So I was doing all these different shows at Disney World, and I just felt like, okay, I've done everything I want to do here. It's time to move on. And I graduated with my little advertising and PR degree. I have yet to fall back on it, PS. And though I use my political science degree a lot in my fights on Facebook. So that's something. Getting a little use out of that degree. I stay off it. I do. I can't do it anymore. I need to. To be honest, this is just sidebar. I've really started to check myself because when I get into any sort of conversation that is heated on Facebook, I take it very personally, and I get emotionally worked up like it's in person. Like I'm having a debate with somebody in person or like an argument or confrontation.

And so I really have to stop because it really upsets me. It's not healthy. It's not. It's not healthy for your... Yeah, you're stuck at home and you... Yeah, it's just a written form. It's just so bad to argue anyway. That's so true. Because you can't hear tone. That's so true. Anyway, I digress.

[34:03] Rachel Potter: So when I graduated from college, I just decided to go give this a shot. And I took my little equity card and I decided to move up. But before that all happened, Legally Blonde: The Search for Elle Woods happened. So it was the summer. I was graduating in the end of the summer term. And at the beginning of that summer, they had... Or the beginning of that year, they had had these auditions for Elle Woods in the new Legally Blonde Search for Elle Woods show on MTV. And I had gone to New York. I started flying up whenever I could with my little equity card the year before I graduated. And I would fly up and go to these EPAs and ECCs with my union card. And it was ridiculous because I thought that's how you booked a Broadway show, was that you just went to these chorus calls and that's how it worked.

Ha. And so I would spend all this money on flights and hotels and stuff and stand out there at six in the morning and go sing 16 bars. And yeah, cutie. What a cutie. Little green cutie. So this one day though, I guess my story is that it actually can pay off. I went to Catch Me If You Can, and it was a total bust. They weren't looking for me. They were not interested. It was a plan. It was like a required call and they didn't care. And I was so disappointed. And I walked out of the room and it was at Telsey. And next door, they were doing an audition for Leap of Faith. And the only thing I was right for, and I wasn't even, it was for a 35-year-old woman. And I was at the time 22. And I looked about 15 still.

But whatever, I went in because there wasn't a line. So Pat Goodwin, who's still with Telsey, was there. And I was like, hey, so 16 bars? And he's like, no girl, nobody's here. Sing a whole song. So I sang a whole song. And he like, I'll never forget it, threw his binder down on the table. And he said, where have you been? He's like, I love you. I'm going to give you to so-and-so-and-so-and-so. And I just, I am so happy I met you. And I was like, oh my God, thank you so much. And so the next thing I knew, I got a call to come back in for Next to Normal before Broadway, when it was going to be at Lincoln, Kennedy Center. Yeah. So I came back up a couple of times for Next to Normal to understudy Natalie.

And I got down to the final three. And I mean, it was just a stroke of absolute luck, because I had no idea what I was doing. And I got to the final callback, and it was, the whole team was there. Bernie Telsey was in the room, and the other two girls that were in the waiting room there for the final callback were both Broadway veterans, like, and me, like little Disney chick that had no idea. I still lived in Orlando. And from that, Bernie Telsey called me and said, hey, you're not getting this job, but I've got this reality show, and I think you'd be good for it. I want you to go to the audition in Orlando, and you'll be a ringer. So you just have to show up. You're getting through no matter what.

Just go show up. They'll film. Go show up and sing. Yeah. So I went and got through, of course. And so then that was like February. I went up to New York, and we filmed this Legally Blonde search for what Elle was, the most bizarre experience ever. And it was such a long day. I think we got there at like six in the morning, and we were dancing all day and singing. And I got kicked off on the first episode. But they made this really lovely send-off for me. They made a thing of it. And it didn't air until June. And I graduated in August or whatever. So in June, they air it. And the next day, an agent called me from Don Buchwald and Associates and said, do you have an agent? I just saw you on this TV show.

I was like, no, not one. I said, yeah. So I got to move to New York with my equity card and an agent, which was crazy. So I moved in September after I graduated from college and started auditioning right away. And I did not book one thing for a year. I got dropped. I waitressed. I did bottle service. I worked at Hooters briefly. That was another conversation. That's a ridiculous decision, but I did it. Yeah, just pounded the pavement. And then my agent dropped me after a year of not booking anything. And my friend Scott Allen, who's a composer, I had done... He was doing a thing back then called Monday Night's New Voices. Do you remember that? Okay, that was how a lot of us got discovered or came into the scene was Scott's Monday Night New Voices.

He would do his new works at the duplex. And he'd bring in these unknowns to sing his stuff. And so I did that. And then he recommended me to another agent. And I went on with that agent. And during this time, while waitressing, I'm going on all these tangents. I hope it's okay. No, I am fascinated. I'm just fascinated because everybody's story is so unique. The best stories are like, I didn't really want this. I didn't try for it. And all of a sudden, I've got this great thing. Please continue. This is awesome. So I tried to work at Ellen Stardust Diner as a waitress because I had a lot of friends that worked there.

[40:03] Rachel Potter: And I also had a callback for American Idol, like right after I got hired there. I didn't make it, by the way, but I had a callback. And I was like, hey, you know, I've done a day of training or whatever. I want to go to this thing and see if I can go to this callback for American Idol. And they're like, no, you can't go. I was like, but like everybody in this is a singer. Like, this is everybody's dream. Like, you're not going to let me go to this callback. And they're like, no. And I was like, okay, well, I guess I quit then. And so, but they still claim me in their tip bucket speeches for years. I'm looking at you, Alan. Anyway. But when I came back, one of the managers who I'd known was like, that was stupid.

Why don't you come downstairs and work in the jazz club down below at the Iridium? So I did. So I started working as a waitress down there. And in that time, I met all these musicians. And I started hearing them talk about, oh, I've got this wedding gig, da da da. And I was like, hey, I could do that. Like, what do you guys know about these wedding gigs? Like, could I be a wedding singer? They're like, yeah. Here's so-and-so's name. So I went, I had a car in the city because I was a crazy person. And I drove myself to Long Island for an audition with Hank Lane. And I got the job. And I started gigging every weekend, like twice a weekend with this wedding band and met all these amazing musicians. And I swear this was where my life pivoted. Because I all of a sudden learned how to sing like myself, rather than imitating somebody else.

[41:46] Rachel Potter: Oh, right, right. Because Disney wants you to be a sound. And then I thought Broadway wanted me to be a sound, too. So it was always, well, if I'm auditioning for Elphaba, I need to sound like Idina Menzel. Or if it's Glinda, I need to sound like Kristen Chenoweth, etc. And the list goes on. So it was imitation and not truth and authenticity. And so I started playing. Because at a wedding, nobody's really paying attention to you, you're background noise. So I'm with these world-class musicians, and I'm just having a ball, getting to play around, singing jazz, singing all these pop songs. And that's when I really felt like I found my sound. And I had gone in for Wicked seven or eight times at this point for Elphaba.

Never got past the callback. It just felt like it was never going to happen. I was very frustrated at that point. I was like, this is pointless. I'm not going back. And I called my mom and I said, I think I'm ready to give up New York and move to Nashville. It was like a year and a half in. What was me? And I got a call from my agents because I got a new one, thanks to Scott. And he's like, hey, they want to see you for Wicked. And I'm like, no, really? Again? He's like, but this time, Glinda. And I was like, oh, okay. I guess I'll go. And so I worked really hard. So I'm not going to act like I didn't work hard on it. I knew that material like the back of my hand. I was breathing it at that point.

But I decided to not care. Once I got in the room, I was going to throw all of it out the window and just stop being so freaked out about everything and so uptight. I was just going to not give a shit once I walked through the door. And I put on every piece of rhinestone jewelry that I could find. And I bought this little light blue cocktail dress and I wore sequined heels and full face and curled my hair. And I remember being in the waiting room and there was a girl who looked like she was perfect for Glinda. Blonde, pretty pink dress, Leduca dance shoes. And she looked me up and down and went... And I just smiled politely and I was like, bitch, watch this. And then I went in there and I left it all behind. I left it all at the door. And I had the time of my life. I'll never forget how much fun I had in that audition. And I got the job that day. And she didn't.

[44:38] Rachel Potter: And she didn't. Yeah. So you should never judge anyone in an audition room, people. Because they'll remember it and talk about it on a podcast later. So that was my first job. I understudied Glinda and I was in the ensemble. And I got to go on a pretty good amount and it was really awesome. Just made some lifelong friends. And we're all still super tight to this day. And to me, that was like Disney and that tour, that was like my college years. That was where my sorority fraternity stuff really happened. It was those bonds that lasted forever for me. It's hard. I've said this before on so many episodes that I equate it to a form of trauma almost. Although trauma, that has a negative connotation.

But it's severe emotional attachment and vulnerability. To be good at your job, you have to open yourself up and you just get bonded with these people. And again, it's the chemical release in your brain, right? So you're singing and the vibrations and the audience and the cheers and everything. You're eating and breathing and traveling with these people for however long it is. And you get to know them so well. Yeah, I think it is a form of that. It's like, hello, nice to meet you. And now we have no boundaries. Immediately, we're very intimate. So it's like summer camp, every show that you do, it's very, very intimate.

[46:10] Rachel Potter: Yes, yes. Yeah, I did Kaniki once. I did Grease once. I was Kaniki. And then it was like, hello, Rizzo. Now we have to make out for three pages. And that's a long time to kiss somebody that you're not very well acquainted with. Yeah, yeah. So we got well acquainted quickly. Those are some of the most awkward things. It's like the first kiss. When I started Wednesday rehearsals, which we'll get to because I have a good story about that audition that I think is really funny. But when I went into my first rehearsal with Jesse Swenson playing Lucas, he's like, do you want to just, let's just kiss the first time and just get it over with. And I was like, okay, yeah, let's just do that. The very first time we read it together, we just went ahead and kissed.

And it was like, all right, well, that's over. Now we can just do it every time. So I was on the road with Wicked for a long while and understudying Glinda and just living my life. And my agents called and said that they want to see me for Wednesday. I was like, Wednesday? Really? And I'd never seen the show. And I was in Ohio or something. And so I was like, well, let me see if I can find anything. And I found this bootleg of Krista singing. And I was like, oh, okay. Well, I guess. Well, let me look up some flights and see how much it is. And I found this really cheap flight. But I had to drive after my Sunday night evening show. I had to drive four hours to get to the airport to get this ticket that was like an unbelievably good price.

And it was like halfway to our next city. So I was like, okay, I can do that. I'll just drive there, get on the flight, fly out, come back, drive the rest of the way to the next city. So after our show, this all seemed like a great plan. We get out at like 11. I get on the road thinking, oh, I'll get there at like three in the morning and I'll sleep in the car for a few hours and that'll be great. There was a blizzard and I'm from Florida. So I literally drove. It was supposed to be four and it took me eight hours to get there because I had to drive half as slow. And I drove behind a salt truck the whole way there because it was white out. But I was determined. I was going to get to this callback for Wednesday.

Like I'm getting there. So I remember I got off the exit for the airport and I was like, I hope this is a road. I can't tell if this is a road still. I think it is. So I was going by my GPS whether or not I was on the road or not. And same thing when I got in the parking lot, there was like two feet of snow on the ground. And I was like, I think this is a parking spot. I'm going to just assume it is. So by the time I got there, it was time to get on the plane. So I got no sleep. And so I get on the plane and I sleep for whatever the flight was an hour and a half. And I get to the city and I go to Marty's house, my best friend, Marty and Thomas. And I go to his house and I take a shower and I go straight to the audition.

So I swear if I had gotten a full night's sleep, I don't know that I would have gotten that job because I walked in like that. I had to look down. So yeah, that was my Broadway debut. They called me one morning and told me I got the job and I jumped up and down with my Wicked castmates and put my two weeks in and went back to New York. So cool. I got to be on a billboard in Times Square and taxi cabs and it was crazy. So then Search for Elle Woods, yeah, and Addams Family. So then X Factor and Evita, like Evita was on Broadway and then X Factor, obviously not. But like walk me through then what's going on next.

[50:36] Rachel Potter: Okay, so Addams Family is coming to a close. We got our notice that we were going to close on like New Year's Eve of 2000. What was that? 2011, I guess, right? Yeah, I think. Yeah, yeah, because we started Evita in 2012. So it was October and rewind to like February of 2011. I had had an audition for The Mistress and Evita. Well, remember I'm not like a theater person, so I don't know everything about theater. And my only experience with Evita was the Madonna movie, okay? So I had a sinus infection, number one. Number two, I didn't learn the song. Number three, I thought that I was like auditioning for the role Madonna played because I'm a complete moron. So I go in there in like a flamenco dress with like so much makeup, my hair on, like my hair up, like these really cool shoes.

Like I dressed like Ava, right? I go in there, I'm holding the music, like not off book, like a total dweeb. And I sounded bad because I was sick. So it was like, meh, not getting a call back. And I was like, okay, yeah, that was dumb. I don't even know why I went in for that. So that was February. So then fast forward to October, and they had done like a worldwide search for The Mistress, okay? Like they had had open casting calls where you didn't have to even be union. They had done searches in other cities, like, and there was this article about they still haven't found The Mistress. And I read it, and it was just like one of those heart pricks that was like, that's because it's for me. It was the craziest thing that I just had this knowing that I was like, that's my job.

So I had a great relationship with Craig Burns, still do, over at Telsey, and I sent him a message. And I said, Craig, you know, I hope this isn't completely inappropriate, but I was sick, and I didn't do well the last time. I didn't know what I was doing. And if you think that this is an okay idea, if this is okay with you, I would really like to come back in. And he was like, yeah, let's do it. So this time I came in, no makeup, hair looked like I just fell out of bed, with a nightgown on with no bra, and barefoot. And I decided that this time, or just with this song, I decided to really make it my own, because that was what I had kind of done with my

[53:24] Rachel Potter: So that was, that was incredible, because I got to originate, you know, it's always our dream, right? Like, you get to originate a role, and you know as a revival of course, but it meant that I got to be on the cast recording, and I got to meet Andrew Lloyd Webber, and he walked up to me after the opening night and shook my hand and said, beautifully sung, and I was like, oh my god. So I mean, I can die happy, right? It was like, it was a dream. And those people, that became like another family, you know, we still have a Facebook group, and it's been so many years, but we still all talk to each other, and we had a big Zoom conference, you know, hang out during COVID. So it's, it was, it was an experience of a lifetime.

And that's so cool. Yeah, all from this church girl who didn't know anything about theater 10 years prior, you know? So, so then, so then, gosh, there's so much more I want to talk about. So, I know, like, X Factor Season 3, that, that was, the clip I watched is actually a little bit harsh. Oh my god, was it the four-chair challenge?

[54:13] Alan Seales: Yeah, yeah, it was the clip on your website.

[54:20] Rachel Potter: No, the four-chair challenge is not on my website.

[54:24] Alan Seales: Yeah, it is, it is.

[54:26] Rachel Potter: No way. Because it was at the bottom of the page where I plagiarized your bio.

[54:30] Alan Seales: Are you sure?

[54:31] Rachel Potter: I think, I'm pretty, yeah. I think that the initial audition, the first audition, where it was like, when I sang Somebody to Love. Four-chair challenge, I wish would die and go to hell and never return. It's the, it's one of my most traumatic singing experiences ever, and it lives on the internet. And it's, of course, the internet's forever. I don't even like to talk about it because it's so traumatic, but I'll tell you about it. First, let me tell you how the X Factor came to be. So during Adam's Family, Evita, I was singing country music as much as I could. And while I was on the road with Wicked, I had, we had stopped off in Memphis and I'd visited Nashville. I had a really good friend who was a songwriter and I stayed with them and we worked on some music and I was like, oh wow, I love this.

Like, I really want to do this, you know, at some point. So I kept threatening it, you know, and then I'd book another job and I was like, oh, okay, well maybe after this one, I'll go to Nashville. So on my off time, whenever I could, I'd come to Nashville and just work. That was my vacation. And I raised some money and released an album when I was in Evita and Ricky Martin was in my video. If you have any, and a bunch of my Evita castmates, if you have any desire to watch it, it's the Live the Dream music video. It's really cute.

[56:56] Alan Seales: I'll put it in the show notes.

[56:57] Rachel Potter: It's cute. They were really, really sweet to do that. You know, I was like such a green little naive girl about my new singing career. And I'm sure Ricky Martin was like, oh, sweetheart. Sure I'll be in your music video, you know. He was just so kind and generous though. And that was really nice of him. So during that time, I'm doing all this country music and when I went down to Nashville, I had just heard a lot of times from different people in the industry like, if you're serious about this, you have to move here. And I was like, okay, which is the same deal for Broadway. If you're really serious about it, you really have to be in New York. It's like, all right, okay, well, I'll think about it.

Then in November, my two year long relationship ended. And we got our closing notice for Evita to be like the end of January of 2013. So two major things that were tethering me to the city ended and I didn't have another job like in sight at the time. And the lease was up on my apartment and my roommate wanted to move out. So I was like, maybe this is it. So I decided to go ahead and just make the move. And I moved down to Nashville and started bartending and trying, writing and recording and doing whatever I could. And then I heard X Factor was auditioning in New York, ironically.

[58:38] Alan Seales: They did come back.

[58:41] Rachel Potter: In Long Island. And I had gone up there to do something else. And I was like, well, I might as well go. And they tell you to get there at like six in the morning. I showed up at noon because I was like, I'm not doing that. That's not going to make for a good day for me. I'll sound like crap by the time I sing. So I got there at noon. I was the last person in line. But they still agreed to see me. And I was the last person to sing that day. And luckily, my friend Will Lacey was... I didn't know him. He wasn't my friend then, but he is now. He was behind the table. And he was super into... I sang Somebody to Love. And I didn't do it because I had some brilliant country arrangement of it. I did it because it was my pop rock song for musical theater.

And I knew it really well. And so I just pulled it out. I had a quick minute cut of it. And so I did that. And he was like, wait, have you done Broadway? And I was like, yeah. He's like, I know your name. And I was like, oh, cool. And he's like, sing Defying Gravity. And I was like, okay. So I sang Defying Gravity. And he's like, great, you're through. And I was like, okay. And then the next day, I was supposed to come back again at six in the morning. And I got there at like, 11. So I was like, I'm not... If this is meant to be, it's going to be meant to be. I'm not going to ruin my life for these people. So I got there at 11. And they're like, oh, it's fine. Don't worry. And then I was the last person to sing again, got through again. And then they were like, cool, we want you to come back and sing for the judges on the live show. I was like, or not live, but the big audience show.

[1:00:26] Rachel Potter: So I did that. And honestly, all I could think of the entire time was like, just please don't make fun of me for being on Broadway. Just don't say I sound like a Broadway performer and make fun of me and make me look like a complete idiot. And to my utter shock and surprise, they put me through and they all liked me. And in fact, I talked about all of my Broadway experience on that stage and they edited it all out.

[1:01:02] Alan Seales: Really?

[1:01:03] Rachel Potter: Yeah. The internet, a lot of people were like, she's a liar. She's been on Broadway. And I was like, yeah, I told them all. I told the entire audience that. But they cut it for TV because they wanted me to be the bartender from Nashville. But I had only been a bartender for like two months.

[1:01:12] Alan Seales: That's more the underdog story.

[1:01:15] Rachel Potter: Exactly. So that first one was great. And then we had to go and then we got cut down to 40. And then the 40 was going to get cut to 16. And the way that that gets done is in the four chair challenge. So each team, there were four teams, could only end up with four people in each chair. There were four chairs and there were 10 people on each team. And if they liked you, they'd put you in a chair. And then if they liked somebody else, they could kick you out of that chair and put them in it. So I went fourth. The whole day was like a little bit of Chinese water torture. We were in like this fluorescent lit hallway with those folding chairs, those like hard metal folding chairs. They fed us one time.

We were there for like 6 a.m. We didn't sing until like 8 p.m. And they had this radio on that you could kind of hear music, but it was also static that they were playing like super, super loud. So nobody could hear what was going on in the arena like next to us. So it was a little bit of like torture going on. And all day I was kind of like feeling like, oh, I have like a little bit of a scratchy throat. So I'd been flying and taking red eyes and all this stuff to get out there. And this guy was like, oh, I've got this Zycam stuff. It'll make you feel better. You know, it's like stuff for colds. Well, come to find out it was like straight zinc, which makes you really nauseous. And I'd hardly eaten, right? So I'd take like a bunch of these Zycam tablets that I'd never taken before. Kids, do not take medicines that you've never taken before on a very important day when you have to perform.

[1:03:04] Alan Seales: Unlikely.

[1:03:05] Rachel Potter: Right. So we go and there's four teams and I'm in the over 25 group. And of course they're like over 25s, you're up first. And I'm like, and they're like, Rachel, you're fourth. And I was like, cool, great. So my hands are sweating and I'm like, you know, that feeling you get like where you kind of are queasy and I wasn't getting it.

[1:03:30] Alan Seales: You get the tingles.

[1:03:31] Rachel Potter: Yeah. You get the tingles of it, yeah. So I feel like I'm going to vomit, but oh, well, I'm just nervous, you know, and I just kept drinking water and my mouth was getting really dry and I just kept drinking water and kept drinking water. And then I walk out on the stage and I get that overwhelming, like your mouth starts to water because you're going to throw up feeling and my tracks started. And I was like, oh my God. So now the goal is not get through to the next phase. The goal is just don't throw up on stage. That's it. So that is the four chair challenge that you want. So I go for this big note and my larynx was so high because I was like, so, I don't know, nauseous or whatever. And I threw up in my mouth.

It happened. I swallowed it and I kept singing. But then afterwards, how in the world do you recover gracefully from something like that? Do you say to a huge studio audience, well, you know, I was, everything was going okay, but then I threw up in my mouth.

[1:04:39] Alan Seales: Right, right. You can't, you just can't.

[1:04:44] Rachel Potter: So Simon's like, that was not good. And I'm like, I know, like, I'm completely aware that that was not good because I threw up in my mouth, but I can't say that out loud on television. So I said like, I'm sorry, I'm just, I've been feeling sick all day. And I had killed it at rehearsal. So what I think potentially happened was that one of the, I saw a bunch of the producers come out and talk to them. And I think they were like, hey, she really did a great job at rehearsal. Keep her in, we want her in the show. And for whatever reason, that episode ended and they didn't kick me out and I made it in the top four. And then I had like this redemption, you know, once we got to the live shows. Yeah, real traumatic. I sort of feel like I'm broke right now just talking about it.

[1:05:38] Alan Seales: I thought, I know exactly what you're talking about, that mouth watering where you're like, it's coming and I just need to get to a place where I'm not going to be projectile bombing on somebody and humiliated.

[1:05:55] Rachel Potter: And I tell you the last time that happened to me, I had food poisoning from a Europa on 42nd and 7th.

[1:06:05] Alan Seales: Oh no.

[1:06:05] Rachel Potter: And I was taking the train home, the A train, I lived in Washington Heights at the time. And I had to get out at 181 and I hit the 145th stop and I was like, starting to get tunnel vision. And I was getting the sweats and the tingles and I was like, something's not right.

[1:06:25] Alan Seales: And it was crowded, it was rush hour, it was hot.

[1:06:30] Rachel Potter: Oh no, all the worst things. And I was like, I think I should get out at 168 because I think, no, I can make it one more stop. I can make it one more stop. I'm good. I'm good. And then as soon as the doors opened at 181, I literally like push people out of the way. I swam through the group of people.

[1:08:15] Rachel Potter: So I've known him since I really moved to the city because that's really where I made my friends was I would go to these open mic cabarets all the time. And so he asked me to be a part of it. And I said, of course. And it was really fun. We did that last week and it was really cool. I revisited a bunch of my solo country music and I was a complete diversion from the other guest who was a very eclectic writer, artist, performer who was incredible. But I'm like, okay, cool. Now I'm going to sing my country songs. But it was really neat. I'm glad that they're doing something to continue to put some artists out there. But I'm sad that I didn't get a chance to do it in person because it's a really neat opportunity that these performers get to go out there in Times Square and sing for the tourists. And it's really cool.

[1:09:09] Alan Seales: Yeah. Yeah, it's fun. I've gone out there in past years. So in the show notes for this episode too, I'll put the link to your video because it's up on their YouTube channel and you can get to them through Facebook and through their website actually, through timesquarenyc.org. But yeah, so you're still in... So you were in Nashville doing country music, but then as we touched on the very beginning, you decided to move back to New York to try this again and then move back to Nashville because of quarantine. But what was the impetus for trying New York again?

[1:09:45] Rachel Potter: Well, I gave this a really valiant effort here in Nashville and I did the solo thing. After X Factor, I put out a solo record and I had some awesome write-ups and some different publications and I was... I had my video on CMT and things were going great. And then I joined forces with these two really awesome male artists here and we formed a trio called Steely Union. So I tried to use that momentum and turn it into something with this band because the band felt really good. And it was just really special and I thought we really had something. And we got really close. We were meeting with labels. I got closer with them than I had by myself. And we were meeting with labels and publishers and things were going awesome. And then I got pregnant. And it was pretty cliché. They're like, cool. So call us after the baby comes.

[1:10:43] Alan Seales: Yeah. When boys have babies, nobody seems to notice. But when females do, then of course it... the world stops. So that was a real bummer. And I thought... And we tried to pick it up afterwards. But ultimately, it does change. And my life changed a great deal after the baby came. And I didn't really necessarily want the same things anymore. And then on top of all of that, I think I would just continue to do regional theater. I had been doing maybe one regional theater show a year ever since I left New York. And every time I'm like, these are my people. This is where I belong. Why do I fight it? And I was constantly... I maintained an agent manager in New York. And I would still fly up all the time for stuff.

And I got close to a lot of stuff again. Because my hope was that, okay, well, maybe I can book something from Nashville. And then I'll have a reason to move. But that never happened. So ultimately, I was like, I think this is a... You have to move there, if you really want to take this seriously again. And so we spent the better part of last year just planning for that and saving. And in hindsight, I'm glad I saved money. I had to spend it all to move cross country twice. And to keep my family afloat for a couple months where we had made no money at all. So everything happens for a reason, right? And I don't have any FOMO right now, because there isn't anything to miss out on at the moment. But I hope that in the future, I'll be able to go back and we can try again someday when Broadway is back on its feet.

[1:12:35] Alan Seales: It will be back, I think, later than we hope. But it'll come back. It has to.

[1:12:39] Rachel Potter: Yeah, it has to.

[1:12:41] Alan Seales: People need the stories. People need... Go back to Chemical Release. People need that connection. They need the home. Theater is a home for a lot of people, both on and off stage. And people are not going to feel complete again until it's back.

[1:12:55] Rachel Potter: No. It's a sad world without art. And it's such an enriching part of our culture that I think everybody's struggling without it. So I look forward to the day when it's back and we can all feel safe and happy to be in the theater. And I'll hope to be there too.

[1:13:17] Alan Seales: Well, me too. I want to see you. I have never seen you on stage and I want to come back and see you.

[1:13:24] Rachel Potter: Thank you.

[1:13:25] Alan Seales: I want you to come back so I can see you on stage.

[1:13:26] Rachel Potter: Yeah, thanks.

[1:13:28] Alan Seales: Multiple reasons. So we'll wrap up here with the three standard closing questions that I always use to wrap up every episode. The first one is, what motivates you?

[1:13:38] Rachel Potter: Not having regret.

[1:13:40] Alan Seales: I like that a lot.

[1:13:44] Rachel Potter: Thank you.

[1:13:45] Alan Seales: Okay. Okay. What advice would you give to your younger self and younger people listening now starting out down a similar path?

[1:13:53] Rachel Potter: To not invest so much of my self-worth or your self-worth in other people and romantic relationships. And to spend a lot of good time alone and learning yourself and getting deep with yourself and maybe even going to therapy so that romantic relationships don't cause unnecessary detours with your goals.

[1:14:27] Alan Seales: We didn't touch on the romantic side of your childhood. And you mentioned it so many times. It's like, oh, that's a story. That's a story. And I feel like there's a whole part to this whole side of you that we can get into next time. So next time when we were back on the podcast again for your Broadway show.

[1:14:47] Rachel Potter: The romantic side.

[1:14:49] Alan Seales: We'll talk about romance. Okay. So final question then. If you can only see one show for the rest of your life, but you can see it as many times as you want, what would you see?

[1:14:59] Rachel Potter: No. We're talking musical.

[1:15:05] Alan Seales: Anything you want. Any show.

[1:15:10] Rachel Potter: This is going to sound crazy, but Home Alone, the movie. It is maybe my favorite movie of all time. And it's, that's so silly.

[1:15:22] Alan Seales: It's so cute.

[1:15:24] Rachel Potter: There's just, I don't know. I love that movie so much. That's the first thing that popped in my mind. But honestly, but if we're talking about musicals, I just love Wicked so much. I could just watch Wicked, I think, forever.

[1:15:38] Alan Seales: Original cast or any specific cast?

[1:15:45] Rachel Potter: No, not original cast. So I do love, I do love Kristen, but I don't know, maybe Stephanie J Block and Megan Hilty. I love Megan Hilty's Glinda. We're friends now and I have to pretend like I didn't used to watch her YouTube videos, you know?

[1:16:09] Alan Seales: I love that. There's so many people, like young people who get in these shows, you know, when you lived in Adam's family, right? Like if you had been the theater kid, getting it, getting, you know, with Nathan Lane and Bebe Neuwirth and like going into these shows with these people, you should have freaked out, but you didn't know any better at the time, right?

[1:16:29] Rachel Potter: Because you didn't know who they were.

[1:16:30] Rachel Potter: I knew them from movies. So I did freak out about Nathan Lane and Bebe Neuwirth. And Bebe, she's a strange, strange artistic bird, you know? But she was very protective of me. And I always, I always am very grateful for the way that she treated me because she knew, she knew I was like real new to this scene. And there was one time in particular, and we can talk about this on the next time I'm on the podcast, but essentially this fan convinced the doorman to let him in, that he knew me, like that he was my family and it was a lie. And he like came into the door, he came into my dressing room between shows. And like, the first thing he said was, I'm not going to hurt you. Oh, okay. Now I feel better.

And he was fine. He was just like a very excited fan. There was nothing, nothing wrong with him. He didn't do anything crazy other than that. But she was very protective after that. And she like insisted she drive me home and like, you know, it was, she was really cool. So like, you know, then I see her on movies afterwards and I'm like, did that happen? Like, seems like a dream. Same with Brooke Shields. You know, she was, when she came into Morticia, I was just like, what is, what is happening? This is so weird.

[1:18:04] Alan Seales: Yeah. Well, God, I, we need to have a part two. There's so much more to talk about. Okay. I could, we could have just a, just one podcast on all the guests that I met when, that Ricky had backstage. Oh, oh, I'm sure. What was the craziest one? What was the craziest?

[1:18:23] Rachel Potter: And I didn't, I didn't even get to get close to her. I just saw her from like 10 feet away and I just stood there and I was like, how can a person be that beautiful in real life? Unbelievable. She's just like, glows. Oh God. That's what, that's what Karen Levo said about Nicole Kidman. And yeah, just like one of these things is these walk in, like the elegance just follows you into the room or leads, leads into the room. All right. All right. So timesquarenyc.org slash broadwaybuskers, facebook.com slash timesquarenyc, youtube.com timesquare TSQ, where you can get Rachel and all of the other buskers who have performed and are about to perform. Of course we can find you online at rachelpottermusic.com. Where else can we get you on, on Instagram?

[1:19:08] Alan Seales: And no Twitter?

[1:19:13] Rachel Potter: No, on Twitter is the, is at the Rachel Potter too. They're the same.

[1:19:19] Alan Seales: Oh, okay. Cool. So you can get more of me at the theater podcast.com. Show your support at the theater podcast.com slash Patreon. You can get me on Instagram and Twitter at theater underscore podcast. Please leave a rating, leave a review. Tell your friend that this is edited by Matthew Hendershot music by jukebox, the ghost and Rachel Potter. Thank you. Most of all to you. This has been such a good episode. I went, it went long. I'm probably going to split it into two parts. I love it. It's fine because your stories are so good. I'm just like, I want to hear so much more about your life.

[1:19:53] Rachel Potter: Oh my gosh. Thank you. That's, that's an honor that you even care. So thank you so much. And thanks for having me. And thanks for everybody who's listening. We appreciate you and can't wait to see you in the theater very soon. Amen.

[1:19:54] Rachel Potter: On Instagram and Twitter. I'm at the Rachel Potter because there's a few Rachel Potters out there. So I'm the Rachel Potter and Rachel, Rachel Potter music on Facebook.