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[0:00] Alan Seales: Welcome back to The Theatre Podcast, intimate, personal conversations with the industry's biggest names. I'm your host, Alan Seales, and our guest today is Jelani Remy, who is this completely humble guy who seems truly called to actually educating and giving back. He wants to continue to teach and to work with youth and just to inspire. It's really a fun conversation we had with him. We have a fun comparison between spending seven years in Lion King and in playing Simba, an iconic, fictitious character, versus Eddie Kendricks in Ain't Too Proud, a real-life guy from The Temptations. Just the ability to compare and contrast those two roles was actually quite fun. But he's in an upcoming speaker series out in New Jersey that you got to check out.

Can't wait to share this with you. As always, find me online on Instagram, Twitter, and now TikTok, and connect with me, leave a rating, leave a review. Let me know you're listening, and everybody, please enjoy this episode with Jelani Remy. Our guest today is a New Jersey native, possibly best known for his three years as Simba in the Broadway, National Tour, and Vegas companies of Disney's Lion King, as well as parts in Disney's High School Musical and High School Musical 2, Parade, Cabaret, and recent Broadway production of Smokey Joe's Café. He was also Eddie Kendricks in the Broadway production of Ain't Too Proud and will be the guest in the upcoming Broadway lecture series at Stageworks at Studio 237 on March 11th. Jelani Remy, welcome to The Theatre Podcast.

[1:47] Jelani Remy: That was so beautifully said. Oh my gosh.

[1:50] Alan Seales: Well, thank you.

[1:52] Jelani Remy: That was so great.

[1:53] Alan Seales: It's all your work, man.

[1:55] Jelani Remy: Thank you so much. I mean, it's great to be here. Hi, everybody. It is a thrill.

[2:01] Alan Seales: So where did you start out with your love for theater? Because obviously, we're going to get into The Lion King, and I'm sure everybody asks about that, but I want to know, little Jelani, what made you look up to... Did you look up on a stage? Did you see a movie and were like, that's it, that's what I need to be?

[2:19] Jelani Remy: Well, you know, I was a kid who always loved to sing and create, and I was sort of that kid that asked my parents for a school set so I can play school in my playroom by myself with my stuffed animals. You laugh, you laugh, but... I want to play homework.

[2:35] Jelani Remy: I want to play homework. Well, I just love to educate. I love playing the role of. I love stepping into the role of. So I was the head teacher, and I had all my stuffed animals be my students, and I was grading papers. I was doing tests. I was really committed to the craft. But I didn't know what it was, but in hindsight, that was acting. That was sort of diving into the musical theater world, because I love music and I love playing. And it was actually my chorus teacher in middle school, high school, Jen Jesson, who sort of pushed me to do my first musicale, which was Grease, and I got the role of, you guessed it, Doody. And I got to play that role, and he had a song. Doody has a song called Those Magic Changes, and I practiced it, practiced it.

And I remember it was our dress rehearsal for our friends at school, and I got to sing it in front of the school, and they clapped for me. And I've never felt anything like that before. I never felt that sort of rush, that sort of excitement of giving your all to something that you worked so hard for in this craft that you sort of dabbled in throughout your life, but now it's come to fruition where you got to do the process. And I fell in love with it instantaneously and knew that that's what I wanted to keep doing.

[3:50] Alan Seales: Wow. Well, Grease, man. The all-American musical about changing yourself so people like you.

[4:00] Jelani Remy: There's that. But also, it was about what theater does for kids in high school. I finally felt like I belonged somewhere. I was a floater. I had a lot of friends in all different areas. I played the sports too. I was that jack of all trades. That's what they call it, jack of all trades?

[4:15] Alan Seales: Mm-hmm.

[4:16] Jelani Remy: I would sing the national anthem in my football uniform, my gear. I'd climb up the bleachers in the cleats. And I remember my coach at Saddlock would be like, son, go up there and sing that anthem, but don't do any of that ooh-ah-ah stuff. You sing it like it's supposed to be sung, straightforward. Do you understand? And I'm like, ooh-ah-ah. He didn't want any of the runs. He didn't want any of the runs. But I got to perform while being on JV. But I loved at Saddlock because he taught us such discipline with love and structure. So, everything he said had such a gravitas to it. So, I wanted to make him proud.

[5:02] Alan Seales: Yeah. I think that's a good coach. You know what I mean?

[5:06] Jelani Remy: He's a great coach. And I think that's also why now I love teaching still to this day, not from playing by myself in my playroom, but from having great teachers and mentors along the way that were rooting for me and giving me tough love, but also opening up my potential and really throwing me out there.

[5:19] Alan Seales: Were you an only child? Do you have any siblings?

[5:25] Jelani Remy: In my mind, I was, but there were four other siblings around me.

[5:30] Alan Seales: I was expecting you to say you were an only child because when you're playing school by yourself, I thought you...

[5:34] Jelani Remy: Is that fun for siblings to play school? No, they didn't want to do that.

[5:39] Alan Seales: No, it was a solo mission. And I was also the youngest. So, I felt like I now know that I'm the youngest because my parents finally got the mix right for me. But the other ones are fantastic individuals in their own respective fields. But we're all super close. But no, nobody wanted to play school with me. But we did play mobsters or three ninjas. I definitely did Mortal Kombat with my brothers, things like that, which inside was acting.

[6:08] Jelani Remy: Oh, absolutely.

[6:13] Jelani Remy: It surely was. We definitely thought we were Boyz II Men at one time. I'll never forget one time our parents left us home alone because my eldest brother was watching us and we were doing Boyz II Men and I was dancing on a coffee table and it shattered. And the concert was over. The concert was over and we had to wait until our parents got home and they got in trouble and not me because I was the wee one.

[6:38] Alan Seales: Yeah, you were the youngest. You were just going along with what they said. You know what I mean?

[6:41] Jelani Remy: I hear that. As the oldest child, I know what you're talking about. I feel you.

[6:51] Alan Seales: Totally, totally.

[6:53] Jelani Remy: So I got in trouble all the time for things that I allowed my brother to do. But now what's great is that they support me to no end. They really skyrocketed my career from babysitting till now. So it's nice that they get to see this journey. And that's one of the main things also is fun is getting to... Yes, I've gotten to explore the world with shows, but what's so fun now is bringing it back home. So I love the fact that I'm able to do this Talk Back with Robert near my hometown. So people can just see my evolution and see where I'm at at home.

[7:17] Alan Seales: Right. Robert Bannon, who is the creator of the Broadway Lecture Series. So talk more about that for a second, because you're from New Jersey. Is this a local theater? What kind of space is this?

[7:43] Jelani Remy: This is Robert's scenario. I've never been. This is Robert's situation where he loves to bring Broadway talent to the area. And I think that it's great, especially that it's someone like me who's come from the area. I think it's a really nice way to sort of have a laid back conversation and you're going to learn some new things. I'm going to tell you some new things are happening in my life that are really exciting that's coming up. And also just to say thank you and to really put a face to the name, because I feel like as I get riper, I'm not going to say older, I'm going to say riper, there's a new generation of theater performers that are in the schools that have heard about me or have heard about shows. But I love meeting the people and meeting the next generation of artists or people that even appreciate what we do. So it's exciting to come home and have a proper meet and greet.

[8:45] Alan Seales: You mentioned performing around the world and whatnot. And being in Lion King, I feel like it's like an institution right now because it's this giant machine. There are these shows that have been around for now literal decades.

[9:02] Jelani Remy: I mean, 25 years.

[9:04] Alan Seales: Right. Right. So 25 years of Lion King, you got Wicked and Aladdin and just a handful of others. I think Hamilton is going to be running, I think, forever as well.

[9:18] Jelani Remy: But do you remember the first time you saw Lion King? Was it when you were younger?

[9:24] Jelani Remy: Yeah, of course.

[9:27] Alan Seales: Yeah. So then getting to play Simba.

[9:30] Jelani Remy: Iconic. Iconic.

[9:32] Alan Seales: Right.

[9:33] Jelani Remy: Yeah. So I got the show. I was doing another show for Disney. I was doing a high school musical out of college. It was the best experience ever. I was scared, S-H-I-T-less, to sort of go into this theater world that I liked, but I didn't know the potential. I loved, rather, but I didn't know the potential of it. And being in a Disney show is just the most incredible experience because nobody does a show like them. And also, we were at the pinnacle of the high school musical phase with the world. We were treated like rock stars. And I got to learn so much from such amazingly talented and kind people. And then we did High School Musical 2 after that, which was, you know, it didn't go where we wanted it to go.

I'll say that. It's a sequel, but it didn't go where we wanted it to go. But then my Lion King journey was so beautiful. And I mean, people know the story. You said, I did the show on Broadway for a little over three years, but I was in the company in the Las Vegas production and the national tour for a collective of seven years. So I definitely grew up with The Lion King. And I feel like this role has become so near and dear to my life and my heart. And it's a family thing for me. And I had the opportunity to go to Abu Dhabi a few months ago to play Simba out there. So the show always has little reminders. And I got to perform for the king of Saudi Arabia. And the show has just really given me such amazing experiences, but also like so many attachments. And I don't think it'll ever leave my life. And I don't want it to. The show is just, it changed me. It really did.

[11:20] Alan Seales: It's an established, like you said, it's iconic. It's one of the things where you think of what's on Broadway now, Lion King is one of the first things people are going to mention.

[11:28] Jelani Remy: That's right. And there's a reason because the show has so many great messages and so many great things to see and feel. I think that's what people love most about the show is that you feel it. And for me to step into it, I was first cast as the back legs of the rhinoceros.

[11:46] Jelani Remy: Yeah, yeah. I was the bum. Yeah, yeah, yeah. But look at that journey from starting from a buttocks to the king, which is awesome because I got to learn how the show worked. And the appreciation of the ensemble of any show, but especially the Lion King, it was just wonderful. And it grew my passion, it grew my sort of devotion to it. And I think that being part of it, I then learned how to put myself into it. And I got to put Jelani into my Simba and do things that made me laugh where I got to. I'll tell you that what I also did is that the kids, there's two young Simbas, then they trade off because of child labor laws. They're only in the shows for a certain amount of time. And they grow so fast.

So like, it's like once you get that they leave so quickly. But I made it my mission to study each individual kid. And anytime one was on, I would do his little like whatever I carried from watching him into my performance. And I kept it fresh and exciting. And they always grew and evolved and changed. And I got to study it a little bit and make it sort of fresh and exciting for myself as well. But then also putting my Jelani-isms and making it true to myself. I think that's how I was able to stay with it for so long.

[13:03] Alan Seales: Oh, that's so much fun.

[13:04] Jelani Remy: So fun. I wouldn't even think about mirroring the little kids. But yeah, you're right. I mean, I'm a nuanced actor. You know what I mean? I'm a nuanced performer.

[13:14] Alan Seales: I mean, do you see like the future of... I mean, it's kind of a cheesy question, but it's... I don't know any other way to say it. Like the future of Broadway, the future of performing. When we used to be able to do stage doors all the time, right? You come out and Lion King is a family show, right? And you would come out stage door, see all these kids. I'm sure there was kids there that would just look up to you and you're like, holy crap, this is somebody that looks like me on the stage, doing Broadway, doing a movie I love, or a show that I love, or whatever. Do you remember the first time that sort of clicked for you of like, I'm inspiring these people to be something they never thought they could be before?

[13:55] Jelani Remy: I get surprised all the time still by people saying like, I saw you do this and like... Or like, oh, so right now I'm working on the show where I'm on the other side of the table and I'm helping out a creative team and one boy came in and looked at me and his jaw dropped and I was like, hi, I'm Jelani. He goes, I know who you are. It's an honor to audition for you. And he came and shook my hand and the rest of the table was shook. Like they were like, what? But I know that feeling because I had that feeling. When I used to see people at the stage door and I used to be in awe and see myself in these actors and they used to take the time to smile at me and that's all it takes is that connection.

And I think that's wonderful. In the future now, I think we should, if stage doors can happen, like I vow to you that I will create some sort of virtual stage door or some sort of thing. But that's the great thing about social media is now you can connect with your fans and friends very easily. But yeah, RIP stage doors. But I think that they're coming back. I think that they're coming back in a fashion. But they're going to like it. I think it's important to connect and important to like sign every playbill and take the pictures, take the selfies because they are memories. They're memories and they're moments where if you walk away with a positive emotional attachment to it, that you're going to think back on it.

And like, I went to see the show and is it going to be like the greatest thing I ever did or a moderately okay thing I did? And then like I think all the icing on the cake around the stage door and your experiences with the people who gave you that magic, I think are only going to add to it, right?

[15:33] Alan Seales: We're going to take a short break. Stay tuned for more of the episode.

[15:43] Jelani Remy: I'll never forget one time I was doing a stage door for Smokey Joe's when stage doors were a thing and I was doing Smokey Joe's and this girl was seeing the show and she came in from Japan and she just came to me crying like she loved the show so much and she had a poster and someone handed her a Sharpie and she couldn't believe that I would sign her poster and she just started like shaking like, oh my God! And like everyone nuts but like in that moment like it was nothing for me but like then thinking back like, wow, what a cool connection now that we have. And of course because it's now, somebody filmed that reaction and it makes me giggle to this day. So, I mean, Lion King itself is an iconic show. Simba's an iconic role and then Ain't Too Proud being Eddie Kendrick's being an iconic person, a real life person.

[16:34] Alan Seales: Yeah, yeah. Because you're moving into the show like Ain't Too Proud. Ain't Too Proud had a respectable run for a couple of years, right? I mean, I say gone too soon but yeah, it had a great run.

[16:44] Jelani Remy: Right, had a great run for a little while but then the Temps, the Temptations are still performing to this day.

[16:51] Alan Seales: And guess what?

[16:52] Jelani Remy: Guess what?

[16:53] Alan Seales: What?

[16:53] Jelani Remy: One of the guys in our show is now on tour with the Temptations. He's an actual Temptation.

[16:59] Alan Seales: Juwan, right?

[17:01] Jelani Remy: Juwan Jackson who I just talked to before I got on this call. He's an actual Temptation so like living proof of like, wow. And I'll never forget my first time my dad saw me as a Temptation like on the show, he lost his marbles.

[17:15] Alan Seales: Really?

[17:16] Jelani Remy: Could not compute that like it was me but Eddie Kendrick's but Temptations. So he just started calling my name, screaming my name from the balcony.

[17:24] Alan Seales: Did you hear him during the show?

[17:25] Jelani Remy: Daddy, daddy, daddy, it's me. I'm like but he's been to shows before so he knows how to act but something among that just made him go bananas. And I think that happened to a lot of people of seeing these artists, the Temptations that you knew and you know their music and you love them to see them in this show form like some people just couldn't handle it like it was like oh stimulus simulation overload but that's incredible like that's the theater magic, right?

[17:55] Jelani Remy: So I studied Eddie, I studied his isms, I got food for thought from our amazing director Des Mackinac. I worked with the amazing choreographer Sergio Trujillo and I don't know but I think my breakthrough moment was when Otis Williams took me to dinner and sat me down and it was like talking to me about Eddie and like it was just like wow this man lived it and he's here talking to me about it and giving me these nuggets of truth that I can now like put into my performance. And when I tell you that I had the most fun doing that show with those gentlemen and ladies and the entire cast and crew was just beautiful people but we got to tell such a fun story written by Dominique Morceau and so I am so thrilled that that show happened. I'm thrilled that it lives on and I'm thrilled to be a part of that legacy.

[18:47] Alan Seales: I love these shows that are so expertly becoming these biopics about these, again I use the word iconic, iconic bands or people or moments in time, right? Because while we are entertained and we're getting this great performance from these great performers and the singing and the dancing is awesome, we're also getting a history lesson that we don't realize that we don't forget and being able to learn as much as we've learned about the temps and about Eddie and about Otis and about all these people like just the struggles that they have to go through and the way that Motown shaped the entire music industry, right?

[19:30] Jelani Remy: Totally, totally. Everybody wants to be Beyoncé but does everybody want to put in the work?

[19:34] Alan Seales: No.

[19:35] Jelani Remy: You know what I mean? They sacrificed everything to make this happen. They sacrificed and they went through a lot to do this and especially in its, well I'll say this, coming back into the show and seeing how the world was, it wasn't too far off of when they started this journey. So it's kind of crazy how history repeats itself I would say but also has it really changed? I don't know, many things. But it's kind of eerie and it was a really sobering feeling to go through that.

[20:10] Alan Seales: Is it more pressure for you or do you feel any pressure to go back into Lion King as Simba and maintain that level of expectation or to do like an Ain't Too Proud and be a real person?

[20:23] Jelani Remy: You know, I think that they're both equally as heavy but what I love most is that like the Lion King, I got to go back into the show for a few weeks on Broadway and it was after I hadn't done it in about five years or so. And so it was interesting to see who I was as a Simba then and I think it was kind of beautiful because he's a little more settled but I still have my youthful energy and boyish charm. But I was a different person and it was really special to see and to do. But Eddie, doing it and coming back to it, it was also really cool because we've all grown and we've healed and we're in a different space and I got to have a different process because when I first got the show, I jumped in as an understudy that took over. So I never really had a proper build the show process that I got to have when everything went dark and then we had to build the show back again. So I got my process. So I felt like, wow, how cool. So yeah, it was definitely different.

[21:25] Alan Seales: So the timeline then, were you an understudy for Eddie when the pandemic hit and then coming out of it, you took over the role permanently?

[21:32] Jelani Remy: Nope. So when I first got the job, I was hired as a standby. So I covered four of the five temps. So I was doing and then after-

[21:40] Alan Seales: That's a big range, man.

[21:45] Jelani Remy: Well, I was back into the jungle. I wanted to do anything. I wanted to explore my abilities and I got this opportunity and I wanted to take it and run with it. And so I did. I covered a bunch of guys and ensemble specialties. I was doing the thing. And then Jeremy Pope, who originated the role of Eddie Kendricks, was leaving the show and our director, Des, gave me the opportunity to step in. But it was a quick step in. So it sort of just happened. And I learned along the way, of course, and they were there for me, of course, but you didn't really have that build the show feeling that you get when you're putting up a show from the start. You sort of have to learn as you go. So yeah, that was the difference.

[22:25] Jelani Remy: I was a swing once and I don't think I could ever do it again.

[22:28] Alan Seales: Oh, I love it.

[22:29] Jelani Remy: The pressure.

[22:31] Alan Seales: That's the pressure, but I'm also nuts. I learn what everybody does on stage. I always just clock what anybody's doing. And so I think that I was also a swing.

[24:11] Jelani Remy: I know the lines but not the songs, but my sateen wasn't off book, so she was about to go on holding her book. Who was your sateen in your dream? Nobody in my dream was anyone significant. It was all just random dream people, like faceless dream people.

[24:27] Alan Seales: Yeah, right? Do you do melatonin? What are you doing?

[24:36] Jelani Remy: Melatonin. Yeah, I use melatonin sometimes, actually. Maybe that's it. I don't know, but yeah, that dream.

[24:42] Alan Seales: Try sleepy time tea. Try that. But you know what, though? One time, normally I wake up right as curtain goes up. There was another time when I was in the audience. Literally, it was like showtime. It was that normal three minutes after curtain when you're expected to go up, and they were like, Alan Seales, please go to the stage door or whatever. And I was like, what's going on? And they were like, we need you to swing in right now. I'm like, I'm literally sitting in the audience, and I've never even auditioned for this show, and you want me to go in? They're like, yep, that's your costume. So go get your costume, put it on. And then in this particular instance of the dream, I went on stage, and somehow I was just watching all the choreography, and I was doing it in real time. But they put me way at the back of the stage, though, so no one would see me.

[25:26] Jelani Remy: You blended in?

[25:28] Alan Seales: I mean, speaking of your dream, in reality, the day after we opened Lion King in Las Vegas, our Simba was out. And I'd had two rehearsals, I think, under my belt, so they put me on. And I'd only had two rehearsals, and so they had somebody in the wings telling me where to stand, like football style. They're there. Get your marks. Just know that the light's going to be there. Okay, go. Don't get hit by the set.

[25:53] Jelani Remy: Don't get hit by the set. And I pulled it off, and that's when I knew I wanted to do this role, because it was such a thrill just to be thrown on and to sort of see how you do.

[26:02] Alan Seales: Wait, that was thrilling?

[26:04] Jelani Remy: It was thrilling for me. I could see how, listen, you've had the dream, so you know what it's going to be. You know what it's going to be.

[26:13] Alan Seales: That's true. That's true. Damn. No, I think, I mean, I guess, yeah, in real life, I can wing it. I love making things up on the fly and improv-ing and having, you know, conversations. But like, I guess—

[26:24] Jelani Remy: But this is like live theater. You've got to be in the moment and make it look good.

[26:27] Alan Seales: That's the thing. Make it look good. We're artists. We get to do this, and the audience would never know.

[26:33] Jelani Remy: Yeah. Have you ever had a major accident on stage where somebody did know?

[26:37] Alan Seales: Multiple. But those are things like costume errors, meaning like sometimes Nala would get stuck in my corset, and we have to shimmy offstage.

[26:45] Jelani Remy: Oh, my nickel.

[26:48] Alan Seales: Every time Nala was stuck in my corset.

[26:50] Jelani Remy: Right, or things like that, or like your mask breaks or something, and it's like, uh-oh, you know? Or sometimes for safety, like during He Lives in You, the ancestors all come out and do this little dance thing behind me. It's an iconic part. It's so beautiful. But the stage was not working correctly, so nobody can come out on stage. So I had to do the whole number by myself with everybody in the wings like, blink, blink, blink, blink. But I had to do this whole solo moment all by myself. But there's always a plan B, and there's OE, and bottom line, make it look good.

[27:21] Alan Seales: I mean, I can't imagine Alex Brightman recently, before Beetlejuice, hit his head during a performance and got the concussion, right?

[27:32] Jelani Remy: When and whether he is so full out, though, he is one of the most full out people on the planet.

[27:37] Alan Seales: Right, right. I did a show once where I had to run out on stage and make this hard right turn around a set piece. And I had on my character shoes, and so I hit the edge of the heel. Do your listeners know what character shoes are? They do, right?

[27:54] Jelani Remy: I hope so.

[27:56] Alan Seales: If you don't know, it's a sensible shoe that we wear on stage. They're usually black.

[28:00] Jelani Remy: I'm a little lift to them.

[28:01] Alan Seales: Yeah, little tiny heel, little tiny lift. But apparently, as I found out, you catch the edge and you lose all your grip. And so I fell on my butt. I fell on my rhinoceros. And everyone was like, and I got up and just continued on my line, continued my lines. But that's the stuff that stresses me out. But if somebody goes up on a line, if somebody forgets an entrance, the stuff that you feel like you're in control of, I enjoy that stuff, where you get to improv a little bit. That's fun.

[28:34] Alan Seales: We're going to take a short break. Stay tuned for more of the episode.

[28:44] Jelani Remy: I remember doing a scene with somebody on stage, and they forgot their line. So he kept on moving. And then all of a sudden, later on, they shouted out their line. And exactly. So it's like, oh, welcome back. But you missed it. They're like, uh, well, that that's the wrong cue. But OK, we'll go with that. They felt like it needed to be said.

[29:07] Alan Seales: Like, I will not miss, they get paid by the line. So, you know, they have to get it out there.

[29:13] Jelani Remy: Well, that's amazing. All right. So I want to just wrap up real quick with three standard closing questions that I ask everybody, just to end the episodes. The first one just simply is what motivates you?

[29:26] Jelani Remy: What motivates me now is the next generation of young artists, seeing what they're doing, who they are, what they're sort of putting out in the world. And I get to work with them. That motivates me.

[29:38] Alan Seales: Like right now, I'm helping my high school's production of The Prom in Cedar Grove, New Jersey. Go see it. March 2nd, 3rd, 4th and 5th.

[29:43] Jelani Remy: Oh, it's such a beautiful show, too.

[29:45] Alan Seales: Well, the school boards said that they couldn't do it.

[29:47] Jelani Remy: I know.

[29:48] Alan Seales: They took it back and now they're doing it. And it's beautiful.

[29:51] Jelani Remy: Like literally what happened to the show.

[29:54] Alan Seales: Exactly. But to see how these young people are really, really committing and pushing themselves, it motivates me. And I'm so happy for their success.

[30:04] Jelani Remy: Yeah. Actually, that reminds me. I need to go see that.

[30:07] Alan Seales: Go see it. I'll be there. I'll be there.

[30:09] Jelani Remy: I wanted to go with Josh Layman and some of the other prom crew.

[30:13] Alan Seales: Like the original cast, we were wanting to go.

[30:15] Jelani Remy: Yeah, yeah, yeah.

[30:16] Alan Seales: How fun. Yeah, yeah.

[30:18] Jelani Remy: That's it. I'm going to text Josh right after this is over. Okay.

[30:22] Alan Seales: Yeah. So next question then, what advice would you give to your younger self and younger people listening now starting out down a similar path?

[30:30] Jelani Remy: No doesn't mean no. It means not right now.

[30:33] Alan Seales: Beautiful. And then last—

[30:35] Jelani Remy: Also, I got to do a note, too, for all my students know this. I say this. If you stay ready, you never have to get ready.

[30:44] Alan Seales: If you stay ready, you never have to get ready because somebody else is going to be ready.

[30:51] Jelani Remy: What is staying ready for you?

[30:52] Alan Seales: That means always being present, always knowing your surroundings, being kind to people. Just being ready, ready for anything. Yes, and you grow with the punches, being prepared.

[31:05] Jelani Remy: Oh, I love that. I love that. All right. Hardest question now. Last one. If you could 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?

[31:14] Jelani Remy: This is where my anxiety kicks in because how can I just pick one? I think that I would have to say Pippin is a fun one.

[31:23] Alan Seales: Pippin?

[31:24] Jelani Remy: Yeah, because one of the reasons I really fell in love with this sport is Ben Vereen's performance and breaking that fourth wall, the leading player, and the connection, and the dancing, and the singing, and the truthful storytelling, and the circus of it all.

[31:40] Alan Seales: Oh, I love that. I love that you called it a sport because I refer to Broadway often as the Olympics of theater.

[31:44] Jelani Remy: It truly is because we eat, sleep, and breathe this. And a lot of training and sweat and blood, sweat, and tears go into it.

[31:55] Alan Seales: It is. And then you have to be at the top of your game. Like you said, you always have to be ready because those who aren't don't get the gig. You're right. There you go. It all comes back. Snapping. I'm snapping.

[32:03] Jelani Remy: It all comes back to that. All right. So, of course, let's see. Get tickets to see you at the Broadway Lecture Series on March 11th. You can go to—

[32:11] Alan Seales: I want to... Oh, wait. I'm going to interject. They say it's a lecture, but I mean, what's a lecture without a couple of songs, right? So it makes you—

[32:18] Jelani Remy: Are you performing?

[32:19] Alan Seales: You know what I mean? Why not?

[32:21] Jelani Remy: Okay. Okay. Wait, wait, wait. Now I'm snapping. Plug away. Plug away. Plug away.

[32:25] Alan Seales: Okay. Think Inside the Actor's Studio means Broadway. That's their tagline.

[32:30] Jelani Remy: Yeah. So March 11th, Stageworks at Studio 237 out in Jersey. Go to stageworksnj.org.

[32:41] Alan Seales: And where else can we find you online and connect with you and say hi?

[32:43] Jelani Remy: Oh, my gosh. Please say hi. I'm on Instagram. It's Jelani Remy. That's I-T-S-J-E-L-A-N-I-R-E-M-Y. Because I love you all.

[32:54] Alan Seales: That's a very voiceover artist of you.

[32:57] Jelani Remy: I'm multifaceted. Thank you.

[33:01] Alan Seales: You need to do all the radio commercials for you all the time.

[33:04] Jelani Remy: I kind of want to do a spinoff with Delilah. That's one of my goals in life.

[33:08] Alan Seales: It's Jelani.

[33:11] Jelani Remy: And Delilah.

[33:14] Alan Seales: There you go.

[33:15] Jelani Remy: You can get more episodes like this, more of me at thetheaterpodcast.com. I'm on theater underscore podcast on Instagram, Twitter, Facebook, TikTok. I don't know what I'm doing on TikTok.

[33:24] Alan Seales: If anyone wants to help me on TikTok, hit me up because I don't know what I'm doing.

[33:32] Jelani Remy: Riva Waiting and Will View. Leave a rating and review wherever you're listening. Help spread the word. Thank you to Box the Ghost for the intro and outro music. And thank you, Jelani, for making this happen.

[33:44] Alan Seales: And special shout out to Robert Bannon, too, for hooking us up, making this episode happen.