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[0:26] Alan Seales: Welcome to The Theatre Podcast, intimate, personal conversations with the industry's biggest names. I'm your host, Alan Seales, and our guest for this episode is Philippe Arroyo, who is making his Broadway debut in "& Juliet." This episode continues the "& Juliet" takeover. This is episode two of five of the full takeover. Philippe, who plays François Du Bois, one of my favorite characters, by the way, is this young guy in real life whose career is just taking off. I cannot wait to see where he goes from here because this amazing role that he has originated on Broadway is only the beginning. So, here we go. Find me on TikTok, Instagram, Facebook, etc., etc., etc. The same stuff I always say.

Leave a rating, leave a review, help the podcast grow, tell a friend, lean over next to you and be like, hey person, hopefully there's somebody there, you gotta listen to this podcast. It's the best. All right. All right. So, let's get going here. Enjoy this episode with Philippe Arroyo.

[1:46] Alan Seales: Today's guest is making his Broadway debut playing François Du Bois, one of my favorite characters in the runaway hit, "& Juliet," a Carnegie Mellon graduate. Past credits include the first national tour of "Aladdin," Joe Iconis' "Punk Rock Girl," and the first national tour of "Into the Woods." Now continuing this amazing "& Juliet" podcast takeover, Philippe Arroyo, welcome to The Theatre Podcast.

[2:08] Philippe Arroyo: Hi, thank you for having me.

[2:10] Alan Seales: Of course. And this is the calm before the storm we were just talking about as we're recording this here. You're joining us from a lovely vacation in the woods?

[2:20] Philippe Arroyo: Yeah, yeah. I just came back yesterday. We stayed in New Hampshire for the week. I hadn't taken a break since doing this show in Toronto last summer. So, it's one of those instances where you don't realize you need a vacation until you're actually there. It's always sad to leave the show because it's kind of like my daily dose of dopamine because it's so happy and so joyous. So, when I was gone, I definitely missed it and I'm excited to jump back in.

[2:51] Alan Seales: So, wow. So, you've been doing this since Toronto eight times a week here. How often? Was the Toronto schedule even that rigorous as well?

[2:59] Philippe Arroyo: Yeah, yeah. It was more or less the same exact schedule with some rehearsals here and there because at the time, a lot of our understudies hadn't been on yet, so we had to learn the show with them. But as we've gone on, there have been less and less rehearsals, but it's still that eight-show-a-week schedule, which is just brutal sometimes, but still very fun.

[3:23] Alan Seales: You're coming back from this vacation now. What do you do normally to recharge in general? Legitimately, you open the show, and then have you just been going nonstop? What do you normally do to recharge in these situations?

[3:35] Philippe Arroyo: Yeah, nonstop, really. Every day coming into the show, it is a lot of fun to do, but at the end of the day, when you come back, you have to spend a lot of time with yourself and you need that time alone sometimes to reinvest and be able to do it again. So, I spend a lot of my time at the Drama Bookshop. Funnily enough, I ran into Lin-Manuel Miranda today on the street, and he's calling my name, which is so surreal because him and I, we don't know each other very well, but he saw the show recently, and I turned around and that was the last person ever that I thought would be calling my name. He was like, where are you going? I'm like, I'm going to the Drama Bookshop. I was on my way, and so was he.

It was a fun little walk that we had together, but the past few weeks, I have been trying to go there every day. It's an awesome little cafe area, and I've been picking up a play a day and just reading. That, to me, has been the best way to recharge because it's still involving art. Musical theater and theater is just one of my favorite things in the world, so to still have access to it even on my days off, that's just what I love to do.

[4:51] Alan Seales: That's so cool. It's really neat that you still immerse yourself in all of this, even when you don't have to, which I think speaks to the drive you must have, but I want to back up again then because as Little Philippe, where were you first attracted to theater? What originally got you into singing, dancing, performing? Was it just a love of stage?

[5:15] Philippe Arroyo: No. I think I wanted to be famous, which is the worst thing in the world. I think as a kid, I was... Maybe this is getting a little too honest here, but I think I was looking for validation in all the wrong places, and I was like, oh, you know what? I'm pretty good at theater, and people tell me that I'm really good, so I ended up falling into it for reasons that I have now learned to grow out of. As an adult, I've had to really investigate why it is I fell in love with this in the first place or really re-evaluate why I'm in love with it now, and what I've found is that it provides an excellent medium for honesty and to provide honesty to the world and being honest with yourself, and I'm finding as I grow and shape as an artist, I'm actually growing as a person as well, and the more those line up, the better I feel about what I'm doing on stage because really, when I'm doing my best on stage, it has nothing to do with me. It's all to do with the people that I surround myself with and the people that I'm speaking to or acting with or singing with or dancing with. Yeah, not to get too heady or too artsy about it, but...

[6:41] Alan Seales: No, I think it's really cool, and I notice a parallel, too, in kind of your character François, of you trying to figure out why you're doing things and being honest with yourself, and then François in "& Juliet" is sort of doing the exact same thing eight times a week, so I'm wondering what influenced the other if being with François as long as you have, having that person inside you has sort of brought you to yourself and been like, well, let me really evaluate who I am.

[7:11] Philippe Arroyo: Say hello to the boy that I am. Yeah, I mean, I think the character has shifted as we've started this whole process, which I would only hope that would be the case. As I grow as a person, so does François and vice versa. I've learned so much about myself in this process, and honesty has been a huge thing in that. I think this show, it's so easy for you to want to compete with the fireworks and the fact that we're singing this amazing Max Martin music, like Katy Perry and "I Kissed a Girl" and all those things, but I've really found something. I think through the direction of Luke Shepard, the cast has all agreed that there's a nuance. There's a heart to the show that needs to still stay there.

I think the less we try to be funny, I think the more heart that goes through the show, because the show by itself, David West Reid has written an amazing book, and you really don't have to try all that hard. It just stands alone as it is. But yeah, the more honest I can be on stage, the more honest I find myself in life, and I just want that to carry through so much. I want to be the best version of myself at all times, only so that I can supply audiences and my scene partners with that as well.

[8:42] Alan Seales: That's interesting. It's really interesting, I think, that you've sort of internalized this and embodied all of this, and I feel like you've got a very good perspective on all of it now, especially considering Katy Perry just came to see the show.

[8:59] Philippe Arroyo: Right.

[9:00] Alan Seales: So you've got all of these stars that are coming to see the show that originated the songs that Max Martin ultimately originated. So putting all that in perspective, now making your Broadway debut, is this sort of where you saw yourself even five years ago? Or did you sort of think it would be a different path? Or was this like, yeah, this is my five-year plan. I'm living my dream.

[9:29] Philippe Arroyo: I mean, to answer your question, yes. In so many ways, it's exactly where I wanted to be. And now it's here. I think life is incredibly unpredictable, uncontrolled, uncontrollable. And I think that's one of the beauties of it. Of course, now that I'm in my late 20s, early 30s, I look back on it and I think prior to this point, I wish that it had happened sooner. But now that it's here and it happened the way that it happened, I'm so grateful for when it did. Because when I was younger, I don't know that I would have been able to handle the pressures of being on Broadway and having Katy Perry see me in the audience. I think young Philippe would have freaked out internally. But as you season, as you get older in the acting world or in the art world, I think you start to learn things about yourself and you start to let go of other people's perceptions of you and want to do this just for yourself.

I think that's kind of François' whole art. He wants to let go of other people's perceptions and he wants other people to accept who he is. That's his big journey in the show is acceptance and rejection. He lives in a world where he's constantly rejected for who he is and he just wants to be accepted for who he is. His whole journey is all about finding that acceptance within himself and finding the courage to fight for his own true love. He's helped along the way with Juliet and May. I think it's a beautiful journey and I think it's helped inform my life.

[11:20] Philippe Arroyo: He's a brave man. He is.

[11:21] Philippe Arroyo: He's courageous. He isn't the most honest, but that's something that he finds. He isn't honest with himself at the beginning. He isn't honest with his father in the beginning, but he has to find that courage to be honest and fight for his love, regardless of whether anyone will accept him or not. He has to let go of that perception of others.

[11:43] Alan Seales: And I want to back up to something you said, asking about why you got into theatre in the first place. You said you wanted to be famous, which I think a lot of kids just want that attention, myself included, so I can relate and understand. There's a lot of different ways you can try to be famous. And even kids now have, young people now have a way of doing it that didn't exist when I was that age, like social media. You can just like...

[12:14] Philippe Arroyo: I know nothing about that world.

[12:16] Alan Seales: Yeah, right. But what was it about theatre specifically that attracted you? Why not TV? Why not film? Why not, in your late teens, be like, I'm going to be a YouTube star? Because that was on the rise. I guess it was past on the rise. There were already YouTube stars.

[12:34] Philippe Arroyo: No, by that point, I remember one of the first things on YouTube that I saw, which was really... YouTube was a huge inspiration for me growing up, and all those YouTube stars. I remember seeing Michael Arden perform "Run Away With Me." That was one of the very first YouTube videos that I ever saw. And he came to see the show recently. And it was so surreal, because that was one of my first introductions into theatre, was just watching people like Natalie White, hearing Brian Scott Oliver's brand new tune on YouTube, Michael Arden performing his music. And I kind of fell into it, because I would look at how these people would perform, and something about it felt incredibly freeing to me. I think when I was a kid, I wasn't very good in school, and I wasn't the most academically savvy kid.

I kind of slacked off a little bit. When I found theatre through YouTube, I started to join in, and it became something that I ultimately started to care so much about. And I don't know that I can give you an exact reason as to why. I think for thousands of reasons why it was theatre first. I think I started singing, and there was a freedom in that. I think in high school, you get caught up. You want to fit in, and there's a lot of anxiety surrounded in high school. And for the first time in my life, I would sing a song. I would sing a Jason Robert Brown song. And maybe I didn't completely understand it, but there was something about getting lost in a lyric or a phrase, or finding a nuance in why the author had written it that way, that I would get so thrilled and so excited about.

And so, ultimately, that's, I think, truthfully why I stuck with theatre. But the ugly side would be that there was also a sense of validation that I think young Philippe was looking for, and has since become very good at letting go of. But yeah, that's the ugly truth.

[15:20] Alan Seales: No, it's not ugly at all, I think. I think it's very similar to a lot of people, why they get into theatre. I was talking to somebody the other day who was just saying that applause, right? You can't deny that when you get those standing ovations, you get a room full of people applauding for you, that it feels good. Chemicals being released, they become addictive. So how do you separate yourself from that? I totally get it.

[15:46] Philippe Arroyo: It's also nice to see that you've done something that makes people happy, or feel something, feel anything. And I still get that from "Ann Juliet," I think, when we're singing "Roar" at the Curtain Call, and you can just see so many people dancing along, and they're just so happy and thankful to be there, especially after the pandemic. This musical, I think, is just so healing, and I'm so thankful and grateful to be in it. And I get to do it every day. And I never get tired of it. I just want to be there right now. I want to go backstage and get in my costume. Every time I put on my little jacket and my little glasses, I get so happy.

[16:32] Philippe Arroyo: And the rest of the cast, too, seems really genuinely caring and supportive. I love watching ensemble. I love watching everybody on the fringes of a scene when the leads are supposed to be downstage center, and all our attention is supposed to be on them, because I love the interaction among everybody. Because especially in this show, in "Ann Juliet," there seems like there's such a true love and respect and literal just enjoyment of being on stage and getting to sing and dance these phenomenal songs that are already proven Billboard toppers, chart toppers. There's not one person in that building that I don't love.

[17:18] Alan Seales: Yeah, yeah.

[17:19] Philippe Arroyo: Everyone is a kind human being. And Luke Shepard, the director, I think, was trying to make that his number one goal was to hire people that he thought were genuinely good people. And then the rest would come.

[17:32] Alan Seales: It's really interesting to me. I've talked with Luke and Jen, the choreographer, and Luke was saying during that episode that he doesn't know pop. He didn't know pop before taking this job. Did you know that?

[17:44] Philippe Arroyo: No, I had no idea.

[17:47] Alan Seales: I believe that, though.

[17:51] Philippe Arroyo: I guess, yeah. Yeah, after talking with him, it makes sense, given his background. But it's just odd to me how everything came together in such a wonderful way to put this lightning in a bottle. And I've said this before, but yeah, it really is lightning in a bottle with this show. And I think it's going to last for a really long time.

[18:12] Alan Seales: So hopefully, yeah, hopefully, you could have that problem of trying to decide when you're going to leave the show for your next big thing, right?

[18:22] Philippe Arroyo: Never.

[18:23] Alan Seales: Never, never will you leave.

[18:24] Philippe Arroyo: But when did you first get involved with it, have the script run across your desk, or heard even this concept of the show, which to me seems, on paper, seems pretty odd.

[18:36] Philippe Arroyo: I heard about it. I didn't know that it was in the UK. My agent had just submitted me for Romeo. And I turned in my Romeo audition, and I thought I killed it. But I was like, you know, I don't think they're going to give this to me. I don't know. I'm more of a musical theater kid, pop, you know, that's not really my bag. And then didn't get it. But a few months later, I got an audition for Francois DuBois. And I was reading it over, I was looking at some of the material they sent me. And I hit my agent up and I said, listen, I can't do this. And I told him no.

[19:14] Alan Seales: And he asked me why.

[19:15] Philippe Arroyo: And he said, well, it's Francois DuBois, like, I can't do a French accent. And he's like, no, Philippe, just no, that's not what they need at all. Just do it in your normal voice. I don't know where I got into my brain that Francois DuBois had to have a French accent, but there are definitely takes of me attempting to say the lines in a full French accent that will forever stay in my phone that will never see the light of day.

[19:42] Alan Seales: Can you sing "I Kissed a Girl" in a French accent?

[19:45] Philippe Arroyo: My name is Francois DuBois. That's not a bad.

[19:48] Alan Seales: I don't listen to a lot of Monty Python.

[19:51] Philippe Arroyo: I'm French.

[19:52] Alan Seales: Why do you think I have this outrageous accent?

[19:54] Philippe Arroyo: You silly king.

[19:56] Philippe Arroyo: I kissed a girl and I liked it.

[20:03] Alan Seales: I go back to "Little Mermaid," like that kind of like the chef, like what is this? But yeah, I think that would be a lot of fun, but definitely not necessary, but a bold choice.

[20:19] Philippe Arroyo: Always make bold choices.

[20:20] Alan Seales: Bold choice.

[20:21] Philippe Arroyo: Yeah, yeah, yeah. But then I went in and just call back after call back. It just it was seemingly like I was it was seeming like it was going to be between me and a few other people. And then, you know, I just tried my best to let it go. But it's so hard when you make it to the end. Things like that go. Um, but luckily, it ended up working out.

[20:47] Philippe Arroyo: And this was for the Toronto production.

[20:50] Alan Seales: The Toronto production, but it was also included. There would be the Broadway production within that offer as well.

[20:56] Philippe Arroyo: Oh, do they do they often do that? Where there were like, it's a known.

[21:01] Alan Seales: Yeah, that's what I thought. I thought it was never.

[21:03] Philippe Arroyo: No, no, you I mean, it's it's it happens oftentimes where you'll do a pre-Broadway show and they'll do some recasting or some people will be unable to do the show for whatever reason.

[21:18] Alan Seales: So it's incredibly rare.

[21:19] Philippe Arroyo: And I think that just goes to show that the creative team was very diligent in their casting process. And they wanted to choose the right people for the job.

[21:32] Alan Seales: That's really interesting that they knew that far in advance that these were the cast they wanted to take to Broadway. That's really cool.

[21:38] Philippe Arroyo: That's really cool. I think it speaks highly to the creative team and the producers and everything as well. In that, I mean, there are years there are sometimes years and many versions, many productions of a show that create the final version that everybody thinks is the greatest thing. But there's so many people that get forgotten and lost in all these iterations.

[22:01] Philippe Arroyo: So to be able to definitely been in productions where, you know, I've been replaced before and it's never a good feeling. So I think I had just gotten replaced in a I won't say the name of the show, but I was I just had gotten replaced in a show that's now coming to Broadway. And I was feeling very sensitive about it. So when I got this audition and it said pre-Broadway and Broadway, I said, well, if I get this, this is going to be a wonderful ego boost. It's going to make me feel incredibly safe to my sensitive heart.

[22:34] Alan Seales: Well, you don't have to tell us what it is on air.

[22:37] Philippe Arroyo: So let's turn off the mics.

[22:38] Alan Seales: OK, mics are off.

[22:40] Philippe Arroyo: Go ahead. You can you can say what it is now.

[22:41] Alan Seales: I won't tell you.

[22:44] Philippe Arroyo: So then there's always, there's always the possibility that things just don't make it to Broadway, right? That's a very, very strong possibility. So you got, you get the role. Do you remember where you are when you got the call? First off?

[23:01] Philippe Arroyo: I was, I was in rehearsal for this. I was making my off-Broadway debut in this show called Penelope. During one of the songs, I feel a phone ring, and I'm in rehearsal, I'm rehearsing, I'm in the middle of the scene, and I know what it is. So I just leave. I walk out, I go into the hallway, get the call.

[23:42] Philippe Arroyo: I come back in, I'm like, sorry guys, I just booked Broadway.

[23:46] Alan Seales: Wow. Wow.

[23:48] Philippe Arroyo: And everyone was like, they totally, they, everyone knew what I was leaving for, or walking out into the hallway for. They knew that I had been expecting a call that week.

[23:57] Alan Seales: Wow.

[23:58] Philippe Arroyo: So they totally understood.

[24:01] Alan Seales: Oh, God, that's got to be rough on multiple people. I guess the Penelope crew too, so, or cast and crew, so good on them. But you get the call, go to Toronto, everything's great. And then is there always, is there that moment where you're just, did you guys always know it was coming to Broadway? Or was there ever a moment where it was like, yeah, we don't know if like things are going to happen, or we, if we get a theater or whatever the case is, like the, the, the inner workings in the business is always so tough behind all this.

[24:29] Philippe Arroyo: Yeah, we were, we were incredibly lucky. We found out that we got our theater, our first week of rehearsal, I think.

[24:36] Alan Seales: Wow.

[24:37] Philippe Arroyo: Our second week, maybe.

[24:39] Alan Seales: That's awesome. Yeah, so this was just written.

[24:43] Philippe Arroyo: Hi. That day. I remember. It's recorded somewhere on my phone. Because, because Eva Price, our, our head producer came in and had some exciting news. So we all kind of were expecting something.

[25:00] Alan Seales: Oh, that's great.

[25:01] Philippe Arroyo: It was surreal.

[25:02] Alan Seales: Yeah, it was, it was wonderful. And I think, I think she's always done a good job in what she's doing too.

[25:07] Philippe Arroyo: Yeah.

[25:08] Philippe Arroyo: She brought, she brought Titanic off Broadway as well.

[25:11] Alan Seales: It's so good.

[25:12] Philippe Arroyo: It's so good. Love, love Titanic. Yeah, quick plug for Titanic, go see that after you go see Ann Julia, because that needs to be seen. With all the, the, the journey that you've had with the show and the people that you've met and the Katy Perry's that have come to the, to backstage and the Max Martin that you've met in the process, do you have a standout pinch me moment that's just like, wow, I'm, I'm now doing this thing that I've always thought I wanted to do?

[25:39] Philippe Arroyo: Yeah. Second time I'm bringing up Lin-Manuel again, but when he came to see the show the first time, I don't know, I think it's because he's Puerto Rican and I'm Puerto Rican and we're both from the same hometown in Puerto Rico. He's obviously someone who's moderately successful in the Broadway world. And he's done a couple things. He, he's done a thing or two, you know, whenever, whenever I, I mean, the two times that I've seen him, I've played it very cool, very chill. Like, I'm not freaking out and have a normal conversation, but they're like, Lynn, what's your last name? My last name, Miranda, Lynn, Lynn, Miranda, Miranda. Is that German?

[26:20] Philippe Arroyo: But yeah, I think seeing him and it was, it was right after the Backstreet Boys song, Everybody, which is a boy band number that I do in the show. And we engage with the audience and I look down and I see Lin-Manuel Miranda with his kids waving their hands in the air like they just don't care. And I got so scared when I saw him. I was like, man, I had no idea he was in the audience until I saw him towards the end of the show. And I thought, man, I hope he likes it. But he did.

[27:00] Philippe Arroyo: And he knows it well enough to remember you and call your name on the street, which is that which has got to be pretty cool, too.

[27:02] Alan Seales: Yeah, it's a good feeling.

[27:04] Philippe Arroyo: It made me feel like, you know, a big Broadway star or something.

[27:07] Alan Seales: You are. You are.

[27:10] Philippe Arroyo: Do you like the I guess the creative side of it? And is that something you've ever thought about pursuing, too? Because if your recharge time is reading other plays and you seem to get a little bit of a love of when you were talking about getting lost in lyrics and why composers write things or why writers write things the way they do, it seems like you've got another little side quest in your life somewhere of writing and creating your own stuff.

[27:37] Philippe Arroyo: Yeah, I've written I've written a few things in college. I wrote a play that my school ended up producing and not producing, but they just they helmed. And then during the pandemic, I would write a few things. I wrote my first screenplay during the pandemic. And then recently it happens very rarely when I get the impulse to write, but very recently I've been inspired from movies such as like Call Me By Your Name, some flick with Matt Damon, Robin Williams.

[28:09] Philippe Arroyo: Robin Williams. Goodwill hunting. Yeah, very similar movies in a weird way. Just the way that they're written, the way that they're shot. I've watched them recently. Back to back. And there is an idea that's been brewing in my head ever since then. And right now I'm in the stages where I'm just talking about it a lot. But it's that's when that's when it's the most exciting, because you start to before you put it on paper, you start to get all these little silly ideas. And what if that happens or you start to like outline it in your head, starting that process to eventually finish something is so stressful, but also so gratifying, because that was the first thing I ever wanted to be as a kid was a writer. So thank you for for for asking the question.

[29:00] Alan Seales: Well, if that's the first thing you ever wanted to be, you got to you got to circle back on that, because you are where you are now is not prohibiting you from that. In fact, I think it's only I think it's only going to amplify the ability you have to really break into that, especially if you're actively writing. I mean, that's what other other writers that I've interviewed countless times. They're just like the tip they have to just write every day, sit down, especially if you have nothing to write about, sit down and write, because that's going to train your brain to do it. Right.

[29:27] Philippe Arroyo: Yeah. And it only makes sense if Lin-Manuel is my like one of my idols. So to want to to to want to write and act in your own things, you know, only makes sense.

[29:38] Alan Seales: Yeah. Yeah. Just write your own stuff. I get it real quick. Just to wrap up on and Julia, do you have a favorite moment, a favorite moment in the show that is about Francois, your character?

[29:48] Philippe Arroyo: That is about him. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. You get to participate in because I'm going to because the follow up is, do you have a favorite moment that you're not in? I think my favorite moment in the show would have to be the the the wedding to the end. I get my first solo in the show, which is as long as you love me. I don't care who you are, where you're from, what you did as long as you love me, who you are, where you're from, don't care what you did as long as you love me.

[30:31] Philippe Arroyo: Which always reminds me of the time of recording the album. And that song on the album is just one take. And Max, really, he was producing it. Yeah. Well, he was producing. It was like, that's good with me. Are you good at that? I was like, sure. Amazing.

[30:45] Philippe Arroyo: Wow. So getting to sing that every night. I don't know. It makes me feel really good because I feel. I feel really proud of that song on the album. I don't know. It's always a quick little reminder to that moment that brought me so much joy.

[31:01] Alan Seales: Well, now I need to go back and listen to it again, knowing that it was just first and only take. That sounds awesome.

[31:07] Philippe Arroyo: Yeah. I listen to the I listen to the cast album a lot.

[31:10] Alan Seales: All right. So then what is the moment again? The moment favorite in the show that is not to do with Francois.

[31:16] Philippe Arroyo: I think when Romeo enters.

[31:19] Alan Seales: Oh, yeah.

[31:20] Philippe Arroyo: Not like that. I get to see it every day. I'm on stage stage left. I'm just watching him come down. There was one. There was one show where he got stuck. We're not going to talk about that.

[31:32] Alan Seales: How did he get that? You're like, did they did they pause the show or did he like it?

[31:36] Philippe Arroyo: Oh, man. You bet your ass they did.

[31:39] Alan Seales: Oh, that's funny. Usually you hear about that on the Twitterverse. I didn't I didn't catch that one.

[31:43] Philippe Arroyo: He's just stuck in the air. And then he leaves. Hi. Hi. How you doing?

[31:49] Alan Seales: OK, so the three closing questions I ask everyone just to wrap up normally now are first one being what motivates you.

[31:56] Philippe Arroyo: I want and I need to always be better. To always improve, to always. Change and always grow, always learn. I always want to be the best version I can be.

[32:10] Alan Seales: I like it. What advice would you give to your younger self and younger people listening now starting out down a similar path?

[32:16] Philippe Arroyo: Relax. Like, just chill out. Take a breath. It's all going to work out the way that it's supposed to. I think the thing that I also need to tell myself every day is to, like, release control. That's the biggest thing. You don't need to control it all. It's all going to happen.

[32:36] Alan Seales: Love it. OK, so this is the hardest question here. 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?

[32:45] Philippe Arroyo: Sweeney Todd.

[32:47] Alan Seales: Sweeney Todd, baby. The current version or any particular version?

[32:51] Philippe Arroyo: I got to see the current version. Oh, you know what? Little Shop of Horrors would be good, too.

[32:55] Alan Seales: Oh, yeah.

[32:56] Philippe Arroyo: If I had to pick one, maybe it's Little Shop.

[32:59] Alan Seales: Yeah, it's tough. Those are two very good ones. Good choices.

[33:03] Alan Seales: All right. So where can we find you online? Social media?

[33:06] Philippe Arroyo: At P-H-I-L-I-P-P-E-A-R-R-O-Y-O. At Felipe Arroyo. Instagram. You can get more of me at thetheaterpodcast.com. I'm on Instagram, Twitter, Facebook, and TikTok. Leave a rating and review wherever you are listening. And, Felipe, thank you. This has been a hell of a lot of fun.

[33:21] Philippe Arroyo: Thank you so much for having me.

[33:45] ♪ Musical number: "I Want It That Way" — performed by Backstreet Boys ♪