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[0:01] Dana Steingold: Hi, I'm Dana Steingold, and welcome to The Theatre Podcast with Alan Seales.

[0:11] Alan Seales: Hey, everyone. Welcome back to The Theatre Podcast. I'm your host, Alan Seales. And our guest is Dana Steingold, who, if my predictions are correct, is about to be shot out of a cannon for her phenomenal performance in The Cottage on Broadway, which just opened at the Hayes Theatre. Go down, check it out. I don't even want to give an intro for this, because I just want to jump straight into the episode. It was so much fun. Find me online. Instagram, Twitter, TikTok, Threads, Facebook. All the places. Leave ratings, reviews, tell your friends. And everybody, please enjoy this episode with Dana Steingold. Here you go. One, two, three.

[0:44] Alan Seales: Our guest for this episode was last seen on Broadway, originating the role of Girl Scout in Beetlejuice on Broadway, where she also covered the role of Lydia Dietz. She was last heard on this podcast during the first run of Beetlejuice way back in episode 58 with fellow castmates Elliot Maddox and Ramone Owens, and can now be seen on the Broadway stage again as the hilarious Deirdre in The Cottage, which will have just opened by the time this episode drops. Dana Steingold, welcome to the theatre podcast again.

[1:24] Dana Steingold: Thank you.

[1:25] Alan Seales: And I was reading back through your bio, and I totally forget, and we probably talked about this the first time, but I totally forget that you performed at North Carolina Theatre at one point, right?

[1:36] Dana Steingold: I sure did. I did Hairspray there.

[1:38] Alan Seales: Yeah, what year was that?

[1:40] Dana Steingold: Oh, that's such a good question. Probably 2000... Okay, here's a good marker. Ariana DeBose was in that production as Little Inez as well. And so it was pre, I think it was right before she did Bring It On. So it would have been like the summer prior to that.

[2:00] Dana Steingold: Yeah, Ari and I are both from Raleigh. Yeah, we've got the same like old, old group of friends from back there. But no, the reason I was asking is because I got my professional debut at NCT because that's the area that I was from. That's the first time I ever got paid for a show was at NCT.

[2:16] Alan Seales: What show was it?

[2:18] Dana Steingold: My Fair Lady with Elena Shadow.

[2:21] Alan Seales: I haven't heard from Elena in a while, but...

[2:23] Dana Steingold: Oh, she's great.

[2:24] Alan Seales: Yeah, yeah, yeah. But absolutely wonderful. And then I did another show there with Casey Nicholaw and Casey Hutchins before either of them were who they are now, right?

[2:36] Dana Steingold: Yes, yes.

[2:37] Alan Seales: I love how all that stuff works. Anyway, this is about Dana Steingold, not about Alan Seales. So, Dana, listen up. I saw The Cottage the other day. And holy shit, Dana, this is one of the funniest shows that I have seen probably in forevers.

[2:57] Dana Steingold: Oh, good.

[2:59] Alan Seales: Yes. That's crazy good. And I guess, like, your credits, you know, regionally and on tour, you've done like Spelling Bee and other things that are Avenue Q, which are comedies, but not to this extent. They're not, like, over the top. I want to say British farce, right?

[3:24] Dana Steingold: Yeah. I would say it's definitely living in a higher – the situations are so elevated, so everyone is sort of operating in that sort of Noel Coward world of extremes and sort of like, you know, we sort of do a lot of taking, like a lot of takes to the audience, you know, that you wouldn't necessarily get away with in other shows, but it feels like it's in the world of the play that we've made. But where did – I guess what was the audition process like for this for you? Because it's just – it's funny how everything came together, and I cannot speak enough praises about this show. Directed by Jason Alexander, this is his Broadway directorial debut, written by Sandy Rustin, and this is the first time a play she's written has made it on Broadway, so that's her Broadway playwriting debut.

And Alex Moffat is in it with you, of course, from SNL. This is his Broadway debut. And then you've got Laura Bell Bundy and Lily Cooper, who were both theater kids but have done TV and film, and Eric McCormick from Will & Grace, who was – like, the cast, you included, are all just so insane. And I figure, like, as a director, Jason Alexander, I don't know, how did you get attached to this thing? Because everyone's story – everyone's so different.

[4:39] Dana Steingold: Totally. Yeah, so this was a slightly more normal process than, say, Beetlejuice, which was sort of just developing it over the years, and it eventually became Beetlejuice. They, I think, had been – they had everyone kind of locked down except for Deirdre. They were having trouble finding this particular track because it kind of requires a lot of weird things without giving too much away. But, you know, she's an innocent, for sure, and is the youngest one, but then sort of takes a turn in the second act, and there's a little bit of darkness to her as well that gets revealed. So I think they were having some trouble, and they started sort of opening it up, I think, a little bit, because I think initially they were trying to maybe get someone, like, namier than I. And they sent me the material to make a tape, and my agent said, just take a look at it, read the play, see what you think.

And I was away working in Florida doing a concert, and I got the material on, like, Friday, and they wanted it on a Monday. So I'm flying in Sunday. Can I make the tape Tuesday? Is that okay? Because I just feel like it needs a little more time because it was kind of like – when you see the show, you'll see trying to make a self-tape of this is kind of wild. There's so much physical comedy associated with it.

[6:00] Dana Steingold: So, like, in one of the scenes, you know, she pulls a gun on somebody, and, like, I tried a Swiffer, and the Swiffer was too big, and then I had to turn it into, like, my vacuum. It was like a disaster. And my poor husband read the entire thing with me. And so it was kind of crazy. And then one of the other requirements of the tape was I had to – and I didn't understand at the time why, but they were like, basically, make a tape of yourself slowly drinking a bottle of wine and getting –

[6:30] Dana Steingold: Yeah, that was part of the audition. I love it. Ending up collapsed. And I was like, okay. So I have thousands of – I made a few. I was, like, trying to flip over my couch. I was, like – I, like, hit my head on my coffee table a few times. And I have a lot of weird footage of me, like, spitting water out of my mouth, like very ugly tapes. So I did the self-tape and submitted that, and they were like, okay, great. We're going to have, like, a final callback. There's a handful of girls, and you're going to go in for a work session. And so I just – we kind of got notes on our tapes, which was kind of an interesting thing because that was the first time that's ever happened to me for a theatrical process.

[7:12] Alan Seales: Yeah, that's unusual.

[7:13] Dana Steingold: And not for film and TV. Yeah, and also this show, I would not say translates to camera well. So it's this weird thing of how heightened can you be when a camera is a foot from your face versus, you know, in a space. So I actually, like, also hadn't auditioned in a really long time because COVID had happened, at least not for theater. We've been making tapes in our living rooms. And then I went right back into Beetlejuice, and so I was like, I need to kind of, like, get in a room and feel like what this is like for myself outside of my second bedroom in my apartment. So I rented a space for myself, and my friend Oli came and helped me and read with me. And for, like, an hour, I did everything, like, physically and out loud because I felt that that was kind of, like, what I needed for my process, which is a little crazy, but I think it was good.

And then I came in, and I just kind of had a good time. Jason was really fun, and we worked for, like, 20, 25 minutes. And he was like, okay, great. Now just, like, can you do that scene and just have a Cockney accent instead? Because, you know, she gets a little messy in Act 2. And I was like, okay. So I was basically threw myself on the ground, like, did everything other than, like, stand on my head and spit nickels. And I found out, like, 25 hours later that I was getting the offer, which was very exciting. So it all happened very fast. And then it was announced, like, four days after that.

[9:35] Alan Seales: Wow. I didn't realize that it was, I guess, that early in the process. When you said you were going back into Beetlejuice, had you taken just a hiatus from Beetlejuice? Or you mean it was, like, that was when Beetlejuice was coming back to the marquee?

[9:47] Dana Steingold: Oh, no, no. This was post-Beetlejuice. I actually, we finished Beetlejuice January 8th, and I went in for this literally, like, six weeks later. And I basically, like, eight weeks later, I found out I was doing The Cottage, like, post-Beetlejuice.

[9:55] Alan Seales: That's insane. It's fun how that happens, because you never know if you're going to work, like, six years later or six days later.

[10:05] Dana Steingold: It's so crazy. And honestly, if someone had said this was on, like, my bucket list this year, like, I would never have seen this one coming. I didn't think this was going to be the next thing. But it's so exciting that it is, because it's so different than what I was doing for the last few years at Beetlejuice.

[10:27] Alan Seales: Yeah. I mean, like, do you consider yourself somebody, would you consider yourself somebody who would, like, need to be put up for comedies like this? Because, like, I guess kind of getting at earlier was, like, with Avenue Q and Spelling Bee and Beetlejuice and other things like those are funny, but in a very sort of, oh, gosh, like, what am I trying to say? Not, more subdued way. And this is so over the top. It knows what it is. It's so campy, and it's incredibly funny, right?

[10:59] Dana Steingold: It is. It's sort of, I would say, almost like a period sitcom, if that makes sense.

[11:10] Alan Seales: Yes. Yes, yes, yes.

[11:12] Dana Steingold: Yeah. It sort of lives in that world, at least in sort of the production that we have built. So it's, there is this Noel Coward vibe, but it has a very sitcom vibe in sort of, like, the way the bits are happening and how physical it is for pretty much everyone in the show. You know, listen, would I say I'm a person who needs to be put up for it? No. I would say I'm a person who likes to work, and so I will take the audition if it comes. And I sort of, you know, my agent actually was sort of the one who pitched me and was like, I think Dana can do this. Like, I really think she can. So it's really to Aaron's credit, thank you, Aaron, for seeing something in me that maybe I didn't necessarily see for myself. And that's what good agents do.

[11:55] Alan Seales: Yeah. Well, listeners, if you need an agent, email Aaron at aaronatdanasagent.com.

[11:59] Dana Steingold: Yeah.

[12:00] Alan Seales: Yes. She'll love that.

[12:01] Dana Steingold: Yeah, aaronatdanasagent. I'm going to go register that domain name.

[12:06] Alan Seales: So that's really cool what you just said about it being a period sitcom, because that makes total sense with Jason Alexander at the helm, of course. And I actually don't know Sandy's other work, unfortunately, but is this in her normal style, do you know? Or is this something like she and Jason got together, and then all of a sudden they're like, okay, these are the types of people we need for it. We need people who can do comedy, who can do physical, who can do sitcom. Because it really is, now that you said it, I'm looking at it from a TV lens, and it literally is a TV set. Not literally. It looks like a TV set, and the set is part of everything. The show doesn't work without the gags that are incorporated into the set.

[12:56] Dana Steingold: Yeah. It's sort of like, I guess, two shows that come to mind for me like that are sort of like Monica's apartment on Friends or like the bar in Cheers or something. There's like one main communal space, and all the funny kind of happens in this one space. And the comedy comes in like how familiar each person is with said space as they enter. But yeah, I think Sandy and Jason, I believe, met a few years ago, and he directed a reading of this pre-COVID, I think at MTC, I want to say. And then COVID kind of shut everything down, as we know. And it took a while to get back on track and get everyone's schedules aligned, I think. And Sandy also, so she's done a bunch of stuff recently where she's been like rewritten the books for some encore shows, and she also did Clue, which has been happening everywhere.

[13:13] Dana Steingold: My character, I would say, is not somebody who exists, is not a trope that exists in the Noel Coward world at all, so it's a little less true for my character, and perhaps Nehal's character as well. Not to give him away, because I guess he's sort of a bit of a reveal, but yeah, and I think that they collaborated for a while on what they thought this was, and I think the thing they knew was that they needed people who were super funny and super quick. And I know the other day, actually, I was just told that when they finally got a theatre, they were like, well, we need a star, basically, who is it going to be? And I think Jason made a cold call to Eric and was like, we got a theatre, I think you'd be really right for this.

Will you read this play? The trick is, we need to know tomorrow. And so he read it that night and called him and said, I think I have to do this. And he said he just always kind of wanted to do like a British, this kind of thing. Yeah, but I think they were like, we just need super funny people who are willing to kind of go there, because it is a big ask to kind of trust that your actors are going to be willing to go there, because it is not a way in which we present comedy on stage in most shows at this point in time in 2023. It's usually a little bit more of an underserve, I would say, a little bit more delicate than what we're doing. But this has been very fun and freeing because we get to be so large.

It's not dirty comedy. It's not raunchy comedy. It just is funny. And like the carnival games where you have to guess how many marbles are in a jar, I think everybody should have to, you should do a contest where you can figure out how many cigarettes are hidden on the set. Totally. I don't even know. I don't know the answer. There's, yeah, and they're like, in our costumes, there's cigarettes everywhere.

[15:02] Dana Steingold: Right. We're going to take a short break. Stay tuned for more of the episode. I would say that's the one downside of the show is how many cigarettes everybody is smoking, because it does, they're herbal, but it does smell like cigarettes, like all the time. Yeah, it's so funny, though, everywhere you look. Anyway, but I guess kind of backing up a little bit outside of the cottage, which I think is just going to be a wonderful, wonderful hit and hopefully get extended forever and ever.

[15:39] Alan Seales: Thank you. I hope so. Yeah. So then going back to, if we may, going back to Beetlejuice days and like episode 58, when we first talked and met was, I don't remember what year it was at this point. I guess it was twenty nineteen. Or early twenty twenty. It wasn't twenty twenty. It wasn't twenty twenty because, yeah, it wasn't twenty twenty. It's been nineteen. And and the show is the show, I think at the point when you and I met, the show was just seeing a resurgence because of Presley Ryan's TikTok presence.

[16:18] Dana Steingold: Yeah. Right. And was that post Tony's? It might have been like just post Tony awards. Yeah. Yeah. Cast recording. Yeah. Yeah. So so things were just coming out, social media, all of a sudden, because I remember I look back through our interview notes, my interview notes for episode 58. And one of my questions was, what is TikTok anyway? That's how new it was. I literally wrote that.

[16:40] Dana Steingold: To be honest, I still don't really know. But it is certainly a powerful tool. Right. So so think back then, right? And you're in Beetlejuice, post Tony's, the show's all of a sudden seeing this is coming back. COVID's not even on our radar yet. And and so I remember you originated the Girl Scout, which became like kind of this this cult favorite of the show.

[17:08] Dana Steingold: I know. I I'm so grateful. I don't really know how that happened out of like a two and a half minute thing that happens at the top of Act Two. But I'm I do love I loved that part so much. I still love it. I would do it again in a second if they let me go to a different production. Like it was also we just love each other so much that I think all of us are like we're like family. We all built the show from the ground up. So it's we would all go do it together again somewhere anytime. But yeah, it's it was certainly a wild ride. And then coming like that was sort of we spoke at sort of the as we were sort of climbing the ladder of like, whoa, the show's becoming something we didn't see, which is this like cult fandom show selling out every day.

Because when we first opened, I don't think anyone was sure what was going to happen. We sort of opened to mixed reviews and it wasn't for everybody. And we kind of thought, OK, well, if we if we make it to the Tonys, like maybe we'll get a couple of weeks after that. You know, we weren't selling that well. And then the cast album came out. TikTok happened and the Tony Awards performance happened and it just exploded. And I don't think any of us were quite ready for that. But it really was like a grassroots campaign from the cast because we were just they were like engaged with everyone on social media. So that was a perfect example of like how social media has truly changed Broadway fandom and how shows can market, I think.

So we would just like everybody's photos. We tagged everything for everybody. We would comment and it just kind of grew from there. And then when we closed sort of at the height of its major fandom, I would say it was super interesting to come back because when we came back, besides Covid and all the things that we were all carrying from that process emotionally, we were also coming back as a hit. Yeah, that was like I don't know any show that's ever done that. So it was really wild. That first show back was like truly like Rolling Stones energy. It was so wild. It is absolutely the closest I'll ever feel to being like Taylor Swift, like people screaming as if we were like, yeah, like Taylor Swift. That's the only way to put it. I mean, truly losing their minds.

[19:32] Dana Steingold: So I was for Broadway Podcast Network, Eli Tokash and I went to we were there for press doing a little bit of coverage of the reopening, the resurrection, as I call it at the marquee. And so afterwards, as the audience was loading out, we were there with a mic and a camera just randomly stopping people who were in full cosplay, asking why they like the show, whatever. And the overwhelming sort of message, the through line of all of this. And one person literally said the show saved my life.

[20:07] Dana Steingold: Yeah, I know. And it's, it's really special. I will say, I think, I always say that I think what's special about Beetlejuice is that it centers around a very real girl. And it's not a girl who's trying to find love or make a boy love her or even seek friendship. It's just a girl moving through real emotions, moving through grief, trying to feel seen and understood. And I think people so connect with that and the normalcy of that, because I think most people don't feel seen. But Beetlejuice is such an incredible, when people say like, theater can't change lives, it's so silly, because it's Beetlejuice, right? So you don't think of it that way. But I think our show is like such a prime example of how theater can connect you and that online fandom, the amount of people we met at the stage door who would say, Oh, we met online because we both loved Beetlejuice.

And this is the first time we're meeting coming here at the show. And I dressed as Lydia and he dresses Beetlejuice and this person's Juno. And it was so special that anybody felt that connected to it. And yes, I think the opening was a huge celebration of that. And it was pretty spectacular to like that I've never received that much energy like coming at me at that rate. We all were sort of like, literally like wigs blown back. It was it was kind of crazy.

[21:31] Dana Steingold: It's, it's really cool how I mean, the cast itself has gone through so much. The industry went through COVID and shutting down and coming back and Beetlejuice itself, shut down and came back. And then there was also the controversy around like, getting I'll put an air quotes kicked out of the of the Winter Garden and finding another theater and you know, so there's all of that. And the show, I think every one of these things that was meant to keep the Beetlejuice down. It just true to its name kept rising from the dead. Yeah, I think it's I always say Beetlejuice is like the little big show that could. It's like anytime you say something won't happen. We defy the odds. It's like truly been it really and probably will be one of the craziest experiences and best experiences of my life.

I think you you have to be quite lucky to have some like a second Beetlejuice happened to you, where people feel that strongly about a show and people love it that much. And you inside of the show feel the way you do about the people that you're working with. And it wasn't just the cast. It was everyone hair, like wigs, makeup, makeup, props, like truly everybody in that in that building is incredibly special. And so cool. And it was just the most chill, fun vibe. But yeah, it's it's a wild thing. It's true. I don't even know. People always ask me to describe the experience. And I'm always like, I don't have words. It was sort of like summer camp. Like it was sort of like that. It's not a job.

It's it sounds like it's it's fun. It's not work. It's also work. It's a hard show energetically to do eight times a week, specifically for the principals. But but it is a very fun job. It's probably one of the best jobs you could have.

[23:25] Alan Seales: Yeah. Was it different for you? I mean, obviously, literally, literally is a different track. But like going in for for Lydia, did you did you dread those moments? Were you excited for those? Or was it like, you know, your normal track versus going in for Lydia? Was that like, you're like, oh, now I can shine or like, oh, crap, I gotta everyone's looking at me now because everyone kind of handles that pressure a little bit differently.

[23:51] Dana Steingold: Yeah. No, you know, it's so funny. I was around since the very beginning of the show. So I have a familiarity with the piece that doesn't make it that difficult. And also, I think that it can be overwhelming, like the first time you go on. But for me, the fun in that track was that I got to play with everybody on stage in a way that I don't every night because as Girl Scout, I never really see anybody else except for Lydia. Like I hang out with them backstage. But my moment is solely with Lydia and Beetlejuice basically. And then I was like in furniture and stuff because they wanted to hide me. So I was doing all these like other weird things, like the shrunken head and the pig cart. So I was always sort of isolated from everybody.

[25:01] Dana Steingold: Size advantage. Size advantage, yeah. Built for me. Yeah, I still remember the day they came in, they were like, are you claustrophobic? And I said, no. To this day, I regret it. But yeah, I think the fun in Lydia for me was that I got to engage with everybody and do scene work and kind of have a whole through line because Girl Scout is sort of like being shot out of a cannon and is in ways, not stamina wise, but in a way more difficult because you kind of have to assess where the audience is and you have literally five seconds to do it and have them get them on your side essentially. Whereas Lydia, you have two and a half hours to make it happen. So I think that is sort of the great part of Lydia. Certainly it takes a different amount of energy, but I've always found it very fun to do.

[26:25] Dana Steingold: That's its own unique skill as well, because you have to realize that you're setting somebody up. So for them to succeed, you have to sort of like give them the space to do that and understand how to serve to them, if that makes sense, in a different way. But no, vocally, Lydia, that actually was super easy. I think the thing that I liked the most actually was also that the emotional journey was what was challenging. And it was so lovely to get to be able to go on stage and feel different things than I, you know, Girl Scout is like pure optimism in the face of danger. Like that's kind of her whole thing. Never sees anything coming that's terrible. And Lydia is moving through grief. So I think then when you finally get to home in the second act, you kind of get to let it all out. And you see that she's kind of been the parental figure all along. That's sort of a lovely release. So I always found that to be quite fun.

[27:39] Dana Steingold: I think The Cottage, even though it's hilariously funny, I think it's going to reach people too, because there's a need now for really good comedy, for laughter, because there's so much crap going on in the world.

[27:55] Alan Seales: I agree with you.

[27:56] Dana Steingold: And especially on stage and it being a completely original story too. We don't get a lot of that anymore.

[28:01] Alan Seales: No, I agree. I think A, it's what people are looking for just to kind of come and laugh. I hope I'm not giving anything away, but there's a really good fart joke in it, which you're like, it's so funny. And then you start laughing at yourself because you're like, why am I laughing this hard at a fart joke? Because of how Lily sells it.

[28:22] Alan Seales: Yeah. It's just really, really, really deeply funny.

[28:26] Dana Steingold: Oh my God. It's so funny. But it does also explore very real themes about marriage and fidelity and what a happy marriage really is, what defines a good partner for somebody. And I guess sort of the boundaries of marriage and what you're willing to do to stay in it and sort of survive in it. And also whether you really need a man in your life as, well, I shouldn't say a man, a partner in your life. In our show, it's male-female relationships, but I should say, do you need a partner to make you whole or complete?

[29:02] Alan Seales: Yeah. Have you dissected this with your husband? Just curious.

[29:08] Dana Steingold: I've dissected it in that he's run the lines with me a lot of times. But he hasn't been like, let's do some character work. No, no. Certainly not with my character for many reasons. She is the mistress. But no, and he usually waits to see everything until opening. Also at my request, because I'm like, no, come see it when it's a finished product. Don't come see the first few previews. So he hasn't seen it yet. He only knows what he's done with me as far as preparing for my auditions and putting me on tape.

[29:48] Alan Seales: Oh, that's so fun.

[29:49] Dana Steingold: So he's in for a ride.

[29:51] Alan Seales: And it is a ride at that. When I saw it a week ago as we were recording this, the curtain went up and the set got its own entrance applause.

[30:03] Dana Steingold: Yeah.

[30:03] Alan Seales: Does that still happen?

[30:05] Dana Steingold: It has been happening. It's a very beautiful set.

[30:08] Dana Steingold: And it looks so normal at first.

[30:13] Dana Steingold: Yes. It is one of those things where there's Easter eggs. So actually, you probably can't even see this from the first row, but all of the wallpaper is hand painted, and it's actually Kama Sutra poses.

[30:22] Alan Seales: I didn't see that.

[30:24] Dana Steingold: Yes. There's all kinds of weird little things on the set that they've kind of hidden that are kind of just for us. I'm sure they're going to do like a social media tour suit of it. But yeah, it's a really fun set. And it is getting entrance applause, sort of like the house in Beetlejuice. And weirdly, the second act also starts with thunder. So I guess maybe that's my thing now.

[30:51] Dana Steingold: I had fun with the guy I went with to see the show. The drop that's down before the show, we were pointing out. We were like, oh, wait, what else is going on in this drop? We were like finding all the possibly inappropriate things that were all over.

[31:09] Alan Seales: Correct. Look very closely at that drop.

[31:11] Dana Steingold: Yeah. There's some very fun stuff.

[31:13] Alan Seales: That was very good. All right. Well, everybody... Oh, well, since the show has already opened by the time this will drop, how did opening go?

[31:22] Dana Steingold: Opening went great.

[31:24] Alan Seales: Nice. So glad to hear it.

[31:27] Dana Steingold: Fingers crossed. Opening went great. Red carpet was insane. Everyone was there.

[31:31] Alan Seales: Yeah. It was awesome. It was perfect.

[31:34] Dana Steingold: I can't wait, actually, with a director like Jason and the star power of... I mean, yourself included, right? But LBB and Eric McCormick and Alex Moffat and everybody, everyone who's going to come see this show and the people you're going to get to interface with, I think it's just going to be so much fun. It's like one of those added perks of the job.

[31:55] Dana Steingold: I know. It's so crazy. I actually walked out last night and I was walking to greet my guest and I walked right into Marcia Gay Harden. I was like, oh, Marcia Gay Harden. Hello. Hi. How are you? But yeah, it's definitely a very fun vibe and kind of like Beetlejuice too. Really, the company is really great. And I feel really lucky that I've landed in a company again where everyone just kind of is vibing really hard. So we're having a good, a very good time. So that is helpful for sure. And I think it helps imbue everything that's happening on stage because we really do have to sort of act like a sitcom cast kind of, because everyone's kind of helping each other get to their moments. And it really is sort of an ensemble piece. Everyone has to work together and trust each other. So that's been fun.

[32:44] Alan Seales: And not get stuck in scenery. I think the porch got stuck when you were there.

[32:50] Dana Steingold: Oh, you were there that night.

[32:52] Alan Seales: Yeah. Yeah.

[32:53] Dana Steingold: Yes. That was the first night we put that in. So all those pop-ins were new. That whole section was new.

[32:59] Alan Seales: Oh, really? Oh, it was so funny.

[33:02] Dana Steingold: Thank you. And I was so excited because we had something else there and I was like, this is not working because I think it's designed to be something else. But with the sight lines of the haze, it sort of prevented us from having it be the thing that I think was originally intended. And so thankfully, Jason and Sandy kind of pow wowed on that and came up with a great solution that I think now is quite funny. But one of them involves me popping out of a piece of furniture. And when we rehearsed it, everything was empty on that piece of furniture. But when everybody comes into the house, everybody brings like three suitcases with them. And everyone kind of forgot that all the suitcases would then be on that piece of furniture at that time. So I tried to come out and I was like, what is happening? And I was really like, am I this tired today that I can't lift it? Like, what's happening? So I ended up, it was like one eye and like a hand.

[34:00] Alan Seales: Yeah, I was peering. And I basically laughed at the whole thing because everyone's face was like, like Lily's face was just done. Laura Bell was gone, but she's definitely the easiest to break in general.

[34:17] Dana Steingold: Oh yeah, she'll tell you that though. She has a twinkle and it's just all over. And yeah, that was a good night. But that was the first night we put that in. We have fixed that problem since. The luggage is no longer there.

[34:30] Alan Seales: Yeah, well, I came backstage, right, to hang out with Laura Bell afterwards. And she was saying that that was the first night that also the Michelangelo statue was put in. And I cannot give anything away about that, because you've got to see it. But Alex Moffat made a meal out of lighting a cigarette from Michelangelo's Michelangelo. Good God, it was again, this is one of those shows that whenever anyone comes to the city, and they're like, what should I see? This is this is going to be number one. Like, it's it's great. Awesome. I cannot stress just how fun it's it's literally just fun. And that's what we need. And it heals it brings us together. And it's original. And like you were saying, the cast, the chemistry, everything that all of you have on stage just works. It's so good. And I think huge nod to Jason and Sandy for putting something together like this and creating a cast, a cast dynamic that they have. It just is incredible.

[35:31] Dana Steingold: Yeah, and it's only two hours. And it's within our mission. So that's the that's the real pitch, because I think that's like just the right amount of time in a theater.

[35:40] Alan Seales: Yeah. So yeah, it's wonderful. All right. So we're gonna go through the same standard closing questions. I ask everybody. And I don't know if you remember what you said the first time that your answers are allowed to change. Don't even worry about it. So the first question just is what motivates you?

[35:58] Dana Steingold: Probably my friends motivate me. Because I tend to surround myself with people who I think make me better or make me want to be better.

[36:08] Alan Seales: I like that. Okay. What advice would you give to your younger self and younger people listening now starting out down a similar path?

[36:14] Dana Steingold: Don't worry about the journey. People peak at different times. And so you just kind of have to take every success as a win, whether it's like small or huge. And just learn how to reframe the word no for yourself. Because no is usually just like, not this time. It's not a definitive no, nothing is ever the end of the world.

[36:38] Alan Seales: I like that a lot. And actually, I want to add to that, because someone told me the other day for I asked somebody, what's your relationship with failure? And they said, you only fail if you don't try. So if you try and it doesn't work, then you pivot. A no is just another doorway that's opening.

[36:58] Dana Steingold: Exactly. I mean, the amount of no's that I've gotten that have turned into other jobs. So you just have to kind of remember that it's so many people have to say yes for a job to happen. It's kind of a small miracle when it does. So it's never a big deal.

[37:11] Alan Seales: Cool, cool. All right. And last question. Hardest one. If you're going to answer this, 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?

[37:19] Dana Steingold: Oh my gosh, what did I say last time? This is terrible. Oh, this is like Sophie's Choice. It could be, it would either be Sunny in a Park with George or Gypsy.

[37:30] Alan Seales: Interesting. Okay. Gypsy with Patti?

[37:37] Dana Steingold: Oh, okay. Now, well, that's tough. If I have to choose a Mama Rose, that's like sacrilege. I don't know if I could do that. It might be Bernadette.

[37:48] Alan Seales: But that's the tie for Sunday too. That's it. The internet's in an uproar now. They're like, no, team Patti, team Bernadette.

[37:55] Dana Steingold: I love Patti. It's not a preference of, I think, their version. It's just merely how much I love Bernadette. So I would enjoy watching her for the rest of eternity if I only had to watch one person.

[38:06] Alan Seales: Fair enough. And now where can we find you online? How to connect? Now that we know the TikTok is, where can we find you?

[38:09] Dana Steingold: Yes. You can find me on all the things at dsteinface. dsteinface. I am on the theaterpodcast.com. I'm on threads now at theater underscore podcast, Instagram, threads, Facebook, Twitter. If that's still even a thing tomorrow, who knows?

[38:30] Alan Seales: Have you threaded?

[38:30] Dana Steingold: Oh, I'm threading. I am threading.

[38:36] Alan Seales: I did it, but I don't know what it is.

[38:42] Dana Steingold: Threads is really cool right now because it's like when Clubhouse first came out at the beginning of COVID when all these celebrities were on and you could just talk to people that you've never had access to before. And so now I'm having chats with David Korins on threads and all these other great people. And I'm like, oh, this is kind of cool. I'm just going to start threading at them.

[39:02] Alan Seales: Do you thread them?

[39:02] Dana Steingold: That's the thing. I don't know if it's called threading or like to thread. I don't know.

[39:08] Alan Seales: Let us go to thread. We are to thread tonight. Thank you. Okay. Well, I didn't get into the dialect coach. Thank you. All right. Leave a rating and a review wherever you're listening now. If you're on Spotify, I think you can do that. Oh, you can add comments on YouTube music now. That's brand new. Jukebox the Ghost gave us this intro and outro music and Dana Steingold. D. Steinface gave us this wonderful chat. Thank you, D. Steinface. Thank you.