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[0:01] Ariana Madix: Hi, I'm Ariana Madix, and you're listening to The Theatre Podcast with Alan Seales.

[0:11] Alan Seales: Hey, everyone, welcome back to The Theatre Podcast, intimate, personal conversations with the industry's biggest names. I'm your host, Alan Seales, and this week's guest is Ariana Madix, who you probably already know of, but just in case you haven't, Variety named her one of the 40 most powerful women on reality TV. That's Vanderpump Rules for those keeping track at home. She just finished in the top three in the latest season of Dancing with the Stars. She has a book out called Single AF Cocktails. I'll have the link to that in the show notes, and is also a huge theater nerd. She originally moved to New York to try to make it on Broadway years ago before moving to LA and pursuing her career out there, leading to everything we know her for now, and now starting January 29th, 2024, she's making her Broadway debut in an eight-week only run as Roxy Hart in the Broadway production of Chicago.

I cannot wait to see that. Now, this episode is slightly shorter than normal since I was invited to speak with her as part of a full day of press. She was doing a big press junket, but I hope you enjoy it nonetheless. Here we go.

[1:22] Alan Seales: You're going to hear first, we are with Ariana Madix. Do you care if people say Ariana or Ariana?

[1:30] Ariana Madix: Honestly, either one. Just don't call me Adriana.

[1:33] Alan Seales: Adriana?

[1:34] Ariana Madix: Oh, people say that? I grew up in a time when I think no one had heard my name before or seen it written. And so growing up playing like sports and stuff, it was nowhere near correct.

[1:48] Alan Seales: Really?

[1:48] Ariana Madix: So I think we're good with either one of those.

[1:51] Alan Seales: All right.

[1:52] Ariana Madix: Yeah. So you were playing sports then growing up, you said, but you are like something people don't know about you is that you're a huge theater nerd as well. Right? So what were you doing as a kid that like sort of balanced them out?

[2:02] Ariana Madix: Um, I was an overachiever. I did a lot. I was just hoping my dad would want to come home if I was a perfect kid. Um, so theater, horse girl, some sports and some cheer, some dance.

[2:16] Alan Seales: Yeah. What were you doing theater wise though?

[2:18] Ariana Madix: I mean, school plays.

[2:20] Alan Seales: Yeah, of course.

[2:21] Ariana Madix: Um, and then in high school, I ended up going to a high school that was very theater focused and very, um, singing choir, show choir focused, performing arts focused. Um, and then it just, I mean, that really just became everything I wanted to do. Thinking back though, to your childhood, was there like a staple, a theater staple, a cornerstone that they, when you were like, that's what I need to do. That's what is going to make me perform.

[2:39] Ariana Madix: I think it was as a kid growing up, watching like old reruns of I Love Lucy on Nick at Night.

[2:53] Alan Seales: Yeah.

[2:53] Ariana Madix: And then honestly, just growing up and watching like musical, like, like the Britney Spears of it all. And then seeing how, you know, when they were these kids on like Mickey Mouse Club, they were doing like theater sketches essentially, um, on television. And then just getting older and getting to see, you know, my grandma would watch things like Lawrence Welk Show and things like that. So you'd see these, these big, broad, like old Hollywood musical numbers on these old movies and stuff. And to me, it's synonymous, you know, it's, it's Hollywood, it's movies, but it's, it's live performance, it's dancing, it's singing, and those are all the things that I, I fell in love with. I was always very jealous of the, the Mickey Mouse Club kids because I wanted to be them so badly. I was always so mad at my mom for not being like a stage mom, but I guess I should be grateful that I wasn't a child actor.

[3:52] Alan Seales: Well, you, so then you moved to New York, like your early career was here in New York, right?

[3:56] Ariana Madix: Yeah.

[3:56] Alan Seales: Yeah. And then went to LA and now you're fortunately back, but what were you originally coming to New York to do? Was it theater?

[4:03] Ariana Madix: Yeah. I mean, that was the dream. Um, I was a theater major and I moved here like straight out of college. Um, and I wanted to be performing on stage and I very quickly learned in the grind of it all that, that it wasn't just going to be like a thing where you're like, hi, I have a theater degree. You want to like, you know, like, you know, I just started to learn more and more and I started to learn more about the business of it all and the business aspect of you're not going to be cast as any one of these, you know, I'm not tall enough or a good enough dancer to be a chorus girl. So, you know, producers was on Broadway back then. So like, I'm not, I don't fit that. I'm not, I can't be a rocket, you know, none of the, that just wasn't in the cards for me and you know, for no one's going to even consider me for something because I don't have, how am I going to put butts in seats? Who am I? I'm just some kid out of college with no, you know, real resume. So that's what ended up pushing me to move to LA was to, to build a bigger, better resume.

[5:09] Alan Seales: Isn't that ironic though, that you have to move across the country to come back and as you said, put butts in seats, which now you are about to do, I suspect very well playing Roxy Hart in Chicago, which I think is you're going to help drive it to be the new longest running show on Broadway. Obviously you were just on Dancing with the Stars and you've got a dancing background, you said, but have you, you started rehearsals, I assume.

[5:32] Ariana Madix: Yes. Just started, yeah.

[5:34] Alan Seales: Are you discovering that, that you are having to focus more on, um, learning the dance because it's a different style or are you working on character work yet?

[5:43] Ariana Madix: I think for me, it's, it's a little bit of like the marriage of everything, right? So, you know, for example, Funny Honey, I'm on a ladder as everyone knows, I'm sure this has seen the show. I'm on a ladder and there's movement involved, but it's how to get up on that ladder and settle and not be like, I'm on a ladder and then start singing, you know? So it's the marriage of things. It's the marriage of movement, character, and voice that I think is, is the crux of like what I'm kind of overcoming right now and in the beginning of rehearsals, putting it all together, putting it all together, putting it 20 feet off the ground and then being like super confident about all of it.

[6:23] Alan Seales: Oh, right. Well, just take it till you make it. Well then, uh, I guess I asked three questions to everybody to end my episodes, which normally I get a 60 minutes and in this short little time, I know we're going to ship it in here. The first question is if you could see one show for the rest of your life, you can see it as many times as you want. What would you see?

[6:38] Ariana Madix: Hmm. I always, well, my favorite show is Once on this Island. I've seen two, um, like iterations of that, but I might say La Cage aux Folles.

[6:54] Alan Seales: Nice.

[6:55] Ariana Madix: I just think it's, it's so fun. It's great. I love that. And Mary Poppins, maybe we were talking about that before we started some Mary Poppins back out here.

[7:05] Alan Seales: Okay. So then last question for you then, uh, if you could give any advice to your younger self or younger people watching or listening now, what would you say?

[7:13] Ariana Madix: So then my acting teacher told me a long, long time ago, he said, you know, if you want to be in this performing arts business, get in line, take a number, like at the deli, take a number, get in line, keep working on your stuff, keep hustling. Never get out of line because one day your number will be called.

[7:33] Alan Seales: Never get out of line.

[7:35] Ariana Madix: I like that.

[7:36] Alan Seales: Or, or yeah, I'll go with that. All right. Well, thank you so much. This has been such a pleasure meeting you.

[7:41] Ariana Madix: Thank you. Nice to meet you too.