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[0:01] Alan Seales: Welcome to Part 2 of the Beetlejuice Ensemble episode with Elliot Mattox, Ramone Owens, and Dana Steingold.

[0:12] Alan Seales: You listened to a long introduction at the beginning of the first part, so I'll just skip all that now and get straight to it. And now, everyone, please enjoy Part 2.

[0:20] Alan Seales: What's impressive, though, what I was going to continue saying earlier was that you're doing multiple versions, like morning, afternoon, and night, whatever. But as ensemble and as swings and as standbys and whatnot, you may be rehearsing different things for different tracks all at the same time. And that's just impressive, beyond impressive.

[0:47] Alan Seales: And I truly think that ensemble is just the backbone of theatre. Everything rides on all that.

[0:56] Ramone Owens: Oh, yeah.

[0:57] Elliot Mattox: Yeah, and we often work the longest out. I mean, you guys were there so many hours restaging numbers.

[1:03] Ramone Owens: So many hours.

[1:06] Dana Steingold: Yeah.

[1:07] Alan Seales: The audience feedback, though, at the stage door and whatnot, you touched on the cosplay and the younger generation now with social media. But the show itself comes with the older generation coming for nostalgia, right? So you've got two different generations kind of hitting the show from opposite sides. Do you find different reactions from different folks for different reasons?

[1:29] Dana Steingold: I just think it's exciting that, again, Beetlejuice, it's a little crass, but you have parents and children there, whereas a lot of the naughty jokes the children don't get, you know, and the parents are cracking up. Or in some of the sillier things, the children are just kind of laughing at, which I don't think is something that families get to do too often, you know.

[1:47] Dana Steingold: I think there are certain shows that are more children's theatre that are Broadway shows that parents don't get to enjoy as much. But I think it's fun that you can bring your entire family and everybody have a really good time. And that's been kind of an unexpected thing for us, especially with DC.

[2:03] Ramone Owens: I would say if DC was rated like NC-17, then now what we're doing is rated PG-13.

[2:12] Alan Seales: It was that different? There was a personal advisory in DC.

[2:17] Dana Steingold: It was very different.

[2:18] Ramone Owens: And Dana and I can speak to the fact that the version in DC was by far the cleanest version.

[2:27] Dana Steingold: Oh, it was so raunchy when we started.

[2:30] Ramone Owens: Yeah, because it was just fun and kind of like it was a different thing. But I think they found the best version to really tell the story.

[2:39] Dana Steingold: Yeah. And to keep the humor.

[2:42] Ramone Owens: Yeah. But bring it to such a wide audience.

[2:46] Alan Seales: Yeah. Because I think along with girls and parents and their children, what's interesting to me is I've never done a show that I think has actually successfully kind of reached that like straight white male bro crowd.

[3:00] Elliot Mattox: Sure.

[3:01] Dana Steingold: And they love it.

[3:02] Dana Steingold: My husband, not calling him a bro, but my husband has seen the show. He's never seen anything I've done more than once. He's just like, he like comes and he's seen it the opening and the closing, loves it. He has seen the show like maybe 12 times.

[3:17] Dana Steingold: He's seen me go on for Lydia three times. He's seen me do the Girl Scout 14 times. He loves it. And the way he talks about it to his friends, it's like actually genuine.

[3:25] Ramone Owens: Yeah.

[3:26] Dana Steingold: And all our friends who come, it's just so it's mind blowing. I don't think most shows are able to capture that audience and they really like it. It's there's a certain sort of SNL feel, I think, to the whole thing.

[3:39] Elliot Mattox: And I think people know how to how to respond to that kind of humor. It's not like a classic musical theater, like joke punchline situation.

[3:49] Ramone Owens: Well, and we set it up from the very beginning that, yeah, it's a musical. We know it's going to be stupid at times, but just bear with us. You're in good hands. Like that's the whole that's why the opening is so successful, I think, because it's like it pokes fun at the musical. It's aware. And it's just you know, you're in good hands already and you're going to like have like a wild time.

[4:10] Dana Steingold: Break the fourth wall.

[4:12] Ramone Owens: Yeah.

[4:13] Dana Steingold: Yeah.

[4:14] Ramone Owens: And, you know, Alex is interacting with the audience. And yeah, it seems like you're right. It does attract a different a different type of bro.

[4:25] Dana Steingold: Yes, it is. I think it's a great show to introduce someone to theater that doesn't necessarily go out to see theater.

[4:31] Ramone Owens: It also feels cool. Like the thing that I think Alex Timbers does so well, too. I mean, there's five thousand things I could name.

[4:37] Dana Steingold: Yeah.

[4:38] Ramone Owens: One of the amazing things he does, I think, with a lot of most of his shows is he creates environments.

[4:43] Dana Steingold: Right.

[4:44] Ramone Owens: So the second you walk into that theater, you feel like you're at a cool event, like you're at the box downtown or something different or weird and not like walking into a theater to see a proper musical. And I think that has set us up for success before we even begin.

[4:59] Dana Steingold: And then we have Matt Stein's music that he orchestrated. And you just feel like you're in a whole different place. And you're like, where am I? Hand me a drink.

[5:07] Ramone Owens: Yeah.

[5:08] Dana Steingold: Yeah, exactly.

[5:09] Alan Seales: And P.S., Matt Stein's pre-show music was just released on YouTube today. So if you have a Halloween party, play it.

[5:16] Ramone Owens: The perfect under music.

[5:18] Dana Steingold: Yeah.

[5:19] Alan Seales: Yeah, I read that. So grab that.

[5:22] Alan Seales: Oh, yeah. So I want to get into a couple other things that you guys do. So, yeah, Elliot, of course, also part of the Broadway Podcast Network.

[5:30] Elliot Mattox: Why, yes.

[5:32] Alan Seales: With your podcast, Equity One.

[5:34] Elliot Mattox: Yes, yes.

[5:35] Alan Seales: What is an Equity One, for those who don't know?

[5:37] Elliot Mattox: Okay, so Equity One is slang for the drink you have between a matinee and an evening show. Like, you know, you're catching up with your friend. You're just going to go have a quick beer and a bite to eat.

[5:49] Alan Seales: Yeah. Why did you decide to start your podcast?

[5:56] Elliot Mattox: My best friend, Caleb and I, who's my co-host on Equity One.

[6:00] Elliot Mattox: Caleb Dickey. We always, we were roommates in college. We were always really close. And we always wanted to do something creative together. You know, there were ideas for a little web series or like little ideas that we had always kind of tossed around that never felt like a good fit. And we were FaceTiming once. And my boyfriend, Michael, was there. And he was like listening to our back and forth and just like cracking up because we just like to, we just have a good like, you know, back and forth. We have a good time talking to each other. And he was like that, you guys should have a podcast. Because just listening to you all made me laugh. And I was like, oh, my God. That's literally the perfect thing. It just kind of fell into kind of the perfect way for us to do something together, talk to people. And yeah, so it's just our little creative baby that we have together.

[6:53] Dana Steingold: That's fun. I enjoy listening to it.

[6:55] Elliot Mattox: Well, for those of you who don't listen, we refer to Alan lovingly as our podcast dad because as we have joined the amazing Broadway Podcast Network and get to record in this amazing studio now, Alan helps bring our podcast to life in a much fancier and nicer way than we ever did with our like, you know, portable mic and prayer. But we have so much fun with you in the room, too.

[7:26] Alan Seales: We're glad you have a mic now and can talk to us.

[7:28] Elliot Mattox: Well, thanks. I'm blushing. Thank you.

[7:32] Alan Seales: And so Ramon, you were saying you do teaching. And what else do you do? Like stuff outside of the show and hit the old mic.

[7:43] Ramone Owens: So outside of the show, Ramon, you said you were doing teaching and stuff and you do things with kids.

[7:48] Ramone Owens: Yeah, I teach every once in a while. My friend Robert Hartwell has a business called the Broadway Collective that I am an official dance captain for. I usually help with choreography. I'll do master classes with students, a lot of Q&As. Right now we're doing college prescreening, which is something that students have to do now. It's so crazy. College students have to make a video of them doing a monologue, a dance and singing that they submit to colleges before they even get a proper audition for an institution. So this part of the program that I'm working on now, we pretty much help students build footage for their prescreen. And usually I've got a cute little three-year-old multi-poo named Miles that I spend a lot of my time with. He's the best. He comes to the theater sometimes on two show days and usually take a lot of class, really.

[8:40] Alan Seales: Yeah. Cool. Honestly, though, I haven't felt like I've had a lot of time lately. October's a busy month for us.

[8:48] Ramone Owens: Yeah, it's been very busy. So I'm kind of, you know, re-getting my footing down as far as time outside of the show.

[8:55] Alan Seales: Yeah. Well, this is a weird Sunday night we're recording here anyway.

[8:59] Ramone Owens: Yeah, it is.

[9:00] Alan Seales: Because Sukkot's tomorrow.

[9:01] Ramone Owens: Yes.

[9:02] Alan Seales: And Indigenous People's Day.

[9:03] Ramone Owens: And Indigenous People's Day tomorrow.

[9:04] Alan Seales: So for whatever reason, yeah, you guys don't have an afternoon matinee. You've got an evening show on a Sunday.

[9:09] Ramone Owens: Yes.

[9:10] Alan Seales: Which is weird. I think because people have time off for the Monday, a lot of times they're looking for something to do on a Sunday night with their families if the kids don't have school. It's worked for us in the past with holidays. Our producers are smart in capitalizing on when people are going to come see the show.

[9:27] Alan Seales: Dana, you also are the voice of Sarah Lyne Timbers on Welcome to the Wayne.

[9:33] Dana Steingold: Yes.

[9:34] Alan Seales: An animated show.

[9:35] Dana Steingold: Yeah.

[9:36] Alan Seales: That's pretty recent.

[9:37] Dana Steingold: In the last, like, two years, right?

[9:38] Dana Steingold: Yeah. Well, it started as a... It was their online streaming platform that Nickelodeon started. And it was just going to be accessible by the app. And we did a season. And then about nine months later, they said, we loved it. We want to put it on television. And then we've done three seasons since.

[9:56] Alan Seales: Yeah. Well, it's a fun... It seems like it's a fun kind of character voicey sort of thing for you.

[10:02] Dana Steingold: Yeah. It's essentially me, but drier and a little bit heightened. And kind of how I am with my siblings. She's kind of like a powerful, like, Angelica from the Rugrats character, but with smarts.

[10:14] Ramone Owens: Yeah.

[10:15] Dana Steingold: She's the baby sister.

[10:16] Ramone Owens: Suzy Carmichael.

[10:17] Dana Steingold: Yes. She's the baby sister who knows me more than the brothers.

[10:21] Ramone Owens: Yeah.

[10:22] Dana Steingold: So, she's a very cool, like, female empowerment, tech savvy kind of lady.

[10:27] Alan Seales: Can I ask a question?

[10:28] Dana Steingold: Yeah.

[10:29] Alan Seales: Can you... Because I think voiceover is so interesting. Can you talk, like, you do a season of a show. What is that like for you? Like, do you do that in, like, a day? Or, like...

[10:38] Dana Steingold: That was my next question.

[10:39] Alan Seales: No. Don't put a podcast host on your podcast. He will steal your question.

[10:46] Dana Steingold: No. You usually get booked for, like, a session. And you'll sometimes, depending on how much you do, they can do two episodes in a session. But I would say it usually takes about an hour to two hours to bang out an episode for, like, a 22-minute episode. Because it's such a different experience than theater. Every line is numbered. And you'll do each line, like, seven different times, seven different ways. I'm often the first person to record the episode. So there's no context yet for, like, if I'm running, if I'm whispering, if I'm yelling at him. So we'll try it a bunch of different ways. And then they layer everything on. And months later, we'll come back for round two. And there will be, like, a scratch animation.

And we'll have reworked certain lines. And you'll plug those in and do some pickups. And then later, you'll be doing some pickups that are, like, set to the animation. So it'll be, like, you have to fit it in this amount of time and make it try to match the flap of the animation.

[11:46] Ramone Owens: And then you come in for, like, WALA, which is, like, extraneous, you know, like, huffing, puffing, running, screaming, that kind of stuff.

[11:54] Alan Seales: What's it called? WALA?

[11:56] Dana Steingold: WALA, yeah.

[11:58] Alan Seales: Is that short for something?

[11:59] Dana Steingold: I'm sure it is. I don't know what it is. I'm not a good enough person. Like, I'm not a good enough voiceover artist to tell you. But it said WALA on the schedule.

[12:06] Ramone Owens: Yes.

[12:07] Dana Steingold: Literally, like, I think the first time I ever saw it, they were like, okay, so we're going to bring you in for WALA. And I was like, mm-hmm, mm-hmm. Okay, great. You're, like, WALA as a character.

[12:15] Ramone Owens: Yeah.

[12:16] Dana Steingold: What are the signs?

[12:17] Ramone Owens: Yeah.

[12:18] Dana Steingold: I was like, okay, great. I'm super ready to do whatever you throw at me. And then I came in. It was literally, like, grunt, run, jump, run, hit a wall, fall down. And it's crazy because you're like, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah. But you, like, spend two hours doing that. And you're like, what did I just get paid for? Like, this is the weirdest job I've ever had.

[12:36] Ramone Owens: So weird.

[12:39] Dana Steingold: That's so great.

[12:40] Alan Seales: So cool.

[12:41] Dana Steingold: It's so weird.

[12:43] Alan Seales: Yeah, I think Foley artists, like VO artists and Foley artists are, like, two things that I would, in a different life, I would head in that direction. Because I think, like, just figuring out, you know, like, oh, I'm breaking bones. But I've got to crunch lettuce. You know, I think the Foley artists are absolutely incredible. The tricks that they have up their sleeves.

[13:01] Alan Seales: So we're recording on a Sunday. And actually two days ago was National Coming Out Day. And, yes. So for those listening, happy Coming Out Day. If you actually decided to come out. And I was hoping and wondering if anybody here at the table would be willing to share their Coming Out stories.

[13:20] Dana Steingold: Yeah, sure.

[13:22] Ramone Owens: Well, Ramon did a post about it on his Instagram.

[13:26] Dana Steingold: Yeah.

[13:28] Ramone Owens: Well, I took these photos. I did a photo shoot with Elle Morgan Lee of Blue Photography. And she's like, let's do some photos, like, some dance photos, like, in dance belts. And I was like, okay, sure. So I was like, I don't know when I'm ever going to post this photo. You know, like, I've got these photos and I'm going to post them. And I felt like Coming Out Day was, like, appropriate. I thought the photo that I posted was a freedom of expression, if you will.

[13:52] Dana Steingold: And gorge.

[13:53] Ramone Owens: Thanks.

[13:54] Dana Steingold: Love it.

[13:55] Ramone Owens: I'm not usually one to like long caption. But I was just moved that day by, you know, it being Coming Out Day. I was 15 years old. My dad's a pastor in Los Angeles. And I was messing around with someone at church as a child. And I told my youth leader. And pretty much after a few months of me, like, entrusting her with me being gay and telling her that I was, like, messing around with someone at church, she, like, met with me and my parents together and, like, told my parents or me, which was probably the worst thing that someone could do to a child without fair warning. She's like, hey, like, what are you doing? I'm like, nothing. She's like, let's get lunch at 4 o'clock. I'm like, okay, great. I get home about, like, 3:30. I'm like, hey, Mom, what are you doing? She's like, getting lunch at 4 o'clock with, I'll call her Susie. I'm like, okay.

[14:47] Ramone Owens: And I told my mom I was like mom this lady is crazy. I'm not sure what she's gonna do. You know, they were very Southern Baptist. Yeah, so she was like, okay great I was away at school. So there wasn't much right that my parents could do or say at that point. And then I actually brought my boyfriend home when I was 26 years old. And that was like me as an adult being like hey guys, I tried this two other times. I'm not really sure what we were with all that because there weren't too many conversations happening beyond like, yeah, I'm like dodging and you know, not really talking to me about yeah, man. I brought my boyfriend home at the time and I was like, yeah, this is it. Remember the other two times? Do you have any advice that you would give anybody else?

[17:05] Ramone Owens: Yeah, the hardest two days late right now but the hardest part was being a teenager at church with so many people that knew this about me and weren't contributing in any positive way. Just trust yourself and love yourself and continue to feed yourself the things that you need and there would be so many people that will have so many things to say. But you may not realize it now those people don't matter. You know, I'd like to tell people if they aren't paying your bills if they don't feed you or if you don't properly like sleep with them every night quite honestly anything else I give you is an extension of myself and I don't owe you anything. So by all means you look at yourself in the mirror every night and as long as you're okay with yourself, that's all that matters.

You know you wake up every day and the things that you do for yourself that day are what last and what matter and everybody else around you doesn't matter if they aren't contributing in a positive light.

[18:04] Dana Steingold: My coming-out story was a little bit different. Um, I have always first of all, I've always like kind of like resented the idea of coming out because it I think I hope that one day we'll get to a place where like coming out is not a thing. Yeah, like it shouldn't be a thing. Like no one has to come out as straight. It just assumed. It just assumed. Yeah, like the idea of coming out. I've never loved. So my story is a little different though because I have there was a period of like three years in my family where there was a coming out every year. So like my junior year of college my brother came out and it was basically in a conversation where my mom was like and she this is years ago. So she's changed now, you know, very different time.

But where she was like this is I saw this on Facebook and on social media and what is this like what's going on? And so my my brother kind of came out to her kind of in a similar way that you were you came out to your parents where it was just kind of it had to happen. Yeah, and so and that was a lot harder for my mom at that point she was like reading a lot of like religious literature on what to do in those situations and that was kind of a tough time for my family.

[19:20] Dana Steingold: That was kind of a tough time for my family. When that was a tough time I was like dealing with that being a tough time and knowing that like, you know, I'm also gonna have to do that at some point. So it's probably not gonna be easy for me either. The next year my uncle who is was in his 40s came out to my family and it was kind of a big coming out. It was like I'm gay. I've been dating this I've been dating my partner for seven years and I'm also moving to Florida to live with him and work together. Wow, so it was a lot that was a like a big coming out and that kind of like late it all kind of laid the groundwork in everyone being really understanding and kind of seeing all of the pieces kind of come together.

So by the time that I came out I like to like say that everyone stole my thunder because it was just kind of like a non-event. But it was very easy. I mean, it was just a conversation with my mom where we kind of talked about it. It wasn't me being like I have something to tell you, you know, like very dramatic. It was just kind of a conversation and like, you know when it's your business when I'm dating someone and I care about them, you're gonna know but as of now, I mean, I'm the same person so I don't need to tell you every aspect of my life right now and and times have changed so much so quickly and so I encourage everyone to take your own time take your own path in it and only only come out if you think you should and there are so many different ways that there are so many different, you know, crayons in the crayon box.

[21:04] Dana Steingold: Yeah, you just got to like take your time and and know that there's no rush and you can just be yourself and and that's that's good enough. You don't have to try and be anything else. You don't put anything on yourself any pressure or anything like that. Yeah, just be you and let's I can't wait until national coming out day it doesn't exist anymore because yeah, I mean yeah.

[21:27] Elliot Mattox: Yeah, that's a good point it's just every everything is kind of assumed one way and then you have to only correct everybody. Yeah, like Dana you identify as straight, right? We're talking about your husband. Yeah, but I would say definitely consider myself an ally and I but yeah, it's it's weird to me as well because I've been surrounded by it for so much of my life and it just seems like a non-thing. Yeah, and yeah, I mean I went to a theater camp so again, there was like there are 10 11 year olds who were we used to joke that like they used to make us stay out of the boys building, but we were like you guys. It was such a non-thing to me even though I was in a suburb of Michigan and it wasn't necessarily commonplace in my high school but you know as an ally I do recognize that these days exist because there are days of visibility for people who in a lot of parts of the country that we live in and the world feel invisible and so I see why it's great to celebrate the visibility but I agree, I hope that we get to a place where that's unnecessary because you can just be whoever you are and be accepted everywhere you are.

[22:31] Alan Seales: Okay, so we gotta get you guys over to your show. So we're gonna skip over here into my standard closing questions that I ask everybody on the podcast. So three questions and I'll ask each of you actually, let's start with Dana very simply first what motivates you?

[22:52] Dana Steingold: Come back to me actually.

[23:02] Alan Seales: All right Elliot what motivates you?

[23:07] Elliot Mattox: Right now just being right now. I'm really motivated by being surrounded by something I love doing and something that I consider that something that encompasses all of my favorite things about being an actor which is like making people laugh telling an awesome story and being around cool people. So that's motivating me right now to keep doing those things.

[23:32] Alan Seales: Ramon back to you.

[23:35] Ramone Owens: Great. I'm motivated by I guess that the passion and love for theater and the idea that there's discovery almost every single day like oh, I didn't know I could do that. Oh, I didn't know I could explore that. I didn't know I could you know, I there's so many things about myself that I still don't know and I think being able to dive into those things every day in a new light motivates me.

[24:02] Alan Seales: All right, so pay attention the next question because I'm coming to you. Okay, we'll start with you here. What advice would you give to your younger self and younger people listening now starting out down a similar path?

[24:06] Ramone Owens: Um, I said this the other day to talk back and I just like was resonating with me. Work hard, but don't work too hard. I think it's really important. Like I was very hyper focused when I was younger and like so like set on this goal and like working hard to achieve it when I was young like that's not super normal but a lot of us can relate to that and I realize more and more how important it is to just like have fun and just like be if like enjoy life. So work hard, but don't work too hard and stay a fan. That's my favorite.

[24:41] Dana Steingold: Um, I think the best advice I would have is to figure out a way to constantly redefine what success is because this business is a very long road and a long journey and it's people peak at different times and you'll watch people shoot to the top really quickly and then not work for two years and you'll watch people who work consistently and everybody's journey is really different. So I think the thing that keeps me going at least is, you know, Broadway is amazing and I'm thrilled to be here and but it also took me a long way and a long time to get here. And so you just have to figure out how to make each thing important and why are you doing each thing and I think you'll figure out that you're more successful than you think at most stages of the game.

[25:32] Ramone Owens: Cool, I would tell my younger self theater student person that just keep going keep going again. Like Dana said this road is very long and very hard. It can get discouraging but just keep going keep working hard. Keep practicing and also if you have other talents and hobbies dig into those too like into those things as well because you never know how those things will serve you and I do believe that to be a great artist is to be a well-rounded person as well so like love your art work hard at that but also like don't don't be afraid of the world around you and other things around you.

[26:09] Alan Seales: All right. So final question. I'm gonna start with you. If you can only see one show for the rest of your life, oh my god, but you can see it as many times as you want. No, oh my god, what would you say? Well, that's not even like what would you listen to it? So would you see? Yeah, it can be something that's gonna make me sad, but she was videotaping this all of you have three people in particular who are huge musical theater. I've been listening to cast of them since we've been like for this is challenging. We're not those people who just started and like stretching like call me a clam, but I think it would be 42nd Street.

[27:59] Ramone Owens: All right. Yeah, I'm gonna say the original production that does the ballet at the end not the staircase because I only because it's such a production there's so many production numbers like I love a show with like eight part harmonies like big dance numbers so many leads like I just love a big show and it's so intact and it's worked for so long and I just love that and I would just be there so happy.

[28:29] Dana Steingold: Yeah, I'm like sweating. How do you live in a world where you can't see a Sondheim show over or a world where you can't see? She loves me, but I think I think I'm gonna say gypsy. Oh, the great American musical. Yes, it's perfect. Nice.

[28:46] Elliot Mattox: Okay, I'm gonna say it's this kind of shocked me. It was the first thing it came to my mind the drowsy chaperone. Oh, I would see the drowsy chaperone over and over again. It is gives me all my musical theater nerdiness love and it's funny and it's also one act.

[29:13] Alan Seales: All right, so how can we find you online? You can find my podcast online at the Broadway Podcast Network. That's equity one Broadway's happy hour. But you can find me Elliot at on everything at Elliot Mattox. That's two L's two T's.

[29:29] Dana Steingold: I'm at D. Stein face d s t e i n face face.

[29:35] Ramone Owens: Yeah, and I'm at Ramon de Sean. That's r a m o n e d e s h o n on Instagram and Twitter.

[29:45] Alan Seales: Yeah, that's about it. All right, right and of course Beetlejuice is playing at the Winter Garden Theatre. Everybody go to Beetlejuice Broadway comm get your tickets. You can get more of me at the theater podcast comm show your support at the theater podcast comm slash patreon. Of course, this is part of the Broadway Podcast Network. So go to BPN FM slash TTP our handy short link to go visit me there. You can get theater underscore podcast on Instagram and Twitter facebook.com slash official theater podcast. There's so many ways listen subscribe, please. Leave a rating. I love reading the ratings. This is edited by Matthew Hendershot and of course jukebox the ghost a big thanks to them for the intro and outro music. And then thank you to Ramon Dana and Elliot for being here. This has been so much wonderful.