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[0:00] Alan Seales: Welcome back to The Theatre Podcast. Intimate personal conversations with theatre's biggest names. I'm your host, Alan Seales, and this episode is with the amazingly talented Ashley Loren. She is currently the standby for Satine in Moulin Rouge! The Musical. She goes on every Tuesday, at least, and other times when Karen is on vacation or is sick. She is continuing the streak of Moulin Rouge! cast member kindness. This isn't officially part of the Moulin Rouge! takeover, but I was connected with her. I needed to interview her. She is just one of the nicest people I've talked to recently, and along with Danny and Karen and Morgan and Tam, they just seem to really, really like each other and love the show and enjoy coming to work, and it's a true joy to perform night after night.

So, her personal story is extremely interesting. She got into the pop artist track with a record label at like early teens, 13, 14, seemed to have been a bit robbed of her childhood independence, and now, at her age now, she's really taking time to write music that speaks to her, that means something to her soul, and focus on telling the story that she wants to tell now instead of what others told her to do, especially at such a young age. So, all of this while still performing on Broadway. Before we get into it, as always, please visit me online at thetheaterpodcast.com and show your support at thetheaterpodcast.com slash Patreon, P-A-T-R-E-O-N. The proceeds from that go to transcriptions and keeping things going behind the scenes, and your support gets you some awesome benefits like getting your questions in and getting some swag and getting some gifts and other things, so please check that out.

Visit me on Instagram and Twitter at theater underscore podcast. Please leave a rating, leave a review in your favorite podcast player, and now, everybody, please enjoy this episode with Ashley Loren.

[2:11] Alan Seales: My guest today is currently the standby for Satine in Moulin Rouge! The Musical on Broadway. She was featured on American Idol season eight, has worked with directors and artists such as Kathleen Marshall, Bono, and U2, and Yoko Ono, and has even sung backup for artists like Carly Rae Jepsen, Melissa Etheridge, and Iggy Azalea. She's also featured on season two of NBC's This Is Us, and has a film currently in post-production called Be the Light. She was seen in the Broadway revival of Jekyll and Hyde and the National Tour, and played the extraordinary girl in Green Day's American Idiot in L.A. Ashley Loren, welcome to The Theatre Podcast.

[2:48] Ashley Loren: Thank you, thanks for having me. This is so fun on this wonderful, beautiful day.

[2:53] Alan Seales: I know, it's spring today, almost. Fingers crossed.

[2:56] Alan Seales: So you are the Satine standby.

[2:59] Ashley Loren: Yeah.

[3:00] Alan Seales: So a lot of people listening don't know the difference between swing, understudy, standby, principal, all that. So educate us.

[3:07] Ashley Loren: Oh, gosh. I mean, me either. So I am the standby, so I only cover one role. I'm on a principal contract. I just cover Satine, and I'm there for Karen. And I guess, okay, so a swing covers multiple roles. We also have another swing who covers Satine. Yeah, and there's also ensemble covers, so people who are actually in the show every day who also cover roles as well. But a standby is just truly standing by, you know?

[3:39] Alan Seales: So you are required to go, half-hour call, be there. Do you have to be in costume and makeup?

[3:46] Ashley Loren: No, no, no. Can you imagine? Yeah, no, I haven't had to do that. I usually try and come with like, you know, half a beat on my face, some makeup. But yeah, no, you're just there, and usually, you know, she usually, you know, if she was going to call out, she'll call out before the show. There have been a couple times when I've had to jump in, but it hasn't been anything crazy.

[4:06] Alan Seales: Karen Olivo, yeah.

[4:07] Ashley Loren: Karen Olivo, Queen Karen.

[4:08] Alan Seales: Yes, yeah.

[4:09] Ashley Loren: Yeah.

[4:10] Alan Seales: So, okay, so you're there, half-hour call, everything's fine. Do you have to stay through the whole show?

[4:15] Ashley Loren: I have to stay, well, spoiler alert, she dies. I have to stay till that, because what I'm, you know, and then the next thing she does is bow. So I can leave before the half-hour call.

[4:27] Alan Seales: Oh, that'd be interesting if, yeah.

[4:28] Ashley Loren: Can you imagine?

[4:29] Alan Seales: If you had to go and just bow?

[4:30] Ashley Loren: What are you, wait, what? No, that's not going to happen. Yeah, yeah, yeah. So I stay usually, I mean, the show, it's usually like 15 minutes before curtain, I'm allowed to go.

[4:40] Alan Seales: Have you had to go in mid-show yet?

[4:42] Ashley Loren: I have, I have. Twice, actually. Once was an intermission changeover, and that was actually January 1st. And then just recently, Karen was sick for a while and came back and wasn't able to continue on through after the first couple songs. So we held the show for six minutes, I think, and did the Mad Dash switch. And if you've seen the show, I came on right before Firework and then did the rest of the show from there. That was a quick turnover for sure. But kudos to all the people involved that made that happen. But yeah, yeah.

[5:20] Alan Seales: That's fun.

[5:21] Ashley Loren: Yeah. I mean, live theater, right?

[5:22] Alan Seales: It's interesting. It's interesting to me, I guess, you know, in these shows, I think these roles, when they decide to use alternates versus swings versus understudies, because like, Amber, Amber Artelino is the swing or the understudy, right? Or a swing.

[5:39] Ashley Loren: She's a swing.

[5:40] Alan Seales: She's a swing for Satine, but there's also an understudy. Yeah?

[5:43] Ashley Loren: No, it's just me.

[5:44] Alan Seales: Oh, so you're the standby. Okay. So she swings for multiple people. When do you decide if it's you or Amber that goes on?

[5:52] Ashley Loren: Well, at this point, it's usually me. I'm first because I, you know, Amber covers 10 roles. But I usually, Karen also doesn't do eight shows a week at this moment in time. So I do the Tuesdays. But yeah, Karen was out for being sick for almost 12, 12 shows in a row, I think. And I did all of them. It's just, you know, up to stage management, of course. But because of the way the show is covered, it makes more sense to actually utilize the standby.

[6:16] Alan Seales: So you're actually acting as an alternate then. Because you said she doesn't do eight shows a week.

[6:23] Ashley Loren: She doesn't.

[6:24] Alan Seales: Yeah.

[6:25] Ashley Loren: Yeah. I mean, true. True. I guess I'm learning as I'm going as well. I've actually never even covered anyone before. So this was like a whole new world for me and a whole new experience just because, as you know, I only joined the show for Broadway. So they had the ensemble had been doing this for quite some time. They did Boston. And so I came into the rehearsal and I was like, what is this? What does it mean to be a standby? Okay, let me just like sit here, watch and absorb and learn and grow and all that stuff. It was definitely a really exciting time for me to just like, sit there and watch the creative magic of Moulin Rouge come together.

[7:07] Alan Seales: That's a good segue into like your past and your childhood and whatnot. Because you've got like more of a pop singer background, right? But you were born in New Jersey, right?

[7:17] Ashley Loren: Yeah, right.

[7:18] Alan Seales: Right across the river there.

[7:19] Ashley Loren: Right across over there.

[7:20] Alan Seales: You've got a great view of Hoboken here from the VPN studio.

[7:21] Ashley Loren: Well, yes. I'm a little further south than that, but yes. Yeah. Over there in dirty Jersey.

[7:27] Alan Seales: Dirty Jersey. Well, you go farther than dirty Jersey. It gets really pretty.

[7:29] Ashley Loren: Yeah. Sometimes Jersey can be pretty. Sometimes.

[7:33] Alan Seales: But are you an only child?

[7:35] Ashley Loren: I am an only child. Yeah, only child. Grew up in central Jersey. Went to an all-girl private school, a Sacred Heart school in Princeton. Yeah. And then sort of started in musical theater. Did musical theater. Wow. I put my head on those things. Started musical theater when I was like six. Did all the summer camps and things. I was actually a pretty sick kid. I still have Lyme disease, chronic neurological Lyme disease, which I will have probably for the, you know, forever.

[8:09] Alan Seales: What is Lyme disease? I don't know.

[8:12] Ashley Loren: It's something, it's a disease. It's transferred by, it's carried by ticks. Yeah. It's something that I think requires a lot more attention than it gets. Because I mean, growing up in Jersey, I know a lot of people who have had past tense Lyme disease and, you know, they catch it early enough, they get the bullseye. It's a parasite. And then the bullseye is like where the tick bite is. And then you get like these skin rashes and things. So it's more of a telltale immediate sign that something's wrong and you get on antibiotics and then like, you're fine. But I had chronic late stage. So we didn't catch it for like three years. I had a lot of like issues, learning issues that I like sort of regressed in my reading and regressed in all these things.

And because it had attacked, you know, wow, this is, we're getting into it. Attacked, you know, like my brain and neurological stuff and things. And it's, you know, really does carry over. I know people who have, like I said, had it past tense. And I know people who have had many, I guess a co-illness or a co-whatever and, you know, have some people, you know, it goes to paralysis, leads to paralysis. Some people have complications and they pass away. Like it's a very tricky, complicated, multifaceted illness. That's also kind of like a gateway illness and all of these other things as well. It can be many things, which I think the world needs to know a little bit more about.

[9:36] Alan Seales: I had no idea. I thought, yeah, I thought it was just like, you got it from a tick.

[9:40] Ashley Loren: And you can have it and you're good.

[9:41] Alan Seales: And it was good. Yeah, that's all I hear about.

[9:44] Ashley Loren: Yeah. I mean, I was on antibiotics for 10 years as a kid. Yeah, just like straight through. So I have, you know, it comes with its baggage as all things do. But I think because of that, I just enjoyed pretending to be someone that I wasn't. So I think that, sad as that is, that was theater and music were my outlets. And I think that's why I ended up sort of diving into the arts.

[10:12] Alan Seales: Was it your idea at six to get into that or did your parents kind of get into you?

[10:17] Ashley Loren: I was a very shy kid. Like I would not even sing in front of my parents unless there was like a closed door between us. Like, you can't see me. If you can't see me, then I'm not singing in front of you, kind of a thing. Yeah, but I wasn't precocious and I wasn't that way. I just had an innate love for music. And I was shy, but I knew that I loved it. So I think there was a little push when it came to like, you know, Ashley. But I guess when you're six, how much can you really push a kid? I don't know. But I do enjoy it. I did enjoy it. And here we are.

[10:49] Alan Seales: So you still have Lyme disease? Like you progressed past the point where you can kick it?

[10:54] Ashley Loren: Yeah, yeah. I mean-

[10:55] Alan Seales: Or do people who always have it, always have it? Or get it, always have it?

[10:58] Ashley Loren: I mean, this is still information that I'm still trying to understand. I mean, I still test positive for it. It's carried in my bloodstream and that's just what that is. But I think it just depends on when you catch it. But it's an illness, a disease that I don't, like I don't have symptoms all the time, but they do come out like if I'm stressed or if I'm sick, maybe it's a little harder to kick it or I mean, because it's an immune deficiency and things like that. But yeah, I still have it. Yeah.

[11:34] Alan Seales: Okay. So then going through Jersey, you're getting into musical theater.

[11:39] Ashley Loren: Yeah.

[11:40] Alan Seales: And at some point you make it, well, middle school, high school, like, are you still performing during this point?

[11:46] Ashley Loren: Yeah. So I, okay. So I started musicals when I was a kid, did all the camps, did the, you know, community theater, regional theater thing. And then I guess I was in middle school and, so funny, Shania Twain came out and she, her Come on Over came out, album came out and I was like obsessed with Shania Twain and she was the one, which is crazy to think, but like, she was.

[12:08] Ashley Loren: So you've done, I was looking at your resume, so Saturday Night Live, Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon, Late Show with Stephen Colbert, James Corden, all that stuff.

[12:26] Alan Seales: Is that, you're singing, you're performing with other people?

[12:30] Ashley Loren: With other artists, many artists, varying artists, yeah.

[12:34] Alan Seales: How does that work? Are you from a small group of, are you in a pool of people that when so-and-so needs to go perform on a show, they call three people, whoever's available?

[12:46] Ashley Loren: People usually ask, people always ask, how did you get that, or how did you start doing that? And it's just, and I don't really have an answer other than because I've always sort of said yes to everything that came my way, I feel like it opened doors for things that I wouldn't have normally expected to come my way.

[13:08] Ashley Loren: But I think, as far as SNL is concerned, I had met some of the producers when I was doing my own album, and then I was doing background for this other girl that I met that was working with a producer that I was working with here at the time, and it was just sort of like my name was in a bunch of different people's heads.

[13:28] Ashley Loren: And then one person said, and they were like, oh, I know her, oh yeah, I know her too. And so it's just sort of like a true testament to the fact of always saying yes and seeing how the universe sort of puts them together for you.

[13:44] Ashley Loren: But yeah, I mean, it wasn't something that I actually set out to do, but New York is expensive, and it's fun, and I'm actually, I mean, working with Carly Rae Jepsen is probably, has been one of the most transformative things for me as a human, I think.

[14:02] Ashley Loren: Just because I was, you know, I was working on a solo project, so it was pretty isolating. It was just me and, you know, things like that. And then you go to theater, and it's a totally different experience. And then I met Carly, and it was very like a family of tour, you know, a touring family, which is, it's so rare, I think, at least in my experience, to find a whole team of people that are actually incredible humans.

[14:38] Ashley Loren: And I had so much fun, and it brought back the joy of music and touring and stuff that, you know, things happen and life happens. And sometimes you're like, oh, I don't know, I don't want to do this anymore. The struggle is over.

[24:17] Ashley Loren: Thank you so much for having me, Alan. I'm really excited to be here.

[24:47] Ashley Loren: I mean, it's been such a journey to get to this point, and I feel like every step has been so important in shaping who I am as an artist.

[25:07] Ashley Loren: Growing up in Central Jersey, I started my journey in musical theater at the age of six, and it just felt like home from the very beginning.

[25:27] Ashley Loren: I remember singing in community and regional theater, and those experiences really fueled my passion for performing.

[25:47] Ashley Loren: Signing my first production contract as a solo artist in middle school was a huge milestone for me, and it made me realize that this is what I wanted to do for the rest of my life.

[26:07] Ashley Loren: I also had the opportunity to sing at open mics in New York City throughout high school, which was both thrilling and terrifying.

[26:27] Ashley Loren: I deferred my acceptance to Berklee College of Music to sign with Universal and record music, which was a big leap of faith.

[26:47] Ashley Loren: Touring with Carly Rae Jepsen was one of the most transformative experiences of my life, and it really opened my eyes to the possibilities in the music industry.

[27:07] Ashley Loren: But it hasn't always been easy. I was diagnosed with chronic Lyme disease as a child, and it brought a lot of challenges my way.

[27:27] Ashley Loren: The neurological complications I dealt with were particularly tough, and I think it's important to raise awareness about this illness.

[27:47] Ashley Loren: Despite the struggles, I found solace in the arts, and theater and music became my outlets for expression.

[28:07] Ashley Loren: I believe that sharing my story can help others who are going through similar experiences, and I hope to inspire them to pursue their passions.

[28:27] Ashley Loren: It's been a long journey, but every moment has been worth it, and I'm grateful for the opportunities I've had along the way.

[28:47] Ashley Loren: I'm currently the standby for Satine in Moulin Rouge!, which is such an incredible role to step into.

[29:07] Ashley Loren: The energy of the show is just electric, and being part of that world is a dream come true.

[29:27] Ashley Loren: I also made my Broadway debut in the revival of Jekyll and Hyde, which was such a special experience for me.

[29:47] Ashley Loren: Working with talented artists like Kathleen Marshall and Bono has been surreal, and I cherish those moments.

[30:07] Ashley Loren: I think it's important to keep pushing boundaries and exploring new avenues in my career, whether it's in theater or music.

[30:27] Ashley Loren: I have a film in post-production called Be The Light, and I'm excited to see where that journey takes me.

[30:47] Ashley Loren: It's all about growth and evolution as an artist, and I'm looking forward to what the future holds.

[31:07] Ashley Loren: I want to continue to create and collaborate with others who inspire me, and I hope to make a positive impact through my work.

[31:27] Ashley Loren: Thank you for giving me the platform to share my story, Alan. It means a lot to me.

[31:47] Ashley Loren: I hope that by being open about my experiences, I can help others feel less alone in their struggles.

[32:07] Ashley Loren: It's a journey, and I'm grateful for every step along the way.

[32:27] Ashley Loren: I believe that art has the power to heal, and I'm committed to using my voice to uplift others.

[32:47] Ashley Loren: Thank you again for having me on the podcast. It's been a pleasure to chat with you.

[33:07] Ashley Loren: I'm excited to see where this journey takes me next, and I hope to continue to inspire others through my work.

[33:27] Ashley Loren: Let's keep the conversation going, and I'm looking forward to connecting with more people in the industry.

[33:47] Ashley Loren: Thank you for your support, and I can't wait to share more of my journey with everyone.

[34:07] Ashley Loren: It's been an incredible experience, and I'm grateful for the opportunity to share my story.

[34:27] Ashley Loren: I hope to continue to grow and evolve as an artist, and I'm excited for what lies ahead.

[34:47] Ashley Loren: Thank you for listening, and I hope to connect with you all soon.

[35:07] Ashley Loren: Let's keep pushing boundaries and exploring new avenues in our art.

[35:27] Ashley Loren: I'm looking forward to the future and all the possibilities it holds.

[35:47] Ashley Loren: Thank you again for having me, Alan. It's been a pleasure to share my journey with you.

[36:07] Ashley Loren: I appreciate the opportunity to connect and share my story with your audience.

[36:26] Ashley Loren: I’m Ashley Loren, and I’m currently the standby for Satine in Moulin Rouge! The Musical!

[36:56] Ashley Loren: I’ve worked with artists such as Kathleen Marshall, Bono of U2, and Yoko Ono; and I’ve sung backup for artists like Carly Rae Jepsen, Melissa Etheridge, and Iggy Azalea.

[37:06] Ashley Loren: I made my Broadway debut in the revival of Jekyll and Hyde, and I followed it up with the national tour.

[37:16] Ashley Loren: You may have seen me on American Idol season 8, or season two of NBC’s This is Us.

[37:26] Ashley Loren: I currently have a film in post-production called Be The Light.

[37:36] Ashley Loren: I was born and raised in Central Jersey, where I started my journey in musical theater at the age of 6, at summer camps, and in community and regional theater.

[37:46] Ashley Loren: I signed my first production contract as a solo artist in middle school, sang at open mics in NYC throughout high school, and deferred my acceptance to Berklee College of Music to sign with Universal and record music.

[37:56] Ashley Loren: I went on to work and tour with Carly Rae Jepsen, calling it “one of the most transformative” things I’ve done.

[38:06] Ashley Loren: I also want to open up about my chronic Lyme Disease diagnosis as a child, and the neurological complications I dealt with as a result.

[38:16] Ashley Loren: I stress the need for more common knowledge about this tricky, complicated, and multi-faceted illness.

[38:26] Ashley Loren: But I also say my struggle led me to a life in the arts, as theater and music became my outlets.