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[0:00] Jose: The name on everybody's lips is definitely going to be Leila Jung. Leila, it's a pleasure having you on our show. You were fantastic as Roxy Hart. And I wanted to start by asking because I saw you do Girl from the North Country and now you're doing Chicago. And they are both shows set in the Depression era in the United States. And I wonder what keeps pulling you to that time period? And, you know, and, and what have you found that that's still like so relevant? Because I love Chicago. Like it's the musical that I have seen the most times in my life. I saw it a million times in New York City. I've seen it in Madrid. I've seen it in Mexico City. Now I've seen it in Malmo. So it's so relevant. Like that musical feels like it was written today. So can you talk a little bit about your experience with the timeliness?

[1:18] Leila Jung: I really like been thinking of like with the right system in America and like how that kind of is like a big difference from Sweden. And like, and because I was really thinking about when I tried to like, try to understand what we're trying to show with Chicago, I was kind of going through all the thoughts that I had, because I'm a really big true crime fan. So I kind of know a lot of like, about the right system and how it works like for you guys. So I think like, for me, it really what I tried to like, show for everyone is actually what kind of happened back then with the right system, and how it actually is still very relevant. And I think like, in Sweden, we actually like going further and further towards that.

And like, we have some cases like that, that also writes as, how do you say, murder cases and stuff that's gotten like, very famous, like and everything like how you can actually, you can actually become famous by doing terrible things, and how people actually get aroused by that, maybe I don't know, that's a bad word for it, maybe. So that's what I actually when we were talking, we were talking about the time, like and everything I've tried really to have, is I think I always go into like, how can I relate to this? How can I understand what I'm trying to show from like, the time that we're showing and what we're saying? I think that's what I tried to like, really get into and like, try to like, how do we do this, like with the court scene where we were doing this play? And I was always thinking about like, O.J. Simpson when he was doing the glove and like, it was too small. So everything is very like theatric. And yeah, yeah.

[3:31] Jose: I'm very fascinated as a true crime fan that and like, almost like imagining the Roxy Hart and Velma Kelly case as a podcast even or as a series of stories. Something that I love about Roxy Hart is that she is very funny. She's also very cruel. And I mean, when she sings Funny Honey, I was obsessed because I was reading the translations, you know, like the Swedish to English translations. And the lyrics in Swedish are brutal. I mean, when she's calling Amos that lapdog man of mine, I couldn't believe it. And the thing about Roxy is that she's all of these things, but she's also so heartbreaking and so vulnerable. And I was wondering for you, how did you find that humanity and that warmth and that pain inside her while still making her a badass bitch?

[4:31] Leila Jung: God, I really struggled with that. Because I think like, I really tried to because I always them before I've done a lot of like, young girls being very vulnerable. And like, I do look like I do. And I mean, it's, I felt like I needed to, like, really toughen her up to make you believe that she could do all these things. So I think I started like, really making her really tough. And I was like, I'm going to try to make her psychopath. I'm going to try to make her no emotions, like really try to, I don't know, make her not vulnerable, not feel sorry for like, really not liking her maybe. And I kind of noticed like, maybe that's not the way to go. Because I think you need to feel something for it.

Because she actually is actually the one that you need to vote for in some kind of way. So what I did, I think, was to like, try to make her have, have like, glimpses of like, like, when I talk about when I do the Roxy part, and I talk about and I do a lot of things and I change clothes and everything is really a lot of things happening. When I do the monologue and what you would call it. And I all of a sudden start to talk about Amos. And I really like, try to feel like there's, there was something I did marry him, even though I don't like him anymore. But I did go to him for some reason. And those reasons were probably for me, I think they were human, like it was feeling safe, like having someone to love you and take care of you like all the things that you always need, but she still goes away from because something in her is, is not right, I guess.

So I think that's what I tried, I tried to like find glimpses of her being human. And also like with, if we go back to the time and period that we were talking about before, like, it's also like, with the 20s. And, and maybe that was like, the first time for women to not be as traditional, even though it's as I mean, we all went back again, and we all were all there again. But it like it was the first, like with the flappers is the same right word and everything. Yeah. That that actually took place that there's some kind of revolution, maybe you got we got the rights to vote everywhere, like not everywhere, but a lot of places, she's trying her wings. And like, I mean, a lot of things could have happened to her.

I don't know. In my head, she's like, she's there's probably a lot of things that she repressed to make her just like shoot a mammal suddenly, like, because you need to have a why for that. Why does she do it? Like, it's not written enough for us to understand that. So yeah, I think that like, all like with the history of women, like what, what they've been through, and like, for her, like, also being a part of that being human, and like being a part of being a woman in the 20s. And, and also seeing this new world of her taking control, maybe.

[8:14] Jose: This was the first time that I've seen a production of Chicago that's not the Broadway production of Chicago, because you know, that production that revival that started like almost 30 years ago, is the one that they do almost all over the world, the exact same production. So I was my I mean, I don't, you know, like, I don't know, like, I don't think you could see me specifically the day when I went, but I had like the biggest smile. Because I was like, Oh, my God, like, this is so cool. Like it was, you know, I hope it's not a spoiler. But to see you doing Roxy atop a horse with all the dancers. That was mind blowing. And then I texted one of my friends because I was obsessed when you're doing my baby and me with actually like the dancers juggling with babies.

That was like, amazing. So, you know, like going back for a little bit about like your own instrument and like going from something that's almost like a whisper, you know, like going from Bob Dylan musics, which are like, thoughtful and poetic, and then going to Chicago, which is the ultimate, I think, spectacle. How do you train your voice and your instrument for that? And also, like, I really want to know, what's your favorite number to perform? Because all the numbers are about Roxy being like a goddess.

[9:35] Leila Jung: Oh, God, I struggled a lot, like in the beginning, because I had to like, drop my voice a lot. So I think like a lot of my preparation for that was for me to like, accept my voice, like in a new kind of way, because I'm not used to being that deep, like some of the songs are really like tough for me to do. So I think, like voice wise, I think I had to work like a lot with that. And I mean, with

[10:13] Leila Jung: I come from a dancing background, so for me being like a showgirl-ish felt very natural, like I felt when I felt like for me going into being like this power woman felt like I could work with a lot from me being a mover maybe. So I think like all those things actually fell into place pretty fast. But I'm also because I think when I go to as how I perform I think I'm very often very vulnerable. I'm good like with showing emotion and being heavy like and those kind of I'm good to I've always been had easier to like awake those feelings with people. So I mean I had to like do a lot of like changes in me also to just feel like I owned it because I think that's every day when I go to work and I feel like having a bad day or something I need to like reprogram myself because if I it's as a tough role to do when you're not feeling that you're owning it.

The other part the other show was more like expression like being vulnerable being emotional being telling this as telling something like from within and this is much more from deeper down I guess. So yeah I think that's the difference and that's what my preparation has been like trying to just like shift my my energy maybe and my where to to find my power.

[12:11] Leila Jung: And my favorite number oh that's a hard one I think it is Roxy because I really I really love doing the text before and playing with the audience and like it's always like very different and I think like I get a lot from the audience and what the song becomes is really much about what I get from from the start and I guess I really I really love that I really love like breaking the fourth wall and trying to like get the people involved even though if they don't want to I force them and I try to just like are you are you seeing me and that I really love to do so that I think that's my favorite number. Yeah and I mean that vamp that piano vamp is like legendary like sometimes I'll confess this like I will even go around the house just singing the name on everybody's gonna be Jose but that's just like yeah just like me being like a musical nerd.

[13:36] Leila Jung: So it's so interesting because obviously you know like I was originally born in Honduras but I spent most of my adult life in the U.S. and now I'm in Europe like I've been in Europe for the past three years in Spain and France and now in Sweden and it's always so peculiar to me how audiences are so different in each country and in each society and I have found that Swedish audiences are very thoughtful and like very reserved like sometimes it's like I couldn't figure out you know like what people are feeling around me so as a performer you know especially when you're doing that monologue how do you know when you have like aced it like what would you say it takes to make a musical land in Sweden?

[14:09] Leila Jung: I think it's really different from the theaters actually I think like the opera house that we're doing in Chicago and has a different audience than the Stadsteatern that we did Girl from the North because I don't think that audience would have appreciated that show as much as the other way around. I think we really like have we're very divided in Sweden with theater musical theater and like dance we're really like we and opera we seldom work together we seldom like go into each other's worlds and I think like for the opera for instance I think like it's very important with the the music because we have the orchestra and so I think like singing like voices is very important because it's like an opera house and I mean it's an older audience so I also think what this show is with Chicago I think that's like a perfect show for Malmö Opera House for instance but I mean at the other theater that we did the Girl from the North and North Country was more I think you can go more into other things like less glitz and glams and more heavier things so yeah that's a really interesting question because it's really hard to answer it because I really think like we have very different point of views in Sweden of what's good and what's not and it's very scattered that's like no I said that wrong but yeah.

[16:10] Leila Jung: Looks scattered right yeah and as we always come into now we're going into something else but in Sweden we always have I don't know if we talk about that in the US but it comes up to something that they think like that musicals are uglier art-ish I don't know if that's a thing that in any other country because I've been thinking a lot of it lately because I feel like for me it's like I did On the Town a couple of years ago and it was written like I don't know if it was during the second world war or if it was like some sometime at that like when people needed to feel happy so they just made a musical that was very happy and had no like heavy content at all it was really like just happy but because people needed that and for me it's like it's really hard and it's so weird not to understand that we also need to go as an art has to be what art has to be for the people going to see it like if you just need to be happy maybe you just need to go see On the Town and if you really want to feel sad then you go and see something else like it's I kind of just don't understand how that came up and how it's something that we actually talk about I don't know we're not talking about it in the musical room but we know that that's the point of view from other people as the theater people and yeah I mean you asked me if like that was something that I had seen in other countries and absolutely maybe you know I've seen so many times people for instance who do like straight plays and Ibsen and like Chekhov and stuff and they're like oh I would never do a musical and it's like there's this perception in some circles that musicals are yeah a lesser art form that they're shallow and that's like I'm like have you people ever seen like Sondheim or have you people ever seen like Chicago for example like Kander and Ebb are perfect examples of you know how you can turn entertainment merry entertainment and thought but I want to go back to like the very beginning when you were growing up before you even started taking dance class in Gothenburg what were the performances or what was the art that made you realize that you wanted to be an artist?

[19:03] Leila Jung: Oh I don't know when I realized I think that when I realized I want to be an artist I think that happened later but I mean I was I lived in Tanzania when I was a kid and we went to this like Swedish school that was just like really small and we had like dance classes and everything like was really we weren't that many so we did like a lot of shows like small performance for the parents and everything so I think like I was pushed into it very early because I was five when I was there so and I did like my first solo singing Astrid Lindgren it's very Swedish.

[19:44] Leila Jung: So I mean I did that really early and I and I um we had like when I moved back to Sweden I was eight and I started taking dance classes like we had like a small because I'm I'm from a small part a small small village I would say outside of Gothenburg it's like one hour but we had like a dance school that was really like um I was really good like the the the first owner was like a dancer that's been working like through all Sweden like in the.

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