This transcript was automatically generated and might contain errors.

[0:00] Alison Luff: When it comes to like using the word failure, again, not to sound cliché. I think I've had a always had a pretty good relationship with that. And it comes from my mom kind of being like, you have a day. You get a day. You gotta move on. And I don't know if that works for everybody, but it definitely works for me, you know, and learning about just like the industry and kind of learning when it's not personal and when it's just business.

[0:36] Heather Vickery: Hi everyone, welcome to Was It Chance, the podcast about embracing opportunity and taking intentional risk for your creative life. I'm Heather Vickery.

[0:43] Alan Seales: And I'm Alan Seales.

[0:45] Heather Vickery: You made it through that so well this time.

[0:51] Alan Seales: He does it every time, Alison. He purposely does stupid shit to make me laugh while we're doing the intro.

[0:58] Alison Luff: So anyway.

[0:59] Alan Seales: I bet you nailed it.

[1:00] Heather Vickery: Oh she nailed it.

[1:01] Alan Seales: She nailed it. So she's Heather Vickery. I'm Alan Seales, and that's our guest Alison Luff.

[1:05] Heather Vickery: But Alan and I started off as two perfect strangers who met by chance and embraced opportunity. So now you, the listener, get to listen in as we chat with other successful people about the risks that they've taken to put themselves on a path to creative success.

[1:19] Alan Seales: So we've already heard a little bit from our guest. She sided with you.

[1:21] Heather Vickery: Thank you.

[1:22] Alan Seales: You did well.

[1:23] Heather Vickery: She's a smart lady.

[1:25] Alan Seales: She is.

[1:26] Heather Vickery: She is. Alison Luff, our guest for this episode. You may have seen her lighting up the stage in hits like Waitress, Wicked, Les Misérables, Matilda, Ghost the Musical, and Mamma Mia.

[1:34] Alan Seales: Or maybe you caught her as the fearless singing pirate in Escape to Margaritaville. But that's not all. She's also taken her talents to the small screen with memorable roles in New Amsterdam, FBI, The Blacklist, and of course, the Starz hit Heels.

[1:47] Heather Vickery: Now until July 21st, you can still catch her as Mrs. Walker in The Who's Tommy.

[1:52] Alan Seales: Who?

[1:52] Heather Vickery: Tommy.

[1:53] Alan Seales: Alison Luff, welcome to the podcast.

[1:55] Alison Luff: It's nice to have you again.

[1:56] Heather Vickery: Thank you.

[1:57] Alison Luff: It's good to be on here. I have to say though, I was never on The Blacklist, but I will take it.

[1:58] Alan Seales: Oh shit, really?

[1:58] Alison Luff: I was never on The Blacklist, but I'll take it.

[2:05] Alan Seales: Damn it, AI.

[2:06] Alison Luff: All right.

[2:10] Alan Seales: Dude, is there another Alison Luff?

[2:14] Alison Luff: Somebody similar who's on The Blacklist?

[2:17] Alan Seales: Don't know her.

[2:18] Alison Luff: Don't know.

[2:19] Alan Seales: Oh well. Well, maybe Alan has just told the future, predicted the future.

[2:24] Alison Luff: There you go.

[2:25] Alan Seales: We're just putting that out there. You are going to be on The Blacklist.

[2:28] Alison Luff: Surprise, surprise, that's your next call.

[2:30] Alan Seales: Great.

[2:31] Alison Luff: Great.

[2:32] Alan Seales: Because me and that anyway.

[2:35] Alison Luff: I'm embracing the opportunity.

[2:37] Alan Seales: There you go.

[2:38] Alison Luff: Said that.

[2:40] Alan Seales: Now you're investing it.

[2:42] Alison Luff: When the opportunity presents, you'll say, "Oh, Alan told me it was coming."

[2:45] Alan Seales: Oh, right.

[2:46] Alison Luff: Right.

[2:46] Alan Seales: Yeah, yeah, yeah.

[2:47] Alison Luff: It was supposed to be there. Well, how is I guess let's start generically then. What is your aversion? Do you have an aversion to accepting opportunities when they come that seem like a calculated risk like this? Because some people are like they need to their anxiety kind of kicks in, and I'm only using anxiety because I just saw Inside Out 2.

[3:07] Heather Vickery: So as a new parent.

[3:08] Alison Luff: I know, I know. But Inside Out 2, I saw they have an anxiety attack, and it's incredible. Anyway, go ahead.

[3:16] Alison Luff: I can very strongly say I do not. I've never had an aversion to risk taking. I think that the best opportunities in my life and the most monumental career moves that have happened in my life have come from me saying no, or me being brave and just trusting my path and knowing I'm gonna get there one way or another. The route is not the same for everybody, and so no, I've never been scared to take a risk so far. Who knows? Things could change, you know.

[3:47] Heather Vickery: But so far, do you know what I love about what you just said is it's so counterintuitive to what most people would say. You said I've never had a problem saying no. Most people would say saying yes, and I would love to, to you picked no. Why is that? Why like that's a very cool way to approach that.

[4:10] Alison Luff: Well, thanks. I don't know, it's probably something my parents instilled in me. I give them credit for everything. I think that well, the first time I said, you know, no for lack of better words. I had just finished doing it was my third Broadway show. I just finished doing Scandalous on Broadway, which was a huge flop. I did Mamma Mia and then I did Ghost and then I did Scandalous, and I was auditioning, you know, when we got our closing notice for Scandalous that was closing, you know, a week after we got our notice or something like that. It was very quick, but we all saw it coming. I was in final callbacks, or I had my very first audition for Wicked, and I'd been, you know, it was a dream role of mine to play Elphaba, and I was called in to audition for the understudy standby and the role, and that's kind of usually how they do it.

And I had never done the show before, I had never auditioned for it before. And I went in, I felt like I had the and mind you, I didn't go to college, so I didn't have when I first moved to the city in 2008, I didn't have a big college name to get me in the room to some of these big casting, you know, casting directors. And so I hadn't even been seen by Telsey all too much, and had an audition for Wicked. I felt very sure in my bones that I was supposed to play the part someday, you know, and really wanted to. Auditioned, had a great audition, and then I didn't hear anything, and I was like, okay. And then a few days later I got a call from my agent saying, or I said, "Hey, is there any feedback for that?"

And I got a call from my agent saying, "Yeah, they actually are wondering if you're free to go to the dance call in like four hours for the understudy." And something inside me, I was really excited that they were interested in that, but something inside of me sunk and just said no, like you can't do that. No, no, no, no, no. A, I'm not a strong dancer. I'm not somebody that can and they dance in Wicked. Like people are dancing, and when you're covering you are you're dancing. And maybe that's not crazy to some people, but that would be crazy to me. And I was dancing in Scandalous, but still it wasn't something that I was confident. It's not something that I was like, this is not where I'm gonna thrive.

My work will not thrive here. So I said, uh no, I don't think I can go, especially in four hours. I'm not comfortable going. Like it would be something I had to really think about, okay. Well, do I want to understudy this and be in the ensemble and dance this one? I don't think I'm gonna get it. I really don't. And I'm not somebody that won't go out for things if I don't think I'm gonna get it. But I was like, uh, this is not my path. I know it's not my path. I know it's not my path. So I said, you know what, thank them. But I don't think I would really like to be considered for the standby or for the part, you know. You know, I'm not a super strong dancer, especially to go in without like pre-learning, you know, the dance call from a friend or something.

And they called my agent back and they said, "Well, she should be prepared that you know it's not gonna come along because it's really one of those things that you a lot of times are cast as the understudy, then you're bumped up to the standby and then you're bumped up to the part, you know, you grow with the show." And I just trusted and I said, "Okay, I don't think that it's meant to be then. I thought it was, but I don't think it's meant to be." I was 23. And sure enough, I turned down that callback and a day later I got called back for the standby and went in for my callback in front of all the creative team and booked the role.

[7:48] Heather Vickery: Wow.

[7:49] Alison Luff: So that was the first time that I was like, you know what? I don't think that I'm supposed to be and I had also was understudying for Mamma Mia, Ghost, and Scandalous. And I loved understudying. I learned so much from the people I understudied, but I also had this little gut thing inside me that said, okay, you're gonna be either kind of pigeonholed into being an understudy, which is fantastic. But again, I knew I wasn't gonna thrive dancing in an ensemble because I'm just not a very good dancer. And so that was the first time that I said no to something big too. To something that I really, really, really wanted and I remember just kind of feeling like gutted and also just, okay, well, I really thought I was meant to be, but maybe I'm not supposed to be on that show. Maybe it's not meant to be.

[8:39] Heather Vickery: That's so yeah. That's crazy. Then I really enjoyed that you're saying no to specific things because it leaves it, it well, what I was kind of getting at was when you want something and you don't get it, then that failure I put in air quotes will then lead to the next thing that is happier or whatnot. But you're also taking that one step ahead, one step further by intentionally saying no and leaving the space open for other things without knowing what else is gonna follow in behind you.

[9:10] Alison Luff: Yeah, I didn't have a show. My show is closing. I didn't have a job lined up or anything, but just again, it's a gut thing, you know.

[9:19] Heather Vickery: Right. Well, how do you follow your gut? Like do you for me, Heather and I have talked about this that like the negative stuff sort of pulls the back of your neck and the positive things sort of pull from your solar plexus. Everyone's different. It's actually something I do professionally is help people figure out where their body holds their intuition so that they can make aligned decisions. And I do that through human design, but um everybody's yes shows up differently. Do you have a tell in your body?

[9:51] Alison Luff: Um, well, just to speak on that, I read something the other day that I really loved that resonated with me that was like identifying the difference between anxiety and intuition, right? Because I've always been very, very led by intuition. And I read that like the intuition is will feel um lower in your, you're gonna know obviously you're gonna be able to help me with this lower in your body, right? Tends to feel lower in your body, and anxiety tends to feel more frantic or more um high up in your body for some people. And I was like, I wonder what that is, because I felt like last week in particular, I was all of a sudden having kind of I was like, is this anxiety or is this intuition? And it was just mom-related, meaning a new mom, and you know, little things of you know, you're I I'm a very imaginative person.

So your imagination can go even crazier, you know, when you're a mom. I think my intuition comes from more of like an unwavering certainty that I'm supposed to be doing what I'm a self-assuredness that I I'm supposed to be doing what I'm doing. And it can mean that it's not always what I think it is, but it's just trusting that I'm a little speck of dust in this world.

[11:07] Heather Vickery: Yeah.

[11:08] Alison Luff: You know what I mean? And trying to remove myself and like look at and pull myself out into the greater scope of things. And I go on a lot of hikes, I spend a lot of time in the woods.

[11:18] Heather Vickery: That's good.

[11:18] Alison Luff: And I think that it's the trust that even if it's the wrong choice, and oh, my intuition happened to be anxiety and it steered me wrong, and I trusted my gut, but it wasn't, oh, it wasn't right, or something like that. Then my path will find its way. It's a river, you know, like a rock might, you know, veer it one way, but it's gonna all flow into the body of water it's supposed to eventually. And so I kind of I treat my relationships that way. I try to at least my marriage that way. Of it's like a constant choice of yes, of you know, do I want to keep my bubble attached to you? Then that's choice, you know, and we just keep going along and we're gonna be bumping around, and now I'm on a tangent.

[12:04] Heather Vickery: No, but I love it.

[12:05] Alison Luff: And I love this bubble, it's a it's it's a very cerebral approach. It's a it's very similar to what I do and the work I do, and cool.

[12:14] Heather Vickery: It's interesting. How long have you been consciously aware that that's the way you do things?

[12:23] Alison Luff: Can you remember? Because to me, that makes taking intentional risk a lot easier because you're like, no, but I know.

[12:30] Alison Luff: I think it was, I think it's a thing that I've kind of always had. Always young. I think it definitely comes from my mom. It comes from her saying, you know, she had this thing and I always loved it. It was, you know, she'd be like, you can if you're disappointed about something or something like knocks you off your rocker, you have a day. Give yourself a day. You can be bummed about it, you can be sad, but after a day, you need to what's the next step? Like, what are we what and it's she's not somebody that's like won't let you be sad or like won't you know, like rub some dirt on it. She's somebody that's like, okay, we'll take your day and then move on because what you're just wasting time or you're wasting this, you know.

And she was also somebody for, you know, I don't have any family in the industry or anybody who's an actor or anything. It was I remember auditioning for something when I was a kid, and I was so bummed that I didn't get to play the goose in Charlotte's Web. I was, you know, gutted. And it's the one and only time I've ever cried that I didn't get a part. My mom was like, no, no, no, no, no. You're you can't cry if you don't get a part. Like, that's you got to be happy for the people that do, or you gotta just trust that you're the best person to play the part that you got, and you need to own that and do that. And that always stuck with me. And she was just always somebody that would, you know, it sounds so cliché, but she would always say everything happens for a reason.

Everything happens for a reason. And when that's ingrained in you, I think that it really did. And I and she didn't just tell me this, I watched her live that way, right? Like as an example, I watched her do that. And I just think it's easier to think that way than to think the opposite.

[14:10] Alison Luff: And I just want I'm gonna choose the easy way that makes me happier if I can't. I mean, it is easier, right? Because it takes so much effort to be negative or to fear the worst, or to think you can control everything that's happening. Because the only thing I call it radical responsibility, the only thing you can control is your own reaction, response, and behavior. So that surrender is radical responsibility for the only thing you can manage. And I'm so glad that you have a child you're passing this down on to. What a gift. And it's habitual too. I learned that, you know, I'm like, oh gosh, I can get into these, you know. I can definitely be somebody that wants to micromanage or control or do things a certain way.

And I definitely like and somebody that can put expectation on something, and my, you know, expectation is the thief of all joy. And the second I learned that, and we still have those and everything, but I realized, oh, it can be very habitual both ways, whether to choose to, you know, everything happens for a reason and or get in that mindset of like negative think.

[15:22] Heather Vickery: For sure. That is very interesting that you're focusing. I mean, and I guess intentionally focusing on the positive and just touching on the negative, acknowledging it, yeah, and let it see. Ooh, I like that. Feel it to heal it. I love that. Yeah. All right. That's getting tattooed on my butt if there's anything else smart that Heather says.

[15:42] Alison Luff: Uh maybe not on your butt.

[15:43] Heather Vickery: I was like, just let Crystal know it was not my idea.

[15:46] Alison Luff: Closer to your sound where were you gonna put it on your butt. You know what you do, you, and I support that. I'm sorry if I had any judgment towards that.

[15:57] Heather Vickery: Yeah, don't judge me, Alison. Come on. Feel it to heal it. Feel it to heal it and not my butt. The sad feelings. Sad the feelings. Um well, so talking about uh sad feelings, I guess. I'm gonna let's jump to the present for a second because the Who's Tommy is is unfortunately closing um on July 21st. And you originated this role uh in this revival, and I guess talk about that whole process because uh the whole like it's closing and it's sad, and we'll touch on it, we'll feel it to heal it. Like we'll get there, but I want to back up because you just became a new mom, which if I have the timing right. You were pregnant while doing the out of town, then gave birth, then started rehearsals for Broadway.

[16:41] Alison Luff: Yeah, so I found out I was pregnant an hour and a half before our very first rehearsal in Chicago.

[16:49] Heather Vickery: Okay, so I saw you in in Chicago in this show.

[16:53] Alison Luff: Yeah, it's taken I've been here, I'm like, I saw I saw the show. Was it Alison? And I don't have my playbook. Now my friend that I go to the theater with is gonna be like, I told you to keep all your playbooks.

[17:03] Heather Vickery: Yeah, if you saw it in Chicago, you saw me. I was never out.

[17:06] Alison Luff: So that's amazing. It was I loved it. So I think it's amazing.

[17:10] Heather Vickery: Thank you.

[17:11] Alison Luff: Yeah, thanks. Yeah, that was it was really cool doing that with um my little baby inside me. That was awesome. Because I can get in, I can get like a little stage fright at times, and it was really that helped a lot and was really cool. I was like, Oh, I'm not alone, I'm not alone. I've no um, but so yeah, I found out I was pregnant an hour and a half before our first rehearsal, and very very early on. Like I I wasn't even uh there was no way of knowing I was pregnant yet. I had my body did not tell me yet, other than my intuition knowing I was, I took a test and it you know was faint. It shouldn't have even shown up yet. Um so I was like a couple weeks pregnant.

[17:54] Alison Luff: Um I I just I I knew I was like, oh my gosh, I'm pregnant, I'm pregnant. I'm so excited. We're gonna take a quick break. Stay tuned for more of the episode.

[18:04] Heather Vickery: And now we're back.

[18:06] Alison Luff: I did it up until I've entered like my fifth month of pregnancy, and then we finished in Chicago, and and I remember Des calling me. Man, I was somewhere in my third trimester saying, like, so we are we are going Broadway. Like right now. Director Des Mackinoff.

[18:22] Heather Vickery: Yeah.

[18:22] Alison Luff: Do you think you're gonna be can you do it? And I was like, well, when are you thinking? He said, we're thinking of starting rehearsals around this time. It's all very tentative because it's not announced. Are you gonna be able to do it? And I was like, Des, I don't know, you're gonna have to ask my unborn son. I was like, because as that would have it, we would be starting four weeks postpartum. And I was like, what if he's two weeks late? I was like, I can't start two weeks after I have a baby. Four weeks is already absurd.

[18:49] Heather Vickery: Yeah.

[18:50] Alison Luff: Well, that's what I was getting at because you're nuts, but we'll get there. Continue. I am, yeah. I was like, but he could come two weeks early, and then hey, I have a whole six weeks, whopping six weeks. He didn't, like a true Capricorn, he came exactly on. Um then, yeah, I I I can't I started four weeks after.

[19:15] Heather Vickery: You were four weeks post.

[19:18] Alison Luff: I was still trying to figure out how to get a shower in four weeks after my first. You know, still hasn't showered. That, you know, yeah, this isn't looking great. Um, I literally put mascara to cover up some of these grays because I didn't have time to do my hair before this podcast.

[19:35] Heather Vickery: Oh, you're gorgeous. Beautiful. Stop.

[19:37] Alison Luff: Oh no, true story. Hey, if you need to cover up some grays, use mascara. Don't look too close. Um, I'll meanwhile I'm just gonna be sweating black and during the show tonight. It's gonna be really beautiful. I had a it was it was great because I had a beautiful birth. I had um a I mean I don't have any baby to compare it to, but he seemed like he was a really easy baby. He is a really easy baby, easy, you know what I mean. Easy baby.

[20:04] Alison Luff: Um, I stayed with my parents, so I went and had the baby in Texas um because I wanted to do it out of hospital at a birthing center. And so I went that route. And so the first four weeks before we came up to New York, it was great because we were staying with my parents. My husband and I were staying with my parents, and so you know, I would get up to feed him. He'd, you know, wake up every two hours like a newborn does, and you feed them, and then um around 5 30 or 6 a.m. he'd get up for his feed, and my parents would always be up by then because they're your parents and they wake up at 6 a.m., you know, and have their coffee. So they would say they would call up coffee with Levi. They'd be like, give us Levi.

And then they would they would have their coffee and hang out with him, and I would go back to sleep for you know, an hour and a half, two hours, but I would sleep so soundly because you know, my he was downstairs with my parents. I knew he was safe. So I think that that and my husband and I would have that in the morning every morning for the first couple weeks. So that was I think a huge game changer. And then my parents also came to New York, and my mom stayed with us until we opened Tommy. So my mom and my husband and my dad, they would all trade off and they would come to rehearsal every hour and a half and give me the babe. I'd feed him and give him back, or he'd hang out with us in rehearsal, or I'd wear him.

[21:33] Heather Vickery: Um my god, you wear him during rehearsal. I love if they let you.

[21:35] Alison Luff: And Des was cool with that. Oh my gosh. When when Levi would come to rehearsal and Des wouldn't see him, you know, he would get off he'd be like, Where is he? I'm like, oh, I just fed him and and he, you know, he's asleep now. What? I didn't see him. Like he would be so mad if Levi came for me to feed him and he wouldn't like that he wouldn't make an entrance or something. And he was a really, you know, he he wasn't a fussy baby, so I brought him to like the like the meet and greet. I he was around and he was kind of our little show baby because I did the show pregnant, and you know, the cast had this like attachment to him. And um, but the producers were incredible, you know. That was kind of the one thing I said, I can do this, but I gotta live really close to the theater, and I don't want to, you know, I I have a idea of how I want to feed him, and I I don't wanna I I want to feed him through me and by myself, and so he's gotta be around and he takes precedent, and they were like, of course.

And so he was always around, and it I it was really fortunate, and I would come home and my mom would make a homemade meal which would keep me healthy, and you know, so it it was a group effort, but that's that's how it happened, you know.

[22:48] Heather Vickery: I love knowing that there's theater company, there are theater companies out there that are allowing that and enabling that, and I know it just feels so different than what the world does, so especially this country.

[23:01] Alison Luff: That's what a lot of people say. And that and that's something that you know, a girlfriend of mine who I won't say what show she's on, but she was like, I can't believe that they they let him there. Like she's a standby person. I mean, they don't even let the baby come her baby come backstage, like when she's not on to like feed him, right? And I'm like, oh no, no, no. And I was like, well, so you need to not ask permission.

[23:21] Heather Vickery: Yeah, just do it.

[23:22] Alison Luff: Yeah, you need to just say, like, this is the way it's gonna be. And and now I'm seeing that more, and it's uh our yeah, our creative team was incredible. And I was just kind of like, hey, look, I can walk away from this where this is gonna be how it goes, and this is that's how it went. And um, yeah, it really it really worked out.

[23:40] Heather Vickery: So, how far into your pregnancy were you performing?

[23:45] Alison Luff: I went into my fifth month.

[23:47] Heather Vickery: So I forget what that is.

[23:51] Alison Luff: I wasn't quite in my third trimester, but I was like towards the end of my second trimester, I think it was.

[23:59] Heather Vickery: Yeah.

[23:59] Alison Luff: So you that's I had a bump. They had to keep, you know, they had to like take out the costumes, my belt started to get tighter, my boobs looked amazing. I'll bet. Um but everybody would just be like, whoa, you know, like that my watching my body change, people be like, oh my gosh, you have a bump now. You have a bump. You know, it was exciting because he was our little baby backstage. And um, and then I would get into I got to a certain point where I was starting to get nervous because I think it was like around 18 weeks or 19 weeks where his hearing started to developing. There's a lot of gunshots in the show. So then I would try to, you know, I'd be like, I'm not gonna be backstage during this time. Like, I want to make sure it's not too loud, or like, this is a weird show. I was very like, so I would like to make a loud stage. It's a loud show.

[24:46] Alison Luff: So then I was kind of nervous. And luckily, it we stopped around I had 20 something weeks, and that was like right when his they're like, your baby can hear everything. I'm like, okay, cool. We're gonna good thing the show is ending because he doesn't need to be a little bit more. It's a loud show, too.

[25:00] Heather Vickery: Yeah, that yeah, it really is.

[25:01] Alison Luff: I know it's very loud.

[25:03] Heather Vickery: Did Pete Townsend come back and was like, listen, we need to just turn this up.

[25:09] Alison Luff: No, that was Des. He is he likes things loud. And the one a really funny story is in Chicago, um, when we were working with the guns for the first time, you know, everyone is in the they, you know, they treat it very, you know, the safety is utmost importance, of course. And everyone has safety, um, like ear safety, you know, earphones and ear punks, thank you. And, you know, you're getting a lesson with it, and you're learning about everything and do's and don'ts, and you're learning about the weapon and you're learning about everything, and um it's a prop, and there's no like hole or anything, but they're still, you know, they're really, really loud, and you can load them to a certain amount, like it's called a quarter load or a half load or this.

And Des would just keep saying, like, what's that? He'd be like, it's a quarter load. It would be so loud, you guys, so loud. He'd be like, Let's do a half load. He would just keep making them louder, and then I look over at him and he has his airpods in his ears, because he's like was doing something, and I was like, Des I think you should take your AirPods out before you make any more decisions.

[26:11] Heather Vickery: I love that.

[26:19] Alison Luff: He would take it, but I was just like, you cannot make any more of these decisions, please, because you like things really loud, and I'm terrified.

[26:27] Heather Vickery: How was it?

[26:28] Alison Luff: Okay, go ahead, go ahead. I was just curious how it was working at the Goodman.

[26:31] Alison Luff: Oh gosh. I love what do you live in Chicago?

[26:33] Heather Vickery: I live in Chicago.

[26:34] Alison Luff: And I have had season tickets to the Goodman for 23 years. So we've seen everything that's come through.

[26:41] Heather Vickery: Yeah.

[26:41] Alison Luff: Oh, awesome. Um, well, working there was definitely like a bucket list moment for me. I've always wanted to work there because it's, you know, it's the Goodman.

[26:48] Heather Vickery: Yeah.

[26:49] Alison Luff: I've heard about it my whole life. Um, I loved working there. I loved the people were awesome. The crew there is so cool and like fan, you know, they're just really close and awesome and nice.

[27:01] Heather Vickery: And um some of the crew even came.

[27:03] Alison Luff: Oh, that's great.

[27:05] Heather Vickery: Yeah, which is cool. And yeah, I really enjoyed my time there. I I loved Chicago. I toured there with Mommy and Wicked. And I loved spending time in Chicago and or in Margaritaville. Did we go to Margaritaville?

[27:20] Alison Luff: Yeah, I think we went to Chicago for Margaritaville too. So I I really liked just spending time in Chicago. We were literally like right across the street from the theater. It was really convenient. And um, yeah, I loved it. I'd go back there in a heartbeat for sure.

[27:34] Heather Vickery: We would take you. We would love to have you back.

[27:37] Alison Luff: Well, so uh what I was leading into a while ago was you know, you went through this process and it it was just kizmed, everything just perfectly lined up to to get the family going how you wanted it and have everything happening, and then now the um as happens in show's life cycle, it closes at some point. So then going back to the original point of like just touching on the negative or touching on the sadness. Um I know some casts find out there's been horror stories about like be on a two show Saturday, they'll find out it be after their first show that that night show is their last show or something. Like it like in really extreme cases, right? But so for you, at least you guys were given this notice and then have you had several weeks.

[28:21] Alison Luff: I think I don't remember how long, a full month, I think, to play.

[28:26] Alison Luff: We had four weeks.

[28:27] Alison Luff: So like what does that go through? Tal talk about like what happens inside a cast when you're noticed, especially something that's this big and this important to so many people.

[28:36] Alison Luff: And um, you know, I heard one review of it uh unofficially called it's Boomer Heaven, right? So there's a there's a huge fan base for this.

[28:44] Alison Luff: Yeah.

[28:45] Alison Luff: So like what's going through that?

[28:47] Alison Luff: Well, it's for I mean, I for me personally, it's you know there's a mix, right?

[28:55] Alison Luff: So we have sixteen Broadway debuts in this cast, which makes it even more thrilling and exciting and special.

[29:02] Alison Luff: You know, the producers worked really hard not to mess with the alchemy too much of our Chicago production.

[29:08] Alison Luff: So not only do we have 16 Broadway debuts in this cast, people were getting their equity cards in this cast.

[29:13] Alison Luff: And it was just it's really special to be a part of that.

[29:16] Alison Luff: And then there's um some of us who've, you know, been in multiple shows and have had our closing notices and been through this experience before and gotten those emails that say, Hey, we're having a cast meeting.

[29:29] Alison Luff: We encourage everyone to be there.

[29:31] Alison Luff: Um and so I and then there's two sides of the spectrum of people that read reviews and look at numbers, you know, or how the show's selling every whatever day that is.

[29:44] Alison Luff: I am one of the people that doesn't read reviews or look at numbers.

[29:47] Alison Luff: I just I you know, I just can't do that.

[29:50] Alison Luff: And so but you can also see how you're selling by looking at the you know, audience every night.

[29:56] Alison Luff: And I was like, gosh, I really like I feel like the it doesn't I mean I've been in some shows that you can see that it looks empty and it doesn't feel that way with Tommy.

[30:06] Alison Luff: Um but you know I think that we were really fortunate to have the four to have four weeks which is awesome and I was expecting to go in going into that meeting.

[30:20] Alison Luff: I knew I knew when I got that email we got an email saying hey you know we'd like to have a company meeting and we encourage everybody to be there.

[30:28] Alison Luff: I was like oh shoot I think we're getting our closing notice I think it's awesome that we get four weeks because it look it it is a it is a stacked season on Broadway and there is so much to see and I think that we were the show to see for a while and then there's all these other shows that people want to see too and so I hope that everyone can get there in four weeks because it's a great show and um you know I think it's different.

[30:56] Alison Luff: I think it's timely I think it's supposed to be there you know be here and be told but the overall consensus of how everyone reacted was actually rather positive especially for the a cast of so many people who have never experienced this before.

[31:15] Alison Luff: I think everyone's just grateful to to have the month and to be able to give it a close out that that we deserve.

[31:21] Alison Luff: All that being said the pro like processing it is so different right I I this is my eighth Broadway show and I I'm usually someone who's very much like, okay, on to the next, like, you know, here we go.

[31:36] Alison Luff: And as much as I did have that attitude, I was still like, oh man, I'm I'm kind of bummed.

[31:41] Alison Luff: Like I wish it was like at least through the summer or through this, especially with a kid, you know, you're like, oh man, we got through all this and now we're just starting to find our groove.

[31:51] Alison Luff: And but then at the on the other on the flip side of that, I was like, oh cool, I get to be home for bedtime now.

[31:58] Alison Luff: You know, I was excited about that.

[32:00] Alison Luff: Yeah, there's it's so many mixed emotions.

[32:02] Alison Luff: And um, so I think the cast and the comp the crew overall are bummed that it's closing, but for the most part, I feel like has maintained a really great positive attitude of, well, we get four weeks, like let's go out with a bang.

[32:18] Alison Luff: It would have done such a huge disservice to us in the show had we not had the opportunity to have four more weeks, you know.

[32:26] Alison Luff: Absolutely.

[32:27] Alison Luff: I'm warn for the people that are understudying that won't get to go on, or you know, I I I kind of hold space for that because I've been in that position and it's a lot of hard work, and then to do that and not get and have dates and then us not get to those dates, I think that's a real bummer.

[32:43] Alison Luff: But uh dates to go on, yeah.

[32:45] Alison Luff: Yeah, like people had dates to go on, and you know, and you planned for that.

[32:51] Alison Luff: And yeah, so that that was I think that's a bummer, but everyone has a really great attitude about it, to be honest.

[32:56] Heather Vickery: Well, and with your approach of all things are leading in in the right direction, uh do you find yourself just really curious to see what happens next for you?

[33:07] Alison Luff: Yeah, I'm actually really excited.

[33:10] Alison Luff: I'm excited and open to whatever the next whatever is, you know, is next.

[33:16] Alison Luff: I haven't obviously I've not been auditioning because I've been tied to this show.

[33:20] Alison Luff: You know, we'll see.

[33:21] Alison Luff: I've well I've had a couple auditions now that we found out the notice, and but I'm also uh again, I I don't know if it's because I've been doing it since I was a kid.

[33:30] Alison Luff: I I have learned to really welcome and if anything came out of COVID for our industry and everyone else's industry, I've learned to really welcome the breaks.

[33:40] Alison Luff: And I learned to okay, how do I thrive and make myself better in in that space, especially now that I have a little boo and that I you know I'm like I don't have a break now, I have like a different job, but I'm kind of really stoked to full time that for a second until the next thing.

[33:56] Heather Vickery: Yeah, I mean, if you can handle a break, if that works for your family and for your lifestyle, then I'm sure it's probably well received.

[34:06] Heather Vickery: Um we're gonna take a quick break.

[34:09] Heather Vickery: Stay tuned for more of the episode.

[34:12] Heather Vickery: And now we're back.

[34:14] Heather Vickery: So I'm curious.

[34:15] Heather Vickery: Alan kind of knows a little bit more of your background, but our listeners probably don't.

[34:19] Heather Vickery: And so you said you've been acting since you were quite little, you didn't go to school for it.

[34:24] Heather Vickery: W can you share sort of when this for lack of a better term showed up intuition wise?

[34:31] Heather Vickery: You were like, This is the thing I'm gonna do, and what sort of chances you embraced that led you down this path that brought you to New York City in 2008, all that good stuff.

[34:41] Alison Luff: Yeah.

[34:41] Alison Luff: Um I first found out I wanted to do this when my parents took me to the pre-Broadway run of Beauty and the Beast, which was in Houston, and I saw it and immediately was like, I wanna do that.

[34:55] Alison Luff: And I know that feeling.

[34:56] Alison Luff: Yeah, and then saying around I mean, I don't remember this really.

[34:59] Alison Luff: I remember seeing the show, but I don't remember, you know, telling my parents this and all that.

[35:04] Alison Luff: But I said, I want to do this, and I would remember singing around singing all the time and being a ham and cheese sandwich all the time.

[35:15] Alison Luff: Um, and so you know, my again, I come from a family that nobody is in the industry.

[35:21] Alison Luff: So my mom literally went to the library and looked up how do you get involved?

[35:26] Alison Luff: And she's like, okay, so you can audition, and we need to print up sheet music and put it in a binder and like, oh, we have to take a picture that's this size, and like she, you know, and so I was really fortunate that my parents, you know, put me in um community theater, which led to my first professional theater because that director that I worked with went and did professional theater, and so I started professional theater when I was nine, and it just all I ever wanted to do.

[35:53] Alison Luff: I I was so laser focused and wanted and did nothing else and didn't have any interest in doing anything else, and felt very confident and had no reservations of sacrificing like going to prom and going to homecoming and going to graduation and things like that because I had two shows, or we could, you know, and I I wanted to move to New York in high school, and my mom was like, because they were doing um spring awakening in New York, you know, on Broadway.

[36:29] Alison Luff: I was like, I have to move to New York, they're doing spring awakening, and I'm a teenager mom, I'm right for this.

[36:34] Alison Luff: And she's like, Okay, you're gonna finish, and then you can go.

[36:38] Alison Luff: Like you have money saved, you can go.

[36:40] Alison Luff: Um, like I support you if you want to go, go.

[36:43] Alison Luff: Um, my parents had never even been to New York until I moved there.

[36:47] Alison Luff: Another crazy fact.

[36:48] Alison Luff: Um, they're they're still in Texas.

[36:51] Alison Luff: They're still in Texas.

[36:52] Alison Luff: Right.

[36:53] Alison Luff: Um and yeah, so they both neither of them had ever been to New York.

[36:57] Alison Luff: I went when I was 16 with my high school boyfriend and his mom and brother for a few days, but my parents had never been, but they fully supported me.

[37:06] Alison Luff: They were like, again, they had an unwavering trust that this is like her journey.

[37:11] Alison Luff: I I believe this.

[37:13] Alison Luff: And they supported me emotionally.

[37:16] Alison Luff: They couldn't do so financially, but they did emotionally, and they gave me sense of how to save money and how to get there and how to work for it.

[37:25] Alison Luff: And so I saved all my money.

[37:27] Alison Luff: I moved to New York in 2008.

[37:29] Alison Luff: Um I had an audition for a show that paid nothing.

[37:33] Alison Luff: It paid it was an equity showcase, so it paid, you know, a hundred and bucks maybe to get a subway card or something like that.

[37:40] Alison Luff: And I wasn't even equity.

[37:42] Alison Luff: Um, but I went there with an audition for that.

[37:46] Alison Luff: The next day I had a call back the next day.

[37:48] Alison Luff: I booked it, and that's what got me my agent, and that's what got me the next thing, and then you know, and the next thing and the next thing, and so that was kind of my path in.

[37:59] Alison Luff: And then a few years ago, this is this gonna blow your mind.

[38:05] Alison Luff: A few years ago, again, nobody in my family is in the industry, has ever been an actor, music, nothing.

[38:11] Alison Luff: A few years ago, my parents are like looking through a scrapbook or something, or like kind of find all these old things while they're going through the attic.

[38:20] Alison Luff: My dad finds my birth announcement in my birthday.

[38:25] Alison Luff: Like a newspaper birth announcement, no, that like my parents mail.

[38:28] Alison Luff: Like my dad made like a birth announcement, and it was a ticket.

[38:33] Alison Luff: Stop.

[38:34] Alison Luff: That says, like, uh it it was a theater ticket.

[38:39] Alison Luff: And my parents didn't even necessarily go to like theater before me, and it said starring Alice and Love.

[38:45] Alison Luff: Or it's is sh the show, It's a Girl starring Alice and Love.

[38:50] Alison Luff: And the ticket, like the seat was my weight, and like the row was my height.

[38:55] Alison Luff: And like it said no refunds.

[38:58] Alison Luff: It said it was it was a Broadway ticket.

[39:02] Alison Luff: And I was and my dad found this a few years ago.

[39:04] Alison Luff: I was like, what?

[39:05] Alison Luff: Do you remember this?

[39:06] Alison Luff: He's like, no, I don't remember this.

[39:08] Alison Luff: I made this when you were born.

[39:09] Alison Luff: I like I don't how bonkered is that.

[39:13] Heather Vickery: Definitely destined.

[39:14] Heather Vickery: What was that first professional show when you were nine?

[39:17] Alison Luff: It was Wizard of Oz.

[39:19] Heather Vickery: Great first show.

[39:20] Alison Luff: Dorothy and the Wizard of Oz.

[39:21] Heather Vickery: You were doing Dorothy, of course.

[39:23] Heather Vickery: Yeah.

[39:24] Heather Vickery: So the and you you came to New York for the showcase right after high school, you said, right?

[39:29] Alison Luff: I did.

[39:29] Alison Luff: So well, uh actually a year, a little more than a year or a little less than a year after I graduated high school.

[39:35] Alison Luff: So I auditioned for schools, but I had a a year and a half work of line up I had a year and a half of work lined up after high school of professional work of doing summer stock and just theaters around the area that I had worked at, you know, growing up.

[39:50] Alison Luff: And they were roles I really wanted to play.

[39:52] Alison Luff: And when I auditioned for high school or when I auditioned for college, I mentioned that to all the colleges, you know, like I have reservations.

[39:59] Alison Luff: I don't know if I want to go to school for four years because I've been saving money, I've been doing this professionally, and if I can't even audition for shows, like oh, that yeah, it's gonna be hard for me.

[40:10] Alison Luff: And I have a year and a half of like these roles I really want to play, and they're here and I have contracts for them, and unanimously every school I auditioned for said go to New York.

[40:21] Alison Luff: Yeah.

[40:22] Alison Luff: Just do it.

[40:22] Heather Vickery: I mean if if the opportunities were there, you don't squander them.

[40:26] Alison Luff: Yeah, and then multiple, which I thought was really cool.

[40:29] Alison Luff: Cause I'm like, hey, that gives me faith in like the fact that, you know, they're doing what they're, you know, they want you to succeed in even if you're not their student yet.

[40:38] Alison Luff: And um, and most of them held my scholarships for me, even and they're like, look, if you want to come back at this amount of time, you can.

[40:45] Alison Luff: But um, so I moved there.

[40:48] Alison Luff: I graduated in 07 and I moved to New York in 08.

[40:52] Alison Luff: So I finished doing the work there and saved up my money.

[40:56] Alison Luff: And oh 708, that was there was a writer's strike happening then too.

[41:00] Heather Vickery: So how did I wasn't that much in the loop?

[41:03] Alison Luff: I was just looking up backstage and going open calls, you know.

[41:07] Alison Luff: Like I remember that because that was that was when I moved to New York as well in 07, because uh there was a lull in auditions.

[41:15] Heather Vickery: The fact that you got where you got how you got got got got got got during the writer's strike when things are shut down and people aren't auditioning, is mind-blowingly impressive.

[41:26] Alison Luff: Well, thank you.

[41:27] Alison Luff: Thank you.

[41:30] Heather Vickery: That's insane.

[41:32] Heather Vickery: So then where did where what was the timeline behind um the first national tour of Wicked too?

[41:38] Alison Luff: Because that that's no small feat.

[41:39] Alison Luff: I mean So yeah, that was I you know, I moved to New York 2000.

[41:44] Alison Luff: I'm I'm really bad at dates, y'all.

[41:46] Alison Luff: I moved September 3rd, 2008, and then I did a couple show I did a show at Gallery Players, which was the equity showcase, and that's what got me my agent.

[41:56] Alison Luff: I auditioned, I was a part time nanny, and then um and then I got my equity card at Theater Aspen that summer.

[42:07] Alison Luff: Sounds terrible.

[42:08] Alison Luff: Sounds sounds horrible.

[42:09] Alison Luff: Yeah.

[42:10] Alison Luff: Awful place.

[42:11] Alison Luff: Just awful.

[42:12] Alison Luff: Especially for somebody who likes hiking.

[42:16] Alison Luff: Fell in love with Colorado.

[42:18] Alison Luff: I was like, why am I not living here doing theater?

[42:20] Alison Luff: But anyways, um, spent the summer doing theater there.

[42:23] Alison Luff: Actually, went back another summer into theater there too.

[42:26] Alison Luff: I love that place.

[42:27] Alison Luff: And then I booked Mama Mia was like my first big, you know, big contract with the uh the tour of Mama Mia.

[42:35] Alison Luff: And I auditioned multiple times for that as well. Because that was one that you just keep getting called in, and then you know, it's like another wicket, although Wicked worked out, I just had to go in once. But so I did Mamma Mia, and then we had I did Mamma Mia for a year, and then we had a layoff, and I auditioned for some things regionally. Here's another taking chances. Um, I auditioned for things we had a two-week layoff, and I auditioned for something regionally, and for the Mamma Mia tour, I was in the ensemble and I was understudying Sophie and Allie. And on that layoff, I auditioned for Next to Normal at a regional theater in Florida. And I was cast as Natalie, like the daughter, that's what her name is, right?

The daughter. And so I decided, you know what? I'm gonna leave the tour. I'm gonna leave this cushy contract, and I'm gonna go do a regional show that's gonna close in, you know, a month. Wow. And I put in my notice because I was like, I want to, I wanted I want to play a role, I want to play a lead, and I feel like it's the right move to do. So I put in my notice, and I think I was 21. And then when I when my agent called to put in my notice for me, casting said, Well, hold on one second. Called it, called, said, got off the phone, called them back and said, Does she want to make her Broadway debut? Her track is opening up on Broadway. What? So that's how I made my Broadway debut in Mamma Mia.

Well, you're just like, no. Putting in my notice on the tour to go do something regionally and getting to then go to the Broadway company. And which, and then I auditioned for Ghost and got Ghost right away. And so was only in the Broadway company for a couple months before I put in my notice and went to Ghost. And then, you know, one thing. And then Ghost was after that was Scandalous. And then, like I said, then that was Wicked audition and for the tour. And that was, I think I booked that when I was 20. I think I was 23. Um, this was all before you could rent a car. Right. Damn it. I don't even have a license, y'all. What even in Texas, you didn't get your license in high school? Fun fact.

It's another thing that I I didn't have time to go and get to go to driver's ed and do things like that. I was always working. And so it wasn't a and and that where I lived and where the theaters were, my parents were never gonna feel comfortable with me driving alone after a show late at night from downtown Houston to Spring, where I lived at 17, 18 years old. There no way. You know, they were like, no, we're driving you. That's you know, they weren't gonna let me be alone. And you know, there it wasn't the best area of town where some of the theaters were in. So and then I moved to New York and I didn't need one. And now I have a kid and I live in an RV and I need to get a license.

[45:34] Heather Vickery: Wait, you live in an RV?

[45:36] Alison Luff: Yeah, so whenever we're not so I have this apartment for a while, I'm doing Tommy, but I I was I moved out of New York during the pandemic and bought an RV with my husband and renovated it and have been doing that life.

[45:51] Heather Vickery: Wow. Wait wow. Where's the where is the best place? Where's your favorite place you've traveled to so far in the RV?

[45:57] Alison Luff: Ooh, probably Granby, Colorado is really cool. Oh I I loved that. We went to this place called Granby, Colorado, and was on a lake, and then we went this on this hike, and we you know, we drove the RV up to the trailhead, parked it, and then went on this eight-mile hike to this place called Strawberry Lake, which funny enough, um, when I was in labor, they said, you know, this exercise that I heard to do was like picturing a place. I don't think I ever really used that exercise during labor, but they're like picture your your place, like your safe place, your happy place. And it was Strawberry Lake. So I would probably say Strawberry Lake is the coolest place.

[46:38] Heather Vickery: Oh wow. That's so cool.

[46:39] Alison Luff: That's that is so cool. I've never heard a story like that before.

[46:44] Heather Vickery: Yeah.

[46:46] Alison Luff: That is really neat. I d I mean that's just embracing the opportunity of you know not being tied to to New York. And then now one of the one of the silver linings, I think, of what has happened in the last few years is that the industry is comfortable now with self tapes, remote auditions, whatever the case is. And I know there's a whole camp of people. I acknowledge that there's a camp of people who can't stand self tapes because they're hard. It makes you have to be everything else. A love hate relationship. There's pros to it and there are major cons to it for sure. It's it's just really annoying when you have to like obviously I didn't even have headphones before this, you know. Like if we're somebody who's not techno, you know, very great with technology, it can it can be it or people that don't have a reader, like I'm lucky I have a husband who's an actor and I always have like a built-in reader, you know.

[47:38] Heather Vickery: It's yeah, it it's a double edged sword for sure.

[47:41] Alison Luff: Now how do you balance his professional career with yours?

[47:45] Heather Vickery: And a baby. No pressure. Two career two careers and a baby starring Tom Selling.

[47:52] Alison Luff: Again, it well, communication. Yeah. I mean the classic communication, right? Trust and uh for me it's finding grace for one another because it is hard. It's hard being two actors, it's hard um having two different careers, two different trajectories, two different, you know, paths, being in two different places in your career like it it it is it's it's crazy sometimes. But um leaving space for where each other where each other is at, you know, and and stepping up when you have to and and taking the back seat when you have or you know, when it's right and I think that's something that is like a constant effort that we have to put in and like something that we have to constantly like learn and and grow with.

Uh but I will say it's interesting since we met. So far it's kind of always aligned that like when I'm working, he's kind of in between gigs. And then whenever he's working, I am miraculously in between my gigs. It kind of keeps falling that way, which is which which has been really great, but it's not always gonna be that way and it isn't always that way. Um, but for the most part it has been. And you know, I I know that that was a big that was a big thing with with having a kid of, you know, things that my husband and I would talk about of like, okay, well, it was important for my husband also to be like, I know that I'm gonna want to be with him all the time, but I also know primally, I'm gonna wanna also be the one working and doing these things, and you're doing this job, and so we are figuring out that balance and um, you know, it's really hard for me to miss bedtime, you know, and he's taking care of bedtime right now, but he's been auditioning like crazy and now our show's closing.

So what's about to happen is I know exactly what's about to well, we say that, but you never know what's gonna happen. But so far it's kind of always worked out that we we really kind of take turns, which real blessing. I don't know how that's worked out, but it has.

[49:57] Heather Vickery: That's very cool.

[49:58] Alison Luff: Yeah, very cool.

[49:59] Heather Vickery: All right, one more quick break. Hang on a second.

[50:01] Alison Luff: All right, here's the rest of the episode. Now, having a lot of uh solid experience in TV and film and then uh Broadway, given that um, you know, with this few months left to see or a few weeks left to see Tommy, uh are you gonna focus on one avenue over the other or just kind of like unplug for a bit because like going back into rehearsals were also some of the hardest part of putting up a show and four weeks postpartum. That's insane.

[50:28] Alison Luff: So I think you would want to just like nap for a hot minute. But then what? You know, um we've been fortunate too the last few months. My husband's been filming things here and there, and luckily we have family in um New Jersey that can help with the baby if he's filming and I'm working and things like that. And so now I'm we're about to take when I'm about to be on this break, I I definitely um I feel fortunate that I can embrace this break and I I'm gonna allow myself to embrace the break. But it's I I just again it's that trust. I know when the right thing is gonna happen, it's gonna happen. Um, Heels the TV show that we've talked about before it's actually got picked up by or it's going to be on Netflix.

So the first two seasons are gonna be on Netflix. Thank you. And so hopefully enough eyeballs get on that that you know that they'll want to renew again and that would be awesome and maybe we could get a third season or something that would be you know ooh that'd be a dream. Chef's kiss.

[51:34] Heather Vickery: Yeah yeah I filmed something else called um Powerbook 2 Ghost which is also on stars and that's currently airing and so I'm just gonna kinda chill back and kind of let those things that I've already done see what happens with those and obviously audition but when it comes to like what avenue I'm gonna go about I kind of always just take the path presented to me. But I I as we've talked about I don't have a problem saying I have the luxury right now of saying no and it would have to be the right job theatric or theater wise for me to take it and timing wise with my family. And you know TV and film it has you can have longer days but you have two days off on the weekend and you've got more holy you know you have a bit more of a flexible schedule. Theater is not to show the secrets but theater is way harder.

[52:28] Heather Vickery: Yeah I was gonna just it it's it's so much more, you know.

[52:34] Alison Luff: Uh in my opinion, um it it's it it's not for the faint of heart, and I but it's my favorite thing to do. I absolutely love doing it. But it I think it's just gotta be the right gig, and I'm gonna just gonna take the path presented to me. I want to work, and I I definitely have uh I had a working mom and I like being a working mom. Um, but it's gotta be the right thing. You know, I don't know what it'll be, whether I also want to focus on our music. My husband and I have a band together and we have an album out, and I want to play out more, and so I want to do some more writing and we'll just see.

[53:08] Heather Vickery: Tell us about the album really quickly.

[53:11] Alison Luff: Like, yeah, when did you do that? Um, we recorded that in 2019, released it in 2020 or 2021. I don't know. All you know, around that time, all everything blends together. Like what year? Um but yeah, we have an album out, it's available on all streaming platforms. Um our band is called Big Sur as in the place. B-I-G-S-U-R Big Sur Bound. Um, and our our album is called Bones. And again, it's on all streaming platforms, and we have an Instagram as well that we need to show up more on. Maybe that maybe that's on the to-do list. Awesome.

[53:26] Heather Vickery: But yeah.

[53:53] Alison Luff: I'm looking, I'm looking. I know we're both looking it up right now.

[53:58] Heather Vickery: That's cool. Now, did you did you two always know you wanted to make music together?

[54:02] Alison Luff: Or did that happen sort of serendipitously as well?

[54:05] Alison Luff: Um, that was a I mean, to uh to make a long story short, we we have absolutely insane story. We met a week late, we met doing a show that he wasn't even supposed to do. He replaced somebody last minute the first day of tech rehearsals a week before our first preview. Wow for a show. Um, okay. I don't know how much I'm gonna try to make this very brief. I along the line with saying no again. Here we go. I had just finished Matilda on Broadway, and the opportunity to do Les Mis on Broadway came up, and the opportunity to go do a show to play Fantine in Les Mis came up, and an opportunity to go originate a role at Pasadena Playhouse in this musical called Breaking Through came up. And I was like, you know what?

I want to go do this show in California because I want to originate, I want to this to show that I play guitar, I want to go do this. Needless to say, the show did not break through. And so I said, No to something that was more promising job to go do this. However, I met my husband doing it. He wasn't supposed to do it a week later, or he replaced somebody, and we met a week later, we decided to get married. What? Yeah? I was our first kiss. The first night we said I love you, and the night we decided we should get married. A month later, when the show closed, we eloped, which was also around the same time Les Mis called and said, Hey, do you want to come do it? Do you want to be do it next?

And I was like, Yes. So again, saying no, being brave, taking chances. Was it the path to be my first original Broadway lead? No, but I met my husband doing it, and that was eight years ago, over eight years ago. And so to answer your question about the music, we were playing both, we were playing the singer-songwriter on the show. We both always wrote music, and we started sharing our music, and then we would start writing together, and we would find that like songs that I started writing five years ago would match songs that he had had written that we'd put them together and we kind of came up with this huge album and we wrote new songs and we were in little you know had wonderful love and just made music together.

And so yeah music has been we've called it we call it our third it's kind of always been like this thing. In fact we wrote a song the night we eloped called Little Lamb about our future child and it was we were never like we're gonna have babies.

[56:39] Alison Luff: It was always something like maybe we'll have kids. I don't know. We'll see and then of course a few years down the road it turned into yeah probably and then you know about a year ago we were like yeah we do want kids so and you did that quick yeah little lamb is about a future baby. We did that all well we were married for but I mean from deciding over seven years. Yeah we really want to to having a six month old yeah oh yes we were very fortunate yes yeah we were that have been pretty great for us so I love Jesus.

[57:10] Heather Vickery: Wow what a what a love story a week end that's impressive like that's old school that's wild.

[57:19] Alison Luff: Yeah I mean it's like a book maybe you should write a novel that's not you know fully made up right just write it all about you call it yeah call it uh lo loving babies in a week but it it teaches you a lot about yourself which is where I came up with the whole like you know it is a con I I always have reservations now telling people sometimes our love story because it you know it's it doesn't mean that it doesn't come without it.

[57:45] Heather Vickery: Sure.

[57:46] Alison Luff: Like I said, your work and like your choices and you're like showing up and you're having a like mind of like intentionality and like what you know you're what things are meant to be and you know choosing to attach your bubble to somebody and grow with them.

[58:00] Heather Vickery: And I love your bubble.

[58:01] Alison Luff: I think that's a personality work, you know.

[58:04] Heather Vickery: Yeah.

[58:05] Alison Luff: Huh.

[58:06] Heather Vickery: I am still impressed.

[58:08] Alison Luff: And it's crazy.

[58:09] Heather Vickery: Okay.

[58:09] Alison Luff: So then I think you've answered this partially already, but um just overall do you have a relationship? What is your relationship with failure?

[58:17] Alison Luff: Um and don't say you get married after a week.

[58:23] Alison Luff: My relationship with failure, um I think something that I've learned about myself is that I can obviously be really hard on myself and I can be a perfectionist, you know, and you can't really be a perfectionist in art because there's no such thing as you know perfection.

[58:42] Alison Luff: And probably in anything I don't know. I I can be really hard on myself and just like be really disappo I can be very disappointed in myself.

[58:50] Alison Luff: But but when it comes to like using the word failure again not to sound cliche I think I've had a always had a pretty good relationship with that and it comes from my mom kind of being like you have a day.

[59:01] Alison Luff: Yeah you get a day and then you gotta you gotta move on.

[59:06] Alison Luff: And I don't know if that works for everybody but it rele definitely it definitely works for me, you know, and and learning about just like the industry and kind of um learning when it's not personal and when it's just business took a long time for me to I've never felt like I'm I've been in the cool kids club you know for the industry.

[59:27] Alison Luff: I think maybe it's because I didn't go to a fancy school or I didn't do these things that kind of got you there.

[59:32] Alison Luff: But for a while I was I I think I was like, Am I getting overlooked? Am I getting this?

[59:37] Alison Luff: And I don't know.

[59:39] Alison Luff: Um now I'm just on a tangent.

[59:41] Alison Luff: But my relationship with failure, I think is uh yeah, just trying to not cling to it and just again let it okay, you know, be bummed and then do its thing.

[59:53] Alison Luff: Move on.

[59:54] Alison Luff: Because I could be really disappointed in myself.

[59:56] Alison Luff: Like I can I can have a bad show and just be said something that I I love, and he always would tell us in rehearsals, don't look back.

[1:00:05] Alison Luff: Like if you mess up and if and it sounds so cliche and it sounds like something that is a no-brainer, but something that is really resonated with me that I'm like gonna use for a while because I have a tendency to do that, and I have a tendency to like not sing something the way that I liked in a show or mess up or go to the white room and not remember something and then cling to it and be like, oh, so it's gonna be one of these shows.

[1:00:28] Alison Luff: I'm just gonna have a horrible show, and I have people here, and oh, this is just gonna be such a bad show.

[1:00:33] Alison Luff: I'm having a bad show, versus being like, Oh no, I messed up and right now.

[1:00:37] Alison Luff: We're on the train and it has kept moving and we're moving and don't look back, and I love that.

[1:00:42] Alison Luff: So I'm gonna try to take that with me.

[1:00:44] Heather Vickery: Yeah.

[1:00:46] Heather Vickery: That's beautiful.

[1:00:47] Heather Vickery: And just remember that there are no mistakes, right?

[1:00:49] Heather Vickery: That it's everything you've already been saying.

[1:00:52] Heather Vickery: So you're gonna quote unquote mess something up here in this one thing, but there's maybe a reason.

[1:00:58] Heather Vickery: Like maybe I don't know, right?

[1:01:00] Heather Vickery: What's the reason that that thing is it led you down this path versus getting it nailed it?

[1:01:05] Alison Luff: Yeah, that's true.

[1:01:06] Alison Luff: And I think it's something I have to learn with with motherhood too, because yes, friend you and and with this role, and with this role, right?

[1:01:14] Alison Luff: It this if if Mrs. Walker is, you know, there I feel like the result of her son being the way it is is from just a couple clumsy decisions, like split decisions of how to, you know, wrong split decisions.

[1:01:31] Alison Luff: And so I, you know, I do find that like, gosh, I don't want to mess up.

[1:01:35] Alison Luff: Like I want to be, I want to be like the best mom.

[1:01:35] Alison Luff: I want to be this, I want to be that.

[1:01:39] Alison Luff: And I'm like, okay, perfection doesn't exist.

[1:01:41] Alison Luff: So what you know, and I remember a couple days ago, like just being in, you know, Matthew and I, my husband, we have a re we have really beautiful communication, which is probably why we are the way that we are, and our love is the way it is.

[1:01:55] Alison Luff: But it doesn't, you know, we still have our moments of discord.

[1:01:58] Alison Luff: And I remember just being like, oh gosh, I wasn't my highest self when I was like talking to him in that moment, and Levi was right there, and I was so like ashamed and disappointed in myself for like being snippy, you know, just like being human.

[1:02:11] Heather Vickery: I was gonna say, yeah, human, yeah.

[1:02:13] Alison Luff: And but I I think that that's something that I I'm gonna learn a lot from this new stage of my life.

[1:02:21] Alison Luff: Um, you know, I will tell you not being perfect and being like, okay, well, I think the best parents that I know recognize that they're going to make mistakes, they admit that they've made them, they apologize when it's necessary, and they don't hold it against themselves or their kids.

[1:02:38] Alison Luff: Holding yourself to a perfectionist state as a parent will lead to an awful lot of trauma.

[1:02:43] Heather Vickery: Something that I that I've leaned into too along those lines, is after I am snippy with my kids or I get overly upset with them because of something else coming up.

[1:02:54] Heather Vickery: Because it's not usually their fault.

[1:02:55] Heather Vickery: Yeah, they're in there's they're just in the wrong place at the right wrong time, and all they want is my attention to hang out and play and be loved.

[1:03:03] Heather Vickery: And so I've just come out of a tumultuous conversation with somebody else that's put me in a bad mood, and they get the brunt of it, is that I go back afterwards and I explain what happened, I tell them it's not their fault.

[1:03:16] Heather Vickery: I say that like I'm not perfect.

[1:03:19] Heather Vickery: I I just try to be transparent about the fact that they did not cause me to be upset.

[1:03:25] Alison Luff: Yeah, you're not.

[1:03:26] Heather Vickery: And it seems to my younger one, especially is very emotion on the sleeve sort of guy.

[1:03:33] Heather Vickery: And and he gets it.

[1:03:35] Heather Vickery: Uh he gets it a lot.

[1:03:36] Heather Vickery: He seems to understand it because at first he was like, Yeah, I thought you didn't love me.

[1:03:39] Heather Vickery: He said that one.

[1:03:40] Heather Vickery: I was like, no, no, no, no.

[1:03:42] Heather Vickery: And then you're just like, you're heartbroken.

[1:03:44] Alison Luff: Yeah.

[1:03:44] Heather Vickery: I'm like, I will never stop.

[1:03:46] Heather Vickery: I just get angry sometimes.

[1:03:47] Alison Luff: I'm so sorry.

[1:03:49] Heather Vickery: Yeah.

[1:03:49] Heather Vickery: Yeah.

[1:03:49] Alison Luff: And my best friend said something that I loved too once.

[1:03:52] Alison Luff: She was, you know, she grew up, her she saw her parents fight a lot.

[1:03:57] Alison Luff: I didn't I didn't see my parents really in in discord a lot.

[1:04:01] Alison Luff: Didn't mean they didn't have it, right?

[1:04:03] Alison Luff: But I didn't see it all the time.

[1:04:06] Alison Luff: And my best friend saw her parents in constant discord.

[1:04:15] Alison Luff: And I remember she when she was like, you know, and she's raising her kids and she was telling her husband, like, I do not want to fight in front of my kids.

[1:04:15] Alison Luff: I do not want to fight in front of my kids.

[1:04:23] Heather Vickery: And her husband said something that I'm like, oh, that was amazing.

[1:04:26] Alison Luff: He was like, No, I want to to teach them healthy discord.

[1:04:30] Alison Luff: Like I do want to have disagreements in front of them so they can like learn healthy discord.

[1:04:35] Heather Vickery: Yeah.

[1:04:35] Alison Luff: And I'm like, oh, that's so smart.

[1:04:37] Alison Luff: Like, because you're gonna have it, you know.

[1:04:39] Heather Vickery: Yeah.

[1:04:39] Alison Luff: And you're gonna have disagreements with your kids.

[1:04:41] Alison Luff: You know, I'm not there yet because he's six months old, and you know, of course he could do no wrong at this moment.

[1:04:46] Heather Vickery: Of course not.

[1:04:47] Alison Luff: Yeah.

[1:04:48] Heather Vickery: But yeah, I love that.

[1:04:49] Heather Vickery: I love you know just be tender with yourself and with the process.

[1:04:55] Alison Luff: Yeah.

[1:04:55] Alison Luff: Just from where I sit.

[1:04:56] Alison Luff: You know, almost 20 years later, like, oof, it's a you embrace your humanness.

[1:05:02] Alison Luff: And maybe you'll become a pinball wizard.

[1:05:04] Heather Vickery: And maybe he will become a pinball.

[1:05:05] Alison Luff: Maybe, but maybe not in the way that Tommy became a pinball wizard.

[1:05:10] Heather Vickery: How about so where can we find you?

[1:05:16] Alison Luff: How do we connect with you?

[1:05:17] Alison Luff: Hear your music and everything.

[1:05:20] Alison Luff: So on Instagram, we're Big Sir Bound official.

[1:05:24] Alison Luff: Um, I think Big Sur Bound was taken probably.

[1:05:26] Alison Luff: So we're the official ones.

[1:05:28] Alison Luff: Oh that's right.

[1:05:29] Alison Luff: And my Instagram is just my name, Alison Luff, A L I S O N L U F F.

[1:05:36] Alison Luff: Um, and yeah, you can find me there, and I'm I go in.

[1:05:40] Alison Luff: I I I'm not I'm not great with social media.

[1:05:42] Alison Luff: I go in my waves of when this is right for me and when it's not.

[1:05:46] Heather Vickery: Yeah, good for you.

[1:05:47] Alison Luff: Do I want to share?

[1:05:48] Alison Luff: Do I not want to share?

[1:05:49] Alison Luff: Nah, I don't want to share.

[1:05:51] Alison Luff: Um, but with our music, we gotta be better about it.

[1:05:53] Alison Luff: And I um I'm hoping that we play out more.

[1:05:56] Alison Luff: And so, especially now that the show is closing, and it's an opportunity to do that, and that will all be posted on our both of our social media.

[1:06:05] Heather Vickery: So I love it.

[1:06:06] Heather Vickery: Thank you so much, Alison.

[1:06:08] Heather Vickery: It was really great to get to meet you.

[1:06:10] Heather Vickery: Congrats on your sweet baby.

[1:06:11] Heather Vickery: And you were amazing in Tommy in Chicago.

[1:06:15] Heather Vickery: I'm so delighted that I got the chance to see you and see the show.

[1:06:17] Alison Luff: You're amazing in Tommy in New York.

[1:06:19] Alison Luff: I saw you there too.

[1:06:20] Heather Vickery: I know I haven't seen it.

[1:06:21] Alison Luff: So it's really awesome talking to y'all.

[1:06:22] Alison Luff: I really enjoyed this conversation.

[1:06:25] Heather Vickery: Thank you.

[1:06:25] Alison Luff: Well, tell your friends to come listen.

[1:06:28] Heather Vickery: All right, I'll be able to do it.

[1:06:29] Alison Luff: I will, I will for sure.

[1:06:30] Heather Vickery: Thank you for having me.

[1:06:34] Alan Seales: I love how Zen she is.

[1:06:36] Alan Seales: How she's like, Yeah, no, I have no problem saying no.

[1:06:40] Alan Seales: First of all, she didn't say saying yes.

[1:06:42] Alan Seales: She said saying no.

[1:06:43] Alan Seales: I was like, okay, badass.

[1:06:45] Alan Seales: But also just sort of really trusting that the process is taking her in the right place and her body and her intuition.

[1:06:52] Alan Seales: And man, I wish more people could tap into that.

[1:06:55] Alan Seales: What a gift.

[1:06:56] Alan Seales: And I did not know this.

[1:06:59] Alan Seales: I already interviewed her years ago.

[1:07:00] Alan Seales: Like I started out, I mentioned actually, I don't think it was recording.

[1:07:04] Alan Seales: Before we started recording, I reminded her that I interviewed her on my solo pod years ago for heels.

[1:07:09] Alan Seales: And she had not brought up her story with her husband, getting married after a week.

[1:07:16] Heather Vickery: I know.

[1:07:17] Alan Seales: And they're still together eight years later with a kid and happy, and like that's just phenomenal.

[1:07:22] Alan Seales: Talk about trusting your intuition.

[1:07:24] Heather Vickery: Yeah.

[1:07:25] Alan Seales: Or following your intuition.

[1:07:26] Alan Seales: Insane.

[1:07:28] Alan Seales: It's beautiful.

[1:07:29] Alan Seales: And she says no to big things just because she feels she needs to.

[1:07:33] Alan Seales: And then right around the corner, something else falls in her lap.

[1:07:36] Alan Seales: I think she's got like some divine channel to something that I wish I had.

[1:07:41] Heather Vickery: Absolutely.

[1:07:42] Alan Seales: She absolutely does.

[1:07:42] Alan Seales: And yes, of course, Alison, if you're listening this far, I want to read your human design chart.

[1:07:47] Alan Seales: Of course I do.

[1:07:48] Alan Seales: Um, there are things I know.

[1:07:50] Alan Seales: There are things I know for sure just by talking to her.

[1:07:53] Alan Seales: Um, but it was lovely.

[1:07:55] Alan Seales: And uh, you know, it's a bummer that Tommy is closing so soon, but she's been doing this role now for quite some time, and so things happen you know the way they want to.

[1:08:07] Heather Vickery: I can't wait to see what she does next.

[1:08:08] Alan Seales: Yeah, maybe it's blacklist.

[1:08:10] Alan Seales: I don't know where that credit came from, but take it out of the maybe it's we gotta take it out of the um written bio.

[1:08:19] Heather Vickery: Yeah, don't say it in the written by show notes.

[1:08:22] Alan Seales: But we can leave it in here for the lulls, leave it in the audio.

[1:08:26] Heather Vickery: For the lulz.

[1:08:27] Alan Seales: In the lulls, the raffle copers.

[1:08:28] Heather Vickery: Who would make fun of you for that?

[1:08:30] Alan Seales: Everyone.

[1:08:31] Alan Seales: James Harkness.

[1:08:33] Alan Seales: And so many other people.

[1:08:38] Heather Vickery: But you know what?

[1:08:39] Heather Vickery: No.

[1:08:39] Alan Seales: IDK.

[1:08:41] Alan Seales: This is super random, but I just listened to Karma.

[1:08:45] Alan Seales: Which is Boy George's well, yes, Boyd George's most recent memoir.

[1:08:49] Alan Seales: Oh.

[1:08:51] Alan Seales: And and he said lol whenever he like it's as James would say.

[1:08:56] Alan Seales: This goes back to our very first episode ever.

[1:08:59] Alan Seales: As James would say, instead of just laughing.

[1:09:04] Alan Seales: Lol.

[1:09:05] Alan Seales: Well.

[1:09:06] Alan Seales: Lol.

[1:09:07] Alan Seales: Acklol.

[1:09:08] Alan Seales: I do aclol.

[1:09:09] Alan Seales: If I'm actually laughing out loud, I type aclow.

[1:09:12] Alan Seales: Because I want you to know it's real and legit.

[1:09:16] Heather Vickery: Acklol.

[1:09:18] Alan Seales: That's something that my bestie Matt started years ago, and I just tagged onto it.

[1:09:23] Heather Vickery: Acklow.

[1:09:23] Alan Seales: Oh, that's funny.

[1:09:25] Alan Seales: Okay.

[1:09:25] Heather Vickery: Well, if you're act lulling, how can they reach out and tell us about it, Heather?

[1:09:29] Heather Vickery: They can.

[1:09:30] Heather Vickery: You know, we are on the socials.

[1:09:31] Heather Vickery: We are.

[1:09:32] Heather Vickery: And we are we are on Instagram at threads at wasitchance.

[1:09:37] Heather Vickery: And we engage.

[1:09:38] Heather Vickery: It's just us here on the back end saying hi.

[1:09:41] Heather Vickery: I know, right?

[1:09:42] Heather Vickery: Doing the robot, which you can't see Alan attempting to do, but he's trying to do it.

[1:09:46] Alan Seales: Shouldery roly.

[1:09:47] Heather Vickery: There we go.

[1:09:48] Heather Vickery: The shouldery rolly thing.

[1:09:49] Heather Vickery: Yeah.

[1:09:49] Heather Vickery: Um you can email us.

[1:09:51] Heather Vickery: It's wasitchance podcast at gmail.com.

[1:09:55] Alan Seales: Is that right?

[1:09:56] Heather Vickery: That's right.

[1:09:56] Heather Vickery: I never send our email.

[1:10:00] Heather Vickery: Find us on the web at wasitchance.com.

[1:10:03] Heather Vickery: Wherever you're listening to the show, do us a favor and go and give that five-star review.

[1:10:10] Heather Vickery: Tell us what you love about it.

[1:10:12] Heather Vickery: Subscribe, follow, share, all that good stuff.

[1:10:15] Heather Vickery: We work really hard and we hope that you appreciate it.

[1:10:18] Heather Vickery: And as always, we're really grateful that you are here with us today.

[1:10:22] Heather Vickery: So, folks, you've been listening to Was It Chance, the podcast about embracing opportunity and taking intentional risk for your creative life.

[1:10:28] Heather Vickery: I'm Heather Vickery.

[1:10:30] Alan Seales: And I'm Alan Seales.

[1:10:32] Heather Vickery: We'll talk to y'all soon.

[1:10:33] Alan Seales: Bye-bye.