Allie Trimm’s Wicked Journey to Playing Glinda on Broadway

Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:04):
What is Up, Runner Gang, Welcome back to Post run High.
Today's guest is a Broadway star, the one and only
Ali Trim, who's currently playing Glinda in Wicket on Broadway.
She's been performing since she was a kid, from thirteen
the musical To Buye by Bertie, and even a supporting
role in the Marvelous Missus Masel, and now she's taking
the stage in one of the most iconic roles in theater.
What I love most about this conversation is that Ali

(00:25):
isn't just talented, she knows how to do the work.
She's been showing up, putting in the reps, and growing
with this industry since she was a young girl. This
podcast is all about inspiring conversations that start with movement,
because we believe movement opens people up in ways nothing
else does. And today we went for a little run
slash walk through Brooklyn before sitting down. In this conversation,
we talked about what it was like growing up in

(00:46):
the spotlight, the effects that early success can have on
child stars, and the mindset it takes to stay grounded
through the chaos and magic of Broadway. Ali's story is
such a beautiful reminder of what can happen when you
just keep moving, both on on stage and all. And
for my fellow Wicked fans, a few months ago, you
might remember we had Mary Kate Morrissey on the show
who played Alphaba on Broadway. So getting to sit down

(01:08):
with both Witches of Oz has been a total dream
come true for me. So you guys will have to
let me know who else from the cast you want
me to run and talk with next.

Speaker 2 (01:16):
We've got great.

Speaker 1 (01:17):
Episodes coming up, so please make sure you follow the
show wherever you get your podcasts. All right, let's get
our post run High going. Ali Trim, Welcome to Post
Run High. I'm so happy to be here. I am

(01:38):
so happy to be sitting down with you. We've talked
about this a little bit off camera, but I have
had Mary Kate Morrissey, one of the former alpha buzz
on Wicked, on with me before, so to be able
to sit down with the current Glinda on Broadway is
just incredible.

Speaker 2 (01:53):
Thank you.

Speaker 3 (01:53):
Yeah, I'm so excited to be here, and I'm so
glad that you got to interview Mka.

Speaker 1 (01:58):
She's awesome. Yeah, we get a little taste of the
alphabe world, and now we're going to enter into the
world to Linda. Yeah, and I just want to say
congratulations on landing the lead role.

Speaker 2 (02:09):
Thank you.

Speaker 3 (02:10):
It's so crazy, like sometimes I wake up and I think,
oh man, another day, I got to get my voice ready,
got to get my body ready. And then sometimes I
wake up and I'm like, wait a second, I have
to really stay present for this year because it's going
to go by like that, and you spend your whole
life working towards one thing, and I just have to

(02:33):
keep reminding myself to like actually enjoy it because it's
a hard job and I care a lot about doing
it well. So I'm trying to find the balance of.

Speaker 1 (02:41):
Yeah, of course it's like you're exhausted, but at the
same time, it's this crazy exciting period of your life
and you have to enjoy every second of it.

Speaker 2 (02:49):
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (02:49):
We started this show with a walk right before this
guy's can go watch our walk on my Instagram and
Ali's Instagram. This show is all about movement physically, mental, emotionally,
and just with people on the pursuit of greatness, which
you so are an example of that. But I want
to start with movement physically because as Glinda on Broadway,

(03:11):
you're moving a lot. The Gershwin Theater is one of
the oldest theaters on Broadway. It's a raked stage. You
guys are constantly running around. You've got to keep your
voice right. You've got to physically have the stamina to
be running and singing on stage. So like, what does
movement look like in your life? How do you prioritize
it off stage? And yeah, just walk us through that.

Speaker 3 (03:30):
I kind of trained leading up to the show. I
had a break between being with the show as the
Glinda standby and then coming in full time. So in
my time away, first of all, I didn't know if
I would ever come back.

Speaker 2 (03:42):
To the show. I did re audition for the job.

Speaker 3 (03:45):
But once I found out I was going to be
coming back, I kind of had like, Okay, I've got
three months to get some routine ready and to get
my body and my voice ready.

Speaker 2 (03:56):
And I did that as best as I could. But
then once you start.

Speaker 3 (03:58):
The eighth show schedule, well I felt like, oh gosh,
this is where that routine really comes in handy and
it's hard to maintain. But for me, a lot of
my outside of the show life is very gentle and slow,
especially right now, I'm like three months into the contract
and I've already had like two injuries, so it's definitely took.

(04:22):
You know, it's shaken up my body a little bit.
Like you said, the stage is raked, which means it's
a like a slight incline, and then you're in heels,
and then you're in these really heavy dresses and costumes,
and you're just running around for two and a half
hours or like a little more than that, sometimes twice
a day. So it is just kind of like a

(04:43):
full on workout. It's a lot of cardio too. Your
heart rate is up, the adrenaline is pumping, so I personally,
I don't have a ton of steam left over on
the beginning or the end to like really move my body,
but I have to do some thing gentle otherwise everything
will just kind of like harden and sees up over time.

(05:05):
So I'm still kind of figuring it out, honestly.

Speaker 1 (05:08):
I mean, it totally makes sense. Also, I feel like
the performance is enough of a workout. You don't need
to be doing cardio outside of running around for two
hours on stage and singing and dancing, and you guys
literally train like professional athletes.

Speaker 3 (05:20):
I feel like, yeah, especially singing. I mean, that's been
what my biggest focus has been on, is my vocal
health with the show, because Glinda is kind of all
over the vocal map. She's like opens the show in
these super high, beautiful color tourist soprano notes and then
pretty quickly shifts gears into a little bit more of

(05:43):
a belty spoken singing range. And then by the end
of the show she's she's holding the alto notes, so
she kind of covers the whole map, and she got range,
She's got range, and she's got like a huge emotional arc.
So she's got to play Glinda for those three hours.

(06:04):
You really do have to put your heart into it,
otherwise it just looks and feels phony. And I have
not figured out how to do a show where I
don't really feel that I'm like in it. I've literally
been given the advice to like find a way to
do a show sustainably so that you can maintain, you know,

(06:24):
some ease, and the audience can't tell the difference, But
in my mind, I'm like, yes, they can, like if
I'm phoning it in at all or.

Speaker 2 (06:33):
Just marking it or like going through going through.

Speaker 3 (06:37):
The motions at all. I just feel like everyone's gonna
see it, and so it doesn't work for me. I
can't like figure it out. It's like all or nothing.
And that's been another thing too, is I've been like,
if I don't feel that I have the all, I
just call out and rest because I assume, okay, my
body probably needs to rest or something must be wrong

(06:59):
if I don't have of my all.

Speaker 2 (07:01):
So I don't even know. I don't know if that's
the right way to go about it.

Speaker 3 (07:04):
But I care about the show so much, and I
care about the quality of the performance so much that
I've noticed like, if I don't think I can deliver
exactly what I want, then I would rather let the
stand by, who you know, I was the standby for
a long time, just do a great show. So I'm
learning a lot, yeah, learning a lot about my what

(07:27):
this means about my perfectionism, and what this means about
being flexible as an artist.

Speaker 1 (07:33):
I don't know, no, and I feel like that's so important,
and that's why the standbys are there for you, right
to be able to pick up when you are having
those off days, and like you're human, you're allowed to
have those days.

Speaker 2 (07:43):
But for the most part.

Speaker 1 (07:44):
You are the one performing, and it is a whole,
like a huge hole on you, guys, emotionally and mentally,
and I love hearing about you saying that you have
to get into character and really feel like you are
Glinda during those three hours. I said two hours before
running around stage, we have to call out it's three
It's a long show, and long show that extra hour
is taxing. We're going to get into all things Wicked

(08:07):
in a bit, but I want to start off this
podcast also by just learning your full story, because guys,
Ali is one of the most impressive people that I
think I've ever sat down with. You and Mary Kate
I told you when we were walking, But I love
so much getting to sit down with performers, especially Broadway stars,
and I know you've done a lot of on screen

(08:27):
work too. Let's start with the early life of Ali.
Where did you grow up and what was your childhood like.

Speaker 3 (08:34):
I grew up in the city called Escondido. It's north
of San Diego, so southern California, and I've.

Speaker 2 (08:44):
Started theater right away.

Speaker 3 (08:45):
As a kid, I was always singing, and I think
I always joke that my parents probably got tired of
my loud you know, belting Annie in the shower, and
they were like, let's put her in community theater. So
I did start theater really really young, and my life's
out very normal and then and then by the time
I was nine.

Speaker 2 (09:03):
I was doing professional theater.

Speaker 3 (09:05):
So things did kind of take a turn young in
life where I was suddenly like the one kid in
you know, a real production with all adults. And I
was learning harmony is, learning how to read music, learning
how to do an eight show a week schedule as
a child, and that did shape my childhood a lot, Like, Yeah,

(09:29):
it just influenced the way that you think of free
time or you think of what does fun mean to
you when you're a kid, Like it.

Speaker 1 (09:37):
Goes from being your hobby at your sport to being
literally your identity and how you show up in the
world a lot of ways.

Speaker 3 (09:44):
Yeah, And I was like being pulled out of school
to do these shows or I was pulled out of
school to drive to LA for auditions. So things just
kind of like got kind of weird really quickly. And
I loved it. I mean, I was like really enjoying it.
And then when I was thirteen years old, I auditioned

(10:05):
for Jason Robert Brown's musical called Thirteen, and I got
that job. So it was kind of my first big
non San Diego production that I did, and that was
on Broadway in two thousand and eight. So I moved
to New York, my family moved here. We didn't really
know how long it would last or what it all meant,
but it ended up being quite short. It was like

(10:30):
a three or four month run, and then it closed
and moved back to San Diego. So for those couple
of years, it was kind of like in and out
of being a professional performer and then like being in
my public high school with my friends and kind of
balancing identities and trying to figure out who I am

(10:53):
as a young person. I look back on those days
and I'm like, man, I had no idea who who
I was and what I was doing, and I was
just like winging it, you know.

Speaker 1 (11:04):
I mean, those experiences shaped you so much, and I'm sure,
as you said, like, they taught you so much. I
love knowing how dedicated your parents were too. And you
know the way when you got the role on thirteen.
For those three to four months, you guys moved to
New York. Let's talk a little bit about the sacrifice
that goes into it family wise, like what did your
family dynamic look like at that time? And like how

(11:26):
did you guys make it work?

Speaker 2 (11:28):
Yeah?

Speaker 3 (11:28):
I mean because I was so young, so much of
it went over my head. And it wasn't that I
was ungrateful. It just was that I didn't know how
rent was being paid, how that I didn't know what
was going on. But my parents did sacrifice a lot.
My parents and my two younger siblings, who at that
time were.

Speaker 2 (11:46):
Like five and nine.

Speaker 3 (11:49):
We all moved to New York and the show was
short lived, but it's not It's hard to move a
family to New York for like three months. So we
moved and my siblings went into school here in the city,
and I was doing homeschool because we were working full
time and you couldn't really be in school at the
same time. And I remember my dad traveling because he

(12:13):
still worked in San Diego. The following year, I did
a show called by Vibratie on Broadway, and we did
the same thing all over again.

Speaker 2 (12:21):
That time.

Speaker 3 (12:21):
My parents asked my siblings, do you guys want another
New York adventure?

Speaker 2 (12:25):
And they were like, we're good, we'll just stay here.

Speaker 3 (12:28):
So it was a little bit different the second go around,
which I kind of liked because I felt like at
that point, I was fifteen, and I was like sometimes
alone in an apartment in New York, and I felt
very adult and very self sufficient. And again I look
back and I'm like, what, I didn't know what I
was doing at all, But there was a lot of

(12:50):
a lot of sacrifice that went into that, and beyond that,
my parents. You know, I wouldn't have been able to
do any of the things that I did at that
point in my career if not for the hours that
my parents drove me to auditions, to rehearsals, to voice
lessons that they paid for for me. Like, I had

(13:13):
a lot of support and privilege that my parents could
kind of see that I wanted to do this and
then encourage encourage it for me.

Speaker 1 (13:22):
But it's so nice hearing that story and like hearing
what goes into it. Not only as you an individual
that's like doing these roles, training your voice right, but
it's also the support system is so important, and I
feel like it's so good for people listening that want
to get into theater or have kids that want to
get into theater and they're trying to figure out, well,
what do I need to be doing to set my
daughter or son up for success here because they have

(13:44):
that it factor and I want them to chase their dreams,
you know. And it's cool knowing that you're like listen,
like this is a team sport and it's going to
take an army, but you know it's worth it. Back
in those years, like when you were a teenager and
landing these massive roles and I want to get to
buy by Bertie, what was your parents like north Star
for you? Like what did they see you becoming? Do

(14:07):
you think they knew or did they just know like
our daughters really talented?

Speaker 2 (14:10):
I don't know.

Speaker 3 (14:12):
I mean I think that my parents had so much
faith in my talent, sometimes delusionally.

Speaker 2 (14:18):
So like my mom, I remember her being.

Speaker 3 (14:23):
Like like, there was this one time I had a
bad audition. I just bombed it. And I had been
doing readings of this show for years. I'd been part
of the development, and I like really bombed the audition
because I cared too much and I was too nervous.
And I called my mom in tears, and she was like,
you should go back in there and say.

Speaker 2 (14:42):
Do you know who I am?

Speaker 3 (14:44):
I was like, Mom, I'm literally not going to do that,
Like that's crazy. So all that to say they had
a lot of faith in me. They believed that I
am like magnificent I think. And then the flip side
of that is that there were a lot of time
for me where I was like, what if I don't
want to do this as a career, Like what if

(15:05):
I don't succeed at this? What if I'm not as
magnificent as you think I am? Like there was kind
of a you know, a teeter daughter or like a
a shadow side or something to that dynamic. Yeah, I
think that like to people who want to help their

(15:26):
kids and to kids who think like, oh I don't
have the financial support that I need to do this,
there are many many ways to succeed and doesn't have
to look like the way that my experience looked like
this was just like one version of success if you
could even necessarily qualified as that. Like, I also struggled

(15:48):
a lot coming off of these big shows, trying to
figure out, you know what if I never reached that
height again and I peaked at thirteen. You know, I
had these like real fears as a developing mind of
what this could mean for my identity.

Speaker 2 (16:04):
And I think looking back, like.

Speaker 3 (16:07):
I needed someone or something to be like that would
be fine, that would be completely fine if you never
did anything again, like you'll feel find your way, And
instead it was this like very positive and supportive, like, oh,
you're gonna be something.

Speaker 2 (16:24):
So I think it's interesting.

Speaker 3 (16:26):
It sometimes felt like support, it sometimes felt like pressure.
I think everyone is always just trying to like do
the right thing. I think everyone can have good intentions,
and when you're dealing with child actors, it gets real dicey,
real quick. Just because you are a child, you are

(16:47):
not an adult yet, you don't have the mind and
the tools of an adult, and you're being given these
massive adult responsibilities. So it's an interesting time of life
to look back on.

Speaker 2 (17:03):
Everything you just explained.

Speaker 1 (17:04):
I think it's so important to say because it's the truth,
you know, And oh gosh, I like, I can't even
imagine like what that type of pressure looked like, especially
like because you want something so bad and then you're
like putting this pressure on yourself and it is hard
to lay on these roles, but you just kept going.
And I think again, like the ethos of this show
is movement, and you know, talking to people that have

(17:24):
had so much success just when you just keep on going,
you know, and you put your head down and you
do the work, and you also explore some other things
sometimes and yeah, I know you did. Let's talk about
when you're in your teens, and even before teens, middle school,

(17:48):
what does training look like to become a Broadway star?

Speaker 3 (17:51):
For me, I was taking a lot of voice lessons
from a lot of different teachers, And like I was
saying earlier, I think that's really important because some teachers
know some things. I don't think there's any one teacher
that knows everything, and even if they magically did, they
wouldn't be able to communicate it to everyone because everyone,
you know, kind of speaks your own language. And so

(18:14):
I studied with a lot of different teachers. I would
do different like acting workshops in the San Diego region,
but I also just did a lot of theater.

Speaker 2 (18:22):
I did a lot of shows. I was always auditioning.

Speaker 3 (18:25):
I was always whether it was like a school show
or like a community theater show or a professional show.
To me, it didn't really make much of a difference.
It was very fun either way. I did take dance lessons,
but I wasn't like the most elegant dancer, so I

(18:47):
didn't totally stick with that one. And sometimes I kick
myself because I think, like I would have really benefited
from having that training a little bit stronger now, but
that was too late to start again.

Speaker 1 (19:00):
I guess she's still dancing, guys, don't worry.

Speaker 2 (19:02):
You're still a good dancer.

Speaker 1 (19:03):
That's so funny, though, No, I'm always so jealous of
the girls that danced growing up. I'm like, if I
could break it down like that at a bar, I'd
be so much more fun, I know.

Speaker 3 (19:11):
And I just thought, like, man, to have like a
knowledge of your body in that way.

Speaker 2 (19:15):
I just never.

Speaker 1 (19:17):
My goal right now is to learn how to shag.
Oh my god, I just want to learn so badly.
I have this like friend who's like kind of a
vnor to me, and she has privately been taking up
ballroom dancing and literally competing. Wow, I know, And I'm like, wait,
this is the coolest hobby ever.

Speaker 3 (19:32):
That's a really cool hobby and to be good at
it and competing yeah.

Speaker 1 (19:36):
And I'm I literally was saying her. I was like,
what's the best part, And She's like Kate. It's like
literally going to events or the bar with our friends
at the Jersey Shore and being able to.

Speaker 2 (19:45):
Shag and look great while dance like she loves it.
That's so cool.

Speaker 3 (19:49):
Have you ever seen those videos of people who are
improv improv dancing. No, there's like a big group of people.

Speaker 2 (19:55):
It's got to be.

Speaker 3 (19:55):
These events and they get paired up and then a
random see comes on. They don't know what the song
is gonna be, and then they improvise partner dancing in
front of a whole crowd and they look incredible.

Speaker 2 (20:07):
My whole for you page.

Speaker 1 (20:08):
Is like I need that for you page. I am
obsessed with anything improv. I went to this show in
LA for the Netflix as a joke festival that they
do every year, and it was seth rogen Smokes Bowl,
and it was It was the coolest event I've ever
been to in my life. It was seth Rogen hosting
it and he brought on incredible singers. He brought on
Snoop Dogg, Post Malone, Lil Dicky. I'm like sitting there

(20:30):
being like these are my favorite artists ever.

Speaker 3 (20:32):
Wow.

Speaker 1 (20:33):
And to see Snoop Dogg performers like a whole other thing.
But even though like Snoop Dogg performed and post Malone,
which were incredible, my favorite performance was he brought on
for iconic Netflix actors and basically they were all smoking
a jay. Every time he said take a hit, they
would take a hit of the jay and at the
same time they were doing improv on stage and Ali

(20:53):
it was like the most impressive thing I've ever seen
in my life. I'm like, I need to learn, like
I need to take improv classes.

Speaker 2 (21:00):
Well, do this, I would like completely panic. You'd be good.

Speaker 3 (21:05):
Oh, I don't know. I'm good with a script. You
give me a script, I can say the lines.

Speaker 1 (21:09):
But well, we're going to get to Wicked in a
little bit. But has there ever been a moment on
stage in a Wicked performance where something happens with you
and your stage mates and you guys have to improv
pretty often?

Speaker 3 (21:21):
I mean, it doesn't ever come across like we're full
on improvising scenes at least not that I've had happen yet.
But it does happen, because like the beauty of live
theater is that things just go wrong.

Speaker 2 (21:33):
Anytime something can go wrong.

Speaker 3 (21:34):
I've heard stories of like, oh, I heard a story
where you know, there was a fierro who missed one entrance,
and the entrance is kind of pivotal to the plot
because it it inspires Glinda to like go on this
journey of changing her name and her identity to impress him,
but he wasn't there to impress. And that was a

(21:56):
story where I heard where people just had to kind
of like improv and untill okay, is he coming? Nope,
he's not here yet. Nope, Okay, I guess we're just
gonna I'm gonna change my name. So stuff happens. Just
last week, there was a last minute someone had to
call out for an emergency, so we had to stop
the show.

Speaker 2 (22:17):
We had to hold for like.

Speaker 3 (22:19):
Ten minutes, and then when we finally went back into it,
it was like me alone on the stage when the
curtain came up and then just like diving back into
the show. So things do happen, but everyone is so
professional for the most part at like easing into it
that you might not even notice than anything happens.

Speaker 1 (22:38):
Well, that's because you guys are so good at improv.

Speaker 3 (22:41):
People are good.

Speaker 2 (22:41):
I don't know about me, but.

Speaker 1 (22:43):
No, but it's so impressive and I think you're right,
Like that is the beauty of a live show is
every show is different. Yeah, you know, even though you're
showing up consistent and like being your Glinda every night,
it's different. And I feel like that's the coolest part
about live theater.

Speaker 2 (22:57):
It is really fun.

Speaker 3 (22:58):
And like I really thought that maybe going into the
full time job, it would get monotonous or it would
get I would get tired of doing the same thing
every night. But I don't feel that way at all.
It consistently feels like exciting and fresh, and I have
not found that to be part of the struggle of
doing the show, So that's been really pleasant.

Speaker 2 (23:18):
Surprise.

Speaker 1 (23:19):
What was the transition like going from San Diego Theater
to now you're on Broadway in New York City.

Speaker 2 (23:25):
Just getting to New York was a culture shock.

Speaker 3 (23:27):
I was kind of sheltered growing up and I just
didn't really know that much about anything, and so getting
to New York and just seeing such diverse people and
such a different hustle bustle on the streets, it was,
you know, exciting change for me, and I fell in
love with it right away. Like I've been in New
York as an adult now for all of my twenties

(23:48):
and I love it here so much. But in terms
of actually the theater, I didn't feel that it was
so different. But I think that's because I was too
young to know how important Broadway was. And I don't
mean that in like, I don't want that to sound offensive.

Speaker 1 (24:08):
Before your brain fully develops, you don't realize certain things exactly.

Speaker 3 (24:12):
I just didn't know how big of a deal it was.
On some level. I did because on some level I
was very stressed about, like it all going well, but
I didn't know. I thought I was just excited, you know.
I thought, Oh, I'm just excited to be here. I
was like actually panicked. Subconsciously, I was just happy.

Speaker 2 (24:34):
You know. So it was it was still to me
like an audience.

Speaker 3 (24:39):
As an audience, A show was a show, a cast
is a cast. It didn't change so much the scenery
or the city that I was in, And in principle
I still think that. I still think that to this day.
I think that sometimes the quality that you see on
Broadway is no different than the quality you'd see anywhere else.

Speaker 1 (24:59):
I love theater and I love live performances, and I
remember seeing Wicked for the first time and coming out
of it and being like that was incredible. Yeah, but
the first Broadway show I ever saw was The Lion
King and then it was Mama Mia with my mom.
But it's so true that, like, even when I am
in Connecticut, my parents live in this small town and
there's like a little theater nearby, and they're always doing

(25:19):
these small plays and really with no set at all.
It's just like the people on the stage and maybe
like one or two props and they're hour and a
half long performances, and it's incredible.

Speaker 3 (25:30):
Sometimes those intimate theater performances are more impactful for the
audience because you are you feel that you're in it.
Not to say that Wicked doesn't also transport you to
this world and you can feel like you're in it.
But there's something really special about really like seeing a
stripped down, you know, performance where people can't really hide

(25:51):
behind the costume, you can't hide behind the glitz of everything.

Speaker 2 (25:55):
It's just like, this is what I have.

Speaker 3 (25:57):
To offer, and there's something super special about those types
of shows.

Speaker 1 (26:01):
What is it about theater that you love so much?

Speaker 3 (26:04):
There's a lot that I love about theater, but there
is this kind of presence, like this energy where the
full company is coming together with the same shared goal
of telling the story you've all decided to tell, and
you're not on your phones, you're not distracted, you're not

(26:24):
you're right there with one another. And so even as
a child, I loved theater so much because of the camaraderie,
the community aspect of it. And then you layer in
like really high skill artistry and seeing people show up
really putting their best foot forward.

Speaker 2 (26:46):
It's unbeatable.

Speaker 3 (26:48):
It's like you can't match that in any other medium
of art. It's like quite vulnerable too, because every like
we were saying, it's live theater, every day is different.
But when people show up and there's this just unspoken
agreement that I'm going to give you my absolute best.

(27:09):
I hope it's good enough, and you're gonna give me
your absolute best, and we're gonna like celebrate and tell
the story and hopefully people will resonate, it's just really
like almost spiritual.

Speaker 2 (27:20):
It's like almost.

Speaker 3 (27:22):
It's as present as I have found that I can
really get in my life, especially when it comes to art.

Speaker 2 (27:29):
But it's, yeah, it's like an unbeatable energy.

Speaker 1 (27:33):
You see kids coming in dressed up in their Glinda
Alfitz like their alphabet outfits, but they're what's the guy's name, fari,
fiero fierra.

Speaker 2 (27:40):
I'm sure some of the little boys are in their fia,
in their fia ferrari.

Speaker 1 (27:45):
But like you see, people dress up every day and
whatever the show is, and I like so many whether
it's a small theater or a big production like Broadway.
I feel like it's spiritual in a sense too, because
there's so many people in that room, especially young people
literally that can pinpoint their experience seeing a Broadway show
and being like, that is what I want to do

(28:05):
when I grow up. And I just think that's so
cool too, because you're inspiring the next generation of performers.

Speaker 2 (28:10):
Thank you. That's I really appreciate hearing that.

Speaker 3 (28:14):
And I also resonate with that because and I've maybe
mentioned this earlier, but the first time I saw Wicked
on tour, I.

Speaker 2 (28:23):
Was eleven years old.

Speaker 3 (28:24):
I was just so blown away by like the spectacle
of the show and just the material, the songs, the performances,
the characters. And I waited at the stage door I
got a photo with Kender Cassabaum, who was playing Glinda
at the time, and I just was like, you know,
just so in awe. And then the following year, my

(28:44):
parents took me to see it again and I made
a T shirt with the printed picture of me and
Kendra on it. I bedazzled it myself. I handmade a
collage that I put on the back of the shirt
of all of the wicked press photos that were Fine
Bowl at that time. And I staged doored again and
it was still Kendra, and for whatever reason, she didn't

(29:05):
come out to the stage door that day, but I
like refused to let my parents leave, so we waited
for hours. Not very cool necessarily to do, but I did.
I was twelve, and finally an ensemble member came back
and said, oh my gosh, are you still waiting? And
I said, yeah, for Kendra Commercier, and she went and

(29:26):
grabbed Kendra, who came out, you know, probably at the
end of a very long week, maybe at the end
of their stop in that city, and she was like,
I didn't know you were still here. Let me make
it up to you. Let me bring you backstage. And
so she took me and my friend backstage, and she
galindified us, and she put glitter on our eyes and

(29:49):
she let us look at the costumes up close, and
that for me was like it I will never forget
that experience because it was so generous of her time
to invite me into what's felt so special. I felt like,
this is so special that I get to see this.

(30:11):
And when I first joined Wicked as the Glinda standby,
it was still kind of people were still masked. We
had a lot of strict COVID rules to keep people healthy,
so you couldn't bring people backstage. But I started making
these little barets, these little like flower Glinda barretts, so
that I could galindify kids at the stage door and

(30:32):
kind of like have my own attempt at giving some
semblance of what I felt Kendrick gave to me back
in the day. And it is definitely a pretty magical
experience to see kids, you know, I see myself. I
just look at them and I'm like, that was me,
you know, and and this could be you in a

(30:53):
couple years. You know, it's really beautiful, it's special.

Speaker 1 (30:57):
That story gave me chills. I'm like, literally like, sparkles
are flying, I know. Also the fact that you dazzled
the shirt is very Glinda.

Speaker 3 (31:06):
Yeah, pink and green rhymestones.

Speaker 2 (31:08):
It was like it was cute. Yeah for sure, Like
that is the most Linda thing I've ever heard. Did
you hear that?

Speaker 3 (31:14):
Yeah?

Speaker 1 (31:16):
You end up for a little bit going to Stamford,
and then you dabbled in on screen performances, took a
break from Stamford, came back. Guys, twenty twenty three, you
did graduate from Stamford.

Speaker 2 (31:26):
That is so incredible. Almost almost, Okay, I did go back.

Speaker 3 (31:31):
I did go back to school because during COVID everything
went online and I was like, oh, what a perfect
opportunity to continue my education. But technically I still have
one year left. Technically I'm a rising senior.

Speaker 2 (31:46):
Okay, forever, Oh my gosh. Okay.

Speaker 1 (31:50):
Also, Stamford, Hello academics. Should we talk about Bye Bye
Birdie first? I mean, it was an incredible experience. I
got to work with John Stamos, who was very kind
to all of us as kids. But the best part
of the Bye by Bertie story is that Danny Quadrino
was in it and he was the understudy for Hugo,
so we became good friends and he's now playing back

(32:11):
in Wicked with me.

Speaker 3 (32:13):
Now your whole life is like a full circle moment. Yeah,
I literally feel that way. Like I'm like, I can't
stress my way through this year. I have to enjoy
this because there's too much of the universe has conspired
to bring me to this moment, and I have to
just enjoy it and like laugh at how beautifully things

(32:33):
have timed out. But yeah, Danny Quadrino and I became
good friends. There were other people from both thirteen and
by by Bertie that have either been in Wicked or
you know, everyone's kind of continued their careers in one
way or another.

Speaker 1 (32:47):
That's my favorite thing when I talk to performers is
finding out like how many shows they've done, like what
people have been a part of. Like it's just cool
knowing that you guys are this small community really of performers.
Like I'm sure every but a lot of people know
each other. It's like living in a small town.

Speaker 2 (33:02):
And I feel like.

Speaker 3 (33:03):
All of the people, at least in like the two
thousand and eight era of child actors on Broadway, we
all know each other. We all it was such a
small world, and so it's very sweet to like watch
people go through their lives. A lot of folks that
I know have left the industry, altogether and now have
like thriving lives in completely other you know, genres of work,

(33:26):
and some people are still auditioning, some people are still working.
It's just very cool to know that we all kind
of started from this very bizarre, little tiny bubble of
Broadway kids.

Speaker 2 (33:41):
Weird.

Speaker 1 (33:42):
Yeah, No, absolutely, And I feel like there's some synergy
to between a lot of like child Broadway stars go on,
Like when I think of very on a Grande, like
they go on, they start on Broadway and then they
end up also like taking on all these different roles
within the industry, whether it's on screen or singing.

Speaker 2 (33:58):
I interviewed the guy, this guy.

Speaker 1 (33:59):
Max to you Capital m Ax, Yeah, and he's yeah,
he's also did wait were you on thirteen with Ariana?

Speaker 3 (34:06):
Yes?

Speaker 2 (34:07):
Yes, I am uncovering show straight now.

Speaker 1 (34:09):
Okay, we I don't know why I didn't put that together,
but yes, the show that he was on with Ariana,
it was so it was you, it was Max, Arianna
you who else?

Speaker 2 (34:19):
Liz Gillies, who had.

Speaker 1 (34:20):
Interviewing her on Wednesday next there you go, Hi, Liz.

Speaker 3 (34:26):
She was in it. Graham Phillips, Al Calderone, who's in
a music artist, Brynn Williams, who is now teaching and
directing a lot of theater, but has had a massive
Broadway career.

Speaker 2 (34:39):
Yeah.

Speaker 3 (34:39):
I mean there were a lot of crazy talented kids
that have come from that show.

Speaker 1 (34:45):
The fact that you and Ariana Grande both came out
of thirteen and are Glinda's is is that crazy?

Speaker 2 (34:52):
Sparks are fine?

Speaker 1 (34:53):
I know you played Kim on Bye Bye Bertie, and
that's a really like vocally mature role, isn't it.

Speaker 3 (35:10):
Yeah, And it's also kind of like, look again, I
was too young to really know what was going on.
I was sixteen when I turned sixteen towards the end
of the run or somewhere in there.

Speaker 1 (35:23):
So fifteen years old, lead role on Bye Bye Bertie, just.

Speaker 3 (35:26):
Coming off of thirteen, and I alongside like celebrities, you know,
like big names in that show. And I hadn't really
developed my soprano voice yet in thirteen. It was like
all big belty kind of stuff, and it was pre puberty,
like your voice as a child is different than your

(35:47):
voice as a teenager. And then yeah, Bye Bye Bertie
was a little bit more in the soprano kind of realm,
and I remember.

Speaker 2 (35:54):
What does that sound like?

Speaker 3 (35:55):
You know it to go from a mid range big
belt to what's the.

Speaker 2 (36:00):
One boy, one special boy? That's too high, but.

Speaker 3 (36:08):
It's like, you know, prettier and more towards Glinda, more
towards that is in the same kind Linda genre of singing. Yeah,
I was like too young to really know how to
do that with my voice. Yet it was all instinct.
It was all instinct at that age. I was just
singing it and winging it and hoping that it worked out.

Speaker 1 (36:27):
Well, it did work out, And then at what point
did you say, I want to go to Stanford and
also like such an incredibly academic school. So it's just
insane knowing that all while you were on Broadway child
star massive roles. But miss academics over here is getting
into Stanford not for theater for psychology, right.

Speaker 3 (36:47):
Yes, yeah, yeah, So I took a gap year before
I went to Stanford. I was I was very excited,
of course to get into that school and to go
study there, but I wanted to like try TV and
film for so I lived in la for a year,
but I was like seventeen, and it just like I
had a year of like doing acting and then I thought, okay,

(37:09):
that's good enough, I'm gonna do school. And for all
of high school it was like both at the same time.
So it was important for me at that time to
like really put it all in one basket and just
commit to acting and then just commit to education. But
that's also why I didn't last four years at Stanford,
because I was like, one year was enough.

Speaker 2 (37:27):
I want to go back to singing.

Speaker 1 (37:29):
I can't even imagine balancing the two, Like it's just way.

Speaker 2 (37:33):
Too much work.

Speaker 3 (37:34):
Yeah, it was so much to juggle, and you can't
really put your best foot forward when you have that
much that you're trying to succeed in at once, at
least for me. So I did enjoy my time at Stanford,
and I wanted to study psychology because I really wanted
to understand more about what I went through as a teenager. Honestly,
I was like, these experiences did something to my brain.

Speaker 2 (37:56):
I got to figure it out.

Speaker 3 (37:58):
So that was why I was initially interested in studying psychology.
I also thought like, oh, this parallels with acting very intuitively.
To understand how people think and how people operate and
behave is like the whole point of acting, or like
the whole skill of acting. So I was at Stanford,

(38:19):
but I really quickly was like, I feel like I'm
missing out on my career. I feel like if I'm
gonna pursue theater and acting, it has to be now,
or I'm gonna lose all of the momentum that I
built as a young person and I'm gonna have to
start over from scratch. So I dropped out indefinite leave
of absence, so they say, and I moved to New York.

Speaker 2 (38:42):
But I did sort of have to start over because.

Speaker 3 (38:45):
Now I was like nineteen or twenty, I'm no longer
auditioning for teenage roles or I'm like I am but
I'm a little too old for them, but I'm a
little too young for.

Speaker 2 (38:57):
The adult leads.

Speaker 3 (38:58):
So I did have to figure it out the way
that most people coming to New York are going to
have to figure it out. Like, of course, I had
these experiences to bolster my resume or to give me
some understanding of how the industry works. So not to
discount that, but I did have to reintroduce myself and

(39:20):
rediscover myself as an artist. There's even like you have
to relearn how to sing once you go through once
you get into your twenties, you have to relearn how
to carry yourself.

Speaker 2 (39:31):
You have a new body of a new voice.

Speaker 3 (39:33):
So there was a lot of relearning that I did
in my early New York years of course.

Speaker 1 (39:39):
Yeah. I mean when I think of relearning too, I
think of Justin Bieber and him going for them from
that like childhood voice to his voice now and he
did it beautifully. And yeah, but it is such a
thing you have to relearn. For parents out there that
have kids that are doing what you were doing, right,
like our childhood actors, stars performers, what should they be

(39:59):
think thinking about in terms of making sure like their
kids are staying mentally strong because like, just hearing that
you had you struggled with it, Like, let's unpack that
a little bit.

Speaker 3 (40:10):
This is also why I wanted to study psychology Like this,
I'm so passionate about mental health for people, mental health
for young artists. I think that if you're a parent
with a child who wants to do this, you have
to decide what you want your role as parent to be.
Do you want to be the parent or do you

(40:32):
want to be the manager? Do you want to be
the you know, the agent of your kid and get
them success no matter what, or do you want to
be the parent that is the shoulder to cry on
when things are tough, because the industry is tough no
matter what.

Speaker 2 (40:46):
I mean.

Speaker 3 (40:46):
You could be the most talented person to walk the
earth and you're gonna struggle at some point. Something is
not gonna align and you're gonna be like, but I
was perfect for that, and I nailed it, and it's
just not gonna go your way. And so if you
as the parent, are approaching your child with the priority

(41:07):
of I want you to be successful, because then you'll
be happy and then you'll be you know, the reverse
is I want you as my child to be happy
so that you can feel successful in however things pan out.
I think it's just a distinction of perspective and what
role does the parent play.

Speaker 2 (41:29):
I also think that.

Speaker 3 (41:32):
For the people pursuing the industry, you have to have
some perspective of who you are as well. If you
wrap your whole identity up in your work, like in
any industry, we know across the board that that's not healthy.
Like you wouldn't look at someone who is like spending
you know, eighty hours a week grinding at their job

(41:54):
and think like that's a healthy person or that person
you know is probably thriving in their life. They might
be making a lot of money, might have some version
of success, and maybe they are really happy with that,
but it isn't necessarily the way to succeed.

Speaker 1 (42:08):
And that's why I like talking about the fact that
you were interested in going to Stanford and studying psychology
and doing something outside of acting, because people have lives
outside of this one thing, right, And I think for you,
like when you were in high school and even now,
like what do you love to do outside of performing
and acting?

Speaker 2 (42:27):
Like what is ali Like? Oh my gosh, off off stage,
off camera. There are so many things that I like.
I like to eat good food. I like to enjoy
the landscape of New York. I like to go bouldering
and rock climbing.

Speaker 3 (42:42):
Oh my god, Yeah, I like picked it up as
a hobby in twenty twenty, twenty twenty one and just
like fell in love with it. And that was probably
actually the first time that I realized, oh yeah, this
is what a hobby is. It's where you do something
for fun with no intend to impress anybody or make
any money.

Speaker 2 (43:02):
That is the point of a hobby. And like I
didn't know.

Speaker 3 (43:06):
So now I've like taken myself on some trips around
the world to do some outdoor climbing.

Speaker 2 (43:12):
I'm by no means great at it. Okay, I love it.
That is so cool. It's so cool Glinda goes to
the mountains.

Speaker 3 (43:19):
Yeah, like I don't need a bubble to get up there,
you know, I climb myself.

Speaker 2 (43:23):
Okay, I'm obsessed with that.

Speaker 1 (43:25):
You need hobbies outside literally, even me, Like when I
my hobby used to be running because I was working
in advertising, and I've had to figure out, like now
running has become like a part of my job. But
at the same time, it's like I still love running.
It still is a hobby for me to go on
solo runs by myself, right, and.

Speaker 2 (43:40):
I love it.

Speaker 1 (43:40):
But I have had to be like, Okay, like I
need to figure out a couple other things. And I
started like loving to read biographies and just like learn
about people. It's actually been really fun. Yeah, And I
was never really a reader, and recently I'm leaning into
memoirs and biographies and just like having those chill moments.
And it's necessary because I need to have things where
like rock climbing, where it's literally like you who cannot
be on your phone?

Speaker 2 (44:01):
Yeah, yeah, you really can't. You really can't with that one.
Yeah yeah.

Speaker 3 (44:06):
When I first started at Wicked, I really quickly realized, Okay,
I care about this way too much. I have to
remember that I can care about other things too, or
else I'm gonna lose my mind. And I rescue a
dog and I now have the most angelic, perfect little
rescue dog.

Speaker 2 (44:25):
His name is Kip. And that was like another you
can't call a dog a hobby, but one thing. Yeah,
going to the dog park is a hobby. If it's
my hobby, I love him.

Speaker 3 (44:36):
And it was just like something where I was like,
I need to shift my perspective and remember that not everything,
you know, if I have a bad if my voice sounds,
you know, less than ideal on a show, or like
something goes wrong, it can't be the thing that matters
most to me, because then I'm just setting myself up
for like the type of vulnerability that is a little
difficult to bounce back from. And if I just can

(44:58):
keep some perspective that, like, the world is bigger than
this one performance, then probably all of the performances will
be better because I'll be less stressed and I'll have
more fun. And everybody wants to watch people having fun.
No one wants to watch someone like thinking about how
they're singing as they're singing it.

Speaker 1 (45:16):
I just have to say, like, your performances are pretty perfect,
and I think like just having those, like even just
having this conversation with you, and I think people are
going to be so excited to.

Speaker 2 (45:25):
Hear that, like you're human, Stuff happens.

Speaker 1 (45:27):
You're not gonna come off stage every night and be
like that was the best I've ever did, But it
makes those moments where you do come off stage and
you're like, damn, that was a pretty good performance even better, right,
because if we were perfect all the time, like life
would be so boring.

Speaker 3 (45:39):
The other day, just the other day, there's this one
note that Glenna sings that's like quite low and usually
I can hit it, and this.

Speaker 2 (45:46):
One show, oh my gosh, it just.

Speaker 3 (45:48):
Was like like it just didn't come out right, and
I was I mentioned it to one of my cast
mates and I was like, I really kind of like
mess that up, huh, And she goes, oh, yeah, but
a little imperfection suits everybody.

Speaker 1 (46:01):
I thought, you know what, Yeah, yeah, fair, we have
to talk about the Marvelous Missus Mazel because that was
Oh my god. Like when I think of my favorite shows,
I think of the Marvelous Missus Masel. I think of
what was that advertising show mad Men?

Speaker 3 (46:14):
Mad Men?

Speaker 1 (46:15):
Like I love that era. The way it's produced is perfect.
And you played Daisy right.

Speaker 3 (46:21):
Yeah, I had a very small role. This was like
one day. Yes it was in their their final season.
It was like a one day of shooting. But you
have to put something like that on your resume because
it's the Marvelous Missus Mazel. I mean it was very cool.
The day of filming that I was there, I got
to meet Rachel Brosnhan. I got to kind of like

(46:42):
have like a very brief interaction with her.

Speaker 2 (46:44):
It was cool to see.

Speaker 3 (46:44):
How they built like the costumes and the sets that day.
It was so many extras in the in the scene
as well. So to have everybody come and like within
an hour and a half just be like dulled.

Speaker 2 (46:59):
Up to the fifties, it was. It was spectacular.

Speaker 1 (47:02):
I mean yeah, literally like dolled up to the fifties, like.

Speaker 2 (47:05):
In the truest form.

Speaker 1 (47:07):
The costume design on that and the set design on
that show is incredible. The production is everything's just like
so good. I'm obsessed when producers and directors and the costume,
Like when everything just comes together so beautifully, I'm like, oh,
they might create.

Speaker 3 (47:19):
They were got tight ship there too, Like it all
has to be word perfect for Miss Mazel. Not every
like set or every production company is like very strict
about being word perfect. I when I was a kid,
I filmed a scene in a thirty Rock episode with
Tina Fey and John Ham speaking of Iconic and were

(47:41):
They were just riffing off of each other the whole time.
They asked me to add lib and I took the
ad libs too far. They were like, actually, we're gonna
have you go back to the script. I took it
a little too far off script. But they were just
riffing and improving. And but at Miss Mazel it was
like if you drop the word the and you kind
of just like say, they will give you a line

(48:02):
note and they're like, you have to say the word
of the.

Speaker 2 (48:04):
So it's a tight tight Uh.

Speaker 1 (48:07):
I wonder if that's because they're trying to so much
so match. Also, the way they spoke in that era
is totally yeah, and.

Speaker 2 (48:13):
It's to give it a consistent tone.

Speaker 3 (48:15):
Like it's also the same creators of Gilmore Girls, I think,
and so it's a very specific tone where there's like
this pattern of speech that you can recognize, Oh, that
is like the style of the show, and you have
to even for people who are you know, listening and acting,
you can look at the other work that these producers
have created and understand when you're auditioning for a piece,

(48:36):
like for Miss maisl this is the style of speech
they're going to look for, This is the word perfect
expectation they're going to have, And then that can also
kind of help you for success when you're trying to
audition for something like that.

Speaker 2 (48:47):
Yeah, I definitely. And it's interesting too.

Speaker 1 (48:49):
I feel like certain castings probably want word perfect and
some are like, we want you to be able to
add live a little bit. When you say Tina fe,
I immediately think of Amy Poehler, Oh my god, right,
Like the two of them are always yeah is that right?

Speaker 2 (49:00):
And am I gonna give the right person?

Speaker 3 (49:02):
And they just like it's magic watching artists that speak
the same language be able to just bring the best
out in each other.

Speaker 1 (49:09):
I am obsessed right now with Amy Pohler's podcast.

Speaker 2 (49:12):
I don't know if you haven't. I've seen little clips
on TikTok That's what I've been seeing.

Speaker 1 (49:16):
Yeah, okay, I've seen clips on TikTok her and Dakota Johnson.

Speaker 3 (49:19):
Yes.

Speaker 1 (49:19):
I was like, oh my god, this is so freaking funny.

Speaker 3 (49:24):
I saw the clip of that with Amy Pohler being like,
how do you rev yourself up for a sex scene?
And Dakota was like, I don't need to rev myself
up for I'm always revbed what.

Speaker 1 (49:31):
I mean, Dakota's like comedic timing is so funny. She
is so funny. She's so funny. Gorgeous, Yeah, just gorgeous.
What was it like going from on stage performances in
your teens to then on screen?

Speaker 3 (49:46):
Totally different, different fields, different almost different industries. Like it's
totally different skill sets. I have a lot more experience
in theater. I have a lot more experience knowing how
to like carry myself on a stage, But when you're
carrying yourself for a screen, it's just a different set
of skills. So anytime that I've been on a like

(50:08):
a set for something on camera, I feel very much
like a small fish in a big pond, like soaking
in the expertise around me. I feel like, at least
in theater, I like feel confident in my skills. I
know what I'm bringing to the table. But maybe someday
I'll have enough experience to feel a little bit more

(50:28):
like I know what I'm doing.

Speaker 2 (50:30):
I feel like that. Yeah, I mean, I hope so.

Speaker 3 (50:34):
And not to say that I've been like totally panicked
in the past, but it's just a new environment and
things run a little differently. What I will say is
I did an indie film month and we had like
a few months in a small town in the Midwest,
and that felt different than TV. Even like making a
film where you're with the same people for a long

(50:54):
period of time, building the same story. You know, sitting
with the same care that's one thing, and it's closer
to something like a long running show Liquicked, where you're
doing the same story, that's the same character, same company.
But then when you have these one off days of
filming here and there, it's a little bit like, Okay,
you know, you don't know anybody necessarily, so it's just

(51:17):
a little bit.

Speaker 2 (51:18):
Like you're thrown in.

Speaker 3 (51:19):
You deliver and you leave, and then that's like the
whole skill is just being able to show up and
be on right away. There's no ease into it, so
just different skills.

Speaker 1 (51:30):
I was talking to someone that is doing theater right now,
Eliah Scott. She was an actress and sex sized with
college Girls. Now she's producing I think she's producing Slash
directing this play, but I don't even if it's running anymore.
But it was like a short stint of a play
off Broadway in New York, and I was asking her, like,
what was it like going from on screen to now
being back on stage performing and she was like, well,

(51:51):
what I love about on stage performing is that you
don't have to redo the takes.

Speaker 2 (51:56):
It is what it is.

Speaker 3 (51:58):
There's so much freedom in that. There's pressure in that,
but it's so freeing.

Speaker 1 (52:02):
It's like, yeah, and those rehearsals involved for you to
get it right. But yeah, that was one of the
things that she said, and I found it really interesting.

Speaker 3 (52:09):
That's been something actually that I think about lately, because like,
the culture of bootlegs is crazier than it's ever been.
I think, what do you mean by bootleg Like when
people film live theater and then they post it online illegal,
Oh helpful for people who don't have access fun.

Speaker 2 (52:34):
But all got it.

Speaker 3 (52:36):
When I come down in the bubble, like I can
look out and see immediately like the twelve reflective screens
glaring back, and I know, okay, whatever I do right now, yeah,
it's the one live take, but like it's gonna live
online forever. So that's an interesting new thing in the
theater world that I don't know, Like I'm still figuring
out exactly how I feel about it, because I do

(52:57):
watch them. I do watch them when they come up
on TikTok is say oh Jen smart and death becomes sir,
let me watch that.

Speaker 1 (53:03):
Yeah, But that I would have mixed feelings about it too,
because it does come with this added pressure of being like,
oh wait, I thought this was going to be an
intimate performance and now we're filming.

Speaker 2 (53:12):
For TikTok yeah and YouTube. Yeah.

Speaker 3 (53:14):
And then it makes me think like if I were performed, Okay,
this is like kind of a digression. If I were
performing on a big Broadway stage there's two thousand seats.
You know, you have a certain thing that you do
to like tell the story.

Speaker 2 (53:31):
But then I see these.

Speaker 3 (53:32):
Tiktoks come out and it's like zoomed in like right here,
and so what I whatever the actor, whether it's me
or someone else, is doing to read to the you know,
two hundredth row you're getting right here, So then it's
creating the I don't know if I'm right about this.

Speaker 2 (53:50):
This is just my hunch.

Speaker 3 (53:53):
It's creating this like thing in acting on stage where
you're both simultaneously acting for the full audience, but you're
also sort of acting for a close up.

Speaker 2 (54:03):
I don't know if this is true.

Speaker 3 (54:05):
I'm curious what other people think, if anyone else has
noticed this. But how do you do both? And I
guess the answer is you just be honest and you
like you just tell the story. But I don't know,
it's different. So this is a different perspective.

Speaker 1 (54:22):
But when I'm filming my running interview show selfie style,
it's very different when the member you even asked me,
like the cameras in front of us as well. Right,
Sometimes we have Jeremy cumm and he films, and I
want to start filming the show more consistently horizontal so
that we can get.

Speaker 2 (54:36):
The episodes up on YouTube.

Speaker 1 (54:38):
But it is so different interviewing like this style where
the cameras are. Hey, guys, the cameras are out there
versus like me holding it. It's like a different cadence
of conversation. And the close up is very different than
the far away, and you can't you can't really do
both of the same. You can't optimize at the same time. Yeah,
I don't know, it's just a different vibe.

Speaker 3 (54:59):
I haven't talked to anyone about my thoughts on bootleg acting,
so I kind of want to like survey the crowd
and see what people think if that's a real thing
or not.

Speaker 2 (55:07):
Maybe it's just me.

Speaker 1 (55:08):
Yeah, But also like having reflecting phones in your face
when you're performing, it's distracting, So distracting your phones away. Guys,
you're in this dream role right now as Glenda on Broadway.

(55:30):
But I love knowing that. You also love on screen acting.
So do you see yourself in the future getting back
into that.

Speaker 3 (55:38):
I feel like I'm at a point in my life
where whatever I do after Glinda, I've only planned this far,
Like Glinda was my dream job and now I'm doing it,
and I haven't really thought about what comes next. So
maybe there's some screen acting, maybe there's more theater, maybe
there's like marriage and family, Like I really don't know
what my next steps are going to be after this show.

Speaker 1 (56:01):
Well, if you could pick a dreams series to be
a part of, and this is just to like get
a sense of your personality, Oh my god, what would
you love to be in?

Speaker 3 (56:10):
Uh like put me on Glee, Put me in Glee,
let me sing, let me be ridiculous, and let me
be dramatic. But at the same time, I just know
that would like come back to bite me, you know,
like it's come back.

Speaker 2 (56:28):
To bite mister Schuster. But it's okay.

Speaker 3 (56:31):
I think it would be fun to be in a
long you know, long running musical sitcom.

Speaker 2 (56:38):
How fun would that be? Mm hmm.

Speaker 1 (56:39):
It'd be fun to see you you and it also
be fun to see like what type of theater kid?

Speaker 2 (56:44):
Are you?

Speaker 3 (56:44):
On the flip side, though, I actually really like scary
things and it would be really fun to do like
horror films because I love watching them. I love like
thinking about what they're going through as the actor is
creating scary films. I think that would also be very
fun to do something in like the Yeah, a little spooky,

(57:07):
little scorpio spooky show.

Speaker 2 (57:09):
Are you scorpio scorpio. Yeah, oh, a scorpio stellium.

Speaker 1 (57:12):
Okay, I'm cancer and scorpio and cancers are very compatible.

Speaker 2 (57:15):
My fiance scorpio.

Speaker 1 (57:17):
Oh yeah, it was his birthday November sixth, one's October
October twenty seven. Yeah, so you're very close to Halloween. Yeah.

Speaker 3 (57:24):
Yeah, I've got that spooky energy. You know, I've got
that witchy energy.

Speaker 2 (57:28):
Yeah. Okay, it's like perfect guy. You're in Wicked.

Speaker 1 (57:30):
Yeah, so twenty twenty one to twenty twenty four, you
were stand by as Glinda on Broadway. Let's talk about
auditioning how you got that part, and paint the picture
of what it looks like to be a standby.

Speaker 3 (57:43):
Okay, So I first auditioned for Wicked. I was out
of town filming a Hallmark Christmas movie. And funny enough,
the character that I was playing in this Hallmark movie
was kind of Glinda esque, like kind of bubbly, kind
of cheery.

Speaker 2 (57:59):
What's the Hallmark movie so we can watch? Oh my gosh,
it's called Next Stop Christmas. Are you the main character
in it?

Speaker 3 (58:05):
No? I have like a couple of small scenes, okay,
but it was super fun to do. We filmed it
in like the heat of August or September. But anyway,
I was out of town filming that when I got
the audition request for Wicked, and I literally like my
heart stopped. I thought, Oh, the chance is here. I've
waited my whole life for this email to come and

(58:26):
show up, and it is here. And I have only
a suitcase of like sweats with me. So I threw
together what I could for a self tape and I
submitted it and my manager was like, you sound great,
you look great, but you have to just refilm it,
and you have to wear pink and curl your hair.
And I was like, you've got to be kidding me, Like,
don't people have an imagination? Yeah, the quality is there,

(58:49):
and they were like, no, just trust us, and so
I did. I said, okay, I went and like rent
the runway a bunch of pink dresses, and I refilmed
it and sent it in and immediately got an in
person callback, which I was thrilled about that, Like the

(59:10):
whole story could have ended there and I would have
still been like I did that, like I touched Wicked
in some way, And so I had an in person
callback a few weeks later, and I went in and
the music director of Wicked, his name is Dan Mitchik.
He looked at my resume and he recognized thirteen. So

(59:30):
this is one of those things where it's like I
wouldn't be where I am without the things that I
did as a child. Anyway, he saw thirteen and he
was like, wait, which one were you? And I was
like in Glinda character, I was like, I was the
main one, you know, just kind of being kind of
a diva. And he said, we'll prove it sing and
the piano player started playing one of the main songs

(59:51):
that I sung in thirteen that I haven't sung in
ten years, and I said, if I'm going to sing
this song, I'm singing it as Glinda. And I just
went into this performance of what it means to be
a friend but as Glinda, and it got a chuckle
out of the room, it got a chuckle out of me.
The energy was really good, and I left thinking something

(01:00:12):
is going to come from this.

Speaker 2 (01:00:13):
And I had one more.

Speaker 3 (01:00:15):
Follow up, a callback with our associate director and they
film it so that they can send it to like
the whole team of everybody.

Speaker 2 (01:00:23):
And that audition I went in.

Speaker 3 (01:00:25):
I did like one song and they were like, that's
all thanks, and I was like.

Speaker 2 (01:00:29):
Oh, like maybe this is the end of the road.

Speaker 3 (01:00:32):
But it was right after my twenty seventh, by my
twenty seventh birthday, on the twenty seventh, that I got
the call that I would be joining the company. And
you know, I had like a golden birthday theme and
I was kind of manifesting, like what do I want
for this year of my life? And to get that
as the start of that year was just the hugest gift.

(01:00:52):
And I had like two weeks of rehearsal. A lot
of people were still I mean we were like not
really out of the clear. I mean we were not
really in the clear with COVID yet, so there were
a lot of restrictions around who could come into the building,
how we could rehearse. People were out sick a lot,
so it was a little bit of a stressful time.

(01:01:14):
And I walked in on this kind of like resurgence,
bringing Broadway back from a very dark time for theater.
And I had very limited rehearsal. I had one put
in and then I made my debut the following week
on Christmas Day of twenty twenty one. Wow. So that
was like crazy Christmas to remember. And I loved being

(01:01:36):
a standby. I just would have stayed there forever. I
loved the job so much. I loved the ability to
pop in and do the show here and then with
the knowledge that I could rest and recover afterwards, so
like it always felt manageable, doable. It felt like I
could really give it my all and then rest. And

(01:02:00):
the challenge with doing it full time, of course, is
that you have to figure out how to maintain that
level of performance. And the challenge with the standby position
is that you never know when you're going to go on,
so you have to be ready, but you don't really always.

Speaker 2 (01:02:13):
Have any notice.

Speaker 3 (01:02:14):
So there are pros and cons of each job type,
I guess, but I really loved being a standby.

Speaker 1 (01:02:22):
I also feel like being a standby before you are
like the.

Speaker 2 (01:02:26):
Lead, is kind of a great experience.

Speaker 1 (01:02:29):
Because you learn the role and you figure out, like,
what is the Glinda that I want to be? Do
you feel like having had that experience, it's now helped
you so much as the lead.

Speaker 3 (01:02:36):
One hundred percent. It's also been incredibly helpful to watch
so many other Glinda's come in and see them go
through the process, See how they find their own voice
in it, how they find their body in it, See
how they navigate the challenges of the job over the
course of their year. I've just learned so much from

(01:02:57):
watching these pros come in and like kind of pay
the way. And I also have learned a lot from
being able to do the show with so many different Alphaba's.
So in my time a standby, I've done the show
with at least seven different women playing Alphaba. And you
learn a lot just from having that different scene partner,
the different you know, even different ensemble members, different Wizard,

(01:03:19):
different Madam Morble. It brings out different things in the
material that you might not have ever noticed before. So
now being in the show a full time, I've had
so many years to sit with the material and like
really discover all of these little baby nuances that I
don't that it took me, you know, a couple of
years to even think, oh, what if I did this here?

(01:03:41):
Like what if you know, I never even thought about
that line being said like that before, but that just
happened organically, And it's a huge gift.

Speaker 2 (01:03:51):
That I had that time to prepare.

Speaker 1 (01:03:53):
And now it's like, you know, the show like the
back of your hand.

Speaker 2 (01:03:55):
Totally.

Speaker 3 (01:03:56):
Yeah. I used to like wake up in a cold sweat.
I would like run the sho show in my dreams,
like just in case. And now I feel like I
could play any role I could. I might not do
it well, but I could probably spit those lines out.

Speaker 1 (01:04:11):
What is your favorite song to perform in the musical?

Speaker 3 (01:04:15):
It switches depending on like the day, depending on how
my voice is feeling. I will never get tired of
singing the opening number, No One warns the Wicked.

Speaker 2 (01:04:25):
It's just like a very beautiful without.

Speaker 3 (01:04:28):
Spoiling anything, in case people don't somehow know how Wicked ends.
Glinda's arc starts and ends with this song, and so
she is kind of like going through a whole myriad
of emotions, all covered by this like presentational like diplomatic,
you know, front, And it happens to be sitting in

(01:04:49):
this huge, soaring soprano that like when you have those
top of the show nerves, it just.

Speaker 2 (01:04:56):
Like comes out.

Speaker 3 (01:04:56):
It's just so much fun to sing up there, and
I will never get tired of it. And it's like
you're in the bubble in this massive dress, uh, sparkling.

Speaker 2 (01:05:05):
It's so fun. It's so fun.

Speaker 1 (01:05:08):
Yeah. No, I feel like outside of like the actual performance,
I would geek out over the costumes.

Speaker 2 (01:05:13):
The costumes are incredible. Okay.

Speaker 3 (01:05:14):
That's the other great thing about being in the full
time position now is that I've had all of the
costumes made just for me. So when you're a standby
in its own cool way, you're wearing different mixed match
pieces from other Glinda's costumes from the past, and that's
fun because you're like, oh wow, I'm wearing like Kendra
Cassabaum's corset and she was the first Glinda I ever saw.

Speaker 2 (01:05:37):
Very cool.

Speaker 3 (01:05:38):
But then to be able to like have these custom
dresses fit and made for you with your name stitched in,
it feels so special and like it's like kind of
just I don't know, it just feels like this girly
little special thing.

Speaker 1 (01:05:53):
You're living out your princess like fairy tale to us.

Speaker 2 (01:05:56):
But I mean, how could you not.

Speaker 1 (01:05:57):
And what's different about your Glinda dresses that like we
haven't seen before.

Speaker 3 (01:06:01):
They're all handmade. And I also have a brand new crown.
That's probably the most different of my costumes is that
I have a brand new bubble crown, which is the
blue crown that Glinda wears at the top of the
show and so no one has ever worn it, only me.

Speaker 2 (01:06:16):
No, The costume thing is one of the coolest things.

Speaker 1 (01:06:18):
And I remember like when Mary Kate Morrison and I
when we first did the Who's Glinda in twenty twenty
four Sorry Alpha ba hell E, see she was Alphaba
in twenty twenty four, and her and I like two
years ago when I was kind of first starting out
the running interview show. We ran from Central Park to
the Gershwin Theater and she tore us around and I
remember one of the things that she said to me

(01:06:39):
was how she was stand by at the time and
she was wearing I forget who which Alphaba was, but
she was wearing their costume and how special it was
even like asked stand by to be able to wear
the costume of this other incredible performer and like woman
that wore it before her. And I think the cool
thing then about becoming the Alpha Mee Glinda and having

(01:07:01):
these custom costumes made for you is like future generations
of Glenda are gonna wear those and be like this
is the costume that Ali wore.

Speaker 3 (01:07:07):
Yeah, And it really does feel like when I talk
about the spiritual presence of theater. This is part of it,
like the whole energy that you bring your you know,
operating from this frequency, and it just you know, in
my mind, it's like the costumes feel it, and then
the people who wear the costumes will feel it. And
I hope that if anyone wears my skirt in the future, whatever,

(01:07:30):
I hope they feel like well dressed and well prepared
and excited.

Speaker 1 (01:07:35):
You know. Yeah, I've been act day. It's literally good
vibes and connected to you in a way. So you're
Alphaba right now with you. The other lead is Lencia,
and you guys are getting a lot of press about
having incredible chemistry on stage. Oh yeah, So what goes
into making sure you have good chemistry? Because I feel
like we hear this a lot in acting, where they
do literally like chemistry testing before casting people.

Speaker 2 (01:07:58):
Yeah, at Wicked, they don't do that.

Speaker 3 (01:08:00):
I mean, I'm sure they have a whole process of
like determining who they think will be well matched, but
they don't have you auditioned together. So when I found
out Lencia Cabetta was going to be playing Alphaba, I
was so thrilled because she's also our first principal Black
Alphaba that we've had in Wicket on this Broadway production.
So that's major and overdue and very very exciting. And

(01:08:25):
when I found out she was still on tour with Hamilton,
so I actually flew to San Francisco and saw her
in Hamilton because I just wanted to like start our
friendship off on a good, supportive, fun note, and I
wanted to see her shine and kind of like, I
don't know, just start start things as soon as I could.

(01:08:45):
I was just so excited and I was blown away
by her voice, by her presence. I think that people
who see her in the show are going to be
really just like whoa that is a woman who just
stands and sings and sings the sh out of these songs.
So it's been awesome.

Speaker 4 (01:09:03):
Yeah, what is your pre show ritual before Glinda gets
into the bubble.

Speaker 3 (01:09:19):
There's a lot that goes on before Glinda goes into
the bubble. On our run we talked about like the
minutes leading up to it, but there's actually a lot
more of the ritual that goes in. So I have
a whole vocal warm up that I do at home.
My dog is my audience. He sits and watches me.
He knows I'm about to leave, so he's stressed. But
I sing anyway, and I have like a physical warm

(01:09:41):
up that I do as well. But once I get
to the theater, like I'm ready to go, I do
my own makeup Glinda and Broadway does her own makeup,
which is great.

Speaker 2 (01:09:51):
And then I hang out with my.

Speaker 3 (01:09:52):
Dresser, Jess, who her whole job is to make sure
that my job is as easy as it can be
and that my costumes look amazing on So we love
Jess and I just kind of catch up with the company,
and then as we get closer to showtime, I get
amped up. I mean, I just like we all run

(01:10:13):
around like babbling little kids getting ready to do Wicked.
And then yeah, in those final minutes, you get into
the bubble. I'm held in there by one clip and
the bubble goes up. And when you're at the top
waiting for the show to start, at the top of
the show, you can look down and there's like a
little gap between curtains where you can see the front row,
and I can look down at the top of the show,

(01:10:35):
I can see if there are any kids in the
front row, if they're in there, Glinda Best.

Speaker 2 (01:10:40):
There are a lot of kids.

Speaker 3 (01:10:42):
Coming to the show in costume these days, which is
so sweet, and it kind of puts me in a
space where I can have a little moment of gratitude and.

Speaker 2 (01:10:51):
Like I'll say a little prayer.

Speaker 3 (01:10:52):
I'll say a little prayer of like I hope this
is a protected and great show. I mentioned there's a
little poster hanging right at eye level where the bubble
stops at the top and the Glinda from the previous
contract will create a little break a leg. It's a
visual which is very, very precious. And then the show starts.

Speaker 2 (01:11:11):
The lights go.

Speaker 3 (01:11:12):
Down and we kick it off and the bubbles turn
on and it's all shot out of a cannon from.

Speaker 2 (01:11:19):
There, lights, camera action. Yeah. Yeah.

Speaker 1 (01:11:22):
Because of the Wicked movie coming out, it's like a
monumental time to be part of Wicked. You're also part
of the twentieth anniversary, so like you're hitting all these
like iconic milestones for Wicked.

Speaker 3 (01:11:30):
It's such an incredible time to be part of this show.
I feel so grateful and like the fun things that
have gone on behind the scenes in the years that
I've been here have been like as fun as doing
the show itself. I've gotten to meet and hang out
with both Kristen and Idina at the twentieth anniversary.

Speaker 2 (01:11:48):
I've gotten to get dressed up for.

Speaker 3 (01:11:50):
Different premieres and different events to celebrate Wicked, and like,
it's just been really special, and I'm really looking forward
to what comes of this next year as we gear
up for the second movie coming out, and I'm looking
forward to seeing it. I loved the first movie. I
wept through the whole ending, and I'm really excited to
see the next. We talked about this a little bit

(01:12:12):
before we sat down, But you are involved in a
way in the movies, A little teeny tiny way, Yes,
how you're involved. I so for the first film, part
of what goes into making a movie musical involves creating
demos of the music. So there was an era in
like I think the summer of twenty twenty two, where

(01:12:34):
the company of the Wicked movie would hire some of
us from the Broadway Company to come and sing some
of the demos. So I got to sing some of
the Glenda material for the demos that they then used
in the production of the movie. I don't really know
how it all played out or what they used and
didn't use, And I think that there were a lot

(01:12:55):
of company members in the Broadway company that had their
vocals end up in the film, So fingers crossed, maybe
there was still some hope for that for the second movie,
because that would be so cool and it's just fun
to be able to be a part of it in
any little way and to be able to just see
how it gets made.

Speaker 2 (01:13:11):
The magic is made from behind the curtain, you know,
it's incredible.

Speaker 1 (01:13:14):
And I just I love knowing how much the movie
pays so much kudos and respect to like you guys
who are performing the show every single night. But when
you were watching it for the first time, what were
you like so hyped to see about Arianna as Glinda, Like,
was there one moment that you were like, she nailed that?

Speaker 3 (01:13:32):
Oh, there was so many moments that I thought she
nailed it. Even before it was announced that she was
going to be in it, when it was like rumored
of who could be playing Glinda, I really thought she
would be spectacular because she just has this kind of
energy that lends itself to such a rich character like this,
and such a beautiful, like beloved character too, So I

(01:13:57):
thought I mean, I was thrilled seeing seeing her popular.

Speaker 2 (01:14:01):
I thought it was hysterical.

Speaker 3 (01:14:03):
So many of her little like isms, like her little
line deliveries, both her and Cynthia and Jonathan Bailey. It
was nice to get like a close up on all
of these little moments that a lot of them exist
in the in the Broadway show, even if their little
ad lips or even if they're little, like just tiny
moments in the background. But with the film, you can
really zoom in and like see these little moments clearly.

(01:14:27):
And so I just got such a kick out of
seeing how much they you know, fleshed out the whole
the whole story, and how much they paid Homash, how
much they respected the original source material.

Speaker 1 (01:14:42):
It was beautiful, and I mean I feel like too,
like as somebody that's a constantly performing it on stage.
It was probably so cool for you to see how
they imagined oz and you know, and she's like, well,
they just built this.

Speaker 3 (01:14:56):
Whole world, Like I want to go to that theme park.
I want to go, need to visit, Like I want
to go, and we all do, we all want to go.
It looks so fun.

Speaker 1 (01:15:05):
I loved the Wicked movie itself, of course, but My
favorite thing was Architectural Digested this video it's like a
twelve minute long video on YouTube and where they were
interviewing the guy that's was in charge of production and
he went through and obviously it's this incredible company of
people that work with him, but he took us through
like every single scene and every single set from the

(01:15:26):
entrance of like the toulips and how they had to
plant like an insane amount of toolips somewhere in Europe
and they had to time everything perfectly with like when
the toolips bloom and then like what went into shiz
and that entrance scene of them on the boats and
having like it was just so crazy.

Speaker 2 (01:15:42):
I had to watch that. Oh my god, you have
to watch that.

Speaker 3 (01:15:45):
We just watched the trailer for the second film. It
was incredible, and some of us in the company at
the Gershwin watched it together and it got me so
excited because you could even see like the visuals of
the Tornado being filmed in in CPA, like in the
same tone that it was filmed in the Wizard of

(01:16:05):
Oz movie.

Speaker 2 (01:16:06):
That's incredible.

Speaker 3 (01:16:08):
I mean, I think that they have taken it so
seriously and that they have clearly careen and loved this
material so much, so I can't.

Speaker 2 (01:16:17):
Wait to see it.

Speaker 1 (01:16:18):
What are you most excited about for the second movie? Like,
what are you most excited to see?

Speaker 3 (01:16:22):
Well, I'm really curious to see what is different from
the Broadway Show in I don't want to spoil anything,
but I'm curious to see how the characters transition and change.
And I was saying earlier, I love scary things and
act too. Of Wicked is like it can be kind
of dark. Actually, a lot of Wicked, depending on what
it is that you're looking for, can be like very

(01:16:44):
serious and heavy if you look for those themes woven
underneath all of the bubbles and the glitter. So I'm
excited to see these characters really come into their own
and I guess just pay the consequences of their actions
in the first movie, or like reap the benefits, so

(01:17:05):
to speak. And I think that there's probably going.

Speaker 2 (01:17:09):
To be a lot of depth. Well I hope. I'm
excited for the depth that these characteristic going to give us.

Speaker 1 (01:17:19):
Yeah, no, wait, I'm curious do you know this? Like
did they film part one and Part two together?

Speaker 2 (01:17:27):
So it's already filmed? Yeah? They did?

Speaker 3 (01:17:29):
They filmed it all together, and then I think they're
doing some reshoots here and there, and I know that
they're still doing a couple of little musical different things.

Speaker 2 (01:17:36):
So there's the movie's not done yet. But I am
not a spokesperson for the movie. I don't really know.

Speaker 1 (01:17:42):
Yeah, I was just wondering, So I'm like, I didn't
know that, Okay, Well, we talked about so much, seriously, Ali, Like,
I just loved getting a peek behind like the curtain
of you today and like learning everything about you. It's
seriously just so cool. There's still so much more to
uncover with you. But I'm so excited to just like
experience you as the Queenda this year on Wicked. What

(01:18:06):
are you excited about? What's coming up for you? What
do we got going on?

Speaker 3 (01:18:10):
I mean mostly right now, it is just these eight
shows a week. It's getting through this show. We have
Broadway and Brian Park coming up, and a couple of
different like Broadway community events that are coming up with Wicked.
But if anyone wants to come see the show, give
me a shout out. I will blow you a bubble.

Speaker 1 (01:18:28):
Thank you guys so much for tuning into today's episode,
your support means the world to me and helps us
continue bringing you inspiring conversations. If you've been enjoying Post
run High, please be sure to follow the show so
you never miss an episode. Leave us a quick rating,
and share this episode with a friend. We've got great
conversations coming your way and you won't want.

Speaker 2 (01:18:47):
To miss them.

Speaker 1 (01:18:48):
I'll see you guys next week. I hope you got
your post run high going

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Kate Mackz

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