Jordan Litz: Wicked's Fiyero ran the NYC Marathon...Then Performed Two Shows

Jordan Litz, Broadway’s longest-running Fiyero in Wicked, opens up about what it truly takes to perform one of musical theater’s most iconic roles. He shares the full story behind running the New York City Marathon and then stepping onstage for two performances the same day, the physical and emotional toll of chasing a sub-3-hour goal, and how his years as an elite swimmer shaped the discipline he brings to Wicked.

Jordan also reflects on five years and 1,600+ shows as Fiyero, how different Elphabas and Glindas continually reshape the role, and what it’s been like performing as the movies reshape audience reactions. A conversation for Wicked fans and for anyone curious how top performers and athletes push their limits onstage, in training, and in life.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
You ran the New York City Marathon and then you
performed in two.

Speaker 2 (00:04):
Shows the Broadway ultra. I had made very public statements
about what I wanted to do in the race. Broadway
star Jordan Lytz announced that he will be running in
tomorrow's New York City Marathon, then later star in two
performances of Wicked.

Speaker 3 (00:18):
After that died.

Speaker 2 (00:20):
When I was an athlete all of my life, I
had very high expectations.

Speaker 3 (00:23):
For how it was going to go.

Speaker 1 (00:24):
You went to the Olympic Trials in what year? So
what would you say? Swimming at that.

Speaker 2 (00:29):
Level taught you Running is a solitary sport, but swimming
is even more solitary.

Speaker 1 (00:34):
When you made the pivot, like what was your musical.

Speaker 3 (00:37):
Theater part zilch.

Speaker 1 (00:39):
You're the longest running Pharaoh in Wicked's Broadway history.

Speaker 2 (00:42):
Never in my wildest dreams would I have ever predicted
that I would have been happy to be three number seven.
The more tools you have at your disposal, more easily
castable you are.

Speaker 1 (00:54):
I'm Kate Max and today we're talking to Jordan Litz,
Broadway's longest running fierro on Wicked on Broadway. Jordan competed
at the twenty twelve Olympic Trials alongside Michael Phelps, and
today you're going to hear how he ran the New
York City Marathon, performed two Broadway shows the same day,
and how decades of athletic discipline prepared him for that moment.

(01:14):
We will be back with Jordan's episode after this short break. Alrady,
Jordan Litz, welcome to Post Run High.

Speaker 2 (01:25):
Thank you so much. I love that we've got like
the no socks. I know I have to be comfortable,
know me too.

Speaker 1 (01:30):
Okay, So Jordan just ran nine miles. I ran four
of those nine miles with you. How are you feeling?

Speaker 2 (01:36):
I feel good. Honestly, nine miles is so much easier
than twenty six point two.

Speaker 3 (01:40):
I'll do nine any day.

Speaker 1 (01:41):
So about a month ago, Jordan ran the New York
City Marathon twenty six point two miles plus the mile
they don't talk about when you finish three so you
have to walk. Yeah, I'm not gonna say what I
used to call it, but I have a name for it.

Speaker 2 (01:51):
Oh, okay, you can tell me.

Speaker 1 (01:54):
But you ran the New York City Marathon and then
you performed in two shows, A Mattinee and a night show.
You're doing the same thing today as long as baby
girl number two doesn't come out.

Speaker 2 (02:05):
I keep checking my watch and we're good so far.

Speaker 1 (02:08):
Jordan's wife is like at the tail end of her
second pregnancy and the babies do any second.

Speaker 2 (02:12):
Now literally days, literally days.

Speaker 1 (02:14):
How does one run a marathon or run nine miles
and then perform in two Broadway shows.

Speaker 2 (02:21):
Preparation, preparation, preparation. It's all about incrementally building up the
mileage so that you are not just going out there
and running a marathon and then doing two shows. Fortunately,
for me, Fiera is what we call a princess track,
where it's a pretty cake role. You know, I'm I

(02:41):
guess I'm the third most important character in the show.
But I only sing two songs and one of them
is pretty physically demanding, and that's it, and then you
get all the glory. The girls do all of the
heavy lifting in the show, Alpha Bug Glinda. I think
Alphaba sings nine songs, Glinda sings something like that. They're
both on stage for the entirety of the show, and

(03:02):
I think I have about an hour of stage time
in a two hour and forty five minute musical, So
I don't want to downplay it because it is still
very physical. It's a tough role and anytime you have
to be on Broadway at the most elite level, you
have to bring it every single day. But yeah, it's
just about calories, preparation, training, timing, all of that.

Speaker 1 (03:27):
You know. I like that you brought in the live
factor because regardless of what you know of how demanding
the part is, which you're being modest because the part
is very demanding, and you, guys, you know not only
is you know, not only are you performing on stage
for a live packed audience pretty much every single show.
But we talked about this and we saw it in
our running interview. But the Gershwin Theater is on a

(03:48):
rake stage. So you ran the New York City Marathon
and then you're performing two shows, running around, dancing, singing
on an incline.

Speaker 2 (03:55):
Yeah. I mean, there was only one moment in the
show that I was thinking I could genuinely rip my
knee apart right now, and it was you've seen the
show in actu fierro swings in on a rope to
like help get Alphabet to safety, and it's about seven
or eight feet up in the air. That you swing
in and it's all on your own control. There's no

(04:17):
one like guiding you down or you're not harnessed into anything.
And I wear these boots. They're in here somewhere, but
they're like, they're not comfortable. They're basically wood planks that
you land on. And that was the only moment in
the show where I was thinking this could go horribly wrong.
But fortunately everything worked out just fine. And once I

(04:38):
got through that, I knew that show two would be
would be cake.

Speaker 1 (04:42):
You're like, so too, I've got it in the bag
if I can get through show well.

Speaker 2 (04:44):
Truly, Show one was just like I finished forty minutes
before half hour and so that's about an hour and
ten minutes before showtime.

Speaker 3 (04:54):
That was the one that I was thinking, can we
do this? And it fine? Yeah, it ended up working
out just fine.

Speaker 1 (05:01):
What were the thoughts going through your head as you
were walking from Columbus Circle finishing the New York City
Marathon to then going to the Gershman Theater.

Speaker 2 (05:09):
Well, I just had tears in my eyes because I
was terrified. I I the race didn't go the way
I wanted it to. So the you know, I was
an athlete all of my life, and so I had
very high expectations for how it was going to go,
and I had made very public statements about what I
wanted to do in the race, and so I felt

(05:30):
like I had let myself down a little bit in that,
and I had let you know, people that had helped
me get to that day down a little bit. So
there was that feeling, and there was also the feeling of,
oh my gosh, I'm not even halfway through my day
right now, I have two more shows.

Speaker 3 (05:47):
But luckily, you.

Speaker 2 (05:49):
Know, Julie is just this consummate lightning rod for our family,
and she was able to like calm me down and
bring me back to earth. And as we got over
over to the stage, everybody greeted me with the biggest
smiles and the best hugs. And there's so many videos
of me just like sobbing in my dresser's arms and
in our head of hair, her arms and a lot

(06:10):
of people just lifting me up to get to the
start of the show. And then once the show started,
I just pressed the play button for you know, sixteen
hundred shows, and it happened.

Speaker 1 (06:20):
Sixteen hundred shows. Yeah, you know, you get those ten
thousand hours and it's kind of like you can you
can do the show in your sleep a little bit, right.

Speaker 2 (06:28):
I try not to, Yeah, I try to. Do you
ever dream about Wicked? Oh gosh? Unfortunately all the time,
and it's usually not the good dreams. It's like the
it's like I'm thrown on for Alphaba and I've never
sung the words before, and it's that kind of thing.

Speaker 1 (06:43):
All of a sudden, you're green.

Speaker 2 (06:44):
Oh my gosh, and I'm trying above two thousand people
and I'm like, I've never done this before.

Speaker 1 (06:47):
Yeah, okay, So let's talk about the training that went
into preparing for the marathon. Preparing for running, because I
know you've only gotten too running relatively recently, right in
the past two years. So what did your training look
like leading into the marathon?

Speaker 2 (07:02):
I used Runna shout out Runna. I'm not sponsored by them,
but I needed to be very regimented with my time.
I am the father of one about to be the
father of two. I live in Jersey, so I'm commuting
in every day, so the time constraints were were very rigid,

(07:24):
and RUNNA, I felt, gave me the opportunity to have
someone pointing me in the right direction. I was on
a schedule. Everything was designed for me. I didn't have
to think about anything. I could just go out there
and press my start on my watch and it would
just tell me what to do and then I'd show
up and do it. So I followed their training regiment.

(07:48):
I think my highest highest mileage week was forty nine
miles or something like that, which was like four weeks
out or three weeks out from from the marathon day.
And I still did h that week, and that was
that was one of the low points of the year,
was knocking out almost fifty miles in eight shows and
all of that. But I found it really, really useful,

(08:11):
and I'm going to use it again for next year's marathon.

Speaker 1 (08:13):
So you think you'll do what we called it. I
loved what you called it during the run, but Jordan
Jordan coined this the.

Speaker 2 (08:19):
Broadway Ultra Broadway Ultra.

Speaker 1 (08:21):
So you think you're gonna do it again.

Speaker 2 (08:22):
Next year, Well, I will do the marathon. Whether or
not I'm on Broadway for that is up in the air.
You know, I've been with the show for five years now,
and there comes a point where it's just it's time
to give somebody else a chance and pass on the
white pants to another person. And so we'll see. We'll

(08:44):
see where I am in another eleven months. But if
I could do the Broadway ultra, I would do it
again for sure.

Speaker 1 (08:50):
What was the goal or pace that you were trying
to hit at the marathon? Like, what was your goal?

Speaker 2 (08:56):
Oh no, don't ask me that. So I had been
training at two fifty five to three hour pace.

Speaker 1 (09:05):
Oh my god.

Speaker 2 (09:06):
And it felt comfortable. It felt very cozy throughout all
the training process. On the day, I got maybe about
three four hours of sleep the night before, but I
still felt good. I still felt like it was definitely possible.
And uh and I talked to Casey, who's one of

(09:27):
the case Yeah. Yeah, I talked to him beforehand because
he's he's broken three before. And on the day I
was like, I think I'm going to go three oh seven.
I think that that feels good to me. And he
was like, Okay, we'll take it out easy in the
first half. He was like, if you want to be
anywhere near three hours, you're going to want to go
out in like one thirty two, one thirty three and

(09:47):
then back half the hell out of it. And so
I did that. I was out in one thirty two
flat at the half and then hamstring started to not
feel good, so I eased off the gas and then
it und leveled very quickly from there.

Speaker 1 (10:01):
What happened?

Speaker 2 (10:04):
I think I learned a lot about fueling that day.
I'm I'm probably gonna have to have people on the
course like hand me a bottle of some sort maybe
halfway through eight mile, sixteen miles something like that, because
I just wasn't getting enough fluids into my system and
it just locked up in a major way. I went

(10:24):
from going, you know, six fifty miles to I think
my mile twenty was twelve thirty, and then I was
like eleven ten, eleven, fifteen, thirteen forty eight, and then
I was able to like get myself back to something
for like the last mile and a half, I said,
you will not walk across this finish line after all

(10:44):
of this, So I was able to like get you know,
a bunch of gatorade in my system from the aid
stations and survive the end of it. But yeah, I
learned a lot about fueling and how to survive a marathon.

Speaker 1 (10:57):
Yeah, was this your first marathon?

Speaker 3 (10:59):
First marathon?

Speaker 1 (10:59):
Oh? Okay, the first New York City Marathon really is
a humbling one, and I feel like I'd be so
curious if you were to do maybe like the Philly Marathon,
which I guess is I don't know whether it's a
couple months after the New York Marathon. I've done it before,
but I just I think it would have been cool
to see you do another marathon too, to kind of
compare and see if you were able to get that
time that you were looking for, because the New York
Marathon really is just a hard one, and I feel

(11:21):
like it's a testament to any marathon, like, even if
you're going for a certain goal, you never know what's
going to happen that day.

Speaker 2 (11:27):
Yeah, I tried not to put too much pressure on
myself as far as time goes. Obviously I wanted a
time goal, but the overall goal for the day was
finish the marathon, alive, get to the stage, and do
two shows. And I accomplished that, and looking back, it
was the day was a success. At the time, it
didn't necessarily feel like that because, oh my gosh, man,

(11:50):
I had put something out on social media the day
before about I wanted people to yell fierro at me
as I was running up the finish because Alphabet has
this song an act too called Noga Deed where she
yells like feaarrah as she's coming up through the trap door,
and I was like, oh, that would be hilarious to
have people yell that at me. And that was not
funny when I was deep in the pain cave for

(12:13):
the last five miles.

Speaker 3 (12:14):
But it did get me through.

Speaker 2 (12:15):
It did get me through having so many like Broadway
fans out there cheering and yelling for you and getting
you cross the finish line.

Speaker 1 (12:22):
Yeah, and you still finished at a great pace.

Speaker 2 (12:25):
Yeah. If you look at the overall pace, you're like, oh,
eight thirty is not that bad, But when you were
going like six forty to six fifty pace before that, Yeah.

Speaker 1 (12:33):
I do have to say though the heart and we
talked about this during the run, but the hardest part
about posting online and sharing you know, your goals and
what you're doing is that kind of social There's pros
and cons to it. It's like the social accountability. And
I actually talked about this with Casey Nysat because before
he ran his first three hour marathon, he had always
talked about wanting to run it and all the preparation

(12:55):
he was doing before each marathon, like going for that
sub three hours, going for that sub three hours, and
I forget how long it took him, but it took
him a decent amount of time. And he said, you know,
like the hardest part about it was that so many
people knew he was going for that. But then the
best part about that is then having the people kind
of cheering you on and keeping you going even when
you don't kind of cross the finish line at the

(13:16):
time that you wanted. But definitely a double edged sword,
for sure.

Speaker 2 (13:20):
Yeah, And I felt that pressure a lot, especially with
all of oh my gosh, there was so much media
coverage leading up to it. If I had just gone
out and maybe I was doing it for myself, which honestly,
for the last since I gave up swimming, my fitness
has been for myself. I never posted about it, I
never talked about it. I didn't even post a single

(13:41):
video of me a picture of me at the gym,
like it was for me because it brings me joy.
And then through this and in raising money for Broadway
Cares Equity Fights AIDS, I knew that I had to
be a little bit more public with it so that
I could bring in as many funds.

Speaker 3 (13:55):
As I could for BCAFA.

Speaker 2 (13:57):
And through that, yeah, media, cup Bridge picked it up,
and then all of a sudden it snowball. Then holy cow,
SNL picked it up and we were we were in trouble.

Speaker 1 (14:05):
What was it like seeing SNL pick it up.

Speaker 2 (14:08):
I mean, that's unbelievable. You get a name drop on
SNL and not even like a star of Wicked he said,
Broadway star Jordan Litz, like he dropped me, dropped my name,
which is unbelievable. But then I woke up that morning
I was like, well, we're doing it. We're doing all
of this, because up until that point I thought I
don't have to. If I finish the marathon, we can

(14:30):
cut out and get out of here.

Speaker 3 (14:32):
But no, after that we were committed.

Speaker 1 (14:35):
And then Kelly and Mark are picking it up.

Speaker 2 (14:36):
You've got everything, but you see ABC all of that stuff.

Speaker 1 (14:40):
It was crazy, right, I mean, it was so nuts,
And it was funny because Jordan and I had been
planning to do a run.

Speaker 3 (14:45):
For a while, for months.

Speaker 2 (14:46):
Months.

Speaker 1 (14:47):
Yeah, because I have done your two close friends Mary
Kate Morrissey and Ali Trim, So guys, I have to
say today we are completing what did you call it?
The You called it something when we were running. I said,
like the triology, the Oscarpella trife. That's what you called it.
I loved that. So today's a.

Speaker 2 (15:05):
Big day, it really is. And we'll have to bump
into her on the way out. She's playing Glenda today.

Speaker 1 (15:09):
So I kind of said this before we started running.
But I also think one of the really cool things.
And you can tell me if I'm wrong, but for you,
you were an elite swimmer, which I did not know
about before doing a little bit of research on you
before coming in here today. But it must have been
kind of fun for you to get some athletic recognition
around the New York City Marathon, having your athletic background

(15:30):
without overly sharing it.

Speaker 2 (15:33):
What's funny is like, through all of this, I don't
think anybody has even made the connection that I'm a swimmer.
They just saw that this guy ran the marathon, this
Broadway star ran the marathon, and then did you shows
I don't know that anybody's really brought up the swimming
outside of this little conversation.

Speaker 1 (15:48):
Okay, so let's bring it up. Because you went to
the Olympic trials in what year, twenty twelve? Who else
was there?

Speaker 2 (15:53):
Michael Phelps, Michael Phelps, Ryan Lockedy, Caleb Dressel, all the
all of the guys, all the guys.

Speaker 3 (15:59):
Yeah, it was a very unfortunate time to be a swimmer.
But what a dream.

Speaker 2 (16:03):
I mean to be in the pool as like you're
sending off like possibly the greatest generation of swimming.

Speaker 3 (16:09):
Wow, what a dream.

Speaker 1 (16:11):
So you grew up competitively swimming.

Speaker 2 (16:13):
Yeah, I think my first race was when I was
like four. Yeah, four is when I had my first race,
and then I got a little more serious about it
when I was eight. I was still playing baseball and
swimming at that point, doing all of the sports. And
then when I got into high school, it became very
apparent that I had a very good skill set for

(16:34):
this and had the potential to swim in college and beyond.
So then I became a one sport athlete, which looking back,
I don't know that that was necessarily the best choice
for me. I think there's something too not getting too
honed in on one sport through your early high school time.

(16:56):
I think you're still trying to figure out who you are.
It's still very easy to get burnt out on a sport,
and I feel like I got a little burnout in
high school and then rediscovered my love of it as
I was getting through college. But yeah, it's been a
huge part of my life for twenty years, so it
was tough to give it up and then find something else.

Speaker 1 (17:14):
Yeah, but I also think there is some power in
pursuing that one sport and being super disciplined with it,
because when I think about swimming, you know, I grew
up around kids that swam. My husband's little brother was
a competitive swimmer at Georgetown, and I know the dedication.
It's like two a day's early mornings. You're just hyper disciplined.
It has a lot of synergies with running. I would say, So,

(17:35):
what would you say swimming at that level taught you, as.

Speaker 2 (17:40):
You said, discipline. I mean there, it's such a solitary sport.
Running is a solitary sport, but swimming is even more
solitary because you and I went on a run today
and we chatted the whole time. When you're swimming, there's
none of that. You chat a little bit on the wall,
you chat before after, but when you are in the pool,
it is.

Speaker 3 (17:57):
You in that black line and that is it.

Speaker 2 (18:00):
So you get very comfortable being in your own head
and motivating yourself. And especially for my case, when I
went to Olympic Trials in twenty twelve, nobody on my
team swam my events. We sent four people to Olympic Trials.
One of our girls was a sprint backstroke freestyler, one
of our guys was a sprint fly sprint freestyle, and

(18:21):
I was like a mid distance I am, or so
none of us trained together, and so you kind of
just get used to motivating yourself and disciplining yourself. And
that translated perfectly to a sport like long distance running,
because when I say, hey, Jeff, let's go run fifteen
miles today, He's like, absolutely not, that's not happening. So

(18:43):
that came in handy for sure, all of the self
discipline from the sportswarming m.

Speaker 1 (18:48):
Hmm, yeah, and really sticking to a strategic schedule, like
you have to be able to do that, yes.

Speaker 2 (18:53):
Yeah, well, and I want to spend as much time
with my daughters and my wife as I possibly can
at this point, so I get in as much mileage
as I possibly can and see them, which.

Speaker 3 (19:04):
Is the number one priority.

Speaker 1 (19:06):
And when you say the im you did the two hundred,
which is is that every.

Speaker 2 (19:11):
Stroke individual medally? Yeah, it's all the strokes, fly back,
breast free.

Speaker 1 (19:16):
What's it like going up against somebody like Michael Phelps.

Speaker 2 (19:20):
You're not really going up against him. I mean, yes,
you're in the water at the same time, but it's
like have fun, dude, I'll be back here twenty seconds
behind you kind of thing. But it's watching him in
the races. I was never in any finals, well not
at Olympic trials. I was never in any finals at
Olympic Trials with him. But to watch him, it's just

(19:43):
like it's a work of art. His stroke is perfect,
He's perfectly designed for it. You want to talk about
self discipline.

Speaker 3 (19:50):
And commitment, there is no one.

Speaker 2 (19:52):
I mean, you know, we always talk about the goats
of sports, whether it's Michael Jordan, Tiger Woods, Roger Fetter,
Elliott Kipchoge, Michael Phelps. Michael Phelps is in the conversation
for me of greatest athlete of all time any sports.
I mean, there is no one more dominant than that guy.
I think he had twenty eight medals, twenty three of

(20:13):
them gold, No one isn't even close. So to be
in the same room with someone that dominant is so motivating.

Speaker 1 (20:25):
What do you think does make the biggest difference when
it comes to swimming at that level? Like what makes
Michael Phelps? Because you're still you know, when you were
racing in the Olympic Trials in twenty twelve, you were
still top twenty five in the country, But going up
against somebody like Michael Phelps, Like, what is the biggest
differentiator there?

Speaker 3 (20:43):
I think it's just.

Speaker 2 (20:44):
The It's the perfect storm of everything. I mean, he
had the perfect body type, He had Bob Bowman as
his coach who had a very clear vision for how
to take him and mold him into the greatest athlete
of all time. He had the perfect work ethic. I
don't think it's any one thing. It has to be

(21:05):
the perfect storm of all of these things working together
to create a freak of nature.

Speaker 1 (21:12):
And then at what point did you decide to step
away from the sport and what was that like for
you mentally?

Speaker 2 (21:18):
So twenty twelve I went to trials and for about
a year after that it was I was in this
limbo of do I want to continue this and take
a shot in twenty sixteen for Rio or do I
want to move on? But basically I would have had
to hope that those guys retired because no one's beating them.

(21:42):
And fortunately I moved on because they didn't retire. They
came back and they qualified for the next Olympics. So
it was an identity crisis for a few years, trying
to figure out who I am, and that was my
dream for so many years, was to be an Olympian
or try to be try to be a professional athlete.

(22:03):
But man, it was the best decision that I ever
could have made. And I found musical theaters shortly after that.
In twenty fifteen was when I did my first show
and it just snowballed from there everything. I've been so
fortunate that so many doors have opened up my way,
whether it was Disney or Wicked or the Radio City
Christmas Spectacular or whatever, finding my manager and agent and

(22:27):
things like that, the doors.

Speaker 3 (22:29):
Have just opened up.

Speaker 1 (22:31):
Yeah, And I think also what's hard to about making
the transition is like a lot of times you talk
to athletes and it's like they had this career ending
injury where there was no other choice but to pivot.
But you had to make the mental decision to be like,
I need to step away from this now and figure
out what's next for me.

Speaker 2 (22:47):
Yeah, the decision was definitely not made for me. I
had to choose choose to do it. And there's so
many parallels to being in a long running show like this.
You a lot of times have the opportunity to stay
for a very long time because the show is in
no danger of closing, especially now, and eventually you kind

(23:09):
of have to make the decision when is the right
time to move on and do something new for yourself.
So I think I learned a lot through that time
of transition that hopefully I can apply it to my
life here in the next year.

Speaker 1 (23:23):
I mean, I feel like the athlete mentality translates in
so many aspects of life. You know, from obviously the
stamina that it takes to perform with the level that
you're performing at here on Broadway eight shows a week
to then also being able to go home and be
with your kids and have the energy to kind of
be with these young kids that have so much energy
running around. It just it drives you in so many

(23:44):
different ways. Alrighty, guys, Kate here, if you're enjoying our
conversations so far with Jordan. Please make sure to follow
our show where wherever you get your podcasts so we
can keep telling you inspiring stories when you made the pivot,

(24:09):
Like what was your musical theater background?

Speaker 3 (24:11):
Zilch, zero nothing, So.

Speaker 1 (24:13):
You went from a lead athlete to musical theater having
not had any experience, started at.

Speaker 2 (24:18):
The absolute bottom. Yeah, yes, like zero experience. I think
I did, like a couple of little church plays. My
mom was the music director at my churches growing up,
so like I did like little things like that where
I had like a scene or two playing something. So
no real dance experience, no zero dance experience, no real

(24:39):
acting experience, A lot of singing experience. So luckily most
of musical theater is about being a great singer and
everything else. I just learned along the way. Had great choreographers,
great directors, great mentors that saw potential and were able
to mold me.

Speaker 1 (24:57):
What was the draw for you?

Speaker 2 (25:01):
I had always loved singing. Singing is just I nerd
out about it. I mean, you've seen I do these
oscapella videos with Ali and MK. That's like where I
am the happiest is creating chords and singing with other
people and being able to marry that with acting and

(25:23):
expressing yourself in a very unique way that you don't
get to necessarily do as a human. Every single day
was so attractive and so unique. And every day you
get to or every few months, you get to play
something new and try a new character. Not for the
last five years. I've been Fear for five years now,
but up until that point, it's like you do a

(25:46):
role for three months, move on to something else, and
so that constant change of temperature and lifestyle was was
really appealing.

Speaker 1 (25:55):
Yeah, what was it like when you started auditioning for Fierro,
because I know you auditioned it few times before getting
the standby part on the tour? What was it like
going up against kids like you know, I've interviewed Mary Kate,
I've interviewed Ali Trim, and there are examples of people
that wanted to do musical theater their entire lives from
summer camps. I know Ali was a you know, child star, Like,

(26:16):
what is it like going up against kids like that
that have that level of experience.

Speaker 2 (26:23):
I think it worked in my advantage because I was
not coming in with any expectations or any pressure on me.
I remember the first callback that I had for Fierro.
It was with a guy named Sam Gravitt, who played
Fierro here and Jeff Sears, who played the understudy of

(26:44):
Fierro on tour. And Sam Gravitt his mom was a
Tony Award winner and his dad was like a producer
in the industry, so he's like been in it for
a long long period of time. And Jeff Sears had
been in Book of Mormon on I think on Broadway,
he had been an avenue, He'd done a bunch of stuff,
and I came in with this like blank sheet of
paper as a resume, nothing, no professional credits. And those

(27:09):
guys are wildly talented. I mean, they're such unbelievable performers.
But I think there may have been something appealing to
the casting team about this unknown, random guy that they
could take a chance on and mold into something. I
remember Lisa, our associate director of the show, she said

(27:32):
when I left my final callback that day, she turned
to the team and said, He's going to be Fierro someday,
just not today. And sure enough, a year and a
half later, I ended up getting to do it, But yeah,
initially it was I think it worked in my favor
to just be a random.

Speaker 1 (27:48):
Yeah, what would your advice be to somebody that has
because I'm sure there's other kids out there that I've
heard of it before, Like there are sometimes people that
get into on screen acting and they had never really
acted before. I always think about Henry Golding, So what
would your advice be for somebody like yourself that is
making a pivot from something totally different to then wanting
to get into the world of acting musical theater, on screen,

(28:12):
on stage.

Speaker 2 (28:13):
I get this question all the time at the stage door.
And the two things that I tell people I think
I mentioned it on the stage earlier. Work hard and
be nice to people. Those are the only things you
can control. Everything else is out of your control. The
casting directors have a vision and you're their vision or
you're not. So you go in, do your thing with

(28:33):
your skill set, and pray. The other thing that I
tell people, which is a little bit more practical, is
develop your toolbox your skill set. You need to walk
in the room with as many different tools under your
belt as possible. Work on your singing, work on your

(28:53):
singing in all different kinds of styles. Work on you're
dancing in all kinds of different styles. Learn how to
act very naturally but dramatically and comedically. The more tools
you have at your disposal, the more easily castable you are.
Casting directors will be able to fit you in in

(29:16):
a lot of different ways. Not everybody is a principal,
that's just the nature of the business, unfortunately. But if
your toolbox is huge, you can play the understudy of
a principle and do several other different roles within a
show and then hop to a different show and hop
to a different show because you can do all kinds

(29:38):
of different things. So build your toolbox, and I think
that applies to all different facets of life, not just performing.

Speaker 1 (29:45):
Yeah, if you could go back and tell your early
Fierro self one thing, what would be your advice to him.

Speaker 2 (29:52):
Don't change a thing. Don't change a thing because it's
all going to work out. At the time, I was
like so happy to just be in the show and
be in the understudy position, and I would have ridden
that out until my death because I had no expectations
of ever playing Firo full time. I just I just

(30:13):
wanted to make make money and perform in a beautiful,
unbelievable show. So yeah, I wouldn't tell them to change
anything because it's it's all worked out. I worked my
butt off to get here and uh, and I wouldn't.

Speaker 1 (30:30):
Change a thing except practice tropes, tours, tours.

Speaker 3 (30:38):
It's like a jump spin.

Speaker 2 (30:40):
It's like you can have like a single tour a
double tour.

Speaker 3 (30:43):
I don't know if people do triple tours.

Speaker 2 (30:44):
I'm sure they do, but like it's it's a jump
and a turn, so you like jump and then spin
and face the exact same way that.

Speaker 3 (30:50):
You were were doing.

Speaker 2 (30:51):
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (30:52):
We were talking with Jordan on the run about how
the hardest thing for you to master within your tool
kit was the dancing. Yes, but you got your hours
of practicing and you were able to do it.

Speaker 2 (31:01):
Yeah. Absolutely. I mean it's like I said this on
the run, but dancing has its own language, much the
way that singing does. Acting has a language as well,
but I feel like everybody finds their their own technique
and their own way to create the character. Dancings has

(31:22):
its language, and I didn't speak it when I started,
So it was about just learning on the fly and
learning from my choreographers and my dance captains and things,
and trusting them that they were telling me the right information.

Speaker 1 (31:36):
You've been Fierro now for a little over five years.
You've done over sixteen hundred shows. You're the longest running
Pharaoh in Wicked's Broadway history. WHOA, when you hear that
stat what does that mean to you?

Speaker 2 (31:51):
I mean, never, in my wildest dreams, what I have
ever predicted that? As I said, I was just I
would have been happy to be tree number set for
the rest of my life and to live six doors
away from Norbert Leo Butts now and him and I
be good buddies and be the longest running Fearau on Broadway.

Speaker 3 (32:13):
It's like, what that is? Such a dream? I cannot
believe it.

Speaker 1 (32:17):
Yeah, you know when when you were first on kind
of taking on the role of Fierro. I know Julie,
your wife, was also in musical theater. You guys met
at Disney World where she was playing Disney princesses. You
were also there at Disney World, playing different parts. How
did Julie help you craft your Fierro? Like, did you
guys workshop it together?

Speaker 2 (32:38):
WHOA, that's a good question. I don't know. Uh, I
don't think she and I really talked about Fierro too much.
I mean, she helped me run my lines for the
auditions and things like that, and she probably knows the
show better than I do at this point because I
only know my part, and she's seen the show like
twenty six times, so she'll quote the show and I'm like, is.

Speaker 3 (33:02):
That from Wicked?

Speaker 2 (33:03):
I have no idea, But I don't think she and
I ever really worked on it too much, because, you know,
we kind of try and keep our work life and
our and our personal life a little bit separated because
I live in this world all day every day, and
so I, you know, I just want to see her

(33:24):
when I go home, and obviously we talk about work.
But and she also wasn't an actor, sorry, Jules. I know.
She was a phenomenal, beautiful dancer and she played Disney
princesses all throughout her life, but she didn't grow up
wanting to do musical, musical theater performing in general. She
kind of fell into this as well. She got scouted

(33:47):
in Oklahoma by Disney casting people and they were like,
come out and do the college program, and she said, sure,
why not, I'll do that, and then jokes on her.
She was there for eleven years and three in Tokyo,
which was really cool.

Speaker 3 (34:00):
She did three years in Tokyo.

Speaker 1 (34:02):
Disney That's really cool. It's so wild how Disney's everywhere,
Like there's a Disney Paris.

Speaker 2 (34:06):
All over the place. We've been to Disney Paris, Yeah,
we went there on our vacation, not for we went
there a day on our vacation when we're in Paris.
But yeah, there's one in Shanghai, Hong Kong, Tokyo, here, Disneyland, Yeah,
I think they're six everywhere.

Speaker 1 (34:23):
Well, we talked about running in the beginning of this,
I kind of want to talk about the physicality of
playing Fierro because I feel like, and you're drinking something
right now, which we're going to tap into too. So
to play Fierro on Broadway, you have to keep up
a certain size, right, Like you have to be muscular.
You got to fit in those white pants well, right
and like fill them out. But the hardest thing, I
feel like for men specifically, is you get really lean

(34:46):
from a long distance running. So how do you make
sure and what are you eating like to keep your
physicality up with all the mileage that you're getting.

Speaker 3 (34:53):
In I lift heavy when I go into the gym.

Speaker 2 (34:58):
I think it's very easy for and I prioritize it
a lot of times runners in my very little experience running, Like,
let's make that clear, I've been running.

Speaker 4 (35:07):
For like a year, which is impressive, guys, because we're
literally we're sitting five fourteen miles and we're sitting in
Jordan's dressing room and there's this little like what is it?

Speaker 1 (35:18):
There's a look at thought. There's a trophy behind us,
and we were like, what is this trophy? Okay, what
does it say? Fastest men's Broadway miler and you've only
been running for two years? Yeah? How fast did you running?

Speaker 2 (35:32):
Five thirteen thirteen September seven five.

Speaker 3 (35:35):
I mean, look, there are.

Speaker 2 (35:36):
Like middle schoolers that would smoke me out there, but
that's not bad.

Speaker 3 (35:39):
Five thirteen is pretty good.

Speaker 1 (35:40):
No, I mean you've this is something to be proud of.

Speaker 3 (35:43):
I am definitely am man on Broadway.

Speaker 1 (35:46):
I'm scared of swimmers when they enter the running world. Really, yes, Yeah,
like your breath control today, I was huffing and puffing
on our run for other reasons guys that you'll find.

Speaker 2 (35:53):
I was gonna say, yeah, you have you have some
excuses here, you have some excuses.

Speaker 1 (35:57):
But this is pretty cool. And who was the guy
that came in behind?

Speaker 2 (36:00):
Travis Tabor. He's my understudy. He's one of the fear understudies.
He's a phenomenal athlete as well. He and I play
Broadway Softball together. He's the captain of the Broadway Softball team.

Speaker 1 (36:11):
I love this.

Speaker 2 (36:12):
We won We won the championship. Not this last year.
We got smoked this last year, but the year before
we won the Broadway League Softball championship.

Speaker 1 (36:19):
That's so impressive.

Speaker 3 (36:20):
Fun.

Speaker 1 (36:21):
Yeah, so you I like that you keep your love
for sports alive, you know, like would you say that
running and keeping your fitness up like and I know
even probably before you got into running, you were probably
going to the gym and lifting before the show. Like
what role does that play when you are then on stage?

Speaker 2 (36:39):
I mean it makes the show so easy.

Speaker 1 (36:43):
You get that post read high going, the endorphins are flowing, truly.

Speaker 2 (36:49):
I mean I will not name names, but I have
had many a fiarro complain about how out of breath
they are and dancing through life, many a fiera, many
a fierro, many a white pant, and.

Speaker 1 (37:05):
I have I love musical theater.

Speaker 3 (37:08):
It's the best.

Speaker 2 (37:08):
You guys are just so funny, so geeky. It's so geeky,
but it's so much fun. But I can honestly say
that I have never once been out of breath in
any part of this show. And that is strictly from
the twenty years of base that I built from swimming
and all of the fitness that I do outside of

(37:29):
outside of this. It plays such an integral role in
why I'm notorious for never calling out of the show.
I think in sixteen hundred performances outside of vacation or
paternity leave, I've called out probably twenty times or something
like that in five years. And that has to do

(37:51):
with all of the training that you do outside of
outside of the show, and in the gym and on
the road and in the pool. So when you come
in here, this is just it's it's so easy.

Speaker 1 (38:01):
Okay, We're currently in Jordan's dressing room, so we are
this is like where the magic happens. We have this
beautiful costume sitting right in front of us. Yeah, the
one that you wear in the opening act looks very heavy.
I can't imagine wearing that after running.

Speaker 2 (38:14):
Well, I only wear it for like thirty seconds. It's
really not that bad. And all of my other costumes
are very tight and very light.

Speaker 1 (38:21):
So yeah, no, this this room is it's it's really special.
It's cool that you get it all to yourself too.

Speaker 2 (38:28):
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (38:28):
Although I would get lonely sometimes I don't. I don't,
like I'm such a girl where if I was getting ready,
i'd want lely people around me.

Speaker 2 (38:35):
But look, I can go. I can go visit people,
and I usually do so, Like one of my rituals
is to go and kick it with the witches down
on the first floor because it's like I never get
to see them. Like what you guys don't realize when
you see the show is that I never see Alphaba
in the show. Never either she's on stage and I'm

(38:56):
off stage, or I'm on stage and she's off stage,
or we're on stage together. I never see MK or
Lencia or Lyssa Alyssa. I never see them as themselves
except for maybe about ten seconds before as.

Speaker 3 (39:12):
Long as You're Mine.

Speaker 2 (39:12):
We have a moment before we walk on to sing
that duet where we're like, hey, how are you like?

Speaker 3 (39:18):
Good to see you.

Speaker 2 (39:18):
So if I don't go visit them if I don't
go visit MK or Alphaba while she's getting green, I
won't see her.

Speaker 3 (39:27):
And so much of.

Speaker 2 (39:30):
Having a successful relationship, especially an intimate relationship on stage,
is developing some sort of friendship. Otherwise the audience isn't
gonna believe it. They can smell that a mile away.
So it's really important to me to create friendships with
my witches and the wizards right next door. And I've

(39:50):
got Bachandyloman over here, so you know, you walk around
and while I do have my own dressing room to
retreat to, I love to go visit people and hang
out with them and catch up with them, see how
their day was, how they're feeling. It's just it's so
important to me.

Speaker 1 (40:05):
Yeah, it's so true, Like the chemistry off stage is
so important to be able to show that real chemistry
on stage. Also, as Fierro and somebody that's been on
the show for five years, you have been through so
many alphabus and Glinda's.

Speaker 2 (40:18):
That's right. Yeah, I think I need to tally it up,
but I think I've had probably around fifteen Alpha bus
and sixteen Glinda's something like that. So a lot of.

Speaker 1 (40:29):
Witches, a lot of witches all right, what are we
drinking here? What do you have in this in this shaker?

Speaker 2 (40:34):
So this is just water I got my this is
my show bottle that I have here. I've got all
my like my different stickers that people have gifted to
me over the years.

Speaker 3 (40:42):
Soh cud slankified. I love this one.

Speaker 2 (40:44):
Jennifer our Glinda Standby got me that one when we're
in Salem, a little different Fierro's and stuff. And then
this is just an electrolyte drink by Relte. I've actually
just kind of started like working with them. They sent
me some stuff and I tried it out and it's
uh yeahl Relight shout out Relight. MK works with Relight

(41:06):
as well. Actually yeah yeah.

Speaker 1 (41:08):
And uh it's good for her golf game, guys.

Speaker 2 (41:11):
Truly, yeah, and it's I mean, that was one of
I think one of the issues that I had in
the marathon is that I just did not have the
correct fueling strategy. I thought that I did going into it,
but I'm a heavy sweater, so maybe I just needed
to take on a lot more salt and things like
that during the race. So shout out Relight.

Speaker 1 (41:30):
You know what next year you're going to come back
with a whole new strategy. I also feel like when
it comes to fueling during a race, you just got
to practice it during your like twenty mile practice runs
and kind of figure out what works for you for sure.

Speaker 3 (41:40):
And I had, I had.

Speaker 2 (41:42):
I'm telling you, I did all the things, but I
think I just need more of it. I wasn't getting
on as much liquid as I did on my long
runs because you know, they get those little cups and
sometimes they're like not even half full because they didn't
fill them up up all the way, or you're trying
to take it and like most of it goes down

(42:02):
your face. And so we're going to practice some of
that for next year round.

Speaker 1 (42:07):
I mean, I'm going to have to practice to the
last time I ran the New York City Marathon, I
took one too many of those caffeated goose and my
friend who's nurse, my friend who's a nurse, Maria, my
maid of honor, was waiting for me at mile twenty
five as I was finishing, which by the way, is
like the worst place to stand.

Speaker 2 (42:21):
Horrible, horrible, horrible.

Speaker 1 (42:22):
Yeah, unless you're an elite runner who's coming through no problem.

Speaker 2 (42:25):
I'm like, I don't know. I think everybody is in
pain at my twenty.

Speaker 1 (42:29):
Five, but I was like pale as a ghost, Like
I basically finished and immediately went to like one of
the emergency people waiting there. I was like, I need
you to hold the up.

Speaker 2 (42:36):
Oh my gosh, this is your first time running or.

Speaker 1 (42:39):
My second time running. I've only done the New Yor
City Marathon twice. Okay, got it, and I really I'm
definitely gonna do it next I think I'm gonna do
it next year. I'm not going to say definitely, let's go.

Speaker 2 (42:46):
Yeah, I see you out there.

Speaker 1 (42:47):
Yeah, I think it will be a good one. Yeah,
but I really think you should do another one outside
of New York City.

Speaker 2 (42:53):
Off the record, that's going to be like crazy four
five yes, postpartum.

Speaker 3 (42:58):
Yeah, wow, that's a story.

Speaker 2 (43:00):
I know.

Speaker 3 (43:00):
Holy crap, that's.

Speaker 1 (43:01):
Gonna be my fiaroh moment.

Speaker 2 (43:02):
Come on, that's so cool. Where there was a woman
I was watching Broadway ultra heck, yeah, absolutely, that's more
than what I did. And you're gonna, oh man, having
having a toddler, You're gonna be deep in it.

Speaker 3 (43:15):
You're gonna be just.

Speaker 1 (43:15):
Gonna be so cute. I'll put her in a little out.

Speaker 2 (43:18):
Get ready, it's gonna be it's gonna be all on
your shoulders.

Speaker 1 (43:21):
My friend, that baby's gonna be running with us though.
We're gonna do stroller runs.

Speaker 2 (43:25):
Oh right, we gotta absolutely I do need to get
a stroller for like a running stroller.

Speaker 1 (43:30):
Honestly, our daughters are going to be the same age.
We should put them in the stroller.

Speaker 2 (43:33):
Let's go.

Speaker 3 (43:34):
I am so into that.

Speaker 1 (43:36):
Perfect absolutely marathon training one on one.

Speaker 2 (43:38):
Okay, Facebook Marketplace, I'm looking for a running stroller.

Speaker 1 (43:41):
Yeah, you've got a lot going on on the topic
of kids. What would be your advice to girl dads
out there that are balancing work life new babies one
two and a half year old. You know, what's your

(44:02):
advice to girl dads out there?

Speaker 2 (44:04):
Spend as much time with them as you can, because.

Speaker 3 (44:10):
This is all important.

Speaker 2 (44:11):
And I love getting to sit here and talk to
you and and meet all of you and and build
your career and all that stuff, and all of that
is important because you do need to between you and
your wife or your husband or whatever, you do need
to provide and give them a great environment. But the
way you do that is by they don't care about

(44:32):
them that stuff.

Speaker 3 (44:33):
They just want to be with you.

Speaker 2 (44:34):
And this morning when I was I'm gonna get choked
up talking about it.

Speaker 1 (44:40):
Yeah, she was sad when you were leaving. It's a
Saturday morning.

Speaker 2 (44:42):
I got tough, and I don't see her until tomorrow now,
so woo yeah. Sorry. Yeah, and she just like she
grabs your hand and she says, Daddy, stay, daddy, come
sit with me. And it's just really hard to to
leave every day to come do this.

Speaker 1 (45:03):
So yeah, you're dedicated to the shit, and it is
hard on a Saturday. I can't even imagine now with
young girl. You know, I was watching this video that
made me cry today and which is like the hormone sirs.
I littlely cried at anything, so I'm gonna like, dummy,
Yeah he's got the hormones going too. But it was
like a Halloween parade at this kid's school, and the

(45:24):
caption over the video was like the power of showing up.
And it was like this little kid kind of walking
and he was just sidden, maybe like a little bit
of a bad mood, and then all of a sudden
he sees his mom and the face lights up. But
it is so true. Kids just want to be with you.

Speaker 2 (45:35):
It is the best. Every morning I walk down the
stairs and she sees me coming down the stairs because
I get up like an hour after two hours after
they get up. I'm sorry because of because of the
nature of what I do. I get home at twelve
one am or something like that, so the girls get
up before I do.

Speaker 3 (45:51):
And then every morning I come.

Speaker 2 (45:53):
Downstairs and she's like, daddy, and then like we're on
and it's game time and it's playtime, and it's It's
the best part of my day. I love being Feara.
I love doing Wicked, and I love performing. I love
running and all of the exciting things that I get
to do that the people see. But the best part
of my day is spending those precious moments with Greta

(46:13):
and Future Baby too.

Speaker 1 (46:16):
What is your plan with Future Baby Too? Will you
take a little bit of a paternity leave or will
you keep going?

Speaker 2 (46:21):
Yeah, I think there's a lot that's up in the
air at the moment. As of now, my contract with
Wicked is up March first, so I have three months
left here. Whether or not I continue to stay on
with the show is still up in the air, and

(46:42):
we'll we'll see about that. So as of now, the
plan is to take a week and then come back
into the show, push through March first, and then regardless
of what happens next year, either I'm done with the
show and then I'll have all the time in the world,
or I continue on with the show and then I

(47:02):
will take some more paternity leave next year. But yeah,
the game plan right now is a week, get the
girls set up, get back in the show, pushed through
for a couple more months, and then and then we'll
see after that one week.

Speaker 1 (47:16):
Guys, so no sleep basically with the newborn energy levels,
and you're gonna be coming back.

Speaker 2 (47:22):
Did you have?

Speaker 1 (47:22):
But so you've done over sixteen hundred shows. Do you
want to get to like two thousand?

Speaker 2 (47:26):
I don't think I can at this point. Like if
I finish March first, it'll be around eighteen hundred ish,
But look, I don't I'm patting my stats at this point.
I don't need to do anything else with this role,
like twentieth anniversary cast here for both movies, longest running Fierro,
There's nothing else that needs to be done except just

(47:50):
I love being here. That's that's the reason that I'm here.
So no, I don't need to hit two thousand. What
a crazy mark would that be though, that'd be I know,
I mean.

Speaker 1 (48:01):
I feel like above sixteen hundred is more than a Yes,
keep yourself motivated for a show after that many performances,
and then also when you're tired and exhausted and have
a new board, and that's keeping you up at night, like,
how do you show up for the audience?

Speaker 2 (48:16):
Yeah, it's the people. It's the people here. Every crop
of witches that comes in completely changes the show for me.
MK's alphaba is so much different than Lencia's alphaba. It's
not better, it's not worse. It's just it's a different pacing.
She delivers lines differently, she sings differently. So I spend

(48:38):
the first four or five months of us working together
just like finding what our show is and experimenting, and
then over the next rest of the course of the
contract we're fine tuning those little those little things that
we've discovered and having fun along the way. So, and
every audience is different. Audiences will go crazy one night

(49:01):
and then crickets the night after. It's just it's this
living organism every time you step on the stage, and
it's about it's about playing every single night and figuring
out what works that night, so it always keeps it
fresh to me. And then to bring it back to
the athlete mentality, I swam the two hundred I am

(49:22):
for twenty years and that event never got boring to me,
you know, because I was always trying to have the
perfect turn, the perfect underwaters, the perfect stroke, the perfect
stroke count. And it's the same here. I'm always trying
to sing the note exactly in tune with the correct
resonance or delivered that line so that it gets just

(49:44):
the comedic timing that I want. And you're always striving
for that perfect show, which doesn't exist. You will never
have the perfect show, but you try anyway.

Speaker 1 (49:54):
Right. Yeah, it is always different, and I feel like
that is the beauty of live theater. It's kind of
something new every time that you step onto that stage.

Speaker 2 (50:02):
For sure. Yeah, And that it's so much different than
than film is because once, once you do it, it's set,
and the Wicked movie will be the Wicked movie for
all eternity and whatever choices Jonathan Bailey made as fierro
On that will live on forever. I sixteen hundred shows.

(50:23):
I get to do something different every single night, within
a box, within a framework that still tells the story.
But I get to the audience isn't giving me this tonight.
So I'm gonna try this, and my voice isn't quite
feeling like it wants to do this. So I'm going
to sing the note like this, and it's just there's
a freedom to it. That's like, that's so unique to theater.

Speaker 1 (50:46):
Yeah, how do you keep your voice fresh for eight
shows a week?

Speaker 3 (50:50):
Well, I don't drink. I don't drink anything.

Speaker 2 (50:53):
I don't. Sorry, I drink drink water, Yeah, drink, but
I don't drink alcohol. I try and avoid sugar. Sugar
really gives me like swelling in the voice and honestly
knees and everything like that. I feel like sugar is
the death of We're going to look back at sugar
in fifty years the way we.

Speaker 3 (51:13):
Look at smoking. In my opinion, it is just it's
so bad.

Speaker 2 (51:17):
So if I can avoid eating after shows, that's another thing,
sugar and eating eating after shows. If I do both
of those things, everything else tends to fall into place.
Technique obviously comes into play, but everybody on Broadway has
great technique. For the most part, it's about how you
take care of yourself outside of the show that I
think sets sex sets apart the really elite performers and

(51:42):
the people that are.

Speaker 3 (51:43):
Just getting by.

Speaker 1 (51:44):
Yeah, I know it makes sense. What is like your
go to meal before a shell?

Speaker 2 (51:48):
I love like a tilapia and broccoli and a baked potato.
I feel like that's that's like a like a standard
for me.

Speaker 1 (51:56):
Makes potato. So you're gonna say, like a peanut butter
sandwich with like banana, Well.

Speaker 2 (52:00):
No, I mean I have that too, Like I've got
peanut butter and honey sandwiches over here in my addressing.

Speaker 3 (52:04):
Room like that.

Speaker 2 (52:05):
I will scarf down before Mattine here here soon. But
if I have enough time, I feel like that that
really sets me up for success.

Speaker 1 (52:13):
Jonathan Bailey, who you mentioned, plays Fierro in the Wicked movie,
did you have an opportunity to talk to him about
the movie and his part?

Speaker 3 (52:21):
No, no, no, I haven't gotten to meet him.

Speaker 2 (52:23):
I know that he's from the UK, which with living
over there, you know, he came and they filmed the
movie over there, and I think the only time he's
been over here really has been for the premieres. We
did do like a private screening for the first movie
and the second movie. Arian I was there, Cynthia was

(52:44):
there for the first one. I've met a lot of
the original Broadway cast, but not so much of the
movie casts here and there a little bit. But no,
I haven't gotten a chance to chat with Jonathan Bailey,
but I know that he is aware of who I am,
because he did an interview recently and mentioned that I
ran the marathon and then did two shows.

Speaker 1 (53:05):
So it's pretty cool to know that you're on his radar.

Speaker 3 (53:07):
If you want to run, bro, come on out.

Speaker 2 (53:10):
You need that, do it.

Speaker 3 (53:10):
I would be totally out for that.

Speaker 1 (53:12):
You know, we've talked maybe about your contract coming to
an end, you may be shifting gears. What do you
think the future has in store for you? What are
some of the things that you would like to accomplish
in the coming years.

Speaker 2 (53:28):
I don't want to lock myself down to anything. I
want to keep running. I love running, I really do.
I've fallen in love with the sport. I love racing.
I love the discipline that it takes, I love the
meditation that it provides for me. So I'm going to
keep running for sure. As far as career goes whatever

(53:48):
is going to make me happy and give me the
opportunity to spend as much time with my family as possible.

Speaker 3 (53:56):
That is the avenue that I will pursue. I am
open to.

Speaker 2 (54:00):
TV, film, stage.

Speaker 1 (54:03):
Concerts, all of that concerts, concerts like you could you
see yourself producing your own music.

Speaker 2 (54:09):
Well, so we are. MKA was over at my house
yesterday and we're in the process of this is the
first time we're saying this out loud. We're in the
process of doing an as cappella live concert. So we're
gonna hopefully flesh that out into something big enough to
possibly tour around the country with.

Speaker 1 (54:28):
So it would be amazing.

Speaker 2 (54:29):
We'll see it won't be just the three of us.
We'll kind of like bring in some guests and have
like a small band and things like that. But Oscapella
has like really taken on a life of its own,
So why not pursue something with that.

Speaker 1 (54:43):
I mean, I feel like people would go crazy just
based on how viral those videos do of you guys
sitting in the stair while singing.

Speaker 2 (54:49):
Truly, truly, there's become a wicked fan base, if you will, So, yeah,
we have to see it through for sure.

Speaker 1 (54:57):
What about being back in movies, like, is that something
you see yourself doing? Maybe I could see you in
more Hallmark stuff, just movies in general.

Speaker 2 (55:04):
Hallmark, you have my number any day, man, you let
me know. No, it's such a blast. The Hallmark thing
was one of the coolest experiences of my life. It's fast,
it's furious, they're efficient, they know their formula. Everybody is
so kind and so sweet. I would do Hallmark films
every year.

Speaker 3 (55:22):
It was. It was such an incredible experience.

Speaker 1 (55:25):
Is there any role that is a dream role for you.

Speaker 2 (55:28):
I think a lot of actors say this, but I
think the dream role is to originate something, to create
something brand new. I mean there are roles like Fiera
was a dream role for sure, but this guy right
here set the standard. And whenever anybody thinks of Fierro,
they think of Norbert Leo Butts. Well, they think of
Jonathan Bailey now too, because he was the movie Fierro.

Speaker 1 (55:46):
But I think of Jordan Litz.

Speaker 2 (55:47):
I don't know, there we go, Come on, that's true.

Speaker 1 (55:50):
Wicked, it was you. It was you and Mary Kay
and I feel like it was Ali.

Speaker 2 (55:54):
If it was Charlie Trimm, that is unreal.

Speaker 1 (55:56):
I believe I have to go back and look.

Speaker 3 (55:58):
You should pull up your play.

Speaker 2 (56:00):
Although I don't know.

Speaker 1 (56:01):
I don't they may have because when I did it,
when I went, Mary Kate would stand by yeaheah.

Speaker 3 (56:05):
So you may not know.

Speaker 1 (56:07):
I don't know who it was.

Speaker 2 (56:09):
I'm sure it's in the it's in the like system somewhere.
But yeah, whenever anybody thinks of Fierro, to think of
Norbert Leo Butts. He was the guy that created the lines.
He was the guy that first said them. He's the
guy that first sang the big up that I fell
note in uh in as long as your mind. So
I want to be the first Norbert Leo Butts in

(56:30):
a role, whatever that role is. I'm not sure what
it is. But there's something out there that is yet
to be written or is in the process of being written,
that has my name on it.

Speaker 1 (56:49):
Being that you've been Fierro for the past five years,
you were the Fierro when Wicked one came out and
Wicked two came out, how would you say the audience
has changed as the movies.

Speaker 2 (56:59):
Came out surrounding the So I was here also for
the twentieth anniversary, which was a year before the movie
came out, and the contrast of the three years that
I've been on Broadway as fierrero is unbelievably immense. For
the twentieth anniversary, every audience and every performance was like

(57:21):
this sitcom, unbelievable energy. It was crazy. And then when
Wicked one, the first movie, came out, it was very similar.
You had so many people that were coming to see
the show for the very first time now because of
the movie. So the energy was still very high. They
were laughing at lots of things, but a little less

(57:42):
so because they knew the jokes that were coming. It
was pretty similar to what we do in Act one.

Speaker 3 (57:49):
It was just longer.

Speaker 2 (57:51):
And now since movie two has come out, it's been
very interesting. It's been two weeks i think now, or
two and a half weeks or so since the since
the second movie came out, and the audiences have been
aware of our show. They're very aware of what's coming.

(58:12):
There are no surprises left. When I used to get
put in the cornfield at one point, people would be
shocked by that because of what it meant for the
future of my character. For the rest of the show.
There is no surprise anymore. There's no surprise at the
end of the show anymore, when we discover new secrets

(58:36):
and things like that. So the audiences, the reactions have
been very subdued compared to what they were. They still
stand up at the end of the show, they always
do because they're so appreciative. But it's been a very
interesting experience to see from the twentieth anniversary to Wicked
one to Wicked two, the stark contrast in audience response.

(58:58):
Ticket prices are through the roof right now because Wicked
is the hottest ticket in Broadway right now.

Speaker 1 (59:06):
Yeah, but that is interesting because it does it's almost
like Wicked too spoils the ending of the Broadway show for.

Speaker 2 (59:13):
Sure, and it's so accessible to everyone. Now you can
just pull it up on Well, soon you'll be able
to pull it up on Amazon Prime for fifteen twenty
bucks and everybody can see what happens at the end
of Wicked, Whereas for twenty two years or so, you
either had to look it up online, which what's the
fun in that, or come see it live and experience

(59:33):
it for yourself. So, yeah, a little bit of the
secret and a little bit of the magic is rubbed
off a little bit because of the movie, but I
also think that it's bringing in more first timers than
ever before.

Speaker 1 (59:48):
So it's bittersweet a little bit.

Speaker 2 (59:50):
Yeah, yeah, I wonder.

Speaker 1 (59:51):
If they'll change anything about the on stage play because
of this.

Speaker 2 (59:55):
I highly doubt that they will. I highly doubt that
they will because this is its own thing. Like what
we do here is so different than what they do
on film. There are things that they can do where
they take their time with the scene or a delivery.

Speaker 3 (01:00:12):
There's a moment.

Speaker 2 (01:00:14):
An act too, where Jonathan Bailey did this where he's
deciding whether he's gonna go with Alphaba or Glinda. In
our show, it's quick and it just bursts out of
Fierro and he says, I'm going with her, and it
almost surprises him as as much as it surprises the witches.
In the movie, he had all of this time to
be able. You could see the process on his face

(01:00:38):
of him making the decision. We don't have that kind
of time, and people one hundred rows back can't even
see it anyway. So the line deliveries are so much
different in film than they are on stage. So I
can't imagine that they'll ever change our show just because
it wouldn't translate. Maybe musically they could change some things,

(01:00:59):
but then that also changes it for the orchestra, and
it's this whole domino effect. But we'll see.

Speaker 1 (01:01:04):
I feel like it's kind of cool to see both.
Like to see the world of Oz and Shizz imagined
in Wicked one and two in the movies, and then
to come in and see it on stage really is
a different experience, truly.

Speaker 2 (01:01:15):
Yeah, and you get to see the original, the the original.

Speaker 3 (01:01:20):
Entity of what it was.

Speaker 1 (01:01:21):
Yeah, all right, let's end with a couple pop questions.
Hit me, who in the cast is the biggest chaos
agent backstage?

Speaker 2 (01:01:30):
Uh? Celia Hottenstein or Danny Quadrino. Who's our back over here?
Those two to I mean, if you get them together,
the show's done.

Speaker 1 (01:01:40):
What makes them so crazy?

Speaker 2 (01:01:42):
Celia does this thing that cracks me up where she
will put lipstick all over her teeth and then all
over She's one of our Glenda understudies too, so she's
like the most one of the most beautiful women you'll
ever see in your life, but like the goofiest dork
as a human. I love you, Celia, but uh, yeah,
she's chaos.

Speaker 1 (01:02:02):
We gotta get Celia and back on the show.

Speaker 2 (01:02:04):
Oh, please do. And she's a phenomenal athlete. I think
she ran she ran the the NYC half maybe four
or five years ago and went like one thirty two
or one thirty.

Speaker 1 (01:02:13):
Okay, yeah, we're in it either running interviews, you're in
she's she's the next up in the Wicked.

Speaker 2 (01:02:17):
I will pack it along. Yeah, she's she's an avid athlete.

Speaker 1 (01:02:20):
Okay, Do the Broadway Wicked guys have a secret group chat? No?

Speaker 2 (01:02:27):
Why are we so lame? No, we don't. Wow. I
don't think I'm on any of the group chats. I
think the ensemble has one. But no, I'm so secluded
up here in my little dungeon.

Speaker 1 (01:02:36):
Was there ever a moment where you forgot choreography on
stage and had to improvise?

Speaker 2 (01:02:43):
Yes, And you don't want to see that because, as
I said, I have no dance experience and no language
to speak of. Luckily, my character alludes to another character
with all of his dance moves. So if I mess
up and I just kind of like hold poses like that,
it worked.

Speaker 1 (01:03:00):
M Okay, I love this question. What is your I
can't believe I get paid for this moment weekly.

Speaker 2 (01:03:07):
At the end of the show alphabus singing off into
the audience, and I'm standing there looking at her behind her,
and Glenda's up here in the bubble, and I'm looking
out at the audience and the witches are in my
view and my show is done, and I have a
moment of Wow.

Speaker 3 (01:03:25):
This is every.

Speaker 2 (01:03:28):
Theater kids dream to be on the biggest Broadway stage
and the biggest Broadway show, and I'm living it right now.

Speaker 1 (01:03:36):
Yeah, this is truly a moment in time, and I'm
just so glad I got to encapsulate a little bit
of this moment in time with you on our run
today and our podcast. I hope you're feeling good going
into your two shows.

Speaker 2 (01:03:49):
I do, I really do. I'll probably stretch a little bit,
sit with my legs on the wall, but other than that, man,
I'm just so honored that you guys brought me on.

Speaker 3 (01:03:55):
Thank you, thank you.

Speaker 1 (01:03:56):
So much for being here with us today. This is
Jordan Litz. Guys, everybody follow him. You've got until March,
maybe sooner to come see.

Speaker 2 (01:04:04):
Him on Broadway, just in case comes before March.

Speaker 1 (01:04:06):
First, thank you so much for being here with us today.
If Jordan's story moved you the way it moved me.
Please share this episode with someone who might need it
and follow the show so you're tuned in for the
next episode of Post Run High. I'll see you guys
next week.