This transcript was automatically generated and might contain errors.

[0:00] Quincy Brown: Ask yourself, what would Bernadette do? What would Bernadette do? What would Bernadette do?

[0:05] Kevin Bianchi: She would never play Madame Morrible. Patti would never play Madame Morrible.

[0:09] Quincy Brown: Do not play Madame Morrible. Hell no. Oh my god.

[0:17] Quincy Brown: I'm Quincy.

[0:18] Kevin Bianchi: And I'm Kevin. And this is Sentimental Men.

[0:21] Quincy Brown: We're here to talk and maybe scream about our favorite women in musical theater.

[0:26] Kevin Bianchi: Sentimental Men.

[0:28] Quincy Brown: She is kind. She is smart. She's the da-da-da-da that I am not.

[0:38] Kevin Bianchi: Tell me where that's from.

[0:39] Quincy Brown: I couldn't if I tried.

[0:42] Kevin Bianchi: From the moment that she says it's Betty High.

[0:44] Quincy Brown: Da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da. You will never da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da if you let her.

[0:52] Kevin Bianchi: Now I'm in. There's going to be people listening to this going, like, screaming the lyrics at you. Da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da.

[0:58] Quincy Brown: I really feel like I need to see Betty Boop before it closes.

[1:02] Kevin Bianchi: I know, me too. Do you want to go?

[1:06] Quincy Brown: Yeah, but when does it close?

[1:07] Kevin Bianchi: Or did it? Or no, they're one of the later closings, right?

[1:09] Quincy Brown: Yeah, I don't think it did. It closes on July 13th.

[1:11] Kevin Bianchi: Okay, we have time. I'm out of town this weekend, but then let's enter the lottery every day.

[1:16] Quincy Brown: Okay. Because I do think I'll love it. I just never got around to going just to it.

[1:20] Kevin Bianchi: Yeah, you've been busy. It's been a busy couple of months.

[1:26] Quincy Brown: And now Betty Boop is a part of the onslaught of closings that we received post-Tonys.

[1:31] Kevin Bianchi: I know. It felt like a lot this year. I mean, there's always several, but it felt like a lot closed very quickly this year.

[1:36] Quincy Brown: Yes, and then it also felt like a lot were hanging on longer than they should have been post-Tonys. I'm very sad about Smash, very sad about Dead Outlaw, very sad about Real... very sad about them all, I guess, actually. I am trying to reframe my thinking, because I always get so sad in July when all of the shows start closing, and I'm really trying to reframe my thinking as a season being its own thing, and things close at the end of the season. I'm trying to think of it like the end of a school year, and then a special treat to go on to the next season.

[2:17] Kevin Bianchi: Well, yeah, I mean, technically, like, not every show is supposed to run forever.

[2:21] Quincy Brown: Yeah.

[2:22] Kevin Bianchi: And I do think there's been a little bit of a narrative, like, Broadway is in such trouble because all these shows keep closing. I'm not sure that's...

[2:30] Quincy Brown: Well, I think Broadway is in trouble from an artistic standpoint. From a commercial capitalist standpoint, I think Broadway is just fine. And I think finding the middle ground is going to be the struggle of these next five, ten years.

[2:49] Kevin Bianchi: Yeah.

[2:50] Quincy Brown: Also, though, I feel like there's not a lot of new musicals announced for next season.

[2:54] Kevin Bianchi: No, it's revival heavy.

[2:56] Quincy Brown: It's a lot of not even revivals, just, like, remountings.

[3:00] Kevin Bianchi: Because what are the... It's Queen of Versailles and Wanted are the two that we know about?

[3:05] Quincy Brown: Yes. There might be one or two more, but yeah.

[3:09] Kevin Bianchi: And Wanted doesn't have a theater announced yet? It's just odd to me that there has to be more coming.

[3:13] Quincy Brown: I surely would hope.

[3:16] Kevin Bianchi: Did you buy Chess tickets?

[3:18] Quincy Brown: No, not yet. I'm hoping that somebody I know will offer me some.

[3:24] Kevin Bianchi: I am really excited for Chess. Chess is one of my favorite culty musicals.

[3:29] Quincy Brown: Are Mamma Mia and Beetlejuice going to be considered revivals, or are they just going to kind of be special event situations?

[3:34] Kevin Bianchi: I think probably... Well, I guess it depends on how long they're running. Because The Wiz was a tour, but that was considered a revival.

[3:41] Quincy Brown: The contracts on these things are always so weird. Like, it depends if the tour and the Broadway sit-down are two different contracts, I think. I don't know.

[3:52] Kevin Bianchi: It is so cool to see the Mamma Mia marquee up at the theater. Like, that just feels like such an iconic New York City Times Square image, and the fact that it's live in person in 2025 is so crazy.

[4:04] Quincy Brown: Yes, yes.

[4:05] Kevin Bianchi: I really want to... I want to go to Margaritaville and then see Mamma Mia one day. It feels like that was the sole purpose of creating Margaritaville.

[4:13] Quincy Brown: It was just like, someday Mamma Mia will come back.

[4:16] Kevin Bianchi: Margaritaville the musical was not the ticket, but if we can get Mamma Mia to come back...

[4:25] Quincy Brown: I mean, that's the cross-promotion opportunity of the decade. I'm very excited for that.

[4:30] Kevin Bianchi: We're having a Mamma Mia Margaritaville girl summer this summer.

[4:35] Quincy Brown: Mamma Vita...

[4:36] Kevin Bianchi: Mamma Vita-ville.

[4:38] Quincy Brown: Marga-me-da-ville.

[4:39] Kevin Bianchi: Marga-me-va.

[4:40] Quincy Brown: Marga-mia.

[4:41] Kevin Bianchi: Marga-mia.

[4:43] Quincy Brown: Here we go again.

[4:45] Kevin Bianchi: Marga-mia.

[4:49] Quincy Brown: No, I'm excited. I'm excited for this next season. I feel like fun stuff is happening. Sad about all the closings, but thank you, Next, I guess.

[4:56] Kevin Bianchi: Thank you, Next.

[4:58] Quincy Brown: I'm excited for Rack Time as well.

[5:00] Kevin Bianchi: Me too.

[5:02] Quincy Brown: And also, is it confirmed, the Rocky Horror, or is it...

[5:08] Kevin Bianchi: I don't know what you're talking about.

[5:09] Quincy Brown: Oh, okay.

[5:11] Kevin Bianchi: I've heard a lot of rumors about Rocky Horror going into Studio 54.

[5:17] Quincy Brown: I will not ask you to comment on these rumors. I will just say that I have been hearing about a Studio 54 revival of Rocky Horror since I started at Roundabout in 2016.

[5:32] Kevin Bianchi: I was going to say, when we were at Roundabout, I feel like they were talking about reviving Rocky Horror.

[5:36] Quincy Brown: Yes. I mean, I don't know how much longevity a Rocky Horror revival has.

[5:41] Kevin Bianchi: Do you think if it's done right and with a cool angle, it could run?

[5:44] Quincy Brown: I think it could run at least through the end of the calendar year.

[5:49] Kevin Bianchi: You couldn't turn it into a Starrcast-y thing that's just kind of fun?

[5:51] Quincy Brown: Well, I think that would be the opportunity, would be if you could get B-level pop girlies to do six-week stints, especially if you can get hot young things to be Brad and Janet. Those are the easiest roles to stunt cast in, and I feel like...

[6:12] Kevin Bianchi: Just a little shot, but...

[6:13] Quincy Brown: You know what I did watch since the last time that we spoke?

[6:17] Kevin Bianchi: Back to Normal?

[6:18] Quincy Brown: No, but I did listen to it.

[6:20] Kevin Bianchi: Stop it!

[6:22] Quincy Brown: I was trying to move us into our Kids of the Spider-World.

[6:26] Kevin Bianchi: I gave such an impassioned plea for you to watch Next to Normal.

[6:32] Quincy Brown: I have not watched it yet. I have listened to it, and it has made me excited.

[6:37] Kevin Bianchi: Okay, I'll give you a little opinion about the cast recording, though.

[6:40] Quincy Brown: Okay.

[6:41] Kevin Bianchi: Is, well, number one, obviously Casey Levy is astounding, and is like... It's a tragedy that that's not coming to Broadway.

[6:49] Quincy Brown: I know, and is like singing this role in a way that sounds so easy. It's just like...

[6:57] Kevin Bianchi: You could tell me this role was written on her.

[7:00] Quincy Brown: It fits her so well, which is really incredible.

[7:04] Kevin Bianchi: Probably be a little higher if it was written on her.

[7:07] Quincy Brown: Yeah, but it's so nice and sustainable. It's like it sounds like she can do it eight times a week, no problem.

[7:14] Kevin Bianchi: I love Jack Wolfe as Gabe. I think he really is nailing the sound of the show.

[7:21] Quincy Brown: Obviously, I haven't watched it, so I don't know about his performance, but I love his vocal performance.

[7:28] Kevin Bianchi: I'm Alive is great.

[7:29] Quincy Brown: I'm Alive is great.

[7:30] Kevin Bianchi: He nails the American-ness of the sound, I feel like. He sounds really like American musical theater, which in that particular show I feel like is important to translate.

[7:44] Quincy Brown: I'll watch it soon. Now that Connor's back, we'll watch it.

[7:46] Kevin Bianchi: I was in Spain for the last two weeks.

[7:49] Quincy Brown: Yeah, how's your head?

[7:53] Kevin Bianchi: I hit my head on a tree in Spain, which is why I'm wearing a hat if you're watching on video. But I was desperately trying to get Matt to fly with me to London to see Rachel Ziegler in Evita because I feel like those videos have taken over my feed.

[8:06] Quincy Brown: Correct, same. No such luck with Matt. However, I am very, very excited to either see it there or here, whenever that does end up working out for me.

[8:17] Kevin Bianchi: Yeah, yeah.

[8:18] Quincy Brown: She sounds insane.

[8:20] Kevin Bianchi: She sounds insane.

[8:21] Quincy Brown: Another one where it's like, you're singing this like it's easy. Can I ask a question? And this is not a question from a place of judgment. Do you know what the Che is covered in at the end of the show?

[8:38] Kevin Bianchi: I respect the choice. I'm not judging the choice. But with Sunset Boulevard, I'm like, oh, it's blood. It's blood because he dies. And this looks like a birthday cake situation.

[8:50] Quincy Brown: I do not know. I do not care. I'm not complaining. I am excited to find out.

[8:57] Kevin Bianchi: I also am over the conversation about is Jamie Lloyd a one trick pony? Is he just ripping the Sunset thing? Who cares? It's all fun and exciting and new. Every Andrew Lloyd Webber show sounds like an Andrew Lloyd Webber show. Every Sondheim show sounds like a Sondheim show. There are other directors with calling cards as well. Look at a Casey Nicholaw show. Look at a Jerry Mitchell show.

[9:24] Quincy Brown: Yes, instruments on stage.

[9:27] Kevin Bianchi: Look at an Alex Timber show. Like it's all everyone has their thing. People have trademarks. And this is fun and exciting and like giving a new life to ALW shows, which I'm very grateful for. It sounds good. It looks cool. The choreo seems fun. There seems to be more costumes in this one than in Sunset, maybe just by a small margin. But I'm just I want to see what's happening in there.

[9:51] Quincy Brown: Me too. I remember thinking while I was watching Sunset, I was like every drama teacher or like head of a theater program should be like watching this, learning how to like do a show with no set. Like he really is point out whatever similarities you want, but he really is a very like innovative and like inventive director. So I'm sure there's I'm sure it's fine. I'm sure I'll agree with the reasoning for the cover. I just am curious what it is.

[10:20] Kevin Bianchi: Yeah, me. What is it? Because it's like blue and white. It's like it's in several colors, which like blue and white is the Argentine flag. Maybe it's like a political. Maybe it is supposed to be blood. He's covering the political blood. Maybe it's paint.

[10:36] Quincy Brown: We'll find out.

[10:37] Kevin Bianchi: We'll find out. People are saying about Evita that if you don't know Evita, seeing this for your first time is going to be real tough to follow what's happening. I kind of feel Sunset is that production of Sunset is a very similar situation where like I had friends come out and be like, why was she talking about a monkey in the beginning? And it's like, oh yeah, you're not seeing the like dead monkey. So if you're not really paying attention to what's being said and using your brain, a lot can fly over your head.

[11:02] Quincy Brown: Yeah.

[11:03] Kevin Bianchi: I feel like that the monkey was like the only moment where I was like, I could have used a prop or a blanket on the ground or something. I could imagine all the like Hollywood studio stuff being like, what's going on? Who are these people? Where are we right now?

[11:18] Quincy Brown: See, I feel like people who are saying that, I actually feel like the lack of all the other stuff made it easier to follow.

[11:30] Kevin Bianchi: Interesting.

[11:31] Quincy Brown: There's no, cause there's less distraction. So it's like, if you're actually like, and especially a show like that, it's so sung through practically that it's like, if you're listening to the score, I found it easy to follow along. But I guess maybe I know the show already. So maybe.

[11:47] Kevin Bianchi: But that's also, I'm a little curious why people are saying that about Evita. Cause I feel like Evita, the score really lays it out for, like you were just following the story.

[11:57] Quincy Brown: It's straightforward.

[11:57] Kevin Bianchi: Yeah. And it's telling you what's going on. And there's a narrator kind of taking you through it.

[12:01] Quincy Brown: There's literally a narrator.

[12:05] Kevin Bianchi: There is someone direct to audience saying, and now she's moving to Buenos Aires. And now she's marrying.

[12:15] Quincy Brown: I can't wait to hear Rachel Ziegler sing Rainbow High.

[12:19] Kevin Bianchi: He sounds great too.

[12:21] Quincy Brown: He does. It's like so sexy and sultry. There's an audio of Rainbow High out.

[12:26] Kevin Bianchi: There's an audio of everything out there.

[12:27] Quincy Brown: I know, but I haven't listened to it yet, but I will.

[12:29] Kevin Bianchi: It's so good. Oh my God. Rachel Ziegler, we love you.

[12:34] Quincy Brown: We love you.

[12:34] Kevin Bianchi: We've loved you since West Side Story.

[12:36] Quincy Brown: No, that's a lie. We've loved you since YouTube.

[12:38] Kevin Bianchi: Since YouTube.

[12:40] Quincy Brown: Shrek at your New Jersey high school.

[12:43] Kevin Bianchi: I know. She's a Jersey girl like me.

[12:45] Quincy Brown: Wait, Quincy, one more thing before we talk to our guest today. Have you seen the trailer for Kiss of the Spider Woman?

[12:56] Kevin Bianchi: I have. Starring Jennifer Lopez. That is going to be a very sentimental men coded film experience.

[13:05] Quincy Brown: When does it come out?

[13:06] Kevin Bianchi: Sometime in the fall. I forget the exact date. Hold on.

[13:09] Quincy Brown: This fall?

[13:10] Kevin Bianchi: This fall. It's coming out around Wicked time?

[13:12] Quincy Brown: In a couple months. Yeah.

[13:13] Kevin Bianchi: Interesting. Bold.

[13:16] Quincy Brown: Yeah. Probably before Wicked.

[13:19] Kevin Bianchi: It's giving like September to me.

[13:22] Quincy Brown: Wow, I thought it was going to be starkly after Wicked had wrapped up.

[13:28] Kevin Bianchi: So like six weeks before Wicked.

[13:33] Quincy Brown: Interesting. So they're trying to sneak in right before people start paying attention to Wicked Wicked.

[13:40] Kevin Bianchi: Fascinating. Okay. I mean, the trailer does look phenomenal.

[13:43] Quincy Brown: It looks fabulous. And it's really giving, I mean, I think it like says this in like the voiceover, but it really is giving like role she was born to play because it's like she looks fabulous. Um, she obviously, they can like really make her dance in a role like this, which is great. I think that's like a strength of hers that she doesn't always get to use on film.

[14:08] Kevin Bianchi: And I think something that's so important to that role is just like the je ne sais quoi, like the, the it factor.

[14:16] Quincy Brown: And she just has that.

[14:18] Kevin Bianchi: Which she does have. Yeah. And so I really, it just like, it's perfect casting for her to be this glamorous movie star that like this gay prisoner is obsessed with. It's perfect. And it feels like the perfect thing for her to be doing in her career right now.

[14:34] Quincy Brown: It's so good. Like of all the musicals that she's kind of been like attached to. What ever happened to that Bye Bye Birdie?

[14:42] Kevin Bianchi: It's gone. It's done. It's they have officially pulled the plug.

[14:46] Quincy Brown: But even like this, I think is a better fit than that. Or like when, like, I remember when like the In the Heights movie got greenlit, they were like, well, JLo is going to be in it. And I'm like, oh, interesting.

[14:56] Kevin Bianchi: Yeah. As who?

[14:57] Quincy Brown: As who? I'm excited for it. Did not realize it was coming out so close to Wicked.

[15:01] Kevin Bianchi: I know. We'll be blessed.

[15:03] Quincy Brown: We'll be blessed. Oh, Kevin, I'm going to see Cynthia Erivo in Jesus Christ Superstar at the Hollywood Bowl on August 3rd.

[15:11] Kevin Bianchi: My God. I'm so jealous.

[15:15] Quincy Brown: That's amazing. I'm very excited. And wait, who's, who's Pontius Pilate in that? Who's the other headliner?

[15:20] Kevin Bianchi: I'm not sure if it's Adam Lambert is in it.

[15:22] Quincy Brown: Oh, not Judas.

[15:24] Kevin Bianchi: As Judas. That's right. That's right. Cynthia and Adam.

[15:27] Quincy Brown: No, I'm super excited for that. I can't wait. I have a wedding in New Jersey on the 2nd, and then I fly to LA on the 3rd and see the show on the 3rd. And then I fly to Hawaii on the 4th for a vacation.

[15:39] Kevin Bianchi: Well deserved.

[15:41] Quincy Brown: Speaking of the Hollywood Bowl, today's guest has performed there.

[15:46] Kevin Bianchi: What a segue.

[15:46] Quincy Brown: Quincy, today we're talking to Anna Gasteyer.

[15:50] Kevin Bianchi: Long time coming. An OG wishlist item for us.

[15:54] Quincy Brown: Well, let's talk about how this actually happened.

[15:56] Kevin Bianchi: Yeah, let's talk about it.

[15:58] Quincy Brown: So when we first started the podcast, she was like a dream guest. And then we, in our like early, early TikTok days in like 2021, posted a video of her doing Defying Gravity and then commented on that video, our own video saying at Anna Gasteyer, we would love to have you on the podcast. And then forgot, obviously forgot about that. And then I got to work on Once Upon a Mattress, but I didn't want to like also ask her to be on the podcast as I was working on the show because it felt weird. And then randomly, a couple of weeks ago, she responded to our comment from four years ago saying, yes, hi, I would love to. And then her social person reached out and we got it together. So four years later, she saw our comment and replied. This goes to show, shoot your shot, guys. Send the DM, make the comment.

[17:06] Kevin Bianchi: It was really funny.

[17:07] Quincy Brown: No, it is really funny. It's like any at any point that we could have stopped making the podcast. I'm glad we didn't because this long game really is insane.

[17:12] Kevin Bianchi: OK, let's go through her mile long resume.

[17:14] Quincy Brown: All right.

[17:15] Kevin Bianchi: So, yeah, really a mile long because she works. So Anna Gasteyer was, of course, a cast member on SNL from 1996 to 2002.

[17:20] Quincy Brown: Wow.

[17:20] Kevin Bianchi: She's got like plenty of iconic impersonations, sketches.

[17:28] Quincy Brown: Celine Dion, obviously, is like one of the more famous ones. I feel like she sang a lot on SNL, but she never in a way that was supposed to be like impressive, like it was always part of the joke or just like part of the impersonation. And it's like if you were like really listening, you're like, oh, wait, but she's like singing like Celine Dion, like she's got the voice.

[17:49] Kevin Bianchi: So that was kind of her. Well, she'll get into it, how she worked that into a musical career. So in 2000, mid SNL, between two seasons, she made her Broadway debut in the last revival of the Rocky Horror Show as Usher at Columbia opposite Daphne Ruben Vega.

[18:08] Quincy Brown: In 2005, she was Mae Coleman in the movie musical of Reefer Madness, one of my favorites. She's so good in it. Also in 2005, she made her Wicked debut as Elphaba in the Chicago Company of Wicked.

[18:24] Kevin Bianchi: In 2006, Mrs. Peachum in the Three Penny Opera.

[18:28] Quincy Brown: In 2006, also Elphaba in Wicked on Broadway.

[18:33] Kevin Bianchi: In 2009, she's back on Broadway as Kitty in The Royal Family.

[18:37] Quincy Brown: In 2015, a personal favorite of mine, Mimi Schwinn in A New Brain at City Center.

[18:50] Kevin Bianchi: Oh, I'm just remembering her falsetto story.

[18:54] Quincy Brown: Yeah.

[18:55] Kevin Bianchi: Okay. In 2016 and 2017, she did some of those live musicals. She was Principal Mickey on Grease, and she was Mrs. Schwartz on A Christmas Story.

[19:07] Quincy Brown: I think Grease is my favorite live.

[19:08] Kevin Bianchi: It's one of the best. Or maybe Hairspray?

[19:11] Quincy Brown: I think Grease was better.

[19:12] Kevin Bianchi: Really?

[19:13] Quincy Brown: Because I think Grease-

[19:14] Kevin Bianchi: I had a dream about Maddie Ballio last night. Do you want to talk about that?

[19:19] Quincy Brown: I'm just remembering.

[19:22] Kevin Bianchi: But she wasn't Maddie Ballio from Hairspray Live. She was just Maddie.

[19:26] Quincy Brown: She was just a character in my dream. Maddie from Accounting.

[19:32] Kevin Bianchi: In 2019, this is very important to me because it's my favorite show on television. In 2019, she competed on The Masked Singer as The Christmas Tree.

[19:43] Quincy Brown: She made it pretty far too, if I remember.

[19:46] Kevin Bianchi: And she's like the perfect kind of person for that show because it's like hidden vocal talent. But when she takes the mask off, you're like, oh, I know who this is. Sometimes they take the mask off. I'm like, who?

[19:57] Quincy Brown: Yeah.

[19:57] Kevin Bianchi: You actively watch The Masked Singer?

[19:59] Quincy Brown: I absorb The Masked Singer like I absorb no other show on television. They pump out like three seasons a year, and I am in it. I keep notes of who I think it is.

[20:05] Kevin Bianchi: Interesting.

[20:06] Quincy Brown: It's very catered to the way I think. Because you get little clues, and then it's just like voice recognition. I would be an excellent judge on that show.

[20:26] Kevin Bianchi: You know what show I'm hooked on this year for the first time ever?

[20:29] Quincy Brown: I can guess.

[20:31] Kevin Bianchi: Love Island.

[20:31] Quincy Brown: Yeah, that feels right.

[20:34] Kevin Bianchi: So good. I've never watched it before. There's five episodes a week, and they're all an hour long, and it is such a commitment. But it's such fantastic television.

[20:43] Quincy Brown: Yeah, I know. I do feel out of the conversation because I didn't start it on time. Like, I didn't start it with everyone, and now I just feel like...

[20:51] Kevin Bianchi: It's impossible. I took a week off when I was in Spain, and then I realized I was falling so behind, so I had to buy a VPN and try and figure out how to download it in Spain.

[21:01] Quincy Brown: Yeah, but it's so good.

[21:03] Kevin Bianchi: Anyways, continue.

[21:04] Quincy Brown: Anyways, in 2024, Anna was back on Broadway as Queen Agravain in Once Upon a Mattress. Her other theater credits include Aunt Deb in the Kimberly Akimbo play back in the day. She was Miss Hannigan in Annie at the Hollywood Bowl. She did Funny Girl at Pittsburgh CLO.

[21:25] Kevin Bianchi: She did Funny Girl and Hair Actors Fund benefit concerts.

[21:30] Quincy Brown: We love those. On TV and film, of course, we know her from things like Mean Girls, American Auto, Suburgatory. She has two studio albums. 2014's I'm Hip, which is a collection of jazz standards. And then in 2019, her Christmas album, Sugar and Booze, which is so good.

[21:50] Kevin Bianchi: I love Christmas music, and I feel like people don't really talk about her album. It's really good.

[21:57] Quincy Brown: Is it as good as Idina's Holiday Wishes?

[22:00] Kevin Bianchi: It's as good. And it's a lot of original music, too.

[22:03] Quincy Brown: All right, and I'll add it to the rotation this year.

[22:07] Kevin Bianchi: Add it to your Christmas in July playlists.

[22:11] Quincy Brown: I don't think I've ever laughed as hard in an interview.

[22:15] Kevin Bianchi: Yes, I really liked doing this interview. I'm almost concerned to start the edit of it because I feel like it's going to meander quite a bit. So just ride with us, guys, in this interview.

[22:27] Quincy Brown: I also feel like she showed up ready to gag us.

[22:32] Kevin Bianchi: She was like...

[22:32] Quincy Brown: I don't even think she was ready to gag us. I think she was just stream-of-conscious flowing and giving us really great stories.

[22:41] Kevin Bianchi: Nothing crazy or bad, but just really interesting stories.

[22:44] Quincy Brown: I'm excited. You guys are really going to like this interview.

[22:47] Kevin Bianchi: Yeah, some really fun stories that I feel like probably haven't been shared before or shared in as much detail. She even made a comment about how she would typically abridge these stories, but we seem like the type to want to hear it.

[23:03] Quincy Brown: Yeah, I just think her journey is really interesting.

[23:07] Kevin Bianchi: Yeah, let's get into it.

[23:08] Quincy Brown: Let's get into it. Enjoy, everybody.

[23:12] Quincy Brown: You are a dream guest for us because when we started this five years ago at this point, the original mission statement was to talk to all of the...

[23:23] Kevin Bianchi: Elphabuzz?

[23:23] Quincy Brown: What we call the Golden Age Elphabuzz.

[23:26] Kevin Bianchi: Oh, nice.

[23:30] Quincy Brown: Retirement old Elphabuzz.

[23:33] Kevin Bianchi: No, the initial crop of women who made the role what it is.

[23:38] Quincy Brown: And we, a while back, talked to Julia Murney. You are a very important piece of a story that she kind of started for us.

[23:46] Kevin Bianchi: Oh, really?

[23:47] Quincy Brown: Yeah.

[23:47] Kevin Bianchi: She mentioned that... Actually, you know what? Let me bring that up later. Let's start with how did Wicked come into your life as a person?

[23:56] Ana Gasteyer: Wicked came into my life at OG Wicked. So, total boring, since this is a Wicked story, I would ordinarily abbreviate the story for public consumption. Please don't, spare no detail.

[24:08] Ana Gasteyer: 2001, right after 9-11, I was called in, I think it ended up being the final... I was called in. I don't even remember the details, but I do remember that the final callback was after 9-11 because no one was going anywhere. You know what I mean? The whole city was shut down. And it was, I believe, Idina, Julia Murney, and me for the final callback.

[24:38] Kevin Bianchi: And I was not available. I was on Saturday Night Live. So, and I just found out I was pregnant with my daughter. So I was like, I can't do this show. Plus, so I literally went to Stephen O. Remus's apartment because I remember it was very... Stephen Schwartz is only going to be in town for three hours. Stephen Schwartz is on the way to the airport and is only going to be there for 15 minutes. And it was like all this, like there was all these changes in that.

[25:05] Kevin Bianchi: And was there like a word on the street on what this was at that time? Or kind of just a new project?

[25:10] Ana Gasteyer: I knew very little about it. I knew very little about it at that point. Again, I was on Saturday Night Live. Like I was in, I had done like a few, I had done Rocky Horror that summer. And so I was kind of in, like I had like been inducted into the Broadway community. And I had done like a bunch of readings. Mostly through, like through Mark Shaman, who had worked at SNL. So I'd like done the first reading of Hairspray. Like back in the day, like Penny's mom was like a role in like one of the early, early readings. And then, yeah. So it kind of like, I'd done like a few things like that, but I wasn't like dialed in.

[25:48] Kevin Bianchi: Pounding the Broadway pavement.

[25:50] Ana Gasteyer: Not really. I mean, I was admiring of it and kind of like, you know, secretly longing. But I, I'm a, I cannot learn choreography at all. Like I have like a disability. Like I can dance, but I can't, I can dance. I can move. Like I can sort of make it, fake it. But I, early on, I was like, oh, I can't, I can't do like big chorus calls. And, because I will be cut in the first round. Like the only things I'd ever done was sing or comedy. So when, you know, like Rocky Horror, like those things came in through the, through the, you know, Saturday Night Live door. And I started singing, like I auditioned, God, why am I telling you all this? I'm, I, yeah, I was like flirting with it. Like I'd auditioned for like, at the public and I'd auditioned for like summer, you know, for on, when they did that revival on the town. And I did like, I'd shown up for some stuff and gotten called back, but I really didn't know what I was doing. And I was really, really intimidated. And I still am. By like the Broadway kids with their books and their, you know, like, like to this day, like I had an audition, like, I don't know, a couple years ago, they're like, bring your book. And I was like, I don't have a book. I still don't have a book. Do you know? And you know, whatever, like, God forbid, like you get thrown any, like the, like the words that will like freeze my intestines are like, and then they would love to like work with you and the choreographer. And I'll be like, I'm out. It's like, just don't waste my time. In fact, I wish I had, I would have spared myself many humiliating experiences if I had just listened to my gut and been like, I don't do that. But yeah, so I guess at that point I was like really, so that was the very OG. So I went to Steven O. Remus's house apartment, which was a disaster. It was like a postage stamp in Hell's Kitchen. And I remember it was like, you know, those like shower curtains that like are kind of semi-permanent like vinyl and it was broken. Like it was at like an angle. I was like, what is this? What is happening? And, and he, uh, and I'll, all I remember sitting, they played the music and he played Defying Gravity and I was like, oh, that is way too high. I can't like, I mean, it sounds so negative, but I remember just being like, I can't sing this. Um, it was so high. It was so high. I was like, that's really high. What's that note? And I didn't even know, like, I didn't know. I hadn't been taking voice. I was a voice major in college. I was a music school dropout. I found comedy. I did comedy and singing was like a party trick at that point in my life. And then I did Rocky Horror. And then I sort of like started to reverse. I did some ensemble stuff and you know, like in these readings or whatever.

[28:31] Kevin Bianchi: And have you done Funny Girl at Pittsburgh CLO?

[28:31] Ana Gasteyer: I hadn't done anything at this point. This is the point that I'm telling you. I was like, I was still on Saturday night. I was like, I think I like Broadway, but I, I'm, I'm not sure. And I was obviously, as I've told you by the 75 embarrassing stories that I shouldn't have shared on public, in the public. Like I wasn't, I had a lot of anxiety before I had like about preparation and about how to do it. And was there a club, like a way to be? And I do think that Broadway kids are, they're more disciplined than other. I don't know. I just had a thing in my head. Like if you didn't go to dance class every day, and this is why I, you know, cause to back it up even further, when I was like a opera voice major, like Northwestern didn't even have a music theater like program. Then you were either a theater major who did musicals, but that was like your side hustle, you know? And it's the Midwest. So it's like, I did one, one musical while I was there. There's this big review there called the one new show. I did that my freshman year, like I got in, but everybody was like, kind of mean to me. Um, and they, cause they, they, they told me, they're like, we thought you were like a lesbian, English, English major. Can you believe that? And it was fun. It was like, I was like, and it was exactly, by the way, what I do, it was like comedy sketches and, um, and singing.

[29:49] Kevin Bianchi: Right.

[29:50] Ana Gasteyer: So, um, but anyway, I, all these people, like this girl dropped out cause she got into Disney Tokyo, like all those Midwest kids, like they were like six flags every summer. And like, they'd all been taking tap class since they were like, you know, in the womb. Like, so it was just a different, like, and I just didn't feel equipped when I got, like I've said 5,000 times in New York. I was like, I don't even know where to begin with that. Like, I am just going to excuse myself from this situation. So then when casting and people would call me in, I was kind of like, oh, I'm an amateur. I'm a, you know, it's like imposter syndrome is everything everywhere all the time. Right. How do we teach people not to have that? Because it's such a useless waste of time. So I was convinced I was an imposter in summary. And Stephen Oremus's high Ds in his disastrous apartment absolutely reassured me of my imposter status. So that went away. And then I did my final season on SNL. And during my final season of SNL, I was just kind of like more and more like, I think, I think I want to really double down and I want to drill down. And part of this imposter syndrome led to, I was like, I need to get back into, I hadn't taken a voice lesson since I was, you know, 19. So I was like, I need to get back into this. And I was very close friends with Seth Rudetsky by complete coincidence, because Seth wrote for the Rosie O'Donnell show. And we met at the NBC gym on the eighth floor on the treadmills when he made fun of my outfit. Because they gave you like a signed, they gave you like, it was so great because it's a corporate gym. So they give you like the, they gave you clothes and they were like, we'll wash them. And you just keep your gym clothes at the gym. Right. But they were kind of like intramural ladies, volleyball shorts. Do you know what I mean? Like they weren't cool. They were just like a weird, bad, like intramural. Like corporate brand. Yeah. He was like way to wear the, yeah, literally like the peacock. And they were just dorky. And, but I was like, great. Like, I don't care. Like I'm just on the treadmill. And he was like, way to wear the assigned shorts. Like he totally busted me for the uniform. And, um, we became friends right away. I was like, oh, this guy's like one of us.

[31:52] Kevin Bianchi: Like one of me, I should say, because I'm, I'm a weirdo.

[31:55] Ana Gasteyer: And so Seth, like, we're both like, I was like a music major, but I didn't know anybody in the comedy world who like, as much as I was just spoken to all this imposter bullshit, it was the same in mute, like in comedy where like, I was a little bit of a wonk. Like I was a little bit of a, like, you know, could read music and, um, violin for 16 years. So I had like a weird, both, both worlds have a funny fit for me. Um, anyway, so I, Seth was like, you, every time I'd say, he was like, you belted, you know, a G when you were doing, you know, he was always like telling me what I'd done and, you know, and character. Like, so I wasn't, cause all my characters sing on SNL. So I wasn't like thinking about it musically. I was thinking about it creatively and artistically and coming to it from the organic, happy place of telling a story of being the character. And so I can't remember what order it was in, but Seth did, I think he did the, he did an all-star funny girl benefit for actors fund with like a gazillion. So everybody was in it. I mean, and yeah, all the divas, like literally Sutton, Kristen, Lillias, all of them.

[33:00] Kevin Bianchi: Yeah, exactly. Sutton, Kristen, exactly.

[33:03] Ana Gasteyer: Um, that's where I met all those girls. And, um, what song did you do in that?

[33:06] Kevin Bianchi: I did the, um, isn't this the height of nonchalance.

[33:11] Ana Gasteyer: Yeah.

[33:13] Kevin Bianchi: It was great. And, um, we, and I was just off SNL and I, and so then I did in sort of sequence. I don't remember the order of things, but I did a play at MTC right out. That's the first thing I did when I left the show. Because I'd done a reading and they offered me the role and I ended up, it was the original play of Kimberly Akimbo.

[33:33] Kevin Bianchi: Yeah.

[33:33] Ana Gasteyer: So I played aunt Debra. So I just, I, that was my first like job when I left SNL. And that was a deliberate choice to return to go to theater after SNL, as opposed to chasing some sort of comedy screen career.

[33:47] Ana Gasteyer: Super deliberate. Like, like I took the job so I couldn't return to SNL because I loved the reading and I didn't, you know, it's, it, it, again, I fall between worlds and it was just a little bit not great for women in TV yet. Like at least women who didn't fit a certain mold, like, I mean, you might get like somebody's wife or something. You know, that, that would be like the, uh, the big comedian would get the, get the overall deal at NBC and develop the ha ha funny family show. And then you would maybe be called into audition for the wife. But that happened a lot for me. So I don't know. I was like, yeah, I don't, I don't want to do that. And I guess I could have developed something, but I just didn't, I don't know. I didn't. But anyway, so, and I was really, I didn't one week, I remember this so clearly is it must've been like October of that year. Um, my manager was like, there's no work for women in film, so I don't, you know, like we should probably pursue tech. Like, I don't know what you want. And then I went in one week, I saw Wonderful Town with Donna Murphy and I saw Wicked and in the same week and I was like, I'm going to stay in New York. Like, this is a much better path for me and more fun. It was just what I wanted to do. I mean, it was a super road, less traveled at that time. Like nobody from SNL did that crossover. That was a strange choice. Right. Anyway, that's what I did. So I doubled down. I did Cumbelia Kimbo. I must've done a bunch of readings. I have no memory. You know, I auditioned for everything under the sun and didn't get it. Um, I'm trying to remember what, I mean, it was like the little shop revivals at that point.

[35:18] Kevin Bianchi: Oh wow.

[35:20] Ana Gasteyer: There were a bunch of things, a bunch, a bunch, a bunch of things that I didn't, I still, to this day, I'm a terrible, terrible musical theater auditioner. I really am. It's astonishing. My, my, my, I mean, famously, let me tell you the falsetto story one day, but, um, yeah, the it's really a bummer because it's so much work and the level of preparation is so above and beyond, by the way, like, I love that like actors are like, you know, in sag or furious about going on tape for things. And I'm like, try musical theater auditioning. It's like 32 pages of sides and 300 pages of music that you have to learn. And maybe you'll do five pages when you get there. Maybe you'll do five pages. And it's like the least friendly room in all of auditioning. It's like four scary people behind a table, very far away. And that none of that has changed. Do you know? Like, and it's just, it's just an unbelievable level of preparation required. It's like a week's, you know, 40 hours of rehearsal for something you, you know, it's hard to get yourself in the brain of like, I deserve this and this could go my way, you know, um, from that like auditioning psych level. Um, so time passed. I can't remember what year it is now. This is so unbelievably boring and I'm so sorry. Um, I'm bored. I'm actually bored by myself and annoyed by myself. Um, so you've already seen Wicked on Broadway.

[36:44] Kevin Bianchi: I've seen Wicked on Broadway.

[36:46] Ana Gasteyer: I double down. I do. I say yes to everything, every workshop, every out of town show. I do Pittsburgh CLO Funny Girl. I do like, I just, anything I could do, I did it at this point. I started studying again. Vocalizing every day, like just kind of like feeling it out, going and seeing stuff, staying open and interested. And then, um, they call, they, they, they called me and my agents were like, you obviously want to do this. You're insane. And, um, I auditioned for Wicked. It must. I can't remember the audition process, but I, I, the callback was a very small group. I must've done. I don't remember. But anyway, I, I knew that it was me, Shoshanna, Eden, maybe Stephanie.

[38:08] Kevin Bianchi: What was the Daphne Rubin Vega room? Was this that initial workshop? Cause Julia had a story of a room that was you, Shoshanna, Daphne, and she recalled it as being for OG Elphaba and Adina.

[38:09] Ana Gasteyer: I feel like Quincy, you're think that that you're thinking of is pre-workshop. That may have been the pre-workshop room that Julie was talking about.

[38:08] Kevin Bianchi: Yeah, that's the one that I'm remembering. The callback was in Steven. Sorry. I should have clarified, by the way, when he, what it was after nine 11, he tape recorded me. We didn't even have, have phone recorders then. And I think he played that tape. Like I didn't end up going, God burn it by the way. Cause as noted, I was like, I can't sing a day. So I think he probably was like, she can't do this. I don't know. But I never went back in person for that final callback. I went in person right after a nine 11 for the first audition. And then the second audition was to learn defying gravity. And it was again, after nine 11, my head was like, I was going back to SNL. I was, and like, I was like, oh, I can't do this job. I can't go to San Francisco. So I'm not, you know, so I went to Steven Oremus's sang into a tape recorder poorly and then judged his apartment and left.

[39:01] Kevin Bianchi: So which I've said to him before. So I, and by the way, he now has a very beautiful apartment.

[39:07] Ana Gasteyer: Nicely appointed. I don’t remember Daphne. And the reason that I'm shocked by that is Daphne was my dressing roommate on Rocky horror. We were very, very close friends. We are friends. So, um, and I don't think of her as a high belter. Well, she recalls being called in for Glinda, which was interesting news to us.

[39:28] Kevin Bianchi: No, I think you're, I think Alice Ripley told her she was called in for Alice. It was, we were all in Rocky horror together, me, Alice, Daphne and Lou DeLaria. But that's funny. I forgot that about Daphne. I forgot that. Anyway, um, that's funny. So, yeah, so that would have been OG. I don't remember Julia at the replacement one. So, but, but, but I do, I knew Julia and Julia was around. So she was probably in that, there was like five or six of us that were like, you know, kind of considered as Elphaba eligible. So I, this is my story that I always tell young performers. Cause as I've now carefully described for you, I hate musical theater auditioning and I'm bad at it. And I was like, I'm just not going to leave any stone unturned. I'm not going to leave this situation to, did I not do enough? Maybe I'm not going to get the part. This anytime I've ever done this, it's paid off. And I tell people this all the time because maybe other people don't have the same hang up I do. But like when I put my head in the game, the thing is, it doesn't matter if you, well, it doesn't, it doesn't really matter if you don't get the role because your dignity is intact. And, um, that is that I did that for SNL. I did that for wicked. It was like, I just didn't fuck around. I learned the music, like the back of my hand. I Peter, I heard Peter, Peter Flynn to like literally, cause I have such musical theater audition and anxiety. I hired him to do like a simulation at Pearl. Like we'd got like a room and I pretended to walk in and do the audition because I was like, you're, you're behind the table and you're mean. And you know, like the whole thing. And, um, it was great. It just was like, made me do it on my feet. I sang, I sang it for a bunch of people. Cause it's embarrassing singing defying gravity alone in a room with a piano. Like it's, it's not to this day. I won't do it. Like when people are like, Oh, well you sing it at our benefit. I'm like, no, it's gross. Like it's, you know, like there's no orchestra. There's no bars. Like it's just kind of corny. It's embarrassing.

[41:30] Kevin Bianchi: Yeah.

[41:30] Ana Gasteyer: So, um, I'm going to have a version. I love my version that I do on my album because my first album, because it's quiet and I can sing it. Like I literally sang at the make a wish gala last week. Like it works for a lot of situations that are more intimate. Um, and Seth has gotten me to sing wizard and I in lots of situations, but, um, anyway, I, yeah, so I just like brought it. I just brought it. I just, I poured myself into the audition. I knew it, I knew what I wanted from it. And, um, and I didn't get it. They went to immediately it went to Shoshana and Shoshana of course was the standby. So like, that's pretty common. I mean, people that would have been, I probably should have predicted that, but, um, but it was as it should be. Like she stood by for the part. She was ready to go and she understood it and that was perfect.

[42:19] Kevin Bianchi: And so did that lead you to think that maybe you need to do the stand up standby route to principal?

[42:23] Ana Gasteyer: No, it did not. It's a good gig standing by. I don't, I don't poo poo it. I just didn't think it was like, yeah, I don't think they would have put me in for that. I wasn't experienced enough, you know? And so I waited, I let it go and I was disappointed and it didn't matter. And then, um, like that would have been like October maybe. And then I want to say February or March Bernie Telsey called me at home. Like not even like my agents and was like, Hey, um, and I'd done miscast a lot and stuff like that. That's what, like I said, I was like in the world and he was like, uh, so we're, we've had huge success with the first national. Like it was like a total, like a runaway success. And obviously Broadway is where, where it is. And we're going to do something weird. They're going to start a Chicago company that's never been done before. It's an original company. There'll be full rehearsal with Joe. And, um, I was thinking that might be something you want to do. And I was like, that's awesome. And yeah, exactly. So there, so like the whole, the whole sort of moral of the story is kind of never, like if you do well on behalf of a situation where casting directors brought you in, and this has happened multiple times in my career and you don't embarrass them and you leave everything on the table, it often comes back to you in maybe in a way you didn't expect. But, um, I mean, it hasn't always, but most times and the rest of the moral of the story, because the other time I did this was for guys and dolls for the Lauren Graham. Remember when she was in and, um, the desk Mackinac and I, they, she was, she was in, it was so irritating. They kept being like, yeah, no, um, they wouldn't see me. It was, it was very annoying. And, um, they were, yeah, I don't know why they just, they wouldn't say we're looking for like someone super famous and blah, blah, blah, which was whatever. And then, um, she was out for like five minutes. Shit. They were like, Lauren Graham's leaving. I think it was probably like a negotiation move. Sometimes they do this, but they, they actually did this to me during Kimberley Kimbo to where the musical, they're like, if you can't like commit a hundred percent, we're going to go out and audition people, which is smart for them. Um, and so I went in and like, honestly, next to my wicked audition blew. I knew it. I was, I blew it away. I knew it. Like they all stood up and clap. They were like, oh my God, like you could just like feel the excitement. And then I, by the time I got home, Lauren Graham was back in literally by the time I got home, like my agent called, they're like, oh, Lauren Graham is back in. Um, but my, the moral of that story is I've never thought twice about it. Like I felt great about it. It was, I did what I needed to do. I committed everything I could commit. And I didn't walk away going, if I had worked a little harder, would I have? And I just think it's like very comforting to put that to bed for yourself so that you can be, um, you know, just do the whatever. They don't all go your way, but you want to feel like, like have your dignity intact.

[42:25] Kevin Bianchi: Um, so, um, because many, many other times I have not had my dignity intact and I'm not proud of that. So, yeah, so that's so wicked. So then off we went to Chicago and it was a full blown full tilt production, which was such a gift because, you know, rehearsal. And also I just think the company, like the camaraderie and the company vibe is very different when you begin together and you rehearse together and you build it together. And it just had like, instead of, um, for me, like that was just very confidence building and it's a hard job. So it was, it was just nice to not on top of everything else that's difficult about Elphaba be shoved into an existing production. I think I would have lost my mind.

[46:05] Kevin Bianchi: Was that like Elphaba comparison culture a thing yet when you were starting the Chicago?

[46:21] Ana Gasteyer: It's always, it's Broadway. I mean, I was, and people were suspicious of me. I was from television. I understood, you know, I mean, I was super hard on myself. Now I listen to it. I'm like, I was fine. Like, I don't know. But like, you know, when you're, yeah, of course it wasn't as bad. Like, remember the internet was very different at that time, which is part of the reason no one knows I did Wicked, um, which is a little, like I still, I'd be like, you did Elphaba? Um, but, uh, yeah, I mean, we, the second a bootleg went up, they would like, cease to desist that. There was no slime tutorial. There was no, like it was, there was nothing. Um, it was, it didn't exist. People didn't know unless they saw you. I mean, a lot of people saw me cause it's a big show in Chicago. It was that theater is like 2,500 people or 2,800 massive. Um, but it still wasn't the same as, you know, um, where it is now. Of course.

[47:14] Kevin Bianchi: Was there any kind of like comfort or like safety that you felt doing Elphaba for the first time in Chicago as opposed to in New York?

[47:24] Ana Gasteyer: No, no. Only because it was like such a legit company. I mean, no, I mean, I, I might've, but no, I was Elphaba's Elphaba. Elphaba's really hard. And that was actually, it was so, I had my daughter turned three on my first performance, like on my first review, like I had a baby, like I was a toddler going into rehearsal and I had like, I mean, I, it was just a really hard job. It was as hard as Saturday night live. It's very, very, very hard. I mean, as you know, it's physically hard. It's, um, psychologically difficult. There's comparison culture. There's, um, you know, people on people then at whatever your little thing is like, oh, she can, she really saying, you know, all that shit. And then, um, which, you know, I had enough of that voice in my own head anyway.

[48:14] Kevin Bianchi: Yeah.

[48:14] Ana Gasteyer: So talk us through learning the role in Chicago, coming in with all of this musical theater imposter syndrome. Was it as challenging as you expect it to be? Or once you were doing it, you kind of found your pocket.

[48:27] Ana Gasteyer: The hardest part actually, I mean, yeah, that part was there for sure. But that, but, but honestly, once you sing it and once you, it's just time on the boards, like everything, right? Like, yeah, I don't think I really, again, because I'm always going to be thought of as a comedian first. That's how people think of me because of the power of television. Like, it's just very hard to like unwrap that for people. You know, I tour every year. I have two albums. I've done five Broadway shows. Like it's, it's still very hard every single time. Oh my God. I didn't know you sing like it's unreal. How many people still say that to me? Um, which is kind of a relief to be at this age where I'm like, yeah, I do, you know, like it's not, not smug, but like rather just like, yeah, it's a piece of me and I get it. Like I understand why that's confusing to people. And in fact, I've had arguments with like my band leaders over the years because I know that I have to be funny in my shows. I know that like 50% of the people showing up for my show, no matter what, maybe except for in Chicago where I had a lot of wicked fans, um, you know, they're showing up for a comedy show and there's literally no thing that would be worse than coming to see a comedy show and having someone lean against a piano and sing a ballad. Like what a nightmare. So I tried, that's why I do like one ballad max and it's gotta be earned. Although you, I would love to see your send in the clowns.

[49:46] Kevin Bianchi: Yeah. Thank you.

[49:47] Ana Gasteyer: Um, but so that's why like I always, and I'm, you know, I'm a comedy person, so I'm like attracted to, to fun and lively music. But, um, that's why I love performing with Seth. Cause we can keep it, we're, we're very close that way. Similarly, both musical and kind of funny.

[50:02] Kevin Bianchi: Um, anyways, I'm not answering your question in Chicago. The bigger things are the stage itself is huge. It's actually a physically bigger and more demanding thing. And the most difficult, which I'm sure you've heard from every Elphaba. Um, I will say that like as rehearsal went on, I was like, Oh, I think I can sing this. Like, I'm not that worried about it. There's such a mountain of material. You're not really even like questioning yourself. You're just, you're just trying to find the placement and find it. Whatever. I didn't know the word sport then, but that's what I was doing. Yeah. And I was training and I'd been singing. It wasn't like I was a total neophyte. Um, it's probably more things like until you sing the role, you don't realize the burden of the eight a week. You don't burn the smoke and fog is a shit show. And it will always be. I mean, there are, I am one of them. There are a lot of singers. The fog, the minute it comes into the room, it cuts your voice in half. There's just something really physiologically challenging about fog. There's like a, people go, Oh no, it's just propylene glycol. But it's this, like, you can taste it. Like it's like a film and it, it gets in the way. Like if I'm, if I'm, uh, you know, live, live at Kelly and like singing, you know, up the Christmas song and they pump that fog, lighting designers love it. Cause it looks so good. Um, I'll be like, Whoa, Whoa, Whoa. Like I can feel it the second, it's like the one thing. So that's something that's super challenging. And like, there's just other things like that, the weight of the dress, the physical exhaustion, um, and whatever it's Chicago. Right. I had a baby, like you get sick and singing through being sick and singing through sinus problems and singing, like just all that stuff. Um, that is probably what I remember the most in terms of just like sort of the day to day, uh, Olympic athlete challenges. Like, you know, like, like whatever Megan Hilti is going through right now, like, you know, in, uh, it's just very physiologically difficult. And those scores are written high. They're probably written too high. If I'm being honest, they're not, um, they're amazing, but they're, they're not, it's not normal because it's really screaming no matter how healthfully you do it. And there's people that learn how to place it. I, I'm one of them where it sounds pretty safe or whatever, but it's, it's not really how the voice is set up. I mean, you know, Ethel Merman was, think about it hitting a B. Those were all of those like high notes and like gypsy or whatever, that's a B and now it's like a regular F and G. I mean, that's super, super high. So, um, I think it's just hard on your body. Like it's hard.

[52:26] Kevin Bianchi: And how did you go about crafting the character? Because something that has been a through line of a lot of the actresses we talked to who have played the role is they point to you as being the actress who unlocked the comedy in Elphaba and like showed them that Elphaba, huh?

[52:42] Ana Gasteyer: David Stone likes to say that, yeah. I mean, I think that the role is written funny. I think, I think she's, I think that people who are defensive are funny often. I mean, she can come across as a real nudge Elphaba, but she can also, like, if you look at it differently, like it's a funny defense mechanism. And I think that's what that Joe, Joe is funny. Joe's a funny person. And so I think it just kind of came and tell it. And so it just came organically. I mean, I think probably the harder part is, and I understand this when you're developing something, Kristen was the funny one. And Adina was the earnest one, you know, like that was just like, they're trying to distinguish the two characters. But the thing that I really hate is very funny. And, um, we were, we're still very close. I mean, we were literally texting yesterday. Um, again, my closest friendships have all been developed through laughing together. Like my best friends in high school, like, like girlfriends. If I think about that, like people that I've laughed very hard with had common ground with. So for us, I think that was just a way in. And she's like a very pragmatic little gal that Kate, you know, and she has her, has her, um, her little, you know, voice. It's so funny with all the Glendas. Cause they tell you, I always makes me laugh because they say something very serious with that very high voice. Um, but you know, early on, she was like, we're playing best friends. So we're going to be best friends. Um, so we, it was like, she pronounced it. So I was like, okay, great. And we were, we were best friends. We were really good friends. We got along really, really well. We, we led a company out of town, which is its own animal, which I think was a gift. Actually, I think it was sort of unfettered with like, we didn't have like a lot of like fingers in the pie. We had like, we, we rehearsed and then we did the show and like Mark Platt came in and saw it and left. Like every, there was not a lot of like tinkering.

[54:26] Kevin Bianchi: Yeah.

[54:27] Ana Gasteyer: So I think we found the connection through Elphaba's sense of humor earlier. And that's nice that people credit me with that, but I wasn't like a planned thing. I think it was just like a way in and a way for her to be a little more likable, frankly. I mean, like I said, she can be a real pill. Otherwise it's kind of green, green bummer, you know, and you have to understand like why, like that's, yeah. I just think it's an easy way in. The hard thing is for me, and I think it was for a lot of people, Adita is like such a, an original, like her, her, her, her breath is insane. And her, the, her, the, the like speed, like the, the notes that she sustains and her sort of lung power. And they were so emphatic. Cause again, we were early, we were following in her footsteps that we follow her phrasing to the T. And that was just sort of like a, I think Stephen Oremus was young and I think everybody was just kind of like finding, you know, what they wanted from it. And so I was told at my audition, which is insane that if I breathed between me and I'll stand there with a wither. So with me, I'll stand there, he was like, if you breathe between these notes, you will not get this job.

[55:49] Wow.

[55:49] Ana Gasteyer: So there was such like specificity to what they were doing. That was Adina specific, you know, and she, she is, um, I, I have a sort of deeper belt than she does. She has a higher sort of, um, I don't know, more elastic.

[56:08] Kevin Bianchi: Yeah.

[56:09] Ana Gasteyer: Yeah.

[56:09] Kevin Bianchi: Pingy elastic belt.

[56:10] Ana Gasteyer: Um, so it's really hard. It just requires more, a different use of air quite frankly. Um, and so, and Chicago was huge and it was actually more steps down stage to get down there with that stupid, um, suitcase and, um, 500 pound suitcase and like full of gold. It felt like it was like full of like golden bricks. Um, so it was just physically weird to try to like find some, and her phrasing was just specific to her. That that's really what it is. That is true by the way, of all Broadway shows, you're, you're always, that's why the person who originally, I mean, I had this with mattress where I was like trying to unpack what, you know, finding your own performance takes us, takes a beat, you know, um, outside of what somebody else has done. So, um, but in the case of Wicked, Idina is so specific, A, and B, um, it's orchestrated within an inch of its life. So you are constantly like your lines are falling in between at other people's pacing. Like it's very little dialogue that's not underscored in that show.

[57:15] Right.

[57:16] Kevin Bianchi: So it's, um, it's tricky. And then on top of that, and it was funny cause when we all went back, I went back to see it at the 20th of course. And I went, um, like I took my kids, I've taken my kids over the years and it's, it's like 11 minutes faster. It's so much faster, the show. So they are like, uh, I mean, that's real oxygen for an Elphaba, you know, that's somebody who is like not holding something as long. And I listened to our tempos and I'm just like, Oh my God, that was so much slower.

[57:44] Kevin Bianchi: Yeah.

[57:45] Ana Gasteyer: So that's interesting.

[57:46] Kevin Bianchi: Yeah. So then how did Broadway happen?

[57:50] Ana Gasteyer: I mean, by then there was a pipeline, right? So we were, um, right. So Shoshana went in, Shoshana left. I think Eden was standing by for Shoshana. Eden came in and then, um, I left Chicago and I did Three Penny Opera on Broadway.

[58:07] Kevin Bianchi: And then as soon as Three Penny Opera left, I went into Wicked.

[58:09] Quincy Brown: And you wanted to do Broadway after your Chicago experience.

[58:12] Ana Gasteyer: Of course.

[58:13] Kevin Bianchi: And by that point, were you feeling in control of the role?

[58:18] Ana Gasteyer: Oh yeah. I mean, I played it for a long time in Chicago, so, um, I loved it. I mean, it wasn't, I'm speaking negatively. It probably sounds that way, but it was not a negative experience. It was an extraordinary experience. I mean, the, you know, there were hard things about it. Like it's easy for me to remember the hard things, A, physically hard. But B, the other thing is we were the only game in town, right. For in Chicago. So that was, and I, again, this is just like lesson learned. Like we, we were doing press all day, every Monday. I mean, it was relentless. So we're launching it.

[59:36] Kevin Bianchi: Yeah.

[59:36] Ana Gasteyer: And it was the biggest, it was the biggest fish in town. So we would do like the Halloween,