--Hi everybody, and welcome to episode 3 of A Little Sparkle. Thanks for tuning in last
week, and hope you enjoy this episode...
Mwah! Love you!
--Okay, guys, hey. This is a Friday night before
the show. I just wanted to come out on deck give you guys a little perspective
of what we kind of see. I mean, sort of. It's pretty dark once the show has
started, but this is this is our deck here. All these tracks are where certain
set pieces come on and off, using our automation computer system, which is
pretty cool. The sound booth is directly in front of me right there. And if you
look up from here you can see the dragon! A lot of you have been asking about our
amazing music department. This is where the conductor stands. This what we see
conduct from right there. We also have two monitors on either, see if I can do a
little close-up. There's a monitor here, and a monitor here, which is like a
screen where we can also... we can see basically live-action footage of the
conductor conducting, so that we can keep on tempo. So, I also think this is one of
the coolest views in the theater. This is from the third floor close to the stage
manager's office up here. This is stage left, and here's the stage left deck. This
these are the stairs that lead down to and from the bridge when it's in. Down
here we have a quick-change booth, also a little flat head action right down
there. Some of you have been asking to see the flat-heads up close. I don't know why cuz
sometimes I really scare me like a little bit, so this is a bit just be a
quick shot. Okay, bye!
[guitar strums] --You guys I'm so excited
to introduce you to Dan Gleason!
--What's up? --He's a
songwriter and Fiyero cover. We toured together too, which was cool
--Yeah we met in Louisville in 2015. --Yeah, oh, a long time ago
--Yo, Dan can you play us something. --This is a song that I wrote
Larkin Bokin, who is the Boq cover.
[sings] If you were to ask me
I would tell you plainly, I know I can be a better man
So I look for tomorrow and
give back all I borrow.
[guitar]
--That was a little --So beautiful!
Oh my gosh. Dan, what's your favorite part about
being on Broadway? --Oh shoot. Living the dream
I suppose.
It's what I always wanted since I was a kid, and it's it's an honor to be in this
community and share the stage with lovely people like yourself.
--Oh, you're so kind. What would you think the most
challenging part and how do you handle it?
--Oh... Oh probably just doing a do the
same show, you know, thousands of times,
--Keeping it fresh! --Keeping it fresh, yeah
--That's right.
--But it's a
super fun challenge and it's it's it connects you with your with your cast
members and the people in your community, because you know you you come together,
and every night you look each other in the eye, and yeah give it a go.
--Totally. Guys, this guy is like so incredible in the show. You... we have so many, well I can
probably just say this off-camera, but we have so many great moments in the show I
feel like, and you're always so present as an actor, and I really appreciate.
--I love catching your eye in Thank Goodness at the end.
--Yeah. --In the walk
downs, you always look over stage right.
--I always do! --Try to catch your eye.
--Yes! And also our moment in the opening some..
it's just so you're always so present and so truthful. I mean, you don't
need to get you don't need to hear it from me. --Well
--But it's true --Coming from you that means a lot
--That's so kind!
--Hey guys! Welcome to a new series that I'm calling survey questions with cutout
Glinda. Tracy made this of my press shot into a little stick figure I'm gonna use
it as a microphone. So, several of you have sent in these questionnaires, and so I
what I wondered maybe if I could answer a couple questions before
the show. How do you prepare for each performance
that is a great question Thank You Avery Retzer for asking this question. Well, you
know, I always have a lot of hot water out of this mug. How do I prepare? I do a
little body warm-up. I do a vocal warm up. The vocal warm-up's probably no longer
than 15 minutes. Some days it's like nine minutes. Some days it's a little bit longer. I
warm up in my bathroom. Fun fact, I can see hear Fiyero if he's also warming up
because our bathrooms are kind of close to each other. Um, how else do I prepare?
Sometimes I gargle with apple cider vinegar, which is really fun. And I listen
to music and I just get into a good space, a neutral place, to start the show. We do
like wig prep and all this stuff. Okay, next question!
This question is from Kylie, and it says If you could visit anywhere in the world
where would you go and why. Oh, the first thing that came to mind was Paris, mostly
because I love chocolate croissants and I heard there's really good ones there.
So, I'd love to go to Paris, and also it's just so beautiful. That's what all my
friends who've been there have said. So, that would be really really fun.
Another question we have from Avery is do you have any advice for an aspiring
Broadway actress?
--First of all you should definitely get a photo of yourself,
cut it out, put it on a stick, and use it as a microphone.
No, I'm kidding. I would say, I would say bring
yourself to everything that you do. Work really hard. Keep learning.
Be kind wherever you go. Not just because I could get you something but just
because like that's a good ethos to live by is just kindness, you know? There's
room for everyone in this world, and and yet and keep going. --Hi, everybody!
Oh my gosh. I'm so excited introduce you to Nicholas Leahy. He is a stitcher here
at Wicked in our wardrobe department. He's gonna bring you the bubble facts.
--Hi guys!
Okay, here's the rundown on our bubble facts for the day. There's roughly
sixty eight thousand two hundred sequins on a bubble dress. They're all hand-sewn
here in New York. Each bubble dress has about 68 to 69 petals, depending on the size
of it. Some of them are bigger and some of them are smaller, so the petal
variations change. What else do we have? --What else?
So many fun facts? How much does it weigh? Did you say
that yet?
--We didn't. No. So, this this bubble dress weighs about 16 pounds,
--But it really feels like 20, you guys! Or 40! --But what's special about it is is there's a
whole mechanism on the inside that we constructed over time, learning through
different Glindas about how we can distribute the weight. And so she has all
sorts of webbing and everything through the bodice and into the skirt, so that
she can carry it and run around on stage and everything. She also has
handles hiding somewhere. Where are they?
--Oh, yeah! These are handles, so I can pick up this big dress.
--And
then she can spin out of her bubble and run around the stage. Also, a fun fact
about the bubble dress is the bubble dress is actually machine washable.
--So cool!
--So what we do is we take there's two parts to the skirt there's the petals
and then there's the petticoat. Then we take them apart. We flip them inside out,
and we stick them in the washing machine and we let it do its thing, and then we
take it out. And what's really cool is the dress is actually almost completely made
out of plastic materials, so we melt an iron and steam each petal back into
place once we're done washing it. Really cool. --This is so crazy! Amazing.
--Also a fun
fact is our wonderful jewelry that we have here, including this brand-new wand,
also this beautiful tiara
--Mm-hmm --And necklace. Oh, we have all sorts of new things
--Thats' right! --Were all made here in New York City by the
wonderful and fabulous Larry Vevba, who has
been making the jewelry for the show since the show started. So 15 years, 15
years of jewelry. --And it's all Swarovski crystals, right?
--It is. Yes. Each sewn is set
hand and it's all soldered in place. And they're beautiful.
--They're so gorg. Oh, my gosh. Nicholas, thank you so
much! --Thank you for having me.
--Oh, yes! Any time I'll have to have you back!
--Yeah --Thank you Nicholas!
--OG Chistery --OG History
--In the history of --Hi, guys!
the show. That's so wild. Like you were here at the very beginning. -- I was
--You originated Chistery. -- I did.
--That's so incredible. What was like the coolest
part about originating him? --Well I think the thing that probably no one knows is
that out of everyone in the ensemble, Chistery, especially in rehearsals, I was
in like every single rehearsal with Joel Grey, Carol Shelley,
Idina Menzel and Kristin Chenoweth. And a lot of times even Joe would forget I was
there, because I'd be on top of the Oz head, or over on something and he'd be like
He'd just be talking and go, Oh! Hi, Manny!
Hi! So, I mean yeah I mean Chistery used to be in a lot more scenes originally, but
it ended up getting watered down because I think I was a bit of a distraction for people.
They were like, Oh, look at the monkey!
So, yeah, it was cool. I mean so I got to experience a lot of things yeah most of
the cast didn't even get to experience. So, it was fun. --That's
incredible. And most people don't know that Chistery also plays at one point
that plays a flat head in wizz-o-mania. --Yeah.
--You apparently have a funny story
about this.
--Yeah. When we were in tech we were we were in those costumes, myself
Ilan Alfonso and Lorna Ventura were in those costumes for probably like an hour
and a half, just waiting for us to finally get our moment to come onstage.
And they didn't take us out of the costumes. We were dying of heat. Okay,
finally, they were like let's get to the flat heads! And then we come out and
dun dun dun dun Who's the... And they hadn't figured out,
they didn't figure out the timing yet of the Oz curtain, and so as we
exited, I turned and we were too far upstage, and I turned off, the curtain
slammed me! And I went flying across the stage and landed on my back. And I was
like because you have no arms in the flat head. I was like rolling aroun, and
Kristin Chenoweth was like, Oh, no! Are they okay? And then Stephanie Block was
like, she was like, Flat head down! And it was like a dramatic thing. They had like
come and drag me off. Well, I was fine, but it was just like a ridiculous ridiculous
moment.
--Oh my goodness. Well, I'm glad you're okay and that you're
still rockin it. --I'm okay therapy helped it did
--Therapy, yeah. There's been some
ice. --Therapy, ice. Yeah.
--You guys, what did you do with Francis? --I didn't do anything
to Francis! I asked Tracey and Tracey said Francis has a mind of his own!
--Let's see... let's see if what they say is true?
--Francis! What are you doing in the Elphaba
bathroom, you silly. Sunny in here? Oh, well, at least there's some pink. Oh, those are my
sunglasses!
--Oh, no it's fine. We're taking Broadway.com to the stage
I love you!
--It's places! --It's places!
--[sings] It's places.
--Oh, well she's on the stage
already. --She listened to the note
--She did! Here we go to the stage.
My dress literally
hits into everything on the way. It's a wide load, and here we do a little
checklist. Two school shoes, two pairs of tights, definitely skirt
--Definitely skirt. --Earring
--Yas --Lashes
--Yas, Yas, --Necklace two mics
--Two mics --Sparkles?
--Uh-huh.
--And a partridge in a pear tree. Exactly. --That's right.
--We made it! We made it!
--Hi, Broadway.com!
--Hi!
--Boomerang? --Boomerangs
--Ready. Three, two, one.
[monkey noises]
--Okay, so
Oh, what a celebration we'll have today
thank goodness!
Let's have a celebration the Glinda way! With
everyone....Hi
Josh. Josh is making a reprise again. Episode 2!
--Back for more. --That's right. So this is what it looks
like backstage for Act Two. Everyone's just having fun together cause
everyone is friends with each other, so
it's really --Hi!
--So, not only are we looking looking great on stage, but offstage guys this is David
Reimer, men's ensemble dresser. Can we get a full view of this great— is
this actually from the 70s? --It is. It's vintage from the 70s.
--Wow! --Thrift store in Seattle
--Stylin! --What's your thoughts Matt?
--Nailing. --Nailing it.
--Jye Frasca, everybody! This is our Boq!
--Oh, hi!
--Jye, where are you from? -- Australia originally
but also livedin London for a long time.
--Fun fact, he did he did Wicked on the West End.
--Original company with Idina. She's amazing. -- That's wild!
--It was pretty cool. What's like a
favorite memory? --A favorite memory, favorite memory from
here and there is
when I watch Glinda and Elphaba start to dance together. It's like my favorite
part of the show, because it's like so moving .When I started rehearsing here, I
was in the rehearsal room and they started to do that part, and I started to
cry. And our stage manager Mary Beth was like Are you okay?
I was like Yeah, I'm fine.
Just happy to be here. --That's amazing.
-
[music]
--Sunday night dance party!
--Oh, it's Popular! --Yeah!
Yeah! --Oh!
--Wait I know how to do it!
--Check out this star!
--I have no hands.
It's a new costume.
3-0
--Popular!
--Pizza! --All right, guys,
thanks for joining us for Episode 3. Tune in next week!
["Popular" from Wicked]