--Hello everyone! And welcome to episode 8. Thank you so much for being with us on
this journey and we hope you enjoy this episode!
It's true love!
--I'm not sure what that was.
--Okay, so just about here, I start to do a checklist. Okay Trace I have two shoes.
--Yep --Two pairs of tights
--Yep.
--Fun fact quick change.
--I have
earrings, a necklace, we have two mics, skirt --Definitely skirt
--Under dress we gotta wear that Shiz skirt. --
And the checklist is complete.
--Katie Ladner!
How many Broadway shows
have you done?
--Today? --[laughs] Yeah!
Yes. No, in general.
--Dos.
--What's your Favorite
part about being --Oh!
--Ow!
--Hi guys here with Rob Harmon. --No, I that's I thought you were
gonna give me the line.
--Oh, okay. Cut! Gosh, I just really need to get more
footage for my vlog. --You should have done that today with me
I'm the funny one.
Not her.
[laughs]
--Rob, come back! We need your comedy!
Rob and I toured together. --Fun fact, Amanda sits on all these
posters after she
signs them.
--No, I do not!
Rob,you're sitting on the posters.
--Absolutely. --7 A.M. and I also
feel like we should be singing
--Daddy!
--[laughs]
--He's literally crying.
--She has lipstick all over her teeth.
--What's the matter about it?
--Oh! [laughs] No.
Oh my gosh it looks like I'm bleeding. Oh gosh.
That's awful.
How did that happen?
--Okay guys, the lipstick is successfully off of my teeth.
We are gonna go to act two. Love you JVo. --I love you!
--So much.
Guys, Dom is about to be a dad. What are you are you so ecstatic?
--Yeah, I have
no idea what I'm getting myself into. But yes.
--Guys, it's my new friend Nancy Opel. How's
it going Nancy? --Great!
Listen what was the best thing you ate on Thanksgiving? --Sticky toffee pudding!
--Oh so
British. --I know
--Were you at a British person's house? Were you at Jamie's house?
--No, I was not. I was not,
but I did go out for dinner. I did not cook this year.
--Did you go to The Smith
--This is my first, yeah, since this is this is this is my first week at Wicked, so.
--Amazing. --S o I decided not to cook on Thanksgiving
--Sticky toffee pudding forever. --Yeah.
Hi, everyone! I'm gonna share with you some fun facts about the wand. That's right.
And I'm also dressed as a flying squirrel. Here she is ladies and
gentlemen. This is what I wear between shows sometimes to take a nap. Okay
follow me and I'll show you the secrets. So, fun fact! I actually use two wands
over the course of the show. This is the opening one with the Swarovski crystals,
and this is what is called the fight wand for the fallen house scene in Act 2.
This wand is basically like a pillow. It's like this is kind of soft material with
like more of a plastic sort of crystal, so that doesn't hurt anybody because
guess what I do with it? And you'll see why it has to be like a trick sort of
stunt wand. Cuz I go like this!
--Oh, look it is a little bunny!
--Bippity bop boppity bop scoobity dop
blabety lap
--Oh, check it out. It's also a flying
squirrel. --And look , look at our lives. What do we think?
Lives are lives and we just drink. Pedialyte. Pedialyte.
Every day we do a skit. Oh my gosh that's a good improv girl.
--That's what I
do.
--Lin Manuel Vosk.
--Get at me.
--Oh my gosh, everybody, we are
here with Mary Beth Abel. She is the production stage manager of Wicked and
y'all have been like where is stage management? We need to find out about
stage management. So I've brought her to Broadway.com. She's --Thank you
--the best. Mary Beth, --Yes
--You're a legend first of all.
--I don't even know what that means.
--It's true. --It makes me nervous..
--People literally asked for her signature at the stage door.
--Okay, that's embarrassing. --It's true! What is the production stage
manager? So, the I mean we run the show.
I mean, and we oversee everything and we make sure that things are running
smoothly. And I think like the successful production stage managers trust the fact
that all their heads Department are expert at what they do. You know you
trust every day when you come in, things will be in order, things will be running
smoothly, that sort of thing. And that along with our job, of course, we've got
you know, dealing with putting understudies in and replacements in and
that sort of thing. So, it's um it can it's a big job, but it's a fun job and I
love it. -- It's amazing, and she's so brilliant at it.
--Thank you. --You truly are
--Mary Beth is actually like an incredible actor as
well, because basically when you learn the show, she's playing all the parts
while you learn where to go on the stage! And I'm like, somebody needs to hire Mary
Beth to do a solo Wicked show where she's playing
everything. --Oh dear. People say stuff like
that to me and I go, If I ever had
to stand out in front of the audience like you guys do, I would probably like melt. I
would just like go running off stage. --Get it? That's a show reference.
--So, MB and I have a Pittsburgh connection. --Yeah
--She's from the burgh -- I'm from the burgh.
I'm from the burg and my husband actually, who also
works with me, went to the same school that you did. --That's right Carnegie
Mellon. --Yeah
--Right, yeah Greg's right over here, everybody!
--Hi --Mary Beth what is your
favorite part about working on this show?
--The people, definitely the people. I mean
look of the thing is that I mean I just I enjoy coming to work every day because
we've got such a fabulous group of people backstage, and you know from the
from the actors down to the like the people that work in the front of house,
everybody's friendly, everybody wants to be here. We know how lucky we are to have
such a long-running show.
--Yeah, one last thing. What's your advice for somebody
who wants to do what you do.
--Patience and no ego. The thing you have to remember is
that you're here serving the production and you're serving everyone in it. My
latest philosophy is if it was a totem pole, the stage manager's on the bottom of
the totem pole, serving everything above it. When the stage manager thinks they're
at the top of the totem pole, I think that's when you run into problems.
--Wow. Isn't she amazing?
--Aww. --Love you!
--Also,
you guys, fun fact in the stage management office this HD monitor where
they can watch the show. And another one, and another one of the
conductor.
[all sing] --Happy birthday to you.
Happy birthday to you.
Happy birthday dear Kevin.
Happy birthday to you. [claps]
--It's the birthday king everyone! --It's my birthday. Birthday on Broadway
--That's right! It's always good to have a birthday on Broadway.
--Some people know you as Bertram from Jessie. Do you want to tell the people
how we first met? --We first met when Amanda played a
Broadway diva in the episode of Jessie actress, in an episode of Jessie,
entitled --Understudied and overdone
--Understudies and overdone --That's right and we did a scene where we had pizza fall on
our face. --We had to have pizza we were
--Music department, hey guys!
--Hi --Happy birthday!
--In the Jessie episode, we got didn't you and I get tied up and then we had pizza
and spaghetti sauce thrown on us?
--Yeah, it was crazy. And we're so glad to have you here as
the Wizard and everybody just loves you. What is your favorite part about playing
Wizard? Watching you guys perform.
--Oh, stop! -- Backstage
--Oh my gosh stop you're so
brilliant Kevin.
--My favorite part of playing the Wizard is there's one line
where I sing and a big harp goes brrrr
I get to see it be the first one to sing
everyone deserves the chance to fly!
--That's right. --That's my favorite part
--So cool --I get Broadway chills.
--You're the best.
--Ryan McCartan, everyone! --Haha
--Ryan, how you doin?
-- I'm good I'm so excited to come back! --Yes, we missed you so much!
--I missed you guys so
much. My life has no purpose without Wicked.
--Jess, some parting words of wisdom for everyone here and departure words
--Departure words? --Yeah tell us
--Guess what? Live your life. Live your
dream. Don't listen to the negativity of other people. When one door closes,
another opens. And if it doesn't open whatever, whatever. And, leave a little
sparkle wherever you go.
[blows]
[laughs]
--Hey guys! We're back with Questions with Amanda. I hope you like have liked
this series. Um thank you guys for asking so many questions. Olivia asked me on
Twitter, What's my with my Starbucks drink? Guys,
here's a confession. Literally, I like love the protein box from Starbucks, but
I really don't get drinks because I don't really drink coffee. Sometimes I'll
get tea, but most of the time I ask for hot water. So lame, but I'm always like
buying something else like a green juice or our protein box.
This one's from Dylan. He says um any onstage mishaps or forgotten lines. Guys,
a couple days ago, I came into the kiamako scene, which
is where I meet Elphaba. And she, well I don't want to give too much away, but
basically, I go down this big staircase. And I'm supposed to say Elphaba, I know
you don't want to hear this but somebody has to say it. You are out of control. I
mean come on. They're just shoes. And instead, I said, Elfie...I ...
I ...
[garbled speech]
They're they're
just shoes! Let it go! And poor Jess was just staring at me like she couldn't
help me cuz she was on the other side of the stage. And, oh man. But you know we
recovered. Sometimes we call that going to the white room. Happens to everyone.
Sometimes you forget, but you cover. And that's the magic of live theater. Avery
asked about dream roles. Well I'm playing one for sure! If the Princess and the
Frog ever gets made into a musical, I would like to be Charlotte. I also would
love to be in Enchanted if that ever becomes musical. So, yeah. It would be
super fun to originate something. And also, you know what else I love? Anna
in Frozen. How fun would that be? Oh, I love that role so much. Patti Murin, a
true queen. And we'll end with this one. What is your favorite onstage or
offstage moment that happens in Wicked? It's all the time that I get to have with
Tracey, who's gonna make one more appearance in this vlog, right Tracey?
Come on Tracey, the people
want to see you!
Come here!
--Guys, we love you. Thank you for joining us on this journey, this past
eight weeks.
--Eight weeks --Eight weeks!
--And, remember, say it with me, leave a...
--Leave a [both] --little sparkle wherever you go!
--[laughs] Love you guys. Bye!
["Popular" from Wicked]