I'm sitting here with Jewess, Mandy Gonzalez
hey! Shana Tova!
Mandy's also starring, not only in Fiddler on the Roof, on her off nights but on her actual nights
before she was a big Broadway star in Wicked and In the Heights and the
Laura Nyro off-Broadway show, she was on Broadway in a show that was talked about a lot
I wouldn't exactly call it a hit, Dance of the Vampires
Julia Murney quit the show during the first read-through, maybe for other reasons we don't know.
Julia Murney did a first read-through and she was out
My question is when did it don on you that perhaps
the show would not be running for years
It was my first show and I was just
so excited and so green it was like the whole community came and everybody
was cheering and so excited so I was like this is great like all this hard
work and all this you know tears and all this kind of stuff and and then my agent
came, my then agent came back, and was like well it's good that you guys have a
first preview it's good to have time to work, I was like 'what do you mean?'
little did I know it'd be three months of previews but you know
three months
so tell the story of Dance of the Vampires
Dance the Vampires is based on the movie Fearless Vampire Killers which
is Roman Polanski, just like a typical vampire story about Alfred and the
professor coming to kill the vampire and the vampire needs to drink an 18 year-old
virgins blood, who's a belter, who can make him have everlasting life
the whole show was about this biting moment so it happened
at the end of the show and we were on these like stairs that
were kind of like bleachers and he would bite me and then we would slither
down together but it was really difficult because to be on stairs and
have to slither together, then I had this blood pack on my neck that I would have
to push so that I see the blood
he would bite near it, he wouldn't really bite me, you know
isn't his face right there? how do you have your hand there?
I'd have to keep my hand there at the same time, so I would press it so then you can see the blood
kind of come down and then one time I pressed it really like just too hard and
it just squirted right into his mouth started choking it was bad
Mandy told me that she was devastated that she had ruined the show
not perhaps realizing that train had left the station
so we're gonna sing, and if you don't know,
the show was written by Jim Steinman, the big hit song was
'Total Eclipse of the Heart' so naturally he put it in the show
because you know it helped advance the plot
this song took place when?
this song took place in the beginning of the second act
the audience is waiting for the vampire bite and this song to happen
yes
closing notice
any who, now let us discuss the show that she's starring in
eight times a week, now by the way there certain shows on Broadway
where people only do six performances a week cause it's a vocally taxing,
yet, Elphaba does the highest belts on Broadway eight times a week
have you missed because of any vocal problems?
nope
Mandy, do you know what your nickname was in In the Heights, by the way? Or was it onlybehind your back?
no, it was to my face
what was your nickname dear
the beast!
the beast.
because through the vocal chops, the Beast, and apparently I heard that you
missed a vocal rehearsal, and Andrea said to Karen Olivo, she said
'where is Mandy? We're having this vocal harmony rehearsal.' And Karen said 'the Beast don't need a vocal rehearsal'
it's true, it's true
There's only one moment in Wicked which I refuse to clap
it's when Elphaba ends her song on
a money low note, let me show my amazing low range, you know what I'm not interested
I was raging, I was like it's not called the last note
when it's below a middle C, raging
I would like to do the song as it should end
and perhaps Stephen Schwartz will hear this version
and please add it to the show, Wicked's changed,
they've added national tour versions now, can we please hear the song as it should end?
thank you
thank you!
contact me on my website Stephen Schwartz, sethrudetsky.com