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[0:41] Kerry Butler: I am your host, Miss Kerry Butler. Together you and I are breaking Broadway.

[0:55] Kerry Butler: Hello, welcome back to Breaking Broadway. I'm Kerry Butler and today we have three-time Tony nominee, winner of the Tony for Drowsy Chaperone, 15 Broadway shows, currently starring in Old Friends, and we recently did a reading together of Vape the Musical, the great parody, Beth Leavel! Thank you so much for being here. You were hilarious in that reading. That was the first thing we've ever done together, right?

[1:30] Beth Leavel: That's ridiculous.

[1:31] Kerry Butler: I think it is. And I just thought you were so funny. I was in awe. I was like studying you like an actor studies, you know, other actors who they admire. I love these choices that you are making and how real you're making it, you know, because it was a parody and you just played it so real, so grounded, loved it.

[1:49] Beth Leavel: I love when you have the opportunity, comedy lets you do that, that you don't have to put a hat on a hat.

[1:54] Kerry Butler: Yes, yes. The words and if you have the right, you know, if you know what comedy feels like, you just say the words.

[2:01] Beth Leavel: You're good at that too. You have that gift.

[2:03] Kerry Butler: So we usually like to find out how our guests found theater. Like did you know, when did you know you wanted to be an actor? Did you grow up loving theater, knowing that that was what you wanted to do?

[2:16] Beth Leavel: Absolutely not. I still to this day go, what, what is it? Why am I doing this? Why, why am I here? I was really late. I was raised in Raleigh, North Carolina, and my family wasn't into theater at all. So therefore I never really went to theater. I remember one time, I think I must've been like 13 years old and we went to see a movie, The Music Man starring Robert Preston. And I remember that was the first time a little thing clicked in me that I kind of left my body and wanted to be Zenita and go like this and be in a band, a majorette uniform. And it, the magic, the magic of the storytelling was so interesting, but I didn't know what to do with it. My first musical ever was my senior year in high school.

[3:07] Kerry Butler: Wow.

[3:09] Beth Leavel: And my dear friend at the time asked me to audition. It was Brigadoon. She said, don't you want to do the high school, the spring musical? I was like, what? She said, it's a great way to meet guys. So I did, and I got like the third lead. And it was one of those moments where, you know, in my high school, you walk and you rehearsed in the band room. But I remember walking in the very first day and looking around and seeing these people and thinking, where has everybody been? It was like the discovery of your tribe.

[3:44] Kerry Butler: Yes.

[3:45] Beth Leavel: All my people. And I apparently spent the rest of my life continuing to wanting to be with my tribe. However, my parents were like, because it really hit me hard, the bug. But they were going, well, no, you're not going to theater. You want to eat?

[4:01] Kerry Butler: Right.

[4:03] Beth Leavel: So I went to a small woman's college in North Carolina. And, you know, to me, there's no mistakes. And I got a major in social work counseling, which has really come in handy as an actor. That's about listening and responding, which kind of all acting is. But I met a teacher there. And I also met my best friend there. That changed my life. So I have a minor in theater and I did every show I could get my hands on. And I didn't get them all. I remember I choreographed something. I don't know why. I auditioned for the community theater, changed my life. I auditioned for anything that was in a radius that I could drive to.

[4:44] Kerry Butler: Was this still in college?

[4:46] Beth Leavel: Still in college.

[4:47] Kerry Butler: Oh.

[4:48] Beth Leavel: End of my senior year, my mentor, the teacher said, maybe I'm thinking maybe you should move to New York. And I'm like, absolutely not. I've been there once and it was terrifying and scary and smelly. I was like, I'm not going to New York.

[5:02] Kerry Butler: Sure.

[5:03] Beth Leavel: And that's the truth. I don't think I knew enough about myself as an artist. I mean, we're still learning. But I didn't know. I needed to learn more. I needed to learn more about my craft. So I decided to go to grad school. That's why I have an MFA in acting and directing from the University of North Carolina at Greensboro, which two years ago they gave me an honorary doctorate. So now I'm doctor level.

[5:25] Kerry Butler: Thank you. Oh, sorry. I introduced you incorrectly.

[5:29] Beth Leavel: Doctor level.

[5:32] Kerry Butler: After that, it changed my life. And again, I had a teacher who had done four Broadway shows. And it was just like, and he came into class like wearing leather pants. Like, oh, I love you. And he changed my life. And the next year I moved to New York and started the path.

[5:56] Beth Leavel: And how was that?

[5:57] Kerry Butler: It was thrilling.

[5:59] Beth Leavel: Yeah.

[6:00] Kerry Butler: It was terrifying. But I knew I was in the right place. I remember I was living on a dreadful fifth floor walk-up apartment in Hell's Kitchen when Hell's Kitchen was really Hell's Kitchen. When I would get up, probably kids probably don't know this, but there used to be a hard copy of Backstage.

[6:19] Beth Leavel: Oh, yes.

[6:20] Kerry Butler: So every Thursday I would get up, you know, come down the stairs, say hello to the people on my stoop and go to Smiler's, which is the deli on the corner. And I decided, well, if I am in New York and I'm going to be an actor, I need to learn how to drink coffee. So I'd get a cup of coffee, like two sweet and lows and find a bench someplace, open the paper and like circle everything that I could possibly audition for that week, including a mime troupe.

[6:50] Beth Leavel: So I could do that.

[6:52] Kerry Butler: Yes. That's the attitude you have to have. Like, yes and. Jump in the pool. So I auditioned for a puppet show.

[6:59] Beth Leavel: Oh, wow.

[7:00] Kerry Butler: I auditioned for everything I could get my hands on. And slowly but surely, I was able to do a showcase and I had the funniest song ever. And that's where my agent. This was so many years ago. My agent called back then to children. There was a thing called answering. You didn't have cell phones.

[7:20] Beth Leavel: Right.

[7:21] Kerry Butler: So if someone needed to reach out to you, they would call your mind was bells are ringing and they call your service and leave a message. And he left a message. And I met with them and I have been with that same ever since.

[7:34] Beth Leavel: Oh, my gosh.

[7:35] Kerry Butler: For an assistant. And now he's head of this huge agency, B.R.S. Gage, which is in Los Angeles and in New York. So sometimes loyalty pays off.

[7:44] Beth Leavel: Wow. So did you get that workshop through college or?

[7:48] Kerry Butler: No, I got it. Right before I moved to New York, I did a dinner theater show in Ohio and random. The director of that show was from New York and had written a musical with his partner based on the Nancy Drew mystery series. And they did a showcase there on Theater Row. The theater is no longer.

[8:09] Beth Leavel: Oh.

[8:10] Kerry Butler: South Street, Seaport. But all of those are torn down. And to my knowledge, it was just doing a presentation of this musical for friends and family. You know, we're friends. But there was every agent known to man out in the audience, which, thankfully, I didn't know.

[8:27] Beth Leavel: Yeah.

[8:28] Kerry Butler: And I had a very, very funny song. I played Consuelo, the neighbor. And the song called My Life Has Been No Coma De Rosa, which has been.

[8:39] Beth Leavel: That's right.

[8:40] Kerry Butler: Yes. And that got my start. God bless him. Sometimes you go, why am I in dinner theater? Oh, hi. And you just never, never know.

[8:50] Beth Leavel: That's what I first has planned for you.

[8:53] Kerry Butler: Yes. And that's what I tell people all the time. I'm like, just work. You never know what person is going to connect you. Like Ohio. Somebody there connected you to Off-Broadway.

[9:03] Beth Leavel: Yeah.

[9:04] Kerry Butler: Changed my life. If I hadn't met him. And, you know, we were such a dear friend. He passed a while ago. But, boy, that relationship helped me settle in New York. I would come over to their apartment and they helped me find my audition song, which on my go-to song, that you walk into an audition and nobody would know you. And it's like, oh, I see who you are. I see who you're becoming an artist. I see your comedy or your belt notes or whatever. I did a version of I Got Rhythm.

[9:36] Beth Leavel: Okay.

[9:37] Kerry Butler: And at the very end, I go, I got rhythm. I got three more. And I would hold that note and kind of put a comic spin on it. I don't even remember. But it got me so much attention and work and at least callback. And I remember it's like, wow, I got my song. I got my song. And I went in sometime later. And I believe, I could be wrong about this, but I believe it was Jerry Mitchell.

[10:05] Beth Leavel: Oh.

[10:06] Kerry Butler: And I walked in. It was for a summer stock audition. And our community in New York is really six degrees of separation.

[10:12] Beth Leavel: Totally.

[10:13] Kerry Butler: So I walked in. He said, oh, hi, Beth. I was like, hello, Mr. Mitchell. Isn't it terrible if it wasn't him? But in my mind, it was. And he went, oh, my gosh, what are you going to sing for us today? Gosh, I hope it's not I Got Rhythm.

[10:28] Beth Leavel: Did he remember that you sang that before?

[10:32] Kerry Butler: Or did he just not remember when I must have sung it nine times or something? That was the death of I Got Rhythm.

[10:41] Beth Leavel: I had to audition with him.

[10:44] Kerry Butler: That's so funny.

[10:46] Beth Leavel: So what do you feel like was the big turning point in your career? Like when did you get your first Broadway show or big lead, something like that?

[10:55] Beth Leavel: Right. It was the first national tour of 42nd Street. And I was cast as Anytime Annie. And I was out on the road for about seven months. And the role opened on Broadway. And they asked me to replace who was leaving. So I did. 42nd Street was my Broadway debut.

[11:13] Kerry Butler: Oh, and how long have you been auditioning before you got that?

[11:16] Beth Leavel: Don't hate me, but maybe eight months or so.

[11:21] Kerry Butler: Wow.

[11:22] Beth Leavel: Well, that's good.

[11:23] Kerry Butler: Yeah.

[11:24] Beth Leavel: I was lucky. I was lucky. And I was in the right place. And everything came together at the same time. But I really had to learn. I remember at the moment thinking, wow, I really wish you'd kept up with your tap dance class. Because I had to kind of go back to square one. But they liked it. I sang I Got Rhythm. They liked my comedy so much. And then I felt that note. And that's what got me the callback. And then I worked on my tap. Or still am.

[11:52] Kerry Butler: Yeah, I hear you. I forgot to mention, too, that you were in The Prom and originated that role. And I feel like so many of our listeners love that show. And just a side note, I recently saw Columbia High School do that show. And it was so amazing. And you can tell when you put your stamp on a role, you could tell that the actress was channeling you. You have a certain essence. And that's kind of what young actors have to find. But you have that where I know when someone is channeling you. And just so you know, it was so special to see that show in a high school now. I was crying. They did such a good job. But it's a really special show. And you got to create that.

[12:37] Beth Leavel: Yeah, that was, I think, even more than Drowsy Chaperone. Because I did create that role. But it wasn't written for me.

[13:39] Beth Leavel: How did that happen? So is it the same team that did Drowsy Chaperone?

[13:43] Kerry Butler: Ish. Yeah. It took the first table read we ever did. A table read is like when they know these people have been cast and they sit around and we read the script, the very first draft of the script for the first time. From that table read until the time we were on Broadway took nine years.

[14:03] Beth Leavel: Oh, wow. Eight years. Eight years. Wow. So me, myself, Brooks Ashmanskas, Chris Sieber, who are all on Broadway now, they're like neighbors, hey, and Ann Cooper who will be on Broadway in a hot minute. We were cast originally. Wow. We've been with it since the very beginning to the point where they were saying, well, with the character, we want someone like Angie Schwartz and they went, why don't we get Angie Schwartz and the rest is history and her name is Angie. But you just have to be patient with it and it's going to take a while because unless you're, you know, Cameron Mackintosh or someone who has a huge amount of wealth, you have to raise money and then you have to, we went to Atlanta for an out-of-town tryout, which was hugely successful, but then Casey Nicholaw got Mean Girls. We were open so we had to wait. And then we were able to move into the Longacre and it's just magical.

[15:06] Kerry Butler: Wow. Nine years. So that first nine years ago, it was just like an industry reading?

[15:12] Beth Leavel: We did a workshop. Oh. So we did a reading, which is not just people in the room, but then you do a workshop, which is like a mini production. You've done these, I'm sure. A mini production in a huge studio where everybody's off book. It's been choreographed and blocked and we wear microphones and the essence of our costumes and we present it. We did it about four times and presented it for people, casting people, people who could be interested in becoming a producer, regional theaters and the rest is history.

[15:48] Kerry Butler: Hmm. Wow. But that's really, I don't know, kind of encouraging just that it took nine years, but then it did happen.

[15:55] Beth Leavel: It happened, which most of them don't.

[15:58] Kerry Butler: Right. Right. And got turned into a movie.

[16:01] Beth Leavel: And it won't happen.

[16:03] Kerry Butler: Hey, everyone. I have some exciting news. I am revamping my YouTube channel, Keri Butler Official, and my first episode is all about Beetlejuice. And I know so many schools are doing Beetlejuice now. So I'm focusing in on the creation of Beetlejuice and what you need to think about for each of those characters, if you're auditioning for them or if you're working on them and kind of what our backstory was in creating those characters. And a fun little thing I'm doing on the YouTube channel is people can submit their auditions to me and I will give you feedback at the end of my YouTube videos. So if you would like to be included on my YouTube channel, then on Keri Butler Coach at Instagram, I put a form for you to fill out and I have an email address for specifically for submissions for people who want to submit an audition that I will give you feedback and try and help you hit those notes or hit the acting beats. But I just thought it would be a fun way to connect and be sure to subscribe to my new YouTube channel, Keri Butler Official, for all the behind-the-scenes stories of the shows that I've done.

[17:14] Kerry Butler: Can you think of any moments where you had like a big rejection and you were like, Oh, please. What time is it? Yes. Oh, yes. But you know, I'd like to think I don't mean to be Pollyanna-esque. Sometimes I learn more from the no's than the yes's. It makes me work a little harder. It makes me change something that's not working or there's an opportunity that if I had said yes to that, I wouldn't have been able to do something else.

[17:48] Beth Leavel: A hundred percent. Yeah, we're human beings. We can't do every single thing. When I auditioned for Drowsy Chaperone, I didn't get the part.

[17:54] Kerry Butler: No way.

[17:56] Beth Leavel: That part is the part of Beatrice Stockwell was one of those parts that when you read the script, her energy isn't on the page. You have to figure her behavior and her essence by bringing yourself into it. And they didn't know who she was yet. And I came in and I just wasn't it. And Casey, which never happens to the director, because he's a pal of mine, called me and said, I'm so sorry. I said, no, no, I totally understand. I didn't get it. I think that you need maybe to cast someone older. I mean, this is 20 years ago. I think so. So they went to L.A. and auditioned all these people like Tina Louise, who was Gilligan's Island. She was Ginger. Oh, yeah. Eartha Kitt, Google. Wow. But none of that worked.

So literally, I felt like five months later, I get a call from my agent saying, I have a job offer for you. Offer means you don't have to audition. And it wasn't a very active time in my career. It was like, I don't know what it is. I'll do it. And he's deflating to Stockwell in the drowsy chaperone. I went, oh, no, I didn't get that. So I made my agent call the casting people again as I. Yeah. And my agent called back and said, yep, you leave in three weeks for a three month out of town tryout at the Amundsen in Los Angeles.

[19:16] Kerry Butler: Oh, my gosh. And that changed my life. But so how did they what did they say to you when they first said you weren't right for it?

[19:24] Beth Leavel: I think they gave up that they hired someone and a person didn't want the job, changed their mind about the job because at the point of her career, she didn't want this character didn't come on until page 30. It's changed. You know, I was on in the first. But, you know, the script evolved in some ways. And honestly, I think Casey just went, just give it to Beth. She'll do something with it. Just just we got to go like, so thank goodness he had that instinct to cast me in a role that eventually changed my life.

[20:02] Kerry Butler: And that you didn't even think you were right for.

[20:06] Beth Leavel: No, I didn't. But, you know, one of the privileges of being in an original company is once they see your comedy and your singing, they start adjusting before your strengths. Yes. So I'm not even sure stumble along was a big deal. And, you know, by the time I hit Broadway, that was an anthem, a comedic anthem that was pretty spectacular.

[20:29] Kerry Butler: So speaking of that, how do you approach your roles like especially something like that, right, where you didn't even know what to do with it?

[20:37] Beth Leavel: Right. There was Casey was really into and I think a lot of directors are particularly when something is so new and in the process of being discovered, he would do theater games.

[20:50] Kerry Butler: So in LA, right?

[20:50] Beth Leavel: Oh yeah, it was like theater games. But he did one we did it for about a week from 10 to 12. We would do the first of all, we watched films of that era, just so we could all be on this tonally be on the same page. It's a heightened reality, but it's still truthful, but it's still heightened. And you'll see that when you watch Buster Keaton or some of the early 20 films, it's it's very, you know, heightened, but it's still truthful. So we would watch that. And then we had to write a bio, which mine was dreadful, because I had no idea. So who I was, I was like, I was like, boo, we did this thing called hot seat, where I don't know if anyone has played this before, but there's a stool, and all the creative team and everyone in the cast, and I felt like anyone who was walking by the street was in back of the table, when you would come on as your character, sit in the hot seat, and answer questions as brief Beatrice Stockwell.

This was kind of not very successful for a while. And you know, I was learning I was learning who she was, and they were writing and you know, everything was evolving. But this sounds so dramatic, but the last day of hot seat, I was like, Oh, thank God, it's the last day of hot seat. Casey for the very first time said, it was my turn, he said, Ladies and gentlemen, Dame Beatrice Stockwell. Now he had never said Dame before. So that informs that I remember coming out and the my cast stood up and like, and I bowed and it was like, please continue. It was like, Oh, thank you. And I went all the way to the floor and a bow and a bow. And I went there she is. There she is. And once you know you're a narcissistic Dame, who thinks that, yes, there's a show going on, but the entire audience has really just come to see you. I'm really sorry about them. It became easy to continue building the steps. And then I saw Greg Barnes costume design. And how clever and over the top it was and pieces just started to come together.

[23:11] Beth Leavel: And one thing I do, which I don't know is right or wrong, but I do. When I go into rehearsal room, I throw everything I have up against the wall, there's no edit button. And we'll see what sticks. Yeah, hopefully my instincts and the smart creative team will go Yes, absolutely not. Yes, make that more. Can you make that less and creatively we build something together.

[23:34] Kerry Butler: So do you mean you're like improv-ing throwing things at the wall? Or if a line could possibly be said in a different way? Let's try it this way. Let's particularly comedy.

[23:40] Beth Leavel: Uh huh. Comedies feels like math, you know, totally. Oh, if it has to equal and that's not always you have to work at it. Sometimes you have to just try everything and see what works. See what a source of script B gets a laugh. And C is truthful.

[24:08] Kerry Butler: So would you just stop rehearsal in a way and just be like, let's work on this beat and figure out what the comedy is of this?

[24:14] Beth Leavel: Yeah, I would just do it. Do it just do it. I just do it. And then if we do it again, and it got a laugh, or it worked, I would do it again and start refining it. Or if it didn't, I knew the next time that I would have to do it again. And you know, that's what rehearsals are for, right. And then you get your audience, and they really will tell you what works and doesn't work. Kind of go, Oh, that really works. And oh, boy, we really have to change that.

[24:40] Beth Leavel: I had an opening line in drowsy chaperone, where I come out my entrance. And I go, where's the bar? And character of George says, Hey, isn't it a little early in the day to be drinking? We didn't know what line would get a laugh until we got an audience and you see the ones that were cut. Which my response eventually ended up being say, isn't it a little early in the day to be drinking? I go, I don't understand the question. The line that were cut before that was, Hey, isn't it a little early in the day to be drinking? And I would look at the audience and go, not in Burma. But there was like a whole sequence of cut lines that it was like doing comedy homework. I love that.

[25:31] Beth Leavel: And when it did so, I'm just like, Oh God. Oh, this is painful.

[25:37] Kerry Butler: I love that Casey did those exercises with you too. That's kind of fun and also terrifying.

[25:42] Beth Leavel: It's terrifying and useful and I've never done it since. I've never done it in any rehearsal. That's so cool.

[25:48] Kerry Butler: Last this, I remember doing it kind of in school.

[25:52] Beth Leavel: Yes, for sure in school.

[25:53] Kerry Butler: But not on Broadway and it was really useful.

[25:57] Beth Leavel: Yeah, and probably he was figuring it out with you.

[26:00] Kerry Butler: So he needed to do it.

[26:01] Beth Leavel: Exactly. And that's why I think he said, Dang, Beatrice Stockwell.

[26:05] Kerry Butler: Mm-hmm.

[26:06] Beth Leavel: Oh, that's so informing.

[26:10] Kerry Butler: So now you are in Old Friends.

[26:13] Beth Leavel: And before we started you were telling me it's a little bit tough just creating a new show. Tell us a little bit about it.

[26:18] Beth Leavel: It's always tough. Maybe it's not the right word. It's always an experience.

[26:21] Kerry Butler: The show was done in London.

[26:28] Beth Leavel: Bernadette Peters and Lea Salonga and with entirely a cast from the United Kingdom. They're all Brits and because of unions and whatever to be on Broadway, half of the company needed to be New York equity actors and the other half were able to come from London.

[26:47] Beth Leavel: So we had a lot of catching up to do that. We started rehearsal a week early to learn all the music and it's Sondheim.

[26:56] Kerry Butler: Mm-hmm.

[26:58] Beth Leavel: One of the really interesting things about this show, which is really challenging is that all of us are principals and all of us are in the ensemble.

[27:06] Kerry Butler: Oh.

[27:07] Beth Leavel: So I haven't had to learn so many complicated second alto parts in New York.

[27:16] Kerry Butler: Oh my God.

[27:16] Beth Leavel: Yes, the alto lines the hardest. Singing a lot about somebody's love. You know the complexity with which Sondheim is such a genius.

[27:29] Beth Leavel: I would come home every night from rehearsal before the UK cast arrived. It just don't talk to me. I'm in a homework and trying to memorize lyrics. Once you know his lyrics and they're in your muscles. It's one of the most satisfying things ever. But it is homework.

[27:48] Kerry Butler: Right.

[27:49] Beth Leavel: So the Brits arrived and we have a wonderful marriage together and it's one of the kindest most talented companies I've ever been. And again, you know, we're all ensemble.

[28:01] Kerry Butler: Yeah, so it's really thrilling and then we all get our moments. I was really thrilled that they kind of Cameron Macintosh and the directors let me do my own take on it because I'm not in this show old friends. We take songs from all of his shows that some you might know some you might not. So I'm not I don't have a responsibility to be Joanne from company.

[28:25] Kerry Butler: Mm-hmm.

[28:25] Beth Leavel: But yeah, you want to serve you want to make this song truthful. Wait, but I can I can bend it a little bit because I'm not not having to do the arc right of company. So that to me was thrilling. And a challenge.

[28:44] Kerry Butler: How did you approach it? How do you approach a song when you get it? Do you just go by instinct or do you like have a technique?

[28:50] Beth Leavel: No, I kind of go by instinct and always try to why am I singing this song? And sometimes would really should leave my coach and I can say it to me as well as like what happens right before you have to sing that first lyric that fuels the entire song. Boy, does that make a difference if you don't know what your feelings like what happened? What's what does someone say to you? What event do you witness? What has just happened? And it's real that to me is really where I start a lot of songs.

[29:28] Beth Leavel: And for this one, you know, I have a scenario what happened and then I play with the audience. I let them share my journey. So that changes a little bit every night and then I it just happened how I felt about the end of the song and where it was going and I just didn't edit. Sometimes that works. Sometimes it doesn't. But for this I felt it was truthful successful. The audience seems to really like it. And so that's that's that check, please.

[30:05] Kerry Butler: What do you hope you do next? Do you have any like things you want to check off?

[30:10] Beth Leavel: Oh, I have so many I'm not done yet. There's like three musicals Bob Martin Casey that are instructed now. Possibly there might be a drowsy chaperone too.

[30:23] Kerry Butler: Wow, so wouldn't that be great?

[30:27] Beth Leavel: Wow, I'm in it, but I'll have to kill somebody if I'm not even if it's just a camera.

[30:35] Beth Leavel: So there's all I do a reading next week. So this all I tell people the good news and bad news about this career that we have chosen. Yes, the bad news is that you just never know what's going to happen tomorrow. The good news is you just never know what's going to happen tomorrow.

[30:52] Beth Leavel: I'm completely unemployed at what that story I was relaying to you about drowsy chaperone. I was thinking maybe I shouldn't be doing this. Maybe I will and the phone rings and drowsy chaperone.

[31:03] Kerry Butler: Yeah, that's always happened for me too. See right when I'm right when I'm like, oh, I should become a social worker, which I also wanted to do.

[31:11] Beth Leavel: Absolutely.

[31:11] Kerry Butler: Absolutely. And then something always sucks me back in.

[31:17] Kerry Butler: Do you have any advice for your younger self?

[31:21] Beth Leavel: Yes, I wish I I wish I hadn't been so scared. You know if it's like oh and I also I felt like there there's one answer to what acting is. Do I have the right answer is the wrong?

[31:36] Kerry Butler: Oh, you thought when you were younger that there was one answer.

[31:38] Beth Leavel: I got one way to do things. And what what is what is it and there's just not right. It's whatever resonates with you and make you a truthful artist right you have to keep studying if you're a singer you got to figure out your go-to song how to take care of your instrument what you know, particularly if you're young you have to audition to get work.

[32:03] Kerry Butler: Yes.

[32:03] Beth Leavel: So working on audition techniques get it again getting it's so important to get that right song and finding or faking your confidence in the room. So they can walk in and you bring this wonderful truthful energy in and people can't not give you work because they want to know you and your talent.

[32:22] Kerry Butler: Mm-hmm. Are you now now that you've won the Tony Award? Are you choosy about what you do? Do you strategize about like, oh, maybe I should know where all the phone rings.

[32:31] Beth Leavel: No, I don't I do not have that skill at all. I am definitely a leap in the net will appear. Yes, and so far so good. Mm-hmm. We'll see.

[32:45] Kerry Butler: Do you have any tricks for dealing with rejection that comes like do you have something that you do? Like do you let yourself have a day to be sad or you know, probably probably not now it doesn't affect you as much as when you were starting out, right?

[32:59] Beth Leavel: Yeah, I do allow myself to either be pissed off. Boy, I was stupid choice of them to make and then I let it go. Yes, because your phone is going to ring and a drowsy chaperone will happen.

[33:12] Kerry Butler: Yeah, I'm at you, you know again. And some some of the ones that I would were rejected. Yes would hear horror stories about the process or something. It was like who I am really glad I missed that one.

[33:29] Kerry Butler: Yeah. Do you have any other like final pointers for people starting out like, you know theater festivals or anything that they might not know about that could help them get their foot in the door?

[33:41] Beth Leavel: Absolutely. Well, I would always continue studying whether it's in the school. You're going to I would also see be in the audience of everything. You can get a ticket for you can witness. What is it about that performer that makes me vibrate or conversely what's happening here? That's why I'm not interested. It's just you can learn as a student sitting and being an audience member.

[34:12] Beth Leavel: I would work with a vocal coach. If you feel like you need to work on your voice. I would work on persistence because that's one of a very strong. If I had quit the first two rejections I got I wouldn't have been doing this career for 40 years. So and that's some someone told me that when I moved to the city they said be prepared. This is if you're moving to New York, but you can get her anywhere be prepared have money in your savings account. So you can eat. Yes must be persistent.

[34:44] Kerry Butler: Did you have a side hustle? Did you have jobs like along the way?

[34:47] Beth Leavel: I did but I was lucky enough not to have too many of them. But yeah, if you know how to do something technical with computers, you're good. I waited tables only two weeks was not successful and I got a job. I this is before word processing all that. I was assistant attempt for HBO for a day. I served champagne at a festival at the Javits Center. Just was Javits Center was some huge just anything you could, you know get money to eat that day.

[35:22] Beth Leavel: Yeah, and I did have some savings which helped. Yeah, and I did my parents helped me a little bit with rent which thank you mom and dad.

[35:29] Kerry Butler: Yeah, but that doesn't always happen.

[35:32] Beth Leavel: Yeah, and again, you don't have to be in New York City to be an actor right but it is so hard when you come here if I mean so many of I think like the best actors. I know they just didn't come here with the money and then it's just you just get beaten down if you have to make a living and have to go on auditions all day long every day, but you know speaking for me and a handful of people a lot of people. It's just worth it.

[35:58] Beth Leavel: Yeah, because I have to do it my I have to do it. It it's the one thing that I feel I'm supposed to do. Yes brings me with all everything about it. It just it still brings me joy.

[36:12] Kerry Butler: Me too. Do you think you'll ever retire?

[36:15] Beth Leavel: No, I'm older and older parts, which I don't have a problem with me too. I'm always like, yes, I want to die on stage.

[36:21] Kerry Butler: I want to like have that heart attack that no in Pippin working.

[36:27] Beth Leavel: Yeah, I can't Irene Ryan literally died on stage. I think after she sang the her song live in I said, that's why I want to go. Yes, you're asleep.

[36:40] Kerry Butler: Anyway, well, I hope people come see you in old friends. Thank you so much for being on the show. Tell everybody if you want to plug anything. Can they follow you on social media?

[36:53] Beth Leavel: You know, I'm not good at the social media, but if you need me I have a dear person who runs a website in speth level.net. I believe I know it's so stupid. She sends me messages and stuff. I'm just intimidated by the world of social media because you know, it's not really in my DNA, but anywho and come see old friends particularly if you know Sondheim, but even if you don't Sondheim because his music can change your life.

[37:22] Beth Leavel: Yeah, it truly it definitely teaches you so much about this art form.

[37:27] Kerry Butler: Exactly. Exactly says the uber talented care. Thank you so much for being with us Beth level.

[37:35] Kerry Butler: Thank you so much for listening. If you would like me to come to your school or theater group and give a master class or a talk back, please reach out at kerrybutlercoach.com.

[37:55] Kerry Butler: If you like this podcast subscribe and leave a rating and in the comments, let me know what topics you want me to cover. You're listening to the Broadway Podcast Network.