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[0:00] Sarah Goodman: Hi, I'm Sarah. I'm a sound designer and professional lesbian theater geek. I'm a huge fan of all things theater, Broadway, cabaret, and pop culture. I've got tattoos of Bernadette Peters and Liza Minnelli. In my podcast, I'm looking at theater through a queer lens and discussing the intersection between the craft and the LGBTQ+ community, a.k.a. me, my friends, and family. Join me in conversation with theater professionals, actors, creatives, and designers. Welcome back, good show listeners. Today's guest is the fabulous Julia Lester. Julia Lester's been on Broadway as Little Red in the 2022 revival of Into the Woods, in some off-Broadway and regional productions such as Queens, All Nighter, I Can Get It For You Wholesale, and The Secret Garden, and TV and film projects like The Four Seasons, High School Musical: The Musical: The Series, Prom Dates, and Mom. Julia is fantastic. Love her, love her. I've seen her in Queens and All Nighter and Into the Woods, all fabulous performances. And today we're going to talk about HUNGRY WOMEN, the new off-Broadway play at SoHo Playhouse. Let's get into it. Welcome to Good Show, Julia Lester.

[1:27] Julia Lester: Hi, thank you so much for having me.

[1:30] Sarah Goodman: Thanks for being with me. I'm so excited to chat with you about the play that you're working on called HUNGRY WOMEN.

[1:36] Julia Lester: Yes.

[1:37] Sarah Goodman: You were just telling me before I hit record that you're on day 10 of rehearsals and you've already done a full run-through, which is wild.

[1:43] Julia Lester: Yeah, that's right.

[1:44] Sarah Goodman: Tell the listeners a little bit about the play.

[1:49] Julia Lester: HUNGRY WOMEN is happening at SoHo Playhouse. We start previews July 23rd. It's the world premiere of a story of what would happen in a world where men don't exist anymore. And we take you over the course of 200 years through a journey of women who have rebuilt society and where that goes and complications that arise and things that come with new societies and people rising to positions of power. And it is told through a feminist lens, but I think that it's going to be really interesting for a large and wide audience of people to find how much they relate to it when they really see the show. Because it tells a much larger story about our world and us as people, but it's told through a really cool queer feminist lens. And I've just been having an amazing time working on this show.

[2:46] Sarah Goodman: Oh, that's so cool. So it takes place over 200 years?

[2:49] Julia Lester: Yeah. So we start the show in 1890. The show is 90 minutes, no intermission, but the story is told in three parts. So we start off in 1890, where the men have all gone extinct in the world. And then part two takes place 100 years later, and part three is 100 years after that.

[3:09] Sarah Goodman: Wow, that's amazing. So are all the actors playing multiple parts, I assume?

[3:13] Julia Lester: Yeah, I love the way that this Melissa Maney, who is the playwright of this incredible show, is just like a genius through and through. And I think that the way that she's constructed this show and the characters and the way that they all tie into each other while also being so different is so genius. So technically, there's four of us, four women in the show, and each of our tracks, we have a letter assigned to us. So my track in the show is called R. So in each part, I play a character with the name R that resembles the time period that we're portraying.

[3:46] Sarah Goodman: Oh, fun. That sounds incredible. So you get to kind of dive into multiple people.

[3:52] Julia Lester: Yes. And they're all so well developed and written so differently. And it's like, I was just talking about this with my castmates today, like, it's such an actor's dream to get to do one cohesive show and show so much range and have so much fun playing all these different styles and time periods. Even a time period that we haven't experienced yet, which is really cool. So yeah, that's been really fun to sink my teeth into as an actor in the show, for sure.

[4:23] Sarah Goodman: Do you have a favorite of the three characters that you can tell me a little bit about? I don't want to spoil too much about the play.

[4:29] Julia Lester: Yeah. I definitely want to tiptoe around what I say, because honestly, this show is so fun to go in blind to. It's nice to have the synopsis. I gave a pretty general synopsis, but it really is like things happen that you really don't expect. And I was saying this very early on in the rehearsal process that the only reason I would not have wanted to do this show from the get was so that I could be in the audience for it.

[4:57] Sarah Goodman: Oh, wow. That's a real big compliment to the piece.

[5:01] Julia Lester: Yeah. I mean, it's so exciting and thrilling and there's twists and turns. And it's definitely my kind of theater. I think that I would latch onto the show and be obsessed with it if I was able to attend and be in the audience. But I was saying, yeah, that would be the only reason why I wouldn't want to actively be in it. But obviously, being in it is the best part. But yeah, I mean, I don't know if I could pick a favorite over the three, but I definitely get to show a range of a lot of different dynamics and levels of power in the way that I carry myself. It's been really fun to discover as an actor and have such great material to go off of.

[5:35] Sarah Goodman: Yeah. And actually, it's funny that you talk about sort of the range of it all, because the things that I've seen you in in the theater have been Into the Woods, All Nighter, and Queens. And the characters you played in those shows are vastly, vastly different.

[5:49] Julia Lester: Thank you so much. Thank you.

[5:51] Sarah Goodman: Loved your performances in all of them. I would love to hear sort of how you approach a musical differently than you would a play or film or TV and kind of what's been your experience and sort of like bouncing around in between those two worlds. You sort of lived a lot of your life in L.A. and then now in New York. So like talk to me a little bit about that and like doing so many different styles of acting.

[6:10] Julia Lester: Yeah. Thank you so much. I yeah, it's I feel like this I have a pretty like consistent first thing that I jump to when I'm starting any new project. So whether it's TV film or a musical or a play is I and this is not an original thought in the slightest. This is a very like common, not like big brain thought. But like I'm very I'm a big like devotee to the text. I think that's like very theater of me. That's just like, you know, the culture. Yeah. So yeah, not a big brain idea, but like truly starting with the words on the page is my favorite way to like unlock this new world that I'm diving into and these new people that I'm playing. And I just have such a big I just have a huge respect for writers. It does help that I am engaged to one. So like I see the process and I like, you know, see how amazing she is and what she does. But like, I just have a huge, huge appreciation and love for the writers and like, yeah, I don't know if like it's being given good text that like gives you a lot of hints and clues to like, what you should work into the show and what you should be, you know, tonally where you're supposed to be going is like such a gift to receive. It's almost like a little like treasure map roadmap of like, what you're gonna do in whatever project you're taking on. So yeah, I'm a big like script person.

[7:54] Sarah Goodman: That's cool. And I love that you brought up your fiancé because I was going to ask and say congratulations on your engagement, which just happened, right?

[7:59] Julia Lester: Thank you so much. Yes. Well, we just we Yeah, we've been engaged for a few months, but we like just did our like little, you know, announcement to the world.

[8:07] Sarah Goodman: Hard launch.

[8:07] Julia Lester: Yeah. Exactly. To the internet. I love that. Tell me a little bit. Can you talk about it? Do you want to talk about it?

[8:14] Julia Lester: Sure. Yeah, I am so I'd love to talk about my darling fiancé. Her name is Lana Wilpert. She's a screenwriter. We met working on High School Musical: The Musical: The Series. So she was a writer on that show while I was acting on it. And from the get, she really resonated with the character that I played on the show. And she sort of became like the voice of my character in a way and somebody who just was like a really authentic voice for who I was playing on the show. And I always felt very like safe when I knew that stories and things about who I was portraying or is coming from her. So we became really good friends during that process. And we fell in love. And it's been like a wonderful journey of being together. And we just got engaged earlier this year. And she's so wonderful and so talented. And I am very lucky.

[9:06] Sarah Goodman: Well, congratulations. That's so sweet. Do you think you'll work together again? Or have you since High School Musical worked together?

[9:13] Julia Lester: I'd love to. Yeah, we would. I mean, we would love to. That would be such a dream. It was so cool getting to like, you know, be have a job and share a job together. But it's really it's so nice, like also being in the same world, but not exactly doing the same exact thing. But having all the understanding and appreciation and respect for each other and what we do. And so it's really nice that like we, you know, can relate to each other on that in that way. It's a nice feeling.

[9:42] Sarah Goodman: Yeah, totally. I can relate. My girlfriend is also in the theater. And so we kind of overlap in a lot of ways. Can I ask what she does?

[9:47] Julia Lester: Yeah, she's an actor. She is a dancer and a singer, a producer. She started a theater company last year called New York Theater Company.

[9:57] Julia Lester: Amazing. She does many things. You know, so many of us are multi-hyphenates.

[10:04] Sarah Goodman: Yeah. Some of them gotta be okay.

[10:04] Julia Lester: Yeah, totally. And I sing too, but I'm mostly a sound designer and sound person.

[10:09] Sarah Goodman: Oh, fantastic. Amazing. That's so cool. It's fun. I like working on it. What's the what's like the soundscape of Hungry Women? Do you have music? Is there sound? Are there sound effects? Are you miked?

[10:26] Julia Lester: It's a small theater, so no mics, which is great because like, you know, just one less thing to worry about. Yeah. In a in a small space, at least. But we're we're still we haven't entered the like the official tech process yet. But there's some definitely some cool music and some really awesome tech elements to look forward to.

[10:45] Sarah Goodman: Yeah. Oh, man. The set for Queens was very, very cool. Let's talk about it. That was incredible. What was the what was working on that play like? That was a really interesting character and kind of like a heavy play.

[10:57] Julia Lester: Yeah, it was really. Yeah, that play. It's hard for me to find the words to describe what that play doing that play felt like. It was such a beautiful experience. The other women in that show are like, truly own a piece of my heart and Martina Myoak and Trip Coleman. And like that, that show, like cracked me wide open in the most amazing way. And I'm still sort of like trying to like bring myself back together after experiencing something so fulfilling. Yeah. But yeah, it was a really beautiful experience and also just a story and a kind of character and a responsibility that I didn't know I was like not capable of, but like I didn't know that that was like something that I could experience as a performer, just because it's awesome to like have a career where things take twists and turns where you don't know what's going to come next or what kind of thing you're going to be doing next or who you're going to be playing next. But that one sort of came around the corner in a way that I wasn't expecting. And it like taught me so much about myself and how much I love what I do and how much respect and appreciation I have for the process and playwrights and human beings in the world.

[12:25] Sarah Goodman: It's really, I'm so glad you got to see it. I think that show when people say that they saw that show out of anything I've done in the city, that one like makes me feel very, very lit up inside. It really means a lot that people were able to experience that. So yeah, I loved that show. I can go on and on about it. So ask me anything you want about it if you have questions.

[12:49] Julia Lester: It was a really cool play for the listeners who don't know. My best way to synopsize it very, very briefly is just that it sort of all takes place in like a basement apartment. And it's all these different women's stories who are kind of they're sort of all coming to America for the first time, right? In various walks of life, of ages, young women, mothers, older women. It's amazing. And you kind of slowly get revealed all of the sort of backstories of everyone. And how they're kind of all like roommates in this space. It was amazing. It was like, yeah, so touching. It was like beautiful and heartbreaking. And at times it was funny, but it was just like, yeah, really cool. Really, really deep.

[13:29] Julia Lester: Thank you. I'm so glad you enjoyed it. But I agree with everything that you said. And I just think Martina Myoak is a singular voice of this generation. And she constructed a play that just ripped me apart from the first read. And there was also so much development that happened even in the process.

[14:05] Sarah Goodman: Really? So the script that we started with wasn't necessarily what we ended with.

[14:11] Julia Lester: Oh, that's exciting. And even that first script was like, wrecked me. I was just like, I never thought something could make me feel this way would come into my hands like this. And so I just wanted to protect it and do it justice. And I think the show was so beautiful. And I was surrounded by insanely talented women. The cast. Unreal. I just want to be every single one of them when I grow up in some way, shape, or form. Yeah, it was spectacular. Those women are just, yeah, everything.

[14:43] Sarah Goodman: Yeah. And there was a very cool set reveal that was very amazing and also very subtle in a way. I don't want to spoil it too much for people who might like, did they film it for Toft? Could people go see it at Toft? I don't know. I don't want to spoil it in case it comes back. It was a cool moment that people should just see if they get to see it. But anywho. I loved that. You loved Queen.

[15:04] Julia Lester: Yeah, the set was like its own. We talked about how the set was its own. There were eight women and one extra character and that was a basement apartment. It was like its own living, breathing character that showed growth and destruction and all the in-betweens from the 17 years of its usage that we get to see on stage. So yeah, it was really cool. Amazing design.

[15:29] Sarah Goodman: All right. So I love to talk about queer representation on stage. Can you recall a moment where you had a moment of representation, recognition, seeing yourself or relating to a character that you would like to talk about?

[15:56] Julia Lester: That's a great question. Or something in the canon that's like, that thing meant something to me. Yeah. I don't know if I've ever really thought about one specifically, but I've always been really, I don't know. I feel like there's also a lot of unspoken queer characters that have always been queer coded. And I definitely grew up watching Nickelodeon and Disney Channel and young adult shows that maybe at the time weren't necessarily openly speaking about representation in that way, but obviously showing characters that were gay, gay, gay, gay. And whether as a kid, I wasn't clocking that or maybe I was or whatever, but any character that's ever been unapologetically themselves and so original, anybody who's had a very specific aesthetic and a look and a big, bold personality, that falls under the umbrella of falling in love with characters that are just so unapologetically themselves, which I think is inherently a part of owning and accepting your queerness is just being just exactly who you are and not giving any fucks about it. Can I curse on here?

[17:17] Sarah Goodman: You can. You can say whatever you want.

[17:17] Julia Lester: Thank you so much. Yeah. Not giving any fucks. So there you go. Yeah. But there's a lot of those that are just like unspoken, but we all know. We got especially Disney characters, like pretty much every Disney villain, but also a lot of the sidekicks, you know?

[17:33] Sarah Goodman: Great. Exactly. There you go. There you go. Honestly, all of them. Everybody's gay.

[17:38] Julia Lester: They're all gay. Pretty much. Yeah. Come on. Get real.

[17:43] Sarah Goodman: Okay. So we have another thing in common that we both come from like theater actor families. Your parents are performers.

[17:50] Julia Lester: Yeah. So tell me more about your family.

[17:57] Julia Lester: My mom and stepdad did regional theater growing up, musicals all the time. Like my stepfather was the artistic director of a theater in the suburbs of Chicago. We lived in the city and he would direct all the shows. There'd be like summer stock season with like three or four shows and then they would do like a play or like one other thing like in the winter. And my mom was often in the show and then also Gary, my stepdad, was in the shows. And so I saw like 45 of the shows that he did out there when I was like, you know, age 7 to 12 or something like that. And they were like retired more once I got into high school and stuff. But like when I was in my younger years, they were always performing.

[18:38] Sarah Goodman: And so was my best friend's mom. Like she also worked at the same theater.

[18:42] Julia Lester: That's amazing. Yeah. It's like I mean, I grew up not knowing that it is like such a rare privilege like that. Get to grow up with like artist parents or performer parents. But obviously, as I got older, I realized, oh, not everybody's parents are actors, I guess. But it's really cool that like you're like, this isn't normal. Oh, like, oh, OK. But also like we grew up in L.A. So and like Chicago is like sure, artsy, whatever. So, you know, but I love that we can relate to like seeing our parents in theater growing up. What a cool niche experience to have. Like that's pretty dope. And seeing them on stage just was like normal, just like that's just like what my family does. And now that I like understand that it's like not all families are like that. It's like I have a much and also like doing it myself to have a much deeper appreciation when I see them on stage now too, where I was like that was kind of a little bit normal to me as a kid. And I'm like, holy shit, my parents are actors. That's the coolest thing ever.

[19:35] Julia Lester: Yeah. Especially when they're working actors and they're able to raise kids as actors.

[19:39] Sarah Goodman: There you go. I'm like, how did you do it? But here I am. I'm the youngest. So somehow I made it. Whatever. It just happened. So when did it hit you as a young person that you were like, I want to do that immediately?

[19:53] Julia Lester: Yeah. Yeah. Came out the womb declaring something or other on it. Like, honestly, truly, I think if I can, like think about my like furthest going back the furthest I can possibly in my brain and my pea-sized brain to like the first time I ever felt like an actor or like that I had a deep imagination in some way was like in a little acting class in or like whatever drama reenactment class in preschool. And like at the end of the class, the teacher would put glitter in our hands and we would like make a wish and throw it into the sky. And I just love that person.

[20:41] Sarah Goodman: I love her too. I hope she is doing well out there. Have no idea who she is, but she I mean, she killed it with that with the kids.

[20:46] Julia Lester: That's rad. Yeah, pretty rad. I don't know something about that. Like, I really took that so seriously. I don't know. I feel like that's a pretty it's a pretty good telling if that maybe was like my first time that I was like, this means something. I want this needs to be bigger.

[21:01] Sarah Goodman: Yeah. And what this is.

[21:01] Julia Lester: Yeah. Oh my God. That's so sweet. I'm just I just thought of you as a tiny child throwing glitter in the air and being like crazy. We were all just tiny children at one point. That's scary. Except for Morgan Freeman. He was never a child. I can't picture age that he is. But everybody else was once a child, which is weird. And the only other one is Angela Lansbury, who is no longer with us, but never was a child.

[21:29] Julia Lester: That is a that is also a great one, for sure. For sure. Her too. Yeah. Oh yeah, we were just children at some point. And I wish we could. I wish we could be still. Sometimes. You know what we are? We just gotta like, yeah, you know, onto it, right? The whimsy is the thing I'm trying to really one of my favorite words in the English language.

[21:47] Sarah Goodman: Yes. Easy. Whimsy.

[21:55] Julia Lester: Yeah. With the play Hungry Women, what would you like the audience to walk away with after seeing the play? What's your like goal? What's your thesis for the show without giving too much away?

[22:07] Julia Lester: As an audience member, I love when I get to be like, shocked and on the edge of my seat for a show. So I really hope that people feel that the same way that I do with the story. I mean, I know that they will. The story is just so rad. So I hope that people walk away having had a night of theater where they've been like, and sitting on the edge of their seat, which is like the best kind. And also, like, I think the show is for everyone. And I think everyone is going to take something different away from it. And those feelings might have all different shades of whatever human emotion possible. And if you walk away with complicated feelings, that's correct. That's also right. Yeah, um, yeah, I think it's really cool. If you're watching things on stage that you don't agree with. It's because that's what we're doing. Right? Yeah, we're 10 steps ahead of you. So I'm excited for people to have all kinds of feelings and know that every single one is valid and intentional, which is such good playwriting. So yeah, very cool. I'm so excited to see it.

[23:15] Sarah Goodman: Oh, I can't wait for you to see it. Please let me know when you're there so I can make sure to say hi.

[23:19] Julia Lester: And I will. I will ask and everything. Yeah. Um, all right. The show is called Good Show. What do you think makes a good show?

[23:26] Julia Lester: A good story that people believe in 100% given it all you got teamwork and loving what you do. That's always really honestly the baseline of it. You can really tell when people love what they do when you see them on stage. And there's nothing like seeing somebody love what they do. It's the best feeling and it makes the show like, just magical. So yeah, yeah.

[24:09] Sarah Goodman: Oh, awesome. What do you think is important about theater today?

[24:15] Julia Lester: It kind of my initial instinct with that response is sort of going back to what I was saying about Hungry Women, which is that I think it's so important for us to disagree and have conflict with the things that we're seeing on stage and the art that that is being portrayed. As long as it's not harming anybody, of course, but yeah, I think that good theater makes you question and makes you think about the world in a larger way. And I think it's really, really, really cool that we can paint a bigger picture with art. My high school theater teacher always said the famous quote that, of course, now I'm going to butcher, which is so embarrassing, but like, whatever theater holds up a mirror to real life, it's probably way more elegant than that. But it really is true. It's so cool that we get to tell stories that may be set in totally unrealistic circumstances, but somehow always can relate to our world. And it just makes you think and have a deeper appreciation for people existing on this planet. It's so hard to just be a person in the world. And I love that theater makes people feel seen. So yeah, I think it's important for that, all those reasons.

[25:34] Sarah Goodman: Yeah, connection. I love that. And also, yeah, the questioning I think is so good. I love to be entertained. I really love musicals and I love fun and the sparkly, goofy stuff. All of that is so important to love a big, fun musical and also love a play that makes you go, I have to think about this for a while. Yeah. Or even sometimes a play that makes you kind of mad because then you're like, why am I mad about that? I think you have to really start thinking about it. If you're feeling anything, the play did its job. It doesn't matter what it is. If you feel, if you're having tangible thoughts and feelings, we did our job.

[26:16] Julia Lester: So yeah. It's so cool. And it's all pretend.

[26:19] Sarah Goodman: Yeah, exactly. Literally, it's all pretend. I love it. I love it. Amazing. This has been such a delight. Thank you so much, Julia, for spending a little bit of your time with me, especially while you're in rehearsal. I know that's a lot going on.

[26:32] Julia Lester: It's a pleasure. Thank you. It's such sweet and insightful questions. And best of luck with you and your girlfriend and everything you guys have going on. And please let me know when you're at the show so I can make sure to say hello.

[26:41] Sarah Goodman: Yeah, I will. I will. It's so super fun. Thanks. Let my listeners know where they can keep track of you. Where can they find you?

[26:50] Julia Lester: Besides at Hungry Women at Soho Playhouse, you can keep track of me on Instagram mostly at Julia Lester. I'm also on TikTok a little bit promoting the show at JuJuTheFirst. But yeah, please come see Hungry Women. Come to opening weekend if you can. We're encouraging people to come to the first few performances. And then you'll love it so much that you'll want to come back and see the growth and the journey of the show, which is really cool. But yeah, I basically live at Soho Playhouse until August 30th. So you can also find me there on stage at Hungry Women.

[27:25] Sarah Goodman: Yay. Awesome.

[27:33] Sarah Goodman: Thank you for listening to my podcast, Good Show. Check out more episodes of Good Show at bpn.fm/goodshow or follow me on Instagram at goodshowpod or my personal account at soundsgoodsarahg. This show is recorded, edited, and hosted by yours truly, Sarah Goodman. Thanks, everybody, for listening. Love you lots. Be gay. Do crime. Ice out. Peace out.