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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, aka me, my friends, and family. Today, my guest is Bianca Leigh, starring in the incredible Broadway play OH, MARY! written by Cole Escola. OH, MARY! is one of the funniest plays I've ever seen in my life. OH, MARY! is playing at the Lyceum Theater, and tickets are on sale well through the new year. So go check it out. It's really, really funny. We could all use a laugh right now, and it's chock full of them. I could hardly catch my breath seeing this show, and I was so, so grateful to talk to Bianca Leigh about this fabulous play and about her iconic career. So enjoy my conversation with Bianca Leigh.

[1:14] Sarah Goodman: My guest today is iconic. She has appeared in the films Transamerica, Hurricane Bianca, the sequel to Hurricane Bianca from Russia with Hate. On Broadway, she has appeared as a stand-in in the 2018 play The Nap by Richard Bean. In 2011, she performed her one-woman show Busted at the Laurie Beechman Theater. Can't wait to talk about that. She performed in Taylor Mac's The Lily's Revenge and has also performed with The Talking Band Theater Company. Since July of 2024, she has been performing the role of Mary's chaperone in the Cole Escola play OH, MARY! on Broadway, having previously played that part in this show's off-Broadway run. And she's got a BFA in acting from Rutgers University. Please welcome to Good Show, Bianca Leigh. Bianca, thank you so much for being here.

[2:05] Bianca Leigh: Hi, Sarah. Thank you for having me.

[2:11] Sarah Goodman: Thank you so, so much for joining me. OH, MARY is one of the funniest plays I've ever seen in my life. I've been going to the theater since I was a tiny child. I was laughing so hard I could barely catch my breath. I was crying. My best friend was with me. We were losing it. We were falling out. Thank God the show has blackouts because I don't know how I could get through it without the little moment of reprieve because every single thing that happens on that stage is hysterical.

[2:43] Bianca Leigh: Oh, I'm so glad you like it. I love it, love it, love it.

[2:43] Sarah Goodman: So how did you get involved with OH, MARY?

[2:52] Bianca Leigh: Well, in early 2023, I was asked to do a developmental reading of the show taking place in the CAA offices. Okay. And the director, Sam Pinkleton, I've worked with his husband many times, Andrew Russell, who's also a director, and Henry Russell Bergstein, the casting director, whom I've auditioned for many times. So I just assumed that was the connection. And later in the Lortel dressing room, I was telling that to someone. I was telling Hannah, the skirt's understudy, about the connection. And Cole said, no, it was me. And I said, but we'd never met, Cole. We'd never met before. And he said, no, I saw you in Transamerica when I was 18.

[3:39] Bianca Leigh: Wow. And I've followed you along ever since.

[3:43] Sarah Goodman: Oh, wow.

[3:43] Bianca Leigh: Yeah. So I said, what took you so long?

[3:49] Sarah Goodman: Yes. It's 20 years.

[3:53] Bianca Leigh: Oh, my God. I love it.

[3:56] Sarah Goodman: Well, isn't that fantastic? That's really cool.

[3:56] Bianca Leigh: And that's happened to me a couple of times. I got involved with Tales of the City, the musical, because Jeff Witte, the librettist, had seen me in something in the East Village five years before that. So you never know.

[4:17] Bianca Leigh: Yeah. You know, people will see you and they'll keep it in the back of their mind. Right.

[4:20] Sarah Goodman: It has to be the right. Well, you know, projects come and projects go. And hopefully it'll be in the back of the minds of people that can get you the gig. But the right gig has to come along so that someone can say, you know, who'd be perfect for this.

[4:38] Bianca Leigh: Yeah, exactly. You never know who's seeing your work and who's going to remember it.

[4:42] Bianca Leigh: Never know. So if you think you're just auditioning into a void, you kind of are. But you are making connections. People are noticing you and hopefully one day the right role at the right time. And someone will say, whoever, whatever your name is, be perfect.

[5:01] Sarah Goodman: Yeah. Insert name here.

[5:04] Bianca Leigh: Insert your name. That's it.

[5:04] Sarah Goodman: Oh, my gosh. That's so when you were doing the show off Broadway, did you have any inclination that this show was going to be such an enormous smash hit that it would transfer to Broadway, get extended multiple times? It's like truly the hottest ticket in town.

[5:20] Bianca Leigh: It's kind of a hard question to answer. What I did know and what I think we all know was that it was a very special project. It was something very special. And when we first went into the rehearsal rooms at La Mama, you could almost hear a click, like everything clicked into place, almost as if you could hear it out loud. It was the right script, the right star, the right supporting cast, the right director, the right lighting design, the creative team, the management team, even the producers. We adore the producers. And that doesn't happen all the time. So we knew there was something incredibly special. I wanted to work at the Lortel for many, many years. I'd seen lots of great plays there. I'd seen my dear friend Charles Bush there. And the Lortel is an ideal space for queer camp comedy, call it what you will. It is just perfect for that. And the fact that we were thriving there was not a huge surprise.

[6:27] Bianca Leigh: Look, I was nervous. I think everyone was nervous. And I knew people would like it. But when the reviews come in and they're all positive, it's like, whoa.

[6:38] Sarah Goodman: Yeah. Overwhelming.

[6:40] Bianca Leigh: Whoa.

[6:42] Bianca Leigh: Such a huge success. All the reviews have been positive. People can't stop raving about it. People can't get enough of it. It's a phenomenon, for sure.

[6:51] Bianca Leigh: Now, did I know we were transferred to Broadway? We were selling out. People couldn't get a ticket. So if a show is that popular and people want to buy a ticket, but they can't. What are you going to do? What's the logical step? Go to a bigger theater. So I wasn't sure whether it would be Broadway or maybe a larger off-Broadway, maybe something on Theater Row. But that's what I always say. The surprise is when you get the gig. Because there's so many people. Now, in this case, I didn't have to audition. It was a direct offer. But in general, that's the surprise, when you get the job. That we actually did transfer to Broadway was thrilling, surprising, not surprising. Like I said, we knew we were on a train going really fast.

And we knew we could go just about anywhere. But it was thrilling. It was really thrilling. It was a big change. And to say, okay, here's this gay thing, this queer thing, this camp thing. Is it a cult hit? Or can we bring this to Broadway? And I'm really glad that they took the chance and that it paid off, of course.

[8:10] Bianca Leigh: We went back in the rehearsal room for three weeks, I think. We took a break, went back into the rehearsal room. And basically, this is what Sam said. I am paraphrasing. But we want to do the same show. Okay. But we have three weeks of rehearsal. What we don't need is more laughs. So where can we go? Deeper. Because now we have a little more time. We've done over 100 performances of extremely fast pace. There was no air, no air, no air.

[8:42] Sarah Goodman: No, you can hardly breathe. You're laughing so hard.

[8:45] Bianca Leigh: All that work and all this performance, we'd earned a couple moments. Because the whole thing is, you don't want to act in the pause. You want to act on the line. Because actors, we love to go, what do you mean by that? It's like, no, just say, what do you mean by that?

[9:05] Sarah Goodman: Yeah. I mean, how many times do we get that?

[9:05] Bianca Leigh: No. We got a few moments where our characters could really take something in. And the idea is, we're not going to go sillier. We're going to go deeper. We're going to deepen the relationships. We're going to raise the stakes. And I said, oh, and I said, oh, so you want me to ask this thing? One, I just wanted to have fun and make stupid faces.

[9:36] Bianca Leigh: We're acting now. Now we're acting.

[9:39] Sarah Goodman: Oh, we're acting.

[9:39] Bianca Leigh: We're going to Broadway. Now you have to act.

[9:42] Sarah Goodman: Yeah. But it was almost like we have the time. This is what we can do to make it better.

[9:49] Bianca Leigh: Yeah. Not funnier, because like you said, it is nonstop. And in a sense, it kind of dovetailed with the work that I've been doing all these years was my artistic goal is to do highly theatrical characters, fully realized. And that's what I've tried to do this whole time. And they said, oh, this is kind of like Hurricane Bianca. And in Hurricane Bianca, my character did have some laugh lines and she was funny and she had a funny accent, but her purpose was to ground. So she had her, it was the B story. And it was this estrangement from, did you see the movie?

[10:31] Sarah Goodman: I've seen it. It's wonderful. I haven't seen the sequel for Pressure with Hate. I have to put that on my queue.

[10:36] Bianca Leigh: You don't have to, because it's just a cameo.

[10:38] Sarah Goodman: Okay. Then not worth it.

[10:40] Bianca Leigh: You should say, no, no, you must see the sequel. It's so brilliant. Even without me. She has a funny voice and she does silly things. And I said, this is perfect. Because you already had Bianca Del Rio. You already had Shangela and Willem. So this was to give it a little, a few minor chords. So I was like, oh, so that's what I'm going to be doing in this show.

[11:08] Sarah Goodman: Yeah. You are kind of the grounding because everyone in O'Mary is completely unhinged, but the chaperone Louise is sort of normal, like sort of a more regular person. Everyone else is kind of like loose cannons all over the place. What is it like being in that kind of environment? Is it hard to not break? I mean, obviously as a professional, you know how to be in the character, but I can imagine that sometimes they do stuff where you're just like, what was that? Is it hard to keep it together?

[11:25] Bianca Leigh: People are paying a lot of money for these tickets. So I do not take it lightly. It's not the Carol Burnett show. Although it's close. It does feel kind of like a throwback to that style, for sure. Yes. And just like Carol Burnett, Cole intentionally cast four people that were really strong and had the confidence and the grace to say, if we cast really good people, it'll lift the whole project up. We'll all rise together. And not every actor can do that. Not every star can do that. Not every playwright will do that. You know, I've had people say, I won't be on stage next to you, bitch. You take too much focus.

[12:27] Bianca Leigh: When I did the New York Magazine interview, they had called Cole, unbeknownst to me, and Cole said something, oh, she has, you know, royal regal manner, whatever, you know, like Judith Anderson, something really lovely about presence, hauteur, and saying, when she's on stage, you can't take your eyes off of her. And I was like, wow, because they had seen me in The Lily's Revenge, and I didn't know they had seen The Lily's Revenge, and I was like, wow.

[12:59] Bianca Leigh: So that even says more about the confidence and the grace of Cole putting together this ensemble, to say, I've cast four notorious things. Yes, absolutely. I don't think there's anyone in this business could upstage Cole Escola. So in that sense, it is like the Carol Burnett show. To get back to your question, I have laughed, and it's not something I've done often, but, and it's usually Cole, and they're not trying to make me laugh. They're just acting.

[13:34] Bianca Leigh: And there's been a couple times where I started to laugh, and I'm like, I thought they were laughing too, like I felt we were both start like cracking up a little bit. No, no, I've never seen, I've never seen Cole crack up.

[13:46] Sarah Goodman: You've never seen Cole break? Wow.

[13:46] Bianca Leigh: Never. Wow. Which is interesting because offstage, Cole has a great sense of humor and loves laughing at other people's stories and jokes. And that's one of my favorite things. Offstage, I'll make these snappy little remarks, and then, you know, Cole just loves to laugh, and it's so great. But onstage, no, not at all.

[14:16] Bianca Leigh: It's usually the energy, and then something silly would just hit me a funny way. But the good news is I've been able to catch myself. When I was younger, they'd fall apart. I would fall, I would completely fall apart, you know. Like the other night, there was this whole thing with the president's desk and the drawer, and unbeknownst to me, the drawer had broken.

[14:51] Bianca Leigh: And I go to get the medicine which is in the bottom drawer and I can't get it because it's covered. Oh, no, and I just I don't know how I got that medicine, but I just thought it was the funniest thing this drawer hanging this broken drawer gosh. It's like having this literally, literally unhinged so I became unhinged like the drawer and I started to giggle and Conrad started to giggle and thank God the audience was they enjoyed it and I snapped out of it. You know, yeah, nobody stood up and said I paid for Patti LuPone got up and caused a scene. How dare same character. Oh my gosh, that's amazing. Yeah, so and then I said, okay girl, so then you'd get it together and I was able to snap it. It's happened a couple times, yeah, you know and then every once in a while because you know the thing with a needlepoint and Mary starts mock imitating me.

Mary is your character. It is wild. Mary is so cruel. There is which is interesting because you asked about the changes of one of the changes was downtown in an earlier script, it specified that I'm the president's cousin. Okay, and I've been brought in and I'm trying to teach her needlepoint and painting and all these proper activities for a 19th century lady, and of course, she's horrible to me and it's funny and it leads up to some betrayals which is also hilarious.

[16:40] Bianca Leigh: So downtown it was I tend to play characters with a lot more energy and a lot more but you know more sophisticated more worldly. Louise 1.0 is sort of like okay. Was she? Was she being me? Does she mean that? No, no, no, no. No, wait a minute. No, I don't know, you know, you know, there was this sense of is she isn't she isn't until to me Louise 2.0. She doesn't just like the first lady. She thinks Mary hung the moon. She just thinks Mary is she worships the ground Mary walks on it would be as if someone said well, what if you got hired to work with Michelle Obama? Hmm. Wouldn't you be just like a fangirl worse? And I said, you know, that's right. I would just be a total fangirl everything. She said everything she wore everything.

She just what would you what should this Obama? So it's that way she just she just adores Mary she thinks Mary's the best she thinks them she has a big old girl crush on Mary. She just wants Mary to stay over and they'll stay up and they'll braid each other's hair and make s'mores and talk about boys and that's not those are not Mary's intentions at all. Louise 2.0. She has no sophistication. She's no street smarts. She believes I think a rigid because in the script all it says that she's a nervous woman which is easy for me to do but doesn't say dowdy it doesn't say spinster and originally a lot of people would describe her. She's uptight. She's a prude. She's she's not no, I mean not to me.

She's not any of those and I think what we found in the Broadway version is she is bringing this exemplary 19th century womanhood to the wife. She's this innocent soul. She believes in the goodness of all people. Yeah, and to be funny and to be this highly theatrical character who never stops moving and it's floating around and happy as a clam and until she's not it's very satisfying as an actor just to say yeah, I did it. I went there. We gave him something.

[19:14] Sarah Goodman: Oh yeah, you know, yeah, absolutely. And I mean I the audiences walk away so happy. I think that's another thing that's really important right now, especially you know, the world is a little bleak. We're in some crazy times, especially politically. So it's so healing for people to go in and have this fun and funny experience that's also so real and be able to just laugh and feel related to you know as madcap and unhinged as it is. The characters are all very relatable. They're all dealing with very human issues and wants and needs that we all can experience in our own lives. So I think that's one of the really cool things about this show is that even though it is so radically representing queer relationships queer actors a really unique casting diversity and casting it's so universal and it just really hits everyone right in their heart and in the funny bone.

[20:16] Bianca Leigh: Yeah. Yeah speaking of queer, you know who loves Louise and Mary? The lesbian. Well, yes case in point right here. Oh yeah. Yeah, I've had several several lesbian sisters come up to me and say there's unresolved lesbian sexual tension between Mary and Louie. Absolutely, and I was like really they're like, oh yeah, oh yeah, oh yeah, there's a like oh no, no, no, no there isn't and I thought about it and Louise would not even know that women did things like that. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Yes, she could she could understand women living together becoming compared to your companions and holding hands. I don't even know she would know that two men can do that. I don't know what she knows. I know but I joke that you know because they said oh she's not with the president I go, I think she's in love with the president and I think she's a little in love with Mary.

She's probably a little in love with I think she's just loves everyone and I joked with Sam I said, I think Louisa's proto Polly. Yeah, you know I think she's like like she's feeling this vibe with the president's feeling the vibe with Mary. Yeah, let's just get a molecule going, you know in the White House. She's just like she wants to she just wants to be in there and she wants to love and be loved. So, you know a lot of lesbians are like, yes. Yes. Yeah, there's definitely a dom sub thing going on. Yes, and I'm like, that's great because there is a lot of homoeroticism. Yes, so we want our lesbian sisters to have something to identify with and to feel and root for you know.

[22:13] Sarah Goodman: We'll be right back after this break.

[22:16] Bianca Leigh: And we're back with more Bianca Lee. Cole is definitely the best scene partner I've ever had but to be fair. I haven't gone through such an experience. You know, I mean we've done the show including up and off for you often often on Broadway. We did a well over 200 times probably 250. Yeah, so so those scenes are like hold and carved got layers and timing that you could only get from doing it many many many times. But it is thrilling to be out there with such a great actor and you're out there there's 900 people and all you have is each other and you're locked in love it and it's like, you know in the beginning I was kept trying to do this sort of 19th century three-quarter sort of presentation because you know like Oh Mary what is happening? You know, but that that didn't really mean all the best scenes when the actors are just completely engaged with each other.

[23:29] Bianca Leigh: So very little goes out some things have to go up but very little goes out. The most important person in the room is your scene partner. Mm-hmm, and I'd say yeah, yeah, I connect with a broomstick and I have but no, they were right they were right it really it's like I just think it's like a trapeze. Mm-hmm. It's like and you're like, go ahead jump. Yeah, I've got you now. I'm not trying to make it into a bigger thing than it is, but but you do have to feel safe and feel able to be vulnerable with your scene partner and exposed and you do have to have a lot of trust in them. I think yeah, they're your partner and I take it very seriously and I have to do a lot of setups. Mm-hmm which my friend Jason Veazey who was in a strange loop and also like yes, and also in murders in the building finally saw it loved it and said lovely things and said you are a great straight man to Cole and even a couple months ago I would have been like I am NOT a straight.

I'm not a straight. Well, not a straight man, but and yes, and the comedic turn I am NOT a straight man. I've said it many times to the director the stage manager, but I'm not a straight man. I'm a conic. If you wanted a straight man, why would you hire me? I'm a conic. Laughter's my oxygen like I was like, I knew there were setups. I would have to yeah, but I also knew that Cole has written wonderful moments funny moments for each of us. Absolutely.

[25:12] Bianca Leigh: So it certainly wasn't a straight man in the classic sense. We didn't get any laughs at all over time, you know, and then we just the work just became so much more specific and so much more rewarding and through the trust between you know between Cole and I and trusting Sam and I have my funny moments, but I finally was like, okay, I'm I'm a straight man. Okay for now, you know, I'll never listen. I thought I get my laughs. I find my laughs. Absolutely. I may not have the written punchline, but honey that facial expression that double-take. Yeah, I've yeah, baby. So is that you're the only one I know who can actually act through a burlap sack I said that can't stop me. I mean I may have a paragraph that's three or four sentences I have to I have to set it up well, I have to be quick.

I can't take too much time I have to be so cognizant even when it's not the punchline. It'd be so cognizant you know, it's like our country's at war thousands of being ravaged by typhoid you're on Sun Paris just last year like it has to come out like that so Cole can say, you know, stop trying to cheer me up or whatever it's like don't make me laugh right now or something like that. Stop trying to make me laugh you know, I should know the exact line but it's like all the way that mom amazing. Don't try to make me laugh when you set it up right and you toss the softball and Cole hits it out of the park. You do kind of feel like it's both of your laughs. Absolutely. It is. Yeah, because without the setup the answer is not funny, you know if if you were to say something else saying oh, don't try to make me laugh isn't funny.

It's it's funny because of the dissonance there and you're sincere your character. Yes airity and then Mary's just absolute bonkers outlook. Yes, exactly. So, oh don't try to make me laugh gets a great reaction.

[27:30] Sarah Goodman: I'm happy for well, and I'm happy for myself because I did my job. We'll be right back and we're back with more good show so Elysian Fields is we're gonna do it as a 29 hour reading in a couple weeks. I was asked to do it and I was thrilled and there's one of the best things about being in show like Oh Mary is it generates interest. Yeah, that's what you want you know this whole business about being a known commodity. So he said oh there's this there's this musical and it's about Abraham Lincoln and what's not about it? But Abraham Lincoln is in it and I said, oh, okay. So now everything every project is gonna involve Abraham Lincoln. It's so funny it's actually really wonderful. It's a musical comedy and it is I hope I say this right but this is what I've gleaned from the script when I read it and I've been working on the music a gay male couple today, they're getting married and then it flashes back it's Abraham Lincoln and his roommate that we've heard so much about.

Mm-hmm. And you see here we are. They're gay you're getting married sharing everything with a family. They're public back here they're in love there's nothing they could do. There's no real gay male identity per se. There's homosexual sex, but you're still expected to get married and and have kids and all this other thing like can you live up there? You can't live up for me as a gay male couple so then they have that and so the contrast is is great you know because we do forget how far we've come. Yeah, that's true. There are two mothers mother mother-in-law of the bridegrooms and or you just say grooms, I guess I don't know whatever and my lady is a country-western so I just ping-pong back and forth between these highfalutin highfalutin, you know lady lady ladies to you know, these country gals. It's really funny. She's a country-western.

[29:42] Bianca Leigh: I get to sing a couple bluegrass songs, and the other mother-in-law is from New York. She's a New Yorker, and they do not get along. Oh, okay, some frenemies vibes. Part of the conceit is that the New Yorker is making all sorts of assumptions about the gal from Kentucky. She must be MAGA. She must be a bigot. She must, you know, be anti-abortion and all this other thing. At some point, it's like, what are you talking about? I'm blue, blue. I don't know if it's a lie. It's not a lie, but it's like, you know, it's like my son's gay. I'm at his wit's, you know, and I'm pro-choice. What the hell? You hear my accent, which this is not actually the accent I'm going to do. It sounds terrible, but it's like, what are you talking about?

You just heard this accent. You just assumed I was this hateful, you know. There are hateful MAGA people on Long Island. There are liberals everywhere. There are conservatives everywhere. What a cool story. I'm really looking forward to it. That sounds really fun, and just also so funny and random that there's two gay Abe Lincoln things circling your universe right now, and also at this time where the election's coming up. That must be interesting. Do you all have a show the night of the election, or no?

[31:00] Bianca Leigh: We're off. We are off on Tuesdays a lot. The classic Broadway schedule is not like it used to be, you know, so there are a lot of shows that have shows on Monday. We've had shows on Monday. Monday audiences are actually really great.

[31:18] Sarah Goodman: Yeah, because traditionally it's our Tuesday, right? When we have has like off on Sunday, and we do Monday, Monday's audiences are great.

[31:27] Bianca Leigh: That's great. And then Tuesday comes back. But that's the thing with the comedy. You have to learn you're not always going to get all the bold laughs, and you've got to deal with it, you know. Yes, when the audience is more rambunctious and you hear more laughter, it becomes relatively effortless.

[31:43] Sarah Goodman: Yeah, they're feeding you. They're feeding you that energy back.

[31:46] Bianca Leigh: They're feeding you. You're putting it out there, yeah. But sometimes they're quiet. We haven't had anything in a row. We had one night where they were really quiet. And I got off stage, and I haven't felt that way in years, but they were really quiet one night. It was early in the week. And I thought, oh, God, you know, there was like six people, six friends were there. And I thought, I cannot face them. I can't face them. I have to go on a back door.

[32:09] Sarah Goodman: Oh, gosh.

[32:10] Bianca Leigh: Of course I did. I said, grow up. And that was the night Kristen Chenoweth was there.

[32:15] Sarah Goodman: Oh, my gosh.

[32:17] Bianca Leigh: And she loved it.

[32:18] Sarah Goodman: You're like, girl, were you laughing?

[32:19] Bianca Leigh: And she loved the show. She knew what everyone was doing. She was so validating and so sweet and so quiet. You know when it's not, it wasn't one of those, oh, it looked like you were having fun out there.

[32:37] Sarah Goodman: Right. My mom always used to say, you were on that stage. It was a show. You were up there. You were on that stage.

[32:44] Bianca Leigh: Or my favorite, you were fine. Fine. I'd rather you tell me I sucked.

[32:55] Sarah Goodman: Oh, my gosh.

[32:56] Bianca Leigh: But yeah, so I will always, we've met a lot of wonderful people, but that was a rough night. And I was just, and that, you know, that happens every few, it just doesn't happen that often anymore. I just was like, what am I doing? Get me out of this business. You know, I sucked. And there was Kristin Jenner with Ed. I will be forever grateful. She knew exactly what we're doing. She loves Louise. She loved everything Louise was doing. And when you hear that, like, oh, you saw me, you saw, you know, and, you know, and she was like, I love your facial expressions.

[33:33] Sarah Goodman: Yeah.

[33:34] Bianca Leigh: I said, well, sometimes they'll say, you know, cut that. She was like, don't. You have a gorgeous face and huge, beautiful eyes. And they really like.

[33:43] Sarah Goodman: Thank you.

[33:44] Bianca Leigh: Pierce everyone in the audience. They're gorgeous. It's such a delight. Thank you so much. And I love it. And I love, you know, and I just love everyone I work with. And I want to go the rest of my life. But, you know, life goes on. And hopefully I can get involved in some of the other future projects that they are sure to get. They are sure to get, you know, and will create. I mean, what I love about who calls calls out sitting around saying, what are you going to throw my way? What scraps are you going to throw my way? You know, like.

[34:24] Sarah Goodman: No, they're going to create their own opportunity. Yes.

[34:29] Bianca Leigh: They're going to make their own offers. They're not going to sit around and just. I think that's phenomenal. And it's inspiring. And then, of course, Conrad, you know, we don't have a lot to do, but we've carved out little moments between Louise and the president and even Louise and Bill. We are so lucky. We are so so there's not a day that goes by where I don't go. Oh, my God, I cannot believe this is my life. I can't believe this happened to me. I can't believe like this is my life. This is what I wanted all these years. And trans trans people were shut out of the commercial, the higher profile parts of the business, film, television and certainly Broadway for so many years. And then it started to open up.

And then all the young kids, the young were running back. Wait a minute. I've been out here waiting. And so to have the opportunity to make my mark. It's never too late, but to make my mark before it's too late. I'm so lucky and so thankful to, you know, obviously producers and Sam and Henry, and especially Cole, because it's changed my life. It's changed. Absolutely changed my life. It's saved my life. You know, so I'd like to do this for the next 20 years. And if not, you know, if I got hit by a bus tomorrow, they're going to have to put Broadway actress and maybe Tony. We'll see how all that shakes out.

[36:05] Sarah Goodman: But I think it's in the stars for all of you in that show, because it is just incredible.

[36:10] Bianca Leigh: It's really fun. Yes, yes, yes. It's so funny. You know, the old adage, it's an honor just to be nominated. And of course, you think that's bullshit. But oh, no, I'm sending the vibes out. We're sending out the vibes.

[36:25] Sarah Goodman: You know, you'll be glad, you know, and if not, if not, you know what I mean? I'm not scrubbing floors. I have nothing against scrubbing floors, because I have scrubbed floors. I've been a chambermaid. I've done it all. But I'm at the point where it's time to do this.

[36:41] Bianca Leigh: That's really wonderful. And I'm so excited for you that you get to have this moment that you get to be starring on Broadway and such an amazing show that's so positive, bringing queer people to the stage and bringing queer people to the audience and making them relatable and making it a story that literally any person I think could enjoy. Every single person in that theater was moved and laughing and enjoying themselves. And it really just warms my heart, not only to be in just a show that is a comedy, but something that really I think is really uplifting the community and like opening doors for people in the future.

[37:20] Bianca Leigh: I think it is. And I just want to address this for a second. What's interesting is they're not calling it a camp comedy or a queer comedy at this point. It's a comedy. Now, don't get me wrong. I mean, we are very aware of the lineage of this type of theater and downtown at the Lortel when Charles Bush came, called it a curtain speech and introduced Charles Bush, you know, the mother of us all. But there is also something significant that we did break that glass ceiling. And now the way they refer to it is just as that hit. They don't use the word camp. They are those things, but that's not the only thing. And a lot of media outlets in the very beginning, and certainly on the red carpet, are people going to be shocked?

Are they going to not like this? And again, it was like, no, because this Broadway has always had adult comedy. Has it always been this much about our people? No. But times have changed so much. Times have changed so much that we have people from all over the world coming to the show, lots of tourists, lots of upstreet people. And it's not shocking. It just is what it is.

[39:01] Sarah Goodman: Right. It's just funny and rooted in things that are super relatable. So it's not a niche comedy. It's a universal comedy. It's a hilarious show that anyone of any walk of life can see and relate to and laugh. RuPaul came the other day and I said to RuPaul, you're part of the reason we're on Broadway. And he said, really? And I said, listen, theater where the leading character is a female character played by a male-bodied person, a gay non-binary person, that kind of went out of fashion. It was viewed slightly askance. Is that misogynistic to have a male actor playing a female character? It wasn't in fashion. It wasn't in vogue because I think a lot of people were saying men or male-bodied people or non-binary people identified males at birth.

Playing a female character is a form of woman's face or something like that. But the generation, time moves on and there's a new generation. And because of RuPaul, there's two generations now. They love drag no matter who is doing it. They love men in drag. They love women in drag. They love trans men in drag. There is no sense of this is offensive, this is misogynistic. Especially when you get someone like Cole, you just plop a wig on their head. There's no commenting on Mary's womanhood. It's Mary's character. They're so dropped in that you don't even think about it. They are Mary. You do not even think, oh, that's a Cole with a wig on. They're Mary.

[40:56] Bianca Leigh: No. And even in the old days when it was someone like Charles Ludlum playing Camille with his big, hairy chest, you did forget after a while and that was part of the magic. But immediately, because Cole is a non-binary person. It's Mary. It's Mary. And you're like, she's angry. She's frustrated. She's abusive. She's horrible. She's hilarious. She's lovable. I thank RuPaul for that. There's just millions of people out there that love all kinds of gender expression, gender bending, gender genres. I'm just making shit up at this point, but thank you, Ru.

[41:38] Sarah Goodman: I love that. I love that. That's so sweet. And I love that RuPaul saw the show because it's a fabulous show and everyone should see it. I will not keep you another minute more because I've already taken so much of your day. Thank you so much, Bianca, for joining me.

[41:50] Bianca Leigh: My pleasure.

[41:52] Sarah Goodman: Wow. Thank you again to Bianca Leigh for a really fun interview. So it's just about that time, everybody's favorite segment, How Queer Is It, where I'm going to rate Oh, Mary on the Good Show Queer scale. So let's revisit what all of the different levels of the scale are. So from lowest low-key queer, we're going to start with Pete Buttigieg. That is the level of queer that's very low-key. If you didn't know, you wouldn't know. Next step up from that is going to be Fruity. Pretty self-explanatory. I'd say most musical theater is Fruity at the least, okay? This is a play, but it's still got musical theater vibes. If you know, you know. Third category going up the scale is Love Is Love. That's sort of a basic, palatable, easygoing amount of queerness.

Then next we've got Hella Gay. A lot of the shows that Good Show has previously reviewed have fallen into this category, especially while we were doing our queer series. And the last category, the most queer, is Queer As Fuck, which I'm thinking about changing to queer as in fuck you or queer as in fuck fascism. What do y'all think? So let's see. Oh, Mary, I think, is hella gay. I think it's got some really amazing gay representation in the cast. It's got some hilarious gay storylines. It's not quite queer as in fuck fascism, but it's hella gay. And it's a great, great night at the theater. If you want to laugh your ass off and you're in New York City, go to the Lyceum and see Oh, Mary. And make sure that you get there a little early so that you can sit in the house and hear the pre-show playlist, which is phenomenal, by the way.

I really need to find out who created that playlist and how I can get my hands on it. It had Ethel Merman Disco. It had Barbara Streisand. It had everything a gay girl could ask for and more. So go see Oh, Mary at the Lyceum Theater. I think it's definitely a good show.

[43:58] Sarah Goodman: Thanks for listening to Good Show. Please subscribe and follow Good Show on Instagram and TikTok at Good Show Podcast and become part of my showbiz chosen family. You can find Good Show on the Broadway Podcast Network at bpn.fm slash good show and everywhere podcasts are available.