This transcript was automatically generated and might contain errors.

[0:00] Quincy Brown: Oh, I wish I had like a little song that I could sing to start this off that was like Welcome Back themed. Yeah. The Boys Are Back feels overdone at this point.

[0:09] Kevin Bianchi: Yeah, but we could do The Boys Are Back in Town. I got one.

[0:14] Quincy Brown: I know I've kept you waiting. Oh my god. I know I made you mad. But this time that we spent creating is the best time I've ever had.

[0:35] Quincy Brown: My name's Quincy.

[0:36] Kevin Bianchi: My name's Kevin.

[0:37] Quincy Brown: And this is Sentimental Men. But keep your thumb away from that skip button because we're here to talk and maybe scream about our favorite women in musical theater. Cut Print Moving On is the only moment in the Smash catalog that makes me go, Okay, Catherine McPhee. It's that and it's Public Relations.

[1:00] Kevin Bianchi: I relate to men of so many nations, but public relations, I'm a favorite guy. She sings. But sometimes you have to roam. Oh, it's so good. The placement, it sounds so healthy. And I'm like, Okay, she was warm this day.

[1:14] Quincy Brown: I'm a big Catherine McPhee apologist when it comes to her particular portrayal of Karen Cartwright on Smash the TV show. I'm a big Karen Cartwright apologist, maybe.

[1:34] Kevin Bianchi: Sure. Anyways, welcome back to Sentimental Men, the Wicked Podcast. The first episode of this new era. So exciting.

[1:40] Quincy Brown: I know. New era. I think the guest that we have on deck for this first episode back is very appropriate and fitting because she has been the talk of the town.

[1:53] Kevin Bianchi: Yeah. Who else could we have as our first guest back? First guest back. And I know we say this about every guest. I truly have been saying Carla Stickler's name from the beginning of this endeavor because I have been obsessed with Carla Stickler since I was like 13, 14, 15 years old when she was the standby on the first national tour in Wicked.

[2:16] Quincy Brown: For Miss Dee Rossioli, friend of the pod. And Nicole Parker, other friend of the pod. And Mamie Paris. Aspirational friend of the pod. Carla Stickler, she's here. Kevin, do you want to run through the resume? And then we can kind of talk about the moment of it all.

[2:27] Kevin Bianchi: Quincy, I would love to run us through the resume because it is honestly one of the most interesting resumes that we've ever read out loud on this show. So after graduating from NYU, Carla went on the Asian tour of The Sound of Music as Liesl, which like straight out the gate, we love an international queen.

[2:47] Quincy Brown: At Jenny Denoyer. After that, from 2007 to 2009, she was on the Mamma Mia second national tour in the ensemble, understudying Sophie. Quincy, I love Mamma Mia so much. And you know, when I think Mamma Mia, I think, well, I think two things. When I was a little kid, I did something bad. And instead of grounding me or taking away my cell phone, my mother took my Mamma Mia DVD and threw it in the dumpster outside of our house.

[3:16] Kevin Bianchi: She said, I'm going to hit this kid right where it hurts. So she really had me clocked from the beginning. But secondly, when I think Mamma Mia, I think of you because the summer that we met and worked together, Mamma Mia 2 came out. Continue.

[3:29] Kevin Bianchi: In 2010, she made her Wicked debut on the first national tour in the ensemble, understudying Elphaba for two years. And then in 2012, she left the ensemble, understudy Elphaba and became the Elphaba standby and the understudy for Nessarose. We love that track.

[3:49] Quincy Brown: And I saw her as Nessarose.

[3:50] Kevin Bianchi: I know. I know. She was incredible. I'll find that audio.

[3:52] Quincy Brown: Yeah. Another funny story. In that era, I didn't have an iPhone or anything, so there's no voice memo situation. I bought a voice recorder from Radio Shack specifically so I could record all of the Wicked performances I was going to see while I was in Hawaii. So those are vintage.

[4:08] Kevin Bianchi: Do you have to take those to a shop to get them converted into a digital file?

[4:12] Quincy Brown: No, I had a weird USB-C connector thing to plug it in and put it onto iTunes.

[4:18] Kevin Bianchi: Oh my God. It's very crafty.

[4:20] Quincy Brown: In May 2013, she went into the Broadway company of Wicked in the ensemble and understudying Elphaba. In July of that year, she was back out on the tour as an emergency Elphaba cover. Then in November 2013, she's back in Wicked on Broadway as the Elphaba standby. November 2013 through 14, she's in the ensemble understudying Elphaba in and out. And then in December 2014, again out on the tour, emergency Elphaba cover.

[4:51] Kevin Bianchi: August 2016, Wicked Broadway, she's back in the ensemble, Elphaba understudy, in and out through 2019. She's there. She's ready. So it shouldn't surprise us. The writing has been on the wall that she would pull off the impossible and come back in the year of our Lord 2022. Just two months ago. She was an emergency cover during the... The Omi disaster, I want to call that era. But she had not done the role in seven years.

[5:21] Quincy Brown: I'm so glad it was her though. I was like, yes.

[5:23] Kevin Bianchi: Me too. Oh, it's so good. In addition to all of that craziness, from 2015 to 2017, she was a principal guest entertainer on Norwegian Cruise Lines.

[5:35] Quincy Brown: It's a nice gig.

[5:36] Kevin Bianchi: Oh, okay. You work one night a week. You do like your 40 minute set twice.

[5:41] Quincy Brown: Gotcha. So as Jenny Denoy would say, she cushy. We're up to date with her theatrical resume, but I do just want to include some other accomplishments of hers because I think these are part of what makes her so exceptional.

[5:57] Kevin Bianchi: So in 2016, she got a master's degree in educational theater. In 2019, she graduated from a program that trains artistic or creative people how to code and shift into a gear in tech. And she is, as we all know, currently working as a software engineer.

[6:19] Quincy Brown: I just feel such a spark of inspiration with her because I got that speech dozens of times. If you can do anything else, do that instead. And nobody ever told you, do that too. There's just a fence built around being an artist that it's all or nothing. It's like really cool to see somebody who not only like can still do both, but does still do both and is excellent at both. It's just really cool for me and a nice reminder for me that it's like... That at any second, you could just... I too have not performed the role in the last seven years, but I could.

[7:03] Kevin Bianchi: So yeah, we're very excited. She's going to be here very soon. Should we do a stuck on SJV?

[7:08] Quincy Brown: Stuck on SJV? We should explain since it's the first stuck on SJV of the new era.

[7:14] Kevin Bianchi: As you know, as you might know, we should explain too because some people listening might not follow us on Instagram. Follow us on social media, which maybe you should.

[7:21] Quincy Brown: Maybe you should, but if you don't have social media, that's okay too. This era, we are going to do a Wicked interview every other episode and a non-Wicked interview in between weeks. We're really excited about that.

[7:36] Kevin Bianchi: We're excited to talk to some ladies who we've always wanted to talk to, but couldn't find a Wicked angle through which to talk to them. We've already done one non-Wicked interview and let me tell you, there were Wicked angles throughout. We were surprised by it.

[7:50] Quincy Brown: So now I think we find the Wicked angle with every non-Wicked guest we have. I don't think there's an actress on this island who doesn't have a single connection to Wicked. You know what I mean? Who doesn't have a touch point, you know?

[8:02] Kevin Bianchi: Anyway, with Stuck on SJB, we are going to try this era, limiting that to being in the Wicked episodes. Basically, in the Wicked episodes, you're going to get a Stuck on SJB on air. In the non-Wicked episodes, you're going to get a Choices, Options, and Bootlegs on air. For both of those episodes, whichever segment you're not getting on air, you're going to get on social. It's like, really, you're not losing anything. We're just trying to keep the time of these episodes down, you know? Because they get long.

[8:30] Quincy Brown: They get long and it's long to edit. Um, anyways, on that note, Stuck on SJB.

[8:38] Kevin Bianchi: Yes, so my Stuck on SJB is a throwback to one of the, like, OG Stephanie J Block videos that was really formative in my young gay obsession with her.

[8:52] Quincy Brown: Okay.

[8:53] Kevin Bianchi: It is the Obsessed with Seth Rudetsky, where he's at the piano, she's doing a bunch of ridiculous shit. And those are my favorite videos. I loved those videos in high school. And honestly, like, is it my dream to just, like, become Seth Rudetsky? I think so.

[9:11] Quincy Brown: Yeah.

[9:11] Kevin Bianchi: So there's a couple of things that I love about this video. This isn't, it's not like a performance video, so I'm not really going to, like, break it down into anything super meaningful. But a couple points to look out for.

[9:22] Kevin Bianchi: Is this the Bible Preacher headshot?

[9:25] Quincy Brown: This is, yes.

[9:26] Kevin Bianchi: So the Pre-J headshot.

[9:29] Quincy Brown: The Pre-J headshot. That's what she calls it. She's like, it's Pre-J, it's Pre-J.

[9:34] Kevin Bianchi: So we have, like, a gloriously blown out headshot of Stephanie Block. It's very 80s.

[9:43] Quincy Brown: And Seth says, how do you look younger now than you do in this photo?

[9:46] Kevin Bianchi: Doesn't she?

[9:46] Quincy Brown: Yeah, yeah, yeah.

[9:47] Kevin Bianchi: So a couple things to point out. Number one, I have always found it hysterical that she's just, like, holding the mic pack. I don't know why, but that image is, like, burned into my head.

[10:00] Quincy Brown: Another thing to check out.

[10:02] Kevin Bianchi: Come on, soprano. Because she whips out, uh, not writings on the wall, the other one. Between the very dead of night and day. And I would like her to put that back in the concert circulation, because she sounds gorgeous.

[10:20] Quincy Brown: Sure.

[10:20] Kevin Bianchi: This video is also the birthplace of the iconic catchphrase, an E doesn't scare me.

[10:25] Quincy Brown: Yes, that's right.

[10:29] Kevin Bianchi: That might have been the first time I, like, knew what a top was. Like, that was, like, I would love to feel as confident about anything as Stephanie J. Block felt about hitting an E on September 24th, 2012.

[10:45] Quincy Brown: All of this culminates in Seth Rudetsky assembling this, like, fever dream of, like, a 16 bar cut. Very sent-men in vibe.

[10:54] Kevin Bianchi: That's a very sent-men ask. I'm telling you, Seth Rudetsky, he ran so we could walk as sentimental men.

[11:01] Quincy Brown: Yeah, that's true.

[11:02] Kevin Bianchi: So he makes her do a cut from the Pirate Queen. Then she does a little tap dancing, because let us not forget, Ms. Block is a Reno Sweeney.

[11:10] Quincy Brown: She is a Reno Sweeney.

[11:13] Kevin Bianchi: Send her to the West End.

[11:16] Quincy Brown: Oh my god, if she replaced Carrie Ellis.

[11:18] Kevin Bianchi: Is that who's doing it? Why did I think Rachel York was going in?

[11:21] Quincy Brown: Ooh, but that would also be good.

[11:23] Kevin Bianchi: And then it ends with the battle cry, the war cry.

[11:29] Quincy Brown: All right, should we get into the interview?

[11:31] Kevin Bianchi: Yeah, let's do it.

[11:36] Quincy Brown: Carla Stickler, thank you so much for joining us today. Welcome to the pod.

[11:40] Carla Stickler: Thanks for having me.

[11:42] Quincy Brown: So you don't remember this, but we do have a history together, and I'm sorry for ambushing with you once we started recording.

[11:48] Carla Stickler: Okay.

[11:48] Quincy Brown: Back when I was 13, 14, The Wicked Tour came to Hawaii, and I was searching up the cast, needed to know everyone, became obsessed with you because you were the current standby on tour. And then my high school, I don't know how it happened, was chosen to do the Making Magic Defying Gravity concerts that you had been doing with Michael Mahaney. And I was one of the kids who got to do it.

[12:11] Carla Stickler: Oh my gosh, that's why your name looks familiar. That's so funny. Because why does it sound familiar? I feel like I know this.

[12:18] Quincy Brown: No, it's like a really crazy that it came back in this way so many years later.

[12:23] Carla Stickler: Yeah, that was such a beautiful show that we did. That was so much fun.

[12:27] Quincy Brown: Wait, so what organization was it for again?

[12:29] Carla Stickler: Because you were doing it for a while, right?

[12:31] Carla Stickler: Yeah, I was working with the Educational Theater Association, which I think now is the Educational Theater Foundation.

[12:37] Quincy Brown: Gotcha. And when we were in, I think we did one in LA and Seattle and Utah and Hawaii, and we would basically work with a high school, and we would put together a show in 24 hours, and we would raise money for scholarships in the arts for high school students.

[12:54] Carla Stickler: Honestly, being a part of that was such a huge moment for me. It made me realize I wanted to be a teacher, and I loved working with all of you guys. It was so much fun to watch everyone just work their butt off and be incredible high school kids and live love their life.

[14:11] Carla Stickler: And I wasn't really seeing a lot of musicals. I was studying The Method at the Lee Strasberg Institute. I was crying a lot. I was like, I'm going to be an actor.

[14:23] Quincy Brown: You and Lady Gaga.

[14:25] Carla Stickler: She was actually there. She was a freshman, I think, when I was a senior. A friend of mine did a songwriter night with her. So I got more into musical theater right into my senior year. And when I was like, I'm going to do musical theater. And so I was like, oh, everybody keeps talking about Wicked. I should go see Wicked.

[14:41] Quincy Brown: Did you know you could sing?

[14:43] Carla Stickler: I had been singing my whole life. My mother is a musician. My grandmother was an opera singer. I grew up in her studio. I was a coloratura soprano. I went to Cincinnati Conservatory of Music as a voice major my freshman year. I was an Interlochen Arts Academy kid. And I had a cyst on my vocal cords my freshman year of college while I was studying opera. And I had surgery and dropped out. So I was like, I'm going to go to NYU and I'm going to be an actor and I'm never going to sing again. And that is totally fine. So I did that. I went to NYU. I did not think about musical theater. And then I got into it my senior year because that song, Not Afraid of Anything, I had to do this program in the summer to get some credits out of the way.

And I had to do Cap 21 because it was the only program that had a summer. So I did musical theater. And I sang that song for one of my teachers. And I was falling because I was so afraid of singing. And they were like, why are you doing musical theater? You're good at this. And I was like, I'm terrified. I don't want to sing. I don't know how to sing. I'm going to mess it up. I'm going to break everything. It's going to be awful. And I'm going to fail. And so that was kind of like a very pivotal moment for me. And then I spent my whole senior year just studying privately. I got a teacher. And so that kind of is when I decided to go see Wicked, when I was like, okay, I think I'm, I feel like I need to see this. I really like Kristen Chenoweth.

[16:05] Quincy Brown: So you were like soprano, soprano.

[16:07] Carla Stickler: Yeah, I loved, I loved singing like Girl in 14G because I love that she could do all of that crazy stuff, but also like sing jazz and belts. And my goal was to be like Kristen Chenoweth.

[16:18] Kevin Bianchi: Kevin's too.

[16:19] Carla Stickler: I mean, whose isn't? So yeah, I went and saw it my senior year. And I remember watching it being like, oh, there's no role for me in this because I'm not a soprano anymore. So I can't play Glinda. And I was like, maybe I could be like Nessa Rose, but I didn't really see myself as an Elphaba. And I'm the kind of person I can't watch a show without analyzing like which part I'm going to play in that show. And so I spent most of the time just like focusing on like, okay, which role would I play? And I was like, oh, well, there's not really a role for me. So I don't really care. Wicked Schmigget.

[16:53] Quincy Brown: Because were you not like belting?

[16:55] Carla Stickler: I was like learning to belt my senior year. I had a teacher who was teaching me how to like have like a solid mix. But it was still really new. And I was still kind of scared of it. And yeah, I wasn't fully committed to belting. I didn't fully learn how to have like a solid, consistent, belting mix until I toured with Mamma Mia. Because that show taught me how to scream at the top of my lungs into a microphone over and over again.

[17:23] Kevin Bianchi: Isn't that what Jenny DeNoya said to...

[17:25] Carla Stickler: Her and I were actually talking about that when I was there in New York this past time. She was like, Mamma Mia taught me how to sing. I was like, Oh my god, it taught me like, I had no idea how to sing pop music really until I did that show.

[17:33] Kevin Bianchi: Yeah, just like the styling and how to do like a breathy ooh.

[17:38] Carla Stickler: Right. And especially all the like, background vocals in that show that the ensemble does.

[17:44] Kevin Bianchi: Oh my gosh, it's all that booth singing.

[17:46] Carla Stickler: Yeah. So what was my point? Oh, yeah, I wasn't I'm embarrassed about this, but I just didn't. I wasn't a huge fan of Wicked when I saw it the first time.

[17:55] Kevin Bianchi: Sure.

[17:56] Carla Stickler: I was just like in a weird moment in my life. And I was like, Okay, oh, the I thought the surprise with the lion cub at the end was really funny. That was the takeaway. I see what they did.

[18:13] Quincy Brown: Okay. I'm like really embarrassed by that. But it's true. That was that was my favorite part.

[18:18] Carla Stickler: Was it like Shoshana? In 2005?

[18:24] Quincy Brown: Shoshana was first replacement. It might have been Shoshana then.

[18:30] Carla Stickler: Probably was. And then it was Megan Hilty.

[18:30] Quincy Brown: I think it was Megan, actually.

[18:44] Carla Stickler: Yeah. And then I saw it again years later for the second time after not having thought about it at all. When I was on tour with Mamma Mia, we saw it in LA. Then we saw Eden.

[18:58] Quincy Brown: Yeah.

[18:49] Carla Stickler: And I remember that time I connected with the show more. And I think it was because I was like fully already in the business of musical theater at that point.

[18:53] Quincy Brown: You'd been singing pop already.

[18:58] Carla Stickler: I had a new respect. For the straight tone. I remember watching her No Good Deed because we all had to run out. We had to leave right after No Good Deed. We had to drive back down to Orange County to do the show that night. We missed the very end of the show.

[19:11] Quincy Brown: I love the idea of the cast of Mamma Mia running out.

[19:14] Carla Stickler: Wicked. So embarrassing. Just being like, excuse me. Excuse me. Sorry.

[19:21] Quincy Brown: Her No Good Deed was so fierce. I was like, oh, that's really cool. I don't know why it didn't really mean anything to me the first time I saw it. But that time I saw it, I don't know what year that was. Maybe like 2008. It was magical. I was like, oh, this show is really cool. I could do that. I feel like I could do that. I didn't really fully think that I could do Elphaba until I replaced Vicky Noone and Carey Manalakis on tour in Mamma Mia. As soon as both of them got cast as Elphaba, I was like, oh, I could do that. I was like, if they can do that, I can do that. I'm the same as them. We're all the same.

[20:03] Kevin Bianchi: Right. They did this. I'm doing this.

[20:08] Carla Stickler: Right. If they did that and I can do what they do, then I can do that. But I didn't really truly think I could do it until then.

[20:12] Quincy Brown: So walk us through the audition process. How did that come on your radar the first ever time you went in?

[20:18] Carla Stickler: I think it was before I went out on tour with Mamma Mia. So that would have been it would have been sometime in 2006. I went in for Nessa.

[20:24] Quincy Brown: Gotcha.

[20:24] Carla Stickler: And I remember I left the audition and my agent called me and told me I wasn't tragically beautiful enough to play Nessa Rose.

[20:30] Quincy Brown: What kind of a note is that? Like, what does that mean?

[20:39] Carla Stickler: I don't know. It's not clearly a compliment or an insult. It's just like, okay. Yeah. It was clearly like the dumbest thing any person has ever said. But it meant nothing. And I think that was also part of why I was like, I don't think Wicked is a show for me because Nessa's the role that I could see myself playing. I don't. Yeah. And then I wasn't tragically beautiful enough to play the role. What a wild piece of feedback.

[21:00] Kevin Bianchi: So dumb.

[21:01] Carla Stickler: But the ironic thing is, when they finally cast me in the show, like two months into being there, they told me they needed a new Nessa cover. And they just gave it to me. I didn't even have to audition for it. They were like, Oh, you can do Nessa, right? I was like, Oh, okay. I guess I'm tragically beautiful. I don't know. But yeah, so that was the first time and then I didn't ever I didn't go back in for it until 2009.

[21:28] Quincy Brown: Okay. And was that for Nessa again? Or was that a different track?

[21:33] Carla Stickler: No, it was for Elphaba.

[21:33] Quincy Brown: Okay. Elphaba Principal.

[21:38] Carla Stickler: For the tour.

[21:38] Quincy Brown: Okay. For the cover.

[21:41] Carla Stickler: Yeah. Yeah. There was at that point in time in 2009, there was a San Francisco company, there was the first national, I think they were about to launch the second national. And I think the first time I went in was for the San Francisco company for the understudy. And I believe Vicky? No. Yeah. Who took it? I don't remember. I think it was Vicky.

[21:52] Quincy Brown: Yeah. God, you're so good at this, Quincy.

[21:56] Carla Stickler: So 2009, my agent called and asked me if I thought I was more of a Glinda or an Elphaba. Because I'm a petite person who can also sing soprano and was also belting. And it was right around the same time that both Vicky and Carrie were kind of getting into that world. And I was like, Well, if they can do it, I can do it. So let's do Elphaba. Let's just go for Elphaba. Let's try it. I've never sung the music before. See if it sticks. He's like, Great, I'll send you over the packet and we'll get you in for an appointment. I was like, Okay. So I went home and I got the packet and I started singing through it. I was actually very surprised. I was like, Oh, I can sing this. I thought this was higher.

[22:37] Quincy Brown: Had you tried to sing it in the shower for fun before?

[22:44] Carla Stickler: Quincy, I'm really embarrassed about this. But I'm not super into musicals. I like musical theater, but I don't listen to soundtracks. I'm embarrassed. I blame my mother for that. She knows. She's a musical. She's like a Sondheim fanatic. And so I grew up with her being like Sondheim or nothing. There's no other musical theater that's worthy of anyone's time if it is not Stephen Sondheim.

[23:00] Quincy Brown: She must have loved your Mamma Mia then.

[23:07] Carla Stickler: Yeah. Oh my God. It was so funny that that was the first big show. She'd be like, Oh, it was fun. I was like, Stop it. You hated it.

[23:18] Quincy Brown: As we're talking about you being surprised by how easy it was, I just want to ask you, I often say to Quincy, some of my favorite belters always happens. They were sopranos first. So do you feel like having that foundation allowed you to fall into singing this role?

[23:36] Carla Stickler: Absolutely. I actually heard you say this on the podcast. I think sopranos make the best belters. Vocally, it makes so much sense, right? As a soprano, you spend a lot of time, a lot of your early training dragging your head voice down. So you learn how to mix from the top down, which means you have a very strong middle section if you want. If you learn how to then go the other direction, you automatically bring in a lot more of your top part of your voice lower. So it makes it easier to get up there because you naturally bring that stuff in at a lower place. Every Elphaba has a totally different sound. But I have found the girls who tend to be a higher set voice tend to have less vocal problems with the role than the girls who tend to be more belters coming into the role.

If you're approaching Elphaba, I think as a belter, it's hard to sing if you're belting. It's top of your range and you're going to blow your chords out. And sopranos tend to mix it more. And I think they tend to have more sustainable Elphaba careers.

[24:43] Quincy Brown: Yeah, I always say it's like the same reason that dancers start with ballet. It's like you have to get those muscles used to what you're asking them to do.

[24:49] Carla Stickler: Well, and even the girls who are more like heavier voices, they tend to have more rounded, deeper, kind of more typically mezzo sounds. The ones who I think are successful are the ones who know that they need to still train the top. And you can hear it in the coloring as they as they move into the high belty stuff. You hear them mixing it more. That's why you're not worried they're going to hit those notes. You're worried when you don't start to hear that kind of color. As you hear somebody belting really high, you know, you can hear, I think we all maybe don't know specifically what it is, but you can hear when someone is just like pushing really hard from below and you're like, oh, I don't know if they're going to make it. Which is thrilling.

[25:29] Kevin Bianchi: And I sadistically love that.

[25:37] Carla Stickler: It can be thrilling a few times until a person wrecks their voice, if it works out. So glad we got to talk about this.

[25:43] Quincy Brown: Okay. So we go through the audition process for Elphaba cover.

[25:47] Carla Stickler: Oh yeah. I was like, yes, let's try Elphaba. I go in and I do the material and after the audition, it actually went really well. I felt like it went really well. They called my agent and they were like, we really like Carla. She's great. We're not going to, we're going to pass this time, but we want to see her a few more times. We're going to bring her in and do like a little coaching session. So I went and did a little coaching session.

[26:09] Quincy Brown: How does that feel in the moment? Is that encouraging or discouraging?

[26:12] Carla Stickler: No, it's helpful because I'm a big fan of constructive criticism, as long as it is constructive and helpful. So I love that. Like, yes.

[26:22] Carla Stickler: Please coach me because I don't know if I'm doing something wrong until you tell me. Or if there's something else you want, please tell me. I will happily try it. So I found that to be really productive. And it was one of those things where I just felt like it was a matter of time that I was going to book it. The way that they were kind of coming back, they're like, okay, great. We really like Carla. We have a bunch of other slots opening up. We're going to bring her in again. And I was like, cool. And I had like in my gut, I was like, I'm going to book this. So I would say this was like in a six-month period.

[26:52] Quincy Brown: Over the six months, you were like, going in sporadically and working with them?

[26:56] Carla Stickler: Yeah. And working and every time they're like, okay, we really like Carla. Not yet, but I think it's because they knew they had all these other companies.

[27:04] Quincy Brown: I was gonna say at this point in the show's trajectory, they are going to need a roster of people.

[27:07] Carla Stickler: Well, and the second national was about to open, or it had just opened, or I don't remember. And then there was like a lot of movement happening. There usually is towards the ends and beginnings of years. All the shows I've ever booked have been like January. I was just like, it's a matter of time. And then January, they called me and I had a friend teach me the dance call because this was the first time I ever went in to dance for it. I had to do for the understudy track, you have to dance. That track dances a lot more than I think a singer about their track. I had a friend teach me the Hoi Poloi and a little bit of Oz Dust in the rehearsal room at the Gershwin like a week before my dance call.

[27:56] Quincy Brown: And are we a dancer? Are we a mover? Are we just nothing?

[27:59] Carla Stickler: Oh, no. No, no, no. I literally almost got fired from Mamma Mia during my rehearsals during the show because I was not picking up choreography because I am not a dancer. I got it. I got it eventually. But I got there.

[28:13] Quincy Brown: Sure.

[28:14] Carla Stickler: So thank God she taught it to me because I also don't pick up choreography fast. So I nailed it. Okay, but I have to tell you the funny thing about that audition, that dance call. It was, see if I can remember everybody who was there. It was me, Catherine Charlebois, Christine Dwyer. Every girl who booked the Elphaba cover or one of the city covers within that whole year of 2010 was at that call. And it was really funny because we all just kind of got filtered out into different companies. And over the year, you'd be like, oh, my God, remember that dance call?

[28:46] Quincy Brown: Yeah, that's really cool.

[28:48] Carla Stickler: So yeah, I made it through the call. I made it to the lifting part of the call. And then they called me like a week later and were like, hey, you want to go on tour in a week? And I was like, yeah.

[28:58] Quincy Brown: Always a week. Nobody has ever been like, yeah, I got the call. And then I had a month to get my life together. It's always like, hey, you want to go to Buffalo? You want to pack up your whole life?

[29:11] Carla Stickler: Yeah. 24 hours? Great.

[29:13] Quincy Brown: Yeah. Well, okay. So at this point, Wicked is like Wicked with a capital W. So was this like, oh, my God, I booked this incredible job moment for you?

[29:22] Carla Stickler: Yes.

[29:22] Quincy Brown: Okay. Like, are you thinking longevity here? This is a show I can be in for a long time.

[29:27] Carla Stickler: We're going to get, I'm going to get real personal for a second. So at the time I was auditioning for the show, I was actually in the process of getting divorced. Like, I don't think I would have had Elphaba strength if I hadn't been going through that because that was kind of the thing that like, I was like, I was like refinding myself as a performer. I was like, oh, my God, I'm so confident. I'm so incredible. Look at what I can do. And I was bringing that into that audition.

[29:50] Quincy Brown: That's kind of beautiful.

[29:51] Carla Stickler: Literally Wicked saved my life. It taught me that I am a strong person and that I have a lot to give and that I'm a talented person and that like, I am more than I thought I was at that time. I was just kind of a mess. So my goal when I went on tour was not like, oh, I'm going to go on tour and I'm going to stay forever. Like it was, oh, I have a reason to get out of the city now. Fabulous. Let's go. Like something to do.

[30:18] Quincy Brown: Yeah. And it didn't matter. I had no, I had no goal or plan. I just knew this is fantastic. I can leave and not have to think about it and go do something else and pour all of my energy and attention into this thing. For me, that's what Wicked was. It wasn't necessarily like a means to an end. It wasn't, I'm going to stay on tour for three years. I had, I didn't definitely didn't plan that. I did not anticipate that I would be out there that long. And the reason it ended up being that long is I was in the understudy role for a year and about six months into my being there. They told me they wanted to move me up the standby track, but her contract wasn't going to be up for six months.

[30:59] Carla Stickler: Who was it? Was it Steph Torrens?

[31:01] Quincy Brown: No. So I replaced Steph Torrens when she moved into the Broadway company and then Marianne Torres was our standby.

[31:07] Carla Stickler: It's crazy how all of you are still kicking around the Wicked universe.

[31:11] Quincy Brown: I know. It's insane. It's a lot. I'm lying to you. I'm making up things. I was the understudy for two years and the standby for one year. That makes more sense.

[31:21] Carla Stickler: Okay. Because Marianne didn't start until about six months into me being there. We had Meredith K. Clark was our standby and Donna was our full-time Elphaba. And then they both left and then Jackie and Marianne came in.

[31:36] Quincy Brown: That's right.

[31:37] Carla Stickler: So it was Jackie, Marianne, and me for about a year.

[31:41] Quincy Brown: Then Mamie.

[31:42] Carla Stickler: Because Mamie was in LA because I remember I was standing by for Mamie. I think it was Jackie, Mamie, Nicole, Dee, right?

[31:49] Quincy Brown: Jackie, Mamie, Nicole, Dee. That is correct.

[31:53] Carla Stickler: And I stood by for Nicole and Dee and I understudied Mamie. You guys, we found it.

[31:58] Quincy Brown: That was incredible to witness.

[32:01] Carla Stickler: That's going to be so interesting for your listeners.

[32:04] Quincy Brown: They're screaming at us right now for not getting it sooner.

[32:06] Carla Stickler: Yeah. They'll be yelling, it was Mamie.

[32:10] Quincy Brown: So when you were understudying, were you like, next for me is I want to do standby? Or was it just a surprise when they offered?

[32:16] Carla Stickler: Yeah. As we kind of touched on earlier, I'm not a dancer and that dragged down. When I found out I was going to move up a standby role, I was very excited. The standby role is great and I'm not going to lie. Once you start playing that role, you want to play it more. And when you're the understudy, you play it very infrequently. And I had gotten to go on a few times in the two years that I was the understudy, but I loved it. Every time I got to perform the role, it's hard to explain, but it's like that thing. You're like, oh my God, I feel so many things when I get to do this and I want to do this more.

[32:48] Quincy Brown: It's a rockstar role.

[32:50] Carla Stickler: Yeah. All this stuff you get to feel.

[32:52] Quincy Brown: Is this a hard role for you to play?

[32:54] Carla Stickler: It's interesting because there are different ways that you approach the role depending on which track you're in, right? As the understudy, every time you go on for that role, you know you're probably not going to do it tomorrow. So you approach that role like, I'm going to do this once. So I'm going to give it every single ounce of myself.

[33:11] Quincy Brown: Gotcha.

[33:12] Carla Stickler: And then when you're the standby, you tend to know like, oh, I have a week of her. I have a week that I'm going to be on. So you pace yourself a little bit more. The longest I did it was for almost two weeks in New York. And it was a different kind of stamina. You sing the show differently when you have to do it more than once, more than a week. You cannot give it all the things you can give it when you go on as an understudy or a standby. It's literally impossible.

[33:38] Quincy Brown: It's not sustainable.

[33:39] Carla Stickler: If I did the show that I did in New York this past winter every night, I would die. Just because it was, I give. And that's the thing I think, too, that people don't understand is when you see understudies and standbys, we get to give you everything. We get to give you a fantastic show because we get to live. We are fresh. We're not super exhausted. She's a hard role. And doing her over and over again, it really wears you down.

[34:07] Quincy Brown: I'm glad you said that about understudies, because I think that's a really good perspective to have.

[34:12] Carla Stickler: I love seeing an understudy or a standby, because it is. There's always a magical element to it.

[34:15] Quincy Brown: But it's also less robotic, because it's like-

[34:21] Carla Stickler: Yeah, yeah.

[34:23] Quincy Brown: A lot of the fun stuff that you put in there hasn't been noted away after the show.

[34:29] Carla Stickler: We're like, hey, that thing you did, let's not do that. So you get to have a little more fun, I think, when you don't do it all the time.

[34:38] Quincy Brown: They also forget. You know, you don't go on all the time, and then you go on after a month or whatever, and you do the things you did before.

[34:45] Carla Stickler: And they go, hey, remember that note that we gave you a month ago?

[34:48] Quincy Brown: Oh, yeah, next time.

[34:49] Carla Stickler: Oh, oh, yeah, sorry.

[34:50] Quincy Brown: Oh, oh, yeah, sorry, yeah.

[34:53] Carla Stickler: Never again, sorry.

[34:54] Quincy Brown: Oh, sorry, adrenaline.

[34:55] Carla Stickler: You know, I got carried. I hadn't done it in a while. I'm just kind of going with-

[34:58] Quincy Brown: Muscle memory, you know?

[35:01] Carla Stickler: Oh, sorry.

[35:03] Quincy Brown: That's also why you'll hear understudies and standbys riff a little bit more. Like, they can get away with it a little bit more, because they'll do it so much more infrequently.

[35:12] Carla Stickler: Yeah. Before you got on, we tried to run through your resume and do all of the, she was on tour, then she was covering on Broadway, then they flew her out, emergency cover for tour. Barring the Omicron of it all, what is the craziest Elphaba story you have?

[35:28] Carla Stickler: So I'll tell you about my Elphaba debut, because honestly, I think everybody knows about it now in the Wicked world.

[35:34] Quincy Brown: Sure.

[35:35] Carla Stickler: Listen, I'm not going back to Wicked anymore. I'm going to tell you the story. So when I was right on tour, fresh, I think I had been there for a few months. I had not gone on. I had just done my put-in. We were in New Orleans. Yes, oof is correct. We were in New Orleans, and we had, on our day off, we had this big benefit concert we did, like a Broadway Cares, Equity Fights AIDS benefit concert. The week before, Donna and Meredith had both been sick, I think. And so that's why I had been in my head, really going through the show, because I thought, oh, I might have to go on. But after the show was over, Meredith comes up to me and she says, okay, Donna went home. I am going to go home. You should go have fun with everybody. Don't worry. We're both going to be fine. You're going to be okay.

[36:28] Carla Stickler: No. Meredith and Donna were really great about keeping me up to date on how they were feeling all the time. They wanted to make sure that if I had to go on, I got some notice and I wouldn't be in a panic.

[36:38] Quincy Brown: Yes.

[36:39] Carla Stickler: Which, thank you. Sure, yeah. So I was like, great. Are you sure, Meredith? She's like, go, have fun. So I did. I had a lot of fun. I had so much fun. We were in New Orleans, so I'm going to let you use your imagination about all the fun we had until about four or five in the morning. Kind of fun. Almost got arrested at the casino at some point. Kind of fun. And the next morning, I am so hungover. We were supposed to go. The whole company was going to do one of those, what is that thing where you go and build a house? Habitat for Humanity. We had a Habitat for Humanity thing the next day and I could not go. I was so sick. I was like, I am vomiting. I cannot go. So I was like, I'm not going to go.

I just didn't go. I'm texting with some other people that were out with me that night. I'm like, I feel like I'm going to die. I was like, I'm going to call out. And the girl who had just started the show with me, Emily Ferranti. Emily and I, she was another girl who was at that dance call. Her and I started the same thing. And Emily was a swing, so she covered all the female singers tracks. And so I'm just texting her. She's like, girl, you better not call out. I'm going to kill you. She's like, I cannot do it. She's like, I am so hungover. I cannot do it at all. And I was like, oh my God, I'm going to die. I'm going to call out. She's like, you cannot.

[38:07] Carla Stickler: So I'm just like in bed. I'm just like a mess. And I want to say the show is at like seven that night. So I'm just kind of like waiting. Just like, I'm like, okay, what time is a good time to call out? So all day we're hungover. All day, all day. We're waiting until like, we're waiting until like that. What's a good window to call out to give us enough time? We're not even entertaining the idea of doing an ensemble track tonight. No, we should be in bed. We should never leave our bed again. We should stay home and we should quit the business because you're a terrible, a terrible person. And I get a call at five o'clock for the seven o'clock show from my stage manager, who, mind you, was out with me the whole night.

Calls me and goes, hey, you're on. You're going to make your Elphaba debut tonight. No, I was like, okay, great. Let's do it. It's going to be great. I'm going to get to the theater earlier. I'll be there. I'll be there soon. I got to be there a little bit. So I just also want to like preface this with my own dumb self that night. I vaguely remember being very drunk at the bar and telling my stage manager, I'm ready, Peter. I'm ready. You can put me on. I'm so ready because I hadn't been on yet. And I wanted to play the role so bad.

[39:34] Carla Stickler: So he was like, you're ready, right? So I go down into the lobby, and I realized that my rental car is not there. And are you last string at this point? Like there's no one else that could do Elphaba tonight. There is no one else who can do this role at this point. You find yourself in this position a lot, Carla. You have no idea. This is how my career as Elphaba started, and it is how it ended. It is perfectly bookmarked with me being the last person standing in a very unfortunate situation. I can't find the car. My roommate took the car. I have a foldy bike, which is how I usually go to the theater, but my bike is in the trunk of the car. So I don't have my bike. I'm like, how am I going to get to the theater?

I don't know what I'm doing. And I run into like one of our wardrobe supervisors in the lobby of the hotel. And I was like, you have to take me to the theater right now. I have to get there. You have to take me. But I'm like about to cry. I'm like, I'm sitting there like hand on my side. I'm just like, I don't know how I'm going to do this. And we get in the car. And I get so nauseous in the car on the way over. And the second we get to the theater, I run into Donna Bavino's dressing room and I puke in the back.

[40:54] Quincy Brown: I'm imagining the levitator like that would terrify me in your current state.

[40:58] Carla Stickler: Now at this point, though, I was a really bad combination of like really still hungover and terrified. It's gonna happen whether I'm ready or not. It's gonna happen. I know it. I know the role.

[41:09] Quincy Brown: Your nervous system is just firing.

[41:11] Carla Stickler: Yeah, I don't know. I have gone into my shower in the hotel room and I sang through the wizard and I and I and I got out of the shower and was like, well, that's there. Okay, so at least I can sing. Yeah. So at least my voice sounds surprisingly great.

[41:24] Quincy Brown: Yeah. After a night of whatever I did.

[41:26] Carla Stickler: Honestly. Yeah, I, because I'm not gonna that's not usually the case. So I was definitely happily surprised that my voice was fine. So I go to the theater, they start painting the green. Our makeup artist has me doing like braiding techniques with like one closing one nostril and because I'm like, I'm literally my this is how my life ends. I'm gonna puke on Glenda on stage. And I'm gonna go home tomorrow. Emily comes by the dressing room and she's like, girl, I was so mad when I found out that I had to go on for you. Not now. And then Bud Webber was like, No, no, girl, she's on for Elphaba. And Emily was like, Oh, I'm so not so bad. I'm not you. Somebody brought me Gatorade. I honestly up until that that like thing opened up and I ran out on stage.

I was mortified. And then it happened and I blacked out. I don't remember any of it. And the next day, my music director was like, Carla, I'm not gonna lie. I was terrified when I found out you were gonna be on because he was also out with us.

[42:34] Quincy Brown: I love the confession after the fact.

[42:37] Carla Stickler: He's like, but I gotta say, you nailed it. You sounded great. That was I don't believe in a miracle. But that was a miracle. I don't know what that was like, see, she's dependable. That story is is almost not as extreme. But I am like last off the standing. But you know, I think I think it is just for me, it really taught me that I know how to work under pressure. I know, like, I know what I can and can't do. So like, when they called me for New York this time, if I could do that, I could do this.

[43:07] Quincy Brown: All these times you've been brought back as this emergency filler cover, we need you. It's just a call. So you auditioned once you booked Wicked and never had to audition again.

[43:15] Carla Stickler: For standby I did. When I was on tour, they made me fly to New York. After I'd been on the tour for a year and a half to re-audition for the standby role. And that was the last time I auditioned.

[43:24] Quincy Brown: Gotcha. Very impressive. Now walk us through Omicron Elphaba.

[43:30] Carla Stickler: Oh my god. I love that.

[43:41] Carla Stickler: I really thought I was done. I like moved to Chicago in April. We bought a house.

[43:45] Quincy Brown: Because you were like, done with the biz.

[43:47] Carla Stickler: Oh yeah. No, I am a software engineer. I quit. I'm done. Goodbye. Wicked. You can't call me anymore. Like, you know, I love Wicked and it's hard to say no to Wicked. So I don't when they call me I'm I will move things around because I enjoy popping in and out of that show. It is the perfect show to go in for like a week. And then you don't get sick of it after a week. Your body doesn't hurt after a week. Bye. Like I like a swoop in and a swoop out. Call me next time. So yeah, I love doing that. But when I when I officially left moving to Chicago for me was really like that was during the pandemic. You decided that.

[44:26] Carla Stickler: I we moved to Chicago in April of 2021. Okay, so that was like that was my I'm done. I am removing myself from the equation.

[44:37] Quincy Brown: Had you been actively like auditioning for other things? Or were you switching lanes already?

[44:41] Carla Stickler: I had sort of been actively auditioning on and off up until 2019. After like my fifth callback for every show that every other Elphaba has played and not booking them. I was so tired. You know, like five auditions for Beautiful. How many ever Elsa auditions and all the what's that show Waitress and all those shows, right? I was just the Wicked to Waitress pipeline. We talked about that.

[45:07] Quincy Brown: Right. There's this whole like, the Elphaba role has like a role in all these other shows. And I've been in for all of them. A million times and nothing was working. And I was I was like, I just am so tired of this not working out. Nobody really knows what to do with me because I then I dyed my hair blonde. And they were like, Wow, we don't know what we are so confused. Yeah, that's dumb.

[45:28] Carla Stickler: You're gonna wig me.

[45:29] Quincy Brown: You're gonna wig me either way. So I left I was I fired my agents fired is this harsh word I just I left I was like, I'm done. Summer of 2019.

[45:37] Carla Stickler: Gotcha. And I started my coding boot camp in May of summer of 2019. I was coding and then Wicked called. And the last time I was there was like June or something of 2019. Double duty. So I was boot camp during the day. Show at night in the weekends.

[45:54] Quincy Brown: That's so bad.

[45:55] Carla Stickler: It was fun. It was like, I remember when I was when I was doing it for two weeks. I was like, I can do anything. It was fun. I think during that time, like going in and out of Wicked was super fun. I was there in 2018. When Brittany was learning the show. The last time I ever did an alphabet understudy rehearsal was with Brittany. And I was with her when she learned the show. And I have like a video on my phone of her going up in the bubble for the first time. Oh my god. It was so magical to kind of watch her have that journey. So yeah. So anyway, I'm this is all to say that I was done. I had no reason to act anymore. I was in auditioning. And so pandemic everything shut down. Great. Let's get out. I got a great timing. Yeah, all the timing. I mean, it kind of worked out. And I got a job that was remote. So I moved.

[46:46] Quincy Brown: Were you like, why are you calling me?

[46:47] Carla Stickler: No, I knew I knew. I told you, you know, my story. When things fall apart, they call me. And I know that to be true about my journey with that.

[47:05] Quincy Brown: So you know, there's like seven sick green girls in front of you.

[47:08] Carla Stickler: Yeah, I have been on Facebook. I had seen I knew where everybody was kind of peripherally. When all this started happening. Were you just like, No, no, no.

[47:18] Quincy Brown: I don't know if you all know, right. Christine was there and she was covered. Yeah. And they brought in Alyssa Fox too, right? Yeah, Alyssa had gotten COVID. So she was out. I knew that like Marianne, I think had COVID and like, I think Laurel just had a baby. I was like going through all the girls in my head who I knew had been kind of recently in. And then when when I saw Christine's post that morning, on Facebook, I was like laying in bed, we were we were heading up on vacation. And I and I read that post. And I had this feeling. And your heart's like, you know, I wish it would be a better story if I'd said it out loud, because I didn't tell my husband. I and I I just I knew it. And literally three hours later, in real car or car ride, they my husband was like, Carl, you have a text message from Wicked. And I was like, I know I do. Of course I do. That that makes sense.

[48:07] Quincy Brown: Was it always going to be a yes in your head?

[48:09] Carla Stickler: No, I wanted to say no so bad. But I didn't it was it's that thing where I wanted to commit to the fact that I had left right? I wanted to commit to I left. I never have to say yes again. Yeah, done. And I couldn't I couldn't I love that show. And I love just you know, watching all the things that have been going on. And like, I want I want Broadway to keep going. Yeah, especially in the thick of that Omicron era. Anything to help, you know?

[48:38] Quincy Brown: Yes. So I said to my husband, I think I have to go. He goes, Okay, I think you should. I support it. Thank you. I, this is not going to be a fun like 12 hours while I figure this out. Just bear with me. I we were in a cabin in the middle of the Upper Peninsula of Michigan, which is like, no cell service.

[49:04] Carla Stickler: And this is a movie. I know. Yeah. So I, we get up there and I pour myself a mezcal soda. Because that's what I needed. We sat around the fire and my friends put karaoke on and made me sing through all the alphabet songs a couple times. Just like a MIDI track.

[49:23] Carla Stickler: But then that night, I was like, Okay, well, I can't just sing them once. I need to like sing them a couple times today. I need to like spread them out. I need to like build up that stamina.

[49:31] Quincy Brown: And was it there? Or did it take getting there?

[49:33] Carla Stickler: No, it was fine. Okay. No, you guys, I'm crazy. And I don't mean to say I'm amazing. No, I'm I was just as shocked as you are.

[49:44] Quincy Brown: Jackie Burns is another one who's like, yeah, it's just there. And another soprano.

[49:47] Carla Stickler: Another soprano. Jackie and I would talk about technique and like approach a lot backstage. She's like, Carla, how should I approach this? I'm just this weird thing. And I was like, I don't know. Try this. Okay, great.

[49:57] Quincy Brown: That's really cool.

[49:58] Carla Stickler: Makes my heart sing.

[50:00] Quincy Brown: We're very similarly high set soprano.

[50:02] Carla Stickler: Yeah, I love that.

[50:04] Carla Stickler: So I just I knew I could do it also because like, if I can do it in New Orleans, I could do this.

[50:09] Quincy Brown: Yeah, it all comes back to New Orleans.

[50:12] Carla Stickler: So I get there. I have an awful travel day. I watched the show that night. I go to the hotel room. I can't sleep. So I haven't slept like at this point, like I haven't slept in like three days. Like they're just I was so tired. I ended up buying like melatonin because I was like, so stressed out.

[50:28] Quincy Brown: I'm also sure you're on like COVID defense too, because everyone's getting it at this point.

[50:31] Carla Stickler: That was the thing I was the most stressed out about. I had a terrible mask while I was traveling like during my travel day. I was on vacation, y'all. All I had were leggings and Uggs and like sweatshirts.

[50:41] Quincy Brown: And a cloth mask.

[50:43] Carla Stickler: And a cloth mask because I didn't think I was going to be seeing anybody. I was just like so anxious. I was gonna get COVID. I was actually really the next morning. I went to watch the show that night. And then the next morning, I had to go get a COVID test before they would let me into the building backstage. And I just like I didn't sleep because I was like, I'm gonna wake up and I'm gonna have COVID. And I'm gonna have to stay in this hotel room for 10 days in midtown and not be able to help. And it's gonna be really sad. So when that came back negative, I was like, okay, then we can do this. And then I we took tests every day. But I didn't have that much rehearsal. I only did like one day of rehearsal. And then I watched the show to trail Jenny. And then the next morning, I ran through the whole thing in the rehearsal room. Yeah. But at that point, they were like, great.

[51:30] Quincy Brown: And was your performance fine? Did it just go smoothly?

[51:33] Carla Stickler: Quincy, it was the best show.

[51:35] Quincy Brown: Really? I love that.

[51:37] Carla Stickler: That Saturday night show. I kept coming on stage. And it was like, oh, you sound great. I was like, I don't know what's happening. It was so it was like such an out of body experience. Yeah. And it was, it was really, really lovely. It was really fun. Because I just, I had no stakes. Like there was no pressure. You know, I was like, I go home, I get to go home.

[52:08] Quincy Brown: You're doing everyone a solid you're like, because of me, you get a show tonight.

[52:11] Carla Stickler: I was like, I trust that my worst is pretty good. So even if I didn't feel great, I think I'm gonna be fine. Yeah. And it was great.

[52:21] Quincy Brown: Was there a chance or like a thought in your mind that you might end up doing it again? Or get sucked back in? Or did you know in that moment? Like, this is it. This is my swan song.

[52:31] Carla Stickler: Yeah. So I knew I knew I was gonna get two shows. I knew a couple days ahead of time that I might be doing those shows. But again, remember, we have to test every morning. And so my fear was that by the time the weekend pulled around, that was enough

[52:45] Carla Stickler: If I had gotten COVID from flying, I was going to get COVID. And it was going to show up. So I had no guarantees that I'd be on. I didn't really feel confident about it. And I knew that I would get to also do it Sunday. So I did Saturday night and Sunday matinee. It really was, for me, I don't think I'm ever going to do this again, which is really nice. Because as an understudy, you don't always know when the last time you're going to perform. So the last time I did Elphaba, I didn't know it was the last time I was gonna do Elphaba. And not to say that, like, I've been chasing that last performance. But you know, every time I would go in to help out, there was always this possibility that, oh, I get to do it one more time. And I get to have that moment. And I never got to have that moment.

[53:23] Quincy Brown: Oh, that is really nice. Yeah, that's really nice that you got to have that then.

[53:27] Carla Stickler: Yeah, it felt like it really did feel kind of like a little nice bow on the top of it.

[53:32] Kevin Bianchi: Yeah. Did you anticipate the moment that would come from you doing this?

[53:38] Carla Stickler: No, I just thought I was gonna go home. No one would ever know the wiser, like, or whatever the phrase is. No one would care. I, you know, I've been covering this role for so long that like, every time I've performed it, you know, you don't, as an understudy, you don't make a fuss when you're on. You don't want to bring attention to the fact that the person who usually does it can't do it. And so you invite who you can, but you try not to make a big deal about it. And so the fact that this got so much attention was very strange and unexpected. I've just never in my life had that kind of attention for being an understudy.

[54:15] Quincy Brown: Yeah. Do you feel like you've been able to absorb that? Are you like accepting these flowers of people being like you just did the most ridiculously superhuman thing?

[54:25] Carla Stickler: It took me a minute because in my brain, right, like this is normal. This is my normal journey with Elphaba. You've been being pulled in in emergency situations. I drove to Philly once because they didn't have an Elphaba on the tour. I picked up a rental car, swung by the Gershwin, picked up my costumes and got there right at half hour to do a show with people I didn't know. So scrappy. This is literally just the story of my journey with the show. I knew I was going to be able to do it. I didn't think it was different than all of the other times that I've done it. The fact that that is my normal as a performer is bananas. And so to kind of have an appreciation for that was really it felt nice. It was it felt nice to like to be seen, I guess.

[55:10] Kevin Bianchi: Definitely, especially after you've been committed to the show for so long. For me, at least it was a very nice moment to be like, oh, we're all talking about Carla Stickler now.

[55:17] Carla Stickler: So strange. What is that 12 years after I first joined the company?

[55:23] Quincy Brown: Okay, this has been so fun. Last question before we go.

[55:26] Carla Stickler: Yes.

[55:27] Quincy Brown: Are you a Wizard and I, Defying Gravity, or No Good Deed Alphaba? It can mean whatever you want it to mean. All we ask is that you explain why you gave your answer.

[55:35] Carla Stickler: I think before this moment, this recent moment, I would have said I'm a No Good Deed Alphaba because I love that song so much. It's just so much fun to sing. But I think I'm a Defying Gravity Alphaba. Here's why. This past time in the show for the first time, just the meaning of that song meant so much to me. Those words, you know, what she's doing. That song is about reclaiming power. That song is about standing your ground and saying, I am worthy of this thing that I'm going to do and I'm going to do it because I know it's the right thing to do and I have to do this. It really sums up my whole journey in my life. A lot of leaving the business for me was like reclaiming my power. Just I'm tired of auditioning.

I'm tired of waiting for people to give me something. I'm going to go and I'm going to find it on my own. I'm going to take it back. And so a lot of that song for me is really finding the way she finds her strength in it. That is so important to me. And so I am 100% a Defying Gravity Alphaba.

[56:38] Quincy Brown: I love that and I love that answer. Carla, thank you so much for being here. This has been one of my favorite episodes, I think.

[56:45] Carla Stickler: You guys, I have had so much fun. Thank you so much for having me on.

[56:49] Kevin Bianchi: Thank you. I had a birthday party right after Carla Stickler's interview, so we dashed before recording the conclusion. And now here we are three, four days later recording the outro bit.

[57:05] Quincy Brown: Yeah. Even though we're recording this outro four days later, I've been reeling about the interview for all four days because it truly was like one of my favorite interviews that we've done. This interview, I keep saying like it feels like it's going to become one of the Scent Men staples.

[57:18] Kevin Bianchi: Yeah, I mean, I think my favorite part was just her Alphaba debut story. That felt like a special story that she was telling the Scent Men. That is like the worst actor's nightmare you could possibly dream up. And she still turned it out, apparently.

[57:37] Quincy Brown: Apparently. A favorite theme of mine through this conversation was I always have the notes.

[57:42] Kevin Bianchi: Oh, sure. The vocal technique. You guys had a good like conversation about that.

[57:47] Quincy Brown: It felt so nice. That's not the first time someone has validated that opinion for you.

[57:52] Kevin Bianchi: No, but to actually then like get into the weeds of it, a voice, a vocal, what do you call it? Pedagogy lesson.

[57:59] Quincy Brown: Pedagogy? Isn't that what that's called? What is this? I don't know.

[58:04] Kevin Bianchi: That's like how your voice works. I learned something new today, guys. Oh, and I loved that I got to remind her that she had the privilege of performing with a young Quincy Brown on stage in Hawaii.

[58:16] Quincy Brown: I need to see the picture. I'm sure I have seen it, but I need to see it again. That really was like such a special, special, cool moment. I don't know if I like fully explained it well. Basically, I was like in high school, I was in the theater class, and then like one day got called into this like meeting. And my teacher was essentially like, listen, our school has been chosen to do this performance with the cast of Wicked, and you eight are the kids that we've decided to like be in this performance.

[58:44] Kevin Bianchi: Did you die? Wicked was my personality then too. Like everyone knew.

[58:51] Quincy Brown: Not too. T-O-O. I vividly remember like Carla was sitting at the dressing room table, like doing her makeup in the mirror. And I was seated next to her. We were not speaking because I was like so nervous. And I'd like just arrived. Yeah. So I was kind of just like doing my thing and not looking up and like hoping she would make conversation with me. And she did at some point. But yeah, it was just like really cool. And then cool that like, now she like came on our Wicked podcast that we have. It's just like a really weird moment. Really fulfilled a Quincy Pipe dream.

[59:24] Kevin Bianchi: It was nice for me too. Because I am very moved and inspired by Carla. In a lot of like very personal ways, just like because of this like incredible thing that she just did. It was like a rare instance where I felt like our podcast was not just like for my enjoyment, but I also just like, feel like I benefited from talking to her. Carla Stickler, big fan.

[59:51] Quincy Brown: Should we answer? I'll introduce it because this is the first one.

[59:55] Kevin Bianchi: Guys, we have a new segment for you.

[1:00:00] Quincy Brown: Dearest, darlingest, Kevsey and Quincycle.

[1:00:05] Kevin Bianchi: Is there a ding in that?

[1:00:06] Quincy Brown: No. Sorry. That's okay. So what this segment is going to be is just like a call in segment where we answer the questions of our listeners. People are calling in with really good questions, which is fun because like, I don't know a single thing I haven't said about this show. But then the Green Circle subscribers came through and said, Hey, what about this, that and the other? And we were like, Wow, okay, we got a segment on our hands. I think this first call that we're going to take is a great indication of that because never in a gazillion years would my brain even go to this place.

[1:00:43] Kevin Bianchi: Yeah.

[1:00:43] Quincy Brown: And so this question comes from our fellow sentimental Zach and let's listen to it.

[1:00:49] Kevin Bianchi: Dearest, darlingest, Kevsey and Quincycle.

[1:00:53] Zach: This question was inspired by a dream I had before the Broadway reopening. And for some reason in my dream, Adina Menzel and Chris Chenoweth reprised their roles for that one performance. But then Adina had to leave it in our mission. And then Lindsay Mendez came out and finished the show. In this alternate universe, seeing Wicked, who were your first act and then had to be replaced by second act choices? Who are your choices in this alternate universe?

[1:01:21] Quincy Brown: First of all, I wish I was having the kinds of dreams you were having. But secondly, can we answer this question, golden age, new era?

[1:01:32] Kevin Bianchi: I feel like it's too hard to just pick from all the options over the years.

[1:01:37] Quincy Brown: I don't think so. Zach asked for one answer.

[1:01:39] Kevin Bianchi: Kevin put his foot down.

[1:01:41] Quincy Brown: Okay, can we just answer the question twice each?

[1:01:47] Kevin Bianchi: So you mean, can we just do exactly what you asked to do at first?

[1:01:54] Quincy Brown: My god.

[1:01:55] Kevin Bianchi: So we'll do it once. I can play by the rules. I don't know that this is like my final answer, but it is where my brain went immediately. And so I think the fever dream scenario that I would come up with would be a Stephanie J. Block Elphaba with a Louise Dierman Glinda. And then something happens to Stephanie. Louise has to go on as Elphaba for act two. They call Katie Rose Clark. She's down the street, luckily. Imagine the power.

[1:02:28] Quincy Brown: What if Katie Rose Clark went back into Wicked? Please, I would love her to.

[1:02:33] Kevin Bianchi: But wouldn't it be incredible?

[1:02:37] Quincy Brown: Yes, I love that.

[1:02:40] Kevin Bianchi: Yeah.

[1:02:40] Quincy Brown: Okay, I'm going to pull from Elphaba's and Glinda's that I have not seen live. Because I mean, yeah, that's what I did.

[1:02:48] Kevin Bianchi: Okay. So I want an Adina act one.

[1:02:52] Quincy Brown: Okay.

[1:02:52] Kevin Bianchi: Paired with a Kristen.

[1:02:58] Quincy Brown: Is that allowed?

[1:02:59] Kevin Bianchi: Yeah.

[1:03:00] Quincy Brown: And then act two, I want SJB to take over for Adina. And I want SJB paired with a Katie Rose Clark Glinda. While we're on the topic, Katie Rose Clark has a belt. And I would love to see her just do a performance of Elphaba.

[1:03:14] Kevin Bianchi: Please, if you would like to submit your own Dear Kev C and Quinsicle, email us sentimentalmenpod at gmail.com.

[1:03:22] Quincy Brown: I think voice memos are fun. But if you are not comfortable sending a voice memo, and you can also just type in an email.

[1:03:27] Kevin Bianchi: Yeah, and we'll read it out loud.

[1:03:28] Quincy Brown: If we're wrapping up. I think now's a good time to remind everybody that we would love it if you left us a rating and a review on Apple podcast would be much appreciated.

[1:03:40] Kevin Bianchi: I love to read them. They're so fun.

[1:03:41] Quincy Brown: I know they keep me keep me afloat some days.

[1:03:45] Kevin Bianchi: And for anyone who has not been around during the break, we launched a subscription group called the Green Circle.

[1:03:52] Quincy Brown: For a measly $4.99 a month, you can get access to what Kevin?

[1:03:57] Kevin Bianchi: You get early access to our regular episodes, you get a monthly bonus episode even during the offseason. You get a spot on our close friends on Instagram. And on there, we're posting Kevin's Glinda Corner, we're posting behind the scenes, editing, production stuff. We're playing clips that get cut from the episode. We did like a fun little question and answer thing.

[1:04:19] Quincy Brown: Yeah, it's fun in there. Come check it out.

[1:04:24] Kevin Bianchi: All right, guys, see you in two weeks.

[1:04:26] Quincy Brown: See you in two weeks with our first non-wicked guest, you guys.

[1:04:32] Kevin Bianchi: And buckle up.

[1:04:34] Quincy Brown: I'm so jealous of everybody who gets to like find out who this guest is.

[1:04:40] Kevin Bianchi: That's true. I was literally wondering that the other night. I was like, imagine like seeing like being into sentimental men and seeing the Instagram post that this is happening.

[1:04:47] Quincy Brown: I know. It's gonna be a thrillifying reveal.

[1:04:51] Kevin Bianchi: Yeah. All right. Hopefully that's enough of a tease.

[1:04:53] Quincy Brown: See ya.

[1:04:54] Kevin Bianchi: Bye.

[1:04:57] Quincy Brown: You've been listening to Sentimental Men. This episode was produced and edited by your hosts, Quincy Brown and Kevin Bianchi. You can reach us at sentimentalmenpod at gmail.com or on Instagram, Twitter and TikTok at sentmenpod. You can support the pod by leaving us a rating or a review or by subscribing. Subscribers get early access to our regular episodes, monthly bonus episodes and get added to the Sent Men green circle. Which is literally our close friends on Instagram. Thanks to Julia DiMarzo for our thrillifying artwork. And thanks to you for tuning in. Till next time, I'm Quincy.

[1:05:36] Kevin Bianchi: And I'm Kevin.

[1:05:39] Quincy Brown: Lots of heaviness on the cords too, I'm sure.

[1:05:42] Kevin Bianchi: Oh, oh yeah.

[1:05:44] Quincy Brown: We were not thinking about the wizard and I while we were having fun.

[1:05:47] Kevin Bianchi: We were told to go out and have fun.

[1:05:49] Quincy Brown: So we were.