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[0:00] Mo Brady: You're listening to The Ensemblist, the only podcast that shows you Broadway from the inside out. Welcome, I'm Mo Brady.

[0:26] Mo Brady: Just last night, television viewers got to see what Broadway audiences fell in love with last year, SpongeBob SquarePants the musical. This big little musical that could surprised fans of the production when it announced earlier this fall that it would be taped for broadcast, featuring much of the show's original Broadway company, including my guest for this episode, Lauralyn McClelland.

[0:47] Mo Brady: Lauralyn is a veteran of seven Broadway shows, including Rock of Ages, Matilda the Musical, My Fair Lady, and SpongeBob, where she played an airborne mermaid, among other fantastical characters. I asked her into the studio to tell me about the experience of filming the musical, how it differed from the stage production, and her favorite moments of canonizing the incredible show on film. Here's our conversation.

[1:09] Mo Brady: Hi, will you introduce yourself and tell us what neighborhood of New York City you live in?

[1:39] Lauralyn McClelland: Sure, my name is Lauralyn McClelland, and I live in Inwood.

[1:42] Mo Brady: What is your role in SpongeBob SquarePants the musical?

[1:44] Lauralyn McClelland: Oh, what isn't my role in SpongeBob SquarePants the musical? I'm in the ensemble, so I play a mermaid, I play a sardine cult member, I play a tap dancing sea anemone, I'm basic fish. We have lots of different incarnations of ourselves.

[2:03] Mo Brady: So you opened SpongeBob on Broadway, and you closed. You were there the whole time.

[2:07] Lauralyn McClelland: I was there the whole time.

[2:09] Mo Brady: So like with any Broadway show, you're in it, you close it, and then you go through all the feelings of that, and then you pack it away, and you thank it for its presence in your life.

[2:20] Lauralyn McClelland: Exactly. Like most theater jobs, they're all ephemeral, and they go away, and you just have to hold on to those memories. And you know, that's what's special about theater, is that it does go away. But as a theater actor, as an equity member, you always hope that there will be some piece that can live on forever, and can be recorded outside of the archives at Lincoln Center, that you can go back and show your grandchildren and just reminisce about, because most theater performances don't get that recording, and we don't get to revisit them. So this was really special that we get to record it, and it's kind of live on forever.

[2:53] Lauralyn McClelland: In a really big way.

[2:55] Mo Brady: Yeah.

[2:56] Mo Brady: Okay, so you put it on the shelf, and that was in last fall?

[3:00] Lauralyn McClelland: September 16th, I believe we closed.

[3:03] Mo Brady: And then when do you get an email, or a call, or a text message? And who is it from, and what does it say?

[3:09] Lauralyn McClelland: I think it was June. The original cast members all got an email from Susan Vargo, who was our head producer from Nickelodeon, saying, "Bet you're wondering why I'm emailing you right now. Well, we want to do a TV recording of SpongeBob the Musical with the original Broadway cast." And I kind of didn't believe it. It was too good to be true. And I didn't let myself believe it for a while, like even, I was doing My Fair Lady, and we closed that in July, and I saw Chris Gatelli at closing. And I was like, "It's not happening, is it?" He's like, "Oh, it's happening." And so I started to believe it a little bit more, but it's just hard to believe that they could get that entire group of people together for four weeks of time, a year after we closed.

[3:55] Mo Brady: Right, because everyone's moved on to different jobs. Okay, so you get this email. I would imagine there's two things going on. One is like, I got to talk to my representation and figure out what this is and real and things. And then you're on a text thread with everybody from the show, and you're like, "What's happening?"

[4:11] Lauralyn McClelland: A little bit, yeah. I mean, it definitely felt more real once I heard from my representation about it. Then I knew it was at least an unofficial offer, and it was in the works, and it was being talked about among multiple people at Nickelodeon, and there were offers being made soon. So I could believe a little bit more. Yeah, among the cast, I think we were all a little bit in disbelief, but we're definitely excited about it. We wanted to reunite. We wanted to get back together and revisit this show that was very special to all of us. We kind of had a huge family in the show, partly due to Tina Landau's directing and making us community in our rehearsal space, and that really worked.

[4:52] Mo Brady: So how long did it take between getting that email from the head producer at Nickelodeon to like, there's a contract and it's at your agent's office?

[5:00] Lauralyn McClelland: I think I signed the contract at the end of September. It didn't take very long. I mean, kind of for an actor in an actor's life of uncertainty, it might have felt like a long time, but really things were in the works probably within a month or two after getting that first email and realizing that they really wanted to get it done.

[5:19] Mo Brady: And what sort of details are being shared with you? Are you going to film it at a Broadway theater? Are you going to film it in LA? Like there's so much that must have been up in the air.

[5:32] Lauralyn McClelland: Sure. Yeah. I mean, first of all, getting the whole cast together, that was really the big question. There was talk about filming somewhere in the US, but I guess it turned out that most theaters are full with tours coming through and they don't have the space to put that set together or rehearse us. So we ended up filming in the UK for that reason. They got a theater in the UK that could fit and build our huge set and also had rehearsal spaces that we could use to go through everything. We also rehearsed in New York.

[6:01] Mo Brady: Yeah. So take us through that. How long did you rehearse here in the city?

[6:04] Lauralyn McClelland: Two weeks.

[6:05] Mo Brady: Two weeks?

[6:06] Lauralyn McClelland: Two weeks and two days, I think.

[6:07] Mo Brady: You walk into first day of rehearsal.

[6:08] Lauralyn McClelland: Oh, it was glorious.

[6:09] Mo Brady: There's lots of hugs.

[6:10] Lauralyn McClelland: Yes, lots of hugs, lots of bits, lots of laughter. And then we did a read through of the show. And as soon as we got to "Best Day Ever," I mean, I was sitting next to Abby C. Smith, who plays Mrs. Puff, and we're both the crybabies of the group. We're just huge saps. And she said, "It's like Pavlov's dogs," like that music just goes off and we both start like tearing up immediately because it is a huge part of the show. It's about living in the moment and making every day the best day ever, even when things aren't great in your life or in the world or in your community. That was really special to share with audiences every night and something very special to each of us. And so just hearing that song again was emotional.

[6:56] Mo Brady: But there were some new cast members, correct?

[6:58] Lauralyn McClelland: Yes, we had two new ensemble members, one who plays Karen the computer and one who plays the mayor of Bikini Bottom. And they're excellent additions to our group. They fit in beautifully and are wonderfully funny and creative and put their own spin on the roles.

[7:12] Mo Brady: You've got these two cast members, but you're just basically remembering what you did.

[7:17] Lauralyn McClelland: Yes.

[7:18] Mo Brady: But also changing what you did because it's going to be on TV?

[7:23] Lauralyn McClelland: A little bit.

[7:24] Mo Brady: How different was the show that you were creating?

[7:27] Lauralyn McClelland: Well, we have this wonderful TV director, Glenn Weiss, who has won 14 Emmy Awards for doing multiple things, things like the Oscars, things like the Tony Awards, which are all done live. And he was really wonderful with just kind of adapting to what we did on stage already. Tina Landau was very much a part of all of it. And we basically staged the same show. And he, in rehearsal, would go around with his iPhone and kind of see what angles were good and what would work, what wouldn't work. But he really worked around us and what we had already built and already made on Broadway and then just chose the camera angles that will feature us best. And there were multiple cameras involved in the theater. They had balcony and up at the very top of the theater and one on stage moving and steadicams. So he could really get from any angle that he wanted. And we really didn't have to change that much.

[8:23] Lauralyn McClelland: There were moments during filming where Lucastro, our associate choreographer, would tell me, when you turn front, move a little bit to the right because the camera angle that we're using, you are behind someone if you don't move a little bit to the right. So there were a few moments like that. Otherwise, it really didn't change too much. I was surprised. You rehearse it in the studio, you've created it, then you get to the theater, and you're working with an entirely new tech team. No? Not necessarily. The tech team out front were a lot of our same Broadway designers. David Zinn was there, Peter Negrini was there, Kevin Adams was there. So we had a lot of the same team members that set the show on Broadway; they just had much less time to do it in.

[9:00] Lauralyn McClelland: They had a few days of dry tech before we got there, and then really we had two to three days of tech once we were there. Two to three days to tech through the show, an entirely new space. Yes, which normally takes, I think we only had two weeks on Broadway, which really was tight.

[9:16] Mo Brady: That's fast. What do these work days look like for you? What time do you get to the theater? How many hours are you working? When do you go?

[9:24] Lauralyn McClelland: They ended up being pretty long days. We started out with a usual 10 out of 12 type of situation with tech. It was kind of up in the air to what it would be as needed, and we took maybe a little bit more time teching than originally allotted, so then we had to add a few more hours in the next couple of days. So we basically had 12-hour days the entire time that we were there.

[9:48] Mo Brady: And how long were you there?

[9:49] Lauralyn McClelland: I'd say a total of six days on stage.

[9:52] Mo Brady: Including filming?

[9:53] Lauralyn McClelland: Including filming.

[9:54] Mo Brady: That is such a whirlwind.

[9:56] Lauralyn McClelland: It's a lot in a short amount of time, but we did it. So you didn't even preview. It's like you got in front of an audience.

[10:04] Lauralyn McClelland: On the days of filming. We had two days of filming, and those were our only days with an audience. And your filming days, were you going through the show like you did on Broadway?

[10:13] Lauralyn McClelland: No, it was a little different there. We have TV acts instead of our regular Broadway acts. We have two acts on Broadway, but for TV, because of commercials, they broke up our show into nine acts. And so we would do anywhere from, I don't know, eight to 15 minutes per act with each audience. We ran each act twice. So we'd do act one, which was the first, let's say, 15 minutes of the show, and then we'd go back and reset to do that act once more for an audience. And then we'd move on to act two. So the first day we did basically act one of the show.

[10:45] Lauralyn McClelland: And then the second day we did act two.

[10:48] Mo Brady: And you said for different audiences? Different audiences are coming in?

[10:51] Lauralyn McClelland: Two audiences, yes.

[10:53] Mo Brady: That's crazy.

[10:54] Lauralyn McClelland: One for act one and one for act two. It must have been so surreal. Were you in, I mean, the pictures I saw online, you're in your old costumes, right? You're in...

[11:02] Lauralyn McClelland: Yeah, we were in brand new costumes.

[11:03] Mo Brady: Brand new costumes that look like the other costumes?

[11:06] Lauralyn McClelland: Yeah, they were identical, but brand new because they sold it all to the touring company.

[11:12] Mo Brady: That's crazy. Sounds like there were a lot of surprises. My question was going to be, what was the biggest surprise? But it sounds like it was a lot of surprises.

[11:20] Lauralyn McClelland: Oh, I suppose. We were told early on, you know, TV is a whirlwind type of environment. You might have to change something at a moment's notice. So we were all kind of prepped for that to adapt to that. But really, Glenn Weiss is such a pro, he kind of had it all covered. Like we had monitors backstage to see what the cameras were picking up. And he was live editing from different camera angles. And what we saw backstage raw, unedited, was incredible and beautiful. And just the angles that he would capture and the way the colors just pop on a screen on a monitor were amazing. So I can't wait to see what happens after.

[11:58] Lauralyn McClelland: That's something you remember seeing on the monitor being like, I'm so glad they got that. One thing that's different about this show is that our Foley artist is on stage.

[12:06] Mo Brady: Oh, right.

[12:07] Lauralyn McClelland: On Broadway, he was in a box just off house left. So it's kind of cool that you get to see him in action a little bit more. And he actually gets to join us in our semicircle at the end for Best Day Ever, which I love Mike Dobson. It's really nice that he gets to be part of that moment with us. So I love that he's more a part of the show and he gets to be seen a little bit more because it's such a huge part of our sound design. Getting those moment to moment like squishes whenever SpongeBob walks or little sounds when Squidward is, I don't even know how to describe that sound that Squidward makes, but it's all live and he's doing it as those people are walking around, which can be different from each performance. So I love that that was captured a little bit more.

[12:53] Mo Brady: What's an Easter egg moment?

[12:54] Lauralyn McClelland: Well, I mean, this is the same as in the Broadway show, but I'm an alum of Oklahoma City University and our mascot is the stars. And we have this number called Super C-Star Savior. And during rehearsals for the Broadway show, or maybe even Chicago, I kind of realized that we had this hand signal from OCU where we could make a star with our hands. And I got really excited. I showed Chris Catelli. I was like, oh, oh, can we put this in? And I showed him. And it's really just like two I love you signs and you connect your pinky. And he let me put that in C-Star. Like he made us all do that in C-Star. And so our little OCU star made it into the show, which I think is really fun. And what I love about Chris Catelli is he's kind of game for anything.

Also a fun little Easter egg for the Broadway show and the TV show. When Mark Myers, who's one of Chris Catelli's associates, when he was teaching us the pledge, the Bikini Bottom Pledge that we do in the opening number, it was, I would always vow and pledge allegiance to this town that we hold dear. And those claps were not originally in the choreography. They were just something that Mark was telling us to hold those two counts, but we all did it because he did it. And Chris was like, yeah, sure. Why not? That's in. So those are fun little moments that like, I just love about Chris that he's game for anything fun and unusual. And that's kind of the world of SpongeBob anyway. So it fits.

[14:21] Lauralyn McClelland: One other thing that you could look for, one of our electric skates, Logan Jones or Logan Jones as his equity name is right. He may have fractured a wrist during the tech rehearsal process. He's on stilts during the opening number. And, you know, tech, you're kind of waiting around for a long amount of time. And he was just waiting around in a stilts backstage. And one of them gave out. Oh, my goodness. And so he fell from about eight feet high and caught himself on his wrist. It's up for debate, may or may not have fractured, but he was in a cast for the show and for the filming. And thankfully, we had Jesse J.P. Johnson there as well as kind of like a dance captain assistant to Lucastro and to Chris Gatelli, who was also a swing in our Broadway production.

And thankfully, he was able to do some of the numbers that Logan could no longer do because of the cast, like Sea Star Savior, we do all the tutting, which is 90 degree angles with your wrist. And Logan's wearing a cast now and can't do that with his wrist. So Jesse was able to step in for him. Thank goodness he was there.

[15:27] Lauralyn McClelland: Yeah, you need a swing. I can't believe I don't know what would have happened if we didn't have him there like Logan. I don't know. We would have hit him in the back or something. I don't know what you do in that case for a live TV event. But thankfully, we had a swing there. And Logan was cool about still going on with the skateboard and still doing his electric skates number. And they kind of decorated his cast to make it a little more Bikini Bottom-esque. And so that's something that most people won't know or maybe even notice. But now you know.

[16:03] Mo Brady: Special thanks to Lauralyn McClelland for sharing her stories with us this week. The Ensemblist was produced today by me, Mo Brady. Please help others find out about The Ensemblist by leaving us a rating and review on Apple Podcasts. You can also download episodes wherever you get your podcasts or at theensemblist.com. Follow The Ensemblist on Instagram to see the latest posts from our website where we share the stories of talented artists working in Broadway ensembles. And if you haven't checked out some of our fellow podcasts in the Broadway Podcast Network, you should check them out at bpn.fm. Thanks for listening, guys. Until next time, and Happy Holidays!