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[0:00] Julia Lester: Hi, I'm Julia Lester. Welcome to The Theatre Podcast with Alan Seales.

[0:11] Alan Seales: Hey, everyone. Welcome back to another all-new episode of The Theatre Podcast. Our episode today is with Julia Lester, who you have most recently seen on stage in her Broadway debut, turned Tony-nominated performance as Little Red in last season's Into the Woods. She grew up in a family of performers, started acting professionally as a kid, eventually found herself sharing the stage with Broadway royalty all before her mid-twenties. In this episode, she opens up about everything from the early days of doing print ads to community theater in LA and landing her role as Little Red. She even mentions how her self-tape reached Stephen Sondheim himself. The surreal backstage moments with Philippa Soo and Gavin Creel and all the rest of the cast is just the joys of making her debut in a show that many have described as just being lightning in a bottle.

We also dive into her love of acting, musical or not, her latest role in the off-Broadway comedy All Nighter. She reflects on being a queer woman in the industry, her loyalty to good writing, and what makes originating a role so thrilling. You can also catch her on Netflix now in the brand new show The Four Seasons. She plays Steve Carell's daughter. So now you know what to do. Find me on social media, connect with me, tag me in your stories, leave a rating, leave a review. You can watch the video version of this episode either on Patreon or on Spotify. And now, everybody, please enjoy this episode with Julia Lester.

[1:36] Alan Seales: Today's guest is best known for her role as Ashley Moon Caswell on the hit TV show High School Musical: The Musical: The Series on Disney Plus, where she has been a series regular for all four seasons. Are there more than four seasons now? I don't know. She made her Broadway debut as Little Red Riding Hood in the critically acclaimed revival of Into the Woods, garnering her nominations for the 2023 Tony Award for Best Performance by an Actress in a Featured Role in a Musical, a Drama Desk Nom at a Critics Circle, and Clive Barnes Award. She's also the winner of the 23 Broadway.com Audience Choice Award for Favorite Breakthrough Performance. I agree with that. Received rave reviews for her performance as Miss Marmelstein in I Can Get It For You Wholesale at Classic Stage Company, as well as Martha in Center Theater Group's production of The Secret Garden.

She also disappeared on CBS's acclaimed sitcom Mom, recently starred in Hulu's feature film Prom Dates, and can now be seen on the stage in the comedy play All Nighter. Julia Lester, welcome to The Theatre Podcast.

[2:35] Julia Lester: Hello. I'm excited to be here.

[2:37] Alan Seales: Thank you. Thank you. Thank you for joining us. And you are now on stage again. Did I get that right? Are there four seasons of High School Musical: The Musical: The Series?

[2:47] Julia Lester: Yes. Yes.

[2:48] Alan Seales: How do you refer to that on set? By the way, you're just like...

[2:52] Julia Lester: Yeah, it's either you say the full title, or you just say High School Musical, or you say HSMTMTS, which is like the abbreviated version.

[3:01] Alan Seales: HSMTMTS. That sounds like it needs to be a rap of some sort.

[3:05] Julia Lester: Yeah. HSM... See, I messed it up already.

[3:08] Alan Seales: Yeah, I'm surprised we didn't do that on the show. That feels very in the vein of our show, but...

[3:11] Julia Lester: It needs to be like your red leather, yellow leather warm up, your lip trill warm up.

[3:17] Alan Seales: Okay. Very true.

[3:17] Julia Lester: HSMTMTS or something like that.

[3:19] Alan Seales: That's very true.

[3:21] Julia Lester: Anyhow. Okay. So then you started acting, performing at a young age. So where did you grow up? You grew up in California?

[3:26] Julia Lester: Yeah, I grew up in Los Angeles in a family of performers. So I started pretty young just because it was always around and in my world.

[3:39] Alan Seales: What were they doing? Who were your parents involved with?

[3:48] Julia Lester: My parents were... I mean, they do TV and film and theater as well. And they still do it now. They moved to New York about seven years ago to pursue more theater full time. But also, they still do TV and film. But growing up primarily in Los Angeles, there was a lot of theater opportunities there that aren't really there anymore. So I grew up watching my parents do a lot of plays and musicals and I would go on set with my dad for commercials, or if he was guest starring on a TV show or... Yeah, super cool. So sort of like, now LA is very different since COVID. But it does feel like a very sort of vintage of theater and film and TV experience that I got to grow up with, which is really cool, because that's just not really how a lot of things operate anymore, unfortunately. But I learned a lot, definitely.

[4:41] Alan Seales: Oh, that's interesting. So you said your parents moved to New York seven years ago, but COVID as we're recording now was four and a half years ago. So your family decided to do the move before COVID hit, then COVID changed anything, but was it already changing? Was LA versus New York, was that already changing prior to that? Is that why they made the move?

[5:00] Julia Lester: Yeah, I would say definitely the theater scene in LA changed a lot in the late 2010s when I was a teenager. A lot of just, unfortunately, a lot of equity houses closed, a lot of smaller, equity or not, smaller LA theaters shut down due to money and all of that. I think it's also the theater scene in LA is lesser accessible physically, just because in New York, you can hop on the subway and go to Midtown whenever you want to. But in LA, it definitely is a lot more of a task for people to get in their car and go to the theaters. And I think that just became more of an issue. I mean, not an issue for our family, we'll jump in the car and go to the theater anytime. But I think for the more general public, I think it became just less accessible for people to get to and then theaters suffered because of it, unfortunately. So yeah, I miss it a lot. It was really, really amazing getting to grow up in that world.

[6:06] Alan Seales: Well, when did you personally first start performing? Was it on TV or stage?

[6:10] Julia Lester: Yeah. I mean, I really started as soon as I could walk and talk. I was always in some sort of dance class or sing-along mommy and me, even going all the way back to being a toddler. But I started to act professionally. I did some commercials when I was little. I did a lot of community theater growing up. So that definitely is sort of my base for... And dance class, that's sort of my base for all the performing that I ended up doing as my life went on. And then I started to work more professionally when I was a teenager.

[6:48] Alan Seales: I thought you were going to say like, yeah, I started working when I was 10 months old.

[6:53] Julia Lester: Yeah.

[6:53] Alan Seales: Professionally.

[6:54] Julia Lester: Yeah. Yeah.

[6:57] Alan Seales: A little bit after that, but I have two older sisters who did some baby commercial work.

[7:05] Julia Lester: Did you do a baby commercial?

[7:07] Alan Seales: Sorry?

[7:07] Julia Lester: Did you get to do a baby commercial or a toddler commercial at all?

[7:10] Julia Lester: I did. I never got to do a baby commercial, but I did some baby print ad stuff. There was this picture that I remember in my childhood bathroom growing up that was me as a baby wrapped in this towel that looked like a little duckling that had a little hood on it.

[7:27] Alan Seales: Oh, I got one of those in Yoda form for my kids.

[7:29] Julia Lester: Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Cool. So yeah, I did a couple sort of print things like that when I was little, but I mostly started doing commercials when I was around five or six.

[7:39] Alan Seales: Well, did you at this point growing up with it kind of being the norm in your family and your older siblings doing it and everything, when did you realize it was kind of like not the normal path that most people take?

[7:47] Julia Lester: Honestly, not until-

[7:53] Alan Seales: Yesterday.

[7:53] Julia Lester: Yeah. Like recently, kind of. Probably within the last... Probably when I was in high school.

[8:02] Alan Seales: Really?

[8:02] Julia Lester: I mean, still when you're growing up in LA, I went to school with a lot of children of industry people. So it was always sort of around this sort of idea that if you live in Los Angeles, you sort of contribute some sort of yourself or your job to the entertainment industry. So I went to school with a lot of people whose parents were maybe not necessarily actors, but worked in the industry in some way. And so it was sort of always sort of like a norm a little bit, I guess, for kids growing up in LA. But I would definitely say that later in my high school years, I started to be like, oh, yeah, there's also lots of other professions and jobs that people can have. I've just-

[8:48] Alan Seales: But I don't care about those.

[8:50] Julia Lester: Yeah. I don't have a brain built for those kinds of jobs, but I certainly admire them. But yeah, I think growing up in Los Angeles, it is a little bit more normalized than I think maybe other places would be.

[9:03] Alan Seales: That's interesting. You just said you don't have a brain that's made for that. But I wonder if you had been you in a different multiverse where your parents were both scientists, so you saw astrophysics at home instead of performing, if your brain would have developed- I mean, obviously the answer is yes, but how differently it would have developed. Because now when you get older into high school, all you know, all your focus, all that you notice is recency bias. All you notice is the entertainment side of everything around you because that's what you're trained to look for and know about. So yeah, I just wonder in a different world if you would be, I always say astrophysics, something completely different.

[9:49] Julia Lester: For sure. Very well. I mean, yeah. I feel like if I definitely grew up the way that I grew up with performing surrounding me, if I grew up with something completely different surrounding me, I'm sure it would have influenced some part of me. It might have made me better or more attentive in school, which might have been nice. But yeah, it is hard to imagine a world where performing isn't my sort of like number one passion and goal. And I feel like maybe in another universe where I am pursuing something else, I think maybe also art has something to do with it too, like something creative within those sort of very like right-brained, smart jobs.

[10:34] Alan Seales: Fair. No, acting is smart. Acting is hard.

[10:38] Julia Lester: Yes. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

[10:40] Alan Seales: To do it well is very hard. And to sing, like you can sing. My God, I loved you. I saw you get into the woods. Loved it. Loved it, loved it, loved it. Well-deserved Tony nomination. Talk about that audition path. How far in advance before it opened did you join the cast?

[10:58] Julia Lester: Yeah. That's a wild thing to sort of remember because I feel like I sort of blinked and there was the opportunity, which is, of course, not how it happened. But when I look back on it, it really is sort of one of those overnight hit you in the face kind of situations. But I was working on High School Musical: The Musical: The Series at the time.

[11:26] Alan Seales: Yeah, yeah, yeah. The very well-known Tongue Twister.

[11:30] Julia Lester: We were working on our second, no, I'm sorry, our third season at the time where we were about to go into starting our third season. And wait, oh my God, am I getting that timeline right? And now I'm all turned around. Yeah, we were about to start working on our third season. And I remember earlier that year, around the summertime, I had seen a Playbill article announcing that Encores! at New York City Center was doing a revival production of Into the Woods. This is predating the eventual Broadway production that we had. But this was just for New York City Center. And I remember seeing some of the people that were announced in the cast and just being absolutely floored. As a fan, as a lover of musical theater, I was like, well, I'm going to get my ass to New York and see this.

And then I got an audition for it in my inbox, which is crazy because it's one of those things where you're like, well, I don't care what happens. I'm for sure going to go see this production because this is just sort of a dreamy scenario. I grew up with Into the Woods, grew up being obsessed with it.

[12:36] Alan Seales: You bought the tickets for the show before you got the audition notice?

[12:41] Julia Lester: I didn't buy tickets to go see the show, but I definitely was planning on going to see it, regardless of who was it or what was involved. And then getting an audition for it was one of those sort of like, you know, a really exciting moment for something that I was already planning on going to go to as a fan. I had played Little Red before in a production, and I had also played Milky White in an even earlier community theater production of that show. So Into the Woods was just a huge part of my, what's the word, a huge part of my journey as a performer growing up in community theater and being a lover of theater. And so I made an audition tape in my bedroom in like, you know, maybe September of 2021 and sent that tape off into the ether.

And you never know what's going to happen. You just sort of, you know, throw things at the wall and hope that maybe one day something sticks. And then I think like a couple weeks later, I got a call that I had booked the job. So it was definitely a really fast whirlwind thing that happened because I just sent in one tape into the universe and sort of forgot about it and then got a phone call a couple weeks later that they had watched my tape. And Stephen Sondheim had, when he was still around at the time, he watched my tape as well and had sort of given the okay for me to take on the role.

[14:14] Alan Seales: Wow. Not even a callback, not even a like, hey, Stephen wants to meet you to see if we want to work with you. Like you were that good. You were so good.

[14:24] Julia Lester: Thank you.

[14:25] Alan Seales: Then off of the audition tape, old Stevie Sondheim goes, yep, that's the one.

[14:30] Julia Lester: Yeah, it was very special. And, you know, then of course, that production happened at City Center Encores! And it was, you know, such a

[14:38] Julia Lester: I remember some of the cast members, or some of the people involved referring to the show as sort of like a lightning in the bottle moment, because it was sort of like, you know, an amazing cast of people at the right time doing the right show, in the right moment, which, you know, touched a lot of people. And they transferred the show to Broadway immediately following the Encores! production. And so by the summer of 2022, I was making my Broadway debut in Into the Woods, and I had never done a show in New York before that Encores! production period.

[15:13] Alan Seales: And then you get a Tony nomination out of it.

[15:15] Julia Lester: Yeah, it was very cool. I look back on that and I'm like, what the hell? It's crazy. Like, and I know that it is not. It is a very special experience that I got to have in that show. And I'm very, very grateful. Of course, it's, you know, been a huge part of my life, you know, since then. So, yeah.

[15:39] Alan Seales: And you got the pleasure of working with Gavin. Yeah, Gavin Creel got in the tour, the show toured afterwards, because I think it was his idea to make a tour, right? Like, to continue to promote it?

[15:51] Julia Lester: Yeah, he was definitely a huge reason why that cast that had finished the run on Broadway got to go on tour, you know, he was always such an advocate for sticking together and teamwork and advocating for, you know, the rights and well-being of performers alike. And I think, you know, it was really cool that he got to sort of spearhead that part of the journey for those people in the show was very, very...

[16:20] Alan Seales: What was it like for you backstage with that, like you said, the lightning in the bottle, this dream cast coming together, and then the continual cast changes that were coming through with some of the other cast members, like just iconic people that I suspect, you and me both grew up listening to, watching and whatnot. And now you're on stage sharing it with them. So to go move to New York, then make your New York stage, your Broadway debut, and then just go through all of the intense hit publicity that came out of the show. Like, what was that like for you kind of being shot out of a cannon like that?

[16:55] Julia Lester: Yeah, it's really amazing. I think when you're in the moment, and you're experiencing it, it's hard to really fully understand the sort of weight and, you know, it's, I mean, I definitely felt a lot of the excitement of the show. But when you're in something so hardcore, and you've really bonded with these people that don't feel like these, you know, mega superstar theater performers that I grew up idolizing, they're now just like friends and neighbors and colleagues, which is really, really cool. I mean, of course, then they step on stage and you're like, Oh, yeah, that's x, y and z, who I grew up being obsessed with. But then you have those moments where it's just intimate, just, you know, I remember like sitting backstage, a lot of the times with Philippa Soo, Pippa, who I, you know, I love and admire her so much.

And here we were like talking backstage, like, you know, she really took on sort of like this big sister role backstage. And we would laugh so much and talk about, you know, the most random things. And then we would go on stage. I'm like, Oh my god, I'm performing with Philippa Soo. Like, it's really, really crazy. Um, but yeah, I mean, they were just so everybody was so wonderful and so nurturing. And there are a lot of us who made our Broadway debut in that show. And I think that we were definitely taken under a lot of very loving, you know, wings during the show and mentored and nurtured in a way that I hope to be able to do that for somebody one day because it definitely made the experience so unbelievably special, more special than it already was.

[18:35] Alan Seales: Wow. Yeah, I can only imagine. Don't go anywhere. We'll be right back after this break.

[18:42] Alan Seales: Welcome back to the episode. So then the TV and film side of your career, was that the feature film you've been in and this TV stuff you've done recently, did that all come out after Into the Woods? Or was it kind of happening in parallel? I'm just wondering, like, what begets the other? Because I've heard sort of both things that you know, you get a Tony nom or Tony win, even and then the TV and film world is like, all right. But then other people are like, yeah, I don't put up all these doors and everything. So I'm just wondering, from your perspective, what happened? I guess when you're in Into the Woods, you can't do much else. But then like what happened before and after?

[19:21] Julia Lester: Yeah, that's an interesting question. I really I was I was pretty thick in the experience of doing High School Musical when the Into the Woods, what's the word that I'm looking for? The musical, the show, the Broadway, High School, Into the Woods, the show, the forest, the series. Yeah, I just feel like I keep saying the word experience. But that that is what it is. I, I, so I had done two seasons, or I had done three seasons of High School Musical, immediately moved to New York to do the Encores! production and Broadway basically at the same time. And then I was only in the original cast of Into the Woods. So I left with the first wave of people that left the show. And so by September, I had finished my run into the woods and I was moving back to Utah to film season four of High School Musical. So it all happened quite simultaneously, which is really, like such a crazy thing to look back on and think about, you know, the 2022 to 2023 was really just like, oh my god, insane.

[20:25] Alan Seales: Wow, wow. So well, then, then the, I guess, you've got theater agent and TV, do you have separate TV and film agents? Or do you have one agent that does both? And like, the team structure of someone's team always fascinates me because like some people have a manager, which is not an agent, but they have multiple agents and then report up through a manager of some sort.

[20:45] Julia Lester: Yeah.

[20:45] Alan Seales: How do you how do you prefer to operate?

[20:48] Julia Lester: Yeah, it's definitely it's definitely different case by case person by person. But I have an amazing team of, you know, my manager and my agents who all sort of work together in all areas of performing that I'm interested in. So they'll be there for the TV, film and theater side of it all, which is really great.

[21:06] Alan Seales: And you do you do voiceover work, too, right?

[21:08] Julia Lester: Yeah, yeah, I do. Yeah.

[21:11] Alan Seales: Well, how does that how does that how do those auditions compare to the in-person auditions? I feel like a voiceover audition, you know, you got a nice mic or something. Do you audition on mic at home? Or do you have to go into a studio to audition? Do you send it a self tape?

[21:24] Julia Lester: Yeah, it's very different since COVID happened. You know, my whole life growing up was I went to public school for my entire life. But when I started to really audition and really start to be like, okay, this is what I want to pursue. When I was in high school, I would, you know, I would be in high school during the day, and then I would leave early to go drive to somewhere in downtown LA to go audition in person for something, whether that was voiceover or TV and film, I wasn't quite doing professional theater at that time. But everything was in person. So that was really fun. I look back on those memories very fondly, because I bonded a lot with my dad, who, who was the one who would, you know, pick me up and drive to all those rehearsals and all those auditions and sit in LA traffic with me.

And, you know, when I got my license, I started to take myself and really, you know, he had taught me so much in all those years that I really felt the confidence and freedom to really start taking myself on those auditions. But yeah, so I look back on those memories with a lot of love and fondness for how, how fun that was. And yeah, so now most things are our self tapes, which, you know, it definitely varies job by job, some, some things are much easier to do on a self tape, but I definitely prefer going in person in the room, it's really fun, you get to like, you know, meet the team that you, you know, are auditioning for, and you get to be more person to person, I like more, more of that sort of communication is better than just making a tape by yourself and then sending it out into the world. And, you know, um, well, obviously, you're good at self tapes, because you keep getting cast.

[23:07] Julia Lester: Well, thank you. But yeah, it's, it's reverse for me, like, I go into the room, and I'm like, sweating and nervous. And even if I know them, I'm like, I gotta be perfect, because I got one shot, and then they're gonna judge me. But the self tape, I can like, redo it. And if I don't like it, I don't know, maybe that's the downfall.

[23:28] Julia Lester: No, that's definitely come in handy for some instances. But I think also, like, I think that's just like the theater bug in me, like loves a sort of like, you know, one time shot, whatever's going to happen is going to happen. And I always, I always love to follow and trust that sort of natural instinct that comes out into a room, I find that when I'm taping sort of over and over, I can get, I can get quite critical of what I'm doing and try to replicate something that I saw in, you know, four different takes that I've done. And something about going into the room and doing it, you know, being shot out of a cannon and having one shot to sort of get through what you're doing is sort of that, like excitement that I wish we still got to have more often.

Because I think that that definitely lends a hand in I mean, my high school musical audition was pre COVID and fully in person. And so, you know, like there, there's a lot of greatness that can come from being in a room and being face to face with people.

[24:28] Alan Seales: Yeah, I think it definitely varies based, you know, based on what whatever you're reading for auditioning for, for sure. Well, then, okay, let's transition over to All Nighter then. Is it was it the same sort of audition process for that? Or are you offer only now?

[24:40] Julia Lester: Certainly not that. But I was very lucky that All Nighter was something that sort of came my way. I was involved in a couple earlier workshops for the show. So at the time I was doing I Can Get It for You Wholesale and I was living in the city. And I got an offer to do a one day reading workshop of a new play called All Nighter to play the part of Wilma who I had no reference point for any of this is a brand new play with a brand new cast of people. Some really amazing people were involved, including Catherine Gallagher and Havana Rose Liu, who are still currently in the show with me now. And I said yes, before reading the script, I love. I love an opportunity to like, be in a room with cool people that I admire and read a play and like, get to have fun.

And it's really, you know, it's low stakes. It's just an opportunity to like read something new for the first time. So I was really excited to get that opportunity. And then of course, the reading came along and it was like one of the most fun days ever. And one of the best plays I've ever read, period. It's so my kind of show. It's such a beautiful read. It's written so wonderfully by Natalie Margolin. This is her sort of like, you know, big, bigger New York debut with her writing or off Broadway debut, I guess I would say, which is really wonderful because I just I think the world of her, I think she's so smart and captures young women so beautifully in this show. And so then from that experience, we got to do sort of a longer workshop this past summer that was a few days with relatively the same cast.

And we introduced Aaliyah Chanel Scott into the mix. And, you know, it was just a really wonderful group of women that really loved the show and loved each other. And it was very clear that we wanted to or that we would hope that a larger production would sort of come from that experience. And then it was received so well that we got this amazing now off Broadway production that we're doing now.

[26:35] Alan Seales: How do you approach the roles that you that you take? I guess. Well, first off, how do you select the roles? Right. And your own your own personal representation as a queer woman, too, as well. Does that have any effect on it? But then also when you're taking something like this, a comedy, comedy is I will stand by this. One of the hardest things you can do on stage. So, yeah, two part question. How do you choose the roles that you do take? And then the other part is something that like this, that is a comedy. How seriously do you approach the lines, the role, the dialogue?

[27:05] Julia Lester: Yeah, well, I think I think sort of my answer goes hand in hand with both of those questions, which like for Wilma specifically, which is the part that I'm currently playing in All Nighter, she has so many different layers to her and sort of like what you see is what you get. But as the show goes on, she's able to show a lot of sort of groundedness and humanity amongst also the sort of larger scale comedy sequences that she has been or situations that she's been put into in this show. So I definitely look for roles. I mean, I obviously I love comedy. That is primarily what I do. I definitely love something that makes me laugh out loud or something that, you know, especially like when I was reading the All Nighter script for the first time, it was like once I started the read, I could not put it down.

Same with the script for Prom Dates, which was the feature that I did for Hulu last year. Like once I started reading that script, I could not put it down. I love something that sort of like grabs you right as it starts. And All Nighter specifically is sort of one of those things where the dialogue is so rapid fire and people are talking over each other. And, you know, the beats are so specifically laid out in the show for the actors that I think it's just sort of like gives you like a little bit of a playground to like jump onto. So I definitely look for stuff like that. And, you know, also a lot of who the characters that I play, who they are, are in the writing. So I definitely like start there.

I think that's also like a big part of like having theater training is feeling very devoted and loyal to the text that you're given. That's how I felt with Little Red and Into the Woods and, you know, Wilma in this show and Miss Marmelstein. Like there's a lot of clues and hints that come with the words and the text that you're given as a more character performer. And so, yeah, I definitely start there. I'm very, very big and loyal on script and what's been sort of handed to you. I think that there's a lot, a lot to play with.

[30:16] Julia Lester: I love acting. It's great when you and your voice are crossing overlaps. Sometimes in drama, your voice goes over and we end up going off-key, so it's great to have that. I think that's this whole point about Indianapolis that you've got to be close to it, don't rush through it, give it the silence or whatever it is that it needs and let it sit for a second. That's hard. It's hard to do.

[30:52] I agree. I think that's probably also the scripts that I have felt most connected to have been written by people who have had performing in their past in some way. Natalie Margolin, who wrote All Nighter, has a huge background in improv and comedy. Her script, of course, for All Nighter, is very specific and very actor-proof in the way that she can hear it and wants it to be said. It's so brilliantly written because there's a lot of playing and imagination and interpretation that comes with working on a new play, but it's really cool when the foundation is as strong as this play has been.

[31:37] That's really cool. For prom dates, our writer, D.J. Mousner, also has a huge background in improv and comedy, and they're a comedy actor themselves. That too was a script that felt very actor-proof from the jump because it was written by somebody who can also see and hear the way that they want it to be portrayed before it's even done.

[31:58] Yeah, I definitely gravitate towards scripts that have that structure as well. I like that. I like it a lot. All Nighter, the audience feedback for All Nighter, what's that been like? Because I think that it's aimed sort of at a younger audience, right? So is that something that, because of the accessibility... I'm calling it an accessibility problem with Broadway specifically because tickets are so damn expensive, right? So a lot of younger people can't afford them or whatever the reasons they can't go. And so off-Broadway, I was saying last year, it's been seeing this wonderful resurgence and kind of a reconnection with a younger crowd and a younger generation, getting people back into theater seats, especially post-COVID. But what's that been like for you, the audience reaction to something as funny as this?

[32:50] Julia Lester: It's really wonderful. It's so rewarding. We also get the privilege of getting to stage door after the show and really meet face-to-face the people who've just sat in the audience and given us their time and energy as audience members watching the show. So it's been really cool. And one of my favorite things that I've learned through this process is that, or through doing performances at the show and meeting people at the stage door, is that this is a lot of people's first time going to the theater, period.

[33:21] Really?

[33:22] Yeah. And it's been really incredible that we get to be the first thing that they see on stage and potentially the thing that sparks a deeper interest or love in theater or performing. We have a lot of also college-aged people who have been coming to see the show, some of them performers, some of them not. But it's really amazing when I get to meet somebody who's like, I'm a senior in college right now. I'm studying musical theater or I'm studying playwriting or something that feels like the world of All Nighter. And they feel so heard and seen while watching the show and so relatable and it's striking a lot of chords for a lot of people in different ways. And so that's been really cool and rewarding that, you know, whether this is somebody's first play that they've seen or it's their hundredth play that they've seen, it's deepening a sort of spark and interest in something that they've just watched on stage. So that's been extremely exciting to see.

[34:21] Don't go anywhere. We'll be right back after this break.

[34:26] Welcome back to the episode. If you could wave a magic wand and choose any role, current or past, to play, regardless of gender and age, who would you want to be?

[34:36] Julia Lester: Oh, something I've done before or just in life?

[34:39] Or in the world. Something you haven't done yet.

[34:42] Whoa, that's such a big question, especially getting to like gender bend or something. I think that that's a larger question I'll have to like sleep on. And then in the middle of the night, I'm going to be like, oh my God, it's that. But I guess to answer the question now, like I've had, this has been my first time originating a role in theater, and it's been so incredibly fun. And I hope that in my future, I get to do some more originating in some way, because being a part of something that's being built from the ground up has been insanely rewarding. And it's such a collaborative, exciting process. And getting to explore a new character for the first time that nobody's ever seen or heard before has been really, really cool. So I hope that there might be more experiences like that in my future.

[35:34] That makes me very excited. Well, I see you've got the pink in your hair. Did you just come from a six audition for Kay Howard?

[35:40] Oh my God, I wish. No, this is actually, this is my Wilma nod. So this is the hair that I basically wear in the show, you know, sans, I have little pigtails and tinsel things that I add and clips. But when I started rehearsals for this show, I wanted to have some fun with my hair that felt sort of in the world of my little art student Wilma. So yeah.

[36:06] Fair. Also, now being a play, is this, I mean, do you miss the singing part of it? Or you're like, oh, finally, I can go out at night and not worry about my voice?

[36:15] Yes to both. It's really fun and All Nighter we get to do some, you know, very, very low stakes, no pressure singing in the show, which has been really fun because I still sort of get to like, you know, work a little song or two in there, which is really cool. But I love acting so much. And so to go on stage every night and get to do like a 95-minute play of straight acting has been really cool. And I've learned so much because up until this point, you know, as you sort of mentioned, I've done mostly musicals. So definitely I love musicals forever. I would love to do more of them in my future. But getting to do a play has been so rewarding. And acting is definitely my favorite thing to exercise in, in, you know, all of the things that I do surrounding performing. But acting is definitely something that I think, I don't know, brings me so much joy. So it's really cool to get to do that for an entire show.

[37:16] That's cool.

[37:17] Alan Seales: That's cool. Yeah. I enjoy musicals so much. Doing a play is great for exactly what you read, but at the end of the day, like you miss singing, but also like at the end of the day, you don't have to worry about like saving yourself for every single moment of singing.

[37:31] Julia Lester: Yeah. There's definitely a lift of pressure in that area specifically. And you know, some of my other castmates in the show are also quite musical theater trained. And I think we all sort of look to each other throughout the day and we're like, yeah, it's pretty cool. We don't have to worry about that right now. But I know that like, also, like I'm also hungry for a musical. Like I'd love to go back to doing musical theater at some point, but getting to do a play is definitely a really cool, different experience than we've had before.

[38:05] Hmm. I love it.

[38:07] Alan Seales: Okay. Let's move over to plot in 60 seconds. Do you know what's coming?

[38:10] Julia Lester: Oh no, wait, explain to me what's about to happen.

[38:12] Alan Seales: Okay. So I have a list of 16 popular musicals. You will give me a number that is one through 16, which will correspond to a show on my list. And then you give me the plot to that show in 60 seconds or less.

[38:25] Julia Lester: Okay. Let's hope I can.

[38:27] Alan Seales: Okay. One through 16. Give me a number.

[38:30] Julia Lester: Okay. Oh my God. Two.

[38:34] Alan Seales: Two is Frozen. Go.

[38:36] Julia Lester: 60 seconds remaining. Oh my gosh. The plot of Frozen. This is, okay, this is a really good one for me, is about two sisters who live in a Norwegian ice place called Perindale, and ice places is really good. We should coin that. And one of them has ice powers that she has been told to hold inside because when she was younger, she accidentally struck her younger sister in the heart with her ice powers. And that was scary and dangerous. And so she has been told to contain her ice powers, which in turn has torn these two sort of sisters apart. Now flash forward. Now the sisters are teenagers and they, it is coronation day and Elsa, who is the one with the ice powers.

[39:40] Alan Seales: Out of time.

[39:41] Julia Lester: One.

[39:42] Alan Seales: Was that 60 seconds?

[39:43] Julia Lester: That was 60 seconds.

[39:44] Alan Seales: That is crazy. The way that I got into the first two minutes of the show in 60 seconds is nuts.

[39:54] Julia Lester: I mean, that was really descriptive. You need another, probably 120 seconds.

[40:00] Alan Seales: I do. Or I need to, well also, I also have this problem where I asked a question and then I will go on a tangent about it. So that was very illuminating to the way that I answer questions.

[40:15] Julia Lester: And now your viewers and listeners only know the two first minutes of Frozen, so you're welcome.

[40:20] Alan Seales: You only knew act one, act one of Frozen.

[40:23] Julia Lester: That's crazy. Not even act one. Not even. Literally we got, like, she hasn't even sung love is an open door yet. Like that's crazy.

[40:31] Alan Seales: Ooh, in the live action Frozen, you should be Anna.

[40:35] Julia Lester: Thank you so much. I would love to be. That is definitely a dream role of mine. Thank you.

[40:40] Alan Seales: Yeah. You hear that? You hear that, John Shu? Or maybe JJ Abrams. Look at JJ Abrams. Whoever's out there.

[40:45] Julia Lester: Whoever's out there. Spielberg.

[40:49] Alan Seales: Spielberg directing the Frozen live action. I'll be your Anna.

[40:51] Julia Lester: I'll be your Anna.

[40:52] Alan Seales: There you go.

[40:53] Julia Lester: There you go.

[40:54] Alan Seales: It's all got to be practical sets though. Just like, just like, just like Wicked.

[40:58] Julia Lester: Yeah.

[40:59] Alan Seales: Yeah.

[41:00] Julia Lester: Yeah.

[41:01] Alan Seales: I love that. I love that idea.

[41:04] Julia Lester: So we can be in the Norwegian ice place.

[41:05] Alan Seales: Building.

[41:06] Julia Lester: Yeah.

[41:07] Alan Seales: Yeah.

[41:08] Julia Lester: Well, you said place. I thought it was just like, you were saying palace fancy.

[41:10] Alan Seales: An ice palace.

[41:11] Julia Lester: Yeah.

[41:12] Alan Seales: Okay. Thank you.

[41:14] Julia Lester: Yeah. That is what I said.

[41:16] Alan Seales: Yeah. For sure.

[41:18] Julia Lester: For sure.

[41:20] Alan Seales: All right. Three standard closing questions to wrap up every episode. First one simply is just what motivates you?

[41:23] Julia Lester: Oh my goodness. I think what's motivating me right now in this play is the wonderful girls that I get to work with every day and their kindness and love and the fun that we have backstage. That makes me very excited to go to work every day and tell this really cool story.

[41:39] Alan Seales: I love that. All right. And what advice would you give to your younger self and younger people listening now starting out down a similar path?

[41:45] Julia Lester: Oh my goodness. Trust your instincts, be yourself, and trust that what is meant for you will not pass you by.

[41:55] Alan Seales: Okay. And last question, hardest one. If you can only see one show for the rest of your life, but you can see it as many times as you want, what would you see?

[42:04] Julia Lester: A theater on stage?

[42:06] Alan Seales: You interpret as you will.

[42:08] Julia Lester: Whoa. That's a hard one, but I'll say a TV show. Is that okay?

[42:17] Alan Seales: Yeah.

[42:18] Julia Lester: If there's one theater TV show ever is Nurse Jackie, and I can rewatch all seven seasons an endless amount of times, infinite amount of times.

[42:28] Alan Seales: That is an original answer.

[42:29] Julia Lester: Thank you so much. I stand by that.

[42:31] Alan Seales: Yeah.

[42:32] Julia Lester: Yeah.

[42:33] Alan Seales: Very original answer. I'm down for that.

[42:35] Julia Lester: Okay. So where can we connect with you online? Where can we find you and say hi?

[42:40] Julia Lester: Oh my goodness. I am on Instagram at Julia Lester. Oh no. Oh my God. That's not the right handle.

[42:46] Alan Seales: You don't know your name?

[42:47] Julia Lester: I am on Instagram at Julia Lester. I have not been Julia Rose Lester in approximately six years, so I don't know where that came from, but you can find me on Instagram at Julia Lester or TikTok at jugethefirst, maybe sometimes. Maybe I post TikTok sometimes. And yeah.

[43:04] Alan Seales: Is your middle name-

[43:05] Julia Lester: And you can see me on stage eight times a week in All Nighter at MCC Off-Broadway.

[43:09] Alan Seales: Which is a limited run, so get your tickets, go see her now. Is Rose your actual middle name?

[43:15] Julia Lester: It is my actual middle name, but that has not been my Instagram handle in, like I said, six years, so I don't know where that came from. But I am still Julia Rose Lester, but I am Julia Lester on Instagram.

[43:27] Alan Seales: All right. Fair. I am still theater underscore podcast on Threads, Instagram, TikTok. I'm on Facebook. Find me there. You can watch the video version of this on Spotify or Patreon. Thanks to Jukebox, The Ghost for the intro and the outro music, and Julia Lester, thank you so much. I've enjoyed chatting with you.

[43:44] Julia Lester: Thank you.

[43:45] Alan Seales: And thanks for listening. Take a deep breath, make the world a little colorful.