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Tell Me More | Episode 64: Mandy Gonzalez on blood, balance, and Broadway
00:33:18
On today’s episode, Matt Tamanini is in conversation with the current guest star who is ready for her close-up at the St. James Theatre every Tuesday night, the iconic Mandy Gonzalez. Now in her seventh Broadway show,
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- [00:10]
Matt Tamini
Welcome to Broadway Radio's Tell Me More. I'm your host, Matt Tamini. Here on Tell Me More, we strive to talk about projects and topics that don't often get covered on theater podcasts. On today's episode, I'm in conversation with the current guest star who is ready for her close up at the St. James Theater every Tuesday night, with some other additional dates thrown in. The iconic Mandy Gonzalez. Now in her seventh Broadway show, Mandy plays the role of Norma Desmond at least once a week in the critically and audience lauded production of Sunset Boulevard, currently on Broadway. In our conversation, we talk about why, after all of her successes, including playing Elphaba in Wicked, originating the role of Nina and In the Heights, and six years with a pandemic thrown in the middle as Angelica, Schuyler, and Hamilton, she thought that taking on a role one night a week on Broadway was right for her. Of course, we dive deep into all things Sunset, but as a former Elphaba, we also talk about the new Wicked movie, and she tells me what she learned directly from Idina Menzel when she was her standby in Aida. While they were both a part of the early workshops of Wicked, it was a wonderful conversation and talking to Mandy, as is, seeing her perform is always such an honor and a delight. So without further ado, here's my conversation with Mandy Gonzalez. Well, Mandy, please feel free to correct me if I'm wrong, but is it somehow possible that you have to deal with more blood in Sunset Boulevard than you did Dance of the Vampires? Because that would seem counterintuitive.
- [01:47]
Mandy Gonzalez
Oh, Matt, that's a good opener. Yes. There's so much more blood in Sunset Boulevard. And with Dance of the Vampires, you know, the blood used to be in these little packs, and I would have to keep the pack on the back of my neck. And then when Michael Crawford, he would pretend to bite me and I would have to, you know, fake like I was holding my neck, like he was biting me. And at the same time, I was pushing like a blood pack. And I remember one time I pushed too hard and, like, the blood just, like went into his mouth and he was like. But. But, yeah, this. It's so much. It's so much more. And it's so much more fun. It's just. It's just a little bit more gruesome.
- [02:34]
Matt Tamini
Yeah, well, whether it's you or. Or Nicole, like, I love the fact that you all are greeting people with the blood on and everything, like.
- [02:44]
Mandy Gonzalez
Yes.
- [02:45]
Matt Tamini
Is that a. Is that a production choice or is that just like a really cool photo op.
- [02:51]
Mandy Gonzalez
I think it's a little bit of both. I think that it takes a minute to take off the blood, so sometimes you have guests that are there that can't stay and wait for you to shower and do all those things, so you want to say hi, and then it. I don't know. Everybody wants to see the blood, so it becomes this really fun kind of photo op and this really fun experience. You know, I kind of had the same thing when I was Elphaba in Wicked, because it would take me forever to get out of the green makeup, and so my guests would have to wait. And sometimes you had guests that were there that just couldn't wait, and so you had to take those pictures green. And most of the time, you would try to look your best. So hopefully they didn't take off your wig yet, so you wouldn't be in a wig cap. But I have all those kind of photos out there, too.
- [03:41]
Matt Tamini
Yeah, absolutely. I want to talk about Wicked here in a little bit, but. Okay, so officially, you are not the Norma Desmond alternate. You are a guest star. Is that a distinction without a difference? Is that like a union rule thing, or is that just, like, a unique designation to reflect your status and popularity in the community? What is that?
- [04:04]
Mandy Gonzalez
I think it's just a level of. For me, when the creative team approached me with this, they said, well, it was really up to my team and what we wanted to label that as. And I think it's a. A little bit of a respect for how long I've been in this business and been around, and really, it is. I'm there for a certain day. And. Yeah. So I wanted it to be something that when people come to the show, they feel like, oh, this is something special. Not that an alternate isn't that, but it just made it a little bit more distinctive that when you buy these tickets, you're coming to see this guest star and look out like you're gonna have a great time.
- [04:51]
Matt Tamini
Oh, no, I. Like, as we were talking about before, I live in Orlando, so I haven't seen you yet, but I had a friend who went this Tuesday, and the first thing she texted me afterward was about. I believe the term was Mandy8, which I guess that's a good thing. So.
- [05:06]
Mandy Gonzalez
Yeah, according to my daughter, that's a very good thing.
- [05:09]
Matt Tamini
Yeah. Yeah. People much younger than me use that term, but I think it also, like, just that term, even though it's more of, like, a TV term, like, it makes sense in the larger Sunset Boulevard film ethos of that entire thing, like, yeah, guest star kind of makes sense in that way. So it definitely adds to the entire experience.
- [05:29]
Mandy Gonzalez
I think so. I think it's. It's really special. They have, like, a special playbill insert that they have for my nights. They have a poster out. So it really feels like when I come into the theater, that I'm home, and I think that that's so important.
- [05:46]
Matt Tamini
Yeah. And they do the whole change with the backstage stuff and then the Shubert Alley stuff. Like, you're getting the whole full Mandy Gonzalez experience when you're there.
- [05:58]
Mandy Gonzalez
Yes.
- [05:59]
Matt Tamini
Speaking of that, obviously, Nicole has her version of Norma, and I'm not sure if Caroline has gone on yet. Hopefully she gets the opportunity before she leaves for Smash. But when people come and see you on a Tuesday night, what do you want them to take away from your version of Norma? Not to compare them to the other women, but, like, yeah, yeah. Who is your Norway?
- [06:22]
Mandy Gonzalez
Yeah. There's no way to compare because of the way that Jamie Lloyd directed this, and he wanted each of us to bring ourselves to the role and to Norma and doing research and living in this, you know, life that I've lived. You know, I'm 46 years old. I've been working in the theater over 20 years, and I have a lot. I have a lot to bring. And there's so much vulnerability to Norma that allows you to go to those places. And I think it's the same for anybody that would play the role in this production. But you have to go there. You. You can't hold back. You have to go to those places that are kind of scary. And I would say that people that are coming to see my Norma, it's. For me, it's very real, and it's very much. She's very alive. And I think getting to do this show once a week, it really feels like an opening, but it really feels in the moment. And I love that, you know, when I do other shows and I do eight shows a week, you know, you get into the grind, and you have to, you know, get out of that mentality of, oh, another day and, you know, when you're tired and all those kind of things. But for me, it's like, I get one shot, you know, and like Lin Manuel Miranda wrote in Hamilton, I'm not throwing away my shot.
- [07:59]
Matt Tamini
Oh, I can't believe I just got Manny Gonzalez to say that. I love.
- [08:02]
Mandy Gonzalez
I had to do it. But I think that it's. It's all out there. I'm not holding back anything. And I think that people that come are going to have that experience of what it means to. To watch somebody that has, you know, created their. Created their career in their life in theater.
- [08:25]
Matt Tamini
Real quick, I saw you three times in Hamilton, so having that little thing. So I love that. But one of the things that. When I saw this sunset, it. It did ring a little bit more real to me, especially in the performance of Norma, because in previous productions, there was distance in terms of the time period it was set, you know, when the. When the film was originally set. And I feel like there's a little bit more connection to today's Hollywood, to today's entertainment when you're looking at. Rather than a woman who is. She's been played by older women in the past. Like, these are people in the primes of their career, you and Nicole. And to look at how they. Norma has been discarded, it feels much more of today than I think I've ever seen or heard. Sunset, is that part of that production, you know, coming from Jamie Lloyd and trying to connect that?
- [09:20]
Mandy Gonzalez
Absolutely. Matt. I think that completely. I think that our society is so immersed in social media, and that also plays a really big part because we're no longer just looking at these stars. We're getting to know them and getting to. Or what we think we know about them. That becomes part of the allure in getting into their personal lives. And so I think that there's so much relevance to the original film. And with Gloria Swanson, when I read her biography and she talks about this time and with Billy Wilder, and she was at this point in her career where, you know, she was 50 and she wasn't getting hired and. And all of those things. And that still happens. I mean, that's still. But she was. Look what she brought to that film. Without her, that film would. Would not exist because she was so vulnerable and it was so real for that time, you know, to grow up. I mean, she started in the business when she was. I think she was about 13 when she started in silent movies. And it became. And it was. She did it to make a living. She didn't. She had to help her. Her family. And she was the breadwinner, you know. And so to watch that transform and to know that now, I think that all of those versions of Sunset Boulevard are so relevant and they just are a reflection, I think, as well, on our time and where we are. And right now we are at that place where everything is out there, you know, and even if it's not out there, people are talking about you and talking Online about you and all of things they think they know about you and, you know, how to keep your sanity through that is a real, real thing.
- [11:25]
Matt Tamini
Yeah, absolutely. Well, and I think that is definitely one of the strengths of this production. But sitting in the St. James Theater, like, I don't know that I've been in a more electric environment in a theater probably since the early days of Hamilton. But as you have lived in this now for a few months between rehearsals and coming into the show, what do you think it is about this production that is generating so much anticipation from audiences, even if they haven't seen the show yet?
- [11:56]
Mandy Gonzalez
Oh, gosh. I think it's right now it feels like that golden ticket that people are getting and they're traveling to come and see the show. They're traveling with their family or they're meeting a friend in the city. And it's the big. Right now, it's the big talk. They've watched little clips or things that they've seen on the street with Tom on Tick Tock. And it's really bringing in so many different generations from people that, you know, love Nicole and love the pop world and all of those things. It's bringing people in from so many different places. And I think that's really exciting. And to be in the theater, and the theater is the best place ever, but to be in the theater and to see that curtain that's down that the set designer sutra, it's just. It's so. It's like it's vibrating. You know what I mean? And I think all that. And I think people that are backstage, you know, we have so many Broadway debuts that are happening, not just the cast that's come from London, but so many people in the ensemble that are here in New York. And there's that energy of people that can't wait to get their moment, you know, to be on stage. And so I think that that just permeates out into the audience and down the street and all those things. So. And also, it's that thing of, oh, if they saw the picture of the blood, like, what's that about? And I want to see that because I have so many people that come that have never seen the movie or that have never listened to the cast album like I did religiously as a kid, you know, because they're not a part. They weren't a part of that. You know, that wasn't a part of their journey as, you know, growing up. Yeah, like, some people just didn't listen to show tunes. I don't know, you know, I definitely.
- [13:52]
Matt Tamini
I don't believe you.
- [13:53]
Mandy Gonzalez
But they just. They're in awe at the end where they're like, I didn't think that that was going to happen. I didn't know. And, you know, and that's just so exciting because, you know, people. Even somebody said to me the other day, like, did she do it or did this person do it? You know, And I was just. I'm like, that's so cool, because I think Jamie, his. The way that he thinks or that I've, you know, witnessed. It's so much about, well, what do you think it is? It's like when you go see a painting or a piece of art in a museum, you can choose to do the headphones, where everybody tells you about the history of the painting and what it's about, or. And you. Or you could choose to just take them off and experience it. And I think that Sunset Boulevard is a real experience, and you are immersed in that, and I think it's up to you to decide all of it, like, what it's about and what it's about for you. So it's a very personal experience.
- [14:55]
Matt Tamini
I think you mentioned growing up listening to the cast album. Which. Which one did you listen to? Because I remember distinctly having a gold one and a silver one, and I. I'm guessing was gold, and then silver was Betty. And then was. Was there a Patty one from London, too? I don't remember.
- [15:11]
Mandy Gonzalez
I don't. I don't remember. But I listened to Patty, I listened to Glenn, and I listened to Betty. I listened to all of them, you know, from Los Angeles. So I think I was exposed to it because we did a field trip. It was like the best field trip ever.
- [15:28]
Matt Tamini
Oh, wow.
- [15:29]
Mandy Gonzalez
My school went to go see it. And I mean, how lucky was I that I got to see Glenn and Judy Kuhn? And it was just amazing. But, you know, then I really. When I started to get into musical theater more and hang out with people that were into it and knew a lot more than I did. It's when I started to listen to the other versions and. And so, yeah, so it was like, once I discovered Evita, it was like, okay, what else can I listen to? Of Patti LuPone's? Like, what else?
- [16:02]
Matt Tamini
Of course. Yeah, of course. This is obviously a unique situation for you. As you mentioned, you've done plenty of shows, including, like, some of the biggest shows ever, doing it eight times a week. But now you're doing Tuesdays. It's a very different schedule for you, but you've spoken about having a work life balance. You have a 12 year old daughter, so what is this opportunity? She turned 13. Oh my gosh. Okay. So crazy. You have a teenager, that's nuts. So what is this opportunity afforded you both from a professional and a personal aspect?
- [16:39]
Mandy Gonzalez
You know, it's so interesting, Matt, because I went to teach with my friend, I went to go sit in on his class at nyu. He teaches musical theater for seniors at nyu. My friend Elise Roman and they got to ask questions at the end and they asked kind of the same question and I said to them that, you know, your journey in theater doesn't have to look exactly how everybody says it has to look. You know, and sometimes when you say yes, it can create this whole other space in your life and that might be needed. And so I think that this has just been such a wonderful for me at this time in my life where so much of my life is about self care and taking care of myself and taking care of my family and to actually be there to do that. When you're doing eight shows a week, you make it happen. But it's hard, you know, I've missed so many birthdays and recitals and all of those things and I at this time don't want to miss that. And so it came up and it's like the perfect, the perfect opportunity for that. So you know, because my family, once the show's done, once Tuesday night is done, I'm up at you know, 6:30 and I'm up, I'm getting my daughter up, I'm getting her ready for school. And I love that, I love that normalcy and. But I was doing it when I was doing eight shows a week too. But now I can also do pickup after the show because when you're doing on a Wednesday, got the two shows and that would be the only time I would see my daughter. And so this has been really wonderful. And so I just told those students, I said, you know, sometimes opportunity comes and it can be really wonderful. And another thing that I get to do because of this is my concert work. I don't have to stop that or I don't have to do it like I was doing it during Hamilton on Monday nights where I would fly out on a Sunday night and then do a concert on a Monday. And because I didn't want to lose that, that creative source that I built for myself. And so I get to do that, I've limited it to one concert a month, which is really great except for the holidays. I'm doing Like a little holiday concert. I'm doing three, but I'm not flying anywhere. So that's good because I really, you know, I want that Tuesday. I want it to be about. About that. I don't want to be tired. I don't want to be tired because I was on plane the day before or something like that. So Tuesdays, it's like I get up, I take my daughter to school, and I see my husband a little bit. But it's about, you know, I get to the theater, I warm up, and then I walk through the entire show with the assistant director and, you know, so interesting. But I. I think this has been a really wonderful experience for me.
- [19:53]
Matt Tamini
That's awesome. You, you talked earlier about doing it once a week. It makes that Tuesday night really special. But you also just talked about self care and taking care of yourself. This is a big thing. It's a big character. Both like the scope of emotions and the performance and everything that you're asked to do.
- [20:12]
Mandy Gonzalez
Right.
- [20:12]
Matt Tamini
How do you stay ready physically and vocally? I mean, I know this is what you do, so it's not, you know, different, but I mean, it's not something where I think you can just go from 0 to 100 at the drop of a hat. I'm imagining you have to make sure that you're ready to go for game night on Tuesday when you step into the St. James.
- [20:31]
Mandy Gonzalez
Absolutely. I think that you have to continue training. You know, when you're on Broadway, it's really like you're an athlete. And as you're getting ready for the show, you are, you know, to get ready for rehearsals and all those things. Like it's going to the gym, it's eating the right things, it's, you know, making sure that you're hydrated, taking your vocal lessons, meeting with your acting coach or whoever you have to meet with to make sure that that performance is right where it needs to be. So I think that it's definitely a learning curve for me, this experience, because I've never done that before. I've done the grind where it's the eight shows a week, and I love that. So this has been very interesting where I go, okay, I have to, I have to remind myself every day that you have to stay on a routine. I do really well with routine. I think a lot of us do. But for this show especially, I think it's about staying on that routine, getting to the gym at a certain time, warming up at a certain time, doing this. So that way, when you do do a Tuesday or, you know, I'm going to do a concert or something. You're ready. And I would hate to go up there and feel like I didn't give my all before because then I'd feel I'd be really hard on myself. I'm very much a, you know, I'm a hard worker. I'm a bit of a perfectionist. So I think the more I can prepare, the better.
- [22:04]
Matt Tamini
Earlier you mentioned the fact that you iconically played Elphaba on Broadway in Wicked. It's a pretty big week for the Wicked fandom. Have you. Have you seen the movie? Do you have plans to see the movie? What's your. Yes. Okay. I saw it on Monday as well, so, yeah.
- [22:22]
Mandy Gonzalez
Oh, my goodness. So I went on Monday. And were you there at the Regal?
- [22:27]
Matt Tamini
No, I was down here. No, no, I was down here in Orlando. Yeah.
- [22:30]
Mandy Gonzalez
Okay. So they did, like a screening for a lot of theater folk on Monday, and it was so great because I wasn't able to go to the premiere here because I was doing a benefit concert that night, and it was a really important friend and a very important cause, so I had to miss it. But when they said, we're doing this screening and you can bring one person, and I was just so excited because I could bring my daughter. And getting to share my Wicked journey with her has been so special. You know, I had my daughter, I think, a year after leaving Wicked, and then she saw it for the first time, I believe she was around five. She saw it with my mom, and then she got to see it again with me for the 20th anniversary, and that was fantastic. And then to get to watch the movie with her and it was just so special. You know, I was a part of Wicked when they were putting together Act 1, the workshop, and I was in the ensemble. And at that time, I was a standby for Idina, Menzel and Aida on Broadway. That was my first Broadway gig.
- [23:44]
Matt Tamini
Yeah.
- [23:44]
Mandy Gonzalez
And I remember she was so lovely to me and just so welcoming and everything. She taught me so much on how to. How to act in this business, not act on stage, but how to treat in this business, because she was just. She was the best. And I remember when she got the script for Wicked and her talking about it with me and how she hoped that, you know, it would go and all those kind of things, and then to sit in that room and watch her sing Defying Gravity for the first time, and, you know, it was. It was magic. And to see her and Kristen together, it was incredible. And then to see it from there to see it on the screen and it's gonna just. It's just so beautiful. And it's so, like, wonderfully done. John Chu did such an incredible job. Cynthia and Ariana are brilliant. Ethan, it's just. And Bo and Yang is like a rock star. Like, I just love him so much. But it was. It's something. And to think, like, man, I was. I'm. I was a part of this. It was really overwhelming, a little bit emotionally. I was so proud. I was so proud. And now it's really going to take on a whole new audience and of young people and people all around the world get to experience this beautiful story. And it really was a. A big moment. I'm so glad I got to see it. And then I had already bought tickets for my daughter and her friends for tomorrow night, so we're going tomorrow night too out to see it. I'm glad I had a preview so I don't have to cry in front of my. My daughter's friends.
- [25:32]
Matt Tamini
That would be. Oh, I. I'm going again tonight. So I went Monday and I'm going tonight on Thursday. So. Yeah, I know the feelings.
- [25:39]
Mandy Gonzalez
You can just. And I don't mean this as like to sell it or anything. I just think it's one of those movies you can see again and again because it's just. It brings up so many different emotions, but it's just pure joy and humanity and all the things that I don't know that we want to do together. You know, to sit in a theater. I haven't been to a movie in a long time. And to sit in a theater and to eat popcorn and laugh together and cry together, it's just such. I'm just so glad that Wicked is the one, like, kind of bringing that together. I felt the same way in a different way within the Heights. You know, when we got to go see that movie, the screening, and it was just, wow. Like, I remember being in the reading with that incredible company and with Lin Manuel and, you know, he was a new writer in New York and were people going to come see it and all those. All those things that you hope for, you know, and then there it was on the screen and now it's one of my daughter's favorite movies, and it's great.
- [26:45]
Matt Tamini
Yeah.
- [26:46]
Mandy Gonzalez
Also did that movie. And it's. He just has a way of. With music, even with. Oh, gosh, crazy rich.
- [26:56]
Matt Tamini
Crazy rich Asians. Yeah.
- [26:58]
Mandy Gonzalez
He just has a way of incorporating music in a way that adds to the scenes and to do that in A musical. I think that he's just brilliant. I love the way that he and his editing, like his editor, how they work, the different swells of music with different camera angles and things like that. It just. It makes you feel like you're a part of it. Like it's immersive in some way.
- [27:24]
Matt Tamini
Yeah, absolutely. Well, I won't take much more of your time. I'll wrap up with a real quick couple things here. This might be a question that you can't answer or don't want to answer, which is totally fine. But I have to ask because Nicole has talked about. She's got a nine month contract with Sunset. Are you on a similar timeline? Are there any plans for after that? Is that something that you, you know, for my personal curiosity, can answer?
- [27:51]
Mandy Gonzalez
Right. I don't. At this moment, I am on that same track and will be figuring that out as. As we go along, as we do in this business, you know, but right now, I'm just looking forward to every single moment I have on that stage with that company. Because the company is. Is everything. Not just the company, the crew, everybody. The woman that, you know, helps me with the blood and all these things, it's. It's. It's just the best. So I'm. As long as I can be there, I will be there. And I'll see you on Tuesdays. Tuesdays with Mandy.
- [28:30]
Matt Tamini
Yeah. Yeah. That's a good answer. That's a very political, safe answer. I love that.
- [28:36]
Mandy Gonzalez
But, yeah, because you never know in this business. Is it this amount of time? Is it this amount of time? It's like, well, you hope. You hope it's this or you hope it's this, but you go where the work is. So that's like, that's really where it is.
- [28:52]
Matt Tamini
All right, well, last question you talked about. This is special for you, doing it one night a week. We talked about how electric that audience is. Is there a moment that you look forward to in every. Every night on stage? Is it. Whether it's something you sing or if it's something that happens on stage or if it's something you watch somebody else do, is there one thing that you're like, you know what? That's the highlight of this experience for me.
- [29:17]
Mandy Gonzalez
Oh, my gosh. I think there's so many highlights, Matt. That's really hard. But some of my favorite moments, I'll bring it to that. Are watching Hannah Young dance. That's absolutely one of my favorite moments because I've never seen anybody move like her. And it's so Beautiful. The way that Fabian has choreographed it and incorporated Norma into that younger Norma world. But that's one of my favorite, favorite moments. Whenever I get to see her dance and be around that, it's just. It's breathtaking. And then with Jo, I've been able to be on now with three different Joes, with Tom, with Diego Rodriguez, and with Jimin Moon. And all of them bring such a vulnerability to their characters and strength and to be able to witness that every night. But it's really that first moment where we get to look at each other and I get to see them even though I'm wearing glasses. It's like I get to see their eyes. The way that it's lit is just. It's just breathtaking. And then one of my other favorite moments is as if we never said goodbye, because I really get to the audience in that moment. And the theater, you know, and all the theater gods and all that roam around, you know, there's so many stories within the St. James. I remember waiting in line to go see the Producers. I was just moved to New York and I don't know how long I was in New York, but I didn't have a lot of money and so I had to wait in the standby line and I stood all through that production and to see that. And I've seen so many shows there, so many of my friends have been on that stage. But to take all of that in and everybody wants their show, to make it, everybody has. I think Ethel Merman has been on that stage, who was one of my all time heroes growing up because my grandma loved torch singers. And so it was like Ethel Merman, Judy Garland or Edie Gourmet like, to stand on that stage is the same stage as Ethel is like beyond beyond. So those are my three favorite things.
- [31:57]
Matt Tamini
Those are very, very good favorites. I love all of that. Well, Mandy, thank you so much. I am such a huge fan and I am ecstatic for you to have this opportunity and for audiences to have the opportunity to see you do this role. And I cannot wait to be in the St James on a Tuesday night soon.
- [32:12]
Mandy Gonzalez
Yay. Thank you so much, Matt. This was so much fun.
- [32:22]
Matt Tamini
Thank you for listening to this episode of Tell Me More. My name is Matt Tamminini. You can find me on Instagram @bww, Matt. And you can reach out to Broadway radio, on Facebook, Twitter or Instagram rodwayradio. In the show notes and in the article version of this episode on broadwayradio.com, we will have a link to a post that Mandy has provided that shows all of the currently confirmed dates for which she will be on as Norma Desmond in Sunset Boulevard. Tell Me More is produced and edited by me. Special thanks, of course, to the legendary Mandy Gonzalez, Jesse, Rita, and the man without whom none of Broadway radio is possible, James Marino. Thanks again for listening. And remember, everyone needs new ways to dream. Always get a second scoop, and when you get the chance, ask people to tell you more.