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- [00:00]
Mickey Jo Theatre
Oh, my God. Hey. Jordan Fisher.
- [00:01]
Jordan Fisher
Hi. How are you?
- [00:02]
Mickey Jo Theatre
I'm doing very well.
- [00:03]
Jordan Fisher
Thanks for coming all the way here.
- [00:05]
Mickey Jo Theatre
No worries. Happy to be here. We're backstage at the Al Hirschfeld. You're about to go on and do a Friday night show at Moulin Rouge, Prince of Broadway, that you now are going from show to show.
- [00:16]
Jordan Fisher
Well, thank you. I'm really grateful that I get to work in this city and do what I do. I'm just, you know, as long as I keep getting welcomed into buildings, I'm happy to be there and. And make theater. It's like my absolute favorite thing to do.
- [00:37]
Mickey Jo Theatre
Yeah. And audiences are very happy to come and listen to you and see you do that as well. Going back, all the way back to the beginning, what is your earliest memory of getting exposed to musical theater?
- [00:50]
Jordan Fisher
Well, I mean, so, I mean, it was probably. I was in fourth grade and the fifth grade drama club did a production of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. And that was my first time seeing. I'd seen plays before. Birmingham has a pretty rich. Birmingham, Alabama is a pretty rich theater community. And, and the Birmingham Children's Theater, you would go and like, it was like a two or three time a year field trip that you would do in your schools. You would go and see a play and it was awesome. But a musical. Didn't even know that that was like a thing. My earliest exposure to anything like it was From Justin to Kelly. Do you know that movie, From Justin to Kelly?
- [01:37]
Mickey Jo Theatre
I know of it.
- [01:38]
Jordan Fisher
You know of it. Okay, well, I know it. So if you want me to start quoting it from the beginning, I could do that. That was my first. Like, what is this? This is amazing. I was a gymnast. I was, you know, I was in the South. I was in Alabama and a tiny little football town outside of Birmingham. And I just, like, I knew gymnastics and a new school and football and baseball and basketball and the skating rink on Fridays. Like, that was my life. And then, yeah, From Justin to Kelly came out, what, in like, 2002. And that was pretty game changing. Like, the idea of performance in general was just awesome. I loved music already. I loved, like watching people dance and so trying to figure out how to like, look like them and do the same thing was something that I always tried to emulate as a kid. And then thank God for, for. Oh, they play for our amp checks. They play some.
- [02:44]
Mickey Jo Theatre
Oh, is that what it is?
- [02:45]
Jordan Fisher
Bangers. Yeah. So they run. They run sound through all. All of the speakers in, on stage, in the house, bathrooms, everywhere, to make sure that everything's okay.
- [02:53]
Mickey Jo Theatre
This is a working space. We passed 100 people doing various things on the stage. And underneath.
- [02:59]
Jordan Fisher
Oh yeah, this one especially, this is Moulin Rouge is an absolute machine. I mean, as you guys walked across the stage to come over here, you could look up and see five elephants worth of set pieces, some costumes flown above us. It is a circus. It is. What's. What happens backstage is way more complicated than what's happening on stage during Moulin Rouge at any given time. I mean, the amount of set pieces that we have that are so huge, like larger than life, chaise lounge that's like, you know, 20ft long. It's crazy. Anyway, thank God for Drama Club. In fifth grade, that was my earliest exposure to. We did Schoolhouse Rock and I sang Conjunction Junction and my life was changed. And that was kind of the beginning. And then it was a pretty quick like, you know, you get bit by the bug. So I was what, nine at the time? Turning 10. Fell so madly obsessed in love with. Couldn't get enough theater. All of the basics. Rent, Wicked, you know, Phantom, like all of that good stuff that we start off like our gateway musicals. And then once on this island happened at my theater company in. In Birmingham. And that was, I think that. That I. I saw the show there like six times. And that was. That was when it like happened, right? It was needing to be a part of that production so badly. Needing to be a part of that magic that was happening on stage with those people so badly. Like, that's all I could. That's all I could think about. That's all I could manage to set my sights towards. And so just started training like crazy. And TV and film happened to happen long before Broadway did. But my genesis was theater. It's where all of my training started and how it continues. Theater is. I think Denzel said TV and film pays the bills, but Broadway pays the soul. I think he said that at one point and many moons ago. And that has been my mantra for forever. I mean, I. I love telling stories, right? But there's something that, I mean, you'll get it. There's something that happens when you go into. I mean, I could go. I could see. I could see a musical every night for the rest of my life. I fully believe that. I think I could do it. I'd burn out somewhere and then I'd get re inspired again by something like. It's just. It's everything. That's why we do it.
- [05:53]
Mickey Jo Theatre
Broadway debut finally happened for you with Hamilton, like early days of replacement cast. And it's now about to celebrate 10th anniversary on Broadway. Is that crazy to you?
- [06:04]
Jordan Fisher
It is wild. That show. I fell in love with my wife during that was a lot of really big life moments happened for me during that. It was. It was a dream to work on Broadway. Obviously I didn't know how much my body and soul would agree with it. And that was the most incredible. That was the most incredible debut. I think that it's crazy to me that I can say that that was my Broadway debut was Hamilton. But I made friends that I'll have for the rest of my life. My dresser here in this show, Scotty Kane was my dresser at Hamilton. So he was my very first dresser ever on Broadway. We get to do this all over again, which is really awesome. And I just got to see a ton. Most of the original cast at this. We did this town hall event recently and celebrated Lin and his achievements in life and work. And we basically had like a four hour concert and it was just a massive reunion of a bunch of old Ham Fam and the Heights fam. And it was a really beautiful time. And there was. There was just like a change, a shift in the air when the Hamilton OBC were ever together during that time. Like there was just this palpable, like, oh my God. There's this cast of this show that arguably put theater on the map in a global like from a global perspective in our day to day household conversations. And it will always be that cast of beautifully, beautifully brown artists. That's really cool to me.
- [08:10]
Mickey Jo Theatre
I think one of the most exciting things about watching your career is there have been a few shows like Hamilton and like Rent that became these huge cultural phenomenons. And a little wider than that, there are these scores that really redefined the sound of musical theatre. Even going back to Sweeney Todd and like we'd really arrived at the point of what contemporary musical theater sounded like by like Dear Evan Hansen with Pasek and Paul and then Hadestown with a very different sound. You've done so many of those like cultural landmark shows.
- [08:40]
Jordan Fisher
Yeah, yeah. Wow. And how cool, right? Like from a storyteller's perspective, that is. That's. It's been. It's been a banquet I've gotten to use. I mean, Hadestown is a really beautiful example. Example of being able to draw inspiration from and then perpetuate so many inspirations that formed me as an artist, as a singer, as a musician, as an actor, as a storyteller. Hadestown was a really complete experience in that way, all the way down to using an Instrument to help emphasize certain. Like, that it. It's. It's incredible. And then Moulin Rouge, this show, so different from everything else that I've done, like, to your point, with just, like, the sonic quality of contemporary musical theater, with this being a jukebox musical and having so much heart and humanity in it, it's been a real, like, just, like, nerd, like, like theater dramaturgic nerd in figuring out how to make these songs that everybody knows and loves and has for such a long time feel different and smell and taste different. That's part of the magic of theater, right? Is like putting as an audience member, you know, seeing a mirror held up to yourself and being like, oh, I've been in a similar situation before. It's. It's. It's that. It's like, oh, I know that song. But, like, in this context, how cool that the song means that, right? And in this context, how cool is it that this song helps kind of, you know, push all of Christian's ideals or his journey and, like, the moment into, like, Roxanne, for example. It's like, you hear Roxanne, and it's like, I can tell you, like, many stories about when I worked at a shoe store, and Roxanne was on, like, on the speakers in the shoe store. Like, I have memories of that song. But after seeing the show and hearing and seeing Tveit or Klena or Cardoza or yours truly up there with their own life experience and their own journey, you know, coloring this character this way, that, to me, man, I could nerd out.
- [11:03]
Mickey Jo Theatre
Are those intimidating footsteps to be following in, or is it an exciting opportunity to bring what you bring to it vocally? Cause thinking back to when you went into Hadestown, we generally, when we come here, we're seeing the new stuff, we're seeing the new openings. We're trying to see as much of the season as possible. And a symphony of recommendations said to us, you have to go see Jordan Fisher in Hadestown. And the way that you sang the section of Epic, and you were like, this little, lovely, beautiful falsetto moment. What if I sang that in a really different way and blew everyone's minds?
- [11:35]
Jordan Fisher
Thanks, man.
- [11:36]
Mickey Jo Theatre
At the World cup, it was so good. You were fantastic.
- [11:39]
Jordan Fisher
Thank you. Thank you. I. I really appreciate that. You know, I think that so much of it starts with who made it, right? Hi, I'm Jordan Fisher, and I replace people on Broadway. You know, that. And that I've gotten to build as well. Like, I've gotten to build and help develop some other shows. And Sweeney was incredible. Albeit a revival, it was like still an opportunity to get in from the ground and build that up. You're in town at City center is the same. Like, I get so much joy from being in there from scratch. But to answer your question, I think had I not had opportunities already to replace such incredible, incredible artists, Andrew Barth Feldman and Evan Hansen, Reeve Carney at Hadestown, Anthony Ramos and am like, it just. There's been no shortage of getting to watch and experience a character played by some unbelievable artists and storytellers. And so I think that in getting to go in and step into a show that beloved people before have made their mark and left their mark. My mindset now, I guess like as a 30 something with. With a family, is that I've been doing this long enough to know that whatever I'm doing, like, just feel however you want to feel, say whatever you want to say, think however you want. Whatever I'm doing is somehow working enough for me to have jobs on Broadway. So that tells me that I'm doing a decent job at being truthful and honest on stage. And as long as that continues to be the case, then, like, there really isn't anything to be. To hold. You see what I'm saying? Like, there's no trepidation or apprehension around going into something because somebody has done a. That has been my whole career on Broadway. We're talking about the, like, either people that have originated that role or people that have replaced in that role that have become so loved in it. You know, it's. It. It. It could be vastly intimidating. But I think that, like, it, it. It's a handful of things. It's being welcomed by a group of people that, that are happy to have me in the building. It's respect for the work that has been done already. It's honoring what has been created and what has made it onto the pages and what has ultimately made it onto the stage to be the show that we know and then simply just being honest in. In my take. And I. Over the years and like, each show that I go into now, that mindset has only been proven more and more of like, oh my God, like incredible people of God. I mean, I. I obviously am here for a reason. I'm going to just do the thing and I'm just grateful that people are down for me to come in. You know what I mean?
- [14:57]
Mickey Jo Theatre
People are down. People are very down.
- [14:58]
Jordan Fisher
People could also just be like, not this guy again, which, like, you know, I'm just happy that I get to Work. I really am, because I love doing what I do. Yeah, yeah.
- [15:10]
Mickey Jo Theatre
So staying in the present, then, with Moulin Rouge. I'm curious. The most satisfying moment that you get to play in the show and the most challenging moment you get to play in the show.
- [15:20]
Jordan Fisher
I think that the most satisfying moment in the show for me is probably. Well, it's a few things, actually. I gotta give some love to Andre Ward, who plays Toulouse in the show. He's very much the glue that holds this building together. He is one of the most loved people on Broadway. And that nature boy scene is so lovely. Getting to just sit at a table with such a storied season, gifted, giving actor is deeply satisfying in the same way that, you know, getting to work with one of my closest friends every night and Solea is satisfying in the same way that, like, you know, the end of. Probably the very, very end, the finale. I think just looking up and looking around behind me towards the end of the song and seeing the entire company knowing all of the blood and sweat and tears that we've just poured, like it's. There's like a kind of a cyclical feeling to the end of the show, to the end of the song that I think is deeply satisfying. It's like looking out and seeing people being overcome with emotion because whatever it was that they needed, they got. It's like, whatever. If they needed to be outside of reality for 2 hours and 40 minutes, they got it. If they needed to be moved by something, if they needed to grieve something or something. Theater. Oh, don't get me preaching. Don't get me preaching. Theater changes. Theater changes lives. It changes. Changed my life. It gave me a path. It gave me purpose and a reason. And like the. Ooh. Getting to do this show eight times a week. Getting to do any show on Broadway, in any theater ever on Broadway, off Broadway, at your local community theater. Like, getting to do theater is such a gift, and getting to go and see it is such a gift, and it really changes lives, and it is deeply, remarkably satisfying. As artists and as storytellers, when we are on a stage and we get to look out and commune and fellowship with the people that are there that chose to be there that night and pay that ticket and get that sitter and eat that meal at that restaurant and chose for their entertainment and for their reality to be suspended by this show, our story. And we got to do that. And when we get to see them feel in that, it's the best. The most challenging moment in the show is, I mean, It's a marathon. It's a bit of a marathon, especially for Christian. Pretty much from halfway through act two through the end of the show, it's just. It's non stop. It's non stop. It is an absolute, like, obstacle course in terms of vocal control and stamina. Physical, emotional stamina. All of those things are a lot. I will. I will say that sometimes the most challenging part of the show is not necessarily feeling like I'm in the mood to get dressed up and go and be in front of a bunch of people and pretend to be something. Right. Because we're human. And this is a job first and foremost. And it begins and ends as a job. And it's a job in the middle, too. It's a career path and my field of work. And not every day do I feel like I'm necessarily in the mood to, like, tell a story. Sometimes I just want to, like, go home and have leftovers with my family and, like, watch a movie with my kid and play a video game and read a book and go to bed. And I will say this because I just talked about this with two of my castmates a few days ago. I was like, don't we find that sometimes, like, oftentimes for me, it's pretty much every time. Time. The shows that we're, like, not necessarily in, like, they were tired or we just, like. They end up being the best shows. Yeah. They end up being. There's something that happens.
- [19:58]
Mickey Jo Theatre
It's the healing power of theater for you on the stage as much as for the audience.
- [20:01]
Jordan Fisher
Completely. It's. It's just like. It's. It's the cheapest form of therapy, probably, like, for real. We're talking a dollar amount, but everyone needs therapy. Yeah. It's. It's. It's a gift, and it has been an absolute gift. And this building and this show has been. Mickey, it's been a treat. Like, the kindest group of people. It's been so lovely.
- [20:28]
Mickey Jo Theatre
Yeah. So people can come and catch you at the Al Hirschfeld in Moulin rouge.
- [20:32]
Jordan Fisher
Yes. Until July 20th. Until July 20th.
- [20:37]
Mickey Jo Theatre
Have a great time this evening with the show and for the rest of your run. It's been lovely to meet you.
- [20:43]
Jordan Fisher
Thank you for coming to my dressing room and hanging. Thank you for loving theater and thank you for lifting us up. What y' all don't know and what y' all didn't see is I invited a few of my castmates to come over and say hey, because they're such big fans, obviously, of making show theater. And you, I hope that you felt a monica of the love and impact that you make. Cause you, you, you do. You do for people that don't get to come and see theater. You help people feel like they get to be a part of it and part of the community. But you, for those of us that work in this and on it and in it every single day, you, it's so deeply appreciated, you giving time and attention and love to us. Yeah.
- [21:28]
Mickey Jo Theatre
Thank you. Thank you for saying that. Thank you for giving fantastic performances.
- [21:32]
Jordan Fisher
Hey, thanks, man.
- [21:33]
Mickey Jo Theatre
Thanks for being so good at it.
- [21:34]
Jordan Fisher
Thank you. I appreciate it.
- [21:36]
Mickey Jo Theatre
Amazing. For 10 more seconds, I'm Mickey Jo Theatre. Oh, my God. Hey, thanks for watching. Have a stagey day. Subscribe.