My Inner Theater Kid is Doing Jazz Hands Right Now

I’ve got a huge announcement today that feels like a lifetime in the making. I am going to be a co-producer of a show called MYTHIC, which if all goes as planned, is coming to Broadway some time in 2027! This is a total full circle moment for me, because I’ve had Broadway dreams ever since I was a kid, so it’s amazing to see them take shape in a way I never could have imagined back then. When I was younger, I wanted more than anything to be a famous Broadway star and spent many delusional years thinking that’s where I was headed. It took me a long time to come to terms with this, but I was never meant for the stage. Being involved in theater behind the scenes feels much more in line with who I am and one of the biggest reasons I signed onto this project is because I know there are a lot of former theater kids in my audience, and I want to take you all on this journey with me.

Some of my earliest memories are theater related. My parents were actually part of a community theater troupe when I was little and I remember going to see them in their respective shows. My dad played Renfield in Dracula and was fantastic. Total and complete commitment. He stole the show. My mom played Charlotte in Sondheim’s A Little Night Music and I remember her singing “Every Day a Little Death” with a stunning alto voice that I had no idea she possessed. In second grade, I was old enough to join the children’s troupe affiliated with their theater troupe and acted in shows like Free to Be You and Me, Annie, The Flower Drum Song, and The Red Shoes. It’s amazing to me how I have a relationship with these shows to this day. I remember the choreography to “You’re Never Fully Dressed without a Smile” and can still hear the laughter and applause that followed when I belted out the high notes in “I Enjoy Being a Girl.”

My mom loved going to Broadway shows, probably just as much as Harlow, and took me as often as she could. We couldn’t afford full price tickets so we’d just go to the city and line up at TKTS hoping to get a deal on whatever shows were still available that night. I remember the one time my mom shelled out for good seats ahead of time was to take me to see CATS for my 10th birthday. I wore a rhinestone cat sweatshirt and she picked me up from school early to go into the city on a week night. It felt so special. When my parents got divorced and my dad moved to the city, he’s often take us to Broadway shows too. We saw Sweeney Todd, Guys and Dolls and Starlight Express, where he somehow scored seats in the stage so they roller skated around us.

It probably goes without saying that Broadway was the theme of my Bat Mitzvah. I actually remember sewing silver bowties (pictured below) with my mom at my dining room table to give out as party gifts and going with my dad to take a picture in Times Square for my signing board. We collected all the playbills for the table centerpieces ourselves too. Each table was named after a different show.

When you are younger, the only jobs you know are the ones you see, so to me, being on Broadway meant being a performer. I loved singing and acting, but unfortunately, I had a crippling case of stage fright. I went to a theater camp, where I was cast in the role of Creon in Antigone. It was a huge part and I was on stage almost the whole show, and I remember developing a fear that I would need to pee while I was on stage. I started a ritual of waiting until the last possible second and then running to the bathroom right before I had to go on. When I was a little older, I became terrified I would forget my lines. Or worse, the words to a song right in the middle. And I still had my last minute bathroom ritual. I told myself this was normal nerves. That I’d outgrow it. But I didn’t. It just got worse. My fears became so all encompassing, it became hard to think about anything else while I was performing. The moment I always liked best was the applause at the end. Not the enjoyment of being up there, but the relief that nothing went wrong.

Then one day, during my freshman year of college, I started questioning why I put myself through this. It’s a very weird thing to suddenly turn off a dream, but I gave it all up. I dropped my theater and voice classes and became an art major instead. I stopped going to see Broadway shows too. I think it was partly because my parents weren’t paying for them anymore and partly because it made me sad to watch a world I once wanted so badly to be a part of, knowing that I didn’t have what it takes to make it. I actually remember a few years after college, running into two kids from my theater camp. I asked what they were up to and they told me all about the bit parts they had gotten and the things they were auditioning for. I told them about my job in advertising and I remember feeling a bit of shame. And then thinking, ‘I can’t believe they wanted it more than I did.’ That feeling didn’t last that long though, because I ended up loving being a creative in advertising. Brainstorming ideas for commercials and being on set making my visions come to life was way more satisfying for me creatively than performing on stage. On these commercial productions, I got to be on the other side of the casting table and from that side, the acting life seemed particularly brutal. I was thankful and still am that I changed courses. So it all worked out, and my inner theater bug slept peacefully.

Then I had Harlow, who woke the theater lover in me right back up. Seeing shows through her eyes brought me the same joy I got watching them as a kid. And also, being able to sit in the audience knowing that I had absolutely no desire to be up on stage gave me a whole new clear-eyed lens to view theater. Purely appreciation. It took a few years before Harlow’s love of musical theater translated into her performing herself. She was always a ham around us (as you guys know), but I think her dyslexia had me hold her back from trying out for a show or taking an acting class. It was her current school that helped me see how talented she is. I remember one weekend, I was driving the kids to my friend’s in Rhode Island and I started getting sleepy in the car. I asked Harlow (she was in third grade at the time) if she could keep me entertained. Her class was working on a version of The Little Mermaid and she said she would “do the show” for me. She had a small part and they had split the script by class so there were numerous Ariels and Sebastians, so I wasn’t sure what “do the show” meant. Harlow surprised me by reciting the entire script line by line, song by song, complete with stage directions. Before each line, she would say which kid was playing the role at that point in the script. It was incredible. It reminded me of how she had memorized all of Hamilton after just a few viewings on Disney +.

Cut to just last month when she was performing as Elle Woods in Legally Blonde. There was no cut-up script this time. She was on stage as Elle for the entirety of the show– song after song, line after line. And she knew it all backwards and forwards. No faltering, no nerves. She also knew her haftarah the next day, her role in Beetlejuice a week later, and all five of her dance routines for her recital the week after that. It occurred to me that Harlow’s brain works in a way that mine does not. It learns those lines and steps and stage directions and locks them in so she can focus on performing. You can tell she is fully enjoying herself on stage, completely in her element.

It occurred to me that perhaps my fears of forgetting the words were not just nerves. I am a forgetful person and always have been. I always studied for tests last minute partly because if I studied too soon, I would forget everything by the time the test came. I can’t even memorize a Tiktok dance that is 15 seconds long in the privacy of my home, let alone a full dance number for an audience. I have listened to the same pop songs my kids have listened to a million times, yet they know all the words and I can barely sing along with the chorus. I think my brain has a hard time with retention, which made performing memorized material on stage particularly anxiety inducing. I’m not saying this to put myself down, I’m saying it to give myself a break. Perhaps my stage fright wasn’t a self confidence issue, it was justified.

Everyone’s brains works in different ways and my brain gave me the gift of being able to organize my thoughts on paper. It made me a creative brainstormer and a good storyteller, which is why I do well as a content creator. Why I write my voiceovers instead of delivering my stories straight to camera. And how I have been able to use my platform to tell stories about Harlow and I going to see Broadway shows, which has led to us getting comped tickets, dress rehearsal invites, paid partnerships with Broadway shows and more recently, requests for Harlow to do interviews on the red carpet. It’s Harlow’s big personality coupled with my power of storytelling that has created these opportunities, and I’ve been so grateful that this is how Broadway has become a big part of my life again.

I thought the next part of my Broadway journey would be me seeing where these opportunities took Harlow. But then at some point last year, a few shows reached out to me to invest. I didn’t end up taking those offers, I wasn’t really looking for a purely financial arrangement, but it did get me thinking about the possibility of being involved more behind the scenes. If shows are paying me to advertise them on social media once they premiere, what if I could get a show to sign me on earlier so I could share the journey of a musical as it prepares to open on Broadway? It could be mutually beneficial and great content for my audience as well.

And that’s about the time that two producers from MYTHIC reached out. Shoshana Parets and Samantha Levin said they had been following my content for a long time (they are both city moms with daughters the same age as Mazzy), were about 18 months away from opening on Broadway and would love to work with me on the show in some capacity. After doing some research and listening to the music, I knew I wanted to be a part of it, and suggested the idea of taking my audience on a behind the scenes journey of the making of a Broadway show, so we could all learn something about the process and build interest before it even opened. They loved the idea and after a few discussions, I signed on as a co-producer.

Obviously, I am very new to this, so this will be a learning journey for me too. Let’s start here. MYTHIC was created by Marcus Stevens (book and lyrics) and Oran Eldor (music and orchestrations), it’s already had successful runs in London, Montreal and Cincinnati. It’s an original pop rock musical comedy based on Greek mythology, specifically the story of Demeter and Persephone, a mom and daughter wrestling with how their relationship will change once she leaves the nest. Sound familiar? The story is set in modern times, so the Gods are all rock stars, power-hungry politicians and influencers. It has a Tony Award winning powerhouse creative team and you can click here to listen to the London recorded soundtrack.

What comes next? Well, we met with Oran and Marcus last week for a glimpse into their process and next week, the dance captain from the Cincinnati run is going to teach Harlow a few of the steps. I’m going to document all of it, to share with you all in the same way that I always do.

If you have any questions about my involvement, what being a co-producer means, if there is a role for Harlow (there is not, but I told her she’s officially a Broadway nepo baby now), how someone comes up with a musical to begin with, etc. please ask me any and all questions in the comments! I will be making a second post with all the answers and have a whole team of professionals who can answer what I don’t know.

I’m so excited. I hope you are too!!!!!