“It’s a song I was waiting to hear so long, so long ago.”
Five years in the making— a show that was planned and cast and ready to go before the pandemic, now finally appearing on the Maryland Theatre Collective Stage— Falsettos is rounding out MTC’s first full season in production and it’s a proper doozy well worth investigating! In a few minutes following their sitzprobe, Director and Musical Director Rachel Sandler and Associate Director and Performer Tommy Malek sat down to discuss the production and how thrilled they both are to finally be getting it up on its feet for an audience in 2024.
Thank you both, I’m thrilled to be sitting here in the black box of CAC with you guys. I caught the tail-end of that sitz and WOW I cannot wait to hear the production in full. They sound amazing. Tommy, you’re directing and Rachel you’re Musical Director?
Tommy Malek: Actually, Rachel is the music director and the director, she did both.
Rachel Sandler: But Tommy is associate directing, performing in the show as Marvin, and he did some of the choreography. He really did a lot of teaching and has been exceptionally helpful to me. This is my first time directing.
Congratulations, Rachel! That’s very exciting. Now Falsettos is not a show that you see come up every day, I think I’ve only ever reviewed it twice— maybe thrice, I’d have to double check— in nearly 15 years of reviewing. So why did you two want to do it?
Rachel: It’s just so good.
Tommy: It’s a fun time. The score is great, the work of William Finn, and like you said it doesn’t get done very often. We really felt like we had the talent to showcase in the area for this one.
That sounds reasonable, I’m all for a show with area talent. So why do you want people to come out and see it?
Rachel: First of all, this show has been five years in the making. This was fully cast in 2019.
Tommy: We have three of the original cast members from that cast in this production. It’s me as Marvin, Emily MacKay as Trina, and Matt Wetzel as Mendel. Those were the roles we had in the casting for 2019 as well.
Rachel: This is a really exciting show for our company. It’s wrapping up our first official season as MTC and we’ve really tried to take the lessons that we’ve learned from the shows in our first season and just keep improving. I feel like our whole season really delivered quality talent, quality art at the end of the day, but this show is just so special. It’s our first show with live music in this space. We had live music for Ragtime but that was “in concert” and this is officially our first full-production show with live music in the black box space. That’s setting the precedent for next season. Most, if not all, of our projects are going to have live music.
Have you fully announced next season yet?
Tommy: Not yet.
Rachel: We’re in the process of finalizing but we have announced Spring Awakening, which will be coming later in the summer.
Tommy: And we’ll be announcing the finalized cast for that very soon.
That sounds fantastic. And it sounds like this show is really setting the bar for future production.
Rachel: Yes! We’re bringing in the quality designers that we have working for us, we have professional sound, professional set— our set is so exciting. We have a new lighting designer on this show and we have a lot of incredible, local designers who we are just so excited to showcase. I really think this show is going to be a great representation of all of the talent that this area has to offer in every aspect. Band too, of course, I mean it’s really an A-team over there. They haven’t even officially rehearsed together before today’s sitzprobe, and they sound amazing and ready. It’s very exciting.
What has getting to do this project, five years in the making, meant to you personally, Rachel, especially as this is your directorial debut?
Rachel: First of all, just doing something new. I grew up as a music person and of course I love theatre but I never really had this opportunity, so it’s been very exciting to learn and grow. I’ve been so fortunate to get to do all of my shows with Tommy, who is the most brilliant director I know. So to get to really learn from him has been really great. Also, just to be able to direct a show that is fully sung through? I personally feel very attached to that style of storytelling. It feels very familiar to me and it’s a score that I love so much. This is the style of musical that we love to do— small, intimate shows. This is everything we love coming together and I feel very, very lucky to get to do it.
Tommy: I think this show has a little bit of everything too. It’s about family, it’s about parent-child dynamics, it’s about lovers— you laugh, you cry, you get all the emotions in this show.
I love a show with a little bit of everything. Now what does it mean for you, Tommy, to get to play Marvin, which I’m assuming is one of your bucket-list roles?
Tommy: Oh for sure! It’s a power-sing moment. It’s a lot of singing, sung completely through, for two and a half hours! But it’s helped me grow so much, I think, as a performer and as a singer. It’s helped me to grow in my confidence as a performer and a singer; getting to experience that growth has been very impactful.
I am actually really stoked to get to see you on stage; I think the last thing I saw you in personally was probably the Emcee in Cabaret and I am thrilled to get to see you tackle a role that means so much to you.
Tommy: Thank you! And Marvin is a very different role, it’s very grounded, comparatively.
@mdtheatrecollective Love is blind. Not the “fall in love, sight unseen, Netflix” way… the “Falsettos” way! Featuring: ❤️Tommy Malek, Marvin @Tommy Malek 🧡Rachel Sandler, Director/Trina Understudy @Rachel 🎵 💛Matt Wetzel, Mendel 💚Xander Conte, Whizzer 💙Mckenzie Nace, Jason #loveisblind #falsettos #theatretok #musicaltheatre
♬ original sound – Maryland Theatre Collective
What has been your big personal learning lesson from being involved with Falsettos?
Rachel: I think just running this company has been a whole learning experience. Tommy and I definitely both come from very “DIY” backgrounds. Running this company, I’ve learned and grown to appreciate every aspect of theatre so much more than I ever thought was possible. Very obviously, directing has been a big learning lesson. I came into this very afraid and Tommy was so helpful. I feel like I’m finding my footing as we go. But even just having the opportunity to sit down with our lighting designer— Jaeden Arrington, he’s a new Towson graduate and he’s been fabulous! He’s a recommendation from Thomas Gardner, who we’ve worked with before, and we’re really excited about the work that he’s doing. It’s been really cool to learn about all the technical elements in ways that I literally had zero experience with before now. And then of course there’s the admin side too, learning tickets and how to sell them, learning marketing— we have a whole marketing team now! It’s been so great because it’s all been internal, it’s all people who do shows with us so it feels like they’re really connected and committed.
I really love that. What about you, Tommy? Are you learning anything from this experience?
Tommy: Oh my God, I’m always learning something! I’m definitely learning the balance for myself right now. I’m stepping into a lot more professional leadership roles now in the theatre. Just getting the chance to really get my feet wet as a full-time freelancer has been wonderful, getting to take on all of these projects— and Falsettos is one of the big projects that’s on that list right now.
Rachel: He’s had an epic year.
Tommy: It’s been awesome. And it’s going to keep being cool with Spring Awakening.
Now are you directing that one?
Tommy: I am directing and choreographing Spring Awakening. Rachel is music directing.
Rachel: I’m going back to the job I like to do— or the job I know how to do. And I’ve been producing all of the shows.
Tommy: Oh my God, she’s a superstar. She’s done it all for this show. Directing, Music Directing, Producing— she’s done it all.
Rachel: And I love it. This theatre means more to me than anything I’ve literally ever done. It’s special and I feel really lucky to have a team of people that trust me with the level of responsibility they trust me with. It’s very lovely.
Now tell me a little bit about this cast, I know you mentioned a couple of them already, but what has it been like getting to fulfill the dream show with this cast?
Tommy: They truly are the dream cast!
Rachel: TikTok Start McKenzie Nace and Matt Wetzel! (To see McKenzie’s viral video click here, to see Matt’s viral video, click here.)
Tommy: They are becoming viral TikTok stars. It’s wild!
Rachel: And little McKenzie, what a year she’s had! With our company but also as an actor— just wow. That was actually one of the more daunting things because we had the perfect Jason back in 2019 who is obviously five years too old now, so finding McKenzie has been such a blessing and a joy. And she has grown so, so much. She played a little boy for us in Ragtime and now she’s playing Jason. It’s been great.
What is it that you are hoping that people will take away from coming out to see Falsettos? There is a whole young generation out there who have probably never even heard of this musical.
Rachel: This show has a really niche following so I’m excited for new people to just see the name of the show and want to come out and see it. Everyone is going to take away something different from this story. I’m really just excited for people to see what local, Baltimore theatre has to offer.
Now if you had to put your marketing hat on, or Rachel, back on, what would you tell people to get them to come out and see Falsettos?
Rachel: Number one— you can have drinks in the theatre!
Ooh. Do we mean adult, alcoholic beverages?
Rachel: Yes! We sell themed drinks! Now, we haven’t picked them yet? But for Ragtime we did Houdini’s Punch… all I’m going to say is that we’re going to Virginia Costco to get these themed drinks going. But in addition to themed drinks, it’s just a fun, quirky show. Come out and see a piece that isn’t done that often. We’ve got live music, what’s not to like?
Tommy: It has a lot of heart to it. You will laugh. You will probably cry. It has it all and that’s what I really love about this show and I really hope people will come out and see it for that reason. Plus the cast, the set, the designers— just everything— this whole experience has been really special and I cannot wait to share that with people in the audience.
Is there anything else that either of you want to say about the experience, about the cast, about the space, about working with each other, about how you want to kill each other at this point in the process?
Rachel: Actually we don’t want to kill each other anymore! We used to have our one tech-week fight and we actually haven’t.
Tommy: We really haven’t. When you were talking about learning I think that’s really what we’ve done. Over the last two shows, we’ve really learned how to exist as one functional unit. And it’s been really wonderful.
Rachel: We really know each other’s strengths. We just know. Rachel does these tasks because she’s good at them and she likes them. And Tommy does these tasks because he likes them and he’s good at them. There’s no question, we don’t even have to articulate a lot of that, we just know.
That’s truly wonderful to hear that the two of you are working in such perfect synchronicity, like the left and right halves of each other’s brains. Now, if you had to sum up your experience of Falsettos here at Maryland Theatre Collective using just one word, which word do you use?
Tommy: I used the word collective. Just like the company name. I think this show has been the definition of collective in terms of the team that’s been built here and I feel like this is a great cap to our season because it sort of encapsulates the best of the best of this experience for us in terms of what everybody brings to the table. The talent, the extracurricular talents of things like marketing and costuming and all the things that people have been able to bring into this experience has been wonderful and truly collective. We have found a really nice community this season, which has been so special because we didn’t know if that was going to happen right off the bat. Ragtime really got the ball rolling with that— 60 people on stage and 30 people in the pit. That was a really great start for building community and this show is a great encapsulation to show that it has stuck. This show is definitely collective.
That is really stunning. Rachel, what’s your word?
Rachel: I would say heart. I would say— oh, bye Matt, thank you!
Tommy: Shout out to Matt Dohm our pit conductor!
Rachel: Matt Dohm, our human metronome!
Matt Dohm! How did they get you to come all the way up here?
Matt Dohm: I like Rachel a lot. I’ve known Rachel forever like both musically and favors-wise. And I picture 20 years from now not knowing where either of us are going to be but we’re going to owe something to each other. And this is an excellent project to get involved with— I really like Rachel a lot. She does good art.
Rachel: Thank you again, Matt! He is our expert conductor! And just one of many reasons why my word is ‘heart.’ I feel like this company is the true definition of “it takes a village.” The amount of heart and the amount of dedication, the amount of hours spent volunteering that people are putting in to do this, and they are so committed to the art. They are really committed to bringing our vision to life. As a company they are so invested not just for their own personal growth but for the company overall, it’s just very inspiring.
Is there anything else that either of you would like to say?
Rachel: The only other thing that I want to say is—
Tommy: Come see Falsettos!
Rachel: Well, yeah. Come see Falsettos for sure. But I know that in this theatre community it can feel very overwhelming given the amount of options and the amount of shows to come and see. And sometimes you’re feeling a little tired and think you’ll just stay home. I really encourage you if you have a free evening to come out and see this. We’re really very proud of Falsettos. I want this company to become a staple in our Baltimore theatre community. We really are trying to make it super accessible. If you want to come— but don’t know how to make it work? Email us! We do pay-what-you-can tickets. We offer volunteer opportunities; we’re very committed to getting this art into the community. So we really hope that you can make it!
Falsettos plays April 19th 2024 through May 5th 2024 with Maryland Theatre Collective in Studio194 of The Chesapeake Arts Center— 194 Hammonds Lane in Brooklyn Park— Baltimore, MD. Tickets can be purchased at the door, though they are strongly recommended to be booked in advance online.
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