Part of your Broadway World Podcast (S3EP1)|talks with creator of infernal:the musical Misha mullany

[00:00:00] . Hello everybody and welcome to today's um podcast episode. Today we are um joined by Michelle Malini from the Infernal Music. Yeah, hi everybody. Thanks for having me. So first how are you? I'm doing good. Yeah, happy to be here. It's a gorgeous

[00:00:42] like sunny day. It's gonna be really hot later. So, you know kind of enjoying the cooler morning air before it gets really really hot. Yeah, yeah. Yeah, it's been hot here. We had to chat. We just had a storm here actually and I was a little

[00:00:57] little afraid because the power went out for like a split second and I'm like, oh god, I really hope that the power doesn't go completely out and I have to cancel all my interviews. Right, right. Oh my gosh. That would be like that would be so hard to

[00:01:12] to juggle. Yeah, yeah, definitely. So why don't you tell me a little bit about Infernal? Yeah, definitely. So Infernal is a rock musical that's based on Dante's Infernal. I'm sorry, I'm gonna stop my washer real quick because it is really stinking loud. I'll be back in 30 seconds. Okay.

[00:01:30] All right, apologies. I just want you to have to hear my washer in the background through the entire interview. So Infernal is a rock musical based on Dante's Infernal. It's about this young girl named Lily. She dies, she goes to hell.

[00:02:02] She's like, why am I in hell? I'm a good person. But as she goes through the different circles of health, she realizes that you know actions have consequences and can she learn to face her past in time to save her soul? We meet the devil.

[00:02:16] We meet Lilith, the mother of demons, the seven deadly sins, Charon and Eve. And it's just like a hellishly good time. So then you are the one who created this. Yeah. What was that process like? Yeah, definitely. So I, as all artists do,

[00:02:38] you know, I was kind of going through a hard time and I was really sad. I was vacuuming one day and I had this little little little little little little little little baby. I was like, I'm gonna go to hell.

[00:02:50] And I had this line come into my head, which goes, I've made mistakes. Yes, I've dug my grave, but it's too late to turn back once you've started the track down to hell. And I was just like vacuuming and like singing, freestyling.

[00:03:04] And I was like, hell, you know, why hasn't anybody written a musical based on Dante's Inferno yet? And I kind of used the hardships I was going through in my own life. Lost, losing friends, losing loved ones, and I was like, I was losing loved ones, and

[00:03:20] I siphoned that into the musical COVID hit and like suddenly I was out of work. We were all out of work. And I was like, you know, this is the best time possible for me to just like see if I can be a

[00:03:34] writer, like take my shot at it, give a chance to employ myself, employ my friends. And it's been a wild journey so far. So where is this musical? Is it in New York or is it in? So we've had three iterations so far. So at first we did

[00:03:54] a Ten Song Concept album, which we recorded at Smash Studios in New York City and we released that on YouTube Black. Then in October of 2021, we went to the Flea Theater in downtown New York City and did our off off Broadway run.

[00:04:08] Then we did an off Broadway, A.A. 29 hour reading also in New York City and now the next step is the out of town reading or out of town tryout. That's Chicago, Atlanta. We're also looking on London slash the UK or even off Broadway if there's

[00:04:24] New York theaters who are interested in the work. I mean, and I've just seen the clips and I just clips on TikTok and everything and it looks so good. Thank you. It looks so dark and so good. Like I'm a sucker for like all things like dark.

[00:04:44] It's definitely spooky. It's sexy and spooky. How it kind of feels like a party but we're also using it as a device to talk about these harder things which is like loss and making mistakes while you're growing up and this idea that you're allowed

[00:05:00] to make mistakes as long as you're learning from them along the way. That actually led into my next question is what sort of themes are there in the main plotline is that Lily has lost her mother and she runs away from home and then she ends up dying

[00:05:18] later and hell is a metaphor for her not facing her past, her not facing her grief and having to be able to face what she's done and be able to own it. You have to take ownership of where you're at in order to grow

[00:05:36] from there and understanding we need to rely on to become better. Yeah, I mean like I said it sounds, it looks good it's like the costuming that's another thing too is like the costuming and the sets are like like perfect. Thank you.

[00:05:58] Yeah we assembled a really cool team a lot of the clips that are on TikTok are from our one act performance in 2021 so my mom and I actually did the costuming and we got most of the items off Amazon funnily enough and then we hired a

[00:06:16] projection slash lighting designer and set slash projection designer so we just like called upon our friends to reach out to all their contacts and we built this amazing team who I hope will want to keep coming back and making more cool art together. Hmm, I mean

[00:06:34] in my opinion like that's genius to get stuff off of Amazon it's just a genius idea if Broadway could just take that idea and be like okay we're gonna just get our costuming off of Amazon and then judge it up a little bit.

[00:06:50] Yeah, it would probably cut the budget a lot but also I know there's so much care and detail that goes into the costuming for Broadway shows and also it has to uphold for eight shows a week for years and years and years and years so the stuff

[00:07:06] on Amazon is not gonna last that long really four shows so that's kind of why we were able to get away with it and we had a tiny budget but if I had lots of money like I would have steam stresses I would

[00:07:20] have them sew in, sew in corsets or whatever. I mean okay that's a little bit true I guess like you gotta you have eight shows a week and a big new but like also like that's why shows don't, some shows don't last very long on Broadway because

[00:07:38] they can't, they don't have the budget because you spend the budget. It's so hard that money plays such a big factor especially in the commercial theater scene especially in Broadway that's something we're seeing a lot of right now is money kind of driving the stories that are getting

[00:07:58] to be told and I know that a lot of people have different opinions about it but we're all trying to do our best as a community to both give people the representation and the stories that they want to hear and also understanding that it costs a board of

[00:08:14] 20 million dollars to put on a Broadway show like that's an insane number. I mean like stuff like Phantom of the Opera that was like there for like 30 years that was lucky to have been on Broadway for 30 years. Yeah I mean

[00:08:34] my dream right now is just to get to Broadway just to get my work being seen then I'll think about 30 years. I would love to be the next Phantom but first things first is to get to that milestone first. Yesterday we just celebrated one year of this podcast

[00:08:54] Congratulations. Yeah I saw that on your channel. Thank you and I had mentioned that because New York is about to bring Phantom back but in a new way it's like an immersive right right and I'm I didn't get to say this

[00:09:18] yesterday but like I'm gonna say it now like that just seems scary like you know put Phantom in the word immersive in one sentence. I definitely can understand that but I mean there's people who are into that more like scary they want to feel a little bit

[00:09:40] fearful. People love sleep no more I think they might be doing something similar to sleep no more it might even be the same company I have to look it up but yeah is it the same company as Leif and I think so I don't know they're very talented

[00:09:56] at what they do and they're really good at taking a story and then deconstructing it to be in that particular space so it might not be Phantom as we know where it's very like A to B to C to D but you might get to

[00:10:10] experience a show that we all love so much in a new way because I mean how more I guess my question for that would be like how it more immersive can it get because you already have the chandelier dropping almost on the edge so it's like

[00:10:28] and I guess we're going down into the the crypt the basement I'm not sure I don't know how to do the drowning scene ourselves but but I think you know I'm sure that they're keeping a lot of it under wraps just like they do with sleep no more

[00:10:42] so that way you have to go and find out right I think a lot of shows nowadays are kind of walking the fine line between giving audiences enough of an inkling of what the show is about so that way they're interested but also not giving out

[00:10:56] too much away when so much is so readily available on our phones right like we can just turn on a streaming service we can just go to tiktok and scroll for hours I know I do um so like why are people coming out

[00:11:10] in person to the theaters why are people spending 200 plus dollars on a ticket yeah that's another thing too I wanted to talk about too is like New York in general like Broadway in general is so expensive I mean so a big part about it is the cost

[00:11:32] of running a show right you have to put actors you have to pay set you have to pay union fees you have to pay the theater space itself um and because people aren't showing up to the theaters it's kind of just catch 22 like people are showing up so

[00:11:48] you have to charge more but then people can't afford to pay more and it kind of becomes a vicious cycle of you're not getting enough butts to fill the seat and that's why shows aren't lasting and also this past season 22 new shows opened like if you're choosing

[00:12:08] and all of them were incredible how are you going to choose where to spend 300 of your dollars between 22 shows you can't choose them all I mean I get like you know some shows need to leave to make room for new shows but but then it's like Phantom Leaves

[00:12:28] my favorite I've seen it twice when Finn was my favorite show I was four years old which is probably a bad age to go see Phantom but you know whatever you're not going to be you're probably fine I also saw when I was like five

[00:12:46] or six something like that probably fine mental issues at all I mean listen as long as we're addressing our traumas like I said in my musical as long as we're addressing them there's hope for us exactly but in terms of shows leaving

[00:13:06] sometimes it is more beneficial for them to leave sometimes if not making the money they thought they would on Broadway and it just ends up you know spending lots and lots of money to keep a show running that's not recouping then they have

[00:13:20] the option to go to MTI and you know do touring productions or do high school productions and get money from licensing or world tours so then where can everybody go see Infernal now yeah definitely so right now what we have is a one act available online

[00:13:44] that's from October 2021 you can follow us on Tiktok we've been running it for about a year as well and it's been amazing how quickly our little community has been growing and all the love that people have been showing it's just been so amazing and then hopefully

[00:14:00] we'll be having an announcement soon ish hopefully in the fall we'll have an announcement of where we're going to have our next show whether that's in London Chicago Atlanta or somewhere else so hopefully you know people follow our Tiktok people come to our YouTube channel

[00:14:16] they subscribe and they say I want to know when this is coming up so they can see it in person with a big budget or bigger budget and actual costumes that lighting design more of that put into it

[00:14:30] and get to see it in person and experience it for themselves I mean I don't know like I said before Amazon that's like smart thinking it definitely was but I would love to rig on a costume designer onto the team as well just because you know

[00:14:48] the more artists I get to work with the more that I get inspired and the more that we can help each other's careers and bring beautiful art into the world cause that's what it's about exactly yeah so then my final question my final question is

[00:15:04] what's your favorite Broadway show okay so that's a hard one Phantom of the Opera will always be my first love because like you I think it was my first Broadway show and I used to sing I used to take guitar lessons and before guitar lessons started

[00:15:20] I used to sit it was a music store as well and I used to sit with the score and I would sing all the parts I would sing the phantoms parts I would sing Christine's parts I'm sure it wasn't very good and I was just singing to myself

[00:15:32] but I would sit in the corner with the score book and I would just sing through every single part and then for contemporary would probably be come from away just because I love the ensemble cast I love how it's staged

[00:15:46] and how they play a bunch of different roles that something would play with Infernal as well and I just love a show where you can laugh and cry through the entire time Can I tell you something though? Last season our theater here in Michigan had come

[00:16:02] come from away here I missed it because I completely forgot that I was supposed to usher and yeah, so I missed it It'll come back around again It's a moving show It's based on a true story It's a really moving show and I think it just talks about

[00:16:26] the human experience and the goodness within us all in a really delicate and kind way and I'm hopeful for more iterations of it even like local productions as well regional theaters doing it as well I saw a little pill three times though

[00:16:44] I could see the poster on your wall Yeah, I got it That's amazing I don't regret a thing Yeah, no, absolutely I just love theater so I'll go to theater as much as I can as much as my bank account allows Oh, I have

[00:17:02] a binder full of playbills like that thick because I usher I've been ushering for like a year now Oh wow, it's great It's all filled with playbills of shows that I've ushered That is so smart actually I didn't even think about that

[00:17:24] It's ushering as a free way to see shows Yeah You didn't pay to watch the show Yeah, exactly I'll go to pay for a show but ushering it's free and I can go see a show And you're doing a good thing for the theaters as well

[00:17:44] and the shows that come through are having correct theater etiquette and you're doing a necessary job to keep theater running as well I am excited for next season though because Mandy Patacon if you know Mandy Patacon he's coming, he's on tour right now

[00:18:02] and he's coming to our theater and I'm so excited Oh my gosh You should do the have stage shore at the Detroit Theater? You can stage shore every single show I met so many people I met Susan Egan aka Megara Because the Broadway Prince

[00:18:24] party came and she was in it and I met her and she hugged me and she might be coming on the podcast All of the performers are so incredibly nice and that's something that always inspires me as well is seeing that people who truly love theater

[00:18:42] who are successful in theater are really kind, hardworking giving people and it gives me hope as well if I stay on the path of being generous as a theater creator being kind and using it as a platform to build community and uplift others

[00:19:00] then I will also find my path within it If you have time after this podcast I will tell you another story off of the podcast because I have another story that you're going to laugh Okay, well thank you guys for tuning in and thank you Michelle

[00:19:16] for coming on Thank you for having me I will see you guys next time Bye guys