Sara Farb is Bringing one of Musical Theatre’s Great Roles to Life
About this episode
Sara Farb is a veteran of the Canadian theatre stage, having made her debut at the age of 9. Now she’s bringing the role of Fanny Brice to life in Shaw Festival’s Funny Girl. In this conversation, Sara joins host Phil Rickaby to reflect on the show, writing for the theatre, and what keeps her going.
This episode explores
- What it takes to perform a show like Funny Girl
- Joining the Shaw Festival for the first time
- Performing on Broadway in Harry Potter and the Cursed Child
- That time she almost gave up the theatre to become a copywriter.
- And much more!
Guest: 🎠Sara Farb
Sara is an actor and writer. She wrote the book for the musical Kelly v. Kelly with Britta Johnson (music and lyrics) which premiered at Canadian Stage and Musical Stage Company in 2023; the show is a recipient of the Tom Hendry award and multiple Dora nominations. With Britta, she also co-wrote the Dora-nominated short musical He Is Coming. She wrote the book for the new musical Way Out There with Anton Lipovetsky (music and lyrics) which makes its premiere at YES! Theatre/Theatre Sudbury in spring of 2026. Her play, R-E-B-E-C-C-A, which she wrote and starred in, premiered at Theatre Passe Muraille. She is currently working on a new musical with Aaron Jensen (music and lyrics) about the forgotten female creator of the creature from Creature from the Black Lagoon. As an actor, Sara has performed on Broadway, in seven seasons at the Stratford Festival, and all over Canada. She is currently starring as Fanny Brice in Funny Girl at the Shaw Festival.
Connect with Sara
📸 Instagram: @farb.sara
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Transcript
[Phil Rickaby]
Hello, welcome to Stageworthy. I’m Phil Rickaby, the host and producer of this podcast. Stageworthy is Canada’s theatre podcast, and on Stageworthy, I talk to theatre makers of all kinds, from actors to directors to playwrights and more.
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Let’s get into this week’s episode. My guest this week is Sara Farb. Sara has been acting since she was nine years old, when she made her debut as young Jane Eyre at the Royal Alexandra Theatre in Toronto.
Since then, she’s been on every major stage in Canada, from Stratford to Salt Pepper and beyond. And this year, she joined the Shaw Festival to star in The Hamlet of Musical Theatre in Funny Girl. She’s also a playwright, and her play Love Us Most premiered at Here for Now Theatre this summer.
Next year, Sara will tackle another of musical theatre’s great roles as Sally Bowles in the Canadian Stage Company’s production of Cabaret. I hope you enjoy this conversation with Sara Farb. Sara Farb, thank you so much for joining me.
At this point in the… you’re at the Shaw Festival doing Funny Girl. You’re in the last sprint, kind of.
You’re heading towards the close in October. Correct. How does the show feel now, after months of performing it?
[Sara Farb]
It still feels daunting as ever, and incredible to do. There isn’t a show that goes by where I don’t learn something new about, I don’t know, how to approach something differently, or if something has been sort of bothering me, maybe like a new way in. It’s an ever-opening flower, you know?
But I try to keep any performance like that, regardless of the size of the role, because otherwise it just really becomes monotonous.
[Phil Rickaby]
Yeah. You mentioned the show being daunting. There is…
Funny Girl is… this is a show that hasn’t had a major production until 2022. It didn’t have a major production since…
in almost 50… 55 years, I think. You know, Barbra Streisand originated the role.
Is that what’s daunting about it? Is the size… Tell me about the dauntingness of the role, and how you felt approaching that.
[Sara Farb]
Yeah. The Barbra Streisand element of it is sort of an inevitability. There’s a conflation, I think, that people make with Fanny Brice and Barbra Streisand.
I loved her performance in the movie so much. I watched it, you know, last year, and then permitted myself, you know, kind of no contact. And not in like a, you know, religious or whatever kind of way, but more so like the show’s about Fanny Brice.
It’s not about Barbra Streisand as Fanny Brice. And as with any show that I approach, it’s nice to have information about if it’s a person I’m playing, or, you know, history about it, access to clips of other productions or whatever, and then to sort of just like let that live somewhere in the back of my head and approach it the way that feels most appropriate when I start working on it. So, you know, in that regard, like the expectation of the score is pretty massive.
It’s hard to think of another show, perhaps Wicked, like that lives sort of in that like expectation of what something should sound like. So battling those demons is, you know, just it’s ongoing work. But remembering that I’ve, you know, rehearsed and I understand how I approach the songs and the work that I did with Paz Portelli, the musical director, was so beneficial and illuminating and treating it like it was a new piece.
And that sort of mutes some of the the daunt. I would say it’s really just it’s a long two and a half hours for me. So thinking of the whole thing at once is a bad idea.
It’s nicer to do in sections, sort of song by song.
[Phil Rickaby]
In some ways, is it like musical theatre’s Hamlet where, you know, you spend so much time on stage?
[Sara Farb]
Yeah, it could very well be compared to that. Like, it’s certainly one of the biggest female roles in musical theatre, one of the most demanding of any gender. And I mean, sure, let’s.
Hamlet, whoever, I don’t know. It’s a big, it’s a big, huge undertaking.
[Phil Rickaby]
You were mentioning about how, you know, you sort of you’d watched the movie and then you sort of backed off from it because you have to make the role your own, right? I remember I’ve spoken to a couple of people in the past who played the role of Frank-N-Furter in the Rocky Horror Show, who have kind of struggled with making that role theirs because Tim Curry is so iconic. So I definitely understand the, you know, you have to distance yourself from that.
And yet there’s a certain expectation and it must be difficult. And similarly, with the role of Fanny Bryce, there are certain expectations, like you mentioned about, you know, how songs might be delivered. How do you deal with both having to acknowledge and sort of like bow to some of the expectations while also struggling against them to make the role yours?
[Sara Farb]
I think we all just kind of like enter the theatre acknowledging the expectation. People are coming to Funny Girl, probably most of them because of Barbra Streisand, many of them potentially because they’ve never seen it performed on stage because it is it is fairly infrequently done. And, you know, I just I know what I can do.
I know what I can do well. And I lean into those strengths. And I sort of long ago, sort of disregarded, did away with what I what I think people are coming in expecting because it can it can really sabotage a time.
[Phil Rickaby]
Oh, sure. You mentioned that the show is infrequently done, like you said, it didn’t have a major stage revival in 55 years until 2022 when Beanie Feldshaw, Beanie Feldstein was was took on the role on Broadway. Do you?
I don’t know. This is probably should look that up. But why is this play so infrequently performed?
[Sara Farb]
I think because finding a person who can do like sort of do all the things that Fanny requires, I think finding a Jewish actress who can. Fulfill the demands of the emotional arc and also sing the songs and sustain the stamina, it’s it’s a it’s a very particular person and and casting and. And and so it’s you know, it’s it’s a hugely, hugely demanding ask of any individual.
And so finding a person who ticks all of those boxes, it you know, it’s not it’s not like extremely common.
[Phil Rickaby]
How did this come come up for you like the you’ve spent quite a few years at the Stratford Festival and this is your first time leaving the Stratford Festival and going to the Shaw Festival, your first time at the Shaw Festival. And when when you were announced as as playing Fanny Bryce, there was a lot of fanfare about how this is perfect casting and all this sort of thing. But how how did this come up that you would like take on this role and leave the Stratford Festival?
[Sara Farb]
Well, I had left the Stratford Festival a few years before I came back to do As You Like It. Chris Abraham, it’s a it’s a play I’d wanted to do. And he’s a director I’d never worked with.
And I really, really was keen to do that with him. And as it goes, sort of, it’s really just for me, year by year. The conversation about Funny Girl happened a while ago, but it was a matter of timing.
And a couple of years ago, it was becoming more and more concrete. So I had a nice heads up. And and by by last year, it was like the conversation was well underway.
And but I’d been thinking about the part for a while. It’s you know, that’s that kind of role for a Jewish musical theatre performer. So it wasn’t like a brand new idea.
But it crystallized at a really good time.
[Phil Rickaby]
Yeah. Now you having spent a number of years at the Stratford Festival and now coming to the Shaw Festival, this is your first time. I think you’re doing you’re in Wind in the Willows as well as Funny Girl.
Yeah. And I just I just spoke with with the Sharry Flett a little bit ago about about about that show. And we’ve talked a little bit about the the way that the Shaw Festival feels, the way that the ensemble feels like as a as a bit of a I don’t want to say collective, but that’s the only word that’s coming to mind for now.
What do you notice as somebody who is just come to that company after some after experience at the Stratford Festival? What do you notice that’s that’s different between the two companies?
[Sara Farb]
There’s a lot that’s similar. And like I appreciate the the work ethic and the the attention to detail and the artistry everywhere is really remarkable. The Shaw Festival is smaller.
So there’s there’s the acting ensemble is is significantly smaller. What I really love about it here that’s that’s very apparent is how process oriented everything feels. There’s a it’s a very I came in and immediately felt welcomed in the warmest possible way and not at all like I had to prove anything.
I knew so many people already, like after time spent in this industry. So I was friend friends and friendly with enough people. But the the warmth and that everybody greeted me with, like just not not even the acting company, but just across the board was really, really lovely.
A very nice and auspicious beginning. And I really think that this place is incredibly ensemble minded. It’s very generous in the attention it pays to each individual.
Everybody gets an opportunity to shine. And in so many ways, it’s sometimes just not about you, which is a very healthy, healthy way to live in a rep theatre company to sort of share the responsibilities and spread them out and and support each other and understand that everybody is equally capable. It’s very, very nice.
[Phil Rickaby]
Yeah. You have the opportunity to both headline a show and. Play an animal in another show ensemble, which which I guess could give you a bit of a break because a show like Funny Girl has got to be taxing.
[Sara Farb]
Oh, yeah. Yeah, it is. And I love I mean, I love doing Wind in the Willows.
It’s such a fun hang. It’s like a bunch of the same people that that I do Funny Girl with. I love watching the work of of, you know, the principals.
They’re just so great. It was really fun to build. Fiona Sauder is an amazing leader.
So I really love her and her work. And yeah, it’s like it’s it’s nice. It’s nice to watch and it’s nice to feel like you’re part of the fabric of something.
And I think it’s a very, very important part of being an actor is just remembering that sometimes it’s not about you.
[Phil Rickaby]
Yeah. We serve the theatre, I think is yeah, is is is is an important idea. You mentioned having a confidence in what you can do.
And you’ve been doing this for a long time. I believe you were nine, 10 years old when you first played a young Jane Eyre. Yeah.
And so this this is you have a lot of experience in the industry. You’re you know your instrument quite well. But having having been in the industry for so long, what what keeps you going?
What keeps you to get tired of it? Because I mean, it’s a long it’s a long. Yeah.
It’s a difficult industry for a lot of people.
[Sara Farb]
Yeah.
[Phil Rickaby]
What it is. Yeah. What keeps you engaged with the industry?
[Sara Farb]
I think meeting people that I continually want to work with, which keeps happening, which is nice encountering roles that I find interesting. I write as well and and writing things and having people I admire, make them come to life is pretty exciting. I’m very happy that that’s a part of my career, but also realizing the work of of friends of mine as well.
I think working on new new pieces, particularly new musicals, is some of the most fun. But yeah, like it’s it’s funny that you read that as confidence. Like I, I am learning I’m learning more about myself as a performer and as a singer than I ever, ever have in like the entirety of my career this year.
And it’s a it’s a there are frequent crises of confidence. Demons come up. They just show up and then they they stick around for a while.
So it’s it’s it can be challenging. And that part of it can be also quite exhausting. And the the more people I speak to, I look up to who’ve been in this longer than me say that it just, you know, it just keeps getting worse as you get older and you just have figure out you just have to figure out how to to to slay the dragon.
But we all love it enough to to move forward and keep keep going. But yeah, it’s like it’s not it’s not simple at all. It’s like extremely challenging.
And there are there are days where I’m like, I don’t know. I don’t know if this is worth it.
[Phil Rickaby]
I’ve I’ve had that on a couple of fringe tours, like once you hit a certain point, but you’re in the middle of a tour and you’re like, I don’t know about this, you know, whether it’s audiences not engaging with in this city or just a couple of bad shows. And I used to say, if you don’t have a like some kind of existential crisis in the middle of the fringe tour, are you actually on a fringe tour?
[Sara Farb]
Oh, that’s a great point. Sure.
[Phil Rickaby]
And I think maybe a long I haven’t done like a really long run of a show, but I can imagine it’s the same thing. You have bad days, bad performances as well as great ones. And you just have to it’s the thing, I think, which is the most important lesson for any actor is just to be able to like, well, that was bad.
I’ll do the next thing. You just have to leave the shake it off.
[Sara Farb]
I know. I know. I’m not good at that.
I hold on.
[Phil Rickaby]
I don’t think anybody is good at it. We just we strive for our whole lives to be able to just like let go of it and try to move forward.
[Sara Farb]
Yeah.
[Phil Rickaby]
You you mentioned writing and you are a multi hyphenate actor, lyricist, playwright. How did you start writing for this stage?
[Sara Farb]
Mm hmm. Just just so we’re clear, I’m not a lyricist. I find that incredibly am I incorrect?
[Phil Rickaby]
Did you did did you write lyrics for a show?
[Sara Farb]
Uh, maybe one of them once, maybe once, but then but I learned that it’s not I’m not good at it. It’s it’s it’s it’s a really it’s one of I think it’s the hardest job distilling emotion into not poetry even. It’s like it’s more concise than poetry somehow.
[Phil Rickaby]
Like, anywho, I will apologize for getting that wrong. But I like to know if somebody’s if somebody’s done something, I assume that’s it. You write one play.
You’re a playwright. You know that you are. I just assume that.
[Sara Farb]
Yeah, it’s totally fine. It’s just it would be an insult to lyricists everywhere. I started right.
I don’t know. I started writing my my high school, Earl Haig, secondary school, the Claude Watson program. I was a drama major.
And there was a really, really active arts scene in the high school. And they had an annual one act play festival. And I in grade 10, just like tried writing a play about a Catholic priest.
And I’m Jewish, so I didn’t know anything. But it got in. And and it was cool.
And I wrote two other plays in the following two years. And I really I found that it was something I enjoyed. I had really loved theatre and musicals from a very young age.
And the structure of it kind of like always made made sense to me. So really, my my first like actual professional play was the one, a one person show that I wrote that premiered at Theatre Passe-Muraille that I developed for a while. But I was asked by Colleen Donci and Akiva Romer-Segal to write the book for this musical they wanted to write, which was an adaptation of Bremen Town Musicians called Bremen Rock City.
It was a TYA show. We wrote it for the Toronto Fringe, 2013. And that was my first musical.
And it was sort of it was so nice, like it was so nice to collaborate because it was such a difference from writing alone and performing it alone. It was a very solitary experience until then. So, yeah, I liked musicals.
Mitchell Marcus, who was running then called Acting Upstage, Now Musical Stage, invited me to be a part of Noteworthy, which was a program that paired writers and songwriters. And I met Britta Johnson and we became very fast and good friends and wrote some work. And ever since then, I’ve been writing.
[Phil Rickaby]
That’s great. I mean, you entered the solo show and that, I mean, writing is solitary anyway, and then performing a solo show can be very difficult, especially if it’s a full length, full length. Yeah.
It’s one thing to do like a 60 minute show at the Fringe. It’s entirely another to feel like a full evening. What drew you to writing a solo play?
[Sara Farb]
It was about my sister. My sister is disabled and I’ve always, you know, I just have always thought about how our lives, her life would be different if things were different, what kind of person she’d be. And that was sort of the jumping off point.
And I played her in the show and it was, I was writing it at a time where that kind of thing was acceptable, an able bodied person. I don’t think it would fly now. I don’t think I wouldn’t feel comfortable.
But it was a way for me to unpack what her life must be based on observation. And I’m very proud of it. I think I think I worked through a lot.
And but I just, I wasn’t sure how to contextualize like what I wanted to go for in a different structure.
[Phil Rickaby]
But since then, you’ve wrote other plays. I want to talk about Love Us Most, which was, I think, produced earlier this summer.
[Sara Farb]
Yes, yes. Here for now in Stratford. Yeah.
[Phil Rickaby]
Yeah. Tell me about Love Us Most.
[Sara Farb]
Sure. Love Us Most is it takes place backstage at a rep theatre company in a women’s dressing room, leading up to places during intermission and after one single performance of King Lear. So the focus is on the three women in the play.
It was inspired by the in the dressing room hashtag from 2020. And all of the unbelievable stories that came out of that and the conversation just that exploded generally about the way that theatre, the way that the theatre industry in this country and at large just needs to develop and change and evolve and be inclusive and understand its huge shortcomings. So the play deals with the racism, sexism, female competition, ageism, all of these things inside of this room during this one night.
And that’s the play.
[Phil Rickaby]
And you’ve played Cordelia. Is that right?
[Sara Farb]
Yes.
[Phil Rickaby]
Yeah. How much did your experience playing that role, how much did it affect or inform Love Us Most?
[Sara Farb]
It informed it in that I felt compelled to write this play and I knew that I wanted a play that featured, you know, few women with mostly men. And I had done the play and I knew it. And so it was it was because I wasn’t I didn’t want to research a different one.
And so once I decided to do to use the play King Lear as the backdrop, I could mine for depth in the story that I was going to craft because I do a play and you know it so well. So why deny myself that luxury?
[Phil Rickaby]
Absolutely. Absolutely. There’s such a nuance that comes from from from performing a play.
You know, there are all of the Shakespeare’s that I’ve done. As soon as those plays are over, I can tell you absolutely everything about that.
[Sara Farb]
Oh, I know.
[Phil Rickaby]
So everything that happened in the green room or in the dressing room, you know.
[Sara Farb]
Yeah, it’s amazing. And then I find doing Shakespeare is the most enjoyable way to consume it.
[Phil Rickaby]
I agree. I missed it. I missed it.
I mean, I love to see it when it’s done well, but I also really miss doing it, you know, do it. I know. I know.
I’ve been saying that. I want to we talked about your early start as as an actor in when you were nine. Prior to that, you know, usually I would ask people about the theatre origin story, but yours kind of starts like earlier than some people.
What did did what was the draw for you? Like how did did you want to be an actor prior to auditioning or getting the role in Jane Eyre or like what? How did that come about for you?
[Sara Farb]
Um, I enjoyed singing. I think I was interested in performing. I was part of a children’s theatre troupe called Characters, which was run by a woman named Sherry Quallenberg, who is now a remarkable agent.
She was my agent for many years. And she was running this. She was running this program.
And an open call came up for Jane Eyre. And she called my mom and said, you should take Sara to this. And so I went and I got it.
And it just really made sense to me. The year before that, in this program, I was doing Annie, I was one of the orphans, I had the best time it was so it was like a pivotal moment. And I just loved I loved performing so much and doing Jane Eyre was obviously it was life changing but but I just remember it just like felt like I always knew how to do it.
I knew what to do. And since then, it’s sort of just been a steady stream of theatre throughout my whole life. And I there is not a year has not gone by where I haven’t in some way performed.
Yeah, it’s a long relationship.
[Phil Rickaby]
Yeah, you went to you went to a theatre, an arts based secondary school. And then did you go to you didn’t go to a theatre school after that when you graduated? You went to the industry?
[Sara Farb]
Well, I was already kind of working, but I, I decided to get an English degree at U of T. So I did that. I got a four year degree in six years.
So that like, if work came up, then I could be part time and just kind of switch off.
[Phil Rickaby]
That was actually gonna be one of my questions, because I did see that you were doing shows while you were in school. And I was wondering about about how you balance that. I guess, by extending the length of time we’re at the university.
[Sara Farb]
Yep, totally. I did summer, I did summer courses, like there were years where I was just in, enrolled in one course. And then by the sixth year, I was like, I can’t do this.
I can’t stand it. I so I did a full course load. It was, it was also like the way that I, that I discovered audiobooks, because I was an English specialist, which meant that I didn’t have a minor.
So I was like, I guess you call it a double major or whatever. So all I was doing was basically English courses, and then and then like the required science. So between classes, there was like, there was no time to read.
So I would, Audible was fairly new. They had like, like a couple, a couple dozen thousand titles. And I would listen and it was, it was the best.
It was a great stroke of genius.
[Phil Rickaby]
Yeah, I mean, that would that you know, prior to that you had to get books on tape or on or just read them like a sucker, like just some person using their eyes. Yeah, just reading. No way.
I and there’s there’s one thing that came up when I was looking into you. And that was the copywriting course that you did at George Brown College. And I’m curious about, listen, what what brought what took you to the copy?
Let’s start with that. What took you to the copywriting course?
[Sara Farb]
It was it was a moment of no one wants to hire me. I’m working my ass off. At that point, I was I was self producing a lot.
But it was just a very like challenging time for me at work. And I was like, well, let’s shift the focus of my life and see where that gets me. I will.
I will make my literary interest more of the nucleus theatre can be the orbit. Let’s let’s change the structure. And as soon as I did that, I started getting jobs.
And I mean, it was great. I I I’m glad that I enrolled. I think I think it probably would have been an interesting enough life.
I really love words. I love grammar. Grammar was a huge part of of that course.
But it it was clear that. The faster I ran. The more it would wear me back in.
And and so I was I said, all right, let’s let’s see. And here we are.
[Phil Rickaby]
I mean, if you believe in messages from the universe, I don’t think there is a more clear message from the universe that you should be doing theatre than trying to get out. And it’s bringing you back in.
[Sara Farb]
It’s like that. It’s like if you’re if you’re an actor and you book a trip, just like that’s when you’re going to you’re going to get a job.
[Phil Rickaby]
It’s absolutely the worst.
[Sara Farb]
Yeah.
[Phil Rickaby]
There’s there’s one thing that I want I want to talk to you about, and that is you. You played the role of Duffy Diggory in Harry Potter and the Cursed Child on Broadway. And then again in Toronto at the at Mervis Theatre.
[Sara Farb]
Yeah.
[Phil Rickaby]
So you’ve had the experience. I mean, you’ve had the experience of playing on Broadway and back home in Toronto. And that’s.
Broadway, as somebody from Toronto who’s like only done shows here, it feels like a completely different machine.
[Sara Farb]
Yeah, that was wild. So I was I was in the first replacement cast and what ended up being the last two part production of Harry Potter, because we closed with Covid and came back as one part. So like at the time it was the reigning best new play.
It was an inconceivable notion like. To to be this part in this play, there was so much about what I needed to be doing as far as secrecy, because the role I played was at the time shrouded in secrecy. It was as big as it seemed.
It felt like I was on Broadway in a great way and then sometimes in a way that. Was very destructive while I was standing on stage, intrusive thoughts of like, don’t screw this up, you’re on Broadway.
[Phil Rickaby]
Oh, shit. Yeah.
[Sara Farb]
Yeah. Really not just not not a convenient time.
[Phil Rickaby]
No.
[Sara Farb]
But it was like it was a surreal, wonderful, just bigger, bigger than I can ever comprehend moment. Celebrities all the time. It was such it was it was such a beautiful, beautiful show, especially in the two parts.
It was so. It was so elegant, like it was so theatrical and and it was it remains the most thrilling theatre going experience I’ve ever had to watch it for the first time. And just what they what they pulled off as far as the magic was staggering.
So to be a part of that was like ridiculous.
[Phil Rickaby]
It was incredible.
[Sara Farb]
And then and then coming home to do it was wonderful because I I was now a person who could, you know, experience everybody else learning this for the first time and and and like holding hands or just like guiding or whatever and getting to do it at home was was great. It was it was a wonderful time. Different because it was one show and the the demands on the actors changed dramatically to do that big a show eight times a week versus four.
[Phil Rickaby]
Those intrusive thoughts. I I imagine you’re not the only person to stand on a Broadway stage and have those intrusive thoughts. And I don’t think they do anybody.
I’m 100 percent certain that if it was me, I would have those same thoughts. And I’m sure that there are thousands, if not millions of people who’ve done a show and had a moment of thinking like, don’t fuck this up, you’re on Broadway.
[Sara Farb]
A hundred percent. Yeah.
[Phil Rickaby]
And that’s got to mess with.
[Sara Farb]
Oh, yeah.
[Phil Rickaby]
Everything.
[Sara Farb]
It’s terrifying. There there were there were moments where they were so there were so loud in my head that I actually wasn’t sure if I if I’d said my line right. They were louder than my voice.
I think I always did it fine. But it was it was because like it was a moment of necessary control in a way that if I if I stumbled, it would kind of ruin the the the spell, for lack of a better word. So the pressure I put on myself to to be word perfect and articulate became a bit a bit of a burden.
And then and then those, you know, those those moments kind of disappear and you’re you move on. And that’s a long run.
[Phil Rickaby]
Yeah. No, absolutely. And the secrets, not only the secrets of the character, but the magic secrets as well that I’m sure people were always like, how did you do this?
Yeah. And you can’t tell them. No, no.
We had to sign a lot of papers. I bet there were a ton of papers to sign for for that one. But you also you talked about that that that that machine, the like if you’re not like perfect, if you’re if you’re off, if you if you if you’ve stumbled.
I’ve thought a lot about shows that I’ve seen on Broadway and how those just seem like relentless machines going forward where everything is so meticulous and everything is so must be so perfect that if anybody is off, it’s a whole thing like like suddenly the the the the timing is off and things don’t work the way they’re supposed to. Again, that must be why like voices like don’t fuck this up, like how can you not be thinking about about that kind of thing?
[Sara Farb]
Yeah, yeah, absolutely. I it what comes with like a huge machine is everybody knowing how to adapt. So if something does go wrong, there’s all kinds of contingencies, especially on a show like that.
And yeah, but it it does become like you do want to take care of your your job in a way that the whole the whole thing doesn’t, you know, it’s screeched to a halt.
[Phil Rickaby]
For sure, for sure. Did I mean, did you have to stage door while you were there?
[Sara Farb]
I did sometimes, but I found it I found it quite exhausting. I’m a tremendous introvert. And I it was it was quite taxing for me to to do that.
I wish I had more energy at the end of a show, but I really, really need to recharge alone. But that culture is like people who people who give after their shows like that, I have so much admiration for them who can do it for as long as they do.
[Phil Rickaby]
As an introvert myself, I’ve thought about the stage door and the way that that goes and how taxing and how miserable I would be doing it. And like, would people know that this smile isn’t real? Like, just so much.
Yeah, it’s hard.
[Sara Farb]
It’s hard. And there’s like, they expect you to come out and it’s hard. It’s hard to communicate boundaries.
And but at the same time, it’s just like it’s so pure and it’s so it’s so loving and they make great art and they’re just they’re just leader lovers. And I don’t I don’t want to disappoint anyone by being a misery.
[Phil Rickaby]
Is there any preparation that somebody gives that they give you before you stage door for the first time? Does anybody sit you down and say it’s going to be like this or you kind of thrown to the lions?
[Sara Farb]
I can’t remember. I think there is a bit of a brief. They usually just give you a Sharpie and they like try and keep it moving just like from from this end to the other.
But it’s it’s fairly straightforward. You know, I think that there’s some like don’t hug, but maybe I’m misremembering.
[Phil Rickaby]
Hmm. I mean, there are plenty of reasons not to hug people, especially post covid. And, you know, nobody wants anybody getting sick.
And even even prior to covid, I’m sure there’s a stage manager watching somebody go for the hug thinking if that person has a sniffle.
[Sara Farb]
Yeah, I know. That’s it. That’s it.
[Phil Rickaby]
Yeah. I was looking at an interview you did at to say Arts Magazine. You were talking about love us most.
And I wanted to ask you about. And listen, I this this statement, I’m sure that it comes up a bunch. You said that the foundation of theatre is corrupt.
And I think you listen, I think I spent a lot of time thinking about theatre doing this show. I think a lot of times about the future of theatre, the survival of theatre, all the things. And I I read that and I was like, yeah.
But also I’m curious about where that that comes from. Is that is that from that? I’ll let you tell us tell the story.
But like, where does that come from for you?
[Sara Farb]
I think in the context of that interview, it. It in large part has to do with a white supremacist approach to classical theatre, which is obviously corrupt and hard to get away from in my my most of my experiences in this country. So I’d say in that regard, but also watching what’s going on on Broadway and how how much of a bummer.
Economically, fiscally. Broadway is what what is being produced and how. It feels it feels a bit dire and corrupt and and money driven.
So like it’s it there’s corruption in different areas. I think I don’t I am not a person who understands money enough to tell you what needs to happen to both sell tickets, keep people interested, produce good theatre. But I also I also see.
Ongoing white supremacy and exclusion and it it’s and and valiant and and real and true attempts to undo it. But I think. It’s its foundation is so ingrained in something that.
That is unchangeable. That to to continually change it on top of it is it’s a it’s for the best, but and I and I and like dismantling the entire system also feels completely unreasonable and untenable. But but at least like acknowledging of a corrupt foundation is, I think, useful.
[Phil Rickaby]
No, absolutely. I fully agree. You know, I’m sort of looking at leadership changes that are happening in theatres around this country and seeing, oh, there was a woman at the head of that company.
And that’s not the case anymore. Now we’re now we’ve just replaced a woman with another cis white man. And I I keep thinking that like every time we take a step forward, we we give them a chance for a couple of years and then we’re just going to bring in a white guy from England.
[Sara Farb]
Right. You know, a white guy from England is the lovely man.
[Phil Rickaby]
I’m sure the white guy from England is a lovely man. But not only do I think there are plenty of people who could do that in Canada, but also there’s probably at least I could think of at least just off the top of my head, five women who could do the job, too.
[Sara Farb]
Sure.
[Phil Rickaby]
Yeah.
[Sara Farb]
Again, like I I know nothing about running a theatre company and I hope never to ever know. But but it’s yeah, like it’s it’s the kind of thing, you know. There’s so much good that’s happening in this place and over there and change is wonderful.
And the sometimes the optics are. Are a bummer, but but I also believe that that everyone is continually fighting for something better and and that that something better is making good theatre.
[Phil Rickaby]
I think we have to believe that. We have to believe that. Right.
Otherwise, because, you know, you’re thinking like things that are being chosen and all I could think was, listen, the thing that is not going to save theatre is it’s not a Karate Kid, the musical.
[Sara Farb]
I know.
[Phil Rickaby]
Moratorium. I’m just can we not turn things turn movies? I’m tired of IP based.
Musicals and theatre, I know. Listen, about about 10 years ago, I was like, listen, we’ve got a Beetlejuice musical coming up, but nobody’s made the Princess Bride into a musical. And now I don’t even want that.
Well, it better be amazing. Well, first off, it would have to be amazing if you don’t if you screw that up.
[Sara Farb]
I think it’s actually been it’s been in development for a long time and I know it has had several different writers.
[Phil Rickaby]
Yes. Yeah.
[Sara Farb]
Because no one you can’t screw that up. You cannot.
[Phil Rickaby]
I if somebody was to come to me and say, you have the opportunity to do this. So I’d be like, not me. I can’t take that kind of pressure.
No, I know.
[Sara Farb]
But I cannot wait to see somebody nail it.
[Phil Rickaby]
Oh, for sure.
[Sara Farb]
There’s like I have a handful of movies that I think would make phenomenal musicals and and that’s it.
[Phil Rickaby]
Yeah, there are very few because, you know, I think one of the one of the fellows on the podcast was saying that, you know, in a musical people people talk until they can’t talk anymore. Then they sing and when they can’t sing anymore, they dance. But in a movie, we already know they don’t have to sing.
Right. Because they don’t. So there again, Princess Bride, you could do it.
I don’t think the Karate Kid is the one.
[Sara Farb]
It’s so weird. It’s like somebody has like a dartboard with a bunch of titles.
[Phil Rickaby]
Oh, my God. I hadn’t considered the dartboard theory, but I think you might be on to something because I can’t think of what else it could be. There aren’t there aren’t original shows being being created for Broadway anymore.
It seems there is.
[Sara Farb]
Well, maybe Happy Ending.
[Phil Rickaby]
Yes.
[Sara Farb]
Right. Is one.
[Phil Rickaby]
Two speakers carry a case to New York City.
[Sara Farb]
Yes.
[Phil Rickaby]
Yeah.
[Sara Farb]
This show Wanted Galileo.
[Phil Rickaby]
Right. Yes.
[Sara Farb]
I want to say something something else that I always keep forgetting. But but yeah, like. Yeah, there’s there’s not a lot.
But what I always find fascinating, I keep when when this this topic comes up is is noting how many original, completely original musicals have succeeded and won Tony Awards in the last 10 years, or at least ones that aren’t based on a movie that are book adaptations, fine, but not based on a movie. And it’s so many of them. Yeah.
So many of them.
[Phil Rickaby]
Yeah.
[Sara Farb]
Like like an encouraging number and and and. And these these like, I guess it’s it’s just a matter of getting it to Broadway so that you can cash in your checks from a national tour that goes non equity. Fine.
But but like because you just want the title to sell and wherever. But but like that. And like the standard, it just dilutes the whole enterprise, you know, it is not exciting to me.
[Phil Rickaby]
I mean, I’m sure that for somebody it’s exciting. They’re going to see Karate Kid, the musical, and that’s the thing that they’re going to go and they’re going to see and they’re going to be.
[Sara Farb]
Imagine if it’s a great show, if Karate Kid, the musical actually ends up being awesome.
[Phil Rickaby]
If if Karate Kid, the musical is the Princess Bride musical that we want.
[Sara Farb]
Yeah.
[Phil Rickaby]
First off, I’ll be very surprised, but also I will eat my words. I will I will pen an apology that I ever thought that it was going to be garbage. But part of me is also like another.
Another movie adaptation, I just and I don’t think that’s the I don’t think that’s the future. I don’t think that’s the thing that saves theatre.
[Sara Farb]
No, I hope it isn’t. I really, really hope it isn’t.
[Phil Rickaby]
I’m going to ask, as the question occurs to me, and this might not even be a fair question, if you don’t want to answer it, I don’t mind. But you’ve you’ve done shows all over for quite a while. Do you have a favorite, baby?
[Sara Farb]
That I’ve done?
[Phil Rickaby]
Yeah.
[Sara Farb]
Hmm. I really loved doing Romeo and Juliet with my dear, dear, dear friend Antoine Yared. That was a very special show.
Felt like a really good production of the play. Doing Harry Potter on Broadway was pretty amazing. The The Last Wife and The Virgin Trial that playing playing Mary, Bloody Mary was a delight.
And that was that was a really exciting thing because I’d never really had someone write something with my voice in their head. And I got to I got to be that sort of for Kate Hennig.
[Phil Rickaby]
That’s got to be pretty flattering.
[Sara Farb]
Yeah, yeah, it was great. It was so nice. And such a such a fun role.
Like, I love playing Mary. And those are those are up there. Those but but I need some some space before I can like.
[Phil Rickaby]
Oh, for sure. You’re still in it. You can’t like you can’t judge the whole thing.
[Sara Farb]
Yeah.
[Phil Rickaby]
But then you have. In February, you’re doing Cabaret, you’re playing Sally Bowles. Yeah.
Which is another iconic, massive role. How? Listen, again, that’s another role that have that people sort of have in their heads because of Liza Minnelli and other and also other productions.
So as you are, you know, looking at the end of one role and facing another big, iconic role, how do you how do you how do you start to prepare for that next role, that next massive, iconic part?
[Sara Farb]
I mean, I think in the same way as this one, I just I’ll read the script. I’m much more familiar with Cabaret. Also, it’s done so much more.
So the expectations are are a bit diluted. And there’s a lot there’s a lot of interpretations and possibilities. So I would say like, there’s a little less anxiety about like that particular aspect of it.
It’s really just because it’s so often done and so well known and seen a lot. I think it’s going to be exciting and fun to sort of I mean, the same as a Shakespeare play that people know so well. It’s like how how can I do this in a way that that surprises someone or myself or that is not not not surprising for the sake of being surprising, but but like discovering something new.
[Phil Rickaby]
Yeah, absolutely. It’s it’s it’s super exciting because I think although the play is done quite often, I don’t think it’s been done in Toronto very often, or I can’t remember the last time. Many years ago, the the production, the Broadway production did a tour and it came here.
I know that but not for a long time. So it’s the first opportunity in a long time that audiences will have to to see it on the stage, although I didn’t see it at Stratford when I was in school.
[Sara Farb]
Yeah. So I loved that production. Trish Lindstrom.
[Phil Rickaby]
Yeah. First down.
[Sara Farb]
It was great.
[Phil Rickaby]
Yeah. Well, as we come to a close, I’m curious just to return to Funny Girl just for a moment. And you’ve been doing this show since the beginning of the summer.
What have you learned about either the role, the show or performing a show like this for so long that you didn’t expect to learn?
[Sara Farb]
How much I have to forgive myself for every single show that that it is a ridiculous goal to try and do a perfect show. And ultimately, the best case scenario is enjoying yourself is having a really good time. Because it changes everything.
It changes everything. Yeah. It’s like, it’s such a it feels like a secret or like something, something people don’t really know or talk about.
But it’s like, as soon as soon as you have a nice time, it’s just great.
[Phil Rickaby]
They’re when when the actors are having fun, when they’re enjoying the performance, that becomes so electric and so infectious for the audience that it is. I think we’ve all been in shows where we weren’t having fun. And we’ve all been in shows when we when we have.
And it is so much better to be able to just enjoy what’s happening.
[Sara Farb]
Oh, it just feels it’s so nice. Just it’s just so you feel so light.
[Phil Rickaby]
Absolutely. Well, Sara, thank you so much for joining me. I really appreciate your time.
And thanks so much. Thank you. What a nice time.
Thank you for listening to this week’s episode of Stay Drurthy. Before I get into who next week’s guest is, let me tell you about my Patreon because I can’t do this show without the people who’ve chosen to back me on Patreon. Even though this podcast is given to you for free, there are costs involved with making the show.
It costs money to host all of the audio files so they can be distributed to all the podcast listening places. Editing software costs money, transcripts cost money, image creation software costs money, and that doesn’t even account for the work of making this show. Every episode is the result of hours of work.
And since I don’t have sponsors or advertising, the only way that I can keep this show going is because of the patrons who are backing me on Patreon. But the fact that there are people who believe in this show enough to back me on Patreon is so gratifying. It tells me that I’m doing something right.
But I still need your help. With the help of my patrons, I am able to cover most of the costs associated with creating this show. But there is still a bit of a shortfall.
And those hours of work that go into putting this show together aren’t covered at all. If you want to be one of the people who helps me to make this show, please go to patreon.com slash stageworthy and become a patron. Patrons get early access to episodes, we’ll have some conversations about things that are happening in the theatre world.
And the more people who join the Patreon, the more I will ultimately be able to offer to my patrons. And if you’re someone who doesn’t want to or can’t commit to an ongoing contribution but still wants to help, you can leave a one time contribution at ko-fi.com slash stageworthy to find a link to that in the show notes. I will be grateful for anything you give.
My guest next week is Curtis Campbell. You might remember in late June, as posters for the shows in the Toronto Fringe were being released. It was noticed that a number of those shows were using generative AI to make their posters which sparked a discourse.
Curtis was at the forefront of that discourse and he joins me next week to talk about AI in the arts and you will not want to miss that conversation next week on Stageworthy.
