Quick Q&A: Sara Chase

I had the pleasure of talking with the hugely talented and altogether delightful Sara Chase, whose star is most definitely on the rise thanks to her hilarious performance in Off-Broadway’s The Toxic Avenger Musical.

Were you born funny or did you have to learn how?

I think it was a perfect storm of growing up Jewish in Connecticut with anxiety and three other siblings. You had to compete for attention, so you learn some attention-grabbing tactics. I’m full of neuroses and anxieties so I’m sure a lot of my humor stems from that, and my therapist would agree.

Your Playbill bio makes you seem the Queen of recent high-profile music theatre readings: Kristina, The First Wives Club, Death Takes A Holiday, Prairie. Which was most exciting for you?

This one, The Toxic Avenger Musical. Not to say the others weren’t great – I mean, look, Maury Yeston (Death Takes A Holiday) writes the most haunting and beautiful music I have ever heard in my life – but Toxic was the best reading experience and just so me. I think it’s partly because Joe DiPietro writes how I talk and think. I write sketch comedy as well, I trained at Upright Citizens Brigade. I read a lot of scripts and this one was just so different, it’s not something you see every day. And I had never met Mr. John Rando before; I had never gotten to see Urinetown because I was in college at BU. I learned so much from him about comedy; just being in the room with him was an electric experience.

If you could distill John Rando’s direction down to one statement, what would it be?

To borrow a line from Pat McCorkle, John Rando never met a joke he didn’t like. That about sums it up. He creates such a safe work environment that you feel okay bringing your bits to the table. He may cut it later but he’ll always let you try it.

Is there a bit of yours that you’re especially pleased with that made it through?

The first thing that comes to mind is my entrance, which I do facing the wrong way while singing my character’s intro. I’m pretty proud of that. By now it’s hard to remember what bits were yours and where things came from but that one I do remember from the first day of rehearsal.

Since the character you play in Toxic is blind, I wondered what it’s like to sing duets without being able to look your partner in the eye.

It’s not so hard for me but it’s terrible for Nick (Cordero, who plays the Toxic Avenger) who doesn’t get to connect to anyone. We had this discussion in rehearsal one day. I’m okay sort of looking to the side and saying my lines and singing my songs, but poor Nick! It’s hard for an actor to connect to a love interest on stage when they are not looking at you. If I may go on about Nick for a minute, he’s just solid and amazing and someone you want to have be your partner on stage. And even though he’s so tall and could be intimidating, he’s the nicest person alive.

photo: Carol Rosegg

The first time I saw the show the audience was with it right away, but on my second visit it took the audience a while to get the show’s groove. When the audience isn’t with you at the get-go, do you feel yourself pushing harder to reach them?

One of the things you learn right away with comedy is that when they’re quiet, trying harder is one of the worst things you can do. It just looks…like you’re trying really hard. Basically as a rule when they aren’t responsive right away we just keep it going and move through it and let them get it eventually. We’ve had houses that started out so quiet and by the end they’re laughing and yelling. It takes them a while to get the tone of it, especially if the last thing they saw was Les Mis.

Have you encountered the cult following from other incarnations of The Toxic Avenger?

There’s definitely a cult following from the movie and also the musical developed a following from New Jersey when it was done at George Street. There’s lots of people who saw it there multiple times and now are coming to see it here. Nancy Opel said she’s never seen so many people hang out afterwards at the stage door. Every night there are fans of the movie or the cartoon, which is really great. Probably the number one thing I hear is “I didn’t know what to expect” or “I didn’t think I was going to like it but I loved it”. It’s always that they are so surprised.

Did you watch The Toxic Avenger movie before taking on the role in the musical?

I didn’t, I didn’t want it to influence my performance. Ha, that’s not true! I hadn’t even heard of it I’m sorry to say. Yet everyone I tell what I’m doing, they get so excited because of the movie or especially the cartoon.

I think because of the Toxic cartoon people think it’s okay to bring little kids to the show, but it’s definitely not kid-friendly. It’s very Adult Swim, very South Park-y and Family Guy. We get a little spooked when we look out into the audience and see really young kids and we’re about to expose ourselves or say the f word. It’s also spillover from The Gazillion Bubble Show. The other day I was outside the theatre and there were these 3 year old kids with their parents who had just come from Gazillion, pointing at the Toxic poster and saying “Let’s see this next!” I just had to step in and say something. Even though our show lost 80 dollars that day, I saved them hundreds of dollars in therapy bills.