Interview: Marla Mindelle On Making Musical-Comedy Magic in The Big Gay Jamboree

Musical theater has run in Marla’s Mindelle’s veins since she can remember, so it is no surprise that Titaníque, the off-Broadway musical parody she co-wrote, won three 2023 Lucille Lortel Awards and an Obie Award for Mindelle’s performance as Celine Dion.

The hit musical did so well in its initial run that it transferred from the Asylum Theatre to the larger Daryl Roth Theatre, where its heart continues to go on and on. Mindelle, who has performed in Broadway shows such as Cinderella and Sister Act, says she feels “#blessed” because she currently enjoys having two shows off-Broadway, with The Big Gay Jamboree currently in previews at the Orpheum Theatre.

She co-wrote the book with Jonathan Parks-Ramage, and the score with Philip Drennen. The show centers on a woman who wakes up after a night of drinking to find herself trapped in a musical. We spoke with Mindelle about how Jamboree came to be produced by Margot Robbie’s production company, which films she would like to parody, and what she imagines Celine Dion would have to say about Titanique’s new off-Broadway competition.

This conversation has been condensed and edited for clarity.

Where do you get your ideas?

Everybody keeps asking, “What is wrong with you?” especially after they see The Big Gay Jamboree. I think I’m just deranged [laughs]. Someone said to me, you either see life through the lens of poetry or the lens of comedy, and for me it’s definitely comedy.

To what degree did your growing up in a musical-theater household become the impetus for Jamboree?

I grew up watching classic musicals on repeat. I originally sold this as a movie musical in Hollywood eight years ago, with the hope of retelling a good old-fashioned classic musical with a very fresh spin. It was going to be produced by Margot Robbie at the time, and like 90 percent of movies in Hollywood, it went into a developmental hellscape and fell apart. The only thing I had going on as a writer at the time was Titaníque, and I thought, ‘This will never happen.’ Cut to years later, Titaníque blows up and becomes a massive success, and who is in the audience one night seeing the show because she’s a massive Celine Dion fan? Margot Robbie. She emailed me a couple of months after that performance, and said, “I absolutely loved Titaníque, are you working on anything else?” I said, “I have our movie musical! I want to turn it into a stage musical. What do you think?” She said, “Let’s do it.”

You worked with close college friends Jonathan Parks-Ramage, Philip Drennen, and director and choreographer Connor Gallagher on Jamboree. Do you have your own shorthand with them after having known them for so long?

It has been so incredible to be working with them. I literally made us our own phrase bible because we have the same brains. [For example,] in the show program I thank “#UTPO,” because our college professor called me, Jonathan, and Philip the Unholy Trinity; Connor wasn’t included in that, so we started calling us Unholy Trinity Plus One. UTPO.

You have spent a good portion of your life in musicals. What would be the best and worst aspect of actually being stuck in one?

When I think about this, I keep choosing all of the wrong musicals to be stuck in! One of my favorites is The Secret Garden. If I was stuck in that, I would be dead of cholera right now. I’ve said Ragtime, but there is so much political unrest in that one. I think the best musicals are sometimes the hardest musicals in history. I could be trapped in Gypsy every single day of my life…

How have your own best and worst theatrical experiences inspired Jamboree?

For 10 years of my life I failed miserably in my career. I left musical theater in my early 30s, and up until Titaníque, nothing that I ever wrote was staged. I lost all of my money and I was a struggling, down-and-out actor. I think the funniest thing about that is I took the experience and I turned it into my character, Stacey, who is a failed musical-theater actress, and if she cannot be an actress she is going to try do the next best thing: be a Real Housewife on the Bravo network. That’s a fun twist—the “Yes, and…” of a failed actress. What do you do next?

What is your earliest memory of yourself as a performer?

I was 3 years old in a recording studio. My parents had to lift my butt to put me on multiple phone books so that I could sing Annie’s “Tomorrow.” I was screaming my little [head] off. I listened to Evita in the womb. I grew up listening to the most obscure musical-theater records, like Zorba!, and Irma La Douce. I would come into the city every month with my [composer] dad to see The Secret Garden, Most Happy Fella, Big River, and Phantom… when I was 3 years old!

In Titaníque and Jamboree you break the fourth wall in fun, distinctive ways. What is the thought behind pushing those boundaries?

I have to attribute that to Ellen’s Stardust Diner, where I worked when I was 23. There was something about singing a song and being one with the audience that was so appealing to me. It puts everyone on the same plane. I really like messing with the genre and elements of musical theater. Oftentimes you are kind of a cog in someone else’s wheel; it is unconventional to be able to do whatever you want to do and utilize the audience. It has become my favorite part.

Now that you have worked with Margot Robbie and her production company Lucky Chap Entertainment, you must have imagined a Barbie musical…

I think about it all the time. It is meant to have a $1 billion budget. I would turn the Longacre into a literal Barbie Dreamhouse. We would do it Cabaret at the Kit Kat Club style where it would be completely immersive. [Titaníque co-creator] Constantine Rousouli would play my Ken.

Which other shows would you want to adapt or parody in your epic fashion?

I would die to adapt Showgirls, the Elizabeth Berkeley cult movie, or my next one would be Troop Beverly Hills. I did it in Los Angeles with the Titanique team. We’ve been trying to get that made ever since. It’s very funny. We do “Cookie Time!”

How would Celine Dion review Jamboree?

“Oh my God, girlfriends. This show is so kooky crazy! You’ve got to go see it. It’s the best show I’ve seen in my life, aside from Titaníque, which is all about me.”