(bright music) - Isn't it great that we're having a meal and my last name is Meahl and we're having one?

- It's a happy meal.

- Five stars.

(Garen laughs) (upbeat music) - The lives of Broadway performers are busy.

They only have a few short hours between their matinee and evening performances, and they're giving us an inside look from grabbing a bite to unwinding, plus a backstage tour.

Have you ever wanted to see what we do in the time sandwiched between performances?

Follow along and find out.

This is "Broadway Sandwich."

Today, we're at the Lunt-Fontanne Theatre.

Now, many shows have found long-running success here, but its current occupant may have just found the secret to eternal life.

We are at "Death Becomes Her."

Is it drafty in here?

♪ If you want perfection - "Death Becomes Her" is a dark comedy about youth- and beauty-obsessed frenemies Madeline and Helen.

The women's longstanding rivalry heats up when Madeline steals Helen's fiance.

Rude!

Revenge is plotted, a magic potion is taken, and hilarity ensues that will last a lifetime.

The show is based on the 1992 cult classic movie of the same name starring Goldie Hawn, Meryl Streep, and Bruce Willis.

But the Broadway version has no shortage of its own stars.

Megan Hilty and Jennifer Simard take on the iconic roles, alongside Christopher Sieber, Michelle Williams of Destiny's Child, and an ensemble to die for.

Today, we're meeting up with Sarah Meahl.

"Death Becomes Her" is Sarah's fifth Broadway musical after "Paramour," "Hello, Dolly!"

"Kiss Me, Kate," and "Bad Cinderella."

But Sarah's not just a skilled performer.

She's an in-demand choreographer and one of the top dance teachers in New York City.

Seriously, it's nearly impossible to get a spot in one of her classes.

Luckily, we know a guy.

Sarah Meahl.

- Garen, oh, I've missed you, love.

- I've missed you too.

So you just had your first show, your matinee.

- Yes, mm-hmm.

- And we've got a little time before we gotta get you right back here for your second show.

- Yes.

- I am dying to find out what we do in between shows.

- (chuckles) Let's go to BarDough.

- Okay.

- It's my favorite restaurant in Midtown.

- Nice.

- And then I'm teaching at Broadway Dance Center.

Do you wanna take class?

- I would be eternally grateful to take your class.

Shall we?

- Yes.

- Yee!

(lively music) - This is my favorite- - (gasps) Yum!

- situation in Midtown.

- I've never been here.

- I love it here so much.

- I'm so happy to know about new spots in the area.

- (exhales) Yeah, this is the best spot.

- Yum.

Alright, we're dancers.

We're gonna talk about injuries a little bit.

- Mm-hmm.

- I've had my share, everybody's had their share.

Talk to me a little bit about yours.

- I had a big one in 2014.

I wrapped my knee around the back of my leg, and it took me- - Ooh.

- Eight months to heal, which is, like, great, it's actually a great scenario.

Sometimes people have to undergo surgeries, sometimes you tear your ACL or something.

That was not the case for me.

- No surgery?

- No surgery.

- That's impressive.

- Which was kinda hard 'cause I had to just heal it with PT.

- Yeah.

- It took a while.

I definitely think this injury was meant to happen so that then I could kind of find my love for teaching.

And it kicked the whole thing off.

- Kick ball changed it off.

- It kick ball changed, (Garen chuckles) step, flea hop, (Garen laughs) flea hop, flea hop.

(both laughing) (playful music) - So talk to me about the foot thing.

- I was doing my third Broadway show.

This was 2019, yeah.

- I remember this time, yeah.

- I got a staph infection on my foot that went into, I was going into sepsis, but it went undetected for a very long time, even though I had been going to doctors.

So, long story short, they were like, "We need to remove your foot."

(Garen gasps) And I was like, "Oh, no.

I'm not done yet."

And so it reinvigorated my love for dance, and the fact that I wasn't ready to have my foot amputated and they were looking at amputation options for me, and luckily I got to keep my foot.

- So you went from a dancer who almost lost their foot to a dancer who had a shoe named, like, in their honor by the premier dance theater shoemaker in the world.

- Isn't that ironic?

- How about that?

(Sarah laughs) It is amazing.

- So every year, this shoemaking company, who makes the premier dance shoes for Broadway, makes a collection, a limited edition line of shoes named after a group of people.

This year, I got to be one of those people.

- [Garen] Wild.

- It's just the most cool thing ever.

I love it.

- It's fantastic.

(upbeat music) - This is so good.

- I think I'm ready to put my dancing shoes on and get into this class.

- Now a warning.

- Now a warning?

- My dance class is intense.

- After we eat pizza and pasta?

(laughs) - (laughs) You'll be fine.

- We'll sweat it out.

- Yeah.

- All right, let's do it.

- Here we go.

(playful music) - So you're living the dream, you know?

- Yeah.

- You're on Broadway, you're choreographing, you're teaching.

Life is very, very good.

But with all of the success, and you've monetized what you're passionate about, does that change anything?

- Yeah, it does, because when you monetize the thing you love- - Yeah.

- You have to find ways to hold on to what you love about it, because you slip in and out of love with something that you have to do.

The thing that I really need to do is take class and lead class.

- Yeah.

- [Sarah] And have a community of dancers.

- It's like church in a way.

- It is.

- It's that exchange- - That's so weird you said that because I said that last night in my spotlight class.

- Yeah.

Well, it's spiritual.

No matter what you believe in, that's some kind of connectivity- - Yeah.

- And divine energy, you know?

So, you're teaching all these classes.

- Yeah.

- And then you get opportunities to direct and choreograph your own shows, which I'm so proud of you, it's amazing.

- Thank you.

- So how'd that happen?

- I think that my stuff got out there on social media, and they said, "Hey, we know you're doing this now.

Do you wanna come do it over here?"

- Good for us!

- And I said, "Sure."

I was scared- - Yeah.

- But I said yes anyway.

(lively music) - So tell me about the style of your dance classes.

- I would call this musical theater dance.

I think it's really important in my class that we tell a story.

It's story-driven, so it depends on the music and what I'm feeling and the story we're telling that informs the choreography.

- Is that why you think your classes are so popular?

- I think it's one of the reasons, but I also think that people feel comfy in class because I try to create a really safe atmosphere.

It's class, you're allowed to fall, you're allowed to fail up, you're allowed to try stuff.

This is not a finished product.

This is a class.

You are growing through the class.

- So when I was a dancer coming up, I remember some of those really fantastic pep talks that my favorite teachers gave me that just gave me that inspiration and incentive to really be my most authentic self.

I know you do that for people.

How do you do that?

- I think it's one of those things where I can sense what my dancers need that day.

You can just feel it.

Raise your hand if you think that you were born to dance.

Raise your hand if dance was for you.

You were put on earth and you believe it is one of the reasons, it's to dance.

You do not have to be the best at it.

You don't even have to be able to do it all to feel like you were put on earth to do something.

And I know all of you work, you work.

You were put on earth and you love it and it feeds you.

This is my mission on earth.

That comes to me because I'm letting it.

So, today, I wanna teach you a beautiful dance that I made up.

It's about moving forward with full hope and with full excitement to start something new.

Are you ready to dance?

- [Students] Yeah!

- Okay, come on out.

One, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight.

Your heavy right foot, sinks hip, leads it, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

And that's like, I'm excited, that's the feeling.

One, two, three, four.

So that is a flick.

And then instead of just turning around, I'm going flick, step, hop, 'cause it's just more fun.

So you have one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, go.

- She has so much heart in her teaching, so much heart in her movement, that she really weaves that through everything.

- You wanna put those two counts of eight together?

Ready?

- Nice.

- We're gonna clap on eight.

Five, six, seven, eight.

(class claps) One, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight.

One, two, three, four, five, six, step, step.

Oh, yeah, it feels good, doesn't it?

- Nice!

- She sees and believes in every single one of her students that walks in the door.

- It's really hard, but it's really fun.

I mean, all of this choreography just feels really floaty and free, and there's just a lot of energy to it.

I can't describe it.

I feel like I'm flying.

I feel free in this class.

(upbeat music) (upbeat music continues) All right, Sarah, this is our 60-Second Sandwich.

- Okay.

- I'm gonna put 60 seconds on the clock, answer as many questions as you can in the time given.

Sound good?

You ready?

- Got it, I'm ready.

- Let's go, time starts now.

- I'm ready.

- Okay.

- Okay.

What's your favorite color?

- Red.

- Mine's green.

Theo wants to know what the weirdest costume you've worn is.

- Ever?

- Yeah.

- Ah!

Like, literally the one that I'm wearing at night, which is nothing, it's mesh.

It's see-through!

- Oh, oh my God, you gotta see the show.

- See it!

(chuckles) - All right.

Do you listen to the music before you go see a musical?

- No.

- No.

Go in blind.

- Blind!

(laughs) David Brovsky wants to know if you have any pre-show rituals.

- Yes, I do a half-hour warmup, like I'm very, very, very superstitious, so- - Okay, on the dot.

- Same warmup every time.

Yeah, I brush my teeth, the whole thing.

- Cute.

Do you do any backstage pranks?

- I haven't done any in this show yet, but I love to bring the baton.

- Bring the baton?

- I have a baton, Garen.

- We're gonna learn more about that later, okay.

Joe J. Simon wants to know if you ever go out after performance or if you go straight home.

- No, I go out all the time.

(laughs) - She goes out all the time.

You can catch her on the town.

Do you plan your bathroom breaks during the show?

- Yes, I have two moments where I can use the bathroom, and that's it.

- Number one or number two?

- I only go number one during the show.

- Okay, good to know.

- Ever.

(laughs) - Do you have a hidden talent?

- Yeah, I can lick my elbow.

(buzzer buzzing) - Whoa!

And that, (Sarah laughs) and that ends our 60-Second Sandwich.

Elbow licking, here we go.

Bye!

- Goodbye.

(Garen laughs) (lively music) "Death Becomes Her" was one of my favorite movies as a kid.

My brother and I probably wore out the VHS we had.

- That's adorable.

- So tell me about your journey with the show and how it started.

- Well, I grew up watching this with my mother.

- Mm.

- This was our Halloween movie.

So to open this show, you know, decades later on Halloween, like, in the Halloween weekend, was so special.

- Perfect, yeah.

- I wanted to be a part of the show ever since I saw the breakdown.

I had already worked with Chris Gattelli, we did a movie together.

The choreo felt good in my bones.

I was so excited.

Chris wanted the characters in the ensemble to all come from things in their life that they reflected.

So for instance, my family is Greek, so I'm kind of like Helen of Troy, like wearing Spartan, my costume reflects that, and it's really special.

- So what do you love about this show?

- That I get to run the gamut of my capabilities.

I do a little bit of gymnastics, I get to sing as high as I possibly can, I get to dance to my full limit.

It's a little bit of everything.

- It's like a whole meal, a whole Sarah Meahl.

- It's a whole, well-balanced, (Garen laughs) and I am well-balanced.

(upbeat music) Are you ready for this?

Here we go.

- Six flights.

- All the way up.

(playful music) Guess which one I am.

Don't tell him.

(playful music continues) Okay, this is my dressing room, number 10, with all my besties.

This- - Hey, everybody.

- Is the Fontanne Room.

- Hey!

- These are my friends.

This is Kolton Krouse.

- Hi!

- [Sarah] Ximone Rose and Kaleigh Cronin.

- Hi!

- Hi, K. - Welcome to my nook.

- Fun ride.

- I do my makeup.

I have candy.

Kolton and I, we love candy.

- Candy.

- Candy.

We have a... (bell ringing) And that means there's an announcement, there's tea.

(people laughing) - Wow.

- And then we all go, "Hmm?"

- They just prepare.

- Mm-hmm.

Also, we all sleep underneath our stations.

- Cozy.

- It's super cozy, you know- - It's a great room.

- It's funny, 'cause, like, you're like, wow, I made it all the way to Broadway.

How luxurious is that?

- [Garen] Yeah, here's your shoebox.

- And my head's sleeping where my feet were.

(Garen wheezing) I think a lot of people wanna know, do we need to do our makeup?

- [Garen] How do you do it?

Are you taught how to do it for the show or?

- Yes, yes.

We have a makeup designer.

- Okay.

- And so our makeup designer designed each of our palettes differently.

So we, the makeup we have in here is from them.

There's a big pouty lip, a nice dark eyebrow.

I have a lot of, like, grays and purples and stuff like that.

And we're all different.

Like Kolton, Kolton has a totally different look for Act II even.

So we're changing makeup throughout the show.

Okay, so, a pin curl is what goes under your wig cap.

So what it does- - So you do this before every show, basically everybody- - Yes.

- Who wears a wig- - For the whole head, yeah.

- Yeah.

- And if you're dancing, you need them to be real legit because you wanna make sure that your wig isn't coming off.

Take your fingers and you're gonna roll, roll, roll.

And then look, I'm just gonna make a little, Kaleigh calls her cinnamon buns.

- Yep, little mini bun.

- Little mini bun right there.

And then you're gonna make train tracks with your pins.

So yes, I put each one in my teeth, that's part of the tradition of being a chorus girl.

(Garen laughs) And then you slip it on.

And look, it's a little bee-boop.

I'm gonna miss you.

- I'm gonna miss you too.

Thanks for pizza and pasta and dance class and all the fun we had.

I've been dying to do it, so.

- Me too.

(giggles) - Sorry, I can't help it with the "Death Becomes Her" puns.

- Yeah.

- I know, right?

Well, have a great second show.

- I love you so much.

- Love you too.

- Thank you.

- Great to meet everybody.

Toi toi toi, merde.

- Thank you.

- See ya, thanks for letting us visit!

Bye!

- I love you.

Thank you for coming to my world.

I will see you soon.

Bye.

(upbeat music)