Holiday Inn Has Twice the Corbin Bleu, Karen Olivo's Sound Love Advice & More Lessons of the Week

Happy Friday, and happy Lauren Bacall's birthday! While you celebrate with the traditional viewing of her seminal work—those campy High Point Coffee commercials—let's take a minute to review the wackiest and wildest stories from Broadway this week. Catch up below on all you may have missed with the Lessons of the Week!


Karen Olivo Is a Romantic Mic Girl
Karen Olivo will do anything for love, including be a techie. Her husband (who she first knew during her BKLYN days as "Jim the Sound Man") was working on a production of Les Miz in the Midwest, and the only way she'd be able to see him was if she worked on the show, too. And that's how Chicago's Angelica Schuyler became a mic girl. As if we needed more reasons to reinstate the Sound Design Tony.


Queen Lesli's Back, So Act Like It
Ohmahgah, Lesli Margherita is back in Matilda, which means that Looks Not Books is also back! But if you think returning to the Shubert Theatre is like riding a bike, think again. The queen faced all sorts of hardships trying to get back in, from absent doormen to a back entrance just as scary as the Chokey. Don't they know they're dealing with royalty?! Where's the procession and re-coronation?! Bollocks.


Bleu x 2 = Holiday Fun
What's better than one Corbin Bleu backstage at Holiday Inn? Two Corbins Bleu at Holiday Inn! Our vlogger revealed that the crew keeps a Corbin Bleu as Chad doll from his High School Musical days as a good luck charm in the wings, and the company gives it a high five to keep the energy up. Hey, Whatever it takes to get'cha get'cha get'cha head in the game, right?


Cookbooks Make Great Script Prompters
Hermione may be a wiz with spellbooks. Sometimes, however, she uses books to hide her lines. Harry Potter and the Cursed Child's Noma Dumezweni shared that when she was a last minute replacement in Linda, she tuck her lines away in recipe books while making risotto on stage. Surely, there must be some memory charms to help out with that. And if anyone would know, it's Hermione.


Chilina's Got a Friend (It's Vodka)
Broadway's Carole King Chilina Kennedy has lots of fun things lying around her dressing room: sketches, plants and...discreet booze. The Beautiful star showed off all the cool items in her dressing room, including the vodka hidden in her son's toy chest. Nothing wrong with that. Sometimes, after a long night of feeling the earth move under her feet, mom needs to play, too.


The Liaisons Ladies Had Fluffah'd Bustles
Pretty hurts, especially in 18th century France. Les Liaisons Dangereuses newcomer Elena Kampouris confessed that she assumed women of the era naturally had fantastic derrières, and it wasn't until she saw her costume she realized it was all smoke and mirrors (and butt pads). No, not everyone back then had Kardashian-level backsides. That's what bustles were for. Here, allow Andy Karl to explain.


Isabella Russo Wants to Get Witchy
Speaking of butts, Isabella Russo is kicking them and taking names as sassy Summer in School of Rock, but for her next gig, she wants to trade that clipboard for greens (greens, and nothing but greens). The pint-sized boss said that among her dream roles are Wicked's Elphaba and the Witch from Into the Woods. Looks like someone's in the Halloween spirit a little early.


Errico & Ripley Have New Griz Techniques
When auditioning for Cats, you can follow the Melissa Errico approach and go in in full Grizabella drag with proper ears, hair and fur, or you can practice the Alice Ripley technique and show up in a J. Lo-esque cocktail dress. That's how Errico described the two going in for the glamour cat. We can't wait to see this reenacted in the TV show they want to do together. (That's really a thing, and we need it now.)


Miss America Keeps Moving the Line
Every Miss America has a platform. Kate Shindle's was HIV education (and screlting). Our new Miss America Savvy Shields' is "Eat Better, Live Better"...and reviving Smash. The Arkansas bombshell performed a jazz routing to "They Just Keep Moving the Line" from the greatest NBC musical drama to play Mondays at 10 (then Saturdays at 9). Thank you, Miss America, for doing your part to ensure we don't forget her. 


MASH Can Find You Broadway Love
Remember MASH, the game you played to see who you'd marry and where you'd live? Kirsten Wyatt and Wicked's Carrie St. Louis remember, and it's the perfect activity while waiting for pumpkin tiramisu to set. It's how Carrie found out her Broadway husband is Steven P[asquale]." (Get in line, girl.) If MASH is back, let's add another S and bring back...never mind. Miss America's got that covered.