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Exclusive Interview: Nick Cortazzo and Mirabella Ziegler of Meadow Brook Theatre's 'All Shook Up' · The BSB Podcast

• 0:00
  Meadow Brook Theater is kicking off 2026 with a jukebox musical featuring the music of Elvis Presley, All Shook Up.
• 0:05
  Today we're speaking with two of the cast members, Nick Cortazzo and Mirabella Zegler.
• 0:10
  Thank you both for being here.
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  How are you two doing?
• 0:13
  Great.
• 0:14
  I'm great.
• 0:14
  Yeah.
• 0:15
  but I truly appreciate you both being here and to talk about All Shook Up.
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  And we're just gonna jump right in.
• 0:19
  Nick, kind of what is the story of All Shook Up?
• 0:22
  What's going on in the show?
• 0:23
  Yeah, so it's a twist on Shakespeare's Twelfth Night set to the music of Elvis.
• 0:31
  everyone's in love with everyone.
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  ah But my character, Chad, is this roustabout that just spent a week in jail.
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  And he shows up to this little town in middle America ah and brings their world to color ah through the magic of theater and some fun.
• 0:52
  costume quick changes.
• 0:54
  ah And he kind of ignites this fire, ah this burn in love, if you will, into the community and they all fall in love with each other.
• 1:03
  And ah you have to come see the show to see who ends up with each other at the end, because there's many twists and tails.
• 1:13
  you
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  Mirabella what is it like to be a part of this production?
• 1:17
  Because it sounds like it's quite the story that's going on here.
• 1:21
  It's magical.
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  Twelfth Night is actually my favorite Shakespeare play, so getting to do the musical version of it is actually pretty cool.
• 1:28
  um It's just so fun to sing from the great songbook of Elvis.
• 1:34
  It's just very silly, a good time.
• 1:37
  And the best thing about the show is that it never takes itself too seriously, so it's just so much fun and so heartwarming.
• 1:42
  So what drew you to wanting to audition for the show?
• 1:45
  I'll throw that back to you.
• 1:47
  good.
• 1:48
  Well, I am a student at Oakland University, so this was a part of our academic season.
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  um So I just wanted to be involved.
• 1:56
  um I'm from the area, so Meadowbrook has always been on my radar.
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  um So the fact that we now have this opportunity to collaborate with such an amazing theater is such a cool opportunity for all of us students.
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  ah So I figured just shoot my shot, and now I'm here and I'm having the time of my life.
• 2:13
  That is so awesome.
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  And Nick, how about for you?
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  What drew you to wanting to audition for All Shook Up?
• 2:17
  Yeah, I got this, um I wanna say it was through my agent, um but our choreographer and I have a mutual friend and that friend, unbeknownst to me, I just found this out like two
• 2:33
  days ago, um recommended me to Jacob, our choreographer um for this project.
• 2:39
  ah I actually, I've done All Shook Up once before.
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  After my freshman year of high school, I played Dennis, which is like the nerdy sidekick character, ah which was 12 years ago.
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  So it's quite fun to revisit now in a different capacity.
• 3:00
  Yeah, I'm having a blast.
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  So what is it like then to revisit it but under a different character through a different lens?
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  Yeah, I like don't really have many memories from the first time I did it.
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  The only thing I remember is that I was going through puberty, ah giving late bloomer to the house down.
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  ah So I was like trying to navigate the score while my voice was changing, which I remember was challenging.
• 3:32
  ah But I, yeah, yeah.
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  Yeah.
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  But yeah, it's awesome to revisit.
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  love revisiting shows um and it's kind of right on track.
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  ah I've done Grease a couple times as Danny Zuko.
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  was Link Larkin on the Hairspray Tour.
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  So like it's right in line with that like teen matinee idol moment.
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  um So it's fun to cross another one of those off the list.
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  So you have like a period piece vibe going with you.
• 4:12
  yeah, I try to run from it, but it just it always It always pulls me back
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  So Mirabella, you're playing Natalie in All Shook Up.
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  What's kind of her story and narrative throughout the show?
• 4:29
  Well, so Natalie's the mechanic in town.
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  Her dad runs a garage and she's very much this like tomboy, not a girl's girl, but she dreams of getting out of town and riding off on her motorbike and finding the man of her
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  dreams, which she doesn't think she's gonna find in town until Chad shows up.
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  And she goes on this crazy adventure of trying to win his love all while other people are falling in love with her that she doesn't realize.
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  ah But in the end, it's this really cool self-love journey where she finds out who she is and finds her confidence in her strength and her beauty.
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  And so what is your process for developing a character like Natalie?
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  this has been a very hard process for me.
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  think, um, personally, I, as much as I connect to Natalie and I feel her very much, um, it's been hard to like put that onto the stage.
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  cause it's very vulnerable to have to throw yourself out there and confess your love to someone, even though they're not interested at the time or whatever.
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  Um, so to find those moments of her vulnerability and then finding herself.
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  has been a real challenge, but really beautiful.
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  And I feel like it's also helping me on my personal journey as a student.
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  So, yeah.
• 5:48
  That's a beautiful answer.
• 5:50
  Nick, so you're playing Chad and you kind of gave us Chad's narrative, but who is Chad at his core in All Shook Up?
• 5:57
  Yeah, I mean, the fun thing about playing Chad and it, mean, Chad's story arc is very much giving like this was written in the early 2000s.
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  ah He has, he's this Roustabout that goes from town to town and just like excites the town.
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  It's giving very, like very much Footloose, Ren McCormick vibes.
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  ah But he, not to spoil a plot point, but.
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  it's not a new work and you can read this on Wikipedia, Natalie becomes Ed to try to become Chad's friend.
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  And Chad gets these little rumblings of gay feelings, which he has never experienced before because he's only been with women.
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  And he says several times that he's been with a lot of women.
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  ah So it's also, I mean, it's so campy and fun that like, you know, who cares really?
• 6:55
  ah But the like, I can't be gay is a plot point.
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  um And it's fun.
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  It's like fun to play with those colors and just to like lean into the crisis that he's experiencing because it's so comical and it's so not a real thing.
• 7:14
  Yeah, but it's fun to just like bring that energy, like macho man energy.
• 7:25
  mixed with ah I can't be gay um yeah it's a blast yes yeah yeah yeah
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  the kind of you know as as a gay man that's the kind of queer media we had back in the day of just be like that
• 7:42
  Totally, totally, totally.
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  It's like the butt of the joke, not just like a character that happens to be gay.
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  It's like, oh, we can't be doing this.
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  And I mean, he was played originally by Cheyenne Jackson, which I admire, but like such a fruitcake.
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  And so it's a blast.
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  It's a blast.
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  So what is your process then for developing a character such as Chad?
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  Yeah, mean, coming at it from these other like teen matinee idols that I talked about is nice because there's a portion of all of that in Chad.
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  I do think though, I connect most with Chad in the way that, I mean, I am not.
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  I am a gay man through and through.
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  is not a touch of the macho ladies man in me.
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  But like he is, he's a weirdo.
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  And I don't know, I think being able to bring that weirdo to this facade is something that I very much align myself with.
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  And it's just, it's fun.
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  It's fun to be silly.
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  It's fun to be stupid with this.
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  stunning cast and with this music.
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  um Yeah, yeah, it's cool.
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  that too is that while there is this strong sense of love, identity, acceptance themes throughout the show, you're talking about it right there of just being like the, as a, we
• 9:19
  didn't typically see uh queer storylines as front and center, or the hints of those.
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  There was always the secondary character who happened to be gay.
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  so to have that kind of front and center and be able to experience that and bring some of the nuance to a character such as Chad is probably pretty cool as an actor.
• 9:36
  Yeah, yeah, absolutely.
• 9:39
  So Mirabella, we talked about, you know, he mentioned these themes of identity and acceptance, but how do you feel like that with, you know, the mixture of the theme of love
• 9:47
  and stuff like that, how do you feel like that shows up for your character's narrative?
• 9:50
  Yeah, so with her whole journey of trying to find her own love, the beautiful thing is that she finds her own journey of self love.
• 9:57
  When she becomes Ed, she gains this confidence and strength that she had never found in herself before.
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  So for her to go on this journey of love and trying to find love, she ends up finding herself, which is really beautiful.
• 10:11
  that's the I think my favorite part about the show is how at the end she's like, I choose me, which is pretty beautiful.
• 10:18
  Spoilers, but.
• 10:20
  It's pretty beautiful.
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  also, we're talking about those influences of early 2000s, you didn't see a lot of that happening either.
• 10:25
  You didn't see a lot of, I'm gonna choose myself in the end of this.
• 10:30
  So that has to be really cool to kind of get to play that in a storyline that is maybe updated a little bit from our audiences of the love that I'm gonna have is for myself.
• 10:40
  100%.
• 10:41
  Um, so with this show, Mirabella, being inspired by William Shakespeare's comedy, The Twelfth Night, as kind of like with that influence, how do you kind of feel that influence
• 10:50
  throughout the show?
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  And like, how does it kind of pair up with like Elvis Presley and you know, this 1950s feel and stuff like that?
• 10:58
  It really encapsulates the super goofy wackiness that is Twelfth Night.
• 11:03
  um The show in general is just so random and it's one of my favorite Shakespeare comedies.
• 11:09
  I think it's beautifully done.
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  It's so witty and I think that really reflects in our show.
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  It's so witty.
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  It's so funny.
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  And I think the absurdity of it just being straight Elvis music really plays into that um because Elvis in itself is very much a caricature.
• 11:27
  And I think that very much reflects in uh Chad, Nick's character, and really just throughout the town, because you watch this whole town become just insane and madly in
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  love with each other and finding themselves in their sexuality and just how they present themselves.
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  So it's really cool.
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  And Nick, what kind of influence did you kind of pick up from my Twelfth Night as you're working through the show?
• 11:49
  Yeah, mean, I think pairing the Elvis with the Twelfth Night justifies a jukebox musical because it doesn't take itself too seriously.
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  think sometimes that's like the weird middle ground that people that don't go to the theater, they see a jukebox musical and it's like, we're taking ourselves a little too
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  seriously here.
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  But in this case, it's pairing this wacky story with these Elvis songs that
• 12:19
  on paper, like don't really work in a musical.
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  ah they, the writers and the creators and the original team just brilliantly handled bridging the two.
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  And I think Twelfth Night is that middle piece of the puzzle that just justifies it.
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  Like it's wacky, it's out there, it's unbelievable.
• 12:48
  which makes us singing Elvis songs believable.
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  And like it works in the context and the scope of a Jukebox musical.
• 12:56
  uh Like there's only, I would say like maybe two or three songs that are like actually serious in the show.
• 13:06
  And there's, we sing 23 or 24 songs.
• 13:11
  like, it's a, honey, it's a lot of songs.
• 13:16
  It is.
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  A lot of songs.
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  Yesterday I got, we had our final run through in the studio yesterday and our music director gave me a lyric note and I was like, babe, I'm gonna be like so honest with you
• 13:28
  right now.
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  I didn't look at this song.
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  I sing, I wanna say 18 or 19 songs in this show.
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  And it was like, it's like a little blip of Love Me Tender.
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  And I was like, I truthfully did not look at the lyrics and I'm just singing what I think it is because there's so many other longer songs.
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  that have taken my brain power.
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  So yes, I'm sure I did sing the wrong lyric.
• 13:51
  Thank you for telling me what the right one is.
• 13:53
  ah Yeah, but it's, mean, it's so much fun.
• 13:57
  It's so much fun.
• 13:58
  You know, it might be blasphemous for me to say this, but I have never seen a live production of The Twelfth Night.
• 14:02
  The only version I've ever seen was She's the Man, but it is absolutely a ridiculous story, even from that point of view.
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  And so I never thought about how that blend would work, of like, jukebox musicals can sometimes be ridiculous, and you can either try to embrace the ridiculousness of it, or
• 14:18
  you can just try to go seriousness, but you get lost a little bit in that.
• 14:21
  So being able to embrace the ridiculousness makes sense.
• 14:24
  like some of the newer jukebox musicals, like a Moulin Rouge, like a lot of the time it does not take itself seriously.
• 14:32
  And when it does, like the audience kind of giggles because like why is Satine coughing up blood and then singing Firework?
• 14:37
  Like it doesn't, it doesn't really work or make sense.
• 14:40
  ah But in, in this show, there's like, when we do go to that deeper level, it is very earned and it, works that it
• 14:52
  It's not funny because we didn't hit the mark.
• 14:59
  You feel for these characters because it's earned and the performances from this cast are incredible.
• 15:09
  Speaking of the performances, Mirabella, there's a lot of songs apparently in this show.
• 15:13
  What is your favorite to perform?
• 15:16
  That's hard.
• 15:17
  feel like it changes on the daily.
• 15:20
  I am very partial to a little less conversation just because it's so wacky.
• 15:24
  It's so crazy.
• 15:25
  And it's finally when you see Natalie kind of let go a little bit.
• 15:29
  um But also I love Fool's Fall in Love just because it's just so beautiful.
• 15:35
  I don't want to give too much away but it's just such a beautiful moment in the show and a beautiful moment in Natalie's story.
• 15:42
  It's just so fun.
• 15:45
  Is there a song that's particularly challenging in all of this?
• 15:49
  know we're talking about lot of the fun ones, but...
• 15:52
  um I mean they all have their own challenges in their own ways.
• 15:57
  I think one for me is Blue Suede Shoes just because that's when we first see Natalie as Ed.
• 16:02
  So it's like that switch right into it.
• 16:05
  um But that song was also just a blast.
• 16:07
  So I'm just I'm having a good time no matter what.
• 16:11
  Nick, how about for you?
• 16:12
  What songs are the most exciting to perform?
• 16:14
  Which ones have maybe proposed some challenges for you?
• 16:17
  Yeah, honestly, it's a challenge, but it's also a blessing.
• 16:21
  My hardest song in the show is Come on Everybody, which is like the third song in the show.
• 16:27
  It's the second one I sing.
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  So it's refreshing that it's like, ooh, got that done.
• 16:33
  ah But I would say like my first three, we start with Jailhouse Rock, ah and then we go into Come on Everybody.
• 16:41
  And then the next like big one is Teddy Bear Hound Dog.
• 16:44
  Those are like the three kind of heavy hitters in my track.
• 16:52
  And then after that, it's like kind of not a breeze.
• 16:55
  It's still, I mean, I sing like 18 songs, but those are the three hardest, but they're also like, they're so much fun.
• 17:06
  And Teddy Bear Hound Dog, I'm crawling around on the floor.
• 17:10
  Come on everybody.
• 17:11
  There's.
• 17:12
  Tear away costumes and lights and the whole company's on stage.
• 17:16
  Jailhouse Rock is such a fun opener.
• 17:19
  ah Yeah, so it's challenging.
• 17:22
  It's a challenge in pacing yourself and finding the areas, not to give less, but finding the areas that you can take a breath and live in it and maybe not push as hard here ah
• 17:37
  because it's a marathon.
• 17:40
  It's a marathon for sure.
• 17:42
  gonna say, this sounds like it's not just like a, like this is like a very big production.
• 17:46
  Like there's a lot going on.
• 17:47
  There's a lot of moving.
• 17:48
  Like you're pretty much on stage.
• 17:51
  It sounds like you're dancing and having a great time, but that probably is a lot of energy that you're exerting to tell the story.
• 17:58
  yeah, think I have, the show's run is like maybe two 15-ish, two hours and 15 minutes.
• 18:05
  um I think I have nine minutes off stage in that chunk of time.
• 18:12
  So it's a lot and finding places to hide water bottles and all of that is gonna be the journey we're on the next few days.
• 18:20
  ah Yeah, because it's a lot.
• 18:24
  could imagine.
• 18:25
  What is that energy like Mirabella, especially because it sounds like, again, really heavy dancing, a lot of maybe choreography going on.
• 18:31
  How do keep that up?
• 18:32
  Kind of like what Nick was saying just finding the ways to like pace yourself not give less but how how to Where where I can breathe where I can like take a second to rest.
• 18:42
  Um, I thankfully have like two Scenes, I think in each act that I get to breathe for like two seconds.
• 18:48
  Um But yeah, it's all about just like pacing yourself and finding that time to breathe when you can
• 18:55
  I totally understand that.
• 18:56
  I mean, I'm not an actor at all, but I can understand like you need to find that moment to be like, okay.
• 19:00
  And this is the moment that I can breathe just a little bit here.
• 19:04
  So with this being a collaboration between Oakland University School of Musical Theater and Dance and Meadowbrook Theater, how do we feel like this has enhanced the show?
• 19:13
  And Mirabella, I'll start with you because you're a student in the program.
• 19:16
  How do you feel like it enhances the show and brings more of that production?
• 19:21
  Yeah, well for starters, it's just a really cool opportunity for us students to get out and have a professional experience.
• 19:27
  And the beautiful thing is that everyone in the company treats each other like equals.
• 19:32
  So there's never been a time where it's like, okay, well, these are the students, these are the equity actors.
• 19:37
  um We kind of set up this whole thing where we weren't allowed to be called students, we're called the OU fam, just to kind of set that boundary.
• 19:44
  But even still, it's such a beautiful company.
• 19:47
  and everyone works so well together and it all feels like we're on the same kind of field.
• 19:52
  And even last night, our professor talked to us and was like, just so impressed by the work we all put in.
• 19:58
  Both of our swings are Oakland students and they're covering like seven tracks a piece.
• 20:04
  And it's just so amazing to see all the work that we've been doing in class and applying it to the real world.
• 20:10
  And that's just the really cool thing about it.
• 20:12
  Cause we can apply the work we do in our school shows.
• 20:16
  But this is like the real world and now we get a taste for the real world and the level of professionalism and how to handle ourselves.
• 20:22
  And that's just such a cool opportunity for us.
• 20:25
  totally understand.
• 20:26
  It really is cool that you get that first taste of what is it like and getting to mix with that and learning from the other actors that are there and stuff.
• 20:33
  That has to be a really cool experience.
• 20:35
  Oh, it's so cool.
• 20:36
  And I feel like I've learned so much from everyone.
• 20:38
  Like there's just so I could like just pick their brains all day.
• 20:40
  And it's just so interesting and just getting a taste for what life will be like post grad.
• 20:47
  And Nick, from the other side, how do you feel like that enhances that collaboration?
• 20:50
  it does, first off, it fills up the stage more.
• 20:52
  You have tons of more people.
• 20:53
  It makes the dance numbers even bigger.
• 20:54
  But how do you feel like it enhances a show like All Shook Up?
• 20:57
  Yeah, I mean, I think that like, it benefits greatly from that youthful energy.
• 21:04
  It's like, mean, it is kind of like the 10 or 12 of us from New York coming into this small town, middle America and like shaking things up is also kind of the story uh of All
• 21:19
  Shook Up.
• 21:22
  So getting that blend is really
• 21:27
  services the piece, I think.
• 21:28
  um But it's also like such a cool, I wish I had something like this when I was in school, like I, the way I would have been asking questions and yeah, it's a cool thing that they,
• 21:45
  I mean, they just started last year with Footloose.
• 21:47
  So this is the second time um that they've done this.
• 21:50
  ah But I think it's a great opportunity for everyone, for everyone involved.
• 21:56
  um
• 21:57
  Yeah, and I think more programs should explore things like this.
• 22:02
  say having seen Footloose last year it was like there was like such an exciting energy to the production you could see everybody was just so like there was an energy there that
• 22:11
  like was so electric because it was it was huge it was dynamic and everybody was having such a great time.
• 22:19
  So one final question for both of you, Mirabella I'll start with you is just what are you hoping audiences take away from this production of All Shook Up?
• 22:25
  Ooh, um I really hope they take away the journey of self-love um that Natalie goes on and really just everyone in general.
• 22:35
  hope they all find that inner, their inner self-love and just they leave feeling good and warm and fuzzy because it really at the end of the day, it's a story about love and
• 22:46
  self-acceptance and just the beauty and all of that.
• 22:49
  Nick, how about for you?
• 22:50
  do you want to use as the takeaway?
• 22:52
  Yeah, I just want audiences to come and experience the joy that this show can bring.
• 22:58
  Escape the cold, come inside, leave the real world behind, and just escape into this crazy world that we have created.
• 23:11
  It's about love, it's about joy, it's about acceptance.
• 23:14
  And those are three things that I think we all could use a little bit more of right now.
• 23:20
  Absolutely.
• 23:21
  Well, thank you both for being here.
• 23:23
  I really appreciate it.
• 23:24
  And we are so excited for this production of All Shooked Up at Meadowbrook Theatre.
• 23:28
  Thank you.
• 23:29
  Thank you.
• 23:30
  So All Shook Up arrives on January 7th and runs through February 1st.
• 23:34
  So get your tickets now from Meadow Brook Theatre and we'll see you at the show.