The Theatre Podcast With Alan Seales

If there’s one lesson to take away from Rick Elice’s life story, it’s to never say no to a free lunch. He shares anecdotes from his past, including childhood memories of seeing theatre productions that got him to pursue acting and getting fired for his first Broadway show as an actor. While he’s always loved theatre, Rick also looks back on the beginning of his advertising career, which happened at a musical’s opening night at the Public Theatre where he found himself standing next to Matthew Serino. With so many successful stints and an amazing career trajectory, he likens himself to a pinball, getting flipped from one project to the next. Having written the book for Broadway’s “The Addams Family”, he recalls the show’s timeline and why the national tour became a much more successful version of the story then they had originally written. He talks about his latest work, “Water for Elephants”, and the show’s universal themes of belonging and loss. He reflects on his personal experiences, including grief over t