An Awakened Voice with LOLO
SHOW NOTES
In today’s episode, Lolo discusses:
Balancing motherhood and a professional, creative career
The challenges and rewards of being an artist in the entertainment industry
The impact of social media on artists
Her experience as a young performer in a hit Broadway show
The significance of Spring Awakening and how it impacted the lives of audience members
Her decision to tell of her own story of abuse in an LA Times article
The process of bringing Spring Awakening back for 15 year anniversary reunion performance and accompanying HBO documentary
LOLO (also known as Lauren Pritchard) is an artist, songwriter, actress, composer and mom who has spent the last two decades writing and performing all over the world. Originally from Jackson, Tennessee, her first big-girl job came at the age of 18 years old in 2006 when she originated a starring role in the 8-time Tony Award winning Broadway musical Spring Awakening.
As an artist LOLO has released 4 full length albums as well as numerous singles and features. Some highlights include LOLO’s 2021 album ‘X’ which debuted at #1 on the Apple blues chart, her singles ‘Hit and Run’, ‘Shine’, ‘Wild’ and ‘I Don’t Wanna Have To Lie’‘ and features on ‘Centuries’ by Fall Out Boy, ‘Miss Jackson’ by Panic At The Disco, and ‘Headphones’ by Matt Nathanson. As a songwriter she has penned some of modern radio's biggest anthems. Her songwriting work with the band Panic! At The Disco earned her a GRAMMY Nomination and she is a co-writer of their international hit “High Hopes” which holds the title for the longest running #1 Rock song in Billboard Chart history, where it stayed for 66 consecutive weeks. She is the composer and lyricist of the original country musical Songbird which was recognized as a NYTimes’ Critics Pick. Since 2019 Lauren has been an Artist in Residence at the University of Memphis-Lambuth Campus where she assists in educating the Music Entertainment students in song publishing, songwriting and performance alongside Dr. Jeremy Tubbs.
In November 2021 she produced and starred in the 15th Anniversary Spring Awakening Reunion Concert which benefited The Actors Fund. It performed a sold out, one-night-only concert at Broadway’s Imperial Theater in New York City. The reunion concert was filmed and a documentary chronicling the history and impact of Spring Awakening was created. She was co-producer of the accompanying documentary, titled Those You’ve Known: Spring Awakening, which was released by HBO and Radical Media on May 9th, 2022. In January 2023, LOLO became a partner and head of A&R Development at No Reverse Records. LOLO is passionate about helping her community and she created the LOLO Christmas Show which has raised over $100,000 over 8 years to support RIFA Jackson’s Snack Backpack Ministry. LOLO currently resides in Jackson, TN with her husband, son and their many fur babies. www.lolomusic.com
Follow along on Lolo’s journey: @lolomusic
TRANSCRIPT
Jess
Hello and welcome to The Story Project. Today’s guest is LOLO, also known as Lauren Pritchard, who is an artist, songwriter, actress, composer, and mom who starred in the Tony Award-winning Broadway musical "Spring Awakening." LOLO has released four full length albums and numerous singles and features including LOLO’s 2021 album ‘X’, which debuted at #1 on the Apple blues chart,‘Centuries’ by Fall Out Boy, ‘Miss Jackson’ by Panic At The Disco, and ‘Headphones’ by Matt Nathanson.
She earned a grammy nomination for her songwriting work with Panic! At The Disco and is a co-writer of their international hit “High Hopes” which holds the title for the longest running #1 Rock song in Billboard Chart history, where it stayed for 66 consecutive weeks. She is the composer and lyricist of the NYTimes’ Critics Pick original country musical Songbird. Lolo produced and starred in the 15th Anniversary Spring Awakening Reunion Concert at Broadway’s Imperial Theater and co-produced the accompanying documentary, Those You’ve Known: Spring Awakening, which was released by HBO and Radical Media.
In today’s episode, Lolo discusses balancing motherhood and a creative career, the significance of Spring Awakening and how it impacted the lives of audience members, reunited the original cast for the anniversary performance and HBO documentary, and her decision to speak of her own story abuse in an LA Times article.
Please enjoy this episode with Lolo…
Okay. Hello, Lolo. We're here. Take two. So just we had a trial, let's call it last a few weeks ago, and we had full mom mode. So
LOLO
Hi. Take two. Yeah.
LOLO
10.
LOLO
Yes, we learned a lot. We learned a lot. My top, my, my three and a half year old toddler was like bouncing around in the background the whole time. Yeah.
Jess
We learned a lot.
Jess
Mm hmm. I think I need to do a montage of all of the cute interruptions and then the puppy comes in and then Xander wants to sit and talk and everything like that. So we did it. We actually recorded for about an hour, which is wild, but I think we probably didn't get more than a couple of minutes at a time. So we were like, let's just, we'll take that as we caught up a little bit and take two. But it was so adorable and it was.
LOLO
Mm -hmm.
LOLO
Yeah.
LOLO
Yeah. Let's try it again. Yeah, that's right. That's right.
I'm sorry.
Jess
beautiful to watch you moming and working all at once. I was like, this is kind of the epitome of who you are at this stage of your life.
LOLO
Yeah. Yes, yeah. Mm -hmm. Yeah. I mean, I'm, you know, everybody has a different approach to motherhood. And for me, I want to work and I want to mom all at the same time. So, but that, when you verbalize that,
Jess
Yeah.
LOLO
and you kind of say it, it means one thing than when you put it into practice in real time. Every day is different. Every day is different. And really, the biggest thing for me, the place that it comes from for me is I have a desire to spend as much time with my kid as I can, especially in these early years, because they...
Jess
Yeah.
LOLO
go so fast, like you hear this, there's this, parenting phrase that gets tossed around a lot, which can sound very cheesy and cliche. It sounds like one of those things that's like, you know, written on some kind of poster that you put on the wall. But, and the phrases, well, similar to that, the phrases, the days are long, but the years are short. Right. So, you know, day to day,
Jess
Live, laugh, love.
LOLO
It does feel like sometimes, sometimes especially you're just like, my gosh, what's, you know, it feels so long. And then specifically you get to like their birthday, their literal birthday when you're celebrating another year of them being here. And you're like, I mean, how are it's, I can believe that we're going to be celebrating his.
fourth birthday soon and also I cannot. You know, yeah, it just goes very fast and you know, no matter what you do with your life or your time, they are an undeniable marker of time, an undeniable marker of time and you physically look at them and go, damn.
Jess
That's crazy.
Jess
Mm -hmm.
LOLO
right. This has been four whole years. And then when you try to internalize that a little bit and you go, what the fuck have I been doing for four years? I mean, you know what you've been doing. You know what's going on, but it's just such a, it's like, for me, it feels like some kind of version of a time space continuum. Because the way that it,
Jess
Yeah.
LOLO
feels so long and so short all at the same time is it's very strange. It's very strange.
Jess
How has motherhood shifted your career and who you are as an artist?
LOLO
It's, I mean, the how is a lot of different things from what, everything from.
especially in the last year, how much I've interacted with social media, right? So like, as an artist these days, you are expected to be not just an artist, but your own entire marketing and publicity staff. Like, it's so crazy. Even if you have marketing and a publicity staff, you're still expected to be all those things. So, you know, for you to have...
Jess
Mm -hmm.
LOLO
quote unquote healthy interaction, you have to be there. You have to be on the internet a lot. And even how much I've been willing to do that over this last year, I definitely should be doing more in the realms of that, but I'm not because I'm making a conscious choice of what I don't, I don't wanna be walking around like this all day.
Jess
Mm -hmm.
LOLO
with my kid right now because that's just my choice. That's just what I feel like. So even just something as simple as that, like I've been very strategic or just not even strategic, just very specific about the things that I've shared or posted or just very intentional when I'm doing those things since I know I'm consciously not doing them a lot right now.
Jess
Yeah.
Jess
Mm -hmm.
LOLO
and
And then in the behind the scenes aspect that doesn't have anything to do with the kind of what you're showing to the world part of the job.
I try to have him be a part of everything he possibly can be because he's used to doing everything with me and being with me all the time as much as possible. So, you know, it's even things as simple as when I am at home working in my home studio on things, really having him be there and being a part of everything because I think it's important for him to see how those things function as well.
Jess
Mm -hmm.
LOLO
And to really see what I'm doing. He is a very hands -on kind of a kid. He needs to literally experience what's going on so that he can be like, okay, well now I know what you're doing. Great. You know, he's just, he's just like that. And so trying to give him as much of an understanding of what I'm doing so that he can understand, hey, this is what mommy is doing when, when, when I say I'm doing these things.
Jess
Mm -hmm.
LOLO
So I think eliminating the mystery in some of those ways is very helpful in the nature of how much I work so that he can understand what's going on. And then, you know, there's also the emotional side of just how the job changes you. The job of mom changes you. It just makes you aware of different things.
Jess
Mm -hmm.
Jess
Mm -hmm.
LOLO
things that you just don't think about before, content, meaning, output, point of view, perspective, like, you know.
things that I just thought about in a very different way. But then there's also interesting things that happen. Your kid is doing kid things, listening to kid shows, listening to kid songs. You know, even just how the sort of constant of that, like truly for a whole year, all we did was listen to like Baby Shark.
and Baby Shark derivatives. And as a songwriter, you know, I'm constantly listening to things going, how does that work? Why is that so catchy? You know, just interesting perspectives on things and how they just kind of will not necessarily make you reevaluate your life, but even, you know, glimpses into things that like you just do not experience until or unless you become a parent.
Jess
you
Jess
Hmm.
LOLO
and you never, you also never really know what your kid's going to be into. Your kid can be into anything, everything. There's like, you know, when we were kids, there were definitely choices, obviously choices of things you could be into. But I feel like now, I mean, the amount of content that you can find just on like a singular streaming platform, just on Prime.
or just on Netflix, or just on, you know, like that's before you incorporate them all together. There's so much shit for kids now that you can find the most niche thing for your kid if they're into something, which I think is amazing, actually. I think it is a gift to parents everywhere.
Jess
Mm -hmm.
Jess
Mm -hmm.
LOLO
because I think there's just so many things for kids in all different areas of what they might be going through so that they can also really identify with things on screens now in ways that I just don't think was as available to as wide of a variety of the human race like it used to be when we were growing up. But yeah, it's the combination of all those things that really makes me...
I feel very transformed by it, but in a way that I think has made me better. Like I've not seen, I've not looked at any of those things as overwhelming. I look at the ways that motherhood has changed me as an artist as the best thing that could have happened to me, honestly, because it challenges you.
in ways that are just different than what you experience if you're just a singular person. And yeah, I think it's definitely made me less self -critical in the ways that used to be very detrimental to me. Even just dealing with something like writer's block or...
Jess
Hmm.
LOLO
Just any of those kinds of things that can happen just from doing a job like this for a long time.
I have the tendency in my natural state to be critical to the point of concern where it starts affecting, can be if my sort of self -doubt will affect my creativity. And motherhood has really just changed my entire point of view on that. The other way in which it has helped me tremendously.
Jess
Mm -hmm.
Jess
Mm -hmm.
LOLO
is I had this very unhealthy urgency forever. Everything must be done right now, right now, right now. When you're raising a child, you cannot move any faster than they are moving. You cannot because you really have to follow their lead. And if you try to expedite that process within them for your own...
Jess
Yeah.
Jess
Mm.
LOLO
selfishness basically, hurry up and get there, you know, that kind of thing. Hurry up and get where I'm at. Instead of I'll meet you where you're at, you know, if you're trying to hurry them up. it's, it's in so, I mean, in so many ways, it just doesn't work. And not only, you know, can it affect so many things, but you miss out, you miss, you will miss out on things. And.
Jess
Mm -hmm.
LOLO
sometimes those things could be like the most, the crux of what you're looking for kind of thing. And that has, motherhood has really helped me to be able to localize and just kind of in a keeping things very present and in the moment kind of way.
Jess
Mm -hmm.
LOLO
It's really helped me localize that, that feeling, that urgent feeling of how can I use that type of feeling to be productive for the right now, not always projecting into tomorrow, into next year, into the next, into the next, you know, because I think also one of the most unhealthy parts about working in the entertainment industry period, no matter what you do, whether you're,
on screen, behind the screen, on stage, creative side, whatever your life looks like in the entertainment industry. There's...
where you're sort of taught that you, not that you can't enjoy your.
successes or whatever, but like you always have to be searching for the next thing. You always have to be, you can never just sit around and what's happening for you. And there always has to be something new and exciting up ahead. There always has to be something else in the pipeline. And if it's not, you know, then you're failing or whatever. I don't know. You know what I mean? And, and.
Jess
Yeah, of course.
LOLO
That is like the complete opposite in parenthood. You cannot get ahead of yourself. You cannot get there before your kid gets there. And you have to look to them as the North Star in that sense of, okay, where are they at? What are their needs right now? Because they're constantly changing and who they are.
Jess
Mm -hmm.
LOLO
And this chunk of time is completely different from the next six months to the next three months to the next nine months to the whatever it is, you know, there. And that part of motherhood and just growth, just me growing up too, alongside my kid has been really helpful, really helpful.
Jess
Yeah.
Jess
Yeah. How amazing would it be if we could treat ourselves the way that you treat your son and that many parents treat their children, which is saying, yeah, I'm not going to ask you to go run a marathon. I'm not going to ask you to run. I'm not going to ask you to walk. I'm asking you to see if you can maybe sit up because that's where you're at right now and trusting that they're going to get there with time and with support. But that,
LOLO
Hmm.
LOLO
Mm -hmm. Yeah.
Jess
just like a plant grows in its own time, a child grows in its own time. And just because we're adults and things happen so much quicker, you can notice the shift so dramatically when there are children involved because they grow so quickly. And we slow down with our growth, but it's still happening throughout our entire lives. And imagine what could happen if we could be that gentle and patient and kind with ourselves.
LOLO
Right.
LOLO
Right?
Yes.
Jess
as humans and as artists.
LOLO
I mean, it would be, but again, I think even beyond the entertainment industry, I think the fact that.
we in this sort of just chaotic capitalist world we live in, you know, I think the fact that we expect 18 year olds to be seen as adults, I mean, that's fine, but to see them as adults and expect them, like we fling them out, we fling them out into the world and be like, all right, good luck. You know, I mean,
Jess
I'm sorry.
LOLO
It's just, we, in a lot of ways, we set everybody up for failure in that scenario. You know, like, that's not, that's not.
Even if you go to college or even if you have all the support in the world or even if you, you know, I mean, whatever, even if you're not kind of already up against the odds, it's still crazy. It's still a crazy trajectory that you're meant to go from, you know, sort of being in some kind of raised home environment to like, all right, well,
now it's your time to shine, you know, and there's no way, again, even in the best case scenario, that anybody has all the answers at 18. And I mean, you even see that, like again, kind of going back to the entertainment industry, as an example, you know, you look at these really huge child stars that come into tremendous success and
Jess
Mm -hmm.
LOLO
and wealth ultimately before they are
an adult or basically before they are 25 when their brain is completely developed, right? Per what science tells us, you know, and some, an artist like Britney Spears or Justin Bieber or Jojo Siwa, she's getting all of this craziness cause she's like 21 and she's
Jess
and
LOLO
completely come out of the closet and being very transparent with her life, which I actually find to be very endearing, honestly. I think if you've gone through, she's gone through some pretty public traumatic things in her childhood. And I think for her to be having a good time and just acting her age is really healthy.
Jess
Mm -hmm. Mm -hmm.
LOLO
But there are some people who are like, well, why is she acting that way? I'm like, well, what was your dumb ass doing at 21? Do you know what I mean? Like, I think that people fucking completely warp what people are meant to be doing simply because they were famous or simply because they might've had a lot of money. Like, fucking fame and money and any of that shit does not exempt you from being a human, first of all. And I also think we don't, we don't...
Jess
Ha ha ha.
LOLO
We like the the scale is so messed up in how those things get balanced out to like, you know, we're not putting that same kind of pressure on like grown ass men who have that same amount of fame and fortune and they get to behave however they choose. Right. But like the minute this 21 year old queer woman.
Jess
Mm -hmm. Mm -hmm.
LOLO
is just acting her fucking age. We're like, it's like, I'm so sorry. But if I was a psychologist, I would be like, live your life, Jojo. You're just doing what any other kid's doing. You're just under a different microscope, you know? And I think, I honestly think like if Britney Spears would have been famous even 10 years later,
Jess
Yeah.
Jess
Yes.
LOLO
than she was famous. I think what would have happened to her, I think some of what happened to her would not have happened to her because the cultural shifts that happened, even just something as small as the audacity of the people who asked her about her breasts on national television. Do you know what I mean? Like, what? What?
Jess
Right. Yeah.
LOLO
So, you know, and from a parenting perspective, and also from a perspective of somebody who's been doing this since they were really young too, you know, I did not have to go through a lot of those things, but I was grateful that I had people around me that just helped me stand behind the decisions that I wanted to make to make sure that my life, you know,
Jess
Mm -hmm.
LOLO
just stayed more protected in some ways. And, you know, anyway, I just, but especially now as a parent looking back on a lot of those things, yeah, it's really, it's really shocking what we expect of young people, period. You know, like I think,
Jess
Yeah.
LOLO
I think it's okay to expect greatness out of people, right? I think it's okay to want to see young people succeed and achieve great things in their lives, but also, you know, at what cost, at what cost do we expect that? And what did that pressure look like on different generations? And, and,
I think now, literally where we are right now in time, because of so many factors, everything from just how money has changed, how the culture has changed, not just for men, but for women, for all genders, for all identifying people, wherever you are, whether you're non -binary, whether you're...
whether you're a man, whether you're a woman like we in our westernized modern world, it just is so different in so many ways. And so I think also when you hear people of a certain age or of a certain era try to even compare what this younger generation is up against versus what they were up against.
You can't, you cannot compare it. It's not, just the housing crisis alone is enough to, that in and of itself should be enough for older generations to be able to say, yeah, this is not the same. This is not what we were up against, you know? And I think technology too has unfortunately,
Jess
Mm -hmm. Mm -hmm.
LOLO
disrupted that disparity, you know, not necessarily for the better either. You know, I think in some ways technology has been an extraordinary gift to us, obviously, but with any major change that comes into our lives as a human race, you know, it's not any different than when all of a sudden everybody had electricity. You know, that was a drastic change for the human race.
Jess
Yeah. Right.
Jess
Mm -hmm.
Jess
Mm -hmm, mm -hmm.
LOLO
And it took a long time to figure out how that, you know, needed to be figured out. So, and I think we're all just alive in one of those times, but we're also alive in a time where everybody is so constantly connected because of cell phones. So we also have all of these new ways that we can compare ourselves to the world around us and or.
be afraid of the world around us or be excited about the world around us. You know, the fact that we did not grow up in a time where at midnight or whatever, the screen goes to fuzz, you know, they play the national anthem and sign off and it's a blank screen until seven o 'clock at night. Like, you know, we don't live in that world anymore. And I think just in so many ways, it's hard to...
to be on the same page as for certain generations to be on the same page as other generations.
Jess
So in your personal experience, can you talk about your transition from just being this young person into being in this huge hit Broadway show, Moving to New York, and having your whole life change? I'm sure a ton for the better, and I'm sure there were tons of obstacles and hard things that were coming up. Can you talk about what that was like for you? And I'm also curious to hear.
what you think it would have been like had there been social media, because I'm sure that would have been extremely different. But we'll start with just the story.
LOLO
Well, my answer about the social media thing, because I've had to answer that a little bit, especially when we were making the Spring Awakening documentary and we were just talking about lots of things, how they would be different from like then versus now. From the social media side of things, I mean, we had...
Jess
Mm -hmm.
Jess
Yeah.
LOLO
If we had, it was like we would come out of the stage door and it was like the Beatles. People would just scream and yell and wait for hours. It was crazy. And you know, I think with social media, it would have been like Hamilton. It would have been, it would have been crazy because we already had that going on and we did not have that part of it going on. and the show was really, really revolutionary. It was very hard for me.
Jess
Mm -hmm.
LOLO
or any of us, honestly, we did not, we really did not understand it until we went back and we did the reunion and we were all actual adults going back. You know, we did the one night only concert. And so we, we were revisiting the piece in real time. And throughout the rehearsal process, we had about 10 days that we were in New York prepping for the concert, for the one night only concert. And,
Yeah, we would have these moments where you'd be like, I cannot believe we actually did.
Jess
Mm -hmm.
LOLO
You know, not even in a bad way, just we were all so young and we were just so excited to be there that it was very easy for us to not have, I think in a good way, actually, not have a real perspective on some of the things that were going on with the show. Because I also think had we really maybe understood, we might've just been too intimidated. We'd been like, I don't know.
Jess
Yeah.
Jess
Right.
Jess
Mm -hmm.
LOLO
You know, one of the biggest gifts that we were given from the beginning, because I was a part of the show, I did the final workshop at the Atlantic, I did the run off -Broadway at the Atlantic and then transferred with the show to Broadway. And, you know, one of the biggest gifts they gave us was Michael Mayer, who directed our show. He would say,
We're not going to Broadway. This is when we were at the Atlantic. We've gotten this great review. God bless Charles Isherwood. And the show was sold out. They had extended us. They just kept selling as long as they could and it was just, it was sold out. And when that's happening in New York,
via New York, there's lots of whispers, there's whispers of things, so people start saying, what's the next steps, what's the next steps? And for a lot of us, myself included, we were extremely green. We didn't really know what the hell the process was. We were truly there along for the ride, learning in real time how this works. And...
Jess
Mm -hmm.
Jess
Mm -hmm.
LOLO
So, you know, and one of the most important things that happened during that part of the process when, I mean, you know, everything was really not just boiling hot, but kind of boiling over. We had, you know, we had our director being like, don't worry about what you're hearing. We're not going to Broadway. This is where we are right now. This is our moment right here.
This is what matters. And I think even though he probably obviously knew what was going on the whole time, which was like, they were intending to move the show and we were definitely going to Broadway and all of that shit, it helped us not get ahead of ourselves. And kind of even to the parenting thing we've been talking about, it really kept us in the moment. Do your show, show up here every day, do your best, do your show.
Jess
Mm -hmm.
Yeah.
LOLO
That's what we're gonna do. And I think especially because there were so many of us that were very green and it would have been very easy for all of us to get ahead of ourselves or dream a little too big, right? Like I think there was also this protection from disappointment that that gave us actually. Because what if that didn't happen? What if we didn't transfer? What if that was just the end? That kept us from...
Jess
Yeah.
Jess
Yeah.
LOLO
getting our hearts broken, really, honestly. No, don't worry about that. If that happens, great, but that's not where your focus needs to be. And I always saw that as a big gift. But it was a crazy experience. I auditioned for the show, me specifically, I auditioned for the show in LA, because they traveled all over. I was living in LA at the time.
Jess
Mm -hmm.
Jess
Mm -hmm.
LOLO
I auditioned in LA, I heard nothing for a couple of months, thought I just didn't get the job. Then I get a random call, I had gone home for Thanksgiving and I got a phone call from my agent at the time.
asking if I would go to New York for the final callbacks. And that was like the week before Christmas, you know, five. And they, because I was the person that had traveled the farthest at the final callback, they told me that night that I had gotten the job and that I was being cast as Ilsa. And they were like, we're just gonna let you know now and then we'll call your agent after the holidays. But we're just letting you know. Cause it was like truly the week before Christmas.
Jess
Hmm, that's nice.
Jess
Wow.
Mm -hmm.
LOLO
And, and not a bad Christmas present, no, but I was a little like, holy shit, I have to move to New York. What is going on? And so I did. I packed up most of my stuff from LA, put a bunch of stuff in storage because I didn't, I mean, I signed like a six month contract. Basically there was no like,
Jess
Not a bad Christmas present. Yeah.
Jess
Right.
LOLO
this might go to Broadway in the paperwork. It was like, this is your summer in New York, you're gonna do this show at the Atlantic. And you know, I looked at the experience, it's like, hey, this is an awesome opportunity. This is a dream, I've always wanted to do theater in New York. And it was my first dream, I was eight years old, and I said to my mom, I wanna move to New York and be on Broadway. And so to have an opportunity to do that was great. And I...
Jess
Mm -hmm.
LOLO
had just turned 18 and yeah, I fully moved there on my own and it was a wild experience. My mom came with me, my mom helped me move there and then stayed with me through the literal first day of rehearsal. And I remember her driving away that second day of rehearsal and I just cried. I just cried. I had to walk to the train, to walk to the sea train. I lived on 49th street between 10th and 11th.
And she drove away and I had to walk to the sea train and it was snowing and I didn't have a good enough coat and I showed up at rehearsal and the stage manager was like, we have to get you a fucking coat. I had this little thin pea coat on. I'd been living in LA. It wasn't cold there. And I grew up in Tennessee where it did get cold, but it's different. It's just different. You're not like commuting in New York.
Jess
I'm gonna go to bed.
Jess
Yeah.
Jess
Not like that. Yeah. Yeah.
LOLO
So yeah, I mean, and the experience was wild. Like we began February of 06, December of 06 it opened on Broadway. June of 06 it opened off Broadway, closed in August. We found it right around closing, we were transferring. They kept bringing us into the theater and telling us that we were extending. They brought us into the theater again, we just thought, I don't know what we thought they were gonna tell us. And they were like, we're going to Broadway. We were like, woo -hoo.
What does that mean? And yeah, then it opened in December of 06, June of 07. We won eight Tony Awards. And December of 07, we were the international gap ad for Christmas. And our faces were everywhere in Times Square. It was wild. It was very wild. And it's the kind of thing that you cannot predict, even when you can.
Jess
I'm gonna go.
LOLO
You cannot predict that kind of trajectory. It was wild. But it was wonderful, it was beautiful. It felt incredible to tell such a controversial story and be so understood by so many people. That was really remarkable. And...
You know, and I still find it to be remarkable. And every single day, especially because we've done the documentary and everything now, I still literally get messages every single day about how that show has changed people's lives or saved someone's life. My character, particularly, Ilsa, if you've never seen the show, she's a character who runs away from home because she...
endure sexual abuse when she's young. And then she kind of re -meets a friend of hers from school and he suffers a very tragic ending. And the character of Ilsa, it's almost like she's sort of a ghost. Because she operates so independently. All of the other characters constantly interact with each other.
but she really has like this piece -mealed interaction with people that it seems like she could just simply almost be like a little fairy ghost thing floating around within the story. And I've had so many interesting and meaningful interactions with people because I had the opportunity to originate that character. And she...
spoke to me, obviously, but spoke to so many people because she had suffered so much, yet still had such a desire to be here and want to try to figure it out and figure out how to make her life better and those around her lives better and had a hopefulness that the pain she went through never really got rid of.
LOLO
And, you know, many people...
I had a handful of very intense stage door interactions, people quite literally saying to me, this character has saved my life. I would receive, and Lily Cooper, who was also in the show with me, she played the character Marta, who was also sexually abused and physically abused by her father.
And the way that it's talked about in the story, it's basically like her mother knows and just sign of the times is not able to intervene, you know? Which unfortunately is still a reality today, unfortunately. And you know, we would receive letters from people. And we were young.
We were young, we would receive letters from people that would like quite literally say, I've never told anyone this, but I have been abused or whatever, like that kind of vibe. And we all received letters like that in relation to the things that our characters were going through. The gentlemen who were...
in the scene where the two boys kiss and they finally really understand what their desires are. They would receive all kinds of things in relation to that of just how helpful or inspiring or sometimes even people, older people would say, hey, I remember going through that when I was younger and it was so helpful to see something like that on stage.
LOLO
You know, just all kinds, all kinds of interactions of John Gallagher Jr., who played the character of Moritz, who, you know, he, his character ultimately commits suicide. And, you know, he would receive really heavy letters sometimes, either from families who had loved ones take their own lives, or just people who've been through mental health.
things and it was interesting to experience all of those things.
LOLO
at a time where we just didn't, back then, people weren't necessarily talking about mental health the way that we talk about it now. So it was interesting to, you know, again, revisit that 15 years later for the reunion and the documentary and everything. Like, it was really interesting to revisit that and just see for the better how much of a cultural shift.
has happened so that we do actually talk about those things now in a way that just I think is more helpful overall, more transparent.
Jess
Mm -hmm.
LOLO
Yeah.
Jess
Well, that's a lot of weight on all of your shoulders and especially at a time where, again, if this was happening now, I'm sure there would be more resources for you, not just individually as artists who are telling such an emotionally challenging story, but also what do you do with these interactions and these stories and these letters that you are receiving? So there are two layers to it that probably would be addressed a lot differently now.
LOLO
Mm -hmm.
LOLO
Well, I mean, we had to have real conversation with our company management and stage management that, you know, it was like, you know, if you're receiving things and it seems like someone's in trouble or, you know, whatever, let us know. Because it was also like, they didn't necessarily want us to be responsible for all of that, obviously, you know, obviously. And there were lots of like,
Jess
Mm -hmm.
Jess
Yeah. Yeah.
LOLO
interesting things that we did like back when MTV was still a hugely prominent thing. We did a couple of things with them that were in the realm of almost kind of like open table things. And we would do interviews and kind of talk about what the experience had been like in those ways. But even just talking about the issues themselves.
really trying to be transparent. I mean, even think about the way that the abortions, compared to now, like a topic of now, I mean, obviously abortion is always a topic, but the way that it's overtaken all media and everything now is very different than how it was then. And there's this really intense like abortion scene where Venla's mother,
essentially forces her to go have this abortion and she dies in the process. And, you know, even just something like that of how that pertains to what people are experiencing right now, because they're, they don't have access to, they don't have a choice in a healthy way. So then they're having to make other choices, which can literally be life ending for them.
not just their child. So, you know, there's just so, it's just fascinating to me how so many of these issues in this show we did nearly 20 years ago, how some of these issues not only have not.
not gotten better. Better is sort of the wrong word, but you know, they've not necessarily improved. They've gone back in time. They're exponentially worse, worse, the equivalent to what we were talking about in 1891. It's like, eh, what, how, how, how are we here, but.
Jess
Mm -hmm. I know what you mean.
Jess
Yes, completely.
LOLO
But also at the same time, like I have to believe that, I don't know, there's somehow gonna be a resolution somewhere. Somewhere.
Jess
Yeah.
LOLO
You know, some of it feels super out of control at the moment. You know, it feels, it feels chaotic. It feels like really intense growing pains. It feels like really, really very difficult growing pains for us as a world. But it's interesting to see that mirrored against this story that we told that unfortunately has remained even more relevant now.
Jess
Mm -hmm.
Mm -hmm.
Jess
Mm -hmm.
Jess
Yeah.
LOLO
than it was nearly 20 years ago. It's really wild. Because back then we were like, this is such an important story to be telling now, you know, which it was. It's not that it wasn't, it was. But I think it's also one of those things that we thought, this is gonna be...
Jess
Yes.
Jess
Yeah. Yeah.
LOLO
You know, we're going to look back on this and see how these things have progressed. And it feels that it has not. It has gone way in the opposite direction, you know.
Jess
Yeah. Right. Right.
And that's such an important part of theater is that you're creating something that can come back throughout time. There are so many shows that are still so relevant all these years later and maybe in a different way, maybe it's hinting at something that's still relevant, but how much of that was, yeah.
LOLO
Right? Even look at Parade, look at Parade coming back and looking at how powerful and it feels bizarre, is really, feels bizarre because when you're talking about the people in real time who've done it and they feel like what they've done has left an important mark in that moment, but then you're like, wait, how does this become even more of a...
LOLO
prominent commentary than it was the first time. It's really trippy. It's really trippy.
Jess
What did it feel like to bring it back? And can you talk more about the process of bringing it back for the documentary and one night performance?
LOLO
Sure.
The larger, well, I mean, the literal thing that happened is John Groff and I had a conversation which led to me having a very vivid dream about us doing basically what we did. One night performance, raising money to support some type of something. I wasn't even sure what that was at the time, but some type of something and...
and getting everybody back together.
Because there's lots of shows that have done that kind of thing. And I just kind of thought, we were all so young. And how cool would it be for us to be able to just have an opportunity to experience this again, all of us together. And, you know, so at its core, that's really all it was. We just wanted to do something that felt like, I knew how I felt, which was like,
I was so young, it almost felt like it wasn't real. Almost felt like a dream. For so many reasons. And, you know, I wanted another opportunity to just...
Jess
Mm -hmm.
LOLO
the two almost sort of be like, okay, that was real. Okay, that was real. And so putting it all together was a really wild experience, mostly because, so I called John, I said, hey, I have this idea. Will you go in like havesies with me on everything and just help me produce this?
Jess
Yeah.
LOLO
We'll produce it together. Great. He was in. And we've stayed close all these years anyway, so it wasn't like we had been estranged or whatever. But then we had to go around calling everyone and telling everybody this idea that we had and getting everybody on board. And no one needed time to think about anything. It was an immediate absolutely from every person, which was awesome.
because you just don't know. You don't know where people are going to be at. You don't know that everybody's going to want to go back in time 15 years and revisit something again. And the process itself was absolute chaos because it was COVID. So that...
Jess
Mm -hmm.
Jess
Yeah.
LOLO
The only thing I would change about the experience is that. But everything else about it was just really amazing. And even the COVID element was a total like God in the universe thing. Because like I said, we were there once we got all of the ducks in a row and we were finally there, all of us there in New York doing the reunion. We had 10.
Jess
Mm -hmm. Mm -hmm.
LOLO
days where it could have all fucking absolutely gone wrong. Because the whole deal was one night only, all of the fucking cast, everybody has to be there kind of vibe. You know, that was the deal. And truly by the grace of God, nobody tested positive for COVID in that whole entire 10 days.
Jess
Right.
LOLO
And that in and of itself felt like a miracle. So not just the fact that we got to do it, but everyone, not just the performers, the whole, all of the film people that had to be there to make sure everything happened, not just like our little spring awakening unit, but all of these extra components that had to come together to make sure we could make it happen. And that...
Jess
Mm -hmm.
Jess
Mm -hmm.
LOLO
I actually felt like the biggest miracle of all of the miracles that happened to make that happen. Because there were lots of miraculous things that happened to make it all a reality.
LOLO
And it was wonderful. It was wonderful to be together again. It was wonderful to laugh and cry and, and, you know, look back at this thing that has been a gift to all of us, has left a forever mark on all of us, mind, body, and soul. And...
LOLO
and to be in the theater.
when we all walked out on the stage together to start the performance. And there were all of these people in that room, some just diehard fans, family that had literally been with us every step of the way. You know, it was...
It is a feeling that you cannot describe. It was a feeling you cannot describe. And I'm just so glad we made it happen. I think it was really healing for all of us, actually. I think like, not just that moment, but the whole process. I think that we were all so young and...
when we went through all of it, we all clung so hard to each other to be able to survive just the madness, riding the wave, you know? And I don't know, there was something about all of it that felt like we made it, we made it, we're all here, we all survived. Because there's been a lot that happened, especially since the show closed, our assistant director,
Beatrice Terry, she passed of cancer in 2013. So about four -ish years after the show closed. And that was a huge loss. She was just an incredible woman and an incredible gift to all of us throughout that process. And then Krista Rodriguez, she had a pretty serious cancer battle several years ago. She had a double mastectomy. She was young, so young.
LOLO
You know, so there's a lot of ways in which like, we all couldn't have been there altogether, potentially. And we honored Bea, her son came and we recognized them, her wife and son and just things like that. Like it was very healing in so many ways of just acknowledging.
Jess
Mm -hmm. Mm -hmm.
LOLO
All of it. All of everything. Everything.
Jess
So at what point did you feel like it was time to share your story about how your personal life mirrored your character that you had been playing for all those years prior in Spring Awakening and then coming back through this documentary and revisiting it?
LOLO
Yeah.
Well...
LOLO
Like I said, the process was very healing. And not that I didn't realize the power of the story of Spring Awakening, obviously, I knew that. But I just, I don't know, I came to a place. So when we, you know, we filmed the actual one night only performance itself, and then throughout that process, we were also doing these interviews.
talking about our experiences and I felt really compelled to finally share my story of abuse because I just thought, you know, I'm not, it was a couple of things. First thing was like, I know I'm not the only person who has ever gone through something like that.
It certainly won't be the last, unfortunately. And it's terrible how many people are affected by sexual abuse as a child. Every single day still, you know. Or just abuse, child abuse in general. That can look like so many different things. Not just sexual abuse. And so...
Not only that, but kind of again, going back to this motherhood and parenting thing of me wanting to set an example for my own child. And if I'm gonna raise him to be a person who can be outspoken and share his truth with the world, then I'm gonna have to figure out how to do that myself too.
And at the end of the day...
LOLO
when you're sharing something like that.
For me, it really was, I just wanted other people to know, it's okay to share your story when you're ready, however you're ready, however much you want to share or however little you want to share.
whatever your story is also, right? Whatever your story is, doesn't even have to look like my story, but it's important that you know you are better for sharing than not if you feel compelled to do so. Because we are all so much more alike and all so much more aligned in our life experiences than I think the media or...
those types of things want to give us credit for, you know? And I think especially these days, there are so many things that work to try to divide us culturally. well, if you do X, Y, and Z, you cannot be like A, B, and C, and here's the dividing line, and you know what I mean? And that's not real life. That's not the truth. The truth is...
Really, everybody is so much more alike and so much more aligned than sometimes maybe we even want to realize. And...
LOLO
And I think also at everyone's core, everybody wants to be seen and heard and valued and loved. They want to feel that they matter, that whatever they are, whoever they are, their existence matters. And that's...
All, that's all of us, that's everyone. I think even the strongest people in the world who can put up the best front, even those people in their most tender at their core, everybody wants those same things. And that's really where that came from for me, knowing that...
I'm not the only person who wants to be seen and heard in this way. And so that was really where that came from. And again,
LOLO
You know, it's been really beautiful to see and hear from people who have watched the documentary and heard me speak about it or read my article that I did with the LA Times. And Ashley did such an incredible job guiding me through that. The woman who wrote the article, she was incredible to work with and just so kind and patient with me.
and
Yeah, just hearing from people.
Because I have always felt like I was sent here to give the world a hug. I've always felt that since I was a very small girl. And so that just felt like a way that I can...
LOLO
comfort people from a distance, you know? Because you can't, it's impossible to speak to every single person and reach every single person. And I don't even mean that necessarily from like a literal standpoint, I just mean like in life, like you're not gonna meet every person on the planet, you're not gonna talk to every single person in the world, but I think that...
Jess
Yeah. Yeah.
LOLO
you know, to be able to comfort anyone through anything. Happy, sure, yes, but also difficult or sad or complicated or whatever that is, you know. With the realm of sharing my story, I work closely with an organization here in the state of Tennessee called the
Carl Perkins Center for the Prevention of Child Abuse. And they're a statewide organization. Carl Perkins, which is a famous rockabilly singer -songwriter, back in the day, he wrote huge songs for Elvis, all that kind of thing. He's from my hometown, and he helped create this organization back in the 80s. And they care for and provide resources for free for children that have gone through all kinds of abuse, not just sexual abuse, but...
Any kind of abuse. And they've actually grown so much that now they also can provide resources for adults who suffered. They provide mental health resources for adults who maybe are only recently dealing with their childhood trauma. Like it's really amazing what they do. They do this huge fundraiser once a year called the Blue Suede Dinner and Auction. And it's called that because his most famous song was Blue Suede Shoes that he wrote for.
Jess
Mm -hmm.
LOLO
for Elvis, anyway, they asked me to come and share my story in February of this year, and I did, and it was a beautiful experience, and I was really very moved at some of the adults that reached out to me, kind of on behalf of, of,
that experience to said, probably never gonna tell anybody this, but I was abused as a child and thank you for getting up and talking. Like you're speaking to more people in the room than you probably would want to know. And I was like, I know, I do know that actually. I'm consciously aware of that because unfortunately,
Child abuse period is one of those things, any kind of child abuse. Child abuse period, unfortunately, is this thing that permeates our society, our world.
LOLO
And it's like this unsolvable problem, even when you're trying to solve the problem. And so, you know, more and more, I am reminded that it is very important to share stories, because even when you think maybe people aren't listening or...
You're kind of like.
LOLO
I didn't have that feeling necessarily. I feel like even if only one person connects with the story, that's one more person, right? But I think when you're talking about people sharing their experiences, it can feel very overwhelming and it can sometimes feel like you're in a vacuum, like, why am I doing this? And I think the reality is you're reaching so much more.
Jess
Yeah.
LOLO
into the goodness of changing the narrative than not when you choose to share those things. Ironically, I think something like TikTok has actually really highlighted how people can connect about experiences. I mean, you can like search the most obscure shit in there and you're like, yeah, there's a whole, or like Reddit, like Reddit and TikTok.
Jess
Yeah.
LOLO
There's all these subgroups of people who have experienced all kinds of things. And I don't even mean child abuse. I just mean like, whatever. Like an experience of parasailing and the cord gets caught and you're floating down the ocean. Do you know what I mean? You're like, there's a subgroup for that? But Reddit and TikTok have become these things where they...
Jess
I'm sorry.
LOLO
They're really helping validate people's lives in ways that I actually think are helping humanity and helping people know they are not individual. Because that's really the thing about going through something difficult, no matter what it is, whether it's a death, grief, mental illness.
miscarriage, abortion, you have a family member who's been murdered, you've suffered a great loss, your house is burned down, you lost everything, you're battling cancer, you know, like any of these things that you go through in life that are life altering, life altering events, events in which you were one way before, you are another after. You know, it's given people an opportunity.
to share their experiences with others and it makes them go, I am not alone. I am not alone. Even if this is not exactly like my experience, it's still close enough that it makes me feel that I am not walking singularly down this path. There are other people on this road with me. And...
there is something very validating and helpful about that. Like really, really helpful about that.
Jess
Well, I personally thank you so much for your bravery and your courage in sharing your story, both at this organization and through the LA Times article. And it I remember seeing the LA Times article. I can't remember if I had just met you or it was right. It missed. I think it was around that time. But I remember being like immediately I feel so
LOLO
Hmm.
LOLO
Anyways, mm -hmm. Yeah.
Jess
connected to you, so grateful for you, and I knew the immense strength that you had. And so I just want to personally celebrate the fact that you use your voice and tell your story. And like you're saying, there are tons of people who will tell you how you impact them. And there are so many people who you have impacted who you will just never know you impacted.
LOLO
Hmm.
LOLO
Mm -hmm.
Jess
And so I thank you and I love you.
LOLO
Well, I love you and thank you. And you know, the thing for me is I am.
a flawed individual like everybody else. I am a, I am, you know, here and still going, truly, by the grace of God. And I feel like every day I try to figure it out more and more of how to be a better human being, how to, how to challenge myself, how to,
you know be the best mom I can be.
LOLO
how to...
be a positive impact in the world around me, in whatever that looks like. And that's, you know, that's really why I chose to share my story. Because I hoped that it would, you know, beyond all the other things that it might be, I just wanted it to be a positive impact.
for others to know, yep, it's okay to talk about the things that are not okay or the things you might still be working through all these years, you know, or whatever, whatever that is. Because I think life is a very long journey and nobody, unfortunately,
You know, nobody goes through life without going through things that are challenging. And that looks different for every single person, obviously. But...
Being able to share personal experiences with each other, that's kind of like all we can do as a means for survival. Because otherwise, I think we just become too isolated within our own.
Jess
Mm -hmm.
Jess
Yeah.
LOLO
within our own sorrow or grief or whatever, or heartache or whatever. Because I think when you stop sharing, you do become very, very, very isolated. And that can be the most difficult part of healing is the isolation. And even if everything else around you is kind of trying to open you up,
Jess
Mm -hmm.
LOLO
and keep you connected. Sometimes in our own minds, we are isolating ourselves. So thank you.
Jess
Can you?
LOLO
I have maybe like 10 more minutes to talk and then I have to be somewhere at one o 'clock basically. Yeah, of course.
Jess
Perfect, I was going to ask you one more question.
Jess
Okay, can I ask you two quick ones? I'll wrap up. Okay. Is it possible for you to identify what compels you to channel your stories and your feelings into music?
LOLO
That's such an interesting question.
I think that, I think that it's literally feeling?
LOLO
It makes me feel alleviated. There's something very literal about the process of, I feel that when I write is how I can actually figure out how I feel about something.
Jess
Mm -hmm.
LOLO
Like I get to put that on paper and then musicalize that and it becomes an actual representation, like a, you know, like a tangible representation of a feeling, but like it's a feeling thing. Cause it's always a very quick, for me at least, for the most part.
Jess
TANJUBLE, yeah.
LOLO
It's a very quick process. It's very...
Jess
Hmm.
LOLO
I don't know, like stream of consciousness kind of thing where the feeling itself.
is what creates the idea, is what then kind of builds the rest of the structure. But it all emanates from a true feeling. Especially if I'm just, like right now I'm in a writing process for a brand new new music, Lolo album. And,
Jess
Mm -hmm.
LOLO
You know, the writing process is interesting and it's, it all starts as a feel, a feel that then transforms into like a, a tangible thing. And then there are other projects that have to be a bit more like uniform. You know, if I'm writing for something very specific or.
Jess
Mm -hmm.
LOLO
some of the theater stuff I've worked on where it's like, okay, you gotta write a song for this scene and this is what's going on between the characters and you know, like that kind of a thing. Then it's, it is a little bit different, but even then it's still trying to live in what would the feeling be? What is the feeling that's there? And then figuring out how to make a tangible representation of that through music.
Jess
Mm -hmm.
Jess
Mm -hmm.
Jess
Beautiful. Okay, my last question for you is what is your human bio? So your bio that does not exist on your resume. It is just who you are, what you are.
LOLO
That's the best way I can try to explain it.
LOLO
Such a good question.
Jess
Thank you.
LOLO
My human bio. My human bio would be...
Jess
I'm sorry.
LOLO
My human bio would look like something like I...
I'm a crazy cat lady.
I'm also, I have a very strange obsession with Hello Kitty, which I guess tracks, because I'm a crazy cat lady, but...
And I truly just want to help others. And I love being a mom. And my son is the most hilarious, wonderful thing that has ever happened to me. And I'm grateful for my spouse, my partner. He works really hard, which motivates me to also work really hard.
I do that anyways, but it's nice to have a spouse who meets you in the middle there. And...
LOLO
And I am.
LOLO
I'm just constantly looking for the ways in which I can be helpful to the world around me, whatever that looks like. I've been very grateful to live a sort of really crazy creative existence where I just mostly get to wake up and be creative every single day. That's always been my life. And I feel really grateful for that. And...
And because of that, and because I've had a lot of really wonderful and generous mentors and people like that throughout my life, really trying to find ways where I can pay that forward to others. And also at the same time, just constantly trying to learn from all of the things that I've been through, the good and bad choices I've made, the things I've done to try to figure out how to just...
be a positive, positive source of energy here on the planet and leave the most positive mark I can. And my true life dream over the next couple of years is opening a cat cafe. And that's what my human bio would say.
Jess
That was perfect. Thank you so much for doing this and for your constant vulnerability, generosity. You are a source of love and joy and positivity and healing in as a human being, as an artist, as a musician, a producer, everything that you do. And I'm so grateful for you. The world is better.
for you because of you and all that you do. And I love you. That's it.
LOLO
I love you, Jess. Thank you for saying that. Thank you for having me. And thank you for letting me share my story and just talk openly, make it a safe space where I can just be transparent. And I'm grateful for all that you are doing. And you are, you're doing something so important and vital, which is you are using your beautiful creative powers to create something where...
people can feel like they can really be themselves. And that's just a really hard thing to do. And that's what you are doing. And it's very powerful.
Jess
Thank you. That means a lot to me. Okay. Well, go have a fabulous day. Give Xander a hug and we'll talk soon. All right. Bye.
LOLO
Yeah. Yeah.
LOLO
I will. Okay. Bye.