Jason Gotay on his ‘Wizard of Oz’ obsession, Eva Peron, and starring in one of Broadway’s biggest flops
Where You’ll Find Me, premiering at New York City’s Minetta Lane Theatre.Presented live as part of Audible Theater for a limited three-night engagement September 30 – October 2 and scheduled to be released in early 2023 as streaming content, Gotay was given free rein regarding the show’s theme and content.
He made a list of all of the influential people in his life and realized that most of them were women. The 33-year-old was born and raised in Brooklyn by his single mother, Marla, which laid the groundwork for an appreciation of strong female role models.Gotay recently chatted with Queerty about her impact and other strong female role models.It always starts with our mothers, right? I was told that I could make a show about anything that I wanted, which is, of course, a dream come true but also really daunting.
Because where do you start, right? When getting to the heart of what it is you have to say as an artist, you go back to the beginning, your influences, and for me, the people in my life who have helped shape me and helped me on my journey to become my most authentic self — and the Broadway leading ladies, a lot of the singers and artists that I’ve looked to, that have inspired me, have all been these amazing women that have paved the way for me both personally, and professionally.The very first woman, without giving too much away, that I felt the most connected to before I even had kind of the language to understand why was Dorothy in The Wizard of Oz.
I have this really passionate connection to that movie. I watched it repeatedly and started collecting things. There was Wizard of Oz memorabilia in my house all throughout my childhood.
