Interview: Ash Davis of MILLENNIUM at Shadowbox Live!

When she and boyfriend Zach Tarantelli began writing the musical, MILLENNIUM, Ash Davis realized there might be a segment of people who would groan and roll their eyes over a musical based on the lives of millennials.

As the show opens June 5 at Shadowbox Live! (503 S. Front Street in downtown Columbus), Davis is not overly concerned about that. MILLENNIUM will be performed at 7:30 p.m. most Thursday, Fridays, and Sundays through Aug. 29.

“I love we are starting (the interview) with ‘Millennial Cringe,’” Davis said with a laugh. “That’s kind of what Gen Z calls us. As we (Millennials) have all entered our 30s and 40s, we’ve stopped caring about what people think is cool and we dive into whatever we want. We aren't embarrassed by ourselves anymore.”

Davis plays Maria, an aspiring Broadway actress who learns to find joy in an ever-shifting environment as her life and her friends’ futures ping pong in different directions from what they’ve planned. The musical will feature a 2000s-laden soundtrack with the songs of Kelly Clarkson, Green Day, Outkast, P!nk, The Black-Eyed Peas, and Britney Spears among many others.

While it focuses on a cast of actors who were born in the Millennial zone of 1980-2000, Shadowbox Live’s producing director Julie Klein believes it has a message for all audiences.

“We are thrilled to premiere this new body of work written by two of Shadowbox’s own millennials, Ash Davis and Zach Tarantelli,” Klein said. “Although it’s called MILLENNIUM, I think all ages will relate to and enjoy the journey of this group of friends in the early 2000s, as well as the energy and nostalgia of the 19 pop hits in the show.”

It’s much better to face these kinds of things/with a sense of poise and rationality

Panic! At the Disco, “I Write Sins Not Tragedies.

Davis and Tarantelli were friends for years before the two started dating. Davis said writing a script with the “love of her life” had its pros and a few cons.

“We know each other’s brain very, very well,” she said. “We saw each other go through a lot of stages in each other’s lives. We had a good understanding of where we wanted to go with this musical.

“The challenge was that we each kind of identified with different characters in the show and sometimes, we had different opinions on a character. We had to find a compromise: ‘OK you get the final say over this character’ and ‘you get the final say over this particular story line.’ We divided and conquered it that way.”

Those who have read the script, according to Davis, describe it as being like “a long episode of Friends” only with a really cool soundtrack and dance numbers and without David Schwimmer.

“It does have an old school sitcom vibe,” Davis said. “It's about a time in our lives when we realize things are never going to go as we've planned, but it's our job to find the joy and community within this inevitable change.”

The show is what you could call autobiographical fiction. It has an invented story line but the emotions that drive the plot are based on actual events.

Because it is essentially a work of fiction, Davis said the events she and Tarantelli may have experienced are far less traumatizing when they are put on stage.

“The emotions are very real,” she said. “It's our job to figure out how to bring those emotions to the surface and do it in a safe way. We all have little tricks that get us out of (the darker scenes). Sometimes a friend backstage will show me pictures of cats after (an emotional) scene.”

Makes me that much stronger/Makes me work a little bit harder/Makes me that much wiser/So thanks for making me a fighter

Christina Aguilera, “Fighter”

It might be easy to see traces of Davis’ own story in MILLENNIUM. The meta performer learned to develop selective hearing loss when others in her life were saying no.

It’s almost been that way from the beginning. When she was growing up in Covington, LA, Davis used to follow her mother Elizabeth as the church choir went from nursing home to nursing home performing a Christmas show. The one stipulation the pastor put on the five-year-old was she had to be quiet when the choir was performing.

“He literally tried to put baby in a corner,” Davis laughed.

And as Johnny Castle found out in the movie Dirty Dancing, nobody puts baby in a corner. During an intermission at one show, Davis saw an unguarded microphone.

“I was so jealous of the choir. They got to stand there and sing. I wanted to sing so badly and the pastor wouldn't let me,” she said. “So, I stole that microphone and I started singing ‘Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer.’  And before the pastor could come in and reprimand me, the piano player jumped in and started playing underneath me.

“I just went with it and jumped off the stage. All the residents and I were having a grand old time. Instead of being mad at me, the pastor thought it was so cute and added me to their show. I became their special guest star.”

According to Davis, her mother got a glimpse of what the rest of her daughter’s life was going to be like. Elizabeth Davis put her daughter into singing and acting lessons and eventually enrolled her into the talented theatre program at her school.

Upon graduation from high school, the actress/singer attended the Louisiana Tech University in Ruston and earned a Bachelor of Arts in theatre.

This world will never be what I expected

Three Days Grace, “Never Too Late”

However, Davis’ story is not a fairy tale. She spent years fruitlessly auditioning after moving to Philadelphia so she could try out for shows there and New York.

“My record was doing nine auditions in seven days. I didn’t book any of them,” she said. “I knew from a very, very young age that this was what I was supposed to do because that was what brought me such profound joy.  I was so laser focused on wanting to do this with my life that just nothing else would hit me.”

Even Davis’ first audition with Shadowbox Live! in 2018 didn’t go the way she had hoped. She was one of 800 performers at a cattle call audition for over 250 theatres. And out of all her auditions that day, only one theatre, Shadowbox Live!, gave her a call back.

“They told me they write original works and they (use) rock music for their shows,” she said. “I didn’t even know a theatre like this existed. I just absolutely fell in love with them.

“All of a sudden they asked this little theatre kid, ‘hey, what rock song do you have in your back pocket?’ And I'm like, umm … what?”

She didn’t get the job.

“I don't want to say I was destroyed, but I was determined,” she said. “I spent the next year working on a rock song (Styx’s ‘The Best of Times’) and I knew exactly what they were going to ask in the callbacks. I catered my whole audition specifically to get their attention.”

What Davis didn’t know was Shadowbox Live! was looking for her almost as much as she was looking for them. A year after Davis was hired, Shadowbox Live! CEO Stacie Boord told Davis she had instructed her team no matter how Davis did in her audition, she wanted to talk with her again.

“In this industry, this performance career I've chosen, (finding work) is less about talent and more about tenacity,” she said. “I wouldn’t say ‘I don’t take no for an answer.’ Shadowbox reframed it this way: ‘It’s not ‘Don't take no for an answer. It’s saying yes to yourself.’ That’s what I'm doing. I'm saying yes to myself.”