The Actors on ‘Little Voice’ Were ‘Scared Shitless’ to Sing for Sara Bareilles

“The funny thing about Sara and I is that we end up doing these things we’ve never done before together,” says Jessie Nelson. “We’d never written a Broadway show, and suddenly we were writing a Broadway show. We’d never done any TV before, and suddenly we were doing a TV show.”

That Sara would be Bareilles, with whom Nelson collaborated (to four-time Tony-nominated effect) on the 2016 musical “Waitress.” And that TV show would be “Little Voice,” Apple TV+’s new musical drama loosely based on the early years of Bareilles’ songwriting career, which premiered July 10. Though both women have had immense success in other realms—Nelson in screenwriting, Bareilles as a recording artist—neither knew much when it came to the small screen.

“We learned as we went, and we bit off a lot, very naively,” Nelson explains. “[In the pilot,] we had six dogs, two original songs, and four actors who are disabled—but I’m glad we were naive, because it was a big world to leap into.”

Unlike most traditional musicals, the singing on “Little Voice” is diegetic, meaning it is literally part of the plot, performed as live music and heard by the characters. For Nelson, who in addition to creating the series serves as its showrunner, executive producer, and frequent director, that meant taking particular care when it came to realistically furnishing the world. It also, of course, meant taking particular care with casting.

“The biggest challenge is making sure the music and the musicality of the performers feel authentic,” Nelson says. “That became the challenge in casting—finding people you really believed were musicians, that was enormously important to Sara. It took months. Because we were in New York, we were seeing a lot of Broadway performers. The particular gift of a Broadway performer, being able to play to the ninth balcony, is very different from someone who you would believe in a small club singing.”

But for eventual leading lady Brittany O’Grady, as well as the entire cast of largely unknowns, booking the job was when the real challenge began. Not only did they have to go through the already grueling motions of filming an episodic series on location in New York City, they had to do so with the added feat of learning and performing original Sara Bareilles music—in front of Sara Bareilles.

“I’m sure they were scared shitless the first time they did it,” Nelson admits. “A lot of it was developing trust, knowing it didn’t have to be perfect, that you could do another take, that we’re all finding it together. Sara has such a huge vocal range, and her songs are really challenging musically. She really helped the actors get inside the song and [explained] why it was crafted the way it was.”

As anyone who has heard Bareilles’ music knows, it is all about emotional objective, and therein was the crux of Nelson’s work: helping her actors unearth the “why” in every note and lyric; to act inside of a song, rather than beside it. 

“When I’m directing, I really look at: What is the intention of a scene and the intention of a line?” she explains. “Is she caught in her fear? Is she trying to be brave? Is she trying to push down a wall inside her? What are you trying to accomplish as an actor in this moment? And that really applies to the musical moments, too: Why is this song coming out of her at this point in time?”

While it did take some time at the start of production to hit every right note, the team eventually blended like a smooth melody all its own. 

“Once you settle into the intent of a song and why it is the way it is musically, it unfolds very organically,” Nelson says. “With me directing and with Sara’s guidance, the actors just fell into the groove of the song.”

This story originally appeared in the July 23 issue of Backstage Magazine. Subscribe here.