Brittani Miller, editor, recently had the chance to chat with Chad Beguelin via email to discuss his debut novel Showmance, his writing inspiration, and growing up in Southern IL. Chad is a native to Centralia, and will be at the Centralia Cultural Society on October 19th, 2024, to sign copies of Showmance.

This interview has been edited and organized for space and clarity.

Brittani Miller [BM]: So, in terms of Centralia. You’ve stayed very connected over the years – and, obviously, you know coming around for family or whatever is to be expected, but you do scholarships for the youth here that have benefited so many of the people I grew up with, and you are so kind and open to things like this interview, and one thing that has always stuck with me when I think about your impact on the area, is that I had a lot of friends involved when Centralia High School (CHS) got to do Elf: the Musical for the first time, and the pride it gave those kids and this lifelong thing that they all still talk about now that we’re adults. Centralia especially gets a lot of flack from people who want to run away and hide that it’s their hometown, but you don’t shy away from that and I have such respect for that. Is there a driving factor that made you want to stay so connected beyond just saying “oh yeah I was born there” or was there some kind of lightbulb moment that made you say like no my hometown actually has a lot to offer and is worth this investment when others would turn and abandon it?

Chad Beguelin [CB]: I think where you’re from is a big part of someone’s identity. Centralia is a major part of who I am because it shaped me during my formative years. And I feel the scholarships are my duty to give back to CCS [Centralia Cultural Society] and the people who support it. Without CCS I might never have found my way to Broadway.

BM: I grew up working on shows at the Centralia Cultural Society, this shy closeted queer kid in a very small town in the early 2010s, and you were like a legend to everyone around there. It’s like, a whole culture of “oh, if Chad did it then any of us can.” In a similar vein, you know, you have [Broadway musical and Netflix film adaptation] The Prom, which is clearly about that experience of not only being an LGBT+ kid from this sort of Midwestern area where it hasn’t always been an easy place to be LGBT+, but really just about being different in any way of not fitting the status quo of those areas. How does it feel now to see all these kids involved in the Arts that are looking up to you and your work and seeing that there is a place for them and a chance to go and do these things?

CB: The Centralia Cultural Society was an oasis to me when I was growing up. It was one of the few places I felt like I fit in and could express myself creatively. In my novel Showmance, the main character Noah goes to see a production of Oliver! at his local community theater and gets hooked. That’s exactly what happened to me. I saw the CCS production of Oliver! and knew that I’d found what I wanted to do with my life. I unfortunately had to deal with a lot of bully growing up, but the Cultural Society was my safe place. If you would have told me in high school that I would be writing about openly queer characters like the ones in The Prom or Showmance, I think I would have been dumbfounded. Back then being anything other than straight was considered wrong or at least something that had to be kept secret. If my work helps even one LGBT+ person feel seen, then I’m eternally grateful.

BM: Similarly to [you inspiring the next generation of performers], who were your big influences when you were young? Whether that was local or Broadway or films/books or anything like that.

CB: It was always a thrill to go to the St. Louis Fox or the Muny. I still have all of my souvenir programs like the total theater nerd that I am. I remember seeing the national tour of Annie and being blown away when the set pieces moved on their own because they were automated. When the tour of The Wedding Singer came to the Fox, a big group from the Cultural Society came to a matinee. I talked the stage manager into letting me bring everyone backstage after the show. I remember always wanting to go backstage when I was a kid, so we all went. It was a pretty big group and the stage manager said, “I don’t think we’re supposed to have this many people back here.” I said, “They’re my hometown community theater peeps!” He agreed to turn a blind eye.

BM: What can you tell us about Showmance without giving away any spoilers?

CB: Noah Adams is a failed playwright whose first musical on Broadway crashes and burns. When a family emergency sends him to his small hometown in Illinois, he is asked to direct the flop musical at his local community theater. At first he writes off the people in the show as a bunch of amateurs, but they suddenly start making insightful suggestions that actually improve Noah’s musical. He also has a run in with his high school nemesis and things take an unexpected twist.

BM: How did your roots in Southern Illinois influence both Showmance as well as your other writings?

CB: Showmance is basically about Centralia and the Cultural Society, just with different names. Hopefully I’m not like Noah, because he has a pretty big chip on his shoulder at the start of the novel. But he does grow throughout the book and examines his own assumptions about people and his entitlement issues.

BM: So, obviously you are more into the Broadway side of writing, and this is your first book. What was that process like to go from writing scripts and songs to “I’m going to write this novel now”?

CB: The biggest difference is that for a musical there are collaborators to work with. So there are people to bounce ideas off of and the workload is spread out. With a novel, it was all me and my wrinkly little brain sitting at a laptop. I had to self-motivate and there was no guarantee that I could sell it or get it published. I did a lot of talking out loud to myself and for some reason used the royal “we” a lot. As in, “We’re learning as we go…”

BM: Do you see more novel writing in your future?

CB: Possibly. I have the start of an idea. Hopefully it will lead to something.

BM: What is the best writing advice you have ever been given or the best advice that you could give to our readers?

CB: “It’s got to be bad before it can be good.” Which means basically that writing is rewriting. I’ll work on something and think it’s brilliant only to wake up the next morning to realize it’s garbage. That’s when I tell myself, “It’s got to be bad before it can be good.” Slowly making it better, is the real trick of writing. It’s not always going to come out perfectly formed. You have to sit with it and tinker with it and make it better.

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CentraLit would like to thank Mr. Beguelin for taking the time to speak with us. Showmance is available to order now wherever books are sold.

About Chad Beguelin
Chad Beguelin is a six-time Tony Award® nominee. His Broadway works include The Prom (Tony Award nomination for Best Book and Best Original Score, Drama Desk Award Nomination for Best Book and Outstanding Lyrics), Disney’s Aladdin (Tony Award nomination for Best Book and Best Original Score, Drama Desk Award Nomination for Best Book and Outstanding Lyrics), and The Wedding Singer (Tony Award nomination for Best Book and Best Original Score, Drama Desk Award nomination for Outstanding Lyrics). He also wrote the lyrics for the Broadway musical Elf, which broke several box office records at the Al Hirschfeld Theatre. Chad co-wrote the screenplay for The Prom currently available on Netflix and staring Meryl Streep, Nicole Kidman and James Corden. He is the recipient of the Edward Kleban Award for Outstanding Lyric Writing, the Jonathan Larson Performing Arts Foundation Awards, the Gilman & Gonzalez-Falla Musical Theater Award and the ASCAP Foundation Richard Rodgers New Horizons Award. Chad is a graduate of New York University’s Tisch School of the Arts Graduate Dramatic Writing Program. His debut novel Showmance is available wherever books are sold.