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Hello, all you theater lovers, both out and proud and on the deal. And welcome back to Broadway Breakdown, a podcast discussing the history and legacy of American theater's most exclusive address, Broadway. I am your host, the Matt Koplik, the least famous and most opinionated of all the Broadway podcast hosts. And this is a special annual episode, the Broadway Breakdown Birthday. Q and A. It is indeed my birthday. Or at least I should say my birthday will be coming up the day after this episode releases. This comes out on the 26th. My birthday is the 27th. I share a birthday with Mariah Carey and Quentin Tarantino and the opening night of Urban Cowboys. So, you know, I'm a very blessed one. But even so, in the spirit of birthdays, we like to open up the floor to the listeners to ask whatever questions they may have about me. Broadway, the podcast, whatever. We try to keep it from super personal questions, but sometimes people want to know a little bit more about me. I couldn't imagine what. I'm pretty much an open book, and I feel like I actually overshare on this podcast. So, yeah, maybe. Maybe in the future I should just say no more personal questions. But I digress. You guys had questions, and I hopefully will have some answers for you. We're going to take precedent and start with the folks on the Discord Channel. I offered up the opportunity for questions there first. That is just another bonus. Being on the Discord Channel, I was trying to do substack and make that sort of the main focus of communication with me via all the Broadway Breakdown platforms. It's proving a little difficult right now, so we're using substack more as a hub for all the Broadway Breakdown content. But we're. We're all just still figuring that shit out. So, yes, Discord will be the first place that I'll be taking questions from. And then from there we go Instagram, where people are allowed to ask questions anonymously. First up on the Discord, we have the question, if you could recast any show in Broadway history to take it from a flop to a Tony winner, what show would it be and why? And who would you cast? Okay, so in this scenario, we're saying that it was the casting that made something a flop, and if we cast it differently, it would make it a hit? Or are we just. Or is it that this was a show that did not succeed, and if I could cast it in my own perfect world, how would I do that, and would that actually make the show successful? Because I can't really think of a show where casting was so egregious that it actually hurt the show's chances. And then casting someone different did a total 180. Because, I mean, even when we talked about earlier this season with Queen of Versailles, right, With Kristin Chenoweth versus Sheri Renee Scott, Sherri. Renee Scott was better, mostly because Sherry just fit the role better and had the proper attitude for the style of show that they were going for. The style of, like, satire that they were going for. Which isn't to say that Chenoweth was bad. Chenoweth worked very hard. He just was a better fit for Sheri. But even Sheri didn't make the show go from a disaster to a masterpiece. Sheri took a show that I felt had no purpose. It was bad, but not a train wreck, but just mostly had no purpose. And then with Sheri, I went, oh, I see what the idea is. And I would like them to try again. So, I don't know. I'm sorry, that's not really an answ. I can't really think of a show where, if I cast it differently, everything would work. The shows that I love that flopped, I don't really blame casting. I feel like even Smile, I really like the original company of Smile. I think they're all pretty solid in their roles. I mean, Jeff McCarthy kind of was a little flat, but also as Bob. But the role changed after Jeff played it when they revised it for Samuel French. So I don't know. I'm sorry, that's not really an answer. I apologize. I don't really have an answer for that. Do you have an answer for that? Write in the discord. If you're asking this question, I imagine that you have an answer for yourself, and I would really like to know what that would be for you. And if we disagree or not. Are there any musical theater writers who've yet to come to Broadway that you would love to get the chance to do? So which show of theirs? Okay, this is another one that I'm gonna. The problem is, is that there are so many aspiring musical theater writers, and I actually haven't seen a lot of their shows before they've come to Broadway or as they aspire to get to Broadway. I see a lot of songs they write that go on Instagram and TikTok and YouTube, and the songs are good, but that doesn't really tell you if they're a good musical theater writer. I. There's an old episode I did. I forget who it was with. It might have been with Danny Quadrino. No, it wasn't Danny, it was somebody else. But it was the era of YouTube musical theater, where when I was in college, that was when Pask and Paul and Ryan, Scott, Oliver and Kerrigan and Loudermilk were all coming up through the YouTube sphere. And that was sort of our version of going viral. So we had songs like Perfect and Freedom and When Lily Came and Lost Boy that people really loved to sing. But the shows that they were written for didn't really work. And a lot of it was because those songs were so popular, but they actually didn't fit the show. And it's the difference between being a good songwriter and being a good musical theater writer. Actually, when I was in thespians, I was doing my workshop on analyzing musicals. We talked about this with Phantom of the Opera. We, we. I played them the little bit of angel of Music in the dressing room into the title song, and I was like, you know, the title song of Phantom of the Opera is the only song in the entire score that sounds like the 1980s with synthesizer and drum and guitar. And I said, why is this? And they had their theories and their dramaturgy and whatnot and all good theories, but ultimately they don't fully match. They would say, oh, well, to show that the Phantom is different than everyone else's sound is different, I'm like, but then Music of the Night sounds exactly the same style as All I ask of you and think of Me. And plus, you know, when he's doing notes and when he's doing the layer sequence, it's all more classical sounding. And the truth was that when they were writing Phantom of the Opera, originally Steve Harley was going to be the Phantom and he was a rocker guy, and that was going to be the Phantom sound. And then they changed their mind while they were workshopping it, and they went the more classical route, first with Colm Wilkinson in a workshop and then Michael Crawford in the West End. But by that point, England had already heard the title song. They made a music video of it with Harley and Sarah Brightman, and they couldn't cut it by that point and they kept it. And that is something that actually is a problem for so many modern musical theater writers of just like the big song that does so well on TikTok, and then you do your workshop of the show and that song just does not fit anymore. But they won't cut it. This is to say, Adam Gwand most recent show, all the World's a Stage, I think is the full title. I really enjoyed that and I really like to see it progress and see if he makes any changes to it and to improve it because I already thought it was very strong but, you know, interested to see what he has on it. I also think that I thought Beau was really lovely. I think I was a little over prepared for it. So I was a little underwhelmed by it, but not because it wasn't good, but because I had just heard such massive praise for it and like, oh my God, you'll sob your eyes out. And I thought it was very good. And more importantly, I thought that Douglas Lyons actually wrote a really good musical theater piece. So I'd be interested to see what he's working on as well. Oh, and then also Todd Amond, which put a pin in that because I want to talk about Todd Amond in a second. But I discovered that he also writes musical theater material and I was really a big fan of his in Girl from the North Country. So. Yeah, that's. That's a really shitty answer. I apologize. You've done your dream encore season. Say there was an off center season again. This is encores for off Broadway content. Like when they did with Little Shop of Horrors and God bless you, Mr. Roosevelt. Which three shows would you try to get the rights to be able to perform for it? So what would my off center encore season be, huh? I would do. So they've done Violet, they've done New Brain. Huh. What would I do? I think I'd like to do the original version of youf're a Good Man Charlie Brown without the Chenoweth updates. I think the Chenoweth updates are very strong. It's just, you know, we're doing the Off Broadway version and I would just fucking stack that cast. I would, you know, put Simard in as Lucy and I would, I don't know, Christopher Fitzgerald as Charlie Brown and Daniel Breaker as Linus. I think that'd be a lot of fun. So that would be one Charlie Brown. What are some other ones I would do, huh? Off Broadway shows from the last like 50ish years. Ooh, boy Meets Boy. I only sort of know that show because of Rob Schneider, but the one song I did sing from it, what do I Care? I really liked and I would love to see fucking gay ass musical on that stage. So Boy Meets Boy. You're a Good Man, Charlie Brown and third one, because also. No, I know those are the two for now. Put a pin in that. I'll think of a third one as we keep going. Next question. What would you say is the strongest top to bottom season of Broadway musicals of the last 100 years. Jesus Christ. I mean, I think that 1969, the 1968, 1969 season has the best lineup of musicals for best musical, because you have 1776, which is that libretto is a stone cold masterpiece. Hair, which is just tectonic shifting. You have prompts with promises, which also in its own subtle way, is paradigm shifting as well. And you have Zorba, which is a crazy but brilliant musical. And they're also very different from each other, so that's fantastic. And on top of that, you have Dear World, which is kind of a mess of a show, but half of a really phenomenal Jerry Herman score and a great role for a woman of a certain age to lead. So that's really good one. I am partial to the 2004, 2005 season of Broadway musicals because that is Spamalot and Lightning, the Piazza and Spelling Bee and Dirty Around Scoundrels. But I don't think that's the best, best one, because Family, I think, is fine. Yeah, I mean, I guess 68 to 69, that would be my answer, because are we including revivals as well? Because then it gets a little trickier, because then I would maybe say the 97 to 98 Broadway season, because that's Ragtime Sideshow, Lion King with the revivals of Cabaret in 1776. And then you have your lesser shows, like the revival of Sound of Music. You have Scarlet Pimpernel, which is, you know, kind of stupid, but fun. Fun but stupid. You have High Society, which is fun, but also a little bit dull. And I think is Kate. Man, that same year, I think. Yeah, I think that Caitman is that same year, which is a really interesting score. So, yeah, 98 would be a good one too. Yeah, that's. That's my answer for right now. I'm trying to think of another one where it's just sort of like minimum 6 bangers. Hard to say. Dream Tony Awards host. I don't know. My dream Tony Awards host for right now, I would maybe say, Because Conan o', Brien, I think, has been a strong host the last two Oscars. And what makes him a good host is that he has a genuine passion for movies. He sees them all, so he makes informed jokes about them all. But he's also very smart and very funny and also not willing to make a fool out of himself. It's not all about him. And I think that the best hosts for the Tonys are kind of similar. Like, I mean, I thought Whoopi was a really Good host for the Tonys back in the day, but who's sort of that theater nerd now? Who's got enough fame but also is pretty funny because, like, it's not really Jimmy Fallon, but I guess it could be Jimmy Fallon, but I also kind of find him a little fuck it. I'll say. You know, Tina Feyne, Amy Poehler. Have them do it. They'd be awesome. Yeah, Quinta Brunson. She's got to be a musical theater girly, right? I feel like she'd be a fun host. She's so funny. She's so smart. She's got to like musical theater. She has to like musical theater. Please tell me she likes musical theater. She cast Sheryl Lee Ralph in her goddamn sitcom. She's gotta like musical theater. Okay, next question. If you could get any previous Tony Awards host to host again, who would it be and why? Rosie o', Donnell, for all of the reasons I said before, adores musical theater, adores Broadway in general, knows her shit is funny, and also allows the other performers to shine. I think she's. I bar non, the best Tony Awards host we've ever had. Okay, how would you rank the. How would you rank the best Tony Awards hosts? Shut the floor. Wait. That was a question of, like, the last couple of Tony Ward's hosts or the best ones? I think the best ones have been Rosie, probably number one for me. Whoopi's been a great one. Angela Lansbury did a solid job. She's done it a few times and was, you know, very solid and charismatic all those times. Wasn't necessarily funny. But when she was being a host, that wasn't really the point. Nathan Lane was a good host. Cynthia actually did a pretty good job last year. I thought. I thought that she did a. She surprised me with how well she did last year and then also say this hot take. I thought Ariana DeBose did a really good job. The year of Kimberly Akimbo. That was the year that we had the writers strike, and so they had no bits, and so she kind of had to wing it. And it showed that she had a great deal of charisma and she could work a room. I thought she actually did her best with that one as opposed to the other two. I did not love her in the 2022 Tonys, and I was in the room for that one. So. Yeah. And then I did not love the 2024 Tonys, but that was also a producer thing. 2023. I thought Ariana did a good one. So, yeah, those Are my answers for that. If you could have had a show from a previous season come into this season, which would you want to come in and why? So I'm going to keep it to post Covid. And with that in mind, I would say. Dead Outlaw. I mean dead out. If Dead Outlaw waited another year, all like any momentum they had would have been completely dead. But I also think that they would have done better at the Tonys this year. If they had opened this year, they would have won best score, bar none. I say this having not heard anything from Lost Boys yet or Beaches for that matter, so maybe they'll surprise me. But yeah, Dead Outlaw. I would wish had come in this season when you said show, not just musical. Hills of California. I wish that that would open this season. Laura Donnelly could have really won the Tony, or at the very least, she and Leslie Manville could have split it. That would have been nice. And I also kind of think that Best Play is sort of up for grabs right now. And Hills of California I thought was just really, really beautiful. Yeah. And then. No, I'm gonna keep it to those. Gonna keep it those for now. What are ways to distinguish between an actor's choice versus a director's choice in a performance? When that's a great question and the short answer is there really is no way to officially distinguish it, which sounds like a cop out, but you kind of have to go off of instinct. The things that tend to be tells for me of when it's up to the actors to get their performances to work is honestly when it feels like there are performances that are not fitting in, Even if it's just two performances that are not fitting in, that's when you can kind of guess that maybe the director is very hands off with the company because everyone's sort of having to go down their own path. And when you're an actor in a show and you're rehearsing that show, you don't know how it comes off on stage. You only know what it feels like to you. You don't know what it looks like from the audience. You don't know how you're fitting into the tapestry of the show. And so even if you're a good actor and a smart, intuitive actor and you've got good intentions and good instincts, you could be giving a performance that doesn't jive with the rest of your company because you don't have someone from the outside guiding you. And so for me, that's a pretty tell, good tell of when it's an actor's. Choice and not a director's choice of when you have one or two performances in the company that are sticking out in any kind of way stylistically energy wise. I would also say that sometimes you can just sort of feel when a performance isn't fitting an actor, not the role, but like the performance itself. And that tends to be when a director is enforcing something onto a cast member. I guess this is free reign to say we're 16 years past it, but the London transport of a little night music that Trevor Nunn directed, infamously, that company did not do the performances that they had auditioned with and that they intended to do that. Everything that they did on stage was imposed by Trevor Nunn. They're all very open about this. The very first day of rehearsal, the only person who was on board with Trevor Nunn's vision was Catherine Zeta Jones, according to various cast members. Not just one or two, like, I'm talking like six or seven. That all these Catherine SATA Jones, CZJ was the only one who was like, yes, this sounds great. Everyone else went, oh, fuck me. And the narrative of that revival was once Bernadette Peters and Elaine Stritch came into the company, everything started to work a lot better. And that is true. But it wasn't just their presence. It was once Trevor Nunn left. Cause Trevor Nunn also, like never checks in on his shows. And especially this, you know, he went back to London. He wasn't checking in on the Broadway company from the time they opened like that November of 2009 to June of 2010. In those about seven or eight months, the cast slowly started to put in things into their performances that they wanted to do. And so by the time Bernadette Peters and Elaine Stretch came in, everyone else on the company was delivering like 65% of the performance that they wanted to give. They couldn't do 100% because if they did 100%, they probably would have gotten written up by management and reported to none about it. But that's sort of the give and take you do, right? You start putting in some of your own things and you can't do it all of a sudden because you'll get notes on how to go back to what you were supposed to be doing. But yeah, that was a case of a director telling his cast, this is what I want, and them having to be confined by it. But yeah, it's hard to have a distinguishing trait. I go off of instinct. Also, I will say there are some directors that you just kind of know that they're very hands off. Lira de bassinet is infamously very hands off. Hal Prince was very hands off. Mike Nichols was very hands off. Tommy Kail has become a pretty hands off director with his actors. And for some people, that works. For some directors it doesn't. There are other directors who, they don't necessarily impose a vision onto an actor, but they will sometimes give line deliveries and they'll be like, I want this moment done a very specific way. Jerry Mitchell is very exacting that way. He's very famous. Famous for saying, let me be you for a moment. And so he'll come into the scene or the number and he'll be your part for a second to show you what he means. So, yeah, that's. I guess that's the answer for that. Next question. This is the main question. This is the main question from a British theater podcast. If there was a hypothetical meteor coming down and destroying the entire world as we know it, and you could get the chance to see one last show before you die, what would it be? By the way, made up shows and wacky revivals are welcome. Am I also allowed to say, like, you know, a show that happened that I didn't get to see due to either not being alive or missing it in the moment? It would be the original production of follies 1000%, sort of at the height of its, of its popularity and the cast energy and enthusiasm. That's my number one with an absolute bullet. After that, it would be maybe closing night of Sideshow or it would be Laurette Taylor in the Glass Menagerie on opening night. Yeah, that would probably. Those would be my answers. If we're talking about things that don't exist, wacky revivals, things that don't exist. I would want to see the talented Mr. Ripley, as I see it in my head, with a score by Michael John Lachiusa starring Jason Gauthe, directed by George c. Wolf circa 25 years ago. And I would want to see down with Love, a stage adaptation of down with Love with Jesse Mueller and Conrad Rick Amora, with an adapted book by Greta Gerwig, a score by Marc Shaiman and Scott Whitman. And I would want it in the Schubert. And I would want it directed by, let's say, Casey Nichola. And yeah, that's what I would want. I think that'd be Fran. Next question. You can make a production of one musical, all trans people. Which musical do you choose and why? I feel like this is a trap. Is there a reason why all trans just because I have a fear of fetishizing any demographic for the sake of non exclusionary because that's basically like, you know, straight pride parade. That's stupid. But no, I don't love fetishizing performers for what necessarily makes them different or quote unquote, you know, unique. I find that a tad exploitative. I rather look for what that talent brings to the role and what then casting said person in that role does for the role. I found that the all female, non binary male exclusionary 1776, which I famously coined as Mamilton. I found that to be an idea with no follow through. And that was what I found. And that's an example of being exploitative. So if I were to talk about this, I mean, I'm sort of. And I'm assuming we're talking about female assigned at birth and male assigned at birth, you know, just all. All trans. Not necessarily, you know, female presenting trans or. Or anything like that. Like we're talking about the whole community, not. Not just one. So I don't know. I would. I don't. Is there. Is there a show that trans performers are. Are really, you know, wanting to do? Because. Let them do it. I mean, I don't. I think everyone should do whatever. As long as it's done with intention and care and intelligence and creativity. I say whatever. I don't. All. All of it. The whole. The whole kit and caboodle. I mean, maybe don't do race swapping. This is not America's Next Top Model, but other than that. Yeah. I don't know. Nine. Maybe. Would that be fun? Is there a trans man that really, really wants to play Guido and then get that star turn? Let's do it. Maybe Godmik from Drag Race could do it. I don't know why I went for Gottmik. I just. I think Gottmik's very talented. And that was the first thing that came to mind. Yeah. I don't know. I just came back from a matinee of Jellicoe Ball and watching Tempuris, I was reminded of Anita Morris. They have very similar body shapes. And I was like, tempuris could be a fun. Could be a Fun Carla in 9. Yeah, I guess that's my answer. Next up, are there any shows you hope make the transfer to Broadway outside of ones already rumored to do so? Yeah. I mean, as I mentioned on drama, Paddington's coming in in the spring. We have Dreamgirls coming. There are rumors of Evita coming next year. We shall see. I feel like there's A rumor that Lincoln center is either doing Showboat or a little Night Music. Unclear which is which. If they do either, they just did their man of La Mancha gala, and I would like man of La Mancha to come back to Broadway, but the show that I would like to transfer to Broadway, that isn't rumored to do. So, I mean, I guess Benjamin Button was rumored to come, and I guess that's pretty dead now. And that's fine because I liked that show a lot. But it also has problems, and it would require some rewriting that I don't think they're gonna do. Yeah, there's not. There's really not much. I would like Oliver. I would like the Oliver that's in London right now to come here. I think it's such a delightful production, and we deserve a good revival of Oliver. So that would be my answer, I suppose. And comedy about spies. Maddie's comedy about spies would be awesome. Although I guess it doesn't count because he won't tell me. He's sworn to secrecy, and he's very professional, so he doesn't spill shit. But there are rumors in the community that comedy about spies will be coming in next summer or in the fall. That would be fun. Next question. I'm pretty obsessed with Michael Friedman, and I've never heard you talk about him. Thoughts on his work? I only know Bloody, bloody Andrew Jackson. I mean, that is Friedman, right? Bloody, bloody Andrew Jackson. Let me double check on that. But I'm pretty sure that's the only thing I know. I don't know. Fortress of Solitude, that kind of got annihilated. Yeah, that is Friedman. He did Bloody, bloody. Fortress of Solitude got annihilated when it was off Broadway, and I didn't go to see it. I heard solid things about Love's labor is Lost, but, I mean, yeah, I just don't have an opinion on him because I don't know enough of his work. And I don't love to make comments, positive or negative, on someone's work if I don't know it well enough. You know, it's a super uninformed opinion. It would be. Next question. Cast a show using yourself and friends of the pod. Which show are you picking? Who would play who and why? Ooh, I love this. Okay, let's go. Okay, well, let's be. I'm gonna do an easy one right now, and I'm going to say. I'm gonna say Angels in America, and I'm going to do Podmother Ali Gordon as Harper. I mean, the Truth is that Allie is much more of an angel or even a Hannah Paper right now. Age wise, she'd be a Harper, but no, actually, no, I take that back. Ali's gonna play the angel and all the various roles, like the homeless woman, that's going to be Ali Gordon. Natalie Walker is going to be Hannah Pitt, and I will be Lewis. Let's see. Would Adam Ellsbury play Prior? He could. I'm sure he could. I'm just trying to think if that's where I want to put him. Schneider. Rob Schneider will play Roy Kong. Absolutely. Tom Pasinka. Let's have him play Joe. Just because I want to make out with him. I'm kidding, Tom. I'm kidding. But also not. Yeah, I mean, are there other. Now I'm trying to go all the way back and think about past guests who I could see in different roles. Cooper, Howell, baby, you're going to play Belize. You know it's true. So then who's Harper? Who do we have as Harper? Could that be? Oh, you know. Okay, this is a throwback from two years ago, but do you guys remember Chelsea Williams from the Heathers episode? Let's have Chelsea play Harper. Chelsea's a really phenomenal actress. She did a role in my play in a couple of different readings of it and she's just really fantastic. And it's an age appropriate role for her. And I keep writing roles for her that she's not. Not old enough for yet. And so I want to write something for her that is age appropriate. But until I do that, she can play Harper. So Allie Gordon is the angel. Natalie Walker is Hannah Pitt and which she's too young for, but you know, Natalie loves to play old dames. Anyway, Chelsea will play Harper. I'll play Lewis. Cooper Howell will play Belize. Rob Schneider will play Roy Cohn. Tom Pasinka will play Joe, and yeah, let's have Adam play Prior. Why not? I think we would have fun together doing the bench scene, not the carousel bench scene. Ho, ho, ho. Part of me also now wants to cast all of us on the pod in Sideshow and not Sideshow in Wild Party and Lachus. A wild party. That's a little harder, but that could be fun one day. I'll think about that one for another day. Okay, moving on onto the Instagrams. First question is, what is the gayest theater thing you've seen or done? You decide what that means. Jeez. I mean, I guess the gayest thing I've done at the theater was go on dates with men. I saw all the world's stage on a date with an actor who's now on chess, by the way. Not to humble brag, but it's not like we're dating anymore. I took Bub to Once Upon a Mattress, but we weren't dating then. We were trying to slowly become friends. And I don'. Once Upon a Mattress was going to help with that. But yeah, that's pretty gay of me to take men whose, you know, penises I either saw or was about to see. That's pretty gay. Otherwise I would say Titanique, Off Broadway. Gayest thing I've seen every time. And I love it. It leaves everyone wide open and no one takes a whiff of poppers. Next question. Thoughts on the original Mary Lee? We roll along costumes, so. Oh, okay. So this is the 1981 original production that, you know, directed by Hal Prince. And famously this was a costume design where everybody wore sweatshirts that had titles on them. So it was Frank and then I think with Mary, it said best friend and other best friend and Frank Shepard's first wife, second wife, producer, aspiring actress, blah blah blah. And those are very divisive. Not everyone liked those costumes. I would say most people didn't. But I understood the reasoning behind it, especially because audiences were having really trouble following who was who as the story was going backwards. And keep in mind Merrilee was brand spanking new to audiences and so people weren't used to this yet of the going backwards and keeping track of who is who. And there wasn't a lore yet of the characters in the musical theater canon. So I understand the reasoning and I don't think it's a bad idea. But I think with that production, because it was such a young cast, the set design basically was gymnasium with bleachers and there weren't any real sets or costumes to begin with. I mean, there were, but not in a way that Broadway audiences were expecting. I'm sure the sweatshirts added a level of amateur hour to it, which made them even more resentful. Which is a shame because I do think it's. I actually thought it was a solid idea. Of course I didn't see the production, but. But because I get the reasoning behind it, I don't know. Made sense to me. But yeah, I think that they get a bad rep. But also, I guess them being considered such a bad idea is more representative of how misguided the whole production was in general. Alright, next Instagram, have your Tony predictions changed at all since the last episode? And how some of them have Actually, if you listen to me on Drama with Connor and Dylan. Hey, boys. I did say that I was being a little more relenting about Chess's Tony nomination chances, which isn't to say that I think it's a lock for revival or even book. But at the time that I did my first predictions episode on here, I was pretty bullish that Leah may not get nominated. And I think she is. I don't. I'm not entirely sure what I was smoking at the time, but I think she's getting nominated now. I mean, we've got another month to go. We have to see how Beaches fares. We have to see how Titanique lands in the St. James, yada, yada, yada. And Schmincadoon, we don't know how Schmincadoon's gonna fare. But right now, yeah, I think Leah's getting nominated. I think Nick has a harder chance just because leading actor is more crowded and any other things I want to switch up. The last time I spoke about Tony Awards on here. No, I'm confusing with drama again because that was so recent. Yeah. I think Susannah Flood's now a lock for lead actress in a play since Cynthia Nixon and June Squid are deemed featured for Marjorie Prime. Having seen Death of a Salesman, I think that Nathan Lane is probably a lock for a nomination. I don't think he's going to win. From all the word on the street, it's John Lith goes to lose and Lane is very good in Salesman, but I don't think he's, you know, a formidable opponent opposite Lithgow, especially for a fourth Tony. At this point, Metcalf probably will get nominated. I don't see her winning. She's strong in the first act. Her second act's a bit weaker. I think Joe Mantello could get nominated for director. He's doing some real directory stuff with this and then anything else. Having just seen the matinee Angelica Ball, you know, I think that they're still doing some finessing on it. And I'm not going to give a review just yet. I'm going to try to go back. I got a ticket sort of last second to see this matinee. And I wasn't sure if I was going to get press seats for this, so I figured I would go. And then my friends on the production were like, see if he can come back. Because apparently this week, before they freeze the show in a week and right before that happens, they're implementing a lot of changes. Nothing like huge. I'm overhauling the show, but, you know, spacing and some costume changes and things like that, and they're tightening some stuff up and I think they want to address the onstage seating a bit more. That's still something they're tinkering with. So. Yeah, I won't give an opinion on that just yet. But I will say I think that my impression that it was going to be a major presence in the Tony Award conversation remains true. So I will say that. Next question, Top five most impactful theater experiences. Okay, so I'm going to say this is not going to be a case of the best shows I've ever seen so much as the experiences themselves that I. That will live with me forever. Okay, I can do that. Granted, two of them are a little unfair because they were one off performances, but the closing night performance of Grey Gardens, which was actually, I believe, a Sunday matinee, and the closing night performance of Title the Show are two experiences I will never forget. They were wildly enthusiastic audiences, but also incredibly respectful. They weren't making it about them. They cheered when there were moments to cheer. They didn't shout at the stage. The actors were moved, but also giving it their all. And it was just this electric feeling that you almost never get. So, yes, closing performances of Great Gardens title the show. I said this before the revival of the Color Purple the night before the Tony Awards. So this was with Cynthia and Heather. That was a night of theater that was just fire from start to finish. And it's burned in my brain trying to think of a play. The one that always keeps coming to mind for me is Billy Piper in Yerma at the Park Avenue Armory. That was both a production and a performance that I had heard so much about and went in trepidatious. And it just completely met all expectations that I had heard and was the best case example I've seen of a slow cooking production that patiently but consistently reached a boiling point and just blew the lid off of the whole thing for me. And I thought it was just so fantastic. And also on a technical marvel, those scene changes were. I don't know how they did it. The other one will say no. Okay, okay, I'm. I'm cheating. I'm doing two more. I was supposed to just do one. I'm doing two more. Three more. Three more. I take that back. Three more. Pillow Man. The Pillow man on Broadway. I think I saw the. I saw the last week of that run and that completely shifted what I thought of stage plays. And I hold true to that to this day. And we Need a revival pronto. Especially in this day and age. Lighting the piazza and Caroline are changed. The original productions. I've mentioned this before. Those two, seeing them within 12 months of each other in my teenage brain completely shifted how I felt about musical theater and turned me into an esoteric fuck forever. There are other ones. I saw Wicked with the original company the week before it opened, and that's a memory that will always stay with me. But in terms of who I am today, those were the shows that really kind of have stuck with me for reasons big and small. Next question. Broadway breakdown, future plans. We've got plans for the substack that we will implement at some point. You'll all be notified when that happens. Since we're not on the BPN anymore and we're flying solo, we're independent, flying solo, and everything is for free right now because we're sort of still in transition and figuring out some more stuff. Eventually we will be monetized again, which will be great because I would love to have some more of that money so I can, you know, pay for food and see shows and not have to necessarily worry about where it's coming out of my budget. That was one of those things that I remember on a old Q and A, somebody was like, you talk about, you know, thirstily asking for free theater tickets all the time. That's really in poor taste. I was like, I'm not thirstily asking for free theater tickets. I'm a member of press, but I'm not a part of the Broadway League. So it's not a guarantee that I'm going to get press seats. And in order to cover as much of the season as I'd like to and as much as you guys would like me to, I gotta see where I can get in and how I can budget accordingly if I can't. Because, spoiler alert, a lot of the shows I do still have to pay to see, and it's expensive. We're talking 25 to 35 shows a year. So even if I were paying 40 bucks a show, right? That is 1400 dollars a year. That's a lot of corn. So, yeah, future plans, substack monetization. I know that there's some miniseries that were in that we got in the works. We got another backstage pass in the works right now. We're currently chatting with the people who are going to be interviewed with that and figuring out scheduling and whatnot. Next question. Re Broadway breakdown. Planning to add some spicy comments, gossips for special patrons, audience. Maybe that's Something we can do on a Patreon or on Substack. Have a paywall where I can get very spicy with my comments and my gossip. And I can tell you guys all the tea about this revival of Ragtime, about what went down during rehearsals and during tech, because I know that I'm annoyingly vague about it. And I'm annoyingly vague just because I. While I do know a good number of people in this production, either in it or backstage in it. And so it's enough people that I can't imagine any single one of them alone would get in trouble if I spilled tea. It's also just not my tea to put on main. They didn't say that I could, so. And I'm. I. Maybe a paywall is the best place to do that. Right? And then you guys can spread it on your own accord. So, yeah, maybe that would be a fun thing to do. Thanks for the idea. Put a pin in that and send that comment to my producers so they can sign off at it as well. Next question. Are your London trips sponsored? No, they're not. Out of pocket, baby. Out of pocket. Next question. Would you be an Omar if you were offered a role? 1000 fucking percent I'd be any of those roles. Any single one. Be, you know, Mary's husband. Absolutely. I get to be a boss daddy for a little while. An annoying, toxic boss daddy, but a boss daddy nonetheless. Be Mary's teacher 1000%. I can be a pretty boy for a little bit. And a power bottom. So amazing to put myself in somebody else's shoes with that one. Be Mary's husband's assistant. Fantastic. You get to blow Conrad, Rick Amora underneath the desk. There's no acting there. That's just my every Tuesday Mary chaperone. Sure. Who doesn't want to be Louise? You get to wear a burlap sack eight times a week. Or be merry. I'm sure it'd be exhausting, but it'd be cathartic just to be crazy and shout for 75 minutes straight. Who. Sometimes you just need to do it. Yeah. Who wouldn't take a role in O Mary? My God. Next question. Tell us more about your play. When will we be able to see it on stage? Are you planning off Broadway or Broadway? Are you writing anything now? I am working on a musical with my director, Matty DeCarlo. The musical doesn't have a title yet. This is actually where I can mention Todd Amond again. Todd Amond. The reason I mentioned Todd Amond as a musical theater writer. To watch is I wrote a pitch for an idea for a musical and I wrote an 18 page sort of summarization of the plot and where songs might go and how I imagine it looking and sounding and blah, blah, blah. I sent it to Matty and he read it on his flight to Singapore while he was rehearsing the cast of Beetlejuice with Andy Karl. Humble brag for Matty. And he texted me and he said, okay, great, this is our next project. Get to step in. And so for the last eight months, yeah, last eight months, he and I both have been looking at people who are musical theater writers and seeing who could potentially be a fit for us because we. It's a very specific style of score that I hear in my head that Matty has signed off on, which is I pitch it as Carousel meets Come From Away. It's got a romanticized golden age sound to it, but it also has that modern heat and energy and has that percussive element to it. It's not non stop music, but it's sort of that, you know, like, how uncomfortable way. And it's always kind of constantly moving, constantly going, and you have that percussion that. There's a name for that drum. I always forget what it's called, but I feel like it begins with a B, but it's like a tribal drum or something, and it gives this sort of this pulse to the piece. So I wanted that energy mixed with a romanticized golden age sound. Because the show takes place circa 1943 in England, so it's during World War II. And so there's a lot of high stakes, a lot of big emotions, but we also wanted that modern edge because we didn't want it to be treacly. So. And. And Todd Amond was one of the writers that we had found in our searches and we really liked his work. And that's why. That's how I knew that Todd was writing music, because of all that. But that's. That's one of the things that Matty and I are writing. I also started very slow work on a play. It's so early, it's so messy. I. I don't even really want to say more about it. It's probably gonna be bad. Part of the reason I'm writing it is just inspired by my own experience of writing my first play. And also because I wanted to give Chelsea Williams a role that was age appropriate for currently this play. For yours truly. Yes, we have hopes for it to move forward. We've all been very busy, so it's taken. It's been put on the back burner for a little bit, but we're putting it back on the front burner. I have a meeting with Maddie on my birthday. We're getting dinner and talking about it and the musical and all this other stuff and yeah, Off Broadway. Broadway, who wouldn't want either? I think that right now the two paths we're looking at for first step are either a regional production or London. Because with a regional production you can get. The theater has it in their own budget to put on the show. You don't have to raise money. And then London, it's notoriously cheaper to put on a show and there are far more theater spaces. And also Mattie has a million connections in London now thanks to the success of Christmas Carol Goes Wrong and Comedy About Spies. So that's the hope right now. But yeah, we would love for it to go to Broadway and I would like for it to go to Broadway sooner rather than later before I age out of playing myself or the role that is inspired by me. I should say. Yeah, that's where we're at for that. Hope you could see it on stage soon enough. Write to your congressman and tell them that you want to see it. Reach out to Matty DeCarlo, find him on Instagram and tell Matt DiCarlo. Matt, get yours truly up on the stage. Send a screenshot of this message to your agent Skyler and be like Skyler now. Foot on the gas, Skyler. That's. That's the only way you're going to intimidate Skyler, by the way, because Skyler is a very clean cut, mean looking gay. He's not mean, but he just looks mean, you know. You know those gays who like, have all the angular features? In another life, they would be a Nazi youth like Skyler looks like he would be. He'd be the perfect Ernst in Cabaret. And so the only way you can intimidate Skyler is just through sheer flooding of inboxes. Next question. Workout routine I work out via built for the stage. I have the app. They send me my workouts five days a week. I do what they tell me. I will say one thing that I do do that they don't always have in there is I run usually at the end of every one of my workouts. Some of my workouts I'd say three days a week. They tell me to run for 20 to 30 minutes, but I do it for all of them. And I tend to do it for 30 to 40. I like to run and also I eat a decent amount of carbs, so it's good that I run. That's my workout routine. What's the most underrated performance you've seen on Broadway? Speaking of Todd Amond. Todd Amond, girl from the north country. Other ones that I've seen that are super underrated. I wish people, more people were talking about Hannah Cruz in Chess. I think she's doing pretty fantastic work. Ali Bonino in Suffs. I feel like people weren't talking enough about her in that show. Brent Comer and the Outsiders. Just going backwards now. I'm just trying to think about all of them. I mean, all the other sisters in Hills of California. Oh, fucking Alana Arenas in Purpose. The only one not to get nominated. And I'm sorry, but the one who stood out the most for me. Phenomenal. Who else could I say I was? Because I mean, a lot of even ones that weren't necessarily nominated for Tonys have their fan bases. Like when people. I don't think that Grace McLean is under sung in Great Comet. People loved her performance. She just wasn't nominated. I feel like not enough people talk about Amy Spanger in Kiss Me Kate. That was a pretty formative gay performance for me. People also don't talk enough about Marin Mazzie in Kiss Me Kate even though she was nominated. And Danny Burstein in Follies while he was nominated. I just feel like that performance isn't really discussed in the way that it should be. That was really just fantastic acting. And Bernadette Peters in Gypsy. It's a mixed reputation and it shouldn't be. She was absolutely fantastic. Undersung, undersung, all of them. Next question. Which cat and cats are you most like? And why is it Gus the theater cat? I'm not like Gus the theater cat. I wish I was that likable. I wish people cried when I spoke. God, Gus the theater cat wrecks me every single time. That song is just say what you fucking will about Andrew Lloyd Webber. Say what you will about cats. And I've said it all. Gus the theater cat is a beautiful, beautiful song and wrecks me. But that's not who I am. No. Because in no way do I destroy people either with sadness or empathy. People tend to just laugh and move on. So in that respect, I'm probably more like Macavity than anything or Demeter, because I speak the truth and everyone thinks I'm crazy and I look hot in a leotard, right? Demeter's one of the Macavity girls. The one who has sort of tele. Not telekinetic. It's like a sixth sense. She's clairvoyant. Isn't that Demeter? I think so. Next question. Your favorite campy flop musical recording. I personally am torn between Ankles Away and Whopop. I don't know if I have a campy flop musical recording. This is a good question for Rob Schneider because he has a million of those. I mean, obviously Diana, right? It's like that's my go to. It's so camp. It is a flop and it's a banger. Every song is a bop and it's so wrong. It shouldn't be a bop that way. I. Yeah, that's. That's probably it. That's. That's the big one. I know a lot of people think of Big the Musical as camp and sure there is some craziness to that one as well, but I don't know. I love it unapologetically. I'll always love it. Next question. Will we ever see Hank H A N K e in another musical or play? I loved his red carpet gigs back in the day and he is now a professional host slash auctioneer for galas. I love his humor. I don't know who that is. Do you mean Christopher J. Hank? Is that who we're talking about? Is this a misspelling? The question is spelled as H A N K E. Is that who we're talking about? Christopher J. Hank, Someone who had red carpet gigs back in the day and is now a professional. Professional host and auctioneer for galas and used to do musicals or plays and has humor. I don't know who this is. I'm going to go ahead and say no. If the work right now is in hosting and auctioneering, I imagine they're making decent money at that and they're good. So I'm going to say no. Next question. Which spring Broadway show are you most excited about? It was Jellicoe Ball and then I saw it. So I can't really be excited about it anymore because I saw it. I mean, there's a month left of spring shows and most of them are starting performances soon. I'm excited for Rocky Horror. I am so fascinated by what that might be and I think it's a wild card. It could be really fantastic. It could kind of be a mess. And that's. I like that high stakesness of it all. Next question. Have you heard any rumors of shows coming to Broadway this summer? Fall? We kind of brought that up already. Nothing really for the summer. I know that there's. There's been some talk about comedy, about spies, but I don't know if that was this summer or next summer. And it also may not be true. Fall we all know about Much Ado About Nothing. Dreamgirls, I understand, is supposed to come in the winter, like November, December, TBD on that. Paddington in the spring. Yeah. Nothing else has really been said for the fall. I think a lot of shows are kind of waiting to see what's going to kick the bucket by Labor Day. My hot take is I think we're going to have a similarly heavy second half of season next year because a lot of shows just aren't closing yet. A lot of shows are doing pretty decently, and those that are semi struggling sort of pull through to get to their good weeks and then they go on with their bad weeks. I think there's some shows that are on their way out, like, you know, and Juliet. I think 6 is on its way out. And, you know, you hate to see people lose work, but those theaters will open up and bring new work to new shows. So, yeah, not really a lot being talked about for the fall or summer, more for the spring. More for the spring. But it's also kind of a wait around and see kind of situation. Next question. Lol. The first two suggestion suggested questions were, are you single right now and what you doing later? This app is not helping you beat the allegations. The allegations? What allegations? The allegations that I'm single. The allegations that I'm, you know, horny all the time. I don't know. What. I don't. I don't know because I am single and I'm horny like a tenth of the time. I used to be a lot hornier, but I also used to be a lot younger, and I used to have a lot less trauma. And it's surprising. Some people take their trauma and they channel it into sex. Like half of the characters in Wild Party. And some people are like me. They channel their trauma and they turn it into a play and they keep going on with their podcast and they keep reading all the mean comments about them on the Internet. I say all the mean comments. I get like, one every four months. And they're always fun to read. Okay, so, yeah, single. Yes, I am. Next question. We know you love Judy Kuhn. I sure do, babe. What is your favorite of her roles? Well, okay, so the best role she's ever had is Amalia, and she loves me. I think that's one of the greatest leading lady roles in a musical. Definitely top five For Sopranos. I think her best work has been in Fun Home with a follow up of Baker's Wife. Just in terms of recently of the last like 20ish years, she's. She was so good in Baker's Wife. She was funny in Baker's Wife. She's also. She's also okay. Oh, God. This isn't the real answer. Amalia, again, I maintain. I think Amalia is the best role she's ever had. I think the most surprising she's ever been has been. Is Fosca. She's also a funny Fosca. She's a cunty Fosca. And that's great. Oh, God, I want more bitchy Foscas. I want more just like absolute Poison. And that was her. Ah, great. I love her. I love her so much. Next up, what are you. What are, in your opinion, the best costume design for a Broadway musical? Florence Klotz's designs for Follies. Look em up. Every single one of them is extraordinary. I would say her designs for A Little Night Music are also fantastic. Truly beautiful. But Follies is absolutely next level. I think that the costumes for Phantom of the Opera are also extraordinary, but again, Follies is above them. I have a soft spot for Greg Barnes designs for Sideshow. I have a soft spot for William Ivey Long's for both Crazy for your and for Guys and Dolls in 1992. I know he's canceled Guys, but those designs are those designs. Yeah. Yeah. I haven't had a costume design in a musical that I've been obsessed with for a very long time. Mm. Florence Klotz and Follies. Next, please. Spill everything you know about the original production of the Wild Party and Mandy's antics. You can look him up. Michael Riedel wrote about it it in his column for the New York Post back in. In 2000, and it's pretty on point. There are things that I, as I understand it, Riedel didn't print that are that, you know, happened backstage. But the bottom line is that Mandy is a manic person in general. He's or was. I don't know what he's like now, but at the time he was very manic, very much a diva. There are horror stories about him in Secret Garden as well. Although I don't think he was violent. I think he was just a dick. And then in Wild Party, he just crossed the line because that show makes you go to such a gross place of yourself and Burrs is the grossest of the gross. And George C. Wolfe is a director who is not satisfied with surface level acting. And so I just, I, as I understand it, Mandy, all of it kind of got to him. And so he really kind of went over the line with a lot of people to the point that Toni Collette reported him to Equity. He would change staging in the middle of performances. He would spit in people's faces. He would lick the back of their neck. He. Like, he did. You can see in, like, press clips. There's. They're. They're doing Gin Wilde for the press, and he tongues Jane Summerhays in front of everybody. And I mean, I don't know if this was planned or not, but it doesn't look planned. And she rolls with it because she's a professional. But, like, yeah, I don't. You don't know necessarily what the ground rules were for improvisation with people's boundaries in that show, but if ever there was a show that needed an intimacy coordinator, it was that one. So it was stuff like that. He would terrorize on stage. He would try to get under people's skins, and it was part of the character. It helped with the whole vibe of the show, but also it fucked with people. Everyone has a different mentality about it now, I'm sure. But, you know, like, Toni Collette famously wouldn't come back to Broadway for a long time, but now she talks about Wild Party with such praise. And she's like, I love Broadway. I would love to come back. Various musicals I tried to get in and it didn't happen for one reason or another. And it's like, Tony, you didn't want to do it. If you wanted to be in a musical on Broadway, it would have happened by now. But hopefully, now that her. Her memories are fonder, she'll actually do it this time. But, yeah, you can look it up. Look up Manny Patinkin, Wild Party. Like Michael Riedel. That's one report and there are plenty of it on online. I'm not the keeper of the keys. It's everywhere. Next question. What's a flop from yesteryear that you think if produced right now, would be a Merrily Chess esque hit? That's a little unfair because Merrily and Chess have the benefit of decades of a fandom with the score, so that helps. Both shows have also have been rewritten over the years by their creators and then, you know, outside collaborators as well. So there's no flop show that has a score with the fan base of Merrily, let alone Chess. But, I mean, I've said this before the show that I think is good, especially now in its. In its licensed version that I think actually is incredibly relevant is Smile. And I think Smile should be done again. But. Yeah, that's my. That's my lame answer, but it's the truth. What is the most artistically successful musical currently playing on Broadway? Not best, but the one that comes closest to achieving its mission? Oh, I'm not gonna say Hamilton or Book of Mormon, because I haven't seen either of those shows in over 10 years, and I don't know how they're holding up right now. At the time that I saw them, it felt like they both pretty much hit the bullseye on what it was they were trying to achieve of shows, let's say, like, from 2018 to today of what's currently playing, I would say. May. I was gonna say maybe happy ending, but I think maybe happy ending. It doesn't drop the ball, but it starts to lose steam in the last 20 minutes. But before then, it gets it pretty on point. And we said musical, right? Yeah. Most artistically successful musical currently playing on Broadway. I mean, MJ is created to be a shrine to Michael Jackson, and it does that. Anything else that I can thank for? You know, I'll say. I will say just in time because I don't think that that show intends to be a super insightful look on Bobby Darin. It actually goes harder on him than most bio jukebox musicals do on their main subject. So that's nice. And it is a very fun time and an absolute star vehicle for Jonathan Groff. And that is what it was designed to do and it does it very well. So, yeah, I would. I'll say just in time of the 2018 to present day musicals. Next question. Is there a musical you've previously not lived for that you've come around on recently defined recently? Because over the last, like, two years. No, but Passion. I really disliked passion in high school. Part of it was it has a legacy in my family of those who had seen the original production. Hating it. I didn't watch the original Broadway recording for a very long time. I think I watched it like senior year of high school or freshman year of college. I think Ali Gordon showed it to me and I just. I could not get into it. And only in the last four years, I would say, have I really come onto it. I did. We did a deep dive on it in the Sondheim series with my friend Noor, and I came to like it a lot more with him. We. We both enjoyed it more than we expected to. But I would also say in the last four years, with experiences that I've had with people and with love and. And emotions, like, I understand a lot more of the vibes of that show and it's not in my top Sondheim, but I have a lot more love and respect for it than I used to. And again, it's not super recent, but I would say the last four years is relatively recent, considering that we're talking like 16 years before that. I did not like it. Next question. Alternate universe where two other Broadway composers share the same birthday, not Sondheim and Android Webber. Who would you want those two composers to be to do your alternate universe birthday throuple? Oh, so like, if I were doing a. Another cabaret for a birthday threesome and it's not Sondheim that Weber. It would need to be a similar vibe, though, of two composers who have both have wide catalogs and also are very different from each other. Maybe, like, Maybe John Kander. So I feel like Janine Tesori and Richard Rogers or John Kander and like Dave Malloy. It would need to be that. It would need to be really wildly different vibes, but also a wide catalog and really some really awesome music in there and a long legacy. So I'm going to. I'll say Tesori and Richard Rogers for now, with a. With a backup being Kander and Malloy. Next question. What advice would you give to young writers, especially young musical theater writers? Oh, no, I don't know if I can really give you advice in terms of. Especially in terms of getting your stuff seen. I really. I'm walking around blind here, guys. I. I've done all that I've known how to do, and I've been asking for help in terms of people and places to submit, get my material for. I. I have such a lack of knowledge of festivals and workshop applications and grants and things like that, because that's never been the world I've had to learn about. So I'm learning about it currently, and it's. There's a lot and. And not all of them are created equal. And I don't know necessarily what makes for a good application for any of them. I mean, obviously, first things first is write. If you want to be a writer, then write. Second thing is, see as much as you can absorb everything. And I don't just mean the things that you like. I mean everything. If you want to be a musical theater writer, watch movies, watch TV shows, go see a ballet, go see an opera. You don't know where inspiration might strike. You don't know what lessons you might learn. I would argue that there are movies right now that are better educations for how to write a multifaceted character than musicals right now. And if you want to write an antihero, watch Mad Men, watch Breaking Bad, watch the Sopranos and watch those main characters and see how you correctly write an anti hero. Same thing. But also again, musical theater writers listen to a bunch of different scores. Learn. I would say with musical theater, you want to learn the fundamentals of, of what builds the house that musical theater lives in. First, you're not going to reinvent the wheel, and you should also know how the wheel is built. So do that first and then make your way towards writing musicals. Next question. What's your workout regimen? I already said it. Build for the stage and I run. Next question. Which of this year's Oscar nominated films would be the best material for a Broadway adaptation? Sinners. Sinners is basically a musical already. And unlike something like La La Land, which is a love letter to the medium of film and the history of film, Sinners uses its love of film to tell its story, but it is not an ode to film itself. And I think you can absolutely readapt that story and that material and expand that score and add more songs and make it and use all of that breadth of knowledge of theater and bring it to that. Like Ryan Coogler, for me, in a lot of ways is similar to George C. Wolf in that he has this immense knowledge for the medium that he works in, which is film. He also has an immense knowledge of black history and black American history, as does George C. Wolfe. And he's not afraid to get raunchy. He's not afraid to get weird and wild. But he also puts a lot of care and intelligence and craft into his stuff. And. And I don't know who we have right now who's a George C. Wolf that's willing to go there, but if we have somebody have them adapt Sinners into stage. The other one I would say would maybe be Hamnet. Hamnet has a lot of things that work well for a stage show. Half of it takes place in a theater. Half of it is about the creative process. Half of it is also about loss and trauma and grieving and acceptance. And there are so many silences and things unsaid in Hamnet that I think music and song could fill wonderful spaces for so those two. Next up, Matt, you have the best Broadway gossip. Why, thank you so much. What books, Docs or other resources do you recommend for Broadway lovers who also love backstage lore? Happy birthday. Thanks for what you do. Thank you very much. Bookstocks, other resources. Okay, books. First up, everything was possible. Ted Chapin's book on the making of Follies. So much amazing backstage tea. There's also stuff that becomes important for later down the road. There's a whole thing with Hal Prince and no, no Nanette because no, no Nanette was the same season as Company. And there's a lot of discourse about whether the Tony Awards were going to consider it an original musical or not. And Hal Prince lobbied for it not to be. And, and that starts becoming the catalyst that eventually gives us the best revival category at the Tony Awards. And then just also all the backstage tea of how the musical gets made, how this musical gets made, the obstacles, the triumphs, how the things that don't work, the things that do work, how these performers are human. And while there's this lore of this production, there's so many fuck ups too, with everyone. So that's a great one this season. William Goldman's the Season is amazing. Amazing Tea. I mean, it's dated, do not get me wrong, it is dated, but so much tea. Garson Kanan's book Smash, which is basically a semi fictional account of his time on Funny Girl. So there's tea in there, but you kind of have to not read between the lines. You kind of just have to decipher. It's like a nom de plume. You have to. You have to decode the names and figure out who is who in it. Same thing with Valley of the Dolls, but that's a story for another day. Razzle dazzle. Michael Riedel's razzle dazzle. You have to take it with a grain of salt. I would say it's 80% of it is true. But still, of a book like that, 80% is a very large percentage. And the other 20% isn't a flat out lie, it's just massaging. But that's a good one for tea and gossip. One singular sensation is another one. It's the biography on Michael Bennett. It's the first biography on Michael Bennett and it's a nasty piece of work. And I would say that one is like 65% true. But again of what's true, it's pretty salacious. You can also look up Michael Riedel's columns back in the day. I'm pretty sure they're all cataloged. Again, not all of them are accurate. You always want to take With a grain of salt. But there is gossip to be had there. And then the golden age. There's no real documentary about Broadway gossip, but there is the documentary Show Business, which is about the 2003, 2004 Broadway season. So it covers Avenue Q, Wicked, Taboo, Caroline, or Change. Incorporates a lot of other small things, and you see some fun shit go down, and I like that a lot. One of my favorite bitchy moments is the Avenue Q. People are in their limo on the way to the Tony Awards, and John Tartaglia is nominated for leading actor in a musical. And I think it's. I think it's Jeff Marx, right? Is that his name? It's Robert Lopez. Jeff Whitty. And I think, yeah, Jeff Marx. He's in the limo with Tartaglia and he's like, okay, I want to see your losing faces for the winners. And he's like, first up, Hugh Jackman. The winner is Hugh Jackman and the Boy from Oz. And it's John Tartaglia going like the. Oh, he deserves it. It's great. John Tartaglia in Avenue Q. And he's like, oh, my God, it's me. I had no idea. And the winner is Alfred Mileena and Fiddler on the Roof. And Tartaglia gives a. Wait, really? Look. And it's just. It's such a bitchy moment, and it's. But it's true. Like, Melina was not considered a real candidate because that Fiddler was not super beloved. The golden age isn't necessarily tea. It's all stuff from, you know, 80 to 90 years ago. But it's just great insight and such passion, and people need to know more about their history when it comes to theater. Makes you better. Next, what are your thoughts on Ariana Grande's casting in Sunday in the park with George? I'm for it. I think she's proven herself to be quite the actress. I think my only concern is I feel like it's a low role for her, singing wise. And her voice has gotten a lot lighter since Wicked. You listen to all of her pop stuff now, and she's definitely singing a much lighter tone. Healthy and beautiful, but light. And so I'm wondering what the sound's gonna be for Sunday. But she's such a theater girly, and she's doing it with Jonathan Bailey and Marianne Elliott's directing it. And while Marianne I don't think is a foolproof director, she is a dynamic director and one who. I'm always eager to see what she comes up with, even if I don't always love it. I'm always going to see what the next thing is. So yeah, I'm excited. Why shouldn't I be excited? I think Ariana Grande has done enough good work for us to at least give her the benefit of the doubt if we have any, any doubts at all. Next question. Fuck, Marry, Kill Girl in the bubble. No place like home. Something bad. Can I kill all of them? Ugh, okay. If I have to, I'll marry something bad. Because it's short and has fine enough lyrics. If I'm marrying. Sorry. If I'm fucking anything, I guess I'm gonna fuck Girl in the bubble. Closest thing that we got to an Oscar nomination for Wicked for Good. I'm almost positive. And Kill, Killing. No Place like Home. It's an absolute dud. Next one. Oh, this is. Here we go. It's a long one. Hi Matt, longtime listener and I always comment on Spotify. Thanks for answering by the way. You actually inspired me to start my own review little gig and now I review the productions that I'm able to see here in Brazil. In parentheses come to Brazil. I'm a nerd about musical theater like you and I'm always watching online and as you can see, like you, I talk and write a lot so I don't know what you're talking about. So I'm always searching more about this business we call show so I can have in depth review so I can have an in depth review and a bigger cultural scope to get my opinions from all this to ask lol. Do you have any recommendations in books that helped form your critical thinking about musical theater and that helped slash helps you to have a more in depth analysis about the art that you are seeing on stage. Thank you. If you read all of this lol and come to Brazil, I would love to chat with you. I yeah, seeing things in general as much as you can helps because when I was little I loved everything. Everything was the best thing I'd ever seen because at that point it was. I hadn't seen that much. The first show to whelm me, to quote 10 Things I Hate about yout, the first Broadway show to whelm me with Spamala, I was obsessed with Sarah Ramirez and Christian Borrell. But the rest of the show I thought was just sort of fine. And it didn't help that I had come right off of Piazza the Neck. The first show that I recall disliking, I believe was Crybaby. Don't quote me on that. But I'm pretty sure maybe Young Frankenstein and that. And that was pivotal in terms of my critical analysis, because then became like, why is that the case? Going to school for musical theater and studying acting and singing helped me in terms of watching other performers of what they do and how they do it and what they're trying to go for. So that was that in terms of the actual craft of making shows and whatnot. I mean, watching interviews with Hal Prince and Stephen Sondheim and Susan Stroman and Jeanine Tesori and Tony Kushner and George C. Wolfe and learning how their brains work and what goes into making a show, that all helped, for sure. Broadway, the Golden Age. To hear these legends talk about the legends that made them legends, and watching all these Tony performances, you know, watching Barbara Harris do the Apple Tree and watching Donna McKechnie break her neck doing Promises, Promises, it's sort of, you go, to quote Elaine Stritch, that's coffee. That's when you go, oh, fuck, that's coffee. And we have coffee today. But not nearly as much as people would have you believe. The two books that actually really helped me, in terms of how I think about this is the Season by William Goldman. And he's not right all the time, but he takes, in his opinion, an objective, analytical look at all of these different shows and the whole season. Not just the writing itself, but the business and the society and the community and all this stuff and the world at large. And that helped me kind of think about where shows fit and where they're coming from and what they go into. And then Frank Rich, Frank Rich's collection of reviews, Hot Seat, is the most. It's the most important literature you can have if you want to be a theater critic. Because he is, I guess I'll say, in my opinion, but I truly just think it's objectively so. I think he's the best theater critic we've had in the modern age. And I'm talking about, like, the last 120 years. Because theater criticism back in the Golden Age wasn't that in depth. Brooks Atkinson, Walter Carl of them. Like, they had. They had very little time to write their reviews. And basically it was just sort of like, I liked it or I didn't like it. And you would highlight what worked and what didn't work, and you would sometimes be inspired to write really creative pans or really creative raves, but you weren't. A lot of these reviews aren't necessarily delving deep into what makes these shows special or makes these shows tick. You read the reviews of West Side story. And they're positive reviews, but they also, like, even with their positivity, they're not really able to break down what it is that they're positive about and why in a fulfilling way. Rich, Frank Rich really did that. And if he didn't like a show, he really talked about what it was, that didn't work for him. And he also could be a catty bitch like the rest of them, considering he's a straight man. His review for Moose Murders should have won a Pulitzer, as far as I'm concerned. And he also was right most of the time. Very rarely was he wrong. And when he was wrong, he wasn't disgustingly wrong. It was more sort of, oh, you were a little less positive on this than you should have been. And I would have hoped that history proves you wrong on that. He famously was sort of mixed on into the woods, and I think that he should be a little more up on it, especially with that original company and that original production. But even the shows that he's mixed on that have had huge legacies. He mentions in his reviews what it is that's going to make those shows popular, what's gonna make them resonate, and he's not wrong about it. His opening lines, I think with Cats is like, cats is gonna run for a long time. And it's not because it's the greatest musical ever. It's because it does what the earth is supposed to do. It takes you to another world, which it did. And Phantom, he says, you can have a bad time at Phantom, but you'd have to work at it. And it's true, I think, that if you give yourself over to Hell Prince's staging of Phantom, you can have a very pleasant 2 hours and 20 minutes. You can also have a bad time. It's not hard, but you have to work at it. Yeah. So just short story, Hot Seat. Get your hands on a copy of Hot Seat and read as many of his reviews as you can. His reviews of George C. Wolf's Shit is so good. His reviews of Angels in America and Jelly's Last Jam. He really understood his review of the Guys and Dolls revival, his review of Carousel in London, because he was no longer the theater critic when it came to Broadway. And he also has little blurbs in some of the reviews of what the response was to the review, if he changed his mind later on, blah, blah, blah. And he does these sort of, like, seasons. In summary, after every theater season, he talks about what he thought was good, what wasn't. And he also is, I think, very self aware of where people perceived his powers to be and how he tried to debunk that myth. So yeah, Frank Rich, he was that bitch. I wish he was still our theater critic today. Final one. How are we feeling about the sudden death of the Golden Girls Deep Dive podcast? Aw, Patty. Not Patty. Patty. He doesn't like to be called Patty. Patrick. Hi, Patrick. Patrick and Steve Graham, cracker crust and papa cheesecake. You know, Patrick's a busy bitch and Jen's a busy bitch and I'm sad for the content that I won't be getting. I hope nobody heard that phone ring. But the phone is ringing where I am. I'm not jealous of the lack of competition now, but Patrick's making more content. He's got. Sorry, I'm trying to. I gotta wait out this phone call. Hold on a second. Let me see if I can put down the. Nevermind. They hung up. Thank God they understood I was recording. If none of this catches on the microphone, then that's really awkward. But whatever the. Yeah, I love Patrick. I love that podcast. I think they have such a great rhythm with each other and a love for each other. But Patrick still has his true crime obsessed podcast as Jillian Pensavoli that's super popular and, and still going. And I know he's got some projects coming up that I'm excited for you all to hear about. So I'm sad, but hopefully they can pick back up the torch and if not, I don't know, maybe they could let me take over. I could do a deep dive. In fact, there's. I am currently talking with a friend of the pod to do a deep dive series, like a Deep Dive podcast series. So stay tuned. It may not happen because we're both. She's very busy. I'm pretty busy. It's not Podmother. Don't get your hopes up. She. That's definitely not happening. Podmother has no time for me. She's fucking writer now. But yeah, no, I'm. I'm. I'm sad. I love it. I love them. All right, guys, that's it. Thank you so much for all of your questions. This has been absolutely fantastic. Happy birthday to me, I suppose. Stay tuned. We've got more stuff coming up soon. We've got a deep dive coming up soon with Podmother Ali Gordon on all that jazz. I'm in the middle of editing that now. We've got Tony Awards coverage coming up. We've got more reviews coming down the pike and we're negotiating. We're scheduling recordings for the next Backstage Pass series. It's not Marcel on the Train. It's something else, something from the past, as well as coordinating backstage passes for just Tony coverage in general. And that's it. I'm trying to think who we should close out with today. Why don't we close out with. I know Kunzy was mentioned, but. Oh, oh, sorry, I missed one. Here was one that somebody asked that I. That I missed. And this is actually a perfect person to close this out with. The last question is, why do you think Julia Murney never became a big star? Her voice is pristine. Sometimes that just fucking happens. You know, Julia Murney is a great actress. She has an amazing voice. She's a good person, good work ethic. I have never met her, but I've only heard lovely things about her. Sometimes that just doesn't happen. Sometimes you are a working actor and sometimes you get that big break. She never really got the role that allowed her to break through. Queenie and the Wild Party didn't really do that for her. The cast album took off, but only after the fact, and it only really took off in theater circles. It didn't become a rental sized hit. And yeah, Adina got to break out further because of Wicked afterwards. And Tay got more TV work. And Brian d' Arcy James is a name, but he's not a big star. He's not leading $30 million musicals on his name alone. He's Shrek and Shrek, which is ip and he's doing smaller musicals like Days of Wine and Roses with a co star like Kelli o'. Hara. So Julia Murney. Yeah, it's just, you know, it's just one of those damn things. Sometimes it just doesn't. It doesn't click that way. But we all can do our part and. And keep giving her work because she's good and she deserves more work. She also has one of my favorite small bits on on 30 Rock. She plays Jenna's half sister Courtney. I swear to God, Courtney, I'll rip your wig off. No, honey, Courtney's dead. It's. God, I fucking love it. I love that line. That's not her. That's the actress playing Chantel Chantel. Sorry, playing Vontel. Ah, I messed it up again. Von Tella. Von Tella is the Wendy Williams, like Tyra Banks, like host that Jenna Maroney is going on. And Julia Moroney plays Jane Grkowski's half sister Courtney. And Jane Graskowski says after the third time, Jane Krakowski goes, I swear to God, Courtney, I'LL rip your wig off. And Vontella goes, no, honey, Courtney's dead. It's great. If nothing else, Julia Murnie lives on an infamy as Queenie and does Courtney. All right, that's it. So we're going to close out with Julia Murney. Thank you so much for listening, guys. Make sure to give us a nice 5 star review if you haven't done so lately or just, you know, a nice five star rating. Or on Spotify, if you so choose. You can follow me on Instagram at my complic. Usual spelling. You can join the Discord or the substack and big news. Ooh, I didn't say this at the top. I should have said this. Big News. We got two more live shows coming up. May 3rd. Reviewing R E V U E-ING the 2025, 2026 season, May 3rd at Green Room 42. And on June 1st, the slightly early Tony Awards show All things Tony Awards, both at Green Room 42. I'll put links in the description box for this episode so you can get tickets if you haven't done it yet. I know. I put links up on the Discord channel. I'm going to share the artwork and links on social media on Friday. But you guys get a nice immediate hookup to that if you, if you're around for it or if you want to do the live stream. You can do the live stream. All right, that's it. I'm gonna go. Thank you so much for listening. Thank you for your questions. Take it away, Julia. Bye. Just downright irritating. How many men have I been through? That rotten bottom feeding zoo they keep repeating Leading me too out of the blue out of the blue your choices now are growing Today is what you make and how you make it One step is yours to take.