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Hey, everybody, it's Matt, your least famous and most opinionated Broadway podcast host. And before we get into the meat of our episode today, which is Come From Away with Lauren Nicole Chapman, I just wanted to give you guys a little bit of intel. First of all, the microphones that I have been using for in person episodes have started to fade very in and out, and I didn't notice it until after I recorded with Lauren and then again with Alex Weisman for the first Angels in America episode. So I've done my best to alter the audio a bit. It's not too bad. It's not unlistenable. It's more that Lauren sounds very crisp and clear and at the forefront. And for some reason I sound like I'm just not miked and I am. So I don't know what's going on there. So I've tried to tweak the audio so that way she and I are as level as possible. Again, it's not too bad, but just letting you know, I'm in the process of getting new microphones so I don't have to deal with this anymore. So hold steady, it's coming. Second thing, I am lucky enough to have a few friends who have been in Come From Away, either on Broadway or on the national tour, and I asked them for some intel about the show, some fun facts or easter eggs or whatever, and they followed through. They came in with some fun facts on the show, some of which I did not know, but. But in true actor fashion, they didn't get back to me on it until after I had recorded the episode. So I couldn't include any of that information when Lauren and I recorded. So I figured I would share some of that information with you now and then we would get into the episode. First thing. Lauren and I debate for a minute about how long the show is. For a second, she thinks it's 90 minutes. I wasn't quite sure it is 100 minutes. It's 100 minutes exactly. And that was something that was very important to the team, to kind of make it as tight as possible, as concise as possible, and keep it always moving. One of the reasons why the show tends to clock in at exactly that time every time it's not on a click track, meaning that it's not like the band is listening to a specific click track to keep the pacing going. But all of the dialogue in Come From Away is timed to the music, so there's nothing really any opportunities to indulge in scene work, to really milk lines or anything like that. So everything moves at a very specific pace the entire time. Also, the show only has three official applause breaks at the insistence of director Christopher Ashley. One is after the opening number, welcome to the Rock. The other is after the screech in and then the other is at the finale. So because there are aren't a lot of opportunities for applause, the show is not reliant on audience response to fluctuate the length of the show. Obviously there are times when I'm sure very rambunctious audiences burst into applause after certain moments. But for the most part, the show has just those three locked in. Applause breaks Some fun facts that I did not know. The design of the show is by Barry Beowulf Borret, who has done 25th annual Putnam County Spelling Bee. He did act one, Scots Roar Boys. Apparently Beowulf has a tendency in his designs to include these little Easter eggs with elephants. And there's always some sort of trinket or a reference to an elephant in all of his designs. This is something that I had absolutely no idea about. But so for come from Away, supposedly in one of the higher trees, in one of the higher branches, he had some sort of elephant ornament in there, the trees as well. And a lot of you probably know this, the trees in the set design had come from away, which were, I think birch trees, as the design was those birch trees and then this bare turntable with chairs on it. But the birch trees on Broadway were real trees. They were made of fiberglass for the tour. But so on Broadway they were real. And oftentimes they would sprout new branches that they would then have to cut down. Just sort of keep everything as is for the stage production. Something else that I did not know about the trees was that at the backstage left of the design, so towards the back of the stage to the left, there were two trees that were shorter than the rest of the trees in the set design. And they were sort of dead looking and haggard, sort of looked almost split open. And these trees were a tribute to to the Twin Towers that fell on September 11th. And this is something that I did not know and is very moving to me. Something about the intent of the production. And this is something that Lauren and I get to when we talk about direction because a lot of people think about what wins director of a musical or director of a play is staging. And there's a lot of really intricate staging in comfort way. And I'll get to that in a second. But also it's about tone, it's about Making sure cast is on the same page. It's getting everyone involved in the production on the same page and making sure that everything flows smoothly and is successful and come from away. I mean, I think that a lot of the show is written quite humorously, which sort of keeps you. It doesn't. It removes your guard by having humor to it. When you hear what sort of the premise of the musical is, you go, oh, God, this is going to be schmaltzy. And the show leans into a lot of dry humor to kind of take you off your guard that way. But there is some schmaltz in the writing. It can get a little sentimental. And so Ashley, as the director told the cast and would tell anyone who came into the cast or went on tour or whatever, that they were not to play sentiment. They were not to play deep, sad emotions. It wasn't about pain. It wasn't about loss. It was the majority of the characters in this show. There's so much to do and not a lot of time to do it. So it's all about getting a job done. So everyone was playing their roles. And on top of that, by the way, playing all these multiple roles, it wasn't about, like, Peter and the Starcatcher, where, oh, now I'm this person and I have a new voice and I have a new attitude. The actors were instructed to mostly keep to their natural selves with slight tweaks here and there, but letting the simple shift of a new coat or a new hat make them the new character that they are less of. You know, doing this giant transformation of their voice and body. But on top of that, playing all of these characters in Gander and the visitors in Gander, it was just about getting to the finish line. It was just about getting it done. And by doing so, it cut against any sentiment that's in the material and allowed the audience to feel more emotion because the cast was not telling them how to feel. The cast was just playing it straight and playing it simple and not necessarily tough, but not indulgently emotional. And thus that allowed sort of the magic trick of the show to weave together that little drier exterior with the mushy heart of the show. The production also is very intricate, not just with staging, but with costumes. A character might have a coat that has a pocket on the inside, and inside that pocket is a prop that they have to take out and give to another character so they can become a new character so they can start a new scene. And so everything was very intertwined. And if you messed up. It didn't just mess up your stuff, it messed up somebody else's stuff. So you really had to be on top of your shit. When you were in Come From Away, a couple of people who had been in the show informed me it actually is a surprisingly difficult sing Come From Away. And you know, it's not Heathers or Wicked. You're not screaming at the top of your lungs the entire time, but it is non stop for 100 minutes. You are always on the move and when you are singing like there are times when it does get up there. But it's also that there was a very specific sound that the team was going for. And that's not unusual. A lot of musicals, the musical team will have a very specific sound they want all the time. I know that with the original Spring Awakening back in 06 07, the music team was insistent that there be as little vibrato as possible from the cast. That people do as much straight tone as they can. So for confirm way there was very specific sound they wanted. There were times when they wanted no vibrato. Vibrato could happen here, blah, blah, blah. So you often had to kind of work your voice into the pocket that the team wanted. And that could be tricky if your voice didn't naturally sit or sound a certain kind of way. Last thing. Oh, this is just a fun one. The character of Bonnie, the woman who takes care of all of the animals. That track has the most stage movement of any track in the show, meaning chair movement and just getting furniture in different places. And the team didn't realize that this was the case until they opened the show in London. And actress who was doing the Bonnie track was like, why am I moving chairs more than anybody else? And they realized because as they were developing the show and getting it on its feet in La jolla and then D.C. and in Canada, the actress who played Bonnie, Petriona Bromley, was such a team player and very eager to just sort of pick up the slack if there was a moment that needed pick me ups. And oftentimes whenever they're like, okay, so now these two chairs need to go from stage left to stage right. How are we going to do that? Petrina was like, o move it. And it just was that all the time. And they just didn't think about it while they were doing it because you're in the middle of the woods while you're making the thing. And so once it was set and then once they were putting it on new bodies, that was in London. That's when they were like, oh, I guess the Bonnie track is the one that moves the chairs the most because Petrina just always was willing to do it. So that's just a fun thing. If you ever watch the Apple movie of Come From Away, just keep track of all the times that Bonnie's the one moving chairs, because it's her more often than it's not. And that's it. Yeah, I'll stop talking now so you guys can hear the rest of the episode with Ms. Laura Nicole Chapman. Here we go. Let's get into Come From Away now. There's a solemn old tradition for admission or audition to transition from a Come From Away to be a Newfoundlander. The only other way, at any rate, is pass away and pray to fate and wait to reincarnate as a Newfoundlander reign.