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Let's talk about REBECCA the musical in London... | First preview discussion ft Wait in the Wings
00:35:10
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- [00:00]
Mickey Jo
Oh, my God.
- [00:01]
Brendan
Hey, my name is Mickey Jo, and I am a theatre critic, pundit, and content creator here on YouTube. And this time last week, I was at the Charing Cross Theatre in London to see the first preview of the musical. Now, after one of the most controversial cancellations in Broadway history and a planned West End run over a decade ago that was thwarted by the discovery of an ancient underground stream, the arrival of this show in London is so momentous, I had to come on here and talk about it. But despite being hugely intrigued by this show's bizarre history, I'm not actually much of an exper on all things Rebecca. Thankfully, I have a friend who is.
- [00:36]
If you ever encounter bad luck or, like, something doesn't go your way, you just go, rebecca.
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Mickey Jo
I don't know how I'm starting it yet.
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Brendan
This will be the opening.
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Mickey Jo
This is a very. I haven't done proper, like, sit down.
- [00:53]
Brendan
Yeah, me either.
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Mickey Jo
But you actually talk to people.
- [00:55]
Brendan
I do, but it's over. Zoom.
- [00:57]
Mickey Jo
I just talk to myself.
- [00:57]
Brendan
Like, doing this in person with the other person there is like, whoa. I can't mute myself. Oh, my God. Hey. I pretend to be a YouTuber. My name's Brendan. Say, wait the Wings. My name's Brendan. They found me in this wework. Oh, my God. Hey, that just doesn't feel right coming from me. My name's Brendan and I'm with Wait in the Wings.
- [01:21]
Mickey Jo
And you are Wait in the Wings.
- [01:24]
Brendan
I'm with Wait in the Wings. Oh, my God. Hey, my name is Brendan from Wait in the Wings on YouTube, and I am somehow the go to expert with Rebecca the Musical, I guess. Producer Ben Sprecher stood before the cast and crew with a tremor in his voice and a tear in his eye to announce that rehearsals were canceled. What was the true story involving the deceased phantom investor? What the hell is going on? Who sent the foreboding emails that made the angel investor back out? What is the legacy of Rebecca?
- [01:57]
Mickey Jo
Do you want to explain a little bit about. About how you came to this relationship with Rebecca?
- [02:03]
Brendan
The YouTube channel we cover flops. That was really the big push of the start of the channel was covering flops and, like, things that went wrong with productions, not necessarily shining them in a negative light, but in a sense of, like, here's really what went wrong factually. Let's look at that and figure out how we can learn from that and propel the industry forward. One of the things that people kept requesting was Rebecca the Musical. Rebecca the Musical. On pretty much every video, it was Rebecca the Musical. And this was around the same time that I was planning to move out to the east coast. And I was in the airport and I was like, I'll just look up what Rebecca is all about. And as soon as I started reading and it just, it was a rabbit hole that you just fall down. Which are the best kinds of stories. There are fake investors involved. Someone dies on a, on a, on a safari. And then it turns out that that person, like never really ex. And just all these twists and turns and it just got wilder, wilder and wilder. And I was like, wow, I really need to dive into this thing. Going down those rabbit holes. It was all so much about the drama and that, because that's the easy thing to jump on, like the low hanging fruit. But everyone was missing the actual show that was involved, which the score is just absolutely incredible. And so then I started reaching out to people involved with the story. And from there it was just like they were just so open and so willing to talk about it that the more interviews I got, the more I learned. And then after the documentary on Rebecca came out, it was a really great response from everybody who I talked to. And somehow this is unlike any other video I've done. The people that I talk to have actually, like, worked their way into my life. Like Ron Russo, the defense attorney, we have dinner like once a month. And Michael especially, because Michael just with Michael Kunza, the composer with, you know, Dance of the Vampires, and especially Rebecca, it's just been anytime he's tried to come over to Broadway, it's just something always goes wrong. And in that, like, his. His actual work gets overshadowed. And so I think to actually have it like shown really meant a lot. And from there he's just become a really big supporter of the channel, but then also just a big supporter of helping me cover the continued story with it. Because when it came back to Vienna, he was like, come on out, we'll fly you out here. And I would love to have you as a guest to see it. It's wild to see where everything's going, because what started as this search on a phone in an airport has now turned to, oh my God, it's the English version that's been in limbo for 10 plus years is finally coming to the stage. So it's a very abridged version of my connection with Rebecca.
- [04:51]
Mickey Jo
If people are intrigued about some of the details you dropped there about the.
- [04:56]
Brendan
Weirdness of this story, there's even more twists.
- [04:58]
Mickey Jo
There's so much more to it. And you can go and watch the full documentary over on Wait in the Wings. But then cut to this London production gets announced for the Charing Cross Theatre. Was any part of you expecting that to happen?
- [05:12]
Brendan
No, absolutely not. Because we met with Michael in Vienna, and we. I asked him, do you think it's gonna come back to Broadway, or do you, like, do you think it's gonna see the light of day? And he basically said, no. He's working on a piece on Beethoven. Like, a new musical about Beethoven. And so when they announced that it was gonna come to London in the English version, I emailed him, and I'm like, michael, when did this come about? Like, why didn't you tell us? And he knew when we were in Vienna, but he just didn't want to say anything because they were still ironing out the details. No, I didn't think. Because just with the history of the show, I thought it was. No pun intended. Burned. And I thought it would be at least another five years until they do something. But I'm very excited to see that it is finally seeing the light of day.
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Mickey Jo
And how quickly did you book tickets?
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Brendan
Oh, as soon as I read the announcement. We're hitting refresh, and it wasn't going through. Our tickets weren't going through. And I'm like, we're gonna miss it. This isn't gonna happen. We're gonna miss this important moment. But, yeah, as soon as they went on sale and then I had to bully you to come see it, your.
- [06:19]
Mickey Jo
Exact words were, get tickets next to me, fool.
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Brendan
It wasn't that mean?
- [06:23]
Mickey Jo
No, it's in a nice egg. It was like, get text me, fool. It was like the American rap version of Fool. It was like, gangster Fool.
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Brendan
Yeah, that's me. Yeah, that's my next album, Gangster Fool.
- [06:35]
Mickey Jo
But we'd spoken for another video doing not that long before that, the flat video about, like, differences between western Broadway things. And I had said to you, because I don't know if I was planning my New York trip already by this point. I think maybe I was, because I knew Bad Cinderella was coming, and that's what brought me over to New York. I think I'd said to you, would you ever come to London? And you said, like, you want to do, like, at some point? And then it's just been Rebecca that's instigated you having to be here.
- [07:03]
Brendan
Rebecca. No, I was joking with Juliana about how Juliana's my fiance. For people who don't know. When the tickets came out and we got the tickets to come to London, I was joking and saying It's a joke, but it's also not. I've only. I've done three international trips, and two of those have been for Rebecca. Like, I can only leave America if it's Rebecca related. At this point.
- [07:39]
Mickey Jo
We'Ll talk a bit more about this production and the differences, because you were at the opening when it was in Vienna, you were at the opening of this huge, grand production. When Rebecca was originally meant to come to London, it was meant to be at the Shaftesbury Theatre, which big West End theater. The Charing Cross is an off West End venue. When you were booking it and reading about it, what were your expectations about what this might be?
- [08:06]
Brendan
Well, it was. Especially when you said, like, just how small the venue was. I originally thought that it would be like, the Shaftesbury, where it is this huge thing. But then looking at the set and seeing how small it is, it's like, ooh, this is gonna be completely different from what we saw in Vienna. It was puzzling. But then it was also very exciting to see, like, to strip away that spectacle and just see if the songs in the story can really stand on their own.
- [08:32]
Mickey Jo
Some of the best things I've seen in London especially have been, like, intimate and off West End fringe productions, and there's a lot of really great work happening at the same time. I do remember saying to you, like, because you'd seen the Vienna production, and I was like, you're not from here. You're not gonna know what this theater is or the kind of shows that they produce. I was like, don't necessarily. This won't be Rebecca with the capital R. This might be Becky.
- [08:55]
Brendan
Yeah. I just want to see, like, a stripped down version of Spider Man. Turn off the dark.
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Mickey Jo
Oh, for sure.
- [09:00]
Brendan
It's just like a guy comes out, act a musician. Yeah. Like, in a Halloween spirit costume of Spider man, and he just sets a chair down and he, like, pulls out a boombox. And a U2 record, I think opens.
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Mickey Jo
With, like, a child. And he's playing with the figures and there's, like, traumatic music underscoring the whole thing.
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Brendan
And then someone comes out with a comic book and is like, it's more than just a story.
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Mickey Jo
I've been saying for years, I want, like, intimate actor, musician, Starlight Express.
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Brendan
Oh, my God.
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Mickey Jo
Just, like, really focus on the depth.
- [09:27]
Brendan
Of these characters, and it's immersive. They stage it at a sonic.
- [09:30]
Mickey Jo
Anyway, at the risk of going slightly off topic, where does your emotional investment with this come from? Have you become, like, a huge fan of this show? And a supporter of its success, or is it because of how close you are to the people involved?
- [09:44]
Brendan
I think it's a little bit of both. I wouldn't keep going to see it if it's, like, I didn't like it is the thing, so. It absolutely is that I really do love the material. Like, it's just a score that you can't really find anymore because of how lavish it is and how grand it is. And then the story, too. I just. I really love that the story arc of AI, the lead character, and a lot of this comes from talking to Michael and hearing his, like, why he wrote the story, which was. He loved the idea of following. This is a theme in all of his works. It's the theme of following a woman who finds independence and is freed and knowing that going into it, and especially with this production in London, which we'll talk about later on, like, just really seeing that underdog story of, like, insecure to full empowerment is just. It's. It's a real great story that I. That I love seeing. But then on the other end of the coin, it is that, like I said earlier, I do know the people and of course, like, I want to see them find success because I really think they deserve it with everything the show has been through.
- [10:54]
Mickey Jo
First time I've noticed this much buzz outside the Charing Cross Theatre, ever.
- [10:57]
Brendan
It's very exciting.
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Mickey Jo
Yeah.
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Brendan
It kind of feels like this is a big show that people have been waiting to see in English. What do I do if it's bad?
- [11:06]
Mickey Jo
So I want to talk briefly about the Charing Cross Theatre. Like I mentioned, this is an off West End London theatre. It's a slightly smaller capacity. I want you to tell people what your first impressions of going and seeing this theatre was. And the thing that struck you about it that you told me, well, we.
- [11:24]
Brendan
Had seen Heather's on Saturday and that was at the other Palace. And so that was pretty much what I expected it to be. Like. Just, is it off Broadway or off West End?
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Mickey Jo
We have a much sort of muddier version of those distinctions, but essentially, yes.
- [11:38]
Brendan
And so that's kind of what I was thinking. What I wasn't expecting was we get off the train and then we just go around the corner and we go down into a tunnel and it's in the station that we just got off the train at, which it was so funny that, you know, Vienna we come and it's this gorgeous, huge theater and there's a red carpet and, like, people are all dressed in tuxedos. The press is there. It's this grand thing. And then a year later, it's like we're outside of this train station theater, and across from it is a Vietnamese restaurant. Like, it's just. It was so. Just such a difference in the venues. But I think just what a great addition to the story. Like, it got this huge revival in Vienna, and then they decided, all right, if we're gonna try to reintroduce it, we can't do that yet. Like, we need to really strip it back and show people, like, the strength of the score and the story. Get rid of those expectations that it's gonna be this huge thing that we can't afford.
- [12:41]
Mickey Jo
I'm glad you mentioned the strength of the material, because in the days since I saw it, people have been reaching out with a lot of curiosity because there's so much mystique around this show. But I think in all of the drama of this narrative, what's gotten lost is that it is really good material that's this huge cult hit.
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Brendan
Yeah.
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Mickey Jo
For a lot of people.
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Brendan
And it's like the songs stick with you. I'll just be doing something, and then I'll just hear Rebecca, which that helps because they sing it, like, four times. So that's how you. That's how you get the earworm. It's the Walt Disney approach of It's a Small World, but with Rebecca, where it just keeps coming back.
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Mickey Jo
That's a ride I'd go on.
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Brendan
Rebecca, the ride. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
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Mickey Jo
Like, you're in a boat, but it's just Danvers screaming at you relentlessly. Maybe she's in the boat as well. I don't know.
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Brendan
It's just a 3D hologram, like the Avatars. But it's just the face that follows you the whole way.
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Mickey Jo
Yeah. And then at some point, flames. But it's never been a bad show. It's been a cursed show. But of all the shows you've talked about on your channel, for some of them, there have been, like, material issues, have been the barriers to their success. And for this one, it never really had the chance for people, for UK audiences and for Broadway audiences to find out if it was a good show.
- [13:54]
Brendan
It's like, there's a reason that it was restaged in Vienna and a reason that they extended to January. It was supposed to end, like, November. When I got off the plane in Vienna and I went into the airport, it was everywhere. It was on the baggage turnstiles. It was on the subway stops. You couldn't go anywhere without Seeing Rebecca because it's just. It's such a huge hit. There's. And it's just. It's something that I never really pieced together. Especially, like, with Michael, having coffee with him and then going to the show that night and, like, seeing him come on stage and it's like the whole place stands up. It's like, oh, yeah, people love this show. And I think Michael says it best where he says, the problem was never the show. The problem was the circumstances surrounding it.
- [14:41]
Mickey Jo
There was a similar kind of euphoric reaction for the first preview in London, progressively as the show was going on, and then really in the second act, and so much at the end, there was a really rapturous response. Did that surprise you?
- [14:55]
Brendan
It really did. Because I'm used to, like, shows where people don't really know what it is like just to have that reaction and in such a small space. No, I wasn't expecting it. I was very afraid that people were going to go, that was it. And then walk out. So, no, it was a happy surprise.
- [15:25]
Mickey Jo
We've talked a lot about this being staged in a very different way. They do some clever things with the set, but this is a small theater to be portraying this story. This story which moves between different locations, which features a pretty heavy casting stage. Smaller than the Vienna ensemble, certainly, but still still a lot of people for the Charing Cross. A lot of what they do, in addition to having these sort of curtains that draw across the front that allow them to do scene changes and this clever set with sort of these. Is it a concertina? Is that what a concertina is? Concertina does that and then that. It's like a book. It's like two books of walls on the side. But in addition to that, what they do to use the full extent of the theater is they have this pseudo immersive element.
- [16:11]
Brendan
Like, what was that? I wasn't expecting that at all. When people started walking through the. Through the aisle ways, and especially with that finale where it's like everyone is just running all around you, which I think. I think it actually worked a little bit better there than it did in Vienna. Like, they were both great in their own ways, but I think it was also that I wasn't expecting it. It's like, oh, my God. And I can't wait to see, because that's the sequence that they're really working on that won't be ready until opening night. So just seeing it with the literal bare bones that we saw it, I can't imagine what it's Gonna be like, I don't know how they get all the smoke out of the theater.
- [16:49]
Mickey Jo
And it starts quite small, that we just have some entrances through the audience, which is not too radical. And there's a lot of stuff in London at the moment that is using. I mean, immersive is this huge buzzword. There are really immersive shows, and then there are shows that are calling themselves immersive because people enter, because people walk down the aisle. Because people walk down the aisle. But it gets progressively more and more. Like, there's more and more activity. There was a moment where a whole scene was being played. I think I had to tap you on the shoulder. I was like, they're that way.
- [17:17]
Brendan
I was like, oh, this is interesting. They're doing it offstage. I can hear them. And no, it was right behind us. I really liked that moment more too, where it's like. It really feels like they're outside of the courthouse before they go in.
- [17:28]
Mickey Jo
If anyone's curious, that's happening on the sort of main horizontal aisle of the theater. So you've got this front stall section and then this back stall section. So if you are sitting in the back stall section, that will all be happening in front of. And if you're in the front stalls, then you can turn around. Yeah. That was, to your knowledge, like a new feature of the show. Like, I've never.
- [17:45]
Brendan
Oh, I loved it. I loved it. Because that's something you just can't. You can't do that in Vienna. It's a huge theater. I'll be interested if it does have another life somewhere, if they're gonna take elements of that and incorporate it, because I think it's a really interesting approach.
- [18:00]
Mickey Jo
And the other thing that's obviously new for this production is this is. For as long as there's been versions of it that have been written, this is the English language premiere.
- [18:10]
Brendan
Well, it's also. It's interesting because it's the first time that it's a new director, too, because pretty much up until this point, it's just. It's been Francesca Zambelo, but now it's Alejandro Bonado. But what's interesting is that they're both people who have opera backgrounds. And so I just thought that was an interesting choice to have those two in there. But I think that was honestly what I was most excited about was it's the first time in 15 plus years that it's seen a new director. Yeah, this is the same. The same Christopher Hampton script that they've been sitting on since 2009, 2010. And so it was just really cool to finally have that see the light of day. It was interesting hearing it in English, too, because there were just so many sections that I missed in Vienna because they had subtitles on the sides. But you hit a point where you're just. Your neck hurts from doing that. And I'd done the documentary enough that I kind of knew what the story was about.
- [19:09]
Mickey Jo
Hello. Or you could cut to this shot, and then people would be like, oh, wow. On the other shots, it looked like they were sitting way further apart.
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Brendan
Forced perspective.
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Mickey Jo
You never would have been able to tell.
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Brendan
There we go.
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Mickey Jo
Now it's a game show.
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Brendan
Game show.
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Mickey Jo
Would you say there are bits of it that hit differently in English versus hearing them in, I guess, German? You heard them in German?
- [19:30]
Brendan
Yeah. No. Well, just a lot of what the servants do, we took it as like they were singing like, oh, we can't wait to have a new Mrs. De Winter here. We can't wait to see what she does. But then you hear it in English, and it's like, oh, they're just burning her left and right. They're like, this lady's gonna be not pretty. She's not gonna be confident. Like, this is our new boss. Oh, this is horrible.
- [19:53]
Mickey Jo
If people are being witheringly harsh with a smile on their face, just an intern will have no idea.
- [19:58]
Brendan
Yeah, well, I mean, when they're smiling and they're, like, dancing with mops and stuff, you're like, oh, it's Fantasia. Like, they're just all walking around and really happy. And then it's like, it was so much worse than I thought.
- [20:10]
Mickey Jo
So earlier this year, when you went to go and see the first preview of Bad Cinderella on Broadway, you were kind enough to chat to me about it and try and unpack that experience. And we ended up in Vogue talking about the glass ass.
- [20:25]
Brendan
Is the glass ass in the UK version?
- [20:28]
Mickey Jo
Okay, Whatever you're describing, I've lost context of what this is. So, no, first of all.
- [20:37]
Brendan
The glass.
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The glass ass.
- [20:39]
Mickey Jo
No, my version of that question to you, of something that just. Just one little detail that left me puzzled. At the beginning of the show, they're singing a romantic duet after they meet in Monte Carlo, and the whole thing is staged pretty naturalistically. And then the bellhops make birds with their hands. And I asked you, I was like, is that something that normally happens?
- [21:03]
Brendan
And we just said, no, that's new.
- [21:05]
Mickey Jo
Maybe it's gone. Maybe it's got like, listen, maybe it is.
- [21:08]
Brendan
I wonder if that was Just one of those, like, let's try it and see how it goes. That was really one of the only directorial choices where I went. But it's just hard because, like, that's the. The big scene and having that moment where the bellhops come out and they're flying like birds. And then the menu. That's a bird.
- [21:26]
Mickey Jo
I think one or the other. Honestly, like, everyone has to. Bird hands or we have to do many of them.
- [21:31]
Brendan
It would be a really cool thing if they, like, did that throughout. If it was like that kept. If it came back, it just. They never did that again. That's the problem is they just. They did it once and then little gimmicky things throughout.
- [21:41]
Mickey Jo
Or specifically bird hands throughout. Like, every scene has a different kind of bird.
- [21:46]
Brendan
When they're on the beach, it's like a herring. Like, someone comes out. Hal. It's about birds.
- [21:53]
Mickey Jo
It's like shadow puppetry. But no one's doing the lighting effects to make it happen.
- [21:56]
Brendan
Rebecca, I hope the rights come up, that it gets staging rights, that people can do this stuff.
- [22:02]
Mickey Jo
Like we mentioned, you know a lot about this show. So you can tell us, for any other enthusiasts of the show watching this, discernible differences between previous iterations of this material. And now there are some songs that have been cut, right?
- [22:15]
Brendan
Yeah, well, they've. They cut out just a lot from the beginning. Especially in the Monte Carlo sequence, which. That one. It's this grand hotel on stage and it's all the guests bussing around. And there's the ensemble that turns into the maids and the servants. They're the guests at Monte Carlo at first, but I think just because of pure stage size, they couldn't have that there. Which really bums me out because those were some of my favorite songs. Because it really just sets the mood that it's high energy and you're right in it. And then you go into the sorry Mrs. Van Hopper song. And it really shows you what a force the ensemble is about to be in this. Because I think that's something that kind of gets overshadowed too, when talking about the drama of the main characters. It's just how ensemble heavy this thing is and how. How really that is some of the driving energy. But that was. Those were the two songs that I really noticed were cut. Did you notice any. This is Van Hopper's second song. Doesn't she have a second one? Because she comes for the costume party. She does come for the costume party. She comes back and she just lambastes AI again, because it's Right at that crux. But then I think really, like, differences were between just the presentation of the material and I think really that intimacy. And the stakes, too. The stakes felt a lot higher for me in this one because Vienna, it's opera, so it was very big, it was very grand, operatic gestures. But what this one does really well, specifically with Richard Carson and Lauren Jones as Maxim and I, is that I could really feel the desperation in their love for each other. And it felt like when they say, we're gonna get married in the movie and in Vienna, to an extent, it comes off as kind of like, what? Why are you getting married already? Like, it's that fairy book thing that is just beyond reality that it's kind of hard to suspend your disbelief on. But in this one, bird hands aside, when you see them falling in love, I can actually see them falling in love. Richard's Maxim just really feels like a person in this one. And especially near the end when the stakes are high and the walls are closing in on him, like, you can actually. This is because of the space. You can actually see it in his eyes, and you can see it in just the little gestures that he's doing, which are truly remarkable. And Lauren's eye is probably the best eye that I've seen. She isn't just this like, Snow, 1930s Snow White, like, everything's great. I'm so wide eyed, bushy tailed. It's like you can actually see that conflict in her eyes. And then when she finally has that turning point, you're like, hell, yes. Like, you do it.
- [25:02]
Mickey Jo
Did you feel like this one was grounded in a little bit more reality?
- [25:05]
Brendan
Absolutely.
- [25:06]
Mickey Jo
That doesn't surprise me for, like, the English theater version of it. I think with a lot of the big shows that have been really successful in Europe, there's a balance between, like, the serious drama of it and dare I say, a slight camp element that creeps in just a little bit. I spoke to you about the bird hands. Not only the bird hands. You had the bird hands and the Rebecca sound effect on the Weydon'd, to be fair.
- [25:32]
Brendan
Like, that's. That's in Vienna. That's everywhere.
- [25:35]
Mickey Jo
It does just tickle me the littlest bit where she's like, if you listen so carefully, you could almost hear it. And then the wind is going, Rebecca. And it's.
- [25:42]
Brendan
If you ever encounter bad luck or like something doesn't go your way, you just go, Rebecca. It's like, oh, man, we just missed the bus. Rebecca. It might be. She lights the first one and the Rest comes. Then it all spreads. So it goes stair, stair, stair. And then it spreads. Look over here. So it goes. So then it's just on the banisters as it goes up. That's crazy. And these don't catch fire.
- [26:09]
Mickey Jo
So we've touched on some kind of, like, light spoiler stuff for how they're depicting this. I do think we have to talk in some level of detail about a particular set piece that people are going to be aware of coming. Because for a lot of people, if this isn't the show where people got sued and all of that happened, it's the show with the stairs that get set on fire.
- [26:33]
Brendan
Right. It's like the Phantom chandelier.
- [26:34]
Mickey Jo
It's the Phantom chandelier. And so if you were going to see Phantom in like a couple hundred seat venue, you would be wondering what kind of IKEA lighting fixture they're gonna be dropping on us.
- [26:45]
Brendan
Yeah.
- [26:45]
Mickey Jo
And at first preview, we had stairs.
- [26:49]
Brendan
It's a limited budget and again, it's the thing of. They're focusing on the. The story and the songs. So, I mean, the stairs do leave. Like, you can't go in expecting the pictures you see online of the Grand Vienna staircase, because that's not what this is.
- [27:05]
Mickey Jo
That won't fit in the building.
- [27:06]
Brendan
No, it wouldn't fit in the building. And I don't know how they would drop it into the. Is there a tube underneath?
- [27:11]
Mickey Jo
There's trains below and there are trains above.
- [27:13]
Brendan
Yeah. All of a sudden someone's commute would be messed up because there's a staircase causing delays. The stairs are, you know, they're serviceable.
- [27:21]
Mickey Jo
Because it's not going to the Charing Cross to deliver an epic staging. Like you said, it's about the material. It's about. It's kind of like a proof of concept.
- [27:27]
Brendan
Yeah, exactly. It's about showing. It's about really getting rid of that bad taste of everything that's gone wrong with it and showing the strength of the characters, the story, the score, and then saying, you see what we've done with these limited resources. Now imagine what we can do if we match the scale with the set. And I think it's interesting to note too, that this is the smallest. Is this the smallest theater for shows.
- [27:55]
Mickey Jo
Of this kind of a budget and scale? It's one of the smallest places it could be.
- [27:59]
Brendan
So it's like one of the smallest theaters and yet it's got the second largest band in London. That's what's remarkable to me is that. And I think that really Shows like, where the priorities were of. Instead of, like, let's go all in on creating this huge, elaborate set, it's. Let's invest in the musicians who are crucial to making this piece work. It's like. It's like 18 people.
- [28:20]
Mickey Jo
And that was the detail in the press release that had everyone very puzzled when it was announced, including MDs who had worked at this venue before. Some of the last few things that have been staged there have been in Traverse, and the stage was in the middle of the theater, and they put the band in the two balconies.
- [28:35]
Brendan
Oh, wow.
- [28:36]
Mickey Jo
And so when we saw that they were selling tickets in the balconies, we were thinking, well, the band aren't going there. The band. There's no pit to speak of. And what they've done is they've spent a huge amount of money renovating a room behind the tech desk to fit.
- [28:49]
Brendan
All of these musicians, all the musicians in it. And it's so soundproof that you can't. Like, it's just. You can hear what's coming through the microphones, but then you can't hear the sounds from the actual, like the. The raw sounds, basically, which. That's what I would be afraid of. Because with King Kong, they tried to build, like, a soundproofing room, but there's a slight delay in the microphone. So people who were sitting in the mezzanine, they'd hear John Hodge, who was the voice, he'd go, rawr. And then it would be like a second delay, and then you'd hear it go over the speakers. So people in the mezzanine didn't. Because it wasn't that soundproof. But here it was just. I was like, where is this coming from?
- [29:30]
Mickey Jo
No matter where you're sitting in this theater, you cannot hear King Kong.
- [29:32]
Brendan
You cannot hear John Hodge going, rawr.
- [29:34]
Mickey Jo
I will say the sound was terrific. It's been a while since I've been to a first preview, but usually the thing that you will hear everyone talking about is sound issues and levels and balancing. Considering that this is a new undertaking for them to have a band of this scale. It sounded great.
- [29:51]
Brendan
And props to Sylvester lavey, who he's the orchestrator. Like, to be able to cut this thing down from. What was it, like, 34 piece. It was a 34 piece in Vienna. To cut it down to 18 and still have it sound just as good as it did in the Raymond in Vienna is truly a feat.
- [30:09]
Mickey Jo
But if anyone is explicitly curious, the staircase may be evolving.
- [30:14]
Brendan
Oh, yeah. Well, we saw a preview, and it Was a very real preview because they still have a lot that they need to.
- [30:21]
Mickey Jo
There was like very red lighting and a heck of a lot of haze that gets pumped into the room.
- [30:28]
Brendan
Yeah. The smoke above the audience's heads was like, oh, my God.
- [30:32]
Mickey Jo
It's very much like you're in the burning inferno. There's people running around, there's chaos, people on the balconies.
- [30:37]
Brendan
It's just. Oh, it was so cool. It was so cool.
- [30:41]
Mickey Jo
It has everything you need except for the flames.
- [30:45]
Brendan
The flames.
- [30:45]
Mickey Jo
And it's like when there's smoke, there's fire, but they're. There was smoke and there isn't fire yet. There may be. This may change. All of this may change. They could completely restage the whole thing.
- [30:55]
Brendan
And I think that's something that when you're. For people who are reading about it or hearing rumblings about it from the first preview, it's important to really remember that this is a first preview and that it is a very surprisingly tech heavy show for the space. So what we saw was just bare bones. Like we haven't really gotten this section figured out yet.
- [31:16]
Mickey Jo
And you'd expect to see a lot of like, kinks to be ironed out. And I'm sure some of the transitions of set pieces will get a little bit slicker, but we didn't see discernible.
- [31:24]
Brendan
I was expecting them to have a hold. I thought we were gonna hold for sure for something. I have a Guinness on the way, so that should tell you where I'm at. It's like excitement, like that anticipatory nervousness where it's just. It's gonna be so different. And that's kind of what I'm bracing for.
- [31:41]
Mickey Jo
Having now seen this production, considering the weight of everything that's happened in this show's history, what are your greatest hopes for what this could go on to be? We've talked about this being a proof of concept. We've talked about this being a showcase of the material. What are your aspirations if we dare to dream about Rebecca? Because going back, I can't even remember the year it was. It must have been 2011, 2012. When it was first planning to come to the West End. I was gonna go and see it. This was when I just. When I'd started coming to London to go and see shows. And I remember them putting the website up. I remember them announcing the first few cast members. I listened to a couple of English tracks and then obviously what happened, happened and it all disappeared because of a flood and all of this stuff do you think we may yet see Rebecca in a West End theater?
- [32:32]
Brendan
I mean, I really hope so. I wrote a piece for ONSTAGE Blog after I saw it in Vienna. Asked the question, do I think this could work on Broadway? And my answer then was, I don't think it could because I think it's just too big. I think it's too operatic. I think it would be great if you took it and you moved it into Lincoln center in German, like in the original language and played it like that, because I was also afraid that the English translation wasn't going to sound as pretty as it did in German or have the same gravitas. But then after seeing it here, it actually gave me hope and it made me think that maybe this could actually work. Even if it makes it to the West End, like, that's still great that it got the full scale that it deserved. But then selfishly and personally, I want to see it go to Broadway too, so that Michael can at least get one win on Broadway.
- [33:27]
Mickey Jo
And it would be a really great end to the story of the whole.
- [33:31]
Brendan
Saga as well, as long as there's just no more safaris. And just make sure you check the addresses on who your backers are.
- [33:39]
Mickey Jo
Well, thank you so much for joining me. Thank you for having me talking all things Rebecca. I'm so excited you got to come over here and see it. And now we'll just wait to see how it does in London and what the future holds for this show.
- [33:52]
Brendan
Yeah, I'm excited to see how it grows.
- [33:54]
Mickey Jo
Thank you all so much for joining us for this first preview discussion. Where do the people need to go to find you on socials and everything?
- [34:01]
Brendan
Wait in the Wings on YouTube if you want to see the full hour and a half documentary. And then I'm also waitwings on Twitter and Instagram.
- [34:09]
Mickey Jo
And if you're intrigued about Rebecca, if you stumbled across this video and you know nothing about this show, you can go and check out the documentary like Brendan mentioned. And you can go and get tickets to see it right now at the Charing Cross Theatre in London.
- [34:21]
Brendan
Sharing is caring.
- [34:22]
And if after all of that, you're intrigued about what I thought of this show, well, this time next week, I will be at the official press night for Rebecca at the Charing Cross. And thereafter, I will be able to come on here and create a video review about this production. So stay tuned. Make sure you're subscribed so you don't miss that here on my channel.
- [34:41]
Mickey Jo
And make sure you go and subscribe.
- [34:42]
Brendan
To Brendan's amazing channel. Wait in the wings. Go and subscribe to Aaron's channel, Aaron James on YouTube as well. And go and check out all of the other videos that have been featured in this. I hope you enjoyed today's video. Make sure to comment down below with your thoughts. And I hope that everyone is staying safe and that you have a stagey day.
- [34:57]
Mickey Jo
Rebecca he's right. That is fun. For 10 more seconds, I'm Mickey Jo Theatre. Oh my God. Hey, thanks for watching. Have a stagey day. Subscribe.