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[0:00] Joy Woods: My name is Joy Woods and you're listening to Eleven, the official theatre podcast.

[0:16] William J Connolly: Hello and welcome to Eleven, the official theatre podcast that brings the biggest stars and creatives together in one place to discuss life in the arts. She's the Tony nominee and one of the finest artists to tread the Broadway stage. From her star turns in The Notebook to Little Shop of Horrors, from Six to Dreamgirls, she's earned herself an army of fans and the respect of her peers thanks to her heartbreaking performances and spine-tingling vocals. And now, in her first major stage project since her Tony-nominated run as Louise in Gypsy on Broadway came to a close, she's heading to UK shores for Songs for a New World, the 30th anniversary concert at the Eventum Apollo on September 21st, conducted by none other than the man himself, Mr. Jason Robert Brown.

But what's it like closing a show like Gypsy on Broadway, having viral moments thanks to shows like The Notebook and Little Shop of Horrors, and performing live with legends like actual Jason Robert Brown and actual Alan Menken and actual Audra McDonald? Well, let's find out as we head stateside and into her home to discuss all things Songs for a New World and this extraordinary anniversary concert, the creative challenge of singing songs like I'm Not Afraid of Anything for the man who wrote it, and getting to connect with audience members that have so often experienced her just digitally, now in person here in London. Plus, we talk all things Gypsy on Broadway, her history-making Tony-celebrated time as Louise in that production, and what it was like having a front-row seat each night to Audra McDonald's performance as Rose.

We also dive into the hard reality of fierce expectation thanks to her global viral moments, and how crippling that can really be. Why the phenomenon of the hardest song she's ever sung with My Days in the Notebook, and why she wants to move past the need for pretty vocals and notes and focus more on heart and story, mixed together. Plus, why showing up and doing your best counts for everything! I'm so honoured to say it is the exquisite Joy Woods here now on this, the next episode of Eleven, the official theatre podcast.

[2:24] William J Connolly: Please help me welcome to this, the next episode of Eleven. She's the Tony nominee, Broadway leading star and cast album queen, that's quite literally the jewel in Broadway's crown. And I'm honoured to say she's here today to tell me about her upcoming trip to these very British shores in an all-star megacast this September that you do not want to miss. So let's find out all the details as I say, hello Joy Woods, how are you?

[2:48] Joy Woods: What an introduction! Thank you, I'm well! How are you doing?

[2:52] William J Connolly: I'm doing very well. Thank you so much for agreeing to do this. I am so freaking excited. I'm going to be all cool and calm and collected, and I'm like, no, no, no. I am obsessed with you. I make no apologies about that. I literally came to see you in my favourite show of all time at the start of this year, and since then the obsession has grown and I am now a fully-fledged Joy Woods fangirl. So please indulge me, if you will, by just telling you how sensational you are. You are such a gift to this world, and I'm so grateful to get the opportunity not only to talk to you today, but to do something even more special than that, and that's to celebrate the fact that you're coming to the UK. You are literally going to be on these shores, from the point of which we record this, very soon. People are going to get to listen to this tomorrow, but we're not that far away. So before we talk about specifics, how are you feeling?

[3:38] Joy Woods: Um, I'm in the middle of packing, and I'm overwhelmed. But other than that, I'm great. Um, I've been very much on the go for the past seven-ish years. I mean, you know, including or not including the pandemic, because the world was shut down and that was a whole different other kind of stress. But if we take that year and a half out, I have had not more than a week of a break. This is the first time since Gypsy ended that I've had some actual time to slow down and find out if I have any hobbies and call my mom and things. So to be able to jump and do a little bit of a job overseas, I've never traveled, I've never been anywhere. I had to get a passport for this. So that's very exciting. I'm glad that my first time out of the country is for work, so that I'm scheduled and have to do something while I'm there, so I don't get lost in the middle of somewhere I'm not familiar with.

[4:40] William J Connolly: I promise we'll be very kind to you when you do come here. It's very, very exciting to have you here. How are you when the end of Gypsy in this period? How have you been in terms of actually embracing just having a little bit of a pause and maybe, maybe being just a little bit kinder to yourself? How have you been with the silence?

[4:56] Joy Woods: The silence is wonderful. I had to start talking this week to remind myself that I talk and that I sing and that I'm going to have to be doing that for a lot of people that I don't know in a week. But I've found it really, really wonderful apparently existing as a human being and not as a sole actor that lives and breathes whatever show that they're doing. It's great times. I'm very grateful for the amount that I've worked these past years. And there's only so much work you can do if you are not human and are not living. So I'm making my best effort to do that. I'm going on a lot of walks. I'm cooking dinners. I'm spending time with my friends and family. Life is good.

[5:41] William J Connolly: Well, I'm glad that life is good because you've been so good to all of us. It's good to take some time back. And you are continuing to give to us. You are continuing quite literally to feed the children as such. And you're going to feed the British children, the British gays especially, by coming to our shores. So let's talk about this ridiculous cast, this ridiculous project led and composed and even led by in the orchestra and the band by the man that wrote it itself. So this is Songs for a New World, the 30th anniversary concert, two separate performances at this barn of a location, the Eventum Apollo. I mean, how on earth did you feel when this project first got brought to you? Did you know these other people were connected? Did you know that Jason Robert Brown was going to be conducting it? I mean, what did you say?

[6:23] Joy Woods: I was in shock. I thought, are they sure it's not another Joy Woods that they're wanting? I didn't know much about it, but I jumped on it and said, yeah, I'll do it. And now it's feeling real. I mean, Titus, Shoshanna, Jordan, they're all titans. And I still don't put myself in that category, but, you know, other people do. So there are times in our lives where we need to pull up and show up and act like we believe we're supposed to be somewhere, even if we don't feel like we are. I'm so lucky. I met Jason when he came to see Gypsy a few months, a bunch of months back. And I thought, oh, wow, nice to meet him. That's cool. Never thought that in the same year we'd be working together and I'd be doing his work, that I'd be playing the same role that in The Notebook, Andrea Burns, who played my mother, originated. Love her. Lovely lady. Saleha, another lovely lady that I've come to know. And to be, I don't know, the next person in this sort of zeitgeist of songs for a new world is special. I'm very grateful.

[7:35] William J Connolly: Because that extraordinary video that you both recorded together of you and Jason has been a repeat in this very house that I'm in now, because I'm not afraid of anything, is this icon anthem that so many people, some of the people you have a very special connection to have gone on file and record of recording for an album. And you get to join the ranks of them with this performance with Jason himself, which isn't a sentence that most people get to say. And I love the fact there's a joke at the start. Is it you that says like, oh, let's see if we can get this in one take? And then you get like a high five at the end. What the heck?

[8:03] Joy Woods: I said this is going to be the best take, because we'd had originally planned for me to come in and record this a week before. But it was a few days after Gypsy closed. And at the end of the run, we were all sick. I had lost my voice completely. I didn't have a there was no way for me to be able to get through that song and be able to release it to the internet because you know how internet people are. And I don't want to subject myself to the maybes and ifs and buts of me seeing what somebody had to say and just not feeling good about it. So I hadn't been entirely healed yet when we came to the studio to record and I was being super hard on myself and it wasn't much of a joke. It was literally like me hyping myself up like this is going to be the best take. And then we will go home after this. Thank you all for your patience and your time. I don't know how long we've been there, but I was like, I need to get this right or else I'm going to explode.

[9:59] William J Connolly: So what did it feel like in the moment when you were probably a minute and a half to two minutes in, you were doing it, he was there. And I hope that you felt good in what you were delivering. I hope you were able to feel what we feel as an audience watching it back, which is something very special.

[10:13] Joy Woods: You know, I haven't been able to watch it on more than like volume two, as opposed to like on full volume, because I just I just know what I did in the moment. And I know how I felt about it. And I'm excited for people to come see the show when I we also talked about what the song really meant in the room at the time. So what you were seeing in that video was me really trying to genuinely figure out what the song is and how it feels and what it means and what that looks like and feels like. So you you genuinely saw a process of someone trying to figure out what the story means. So I think it's always good for people to see an actor in process. But, you know, process is never the product. And even when the product is produced, it's never finished. So you accept it, you post it, you hit accept on the collaborate feature on Instagram and you move on with your life.

[11:01] William J Connolly: Well, I don't know how much you do dive into the comments, but let me just read you three of these out because these stuck out to me and I was like, I have to tell you about these. I do my best not to, but I promise you'll like these. One of the ones I love was, OK, she ate that. I was like, tick. Thank you. My other one was everyone say thank you, Joy Woods. Well, my other one, I was like, I have to read it was wow. David is fumbling there and needs to get over his fears. A.S.A.P. Yeah, David, pull it together. Lock in. Well, thank you. Nice Internet people. That's very sweet of you to say. People love you anyway. I hope that you genuinely do know that. But this was like people were showing up and turning up for you, which I imagine as much as you're self-critical, you're probably also very well aware that over your left shoulder is the man that wrote it. So how do you make that make sense?

[12:54] Joy Woods: I mean, I did my best. You know, it's really surreal that I'm able to do the work that I do with the people that create it, you know, and the things with revivals is that people made these things years ago. There are so many people that have done the material in the meantime before I even think or accept doing it. And I sort of have to hold what has been done before me as sacred and as something to be honored and also find what it is in my body and in my spirit, in my brain. So he was very patient and gracious and helpful and collaborative in figuring out what the song meant for me. I don't know. I wasn't expecting him to be so nice. I thought there were going to be some notes or something. Not even that he was going to be mean, but, you know, like, you're sure that's it?

You just want to do it in that many takes? You don't want, you know, any more? I feel like I could do it better, but I guess that's what being trusted is like, and I'm getting used to that. I think also trusting yourself and if they've made the decision to pick you, I know as hard as this is, and this is very easy for me to say out loud, but like, just believe that you're supposed to be there. Like, it's sometimes really hard to just let yourself go, maybe, maybe, maybe I am good enough, you know? Life is, that is going to be a lesson for all of life, so I'm learning that.

[13:30] William J Connolly: It's also interesting because I feel like you've sort of now set a rod for him back in that you perform songs with the original creators, with the original creator, because you did that with Alan Menken as well, with Little Shop, and he is freaking obsessed with you. Oh my gosh, the looks, the tears when you start, I mean like, that video, I was so gagged. I'll tell you, we did that one in one take. Drove two hours, starting at 9am to get to his house. We do it, I was sick that day too, because it was right before I had started rehearsing for Audrey, and so we'd done no rehearsal. I was just like, normal sick. It was springtime, the pollen was doing its thing, and I did that one take as a rehearsal, and I said, okay, we're good.

Sorry, you don't, I would like to do it again, please, thank you. And the song is so short, let's do it one more time for shits and giggles, you know, just for fun, just between us girls, but you know, again, the internet likes what it likes, we have no control over the people, and so I'm grateful getting to work with Alan that closely was really, really special to me, and to have been.

[13:30] Joy Woods: A part of the show that steeply is also really special and the people that I've met through that experience are the best people, the best guys around. So you think that moment as well with that video was the first real time that you had established a relationship between you and the internet where you got such astronomical feedback because it's it as much as I joke like the response and in particular I reference about the tear but that moment is so together and so in the moment as Audrey that I think the internet really quite sort of took us by surprise and was like oh wow this girl is really special. Do you think that was the first time you had that connection where it probably felt like your social media reached a new level?

For sure, for sure. That was definitely the most I guess saying like someone blows up or something like that but it was the first time I got that much feedback on something I put out into the world but I think the beginning of that was the day that they had announced that I was coming back to play Audrey and the video was released shortly after that but it's funny because the day that they released my casting was the day after that I'd stepped in randomly with a few hours notice to do miscast. So there's already like a flurry of notifications that I'm getting on Instagram and so it just kind of fell into the wash of it all and I was doing a workshop at the time during the day so I was able to be off my phone and not really paying attention to it and when I got back to my phone and opened up Instagram I scrolled twice and then tried to look away as best as I could because that's a lot and you know I'm 25 we all grew up on the internet and we know how easy it is to get sucked into your phone and one mean comment isn't worth 500 good ones you know they don't know me they're not close to me so I try to.

[15:31] William J Connolly: It's interesting you say that because actually you're from a generation where social media has played such a different part to the one before in terms of audience and star and theatre and actually I would argue with many of the viral moments that you've now had hopefully proactively played a part in bringing a new younger generation to the theatre so how does it affect or does it affect or does it perhaps not affect your the expectation of you on stage the what people want to see what people have seen you do and therefore want to come and see happen live like and I guess how much time do you pay to that element of I'm going to say pressure because it's an expectation how much.

[16:07] Joy Woods: Yeah it's definitely pressure I've you know the bootleg discourse has gone on for many many years and has picked up significantly recently but I like to think of it as you don't really know what it feels like unless you're in the performer's shoes we can talk as much as we want about accessibility and for kids to be able to grow up having knowing what theatre looks like so they know that it's something that they want to do when they grow up. I mean I grew up watching what I now know were bootlegs I didn't know that at the time but what it feels like as someone that's on stage is I'm hoping to get to the Audra level of presence when I get older but right now on my bad days I can't help but think what if somebody's recording me right now.

Every time we're on stage we're not doing the performance to share with the people like we are but we're also actors working we're processing we're figuring something out where we are we are playing we're in process and I feel like that's a sacred thing to share with an audience for in the back of your mind to think ah someone might be recording me right now takes you out of it it takes the audience it robs the audience of who they're watching be perfectly present in the moment and while I do love watching videos of the girls giving I watch it and I think oh man I hope they were having a good day I hope they didn't see the back of this person's phone reflected off of the lights because we can always see it we can always tell you know it's hard to square and I guess I sort of live somewhere in the middle of it because you know it helps and it hurts both.

[18:28] William J Connolly: If you're happy to share at the peak of the My Days release when the viral moment really took off when that was at its greatest you still then had to go and sing that song on stage so what was in your mind knowing that people wanted one thing and that was what Joy Woods sounded like on that clip that probably brought them to see that production how do you how do you make that make sense in the two and a half seconds before you start beginning?

[18:44] Joy Woods: I think it really messed with my psyche thinking the only reason I ever called out was thinking I can't sing the song today I can't do the song it's one of the it's the hardest song I've ever sung so I think anybody really it's up there for some reason but I think the pressure of needing to be perfect on that and it being in such a raw and emotional moment of the show knowing that the emotions were going to take priority and that the song wasn't always going to be perfectly sung through and that somebody might be recording and posted on the internet and at a time that you were prioritizing emotion over pitch is pressure but you know I want to get paid I want to do my job and get paid so I'm gonna show up and do my job and it also you know the notebook was so much more than the My Days show we really built something beautiful and everybody in that show was contributing equally to a beautiful show and for it to be boiled down as waiting an hour and a half to get to that one song that I like from TikTok is dismissive I think and I look forward to the day that and I appreciate the people that viewed the piece as a whole rather than that one thing but also it doesn't stand on it so yes of course it's a song it's on a cast album etc but also it's part of a collective piece of emotion that we're all waiting but I'd rather you sing every single note off pitch and be absolutely ruined on stage connecting to the story that you're telling me than to have every note in the right place going well that was nice I felt nothing what's the next song that's coming.

[20:11] Joy Woods: And I feel like there's an interesting conversation perhaps even if I may like connected to the discourse around Audra and Rose's turn and what people expected versus what people wanted it's like I say this hand on my heart you sit in that theater and however many performances you did you sit in that theater you watch what that lady does on stage she could sing every note off she never does but if she did my gosh you would feel every single thing we've got to be better than just pretty notes right or am I wrong?

[20:36] William J Connolly: Yes and especially since you know Sondheim had a part in making the music for the show doing the lyrics and he was always somebody that prioritized an actor or a singer not to say that she is one or the other better I personally don't believe that I think she's equally as astronomically this as a performer in all facets but if we're going to bring her specific situation into this conversation sit in the theater watch the show if you have not got because Rose's turn is at that very end of the show if you have not sat through the whole thing the whole three hours and didn't think that the show and that performance and that song was valid and correct then you weren't coming to see the show you were coming to be angry you were coming to feel validated and you're in your opinion about this being wrong and then that's not why you go see theater.

[22:09] Joy Woods: So I guess and when it comes to when you're bringing it back to my days in the notebook if you're coming to see just that one thing or if you're just looking at a video that's taken out of context on TikTok you have not witnessed the rest of the show you have not witnessed what got this person to this point you're just listening to the pretty notes you're not understanding the context of why they're at this point so sorry that you're missing the context I wish you could see the full show I wish we did pro shots but you know that's it is what it is so it's just hard to square I want people to see the art and I wish that everybody had a chance to see the full piece and I wish there were ways for everybody to be appreciated and considered in the sharing of that.

[22:28] Joy Woods: Well I wish that everybody get opportunity to see that show in its entirety but also that performance do you know the video that someone took of like right in front of Audra looking up at the end of Rosa where it makes me angry to look at oh my god front row yeah if she looks down you're cooked put the phone away how about you clap for her what are the performance of a lifetime put the phone down and put your hands together but I digress but also isn't interesting sorry not to spend too much on this but isn't interesting just to close like that people don't think about the fact that the person that's criticizing said moment is probably also the same person that showed up for Audra so I'm coming to see her and I'm going to be the one dragging her for no reason it's like and you think that she won't a c or b feel it as if she's not going to sit backstage with at least one of those thoughts in her head and I'm sorry every human being as you rightfully said earlier will always focus on the smallest part even the greatest of souls the brightest of stars the strongest of leaders so you don't think that that didn't affect her you don't think that she thought at any point yeah the people that come to see art to actively dislike it because they're there they have the intention of disliking it are not the art appreciators that I want to be around.

[23:43] William J Connolly: Let's flip this on its head because while we talk about those moments while we talk about many of the different moments there's also the other side of it which is when as the performance that I got to see at the start of this year with you in Gypsy was somebody soaring high somebody that I hope in that day felt good about themselves because the performance that you gave was unbelievably it was actually at very many points rather earth-shattering and I just thought this woman is exquisite this human being is giving everything to an audience that is in the palm of your hand what's it like when you feel in your power when you feel good when you feel like you've got an audience on your side are you able to take a moment and go I deserve to be here?

[24:12] Joy Woods: You know it's funny that you say that because you said you saw at the beginning of the year I did not feel like I had the role under my belt until maybe two months before we closed. Wow post Tony's I was giving everything I had and I continued to have and gain more throughout the run but I felt so unprepared I did not know how what I was doing or I was comparing myself to Laura so much and people were comparing me to Laura and there was just pressure around this production and needing to be what people expected it to be and what people expected it to be was very different than what we put up and just feeling like I was trusted deeply by the people that put the show up and I did not trust myself enough so I wasn't aware of what I was if what I was doing felt right or not but I think that there was one moment during the run that I was able to be on stage and breathe and think to myself I did that and it was the very last show it was the very last show at the end of the Garden of Eden dance number when everyone leaves the curtains closed she puts her arms up and sings the end of let me entertain you that was the first time that I thought to myself like oh I have a Tony nomination I must have did something right here that's cool that's very cool I have no breath I'm supposed to keep singing and finish the song and then go yell at my mom right after this so let me gather my wits but and it's so sweet that that part my the Chanel Bailey who covered Louise took a video of it so it's very sweet to have that moment on camera for myself but that was the only time ever that I've ever been on stage and thought to myself I am I'm doing okay I'm doing good.

[26:04] William J Connolly: Well I was going to say hopefully more to come because it was exquisite and you did get as you referenced the the Tony recognition and the nomination which means that not only did audiences adore you as I did and then Kvatch for having sat in that theater but so did your peers in the industry as well which means that you have people showing up for you as well I've watched so many interviews as well where Audra talks about how extraordinary her relationship is with you how much she loves and respects you as well she goes out to bat and to battle for you as well do you think your time since that feeling that on that closing performance and now with a little bit of quiet time as we called it earlier do you think you've come to hopefully feel a little happier with the bit before or do you think that's just the way in which your mind works and and trying to figure stuff out do you feel any happier with the first bit?

[26:50] Joy Woods: No I knew I had a lot to learn and I there was also you know it's so odd to open a show right before.

[27:00] Joy Woods: Holidays. We were also sick and The Notebook and Gypsy overlapped for both Jordan and I, so we were doing the show at night while rehearsing Gypsy during the day and went straight into tech for Gypsy. Your body needs rest. It was run ragged, it was tired, so I think trying to constantly get your energy back is not useful in trying to use all the energy that you have. So it was definitely a battle and a challenge to show up the way that I wanted to at the show every day. Gypsy obviously has a lot of fans that go through all the different generations. I feel that's what is such the joy of the show. And I had the pleasure, literally this time yesterday, of speaking to Laura Benanti, and she did nothing but say how obsessed she was with you, how much love she showed towards you.

And she actually has a question that she'd like me to ask you. So would you be happy for me to ask you that? What? I mean, yeah. This is what she said as a Louise passing the baton to you. What for her felt like that pivotal moment of like the metamorphosis from Louise and into Gypsy? Where did she feel in the show that that really happened for her? Where that really like hit for her? Hi, Laura. I love you. I'm such a big fan. I think the moment in the show where she made the real transition. I think for me it was the second strip. I want to say it came earlier, but I think those were just questions popping up in her head of mama's mothering of the way that she raised us. Suddenly I'm pretty.

Suddenly people want to see me. Suddenly I'm not getting booed off stage. But she hadn't become Gypsy yet. I feel like that was seen and sort of molded and come to fruition either during the second strip or in between the second and third. They were very different in our version of Gypsy versus the others. So it was the bit about my mother and what she says. And I'm not my mother. I'm Gypsy. And then the quick change afterwards. I don't know if the people listening have seen the video, but on my Instagram, there's a video of every quick change that we do during the strips. It's six seconds. Something about working that fast and getting into glam and a new wig with a big bang is Gypsy inducing. And that curtain call dress, the shake, the way that it moves. Oh my God, it was giving. It was nice.

[29:49] Joy Woods: My very final question about Gypsy, I promise. Then I've got so many questions to ask you about coming to London. And that is, I asked Laura about having the best seat in the house, standing in the wings and watching the first couple of rows watch Patty implode each night in those closing moments. Would you, as you reference about your love and respect for Audra and how you hope to aspire to where she is, what was it like from your perspective, from your seats in the house, just before you make that very final entrance, watching the most decorated star of all time deliver, I'd argue, one of the greatest single-handed moments ever? I gotta say, I don't think there are words. It's really incredible how she can give herself over completely to whoever she's playing, whatever they're feeling, wherever they're at.

And so in that moment, I don't feel like I'm seeing her. To know her is to love her. And that woman that is crashing out on the passerelle of the stage right now is not Audra. That's my mom. And in my head, Gypsy is getting ready for a party that she's about to go to, and the people tell her, yo, your mom's crashing out in the alley back outside. Go check on her. And I only see her back because she's thrusted out into the audience. And so I can mainly just see the people and how they're receiving her. And I don't know, because we are Black, my eyes gravitate towards the people that look like us. And usually they are, they look like children, no matter what age they're at. Their eyes are bright and wide and just at the edge of their seat, holding their breath, often crying.

I know I am. And to know that it was kind of like the notebook in that way, to be able to get a whole theater, over a thousand seats, 1,500 even, to have this sort of universal catharsis and be able to share that with each other is so special. To be a part and know that we were part of the cause of so many people feeling and feeling together and at the hand of her and sort of being a cog in the machine that gets her to that point. What a delicious treat. What a special experience. And just what an honor. I think she deserves the world.

[32:22] William J Connolly: Retweet that. Audra McDonald is forever mother. And I'm forever grateful for that show. I'm forever grateful for her. I'm forever grateful for you and the performance. And that will stay with me for a very long time. I have the massive Gypsy poster next to me. I was like, I'm taking a poster home. We've got to do things. Because it meant so much to so many different people in the way that you spoke about what Audra meant to you, getting to witness that. I know so many people fill that with the performances that you give. And I imagine some people will get their first opportunity to see you live in a theater because they fall in love with your voice, maybe on some bootlegs, but more importantly on cast albums, here in the UK.

And this may be their first opportunity to see you live. What do you think that moment's going to feel like to get to connect for the first time with a British audience? And some of the people that have probably been very kind in sharing their love towards you through social media will actually get to meet you face to face and to get to see you in a very, very, very special show that they're probably going to be in all their feels for.

[33:01] Joy Woods: I've heard that British audiences are different. American audiences are very raucous. And I need to remind myself that that is one, raucous, and two, not the norm everywhere. And I'm looking forward to just feeling a different energy from another audience. I've never done a concert at this scale, and especially a song cycle. So it's like a show show. But me just standing in a mic and singing is scary. It's very scary. But I'm excited. You know, I'm in London, doing a show, a revival, 30 years, 30 year anniversary is really cool. So I'm excited. I have no idea what I'm in for. But I'm excited. I think the best way to describe British audiences, and I've done a little bit of kind of like deep conversations with some of my American friends, which is always so interesting, their perception.

And then actually, the reality is always a little bit different in that you'll get the lovely entrance applause, but then people sit still and they listen. And it's always silent. And I think the difference is, without generalizing too much, because I know every person is individual, in America, when people appreciate something, they're quite visceral with it and vocal with it. In the UK, they'll sit in their feelings and then emotional. I think that comes from the world of plays. I think we have an obsession with text and plays and really processing that through fear you'll miss something. You'll find that the middle will be quiet and the end will be like the roof is about to go off. And you know what?

We always say when the audience is quieter than most over here, like, oh, it's a listening audience today. OK, that's fine. You know, they're with us. They're quiet, but they're with us. So that's good to know. I don't know. In my head, it wasn't giving listening audience. It was more so giving judging. But I don't know. I've never been. I'm free judging people I've never met. So I'm going to walk in believing that it's listening audiences and be very content with that.

[35:10] William J Connolly: You've spoken about what other people's relationship feels like to you. Obviously, we reference about Audra, about different things to audiences, what people can expect. But when people all across the world, if it is through the albums or if it is through getting the pleasure of seeing you live on stage, come and speak to you about what your performance means to them, particularly young girls, how do you make that make sense in your world of you are quite literally just going to work, doing your job and going home? But in between all of that is something very special that connects very deeply with people. How do you make that make sense to you on a personal level? And how much time do you spend with that afterwards thinking, I'm really glad I showed up today?

[36:02] Joy Woods: Well, trying not to beat myself up about the bad days is where I start. I think about the people that I grew up watching that have no idea that I grew up watching them and that I may have watched one of their worst days and thought, this is who I'd like to be when I grew up. I think my job to service the futures of the little girls and boys and thems and theys of the world to show up, that's really my only job. And all I can do for people that I don't know, I feel like I would get overwhelmed and way out of my depth to do any sort of further outreach. I am extroverted when I am around people that I've known for more than several lifetimes. So when it comes to any other sort of outreach, I'm not very good at connecting.

But I know that's not what my purpose was. That was not what my gift was to these people. It was just to share what I have and hopes that they will receive something from it. So I think just making sure that I show up and do my best, because that is what will get you. If you want to be like me for some reason, that is what you will need to do. Show up and do your best. And yeah, that's all I got. I still feel like a child. So the idea of children wanting to be like another child, it doesn't make sense to me. But, you know, I digress. Not my life, not my world. So.

[37:20] William J Connolly: And very finally, this is also my favourite question. We've spoken about just some because some people are going to say, you don't ask about my favourite Joy Woods projects. Like, look, we don't have two hours, but we've talked about some of the extraordinary ways in which you've created roles, originated stuff, made history, been celebrated, been given accolades and had a lot of love from audiences and hopefully fulfilled your cup. Even on, as you say, your worst days, hopefully felt like showing up to work was as much of a service to an audience as it is to you. When you think back to 2019 and that Off-Broadway debut with Little Shop, the ridiculous, ridiculous number of things that you've crammed into such a short space of time.

What do you think the Joy back then would think of the Joy that sat here with her passport just about to come to the UK to be celebrated fully as yourself with this history making, record breaking, originating roles and with your Tony nomination? What would she think of the lady that's been sat with me for the last hour?

[38:11] Joy Woods: I think she would believe if someone told her that. I think she'd be nervous at how she got there if she was moral on her way up the ladder. I think what my thing was as a kid that moved to New York because they needed a ticket to New York because they knew they would figure it out once they got there is, okay, that's cool. It happened much quicker than we expected, but I'm looking forward to seeing the how and what happens day to day because I'm looking back and I don't quite remember what happened day to day and how I got there, but I think what the recipe was was just showing up and doing your best. I wish I had a recipe. I wish I had a list of here's what you need to do to get to wherever you want to go, not necessarily to the top, but somewhere that feels good and is comfortable and feels fulfilling.

But I think what is fulfilling is living your life and making sure that you're living the full day every day. And of course it's not attainable, easier said than done, but the trying is where the importance lies. So I think she would be delighted but not surprised.

[39:33] William J Connolly: Are you proud of yourself?

[39:34] Joy Woods: Yeah, yeah, gotta be. All of this that's happened to not be proud is a disservice to anyone that isn't me and not only myself. You keep moving.

[39:48] William J Connolly: Joy, this has been such a pleasure. Thank you so much for your time. I am so unbelievably grateful and for UK audiences, let's turn up, let's show up, let's literally scream the house down. Songs for a New World 30th anniversary concert, Sunday 21st of September, A Ventum Apollo. We have two shows to literally fall in love. I'm so grateful for your time. Thank you so, so much.

[40:08] Joy Woods: Thank you so much, William.

[40:13] William J Connolly: You've been listening to Eleven, the official theatre podcast. Find out more about Eleven at elevenpodcast.com or via the Broadway Podcast Network.