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[7:44] Heather Bedor: And you know, we have one giveaway left with our incredible partners, Act One Frames. I think that we're going to try to drive some traffic to our main Instagram and to our main Facebook page that people can see more of the, like, catch-all for Broadway and our fan community. So we'll go over that at the end of the show, but as a friendly reminder, our Instagram is at the B-Way, B-W-A-Y fan club. So at the B-Way fan club, if you guys join there on Instagram, make sure you're on the Facebook page. We'll make a social media post about it, and then, let's say by next Monday, we'll do a giveaway for some beautiful frames from Act One Frames. I'm down for that. But yeah, some of our members actually won some of the online costume contests the shows are running. Death Becomes Her. Yeah, lots of creativity. We're always down for that. Maybe we'll even do a Halloween costume contest giveaway, too. We usually do those.

[8:45] Heather Bedor: But I want you to tell people you had two very exciting weeks. One, you were at NAMT, and you got a chance to see so many shows and do so many different things and meet so many different people. And then you left me again, like, 24 hours later, and you went on a cruise.

[9:02] Chris: Well, to be fair, it was the Rent 30th, so I knew there wasn't going to be a podcast that week.

[9:08] Heather Bedor: That's fair.

[9:10] Chris: I knew that was actually last February when I booked the cruise.

[9:14] Heather Bedor: That's fair. Yeah, so Jeffrey asked about the shows that I saw. I saw seven readings, and I did not get to see the eighth one because I also represented the theater for whom I work here in Florida. As part of the NAMT Regional Theater Roadshow, which is a thing that they do during lunch, people who are attending can order a box lunch, and whoever bids for the highest gets the girl and the lunch.

[9:46] Heather Bedor: No, that's shady.

[9:48] Chris: But you pick up your sandwich in a box and a bottle of water or soda, whatever you order, and then our theater, the Winter Park Playhouse, and Theater Works of Palo Alto, each did a 15-minute presentation talking about our theater and what we do to promote new musical theater works.

[10:08] Heather Bedor: This is what NAMT is created for?

[10:11] Chris: Yes. Well, NAMT promotes and encourages musical theater in general, and then once a year they have this festival for new works that have not yet been produced, and they give you a 45-minute taste of eight different musicals over the course of two days. So it takes two theaters, and you see two in the morning, two in the afternoon. The next day you see two more and two more.

[10:39] Heather Bedor: Right.

[10:39] Chris: Our theater does the Florida Festival of New Musicals, and that is held every June. We started out in August. It was just too hot. June is still bad, but we like it better in June. And we do six musicals, and they're each given a one-hour presentation, and they get three of those over the course of the four-day weekend in June. So we did that. We brought a couple of songs up to New York. One of them is a beautiful song called An Ordinary Life from a musical called In Emily's Words that was presented at our festival in 2024. And the cool thing there is someone in the audience saw it. They work for the local Monteverde Academy, and they wrote to the author and said, "We would really like to produce this musical this year." And they did, and it won some Thespian Awards. That's from the International Thespians for High School Theater. So that was really cool.

[11:39] Chris: And the other one was Julie Bunny Must Die, which, for those of you who know Ned, my husband, is a show that he wrote and had in the festival a couple of years ago. And our dear friend Bert Rodriguez went up and sang that song for us. So that was great. The seven musicals I saw, I wish... It was a lot. And they were all great. The two that I... Well, there were four. I can tell you about four that I truly loved the most. One of them was called How to Play the Cello Until You Don't. It's a one-woman show. It's written for a woman who plays cello. And it's a biographical musical about Jackie Dupre, the British cellist from the 50s and 60s who developed multiple sclerosis and became unable to play. It was a beautiful, beautiful play. And in this case, the actress playing Jackie did not play the cello, so they had a cellist with her. And the cello becomes a whole other character in this show. It was awesome.

[12:54] Chris: Let's see. Love of a Lifetime. Was it a... Not necessarily a... Like, was it better or worse that the woman playing the lead didn't actually play the cello?

[13:06] Heather Bedor: I would have to see it both ways. It didn't bother me at all that she didn't, that there was someone else playing the cello, because there's also a lot of cello underscore that allows her to be more expressive with her body, particularly her hand. You can't see... There we go. You can sort of see my hands on delay. You can?

[13:23] Chris: You can.

[13:24] Heather Bedor: There you go. And it just allowed her to be a more expressive actress when she was playing the cello.

[14:01] Chris: Even though the title tells you how it ends, she's no longer able to play, but what a love story between a woman and a cello.

[14:01] Chris: The second one was called "Love of a Lifetime," and then it has a long subtitle, but the subtitle tells you that it is a zany Hallmark holiday movie spoof, okay? So it's got the whole trope of city girl goes back to her small town and meets, you know, it meets the guy, but all the tropes are in there. Sam Pauly played the lead in this, and as always, she just knocked it out of the park.

[14:44] Chris: After her concert, but you know, can't tell you those things from Sousa Cole, a bunch of other super talented people. Everyone in these shows are top-notch, and that one was delightful. It's, you know, filled with all the tropes, and the songs are all very holiday. They sort of mash existing Christmas carols into the original songs for that one, so that was interesting.

[15:17] Chris: Then there was a show called "The Disaster Marathon of 1904." This one has a book by Tyler Joseph Ellis, who you'll know from all his TikToks or reels. Hysterically funny, so funny. I did get a selfie with him. I chased him down on the way to lunch. We were both going out to the former Blockheads Plaza there to have a sandwich, and he was so gracious and lovely, chatted for a while, and his writing partner's equally wonderful. They've written a hysterical, absolutely flat-out hysterical show about this real event, which was the first Olympic marathon held in 1904 at the St. Louis Olympics, around about the same time as the St. Louis World's Fair, you know, "Meet Me in St. Louis."

[16:17] Chris: Everything about that presentation was hysterical, including the introduction of the authors and their pitch as they're setting up everything for people. I wish I had all my papers in front of me. The gist of that story is Zeus has gathered the Pantheon of Greek gods, and they're going to vote on whether to destroy humankind because it's just a mess on earth.

[16:42] Chris: The Pippity, or whatever his name is, he was the very first marathon runner. He was the one who ran from Marathon in Greece all the way to Athens to deliver a message. Got there, twenty-six point two miles, too much running, fell down, died. Oh my gosh. Makes him present, "Why should the human race be spared?" And he tells...

[17:08] Chris: The Pippity, whatever his name is, tells the story of the first marathon in 1904. Everything, you name it, there was dust in the road that kept getting kicked up and blown into the runners' faces. Nobody had put water stations. One runner was attacked by a swarm of bees, yes, and dogs, and got run over by a car.

[17:37] Chris: Hit by a car, got hit by a car, so bumped off the road, bruised. And all of these people, it's because they're all so invested in why they should win. The French person wants to win for France, but has been in the U.S. so long that they get recorded as running for the U.S.

[18:00] Chris: Musical and it's very old-school traditional musical theater score. Chris Sieber was in it. He played Zeus, and I told him after "Death Becomes Her," I said, "I just want to let you know that I have utterly enjoyed you in every single show I have seen you do." He's always just freaking humble. Like, you talk to him and you're like, "You're Chris Sieber," and he's like, "Oh shucks, I'm just..."

[18:34] Chris: That's exactly, "Oh gee willikers," like that. Yeah, you know, I love him to death. An actor named Alex Wise played the narrator, the hippity's or whatever they fit for tippity's.

[18:51] Chris: Yeah, who's sort of telling the story, and all the other, the whole cast is great. Interestingly, all the runners, of course, in 1904 were male, but they were played by mixed gender. So there's gender-blind casting in there. So, for instance, the Greek runner and the French runner were both played by women, and a lot of that is just to get the vocal, what do you call it, balance—male sounding voices and female voices for all the chorus numbers.

[19:22] Chris: Now, I have to ask you this question because it brings up something I wanted to talk about, because it made the news this week. And I don't know if you've been aware of it, but we're kind of talking about like gender blindness or, you know, back in the day, or you know, if in school, there's not enough male actors, then you are male-presenting actors. They'd bring in a female. Have you heard about the lawsuit that a high school student brought to her school?

[19:54] Chris: Yeah, so can we talk about that for a second? Because I think that you will have some insight on that that not a lot of people think about. So for those that don't know, there was a 17-year-old girl, Anamoda, who's a senior at South Grand Prairie High School in Texas, and filed a federal lawsuit against the Grand Prairie Independent School District after the district pulled her from the male lead role of Seymour in a production of "Little Shop of Horrors" and ultimately canceled the show.

[20:18] Chris: Yep, the director cast her. The department was a hundred percent, and I think it's her. I think those are her pronouns. I don't think this was a case of a non-binary person wanting to play. For whatever reason, they cast her as Seymour. She was apparently terrific, right? And the school board, because Texas is Texas, said, "Oh, we can't have that," and they said, "No, no, no, no, no," and ultimately canceled the show. So good for her suing them. I hope she wins. I just can't imagine being like, it's so frustrating because this is not like, and back in the day in Shakespeare, you know, men were playing women's parts. Men were running around in dresses. That meant that those were drag queens back then. I mean, just come on, people.

[21:25] Chris: Yes, because Monty Python is rooted in old-school burlesque, which is rooted in Shakespeare. Yep. Well, you know what Milton Berle said? The three things, the three funny things in the world are pie in the face, seltzer in the pants, and man in a dress.

[21:44] Chris: Three funny things. Is that where the rule of three also comes from, or is that separate?

[21:49] Chris: That's separate. The rule of three says it's not funny unless you do it three times. Three times, four is too many, twice not enough. Three makes it funny. It just blows my mind.

[22:01] Chris: So I didn't mean to interrupt you, but I was like, you know, it's bringing up a point because, yeah, you know, if there was a boy who was their male-presenting that was so good, why wouldn't they have cast him? But no, this was the person for the best part of the job. Yeah, we didn't see the auditions. We're not at the school, so we can't make that judgment. Absolutely.

[22:30] Chris: So, let's see. For musical, it's called "Bloodline: BLUD, A Hip-Hop Odyssey." It was an experience I will never forget. Now, first off, everyone Sykes is cast as Odysseus in this. Something has happened. I don't know if someone got sick. There was a lot of illness going around. The casting director for the festival is a friend, and I don't want to say too much, but he did share that they had to do a fair bit of recasting at the last minute. So Mr. Sykes was unable to do the festival.

[23:05] Chris: So despite NAMT having a rule that the authors can't present their own work, they had to pull the author in at the last minute. He was the only one who knew the show. When I tell you I have never seen that much black joy on a stage, they had a community, and they were all lifting each other and supporting each other and having the time of their lives. You could see it every time something happened. They were barely able to control themselves, and it was still phenomenal. I hope, hope, hope this thing hits Broadway or has a big professional life because it was awesome.

[23:54] Chris: And it wasn't just a show. It truly was like going to an experience. I mean, it was half Broadway musical, half gospel revival. But all the time is why the author can't present their own works. Is there, it's supposed to give them to sort of help force them to sit back, let somebody else do it, see what someone else is going to do with this? Because if you keep doing it, you know, Lin can't play Hamilton forever. He had to eventually let someone else do it.

[24:32] Chris: Well, but does he want to? He was busy writing "The Warriors."

[24:37] Chris: Okay, that looked like show-off because I could see myself drinking and hear myself saying things.

[24:42] Chris: I was... Anyway, "Bloodline," awesome, written by a couple of music producers. I wish I had their names—one from London, one from Jersey. The music is all hip-hop, but it never sounded the same. There were so many sub-genres of hip-hop represented. Every lyric made sense; every updated bit made total sense.

[25:05] Chris: Christiana Pitts from "Two Strangers" plays Penelope and was awesome and super, super lovely. I got to meet her after the reading, and yes, I asked her for a selfie as well just because I didn't get to see her at the stage door when I saw the show. So I felt vindicated.

[25:27] Chris: So still haven't seen Sam Teddy, but I've met Christiani now. I showed them last week. No, I'm just reiterating two weeks ago. Yes, I'll show them again right now for those who weren't able to join us.

[25:36] Chris: Well, it's going to take five minutes for my camera to catch up. This is the wedding invite that they have, and it's been signed here by Christiani and Sam.

[26:00] Chris: I bought a shadow box, but it's two-sided, so I think I need one of those two-sided glass frames.

[26:13] Chris: Okay, and then this is one of the Dougal Todd signs.

[26:21] Chris: Yeah, you're so delete that; your picture is still showing the invite. Okay, go on. There we go.

[26:27] Chris: Okay, anyway, and this is signed and or initialed by both the actual cast and both sets of swings.

[26:38] Chris: Yeah, so that's very cool. And since I'm showing off, this is all the great stuff Heather brought me back from Flea. This is a notebook.

[26:50] Chris: Empty. Nothing really in it, but it's a notebook. I don't know how well that's been signed by the cast of "Operation Mincemeat."

[27:31] Chris: I'm still waiting for that cast album that they actually did go and record. And I hope it doesn't end up being like Paradise Square, where they recorded an album and it never gets released. I will say I have very specific insider information to that cast album. It is going to be incredible. I do not know the release date, but I know that the recording was very successful. We know that. So those were the and then let's see the other readings. One was called Rama Rama. Right. Ramayana, not the Mahabharata, the other Indian epic, which was fun. I enjoyed that one. One was called. This is why I wish I had my thing. It was Japanese based and it was about a woman during pre and during World War Two who measures sunspots. She becomes an astronomer. And of course, all her diagrams, they think it's because she's passing code to the enemy. And of course, because she's a woman, the man tries to hold her down. Very interesting.

[28:49] Heather: Yeah, it's crazy that we don't ever have to deal with that in society.

[28:55] Chris: Hopefully not after Tuesday, not after tomorrow. Oh, sorry. Sorry, I didn't get political on here until I do. What was the other one? I saw another one. It's escaping me now.

[29:15] Heather: That's OK. Well, you also saw some full running shows, too.

[29:19] Chris: I did. So the first show I saw at night was The Curious Case of Benjamin Button. So lovely. I this is a case of heightened expectation because one person told me it was the best thing he'd ever seen in his life. And another one just wrote, I wept at me. And so I kept waiting to really get socked in the feels. And it was nice. It was like the notebook. I didn't sob through the notebook either. And again, I think it's because there's such high expectation. But very, very enjoyable. Andrew Durand is very good. But Casey, the woman who plays his wife. I want this show to transfer to Broadway so I can say I watched her win a Tony.

[30:11] Heather: Oh, really?

[30:13] Chris: She is she is a front runner for a Tony if this thing transfers.

[30:20] Heather: All right. I love that.

[30:22] Chris: Just brilliant and amazing. Second night, I saw Wanted and I saw that Olivia wants to see that.

[30:29] Heather: And well, you should.

[30:30] Chris: Wanted, the strength of Wanted to me is the music. I adored the score, loved the singing. They sing the roof off of that theater. And I get that. That's the show. I came out and I said, I can't wait for the cast album. It has to have a problem. I want to listen to it over and over. It's the story of two mixed race girls. Their mother based off of history based. It's based off a true story as much as stories that get passed down from generation to generation can be true. And they fully acknowledge that and play into it. It's part of the humor of it. But these two girls and their mom pick cotton on a plantation. And even though it's slavery is over at this point. But there's a mean old drunk plantation owner who isn't making his payments.

And for better or worse, the mom saves up enough money and then goes to him and says, I have enough money to buy the farm now. So and he says, you're never getting my farm. And he decides that they owe him back money and everything and all this stuff. And they can't do anything about it because he's white and a male. But of course, that's all changed since then.

[31:56] Heather: Yeah.

[31:54] Chris: And it sounds familiar to you guys. The original name of the show was Gun and Powder.

[32:00] Heather: Yeah.

[32:00] Chris: But you can't call it that now and have it on social media. It'll get flagged.

[32:06] Heather: Yes, it will.

[32:07] Chris: So the two girls go off to try and make some money because they are mixed race. Their daddy was white. He abandoned them. So they can pass in society. And they accidentally end up robbing a train and suddenly go, oh, that was easy. What do we got? OK, we're just going to do this for a little while and then we can go help mama. But of course, it keeps snowballing and they get deeper and deeper into it. And it's the way of Pfeiffer, who I freaking love.

[32:38] Heather: Yes.

[32:39] Chris: Oh, my God. I'm glad to hear that you enjoyed the music because somebody that I met on the Broadway cruise last year, he is eventually going to be coming on to the podcast, but he is the creator of the music. He is like a poser, but he has been around with the project since the very beginning. And it's just it seems like it's just going to be one of those shows that is going to sneak up on people and really do well.

[33:06] Heather: Yeah.

[33:07] Chris: Especially the James Earl Jones, which I love that theater. It's small. And I have to tell you, those seats are way too close together.

[33:15] Heather: OK, but I like that theater because it's intimate.

[33:17] Chris: But yes, the seats are pretty. I do. But the back of the seat ahead of me kept digging into my knee.

[33:21] Heather: Oh, no.

[33:24] Chris: The whole cast. I'm trying to remember her name. Lizzy.

[33:27] Heather: Oh, yes.

[33:32] Chris: I believe the first black Elphaba.

[33:34] Heather: You see LaFontaine.

[33:36] Chris: Yeah.

[33:37] Heather: Yeah.

[33:39] Chris: Yes.

[33:40] Heather: And then let DC.

[33:42] Chris: Mm hmm.

[33:44] Heather: Who plays the mom. Also spectacular.

[33:45] Chris: Everyone in it. Just terrific. But those leads. Incredible.

[33:52] Heather: Yes. Below the roof off the house.

[34:01] Heather: Yeah.

[34:02] Chris: Let DC is the mom. And let's see LaFontaine. So Thursday I went to the first preview of The Fantastics.

[34:09] Heather: Oh, my God. So jealous. Did they have anything for first preview that was like a giveaway or no?

[34:15] Chris: No. No. They at least got started on time.

[34:20] Heather: Fair enough.

[34:21] Chris: It's delightful. It is. Now, for those of you who know the Fantastics and are worried, oh, they're trying to change it. The spirit of it survives and they pay lovely homage to the original production at the Sullivan Street Playhouse. When you walk in, there's a ghost light. There's a harp. There's a piano. And there's a crate onto which is stenciled Sullivan Street Playhouse.

[34:49] Heather: OK.

[34:50] Chris: And a couple of people walk on in in their stage blacks. One sits at the harp, one at the piano. And they start to play the original overture, you think, until they get up halfway through, turn around and bow. And it's the actors playing Mortimer and Henry.

[35:08] Heather: OK.

[35:09] Chris: They walk off. The harp and piano disappeared. The crate turns around and now it says the Helen Hayes Theater. The Fantastics drop flies out and you see the new set, which is very simple, but still somehow awful. It's too much.

[35:28] Heather: I don't know.

[35:32] Chris: I did not mind that they made Matt and Louisa Matt and Louis. I don't think it took anything away, but I don't know that it added anything either. It was still the same story. El Gallo. Hysterical perfection. Zane Phillips, who is this. I mean, first off, his guns, I don't think you're allowed to carry in public without a permit.

[36:04] Heather: Yes, he's he's there for that gay crowd that came to see the male.

[36:12] Chris: Oh, man, I'm never going to get a photo from the press event. So you've seen it and he's in this tight shirt that he looks like, you know, he just danced down from the Ambassador Theater. Chicago let him out early to come do this. But he's so funny and and self-effacing and, you know, in that that funny macho swagger, that's never too much. It's just perfect. I love Ruthie Ann Miles and Leslie Kritzer. Love the moms. And I think the show works better today with two moms than it did with two Vaudevillian dads. Vaudeville in the early 60s. Everybody knew what they were doing. They knew what that trope was. I don't think it's aged as well. And so having that maternal looking out for the kids and wanting them to end up, you know, in the protective this and all that.

But but still, when they're like at the top of Act Two and they're sort of fighting that neighbor, neighborly two women gardeners bitching at each other about watering and it just hysterical. And the two of them are just so brilliant anyway.

[37:26] Chris: And then the mute. I don't remember who played the mute, but he was a dancer. And so rather than just sort of doing a lot of presentational. You know, jazz arms and things like they had him doing almost a Fosse thing during round and round. And, you know, when the kids are out getting beaten up by the world. So it was a lovely production. I, I think it would still work in that production with Matt and Louisa. I don't think it has to be Matt and Louis. But it didn't not work either. So now there's an option. If you want the school board to shut you down, you do the Matt and Louis version.

[38:11] Heather: I mean, there you go. Texas.

[38:17] Chris: Friday. I saw my favorite thing that I saw, and that was the heart at the Laura Pels Theater, which apparently is it's been circling the Sondheim so that as soon as and Juliet moves out, they can swoop in. They really want to open in the Sondheim.

[38:39] Heather: It's.

[38:41] Chris: Here's the thing. I sat I had an orchestra seat and the book writer's husband is a friend of mine. And he said, you know what? Here's the thing. I sat I had an orchestra seat and the book writer's husband is a friend of mine. He said, I wish we could have gotten you into the balcony because then you could see there are projections on all the walls, but also on the floor, which I couldn't see. So great, great video projection usage. The sound just the sound mixing. Incredible. It's electronic music. It's E.D.M. I can still hear every word. And I think the E.D.M. really works because really, the heart is about a heart, right? It's not about the young man. I don't think this is spoiling anything.

A young man is in a car crash and left brain dead. His parents, because he didn't sign the donor card on his driver's license, have to make the horrible decision whether to let doctors take his organs to give life to other people because his son is never going to, you know, the son is dead, brain dead, never coming back, which is a thing that still mystifies me.

[40:06] Heather: And that's why I'm not in medicine and not a philosopher.

[40:10] Chris: The whole idea that you can, you know, that a machine is keeping you alive by pumping blood. And without that note, you're dead. And then it's crazy. So it comes the story of once they say yes, how that heart ends up being given to.

[40:31] Chris: There's a woman who is having her birthday and has decided after three years she's tired of waiting and going to take herself off the donor list and accept death. It's so uplifting and beautiful and oh my gosh the pas de deux at the end where there's a duet between the woman who receives the heart and the young man whose heart she got, which of course happens in limbo. The scene Heidi Blickenstaff plays the woman where she's trying to write a letter to the parents saying thank you and she's like, "Jesus, how do you thank someone for giving me their son's heart?" It was just so beautiful and uplifting and I wish it all the luck and I really hope it gets to transfer and gets all the Tony nominations and wins a few, but it won't win Best Actress because that's going to Benjamin Button. You also did something that wasn't a show, wasn't that on Friday as well, Chris?

[41:49] Chris: Oh well, I went to the Museum of Broadway and I picked up my Museum of Broadway membership card and they had a few other people over there so I got to say hi to some old friends. That was nice. And you got to be unexpectedly featured on Schmigadoon's post from that day. They had photographers around, I'm not paying attention to the photographers, I certainly wasn't trying to get into any photos. The person who was was a young man dressed up as Mildred Leighton who when he got in walked over to Anna Gasteyer and sang the entirety of "Tribulation." Sarah Chase has video footage, I don't know if she's going to post it but she has video footage. I was just outside the door so I could sort of see in that it was happening.

I was not able to get any footage and I'm sad about that. But I did get to catch up with Ann. Yes, I did. I went through and I had to go through twice because my friend Jeremy wanted a CD so I went back, got a CD for him and I now have to just remember to get it to the post office and mail it to him. And so I did that but the second time I went through Ivan Hernandez had shown up, he wasn't there the first time. So I said, "I know you're not supposed to, but since I missed you the first time," he said, "of course." So he signed all my stuff while he was doing that. I meant to take a photo of him. I was too busy talking to Ann Harada and I told her, "You won't remember this, but when I met you outside of Hands on Hardbody in 2013, I was telling you how my husband and I are such fans of your work and how we watch Smash and every week we say, 'Who puts Ann Harada in a musical and doesn't give her a song?'" Yeah.

I told her, "You said, 'I ask myself that every day.'" I said, "So imagine the shrieking in our house when we watched Ellsworth last season and all of a sudden there you are singing 'Crossword Puzzle,' which is one of my favorite Maltby and Shire songs. We shrieked. It was so wonderful." But then I had to get out of there.

[44:06] Chris: Did you tell her about the first time that you were featured randomly on a pop-up, like your little fun fact on your documentary?

[44:13] Chris: Oh no, I didn't tell her about that. I did put that on the Facebook if you want to read about that. You can do a brief description to everybody listening.

[44:23] Chris: Oh my god, you got me talking all night. Okay. Yes, this is literally the Chris episode, absolutely. Okay, there is a documentary called "Show Business: The Road to Broadway" that was made by Dory Bernstein and it covers the 2003-2004 Tony season particularly through Wicked, Avenue Q, Carolina Change, and Taboo, which were the four shows nominated for Best Musical. Right. And they had been following all four shows from opening through to the Tonys. Well, Avenue Q in October of 2003 had a cast album signing at Tower Records, which used to be up there on I think it's Broadway in 72nd, up the street from my friend Michael who I visit all the time. So my friend Alex and I went up there. I had bought the album on Amazon, pre-ordered it, hadn't arrived yet before I took off, so I bought it again on iTunes so I could put it on my iPod 2.0 and listen to it.

And then I got to the store and I had to buy a third one so I'd have something for them to sign. I ended up giving the one that finally arrived on Amazon to my sister for a Christmas present and because Ned couldn't be with me, I grabbed a flyer and on the back of it with a sharpie I wrote, "Hi Ned from your friends at Avenue Q," and I have photos of Johnny T, Jordan, and Ann holding it and another one with Jeff and Bobby holding it and me behind the table. This is back when you used to be able to get selfies. They don't really want you to do selfies anymore. It just holds up the line. I think it was before the word selfie was a thing. Probably because I had an actual point-and-shoot camera with me.

I didn't have a cell phone back then. I had a Nokia. It didn't take photos, so I had my camera with me because I still have all the negatives from that trip somewhere. So Dory had a couple of people with a camcorder walking up and down the line outside waiting to get in and we don't know. We just figured this is somebody taking video for whatever. So all of a sudden, years later, I thought, "I'm going to watch the deleted scenes." Oh, I was at this event and twice you can see me in the line with my friend Alex. And if you're watching the documentary, Chris is a natural redhead.

[47:00] Chris: Well, yes, if you look at my old baby photos. Yes, you're a ginger.

[47:00] Chris: Yeah, although I feel more like a Marianne.

[47:10] Chris: Oh my goodness. I would have said the professor.

[47:10] Chris: Oh, that too, yeah. I do have a strong pro-educational streak in me. Anyway, so that was Friday. I had a lovely dinner Wednesday at O'Hurley's. It's a pub, 48th Street. I don't know. It is right down the street from the James Earl Jones since we're shouting out everywhere I went my entire trip.

[47:39] Heather: Yes, that helps our members when they're trying to find a place that they want to go to.

[47:44] Chris: Yes. I also, if I'm going to recommend, I always go to McHale's up on 52nd when I'm in town. It overlooks the stage door for the Gershwin. I had some shopping to do at just in time.

[47:58] Heather: Yeah, you did. I don't know how you pulled that one off.

[48:04] Chris: Well, I went in Thursday. No, Wednesday after their matinee and went downstairs. They let me go downstairs and the guy had just closed up. He said, "If you have cash," I said, "I don't." He said, "Good. Come back tomorrow at 702 right after the show starts. We'll get you in." And the lovely woman escorted me down because what they have there are actual CDs of the Jeremy Jordan tracks. Which is amazing. CD EPs. So I was able to get that and able to use my credit card because who travels with cash?

[48:42] Chris: Anyway, Saturday, I decided to end with a matinee. It was Saturday. New York was busy. Things were selling out. Couldn't get a ticket to anything. And I thought, "I don't know. I could just go to Tix or something." I'm walking downhill toward the train station in Brooklyn. I thought, "I'm just going to look one more time," and a rush ticket showed up for Slam Frank. Some of you may have heard of Slam Frank. It is wild. It was at the same time I saw The Exorcist and I was like, "Ooh," and it was a very interesting crowd that was coming out. I was like, "Um."

[49:28] Heather: Yeah. Slam Frank is something.

[49:35] Chris: It's something. You want to enhance on that? It wants to be everything. I think I wrote that Slam Frank is a dumpster fire of a political dumpster fire barreling in which I'm not going to remember now, but it had something to do with Mel Brooks and Brecht that ends in a dumpster fire or something. I don't know. It's an incendiary thing. It wants to piss you off. It does everything it can to piss you off. It seems like it's like South Park. It's going to equally offend everybody.

[50:23] Heather: Yeah, but further than South Park it never goes.

[50:31] Chris: Yeah, that's also fair. It doesn't do it with a wink. That's why it's the Brecht part. Yeah, like the Mel Brooks is the funny part. Bertolt Brecht was the, "Oh, shoot, they're being serious here," until you just don't know and then it ends on another absurd Mel Brooks note, which if you see it, you'll know exactly the reference. No, we will not spoil that for anyone. We will not bring our moms to see Slam Frank.

[51:00] Chris: No, I was, I took my mother to see Avenue Q and that was enough with puppet sex and the bad idea bears. Like it was. I mean, you know, Greg McGuire did tell Stephen Schwartz, "Puppet sex. That's what it needs, Stephen, a number with puppet sex." And Stephen said, "No, I'm not going to do that." And then Avenue Q won. And Stephen's like, "Oh, I guess, you know, I just I'm still unpacking stuff from my move because, you know, my life," and I found my down the rabbit hole that I had. Gregory McGuire had signed. I had purchased a signed copy from Barnes and Noble online because it was available. I don't think I told you the story, but in Gregory McGuire being, you know, the writer of Wicked and Son of a Witch and my stepsister or whatever.

But this is his Alice book. And I was super excited. I remember literally the moment I ordered it. I got the book and I have seen his autograph and it's like he is always doodling and it's very like dramatic. I open up the book and it was like a squiggle and I'm like, "What it?" I was very concerned and naive because I didn't know what an auto pen was at that point. And I, this is the kind of person I am. Chris knows this very well. Our listeners do as well. But if this doesn't surprise you, you know, I reached out to the said, "I don't know if Barnes and Noble is selling the actual right book. I'm not sure what happened. You know, I was very much looking forward to a signed copy. I was very excited to receive it when I opened it and it's just a squiggle.

It looks nothing like any of the autographs that are available online. I'm so confused." His publicist, like his the publisher and like they were all so nice. And she called me and she's like, "Thank you for bringing this to our attention. He wound up having an intern sign a lot and it just got sloppy." She said, "But we really appreciate you being such a fan that we're going to actually have him write one and create one for you." She goes, "You hold on to that book or give it away or do we want and we're going to send you another one that he has signed." And so I have one that signed that has the white rabbit riding in a teacup with the traditional autograph. And I was like, "That's cool." But like now no better than to purchase something that's like pre-signed. Right. So I went to a drama bookshop because I knew that Kate and Nathan had signed the newly published libretto for Great Gatsby. I had a pile of them. They made a pile.

[54:31] Heather Bedor: Because I there's if you ever a drama bookshop, but I happen to be in town everybody I have two places that I'm very specific three places. I'm very specifically at one I'm right by the door cuz my friend David work security and I'm sitting right in the front seat right behind the front window and just hanging out. Too I'm at the counter for the cafe talking to everybody over there and getting coffee or whatever usually Carolee Carmelo. Now the Italian cookie I sauté or three if I'm actually trying to get work done. I go to the second large round table. I have my back to everybody and I'm facing essentially the post so I can always tell from in one video it always cracks me up. But Chris you find that to kind of be like you were cheers as well, huh?

[55:19] Chris: It is it's every time I walk in I say honey. I'm home and no one ever gets it. My place is across from where David stands on that banquette along the wall. Yeah as far over to the right as I can be. Okay, and I'm usually the second table over or right in the corner. I'm just comfortable there because then I don't have my back to anyone. I get the glorious morning. You can always find me there between 10 and 11 every morning and I just get my americano and a glorious morning muffin. My favorite thing it's my breakfast of choice. And if I'm in the stacks, I'm at the back on the new and what's on stage wall, okay? Back and forth with the info desk person and I will always ask what's something good you've read?

What would you write? I want a new thing and that's how I discovered wolf play two years ago, which was a beautiful amazing play and I never would have discovered. I brought home some stuff that's either on or going to be on I brought home here there be blueberries. Okay, the Moses Kaufman play. I brought home schoolgirls and then downstate I'm very curious about downstate which finally I was there.

[55:43] Heather Bedor: Yeah.

[56:49] Chris: Yeah, so I bought things that are just shows that are being currently revived and those are the next three. I'll read but you can also order from drama bookshop. I just prefer to go in there so I can keep a better count on what I'm picking up and make sure. And my friend Brian gave me a copy of Liza's biography which was a big thick hardback. I did not know that I would be taking home. And yes Jeffrey schoolgirls will be streaming live for its last week of performances, I believe. I'll actually be going through the League of live live stream theater who are slowly becoming very good friends with the Broadway Fan Club, so we will have a lot more information for that streaming event and hopefully knock-on-wood will have some sort of actual promo code for our members to enjoy. I was sad to have missed judges African hair braiding which also did a lot of them, but they only did the one. But I wanted I love when theaters becoming more accessible. It's very important.

[58:05] Heather Bedor: Mm-hmm. Good night. Good luck. I remember sitting I was at a Jace Bailey's birthday of watching it on my phone because it was so my you know momentous and really read 30 was beautiful. I'm sad you missed it, but I'm hoping that there will be other opportunities for you to see it if anyone missed it shame. It raised I'm trying to find the total amount it raised it was almost 500 million. Yeah, it raised four million five hundred and seventy one thousand four hundred and sixty four dollars which five hundred twenty five thousand six hundred dollars was provided and matched by the gates foundation. Go Melinda Gates.

[58:51] Chris: What'd you say? It was Melinda Gates. Yeah. Yeah.

[58:55] Heather Bedor: All bills money just to piss him off. Hey, whatever. It was really fun to see because I had a couple of people that I've met you know, I keep talking with the Broadway crews and I've got a promotion for that as well, but I'm like one of the ensemble singers Marcus. He was in that that was really nice to see Adam Pascal and Anthony Robb and Adina made her grand entrance and Daphne Ruben Vega Wilson Jermaine her idea so many people on that stage at Hamilton Ricky Lake drove me nuts Chris.

[59:27] Chris: I saw your post the other day asking about gay Halloween because that's like the thing like I hate gay Halloween. Yeah, I had never heard the meme. I hate gala gay Halloween. What do you mean? You are dot-dot-dot. It's the first year I've heard it, but I saw somebody had dressed as Jennifer Tepper dressed as some character. I don't know from some TV show I don't know and ran into the woman who played that character's mom on the TV show and got a photo with her. That was that was over at Michael and Tom.

[1:00:08] Heather Bedor: TV show and Michael and Tom that I cannot talk Dan Cora. They were over at West Bank Cafe Facebook because she did skimble shanks for like me. They did at West Bank, they did a millennial Halloween. So yeah, she dressed as Marnie singing stronger at Charlie's fork party on girls from HBO season 2 episode 9 and then ran into Becky and Baker who played Hannah's mom so she was very excited about that.

[1:00:08] Chris: Yeah.

[1:00:50] Heather Bedor: It's amazing. I'm gonna tell you these costumes are something else. I mean that's niche. I went now. Okay, I get it. What do you mean? You're so-and-so singing stronger on episode that is very very niche. But the guy dressed as Ricky Lake all the red carpet at red 30 with the microphone screaming at everybody is cracking me up. But yes, and somebody dressed as the matches that Adam Pascal forgot to bring on stage. That is niche unless you quite right. He don't had a match. I it was hysterical and it was so great and refreshing to see like everybody on stage. They're still having fun with it. It's really phenomenal. So we'll see what happens.

[1:01:41] Chris: We'll see what happens if they're gonna be bringing an opportunity for people to get a chance to rewatch it or if they're gonna do something like what we did a couple of years ago with Bonnie and Clyde. So once we know something you guys will know something and I know we're running out of time. I have in two hours or an hour and a half I get to sit in an MRI machine for an hour and a half.

[1:02:06] Heather Bedor: Chris is there anything that you all wanted to mention tonight on top of that?

[1:02:09] Chris: Oh, I've got some stage-used props I picked up and I will bring those next week when marks here because I want to save them for when marks here.

[1:02:17] Heather Bedor: That's okay. You can save them. I'm sure I'll see them. So he'll appreciate that. I'll appreciate them. But I know you want to say no, but so will mark and if we're three of us here together the holy tripod will be here.

[1:02:31] Chris: Yes.

[1:02:33] Heather Bedor: Yes, and then maybe next week I'll tell you about the two and three-quarter hours it took me to get from the Orpheum Theatre to gate 522 at JFK.

[1:02:44] Chris: Yeah, that's why I take the uber shuttle.

[1:02:51] Heather Bedor: That's all I'll say but I'm so glad thank you. I was like, I know I've heard so much of this about the shows you saw you're keeping me very posted, but I'm glad that you're able to share with our audience. It's important to see new works and give new theater a chance. It doesn't always have to be something big and bad. I will say I'm gonna I'm gonna do a personal shout out to a friend of the show and a friend of myself and Chris that I've been posting Chris knows this coming up the one and only Justin Sargent who was on our show a little over a year ago when he was on the Angelica tour for Hamilton? Who's been a rock of ages spider-man turn off the dark? Obviously Hamilton 500 different things Bonnie and Clyde I'm also in flower power at church on square in the villages, Florida back in 2008.

[1:03:45] Chris: And he was in the show at New World Stages that I cannot think of the name of right now because my brain.

[1:03:54] Heather Bedor: Well, what not all why can't I think name of it it was felt like the war not Porter Landon beard Tyler Maynard Kyle Massey Andrew Call.

[1:04:09] Chris: I met Scott Porter when I was working at Panera and he was doing food prep. So we did pirates.

[1:04:21] Heather Bedor: Yep, so living in Orlando, we're very spoiled that we get to meet all of these incredible people and be friends and family with them. Justin just made it officially announced that he is now the new lead singer of skid row which is insane. Like one of the coolest things I think I can ever every night. He'll get to sing a medley of their hit you know, that's okay. I think it's very cool. But yeah, my friends are rock stars. What about yours?

[1:04:52] Chris: Anyway, so congratulations to Justin. I mean everyone's got such great stuff going on right now and we'll keep posting about it but let's talk about fun ways you can follow us and you can catch up on that Justin a podcast episode if you'd like so you can go to our link tree at www.thebroadwayfanclub.com. You can listen to all 106 including tonight plus some of our specialty episodes of the podcast at www.onlybroadwayfans.com which will take you to our Broadway podcast Network page. You can also find all of our episodes on Spotify Apple pretty much anywhere you can listen to or watch podcasts. That's where we're at. We go live directly on Facebook Instagram and YouTube. We are going to be running that contest. So make sure you are following our Instagram at the B way fan club. That's Thebwayfanclub.

[1:05:49] Chris: Also, make sure you check out our wonderful friends over at act one frames. It is at act a CT one number one frames with an s at the end they do these beautiful frames. I'm going to show off talking about skid row these incredible beautiful frames that you can hang or you can actually put directly on your desk. They have a great promo code for our friends and our members, which is tbfc 1 0 a 1 f so that's the Broadway fan club 10 act 1 frames. If you have any interest in joining me on the Broadway cruise because I know Chris will be working you can also go directly to the Broadway cruise and put in referral code to the number to be like boy F like Frank C like Charlie to BFC if you would like to be able to get $300 off of your booking.

[1:07:10] Chris: Oh thank you. It's you know, three of them.

[1:07:12] Heather Bedor: Yeah.

[1:07:16] Chris: Well rule threes makes it funny, that's true.

[1:07:26] Heather Bedor: We keep the ghostlight burning good night everyone have a good week.

[1:07:40] Heather Bedor: So lots of fun stuff lots of great discounts for our members. We're always here doesn't matter Monday night we're gonna be here regardless unless rent is happening and right now as we speak we're gonna bounce off because right now Disney on Broadway is performing on Dancing with the Stars for their special Monday night episode. I'm very excited to go watch that see some familiar faces. We hope you guys get a chance to do that as well. Chris I'm sure I'll talk to you a little bit. Otherwise, I'll see you sometime in the next couple of days. Have a fun MRI.