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[0:00] Mo Brady: You're listening to The Ensemblist, the only podcast that shows you Broadway from the inside out. I'm Mo Brady.

[0:17] Mo Brady: This week, we're collaborating with Broadway performers Jack Sippel and Brendan Stimson and their new podcast, Again From The Top. In this new podcast, these two Broadway dance captains and creative best friends offer goofy banter and behind-the-scenes stories, featuring special guests who have created some of Broadway's biggest hits. Honestly, these two are some of the best in the biz. When I heard they were creating a podcast about dancing and Broadway, I was both threatened and thrilled. And rightly so, because their insights are spot-on and their banter is top-notch.

[0:52] Mo Brady: Today we are sharing a portion of their full conversation with iconic Broadway legend Angie Schworer. Angie, of course, is a beloved treasure of the American musical theater. She's performed in 10 Broadway musicals, including the original casts of The Will Rogers Follies, The Producers, and Something Rotten. She is also the original performer and the inspiration for the role of Angie in The Prom. A castmate of both Jack and Brendan on various incarnations of that musical, the gentlemen lovingly interview Angie about her unique theatrical training and how she learned to find her lane and thrive in it. Here's part of their conversation.

[1:45] Angie Schworer: Like I got it a little bit more as an adult. You know, I kind of learned my, I call it my flag in my foot. All those things. And so that kind of helped, but basically I always say my style I got from Ziegler's Studio of Dance. I got that. And if you look at the shows I've done, The Stro, Tappy Tappy, Tippy Tappy, it's all about style. And, you know, as my, I call my dancing through my resume, my tapping and tipping through my resume, that's kind of what I did. And in the three decades I've been in it, that's what I do, you know? Now we're on the outs. The old showgirls are on the outs. Bring them back. Bring them all back, please.

[2:35] Angie Schworer: But so Jack, it's not, it's not so you think you can dance, you know, I just was never that person and never, you know, but it was enough to get, it was enough for me for what I came into at that time in the 90s, right? And up until, I mean, what? We did it in Something Rotten. There was a lot. I mean, it was Renaissance time, but it was a Tappy Tippy and you had to have a jazz style, you know? Casey Nicholaw, a Nicholaw girl.

[3:08] Jack Sippel: Was there a moment when you look at your career and the other shows that have come up with you, has there been a moment where you stand and look back and say, or even kind of as you're in your, in your career, like as you're going up and you look at a show and you're like, oh, so times are like that now, or you're like, oh, things have evolved to this. Okay. This is where we're going. Is there something you can like pinpoint?

[3:37] Angie Schworer: Well, it's funny because I feel like there's always been those shows around what I'm doing, if that is, if I'm in a show on the Broadway at that time, but there's always the ones around me that are, wouldn't be for me, even if I was a park and barker, even if I could sing a high something, you know what I mean? They're just not for me. There's always those shows. Then it becomes more of like a style thing where even if I was young, I'm not going to be doing the style of Hamilton. Like it's just not who flange, who Angie is, you know what I mean?

[4:19] Jack Sippel: When did you see that change throughout your career?

[4:21] Angie Schworer: I think it's always been prevalent. It's always been prevalent. I just happen to not be in that show. I just happen to be in the one that fit me, which I think is just how everybody's career is. It just became more prominent through the years. Things just have become hipper. That's the most old fashioned way for me to say it. Right? I mean, when you say hipper, but I mean, as far as like the style that you have kind of, I mean, honed into and I'm going to say mastered because I don't think there's anybody if it's certainly of a certain jazz type and a tip type show. If Angie walks into the room, give her the job, it's done. I think you've helped to create and establish such a vernacular. I think that it's nearly unteachable.

Even as you sit here and like discuss certain things of like, you just say like a tippy tappy and those listening, you can't see like the little shimmy that happens in the shoulders and the relaxed face and the oozy smile that happens. You got to show it. Yeah, I get it. But yeah, but you have the, I think it's like an essence that was kind of built from an aura of confidence and all of that.

[5:46] Jack Sippel: And I think there's such a thing of, sure, this young upstarts are kind of coming up and changing the style. But I think there is such a timelessness to your strength. And I think there's hopefully always going to be a spot of like old time.

[6:04] Angie Schworer: I don't want to say old time. No, no, no. It's totally fine. I get it. I'm old. I get it. Baby, but I don't mean you. I just mean like, I get it. The style almost, it's not outdated. I think it's timeless. And I think people absolutely still come to musical theater and to Broadway, especially to see that stuff. But I do think that like now that Hamilton has become so mainstream and in the Heights, so mainstream of like these Lynn shows that have kind of like changed the direction. I think it is going to be interesting to see what happens with these timeless type musicals.

[6:48] Angie Schworer: Well, and I hope and feel that it's sort of like, what do they always say? There's a spot for everyone. There's a place for everyone. And I just sort of hope. I feel like hopefully there will be that, a little something for everyone. And it may be, it will come back around. And I don't even mean for me specifically, because even for the things like when Crazy for You was supposed to come back and things, unless I'm Tess or something, I've sort of aged out of being in that chorus, but I certainly would love for the youth that are of my stature and that could to get, can get to do it. So I'm not even saying for myself, but I certainly would love that for other people to get to enjoy and be in those shows and experience the lusciousness of those great, tap into the Gershwin tunes and I Got Rhythm. I mean, who doesn't want to fucking do I Got Rhythm?

[7:52] Jack Sippel: True. It was written in what? 1927 or 1917 or who knows when? I can't name it off the top of my head.

[8:02] Angie Schworer: But Girl Crazy? You mean Girl Crazy?

[8:04] Jack Sippel: Or I Got Rhythm just in general.

[8:05] Angie Schworer: Oh, Gershwin. Yeah, probably.

[8:08] Angie Schworer: In that time, but it's still being done.

[8:13] Angie Schworer: What I love about our Casey Nicholaw is, especially in Something Rotten, and also in Minsky's that I did for him, he likes all different shapes and sizes and ages and personalities and somehow he puts it all together. And that's interesting to me. And I love being in that process because he knows your strengths. He knows what you can and cannot do. And you know what I mean? It's like he purposely picks certain people. And so I do love that. I remember specifically in, Brendan, you were probably there in which workshop of the prom and we were doing what used to be not about me, but it was something else. And the girls really danced. I did a little, I did the dance break by myself. Then the dancers came and were really dancing.

Like Shelby Finney was tearing it up. And I was like, I kind of went behind and I thought, well, let me just at least, if I don't have to do what they're doing, but let me just, I'll pretend they were jumping and I just was like doing arms or whatever. And he's like, and she was like, yeah, yeah, that's not what, you don't do that well. But he was true. But I was like, let me just try it. I'll just try, give him something to look at, which is then that's when all of my spinning and just my legs on the chair, I think started sort of created. I was like, well, I'll just sit in the chair and wave my legs around.

[10:03] Jack Sippel: That's so right. Yeah. There was a moment when we added, I think like, I mean, a couple major dance break counts. It was me, Shelby Finney, Ian Young and Natalie, Clay Carter. And there was, I mean, there was a point where we actually set up a box in the upstage for some of that stuff. And we timed these jumps, jumping off this box. It was like a tote touch and a huge attitude leap. And we're like, what are we doing back here? We're killing ourselves. And Angie's just in a chair, just leg, leg, leg, leg.

[10:39] Angie Schworer: I was probably just looking at my nails or something. Just like, thank God. Giving us something to look at, is what she's doing. Giving us something to look at. But it didn't hurt my feelings because he was being truthful, but it was like, that's not what you, that's, you know, that's not what you do well. You know? And so I guess it's good when your director knows that too.

[11:05] Mo Brady: Special thanks to Jack Sippel and Brendan Stimson for allowing us to share a portion of their interview with Angie Schworer today. To hear their full conversation and to listen to episodes of Again From the Top, you can find them on Apple Podcasts or at bpn.fm.

[11:21] Mo Brady: The Ensemblist was produced today by Jackson Klein and me, Mo Brady. Please rate and review The Ensemblist wherever you listen to podcasts, on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, or at bpn.fm, the home of Broadway Podcast Network. Our Patreon members have on-demand access to our archive, full conversations with guests, and early access to episodes.

[11:44] Mo Brady: You can support us there for between $5 and $20 a month at patreon.com slash The Ensemblist. Thanks for listening. Until next time.