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[0:00] Jelani Remy & Merritt David Janes: Jelani Remy and Merritt David Janes.

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[14:05] Merritt David Janes: Adventure in Fargo. But yeah, it's all just been this big adventure that's led me back here. I probably would have chosen to get back here a little earlier, but my goal when I left theater school was to play great parts in great theaters and I've been able to do that. And this show is like a culmination of a lot of years of just kind of getting what I call campaign syndrome, you know, when you see a politician and they're like, thank you, Boston. And they're like, we're in Chicago. You kind of like forget where you are sometimes. But it's been a lot of years of that, of just kind of if a tornado was really fun, that's how I picture it. Like if Dorothy never left the tornado and it was really fun, that's what touring is.

And the house has kind of landed here in New York City and I'm so glad it's with this show. This is a great one to be back with. And I jokingly say that the Winter Garden Theater is the only building they'll let me work in in New York because that's where I worked with School of Rock and I'm so happy to be back there. We've got the best staff there, best crew, and now the best company with Back to the Future. That's so cool. And you said when you left theater school, which is University of Maine, yes?

[15:32] Merritt David Janes: University of Maine, I went to music school and then I made the practical decision to go to theater school. And that was here at Circle in the Square Theater, which I lovingly refer to as the Hogwarts School of Theater. I left there and just immediately started touring with The Wedding Singer and that is how this is all coming full circle really because I started as Robbie Hart with The Wedding Singer in 2000. And did you have a problem with the connection there?

[16:03] Jelani Remy: No.

[16:04] Merritt David Janes: And that was with John Rando and Chris Bailey. And Chris Bailey's wife, Sarah Ogilvie, who's very much conquering the Broadway scene along with Chris these days. And we just had a blast. And when this came along, I walked in and just saw their familiar, friendly faces. And here we are. We're going to be right back. So, but you're from Colchester, Vermont.

[16:31] Jelani Remy: That's right. Yeah. What got you into wanting to perform, saying, I guess, undergrad with music was first. So I guess you were a musician first or a singer, performer. How did that all come about?

[16:44] Merritt David Janes: Well, my mom was the concept master of the Vermont Philharmonic. So I had music in my life. So I had music in my life.

[16:54] Jelani Remy: Well, my mom was the concept master of the Vermont Philharmonic.

[16:57] Merritt David Janes: So I had music in my life my whole life.

[17:01] Jelani Remy: Jelani's nodding his head like he had no idea.

[17:04] Merritt David Janes: I don't think you guys are as good of friends as you thought.

[17:06] Jelani Remy: I did not know that.

[17:12] Merritt David Janes: I mean, you guys got some catching up to do. That's not something I lead with.

[17:17] Jelani Remy: Hey, nice to meet you. I would. My mom's the concept master. Okay.

[17:20] Merritt David Janes: Yeah. Hey, nice to meet you. My mom's the concept master. Okay.

[17:24] Jelani Remy: I would have loved it. I would have loved it.

[17:29] Merritt David Janes: No, but yeah, that's how I kind of, I started with a lot of music in my life. My grandfather, he was, he was, he was awesome. He, he was such a talented guy, funny guy, great storyteller. And he was a lawyer, but he played jazz piano. And he would play with the big bands when they would pass through town. And yeah, like the Count Basie Orchestra and those guys. But they'd pass through Connecticut and he'd sit in sometimes when, when they'd come through.

[17:54] Jelani Remy: Is there a musical about, like that features lawyers?

[17:58] Merritt David Janes: You know, I'm just picturing him pulling, pulling and pulling in the piano, giving his closing arguments to a, to like a big jazz band performance.

[18:07] Jelani Remy: Yeah. I love that.

[18:09] Merritt David Janes: I like the idea of a cease and desist letter going out that stops that musical.

[18:13] Jelani Remy: Fair, very fair point. And then let's see, Jelani, you're from New Jersey.

[18:24] Jelani Remy: Yes, I am.

[18:25] Merritt David Janes: You went to Montclair State, New Jersey. And then remind us again, the, you know, you obviously gave the, the full story back in EP 253. But what is your, what was your road to Broadway as well?

[18:38] Jelani Remy: Yeah, so like after I got a job from school, I started doing high school musical. And I was 19 going on tour. And I did that tour for like almost two years. And I too, I've been to every state but Alaska.

[18:53] Merritt David Janes: Whoa, you even North Dakota now?

[18:55] Jelani Remy: Which is kind of exciting.

[18:56] Merritt David Janes: Jelani!

[18:57] Jelani Remy: Even North Dakota, because after High School Musical, I did High School Musical 2 after that. And then I did The Lion King in Las Vegas.

[19:05] Merritt David Janes: Right.

[19:05] Jelani Remy: And then I did The Lion King on tour for when I toured for about four years on the on the road with Lion King. So we've been traveling, we've been going. And then that took me to Broadway. They transferred me from the tour to Broadway.

[19:17] Merritt David Janes: Wow. Do we need to take a trip to Alaska?

[19:25] Jelani Remy: I think we do. We should take a cruise.

[19:28] Merritt David Janes: Yeah. All right. Yeah, Alaska.

[19:31] Jelani Remy: And we bring the Concertmaster.

[19:33] Merritt David Janes: That's right. The Concertmaster will enjoy herself very much.

[19:37] Jelani Remy: Listen, I just, at the end of August, I just did an Alaska cruise. So I can say now...

[19:44] Merritt David Janes: You did?

[19:44] Jelani Remy: Yes, I did. And...

[19:47] Merritt David Janes: What was your favorite thing you saw?

[19:50] Jelani Remy: Just this freaking nature, man. That is just untouched territory, because all the cities up there, you can't drive to them from the mainland. You have to get to them from by boat or by plane, or, you know, your ferry takes the car over. So Anchorage, Juneau, we've docked in, let's see, we ported in Ketchikan, Juneau, and I'm blanking on the third one. But all of the cities are, were completely, like, isolated in terms of roads. You just, it's insane.

[20:25] Merritt David Janes: See, there it is.

[20:26] Jelani Remy: You got to do it.

[20:27] Merritt David Janes: We want to be where the salmon are.

[20:29] Jelani Remy: Oh, yeah, we saw salmon and wild bears.

[20:32] Merritt David Janes: Saw some wild bears. It was great. No, it was awesome. Highly recommend. Definitely do it. And also, if you can get, if you can, like, pitch yourselves, you can put together a variety act, because on the ships, they hire all these variety acts that go out with ships. So...

[20:47] Jelani Remy: Yes, sir.

[20:49] Merritt David Janes: There you go. There you go. So that's what you got to do. I'm giving this, you can take this idea for free. Put together your little...

[20:55] Jelani Remy: This has literally been a think tank. We thought about new musicals. We're thinking about cruises. I love this.

[21:01] Merritt David Janes: We're going to do the lawyer musical on the Alaska cruise.

[21:06] Jelani Remy: Okay. Simba grows up, becomes a lawyer.

[21:10] Merritt David Janes: Yeah.

[21:10] Jelani Remy: Travels back in time, meets the principal that got him off of Pride Rock in the first place.

[21:19] Merritt David Janes: See where I'm going? Like, we can weave it all together.

[21:21] Jelani Remy: I love this.

[21:23] Merritt David Janes: Yes.

[21:23] Jelani Remy: Yeah, yeah, yeah.

[21:24] Merritt David Janes: Yes.

[21:27] Jelani Remy: What would the... Yeah, great idea.

[21:34] Merritt David Janes: What would the time travel mode be for a time traveling lawyer Simba?

[21:42] Jelani Remy: It'd have to be something with Rafiki, you know what I mean?

[21:45] Merritt David Janes: She'd have to do some sort of spell or something.

[21:49] Jelani Remy: We take a cheetah back. We take the cheetah. The cheetah runs 88 miles.

[21:54] Merritt David Janes: The cheetah must reach 88 miles per hour.

[21:57] Jelani Remy: Exactly. Exactly.

[22:01] Merritt David Janes: I like that.

[22:02] Jelani Remy: I'm going to pitch it.

[22:04] Merritt David Janes: All right. I think Disney... Hold on. Disney's calling.

[22:07] Jelani Remy: Oh, no. Yeah. $2 million.

[22:09] Merritt David Janes: There's a cease and desist.

[22:11] Jelani Remy: There we go. There we go. A cease and desist coming through.

[22:14] Merritt David Janes: But it was a musical, so there we go.

[22:17] Jelani Remy: Okay. Okay. Okay.

[22:18] Merritt David Janes: So just real quick, when did both of you guys get involved with this production of Back to the Future?

[22:25] Jelani Remy: I was pretty late to the game.

[22:27] Merritt David Janes: Yeah, go ahead.

[22:28] Jelani Remy: I was pretty late to the game. I auditioned with other people who have already auditioned. So I was in the final round, I think. And I auditioned on a random Thursday or something. And they had me come back Friday to dance. And I came back Saturday to sing some more. Because I wasn't available. I kept putting it off for a while. But then once I got the material and I was like, whoa, this is something you really sink your teeth into. This is something wonderful. And then I got to go into a room with eight other guys who look just like me. And we're all sort of doing our thing dancing. And I love the choreography. I fell in love with the choreography. I had just worked with Chris Bailey on another project for Hermes that he choreographed.

So we had a sort of rapport. And I walk into my callback, and there's Chris Bailey. There's John Randall, who I idolized. And there's the producers who I worked with on Smokey Joe's off Broadway. So it was sort of like all the worlds colliding. And so it sort of felt like a family reunion in a way. So the pressure was sort of off. And I felt like I still feel like the best auditions are the ones where you can be yourself. And your nerves are not on. And you're not like, hey, hey, don't you want to cast me? The best are when you can sort of leave there saying, I was able to exhale. And that was a moment that I felt like I was able to exhale and be myself. And I felt good about it no matter what happened. So I let it go. And I didn't hear anything for about two and a half months.

[23:55] Merritt David Janes: Whoa, really?

[23:56] Jelani Remy: So I let it go. I was OK with it. I was like, you know what? You had a good time? Not your gig? That's OK. You had a good time. And they called me when I was at my high school in Cedar Grove. I was helping them with their production of The Prom. And I got a phone call from my agent. And I was with my choir teacher. That is the reason why I'm a performer now. You know, she sort of got me my start by casting me as Doodie in Greece. And I got to tell her that I was about to originate my first role on Broadway.

[24:23] Merritt David Janes: That's so cool. Mero, how did you get involved? Were you involved from the New York?

[24:26] Jelani Remy: That's a great story. For I was I was out in. Well, gosh, we we were just coming back from the beginning of me coming back into the world of theater after the pandemic was really in 2020, early 2021.

[24:46] Merritt David Janes: Yeah, excuse me, 22.

[24:49] Jelani Remy: I went down and did a Buddy Holly down in Florida. That was kind of the first thing back. Then after that, they called me to come to the Griswold Broadway vacation, which was out west in Seattle. And I had just left that. And I was just getting back to the East Coast. And we just it just kind of seamlessly was there for the appointment when I got back. And it it just kind of happened so quickly that I it was hard for me to wrap my brain around, but it was it was really a big relief because, you know, all of us, we didn't we had worked for so long and then to have this be on the radar just the first year back was I was very thankful for that. And I was hopeful that it would work out. And then, like Jelani said, you know, I went into the room and and we've got Chris and John in there and everybody.

There's nobody there's no other team that is rooting for you more than this one. This one is like these guys really care about the vibe. And I think that they really value the the way that that trickles down from the top. And that's not always the case. And, you know, sometimes you'll get a lot of the team that cares. And, you know, but there's something that happens where it doesn't. It's it's not like it is here. And and it is so valuable when it happens that way, because with them caring about the vibe as much as they do, everybody just kind of locks in this great, great energy when we're when we're there. It's it's very positive and everybody's having a lot of fun. And it's because those guys hear about the vibe, you know, and we're going to have Alan Silvestri back and Bob back in October.

They're coming back to visit us. And, you know, when I went on for doc the other day, I was telling Alan that, you know, now that I now that I know him, it's like when I hear this iconic soundtrack, which has always been part of it was like the best parts of my childhood waving to me and keeping me company. But it's like you got to know you're hearing the soundtrack and now you got a friend rooting for you along the way. It's a cool feeling.

[27:16] Merritt David Janes: A friend that created it.

[27:17] Jelani Remy: A friend that made it.

[27:18] Merritt David Janes: Exactly. But and Mara went on and was fantastic. And like the best thing is to have our director, John, you know, waiting in the wings to say congratulations, you know, to be there. It's like, you know, when like you're when you were young and you're and your parents came to pick you up from daycare and you're so excited to see them. And that's the vibe that we're feeling. These people that care so much about the show, like they have our back and we're so excited to see them. And and they're so excited for us because the show is in such a great shape. And the show feels so fun. And the audience is having such a great time. It's it's really something special.

[27:51] Jelani Remy: I agree.

[27:52] Merritt David Janes: I agree. And every time I got like the first time I went and I've been multiple times, right. And the first time I went is, like you said, Merit, that the first downbeat of the overture, when you hear that iconic music that is ingrained in your childhood, just like.

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[39:16] Jelani Remy: And a lot of people kind of miss out on things because there's lots of reasons not to do things.

[39:23] Jelani Remy: And the reason that I've gotten to be on this great adventure that I'm on is because I found one reason to show up. And, you know, I think back to that first audition with Wedding Singer.

[39:34] Jelani Remy: There was plenty of reasons for me not to be there. It was like right in the middle of school and I decided I should start to practice auditioning before I leave school. And it led to my first tour and that has led me here.

[39:44] Jelani Remy: And there's a lot of people that love you that will give you a lot of reasons not to do things, you know. And people's tendency is to start thinking, oh, well, it just won't work out for reasons A through Z.

[39:53] Jelani Remy: And the reasons not to do things occur to a lot of people. And a lot of times it prevents them from doing what they really want to do.

[40:07] Jelani Remy: And all you got to do is find one reason to show up and a lot of great things can happen. So there's lots of reasons not to do things and find one reason to show up.

[40:23] Merritt David Janes: Have you seen that montage of Lady Gaga saying there could be a room of 99 people saying no, but all you need is one.

[40:28] Jelani Remy: Do you know that? All you need is one.

[40:31] Merritt David Janes: Yep.

[40:33] Merritt David Janes: All you need is one.

[40:34] Jelani Remy: You're right. You're right. Thank you. Thank you, Lady Gaga.

[40:37] Merritt David Janes: Thanks, gags.

[40:38] Jelani Remy: All right.

[40:40] Merritt David Janes: G-g-g-g-g-g.

[40:41] Merritt David Janes: All right. Merritt, last question. If you can only see one show for the rest of your life, but you can see it as many times as you want, what would you see?

[40:45] Merritt David Janes: See one show for the rest of my life?

[40:48] Merritt David Janes: Disaster, the Musical. No.

[40:59] Merritt David Janes: Back to the Future, the Musical! And Cheers to Seamless Promotion!

[41:02] Jelani Remy: Good answer. Good answer. Good answer. Good answer.

[41:06] Merritt David Janes: Jelani, do you have an answer to this?

[41:08] Jelani Remy: I think that's the truth, actually. I think that's the truth. I would see this show.

[41:12] Jelani Remy: I could watch this show. If I could only watch one, I could watch this one. Yes.

[41:18] Merritt David Janes: That's a good one.

[41:19] Merritt David Janes: Jelani, yeah?

[41:20] Jelani Remy: You know, my go-to show is The Lion King. Anytime I have a night or need a boost or inspiration or just to go home, quote unquote, I go see this show and I just love it so much.

[41:33] Merritt David Janes: I love that. Well, where can we find you both on social media? Merritt, where do you play that game?

[41:39] Merritt David Janes: I am DJ Tanner on Instagram and just my name on Facebook.

[41:46] Jelani Remy: DJ Tanner, I get it. Love it.

[41:49] Merritt David Janes: Yeah, because DJ was the responsible one.

[41:52] Jelani Remy: That's right. That's right.

[41:54] Jelani Remy: You can catch me at It's Jelani Remy on Instagram.

[41:59] Merritt David Janes: Thank you both so much. Appreciate you.

[42:03] Jelani Remy: Thank you, buddy.

[42:04] Merritt David Janes: Thank you for having us.

[42:05] Jelani Remy: See you back to the future. So, so good.