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Sondheim! The Birthday Concert [Casey and Rosa's Version] - Part 1
31 Plays7 months ago
In the absence of our dear Flo who is currently kicking ass and taking names at Edinburgh Fringe with her new show Yes, We're Related (ticket link below!), Casey and Rosa are hosting their very own Sondheim Birthday Concert! Using song suggestions from listeners and friends of the pod, Casey and Rosa fantasy cast 12 Sondheim numbers with divas and divos of the Broadway stage, complete with backstage gossip about our cast’s careers! Let's be real - with Casey and Rosa left alone to their own devices, it of course descends into campy chat about SATC and Che Diaz!
Follow along with each song using our handy playlist: https://open.spotify.com/playlist/0J5FvbEZWSdE9uuuNQHXF4?si=ae1e9fd6e8314433
Check out more about Flo's show here: https://tickets.edfringe.com/whats-on/yes-we-re-related
Credits
Artwork by @drawnatthehalf
Hosted by Casey Gwilliam, Florence Lace-Evans and Rosa Maria Alexander
Produced by Rosa Maria Alexander
SUGAR COOKIE (Piano Ver.) Music by 샛별Daystar https://youtu.be/7lqpOlVYtD0 Promoted by BGMD No Copyright Music http://tiny.cc/yf4qpz
Email: sundayonthepod@gmail.com
Instagram: @sundayonthepod
Twitter: @sundayonthepod
Facebook Page: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100090008413791
Recommended![Sondheim! The Birthday Concert [Casey and Rosa's Version] - Part 2 image](https://media.zencastr.com/cdn-cgi/image/width=112,quality=85/image-files/6328b4d65e0394314b97508d/7fece278-2cd0-43b5-b5e4-ef0f1b02b9cf.png)
Transcript
Introduction and Co-host Absence
00:00:21
Speaker
Hello and welcome to you Sunday on the Pod with... Casey! Not Flo sadly but Rosa! Hi, how are you, Case? It's just me and you today. I'm now feeling very, very lonely here. No. We have our very lonely but public. like I'm here. No. I really forgot what I was gonna say. Feeling very... what's the word? ah um Incomplete. Incomplete, yes. We are feeling very incomplete without Flo. Flo, we are so proud of her. She is off doing her thing for Fringe. She's busy prepping for her month that she's gonna have in August at the Edinburgh Fringe with her show. So please go and see her, go and support her. We have a link in our bio to tickets to her show.
Honoring Sondheim with a Fantasy Theater League
00:01:08
Speaker
um Yeah, go and support our friend. We love and miss you, Flo. So this month's episode, we decided to put our heads together and come up with something different since we didn't have our usual three amigos for this month's episode. So we decided on a fun little tip of the hat to our Pods inspiration, Mr. Steven Sontime, with casting a sort of fantasy theatre league, if that's what you want to call it, a hundredth birthday concert. Yeah, we are doing, obviously his 100th birthday would not be until 2030, but we're doing an early version. We're doing Sondheim the birthday concert, Casey and Rosa's version. um And we're going to give you a brief history of the Sondheim birthday concerts. And then what we've asked is you guys have actually supplied us with the songs that you wanted to hear.
00:01:57
Speaker
for the birthday concert and we have ahead of time we've gone away we've had a little think about who we would want to see perform these in a birthday concert and we're going to share them with each other live on air and come up with a definitive cast list. I'm so excited this is like my ultimate parlor game it's so fun. like If I had friends that tolerated musical theatre, most of them are grumpy about it, this is I would be like dinner party and this is what we're playing. I still do stuff like this all the time now. So ah especially me and Georgia, we will either watch something, like watch a new musical and then message each other and be like, let's cast it. Let's fantasy cast it. A lot of the time we use our uni group because obviously that's people we know and we were with. yeah i ah But then most of the time
00:02:46
Speaker
We'll be like, wouldn't this person be a great so-and-so? Wouldn't this person be a great so-and-so? Still do it now. I'll watch a film and be like, who would play this person in the musical version? That sounds like such a funny game. I'm going to start doing that. I feel like I just get too excited and then I start casting myself and stuff. i That's what I do. I'm like, who would I be? Like anytime I'm watching something. I always imagine whenever I like, I'm sure absolutely everyone does this who's like a musical theater fan and you become like obsessed with a new show and you're listening to the soundtrack and you're on like a walk or something. I deep in fantasy land of like me performing that number to critical acclaim, even though like it's like maybe someone that I have no, it could literally be like
00:03:34
Speaker
the Spider Woman in Kiss the Spider Woman, which I have not a hope in playing because I can't dance um that well. And I'm like, oh yeah, when I'm 40, that's my time. like I'll be discovered and I'll play the titular role of the Spider Woman. I've said this, I've said that my castability will not like hit the ground really until I'm 40.
00:03:59
Speaker
Yeah, we are both. I feel like we we've had the maturity of those kind of like older female iconic roles, but since we were like 16, which is unfortunate for us. Yeah, definitely. When I play Miss Hannigan and Annie, it's over for everyone.
Sondheim's Birthday Concerts and Historical Highlights
00:04:14
Speaker
It's absolutely fucking over for you bitches.
00:04:23
Speaker
So on to the birthday concert lore. If you don't know, if you are not Stephen Sondheim fans, which I am really sorry I don't judge anyone for their opinion, but if you don't like Stephen Sondheim, I just think you need to take a good hard look at yourself. i But if you don't know much about the kind of birthday concert lore behind the Sondheim birthday concerts, I'm going to tell you about it. So Sondheim obviously started off his career in his 20s with the lyrics for a West Side Story and essentially catapulted from there. The man has been famous from the jump um so he's had like this incredibly long career. So when his 70th birthday rolled around they thought well he's getting a bit older why don't we do a kind of celebration of his life
00:05:06
Speaker
So this was a much smaller affair compared to the kind of later concerts and it was performed at the Library of Congress in the Coolidge Auditorium on the 22nd of May 2000. So it's kind of like a small concert with invited kind of guests, Sondheim was there, it starred Nathan Lane, Audra McDonald, Marin Massey, Debra Monk and Brian Stokes Mitchell who are all frequent collaborators of Sondheim and it sampled a lot of songs from The Frogs which is kind of one of his lesser-known shows and other Sondheim shows and it was these were all selected specifically by Sondheim itself but it also featured songs uh non-Sondheim songs just like Broadway classics that he really liked which I think is quite sweet.
00:05:44
Speaker
It was musically directed by Paul Jimignani, and Tony Award-winning orchestra director Jonathan Tienic obviously led the orchestrations. And the show was actually broadcast on NPR, so you can get that recording out there, which is exciting. I highly suggest watching all of these. They are all kind of publicly available. I've had a dodgy, not a dodgy version, well, I got it through someone's Reddit, Google Drive link, when I was like, genuinely, maybe about 19. um of the 80th birthday concert which is my favorite one and that has actually been on my phone like as it's just downloaded to my photos um and i watch it genuinely every time i'm sad like like my own father will be like hey you've had a bit of a rough day like do you want to watch this on top of the 80th birthday show and i'm like that's sweating um my mom and dad do they like it too so yeah the 80th this is my favorite and this is where it kind of really dialed up they were like look he's getting on to 80 that's getting pretty old
00:06:40
Speaker
So let's do the big bash, and they called this one Sondheim, exclamation point, the birthday concert. So this was a much more large scale production, and it was performed at the Avery Fisher Hall in the Lincoln Center, which is obviously say huge, on March 15th and 16th, 2010. This was directed by Lonnie Price and hosted by David Hyde Pierce and the New York Philharmonic Orchestra. accompanied Broadway veterans such as Michael Cerberus, Joanna Gleason, Patsy the Poan, Audra McDonald, Donna Murphy, Mandy Patinkin, Bernadette Peers, Elaine Strict, to name but a few. This one is like absolutely, like it's the Broadway stars.
00:07:22
Speaker
um and they all performed kind of classic Sondheim numbers. This also featured my favourite, the iconic red dress ladies. So this was a section of the show in kind of like the act two of the show, where Patsy the Poet, Marin Massey, Daniel Murphy, Audrey McDonald and Elaine Strick, obviously all veterans of the Broadway stage and frequent Sondheim collaborators. They basically sat in these kind of like glamorous red dresses and they were all on stage at the same time in a kind of semi-circle sitting down. and they all took turns singing kind of the biggest of sometimes like female led songs so Elaine Strick did I'm Still Here from Follies, Marin Massey did I'm Losing My Mind, Donna Murphy did a fantastic red edition of Could I Leave You that I Never Feel Gets Enough Credit. Audra McDonald in like a stunning turn of events did The Glamorous Life from A Little Night Music which is so not her casting but it was so gorgeous and Patti LuPone of course did The Iconic Ladies Who Lunch.
00:08:16
Speaker
And it was just amazing and I love it. The camera always cuts back to Sontime just crying. He's like just so happy that these women are singing his songs. So then the last one was his 90th birthday concert. Obviously it was the last one because He died very, very sadly um in 2021. I'm still holding out that they will do a 100th birthday celebration in 2030. I think they will. um I think they'll do like a big Sondheim thing, but I would be and be so happy. But yes, so his 90th one, this was called Take Me to the World, a Sondheim 90th birthday celebration. And due to COVID, it was a virtual concert that also doubled as a fundraiser for artists striving to end poverty.
00:08:56
Speaker
This was hosted virtually by Roel Esparza and it featured celebrities and Broadway veterans such as Neil Patrick Harris, Judy Kuhn, Aaron Tevett, Beanie Feldstein, Sutton Foster, Mandy Patinkin, Lin-Mamal Miranda, Lia Salonga, to name it again but a few. And they were kind of virtually singing his songs in between kind of different recorded birthday messages from other celebrities. And this was live streamed on April 26, 2020, which also coincided very nicely with the 50th anniversary of the opening of Company, which is nice because obviously Raul Esparza was hosting and he obviously played Bobby in an early 2000 revival.
00:09:32
Speaker
So yeah, that is a kind of history of the different Sondheim birthday concerts. As I say, most of them are available online on like YouTube or should not be promoting this, but through Google Drive links. So yeah, I honestly recommend watching them so much. They are just so, it's like, basically artists at the top of their game who really understand Sondheim and who he really loved and who really loved him just performing like some of the best songs you'll ever hear like if you're a musical theatre fan it is they're just perfection
00:10:05
Speaker
So just to tie in, because I love having a little random fact, I just wanted to give you some fun, really random facts about Sondheim that I found when I was doing a little bit of research. So this these are unrelated to anything, they're just fun facts that I found. So I never knew this, but it makes a lot of sense. He absolutely loved puzzles. So he loved like doing like murder mysteries. He was like well known in the visa world for like basically creating like scavenger hunts, puzzles, murder mystery games, and which makes so much sense because then he had a cameo in the second Knives Out movie, Glass Onion, where um obviously the main character Benoit Blank is like, he's like on Zoom doing like puzzles. I think they're playing like Clue or something like that um with like a bunch of celebrities. I've always found that really funny and sometimes on there.
00:10:54
Speaker
um But he's also, this is what's really interesting, he is credited with introducing the cryptic crossword to the American public. So pre-1960s American crosswords were just kind of like the straightforward crosswords, the ones that I usually do, the cryptics I find them annoying, but like the normal ones that you just kind of the straightforward ones. And he actually introduced the cryptic crossword because that had originated and was invented in Britain to the US because he did like a series of cryptic crossword puzzles. He wrote them for New York Magazine in 1968 and 1969. So that's where American audiences would never have had the cryptic crossword. I don't know what a cryptic crossword is. Oh, so they're basically like
00:11:39
Speaker
You have your normal crossword and then there are like harder versions of crosswords where the clues are really, really confusing. So it would be something like, um, shades of, shades of indigo, um, pepper these tools. And you're like, what on earth does that mean? And the answer would be hammer and a nail because it's an indigo sister's song. Oh, okay. Or like shit, or even more cryptic would be like shades of blue. pepper these ah yeah pepper these tools or something like that and you would have to be like oh indigo sisters they have a song called hammer in it like it's like i find them annoying because i think there could be multiple answers like with a crossword
00:12:21
Speaker
I don't like things that have are open-ended. And I think he basic you're only very good at cryptic crosswords if you get used to that way of thinking, which obviously is the whole point, but I just find it, I like things with a definitive answer. So yeah, next time you are doing a cryptic crossword, just remember, well, if only if you're in the US, that it was Stephen Sondheim that gave it to you.
Fantasy Casting for Sondheim's Works
00:12:44
Speaker
and My next fun fact, which I cannot believe because I'm a huge Desperate Housewives fan. I've never clocked before. I feel like such a bad fan. All of the episode titles are references to sometime songs or like, I never, I suppose cause I never really look at episode titles. Like it's not, yet to be fair. Yeah. I, I had like, I was such a DVD holder.
00:13:10
Speaker
yeah okay fair It took me a while. I think it was actually only at university where I was going through my Desperate Housewives and I was looking at the back of them going, huh? And then I like was going through every single season and I was like, oh, okay. I know. It's so cool. So the last ever episode is also called Finishing the Hat, which is so fun. Yeah, so next time you're watching Desperate Housewives, check out the episode titles and see if you can match it to The Sondheim Song or The Sondheim Show.
00:13:44
Speaker
So my last fun fact then, so when Sontag was writing the lyrics for Gypsy in 1959 he was living in this apartment complex in Turtle Bay in New York and he would work kind of like super late on the piano kind of testing out new lyrics and just obviously like singing through stuff and one evening he had heard like this angry knock at the door and he like went to answer and he's like oh god I think it's one of my neighbours and it was Catherine Hepburn And she was standing there. Yeah, I know. She was standing there and she was obviously his neighbor and she was, didn't have any shoes on. She was like in a little house coat and she really told her off. She was like, you are keeping me awake all night with your incessant playing. I've got places to be like, she was really, really angry. And it was because she was currently in rehearsals for her musical debut in the musical Coco. So she was obviously very anxious. Oh.
00:14:34
Speaker
But it's so cute. That is so true. The world is so small. It it really it like freaks me out when like paths cross like that. I know. I know. I think it's so funny. But yeah, so they were neighbors and did not get on. Well, I'm not sure. that I think he found it quite funny. I don't think she found it funny at all.
00:15:00
Speaker
All right so we are on to the main show! We are on to Sondheim, the birthday concert, Casey and Rosa's version. So before we get started I'm just gonna do a couple of rural introductions. So I've based this on like how you would cast a fantasy baseball league. This is like the gay version of that.
00:15:25
Speaker
So these are our rules. So the songs were obviously suggested by you, our listeners and our friends of the show. But what we've done is we've kind of whittled suggestions down to only one song for show. There are a couple that have the same amount of votes, so there's two songs from each show. So me and Casey have precast that and we will pick one. So we will make it only one song per show, but there's a couple that we've got to fight between the songs. So as I said, we've kind of preselected our dream cast for each number. What we'll do in the moment here, we haven't seen each other, is we're going to discuss and agree the final cast for each song one by one. um And we'll kind of do pros and cons of each and and see how people play out. So I've said that each performer can only be in a maximum of two numbers. So we don't have what we and what me and Casey would probably like to happen, which is
00:16:14
Speaker
just Barbra Streisand and Bernadette Peters do everything. I've got to try and vary it and performers can be alive or dead and age doesn't matter so you can pick like oh I won Bernadette Peters at the start of her career to perform like this number so it doesn't matter if they're kind of in the races now ah but you have to like specify. Yeah. So if you haven't heard the song that we are casting, I would suggest pausing the podcast and then check the link in our bio. Because what I've done is I've linked to playlist um where I've kind of listed all the songs so you can listen to the song and then come back to the podcast. But I'll also be going through a little bit of like, what does this show about and where does this song come in? So you will have a bit of context before we're casting. And don't come for me with the playlist. I specifically chose the versions of the songs that I like to listen to the most.
00:17:07
Speaker
So if you're like, Rosa, why have you not done the Jake Gyllenhaal versions of Sunday in the Park? Because I prefer to listen to Mandy Patinkin, okay? And I love Jake Gyllenhaal, but he's no Patinkin to me.
00:17:25
Speaker
All right, so I think we are ready to go. So I'm gonna get off the first number and we're gonna kick this concert off. All right, first number, this is our opening number, and we have the worst pies in London from Sweeney Todd, the demon barber of Fleet Street. So, Sweeney Todd, obviously I would say most people know it, it's sometimes probably most critically revered show of all time and it tells the story of the demon barber of Fleet Street and his murderous rampage. um You can actually check out more info on this show, you can listen to our two-part series that we did earlier this year, sneaky plug, but this song Worst Pies in London, it comes pretty early on in Sweetie Todd in act one and it's just when Todd meets Mrs Lovett for the first time, Mrs Lovett who owns the pie shop
00:18:19
Speaker
and she's so excited to have a customer in this kind of pie shop that's failing due to the kind of economic crisis and she introduces herself to Todd although they have met before which will be revealed and she kind of laments to him about the economic crisis in London and the effect it's had on the price of meat and the quality of her pies. Todd doesn't sing in the song but he is kind of present so I've included him in the casting because he kind of is there and he sometimes interjects with little quips but he doesn't sing. So we have to cast Mrs. Lovett who is sometimes played a bit older but usually can be played anywhere from her kind of mid 30s to 50s. She's our female lead, she's an alto singer, she's loud, she's obnoxious and she's really quite quirky and odd. ah She is an odd girl.
00:19:03
Speaker
And then we have Sweeney, Sweeney Todd, typically cast in his forties, kind of upwards. He's our male lead, he's a baritone, he's brooding, he's dark, he's mysterious, and he's complex. So, Casey, give it to me. Who do you have cast for Mrs. Lovett and for Sweeney Todd? Okay, for Sweeney, this is where I used my Mandeep Tinkin. I... Whoa! oh I would love to see his Sweeney. I think that would be great. Do you know what's so funny? I literally had Mandy Patinkin down because I was like, why has that man never been Sweeney Todd? But then I was like, he doesn't sing in this song and I am not about to pull up Barbra Streisand and cast him in Yentl and not have that man sing. Oh, true. But I don't know. I could just see it. I could just see him ah in my in my head, the fantasy cast of Sweeney Todd. I think he would be brilliant.
00:19:57
Speaker
Yeah no I'm with you in the like the general fantasy cat like if he was singing a solo song but I'm like imagine getting Mandy Patinkin out of retirement from Broadway. Just to sit on the stage. so Okay, this one might come out of left field, but I like, I like her. Okay. I've gone with Lily Tomlin. Ooh! Furnaces love it. Yeah, I think she'd do brilliant. I think like... Oh, I could have gassed at that. I quite like that. Yeah, ah like 80s Lily Tomlin.
00:20:32
Speaker
is so quirky and I just think has the right attitude and she's so funny and I just think she would she is a powerhouse performer. I love i just love her. Did you just type in 80s Lily Tomlin?
00:20:52
Speaker
but But me searching, I'm like, Acy's nearly tumbling.
00:20:57
Speaker
she I'm seeing it. I'm seeing the vision. Yeah. And I have raved about this movie a lot of times, but the 1988 cinematic masterpiece, which is big business. I love her but she loved Big Business. She is so kooky quirky in that film. I love her and I think she would just be great. I think she's got the right amount of camp. She's the right amount of weird. I actually don't think of her to sing. Oh yes I have. She sings in that um that really campy thing, the performance that's like Meryl Streep, Cher, Olivia Newton-John, Bette Midler.
00:21:39
Speaker
Lily Tomlin all singing What a Wonderful World. yeah yeah i'm seeing the I'm seeing the alto vibes. And Mrs. Clement doesn't need to be a good singer. She just needs to be able to understand, like interpret the lyrics really. Exactly. yeah And I could just see it. I think she'd do fantastic. Okay. So I'm kind of, I'm like, no, I'm going to give you my suggestion because I think it is a player but I am swayed by a Lily Tomlin. So I have at her current age because I think she could pull it off because she's quite youthful looking. Donna Murphy. Oh yes. Because I was kind of gagged that she has never performed as Mrs Lovett before. Oh yes. and She's kind of got that shrillness in her her voice that's quite good. So if anyone doesn't know about Donna Murphy, she also played Mother Gothel in Tangled.
00:22:35
Speaker
And she alternated Bette Midler's Dolly Levi in the in the recent Broadway revival of Hello, Dolly! Yeah, I can see that. Although I think... No, I don't know. I know, I don't know. And for for Todd, because I was like, oh, well, they're not singing and they're just going to sit on stage and it's a bit of a vanity thing. I'm like, why don't we just chuck it to like, Len Cariou or Alan Armstrong, who used to, who played Sweeney Todd back when they were younger men. I'm like, that sounds so ageist and nasty to me. But like, they,
00:23:09
Speaker
Like, because they are kind of well into their 70s and 80s, their voices are a bit, you know, less powerful. So, I'm like, that would be nice because they can play like, give it to the old boys kind of thing. Like, let them play sweetie one last time without ruining the old reputation. Give it to the old boys. boys.
00:23:33
Speaker
Oh, I don't know. I'm really 50-50 now, I'm like... let me see But I also wouldn't, as long as Patinkin, I mean, we've got another shot for Patinkin somewhere. Yeah. But I'm just, but my feelings are like, would Patinkin even do it? I love that we're asking as if we're actually casting this and producing this. But I'm like, would he do it I don't know. I think he would for the concert. I think he'd come, but I think if he were to be at the concert, he would have a solo elsewhere. So he probably would. True. Well, we'll need to wait and see.
00:24:06
Speaker
Yeah, true. But I don't think he'd, if if that's his sole role, was to come and sit on stage. He's not doing that. He's not doing it. But I think he'd do it if he had a solo elsewhere. I actually think he would do it without a solo for if it was burned at Piers. Yes. Because he would do anything for that woman, I think. Yeah. If you've never seen the picture of them two hogging at Sondheim's old friends on Broadway from a couple of years ago, it is so sweet. It is so cute. I literally, it makes me cry. Okay, I'm gonna call it, I think I'm gonna defer, I think 80's Lily Tomlin, just because it would be iconic, and then maybe she could get a Tony.
00:24:49
Speaker
And then is that not like the one that she's waiting for? Yes. OK, cool. So we have as our Mrs. Lovett, we have 80s Lily Tomlin and we have as our Sweeney Mandy Patinkin in a non-singing role. But I'm doing that on the hope that we I mean, I've suggested Patinkin for another role in this. So I'm just hoping and praying that he gets that because I I can't even imagine a Sondheim birthday concert without him there. So moving on we are on to Company and we have two song suggestions for this. So we'll do the first one ah first obviously and then move on to the second one we'll cast both and then we will make a final decision on what's getting cut from the show and what's making it in. So our first suggestion for this was the classic getting married today from Company.
00:25:36
Speaker
It's a beloved Sondheim show and it's basically, like as we've said, an existential crisis in a cup. Do not watch this show if you are newly single. it will not do wonders for your mental health. This is one to watch when you are safe and secure in a relationship. I can't even mention the last song, Being Alive. If I mention that to my cousin, he's literally, he's like hand over the face. He's like, just fucking stop. Like he cannot even think about that song. ah So it centers around our character, Bobby, on the eve of his 30th birthday and through a kind of series of vignettes with his married friends and with his ex-girlfriends. He processes basically his inability to commit and his fear of intimacy and the resulting loneliness that may come from his life being led this way.
00:26:24
Speaker
So getting married today comes towards the kind of end of act one and it's Bobby's closest female friend Amy who's just about to get married and she is basically having like pre-wedding jitters. So she does this song it's like this very fast-paced humorous patter number and she discusses her kind of fears and her plans to run away in front of her fiance and in front of Bobby and also there's like an annoying soprano priest who just keeps interjecting. So she's kind of like losing her mind and she's like asking all her guests like you need to return the gift sets like I can't do this um and this like soprano priest is like bless this day like just no one needs you babe and her lovely fiance kind of just just intercutting with like these kind of gorgeous melodic like today's for Amy
00:27:12
Speaker
Amy, I give you the rest of my life. And you're like, she's just getting more and more stressed, basically. um It's so good. It's been described as one of the most difficult songs to perform in musical theatre, with one of the verses containing 68 words to be sung in roughly 11 seconds. so to cast this number so it's largely Amy singing but we have obviously the soprano priest and Paul and then Bobby's kind of just there so we can cut him or we can have him in I've cast him. So we have Amy who would ah originally be in her late 20s to 30s in later productions they're a bit more lax with this as the kind of age for Bobby is a bit more lax she would maybe be cast a bit older but she's kind of punchy she's beautiful she's quirky she's the ultimate best friend for Bobby and she is a mezzo soprano alto.
00:28:00
Speaker
we have the soprano priest which as the name suggests is a soprano she's kind of like a mature woman she's like a bit annoying like sometimes they perform it and she's like she's almost in the know of how annoying she's being and which is always quite funny um and she is a very very high soprano, this is often double cast with the character Jenny. We have Paul the Fiancé, he's kind of in his 30s to early 40s, he's a tenor, he has this kind of really sweet melodic voice, he's kind, and he's very like supportive and almost a bit passive. And then we have obviously Bobby, originally kind of on the eve of his 30th birthday, so would be cast kind of late 20s to 30s. Now they kind of cast a little bit older, um he's a tenor, he's handsome, he's sweet, he's charming,
00:28:42
Speaker
but he's existentially unraveling. So I will give you my suggestions for this. I have. I was going back and forth and i' what I've tried not to do is cast perform and like people that have performed this already that I really love. That has snuck in a couple times because if someone's great, they're great. and it's snuck in here. So there was the 2018 revival directed by Marianne Elliott. Obviously it kind of gender swaps the whole thing. So Bobby is a woman and they gender swap a few of the other characters and they gender swap Amy, she becomes Jamie. And Jonathan Bailey kind of played this character and performed this number two, like critical acclaim, like that ah whole production, which Sondheim kind of helped rewrite to make it make sense with the kind of new way that they were doing it.
00:29:31
Speaker
And it got like, you know, it was people love that production. It was critically reviewed really well. But the kind of standard that everyone was like, oh, my God, Jonathan Bailey doing getting married today is like the standard performance. And I found this great quote from Marianne Elliott, who directed it. I'm talking about this process of swapping Amy to Jamie. So she said, but I was auditioning in London. I couldn't find the person to play Amy. I also felt like this woman wasn't now. It wasn't a very modern woman. So then I did a crazy thing. I asked a friend of mine, Jonathan Bailey, would you mind just coming in and trying something for me? It's a little bit crazy.
00:30:04
Speaker
We worked for maybe an hour and a half. It wasn't perfect, but I felt, this is exciting. There's potential here. So then I immediately got on the email to Steve and I said, this is Steven's time. Steve, you have to be sitting down. You have to be having a glass of wine in your hand and take a deep breath. But I'm going to say something to you. I think possibly we should change Amy into a man. And Steve's reply sums him up really as a collaborator. He basically just said, Marianne, you need to be sitting down, you need to be having a glass of wine in your hand, and you need to take a deep breath. I think it's a great idea. Aww, she's just so sweet, like it's just so lovely in Sondheim. And I was lucky enough to get to see Jonathan Bailey perform this. It is a masterpiece. is I think that man is so talented anyway, like I'm really glad for his film crew taking off, but I'm so happy that he's like keeping a foot with Wicked in musical theatre because he is so talented. So yeah, he is my suggestion jim um for Amy Jamie.
00:31:01
Speaker
uh for the soprano priest i thought it'd be really fun to have otter mcdonald because she's got those pipes and i also think it would kind of be funny like i'm hoping she appears later in this as well that we have a number for her but i also think it would just be really funny to see her almost in like the background when she's like such a huge star but i think she also has that comedic timing the way that we were talking about where like sometimes that priest is very like sometimes they grab the um like the hat of the priest or like the cards that they're holding they rip it off and the priest is like very funny so I think she'd be quite good yeah I could see that and then for Paul I had this is really rogue this is like so weird it's not weird it's not that weird just just a bit rogue
00:31:45
Speaker
I had Richard Beimar, who played Tony in West Side Story in 1961 in the movie. i hate um he has that Because Paul has that such gorgeous like... two days for amy and he had I was more thinking on like a vocal level. He just has that gorgeous like... tuna tuna it's like ah It's just so soaring to me. So I thought that would match tone wise. And then for Bobby, I was like, well, he's not singing in this. So again, it's a bit of a Mandy Patinkin, Sweetie Todd thing. It's a bit of an issue. And I was like, do you know who I hate? Neil Patrick Harris. Do you know who's played Bobby with you? Neil Patrick Harris. Do you know what would be really, really funny? To put Neil, be like Neil Patrick Harris. Yay, we're just gonna have you back and we're just gonna get you to do a bit from company. And he's like, oh my God, yeah. And then we just make him sit in silence. And not before.
00:32:43
Speaker
That's really funny. That's actually really funny because in my casting I put him as Paul. Oh did you? Yeah. But like on ah on a quick side note like I did not think about the men in this at all really. I would literally go... I was spending like 20 minutes per song going okay so which actress is going to sing this song? And then I'd be like, oh, there's a man in it as well. Well, let's just put him in. Yeah, that's so funny. I feel like I tried to be quite meaningful, but I was definitely more bothered about the but the girlies.
00:33:23
Speaker
who But yeah, in my but so in my version, Paul was Neil Patrick Harris. I didn't even bother casting a Bobby. I didn't even think. My um priest was Kristin Chenoweth. Oh my God, that's so good. that's i think I think she's got that comedic timing as well. But now you said it, I can see Audra having that sort of like smirk as she's singing, which I just think would be really funny. But that's what I had in mind for Kristin Chenoweth. And then I went with Bernie for um Amy without Bernadette Peters. I think like a 90, like early 90s Bernadette Peters.
00:34:06
Speaker
would would kill that I think she's got just that cancer she's got like really like she's snippy and she's I don't know I'm trying if if you can't see I'm like she's very pulled tight do you know I mean she's very she's good yeah because she's constrained she knows how to constrain I think yeah yeah and I think she can like her voice can get so nasally that I think would work really well for this. And like it would come across as she's being really erratic and like on the verge of something just like bursting out of her eye. Yeah. I'm thinking of her doing like Sunny in the Park with George from Sunny in the Park with George when she's like, you know, and she's like modeling and she's like, God, I am so hard, but there are worse things. And she's like doing all that funny stuff that would, yeah.
00:34:56
Speaker
I don't know, I feel like I might have to fight you on Jonathan Bailey.
00:35:02
Speaker
Have you cast Bernie at all? Bernie, you just don't believe. I had to move her around several times because I was like, I can't keep suggesting Bernie. And the thing that I've suggested her for is quite surprising and I think it would be really good. Okay, well, i'll give it I'll give it to you because I'm really hoping that I win for, um you could draw my person crazy. Oh, okay, yeah, fair, fair, fair. Oh, that's and that's our second number. Yeah. So we had Jonathan Bailey for Jamie Amy, and then Soprano Priest, I'm gonna give it to you, I think, because I think Kristin would be so funny. Yeah, I think, because she's so tiny. What?
00:35:46
Speaker
And then Paul. I just can't have Neil Patrick Harris on the stage singing. That's fine. I wasn't dead set on him. Yeah, me too. He wasn't cast look in in lovingly. I could just see him singing that role. I was like, could he sing it? Yeah. There we go. I'll put him there. So we'll go with Richard Beiber from West Side Story, who originally played Tony. But he's obviously the same age as he was in the movie. Yeah. This is really making me giggle. This really reminds me of when I was a kid and I'd play like, pretend with my friends. And I'd be like, okay, we're playing this game, but my name's going to be Amber, but just pretend. and I'd literally be like, just pretend that I look like ah Michelle Pfeiffer in the... And I'd be like, but ah my face is like Michelle Pfeiffer in Grease 2. That's what I look like in the game, okay?
00:36:38
Speaker
Yeah that is, this is the fun, like I'm really hoping this is interesting for audiences as well and we're giving you some insight but even if nobody listens to this and this is just me and you doing this on a Wednesday night, I'm so happy. yeah I'm so happy. So Casey revealed our second song from Company which is, oh sorry just to say we have relegated Neil Patrick Harris to playing Bobby but just remember this man This is an insult because he's playing Bobby, a character that he loved playing, but he ain't singing nothing and he ain't even saying anything. this is like This is cruel. And I'm happy to be cruel, Neil Patrick Harris. I'll never forgive you for what you did to Amy Winehouse. Yeah, gross.
00:37:21
Speaker
Our second song from company is You Could Drive a Person Crazy. So this song, so good, it appears around halfway through act one and it basically acts as like an introduction to Bobby's ex and current girlfriends and how his kind of fear of true intimacy has impacted his past relationships. So we meet April, Martha and Kathy and they appear as these kind of like Andrew sister style trio and they berate Bobby in these kind of really cute close harmonies for his indiscretions which amongst essentially being like his lack of affection, his distance and his lack of commitment. Also they're like, and he didn't make us come by the way, which of course sounds very funny.
00:38:00
Speaker
but um It's like a super chirpy funny number and um I also think it's always important to know this song does use kind of sexist stereotypes so like April the character is meant to be very dumb and the women are in it are very much like you won't commit and bo bit it's like almost like annoying girls but the misogyny is not from Stephen Sondheim it's a critique that Stephen Sondheim is giving because it's from the point of view as is everything in the show of Bobby. So this is Bobby's projections of what these women are. So when I kind of tell you the uh the character types don't feel like it's a sexist thing because I did think that for years then I was like oh it's Bobby's projections of what his what how he sees the women in his life and then it kind of turned. So we have April
00:38:45
Speaker
She is kind of like a ditzy air hostess. She is in her kind of early twenties to thirties. She's often kind of cast on the younger side cause she is kind of meant to be a bit ditzy and naive. And she is about to spread out. We have Marda who is kind of mid twenties to thirties. She is basically like the New York city, it girl. She's cool. She's adventurous. She doesn't take herself too seriously. She's very direct, but she's also going through a bit of a crisis. She kind of sees the world around her moving at pace. It's a bit different to hers. She's a bit like, She's kind of like an anti-capsular. She's kind of cool. She's an anti-rat race. and She's also a bit so surprised. They're all a bit surprised with these girlies. And then we have Kathy, who is her, she's slightly older, so she's kind of.
00:39:27
Speaker
typically cast in her early 30s to 40s. She is essentially, for Bobby, the one that got away. She's kind, she's caring, she's mature, and she kind of longs for domesticity and comfort, and that's what Bobby kind of couldn't give her. She's as much as proud of as well. Kathy, slightly boring, but it's again, Stephen sometimes playing on what Bobby's predictions of women are. So he has like the kind of sexy one, he has the kind of young naive one and he has Kathy who he sees as like this perfect woman but he would be bored of. Um yeah oh my god how I am so excited to see you here how you cast this. Okay so it might be another one that's really out of left field but this might be one where yeah they could fit into these characters
00:40:14
Speaker
Actually, I do think they could do it. These women could do it. They could play anything. But I would just love to see these three women perform together on stage and it would just be really good, okay? So for Marta, I've got like early 70s Cher. Oh my god, that's so good. I think we've done a similar thing, by the way. Oh, okay. So I've got like early 70s Cher, like I'm thinking like the long dark hair where she'd wear all like the funky outfits. like share what ah Share, share, show, share. Yeah, share, show, share. That's what I've got in my head. Share, show share, share. And then for Kathy, I've got early 70s Barbra Streisand. Oh my God, very good. She almost made it onto my list for this, but then I thought, Barbra doesn't do well when it's when she's not solo.
00:41:04
Speaker
so like As in she sounds gorgeous, but she wouldn't want to be she loves being the center. That's why that's why I've got gone with like all like early I mean, I think you'd need to be younger for these this song anyway, but I think Like his early 70s because she'd be a little bit older then Was she I think she's a little bit older than Cher maybe yeah And then for April, which is probably the one that doesn't really like fit in that well, but I've gone for early seventies again, Bette Midler. And I just think that Bette, Barbara and Cher all in like their youth singing this song. One, I think they've all got great comedic timing. Yeah.
00:41:46
Speaker
I'd just love to see it. I'd love to see it. I don't think that if this was, if we were casting the show, I wouldn't put these women in those roles. Oh, but yeah, we're talking about this song. Yeah. Yeah. Like just in, like, this is just the song that they're singing. I'd love to see that. Okay. Love those. I think I have a similar offering that might be a mix of because we've done a very, very similar thing here, which I think is right for this song. So for April, I've done, I'm so proud of this casting and I really do believe in it so hard. Young Goldie Homme. Oh my gosh! yeah right Young Homme, man. Because she's a gorgeous singer. Started off as a singer.
00:42:31
Speaker
And she's like, she's funny, she can do that kind of, because the best performances of April is when the actress is, there's like a a sense of like irony to the dumbness. yeah So it's almost like the actress is aware that they're a projection of Bobby's mind. So they've got like a wink to the audience like, I'm being dumb because this is how he views me. And I think Goldie Hawn has that kind of like, she's always got that little wink. yeah I thought Goldie Hawn for April. So for Marta, this was a bit rogue, but I love this. I always feel like this woman is left out of like the best music, like Broadway icons. She's always left out. Cheryl Lee Ralph, the original Dream Girl. Oh, yes. And then I kind of went a bit rogue for Kathy and I couldn't really think of anyone, but then I was like, oh, this would be interesting. I went with Jesse Buckley.
00:43:27
Speaker
the okay actress, but she obviously takes her roots in musical theatre as well and and yeah as a singer-songwriter. And I kind of think she has that like um English rose-ness that Kathy, it lends itself to Kathy. Yeah. Oh, cute. But I kind of think that we should maybe do April Goldie Hawn and then ah Marta, you said mar Sheriff or Marta, didn't you? Yeah. Yeah, I'm liking that. And then for Kathy. I'll let you have Jesse Buckley, for one, just not that I'm having the the say, but thinking about Barbara, like late 60s, Barbara, I think would play Kathy really well when like I'm thinking Bob to Barbara, like the Bob Bob to Barbara. Yeah, I get you like playing Kathy would be very like.
00:44:25
Speaker
like just kind of have it like she's got it all figured out and like she knows herself but then also I don't think Barbara's voice blends well with others and especially not in a song like this I don't think she's I know it sounds weird but I don't think her voice is annoying enough to be able to do that like I know we've kicked Bette Midler out the number but Bette Midler has that name I mean like she could yeah you know I mean get that there like end I think like to the front over here. Yeah, it's all like at the front of the face. Whereas I think Barbara would be like, you could drive a person crazy. And it would just be, it wouldn't go well. I also think Barbara just doesn't play well with others. Like there's just no way that she's getting on. We're like, hey, come to the soft time birthday concert. She's like, okay, am I doing send to the clowns? And we're like, oh no, you're going to be a part of a trio. She's like, yeah, I'm not doing it.
00:45:20
Speaker
yeah yeah okay so now final decision then are we picking Jonathan Bailey doing getting married today or are we picking i mean i think i know the answer i think i know what i want to see are we picking Goldie Hawn Cher and Jesse Buckley's you could drive a person crazy yes i think so yeah i think so it's got to be could you driver you could drive a person crazy that i mean Give it to me,
Exploring 'Rose's Turn' and Character Depth
00:45:45
Speaker
Rachel. Now show it to me, Rachel. Send it to me, please. Send it to me, please. All right. Number three, we have Rose's turn from Gypsy. So big number. It's the finale number and it's the showstopper of Gypsy, which is the kind of bio musical, if that's the term.
00:46:06
Speaker
um about the burlesque star Gypsy Rose Lee. So Sondheim contributed lyrics for this and Rose's turn is the kind of comedy melodrama soliloquy of all comedy drama soliloquies. The ultimate dance bomb, Rose, finally takes to the stage at the end of Act Two and she laments thunderingly about her ungrateful children and how they've pushed her out of her rightful limelight. After she's run out of all the bitterness, anger and ego that she has, Rose is left alone. and reckoning with the outcome of a life led very selfishly. So we have to cast just one person. We have Rose. She is bold, brash, brassy. She takes no prisoners and she's kind of mean.
00:46:50
Speaker
um She's typically casting from kind of like mid-40s upwards to like mid-60s, but it's again one of those roles, even though she's meant to be the parent of two young children at the start of the show, the older that you get, almost the better it is. yeah um And she's a mental soprano belter with plenty of belt. I have gone for this one. I was really proud of this and I could really see it. I've gone for Megan Mullally. Oh, interesting. Right. Because I think she's got, I just think she'd play a great Mama Rose anyway. I could just see that happening, but she's got chops. She has got chops, especially if you've, like I do a lot of the time, listen to the Young Frankenstein soundtrack.
00:47:42
Speaker
She is such a powerhouse when she comes on stage and especially when she's like, um during, what song is it? Anyway, Elizabeth Solo in Young Frankenstein, when she comes out and goes, it's me, it's me. And she kind of comes out and goes, it's me, it's me, it's me. I just think, one, it's so funny. ah And she just like really takes the stage, like sent a stage for it. And I just, I could really see her doing it like Megamalali now, like put her in it now. She's like in her sixties. Cause you definitely need a bit of humour for Rose, even though it's obviously like, she's such a horrible person and like some, especially Rose's turn, it's pretty like brutal, but she still is kind of funny. Like when she's doing that, like mum has got a mum. Yeah. Yeah.
00:48:37
Speaker
Yeah, that's good. I had, I said part of me wants to resurrect Ethel Merman just for the brassiness. um But unfortunately, and I love me some Ethel Merman. but she didn't really have the kind of, um like the acting nuance, maybe we should say. Like she had the voice, but she, you know, it's very Shakespearean, ah like Mamaros. So it kind of needs to be played with the stakes. So I did say, and I was really trying not to cast people who've already played it, but I did say Imelda Staunton. Like yeah women is just undeniable.
00:49:13
Speaker
Yeah, she's so good. If we were going for people that had already played it, I would have gone with Bette Midler. Ooh, interesting. I once, at my old, when I was doing my Master's at Goldsmith's, one of our lecturers once went on a huge rant about... Basically we watched the movie and he was like, Bette Midler's got no nuance.
00:49:40
Speaker
I know, I know, we were all gagged as well. They were like, she's just, she doesn't know how to act for a film. She cannot play. Like she doesn't know how to play to a camera. She only knows how to play for the back theater, which was quite harsh. Excuse me. Also, this woman is like a annoyingly overbearing stage mother. She's going to be dramatic and theatrical. Yeah, but I think what they were saying was like, they and I kind of did see it, like, I love the film, but I will say, but I love Beth Miller, I think she's a talented stage and screen actress, but she was playing it the way she had played it in theaters and she wasn't playing it for the cameras.
00:50:29
Speaker
She wasn't playing it for the close-ups, you know? She was still like, blah, like thinking of spotlight was... by But I feel like Bette Midler, that's what I love about Bette Midler is she's like that in everything, like she's like that in beaches. But then that really fits with that. Like in the close-ups in beaches where she does, she does this really, I can't do it, but she does this thing in like pretty much everything, especially Hocus Pocus, she does it in beaches, she does it in big business. where she just distinguishes like really widens her eyes but it's almost like a double like like a double widen and it makes her look crazy but it's great and she does that in everything and also she hasn't written into a contract day in every film she's in she's got to have a close-up of her feet what yeah because she works really hard on doing like her whole body like character work
00:51:21
Speaker
And like, especially in things like, and it's so, if you watch things with that Midler Inn, watch her feet. She does so much with her legs and her feet. I mean, I love that for her. And I'm like, that sounds impressive, but like, I don't think we need a close-up of it, babe. Unless the story calls for it. I don't even know if it's like a close-up, but she has like a shot of her feet. Feet shot? Oh my God. She's like Quentin Tarantino-ing. She says... So like Quentin Tarantino, like his famous thing is that he always, in every single one of his films, there's going to be a close-up of women's feet because he has a foot fetish. But yeah, I think it's more to do with the fact that she's worked really hard on this whole... Oh yeah, I would like to say I don't think Bette Midler has a foot fetish for her own feet.
00:52:09
Speaker
I mean, if she does, it's Bette Midler babe, like, yeah, she's led. Yeah. Oh, I don't know. I don't know. But also the Bette Midler of it all, maybe we want that.
00:52:23
Speaker
I think it needs to be, I will say, but I don't mind if it's Melza, if it's Ethel, it's it if it's bad if it's Barbara, I just, I think it needs to be like a, it's gotta be an old gal. can it Not that a Mel's son's old or that they're old. I feel like I'm being really ageist in this episode. But like, do you know what I mean? Like I want it to be like a Broadway galley, but then like Malale. But Megamalale in Young Frankenstein is incredible. Okay, so I'm happy to go with that. I think the crowd are gonna be, I don't know what the crowd's gonna say to that. I'm happy to give you Megamalale. And I am kind of here for it, but I think I just can hear people being like,
00:53:04
Speaker
You've passed out Bette Midler! Well no, but if we have, if we want, well I'm happy to have Bette, because I love Bette, but I think the feet thing's upsetting me.
00:53:17
Speaker
It's just the entire thing with her feet. It is actually like, she comes up and we've got like ah like a half curtain over her face, over her torso, and that's the bottom half of her. No, let's go with Meghan Mulally. It's nice to pass on the baton. I think I'm being ah being nasty. Slight sidebar talking of icons. I saw Stevie Nicks on Friday and there someone did make a TikTok of it, which I'm so glad someone got it on record because we were crying. um Basically at the start of the concert, someone was being taken off by a stretcher because they were on well. They are absolutely fine, don't worry. And as they were being carried off, Stevie Nicks went, I've got to stop the show. I can't i can't believe I'm seeing this.
00:54:02
Speaker
And then she was like, this is really painful to me. Oh, and then the person gave a thumbs up to and she went, thumbs up, Ben, thumbs up. I just think it's so funny. I can't stop saying it. Thumbs up, Ben. Thumbs So weird. She also, ah they did like a little montage of Christine McVay and they had Lindsay bucking him up there. And she just looked at it and she went, drama.
00:54:30
Speaker
Which I just, I loved. Okay, so our next number, this might be a little lesser known number.
Unpacking 'A Little Night Music' and Character Chaos
00:54:38
Speaker
It's A Weekend in the Country from A Little Night Music. So I think this might be a show that you won't know as well, or some audiences might not know as well, and but you will know it's got a very famous song, Send in the Clowns. This is from A Little Night Music. It's kind of like the comedy farce of all comedy farce musicals. it's crazy. So it's based on the Ingmer Bergman classic film Smiles for Summer Nights and the plot is absolutely mental. I was trying to write a summary and I just I was going off on absolute tailspins because in that farce called nature it's just got crazy plots but I found a great kind of succinct summary from the Denver Centre of Performing Arts. So set in 1900 Sweden
00:55:21
Speaker
A Little Night Music explores the tangled web of affairs centred around actress Desiree Armfeldt and the men who love her, a lawyer by the name of Frederick Egerman and the Count Karl Magnus Malcolm. When the travelling actress performs in Frederick's town, the estranged lover's passion rekindles and this strikes a flurry of jealousy and suspicion between Desiree Frederick, Frederick's wife Anne, Desiree's current lover, the Count, and the Count's wife Charlotte. Both men, as well as their jealous wives, agree to join Desiree and her family for the weekend in the country at Desiree's mother's estate. In the perpetual twilight of the Nordic summer, lovers waltz in and out of each other's lives and arms during a weekend romp in the country filled with possibility, second chances, and endless surprises. So a weekend in the country is this kind of long extended musical sequence that comes at the end of Act One and it sets up
00:56:08
Speaker
all of the kind of plot and action of Act 2 which obviously is very farcical and people meeting and buth bla blah blah blah. So Desiree convinces her mum, Madam Armfeldt, to like host a party and Desiree is quite messy just to say. So she's like yeah send out the invites knowing that it's going to cause chaos between all these men that she's sleeping with. She's iconic. So each character has their own kind of sneaky agenda for attending. Anna is sent into chaos at the thought of Desiree seducing her husband Frederick. She knows that they're having an a affair. But she agrees to go because Charlotte, who is the wife of the Dragoon, Karl Magnus, and who's also having an affair with Desiree, she basically goes, oh no, we should go because it'll make Desiree look old because you look quite young, um which is a bit and ah of an odd thing, say.
00:56:54
Speaker
Charlotte is so messy so she's not even invited and she's like to her husband like we should just go like it'd be kind of fun he's obviously like oh maybe and then he's like oh no I will go because he's obviously having an affair with Desiree she doesn't Charlotte doesn't know this he's planning to deal Frederick for Desiree the guy's married love that and Charlotte in like a random side plot is like I'm gonna seduce Frederick to make my husband jealous even though Anne is her friend so it's very it's all very odd and then there's some random characters. We have Frederick's teenage son Henrik, don't know why that they kept their name so similar, whose aunt steps on. He also is going for a weekend in the country alongside Petra whose aunt's made and they're both also kind of having a bit of a tepid affair, so lots happening. So you kind of got a sense of all the characters but just very quickly we've got Frederick, he's kind of mid-40s upwards, he's a baritone,
00:57:46
Speaker
His wife Anne, who's in her early 20s, she's soprano. We have Henrik, who is their son and stepson, early 20s tenor. We have Petra the maid, who's in her early 20s, she's soprano. We have Charlotte, tends to be kind of played upwards of forsy. She is Carl Magnus' wife. She kind of tends to be played older. She's a bit soprano. Carl Magnus, upwards of forsy, tends to be like a big kind of barreled guy. And then there's a backing quintet, but we're not getting involved with that. So, this is a big one to cast. Thoughts, feelings. I didn't have anything for this. Not gonna lie, just because I don't know this very well. I don't know the characters. I will say I'd quite like to see Jesse Mueller in the mix. Oh, so I had Jesse Mueller down and then I took her out because I popped her somewhere else.
00:58:43
Speaker
okay but ah yeah i had her down as well because i thought she would be good so yeah i can for just from you describing it like i've listened to the song but i obviously i didn't really know what was going on because i bad song time fan i haven't seen it um but just from the description i could see jesse mueller in the mix because i seen her in um on broadway and she was great so good She was with Joshua Henry. Yes and who else was in it? Lindsay Mendez played Carrie. Who was not that kind of a person. Tea?
00:59:27
Speaker
that's suggested
00:59:30
Speaker
tea Yeah, she just kind of came out and I'm all for one of when people are coming out of work. I just think if you are a musical theatre performer, stage door is part of the work. so I'm like, I just gonna say that it is, you know, it comes with the job. It means that you are doing well. like I don't get when people when people are like being like you owe me this and you owe me time then I'll be like no but I feel like don't come out of stage door like there's people waiting to see me again just you know I mean I'd love that I'd come out
01:00:06
Speaker
Am I going to stand there and take a picture with every single person? Probably not because I've got places to be. Do you know what I mean? But she just came out with such an attitude. And then maybe it was maybe it was just that day. I don't know. But then I did see her the next day just walking around New York City on the phone, absolutely slandering someone. No idea who. But she was literally like, oh, my God, I can't fucking stand her. She's such a bo like I was like that on the phone. Oh my god, that's funny. I know. And we caught eyes, and I don't know if she was like, oh my god, you've seen me last night. But I just kind of was like, the both both times I've seen you, you haven't seemed like such a nice person, so. Oh, I kind of feel, I mean, that is really funny, but I kind of, I'm like, you know what, people have a bad day.
01:00:57
Speaker
Yeah, well, that's why that was my like, I was like, maybe she's just had a bad day. But then paired with the thing the next day, I was like, who are you talking about? Then I was annoyed. I want to know who she was talking about so bad. Me too. Because she was literally like, Oh my God, I can't stand her. But ah you know, like you it's fleeting because I was as clocked and I was like, Oh my God, that's them Zimendez. So then I was like, tuned in to what she was saying, but she was on the phone and then like, I couldn't like follow her around. I mean, so they got like, yeah. she's Like, she's talking about you. yes She won't leave me alone. But we can leave her out of this casting. um I have, and I think I'm pretty proud of this, so I have young Jenna Coleman, who and you might know she had a turn in Follies, I believe. um And she, but more recently as well, is known for playing ah Beverly the Pilot in Comfort Away.
01:01:54
Speaker
Oh, yes. no Yeah, really good. Absolutely brilliant. I thought she would be very funny as young Jenna Coleman, as Petra, the kind of petulant maid. And then I had young Joanna Gleason, who I love. Oh, I love Joanna I love Joanna Gleason, but also my favourite role of hers is ah Rachel's Boston friends. Oh my god, I know, I always forget that. And then like when I've sit like in my adult years, not that I watch Friends that much, but we know what it's on. I'm like, that's fucking Joanna Gleason. She's so funny. The scene where there's like a huge misunderstanding and basically she thinks that Rachel's having a fair with Ralph Lauren, which is really funny because clearly not.
01:02:40
Speaker
And Rachel's really trying to tell. She's like, nothing happened between us. I swear like it was, it's all a big misunderstanding. And then they're in the Joanna Gleason and Jennifer Aniston are in the elevator and then Ralph Lauren gets in. It's like silent for a minute. And then he gets out and Joanna Gleason goes, yeah, right. Nothing happened. You could cut the sexual tension in here with a knife.
01:03:05
Speaker
I love it. Oh my god that's so good. Yeah I love Joanna Gleason, she's an icon. I thought she would be really good as Charlotte, the kind of meddling older wife. And then I had very young Christian Chenoweth, this is my Christian Chenoweth suggestion as Anne, because if you have listened, hopefully you've listened to A Week in the Country by now, but Anne who is like this young wife of Frederick who is she's like a bit naive and a bit innocent. When she gets this invitation Charlotte's like oh my god no we should and basically with every new information that comes out that's not good she goes oh no like in this very silly way. She's like very hysterical and I it's always really humorous and I think Chris and Cheddarwith would be really funny. And then for Carl Magnus I had Daddy Bursting who you would maybe know from Fiddler on the Roof. They played Tevye at Fiddler on the Roof. Iconic
01:03:54
Speaker
Broadway star, and he's got that like beautiful kind of baritone like rich voice that I think would be good for Carl Magnus. And then for Henrik, who's the son of Frederick, who does like a gorgeous like, a weekend in the country. He's like a bit of a lost teenage soul. um I have Mike Face, ah who most recently known for Challengers, but also is a musical theatre star. I saw in Brokeback Mountain the I'm not really a musical, play with music. I didn't have a Frederick and I just don't care. Like Neil Patrick Harris can do it if he wants to be there. He's going to be there anyway, being Bobby. So ah like me. Yeah. And Frederick doesn't really sing that much in this slash I'm not even sure if he does sing in this. So again, like if he does have a line, it's like one or two lines. So like pop NPH in, but don't pay him. Yeah.
01:04:56
Speaker
Okay, cool. I'm glad that we're all on the same page.
Introducing 'Passion' and Casting Discussions
01:04:59
Speaker
Okay, so so moving on to another, I think this is probably, I said that you might not know A Little Night Music, but I think this is probably the least known Sondheim work. So this is I Read, the song I read from Passion. This show is a one-act musical with music and lyrics by Stephen Sondheim and books by James Lapine, who also wrote the book for Sunny in the Park with George. What a Pulitzer Prize, thank you very much. and into the woods. The project was kind of wholly conceived by some time, so he was the one who had the initial idea. He didn't pitch it to any writers, which is quite rare for him. Normally he was like pitched and then he obviously took it and wrote it.
01:05:36
Speaker
was adapted from the 1981 film Passion D'Amour and its source material, which is the 1869 novel Fosca. So it's made of an odd story. It centres on an army soldier, Giordio, who is ordered to spend time with this kind of like sickly, and in the words of the show, not in my words, ugly, cousin of his colonel, who's called Fosca. And it's kind of more thematic than plot filled, basically Fosca ends up falling in love with him, he's in love with another girl, and Fosca gets a bit obsessed. But it it basically explores kind of like love, sex, obsession, illness, passion, beauty, power manipulation. And I read the song Assigned by Fosca with kind of brief dialogue and interjections from Giorgio. And it's kind of like this really sad kind of brutal ballad where Fosca is very vulnerable and she talks about her escape.
01:06:25
Speaker
into the world of books and literature as a way to kind of hide from what she perceives as her reality that she's kind of too ugly and unlikable to ever experience true romantic love. So a little bit of a sad one here but this was a friend of the show suggestion so I wanted to put it in. So we have to cast Fosca. She tends to be kind of cast in her mid-30s, a little bit older. She's dark, brooding, vulnerable, and very emotionally volatile. She's obsessive and she's a mezzo-soprano-azzo. And then we have Giorgio, who is mid-20s to 30s. He's a tenor, he's brave, he's romantic, he's passionate, and he's quite stoic. So I have gone a little bit outside the world from musical theater for this one, but I'm keen to hear what you have.
01:07:10
Speaker
cardd for the I only had um our leading lady as Stephanie J. Block. Oh, interesting, interesting. I think that would sound really lovely. um Also, I was like toying between Stephanie J. Block and Shoshana Bean. Shoshana Bean. Yeah, that's a good chat. She's got to be eaten. And also I would like to say they, we, like, we are just casting, they say that Fosca is ugly. Donna Murphy played the role and she's like one of the most gorgeous women I've ever seen in my life. oh yeah Like, so like it's ugly in like a male gaze sense of what ugly is, like her hair's a bit unkempt and she's unwell. Like that's what constitutes as ugly. So I will be casting Gorgene girls in this part.
01:08:01
Speaker
because all girls are gorgine to me. I had, this is really left field, I had Isabella Rossellini. Oh, I could see that. Because I was thinking of
Examining 'Anyone Can Whistle' and Casting Options
01:08:14
Speaker
her in Blue Velvet when she sings Blue Velvet, so I know that she does have quite an interesting voice. It's like maybe not like a strong musical theater voice, but she has an interesting voice. She can carry a tune, but I think she has that kind of like dark brooding nature and she is so gorgeous Isabelle Rossellini but she also can play like, do you know what I mean? She can not play ugly but like she can, you know how like some women you're just like that's just like Scarlett Johansson is just like so gorgeous and sexy all the time. Yeah. Like throw her in a bin bag that woman looks like stunned. Isabelle Rossellini kind of is able to transform herself through her acting so that you're not so stunned by her amazing looks. if that Does that make sense? Yeah, yeah.
01:08:56
Speaker
Like she can appear as quite plain looking, even though she's very obviously Isabella Rossellini because she's quite transformed, like just with her mannerisms. Yeah. Yeah. I like that. I like that. Yeah. Blue velvet earm, Isabella Rossellini. Yeah. And then for Giorgio, I had Raul Esparza because I just thought that would be like a really cute hot match. Yeah. Oh my God. I love that. Yes.
01:09:23
Speaker
Oh my god, thank you for giving me that one, I'm so happy. That's fine. That's another one though. What did you have for... Gionjou? Er... Nobody. But again, just not thinking about the man, I love it. Yeah. Yeah, I was like, I don't know. But that was another one where I don't know the musical so well. Whereas I can, where I'm like, Oh, if I've seen it, it's easier to kind of cut like even a throwaway cast of someone that like, yeah, they could play that role. Like with Neil Patrick Harris being Paul, like I could see him doing that. But whereas I've never, I've never seen passion. So that's completely fair.
01:10:01
Speaker
Alright, so moving on then, this is our third Lesser Don't Sond Time show, one of my favourite Sond Time shows of all time. This is the song, everybody says don't from anyone can whistle. So I love me some anyone can whistle. ah My friend produced a, I think, I'm gonna say, I'm gonna really go out a little, I think it was the first ever UK production of Anyone Can Whistle at the Southwark Playhouse a couple years ago. Shout out to Alex Condor. and was gorgeous it was so so good and I hadn't really heard much about the show before like I'd listened to a couple songs but I didn't know it that well and that really ignited like a love for me so plot is a little bit crazy but it's basically about this corrupt town mayor called Cora which love that because it's the name of my sister and who is like oh our bad economic practices are making like the working class is really disillusioned because they don't have any money and we're being cruel how can we like
01:10:58
Speaker
you know, put their attention away. Oh, that's fake a miracle. So then they pretend that water is sprung from this rock and all of these pilgrims come and see the miracle. So it's going to bring tourists to the town and kind of, you know, reignite their economic, ah get their economy. um And basically one day this nurse, because there's an underfunded psychiatric hospital, she brings the patients to the rock hoping that the miracle will kind of cure them. um of their like ah various kind of complex mental ah health issues and basically the towns people get mixed up with the psychiatric patients.
01:11:39
Speaker
And then this like guy who's pretending to be a doctor, but really he's like a left wing radical comes to town and he's like, I'll sort it out, but really he's there to like ignite a revolution against yeah or the corrupt government. It's absolutely mental. It's so good. So this song is sung by Dr. Hatgood, who's the kind of left wing comedy guy that comes to town. um He's like a socialist crusader and he basically is trying to convince Nurse Faye, who's like this kind nurse, to like start her own revolution in her town and that she can do it. um And he basically he does this like really funny long monologue called Everybody Says Don't This Song and he's kind of getting her to like reject societal norms and hierarchical kind of structures in favour of kind of community and kindness and like radical social progression. Like it's just such a beautiful song. It has like
01:12:28
Speaker
my favourite songtime lyric of all time which is um make just a ripple come on brew brave this time a ripple next time a wave which is uh it's just like so it makes me so happy um i love this song so much so good so this is typically actually covered by female Broadway stars so Leah Salonga loves covering this she's uh done a few um versions and Barbra Streisand she loves singing this song Yeah, it's on her album. So we only have one person to cast for this, which is J. Boone Hapgood, Dr. Hapgood. So he's wild, he's whimsical, he's charming, he's radical. He usually cast around 30s to 40s and he kind of straddles both tenor and baritone.
01:13:08
Speaker
Right, so yes, because my favourite version of the song is the Barbra Streisand version. So in my head, even though I know the character's male, I'm like, oh, it's so good, like, from a female singer. So i my head went straight to Liza Minnelli for this one. that's great yeah just because of that everybody says it's very jazzy yeah it's very very jazzy and i could just see her doing it with all the like abrupt stops and things like that look but yeah like i could just see her doing that i also had in mind leslie critzer
01:13:47
Speaker
I love Leslie Kritzer. That's a very interesting choice. Yeah. And also I just wanted her in there because I think she's incredible. She's one of my favorite actresses. So I was like, it was a toss up between them two for me. Because I think Liza is a classic choice. Like 80s Liza. Everybody says don't. I think it's great. Yeah, that's really good. I stuck with male and I do have an option that I think is really good. So my first thought was Harry Connick Jr., who is like the very famous kind of schmaltzy jazz singer. But then I was like, love you, Harry Connick Jr. And I just want to give you a shout out about your part because I've got the perfect person for it. And that is Santino Fontana, AKA Greg from Crazy Ex-Girlfriend.
01:14:40
Speaker
I have him for somewhere else. So neat. Yeah he's in one of my he's he's further down my list for a different song. Oh my god okay well I'm happy to bank him away even though I do think he would absolutely kill that role. He would kill it. Yeah he'd be really good. Mainly because I i feel bad that I haven't suggested Liza Minelli for any song. So, and that is awful. My cat Liza Minnelli is beside me right now and she's shocked and appalled. Can you see the vision of the, I just think it's very jerky. I think if I remove it from the context of, if I remove it from the context and all in which it was, the show. I just had it.
Pop Culture Tangents and Series Critiques
01:15:18
Speaker
Liza Minnelli performed this. I had it as a standalone. Yeah, then I can see it. I love it. I think it's very jerky. She's jerky, isn't she? This is like Liza with a Z, you're a Liza. Yeah.
01:15:30
Speaker
like black secret off the shoulder top do you know what it's also giving us all just a small shout out to Liza Minnelli I've been rewatching to my own I don't know why I've been doing it to myself but I've been rewatching Sex and the City and because I've been watching and just like that both terrible don't know why I'm doing it to myself but Sex and the City is great and just like that is chick atrocious It's like, oh, do you know what I feel like when I watch that? Which I'm literally like, oh, look at these people trying to be woke. Like that's literally. Yeah. yeah I know. But they make it really embarrassing. They do. They're like, look, we're cool and hip now. Oh my God. Carrie on a Sex Podcast is so fucking funny because that girl is anything but sex positive.
01:16:17
Speaker
I literally I know. And oh just everything about like... And I love you Sarah Ramirez but I hate their character. We all hate Shay Diaz. I hate Shay Diaz. Oh my gosh. Also just saying it just now. I'm just putting it out there. I hate defending Carrie Bradshaw because I do not like her but Miranda was in the wrong for getting fingered by Shay Diaz in the kitchen when she was meant to be looking after Carrie. Yeah. And then Carrie pisses herself everywhere.
01:16:53
Speaker
but If my friend comes to my house to look after me after What happens? Does she have an operation? She has a hip operation. Yeah, so I bed bound after a hip operation, single as fuck after... Widowed. Like widowed. And your friend's like, don't worry about it. I'm gonna come over and look after you. Only to wake up and watch them being fingered by your boss in the kitchen. Yeah, and they've been smoking weed as well. It's like, don't smoke weed in Carrie's house. She's a square and she doesn't like it.
01:17:29
Speaker
Yeah, but and then like getting fingered to the extent that you actually can't hear or see anything going on and then Gary pisses herself. I would be so mad. What a horrible situation Miranda was so in the wrong for that. ah So in the wrong and it's a shame because I love seeing like women on women sex scenes played out she never really see them I like I'm so happy that that romantic story was happening but why did it have to be when Carrie was bed bed I just don't think it helps that JD is this really insufferable to like so cocky with no oh like god with no like charisma to back it up like actually like so bad for Sarah Ramirez that they had to perform those lines
01:18:15
Speaker
yeah because those stand-up lines as well they're so bad just like just mena mena mena mena woman the other day already moved in with her
Summary of Casting Choices and Closing Remarks
01:18:25
Speaker
lesbians right but like why it's just but we' even saying I'm like, and don't even know where we went to. This was like, this is why we need Flo here to ground this conversation. Yeah, Flo would go, we were here. We were here. Oh God, we miss you. Where were we? are We were on Everybody Says Go. Oh yeah, sorry. I'm Liza Minnelli in the
01:18:51
Speaker
First or second, I can't remember. The second, I think you're right, um is performs at the wedding of Carrie's best friend. Can't remember that guy's name. um it She does single ladies and she's in like the sequence. ah Yeah, she's in the sequence leotard, the little top and she's like, if you like it then shut up and ring on it. It's so good. it's That's one of the best, qui I love Sex and the City, I really do. It's problematic AF. But I love that when when they're at the wedding and it's like got like the gay men's choirs singing and it's really camp. And then somebody's like, God, can this wedding get any gayer? And then and then Miranda goes, look who's marrying them. And turns around, it's Liza Minnelli in a sequenced dress. And is it not like, they're like, how did they get Liza Minnelli? And she's like, I think when there's this level of gay in the room, she just appears. yeah
01:19:48
Speaker
life of manifest yeah manifest. I love her.
01:19:59
Speaker
And that is it for part one of Sondheim, the birthday concert, Casey and Rosa's version. Thank you so much for joining us. Just to recap, we have Kath, the first act of our Sondheim special. For Worst Pies in London from Swinny Todd, we have 80s Lily Tomlin playing Mrs. Lovett, and we have Mandeep Tinkin playing a silent Swinny Todd, but with a promise that he will come back at some point later. I'm keeping my fingers crossed for that, I'm really nervous. For Company, we chose the song, you could drive a person crazy. And we have a young Goldie Hawn for April. We have Cher Show era Cher. That is very hard to say, by the way, as Martha. And we have Jessie Buckley as Kathy. For Rose's turn from Gypsy, I can't believe this, that it didn't go to one of the greats, but I'm very happy with our selection. We have a young Frankenstein era Megan Mulally. Yes. Iconic.
01:20:52
Speaker
For a weekend in the country from A Little Night Music, we have a young Jenna Coleman as Petra. We have a young Joanna Gleason as Charlotte. We have a very young Kristin Chenoweth as Anne. For Frederick, we have Neil Patrick Harris, but under the premise that he only has a couple of lines and we don't pay him. We have Danny Burstein as Karl Magnus. And for Henrik, we have Mike Feist. For iRead from Passion, we have a young Isabella Rossellini, Blue Velvet era, playing Fosca. And then we have Raul Esparza playing Giorgio. And for our final number of Act 1, we have the one and the only, Lies of an Alley, performing Everybody Says Don't from Anyone Can Whistle.
01:21:34
Speaker
Please join us in a couple of weeks for the release of Act 2 of our Sondheim birthday concert. We're going to go through another six songs, fancy casting, who we want to see play, these iconic Sondheim numbers. This has been so much fun. Thank you so much for joining us. Please keep up with us on social media. Please definitely click the link in our description. It'll take you to a playlist of all the songs that we've mentioned. And it might give you a sneaky peek of what we've got coming for Act 2 as well. Just a reminder that you can keep up with us on our socials, we are at Sunday on the Pod on Instagram and X, and Sunday on the Pod on Facebook. We'll be posting moments from previous Sondheim birthday concerts for you to look at if you haven't seen them before, and also talking about our fantasy cast which I am a bit partial to, I think is incredible. Thanks so much for joining us, bye!