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[0:01] Jeffrey Scott Parsons: Hey, listeners! Once a year, I like to give a little preview on the main feed of the special bonus content we create for a Musical Theatre Podcast Patreon account called, in the great tradition of musical titles with exclamation points, Patreon exclamation point! Subscribing only costs $1 a month. That's $12 a year. It's insane. For that $1, you get a bonus episode, plus a little essay that I write for every new episode of a Musical Theatre Podcast, plus opportunities to vote for content and continue discourse, and also just ensure that we keep this thing going. Well, I know it's only April, but this episode that we just created was too good not to share. Eila Mell, who was the guest for our Mystery of Edwin Drood episode on a Musical Theatre Podcast last year, was hand-chosen by the American Theatre Wing to create a book celebrating one of my favorite subjects, the Tony Awards.

I've been waiting so patiently for this book, and finally, it's here. Eila joined me recently to talk about the book, but she didn't come alone. She brought along an incredible guest, the CEO of the American Theatre Wing, Heather Hitchens. Now, what you're about to hear is a small snippet of our 40-minute conversation that includes so much more, like how the Theatre Wing can help you with education, how many people vote for the Tony Awards, all the Broadway legends that Eila interviewed for the book, our favorite Tony memories, and hands down the two most mentioned moments in Tony Awards history. If you want to listen to the whole thing right now, go to patreon.com slash amusicalpodcast. It's there waiting. If you're on your way to work or you're at the gym, keep listening, and I'll chat with you afterwards. Enjoy.

[1:50] Jeffrey Scott Parsons: Hey, Patreon fam, and welcome to a special episode celebrating the history of the Tony Awards, aka my favorite night of the year next to Christmas Eve. We are in unprecedented times for the premier award show in musical theater with something like 17 or 18 new musicals, something like that, opening on Broadway this season, the most in the history of the Tony Awards, and all of them will be vying for the big wins that will, of course, happen in June. In the meantime, a new book celebrating the history of the Tony Awards is about to be released. It's a beautiful 350-page book with amazing photos and interviews from some of Broadway's greatest. I was gifted it by my sister-in-law last Christmas.

I opened up my present. She had printed out the pre-order from Amazon, so I'm looking forward to finally receiving it very, very soon. The book, which was authorized by, it's like an official authorization by the American Theatre Wing, the presenter of the Tony Awards, was authored by one Eila Mell, a friend of A Musical Theatre Podcast. You might remember her from our Mystery of Edwin Drood episode last year. She's a notable author and podcaster, and she joins me today, along with the CEO of the American Theatre Wing, Heather Hitchens. What a thrill. Everyone, please welcome Eila and Heather. Yay!

[3:22] Heather Hitchens: Jeffrey, so great to be here.

[3:25] Jeffrey Scott Parsons: So grateful you're both here, ladies, on Patreon! Because when talking about the history of the Tony Awards, and then, of course, naturally, the American Theatre Wing, we have to recognize that this is women's history, and I think a lot of people don't realize this. The Tony Awards is a story of women. So, Heather, I'd love to begin with you. Can you help us understand the beginnings of the American Theatre Wing, how it all went down?

[3:50] Heather Hitchens: Yes, we were founded in 1917 as a war relief effort, and we were, our name at that time was the Stage Women's War Relief. And we were the precursor to the USO, because we founded the stage door canteens all over the country and in New York.

[4:11] Jeffrey Scott Parsons: I mean, that's crazy, because we always think of stage door canteen as being strictly USO, but it's, like, based in theater.

[4:19] Heather Hitchens: It's based in theater, and the stage door canteens were founded by the American Theatre Wing. And then, you know, the American Theatre Wing started a school. So, some very famous people went to that school, including, you know, Tony Bennett, and that's when he came back from the service, got some theater training, turned out pretty well. Angela Lansbury, as a refugee, you know, studied at the American Theatre Wing school, and that began really our foray into education. But it was in 1947 when Antoinette Perry, Tony, Tony is a woman, who was an actress, director, producer, and dynamic wartime leader of the American Theatre Wing, she passed away, and the board of the wing was looking for a way to honor her. So, they founded the Tony Awards, and then that began the history of the Tony Awards that are about excellence in theater and Broadway theater. The first Tony Awards, Easter Sunday, April 6, 1947, and at the Waldorf Astoria Grand Ballroom.

[5:29] Tim Cynova: We were just talking about it this year because we covered Finian's Rainbow, and of course, that was one of the shows honored at that very first Tony Awards. It was a little different back then. The nominees weren't announced, per se. It was just kind of an honor to win. It wasn't an honor to be nominated.

[5:48] Heather Hitchens: Correct, and it's evolved as things do over time, as did, as the statuette has evolved, because the first Tonys were a compact for the women and a money clip for the men.

[6:00] Jeffrey Scott Parsons: Amazing. We have pictures of those in the book.

[6:04] Jeffrey Scott Parsons: Okay, so then Eila, that's exactly what I was going to ask. How did then this book come about, and how much of it is, in terms of figuring out the structure, how much is celebration, how much is history? What kind of was the process to figure all those percentages out?

[6:20] Eila Mell: Well, I mean, the book came about because of Heather and Emilio Sosa, who is the chair of the wing. They wanted to find a way to celebrate 75 years of Tony winners.

[6:33] Jeffrey Scott Parsons: My gosh.

[6:34] Eila Mell: Yes, so all of the book is history because it's everyone's story. I interviewed over 140 Tony winners. Hal Linden is one of them, and he actually went to the school that Heather was talking about.

[6:48] Jeffrey Scott Parsons: Wow. Oh my gosh, that's crazy.

[6:50] Eila Mell: Yeah, and he talks about that in the book. He was there with Robert Morse, and it's just amazing history. The stories are so fascinating, and everybody has something different to talk about. It's also modern day history. I'm such a theater geek that I just love every word that everyone had to say. There's so much that I didn't know before, and I had read so much about Tony history. It's very exciting for me to be a part of this, and I'm so thankful to Heather and Emilio.

[7:23] Heather Hitchens: Well, just to add, sorry, but just to add something there is that Isabel Stevenson, the great leader of the wing, past time leader, she used to do a book every year that was a winner's summary. That's what really inspired this because we didn't ... Yes, those books.

[8:11] Heather Hitchens: The American Theatre Wing founded the Tony Awards. We co-present them since 1967 with the Broadway League when we went on television. That's when that partnership started, so that's been around a long time.

[8:48] Eila Mell: I was so honored because I got to actually come into the office and go through Isabel Stevens' actual photo albums and choose photos for the book that have never been seen before. So we have a lot of her personal photos that are in the book. I'm kind of obsessed with Isabel because I grew up with her as being like the old lady that came on in the middle of the show. And you're like, I don't know who she is and maybe I'm supposed to go get my chips refilled during this section. But what a dame. I just have so much respect. If you were in New York, you would see that she had these shows that were panel discussions, right, Heather? They were incredible. And she had everyone on. So those working in the theater, they're called working in the theater. We have them documented. And we have since turned it into a mini docu-series that we just got our fifth Emmy nomination from.

[9:40] Heather Hitchens: Oh my God. How do we see these? Are they living somewhere?

[9:44] Eila Mell: The American Theatre Wing's YouTube channel.

[9:47] Heather Hitchens: Okay, fantastic.

[9:48] Eila Mell: There is a plethora of content there. And everything from Natasha Katz and how Binkley taking you to PRG and showing you how lighting works in that great lighting room to an episode on props masters and what they do. And you go to the antique shops with them and things like that. So it's really for the theater fan and the student that wants to go behind the scenes. Once you go down to the rabbit hole, you can binge on them and you can go back and see some of the older episodes or we're cutting some of those into classic clips. But to this day, Isabelle Stevenson's grandson serves on our board, David Brown, and her two daughters are on the advisory committee. And I'll never forget interviewing LaTanya Richardson-Jackson for the board.

And David Brown was at the interview and we said to LaTanya, we're so honored that you would consider joining our board. And she said, well, don't get so excited because I will not be a silent partner. And she goes, and I will hold your feet to the fire. And she looked at David Brown and she said, especially you, young man, because I knew your grandmother.

[10:56] Eila Mell: Oh, my God. That's fantastic.

[10:57] Heather Hitchens: Man, that's, by the way, married to Sam Jackson. My gosh, what a cool couple.

[11:07] Eila Mell: Isla, you have many amazing books. Heather mentioned your design book that's really, really beautiful. You've also done your book on Project Runway.

[11:18] Eila Mell: That's how I first met Emilio.

[11:21] Heather Hitchens: Exactly. And then your first book, which was about projects that you auditioned for and didn't necessarily get, right?

[11:27] Eila Mell: It's called Casting Might Have Bins and it tells the story of the people who were almost cast. So fun.

[11:35] Heather Hitchens: So fun. So this is your next feather in your cap. How do you feel about it? And what do you feel like it has brought to your collection of work that you've given to us?

[11:49] Eila Mell: It's my absolute dream project. I'm thankful every single day that I got to do it. I'm sorry that I'm not writing it anymore. I could have written it forever. Those pesky deadlines. Those publishers are so picky. It's my absolute favorite book I've ever written. And part of that is the people I got to work with, Emilio and Heather, and also Ian Weiss, who was so helpful in this project, really, really doesn't get enough credit for all the work he did. But just working with the American Theatre Wing was incredible. And really, I'm used to doing everything myself. When you're a writer, it's solitary. And it was so nice to have this group of people that even though we weren't talking every day, I knew that they were there. I'm so proud of this book. And I hope we do volume after volume of it.

[12:46] Heather Hitchens: Do you think that this has changed the way you'll watch the Tony Awards?

[12:51] Eila Mell: Yes. It has enriched what I already loved about the Tony Awards. When I had my first meeting with Heather and Emilio, I told them, this is my Super Bowl. I don't care about sports. I love this. I love the competition, even though it's not really competitive. But you know what I mean. I love waiting to see whose name is going to be read. Just knowing a lot more about it and the history and what it really means to people and how it's impacted them, it changed everything for me. It showed me how it's not just fun. It's really important. And it really matters.

[13:29] Heather Hitchens: Well, I know you're saying it's not competitive, but Scott Rudin might disagree with you on that one.

[13:35] Eila Mell: I was like, sure, we can say that.

[13:39] Heather Hitchens: No, but I hear you because truly, what a celebration. I can't wait to receive this book. How do we order it? Can we let our audience know?

[13:49] Eila Mell: It is everywhere. You can order books. You can go to Hachette and order it there. You can get it on Amazon. You can get it in your local bookstore. Anywhere you get books, you can get this book.

[14:04] Heather Hitchens: Amazing. Amazing. Everybody, please order it and get ready for what promises to be one of the great Tony Awards that we will talk about for many, many years to come. This is going to be an exciting one. Heather and Isla, thank you so much for your time today. Anything else you want to leave us with before we go?

[14:23] Eila Mell: This is good. I'm so excited. People are excited about a book. You know what I mean?

[14:27] Heather Hitchens: Yes.

[14:29] Eila Mell: Oh, my gosh. Special thanks again to Heather and Isla. They are absolute powerhouses. I truly, immensely recommend heading over to patreon.com slash a musical podcast to hear more history and more of their amazing stories. Also, while you're there, send me a message and let me know what your favorite Tony memories are. I want to create something for social media this week. The Tony Awards book is out now, so go and get it. It's beautiful. That'll be another post on social media this week. Above all, thank you all for listening, for being part of this wonderful podcasting community, and remember, it's an honor to be nominated. P-A-T-R-E-O-N, Patreon!

[15:19] Eila Mell: Yo!