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[0:00] Adam Anders: Hi, I'm Adam Anders, producer and executive music producer of The Prom.

[0:22] Gordon Cox: Hi, I'm Gordon Cox. I am the contributing theatre editor at Variety and the host of Variety's Stagecraft podcast. At some point in the process, you were sort of toward the end of your process, of the film's process, from what I understand, when the pandemic hit and, you know, sort of sent people in all their different directions, which necessitated things like, as you mentioned, recording in all those different places that you mentioned. Tell us a little bit about that process of completing a movie in the extraordinary circumstances that we all found ourselves in.

[0:55] Gordon Cox: It was a challenge. You know, before we were shut down, we were shooting Time to Dance, and this stuff started kind of happening. And I was getting on a plane to London to record the orchestra with Per in London. And I was talking to some of the team going, like, should I go? Like, is this going to be really bad? And I remember the UPM saying, you know, I think it's gonna be fine. You know, you're only over there for a week or something. And I said, okay, I'll go. So I got on a plane and we got through four or five days recording, and I woke up and my phone had blown up, and the travel ban had happened. And they're like, you gotta get on a plane now. So I ended up just going straight to the airport. And then we ended up finishing recording that orchestra stayed in place for us. We got home. And then in the middle of the night, we got online and produced that same bunch of people, you know, finishing the movie.

[1:54] Gordon Cox: But we did it from a distance. And we're very fortunate we got it done. Because had we not pushed through, they still don't allow that many people in a room. You know, it was over 100 people in the orchestra. So the movie would not have sounded the way it does. So that was kind of the first step, but we still needed to record the score, you know, the interstitial music. So that was done with a smaller group, you know, distanced, you know, we did it in the same room. So we kind of matched, but you know, we had 20 people instead of 120. That was hard. It was hard to post a movie, you know, everybody in a vacuum, nobody's together, and you're sending files around and giving notes and, you know, with editorial and what have you.

And the music editor, Dave Klotz, he ended up having to start writing cues for the movie. And then he and Matt Sklar, the composer of the Broadway musical ended up doing it together. But it was complicated, I gotta be honest. And we had five days of shooting left when we got shut down. And it took the entire summer to figure out a protocol that would allow us to finish the movie and we got it done.

[2:57] Gordon Cox: But I joke, we were all in on the dub stage, you know, mixing and doing sound effects and dropping in all the little things to finish the movie. And all of us had masks on and I haven't worked with maybe 10 of the people that are on the stage. And I couldn't pick them out of a lineup and we spent months together, you know, but we had these masks on, I don't know what they look like, I have no clue. So they're probably gonna win Oscars for this thing. I'm like, who's that? You know, I don't know who that person is. But we got it done. So it was, you know, Ryan again, he's a force of nature.

[3:25] Gordon Cox: I wonder if we could finish just by talking about the timing of The Prom. It just sort of came out at the end, came out at the end of a very tumultuous year. We talked about the pandemic, but at the same time, it was, it's while the world at large is going through this reckoning with social, with equality and social and racial justice. How, in what feels in many ways that The Prom is a very timely fit for the moment. Tell us about, tell us your thoughts about that.

[3:56] Adam Anders: I think it is. And I think it comes back to, again, having the conversation. And I feel like democracy is dead when we're not able to talk to each other anymore, you know, and I feel like nobody's talking anymore. They're just pointing fingers and it's just gotten so polarized and, you know, one side says the other side's evil and that's just the way it is. And we all know that's not the truth, you know, but we're, we're playing into that so much when what happened to sitting down and talking, you know, and having a conversation and being able to agree to disagree, you know, that's kind of the backbone of our country. And I think even with personal relationships, you know, it's like with my wife, we've been together a long time now and we don't agree on everything, you know, but you sit down and you work through it.

And it's like, we've lost the ability to disagree. You know? And I think this movie, I think it's very aspirational in the sense that kind of everyone kind of does agree at the end. But I don't think that's what you should take away from it. That's very idealistic and great. And we should strive for that. But even if you don't agree, can we at least agree to disagree? Can we sit next to each other and love each other and be good to each other even when we don't agree? And I think that's true tolerance. True tolerance is getting along with someone you disagree with. And we've totally lost the ability. So I think this movie is a challenge to everyone to get their crap together basically and start talking to each other and being loving again. Because it's missing right now.

[5:24] Gordon Cox: Thanks for listening. This has been a production of the Broadway Podcast Network in association with Sony Masterworks.