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[0:01] Jesse McAnally: Hello, I'm Jesse McAnally. And I am Andrew DeWolfe. And welcome to Musicals with Cheese, a podcast where I try to get Andrew to like musical theatre. And today, we totally and sincerely have a very special episode for you.

[0:14] Andrew DeWolfe: Wait, this is a special episode? What makes this so special?

[0:20] Jesse McAnally: We were invited to a preview performance of a brand new musical that you might have heard of. It's called Avvatar, an unauthorized parody. I say Avatar because it has two Vs, for legal reasons probably.

[0:32] Andrew DeWolfe: Are you sure that's not pronounced A-wa-tar?

[0:38] Jesse McAnally: No, no, no, no. That's just a design choice on their website. It's A-va-va-tar.

[0:44] Andrew DeWolfe: Oh, A-va-va-tar. Okay, that makes sense. Or is it A-va-va-tar?

[0:52] Jesse McAnally: A-va-va-tar.

[0:58] Andrew DeWolfe: Man, I cannot wait to get back to Pandora. It has been so long since I've been there. I love the blue people that are cats.

[1:02] Jesse McAnally: Andrew, Andrew, Andrew, Andrew.

[1:07] Andrew DeWolfe: What's that?

[1:07] Jesse McAnally: They're not blue. They are yellow and black now.

[1:12] Andrew DeWolfe: And they are underwater as opposed to flying. They're bees underwater.

[1:17] Jesse McAnally: Basically, yes. You saw the show too. You should know these things.

[1:23] Andrew DeWolfe: I did see the show, so of course I do know that they are bees that are underwater.

[1:27] Jesse McAnally: You and I snuck into a preview performance after sneaking into several rehearsals. We kind of saw it devolve into nonsense. They asked us to be in the show because we're big stars. We're very famous. And I said, well, if I'm not going to be in a bee show unless I'm playing Barry B. Benson.

[1:40] Jesse McAnally: Brought to life by visionary director Zoe Taylor, A-va-va-tar, the musical is a theatrical event of the century, transporting captive audiences to other worlds with a lush epic score from creators Bobby Kearns and Kay Fields. A-va-va-tar, the musical takes you way beyond your wildest expectations, defying gravity and logic.

[2:07] Andrew DeWolfe: I think they're going to get sued by Stephen Schwartz next.

[2:12] Jesse McAnally: This heroic science fiction tale of survival starring Broadway diva Emma Olivia pushes the boundaries of theatrical technology to create an immersive, unforgettable, groundbreaking, must-see live event produced by legends Cheryl Phillips and Steve Jones. A-va-va-tar, the musical is the ultimate mind-bending visceral joyride.

[2:28] Andrew DeWolfe: You notice how they didn't promote it on anything having to do with being related to Avatar, despite it being very much related to Avatar.

[2:34] Jesse McAnally: Well, it's clearly A-va-va-tar, which is a very different thing.

[2:41] Andrew DeWolfe: It's a different thing, you know?

[2:45] Jesse McAnally: It's a different thing. I mean, what did you think of what this is based on? What was your thoughts on Avatar, the Avatar movie? Not to be confused with Avatar The Last Airbender. The Avatar movie, which was a hugely successful 3D James Cameron masterpiece with eight or nine sequels currently in the works.

[3:06] Andrew DeWolfe: I don't remember a single thing about it. That's what I think about Avatar.

[3:12] Jesse McAnally: This might be super accurate to it, because honestly, that movie is the biggest blue pill I've ever taken. I'd go in there and then I forgot everything I looked at.

[3:21] Andrew DeWolfe: Yeah, it's like The Matrix, but not interesting and terrible.

[3:34] Jesse McAnally: Wait, what are we talking about?

[3:34] Andrew DeWolfe: That's just the movie Avatar, but A-va-va-tar is a completely different thing. It opened at the Mark Hellinger Theater. Actually, it's going to open at the Mark Hellinger Theater on April 29th. If you guys haven't heard of-

[3:48] Jesse McAnally: Is this the first time we're talking about something before it comes out?

[3:55] Andrew DeWolfe: Yes, we've never been able to sneak in and get some information this early on. Avatar is really going to be something brand new and wonderful.

[4:02] Jesse McAnally: Yeah, it's going to be a big event for the whole family, or maybe not the whole family, maybe more like just the adults in the family. I mean, let's talk about the cast a little bit.

[4:14] Andrew DeWolfe: It's Emma Olivia Caron. She is the star. She's the Broadway diva of the moment, a walking nightmare, as we've heard about it. She is millennial, and really, that's as good as you get nowadays.

[4:26] Jesse McAnally: See, I like millennials. I like avocados. I like toast. I like-

[4:32] Andrew DeWolfe: Do you like avocados, though?

[4:40] Jesse McAnally: Avocado toast. I really relate to the star.

[4:46] Andrew DeWolfe: I don't see the black and yellow, though. I'm pretty sure there was blue paint in this.

[4:50] Jesse McAnally: Andrew, Andrew, black and yellow, it's very important. Let's not forget the Avatar book writer, Kay Field, who, it's very progressive. Much like Emojiland, it has a female book writer.

[4:58] Andrew DeWolfe: Well, that's a good thing. Did they change anything about the movie? Because if I remember correctly, it's very much like a white savior story.

[5:03] Jesse McAnally: I feel like it was there, but honestly, I may have fallen asleep and accidentally woke up. I may have fallen asleep during Avatar, and then woke up and Pocahontas was playing. Honestly, I can't remember. There's a big tree. I remember a big tree.

[5:19] Andrew DeWolfe: Then we also-

[5:23] Jesse McAnally: Mel Gibson is in it?

[5:27] Andrew DeWolfe: Or was that Pocahontas?

[5:30] Jesse McAnally: That was Pocahontas, yeah.

[5:34] Andrew DeWolfe: Oh, sorry. Yes. We have her as the original book writer, but then they replaced her with Thomas, who is the new book writer. They've removed the female book writer and replaced it with a male book writer, Andrew.

[5:41] Jesse McAnally: I feel like we should boycott this show, honestly.

[5:46] Andrew DeWolfe: I don't know if that's worthy of boycotting. I don't want to advocate a boycott, because namely, when boycotts happen, they generally don't work.

[5:53] Jesse McAnally: They do. I've never seen it not work. Have you been alive in the past couple of years?

[6:04] Andrew DeWolfe: Yeah, I guess. I was too busy watching Avatar for the 20th time.

[6:16] Jesse McAnally: I don't think we can keep this bit up anymore.

[6:19] Andrew DeWolfe: Shut up. Shut up. We got to keep the bit up.

[6:24] Jesse McAnally: Stop it. We can't keep the bit up anymore, Jess.

[6:30] Andrew DeWolfe: Keep the bit up. Keep it up.

[6:30] Jesse McAnally: Jess, it's crumbling. Everything's falling. The set's gone, Jess. We're not even wearing a mask anymore.

[6:38] Andrew DeWolfe: Avatar is produced by Steve Jones, who is a very legendary producer, ruthless and borderline sociopathic. He's a bit of a high character there. He has a lot of stuff he's dealing with.

[6:47] Jesse McAnally: We're looking at the picture of him, and I feel like I recognize him from something. Was he in a really famous show about Tom and Jerry?

[6:51] Andrew DeWolfe: Maybe. He does look a lot like the gentleman who did the voice of the jitterbug in Tom and Jerry Back to Oz.

[7:02] Jesse McAnally: That's true. He does look a lot like that person, but that person wasn't named Steve Jones, was he?

[7:10] Andrew DeWolfe: No, no, no. His name was James Monroe Iglehart.

[7:15] Jesse McAnally: Yeah, I suppose I'm just a-

[7:22] Andrew DeWolfe: You're just a silly fucking goose is what I'm telling you, Andrew.

[7:30] Jesse McAnally: It's the goatee. If you guys don't quite know yet, I'm sure we can't be insincerely ourselves for more than five seconds. This is an ad for As the Curtain Rises, which is a soap opera podcast on the Broadway Podcast Network, which we're also a part of. They are premiering their finale episode on April 29th.

[7:45] Andrew DeWolfe: It's gonna be a lot of fun. I've listened to the show. Sincerely, I do highly recommend it. It's got people like Alex Brightman, Andrew Barth Feldman, James Monroe Iglehart, Ramin Karimloo, Ariana DeBose, a lot of famous people, a lot of good people that we all know and love in it.

[8:03] Jesse McAnally: I honestly don't think you guys- I think it would be right up your alley. We're turning off the insincere pretending button right now and telling you, go check this out.

[8:15] Andrew DeWolfe: We are incapable of bamboozling anyone. Literally. We simply cannot do it. We are terrible at this.

[8:22] Jesse McAnally: I have to appreciate folks like Nathan Fielder who can keep it on and turn it on, whereas I'm just like, I can't lie for very long. I'm bad at lying for one.

[8:31] Andrew DeWolfe: I am so bad at sarcasm that no one can tell when I'm being sarcastic, which is not a good thing.

[8:38] Jesse McAnally: It also makes you really good for a podcast, as sad as that is.

[8:44] Andrew DeWolfe: I'm good at this? I don't know about that.

[8:50] Jesse McAnally: I don't know. I know that any podcast I do without you, I probably won't succeed at.

[8:57] Andrew DeWolfe: Well, that makes me the common thread, I suppose.

[9:03] Jesse McAnally: You are. But you know what, guys? Check out Avatar the Musical, now playing at the Mark Hellinger Theater. What's your cheese rating?

[9:07] Andrew DeWolfe: Oh, my cheese rating? I am giving this blue cheese.

[9:14] Jesse McAnally: I was going to say that, you mother-

[9:20] Andrew DeWolfe: Ah, you asked me, though. You asked me!

[9:25] Jesse McAnally: All right, I'm done. The April Fool's is done. We're done.

[9:28] Andrew DeWolfe: Come on, what's your cheese rating?

[9:33] Jesse McAnally: Blue cheese, I was-

[9:33] Andrew DeWolfe: Ah! I was going to say it because of the blue peep the cat people.

[9:40] Jesse McAnally: Happy unrelated first day of April to anything else we're doing. I hope you have a great week and stuff. Happy Easter, probably. We'll talk soon.

[9:46] Andrew DeWolfe: Bye!

[9:47] Jesse McAnally: Bye! What a fucking mess.