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[0:43] Teresa Attridge: Welcome back to Part 2 of our discussion with the writers of the new musical Flophouse, Justin Anthony Long, Joël René Scoville, and Joanna Burns.

[0:52] Teresa Attridge: What do you do when the world has forgotten you? Flophouse, an original ensemble musical, explores eight people's struggle to reenter a society that disposed of them long ago.

[1:03] Teresa Attridge: Down in New York's Bowery District, residents of a Flophouse, or single room occupancy, learn that thanks to gentrification, they have three days to find new housing.

[1:12] Teresa Attridge: The writers are in the midst of an exciting rewrite, and you'll hear more about that process.

[1:17] Teresa Attridge: Listen all the way to the end for a game where we decide which Broadway characters would make up our own musical theater Flophouse.

[1:23] Teresa Attridge: This is actually our first time that we've talked to a group that is actively deep, deep in rewrite.

[1:30] Pauls Macs: Ooh, ooh, I'm so excited. This is the nitty gritty stuff that gets me hyped about the podcast and getting to talk through it.

[1:36] Pauls Macs: So I think my initial question is, what was it about the first draft that you wanted to sort of break apart and examine in rewriting the draft?

[1:46] Pauls Macs: And while rewriting it, do you have any specific goals, or are you starting back more square one and trying to rebuild from there?

[1:55] Joanna Burns: Yeah, I'm also fascinated by this. Would love to hear about this.

[1:59] Justin Anthony Long: Well, so right now we're at a place where we've written this draft of the show where there are a few moments where we know what songs want to go there, but we haven't written those songs yet.

[2:14] Justin Anthony Long: As time has gone by, we've started to talk a little bit more about bringing it. How can it feel like super timely and right now?

[2:22] Justin Anthony Long: I started to see all these ads that were like, do you sing? Win a month of free rent or win months of free rent.

[2:29] Justin Anthony Long: And I was like, we shouldn't have to win a competition to just pay rent in this American capitalistic horror entertainment kind of dystopia we're starting to actually be in.

[2:42] Justin Anthony Long: Maybe that is like where we're at.

[2:44] Joël René Scoville: It's giving squid games.

[2:45] Justin Anthony Long: Yeah, squid games. And so we've started to imagine a version of the show where these characters are basically invited to compete on a reality competition style show to what they think is win affordable housing.

[3:03] Justin Anthony Long: And they're all like from a flop house, but pretty quickly on the show, they learn cameras rolling.

[3:08] Justin Anthony Long: They're actually competing for housing at all because in 30 days that flop house is shutting down.

[3:14] Justin Anthony Long: So we kind of inspired by well, the word inspires weird, like more horrified by like just where we're at and what we're seeing and just sort of trying to respond to that in a way that I guess highlights the why of it all.

[3:28] Justin Anthony Long: Why is this difficult for people?

[3:31] Justin Anthony Long: We live in a world where they're creating entertainment in this kind of way where it's literally like very squid games.

[3:36] Justin Anthony Long: Like you said, we thought it would highlight that basically the false American dream of it all.

[3:42] Justin Anthony Long: There's a song that we wrote, the members of the flop house watch the show The Price is Right every day.

[3:47] Justin Anthony Long: We think of that sort of as this fever dream where they get to live out the what if, if they weren't here, if this wasn't what their lives were.

[3:56] Justin Anthony Long: We sort of liked is the wrong word, I think, but it's this grotesqueness of it all that felt particularly dramatic and poignant, at least to me and correct me if I'm wrong, but it felt like that was a bit of a charge in this direction to kind of get us thinking more along the lines of the absurdity of taking someone's humanity and quantifying it, commodifying it, making it into a game of some sort.

[4:22] Justin Anthony Long: These were questions that started to happen pretty quickly.

[4:26] Justin Anthony Long: I feel like so often as artists, we're asked to exploit trauma.

[4:31] Justin Anthony Long: You know, I find it like so horrifying.

[4:33] Justin Anthony Long: And so we sort of we're trying to show that in a way that implicates the viewer because, you know, we all watch these competition shows.

[4:41] Justin Anthony Long: They're not like in the framework that we're saying within this musical, but it shouldn't be this fraction of the possibility of winning.

[4:48] Justin Anthony Long: It shouldn't feel like you have to win to have like the base level human existence that everyone should be entitled to.

[4:56] Pauls Macs: What I find really fascinating about this idea of looking at it through that lens is that this was an idea that was originally sparked from a documentary that became a musical that is becoming a musical that looks at the documentary reality TV lens that we put onto real situations within a musical based on a documentary.

[5:17] Pauls Macs: It's sort of this idea of like the layers to which we consume our information and our media and the degrees to which we are disgusted and find information, but also find some sort of joy or humor or like catharsis.

[5:31] Pauls Macs: And it's really interesting the way that we process stories in general, just as human beings.

[5:36] Pauls Macs: And I think that lens that you're talking about is so fascinating in terms of it's almost like you're going back to the original source, but opening a whole new Avenue.

[5:46] Pauls Macs: And I can only imagine what that feels like as a writing team sitting there going, well, okay, I guess we're going to tear the book apart and we're going to put things in new places and we're going to see how that works.

[5:55] Pauls Macs: That's a very like ambitious and very exciting thing to do with a script.

[5:58] Pauls Macs: I can also imagine it's very intimidating as a writing team when you are dissecting and reassembling a piece like this.

[6:06] Pauls Macs: My favorite saying is always like, kill your darlings. I'm one of those people. I'm like, I know you love it. It's the best thing you ever did. Get rid of it.

[6:12] Pauls Macs: But do you find that you are having sentimentality for the nameless pieces and songs that will no longer be in the piece?

[6:19] Pauls Macs: Do you have other things you want to use them for?

[6:22] Pauls Macs: Or are you happy to make room for the new things coming in because you believe that they either take the place of and or could never take the place of what you had before?

[6:31] Joanna Burns: Joanna's written music and there are some songs when I've been very like, no, we're not cutting this.

[6:36] Joanna Burns: We're going to bend like a pretzel to make it work because we love this song so much.

[6:40] Joanna Burns: I think a perfect example of killing your darlings or starting over is there's a song.

[6:44] Joanna Burns: I think I can talk about it. The daughter song, very special song to me, but it's not working and having the conversation.

[6:52] Joanna Burns: And I think it also it's really important about working with collaborators that you can be vulnerable with.

[6:57] Joanna Burns: And as you keep pointing out within this podcast, we're all very gracious and loving and respect each other so much.

[7:03] Joanna Burns: So I appreciate that Joanna and Justin have given me space to like process that we're cutting a very personal, precious song to me.

[7:10] Joanna Burns: But it's also for the betterment of the show. And at the end of the day, the goal is we want a successful show.

[7:16] Joanna Burns: We want to show that works and we want to show that connects with the audience and that maybe there will be a way to reinsert the song in a totally different capacity or to still get some of that sentiment across.

[7:26] Joanna Burns: We just keep saying we want the right show. How can we tell the story the best possible way?

[7:32] Joanna Burns: Because we don't want it to get lost in the shuffle. We want people to feel the urgency that we feel about telling the stories.

[7:41] Pauls Macs: Well, I think what you're doing is really, really important and courageous because my experience so often of what I'll call dystopian stories, like, for example, The Hunger Games or to go back in time, The Running Man or something like that.

[7:54] Pauls Macs: Oh, wow.

[7:55] Pauls Macs: It's so easy. I just aged myself on the podcast. But it's so easy to distance yourself from those circumstances or even Squid Game. Let's say Squid Game and be like, well, that's not what's happening right now.

[8:07] Pauls Macs: And I find that so few pieces are able to really successfully be like, but no, it's happening right now.

[8:13] Pauls Macs: For example, I saw an article the other day and I mean, I'm a millennial. My college tuition is very different than what someone who is Gen Z has to pay to go to college these days or like the amount of loans that they have to take out.

[8:25] Pauls Macs: I saw an article headline that was like Gen Z's current splurge groceries.

[8:29] Joanna Burns: Oh, my God. I saw that.

[8:31] Pauls Macs: Just repeating back what you said. Why are we splurging on the things that should be our very basics? Why does it feel like we have to win a contest to pay our rent?

[8:39] Pauls Macs: Something is wrong. And I think your piece does such a great job of pointing that out, even though it's a period piece in 2009 or maybe it won't be.

[8:47] Pauls Macs: That's part of the rewrite. It's done such a great job of pointing out those disparities.

[8:51] Joanna Burns: Well, but what was going on in 2009 with Bloomberg and the one way tickets, that was about spending less in the shelters every year.

[8:59] Joanna Burns: I think it was like around $35,000 a year per individual to house in a shelter. People who thought that was a great idea and perhaps for some, maybe it was.

[9:10] Joanna Burns: But a lot of people that left New York went to other family members elsewhere who took them in on a couch or whatever.

[9:18] Joanna Burns: So they were still technically it didn't fix them being homeless or getting them on their feet.

[9:23] Joanna Burns: It made it maybe a little easier for a while for some who are going to family, but maybe that family is a check away to from financial ruin, losing their home.

[9:33] Joanna Burns: The things that happened in 2009 and since then, if the show does take place today and where we're at is a result from all these things that we're talking about.

[9:41] Joanna Burns: I think it's also important to mention that one of the reasons that they just wanted to give people tickets instead of housing people is that when people are unhoused, they are intentionally disenfranchised.

[9:51] Joanna Burns: Who are the people in society that we are trying to disenfranchise and why? Why do we want certain people to not have jobs?

[9:58] Joanna Burns: Why do we want certain people to not have a safe place to live? Why do we want certain people to not have access to drinking water?

[10:04] Joanna Burns: There's all these larger insidious ideas that are behind it and they're socioeconomic.

[10:09] Joanna Burns: So much of it is racism, classism, ableism is huge in this discussion as well and we don't talk about it a lot.

[10:15] Pauls Macs: It's fascinating because houselessness is often one of those things that I feel like no matter how much data we process, no matter how many studies we do, where the cheapest and safest and most effective thing to do is to house people.

[10:31] Pauls Macs: It doesn't matter that other countries are doing it and have proven it successful.

[10:34] Pauls Macs: It doesn't matter that we can run the numbers and show that it's more helpful or useful.

[10:37] Pauls Macs: Why are we intentionally not doing the cheapest, safest, most humane thing?

[10:43] Joanna Burns: And there is always an undercurrent to that and I felt like that was something in this piece that, especially because of the year it happened, I could sense very much.

[10:52] Joanna Burns: On the topic of displacement, I think there's a song in the show that is so appropriate.

[10:56] Joanna Burns: I'm running. A country boy is making his way around the city and running from place to place and then he finds this incredible garden.

[11:04] Joanna Burns: He wants to be there and the song slows down. He's like, oh, this place is so amazing.

[11:09] Joanna Burns: And then he gets kicked out because it's an exclusive members only garden.

[11:12] Joanna Burns: I think that would be an appropriate demo to play in this moment if you want to chat more about how it was created.

[11:17] Joël René Scoville: Paul's gardens are for the rich.

[11:20] Joanna Burns: People don't deserve greenery.

[11:22] Joanna Burns: We don't get gardens. We get parks. They're not the same.

[11:26] Pauls Macs: It's not the same.

[11:28] Pauls Macs: I feel like you just set it up, Paul.

[11:30] Pauls Macs: I've never set up a song, but I kind of just did it accidentally.

[11:32] Joanna Burns: So the country boy, all the residents just found out they're being evicted in three days, and the country boy doesn't miss a beat. His hustle is that he takes orders from the other residents of the Flophouse, because some people don't like to interact with the real world that's outside the home. And so he gets his list of the items that people need, and he ventures out to get them.

[11:56] Joanna Burns: Alright, here is I'm Runnin'.

[12:27] ♪ Musical number: "I'm Runnin'" — performed by Joanna Burns ♪

[15:38] Justin Anthony Long: That song... There he went, he really, he ran, and then he got there, and he returned. No, but it's so true, the song is so much fun, you feel like you're going on that journey, and then as we said, it gets very slow and contemplative, you know, as he finds that beautiful garden, and then when he gets kicked out, it's just so heartbreaking.

[15:55] Joanna Burns: Well, thank you both. Question to you writers, is this the first one that we wrote in the same room?

[16:00] Justin Anthony Long: Yeah, we wrote it during the writers' retreat.

[16:03] Joanna Burns: Say more about that.

[16:05] Justin Anthony Long: Well, so I'm in New Jersey, Joël is in Harlem, and Justin's in Pasadena. We're very not near each other at all. We had a writers' retreat, and this was, in fact, the first song that we got to write in the same space at Justin's beautiful piano. It's special to me in that regard, because that's something that was really unique for us. Justin's a very, very, very fast writer. He's like the Flash, he writes incredibly fast. He, like, went off to his side to work on it, and I was working on something else, and then I'm barely, like, three lines into what I'm doing. And he's like, okay, here, so here's the song. So then it was, like, the next hour, Joanna sat, and she had been doing the guitar. And this was exciting for me, because I can't play an instrument to save my life.

And Joanna's like, first she's on the guitar, then at one moment, she's sitting at the piano to work out the beautiful garden section. And I remember when we heard that for the first time, we were all like, what is this? Like, this is beautiful! It felt religious, but, like, whatever the good version of that religion was. It felt... It felt like the good parts of religion.

[17:12] Joël René Scoville: Yes, that's right. It felt profound. It felt of another world and time, and yet there we were, love. Y'all are the X-Men, by the way. This whole team.

[17:25] Justin Anthony Long: X-Men 1987, one of the greatest shows.

[17:30] Joanna Burns: I totally agree, and I'm so pleased with the amount of superhero references on the pod today. I would love to talk about the song Firefly, because I listened to it today, and I started sobbing.

[17:38] Justin Anthony Long: That was a song that Joël and I... I don't know, like, how often we do this. I know Till I Get Back on My Feet was, and then Firefly definitely was, where it's, like, one where we just sat together and, like, slowly just wrote these lyrics together. This is a moment in the show where the radio is going to sleep, and he's got all these Christmas lights in his room, which all the rooms in the Flophouse, they're four by six. There's no roof. It's kind of like chicken wire. This is what they really were like. He sort of sings this before he goes to sleep to self-soothe. I believe in the draft you have, that's what happens. In another draft, the veteran has a nightmare, and the radio goes in to help and sort of, like, bring him down from that.

It starts with the radio, like, humming the song that his mother used to sing, and the mother appears. She takes over, and then another mother appears, and the two women take over this lullaby. During the song, Joanna Burns comes in again with her bridge magic, and each of the residents sings about their mother. I'm talking about it, like, we already listened to it, but this is a setup, so...

[18:46] Joanna Burns: It's perfect and beautiful. You're literally killing it, Justin. The one thing I think might be useful, can you talk about who the radio is?

[18:52] Justin Anthony Long: The radio is this sweet, young man who doesn't communicate with anyone. He keeps to himself, and he has a secret crush on the woman, and he's just very gentle and barely says anything. And he always has headphones on to keep the outside world out, but he misses his mom and the comfort. He's removed from his family, and so this is him just remembering when he was in a safer space. We also discussed that, going back to this concept, that it can be any one of us, regardless of what people's situations are with their parents, we came from a person. I don't want to misrepresent someone's experience who maybe was not positive with their mother, but this idea that these were all once kids, you know, you look at someone as they are now, but at least for me, this song also points back to, this is something that a child once thought and wanted, and this was somebody's child, I guess, is the idea.

[19:48] Joanna Burns: Beautiful. Alright, here's Firefly.

[19:55] ♪ Musical number: "Firefly" — performed by Joanna Burns ♪

[23:05] Joanna Burns: Oh Firefly, here's a kiss, make a wish, for a new day ahead.

[23:32] Pauls Macs: Wow. I confess, Joanna, that's exactly where my head went as well. I live in Seattle, and when I'm walking home, there's actually a section where I walk through where there's lots of drugs being dealt, and it's improperly considered, like, a bad area by so many people. And I walk past those people, and I just think, these were all kids once. These were all babies who had moms who loved them just as much, or they might wonder where their parents are. Or I've wondered that myself. Are their parents out there worried about them? I think we used the word universality earlier. We all came from someplace. I think this song helps people connect to the humanity of all those people that we so easily ignore or forget. And I love that about this song. That's what it means for me. I don't want to speak for all of us, but I think I am. That's why it's there. It doesn't necessarily serve a driving of plot, but it's more about shining a light on what we're saying here.

[24:37] Justin Anthony Long: Literally. Yeah. Because nobody asks to be born, right? We all come into the world as somebody else's idea, or how we do. We're somebody's children. Then sort of life happens to us. But, you know, nobody decided to be here. And then to have to exist in this world that can feel like it doesn't want you there. This song really is about driving home the humanity of each of these individuals. The firefly is such an interesting metaphor or allegory a lot of the time as well. When we think of fireflies, we often think of children chasing fireflies. Again, in this show, everyone is chasing a dream or an idea. So the firefly also represents where everyone is now, as well as who they were, which I think is just really beautiful and such a great parallel. Stunning, gorgeous work, truly. Taylor Swift has been real quiet since you dropped that bridge. That's all I'm trying to say.

[25:31] Joël René Scoville: That bridge specifically, the rest.

[25:34] Justin Anthony Long: Honestly, every bridge. Taylor's like, damn, I gotta cancel the Auras tour.

[25:39] Joanna Burns: Like, what am I going to do? The queen is here.

[25:42] Pauls Macs: All right, Teresa, do you want to bring us home with some game time?

[25:45] Teresa Attridge: Absolutely. My friends, it is time for everyone's favorite segment, A Game I Made Up.

[25:49] Joanna Burns: Well, can I say really quick, I also tried to make games for the show, and mine was, we should all share the dreams that we had to give up on, because that would be hilarious. And then I was like, no, that could be depressing.

[26:05] Justin Anthony Long: So Teresa came up with a better game.

[26:07] Joël René Scoville: The game should be, do a five minute stand up on the dream you never got. That's the hilarity.

[26:11] Joanna Burns: And I'm like, you guys ever watch the Olympics? I was so sure I was the next Tara Lipinski. I was betting on it.

[26:18] Pauls Macs: Did I live in a place where there was winter? No.

[26:20] Joanna Burns: I didn't think you needed ice to do it.

[26:23] Pauls Macs: Sorry, that's my, I don't have a type five.

[26:28] Joanna Burns: So I haven't thought of a cute little name for the game yet, because I was so entranced by the conversation. I wasn't even having a back end thought. I might just call it Our House.

[26:37] Pauls Macs: It's either going to be Our House, or it was going to be like Pop House, or it's going to be something house.

[26:43] Joanna Burns: It could be Broad House.

[26:44] Pauls Macs: I was just thinking Broad House.

[26:46] Joanna Burns: It could be Broad House.

[26:47] Pauls Macs: Okay, here we go.

[26:48] Joanna Burns: All right. So we have reached the point in the episode, my friends, where we are going to get y'all to play a little game with us. This is a barnacle fave segment, I have to say. For every single show, we come up with a new game. And this one is called Broad House. And what we are thinking is if everyone picked three musical theater characters to live with in their flop house, either for your amusement, as in it's going to be chaos and insane, or because you're like, genuinely, please live with me. So pals, I know that you had some fun ones. I'll lead us off this week. I was thinking that I wanted Elder Cunningham and Elder... Well, first off, let me say this. So every week, every week we do a game.

And I realized we have certain... Every episode, I should say. We have certain defaults. We always say Elle Woods. We always say Megan Lovett. We always have the kids from Spelling Bee in the game. Or we have the March Sisters from Little Women. They come up in every episode. Every episode. So this week, I decided to challenge myself. So I decided to choose Elder Price and Elder Cunningham from the Book of Mormon, because I feel like those two shouldn't be separated. But I feel like they're in the flop house. They're probably on their mission. And they're trying to convert folks. Then I also thought, I want Jean Valjean. Because Jean Valjean has been around, and he's seen some shit. And he's going to teach those Mormon kids what's what. I just thought that dynamic would be really entertaining. He's also famously strong. So when you're moving into your apartment, he's carrying the furniture.

[28:10] Joanna Burns: Absolutely.

[28:10] Pauls Macs: If he can lift a wagon, he can lift a loveseat.

[28:12] Joanna Burns: It's very helpful.

[28:13] Pauls Macs: That's the truth. Also, offer him bread, and he'll be your friend for life.

[28:19] Joanna Burns: There you go.

[28:19] Pauls Macs: Would any of our guests like to share any fun answers? And you can work it out out loud. This is a safe space.

[28:26] Justin Anthony Long: I'll go.

[28:27] Justin Anthony Long: Awesome. My first pick would be Tracy Turnblad. Because it'd be good to have a lot of hope around at all times.

[28:33] Joanna Burns: Oh, yeah.

[28:34] Justin Anthony Long: Because Tracy can sing about anything. She can turn your frown right upside down. My second would be, this maybe is controversial. But Benny from Rent. Because maybe he'd figure out a way for us all to make more cash.

[28:47] Joanna Burns: I love that loophole answer.

[28:48] Justin Anthony Long: That's a great loophole answer. We all talk shit. But the sellout friend? Listen.

[28:53] Joanna Burns: Yeah.

[28:54] Justin Anthony Long: Well, yes. And number three. Number three, I think, would be the king from Once Upon a Mattress. Because the cow pass is already going to be pretty chaotic. And so it'd be good to have somebody that doesn't really talk that much.

[29:04] Joanna Burns: That's a lot out.

[29:10] Justin Anthony Long: I can handle two Broadway characters. I'm going to choose a third that just doesn't speak much.

[29:15] Joanna Burns: Perfect housemate. Silent.

[29:19] Justin Anthony Long: I mean, this character still communicates. But minimally.

[29:23] Joanna Burns: Gorgeous.

[29:24] Pauls Macs: Gorgeous. How long are we residing in Broad House?

[29:29] Justin Anthony Long: Anywhere between a week to eternity.

[29:33] Pauls Macs: So a nice window. Could be purgatory.

[29:36] Joanna Burns: Yeah. Like no exit where you're stuck with these three people.

[29:39] Pauls Macs: We can't talk about no exit. Or we have to do another podcast.

[29:42] Joanna Burns: Yeah, exactly. I love no exit. I don't know what it is.

[29:45] Pauls Macs: Oh, it's a play.

[29:46] Joanna Burns: It doesn't count.

[29:48] Pauls Macs: It's a play. We don't care about plays on the podcast.

[29:50] Joanna Burns: We won't talk about that on the podcast. But here we are. It has my favorite quote. Hell is other people.

[29:53] Justin Anthony Long: When do they sing?

[29:56] Joanna Burns: If someone out there writes no exit the musical, I will immediately put you on this podcast.

[29:59] Pauls Macs: Awful.

[30:04] Joanna Burns: I would love to go. Okay. So I don't know that I have reasons of any substance here. I'm going to say Millie Dillmount. Because she'd sing and she'd tap dance. She would modernize that flop house.

[30:17] Justin Anthony Long: I guess so.

[30:18] Joanna Burns: She's got some great melodies in her, I think is all I am saying. So that character. Amos from Chicago. Just because.

[30:25] Justin Anthony Long: Just right there in the heart.

[30:28] Joanna Burns: Pennywise from Urinetown. Just for kicks.

[30:30] Justin Anthony Long: So I guess chaos is what we're saying.

[30:33] Joanna Burns: That is spicy. Get a little spicy in the house.

[30:37] Pauls Macs: Greg Kodes, who was a co-writer of Urinetown, was our first guest. I'm sure he would love to hear that.

[30:40] Joanna Burns: Well, fan to the moon and back. Those are great choices.

[30:44] Pauls Macs: I'm going to say Auntie Mame because I'm obsessed and love her. We need a little Christmas. She'd brighten up the broad house.

[30:55] Joanna Burns: I love that she can turn every single bad situation into a great one.

[30:59] Pauls Macs: I'm also going to say a total opposite. Caroline from Carolina Change because she will always keep it realistic and straight. And then Mother from Ragtime because she is just the sweetest and kindest. And I just can imagine her lulling me to sleep every night.

[31:15] Joanna Burns: Gorgeous. You made such beautiful points about who you were going to choose, only for me to be bat shit crazy right after you. Your choices are gorgeous and beautiful and moving and poignant. And mine were just like, I want the Book of Mormon kids to fight with Jean Valjean.

[31:35] Pauls Macs: I love how you all approach this slightly differently. I also really love the idea of them trying to convert Jean Valjean. And he's like, God and I have our own thing. He's got his candlesticks and he's like, leave me alone.

[31:43] Joanna Burns: And candlelight's important.

[31:47] Pauls Macs: So my first choice was the Cat in the Hat from Seussical because he's going to keep it spicy. I'm going to come home. Is there going to be a pool in my bathroom? Is there going to be a jungle in my yard? I don't know. And it's going to be great. And I'm going to tell myself how lucky I am is what's going to happen.

[32:03] Joanna Burns: The next person I chose was Elle Woods, because you're going to pull her from my cold dead hands. The house is going to be pink. It's going to be gorgeous. There's going to be cute people coming in and out just singing about positivity. And why wouldn't I want that? Elle Woods would fight for us to keep the Flophouse. I feel like if Elle Woods lived in my Flophouse, we would never have to leave.

[32:22] Justin Anthony Long: We wouldn't be a problem, sis.

[32:23] Joanna Burns: That is a great loophole answer.

[32:25] Justin Anthony Long: Another great loophole answer.

[32:26] Joanna Burns: And then my last choice, which is truly the most unhinged choice I have, but I'm going to stick with it, is do you remember the Ratatouille musical that blew up on TikTok, but then they got to do one show?

[32:38] Justin Anthony Long: Yes.

[32:39] Joanna Burns: I am taking Remy, the rat.

[32:42] Joël René Scoville: Oh, I love that.

[32:43] Joanna Burns: Takes up no space. Loves to cook. Practical. Could scare away potential people that I don't want around. Someone will be like, oh, can I rent this room? And I'll be like, Remy, get in there. And everyone will be like, ew, there's rats here. I'll be like, oh, it's so sad. Don't live here. That's how we would weed out the unwanteds. And then he would make us a nice quiche. And then me and Elle Woods and the cat in the hat would talk about our day.

[33:07] Pauls Macs: Those are wonderful answers.

[33:09] Joanna Burns: Thank you.

[33:10] Pauls Macs: They are unhinged, but that's what keeps the door open, babe.

[33:13] Joanna Burns: I love it. I love them.

[33:15] Pauls Macs: Well, my friends, as we like to say on this podcast, we've truly been on a journey together today.

[33:19] Joanna Burns: Truly been on a journey.

[33:21] Pauls Macs: Old friends and new friends, Justin, Joanna, Joël, thank you so much for being here and for sharing Flophouse with us. And we're so excited to see the piece as it progresses. It's very exciting for us to be interviewing our writing team in the midst of a rewrite.

[33:34] Joanna Burns: In the deep.

[33:36] Pauls Macs: Rolling in the deep by Adele. Also, just realized, got this far into the episode. It's a J team. J, J, J. Triple, triple J. Power. And the Js go deeper than this. Other people that we have collaborated with and more Js.

[33:49] Joanna Burns: Oh, my God. Well, isn't that just something?

[33:54] Pauls Macs: I think on that note, thank you all for tuning into this episode. Thanks, Barnacles. We appreciate you. We love y'all so much. We'll see you soon.

[34:03] Joanna Burns: See y'all soon, Barnacles.

[34:04] Pauls Macs: Bye.

[34:05] Joanna Burns: Bye, Barnacles.

[34:10] Pauls Macs: Thanks for joining us on New York Theatre Barn's Backstage Pass, hosted by Teresa Attridge and Pauls Macs. And if you believe in supporting original culture-shifting musicals, please like, subscribe, and share.