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[0:00] Teresa Attridge: Ever wonder what it takes to make a new musical sing? Our mission is to give you an inclusive look behind the scenes. We are interviewing the creatives who are changing musical theater one 11 o'clock number at a time. This is your Backstage Pass.

[0:34] Pauls Macs: Get your Backstage Pass. Get your Backstage Pass.

[0:47] Teresa Attridge: I came to this place so I could chase my dream to write a Broadway show. I came to this place to race the race because this is the only place to go but it's been so much more than I bargained for. This building, this walk up, I got a place to climb five flights. This stairwell, this landing, I got a place to crash on nights when my roommate is a jerk and I'm thinking up a song but I gotta get to work. This is taking way too long. Rich! Our one room apartment, a place to overpay for rent. No storage, no sunlight, a view of concrete and cement. In my corner there's a bed and a keyboard, not a grand. Leaky ceiling overhead but the roaches understand. Yet I got a place to sing. I got a place to write. Oh, I got a place to do my thing. To learn, to know, to yearn, to grow because here's where my heart belongs. You're listening to I Got a Place from Trick the Musical.

[2:07] Teresa Attridge: Welcome back to part two of our conversation with Jason Schafer, Arthur Lafrentz Bacon, and Jeff Calhoun about this exciting new musical. You'll hear two more songs from the show and learn about its development path. Based on the 1999 queer cult classic film, Trick the Musical follows Gabriel, a shy musical theater songwriter, and Mark, a go-go dancer, who try to find a place to hook up in Manhattan only for the romantic endeavor to be hilariously interrupted by friends and bad luck. Listen all the way to the end for a game where we decide which musical theater character we'd spend one night with in New York City. So Gabriel and Mark go back to Gabriel's apartment to try to hook up and are not able to do so because of Catherine.

Once Catherine finally leaves, at that same moment or very near that moment, then Gabriel's roommate shows up with his girlfriend who's recently back from out of the country. So they have to go— Oh my gosh, that was another one of my favorite jokes in the script where they're like, she's back from France and she's like, je n'ai pas une pipe. I was like, stop! This is literature. This is writing. This is art. But one thing I loved about this piece is as they're traveling around New York, I felt like I was going to some of the places I've been to. There's a place that reminds me very much of Marie's Crisis.

[3:25] Arthur Lafrentz Bacon: Oh yeah.

[3:26] Teresa Attridge: Okay, I wanted to make sure that was a loving tribute. There are a lot of musical theater love letters in this musical, you know? But they end up at a dance club and at that dance club, there's some conflict. Before we get into that, maybe we should just go ahead and set up the song Dance Floor because that's kind of a great introduction to that environment. So that song is when they go to the club, it's performed by a drag queen performing at the club. It's a disco dance. It's like a drag cover of a disco hit is the idea. And I will say we're working on, we're expanding this song right now to actually take the other side of it too. So there's going to be a personal side from the drag queen. So you're just going to hear the pop version of Dance Floor, but hopefully when you see the show, you will see kind of a fully expanded version, which Arthur had the brilliant idea that the other part is going to be a rap.

[4:12] Jeff Calhoun: Oh, I cannot wait. I love that.

[4:13] Teresa Attridge: We're not going to play the Marie's Crisis piano bar song, but those songs are so evocative of these places. And we'll talk more about that on the other side of the song, but who is performing Dance Floor?

[4:20] Arthur Lafrentz Bacon: Arthur!

[4:21] Teresa Attridge: Amazing! I thought so, you know, it's so funny. I ask this on the show all the time. I always like to double check and make sure. All right, here is Dance Floor performed by Arthur.

[4:55] ♪ Musical number: "Dance Floor" — performed by Arthur Lafrentz Bacon ♪

[7:02] Pauls Macs: Arthur, you got to release it as a single. You got to release it as a single. I need it.

[7:14] Jeff Calhoun: I certainly felt like I was watching an episode of RuPaul's Drag Race like as soon as I started listening to it. I knew exactly where I was in the best possible way. There's like a temperature when you're in that specific kind of like when you're dancing and you can feel it on your body. It felt so evocative, you know?

[7:34] Arthur Lafrentz Bacon: It was so easy to write. Jason's lyrics are just, you just look at them and you know what it is. So I'm super happy about that song.

[7:40] Teresa Attridge: Don't you love people who are just talented at writing things like, oh, it just came out of me. I wish I had that superpower. I do often, but with music, I would love that. So we meet this drag superstar, but this drag superstar causes some very real conflict in the relationship between Mark and Gabriel.

[7:57] Jeff Calhoun: Sure. I think, you know, Gabriel has illusions built on his love of musicals and his idea of love and romance come from musicals. And so when he walks into this club, which is Mark's world, he is then kind of surrounded by a very kind of sexualized and different experience. And the dreams of romance that have been percolating throughout the evening, all of a sudden get shattered by his experience in the club.

[8:29] Teresa Attridge: And is it okay to name that experience?

[8:31] Jeff Calhoun: That's evolving in the show, what it will be, but the drag character certainly...

[8:35] Arthur Lafrentz Bacon: Right, because right now there's like a we'll insert this scene here.

[8:38] Jeff Calhoun: Yeah, that's that's our kind of rap scene that's going to go in there. But certainly, certainly it's clear that Mark slept with a good number of people who are at that club. And certainly it's clear that Mark has a reputation that challenges Gabriel's ideas about what is happening at that point in this story. And Gabriel's forced to kind of grow up. Actually, it's the act one break, so they separate.

[9:02] Arthur Lafrentz Bacon: I mean, that's what it says in the lyrics as well. It says, tomorrow morning, you'll be gone. Tomorrow morning, you'll be gone. This is an old fashioned, like a comment song from Cabaret. And it took me like a long time to access what this song was actually about. And anytime I kind of had those questions, I would just start going back through old musicals. And I thought of Cabaret and how you have the MC. Because I was like, how do I earn a character who's introduced in the last scene of act one? How do I give that character a song? And it seemed like the only way is to have that character sing at least indirectly about what's happening. So she sings Dance Floor, and she's actually singing about Gabriel's experience on the dance floor at that moment.

[9:45] Teresa Attridge: That's really great.

[9:46] Jeff Calhoun: You take a princess track, you make it a queen track. You know what I mean? Total princess track.

[9:50] Arthur Lafrentz Bacon: The other thing I would say is the storyline of there are two people, one is very sexually experienced and one is not. One is more out there, one is more reserved. Again, going back to the original, I guess, charm or appeal of that film. I mean, that's a story we've seen in so many heteronormative contexts previously. But to see that just so honestly open and out there and cleverly told in 1999 with two gay men. And I just found myself at that act one break being like, I am just so invested. I'm just rooting for these two to get together. I think that's part of what makes this piece really, really.

[10:25] Jeff Calhoun: Yeah. And I think there's something really beautiful about the fact that they are two people who are afraid of a certain kind of intimacy, but they're taking it in completely different ways, right? You know, you have Gabriel who is hyper romantic, there's like a sense of limerence, there's wanting things to be in this very sort of like storybook fantastical way, and then being afraid to try because they don't want to pop the bubble they've created. Whereas you have someone like Mark, who's like, Oh, well, I kind of flit between these situations. And I kind of, you know, I have these little like snippets of intimacy, because I'm afraid when people get to know me that it's not going to work out.

So they both fundamentally believe that there is something about them that's not going to get what they want, because they view the world or they experience the world in very specific way. And they're at odds with one another. And it's almost like there's an envy in what the other person is able to access that they cannot, when in reality, they're both really just trying to go the same direction.

[11:21] Jason Schafer: You know, they're really trying to walk each other to the train, dare I say.

[11:25] Arthur Lafrentz Bacon: What a great segway.

[11:28] Jason Schafer: I totally agree with my wonderful co-host. You get a sense of the whole evening that even though there's these obstacles that are just continuously thrown in their direction, that desire to be with one another is just so palpable and it's so well expressed in Let Me Walk You To The Train. Would you please set up that song?

[11:45] Jason Schafer: One of the huge challenges of writing this particular story is the relationship is so new. It all takes place in under 24 hours, so you can't have a full-throated love song. These are two people kind of still negotiating what's happening, whether they have the right to kind of feel the things they're feeling. They don't know what the other person is feeling. This song, I think I have 90 pages of notes to get to the completed lyric. Let Me Walk You To The Train was an early idea for the title, and it basically was the last man standing. I kept coming up with things, but nothing quite hit. And that was the only one I couldn't knock down. And so at a certain point, I was like, well, I'm just going to have to move forward with this idea because it's what's right for the moment.

I will also say when I was spotting the songs for the show, I did this with Bleeding Love with Harris and Arthur. I was like, there's one love duet in the show. We can't have any more than that. And I did kind of the same thing. We ended up with two. But it was like the placement of where is the duet between the two characters became a big question. And I kind of tried it on all over the place. And I think I realized once I was like the drag queen has to be the end of act one, then she needs something to break apart. So this is the scene before they go to the club. And this is two guys at what the universe is telling them should be the end of this night. But neither of them really want it to end.

[13:17] Arthur Lafrentz Bacon: I love that. Who's performing this song?

[13:19] Jason Schafer: Oh, this is performed by the wonderful actors from Atlanta, Avonlea and Will Franklin-Eller. Here is Let Me Walk You To The Train performed by Avonlea and Will Franklin-Eller.

[13:30] ♪ Musical number: "Let Me Walk You To The Train" — performed by Avonlea and Will Franklin-Eller ♪

[17:06] Jason Schafer: My heart. You said previously, Jason, that the universe is telling them that this night should be over. But it's clear in this music that they don't want to be over. That they want this evening to continue. And the way that's expressed in the musical is through a duet with very lush harmonies, so evocative of what these characters are experiencing in that moment.

[17:27] Arthur Lafrentz Bacon: Yeah. And this sort of stop and start of the beginning as well. Talking over each other. Finding their rhythm together. Realizing that it's a microcosm of the night, right? It's you have one night together, which is one walk, which is one conversation. And it just keeps feeling smaller and smaller. But the feelings are bigger and bigger. And so they're really just they're trying to catch each other. And they're trying to find the same entry point. And they're stumbling. But they're trying. And by the time they get to those beautiful harmonies and they're singing together, and they figured it out, it's time to go. And what do you do with that? I think it's hard to write an early love song like you were saying.

Where it's like it's not a deep like we've been in love for years. Or like this is like my big grandmama. But how do you write the feeling of even though I don't quite know what this is or why I feel it so intensely? Like this is very real and I need to figure out why. The other song that's coming to my mind right now is it only takes a moment from Hello, Dolly. You know, Jerry Herman. Very Jerry Herman. Back again. Very Jerry Herman. But they're like fully in love in that moment.

[18:27] Jason Schafer: Right. The love is going to happen for the rest to be loved a whole lifelong. What I appreciate about these characters, though, is there's that guard up. You know, it feels much more connected to real life. Like, what are we going to do? We want this to work, but it can't work. That realistic aspect of their relationship is very palpable in the song.

[18:43] Arthur Lafrentz Bacon: You're absolutely right. I did not compare it to it only takes a moment, but it's the same thing in the world of Trick. It's like Trick's reality. It's let me walk you to the train. In that show, they're able to open up their hearts and say it only takes a moment to be loved a whole lifelong. Gabriel and Mark, if they said that, well, Mark would be out of there. And I love that that's different about their relationship. It makes this story unique, but also makes you root for them.

[19:09] Jason Schafer: Jason, you've already mentioned several other really important collaborators in terms of bringing Trick to life. But I would be curious to know, were there any other partner organizations or partner theaters that were really instrumental in the show's development?

[19:24] Jason Schafer: After Trick was released in '99, there's been a lot of interest over the years from writers and producers kind of asking about the possibility of adapting it into a musical. I was very fortunate. I mean, the timing didn't work out for various reasons. And really one of the things that unlocked it for me, I have to say, is Paul Conroy at Outfront Theater Company. It's a queer-focused theater company in Atlanta. He reached out out of the blue and was like, hey, have you ever thought about Trick on the stage? And I will say something about the timing, but also he told me about this company in Atlanta. And I just think it's so beautiful and so powerful that there are all these queer companies across the country focused on bringing queer theater to all these communities.

That was so inspiring to me. I immediately loved the idea. And nobody writes a musical these days with a company saying, we'll put it up, give us a show, we'll put it on the stage. So that was just kind of a tremendous gift. And the other thing that it did is knowing that I had that destination, it unlocked for me creatively like what this show would be like. I was like, well, this isn't going to be a cast of 30. I mean, the movie probably has a thousand extras in it. Like, how do you tell this story in a way? And knowing that that theater company was going to be presenting the show really unlocked for me kind of the creative way to do it with a cast of eight. They just did a bang-up job and there was so much heart and they pulled out all the stops for this wonderful production that we had in Atlanta in the spring.

[21:06] Arthur Lafrentz Bacon: I love that. Can we ask what's next for Trick?

[21:09] Jeff Calhoun: We have things in the works. And whatever Jeff's guidance, he is leading. He is the captain of the ship.

[21:15] Arthur Lafrentz Bacon: Very good. So even if it's not a literal like what's coming next, sort of, Jeff, what do you see in the future for Trick? What are some things that would be well suited for it? What are the kinds of dreams or visions you have for a piece like this?

[21:28] Jeff Calhoun: Something so wonderful. How would you want to share that? Well, I think it's going to be a pretty cliché answer. I think, you know, we want a New York presence, whatever that means, whether that means a Broadway production, whether that means an off-Broadway production. You know, we're still it's still in development right now. And I have to tell you, thank you for including me this because I understand this podcast is really about writing and it's been a privilege for me. I'm sort of a proxy for your audience getting to sit and listen to the brilliance. You can tell that I'm, you know, I'm writing on the coattails of these guys. They're brilliant. I'm so lucky that Jason emailed me out of the blue.

I get an email from I didn't know who Jason was. And here was this. Are you interested in reading this script about this movie I did called Trick? And the next day he sent me the script in the demo. And I immediately, I think within 24 hours, absorbed it, went through it and knew because of its heart and its sense of humor and its innocence in this time that Jason said earlier, that's happening with the world. All I can do is try to save the world one show at a time. And that's sort of I've just blessed that this is in the canon of that for me. And also, I've been really lucky in my career working with classic writers, Betty and Adolph, you know, and Alan Menken and Jack and Frank Wildhorn and Don Black.

[22:42] Arthur Lafrentz Bacon: I've learned that nobody in my life circle who's younger knows what a trick is. I have no idea.

[23:13] Jason Schafer: So I think it's important on this podcast that we contextualize for the younger people what the title of this show means.

[23:21] Jason Schafer: Yeah, well, trick obviously in the 90s was the term for hookup, especially in the gay world.

[23:29] Jason Schafer: And I guess hookup has now replaced that, but trick is a better title.

[23:36] Jason Schafer: I haven't found one of my friends under 40 that knows what trick is, and it's really blowing my mind.

[23:40] Arthur Lafrentz Bacon: I'm from San Francisco. I knew what a trick was.

[23:45] Arthur Lafrentz Bacon: Well, to put it in parentheses, one night stand.

[23:50] Jason Schafer: One night stand, yeah. But anyway, that was important to talk about.

[23:54] Arthur Lafrentz Bacon: And the other thing we should hear from the guys, adapting a movie to the stage. It's really tricky.

[24:01] Jason Schafer: Jason and Arthur, would you like to answer that question?

[24:03] Jason Schafer: Well, in that way, I'm so glad that I didn't try and write this sooner.

[24:08] Jason Schafer: It was really, I think, good for me to get very separated from what the movie was then.

[24:15] Jason Schafer: I know for me personally, I was young and optimistic and unjaded.

[24:20] Jason Schafer: When I wrote the movie, I did go through probably a long period where I became more cynical.

[24:26] Jason Schafer: As I got older and rebounded somewhat and found that connection to my earlier optimism, was when I kind of came back to this story.

[24:34] Jason Schafer: So I think it's fortuitous in that way.

[24:37] Jason Schafer: As I said, musicals were my first love.

[24:39] Jason Schafer: So I knew when I did this that I wanted to build it as a stage show and not put a literal beat-by-beat version of the screenplay on stage.

[24:50] Jason Schafer: So I spent a lot of time just kind of imagining what the stage show, how it moves like a stage show.

[24:57] Jason Schafer: And a lot of people over the years always thought it was naturally built for the stage, that the movie felt like that.

[25:04] Jason Schafer: But there are lots of things that, you know, you have to make a lot of adjustments.

[25:08] Jason Schafer: I'll say the big thing is the characters don't have to be as expressive in the movie.

[25:14] Jason Schafer: Gabriel's a little, he's a little quieter.

[25:17] Jason Schafer: Mark's a little quieter in the movie because you can do stuff with close-ups.

[25:21] Jason Schafer: You can do stuff where now they have to express it.

[25:24] Jason Schafer: And the big thing just creatively is, like Mark's second act song, like all the times before, you have to go so much deeper in a musical moment than you ever have to go in a movie.

[25:35] Jason Schafer: And you have to kind of explore, you have to explore it both kind of horizontally and very, very vertically whenever you're going to stop for a song.

[25:43] Jason Schafer: And then the other thing is the movie does have music in it, but those songs work in a movie that only has four songs, four musical moments.

[25:52] Jason Schafer: But when you're going to have 15 musical moments plus reprises, the kind of job of each song becomes very different.

[26:00] Jason Schafer: So I had to kind of rethink, rethink everything.

[26:03] Jason Schafer: And Jeff's been a great eye, I have to say, in terms of like looking at it and helping us find a really nice balance.

[26:12] Jason Schafer: But I think I might be unusual in that I'm kind of more willing than most writers to kind of reinvent.

[26:17] Jason Schafer: That's been fun for me, truth be told.

[26:21] Jason Schafer: Also fun for me to go, this was my story in the 90s, and now I get to look back on who I was in the 90s, a perspective that I didn't have when I wrote it originally.

[26:31] Arthur Lafrentz Bacon: If we want to take it even farther back, you fell in love with musicals through reading those librettos, and now you're writing your own.

[26:38] Jason Schafer: So it all comes back.

[26:40] Arthur Lafrentz Bacon: So in a way, everything sort of set you up for this moment that we're in right now, and I think that's really beautiful.

[26:47] Jason Schafer: Who would have guessed?

[26:48] Arthur Lafrentz Bacon: Arisa, look at you, you're in full circle.

[26:51] Jason Schafer: Look at you.

[26:52] Arthur Lafrentz Bacon: We love a full circle.

[26:56] Arthur Lafrentz Bacon: My experience of reading the musical is as I was reading Act 1, I was like, oh, I mean, this just makes the most sense ever to translate into a musical.

[27:03] Arthur Lafrentz Bacon: He's a musical theater writer, like, of course.

[27:08] Arthur Lafrentz Bacon: But then in Act 2, there were moments where it really embraced its musical theater sensibilities.

[27:12] Arthur Lafrentz Bacon: The moment I'm thinking of very specifically is when all the people from the workshop show up in Act 2 to convince Gabriel not to quit musical theater writing.

[27:19] Jason Schafer: I loved that moment.

[27:21] Arthur Lafrentz Bacon: That was beautiful.

[27:25] Arthur Lafrentz Bacon: Adding that flavor into the musical just made it feel like this is now perfectly adapted to this version of storytelling.

[27:28] Jason Schafer: And the way that you were talking about close-ups with film earlier, I thought that was a perfect translation into musical theater.

[27:33] Arthur Lafrentz Bacon: That's beautiful to hear, and that comes from the musical two-act structure.

[27:37] Arthur Lafrentz Bacon: It's like, well, we have an Act 1. They've got to come back.

[27:40] Arthur Lafrentz Bacon: They've got to come back. We've got to give them something in Act 2.

[27:43] Arthur Lafrentz Bacon: I mean, it's so natural in a musical.

[27:45] Jason Schafer: In a movie, you don't have that break.

[27:47] Jason Schafer: You wouldn't feel that.

[27:48] Arthur Lafrentz Bacon: But I felt that, yeah.

[27:50] Arthur Lafrentz Bacon: And we're working on that.

[27:51] Jason Schafer: Well, the song's been written, but the arrangement and production and orchestration of it just today, that's the song we're working on next to get on the SoundCloud.

[28:00] Arthur Lafrentz Bacon: And, pals, you're going to love it.

[28:01] Arthur Lafrentz Bacon: There's a kickline.

[28:02] Jason Schafer: I love a kickline.

[28:03] Arthur Lafrentz Bacon: That's something I put on my Instagram story today.

[28:05] Arthur Lafrentz Bacon: I said, who doesn't love a kickline?

[28:07] Jason Schafer: Uh-huh.

[28:08] Arthur Lafrentz Bacon: Well, Game Master Teresa, I feel like we could be talking for hours, but Game Master Teresa, do you want to take us out?

[28:13] Teresa Attridge: All righty, my friends. It is time for a fan-favorite segment on the podcast.

[28:17] Teresa Attridge: It's going to be our game for the day, and this game is going to be called Sunset, Sunrise.

[28:20] Teresa Attridge: So the idea is, you know, Gabriel and Mark, they spend this incredible one night together.

[28:26] Teresa Attridge: They meet. They fall in like with each other.

[28:30] Teresa Attridge: They can't hook up. They try. They fail.

[28:33] Teresa Attridge: They separate. They come together.

[28:36] Teresa Attridge: Plot twist, right?

[28:38] Teresa Attridge: So the idea is, if you were going to spend one night in New York City with any musical theater character of your choosing from the canon, who do you pick?

[28:46] Teresa Attridge: You also get bonus points if you think you can get them to fall in love with you.

[28:52] Teresa Attridge: And, pals, did you have one ready?

[28:55] Arthur Lafrentz Bacon: Oh, I did.

[28:56] Teresa Attridge: You always do.

[28:57] Arthur Lafrentz Bacon: You're so quick.

[28:58] Teresa Attridge: You're so smart with it.

[29:00] Arthur Lafrentz Bacon: Well, it's so funny. Talking about invisible strings of destiny, the next show I'm working on is Hello, Dolly.

[29:04] Teresa Attridge: Stop.

[29:05] Arthur Lafrentz Bacon: You know, very Jerry Herman-esque answer.

[29:07] Arthur Lafrentz Bacon: The person I immediately thought of was Dolly Levi, who was actually my first answer in the last podcast, too, which was like, who would be your ideal sex therapist?

[29:12] Arthur Lafrentz Bacon: Dolly Levi.

[29:16] Arthur Lafrentz Bacon: I mean, Dolly Levi is almost always going to be the right answer.

[29:19] Arthur Lafrentz Bacon: She's the answer to so many questions.

[29:21] Arthur Lafrentz Bacon: But truly, though, I want to be there singing along with those waiters.

[29:25] Arthur Lafrentz Bacon: I want to be with Dolly as we go through an evening in New York.

[29:28] Teresa Attridge: Now, I was not anticipating Teresa's follow-up question, which is, would Dolly Levi fall in love with me?

[29:34] Arthur Lafrentz Bacon: Hmm.

[29:35] Teresa Attridge: They don't have to.

[29:37] Arthur Lafrentz Bacon: I don't know.

[29:38] Teresa Attridge: It's bonus points for the game. They don't have to.

[29:40] Arthur Lafrentz Bacon: I mean, I'm up for a challenge, but I'm not seeing instant symmetry there.

[29:43] Teresa Attridge: So I guess I was curious.

[29:44] Teresa Attridge: Teresa, do you think any musical theater characters would fall in love with me?

[29:47] Jason Schafer: Does anybody in this room?

[29:48] Teresa Attridge: I do.

[29:49] Teresa Attridge: I had two.

[29:50] Teresa Attridge: So the one that I don't necessarily need to fall in love with me is I would want to explore New York City with a cat in the hat because truly, whatever I imagine or want to happen is happening.

[29:59] Teresa Attridge: There's no way I'm not going to have a fun night with a cat in the hat.

[30:02] Teresa Attridge: Do you know what I mean?

[30:03] Teresa Attridge: Especially in the city.

[30:04] Arthur Lafrentz Bacon: Magical answers are—

[30:05] Teresa Attridge: But the one that I picked, if I were like—

[30:07] Teresa Attridge: I mean, I think I could get him to fall in love with me.

[30:09] Teresa Attridge: I was like, I would do it with Aladdin.

[30:11] Teresa Attridge: I would explore New York.

[30:12] Arthur Lafrentz Bacon: Because you want a street rat when you explore New York, baby.

[30:15] Teresa Attridge: And a magic carpet.

[30:16] Arthur Lafrentz Bacon: And a magic—

[30:17] Teresa Attridge: You want the free food that he's going to steal.

[30:19] Teresa Attridge: You want someone who knows how to hop on the roof.

[30:21] Teresa Attridge: You want someone who's going to be able to break into an abandoned building.

[30:24] Teresa Attridge: Like, if you're going to explore the city, you want to go with someone who's kind of going to be underground.

[30:29] Teresa Attridge: And maybe I like a bad boy who has a golden personality.

[30:31] Teresa Attridge: Maybe we want, like, the little street rat with a heart of gold.

[30:35] Teresa Attridge: You know? Nothing wrong with that.

[30:37] Teresa Attridge: But those are my answers.

[30:38] Teresa Attridge: The cat in the hat and Aladdin.

[30:39] Arthur Lafrentz Bacon: In no other context are they going to be in the same answer.

[30:41] Jason Schafer: I believe that Aladdin can fall in love with you.

[30:43] Teresa Attridge: Thank you.

[30:44] Jason Schafer: Me too.

[30:45] Teresa Attridge: I feel like I have very Jasmine-like qualities, which is just that I'm very outspoken.

[30:48] Jason Schafer: Absolutely.

[30:49] Teresa Attridge: And I'm a little bit of princess.

[30:50] Jason Schafer: Thank you.

[30:51] Arthur Lafrentz Bacon: You're a princess.

[30:52] Jason Schafer: All right.

[30:53] Arthur Lafrentz Bacon: Arthur, Jeff, who has an answer?

[30:54] Jeff Calhoun: I have an answer.

[30:55] Jeff Calhoun: Because it's easy.

[30:56] Jeff Calhoun: The reason I gave Gabriel the name Gabriel is because there's another musical, a Golden Age musical, set in one night.

[31:02] Jeff Calhoun: Oh!

[31:06] Jeff Calhoun: And that is On the Town.

[31:08] Jeff Calhoun: And principal character in that is Gaby.

[31:11] Jeff Calhoun: Back in the 90s, I gave that homage to On the Town.

[31:14] Arthur Lafrentz Bacon: You heard it here, folks.

[31:15] Jason Schafer: Oh, my gosh.

[31:16] Jeff Calhoun: This is a Barnacle exclusive, you guys.

[31:19] Teresa Attridge: This is a backstage pass.

[31:20] Jeff Calhoun: The fun fact you can tell everyone that you know.

[31:22] Arthur Lafrentz Bacon: Okay.

[31:23] Jeff Calhoun: This is the real deal.

[31:24] Arthur Lafrentz Bacon: Arthur or Jeff, whoever's feeling electric, whoever wants to follow the spark.

[31:27] Jeff Calhoun: Well, if I had my druthers, Little Abner.

[31:31] Arthur Lafrentz Bacon: Yes!

[31:32] Jeff Calhoun: Oh, my gosh.

[31:33] Arthur Lafrentz Bacon: I love it.

[31:34] Jeff Calhoun: I knew Jeff was going to give a classic answer.

[31:35] Arthur Lafrentz Bacon: For obvious reasons.

[31:36] Jeff Calhoun: There's lots of classic answers.

[31:37] Jeff Calhoun: And I think if we had time together, you'd fall in love with me.

[31:39] Arthur Lafrentz Bacon: Why not?

[31:40] Jeff Calhoun: Yeah, why not?

[31:41] Arthur Lafrentz Bacon: See, that was kind of like my thinking about Hello, Dolly, but I'm, like, shy.

[31:45] Teresa Attridge: It's okay.

[31:46] Jeff Calhoun: Dolly Levi is not.

[31:47] Arthur Lafrentz Bacon: I didn't want to interrupt, but when you asked, did we think that, you know, she could fall in love with you, who wouldn't fall in love with you?

[31:53] Jeff Calhoun: Rye Pals is the best.

[31:55] Teresa Attridge: Oh, Jeff Calhoun.

[31:56] Arthur Lafrentz Bacon: Oh, my gosh.

[31:57] Jeff Calhoun: I mean, come on.

[31:58] Jeff Calhoun: That's the nicest thing anyone's ever said to me on this podcast.

[32:00] Arthur Lafrentz Bacon: Well, both you and Teresa are absolutely adorable, and I do a lot of podcasts.

[32:05] Jeff Calhoun: I'm telling you, you'd be hard-pressed to find two people more knowledgeable about the theater.

[32:09] Teresa Attridge: Oh, my gosh.

[32:10] Jeff Calhoun: You little angel.

[32:11] Teresa Attridge: You stopped that.

[32:12] Jeff Calhoun: Thank you.

[32:13] Arthur Lafrentz Bacon: All right, Arthur, it's up to you.

[32:15] Arthur Lafrentz Bacon: You're rounding us out.

[32:16] Arthur Lafrentz Bacon: Okay.

[32:17] Arthur Lafrentz Bacon: You have to follow that.

[32:18] Arthur Lafrentz Bacon: I'm thinking, I was thinking about this, and you can help me with her name.

[32:21] Arthur Lafrentz Bacon: So the girl who plays cello in Footloose, who is the.

[32:24] Teresa Attridge: Ariel.

[32:25] Arthur Lafrentz Bacon: The lead.

[32:26] Arthur Lafrentz Bacon: Ariel.

[32:27] Arthur Lafrentz Bacon: A great answer.

[32:28] Arthur Lafrentz Bacon: Her.

[32:29] Arthur Lafrentz Bacon: We would go play some Brahms.

[32:30] Arthur Lafrentz Bacon: I know the Brahms cello sonata, and hang out, and then go have, like, a beer, and then walk.

[32:34] Teresa Attridge: I absolutely love that you're like, I'm looking for a jam session on my night in New York.

[32:40] Arthur Lafrentz Bacon: And then walk around the village.

[32:41] Arthur Lafrentz Bacon: I love it.

[32:42] Arthur Lafrentz Bacon: Talk about music, and yeah, her.

[32:45] Teresa Attridge: It was on the.

[32:46] Arthur Lafrentz Bacon: Right.

[32:47] Teresa Attridge: Yeah.

[32:48] Arthur Lafrentz Bacon: Well, it sounds like we're all having a great night out on the town.

[32:51] Teresa Attridge: Incredible.

[32:52] Arthur Lafrentz Bacon: There we go.

[32:53] Teresa Attridge: Oh, good.

[32:54] Arthur Lafrentz Bacon: See what you did there?

[32:55] Teresa Attridge: Yeah.

[32:56] Jason Schafer: But I do love how those classic answers, and I love how that connects to the lineage of musical theater.

[32:59] Arthur Lafrentz Bacon: Oh, yeah.

[33:01] Teresa Attridge: So.

[33:02] Jason Schafer: Thank you.

[33:03] Arthur Lafrentz Bacon: There we go.

[33:04] Teresa Attridge: And of course.

[33:05] Arthur Lafrentz Bacon: Sunset, sunrise, because it's all night.

[33:07] Jason Schafer: Boom.

[33:08] Teresa Attridge: Well, Jason, Jeff, Arthur, thank you so much for joining us.

[33:12] Teresa Attridge: Thank you so much for your time.

[33:13] Teresa Attridge: It has been wonderful chatting with you about Trick.

[33:14] Jason Schafer: It has been both a trick and a treat.

[33:16] Arthur Lafrentz Bacon: Thank you so much, you guys.

[33:17] Jeff Calhoun: It was so much fun.

[33:19] Arthur Lafrentz Bacon: This has been amazing.

[33:20] Teresa Attridge: Barnacles, thanks for joining us.

[33:21] Teresa Attridge: We're so glad to be back to have you here with us, and we will see you again soon.

[33:24] All: Bye, Barnacles.

[33:27] All: Bye, Barnacles.

[33:28] All: Bye, Barnacles.

[33:29] All: Bye, Barnacles.

[33:30] Teresa Attridge: Thanks for joining us on New York Theater Barn's Backstage Pass, hosted by Teresa Attridge and Pauls Macs.

[33:32] Teresa Attridge: And if you believe in supporting original culture-shifting musicals, please like, subscribe, and share.