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[0:00] Teresa Attridge: Backstage Pass, we're world class, with even more in store. Get your Backstage Pass, master class, with even more in store.

[0:22] Pauls Macs: Ever wonder what it takes to make a new musical sing? Our mission is to make the exclusive inclusive.

[0:28] Teresa Attridge: We're interviewing the creatives who are changing musical theater one 11 o'clock number at a time.

[0:33] Pauls Macs: This is your Backstage Pass.

[0:35] Teresa Attridge: Get your Backstage Pass. Get your Backstage Pass.

[0:43] Pauls Macs: Hello, once again, my sweet, sweet barnacles. Yes, pals and I, we are back with yet another wonderful writing team. Oh my goodness, pals, you're so excited for our next guest.

[0:53] Pauls Macs: This is old friends and new friends. I've been a fan of Amy's since Amy was on the new work series for Bastard Jones.

[0:59] Pauls Macs: But this is my first time meeting Molly. I'm very, very excited that we're going to be interviewing the team from The Completely True Story of West High's 66th Annual Charity Lockdown.

[1:09] Pauls Macs: Yes, we love a long title. Hi, Amy. Hi, Molly. Tell everyone that you're excited to be here, please.

[1:15] Amy Engelhardt: Oh, yes. Very excited to be here.

[1:17] Molly Horan: There's a possibility the name might change.

[1:20] Pauls Macs: The name is long.

[1:22] Pauls Macs: Why don't we start this podcast with this hot tea? We've just introduced the podcast and now we're saying the show might be different.

[1:29] Amy Engelhardt: That's life's beginning.

[1:30] Molly Horan: No, that's the way to do it. That's the way to do it.

[1:33] Amy Engelhardt: But because it would be adding to it.

[1:36] Amy Engelhardt: It would possibly be The Completely True Story of West High's 66th Annual Charity Lockdown, comma, or Steve.

[1:44] Pauls Macs: You absolutely have to do that because we love long titles here.

[1:47] Pauls Macs: My goodness, that is incredible. We just slipped your names in about how excited we were to meet you.

[1:52] Pauls Macs: So, Paz, actually, I think this would be a really great opportunity to read their bios so we can properly introduce Molly and Amy.

[1:58] Teresa Attridge: Absolutely. All right. First, we're going to read Amy's bio.

[2:02] Teresa Attridge: Composer-lyricist Amy Engelhardt scored Off-Broadway Alliance Best New Musical nominee and Richard Rodgers O'Neill finalist Bastard Jones.

[2:10] Teresa Attridge: She wrote the book, music, and lyrics for Tryptic and wrote lyrics for adaptations of Carl Sagan's Contact, Tesla, and music and lyrics for A Comedy of Eras with the Flying Karamazov Brothers.

[2:20] Teresa Attridge: Amy has received Max Berman Award for songwriting and was a co-creator, artistic producer of Tune in Time, New York's musical theater game show at the York.

[2:27] Teresa Attridge: Her solo show Impact won the jury prize for best score at the National Women's Theater Festival, enjoyed a great run at the 2023 Edinburgh Fringe, and has been produced in Chicago, Los Angeles, and the Providence Fringe.

[2:39] Teresa Attridge: Her residencies include the Creative Center of Iceland, Bethany Arts, New York Mills, and Nautilus Composer Librettist Studio.

[2:45] Teresa Attridge: Her musical, A Collectible Sensation, with co-lyricist and librettist Ariana Rose, was a semifinalist for the 2023 O'Neill, a Cleveland Prize finalist, and workshops in 2025.

[2:55] Teresa Attridge: From 1998 to 2012, Amy recorded and toured as the sole female vocalist and writer for the Grammy-nominated genre-busting band, The Bobs.

[3:04] Pauls Macs: Also, I have to just make sure this is said, Amy has one of the funniest Instagram accounts that I ever have seen.

[3:11] Pauls Macs: And so you should all go follow her because her—

[3:13] Amy Engelhardt: Oh, that's going to happen immediately after, yes.

[3:16] Pauls Macs: The content is priceless and often brightens my day.

[3:19] Amy Engelhardt: Yeah, immediately.

[3:20] Pauls Macs: Like, actually stop listening to this podcast, press pause, follow Amy on Instagram.

[3:24] Amy Engelhardt: Oh, they don't have to.

[3:25] Amy Engelhardt: They can listen and they can be on the app.

[3:27] Amy Engelhardt: They can do it.

[3:28] Pauls Macs: Multitasking.

[3:29] Pauls Macs: And Molly, this is my first time, this is our first time meeting you. We're so excited to have you here and to introduce you to everyone listening.

[3:35] Teresa Attridge: Molly is a lyricist, librettist, playwright, and novelist.

[3:38] Teresa Attridge: Her play, The Patron Saint of Other Women, won the Georgia College Arts and Letters 2021 Drama Prize.

[3:45] Teresa Attridge: She was selected as a 2021 Bethany Arts Center Artist-in-Residence and was a Lower Manhattan Cultural Council Governor's Island resident.

[3:52] Teresa Attridge: And she was awarded a Betsy Riders residency for 2022.

[3:55] Teresa Attridge: She is a member of the BMI Musical Theater Advanced Workshop and Librettist Workshop.

[3:59] Teresa Attridge: She co-wrote an adaptation of Little Women for Brooklyn's Hedge Pig Ensemble in 2019 and in 2022.

[4:05] Teresa Attridge: She was a member of the new perspective theater company, Shore Play Lab.

[4:08] Teresa Attridge: Her debut novel, Epically Earnest, a young adult retelling of the importance of being earnest, was published in 2022.

[4:14] Teresa Attridge: Her first picture book, I Have Seven Dogs, was published in 2023 by Penguin Random House.

[4:19] Teresa Attridge: She currently teaches creative writing and literature at NYU and the School of Visual Arts.

[4:24] Pauls Macs: We've got some faculty in here.

[4:26] Pauls Macs: This is very exciting.

[4:27] Pauls Macs: Oh my gosh, there are educators in this room.

[4:30] Pauls Macs: I'm going to get a grade at the end of this podcast.

[4:32] Amy Engelhardt: You know what? We should, honestly, everyone please grade us at the end of the podcast.

[4:35] Pauls Macs: Especially because, as you may have heard from this very wonderful title, we are going back to high school.

[4:40] Pauls Macs: I will say, I know we had already talked about the title, but I have to come back to it.

[4:45] Pauls Macs: One, because I absolutely adore it.

[4:47] Pauls Macs: It is the longest title and the shortest book we have had of any musical so far on the podcast.

[4:54] Amy Engelhardt: That's like a high school superlative right there.

[4:56] Molly Horan: It's a superlative in itself.

[4:57] Pauls Macs: It is 11 words, and I think it's so beautiful and perfect.

[5:01] Amy Engelhardt: Especially if you add the, or Steve, because then it's 13.

[5:05] Molly Horan: Ooh, spooky.

[5:06] Pauls Macs: Right?

[5:07] Pauls Macs: But I actually wanted to start by asking y'all, how did you two start collaborating?

[5:11] Molly Horan: Well, we both were accepted into this Playwrights Retreat, the National Winter Playwrights Retreat, which I believe is out of Austin, but took place in Colorado in 2020.

[5:23] Molly Horan: My cohort ended on March 3rd, and I flew back home.

[5:29] Amy Engelhardt: And Molly, were you in the next one?

[5:31] Molly Horan: Yeah, I was in the next one.

[5:32] Molly Horan: Oh my gosh.

[5:33] Molly Horan: Every store owner was like, you from New York City? I've read the news. I don't think you should go back.

[5:38] Amy Engelhardt: Oh my gosh.

[5:39] Molly Horan: It seems bad.

[5:40] Amy Engelhardt: And we're like, oh, no.

[5:42] Molly Horan: Silly Coloradans.

[5:43] Amy Engelhardt: You're like, man, they're a mile high. What do they know?

[5:45] Molly Horan: Yeah, I was watching the TV this whole time going, oh, it's just another thing they want you to be afraid of.

[5:52] Molly Horan: So we weren't actually in the same cohort, but we had been in the same program.

[5:57] Amy Engelhardt: You're kind of in the same orbit.

[5:58] Molly Horan: Right.

[5:59] Molly Horan: So we both signed up for the Facebook page, I think, where alumni of the program can post things.

[6:04] Molly Horan: Amy posted a pitch for this show.

[6:07] Amy Engelhardt: I read a lot of pitches, and people come to me and say, hey, will you be interested in doing this?

[6:12] Amy Engelhardt: And most of them are on spec.

[6:14] Amy Engelhardt: And I'm usually like, nope, nope, nope, nope.

[6:18] Amy Engelhardt: And when I read this, I immediately thought yes and yes, because it was so Joss Whedon, without the sexual harassment, so completely my way of thinking about things.

[6:30] Amy Engelhardt: And I loved that it went where it went.

[6:32] Amy Engelhardt: And so we started writing, and we sent each other more samples of our writing so we could kind of see.

[6:39] Amy Engelhardt: Especially when Molly sent me one of her plays.

[6:41] Amy Engelhardt: That's what sealed the deal for me.

[6:43] Amy Engelhardt: She sent me one of her plays that takes place basically in the room next to what you see in the Glass Menagerie.

[6:50] Amy Engelhardt: What's happening with Laura offstage.

[6:52] Amy Engelhardt: It absolutely thrilled me that she went there, and I love her take on things and how she phrases things.

[6:58] Amy Engelhardt: I can't say what her choice of composer was like, but I know that the idea itself was so original and interesting to me.

[7:06] Amy Engelhardt: I read her stuff, and I thought, she does what I do with language.

[7:09] Amy Engelhardt: She verbifies nouns.

[7:11] Amy Engelhardt: She plays with it.

[7:12] Amy Engelhardt: She makes stuff up.

[7:13] Amy Engelhardt: She uses it as kind of a character, because I'm always fascinated with how emotions seep through in how we talk.

[7:20] Amy Engelhardt: That was my end of it. That's how it started for me, Molly.

[7:24] Molly Horan: Amy was the one who actually got us physically in the same location, because she applied with the project to Bethany Arts Center, like at Westchester, right?

[7:32] Molly Horan: Westchester more than the Hudson Valley.

[7:34] Molly Horan: So that's when we got together actually in person and was able to be in the same room writing and show a couple of our songs to the other artists there.

[7:42] Pauls Macs: Very cool. We love a little retreat.

[7:43] Pauls Macs: Honestly, I love all of the stories of people who met during COVID and then meet formally, like having the courting phase.

[7:52] Pauls Macs: On Facebook.

[7:53] Pauls Macs: A Facebook love story.

[7:54] Pauls Macs: And then meeting in real time and being like, okay, yeah, are we doing it? Are we for real?

[7:59] Molly Horan: That's very cool.

[8:01] Molly Horan: What was so amazing about that residency, when we finally first met a year later on the train, on the Metro North train, we got it just based on the pitch of the show.

[8:11] Molly Horan: I don't think we'd put pen to paper yet.

[8:13] Molly Horan: It was about a month or two after we applied, but I guess based on the strength of the premise of the show and who we each are, I don't know, but they accepted us in.

[8:23] Molly Horan: And I thought that was very fortuitous.

[8:26] Molly Horan: It's like, really? I guess they thought they, like me, thought the premise was so interesting and rich with allegory that we got in.

[8:34] Amy Engelhardt: It was pretty amazing.

[8:35] Amy Engelhardt: It was like, oh, you must be Molly.

[8:37] Pauls Macs: Amazing. That's such a great tease. Molly, can you tell us about the genesis of the show, where it came from?

[8:43] Molly Horan: Sure. The basic idea of this is a kind of climate change allegory, and specifically this idea of young people kind of being burdened with you will be the ones who change the world, you'll be the ones who save us.

[9:04] Molly Horan: The idea that adults have known for a long time.

[9:07] Molly Horan: I am certainly not a young person anymore. I'm in my 30s, but I still I remember being a millennial teenager, early 20s, and learning about some of the legislation that was happening in the 70s and 80s.

[9:19] Molly Horan: But it really was a shock to me.

[9:20] Molly Horan: I thought everyone kind of found out about it, you know, in 2006.

[9:24] Molly Horan: And that's not the case.

[9:25] Molly Horan: And I also I'm a big fan of, you know, Amy mentioned Joss Whedon at Buffy the Vampire Slayer.

[9:30] Molly Horan: So I like the idea of directly talking about climate change.

[9:35] Molly Horan: But in the world of our show, our protagonist learns that a deal was struck 200 years ago between the town elders and a demon named Steve that they would get good weather, which again would kind of drive the economy because some of that seemed to be what was fueling people in power not making climate change decisions.

[9:52] Molly Horan: In the real world, part of the deal was on what happens to be Becky's high school graduation day.

[9:58] Molly Horan: The whole town will be sucked into a demon dimension.

[10:00] Molly Horan: I wanted it to be about kind of that sense of betrayal, knowing that you are now living with the consequences of a generation in front of you or the parents generation, a couple generations in front of you.

[10:12] Molly Horan: And also the idea that I don't think this is a spoiler, give anything away.

[10:16] Molly Horan: But by the end, the characters have a sense of cautious optimism that it doesn't end with kind of everything will be all right and it doesn't end with everything will be terrible because the truths of so many things are somewhere in between.

[10:32] Teresa Attridge: I love that. As I was reading, I didn't know that it was in particular a climate change allegory.

[10:39] Teresa Attridge: And we like to say that on the pod, we get vaguely political.

[10:42] Pauls Macs: Vaguely political on the pod.

[10:44] Teresa Attridge: First of all, I want to just tell everyone this show is absolutely hilarious.

[10:47] Teresa Attridge: I was laughing out loud and giggling to myself as I was reading it.

[10:51] Teresa Attridge: But kind of at the core of any comedy, there's like a fundamental truth, kind of in the same way that in You're in Town, the idea that our natural resources are gradually shrinking.

[11:00] Amy Engelhardt: It's very possible that in the future some giant capitalistic corporation will control it. The thing that I felt was at the core of this piece was this idea that there are adults who are making really bad decisions and lying to young people about them. And unfortunately, I have to say, that's not just relegated to climate change these days, right? That's the real estate market. Housing is becoming unaffordable. What's housing? Right, exactly. There's also, for example, just the disparity between the 1% and everybody else getting wider and wider and wider. There's so much legislation that does not benefit young people, or the way college tuition is becoming completely, completely out of control. So unfortunately, I think your play is getting even more relevant, but for really unfortunate reasons. Sorry to just drop that on there, but hopefully that's helpful to hear. I don't know. It's true, though.

[11:47] Molly Horan: No, it is true. I like to write about social issues using comedy and music, and Ambassador Jones is very much that, since it was about discrimination. No one wants to hear a soapbox speech. No one wants to hear stats. No one wants to be spoken at. Haranguing and stats don't work. At least they don't anymore. The way you get to someone and create and spark meaningful dialogue is if you can present things to them in a way that they'll understand that's emotional. The thing that I like about this piece is that it truly is not afraid to go there, and then to be also kind of horrifying at the same time that you're laughing. And in theater, you buy yourself a lot of goodwill with comedy. If you can set something up as, this is a serious situation, but we're behaving like people do, and there's comedy in the situation because we're people, you earn the right to do the gut punch.

You earn goodwill with an audience. We really want you to come along and see what these characters are going to do and the different ways they're finding to cope with their situations, because everybody is dealing with it differently. People do have different reactions, but we never, ever want to mention climate change.

[13:02] Amy Engelhardt: Totally. Something you were mentioning that I think is a really nice segue is you're talking about people are going to do what they do, and everyone's looking for their way to cope. And I think that a lot of that is so true in your protagonist, Becky. We have our on it, ready for the future. I have a life plan. I like a schedule. I know what's going to happen. Like your typical type A high schooler who's like, everything I've been working towards my whole life has led to this moment of my high school graduation so I can begin the rest of my life. And then for Becky to be the one to overhear like, oh, JK, the rest of your life is going to be in a demon dimension and all of those plans being thrown out the window.

How do you cope with that information? And Becky does what Becky always does. And it's like, nope, we're going to make up plans and not be in the demon dimension. Rallies everyone together. And that first number of everyone trying to be like, hey, you need to like start delegating some stuff. And she's like, okay, fine. Can you do this? And everyone around her is kind of like, I mean, like I could make a call, but I am afraid of adults. And it's sort of just reminding us, we're like, okay, yeah. Becky is always in charge because Becky gets it done. And then when Becky's trying to get help or Becky's trying to do something, you have that line, like, I think my friends can, I don't know if they will because they're like, don't you believe in us?

And she's like, don't push it. But I was wondering in writing this character of Becky and sort of like going back into these, not only high school tropes, but we're talking about Joss Whedon, but these like really fun sort of girl to save the world tropes, right. That we see in a lot of magical realism media. I wanted to sort of know where did the inception of Becky come from? How many outside influences did you bring in for her versus like what you might've found within yourself?

[15:03] Molly Horan: I have the exact same question, but also to piggyback on that, the idea of all of Becky's hilarious friends that consistently let her down. I mean, I think with Becky, I really liked the idea of when I was talking to Amy about it, I said, do you know Leslie Knope in Parks and Rec? Which I think is one of the first times that I've seen that kind of very scheduled kind of overthinking character who's really beloved. Her friends will sometimes say like, this is too much, but genuinely actually appreciate that part of herself. Especially because, I don't know, I feel like in high school, the person who was going to organize everything and make sure everyone had a task kind of was appreciated. I always, I don't know, when I felt like when I saw media where everyone hated the person taking charge, I'm like, that's the person that everyone likes. They're like, great, just tell us what to do. We'll do it. We'll get on it.

[15:40] Amy Engelhardt: I love that.

[15:41] Molly Horan: A lot of the show and the relationships, it's not just like the celebration of girlhood, like the Barbie Summer celebration of girlhood, but it's this idea of sort of who are we turning to and sort of like that last night of freedom, right? Not just freedom from high school and the lives we've lived, but the freedom that's taken away from them as well of the rest of our lives. I appreciate that you brought up Leslie Knope, actually, because I feel like so often when you have that young girl who's in charge and wants to do things, it's really easy to shit on them, right? Oh, she's type A, or oh, she's kind of like an anti-hero, or oh, it's like they get called like a Patty Samcox versus a Leslie Knope. I think it's just very cool that that served as an inspiration for you, especially because if you're going to be having a lot of younger actors doing the show, I think that being able to celebrate that quality is super important.

[16:33] Amy Engelhardt: Well, actually, maybe now's an amazing time to play the song, Ready to Play, because this is kind of like Becky's rallying cry. I don't know if Becky could have planned this better herself. Becky would have said, that was a great segue, pals. So this is right after Becky has overheard the city council meeting basically explaining what happened, and she was going to go in and thank them for the money, I think, for the school to do lockdown. This is what she overheard instead is the number the devil said short. And then so this is her going, okay, what? And then, okay, I can do this. And yes, on this recording, you will hear many me's.

[17:13] Molly Horan: I thought so.

[17:14] Amy Engelhardt: Well, you sound fantastic, by the way. Here is Ready to Play featuring Amy Engelhardt.

[17:18] ♪ Musical number: "Ready to Play" — performed by Amy Engelhardt ♪

[19:45] Amy Engelhardt: Well, what I love about that song, it's just like mad chaos. And then boom, Becky resolves that she's going to take care of it. And suddenly it becomes really expansive and she's ready. And you can feel that confidence in the music.

[19:59] Molly Horan: Absolutely.

[19:59] Amy Engelhardt: This song is what I call the college audition song, because there's always one song on a show where someone is like, oh my God, I want to sing that at my call. I'm going to sing that at my audition to get into XYZ school. But I feel like that song is a great example of, you know, that girl who's like, okay, I want to show them that I'm funny, but also like I'm powerful, but also I'm quirky and likable. I mean, for lack of a better word, it's for the Leslie Knopes. I would just say that for all those young college auditioners who are listening to the pod right now and thinking, what am I going to use in my next audition? You should use this song once this musical is released, which I hope is soon. Fingers crossed.

[20:32] Molly Horan: Yes, we will sell you the sheet music happily.

[20:35] Amy Engelhardt: Yes, fantastic. Oh my gosh, pals, you've got to go back to school. This could be your audition song.

[20:41] Molly Horan: This could be my audition song.

[20:43] Amy Engelhardt: Absolutely. Is the sheet music available for folks who want to use it?

[20:46] Molly Horan: Just for the sheet, so yeah.

[20:48] Amy Engelhardt: Yes, all those auditioners go out, get it.

[20:51] Molly Horan: Oh my God.

[20:53] Amy Engelhardt: Just write to me. You know my Instagram, write to me.

[20:55] Molly Horan: Yes, you've already followed Amy on Instagram per my instructions earlier in this episode. So all you have to do, DM Amy, slide into those DMs and be like, I need that sheet music.

[21:05] Amy Engelhardt: Yeah, people do it. I've sold a bunch of sheet music to Bastard Jones. People use New Man as an audition song. People have texted me saying someone just came in and used a New Man.

[21:14] Molly Horan: Oh my God, I love that.

[21:16] Amy Engelhardt: I think we should do The Devil Said Sure, because The Devil Said Sure sets up so much of the show, reveals pretty much everything going on. We were just talking about this crazy circumstance that the town finds itself in. Can you set up the song and let us know what's going on with The Devil Said Sure?

[21:32] Molly Horan: Yeah, absolutely. Becky goes to check on the budget, basically what money the town is going to give the school for the charity lockdown. And she overhears this council meeting, and basically right before in the scene, one council member kind of says to the other, like, what exactly? He's kind of new. So this is them kind of telling the history of the deal they made with the devil named Steve, or the demon named Steve.

[21:53] Amy Engelhardt: Oh, I love that. Can we clarify that? There's the devil, and then they're like, oh, it's really he's more of a demon, which you'll hear in the song. But this song is absolutely hilarious.

[22:01] Amy Engelhardt: The lead is Todd Honeycutt. He's in Los Angeles. He's an amazing vocalist who's done everything from theater to, he used to be one of Luther Vandross's background vocalists. He used to do a lot of touring. The other dude is Witt Spurgeon, who's an actor who I went to college with at Syracuse. He's not a musical theater actor, but he can sing and he's a character guy, so I often call him to do dialogue stuff and light singing that doesn't have to be, you know, absolutely classical. Absolutely. Here is "The Devil Said Sure" performed by Todd Honeycutt and Witt Spurgeon.

[22:36] ♪ Musical number: "The Devil Said Sure" — performed by Todd Honeycutt and Witt Spurgeon ♪

[26:05] Amy Engelhardt: I am a sucker for any show where like a great evil has a very normal name. It's like a pet has a human name. Something about giving this like scary demon, this really huge pivotal character with this gravitas and all the fear around it and just being like, Steve. The thing we're afraid of, we know exactly what it is. It's climate change. Sometimes just a very simple, very clean, and very unfortunate thing that comes for your neck. And evil can be very banal. And the original name was Seth. I remember I was lobbying for Seth because it rhymes with death. That's a great rhyme. Seth and death. But Steve rhymes with grieve. Also relieve. Also believe. Oh my God, are we writing a new song? Why did you choose Steve? Can I actually ask that question?

[27:04] Molly Horan: I think, Molly, you changed it. I honestly have no, I believe you. I don't remember picking Steve or Seth or descending, but I trust that that is what happened. Well, Steve just feels right to me. I can't remember how it happened. His name is Seth, but he identifies as Steve. It's like that song that's been all over TikTok for Steve and the pommel horse guy. And your friend, Steve. He and me and me and this. That's the good Steve, but we're dealing with the bad Steve.

[27:32] Amy Engelhardt: Well, I think it's just an amazingly funny song. And what I love about it is that it really hilariously sets up the central conflict of the show, right? With a country-Western twang, any way that you can layer that much exposition into a song about what's going on, it's also a great twist. And I just want to sway back and forth as I'm listening to it. It's also, again, when we start talking about the show as an allegory or a metaphor for climate change and sort of like the doom that we make those after us inherit. The idea that this is a contract that was signed. Oh, this was a decision that was made. It wasn't like a random thing where like a demon came and was like, I'm going to take over your town in a hundred years.

This was a conscious choice by the elders of this town to doom the people after them and be like, they can worry about it. I think the intentionality of it being a contract is so, so infuriating. Instead of having the patience to wait for God, they were like, Steve is here. They totally knew.

[28:28] Molly Horan: And that metaphor for like, yeah, we take what's convenient. Oil was convenient, even though green energy is right there. Or like mining towns, having all these people essentially be almost indentured servants in these like mining towns. It was convenient. It was the easy thing for people in power to do. There are generations of people who live in ruin because of decisions that are made by people who actively know they're not going to see consequence.

[28:53] Amy Engelhardt: What really fascinated me was that the parents also knew, right? It's not just the council that hid this from the town. It's every older person had an idea that this was happening, but no one at the high school knows. They made a decision not to tell them. My question in terms of not telling them is when you have that kind of burden and that kind of secret, you have the song at the end with the mother who was like, I'm going to make you one more sandwich. I'm really sorry. Because all these parents who were like, we wanted you to have as normal an experience as possible because you're the ones who are not going to get to have a life. And I would love to know what made you decide that that was something the entire town knew versus just the council?

[29:32] Molly Horan: I mean, again, I think it's something that we all have to reckon with, right? There's things throughout history. I think what you guys said really well, that this is specifically about climate change, but kind of whatever generation you're living in, there are certainly people who have more power to do something about crises, but everyone has the chance to do something. So kind of this idea that the council members had the most responsibility to intervene, but the parents were complicit with this knowledge as well. I just really appreciate that moment of reconciliation. I feel like those words like Boomer, Gen Z, we don't often have those conversations with each other, but if it was truly the end of the world, you wonder about that.

Okay, so there's this big debate about climate change that's happening. Why is it a debate? I don't know. But if it gets to the point where it's like, well, we're screwed. What is that moment going to be? Is the older generation ever going to say, we messed up and we're sorry? Using theater to explore that moment is just really, really interesting.

[30:34] Amy Engelhardt: I love that Becky doesn't just say, oh, I forgive you. Of course. It doesn't matter, first of all, whether she forgives her. And second of all, do we? Let's be true to what that moment would be. It's not going to all be magically better because someone said they were sorry. Although the sandwich could be very good. I just think it's absolutely brilliant. The fact that Becky makes a huge deal over, I'm going to give these to you guys straight. That's her speech. That's her valedictorian speech is I will never lie to you because she knows the power of a lie. She says, at least I will do that. That's the gift I'm going to give you.

[31:09] Molly Horan: It's an active choice to be a cycle breaker as well, to be the person who's like, I'm going to end this continual lie and this inheritance of an untruth or sort of like, I'm not going to do what everyone did before me because we're at the end. You literally can't do it anymore. And I just happened to be the butt of the bread of this little sandwich. Also, you know, a lot of this mirrors what we've seen with the talk of, you know, the top 1% going back to what you're saying, being able to do something about this and making decisions for the rest of us that will protect them. Because when New Orleans goes under, it's not going to be the people who live on the hill who have to deal with it in the big houses. And it's very much who's on the city council. Oh, the merchants, the people who make the money off of the tourism, the people who stand to gain the most. I just love this world that really Molly has constructed.

[32:03] Amy Engelhardt: Yeah, something that you just said really struck a chord with me in the sense that, yes, this musical is absolutely hilarious. You know, the title is funny. You know, the characters are funny. But the fact that the consequences aren't dulled in the show, I think is really, really important, especially with the larger point you're trying to make. We're dealing with this situation right now with climate change, with so many situations that to just be like, oh, everything worked out fine, you know, to make it too easy, I think is problematic with what you're trying to accomplish.

[32:33] Amy Engelhardt: Thanks for joining us on New York Theatre Barn's Backstage Pass. Join us next time for part two of our discussion about the completely true story of West High's 66th annual charity lockdown.