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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're interviewing the creatives who are changing musical theater one 11 o'clock number at a time. This is your Backstage Pass.

[0:43] Teresa Attridge: Hello, Barnacles. Hello, everyone. All right. It's Teresa and pals. And I can't tell you guys how excited I am. I feel uninhibited. I feel unlimited. Dare I say I feel unzipped. The writing team for UNZIPPED the musical is here. Eva and Doug, say hello.

[1:04] Douglas J. Cohen: Hello, everyone.

[1:06] Eva Margolies: Hey, how are you?

[1:06] Teresa Attridge: Oh my gosh. Well, I mean, I'm doing great. As I said, I'm feeling like loosey goosey. I'm feeling relaxed. I'm feeling ready to go. How about y'all?

[1:14] Douglas J. Cohen: I'm excited to talk about this show. Although I might find myself blushing a little bit as we're talking during this podcast. We'll see. The night is young.

[1:22] Teresa Attridge: Oh my gosh. Barnacles, this is like our podcast after dark. This is one of those shows where we're going to start diving into some very real, very fun, but very funny topics as well.

[1:32] Eva Margolies: Well, I just wanted to add that yes, it is definitely after 8pm, depending on what time zone you're recording in. So yeah, it's Backstage Pass after dark.

[1:40] Teresa Attridge: But yes, let us introduce our guests that we're so pleased to have here with us today. Doug, we're going to do you first. Well, Doug J. Cohen is the colabrettist, composer, and lyricist for Unzipped. He is also the recipient of two Richard Rogers Awards for No Way to Treat a Lady and The Gig. A recipient of a Jonathan Larson Grant, funding a Bare Bones production of Barnstormer at the Lark Play Development Center, co-written with Cheryl L. Davis, a 2024 Lucille Lortel 121 Project Award winner for Barnstormer, a Drama Desk nomination, Children's Letters to God, a Drama League nomination, Don't Stay Safe with collaborator Cheryl L. Davis, and the Fred Ebb Award for his body of work. Doug has been produced at Off-Broadway's Manhattan Theatre Club, the York Theatre Company, and the Cell Theatre, and regionally at Williamstown Theatre Festival, Signature Theatre, Barrington Stage, The Magic Theatre, Goodspeed Opera House, and the Berkeley Playhouse.

Doug is a three-time festival writer in the National Alliance of Musical Theatre Festival of New Musicals for The Gig, Glimmerglass, and Barnstormer. Doug's first non-fiction book, How to Survive a Killer Musical, was recently published by Applause Books. His musical, The Big Time, with collaborator and librettist Douglas Carter-Bean, was released on Concord Records, starring Santino Fontana, Debbie Gravitt, Jackie Hoffman, and Will Swenson. Find out more at douglasjcohen.com.

[2:52] Eva Margolies: Yeah, gotta hit him with a website at the end.

[2:55] Douglas J. Cohen: Very comprehensive, thank you. I realize I forgot to list the Village Theatre, which is in Issaquah, Washington, where I've worked four times. Very grateful for those experiences, yeah.

[3:06] Eva Margolies: We were just chatting about Village Theatre, actually, before we started recording, and Village Theatre is a great friend of new musicals, and actually, I was just observing a process. Every year, Village Theatre does a festival of new musicals. The second show of our season, this season, Lewis Loves Clark, just appeared there. So it was really fantastic.

[3:24] Douglas J. Cohen: I know those guys.

[3:25] Eva Margolies: Yeah. Oh, fantastic. So you know Dylan and Mike.

[3:28] Douglas J. Cohen: The nicest. You should listen to their episode. It's great.

[3:30] Eva Margolies: You have to. Yeah, I know. Absolutely.

[3:31] Douglas J. Cohen: It's one of my faves, actually. It was such a cool moment to record with them months ago, and I saw their show at NAMMT, and that's where I fell in love with it.

[3:39] Eva Margolies: Yes, I did, too.

[3:40] Douglas J. Cohen: To be with them for that full week, and to see them working and retooling, and there's four shows each year at the Festival of New Musicals, so it's a great opportunity. Doug, you were telling me that you've had some great times out there, so just shout out to Village Theatre and all it does for new musicals.

[3:55] Eva Margolies: It takes a village.

[3:56] Douglas J. Cohen: It sure does take a village, and they supported a musical that I wrote called Bridges in that Festival of New Musicals back in, I think, 2016 or so, which then went on to premiere at Berklee Playhouse, so they were a big part of that development. That was written with Cheryl Davis, who also did Barnstormer, and we did a workshop of Barnstormer at Village Theatre also, and two other shows, so yeah, they've been amazing. I just love that resource, those stages, and would love to come back and work there again.

[4:26] Eva Margolies: And I would be remiss to not mention that Village Theatre is a great supporter of the company that I'm the artistic director of in Seattle, Geisma Theatre Group, which is dedicated to supporting local musical theatre writers in Seattle.

[4:37] Douglas J. Cohen: Shout out!

[4:38] Eva Margolies: They've been a great friend. Thank you, Village Theatre, for everything you do to support new musicals, both on a national level and also locally with Geisma Theatre Group.

[4:45] Teresa Attridge: Amazing. All right, and Miss Eva.

[4:48] Douglas J. Cohen: All right, Eva, we're doing you next.

[4:50] Eva Margolies: Eva Margulies, who conceived the original story, is the co-librettist, lyricist, and composer of Unzipped. She is an award-winning songwriter, practiced as a certified sex therapist and diplomat of sex therapy for over 30 years, and has authored seven books, including Undressing the American Male, The Best of Friends, The Worst of Enemies, Women's Hidden Power Over Women, and Sensual Pleasure, A Women's Guide. She's appeared five times on The Oprah Winfrey Show, was featured on 2020 and Good Morning America, and has been quoted in major publications, including Good Housekeeping, Cosmopolitan, Men's Health, and People Magazine. Eva was a staff writer for MCA Music and won first prize for best pop song, Butterfly, in the 2015 Songdor International Songwriting Competition with co-writers Julian Cascia and Andres Quintero.

She was also a finalist in the 2014 and 2015 USA Songwriting Competition and the 2012 John Lennon Songwriting Competition as well. She's had numerous artist recordings, and her songs have been licensed for radio and television. And Eva, I have to say, this bio is incredible. How did you come to write a musical, which I think might be a great segue into how did you two meet?

[5:51] Eva Margolies: I mean, truly, like, Eva, you're just proof women can do it all. You know how people say, write what you know? After all of these years sitting in a chair, listening to people talk about everything from fetishes to fantasies, you get to know a whole lot. And so given my background as a songwriter, I kind of knew that at some point in this chaos that there was going to be a musical. And so I created the story. It's fictional. The characters are fictional as well. Everybody always asks me, so are you the sex therapist in this story? Are you the protagonist? No. But the feelings and the emotions that the characters have are very, very real. So I started by myself. I wrote a couple of songs, had a lot of the story, and then realized I need something more and spoke with a couple of people.

And Doug was my choice because he's, besides being a fantastic writer, his writing is emotionally compelling. It hooks you in. And we met, and I guess you can tell the rest, Doug, but he seemed to really like the concept, and we decided to work together.

[7:02] Douglas J. Cohen: Oh, yeah. No, it was easy to sell me on it, truly. I heard the plot and, of course, heard about how Act One ends, and my jaw hit the ground.

[7:13] Eva Margolies: Yeah. I mean, we won't necessarily divulge it for your listeners, but it was something that I didn't expect. And, you know, I thought I was somewhat jaded. I've been writing a lot of musicals, seen a lot of musicals. And when I'm that surprised by something, that means that there's something fresh going on. I liked the material she showed me. And even though I've never worked as a sex therapist, I have been through therapy. Not a lot of it, but enough to know what a therapy session is like, and it intrigues me. It very much feels like this is something that people relate to whether or not they've ever had that professional experience. And these characters seem to be a cross-section of what I recognize as people that are recognizable to the average audience member.

[8:03] Eva Margolies: Absolutely. One of the things I really love about this show just existing in general, right, is that one of the topics you guys touch on that I think is really nuanced and really beautiful is the way that the language around music and the language around sex therapy are very similar and that it's so much about finding each other's rhythm and about making sure that you are on the same page and that you're moving together and that everything is sort of in a symphonic relationship to one another. In reading it, I was like, well, of course there should be a musical about sex therapy. It's one of those things where it seems that both mediums really lend themselves to one another.

[8:38] Douglas J. Cohen: And it's very fascinating how so much of that, if not literal vocabulary, the ideas and the nuance is very much the same.

[8:46] Eva Margolies: That's very astute. It's amazing that you picked up that point. And that's absolutely true. One of the things that the musical does really well is explore the relationship between intimacy and sexual problems and how lack of intimacy can cause sexual problems, but also how sexual problems can cause a problem with intimacy. And so they're really reactive. It's a very collaborative medium in a weird way. We think about collaboration in terms of artists, but there also is collaboration in terms of how people seek intimacy, repair relationships, the way in which a sex therapist conducts her interpersonal skills. It's all done in a very nuanced way. And I think that there's so much positive results that comes from that kind of collaboration. And we're just taking it from an artistic level into something that feels more universal.

[9:41] Douglas J. Cohen: Also, the idea that there's natural talent and practice skill for both of these things, for music and for sex. So I was very fascinated by how just sort of seamlessly those things were really interwoven and just the way that the script is written, but also just the whole theme of the show. I thought that was super fascinating. What you said earlier, Eva, is making so much sense to me now about, of course, there's going to be a musical. And Teresa, you've been commenting on it already. But they say in musicals, it's kind of a cliché, but it really is true that when words fail, you sing. And we get to know people through song in a way that we can't often if we're watching a play which has spoken dialogue in it. Music is our way into truly knowing someone. So that symmetry between music and intimacy just makes perfect sense to me now that we've been talking about it for a little bit.

[10:30] Teresa Attridge: Before we get too much further, I do want to read a synopsis of the show. Just so the Barnacles, by the way, we call our fans Barnacles. Because they stick with us through thick and thin. I want to make sure that they know what we're talking about. Unzipped is a daring high wire act of a musical balancing comedy and drama while exploring the fragile complexities of intimacy and sex. Set in the late 1970s San Francisco, the show follows Katie Langley, a psychologist turned sex therapist who hides her new career from her husband, Donald, by claiming she's a guidance counselor at an all boys Catholic school. He eventually uncovers her deception while Katie uncovers malpractice and corruption within the clinic.

Determined to expose the truth, she risks everything, including her marriage. Unzipped features a multicultural, multigenerational, and sexually diverse ensemble of nine. While there's no nudity, the subject matter is intended for mature audiences. The show is remarkably clean for a show about sex.

[11:21] Eva Margolies: And so it really isn't salacious.

[11:26] Douglas J. Cohen: I think what we did very successfully was to use humor as a main vehicle to loosen people up, to get them to relax, and to make the material really accessible.

[11:38] Eva Margolies: Absolutely. You've got to lubricate the sort of delivery, right?

[11:42] Douglas J. Cohen: Oh, the double entendres are going to be flying off the walls.

[11:47] Teresa Attridge: Oh, Teresa's the master of punnery and double entendres, so get ready.

[11:50] Eva Margolies: That's it. I think it's also, it's so telling that when we hear the word sex, just sort of culturally, like the instinct is like, oh, is it graphic? Is it like this versus the immediate sort of sense of self-consciousness or shame or expectation? It's already so interesting that we come in with so many preconceived notions about our own sexuality and experience and what we project onto even just the suggestion of it, right? Which Eva, I mean, you can speak to way more eloquently and from a more educated place than I can, but in addressing the way that you wanted to write about sex when you first started this juncture, how does that come about deciding sort of like the types of language you use, how accessible it is, like layman's terms versus clinical terms, like how do you start to shape that as you develop this kind of story?

[12:40] Eva Margolies: I think you shape it in a similar way that I would shape it as a sex therapist. You have to make people feel comfortable. When I was doing sex therapy, in the first interview, I asked a lot of personal questions and never once did...

[12:54] Douglas J. Cohen: Somebody say, sorry, too early to answer them. And I think that has to do with making someone comfortable, making someone feel safe, inserting a sense of humor, which I used to do and which we do in the show. And it's critical. And when we put on the presentation at the New York Theatre Barn recently, the audience loved it. We were really thrilled by the fact that both males and females laughed, laughed when we wanted them to laugh, found it both humorous as well as compelling, made them think. And not one person seemed to feel uncomfortable or seem to leave feeling embarrassed or shamed. Oh, they ate it up. I also credit Eva with maintaining a sense of authenticity. She is very protective of a lot of the particular challenges, problems that these characters are facing and how we deal with them so that they are not reduced to a stereotype.

I think that that's very important. And in musical theater, there's a lot of, you know, we're painting with bolder colors much of the time. But within that canvas, there is room for some nuance. And she's been very protective of that.

[14:12] Eva Margolies: I have been. Working with people has meant a lot to me. Helping them solve their problems has meant a lot to me. And so what we attempted to do in the show is to make sure that no one felt shamed. So the humor is never laughing at someone. It's just general humor, laughing at oneself, perhaps. But there's never the feeling of anybody being put down.

[14:37] Douglas J. Cohen: Well, we keep saying humor. I really think that's an excellent way to introduce our very first song, because after I heard it, the first thing I wrote down was, this song is very funny. So can you please set up the first song of the show?

[14:49] Eva Margolies: Oh, pretty easy to set up. There's a woman who's married, who's sexually frustrated, and her husband is having a grand old time and she not so much.

[15:02] Douglas J. Cohen: Absolutely. And these are the two main characters, Katie and Donald, who we'll get very acquainted with during the course of the show.

[15:08] Eva Margolies: Exactly. And you will see them in a way that is theatrical, but not necessarily. What they sing in the song is really illustrating what's happening, but we don't have to have them physically simulate everything they're expressing in song.

[15:25] Douglas J. Cohen: And who is singing this song?

[15:27] Eva Margolies: Matthew Scott and Kirsten Scott, who happen to be married to one another.

[15:31] Douglas J. Cohen: No, I was kind of wondering.

[15:33] Eva Margolies: They share a last name, but they also share a life together. And they have two children, so they're really wonderful at being able to translate a lot of these feelings that they have in this intimate relationship that they enjoy 24/7.

[15:49] Douglas J. Cohen: Here is ♪ Musical number: "Oh" — performed by Matthew Scott and Kirsten Scott ♪

[16:04] Douglas J. Cohen: This is amazing. Katie, you're an animal. You are incredible. Oh my God, I didn't move the clothes into the dryer. Soon there will be mildew. Lucky us. That feels so good, Katie. Do you like it? Now my mind's on fungus, which reminds me to pick up mushrooms. And are we out of Alka-Seltzer Plus? So soft. I'm going to go fast now, OK? Time is flying by me and I never learned Italian, which Grandma always begged for me to do. Yes, yes, Katie. She's looking down and asking, hey, what happened to Italian? And who's that guy on top of you? Oh, that is just my husband. And oh, this is just my life. And oh, the good parts come and go when you live as man and wife. Oh, after a whole decade. Oh, I've tallied the receipts.

I know the bit where there's a deficit is here between the sheets. Oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh. Oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh. Oh, shit. Oh, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, shit. And I wish I could say that it's hot, but too often he misses the spot. He's too slow or too fast and too bad it can't last, but two minutes is all that he's got. And I think it's a matter of groove. I mean, really, the bed doesn't move. I pretend not to mind, so I won't be unkind, though I wish we could somehow improve. Oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh. I wish that we could, because, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh.

It'd be so damn good. Thank you, love button. This isn't a restaurant, Donald. You don't have to say thank you when it's done. I just mean what a way to wake up. I don't know what came over me. How was it for you? With all the love in my heart, it doesn't always feel like... Oh, my God, it's 8.15. I need to put my shirt on. Sorry, love, I know it's not polite. But I'm running late and I can't stick around for talking, so we'll have to finish all of this tonight. Oh. Yeah, I have a couple of big showings today. We're trying to offload that penthouse on Russian Hill. When that finally happens, woo-hoo, boy, we'll celebrate. Okay. Thanks, love button. Sorry, I don't mean thanks. Oh, you know what I mean.

Oh, that is just my husband. And oh, this is just my life. And oh, the good parts come and go when you live as man and wife. Oh, sometimes he's so charming. Ow! Sometimes not so much. But oh, I ache for him to try to make me quiver with his touch. In my head, he knows just what to do. He would make every sex dream come true. He'd be sensual, strong, and relaxed for so long that when he would come, I would come too. We would shake up a life that's too square with a sizzling, sordid affair. Every fantasy fed, every record and bed would be broken once we slumbered there and... Okay, I'm off. Think about applying for some more jobs. They can't all ignore you. After five years of not working, I think they can.

But actually... What? I wasn't going to mention this because I don't want you getting overexcited. I have an interview later today near the Mission District. Katie, this is huge! Congratulations! And that's the reason I didn't bring it up. It may not work out. I mean, it's the only place that even called me. What's the job? I'd be a therapist again. But even if by some miracle they hire me, I'm not even sure I'd remember what to do. You'll be wonderful. They may not think so. Look, Katie. Starting out, I know we had different plans. And things got all messed up with the... Miscarriages? Please, Donald. And the stress and trying and leaving work. And I know you've been depressed. But I want us to get up off the mat.

I'm sorry, Katie. I'm late. Have a good day. Okay? Good luck with that interview. See you tonight, Love Button. Oh, this is just my marriage. And oh, it's just another day. And oh, the good parts come and go, but I wish they'd come and stay. Yeah, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, I wish that they could. Cause oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, it'd be so damn good.

[21:06] Douglas J. Cohen: As I said, this song is very funny. And especially the way that Kirsten is portraying Katie as having her mind on anything else other than the sexual act that she's participating in was just hysterical. Especially for me, the fact that she never learned Italian. And then she specifically talks about how her dead grandmother really wanted her to learn Italian. And now her dead grandmother is probably looking down on her from heaven and noticing that she hasn't yet learned Italian and is wondering who that person she is with. That was such a clever, humorous way to explore this topic. And I think you're right, does make it accessible to the audience.

[21:35] Eva Margolies: Absolutely.

[21:35] Douglas J. Cohen: There's something that happens with that too, in that it's not just a joke that we feature in the song, but there is a payoff for that Italian male. The Italian male comes back, even in the very, very end of the show.

[21:50] Eva Margolies: Yeah, we love it.

[21:50] Douglas J. Cohen: So there's a nice little twist on that. It's not a throwaway.

[21:54] Eva Margolies: We love a callback.

[21:56] Douglas J. Cohen: Oh yeah. Something I really appreciated about this number as well, especially with how the relationship develops over the course of the show, is that we do see that even though Katie is distracted, like on both sides, there's not a lack of trying. They're just clearly not having the same conversation. She's in negligee, but she's distracted and he's asking questions, but he doesn't hear the answer. And so we've established that this is a relationship in which they are, they are together and they are attempting a connection, but they are also just like not in sync with one another. I think it's a really smart way to start because yes, we're establishing like this very minimum, like, oh yes, like they have had sex.

He is satisfied. She is not, but it's so much deeper than that. When you're really looking at it, he's saying stuff. He's like, I'm, he's checking in. He's like, I'm going to go faster. Okay. Or you're doing, he's like trying to be affirming and she's distracted. And we do learn later. It is because like you said, Eva, that it's because there is something with their intimacy. They've been through something very difficult together. And so it's just making their sex life a lot harder.

[23:03] Eva Margolies: Yes. And, and I think that that's also what the title of the show, it has a lot of significance. And part of it is that we do at times create a deception when we're dealing with people, the people we love. And it's not as if we're doing it for any nefarious reason, but sometimes that transparency isn't there. And we think we're after the same objectives, but we're not necessarily communicating in the same way. It's by withholding these feelings that we do trip each other up. And that's what happens with this relationship and with many relationships. But also just add, this song is just undeniably catchy. Oh, oh, oh, oh. And it's a great duet. And it just makes sense to me that, you know, Matthew and Kristen are married.

Not that two actors who were not married couldn't have taken on this subject, but to talk about something like this is scary. It takes a certain level of vulnerability. These sorts of discussions is something that's not often talked about in public circles. So it was very courageous of them to lend their voices to this project. And, you know, humor is such a great way to kind of educate people without them knowing they're learning. Like, for example, I say, you're in town, I learned more about water conservation by watching you're in town because I was so I didn't even realize I was learning as I was watching it. And I think your piece accomplishes that.

[24:23] Eva Margolies: Yeah, that relates back to what is that Disney quote, I would rather entertain people and hope they were educated than educate people and hope they were entertained. That might be a misquote, but that's very much that.

[24:31] Douglas J. Cohen: Did Walt Disney say that? I believe he did. It was actually a lot of fun, especially trying to write Katie with the oh, and then when she gets close, and she's deflated. It was fun taking those experiences that people told me about and putting them to song.

[24:50] Eva Margolies: Oh, absolutely. Well, it's like when Harry met Sally, that famous iconic scene in the diner, when she's faking the orgasm, it shows you how proficient some people are at manufacturing that. It's very true to life. I think that many relationships have that artifice when people are in the throes of passion, if they're not feeling as if their particular desires are being met.

[25:09] Douglas J. Cohen: Yeah, which also happens in sort of like orgasm as the goal oriented sex, right? This idea that it's about trying to get to an end versus being in touch with the experience as it happens, so that it organically happens. These are two outcome focused people who are just, again, they're not on the same page, so they can't get there together. He doesn't hear her, and he doesn't see her. It's almost as if he's in his own head. He's kind of not there. And that's not an uncommon experience that people have. Sometimes it could be the woman who's not there. In this case, he's

[25:49] Douglas J. Cohen: Thank you for having us.

[26:19] Eva Margolies: It's great to be here.

[26:50] Douglas J. Cohen: So, UNZIPPED is set in the Bay Area in the late 1970s, and it really explores a culture of sexual liberation.

[26:57] Eva Margolies: Yes, and it also delves into the development of modern sex therapy practices through the lens of a marriage in crisis.

[27:07] Douglas J. Cohen: We wanted to capture that unique moment in time when societal norms were shifting.

[27:22] Eva Margolies: Exactly, and the characters are navigating their own personal journeys amidst these changes.

[27:37] Douglas J. Cohen: It's a rich tapestry of experiences that we hope resonates with audiences today.

[27:52] Eva Margolies: And the music plays a huge role in conveying those emotions and themes.

[28:02] Douglas J. Cohen: Absolutely. We have some fantastic songs that really highlight the characters' struggles and triumphs.

[28:12] Eva Margolies: Speaking of which, we have a couple of performances lined up for you today.

[28:22] Douglas J. Cohen: Yes, the first song is called "Oh," performed by Kirsten Scott and Matthew Scott.

[28:32] Eva Margolies: We hope you enjoy it!

[28:42] ♪ Musical number: "Oh" — performed by Kirsten Scott and Matthew Scott ♪

[29:02] Douglas J. Cohen: That was amazing! Kirsten and Matthew really brought that song to life.

[29:12] Eva Margolies: They did! Their chemistry is just electric.

[29:22] Douglas J. Cohen: And it perfectly encapsulates the themes of longing and connection in the show.

[29:32] Eva Margolies: Yes, and it sets the stage for the next part of the story.

[29:42] Douglas J. Cohen: Speaking of which, we have another song coming up called "Plan B," performed by Kirsten Scott.

[29:52] Eva Margolies: This song really dives into the emotional turmoil of the characters.

[30:02] Douglas J. Cohen: It's a pivotal moment in the musical.

[30:12] ♪ Musical number: "Plan B" — performed by Kirsten Scott ♪

[30:22] Douglas J. Cohen: That was powerful! Kirsten's voice is just stunning.

[30:32] Eva Margolies: It really is. She brings so much depth to the character.

[30:42] Douglas J. Cohen: And the lyrics resonate with anyone who's faced difficult choices in their relationships.

[30:52] Eva Margolies: Absolutely. It's all about vulnerability and the struggle for authenticity.

[31:02] Douglas J. Cohen: We wanted to create a space where audiences can reflect on their own experiences.

[31:12] Eva Margolies: Yes, and hopefully find some solace in the music and the story.

[31:22] Douglas J. Cohen: It's all about connection, both with the characters and with each other.

[31:32] Eva Margolies: And we hope that UNZIPPED sparks conversations about love, intimacy, and personal growth.

[31:42] Douglas J. Cohen: That's our goal, to challenge and inspire.

[31:52] Eva Margolies: Thank you for joining us today to learn more about UNZIPPED!

[32:02] Douglas J. Cohen: We can't wait to share more with you as we continue to develop this project.

[32:12] Eva Margolies: Stay tuned for more updates and performances!

[32:22] Douglas J. Cohen: And thank you to the Broadway Podcast Network for having us.

[32:32] Eva Margolies: Yes, it's been a pleasure!

[32:42] Douglas J. Cohen: Until next time!

[32:52] Eva Margolies: Bye!