This transcript was automatically generated and might contain errors.

[0:00] Teresa Attridge: Backstage Pass. We're world class. With even more in store. Get your Backstage Pass. Masterclass. With even more in store.

[0:22] Pauls Macs: Ever wonder what it takes to make a new musical sing? Our mission is to give you an inclusive look behind the scenes.

[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.

[0:34] Teresa Attridge: Get your Backstage Pass. Get your Backstage Pass.

[0:41] Pauls Macs: Hello, lovely barnacles.

[0:43] Teresa Attridge: Hello, everyone. Welcome back.

[0:45] Pauls Macs: Welcome back. Oh my goodness. We have an incredible episode for y'all. Hold on everyone. Press pause. Start a new game. We have a brand new musical here on the podcast with us. This is the team for The Game Boy. Y'all say hi and introduce yourselves.

[1:01] Sharone Sayegh: Hello, hello.

[1:03] Danny J Rooney: My name is Sharone Sayegh. I'm the co-book writer with...

[1:06] Danny J Rooney: I'm Danny J Rooney, and I'm co-book and music and lyrics.

[1:10] Sharone Sayegh: Oh my gosh, you just introed yourself. That was incredible.

[1:13] Pauls Macs: That is the sign of a good team that was ready to go. Passing the torch.

[1:18] Teresa Attridge: It's gonna get a little nerdy in here today.

[1:21] Danny J Rooney: I hope so.

[1:22] Teresa Attridge: We've gotten nerdy on the podcast before, but I think it might go to a warning to all the musical theater fans. We might get a little nerdy in here. Right.

[1:30] Sharone Sayegh: I do feel like there's a crossover though.

[1:32] Danny J Rooney: Oh, yeah. No, the Venn diagram. The Venn diagram's a circle. You know what I mean?

[1:36] Sharone Sayegh: Yeah, and I feel like we're really bridging the gap. I feel like this is like a hole that needs to be filled. No innuendo there.

[1:42] Danny J Rooney: No, no, no.

[1:43] Sharone Sayegh: Gamers are like hungry for things.

[1:44] Danny J Rooney: It's true.

[1:45] Sharone Sayegh: Like, here we go. Here's our show.

[1:46] Danny J Rooney: I mean, and you are just showing them the way down the rainbow road to excellence.

[1:50] Sharone Sayegh: Yes.

[1:51] Danny J Rooney: Oh, thanks.

[1:52] Sharone Sayegh: That was well done. Way to work it.

[1:55] Danny J Rooney: I said next level earlier.

[1:57] Sharone Sayegh: The amount of little puns and jokes that are going to be in this episode, just so everybody knows, y'all are gonna get sick of us.

[2:03] Pauls Macs: But before that, I think, pals, do you want to do our cute little book report on our guests here today?

[2:09] Teresa Attridge: I would absolutely love to. And just so you know, Sharone and Dani, some people find this experience to be incredibly emotionally challenging. But that's okay to have like book report of yourself read in front of you.

[2:16] Pauls Macs: But I'm gonna go for it.

[2:21] Teresa Attridge: All right, Sharone, we're gonna start with you. So Sharone Sayegh uses she/her pronouns and is a multidisciplinary theater artist based in New York City.

[2:28] Sharone Sayegh: Yes.

[2:29] Teresa Attridge: As an actor, she has performed on Broadway as Bonnie in Come From Away and originated the role of Anna in the Band's Visit original Broadway cast, which I saw, by the way.

[2:37] Sharone Sayegh: And you were fantastic.

[2:38] Teresa Attridge: Oh, thanks. And she made her Broadway debut in Mama Mia. She has performed, written, directed and produced off Broadway and regionally, having worked at some of the most prestigious theaters in the country, including the Atlantic, Playwrights Horizons, Ars Nova, the Hoya Playhouse, Prospect Theater Company and the Muny.

[2:57] Sharone Sayegh: She has also appeared on television in Law and Order, Instinct and Limitless. She's a 23-24 The Workshop fellow and, of course, the co-writer of the new musical The Game Boy. And she's also currently writing The Goldsmith, a play stemming from her family's true stories across countries, borders and generations. She's a Syracuse University alum. And you can check out her website and Instagram for more info.

[3:18] Pauls Macs: Thank you, Sharone, for being here.

[3:20] Sharone Sayegh: Oh, thank you.

[3:21] Danny J Rooney: Thanks for having me.

[3:22] Pauls Macs: Sharone, you are proof that women can have it all.

[3:25] Sharone Sayegh: Ah, listen, I'm trying.

[3:26] Pauls Macs: Look at that. An inspiration.

[3:28] Sharone Sayegh: Also, I love how I'm making a big deal about the fact that I saw The Band's Visit because a lot of people saw The Band's Visit.

[3:33] Danny J Rooney: But the reason why.

[3:34] Pauls Macs: But, Pals, more importantly, you did.

[3:36] Danny J Rooney: Yes, you saw it.

[3:37] Pauls Macs: Well, truthfully, The Band's Visit has a very important place in my heart because I started grad school in New York in 2017. And I just arrived to the city. I went to school at the new school. And you're trying to budget very carefully, especially as you arrive to very expensive New York City. But before I went home for winter break, I said, there's one Broadway show I got to see. I got to see The Band's Visit. Everyone's talking about how incredible it is. So I saved my pennies and we went down. My wife and I, we went down and we got rush tickets. And that production was just incredible. I still think about it to this day.

[4:07] Sharone Sayegh: Oh, that makes me so happy to hear it was a very special piece for me to be a part of. So I really appreciate that.

[4:12] Pauls Macs: Oh, absolutely. David Cromer staging was just I still remember that turntable.

[4:18] Teresa Attridge: OK, Danny, we're going to go to you next. So Danny J. Rooney uses he/him pronouns and is a musical theater writer living in New York City.

[4:25] Danny J Rooney: He is the composer, lyricist and co-book writer of The Game Boy, which was recently featured in 54 Below's New Musicals series, New York Theater Barn's New Work series and was the 2023 Metaverse Melodies Pitch Contest winner at the Augmented World Expo.

[4:39] Teresa Attridge: You can check out videos of the 54 Below performance on your website, I believe. Is that correct?

[4:42] Danny J Rooney: Yes.

[4:44] Pauls Macs: Listeners, go do that right after you're done.

[4:45] Teresa Attridge: Listeners, I swear, if you don't do it, don't bother coming back.

[4:49] Danny J Rooney: Oh, no, no.

[4:50] Pauls Macs: How dare you?

[4:52] Danny J Rooney: We'll forgive you.

[4:53] Pauls Macs: I know. Sorry.

[4:54] Danny J Rooney: It's just I was feeling like a villain.

[4:56] Pauls Macs: That might be relevant later.

[4:57] Danny J Rooney: Danny is also the composer, lyricist for A Small Town Christmas, a new old fashioned but original musical, which had his premiere production and collaboration with the Stevens College Conservatory of Musical Theater in 2021. His newest musical Glue, A Ponytail, which he is the composer, lyricist and book writer, was a semifinalist for the 2023 Eugene O'Neill Theater Center's National Musical Theater Conference. He's also a Syracuse University alum. You can check out his website and Instagram. And also, as I said earlier, please check out the website for the show, The Game Boy. You can see great video clips from 54 Below from the New York Theater Barn New Work Series. There's lots of great info on the show. We might talk a little bit more about the website a little bit later.

[5:34] Teresa Attridge: All right. We are beginning a series. We're beginning a series with Syracuse University where the next show that we're going to be talking about is Magia, which will be featured in their New Works, New Voices program. And then we'll talk to Kathleen Wren, who is the head of the New Works, New Voices program, which did not exist, to be clear, at the time that Danny and Sharone went to school. But it's serendipitous that we're talking with you right before we start talking to them.

[5:56] Danny J Rooney: I love it.

[5:57] Sharone Sayegh: Yeah, the connection at Syracuse, the connection that you get. And it's like I remember when we were graduating, some seniors, they said, it's kind of like when you graduate, you like die and then you go to heaven in New York City. And there is this crazy connection of people here doing musical theater, writing musical theater, performing. So amazing connection that we got.

[6:15] Pauls Macs: And is that where you two met?

[6:17] Sharone Sayegh: It is.

[6:18] Danny J Rooney: We were roommates.

[6:19] Sharone Sayegh: Oh my gosh.

[6:20] Danny J Rooney: Just like Elphaba and Glenda.

[6:22] Sharone Sayegh: Exactly.

[6:24] Danny J Rooney: I think that makes me Glenda.

[6:26] Sharone Sayegh: I think that makes me Glenda. I'll be real.

[6:28] Danny J Rooney: Oh my gosh. We love to see it.

[6:30] Sharone Sayegh: Well, I actually did move into a house that he was already living in.

[6:33] Danny J Rooney: So, yeah, you are Glenda.

[6:35] Sharone Sayegh: Yeah, you moved into my house.

[6:37] Danny J Rooney: Oh, wow.

[6:38] Sharone Sayegh: That metaphor seems accurate.

[6:40] Danny J Rooney: Listen, we're typecasting ourselves and that is okay.

[6:43] Sharone Sayegh: But then after we moved to New York, we also lived together in New York. One of the first apartments we turned a two bedroom into a three bedroom and it was next.

[6:52] Pauls Macs: So you liked each other.

[6:54] Danny J Rooney: So we liked each other.

[6:55] Sharone Sayegh: If you're writing a musical together, I would hope that you would.

[6:58] Pauls Macs: You know who hated each other? Gilbert and Sullivan hated each other.

[7:01] Danny J Rooney: Really?

[7:02] Pauls Macs: Apparently, they used to like vitriolic relationship. They used to just mail each other the sheet music and the lyrics back and forth to finish stuff towards the end.

[7:11] Sharone Sayegh: Could you imagine?

[7:12] Pauls Macs: And see, it didn't work. And that's why we're not interviewing Gilbert and Sullivan on the podcast today, to be honest. Because we only focus on loving, wonderful teams who care about each other.

[7:23] Teresa Attridge: And you two seem to have like so, so much love. So was The Game Boy conceived while you were at school together? Is it when you moved to the city? How does one sort of step into the shoes of a teenage boy in the 80s with like a little game and something to prove? Who was the first person who said, do you want to write a musical together? Always interested in that question.

[7:45] Danny J Rooney: Yeah, it's it's a very interesting way that we got here. I'm an ideas person to a fault sometimes. And I just one day, you know, I was playing Nintendo and like listening to the Ragtime soundtrack at the same time. And I thought it was like so cool how it worked. And anyways, anyways. So I was in the city one day, you know, and I, you know, went to school for performing. So I was an actor for a little while. And I was kind of getting disenchanted with that. I had this idea and I was like, some of those Nintendo games, those video games, they're so epic and their quests and they have wants and they have things they have to get to. And, you know, there was one game in particular that I was pretty fond of as a kid.

And I was like, this kind of works. There's something about this that translates. We want to hear these characters sing. Kind of. I don't know. And so I developed an idea and Sharone sort of in a very muse-like way. You know, there was a very specific part that I was like, Sharone, it's so you.

[8:37] Sharone Sayegh: Well, I think your words were, Sharone, I wrote this role for you.

[8:40] Danny J Rooney: Those were the words I said.

[8:42] Sharone Sayegh: Yes.

[8:43] Danny J Rooney: Sharone, I wrote this role for you. I think originally you had said, well, you read it with me. Like, well, you just like, let's like read it in our living room. I can work on it with me. And at first I was kind of like, oh, cool. Like, it's so cool that Danny is writing. And I would love, of course, I would love to. But then, like, I was so impressed with what he had started and, you know, the idea and then some of the music he had written. He wasn't fully finished yet that I was like, it wasn't like we sat down. We were like, let's write a musical together. You know what I mean? Like, what is scene one? You know, it just kind of like naturally organically. We just kept being like, okay, let's meet up and talk about the show. And like, let's meet up. And then I think at some point you were like, Sharone, well, like you basically the co-book writer.

[9:20] Danny J Rooney: Yeah.

[9:21] Sharone Sayegh: Oh, I guess I am. Yeah. I mean, at that point, you know, because I knew what the songs to be and I knew all of that and sort of characters, but you really, really also helped develop these characters and create some of these characters. Because I didn't a hundred percent know what the story was. And so, yeah, then there was a point where I was like, well, this is silly. We should be co-book writers. And that's what we are now. And then it was kind of like, you know, Danny is so good at like writing fast and like coming up with these ideas and stuff. I also, even though I'm like an artist, I definitely have like a type A brain. Like I love a spreadsheet. I love to like get shit done. If I'm being honest, you know? So I was like, okay, we're going to like do a reading. We're going to like ask all of our friends that we know, like we're going to make this happen. So I think we were a good team because we played off each other's strengths. That's that.

[10:05] Danny J Rooney: I do not have a type A brain. So I attached myself to Sharone's type.

[10:08] Sharone Sayegh: There you go.

[10:09] Pauls Macs: Teresa and I compliment each other. Her brain works in the very best ways. And I just feel so.

[10:14] Danny J Rooney: Great with her.

[10:15] Pauls Macs: I always say 90% of this podcast is pals.

[10:22] Danny J Rooney: Hard work, determination, skill, and knowledge.

[10:24] Pauls Macs: And 10% me talking.

[10:26] Danny J Rooney: And that doesn't downplay what I'm doing at all, but it's just, I think, I think that if people peeked behind the screen, they'd be like, wow.

[10:34] Sharone Sayegh: Well, speaking of complimenting each other, you know, I also play stage manager on the podcast sometimes, and I'm just going to read a synopsis because I want everyone just to know what the game was about and we're talking about. So here we go. It's 1982. And the first day of high school for Omari and middle Eastern American arcade gamer. After a run in with a school bully, he gets locked in the girl's bathroom where he stumbles upon a gateway to an alternate eight bit universe. The Game Boy is a story of resilience in the face of adversity. It's about finding yourself realizing your own power and challenging stereotypes. I'll let you know. I was an end to no kid, although I was, I was, let's just say I was born in the eighties. I was more of like a Sonic the Hedgehog kid.

[11:10] Danny J Rooney: Totally.

[11:12] Teresa Attridge: First off, can you talk more about the video game setting? What drew you to that? You said you felt connected to it, but I'm especially interested in learning about the decision to set it in 1982. And then also what I think is so cool is the way that you have a middle Eastern character Omari as the lead of your show. If you just talk about the genesis of that or the idea behind that, that would be fantastic.

[11:32] Sharone Sayegh: First of all, recently we were also born in the eighties and recently someone said, what made you decide to do a period piece? And I was like, Oh God, it is a period piece, isn't it? But I think that works so well. That's actually one of my very favorite aspects of it. There's a line where they say the school is not ready for hummus. That's one of my top favorite lines in the show. It's 1982, the world's not ready for hummus. As a Californian, I was like, Oh my gosh, I cannot believe there was a time before. Well, that's, I mean, we'll get back to that, but like that was definitely our personal experience going to school in America. Not in the eighties because we were born in the eighties, but I mean, it was set in the eighties because that's when like when this main game came out.

Yeah. It's here or there, but 82 was when, from my research, when Super Mario Brothers, the first one like landed in the States, you know, and we really toyed with that. We were like, do we do it at this time? Do we do it that time? Look, in our show, we're not talking with the Super Mario Brothers. We're not, it is a completely alternate universe where it's a different name for the game. It's a different name for the system. They never say words like Nintendo and Super Mario. And we don't say that, you know, obviously it's sort of a bizarro world where in the eighties, it's another platform that they use. But I think everyone who sees it, everybody knows what we're referencing without us saying, you know, Danny and I are both Middle Eastern Americans.

We were both born here, but our parents immigrated from different countries in the Middle East. You know, like we really bonded over like, I would be sent to school with pizza and hummus, but you don't say hummus in America. You said your mom would always send you, what would she send you?

[13:00] Danny J Rooney: My mom would send me like pita and hummus, but also like Dolma, like there's like delicious zucchini stuff with like meat and rice and tomato sauce, but it's like very aromatic and kids would be like, what's happening here?

[13:09] Sharone Sayegh: Right. Like, I didn't even try peanut butter and jelly. Me personally, until I was in college and I was like, this is magic. This is so yummy, but it was just not our experience. I grew up in Los Angeles and actually in a very diverse area, but you know, Danny grew up in a little bit of a less diverse area.

[13:24] Danny J Rooney: I'm like outside of Boston.

[13:26] Sharone Sayegh: We just bonded over like the challenges we faced and then not to get too deep because our play is not about this, but especially after nine eleven, the vibe in America was very intense with any sort of Middle Eastern culture, no matter where, especially for me as an actor, I feel like nowadays, especially after the pandemic, there are a lot more Middle Eastern stories, but if I'm going to be real, most of them are about politics and terrorism. And it's a lot of trauma porn for lack of a better word. Danny and I were kind of sick of only seeing those cultures represented through that lens and not to say that those stories aren't important and not to say that those stories don't happen or don't exist. But there's also something for humanizing Middle Eastern characters just for like their humanity. And they're just a boy having a crush on some.

[14:12] Sharone Sayegh: When at their school and wanting to fit in just like anybody else. You know, I have this joke where like for a really long time as an actor, every TV audition, the character's name was like terrorist wife, number three. That's the only way we represented Middle Eastern culture in America was through that political lens. We were over that. I mean, understandably, I think, you know, and we were just kind of like, we want to tell a story about people from that part of the world, but just humanize them a little bit. I think also anybody in this country, no matter what your political stance is, I think you could agree that the politics of our government don't define who you are as a person. And that's how we feel too. Like the politics of the Middle East, whatever they are, they don't define who Sharone is as a person or who Danny is. And then especially growing up here, we wanted to write a story about our people, but not about politics, basically.

[15:01] Danny J Rooney: I really love that. I think one to address the idea about Middle Eastern stories specifically and about wanting to celebrate day-to-day life and joy and like these things outside of like political lens, Middle Eastern actors, like Middle Eastern, North African, South Asian actors are actually the least represented group in musical theater on average, with the only exception being Native American actors, having roles at all, right. It's so scarce and hard to find. And even as more stories are coming up, yeah. Like trauma porn is a big thing. Cause it's like, right. People will see this and they'll think it's important, but if they keep seeing the same thing over and over again, then what else are they going to say or think about us if there isn't any other lens through which they're viewing us?

[15:42] Sharone Sayegh: On top of that, on the complete other side of that, I know that the hummus and the show as a person of color, I believe we all have something that I've always called a lunchbox story, which is this idea of like, we've all brought something to school and been made fun of, or have people be like, what are you? What is that? Why does it smell like that? What is it? Why do you eat that? Why can't you have this? And I feel like it's such a unifying experience for most children of color, no matter where you grew up. Like I grew up in San Francisco. So like you were saying, like when you're in a liberal California city and you're still facing it, I felt both so excited about the specificity, especially because in your cast of characters descriptions, you write that it is not flexible, which I really appreciate. You're like Omari and Lukash.

[16:27] Danny J Rooney: Yeah. It's not flexible for them. And you wrote that like other races could be flexible, but theirs were not. And I was so stoked and so proud to read it because I was like, yeah, tell them. It is for you. Like, make it explicit. And frankly, you know, we're not saying that this character at this point, we're not saying that this character specifically is Egyptian or specifically is Armenian or specifically is whatever, what we're saying is it's a pretty broad, you know, this whole term of Manasseh, Middle Eastern, North African, South Asian is this new thing. And Sean, you've talked about it. It's like, okay, well, I'm not Asian enough to be in these musicals. And I'm not black. And I'm not that. So it's like, where do you put me? And, you know, we think, you know, it's actually a pretty broad group of people, Middle Eastern, North African, South Asian, a lot of people. So there's a lot of people that can play these roles, which we're excited about.

[17:15] Sharone Sayegh: Well, the other thing is representation is important. It's like something we hear all the time in the theater, but also the type of representation is so important. And I love that you just said normalization's important too, to be able to have a character who can just have a crush on a girl. And that's totally normal. Well, I mean, the circumstances of this musical are not exactly normal. I think what your musical does really well is it balances questions of identity in a musical that's just so much fun. It's present, but also it's not the main point or it's balanced so well that you don't feel like, oh, this is a play about Middle Eastern identity. This is a play about people falling in love and going on an adventure and magical toilets and mushrooms. There's just so much there.

[17:58] Danny J Rooney: Exactly. And like you're saying, yes, this character happens to be Manassa, but that's not everything, that's not his identifying characteristics other than maybe his name and what he looks like, right? His identifying characteristics are who he is. I had a conversation with a Caucasian friend of mine who's an actor. You know, we were talking about like when you read a breakdown that you get from your agent, like you have an audition and you read a breakdown, do you identify and like, do you accept the audition basically? And he was saying like, oh yeah, well, this guy was, you know, like everything they were writing about him. Like, I really just didn't identify. It was like, this character is really shy and doesn't know how to talk to people.

Whatever. And he was like, I don't identify with that. So he turned the audition down and I was like, wow, I don't even have that luxury. Almost every audition I get, it just says the age. And then it says specifically Manassa or Middle Eastern. And then it might say like, sassy, likes to go out and have a good time, right? I'm not getting that audition because of anything about who I am. I'm getting that audition because of my ethnicity or what my ethnicity appears to be.

[19:01] Sharone Sayegh: I think it's getting better, but I think we have a long way to go. And so like, yes, these ethnicities are important to these people, but we can see 50 people for Omari, but we want to find the person, right? We want to see who they are and not just see them for their ethnicity. We want the nerd that you're going to love. We want this little underdog who really, really, I think we've created this character that especially once you get to his 11 o'clock number at the end, which is, I think pretty epic. This is a pretty traditional Broadway musical. It's just really, really amped up to this kind of like Spaceballs world of video games. You know, we sort of start with our iconic, we're kind of obsessed with our iconic green toilet.

We like love that image. And in our minds, you know, we're not directing this, but in our minds and look, it's not gross. We're not getting gross toilet humor. It's not that, no, no, no. In our minds, you walk into this space and there's this like glowing green toilet on the stage. And then when the like opening huge fanfare starts, lasers burst out from it. And it's like, what am I watching? It's like, whoa, but somehow it makes total sense.

[20:01] Danny J Rooney: No, I love that in the stage directions, there's a glowing green toilet and then lasers shoot out of it. I would be so excited if that was the opening image. I just so you know, I'm, I'm a podcaster, but I'm primarily a director. And as directors, you know, we're obsessed with the opening image of the play. Right. And that opening image starts when people walk into the room and the idea of a glowing green toilet is really exciting because also it demonstrates the tension of the play, right? We're used to toilets. We're not used to glowing green ones. And what's going to happen with this toilet? There's tension on stage right away. I actually would love to talk with you more about like the world you've created.

Cause we've talked about Omari. We've also talked about Lukash a little bit. Who's kind of like the Luigi-ish stand in. That's one of those subtle, subtle things in the show, right? That Lukash is trying to decide whether he'll go by Lukash or by Lou. That kind of like, oh, do I make myself more palatable for my high school friends? But you talk about your other characters, for example, Didi and the princess. I'd love to hear more about them, like the world you've populated.

[21:54] Sharone Sayegh: Well, that's, that's the other, yeah. Didi was the one that was written for me. Thank you very much. Yes. I saw Sharone, I mean, way back, I saw Sharone in a production of Lend Me a Tenor in college. And what was the character you played?

[22:05] Danny J Rooney: Oh God. The Italian, she was so sassy and so funny. The like Marissa Tomei of it all. But what Sharone brings to it is very funny. But these kinds of classic Nintendo characters were really interesting to us. And especially the relationship. It sounds like the show is very guy oriented. It is very, very much for girls too. Like very, you know, for every gender, you know, there's a lot of female. I mean, one of the best songs, honestly, is Maiden in Distress.

[22:32] Sharone Sayegh: It is one of my favorite songs too. It's the first song I wrote actually for the show.

[22:36] Danny J Rooney: Oh, it is the first song you wrote.

[22:37] Sharone Sayegh: Yeah, it is. Maybe that should be the first demo we play for the audience.

[22:37] Danny J Rooney: Actually, it's me, Sharon.

[22:38] Sharone Sayegh: Oh my God.

[22:41] Danny J Rooney: Oh, do you see what I did there? But yeah, no, I mean, this song is honestly, that's the first song that I listened to this morning when I was getting ready for the podcast. And it just puts me in a good mood. Whenever I hear it, would you please set up Maiden in Distress?

[22:41] Danny J Rooney: He's doing it all. And then also Autumn Hurlburt is singing the princess. She gets really very little to sing in this, but she's got her other big song somewhere. This is mostly Didi's song, but the princess comes in at the end, basically. Here is Maiden in Distress performed by Sharone Sayegh and Autumn Hurlburt.

[22:53] Sharone Sayegh: Okay, so Didi is a real world. She's Lukasz's, she's Lou's girlfriend. Yeah, Didi is Lou's girlfriend. And she gets also sucked into this game world. We all go into a game world, right? And there's the princess there. Didi and the princess basically get locked away in a tower. And Didi is like, no bullshit. And she's like, I'm not just going to sit here and wait for somebody to come save me. So she's like, girl, listen up, we got to take care of our own problems. And she basically sings this song to the princess to like empower her. And we took out of the demo we took, there's like a little internal scene in the song. They figure out a plan as to how to escape. You'll just have to come see the show to see that scene, but you'll understand once you see the song.

[23:02] ♪ Musical number: "Maiden in Distress" — performed by Sharone Sayegh and Autumn Hurlburt ♪

[23:30] Danny J Rooney: Yeah. Right. Is that good?

[23:31] Sharone Sayegh: Absolutely. Amazing. And, uh, who is performing this demo?

[26:17] Sharone Sayegh: Oh my God, the power of this, I did not realize that what I saw Green Toilet on the stage, I was also going to church, didn't realize it was also going to be spiritually so fulfilling. Actually, this is the first song Danny wrote for the show. And I was like, Danny, this song is so good. And these lyrics are so good. We like just figure out a way to like make a lyric video.

[26:39] Sharone Sayegh: And so we're going to put that online for this song. And I think it'll be out probably by the time this podcast airs. But you all should watch it because listening to is one thing. But actually seeing the lyrics, you're like, God, this is clever. Like, you know, Danny, it's so funny. I mean, I know that Sondheim kind of did it already. He did the whole thing about the fairy tales, you know, and that's great. But like this is a little sassier. I particularly there was a lyric I really loved, which was don't get me started on red riding. Well, oh, pity her. If she were me, that wolf, well, he would be a big bag of fur. Tell her, work.

[26:42] Danny J Rooney: Oh yeah.

[27:11] Danny J Rooney: Oh my God.

[27:12] Sharone Sayegh: Yeah. Skin of a live girl. Like just girly things do it. One thing that I think is really interesting about your piece, you could do a piece. It's like, oh, it's like a musical set in a video game. But the way that the real world interacts with the video game world is really exciting, especially the way that the princess interacts with Didi and the way that they like partner up and Didi showing the princess that she doesn't have to be just a maiden in distress, a maiden in the tower. And by the end of the show, she says, it's 1982. Times have changed. Right. The way that the video game world influences and interacts with the real world is really interesting in its own right.

[28:01] Danny J Rooney: I mean, we tried to put parallels. Also a little Easter egg. I'm sure you've figured out if you haven't. If you rearrange the letters of Omari's name, like right. So we've tried to put little things that mirror the game world on the real world throughout for all the characters. But the princess is like this character. I find really fascinating. She's super kooky. But like her name is the princess. She's like, that's what I'm called. I just go by the princess. By the end of the show, she has this whole song called Running Out of Time. That's her big kind of 11 o'clock moment. By the end of the show, we won't give anything away because there's a lot of little twists and turns that happen. But, you know, she kind of ends up having to put...

[28:24] Sharone Sayegh: Keep us guessing and on our toes about how to play the game is really, really fun. Thanks, I'm hoping that like, people who love video games will come and find all these Easter eggs and get certain little jokes. But if you don't, and you've like, literally never even played these games and you're not familiar with the little Easter eggs, I think you'll still enjoy it just like as a big Broadway comedic musical.

[29:13] Danny J Rooney: Oh yeah. And I think, you know, if you did play these games, you know, growing up when I would play Super Mario too, I always played as the Princess. I did. I was like, she can float across. I thought it was so convenient. And that character to me, it just feels like musical theater. I mean, even when I'm thinking back to Super Mario too, doesn't it start with like a red curtain going up? Like the cast is there. It just feels like a musical, you know?

[29:39] Sharone Sayegh: Exactly. And so this character of the princess, what's really cool is we all have in our minds this image of what that certain princess from those games is. And I think that once we get to the end of the show, we finally see her there. We see the princess we've seen in the games and up until then, it's different. These characters go through a real change. Physically gamers to start and be like, oh, I thought I was going to get Princess Peach, this isn't really Princess Peach. But by the end, by her big number, she has become Princess Peach, the long white gloves and the tiara. And then also we have a lot of fun with like, we call them the mushlings in our show, but like the mushroom people, like we have a lot of fun, like mushroom puns, cause we just like had to go there also with, we call him the bad guy boxer in our show. But like, there's a nice delicate balance. I think that we found with making fun of how ridiculous this all is, but also paying homage because we love it so much. We're very stupid in the show.

[30:41] Danny J Rooney: I mean, I gotta say those mushroom puns were, I think one of my favorite parts of the script, to be honest. The one that really got me was like our friend Cheney, poor Cheney. I love that one. I was dying.

[30:54] Sharone Sayegh: Well, I also think the evolution of Mario, Super Mario as a character is really, really fascinating. You know, he was in Donkey Kong as Jumpman and then he got his own game. And I think even Super Mario 2 was like a different game that they just put Mario characters in. I distinctly remember playing Mario 1 and Mario 3 growing up or actually watching my older brother play it to be more accurate, but the whole mythology behind it is truly bizarre. A mushroom kingdom and the character of Toad and Princess Peach. Where did all this come from? And so it's easy to fall in love with something that's so unique. And for some reason, probably because they were young when they first encountered it, people have fallen in love with that mythology and continue to still love it.

[31:34] Danny J Rooney: We've also had conversations about like, if you really want to peel it back, the princess is this embodiment of the American dream, trying to reach that goal and like, that's also why in our show, we've, I don't know if it's why, but we've had her traditionally played as Caucasian, but she doesn't have to be. This thing that Omari thinks he's chasing. And it's like, he thinks that that's the goal and realizes like, that's actually not the end goal. The goal is in another castle.

[31:56] Sharone Sayegh: Right. Yes, exactly. Exactly. And something that, you know, especially with these, with the character of, you know, Mario himself that I find kind of fascinating is that this game came out in the eighties, right? When you think back to what Italian Americans in the eighties, they weren't really thought of as white as they are thought of now. Times that they were all gangsters in the movies, they were the mob, but this game decided he's this friendly, real, lovable guy who's doing this stuff. And that's also what we find interesting about Omari. You know, if you look at him and some people might, you know, there were times when Middle Eastern people were stereotyped even now, you know, obviously dangerous terrorists, but that's not who our character is.

[32:36] Danny J Rooney: No, but actually that's exactly where I wanted to go. I actually want to talk with you about Omari. You started at this point where you're like, okay, Super Mario. And you know, Mario doesn't have, in my opinion, a lot of character development. You know, he gets new suits and everything, but I'm wondering how you decided to flesh out the journey of Omari because as I read the piece, what I'm seeing as someone who learns to embrace themself and learns to truly embrace the adventure that's essentially their high school existence and finds a new self-confidence through their journey in the game, could you talk more about that process and how you came up with Omari's journey?

[33:11] Sharone Sayegh: I think personally for me, coming from a standpoint, I was a very nerdy kid. And look, I would lock myself in the bathroom sometimes at school. I would kind of bury myself. I would go home and play my video games and I would bury myself in that. And I think sometimes at school for me, I felt I needed an escape. Eventually that became musical theater, you know, but it was a way for me to not live in the real world. And I think that that's who Omari is. He has this brother that, you know, they've lost their mother, you know, and all good heroes are orphans, you know? And so he and his brother, his brother is dealing with being Middle Eastern in this time. He's dealing with it in a way that he wants to fit in and Omari is dealing with in the way that he's trying to almost disappear and he has this line before his sort of, I want song where he says, or in the I want song, he says, who would care if I just disappeared?

And that's where we go. And he sort of wishes for that. And then he does, he disappears into this crazy world. And by the end, by his big 11 o'clock number, he's ready to not disappear anymore and he's ready to treat life as the adventure that it is. And like play the game for lack of a better. He's ready to level up.

[34:19] Danny J Rooney: Right. That's right. I think that's the perfect opportunity to set up My Turn to Play. So My Turn to Play is the end of the show. I think it's the second to last song before the finale. So, and without giving too much away, because we, you know, there's a lot of twists and turns that happen. Basically, Omari has gotten to the end of the game and he's given a decision. There's a song that the princess sings before this called Select a World, and he's given a decision to stay or to go back to his world. And that's where he starts. And who is singing this song?

[34:51] Sharone Sayegh: This is the incredible Jamin Nanthakumar. And it's just a solo. So it's all him. Here is My Turn to Play performed by Jamin Nanthakumar.

[34:59] ♪ Musical number: "My Turn to Play" — performed by Jamin Nanthakumar ♪

[38:02] Danny J Rooney: This song is really, really powerful. It's both an amazing moment for Amari to make the decision, I'm ready to play. I'm ready to engage with life. But also it's a message about the power of video gaming. An escape every once in a while is totally okay.

[38:15] Sharone Sayegh: Yeah. Absolutely. Right. Because I think also in this time, everything right now is virtual. And people are kind of getting lost in their real lives. And they're saying kids today aren't growing up being able to socialize and talk to each other. And all these things. And it's bad, bad, bad. And while I do hear that, you don't want your child glued to a screen all the time, right? We're trying to basically bridge the gap. And basically say there is something to be learned from these games, right? As long as you then translate it and take it into your own life. And learn, okay, when something is hard and you try again, that's a good thing to learn, right? And you don't give up. And you try to follow through. And if you believe in yourself. That's basically what happens with our main character is he learns all these things in the game. And then he takes them into his real world. And we hope that people who see our show feel the same way.

[39:02] Danny J Rooney: And I think little things like in video games where how exciting it is to find that Easter egg that brings you to a level you didn't even know existed. Or to say, I know I just played that entire game. But I'm going to go and play it again. And I'm going to maybe try to beat my times. Or I know that there was some other level I could have gotten to and I didn't. And I'm going to try it. I mean, as a kid, I tried it hundreds of times sometimes. Until I could get to that secret thing. I think that that's – there's something that – I don't know if I should say we've lost it these days. But there's something in having patience and having resilience that I think I learned from playing the games.

[39:40] Sharone Sayegh: A few other things in defensive video games. Number one, Stephen Sondheim was a huge video gamer.

[39:43] Danny J Rooney: Yes. I'm not sure if he was huge, but he famously played video games or went through a video game phase. And I think you're right. Video games are just a huge exercise in imagination. And I went through a whole – I don't think I'll tell the whole story here. I came to the musical theater late in life, actually. Or later in life, I should say. Like I didn't even start taking musical theater seriously until, like, the end of college. And then I spent, like, the next probably ten years feeling very self-conscious that I didn't know all the musicals ever written. We talked a little bit about this with Martin Starrow who wrote King of Pangea. Feeling new to the form later in life. But I eventually came out on the other side of it.

Okay, even though I played, like, lots of video games and I read lots of comic books as well. Even though I did a lot of things that people would say, oh, you're just escaping. That's a waste of time. What I actually realized is those things form part of my artistry that other people can't understand. Or people can understand the experience of Super Mario. But people who have watched some of my plays are like, oh, I felt that was kind of like a comic book moment. Or there's a video game influence there. And that's just me. That's just who I am as a person. And I've decided to embrace that fully.

[40:46] Sharone Sayegh: You could make the argument that, like, going to theater – some people go to theater to escape. Like, they just want to laugh or they just want to cry or they want to just forget about their own problems. But, you know, in theory, good theater, even if it does provide you an escape, it still holds a mirror up to you and teaches you something. Or has you find empathy in somebody other than you, whatever it may be. There are lessons to be learned in any kind of, quote, unquote, escape.

[41:07] Danny J Rooney: Oh yeah. My sister has high-needs autism. And gaming was one of the ways that we used to bond and talk to each other. And it helped because it gave, like, her a social script. It helped with being like, okay, like, we have really clear expectations of what we're going to do. But what if we do this? And she thrives. She loves video games to this day.

[41:27] Sharone Sayegh: Great.

[41:27] Danny J Rooney: But it gave us something to relate to and talk about. And it gave her a way to connect to the world when she was out and about. Like, she'd see someone with, like, a hat or a t-shirt. She'd be like, it's Mario! And that, like, would create a connection for her that might not have normally been there. So I think as much as we think about gaming as a way to escape, I think it's also a way that we connect. It's something that, especially if games were something you turned to when you were lonely or when you were young, that's such a great foundation when you meet someone as an adult or someone else in a place you don't expect to be. Like, oh, we have a similar vocabulary. We're the same this way. Because this is a world we shared even if it was alone together.

[42:09] Teresa Attridge: Thanks for joining us on New York Theatre Barn's Backstage Pass, hosted by Teresa Attridge and Pauls Macs. Join us next time as we continue our conversation with Sharone Sayegh and Danny J Rooney about their new musical, The Game Boy.