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[0:01] Eila Mell: Hi, everyone. This is Burke Swanson and you're listening to Behind the Awards.

[0:14] Eila Mell: Hello and welcome to Behind the Awards. I'm Eila. I am here with Bruce. And good morning to you. Well, what's new today, Bruce?

[0:23] Bruce Gotlieb: Nothing new, but I have a fun little game for us to play.

[0:29] Bruce Gotlieb: So there's a video I have, which maybe I'll post to our Instagram in the next day or so. But it's Lin-Manuel Miranda and he's being asked and he's answering who his Mount Rushmore of Broadway would be.

[0:42] Eila Mell: Oh.

[0:43] Bruce Gotlieb: So he has on his Mount Rushmore, Rodgers and Hammerstein. He's combining into one.

[0:49] Eila Mell: Okay, good to know.

[0:50] Bruce Gotlieb: And then Bernadette Peters, Audra McDonald and Sondheim.

[0:55] Eila Mell: Those are great people.

[0:57] Bruce Gotlieb: That is a good Mount Rushmore.

[1:00] Eila Mell: So I said, let's have some fun. Not only do I want to know what our listeners, who their Mount Rushmore is, but I want to know who your Mount Rushmore is, Eila.

[1:11] Eila Mell: Okay.

[1:12] Eila Mell: We're going to make a rule.

[1:14] Bruce Gotlieb: Yes.

[1:15] Eila Mell: You cannot pick anybody that Lin has picked.

[1:18] Bruce Gotlieb: Okay, fair enough.

[1:20] Eila Mell: Just because, you know.

[1:22] Bruce Gotlieb: Right.

[1:23] Eila Mell: I feel like it's easy. I mean, they're like all would be. I could repeat all of them and it would be wrong. So yeah.

[1:29] Eila Mell: All right.

[1:30] Eila Mell: All right.

[1:31] Eila Mell: Challenge accepted.

[1:32] Eila Mell: So a minute to think.

[1:35] Eila Mell: Let me just jump in this way. If I don't think it through, I can't really be held responsible for my answers.

[1:41] Bruce Gotlieb: Okay, go ahead.

[1:42] Eila Mell: All right. So I am going to go with Hal Prince.

[1:45] Bruce Gotlieb: Okay.

[1:46] Eila Mell: I will go with.

[1:50] Eila Mell: Do I want to do another director?

[1:52] Eila Mell: Well, I'll call him a choreographer and go with Bob Fosse.

[1:55] Bruce Gotlieb: Okay.

[1:56] Eila Mell: There's a loophole.

[1:57] Bruce Gotlieb: There's a loophole.

[1:58] Eila Mell: And then.

[2:01] Eila Mell: So hard.

[2:03] Eila Mell: Angela Lansbury.

[2:04] Bruce Gotlieb: Angela's good.

[2:07] Eila Mell: And how about.

[2:10] Eila Mell: So hard.

[2:12] Eila Mell: Tracy Letts.

[2:13] Bruce Gotlieb: Oh, okay. Yeah.

[2:14] Eila Mell: That's good.

[2:16] Eila Mell: Yeah. I wanted to go contemporary with a playwright.

[2:18] Bruce Gotlieb: All right.

[2:20] Eila Mell: But now I feel bad because Lin-Manuel Miranda should be on that list too.

[2:23] Bruce Gotlieb: Well, I mean, here we are.

[2:26] Eila Mell: I know.

[2:27] Eila Mell: I know.

[2:28] Eila Mell: All right, Bruce. Give me.

[2:30] Bruce Gotlieb: Well, you said not repeat. And that's sort of.

[2:32] Bruce Gotlieb: That would be a repeat in a way.

[2:33] Eila Mell: Well, I mean.

[2:34] Bruce Gotlieb: No, no. Just say.

[2:36] Bruce Gotlieb: Just say yes.

[2:37] Eila Mell: Oh, yes.

[2:38] Bruce Gotlieb: Now I don't feel bad.

[2:40] Eila Mell: Okay.

[2:41] Eila Mell: All right. Now.

[2:43] Eila Mell: Who are your four?

[2:44] Bruce Gotlieb: My four. I am going to go with.

[2:47] Bruce Gotlieb: Michael Bennett.

[2:50] Eila Mell: Excellent.

[2:52] Bruce Gotlieb: I am going to say.

[2:54] Bruce Gotlieb: Chita Rivera.

[2:55] Eila Mell: Oh, yes.

[2:56] Bruce Gotlieb: Heather Headley.

[2:57] Eila Mell: I mean.

[2:58] Bruce Gotlieb: You know how I love her.

[2:59] Eila Mell: She's.

[3:00] Bruce Gotlieb: Yeah.

[3:01] Bruce Gotlieb: One of your favorite.

[3:02] Eila Mell: One of my queens of Broadway.

[3:04] Bruce Gotlieb: Then for my fourth.

[3:06] Bruce Gotlieb: I think I'm going to go with.

[3:08] Bruce Gotlieb: Jonathan Larson.

[3:09] Eila Mell: Excellent.

[3:10] Bruce Gotlieb: So let us know who you're. Who's your Mount Rushmore?

[3:12] Eila Mell: Who are your top four?

[3:16] Eila Mell: Actors. Actresses. Directors. Choreographers. Doesn't matter.

[3:21] Bruce Gotlieb: Yeah. We want to know what you think.

[3:23] Eila Mell: Obviously. There really is no four. Because we could. You know. We could make ten of these top four. And they'd all be great.

[3:30] Bruce Gotlieb: But.

[3:31] Eila Mell: Correct.

[3:32] Eila Mell: But just without thinking about it too much. I think that's the way to do it.

[3:35] Bruce Gotlieb: Yes.

[3:36] Eila Mell: You have to just go. First thing that comes to your mind.

[3:38] Bruce Gotlieb: That's right.

[3:39] Eila Mell: All right. And if you need to repeat. One more time. You can. You know. We'll give you permission.

[3:45] Bruce Gotlieb: We can't tell people what to do.

[3:46] Eila Mell: But what we can do is we can bring out our guest.

[3:49] Bruce Gotlieb: Oh.

[3:50] Eila Mell: Francis Jue. We love him so much. And he's here to chat about his new show.

[3:53] Bruce Gotlieb: The King of the Yees.

[3:54] Eila Mell: Well. Bruce. Today we are so thrilled to welcome back to our show one of our favorite people. And how exciting that we can now say time for The King of the Yees.

[4:05] Eila Mell: Well. Bruce. Today we are so thrilled to welcome back to our show one of our favorite people. And how exciting that we can now say Tony winner Francis Jue.

[4:15] Francis Jue: That's right. Wow. Thank you.

[16:25] Francis Jue: That I get to do this play during this election season, I'll say. Yeah, I think audiences are grateful for it, too, because, you know, it's a very underserved story, because everything that you're telling me, I didn't know. And I, you know, I feel uneducated that I didn't know any of this about, you know, Chinese history, Chinese American history. And, you know, I didn't know a lot either, you know, because my family didn't talk about this. Right. I'm sure that you all have relatives with, you know, secrets and lies, and they just don't want to talk about it. You know, it's LSH history. Why relive the past? You know, there were a lot of times when we asked our folks about stuff like that. And, you know, they really just didn't tell us.

I remember being in college at Yale and I in my senior year, which was Oh, God, now that was what 1986 Yale College offered its very first Asian American history class ever. Wow. Wow. It was taught by TAs. It wasn't even taught by a professor who like Xeroxed stuff out of books because these books were out of print to in order for us to read materials. I mean, it was and there were kids in that class who discovered that their families had been interned during, you know, in concentration camps during World War Two. There were people like like me who discovered, you know, that there were these lynchings in China's heroes in California. None of us knew about these things because people want to forget.

And, you know, the saddest part is that if everyone knew this, maybe certain, you know, groups who had been persecuted in the past could see that there's some commonality and could come together. Right. Instead of, you know, fighting each other. Yeah. If only we were more curious about one another. Right. Right. Yes, absolutely. Because, you know, it sounds very similar to so many other groups. And, you know, the amazing thing about Lauren Yee, the playwrights, the actual playwright, is that she could take these stories and somehow get us to find our common humanity by, you know, showing us all how ridiculous we can be, you know, and because we all have that in common, we can actually relate to one another.

Right. You know, I'm just amazed at how hilarious this play is. And, you know, I was concerned, you know, New York has its own house style. Yeah. You know, are they going to take this, you know, you know, wild fantasy ride in this, you know, gregarious, ridiculous father of Lauren? You know, because my greatest fear is going out there and like everyone is just like, what the hell is he doing?

[19:29] Eila Mell: Did you get to meet Lauren's father?

[19:29] Francis Jue: Yes. The first time I met him, we were doing the final presentation of the workshop in Chicago at the Goodman Theater, and I was warned that he was coming. I did not know that he was going to arrive with his own camera crew. Oh, and that he was going to give a talk back after that final presentation where he was going to invite people to come on stage to have pictures taken with the real Larry and all, you know, those red envelopes, the licey like you give get it Chinese New Year little tips for us doing such a good job. And, you know, he was hilarious. He's a lovely, lovely guy. And, you know, I knew then that I could never be too big in this part. Yeah. So, you know, this is a big honor because you are starting to specialize in playing playwrights dads, which is really near and dear.

[20:27] Bruce Gotlieb: But a questioner, I can play your dad. Why not? Is it fun to be able to, I guess, in some way?

[20:33] Francis Jue: Yes, there's a seriousness to the story, but I think the best lessons are learned through comedy and making people laugh and keeping it light. So to have this abandoned, to just, you know, be this kooky, crazy, you know, over the top type of character. Is that fun for you? It is fun and it is terrifying because, you know, if you knew me, you'd know how shy I am, truly. And especially in groups, like if I'm one on one with somebody, I more often than not, I can hold a conversation in the back of my mind. I'm always thinking, you know, why is he talking to me? I mean, like, you know, but, you know, in a group, it's just, you know, it's still, you know, terrifying to me. I think that's one of the reasons why theater is so comfortable for me, because, you know, everyone comes into the room and they know what their role is. Right, right. And you've got a certain place and you're working at fulfilling the demands of that place as best you can. And, you know, and that makes everything so much easier, I think.

[21:37] Eila Mell: I couldn't agree more. I like having a task with people.

[21:46] Francis Jue: Yes. Parties and mingling is not my favorite thing. Isn't that just like, how do people do it? Yeah, it is just the opposite. He gets he gets energy from meeting people. And he's, you know, he's very easy in life through meeting people. And he's a producer. So even asking them for money is really easy, because he's only asking them for money for things that he really believes in. And he wants to know, do you believe in this, too? So let's support it together. You know, me, I would just be terrified. Oh, that's the last thing I would ever want to do is ask anyone for money. Oh, yeah, I'd be terrible at that. Oh, me too. So playing Larry is challenging, because, you know, I, you know, he's the kind of person who walks into a room and he knows that you're going to get along.

And he knows that you're going to be fascinated by what he has to say. There's no doubt in his mind, because he's very, he's very optimistic, because he believes that his understanding of the world is true. He has no doubts about how, you know, we look out for one another. You know, and that's amazing. Yeah. And so he sees allies, he doesn't, you know, need to win people over, you know, in a way, and that's new for me.

[23:14] Bruce Gotlieb: Yeah. Now, at any point, does the movie Chinatown play a role in this?

[23:14] Francis Jue: Could you imagine? I thought I'd filmed so long ago. Oh, my God. And I saw it, I was I was much younger. And I thought, what does this have to do with Chinatown? I know, nothing. I know. Yeah, right. Exactly. You know, when my when my parents grew up, were born and raised in Chinatown, as I said, and and it was their hood. I mean, it's a very small, queer footage, and they knew every every inch of where they grew up. And so they'd send us there. You know, I grew up pretty far away and didn't grow up no, you know, learning Chinese or anything like that. And so when we were sent to Chinatown, or when we'd go there for banquets, events, weddings, things like that, summer camp, it was it was like we were going to a foreign country. It was terrifying to us. And eventually, I think it occurred to our folks that it wasn't our hood, it was their hood. And so we stopped going quite so often. Wow.

[24:20] Eila Mell: How long is the play running? Because we want our audience to be able to get there?

[24:25] Francis Jue: Well, it was announced originally that we were are running to November 15. But, and this may be a scoop, because I think it is being announced today. I was told it was being announced today. So I'm going to assume it's okay to say this. We have been extended for a week. Oh, so we're running through November 22. So wonderful. That's wonderful. I didn't very grateful. That's great. Now I know that this is not something that you would be in a position to decide. But do you think there's room for it to maybe move after this run? Eventually, I would I would, I would pay money for that.

[25:02] Bruce Gotlieb: So would I. And you know, we already have had, you know, repeat audience members come back, you know, twice, three times, you know, to see the show. It's a real emotional roller coaster, this show. I mean, it gets you giddy and high and it disarms you. I mean, you know, at the very start of the show, there's this stranger coming on and disrupting the play and engaging with the audience. And eventually the audience is like, yeah, bring it on. And then, you know, it explores this relationship between the father and daughter. And suddenly, she's on this wild ride through Chinatown that is, you know, hysterical and absurd and giddy. And, and then it drops into something really, really touching. And I think that people who have come have just really like felt all the feels. Yeah, I certainly do while doing the show.

[26:03] Francis Jue: So now your character disappears, as we know, does that mean you're you're not in it for a period of time? Or are you in it throughout? I am in it throughout. But I do get a couple of and you get to see this amazing ensemble. First of all, we're led by Kelly Marie Trent, who plays Lauren, who is astounding. And it is her first live play. Oh, amazing. She's done, you know, and she is astounding in this part. And then this ensemble of true, like, gifted, comedic geniuses. I mean, they are masterclass. Dave Shee, Maureen Sebastian, and John Norman Schneider, who are just the greatest team. And you you will, I mean, I watch them backstage, when I'm not on stage, every single night, because they are a masterclass, I want to learn, you know, how are they doing? They're, they're amazing.

[27:00] Eila Mell: And obviously, when you're in the middle of something, and obviously, this project still has a few weeks left. Anything else in the works that your fans can look for you to be doing next?

[27:11] Francis Jue: Well, there, there are some things I can't haven't, you know, I haven't been given permission to say anything about it. But yes,

[27:20] Bruce Gotlieb: Well, that's exciting.

[27:21] Francis Jue: Thank God, but you know, anything so cool.

[27:25] Eila Mell: Tell everyone to set up a Google search for you. So any news that comes out there right on top of it. They'll get an alert. Francis is working. I'm so grateful.

[27:37] Bruce Gotlieb: Well, the everyone is grateful that you're working because you know, you bring so much to every role that you play. I still can't believe that I live in New York. And I'm working and making a living doing this business. It's it's just impossible.

[27:53] Francis Jue: Yeah, I never would have believed it. I remember during Tony season, I just messaged you for you know, just to say, Yay, Francis, you know, this is great. And you were like, Can you believe this is happening? Out of this world? You know?

[28:07] Eila Mell: Yeah.

[28:08] Francis Jue: And the answer to that is yes, we do believe it.

[28:10] Bruce Gotlieb: We believe it. But yes.

[28:12] Francis Jue: And now you have the hardware in your guest room. So everyone will know.

[28:18] Eila Mell: I can prove it to myself every day.

[28:20] Francis Jue: Yeah. Well, you know, we just adore you on behind the awards. And you have an open invitation to come back anytime you want.

[28:27] Francis Jue: I would love to. Thank you.

[28:29] Eila Mell: Yes.

[28:29] Francis Jue: All right. Well, thank you, Francis. Everyone go see King of the Yees. It's running now through November 22.

[28:34] Bruce Gotlieb: There'll be a link in our show notes. So you just click away.

[28:39] Francis Jue: Awesome. Yes.

[28:40] Eila Mell: See you there.

[28:41] Francis Jue: All right. Well, thank you so much. And we'll see everyone next time on behind the awards.

[28:45] Eila Mell: Bye.

[28:45] Francis Jue: Thank you so much.