This transcript was automatically generated and might contain errors.

[0:00] ♪ Musical number: "My Favorite Things" — performed by Unknown performer ♪

[0:17] Kevin David Thomas: Happy throwback Thursday, everybody.

[0:19] Robert W Schneider: Happy Thursday.

[0:21] Kevin David Thomas: Kevin, it's a beautiful day today.

[0:23] Robert W Schneider: It's a gorgeous summer day.

[0:27] Kevin David Thomas: The sun is smiling.

[0:33] Robert W Schneider: Schmilin's.

[0:35] Kevin David Thomas: Yeah, that's a little sorry.

[0:35] Robert W Schneider: Go pack the chiar.

[0:38] Kevin David Thomas: I still think of the ferryman from last season in the Irish accent.

[0:43] Kevin David Thomas: That baby got some work.

[0:45] Robert W Schneider: Kiar.

[0:45] Robert W Schneider: When acting so, folks, for the ferryman, if you've not seen the ferryman, it's a three-act play.

[0:50] Kevin David Thomas: And when act three starts, you're in a blackout, and then all of a sudden the lights come up, and there's an infant laying on the stage.

[0:57] Robert W Schneider: Yes, I can't even imagine.

[0:58] Kevin David Thomas: And you're like, how you get a baby to do that.

[1:00] Robert W Schneider: And you're like, is that a doll?

[1:01] Kevin David Thomas: And then it starts kicking its legs, and you're like, it's just left a baby on stage in the dark.

[1:06] Robert W Schneider: Yeah, a baby and remember, a goose as well.

[1:08] Kevin David Thomas: For that one little scene, remember?

[1:09] Robert W Schneider: There was a goose.

[1:10] Kevin David Thomas: Dangerous, folks.

[1:12] Robert W Schneider: It's absolutely dangerous.

[1:16] Kevin David Thomas: I'm bringing the goose up on charges.

[1:19] Robert W Schneider: Are the animals part of a union?

[1:21] Kevin David Thomas: What's it?

[1:22] Robert W Schneider: Are the animals part of a union?

[1:25] Kevin David Thomas: Like, are the animals part of actors' equity?

[1:29] Robert W Schneider: That's a legitimate question.

[1:30] Kevin David Thomas: No, of course.

[1:31] Robert W Schneider: No, I can't imagine.

[1:32] Kevin David Thomas: Like the dogs from Legally Blonde.

[1:33] Robert W Schneider: You think that's a union?

[1:36] Kevin David Thomas: Is the baby part of a union?

[1:38] Robert W Schneider: Can you imagine getting your equity card at like nine months?

[1:43] Kevin David Thomas: Right now there's a whole bunch of...

[1:46] Robert W Schneider: Don was young.

[1:47] Kevin David Thomas: There's like a whole bunch of like new Miss Showcase graduates right now crying, being like, them aiming at me and my card and I didn't just want to my kiard.

[1:55] Robert W Schneider: I just thought my 16 bar cut of love will find me again from Bansdale.

[1:59] Kevin David Thomas: It's gonna get me an agent.

[2:00] Robert W Schneider: Krasney office isn't calling.

[2:03] Kevin David Thomas: Krasney was wrong when I came to New York in 2002 and I met with him.

[2:07] Robert W Schneider: And he was it was something straight out of a store.

[2:09] Kevin David Thomas: It was something straight out of the books.

[2:11] Robert W Schneider: You know, it was like it was in the the building that's on 15, whatever on Times Square.

[2:15] Kevin David Thomas: Yeah, yeah.

[2:15] Robert W Schneider: You go in there, you went to the something floor, you went down the office, yeah, smoky.

[2:19] Kevin David Thomas: He, you know, the the secretary's like, Oh, you can go in now.

[2:22] Robert W Schneider: And you go in, and he's this imposing, scary guy that was he said I remember my legs were crossed, and he said to me, Don't cross your legs, that's insecure.

[2:30] Kevin David Thomas: And I was like, Oh, oh, I'm sorry.

[2:33] Robert W Schneider: Yes.

[2:34] Kevin David Thomas: Did you sign with those were the days?

[2:36] Robert W Schneider: Absolutely not.

[2:38] Kevin David Thomas: Who did you sign with?

[2:39] Robert W Schneider: I signed, I was with uh Stuart Talent for about over a decade.

[2:39] Kevin David Thomas: Stuart Talent.

[2:43] Robert W Schneider: Oh, so I had I was between Krasny, Stuart Talent, T G R W.

[2:49] Kevin David Thomas: I met with Jim Wilhelm.

[2:50] Robert W Schneider: Oh, I remember Jim Willow.

[2:51] Kevin David Thomas: I think he's around.

[2:53] Robert W Schneider: But um, yeah, no, they would and then uh yeah, that my Stuart was just really nice and really friendly, and I just got a good vibe.

[2:59] Kevin David Thomas: So I went with that.

[3:00] Robert W Schneider: I always love May because that's showcase month.

[3:03] Kevin David Thomas: Boy, it's a crazy time, isn't it?

[3:04] Robert W Schneider: You always get to see so many different showcases and all the fresh blood come to New York and you know, with their dreams and tons of jewel-toned dresses and guys in tight v-necks trying to show off their muscles.

[3:17] Kevin David Thomas: My god, back in my day, it was back in my day, listen to me.

[3:20] Robert W Schneider: But it was uh we all wore black pants and a bright colored shirt that was tucked in.

[3:24] Kevin David Thomas: That was like what you did, which is just crazy now because you would never use much way more casual and way more it's almost it's very hipster.

[3:32] Robert W Schneider: I saw a line of equity people, and I thought, oh my gosh, is this Williamsburg?

[3:35] Kevin David Thomas: That's what I thought.

[3:36] Robert W Schneider: Yeah, where's the artisanal mayo shop?

[3:39] Kevin David Thomas: I'm in the wrong area again.

[3:41] Robert W Schneider: I understand.

[3:42] Kevin David Thomas: I have a question for you.

[3:43] Robert W Schneider: Yeah, what's up?

[3:44] Kevin David Thomas: We asked this of all of our guests.

[3:46] Robert W Schneider: And I don't know if I I don't know if Robbie Rosel asked us this when he interviewed us that you know for our anniversary.

[3:53] Kevin David Thomas: No, what what was your gateway?

[3:55] Robert W Schneider: How did you get into musical theater?

[3:56] Kevin David Thomas: What did it for you?

[3:56] Robert W Schneider: Like, did you see a show where you a certain age?

[3:58] Kevin David Thomas: I know you love the Tony Awards since you were basically in the womb, but um do you remember having your first conscious thought about what being turned on to musical theater or becoming passionate about it?

[4:08] Robert W Schneider: Like what was there a moment that you remember, or was it just sort of gradual?

[4:11] Kevin David Thomas: And maybe this is just a horrible question.

[4:13] Robert W Schneider: No, no, no, no.

[4:14] Kevin David Thomas: It's uh it's a no, it's a it's an easy question.

[4:16] Robert W Schneider: All I do is picture you in your basement, listen to records, but I really want to know how you got there.

[4:20] Kevin David Thomas: Hi everybody.

[4:22] Robert W Schneider: I'm gonna put my my little needle on the record.

[4:24] Kevin David Thomas: When I played on preppies on preppies, which is a whole new thing.

[4:29] Robert W Schneider: Very obscure, very obscure.

[4:33] Kevin David Thomas: Preppies is a nine 80s music.

[4:36] Robert W Schneider: Yeah, like a lizard on it or something.

[4:37] Kevin David Thomas: Uh with wearing a polo.

[4:38] Robert W Schneider: Yeah, wow.

[4:39] Kevin David Thomas: Um we killed that one just now.

[4:41] Robert W Schneider: No, so anyway, how did I get into my gateway drug?

[4:43] Kevin David Thomas: Singing in the rain.

[4:44] Robert W Schneider: Singing in the rain was my gateway drug.

[4:46] Kevin David Thomas: The movie.

[4:46] Robert W Schneider: Yeah.

[4:47] Kevin David Thomas: Uh when I was like three years old, my parents uh bought it.

[4:51] Robert W Schneider: I think it just like had come out on just on VHS.

[4:53] Kevin David Thomas: Yeah.

[4:54] Robert W Schneider: Because that that was, you know.

[4:55] Kevin David Thomas: Yeah, yeah, yeah.

[4:55] Robert W Schneider: Oh, definitely.

[4:56] Kevin David Thomas: They just bought a VCR, this newfangled contraption.

[4:59] Robert W Schneider: And I think if I remember correctly, that was the movie I think that came with the VHS player.

[5:05] Kevin David Thomas: Like wherever they movies used to come with.

[5:07] Robert W Schneider: I think if I understand correctly, there was some sort of deal or sale, and that was the movie that came along with it.

[5:13] Kevin David Thomas: And so um they turned it on for me when I was three, and I was turned on ever since.

[5:18] Robert W Schneider: And yeah, no, no, I was gonna say this for for me, the that is when I hear people say, Oh, it doesn't feel natural for me to see a story where somebody bursts into song and dance.

[5:27] Kevin David Thomas: For me, it feels totally natural because it's the only thing I I've known.

[5:30] Robert W Schneider: One of the most iconic ones.

[5:31] Kevin David Thomas: And then what was the first live uh do you remember your first live experience in the theatre?

[5:35] Robert W Schneider: Yeah, it was either there's some there's some in the family history there's some discrepancy.

[5:41] Kevin David Thomas: Oh, okay.

[5:41] Robert W Schneider: It was I think it was Lakage.

[5:44] Kevin David Thomas: Damn.

[5:45] Robert W Schneider: I think it was Lakage.

[5:47] Kevin David Thomas: Um it was 1987, and it was my cousin Amy's birthday, and my family bought like a bunch of tickets to go see Lakage.

[5:56] Robert W Schneider: Um it was Peter Marshall and Keen Curtis.

[5:59] Kevin David Thomas: It was like right on the end of the the end of the the run.

[6:03] Robert W Schneider: And I remember uh yeah, that wasn't that was entrancing.

[6:07] Kevin David Thomas: I remember there was one Kajell, um, and I was like maybe three and a half, yeah, four.

[6:12] Robert W Schneider: And I just remembered she had this, it was a Theoni Alridge costume, but it was this thing where it looked like a s like a scarf or a cowl, and it just automatically, without even her touching it, flipped up around her, so it like created like a flower around her head.

[6:28] Kevin David Thomas: And I remember just being like, How did it do that?

[6:32] Robert W Schneider: Like, how did they do that?

[6:34] Kevin David Thomas: And that's the big that's the big one for me.

[6:37] Robert W Schneider: Or me and my girl.

[6:38] Kevin David Thomas: It was uh I remember we went to go see me and my girl.

[6:41] Robert W Schneider: It was I think another like family event, and that was a big deal.

[6:44] Kevin David Thomas: I remember that was Jim Dale.

[6:46] Robert W Schneider: Jim Dale wasn't it at that point.

[6:48] Kevin David Thomas: That's nice.

[6:48] Robert W Schneider: Yeah, I yeah, so those the live performances.

[6:52] Kevin David Thomas: I like that.

[6:52] Robert W Schneider: Yeah, I like that a lot.

[6:53] Kevin David Thomas: And then I I wish I I but I can't sing.

[6:53] Robert W Schneider: I can't sing.

[6:57] Kevin David Thomas: If I could sing, I probably would have stayed as an actor and done musical theater because that was I always felt that I would be right in that world.

[7:05] Robert W Schneider: You can sing, but no, I really can't.

[7:07] Kevin David Thomas: I mean, everybody can.

[7:08] Robert W Schneider: You play sing and you sing.

[7:09] Kevin David Thomas: I know you've got pitch, and I know you've got tone, and I know you can like color things and everything like that.

[7:13] Robert W Schneider: But I hear what you're saying.

[7:14] Kevin David Thomas: You I understand where you're going to be able to do that.

[7:16] Robert W Schneider: There's people out there that are there that are better, and I think had had I been able to master that, probably wouldn't have been a good one.

[7:22] Kevin David Thomas: I probably wouldn't have gone into directing.

[7:24] Robert W Schneider: Um then I've just done musical theater for that.

[7:26] Kevin David Thomas: And then Brad Brad Oscar never would have had a career.

[7:28] Robert W Schneider: And then so Brad.

[7:29] Kevin David Thomas: You're welcome.

[7:30] Robert W Schneider: You're welcome.

[7:31] Kevin David Thomas: You're welcome.

[7:33] Robert W Schneider: Um every once in a while I still get the bug.

[7:35] Kevin David Thomas: I like it.

[7:35] Robert W Schneider: I get the bug every once in a while.

[7:36] Kevin David Thomas: I'm like, maybe I'll get back on stage at some point.

[7:38] Robert W Schneider: I would like that.

[7:39] Kevin David Thomas: I would like that a lot.

[7:40] Robert W Schneider: So nobody wants to see that.

[7:41] Kevin David Thomas: No, I do.

[7:41] Robert W Schneider: What was your gateway drug?

[7:43] Kevin David Thomas: Uh well, thanks to my mother, and and my father was very supportive.

[7:45] Robert W Schneider: But my mother, um, there were three shows that we really were were ever present in our household.

[7:50] Kevin David Thomas: My mother is a piano is and was a piano player, and so like she she played famously, she played gypsy in college.

[7:56] Robert W Schneider: She played in the pit.

[7:57] Kevin David Thomas: And so uh that show was very it had a very important impact on our lives.

[8:01] Robert W Schneider: We grew up watching the movie with Rosalind Russell.

[8:03] Kevin David Thomas: That was I remember exactly where I was the first time I saw it.

[8:05] Robert W Schneider: I think I was probably eight or nine.

[8:07] Kevin David Thomas: Mom correct me, I don't remember.

[8:08] Robert W Schneider: Um, and then we we also grew up with constantly that that VHS of the Mary Martin, uh Peter Pan.

[8:15] Kevin David Thomas: Oh wow the stage version that was something that ran all the time in our household.

[8:20] Robert W Schneider: And then the third show was Bye bye Birdie, the movie with Leslie and Warren Paulin, and like all of them.

[8:26] Kevin David Thomas: And was it Elizabeth Warren?

[8:27] Robert W Schneider: No.

[8:27] Kevin David Thomas: Uh oh, a Janet Lee.

[8:30] Robert W Schneider: Sorry.

[8:30] Kevin David Thomas: Janet Lee.

[8:31] Robert W Schneider: Yes.

[8:31] Kevin David Thomas: Right.

[8:32] Robert W Schneider: Leslie Anne Warren was in Cinderella.

[8:33] Kevin David Thomas: Sorry, I'm thinking of who was the sexy one and who plays and Margaret.

[8:38] Robert W Schneider: Jeez, Kevin.

[8:38] Kevin David Thomas: I can picture that ding d-dun d and yes, that's sexy opening.

[8:42] Robert W Schneider: Oh my goodness, even as a kid, I was like, who is that?

[8:44] Kevin David Thomas: But we watched that constantly, my sister and I, and we loved it.

[8:47] Robert W Schneider: And then my first show was when I was I was later in life that I really discovered my love for musical theater.

[8:53] Kevin David Thomas: I always appreciated it, but my love to do it or to consume all of it.

[8:58] Robert W Schneider: But I think I was in middle school when I saw the high school production of Bye Bye Birdie and live, and I remember my seat, I remember where we were, and it was and it was magical.

[9:09] Kevin David Thomas: I loved it.

[9:10] Robert W Schneider: I absolutely love that show.

[9:12] Kevin David Thomas: And even the movie, I know the movies we like the whole sequence with Ed Sullivan where they like try that whole plot turn where they try to like the defecting Russian, the Russian conductor and the turtle.

[9:22] Robert W Schneider: The turtle and like the going fast and the conducting off.

[9:24] Kevin David Thomas: I mean what someone was on something.

[9:30] Robert W Schneider: We just watched it a couple months ago.

[9:31] Kevin David Thomas: It uh it's nostalgic.

[9:33] Robert W Schneider: I love it.

[9:33] Kevin David Thomas: I'll take it.

[9:33] Robert W Schneider: It's it's fun for me.

[9:35] Kevin David Thomas: Weird film.

[9:35] Robert W Schneider: It's and a lot, a lot of things that you probably couldn't get away with today.

[9:38] Kevin David Thomas: Like make Janet Leah Brunett, and they all think she's Hispanic.

[9:41] Robert W Schneider: Exactly.

[9:43] Kevin David Thomas: Okay.

[9:43] Robert W Schneider: Or Paul Lynn is a father.

[9:46] Kevin David Thomas: Of married, you mean to a woman.

[9:48] Robert W Schneider: Married to a woman with kids.

[9:50] Kevin David Thomas: Oh boy.

[9:51] Robert W Schneider: But thank goodness for these shows, these and you know, that really were so important to all of us.

[9:55] Kevin David Thomas: I mean, how many guests have we interviewed that they said, you know, they w saw My Fair Lady, you know, or they saw I mean, there's there's these shows that they all follies or Pippin, you know, that we hear over and over.

[10:05] Robert W Schneider: Even the that Peter Pan, I mean, that was so it's so I think it's it's so important that we uh these get preserved in another way, other than just seeing it live, but that you get to see live well nowadays they're everywhere, even like TV shows like My Crazy Ex-Girlfriend that has is basically a musical TV show.

[10:20] Kevin David Thomas: So there's all these gateways into this art form now that I feel like when we were growing up, there weren't as many, I feel like.

[10:26] Robert W Schneider: No, because we were digging back decades earlier, like you know, singing in the rain, or yeah, you know.

[10:31] Kevin David Thomas: I feel like back for us we had to seek them out.

[10:34] Robert W Schneider: Yep.

[10:34] Kevin David Thomas: And nowadays you're absolutely right.

[10:36] Robert W Schneider: I mean, it's on you have glee, or you had glee and smash, and even things like America's Got Talent, where you have somebody singing a show tune.

[10:45] Kevin David Thomas: I mean, obviously it's like filtered through a contemporary you know filter, but uh it's it's still a way of getting people in interested and and following it.

[10:54] Robert W Schneider: But no, we have to we have to dig, buddy boy.

[10:56] Kevin David Thomas: Yeah, we have to dig.

[10:57] Robert W Schneider: We have to dig.

[10:58] Kevin David Thomas: Thank goodness we did.

[10:59] Robert W Schneider: Yeah, I'm I'm happy we did.

[11:01] Kevin David Thomas: I'm happy we didn't otherwise we wouldn't be doing this wonderful podcast known as behind the curtain, Broadway's Living Legends.

[11:08] Robert W Schneider: Nice.

[11:09] Kevin David Thomas: Hey, you could hey, you could have been sitting here with Brad Oscar.

[11:15] Robert W Schneider: I love Brad.

[11:16] Kevin David Thomas: I do what I love about Brad is he's just as geeky as we are about this.

[11:23] Robert W Schneider: You know, we interviewed him.

[11:24] Kevin David Thomas: He came in to me, he kicked off his shoes and was just like, let's talk about this.

[11:28] Robert W Schneider: She couldn't wait.

[11:28] Kevin David Thomas: Yeah.

[11:28] Robert W Schneider: Yeah.

[11:29] Kevin David Thomas: Um every time I do a show at 54 Below and I try to get Brad in it, I always email him like, Are you available?

[11:33] Robert W Schneider: And he always writes, but he goes, I'm not available.

[11:35] Kevin David Thomas: He's like, but let me know when you're doing platinum.

[11:39] Robert W Schneider: And a hit show from the mid 80s, early 80s.

[11:41] Kevin David Thomas: And I always I always want to ask Brad, I'm like, like, is that a joke, or like, do you really want to know?

[11:46] Robert W Schneider: We're doing platinum.

[11:47] Kevin David Thomas: I'll take you up on that.

[11:47] Robert W Schneider: Because I'll take you up on it.

[11:49] Kevin David Thomas: I love Brad.

[11:49] Robert W Schneider: He's a such a talented talent, classy, classy guy.

[11:53] Kevin David Thomas: Um, Kevin, what's that things?

[11:56] Robert W Schneider: Oh, great.

[11:57] Kevin David Thomas: Yeah, great, great, great.

[11:58] Robert W Schneider: What is your favorite thing?

[11:59] Kevin David Thomas: Uh, I would like to celebrate a person that I believe is, uh, I and I would, I, I will include all of their catalog in this favorite thing, although I could pick a show and just do that.

[12:11] Robert W Schneider: But I think this is sort of an unsung hero of the musical theater art form. He was very well known in he was actually in the 1950s, uh the most successful songwriter in the US and the UK on the singles chart. Because back then in the 50s, before the Beatles, the pop tunes of the era were obviously show tunes, but or these novelty songs. Songs such as, well, you're gonna know as soon as I tell you, but like How Much is That Doggy in the Window, or Mambo Italiano, or a slew of others that you would know.

[12:42] Kevin David Thomas: Yes.

[12:42] Robert W Schneider: Bob Merrill. It is definitely Bob Merrill. Bob Merrill, who actually could not play an instrument. And he composed on a toy xylophone sometimes. He would have these songs in his heart in his head and he would write them out. And some of his earlier shows, like for instance, like his first show that where he wrote, he wrote he folks, you obviously know this, but some of you might not, but he wrote music, he wrote lyrics, may have written a book here or there, he wrote a TV show. He he was he really had a diverse portfolio in the theater world and in other realms as well. Um but his first Broadway show where he wrote the music and lyrics was New Girl in Town, which um starred Gwen Verdon and was choreographed by Bob Fosse, which if you watched Fosse/Verdon, you saw a whole thing about that.

Uh he also went in two years later, wrote Take Me Along, which is a musical version of Ah Wilderness, which I love that score. I think these scores are so charming. His probably his most well-known work that he wrote the music and lyrics is Carnival in 1961, uh that had just a slew of great songs. But then he switched to writing the lyrics to Funny Girl. Um he added some songs to Dolly, uh Motherhood March and Elegance. Um he wrote your favorite TV show from 1965, the uh the dangerous Christmas of Little Red, the the I mean the the the little red little yeah, yeah. Um Breakfast at Tiffany's, he wrote the music and lyrics, and that never came to Broadway, but that had a really fascinating cast album, actually, because they uh Robbie Rosel can tell us much more about this, and I think he has.

But the that album is kind of a choose your own adventure, and I remember getting it and being as I pushed my glasses up on my nose, being very excited about it because they had tried to fix that show, and Edward Albee came in and tried to do it, and then someone else, and then so you the album has two different versions, and you they have a track list. If you want to listen to the version that Albee did, you can do one, two, seven, three, ten, you know, you listen to that order. If you want to do the original, you can listen to it this order. I think that's kind of fun. Uh 1967, he wrote Henry Sweet Henry music and lyrics. Uh, one of my favorite flops that he wrote with Julie Stein is Pretty Belle.

Pretty Belle, pretty, pretty bell. It's great, great little score. Sugar. Um, yeah. So I yeah, I mean, uh, if you want to have some fun, go listen to The New Girl in Town Is Charming, Take Me Along is Charming Carnival, go listen to those shows. But really, I want to just uh shout out to Bob Merrill because he's he wrote so much and he he he had such an impact on the theater scene, and I don't think that his name is as synonymous as other names of that era are. So I wanted to celebrate Bob Merrill.

[15:05] Kevin David Thomas: I agree wholeheartedly. I like Bob Merrill's work.

[15:09] Robert W Schneider: Me too. It's it's of its era. I mean, it's definitely like a very sweet show tune type, you know, genre you might throw out there. But but I I he he really steadily wrote for the whole time. And um I uh I think that he had an impact on our art form, and I don't want to forget him.

[15:27] Kevin David Thomas: No, and uh not only an impact on our art form, but his lyrics were able to actually transcend just our tiny little world and enter the popular culture. Like when you hear like people, people who need people, people will be able to figure fill in the blank of are the luckiest people in the world.

[15:43] Robert W Schneider: So he transcended. I remember how much is that doggy in the window?

[15:47] Kevin David Thomas: Right.

[15:47] Robert W Schneider: Yep. Yep, yep, yep. Good old Bob Merrill. And yeah, he did do stuff for Hello Dolly. Which is like shh but it's so it's it's so but it's out there clear to tell which is it's clear to tell which is his and which is which is Jerry Herman's. Um my friend, what is your favorite thing?

[16:05] Kevin David Thomas: I was gonna start to sing uh elegance.

[16:07] Robert W Schneider: Well, I would like you to sing since you think that you're not a singer, so we got elegance.

[16:12] Kevin David Thomas: That's it.

[16:13] Robert W Schneider: Oh my god. If it was pen if it was penny in a pocket, he'd be singing much more of it, but I put a penny in my pocket.

[16:20] Kevin David Thomas: There it is. And in a little time, that penny in my pocket had turned into a dime.

[16:25] Robert W Schneider: He has choreography too, you guys. And in a little longer, holding the quarter, he's holding it out. You know, you should see it as pretty the dollar in my mattress and had some pleasant dreams, and suddenly my mattress was boisting at the scene.

[16:44] Kevin David Thomas: Boisting, it's giving me the oh yeah.

[16:46] Robert W Schneider: And then a little long, yeah.

[16:47] Kevin David Thomas: So Yunker's night's really.

[16:50] Robert W Schneider: Right, it's authentic. And if I was playing it opposite Tova Feldshuh, she'd be playing.

[16:55] Kevin David Thomas: I was just gonna say that your Irish accent would be giving you the authentic, and she would not be wearing a red dress.

[16:59] Robert W Schneider: Oh no, no, she's in mourning. She'd be wearing a black dress.

[17:01] Kevin David Thomas: That's right. Um if you don't know what we're talking about, listen to that interview. Go go on to YouTube and just put in Tova Feldshuh out of her mind. Which is her show, which is really her show. She talks about it in there.

[17:12] Robert W Schneider: No, really, dude.

[17:16] Kevin David Thomas: Yeah.

[17:16] Robert W Schneider: Or out of out of my yeah, out of my mind.

[17:17] Kevin David Thomas: Yeah.

[17:18] Robert W Schneider: Oh, yeah, go there. Do it.

[17:19] Kevin David Thomas: Yeah, she's that could be a favorite thing in itself. She when she talks to you, like you just feel like lasers going through the colour.

[17:25] Robert W Schneider: You're excited and a little scared.

[17:27] Kevin David Thomas: I went myself. Not only when she spoke to me, but in the memory of this. She's, I would, I would be very scared to be on stage with her just because I'd be like, my god, you're intimidating me.

[17:40] Robert W Schneider: Yeah.

[17:41] Kevin David Thomas: But I'll hold my own with her.

[17:43] Robert W Schneider: Yes, you would, Rob. Yes, you would. Come see us do last five years at the Pepper Pot Playhouse. At the Munich, yes. See, that's where you could do it. Yeah. And they look so young. They're too young. It's over. James. I wouldn't want to see her. Her interpretation. I mean, she would be like, well, I'm things are gonna break, folks. Things are gonna break, and I'm I'm nervous, but I love her so much. She was a fun guest. Go back and listen to our interview with her. I thought she was she was fabulous and had so many interesting things to say about the world of acting. Um my favorite thing this week is something that I've I've watched so many times, and then I thought, you know, we've never talked about it on here.

Um this is there was a television program in London called the South Bank Show, um, which was an interview program uh that was very, very popular in London, and they've they usually featured different subjects. Um usually people in the arts was the focus. And in 1980, they did a uh hour and a half documentary on the South Bank show about Sweeney Todd transferring from Broadway to the West.

[18:52] Kevin David Thomas: Have you seen this before?

[18:53] Robert W Schneider: I've seen bits of it.

[18:54] Kevin David Thomas: It's good.

[18:55] Robert W Schneider: It's really good. Um, what I really like about it is I I feel like they were given unfettered access to the creative team. I know there's so many times we talk about how does the show get on. We all go back to Moon over Broadway, the Moon over Buffalo documentary with Carol Burnett. Um but the South Bank show version of Sweeney Todd is really fantastic because not only does it show uh people like Sondheim and Prince, it introduces us to people like Sheila Hancock, who was a very, very famous um West End actress, and a wonderful actor that I think at one point will be my favorite thing, just not today, and that's Dennis Quilley, a very, very famous British actor who was like the British star of musical comedy in London.

He did film and he did film in television. Right now, I'm so sorry, it's escaping me. I mean it's fine. I mean like what a what a big thing he did on film and TV. So you would be like, oh yeah, I know, I know him. Uh but he plays Sweeney Todd in this production. Ironically, this production was not well received in the West End. Um what we loved in America, they did not like Over and England. We have different aesthetics sometimes. Of course, but one of the cool things in in this is you have a lot of Sondheim explaining to you what the score is, why he wrote something a certain way, why something is supposed to be like this. Um, Hal Prince on the first day explaining how the set's gonna work, what his concept of the show is, and one of my favorite things on this documentary, and keep an eye out for it, is the gentleman they've hired to play Pirelli has just found out on the first day that they're cutting some Pirelli songs that were featured over on Broadway, and he's having a mental breakdown saying, like, I've if I had known that my part was gonna be so small, I wouldn't have taken it, and I'm gonna quit, and I'm gonna quit. So it's not just talking heads, like the like the like the Into the Woods thing you can watch with Sondheim talking. So it's literally documentary rehearsal footage.

[20:46] Kevin David Thomas: Yeah.

[20:47] Robert W Schneider: And you see how Prince the producers are explaining it to how Prince is like, so let him go. He's like, let him go, we'll find somebody else. He's like, that's easy, we'll just let him go. Let him go. We'll find somebody else. And then the guy, of course, is like, I think I can make this work. I think I'll sing one song. Oh now, my Sweeney fans, you probably know this better than I do. I feel like Pirelli had two songs originally, right? There was one about pulling a tooth, and then there was one about the haircut, right?

[21:14] Kevin David Thomas: Yeah, yeah.

[21:16] Robert W Schneider: Right. So, friends, I feel like in London they cut the tooth ache. Pirelli used to extract a tooth on stage, was like a four-minute number. And so that was cut because Hal Prince's like, this has nothing to do with the show. Yeah, what's going on? It's just a guy pulling a tooth for four minutes. Um, so Mr. Pirelli did not like that.

[21:34] Kevin David Thomas: No.

[21:35] Robert W Schneider: I understand. But anyway, but take a look at it. Like I said, it's on um YouTube. All you have to type is it type in is Sweeney Todd South Bank show. Once again, Sweeney Todd South Bank show. Uh, somebody has posted in its entirety. There's also somebody who's posted it in uh 10 little segments and increments. But it's really, really fantastic, and it's an look into not only Sondheim's process, but also into the process of Hal Prince in a rehearsal hall, which we don't really get to see all that much.

[22:02] Kevin David Thomas: No.

[22:02] Robert W Schneider: So that's that's mine.

[22:04] Kevin David Thomas: Good one. Really good one.

[22:05] Robert W Schneider: Yeah, thank you.

[22:09] Kevin David Thomas: I love it.

[22:10] Robert W Schneider: How much is that doggy in the window? What if he only wrote that? What if he only wrote the R Farf? I just love I love the idea on his toy little xylophone be like doo doo doo doo doo doo doo doo doo doo. I mean, anybody can be a composer, I guess.

[22:24] Kevin David Thomas: Any, you know, any beautiful.

[22:25] Robert W Schneider: Anybody can be a composer. And I mean I'm making it that's dumbing it down completely because he then went on to write countless Broadway shows. And if he did it all on a toy Toy Xylophone, I mean, hey, Mel Brooks, he wrote a sang in the melody, and then Glenn Kelly flushed it all out and made a Broadway show. So, you know, hey, there you go.

[22:40] Kevin David Thomas: Anybody can do it. Write a Broadway show, you guys. That's your excitement for next week, folks. Write a show. Send it to us. Good luck. Actually, just send it to Kevin.

[22:46] Robert W Schneider: Yeah.

[22:48] Kevin David Thomas: Kevin loves demos. And Kevin loves reading libretto. So just throw in my way. The more stuff you can send, Kevin likes first drafts, second drafts, you singing off key. You know what I want to start doing, actually?

[23:00] Robert W Schneider: What?

[22:58] Kevin David Thomas: I want to start uh every week or every other week. If we talk about a flop or a lesser known show or even a great uh a good demo of something, I want to record a button to play the piano and sing a song of it and like put it on like Instagram on our Instagram as like a little clip of it to say, hey, this is a forgotten song, you know.

[23:15] Robert W Schneider: That will be a little UR speech chow compare from Breakfast Certificates. Sung by Ron Rains. But that would be exact that would be an example, or no. Or Knight of the Hunter. There could be a song from that. Speaking of Ron Rains, you know. So that those kinds of I that's what I mean. I'm I'm thinking just to throw that out there. I want to do a little a little offshoot. So I might we might add that at some point.

[23:35] Robert W Schneider: Can we sing uh I'm Naive, Cut from Sugar, but in Bob Merrill's Little Red?

[23:40] Kevin David Thomas: Yes, definitely.

[23:41] Robert W Schneider: Thank you.

[23:41] Kevin David Thomas: Okay. Then I'm happy. See everybody.

[23:43] Robert W Schneider: Bye bye.