This transcript was automatically generated and might contain errors.

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

[0:17] Robert W Schneider: Hi, I'm Robert W Schneider.

[0:19] Kevin David Thomas: And I'm Kevin David Thomas.

[0:20] Robert W Schneider: And happy throwback Thursday.

[0:22] Kevin David Thomas: It's that time of the week again.

[0:24] Robert W Schneider: It's that time of the week.

[0:25] Kevin David Thomas: Time of the year.

[0:26] Robert W Schneider: Time of the I don't know.

[0:28] Kevin David Thomas: I just made that.

[0:28] Robert W Schneider: Oh, I was just going with you.

[0:29] Kevin David Thomas: Oh, but I loved it.

[0:30] Robert W Schneider: Oh, thanks for grooving with me.

[0:32] Kevin David Thomas: Thanks for grooving.

[0:33] Robert W Schneider: Anytime I can get you to sing Rob, I'm a happy man.

[0:35] Kevin David Thomas: Nobody wants to hear it.

[0:36] Robert W Schneider: Uh, this guy does.

[0:38] Kevin David Thomas: Oh, God bless you.

[0:39] Robert W Schneider: If you've got requests for my new album, Rob sings Rogers and Hart.

[0:43] Kevin David Thomas: Rob sings Robert Goulet.

[0:44] Robert W Schneider: Rob sings Robert Goo.

[0:46] Kevin David Thomas: Rob sings Sergio Frankie.

[0:48] Robert W Schneider: Oh, Sergio.

[0:49] Kevin David Thomas: Oh, Sergio.

[0:50] Robert W Schneider: I'm so sorry, Mr.

[0:50] Kevin David Thomas: No, it's okay.

[0:51] Robert W Schneider: I hope he's not around.

[0:52] Kevin David Thomas: Not like I have four albums of his at home.

[0:54] Robert W Schneider: I know.

[0:54] Kevin David Thomas: Hey, listen, when are you gonna invite me over so I can play with your album?

[0:57] Robert W Schneider: Oh, we've got to like have a little show and tell.

[0:59] Kevin David Thomas: Yeah, this is crazy.

[1:00] Robert W Schneider: I know. I've known you now for years, and I've never seen your apartment.

[1:02] Kevin David Thomas: Because I tweeted, I put a like a picture of like four of like the weird cast albums I have, like Preppies, Zenda, and a couple others.

[1:09] Robert W Schneider: What is Preppies?

[1:10] Kevin David Thomas: Preppies is a s I you know what? It looks like an 80s musical.

[1:13] Robert W Schneider: It is an 80s musical.

[1:14] Kevin David Thomas: It was like off-Broadway, and I just love the album cover so much.

[1:18] Robert W Schneider: But it's a weird old. It's like an is it a crocodile or an alligator?

[1:22] Kevin David Thomas: Yeah, like preppy, like the Lacoste symbol. You know what I mean?

[1:25] Robert W Schneider: Oh, I see.

[1:26] Kevin David Thomas: I don't know. I need to get back to you.

[1:27] Robert W Schneider: Maybe it maybe it's a paper too.

[1:29] Kevin David Thomas: But probably, and he's wearing like that upturned 80s collar, which I'm obsessed with.

[1:33] Robert W Schneider: Yeah, he's like a douchebag.

[1:34] Kevin David Thomas: Yeah.

[1:34] Robert W Schneider: Yeah, yeah, yeah.

[1:35] Kevin David Thomas: Not that if you have your up collar upturned, you're a douchebag.

[1:38] Robert W Schneider: I'm literally putting my collar down.

[1:39] Kevin David Thomas: Unless you're on a yacht, you are.

[1:41] Robert W Schneider: Yes. Get off your yacht.

[1:43] Kevin David Thomas: Hey, something really exciting.

[1:44] Robert W Schneider: Well, uh, we got a lot of great listeners who tweeted at us saying, hey, we want to hear your responses to the 2017 Tony Awards.

[1:50] Kevin David Thomas: Tony Awards, which we watched together.

[1:53] Robert W Schneider: Which was really nice.

[1:54] Kevin David Thomas: It was our first Tony ceremony together.

[1:56] Robert W Schneider: It's an important moment in a podcast life.

[1:57] Kevin David Thomas: Yeah.

[1:58] Robert W Schneider: When that happens.

[1:59] Kevin David Thomas: Because it's been over a year.

[2:00] Robert W Schneider: Yeah, and we got to watch it together.

[2:01] Kevin David Thomas: Yeah.

[2:02] Robert W Schneider: But we should tell our listeners that we record some of these favorite things like in a continuous day because of our schedules.

[2:06] Kevin David Thomas: This is true.

[2:07] Robert W Schneider: We do a couple of days.

[2:10] Kevin David Thomas: We pretend like we don't record them all in one day.

[2:12] Robert W Schneider: Like we're gonna record four after this, but we're gonna act like that was all like well every week.

[2:16] Kevin David Thomas: But yeah, the Tony Awards were a couple weeks ago, and we have yet to actually discuss it.

[2:20] Robert W Schneider: So let's discuss.

[2:22] Kevin David Thomas: Let's talk about it.

[2:22] Robert W Schneider: Yeah, they were interesting with a capital I.

[2:25] Kevin David Thomas: So what did you think of the opening number?

[2:26] Robert W Schneider: First of all, what do you think of Kevin Spacey as a host?

[2:28] Kevin David Thomas: I should ask you that.

[2:29] Robert W Schneider: I will say I'll say that first and foremost, I go into it these days, wanting to like it, as opposed to sitting back thinking, not that some people do this, but maybe being like, well, what's this all about?

[2:40] Kevin David Thomas: And I actually you guys couldn't see, but I had my hand on my hip and I was sassy for a minute.

[2:49] Robert W Schneider: But I really wanted to like it. So it like you go into a new musical, you're like, ah, this is great, this is great. This what's going on? What is happening? So that's sort of my experience with the Tony Awards. I really thought A for Effort. I thought that he I like that they made a joke about, you know, the fact that he was not asked first. I thought that he could sing way better than I thought that he was going to sing. He could sing, sing. Wasn't that exciting? And I thought that, you know, with his stone, you know, he's kind of got a straight face kind of look. And I enjoyed it. I thought it was fine. Is it the best Tony Awards opening that ever happened? No. But is it the worst? No. You know, and so I had a good time. I thought it I need to watch it again now that I'm a little sober, but I would like to see it again.

[3:33] Kevin David Thomas: We were having a good time that night.

[3:34] Robert W Schneider: We did have a nice time. How did you do in terms of your ballot?

[3:37] Kevin David Thomas: Uh, I had four wrong total, I think.

[3:39] Robert W Schneider: You're much better than I.

[3:41] Kevin David Thomas: Uh, uh. I was really bad.

[3:42] Robert W Schneider: But the ones I had wrong were the ones that everybody had wrong. Like I did not expect the gentleman from Oslo to win Best Reach Product. I think there was another, uh, was there was a designer that I was definitely way off on. Um, but overall I enjoyed, I had a great time watching.

[3:59] Kevin David Thomas: Good. I was and I think the reason why we had a good time is because we there's no guarantee on who was gonna win some of those categories. It wasn't that exciting. Yeah. So like Lori Metcalf, like I was on the edge of my seat because I I thought I hope it's her, and it was, you know. And we're thank God for that, because that performance was brilliant. Did you see it? Did you get to see it?

[4:16] Robert W Schneider: Yeah, you loved it.

[4:17] Kevin David Thomas: Absolutely. I had the best time watching that. She was so good. So special. I loved watching A Doll's House Part Two because um a bunch I was sitting behind a bunch of theater students who only know her as Sheldon's mom. Not even Andy's. Not even Roseanne, which I watched recently. So fucking funny. How great is Roseanne? That's a whole other conversation. When they get high, that episode is the best episode. She's like, is this real life? So good. Where she's in the bathtub and she's like, Am I shrinking? Yes.

[4:45] Robert W Schneider: Um, my favorite Lori Metcalf acting moment is uh do you remember the episode where their father passes away and they have to call everyone?

[4:54] Kevin David Thomas: I love when you tell this story.

[4:55] Robert W Schneider: And she speaks to the deaf aunt. And she's like, I just want to let you know that dad passed. Dad passed. He's gone. He's dead. He's fine. He sends his love. But she gets like elevated. She gets so elevated. She's a genius actress. Um, I So it's fun to watch students then uh you this in front of you, and it was probably. Thank you for getting me back on track because I was gonna go off on a whole other tangent.

[5:19] Kevin David Thomas: Okay, I know. Thanks. We're good at our tangent. You know where I go. Um, but yeah, no, it was so fun watching these students who only know her as Sheldon's mom. I mean, their jaws were literally on the floor, so so surprised that yeah, television actors are good actors every once in a while.

[5:32] Robert W Schneider: Yeah, especially if they've got they cut their teeth at the Steppenwolf. I mean, come on. God, if you go back and look at some of those clips of her at Steppenwolf or yeah, they've got a whole bunch up online.

[5:41] Kevin David Thomas: Oh wow, I actually thought to do that.

[5:43] Robert W Schneider: Yeah, there's some really, really good stuff of her out there. So she was really incredible. And what do we think about um the performances themselves? There was a complaint. Rob, they were weird.

[5:51] Kevin David Thomas: Uh, we try not to, and this and and listeners, I think you'll understand this, but we tried to like tow the line with putting our own commentary and and and keeping things positive. This is a celebration, uh, our podcast, I think. That being said, some of those choices, producers. What were y'all thinking? I mean, the falsettos. I know you wanted to include everybody, but that was the song you picked.

[6:19] Robert W Schneider: Yeah. Uh, Miss Saigon, I love you. Richard, we've had Richard 30,000 times on our podcast. I mean, what, why, why? And then other people like my wife, Sutton, I you know, who is not a musical theater aficionado. Well, the play oh the the Tony's open, and she's like, Why does he have a cast on his arm? What does that mean? You know, yeah. And so I uh it it is a fine line that the Tony Awards have to cater to the people who know what's going on, and then cater to the audience in America who may have no idea what Dear Evan Hansen is. Or the fact when he moved the cast from his arm to his leg, the idea that Andy Carl is such an insider joke, which I found I was I was on the floor last year. So funny was so clever. And yet, are we alienating people or are we being inclusive? It's a tough, it's a tough uh little balancing act they're.

[7:07] Kevin David Thomas: I was just on the N Scene uh theater podcast, uh talking about the Tony Awards.

[7:11] Robert W Schneider: What's it called again?

[7:12] Kevin David Thomas: N Scene Theater Podcast.

[7:14] Robert W Schneider: Cool.

[7:14] Kevin David Thomas: Um, and we'll retweet it. It's a new podcast that started a while back ago. They were they're really fantastic. Like end sync, but end scene.

[7:21] Robert W Schneider: Uh and uh yeah, yeah, and like and there's a scene, not not and like it's conclusion. When you're like in a in acting class, you're like and scene. Yes, got this. Yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes.

[7:32] Kevin David Thomas: Um and we were we were done. Thank you for that. We were talking about the Tony Awards themselves, and I was saying, and I don't know if this is true or not, the Tonys have an identity crisis, the awards themselves, which is is it a celebration of the New York theater community, or is it a three-hour commercial for Broadway shows? And I think when they try to make it one when they try to stand in the middle, I don't think it's at its most successful. I think it just needs to make up its mind.

[8:01] Robert W Schneider: Uh and I go ahead, sorry.

[8:03] Kevin David Thomas: No, and you're right, because the times there are a change in with social media and with the way that we can reach out to each other. It's not like it's not like it's not like when you and I go on like we do, go to YouTube and watch the 60s or 1870s Tony Awards, which back then, I mean, I feel like it was a celebration of the theater for the theater community. Well, in order to like fit in all of these musical, and first of all, I feel like the Tony Awards now are like it's about the musicals and sorry, great plays, you're gonna go have to do something else for a little bit. Paula Vogel, you can stand center stage and talk about your play for 35 seconds and that's it and then leave get out. But hey, thank God this time they actually want the playwrights on to at least hear them talk. I do remember in the 80s, they used to do little scenes from the plays.

[8:47] Robert W Schneider: And they said they got rid of them because people were confused.

[8:50] Kevin David Thomas: I think if you set them up correctly. Well, and there was that one year they did a kind of weird where they all sat uh in like a V on stage. Do you remember that year?

[8:58] Robert W Schneider: Yeah, and they were like, they just went down the line. That was confusing.

[9:01] Kevin David Thomas: That was a little weird. You know. It was in the early 90s when they were like they tried to show you scenes from Best Plays as if it was like an actor's process. Totally. And they're like, this is the table reading. Nobody wants to. And at the table, and then we'll do a scene from Sisters Rose and Swag. It's like nobody cares. Nobody wants to hear an actor talk about that kind of stuff. Nobody cares. But show us two, do a setup and show us two minutes, either in B-roll footage or have them come out and do it.

[9:27] Robert W Schneider: Right.

[9:27] Kevin David Thomas: It doesn't have to be live. It could be But that means that's time we take away from the Rockettes. But like, you know, that was pay to play. I mean, you have to know if is this and then is it a celebration of theater? And if it is a celebration of the year, you've got to let these designers talk. You've got to let these these orchestrators and these choreographers, you've got to show them in the broadcast. First, and and lifetime achievement, not to air lifetime achievement. And I can kind of understand if the lifetime achievement might be somebody that's a little bit more, you know, related to the theater. This is James Earl Jones. Everyone knows James Earl Jones. Let the man speak. Let him speak on television. He deserves it. The community deserves it.

[10:09] Robert W Schneider: I could not agree more with you on that regard.

[10:12] Kevin David Thomas: You know what might be a great idea? Can we make the Tonys two nights? That on Saturday night, we show all the clips, we do all the music and dancing we want, and then on Sunday night are the awards where people can talk.

[10:23] Robert W Schneider: Right.

[10:23] Kevin David Thomas: It might be a little boring, but at least that way people are appreciated. So Tony Awards, what are you? And what did our listeners think? But on the positive side, let's talk about some positive things. Um, if uh bandstand ticket sales spiked, Jill Biden came out, which was great, so congrats to bandstands to that. Love seeing her. Um, it was really great to see uh uh uh uh uh David Hyde Pierce. I want to give a lot of credit to David Hyde Pierce. Everybody wanted Bette Midler to come out and sing from Hello Dolly. Right, and uh she didn't for whatever reason, she and the producer came to some sort of agreement that was not gonna happen. That's fine. And David Hyde Pierce came out and sang a song that was cut, and what I admire most about David Hyde Pierce, the true pro that he is, he knows that everyone there wanted to see someone else, and he still comes out and he still delivers, and a cut song was preserved on television, and everybody got to see it.

Right? I'm very happy about that, and it is in the production, and he is wonderful in it, and I thought he did such a great job as Horace Vandergelder. I love that. So that made me happy, amen. And great job, Kevin Spacey singing and dancing up a storm. I said to you, I want him as Harold Hill, and I want to go on a time machine and see him as Pal Joey.

[11:37] Robert W Schneider: Oh, that's a good one.

[11:38] Kevin David Thomas: Wouldn't he be a great Pal Joey?

[11:39] Robert W Schneider: Oh, yeah. I was truly shocked at his singing.

[11:43] Kevin David Thomas: Yeah. You know, uh, like when Stephen Colbert came on and Kevin Spacey sang circles around Stephen Colbert, you know, Stephen Colbert's been in a songtime show at the Avery Fisher Hall. I mean, absolutely so like, damn, you better sing, Kevin. Do you think Kevin Spacey could do Sweeney Todd?

[12:00] Robert W Schneider: No.

[12:00] Kevin David Thomas: No, okay. Could maybe I don't know. But that's a lot. That's too much fun. I feel like he needs like a featured, like, not too, like not pseudiless, but hysterium.

[12:11] Robert W Schneider: Oh not literally those two, but I'm using that as an example.

[12:15] Kevin David Thomas: Like maybe not like the butt or maybe I don't know, music man's a good one, like Robert Preston roles. He gets that. Mac and Mabel.

[12:20] Robert W Schneider: Okay.

[12:25] Kevin David Thomas: That would be good. What if we just spice it up and we say Kevin Spacey's Mac? Kev and Will you please do Mac and Mac and Mabel and Audra McDonald is Mabel Norman? Yes, really I think she'd be brilliant who do you want Annalie Ashford?

[12:41] Robert W Schneider: Actually that's good. That's good. If anyone steals this idea, that's fine. Just give us opening night tickets.

[12:46] Kevin David Thomas: Exactly. Scott, call me. Scott Rudin, Scott Rudy, Scott Run. Can you can you help us out? I'll help out. Can you hook us out?

[12:51] Robert W Schneider: Um so what a great okay. So those were the Tonys. Those were our thoughts, those were our opinions. I thought it was a great night. It's a great celebration. It but it you know, I it was some interesting choices for the musical numbers. But that being said, you know, 20 years from now, when when the young Rob and Kevin are looking back at the old, you know, 2017 Tony Awards, it's cool that they get to see some wacky numbers that normally aren't preserved.

[13:19] Kevin David Thomas: That's true. You know, yes, it's some weird stuff that you're like, all right. Well I'm just so curious how some of those decisions were made. Like, for example, did you see Groundhog's Day?

[13:29] Robert W Schneider: Uh Groundhog Day.

[13:30] Kevin David Thomas: Why do I keep making it? I do the same thing. I did see it. But do you think that that number on the Tonys represented that show at all?

[13:38] Robert W Schneider: Not at all.

[13:38] Kevin David Thomas: The show is so frenetic. The show is in constant motion and quirky. I'm thinking that if you are trying to sell the show, why did you pick this ballad?

[13:47] Robert W Schneider: Right. Although it did give the guy that the who plays the mayor a chance to get a couple of funny lines out on TV. Please forgive me. I forgot his name, and I think he is so funny in the show.

[13:56] Kevin David Thomas: Oh, Natasha Pierre. I think that was cool.

[13:57] Robert W Schneider: That was pretty cool. Did a great job, fun circus like environment.

[14:02] Kevin David Thomas: Okay, great. Especially in that space.

[14:04] Robert W Schneider: Oh my gosh, right? Radio City. That's amazing. Well, I like that she was the whole cast was able to adapt to the passerelle. But um what Kevin, what is your favorite?

[14:17] Kevin David Thomas: Whiskers on kittens.

[14:18] Robert W Schneider: That was me.

[14:19] Kevin David Thomas: That was my transitional music to the actual favorite thing.

[14:23] Robert W Schneider: Guts of our book.

[14:24] Kevin David Thomas: I like when you do transitional music. That's a new thing for you.

[14:26] Robert W Schneider: I haven't seen that before.

[14:29] Robert W Schneider: That's great.

[14:30] Kevin David Thomas: I didn't know we got transitions.

[14:31] Robert W Schneider: Yeah, you know, we're transitioning right now.

[14:33] Kevin David Thomas: Okay, great.

[14:34] Robert W Schneider: I'm ready to transition. Let's go.

[14:35] Kevin David Thomas: Uh favorite thing.

[14:36] Robert W Schneider: Yeah.

[14:36] Kevin David Thomas: Okay, uh, I have a book. This book is called On the Sunny Side of the Street.

[14:40] Robert W Schneider: The Life Lyric.

[14:41] Kevin David Thomas: Big Spam Bear.

[14:46] Robert W Schneider: The Life and Lyrics of Dorothy Fields on the Sunny Side of the Street. It's by one Deborah Grace Weiner. Now, Deborah Grace Weiner, you may be familiar to you. She's written a couple books. I'm actually reading one right now that's like, uh, she wrote in like the 90s about, uh, musical theater artists from like 50 years earlier. It's kind of like that book Making It on Broadway where they talk about the last 50 years. It's called Sing Out Louise, and it's that it's about their experiences. So this is a book she wrote. Now, she was, uh, she literally a week ago just stepped down from being the artistic director of the 92nd Why Lyric and Lyricist series, uh, the American songbook?

[15:25] Kevin David Thomas: Songbook series, yeah, that's correct.

[15:26] Robert W Schneider: Uh, I don't know. I look forward to what she's going to do next. I think she's a great curator of, uh, our art. Um, she's also a playwright and an author, clearly, of this book. It's a, it is a biography of Dorothy Fields. I would not say it's a biography in the sense, and this is absolutely no disrespect, um, to Miss Weiner, but, uh, it's not like the Merrill Secret Sondheim biography where it goes so in depth that you like know all the little details about Sondheim. It gives you a sort of a, I don't want to say cliff notes because that sounds mundane, but it gives you a sort of general biography. But included every single page of this book has photos, has, uh, notes on the shows that she did. There'll be a section every like four pages that'll be a lyrics, you know, a lyric sheet of everything from the very beginning of her career to the end of her career.

[16:16] Kevin David Thomas: Oh wow, uh, reaching back all the way to, you know, be when she collaborated with, uh, Jimmy McHugh, they did a lot of songs together. Um, and so, and then they also have, uh, it, it sort of chronicles her life and the way I, the, what I like about it is that it does it by, uh, by years so it'll say like 1915 to 1924 and then it's 1925 to 1930, whatever. So you go through these chapters of Miss Field's life and really see, uh, what a pioneer she was. Uh, there were, there was, I mean, come on care other than like Carolyn Lee, what other female writers were there out there?

[16:51] Robert W Schneider: Yeah, and she does make a point of saying, you know, this is a woman who was doing something that no other women were doing really in her time period and so she does totally recognize that and like Dorothy sound like someone fun like you wanted to go to Beverly Hills in the 40s and go hang out in her like pad and party at the pool with her and drink and, you know, and then go make a movie and then, you know, she's, it really paints a fun picture of this woman but she had to fight for it. She had to really work her ass off. I'm surprised nobody made like a biopic of her life.

[17:23] Kevin David Thomas: I agree. And then people we've talked to that we've interviewed that knew her, Leroy would tell us stories about, you know, like, oh Dorothy, would she would go to the bar and have a drink? Because she was known towards the end of her life to be a bit of a drinker. Uh, and, and no wonder because she's, she had done so much and she had a lot going on in her world. Um, the book is cool because, um, if you can find it, uh, they also put, uh, sheet music covers in there, so you see old sheet music. They put the program notes of like, for instance, she was there for the opening of Radio City Music Hall, and included in this book, uh, is the program from the opening, the inauguration of Radio City Music Hall.

[18:00] Robert W Schneider: So you see all of the acts that played. She performed with Jimmy McHugh, one of their songs, all these other people were there, old vaudeville acts and stuff like that. Um, and then you get the song lists of all the shows that she did. So, like shows that not even, uh, Sweet Charity or Seesaw, but we're talking or Annie Get Your Gun, which she was a lyricist of, um, Stars Your Eyes, Let's Face It, Something for the Boys, Mexican Haywright, all of that kind of stuff. They even put the, um, the cast list of Seesaw because Seesaw they famously cut, they changed the whole show out of town.

[18:30] Kevin David Thomas: Yeah, well, she has like the Detroit cast list, which has like 20 people, and then the New York cast list with six principles.

[18:37] Robert W Schneider: Yeah, they really cut it down. It's, it's a, it's a fun book and it's a fun read. And I, if anyone doesn't know a single thing about Dorothy Fields, I think this is a great introduction to appreciate what a, geez, what a strong, fierce woman this, this lady was, and, and really mean and her voice grew as she got older, and she always stayed hip.

[18:58] Kevin David Thomas: Yeah, that's what I was just gonna say. I think we, no, no, no, no, because I think we talked about that in the last podcast, which was she changed her words as time progressed. And a lot of lyricists, let's be honest, they don't.

[19:11] Robert W Schneider: No, they stay stuck and then time passes them, and they're still using a vocabulary from 30 years ago.

[19:16] Kevin David Thomas: And she was never poetic or cute just to be cute. She always served the character, the situation. What was ever, what was going on in the story? That's what she cared about. And I think it shows in her lyrics. And you can see in the book, because the book has all of these lyrics in there. From, from, you know, Let's Face It, all the way to Seesaw, you see the same caliber of work. Look at, um, go look at Nobody Does It Like Me from 19 what, 73, then go all the way back and look at The Way You Look Tonight from 1935, 36.

[19:50] Robert W Schneider: And you go, this is the same person.

[19:52] Kevin David Thomas: Yeah.

[19:53] Robert W Schneider: She changed as the times changed, and not a lot of other lyrics can do that. And she does not get the credit she deserves.

[19:59] Kevin David Thomas: She doesn't. And this book is gonna change that.

[20:01] Robert W Schneider: Yes, I love it. The book isn't from the 90s. I mean, it's been out for a little bit. Um, and I would look a little interesting side note on this book. So I was at this bookstore, and I'm like, I find the book, and I'm I think, wow, I've never seen this book before. I open it up, it's signed, right? And it's, it's she, the, the writer, uh, Deborah, uh, yeah, she signs it to Howard Kissel.

[20:25] Kevin David Thomas: What?

[20:25] Robert W Schneider: Reviewer from the Daily News, and in the book, as a bookmark is his mail with his Central Park West address on it. It's a piece of mail from Southerby's estate for the Bernstein auction. And that's the bookmark in the book. And then she says, you know, dear Howard, hope you enjoy hugs and kisses, you know, Deborah.

[20:45] Kevin David Thomas: Oh my god.

[20:46] Robert W Schneider: I just thought that's a really fun little, you know, random anecdote. So when you're reading it, you're thinking, oh my god, Howard Kissel was really cool. That's kind of fun.

[20:55] Kevin David Thomas: I love that.

[20:55] Robert W Schneider: Yeah, and I like the, uh, did you, did you go knock on the door and see who's living there now?

[20:59] Kevin David Thomas: I was thinking about it, but no, it didn't work out.

[21:01] Robert W Schneider: Joan Copeland opened up and she said, Go, go. Go away. You're too early.

[21:06] Kevin David Thomas: That's what she said.

[21:08] Robert W Schneider: You opened the door, and Lee Adams was like, You guys again.

[21:13] Kevin David Thomas: Yes, Lee. Sorry, Lee. We just wanted to talk to you about your shows.

[21:18] Robert W Schneider: I want to talk to you, Lee.

[21:20] Kevin David Thomas: Um, I want to talk to you about, um, uh, a singer that I have discovered. She is my favorite thing, and I feel really behind because apparently everybody knows about how brilliant she is or remembers how brilliant she is. Um, Nancy LaMott.

[21:35] Robert W Schneider: Yep.

[21:36] Kevin David Thomas: Yep, Nancy LaMott. I'm so happy. Nancy LaMott, um, who I am, I am so fascinated by. When we had our interview with Mark Sendroff a couple of weeks ago.

[21:46] Robert W Schneider: Yeah, he talked about her.

[21:47] Kevin David Thomas: Mark was talking about her quite often. And for those of you who don't know who Nancy LaMott was, and I'll spell the last name for you, L-A-M-O-T-T. Um, she was a cabaret singer who was pretty much synonymous with the cabaret scene in New York City, uh, in the 90s or so.

[22:06] Robert W Schneider: Yeah.

[22:07] Kevin David Thomas: Um, and just as her career was about to take off, she passed away from, uh, cancer in 1995 in her early 40s. Really, really, uh, tragic. And she struggled like crazy to make a name for herself, and she hooked up with David Friedman, David Friedman.

[22:25] Robert W Schneider: The great David Friedman, who we should get on this show because I would love, I would love to talk to him.

[22:28] Kevin David Thomas: Um, her, thank God she leaves behind so many albums, so many albums of her work is available, uh, especially on Apple Music. I know you spoke about Spotify, um, a few episodes ago, but Apple Music, for those of you who don't know, it's $9.99 a month. And if you're a student, I think they offer it to you for $5.99 a month. And there is so many great recordings and albums on there. For example, every musical this season is on Apple Music that just came out, so you can listen to all of it. But so much of Nancy LaMott's work is on there.

[23:03] Robert W Schneider: David Friedman produced a lot of her stuff. She was the first person to do a continuous run at Don't Tell Mama. There is something about her voice. Some of the songs of hers you might know, We Can Be Kind, We Live on Borrowed Times.

[23:15] Kevin David Thomas: Listen to my heart.

[23:16] Robert W Schneider: Listen to my heart is a beautiful one. Her rendition of Moon River is luminous. She leaves behind a great body of work, but I want all of you to listen to her because there is so much warmth and texture, and the way she's able to interpret a song. They say that Frank Sinatra was the greatest interpreter of songs in terms of phrasing and all that stuff.

[23:44] Kevin David Thomas: That might be the case for the males.

[23:46] Robert W Schneider: I'd like to nominate Nancy LaMott then for the female best interpreter of a song.

[23:56] Kevin David Thomas: She passed away.

[24:01] Robert W Schneider: The last performance she did was on December 4th on the Charles Grodin show. She came and sang Moon River, and two weeks later she was gone. She was con, what I really love about her, though, and I think you can hear this in the music is her optimism and her hope. She was so convinced she was going to beat this.

[24:21] Kevin David Thomas: She had a fiancé and she said, I want to marry you and I want to marry you like this. Um, then a couple of hours before she passed away, like two or three hours before she passed, they brought in somebody. They got married in her hospital room, and then a few hours later she passed away. Um, she's been gone now for over 20 years, but the music, the vibrancy, the talent, the energy, the interpretation sounds like it was all recorded yesterday.

[24:46] Robert W Schneider: So if you don't know who Nancy LaMott was, uh, go get the albums on Apple Music. Look at her on, uh, iTunes on iTunes. Look at her. She's on Spotify.

[24:55] Kevin David Thomas: I looked her up on Spotify. She's on Spotify.

[24:57] Robert W Schneider: She had this, are there videos? I'm sorry.

[25:00] Kevin David Thomas: Oh no, are there videos?

[25:01] Robert W Schneider: Yeah. Because one of the things that really helped shoot her to some prominence was she sang for the Clintons. Uh, because they were, Bill Clinton was president at the time. And that started to boost her up. She was making a lot of talk show appearances. Um, like I said, she was a favorite of Charles Grodin. And then, you know, two weeks after she films a Moon River for Charles Grodin, she passes away.

[25:21] Kevin David Thomas: Uh, she, she consistently lived in pain. She consistently lived, uh, with illness, but you cannot see that when she performs. Maybe she's channeling the pain in a way that, uh, is, is, is something that's beyond all of us. So, uh, my favorite thing this week is Nancy LaMott, another person I think who should get, uh, more appreciation, or younger students I feel should take a look at her. And like I said, I am so late to this party, but I have been making up for it as much as I can because, uh, I'm, I'm, oh, she does a beautiful rendition of Rhode Island is famous for you.

[25:56] Robert W Schneider: I don't know that.

[25:57] Kevin David Thomas: Um, really?

[25:58] Robert W Schneider: Oh, it's so sweet. She does, I mean, yes, she does a lot of, uh, standards, but the, the, she, the, the new stuff that she does is great. A lot of the David Friedman work, it's fantastic. So please, Nancy LaMott, her phrasing is genius. Look at her, we'll post clips of her, obviously. Lovely. You can hear more about her on the Mark Sendroff interview. Um, and, uh, like I said, she's, she's been gone now for twenty-two years. Uh, but it, you feel like it was recorded yesterday.

[26:26] Robert W Schneider: Wow.

[26:26] Kevin David Thomas: Yeah, so mine was Nancy LaMott. I'm so glad we're celebrating her.

[26:29] Robert W Schneider: That's, uh, yeah, we're gonna celebrate Nancy LaMott.

[26:31] Kevin David Thomas: We're gonna celebrate Nancy LaMott and we're gonna celebrate Dorothy Fields.

[26:34] Robert W Schneider: Good, good, good. Two women who should not be forgotten.

[26:38] Kevin David Thomas: No way.

[26:38] Robert W Schneider: And should be, we won't let it happen.

[26:41] Kevin David Thomas: Yeah. Nevertheless, they persisted.

[26:43] Robert W Schneider: Raindrops on roses and whiskers on kittens, bright copper kettles, and worn woolen mittens, brown paper packages tied up with strings.

[26:57] Kevin David Thomas: These are a few of my favorite things.

[27:06] Robert W Schneider: These are a few of my favorites.

[27:09] Kevin David Thomas: Kevin, guess what?

[27:11] Robert W Schneider: What, Rub?

[27:12] Kevin David Thomas: We now have over 50 iTunes reviews.

[27:15] Robert W Schneider: Huzzah!

[27:17] Kevin David Thomas: Indeed!

[27:19] Robert W Schneider: We are climbing those iTunes rating charts.

[27:21] Kevin David Thomas: That's amazing.

[27:22] Robert W Schneider: How do we climb even higher?

[27:25] Kevin David Thomas: Can you take me high enough?

[27:29] Robert W Schneider: Little Rock of Ages for you.

[27:30] Kevin David Thomas: Do you know I like that you took it up so high, too? You didn't even went right to the tenor place.

[27:35] Robert W Schneider: I was gonna do climbing.

[27:35] Kevin David Thomas: No Robert Goulet.

[27:37] Robert W Schneider: No.

[27:38] Kevin David Thomas: Can you take me?

[27:40] Robert W Schneider: Hey enough.

[27:42] Kevin David Thomas: Thanks for coming out tonight.

[27:44] Robert W Schneider: And my falsetto there.

[27:47] Kevin David Thomas: Thank you.

[27:47] Robert W Schneider: And a little Sergio Frankie.

[27:49] Kevin David Thomas: Yeah, a little Sergio.

[27:50] Robert W Schneider: It's never over.

[27:52] Kevin David Thomas: Much like the 24 hour buffet down in the lobby of the Dunes Casino.

[27:58] Robert W Schneider: Me and Sid the Caesar.

[28:01] Kevin David Thomas: Tonight's only at Dimirage.

[28:05] Robert W Schneider: Sorry, sorry, sorry.

[28:06] Kevin David Thomas: Well, lovely listeners, this is where you come in. This is how we're gonna climb those iTunes rating charts.

[28:11] Robert W Schneider: That's right. Lovely listeners, if you love us, would you go to iTunes? Click on the iTunes Store. Search for Behind the Curtain, Broadway's Living Legends. Then click on ratings and reviews. Under the customer reviews, click write a review. Then let us know what you think from one to five stars.

[28:28] Kevin David Thomas: That's right. And you can leave comments too, like Kevin David Thomas is a god.

[28:33] Robert W Schneider: Or Rob, who the hell is Herve Village?

[28:37] Kevin David Thomas: Who is Herve Via?

[28:43] Robert W Schneider: I fell for a scan. That wasn't even a scene. The man has never done one musical in his entire life, and he gets mentioned more than Steven Sondheim.

[28:50] Kevin David Thomas: But I love him from James the Bond.

[28:51] Robert W Schneider: Okay, anyway.

[28:51] Kevin David Thomas: Oh, guys, help us out. Please.

[28:53] Robert W Schneider: Thanks, everyone.