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[0:10] Bryan Plavski: Hello and welcome to the official Broadwaysted podcast where we're drunk on theater.

[0:14] Bryan Plavski: I'm your host, Bryan Plavski, and I call this one man it.

[0:18] Bryan Plavski: I'm gonna drop a beat.

[0:19] Bryan Plavski: Bong.

[0:22] Bryan Plavski: We're not deep beneath the city today.

[0:25] Bryan Plavski: A little friendly advice.

[0:28] Bryan Plavski: Choosing not to know is my Saturday night obsession, so when you're broke, keep it going.

[0:34] Bryan Plavski: Four days home, and it's the moving song.

[0:38] Bryan Plavski: But you know?

[0:41] Bryan Plavski: We are home, but we're not we're also not there yet.

[0:44] Bryan Plavski: This is this is this is hard.

[0:45] Bryan Plavski: Did you practice this?

[0:46] Kevin Jaeger: No, maybe so.

[0:48] Bryan Plavski: But we're getting there.

[0:53] Bryan Plavski: Joining us today are the usual subway riding wingmen and women looking for their stop, including Kevin, do what I do, Jaeger.

[1:00] Kevin Jaeger: Boots and cats and boots and cats.

[1:03] Kimberly Cooper: Kiberly, our game master and unofficial babysitter for the hour.

[1:07] Kimberly Cooper: Should I try?

[1:07] Kevin Jaeger: Yeah.

[1:10] Kimberly Cooper: No, that's how they teach you to do it.

[1:11] Kimberly Cooper: They say you're supposed to be like boots and cats, and then he boots and cats and boots and cats and boots.

[1:11] Kevin Jaeger: Boots and cats and boots and cats.

[1:11] Kevin Jaeger: Boots and cats and boots and cats.

[1:20] Bryan Plavski: That's what I And then you do that.

[1:21] Kimberly Cooper: Yes.

[1:22] Bryan Plavski: Yes.

[1:25] Bryan Plavski: But with us today is a guest who is no stranger to the Broadway stage.

[1:31] Bryan Plavski: You've seen him in shows like Rent, Flower Drum Song, Pacific Overtures, Godspell, Allegiance, In Transit, and he's soon one jumping ahead of the Agrabah Breadline in Aladdin.

[1:42] Bryan Plavski: Let's give a big Broadwaysted welcome to friend of the show.

[1:44] Bryan Plavski: Friend of the show.

[1:45] Telly Leung: Telly!

[1:47] Telly Leung: Brian, who knew? You were such a badass beatboxer.

[1:50] Bryan Plavski: I didn't know.

[1:50] Telly Leung: Yeah, you're trying to do that.

[1:51] Bryan Plavski: Who knew that.

[1:51] Telly Leung: You didn't know that.

[1:52] Bryan Plavski: I don't know.

[1:52] Telly Leung: You can take a look at it.

[1:53] Telly Leung: I had to do a little bit of beatboxing in In Transit.

[1:55] Telly Leung: So I had to do, I had to do like a high hat line, so it was like and I had to do a little bit of our beatboxers are incredible beatboxers, Chesney, Snow, and both.

[2:09] Telly Leung: Yeah, and heaven, they taught us, they basically gave us beatbox one-on-one.

[2:12] Telly Leung: I was like, I can sing notes, pretty.

[2:18] Telly Leung: So they gave us all like beatboxing 101 classes.

[2:22] Bryan Plavski: Yeah, that's super cool.

[2:23] Telly Leung: Those guys are the real deal.

[2:24] Telly Leung: They're like for real beatboxers that like that were street performers and like did that on subway stations, like walked around with the biggest.

[2:31] Bryan Plavski: Yeah, that was that was an awesome way to open the show.

[2:33] Bryan Plavski: Like when you came out and kind of started doing that, it just gave like an excitement to the beginning of In Transit.

[2:37] Telly Leung: Yeah.

[2:37] Telly Leung: Oh, In Transit.

[2:38] Telly Leung: A toast to In Transit.

[2:41] Telly Leung: So it's like I'm I'm like I know, I'm so so heartbroken about that show.

[2:45] Telly Leung: Um, but you can follow Telly at Telly Leung on all social media, yeah.

[2:50] Telly Leung: At Telly Leung, yeah.

[2:51] Telly Leung: Yep.

[2:52] Bryan Plavski: Um, but let's just start with what are you drinking?

[2:54] Bryan Plavski: What are you drinking?

[2:56] Telly Leung: I'm I'm keeping it classy and drinking a Pinot Grigio.

[3:00] Bryan Plavski: Yeah, yeah, me too.

[3:02] Telly Leung: Yeah.

[3:02] Telly Leung: What what did I buy?

[3:03] Telly Leung: Gail.

[3:04] Telly Leung: We need to tell my mother what kind we're drinking.

[3:06] Telly Leung: Gail, mama, we're drinking a Mezza Corona Pinot Grigio from Trentino.

[3:12] Telly Leung: But I've already had a I've already had a couple of drinks.

[3:14] Telly Leung: Great.

[3:14] Telly Leung: I had a dear friend take me out to um hot pot.

[3:17] Telly Leung: Have you guys ever done Chinese hot pot?

[3:19] Bryan Plavski: Okay, it's it's fabulous.

[3:21] Telly Leung: So it's it's a it's a Chinese thing.

[3:22] Telly Leung: I kind of grew up doing it with my family too, and like with Chinese families, like you kind of only do it on special occasions.

[3:27] Telly Leung: Like it's New Year's, let's go to hot pot.

[3:29] Telly Leung: You go, you get a hot pot of broth.

[3:32] Telly Leung: It's like fondue, basically.

[3:33] Telly Leung: But it's like the first course of melting pot.

[3:35] Telly Leung: Yeah, it's like and it's you get these like you can have like spicy broths or like pork broths or veggie broths, and then it's all you can eat.

[3:42] Telly Leung: It's $25, and it's all you can eat, like meat and like vegetables and mushrooms.

[3:46] Telly Leung: It's fondue for soup.

[3:47] Telly Leung: It's so.

[3:48] Bryan Plavski: And then you order the meat and cook it in a broth, right?

[3:51] Telly Leung: And you're like, and and at the place that we like.

[3:54] Telly Leung: Oh my gosh.

[3:55] Telly Leung: Well, right, correct.

[3:56] Telly Leung: Correct.

[3:57] Telly Leung: You sign a waiver and you cook all your own food, but it's so good.

[4:00] Bryan Plavski: Which hot pot did you go to?

[4:02] Telly Leung: And this wasn't the best.

[4:02] Telly Leung: Yeah, we went to this great place.

[4:03] Telly Leung: It was on 2nd Avenue between, I want to say between East 5th and East Six.

[4:07] Telly Leung: It was like a little hole in the wall, and I'm forgetting the name right now, but it was really good, and it was all run by like Cantonese people.

[4:13] Bryan Plavski: That's my people.

[4:14] Telly Leung: That's my peeps.

[4:15] Telly Leung: And um it was it was great.

[4:17] Telly Leung: It reminded me of like being a kid and going to like a hot pot in Chinatown with my parents.

[4:21] Bryan Plavski: And what were you drinking?

[4:23] Telly Leung: Wine.

[4:23] Bryan Plavski: Okay.

[4:24] Telly Leung: Wine and sake.

[4:25] Bryan Plavski: Oh, I love sake.

[4:26] Telly Leung: Yeah.

[4:27] Telly Leung: Which is rice wine.

[4:27] Telly Leung: So it's wine.

[4:28] Telly Leung: It's all wine.

[4:29] Bryan Plavski: What are you drinking?

[4:30] Telly Leung: Oh, that's right.

[4:30] Telly Leung: I'm drinking a Sierra Nevada beer.

[4:32] Telly Leung: I'm drinking a light beer, whatever it is.

[4:34] Telly Leung: I don't know what's in it.

[4:36] Telly Leung: It's summer.

[4:37] Telly Leung: It tastes like Bud Light, I guess.

[4:38] Bryan Plavski: Yeah, that kind of feel.

[4:39] Telly Leung: Yeah.

[4:40] Bryan Plavski: Let's ask the question we always ask here on Broadwaysted.

[4:43] Bryan Plavski: What have you seen this week?

[4:44] Telly Leung: What have you seen this week?

[4:46] Telly Leung: Oh, I just saw Groundhog Day.

[4:47] Bryan Plavski: Oh, you did?

[4:48] Telly Leung: You're the first person to talk about on the show.

[4:50] Bryan Plavski: Okay.

[4:51] Telly Leung: What'd you think, Telly?

[4:52] Telly Leung: First of all, I'm a huge fan of the movie.

[4:54] Telly Leung: Yes.

[4:54] Telly Leung: Right?

[4:54] Telly Leung: And you know, this musical's been kicked.

[4:56] Telly Leung: The idea to make this a musical, this movie into a musical has been kicking around forever.

[5:00] Telly Leung: Like apparently Steven Sondheim had was working on it for a little while.

[5:04] Bryan Plavski: Yes, that was like the rumor that Sondheim was kind of working on it for a bit, and then he like did not work on it.

[5:09] Telly Leung: So then this whole Matilda team kind of picked it up and worked on it.

[5:12] Telly Leung: I had a really, really good time.

[5:14] Telly Leung: First of all, Andy Carl is killing it.

[5:16] Bryan Plavski: Like, yeah, how's his knee?

[5:18] Telly Leung: He's he's phenomenal.

[5:19] Telly Leung: And it's so funny.

[5:20] Telly Leung: Is it every night, or is he taking such a few?

[5:22] Telly Leung: I'm not sure how many.

[5:23] Telly Leung: She is taking a couple of shows off the doctor's orders.

[5:26] Telly Leung: But um otherwise, he, you know, knowing Andy, he'd be there all the time.

[5:29] Telly Leung: But um, but I first actually ran into Randy when I was at physical therapy at Neurosport, and this was like the day after the accident.

[5:37] Telly Leung: And he was he was at physical therapy with like the whole all the physical therapists.

[5:42] Telly Leung: And when you go to Neurosport, physical physical therapy, you're all like in the same room together.

[5:46] Telly Leung: Every it's like, you know, I remembered like the day that I was at physical therapy, it was like me and Andy Carl and like Betsy Wolf, like all together, all together, like in this room together, and like it's and like today I was at physical therapy and it was like Danae Benton, like you know, you know, Broadway injured, you know, hashtag Broadway Hurts, Broadway's heart.

[6:01] Telly Leung: And so and so everybody's there trying to get better and get healed, and um, and I saw Andy and I was like, oh my gosh, how are you?

[6:07] Telly Leung: And he was in a brace, and but you know, he goes, he's told me last night he was like, I go to physical therapy three times three times a day, and he's like, I'm only wearing the brace now just for the show.

[6:15] Telly Leung: He's no longer wearing the brace, so he's like getting better.

[6:17] Bryan Plavski: Oh wow.

[6:18] Telly Leung: And so, and you know, honestly, like he has this, well, for the ladies, he has his pants, and like gentlemen, I guess he has his pants off in the show a couple of times.

[6:26] Telly Leung: So you see oftentimes he's in his boxers and you'll see the brace.

[6:30] Telly Leung: But you know, he's like pattying the isotoners, yeah.

[6:32] Bryan Plavski: Oh, totally.

[6:33] Telly Leung: Or like Kristen Chenoweth and the neck brace.

[6:36] Telly Leung: I saw her.

[6:37] Telly Leung: I saw her in the neck brace.

[6:39] Telly Leung: And Andy, you know, Andy uses the the uh obviously he like uses the the presence of the knee of the knee brace there.

[6:46] Telly Leung: You can't ignore it, and he makes a really good joke out of it.

[6:48] Telly Leung: But really, like when you watch him move, like you forget that he's that that ever happened, and he's brilliant.

[6:54] Telly Leung: I had a really good time.

[6:54] Bryan Plavski: I can't wait to see it.

[6:55] Telly Leung: Yeah, me too.

[6:56] Bryan Plavski: Yeah, Groundhog Day.

[6:57] Telly Leung: Really?

[6:57] Telly Leung: None of your other guests have seen it yet, huh?

[6:59] Bryan Plavski: Which is yeah, you're the first one.

[7:00] Telly Leung: Yeah, and I went to TKTS with a buddy.

[7:03] Bryan Plavski: What theater is it in?

[7:03] Telly Leung: It's August Wilson.

[7:05] Telly Leung: The August Wilson.

[7:06] Telly Leung: Which is big, okay.

[7:07] Telly Leung: Right.

[7:07] Telly Leung: Which used to be the Virginia Theater.

[7:09] Telly Leung: Actually, that was, it was really um nostalgic.

[7:11] Telly Leung: I had a whole long, like crazy Facebook posting.

[7:15] Telly Leung: That's where Flower Drum Song was, and that was where my first Broadway show was.

[7:17] Telly Leung: And I had not been backstage in 15 years.

[7:20] Bryan Plavski: Oh wow.

[7:21] Telly Leung: So I went backstage, and Ray was like, Do you want a backstage tour?

[7:23] Telly Leung: And I was like, actually, Ray, I know my way around.

[7:26] Telly Leung: Like, I totally know my way around this theater.

[7:28] Telly Leung: And I have such good memories from that.

[7:31] Telly Leung: And actually, Ray was like, well, tell me some stories.

[7:33] Telly Leung: And one of my favorite stories, which I posted about on Facebook today, is um when Flower Drum Song opened, it was 2002, and across the street was Hairspray, the original company of Hairspray.

[7:43] Telly Leung: Yeah.

[7:44] Telly Leung: And actually, this was back, we would do uh the fourth floor dressing room was where all the all the boys' ensemble and the girls' ensemble were.

[7:50] Telly Leung: And it was also, if you looked across the street, it was where the ensemble for Hairspray was as well.

[7:56] Telly Leung: So every half hour we would actually do strip shows for each other.

[8:00] Telly Leung: Like the Virginia Theater would do strip shows for the folks at the Neil Simon.

[8:04] Telly Leung: But this was before the day and age of iPhones and iPods.

[8:10] Telly Leung: So we would actually burn a CD, walk it, walk it across the street, and we would go.

[8:15] Telly Leung: Does everybody have their CD players ready?

[8:17] Telly Leung: And we would like cue each other with like a like we would cue each other to press the T.

[8:21] Telly Leung: And I remember like Marissa Jaret Winokur would have to like get on, get on like the stage manager's BA and be like, guys, get out, go look out your windows.

[8:29] Telly Leung: Flower Drum Song is doing a strip show for us.

[8:32] Telly Leung: We had lights.

[8:33] Telly Leung: I mean, at one point, the story that I was recounting today on Facebook, we actually had um, for some reason in the boys' dressing room, we had a blow-up like sex doll.

[8:41] Telly Leung: It was like a gag gift that somebody gave us.

[8:44] Telly Leung: And so we blew it up and we used it as the button of our strip show.

[8:48] Telly Leung: Of course.

[8:49] Telly Leung: So the last moment of the of our like fully choreographed strip show, we actually had the blow-up doll on a piece of rope, and we threw it out the window of the Virginia Theater dressing room.

[9:03] Telly Leung: And then we closed the window, and that was the button of the numbers.

[9:06] Telly Leung: So during half hour, as audience members, we're walking into the Virginia theater.

[9:11] Telly Leung: There was actually a blow-up doll hanging hanging outside the window above their heads.

[9:15] Telly Leung: If they looked up, they would have seen it.

[9:16] Bryan Plavski: Flower Flower Drum Song.

[9:18] Telly Leung: Flower Drum Song.

[9:19] Telly Leung: Oh my god.

[9:20] Telly Leung: The reason I knew that Flower Drum Song was in the Virginia Theater is because I saw the poster earlier today.

[9:24] Bryan Plavski: We did see the poster earlier today.

[9:26] Telly Leung: So I have a story for you.

[9:27] Telly Leung: Yeah.

[9:28] Telly Leung: So I grew up in Florida, and um in 2002, I was a junior in high school, and um I was at the State Thespian competition, and they had a big silent auction for Broadway Cares at We Fight AIDS.

[9:44] Telly Leung: And there was this giant poster of Flower Drum Song signed by the entire cast.

[9:50] Telly Leung: Oh my gosh.

[9:51] Telly Leung: Um I, as a gay boy in high school saw a play a slung of signature and died.

[9:57] Telly Leung: And so I hovered over the board until I could and I basically any time somebody bid, I would bid it bid again and beat them.

[10:06] Telly Leung: Oh and so I won this poster.

[10:09] Telly Leung: So it's this giant pink poster of Flower Drum Song with the entire signed cast.

[10:13] Telly Leung: Um that's been on my wall ever since uh senior year of high school, and like went with me to college, is here with me in New York.

[10:21] Bryan Plavski: I mean, that was some old school Broadway for anybody who for anybody who like, you know, uh it's I that was I remembered, you know, our director choreographer was Bobby Longbottom, who had come from like the Michael Bennett days of like, you know what I mean?

[10:34] Telly Leung: Like he was old school.

[10:35] Telly Leung: Right.

[10:35] Telly Leung: You know, he and he um And it's an old school show.

[10:38] Telly Leung: I remembered, like, you know, for our final run through, he was like, all right, well, everybody in your blacks, we all had to have black, uh all black.

[10:45] Telly Leung: The girl, the women had to be in heels every day, full makeup, hair up, like the gentleman hair combed, like, you know, it was so it's such a different Broadway 15 years later.

[10:55] Telly Leung: Like that, it's just so different now.

[10:56] Bryan Plavski: But it's cool that you got you're getting these multiple experiences.

[10:59] Telly Leung: Oh, yeah, absolutely.

[11:00] Telly Leung: I mean, like, uh, you know, uh to think back on it, but that was like the old school Bob Fosse, Michael Bennett tradition.

[11:06] Telly Leung: Which, although like you talk about like your like high school gay boy moment, like I saw every single Norma Desmond in the original like run of Sunset Boulevard.

[11:14] Telly Leung: Oh, really?

[11:15] Telly Leung: There was Glenn Close, and then it was Betty Buckley, who was my favorite.

[11:19] Telly Leung: Like, I'm obsessed with Betty Buckley.

[11:20] Telly Leung: Um she's amazing.

[11:22] Telly Leung: And then Elaine Paige, who was phenomenal.

[11:25] Telly Leung: I saw Karen Mason, who stood by for all those women.

[11:28] Telly Leung: And I was like, I was that 16-year-old kid who saved up all of my money to then buy, they weren't on TKTS, so I had to buy a full price ticket and sit like in the balcony to go see all those divas.

[11:38] Telly Leung: I grew up in New York.

[11:39] Bryan Plavski: Okay.

[11:39] Telly Leung: And you know, if you want if you went to public school in New York City, and I don't know if this is still true, but you got a free Metro card.

[11:45] Telly Leung: You got to ride Oh, that's cool.

[11:47] Telly Leung: You got to ride the subways for free.

[11:48] Telly Leung: You had like, you had a round trip from your home to school, but then you also got like one other round trip for free.

[11:54] Telly Leung: To like go, you know, so I use that other free round trip to like go to Broadway.

[11:58] Bryan Plavski: Go to see Broadway show.

[12:00] Telly Leung: That makes a lot of sense.

[12:00] Telly Leung: Yeah, I mean, it's a good thing.

[12:01] Telly Leung: Instead of paying for a bunch of buses, right?

[12:03] Telly Leung: Like, because you have to provide transportation.

[12:05] Telly Leung: Yeah.

[12:06] Telly Leung: And I I even like petitioned, I remembered like I was such a big Betty Buckley fan, and I still am, that I um petitioned for a full Betty Buckley cast recording of that show.

[12:18] Telly Leung: Because I was like, there needs to be a Betty Buckley, like full little guys recording. And the wild thing is, uh, on this coming Monday on the 15th, I'm actually doing a concert at this brand new theater in Norwalk, Connecticut. It's to open this brand new theater, and they're having a whole bunch of Broadway stars come and do their Gala, you know, first concert performance, and I'm on the bill. Also, my dear friend Mandy Gonzalez is on the bill from Hamilton. She's taking her first night off from Hamilton. Lilius White is on the bill. Wow. And Betty Buckley is on the bill. And I was like, I can't believe I'm actually now 60-year-old Telly's freaking out that I'm on a poster, like on the bill with Betty Buckley, like my deep breath.

That's my diva. I like all her albums. There was also an AOL fan group. Um, at the time, this was during the time of AOL, so you'd like to dial up and you'd go to like chat boards. There was a chat board called The Buckheads, which were all Betty Buckley fans. And this was while Betty was doing Sunset Boulevard. Fanzies have always named themselves, but we were the Buckheads. And so we would chat online. So happy right now. Okay, but the best part is that Betty Buckley also got into AOL. You know, she tweets, she Facebook's me. She would sign on and say hi to the Buckheads during intermission from her dressing room at the Minskoff. She would dial up to AOL. And I'm sure she loved that. She showed up.

It was amazing. It was kind of phenomenal. I'm just picturing this like crazy huge desktop computer in a tiny Broadway dressing room, just like, where'd you put on your makeup? Took off the whole thing. She's like MS DOS type. She's like, if I start booting the computer up halfway through act one, I can say hi to the Buckheads in an intermission. I am, I'm like, I'm like the You're a Buckhead, bro. I'm the gayest nerdiest. I saw Spamleton and the Golden Apple. I liked Spambleton. I did not know what to expect going in, and they sat me at the very front table, which was hilarious. Mostly because I spent the whole time like staring up. Um, because they're all very tall. On that show, actually, but like it was a great time, and I wasn't expecting it to be as much of Forbidden Broadway as it was.

Because as much as it was spoofing Hamilton the whole time, it went into like spoofing the whole season. Yes. That's amazing. Yeah, it was so fun. And I had never seen Forbidden Broadway live. I'd only ever had like I had the CDs in high school. Oh, I saw it. I was obsessed with Rubin. I mean, of course. Obsessed with Forbidden Broadway. I wasn't like, oh, let me let's go to this like weird off-Broadway theater that's making fun of all of this. Right. Um, and then I saw the Golden Apple at Encores. Yeah. Which I had never heard of. Encores? Yeah, I've never heard of Encores ever. I definitely don't go see everything they do. Um, no, the only thing I knew about the Golden Apple is that it is featured in Monkeys and Playbills from Title of Show.

Oh, where they go through all of the playbills that didn't run anything. And so um, it's based on um, Hell of Troy. Yeah, it's based on the Iliad and the Odyssey. Like the first act is the Iliad and the second act is the Odyssey. And I learned that I did not pay enough attention in honors English. And it's an operetta, so I was like, what's happening? Was Lindsay Mendes in that? Yeah. Yeah, she was Helen. She was great. And she that voice. Just that clip I saw, I think it was on Broadway.com or something before. Or which one was uh blue dress? Like it was her blue dress? It was just like a clip of her singing of the songs, and she's like just standing at a piano, and she's like just having a good time.

Like, she could just basically be texting her friend, but she just sounds perfect. She's professional. It's just such like an old school operetta, like she is the kind of ingenue, but like a little different, and then Paris who steals her away is a ballet dancer who says nothing. Oh and he just like comes on and like dances her away. Oh, yeah. So that was really fun. Um right, you do conspiel with Lindsay. Lindsay, yeah, Lindsay and I are very close. We she uh our nicknames for each other are husband and wife. She's my show wife. Like, if I had a wife in this business, that would be that would be her. She was awesome. She's she's incredible. She's she's really great. And that it's her that instrument is she can sing any, she really sing any music.

She can sing anything. Yeah. Because it was very interesting old school music that's almost opera. And then the girl playing Penelope is a senior at Juilliard, right? Oh my gosh. Oh, really? And like, if she's not a star in the next two years, I'll what is it? Like, I'll eat my hat. Yeah, yeah. Yes, yeah, that is the phrase. She and get Mercury Poison. And get Mercury Poison. I'll be the Mad Hatter in two years. T boy. I love Encores because you'll never see that show ever again. Oh, yeah. But in Monkeys and Playbills, they say like uh something the golden apple, golden boy, and Goldilocks. That's amazing. Cool. And there is a golden apple. I wasn't sure. That was my next question. And a hot air balloon.

Um, Telly, I want to talk a little bit about In Transit. Sure. How hard was it? Listen. I so in Transit was my sixth Broadway show. Uh huh. And I have to say, uh well, listen, hashtag Broadway is hard. But like so, every show is difficult in doing a relative question. Right. But I but it I don't think I realize I understood when I said yes to doing In Transit how difficult it was gonna be because we really are we we are not only the actors and not only the ensemble, but we are also the band. And I and I really didn't understand what that entailed until we actually dove in and did it. You know, I oftentimes we we were we were exiting the stage and we were still singing ooze and ahs, supporting what was at what was happening on your own.

I now can can put on pants and sing straight tone ooze and ahs. That is now a special skill that I forgot rituals I can now sing pitch perfect straight tone notes while putting on a pair of pants, bending over time my shoes. And like your mic was never turned off. Well, and also right, and so you had to understand that sometimes your mic was on off stage because you were singing, which was also an adjustment not just for us, but it was an adjustment for our dressers and our crew. Yeah, so like for the first couple of previews, our dressers actually couldn't say to us, hey, put your like, hey, put your pants on, or like, hey, uh give me give me uh your your shoes untied. Like they actually couldn't say that to us in the wings.

We had to figure out other ways to like actually sign language to each other or go or or say to the stage manager, hey, my prop's not here. Like you actually couldn't say that. You actually had to figure out stage, like you have to figure out kind of a mime system of like telling people. And you don't really get to turn off, like you're you never you were never really off. You know, you you when you left the stage, you were probably off stage changing clothes and and also singing for whatever was happening on stage, which was a wild experience, but I have to say, also a purely joyful experience, too. It was very difficult to do, and we were all exhausted by the end of a 90-minute. I was like, this show's 90 minutes, it's gonna be a piece of piece of cake.

Wrong. Absolutely wrong. Like those 90 minutes were pretty tough. But it was the best group of people to do a show with. It was, you know, it was everybody, you know, those those people that I was on stage with, Nicholas and Margot Seibert and James Snyder, Justin Guarini, you know, Moya Angela, David Abelas, like those guys, like all of them, they're they're all superstars. But what I loved about it was that everybody was also a team player. Yeah. And everybody could be could be a first tenor or a first or a second alto. Yeah. And at like a in a minute. You know what I mean? That was actually the best part of the show, was that it was a true, true ensemble show. Yeah. Yeah, I saw it in an interview that you talked about how you don't just have like casts, you have like families.

I I feel like I have families. I think that comes from the fact that I was an only child. You know, like I grew up as an only child, so I had a super active imagination because I had to like and imaginary friends because I had to make them for myself. But also You imagine all your co-stars. I did. And I and and uh you know, my toys were my co-stars, you know what I mean, in a lot of ways, but I I missed having that experience with brothers and sisters. So now that I do theater, it's they're my brothers and sisters. So we always hate to see shows close on Broadway, regardless. Um you've closed short-lived shows like In Transit and Allegiance. Yes. But you've also closed long runs of shows like Rent.

Yes. I'd mean like I own that DVD, by the way. So do I. The last performance of Rent. Oh yeah. It's funny, it's uh like I couldn't, I I felt like I was like the luckiest kid in the world. First of all, Rent was, I saw Rent when I was 16 years old. It was the original Broadway Company, and I did before it was the lotto, it wasn't a lotto in the beginning. Before you had, it was just rush. It was just $20 rush. And you had to sleep with the bums on 41st Street to get your $20 ticket. So that's what I did. That one summer, I think I did that for Rent over 13 times. It was the first show that I remember sitting in the front row and crying at a show. I've never, like, I never went to a Broadway show and like actually had this like emotional experience.

And it was during like No Day But Today into like Will into Support Group into Will Eye that I was like, all of a sudden I was like, I don't understand what's happening. I'm crying. And I'm emotional. And I don't know. I didn't, and then like at 16, you know, this was 96 at 16. I was like, I don't need I don't even really know what AIDS is, but like I don't, I'm just crying. It was the moment and the music and the compassion and the humanity of what like what Jonathan was doing. And and I just I just it hit me. And so fast forward 10 years, I joined the company in 2006. And this our this the assistant stage manager, her name is Crystal Huntington. She was the original stage manager from the New York Theater Workshop.

Oh wow. And then she was a full history book. Right. So she had the entire, she was part of the production till the very end on Broadway. So um, but when she was teaching me the show, she was like, Telly, you like know this show. Like like you know where you how do you know where you're going? I didn't teach you that, and I was like, I've been doing the show in my brain. So can you talk about closing a show like Rent? Like closing night, like I of Rent was like there was this huge buildup. You know, we knew that it was coming, it was such a big deal, but they were also gonna shoot this movie. So like it's so good. Everybody else, it is, it's wonderful. With Hamilton's Renee Lee Elise Goldberg.

With Hamilton's Renee and National School Chase. It's it's wild. That cast. She's incredible. That cast is incredible. And Adam Cantor. Adam Cantor was marked. Come from a ways, Rodney Hicks. Yeah. Who was in the original Broadway company. It was he was in the final company as Benny, but he was in the original company as Paul and others. Oh, okay. You know, I mean, it was like it was this incredible, incredible company of people and um and rent family. And you know, the rent family is actually very small. The show ran 13 years on Broadway, but it was such a happy group of people. Nobody really left. And and so, you know, one of the wonderful closing night gifts that I got from Crystal, she gave us all of these sheets.

And it had every single track on a sheet. But then on the sheet, it would say, so-and-so played the role from X date to X date. And so, you know, on like, for example, like I was contracted as Angel for a couple of months to play Angel when our angel took a break. So I was a I got to be Angel on the Angel seat, it said Rillson Jermaine Heredia, and then at the end of the sheet, it said Justin Johnson, who was our final angel. But then somewhere in the middle, it's like from this date to this date was Telly Leung. From this date to this date was Wilson Cruz. Wilson Cruz came back on this date to this date. Like it was so almost like a family tree. It was like a family tree of like everybody who had ever done the show.

It was the sweetest thing I've ever seen. And when you look at it, you're like, oh my gosh, there's actually hasn't been that many people who've played these roles. For 13 years, it wasn't a revolving door because people would always just come back. And I remember closing night, you know, everybody else that was in the rent family, the entire balcony was filled with rent alums.

[24:19] Telly Leung: The rest of us, however, had to do the show and also not lose our show because we had a movie to shoot. So we were also trying to not get too emotional. Yeah, we shot the last show. There were several things I remember from the night. I remembered that final "Seasons of Love" where all were the original cast and the final cast, and all the alums stepped on stage and sang "Seasons." I remembered getting a bottle of champagne in my dressing room. Everybody, Jesse L. Martin, the most classy, classy person in the world, had a bottle of Veuve Clicquot for every single person in the closing cast. He didn't even know who I was. Do you know what I mean? But like Jesse had a bottle of champagne for everybody.

And I remember my husband was like, we can't drink that champagne. We kept it in the fridge for years. We can't drink that champagne. He's a huge Law and Order: SVU fan. We can't drink that champagne. It's from Jesse L. Martin. And I also remember the party, which was at Chelsea Piers, which was a phenomenal experience. But I also remember really the next day. I remembered not bringing my stuff home and going to the theater the next day before loadout, which is always a really painful day for people to go to the theater to watch your set being taken down. And I walked in, I remember Will Chase was there, and Will and I just sat on that stage for a really, really long time. And I was like, Will, are you okay?

And he said, Yeah, I'm okay. He's like, Listen, I couldn't be emotional yesterday because we had to do this movie. And so he was like, today I'm actually like it's actually all sinking in. And I remember just the both of us sitting on that stage, on two separate sides of the stage, just having our moment to take it in. And that was really special. It was hard. I live in Midtown, so I walk past 44th Street and 41st Street all the time. I'm drunk, I'm swearing. But I remember walking past the theater, and every day there would be the dumpsters with the trash outside with our set outside. And walking past it and having them take down the posters is hard. The Rent wall, someone must have like this before. There are photos of the Rent wall, it's preserved. Someone messages from those people are preserved.

[26:36] Bryan Plavski: Let's play a game.

[26:36] Kimberly Cooper: Okay.

[26:37] Bryan Plavski: What's the game?

[26:39] Telly Leung: I made up a new game.

[26:40] Bryan Plavski: Okay.

[26:40] Telly Leung: It is called "Is This the Name of A College A Cappella Group or Did I Make This Up Off the Top of My Brain?"

[26:48] Kevin Jaeger: Oh gosh.

[26:49] Telly Leung: Okay. We'll go one by one.

[26:51] Kevin Jaeger: Oh my gosh. This is I'm gonna lose it.

[26:53] Telly Leung: Oh, I'm gonna be terrible at this game because I had to be giving A Cappella 101 crash course for when I joined the show.

[26:59] Kevin Jaeger: Okay, I'm ready.

[27:00] Telly Leung: The Wiffenpoofs.

[27:02] Kevin Jaeger: Oh, I know that one.

[27:03] Kevin Jaeger: That is one.

[27:05] Telly Leung: That is correct.

[27:06] Kevin Jaeger: Oops. You helped me out. I got a point.

[27:09] Telly Leung: The Smithin Poofs.

[27:11] Kevin Jaeger: I think that's not real.

[27:13] Telly Leung: That's also real. They were founded in 1936.

[27:16] Kevin Jaeger: Stop it.

[27:17] Telly Leung: The Smith and Poofs.

[27:20] Kevin Jaeger: There's Smith.

[27:21] Telly Leung: Yes, right. Because our Warblers were based on the Wiffs. The word based where the Wiffenpoofs. But the sound of it is based on the Tufts Beelzebubs.

[27:32] Kevin Jaeger: Oh sorry. What now?

[27:34] Telly Leung: The Beelzebubs.

[27:35] Kevin Jaeger: From Tufts.

[27:35] Telly Leung: From Tufts University.

[27:36] Kevin Jaeger: Oh god.

[27:37] Telly Leung: I'm sorry if that was gonna be one of the questions.

[27:41] Bryan Plavski: But there was like, but the look of it was like this all boys prep school like uh...

[27:46] Telly Leung: Yeah, that's me.

[27:47] Telly Leung: The Hangovers.

[27:49] Kevin Jaeger: I'm gonna say false.

[27:50] Telly Leung: That is incorrect. The Hangovers are the a cappella group from Cornell.

[27:58] Kevin Jaeger: Whoa!

[27:58] Telly Leung: So I didn't think Mr. Ithaca alumni.

[28:01] Kevin Jaeger: I know. Hangovers.

[28:03] Telly Leung: The Hangovers.

[28:04] Kevin Jaeger: Okay.

[28:05] Telly Leung: Kevin.

[28:06] Kevin Jaeger: Yes.

[28:06] Telly Leung: The Trojan Men.

[28:09] Kevin Jaeger: Yeah.

[28:10] Telly Leung: Yeah. Definitely.

[28:11] Kevin Jaeger: They are from California.

[28:13] Telly Leung: Uh University of Southern California.

[28:15] Kevin Jaeger: Oh, USC.

[28:15] Telly Leung: That's a gap.

[28:16] Telly Leung: Telly.

[28:17] Telly Leung: Virginia Gentlemen.

[28:21] Kevin Jaeger: I'm gonna say false.

[28:23] Telly Leung: And correct. The Virginia Gentlemen.

[28:25] Kevin Jaeger: There have been no false ones.

[28:27] Telly Leung: I know. Because they're all so funny.

[28:31] Telly Leung: They're in University of Virginia.

[28:33] Kevin Jaeger: Of Virginia.

[28:34] Telly Leung: Of Virginia.

[28:35] Bryan Plavski: Yes.

[28:37] Telly Leung: On a sensual note.

[28:39] Kevin Jaeger: Phenomenal name.

[28:40] Telly Leung: Yeah, definitely. I'm gonna go with yes because it's amazing.

[28:43] Kevin Jaeger: American University.

[28:49] Telly Leung: The Shaka Awesomes.

[28:52] Kevin Jaeger: I'm gonna say you made that up.

[28:54] Telly Leung: I did.

[28:54] Kevin Jaeger: Okay, Telly.

[28:55] Telly Leung: The Gentlemen and the Scholars.

[28:59] Kevin Jaeger: Well, I'm gonna say yes.

[29:01] Telly Leung: Incorrect.

[29:02] Kevin Jaeger: Oh, you're gonna be a good thing.

[29:03] Telly Leung: That was good because you looked like you were reading.

[29:05] Bryan Plavski: The Mad Hatters.

[29:08] Telly Leung: True.

[29:09] Kevin Jaeger: That's true. Founded in 1997.

[29:12] Telly Leung: They wore red blazers and khakis.

[29:14] Kevin Jaeger: Yeah, and again, they all have mercury poisoning.

[29:17] Telly Leung: From Wisconsin.

[29:19] Kevin Jaeger: Alright, Kevin.

[29:20] Telly Leung: Cayuga's Waiters.

[29:23] Kevin Jaeger: Cayuga's Waiters?

[29:25] Telly Leung: Cayuga's Waiters.

[29:26] Kevin Jaeger: I'm gonna say that's real.

[29:27] Telly Leung: That is real. That's also from Cornell.

[29:30] Kevin Jaeger: Yeah.

[29:30] Telly Leung: Wow. Like Cayuga.

[29:32] Telly Leung: They like the Rockapella, Cornell.

[29:34] Kevin Jaeger: The Octopodes.

[29:36] Telly Leung: Okay, I'm gonna say that's real, actually.

[29:38] Telly Leung: That is real. Wanna hear them?

[29:40] Kevin Jaeger: Yeah.

[29:53] Telly Leung: Yeah.

[29:54] Kevin Jaeger: Oh, yeah.

[29:55] Telly Leung: Okay.

[29:59] Telly Leung: Damn.

[29:59] Telly Leung: They were good.

[30:01] Telly Leung: The Harvard Opportunes, the Treble Makers.

[30:05] Telly Leung: Like, I have to say. That's hilarious. Like Deke Sharon, like, he's like the godfather of A Cappella.

[30:13] Telly Leung: I can't even say A Cappella.

[30:16] Telly Leung: A Cappella, he's he gave he gave us all the crash course on A Cappella. And then when the show got to Broadway, and our amazing producer, Janet Rosen, was like, well, what's like on your dream list of things that you want? They were like, well, the dream is to get Deke Sharon, who had done all the arrangements on The Sing-Off and everything in Pitch Perfect. They were like, the dream is to get him to be on the team and rearrange some of these songs to sound like amazing A Cappella. And like he's the man. He's amazing. That's fancy. If you got like go that album, I've been on many cast albums, and they're all wonderful. That In Transit cast album is something really special.

[31:01] Telly Leung: Was that your first time playing a gay character on stage?

[31:03] Telly Leung: Well, I'd done Angel.

[31:04] Telly Leung: Well, right. A lot when I was on Broadway and then on the tour in the Hollywood Bowl and stuff like that. So that was the other gay character I played. So, question for you, what's your favorite musical?

[31:13] Telly Leung: Oh gosh, this is really, really hard.

[31:15] Bryan Plavski: We only ask the tough questions for Broadwaysted.

[31:18] Telly Leung: On Broadwaysted. It's really hard after like a bottle of Pinot Grigio. Snap decisions. But I have to say, Rent is probably my favorite musical. It's funny, not a lot of people have said that, but I feel like deep down, what have been the other answers?

[31:31] Bryan Plavski: Music Man comes up a lot. Ragtime comes up a lot. And Sweeney Todd comes up a lot. West Side Story, Annie, because a lot of people associate nostalgia with Annie.

[31:43] Telly Leung: Yes. I will say, like, Rent is my favorite musical. Like, that's the favorite musical in my heart. But like, you know, my husband and I, we've been together for 12 years, and we rarely fight. We only fight when we drive because couples fight when they drive, you know, and the best thing for us was Google Maps and a GPS. Like, that's actually the best thing for doing. We can't fight actually, like she says this. Right, right. She's the one that's gonna make a lot of things. I don't know, she pointed me the wrong way. What did I thought? That's not my fault. We blame her. You have a robotic mediator. Perfect. But um, but the other thing we fight about is what's the perfect musical. I think it's Gypsy.

If there's a perfect musical to be had, it's Gypsy when it comes to like the structure of a musical and like the art form and like what it is like that we're aiming to do with storytelling and music theater, Gypsy's the perfect musical. The structure of the book is amazing. His argument, he thinks West Side Story is the perfect musical. Can't they both be perfect? I don't know. I don't know. They're very different. For me, Gypsy is really, really perfection. There's not a bit of fat in that book, and not a bit of fat in those lyrics in that score.

[32:53] Telly Leung: But is there in West Side Story? Especially in that I don't well, I will say, you know, even Sondheim himself has said I don't love those lyrics sometimes, you know.

[33:03] Bryan Plavski: Well, if Sondheim says it, it's true.

[33:05] Telly Leung: Well with West Side, I felt I can sometimes feel like it's an amazing show that a lot of young guys came together and did, and like those guys were geniuses, but they were younger. And it can be done perfectly. But yeah, Gypsy, if like you're on the page and you're reading through it and then playing the songs as you get there. That's how I feel about Gypsy.

[33:21] Kimberly Cooper: Yeah.

[33:24] Telly Leung: And I saw that London Imelda Staunton Gypsy. I saw it on Broadway HD.

[33:28] Kimberly Cooper: Yes, and it's brilliant, right?

[33:31] Telly Leung: Amazing.

[33:32] Kimberly Cooper: What's your favorite experience seeing a show?

[33:36] Telly Leung: My favorite experience seeing a show. Um, this is a recent experience, actually. I had a really good time seeing Lightning Thief. The Percy Jackson Lightning Thief, the musical down at the Martel. Yeah. Which, yes, with Chris McCarroll and my dear friend George Salazar. He's amazing. He was amazing. He was my Godspell brother. But I actually, yes, he was in Tick, Tick... Boom, but I went, my experience was really special. A because the show is brilliant, actually. I think what they've done with that, and what my dear friend Rob Rokicki did with the music and all of those, I mean, all of it. Like, yeah, it's so well done. It's this show about magic and fantasy, and yet they found a really simple theatrical way to do it where it's like theater from nothing.

They're like toilet paper can be magical. They're like this thing that we do with like the leaf blowers. Yes, you're like, it's they make magic out of like simple household things. And I was like, that's brilliant and genius. But also, I actually went to that with a whole bunch of my Godspell mates. I went with Celise Henderson, I went with Julia Madison, I went with Nick Blameyer, and we went to go cheer on our friend. And he's fantastic, yes, and the kids sitting behind us didn't realize that he was playing multiple characters. Oh my gosh. So halfway during intermission, they looked in the playbill and they saw that he was playing the two characters or the three characters, and it blew their minds so awesome.

And that is like, Did you hear that, George? It did good. And we were like, it's actually good. It did good. Playing the sidekick and then playing Dionysus, he was like totally. I was just confused when he changed his pants, or if the fur was under the khakis the whole time.

[35:23] Telly Leung: One more question before we play our final game.

[35:25] Bryan Plavski: Okay.

[35:26] Telly Leung: If you were sent to a desert island, and you had to so you could see one show before you're sent away, and it's the perfect version of that show, what would you see?

[35:40] Telly Leung: Yeah, okay. So the first thing that popped into my head was Carol Channing and Hello, Dolly!

[35:47] Bryan Plavski: Whoa.

[35:48] Telly Leung: That's the first thing that pumped into my brain. And I actually got to see her do it in '96 at the Lunt-Fontanne. When she came back and she was at the Lunt-Fontanne, I was in high school, and it was one of those like TKTS moments where I bought a ticket. You know, it was actually that the afternoon that I took the SATs. So I took a way to reward it. So I took the SATs and I said, you know what? F this, I'm gonna go, I'm gonna take my money and go buy a ticket to a Broadway show. And I remembered like I went to the TKTS booth and it was like a gorgeous sunny spring day. And then all of a sudden, as I'm standing online at TKTS, the storm clouds roll in and it's like pouring rain.

[36:23] Telly Leung: And I'm soaking wet, and I was like, I refuse to get off this line. I'm staying on this line, I'm gonna go get my ticket to go see Carol Channing at Hello Dolly. I got my ticket, I went to the theater to the lunch, I sat in the balcony with a whole bunch of old ladies in their fur coats and like teeth chattering, like soaking wet to the bone, like down to the socks. And like, but I sat there the entire two and a half hours watching Hello Dolly. I I and got sick, of course. Yeah. Right from doing that. But it was it was beautiful. It was worth it. It was it was all worth it. And I did so good. And to me, like if I had to go to a desert island and I was like, you get to see one more show, and that's it. It would be that. That would be it. Cool.

[37:01] Bryan Plavski: So I have a stack of show cards that we're gonna play celebrity with. We have to do teams though, yeah?

[37:06] Kevin Jaeger: Sure.

[37:07] Bryan Plavski: So do you want to do the side table of the side table?

[37:09] Telly Leung: Sure, let's do it, Sally.

[37:10] Bryan Plavski: Alright, let's go. Great. We're gonna do three rounds of celebrity. I'm gonna get my timer out. We each have one half of my show cards deck. So the first round is going to be taboo style. You can say anything about the card, just no word that is printed on the show card. The second round will do uh one word clues, and the third round is singing clues because charades aren't fun on the podcast.

[37:38] Kevin Jaeger: That's hysterical.

[37:39] Bryan Plavski: Okay. Kevin, do you want to go first?

[37:41] Kevin Jaeger: Sure. I'll guess?

[37:42] Telly Leung: Yes.

[37:43] Kevin Jaeger: Ready? Steady. Original Charlie Cringe is Lonnie Price.

[37:48] Telly Leung: She's the director of uh Great Comet.

[37:51] Kevin Jaeger: Rachel Chopkin.

[37:53] Telly Leung: Yes. She is one who sings uh Everybody Ries.

[37:58] Kevin Jaeger: There have been a few.

[37:59] Telly Leung: Oh, like the main one.

[38:01] Kevin Jaeger: Yes. Okay. Um she was in Falsettos and she uh Stephanie J.

[38:06] Telly Leung: Block?

[38:06] Kevin Jaeger: No, and she was also in The Last Five Years Revival.

[38:09] Telly Leung: Betsy Wolf.

[38:09] Kevin Jaeger: Yes. Um, this is a British play about things going wrong on stage.

[38:13] Telly Leung: The play that goes wrong?

[38:14] Kevin Jaeger: Uh oh Noise is off.

[38:16] Telly Leung: Yes. He played the king on Broadway for a long time in Hamilton.

[38:21] Kevin Jaeger: Not for a long time. Maria Malley?

[38:23] Telly Leung: Yes. Um, not a rare card.

[38:25] Kevin Jaeger: Michael Bennett?

[38:26] Telly Leung: Yes. Um he was in producers, but not Nathan Leighton.

[38:32] Kevin Jaeger: Matthew Broderick.

[38:33] Telly Leung: Yes. Um Matthew Morrison and uh Laura Michelle Kelly starred in this on Broadway with uh Finding Neverlands.

[38:40] Kevin Jaeger: Yes. Um husband of Mary and Maisie.

[38:43] Telly Leung: Oh Jason Danielle.

[38:45] Kevin Jaeger: Jason Danielle's.

[38:46] Telly Leung: Nine.

[38:46] Kevin Jaeger: Nine?

[38:46] Telly Leung: Okay, we're not.

[38:47] Kevin Jaeger: Nine wiki misses.

[38:48] Telly Leung: Oh gosh. That's okay. It's alright, you'll be fine. Whatever you're doing.

[38:54] Kevin Jaeger: She was just in disaster. She's also been in a hairspray.

[38:59] Telly Leung: When you have a servant, they are your uh this is a what?

[39:03] Kevin Jaeger: Um a butt?

[39:05] Telly Leung: Yes. Oh gosh, I'm terrible at this. Xanadu, Rock of Ages.

[39:10] Kevin Jaeger: Oh, uh uh Kara Butler.

[39:13] Telly Leung: Yes. Yay! Oh my gosh, terrible. She um she took over for Jennifer Hudson in the color purple. She's the original Ida.

[39:19] Kevin Jaeger: Oh, Heaven Heavenly!

[39:21] Telly Leung: Yes. I loved her. Um Robert Morse was in the original production.

[39:25] Kevin Jaeger: How to succeed with that in business without another time?

[39:27] Telly Leung: Um wrote this is on Broadway, won a lot of Tonies.

[39:31] Kevin Jaeger: Uh in the Heights, Hamilton.

[39:33] Telly Leung: Yes. Um he was the man in chair.

[39:35] Kevin Jaeger: Oh, Bob Martin.

[39:36] Telly Leung: Yes. Um he was in um Gentleman's Guide to Love and Murder.

[39:41] Kevin Jaeger: Uh oh, Bryce Pinkham.

[39:42] Telly Leung: Yes. Oh. Um, she won a Tony for West Side Story.

[39:46] Kevin Jaeger: Oh, Karen O'Lebo.

[39:47] Telly Leung: Yes, my buddy. Um he was in high school musical with Justin Um Holiday Inn.

[39:51] Kevin Jaeger: Oh, Corbin Blue!

[39:52] Telly Leung: Yes. My other body. You're done. Good work.

[39:55] Kevin Jaeger: Oh my god, how many did we get?

[39:58] Telly Leung: One, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight.

[40:01] Kevin Jaeger: That's okay. Oh.

[40:03] Telly Leung: So really good. Oh my gosh. Oh yeah, it keeps on the white boy. I'm so sorry, I didn't get Carrie Butler. Oh my gosh, I love me at Carrie Butler. Uh butt.

[40:12] Bryan Plavski: I mix these back in. Great. Okay. Ready?

[40:15] Telly Leung: I'm ready.

[40:16] Bryan Plavski: Kevin, will you hit start? Because I'm going.

[40:17] Kevin Jaeger: Are you ready?

[40:19] Telly Leung: Yeah.

[40:19] Kevin Jaeger: Go.

[40:22] Telly Leung: Wrong.

[40:24] Kevin Jaeger: The play that went wrong?

[40:26] Telly Leung: Wrong.

[40:27] Kevin Jaeger: Noises off.

[40:29] Telly Leung: I was like, oh god. Hmm.

[40:34] Kevin Jaeger: Channing.

[40:35] Telly Leung: Hello, Dolly.

[40:36] Kevin Jaeger: Yes.

[40:37] Telly Leung: Sutton.

[40:38] Kevin Jaeger: Thoroughly modern really.

[40:40] Telly Leung: Nathan?

[40:41] Kevin Jaeger: The producers.

[40:43] Telly Leung: Matthew Broderick.

[40:48] Kevin Jaeger: Red.

[40:51] Telly Leung: Sunday in the Park with George.

[40:52] Kevin Jaeger: Yes.

[40:54] Telly Leung: More red.

[40:56] Kevin Jaeger: Bronx.

[40:58] Telly Leung: Nick Cordero?

[40:59] Kevin Jaeger: Yeah. What?

[41:01] Telly Leung: Merrily.

[41:03] Kevin Jaeger: Lobby Price.

[41:05] Telly Leung: Ah. Wow, you guys. Killing it. I'm impressed.

[41:09] Kevin Jaeger: One, two, three, four, five, six, seven.

[41:12] Telly Leung: Seven. Go.

[41:14] Kevin Jaeger: Oh, um.

[41:15] Telly Leung: Brotherhood.

[41:17] Kevin Jaeger: How to succeed in business.

[41:18] Telly Leung: Right out of the house.

[41:19] Kevin Jaeger: Oh.

[41:20] Telly Leung: Hairspray.

[41:21] Kevin Jaeger: Butler.

[41:22] Telly Leung: Kerry Butler.

[41:24] Kevin Jaeger: Um.

[41:25] Telly Leung: I hate up.

[41:26] Kevin Jaeger: Heather Hedley.

[41:27] Telly Leung: Yes. That was a good one. Um, um.

[41:32] Kevin Jaeger: Sha.

[41:34] Telly Leung: Hamilton?

[41:35] Kevin Jaeger: Yes. Okay, good. Wow.

[41:38] Telly Leung: Poory.

[41:40] Kevin Jaeger: Audra.

[41:41] Telly Leung: Yes. Um, um.

[41:43] Kevin Jaeger: America.

[41:45] Telly Leung: Uh what's I saw?

[41:46] Kevin Jaeger: Karen Olivia.

[41:47] Telly Leung: Yes. Um, oh.

[41:48] Kevin Jaeger: Fences.

[41:50] Telly Leung: This is a harder one. Fences.

[41:53] Kevin Jaeger: August Wilson?

[41:54] Telly Leung: Yes! Oh my gosh. Uh high school.

[41:58] Kevin Jaeger: Oh, uh, Corbin Blue.

[41:59] Telly Leung: Yes. Um, oh, again, wait. Um, I hear I got the same card twice.

[42:04] Kevin Jaeger: Heather Hedley.

[42:04] Telly Leung: Yes. That happens. Oh. Uh um.

[42:08] Kevin Jaeger: Oh, that was still a solid round.

[42:12] Telly Leung: Why happened twice? How did that happen?

[42:14] Kevin Jaeger: Oh, I think it was impressive.

[42:16] Telly Leung: A nine. Alright, Kevin, are you ready to sing to me?

[42:19] Kevin Jaeger: Yep.

[42:19] Telly Leung: Go.

[42:20] Kevin Jaeger: Jamie is over, and JD is one.

[42:22] Telly Leung: Yep. Um hey, old friend.

[42:25] Kevin Jaeger: What is it?

[42:25] Telly Leung: Mine Grace.

[42:26] Kevin Jaeger: Yes. Let's find our rock.

[42:28] Telly Leung: I mean a big ass rock.

[42:29] Kevin Jaeger: Or maybe something like airbuck is better.

[42:33] Telly Leung: Yes. The Patrick Wilson?

[42:35] Kevin Jaeger: No. Um there are other people in the whole lot. We're British and stuff's going wrong.

[42:42] Telly Leung: Noises off.

[42:49] Kevin Jaeger: Hello, Dolly. Um.

[42:50] Telly Leung: Everybody raw.

[42:54] Kevin Jaeger: A land stretch.

[42:55] Telly Leung: Yes. Um. I wrote a book about Peter Pan.

[43:00] Kevin Jaeger: Finding Neverlands.

[43:03] Telly Leung: This is a series.

[43:04] Kevin Jaeger: Oh no, you're done, you're done.

[43:05] Telly Leung: Okay. I love the songs. The songs of the place. That was like the songs for like that was brilliant. I didn't know what to do for noises off. I was like, oh gosh.

[43:19] Kevin Jaeger: Alright, how many?

[43:20] Telly Leung: That worked out. Oh, we got uh one, two, three, four, five, six.

[43:25] Kevin Jaeger: Oh, it's close, it's close.

[43:26] Telly Leung: So what how many do we have to get? So six, two, and five. We can do this.

[43:30] Kevin Jaeger: Alright, alright, alright. Ready?

[43:31] Telly Leung: Yeah.

[43:32] Kevin Jaeger: Go.

[43:32] Telly Leung: Rosemary.

[43:34] Kevin Jaeger: Oh, how to succeed in a business without really trying.

[43:36] Telly Leung: Yes. Um.

[43:37] Kevin Jaeger: I do, I do in the sky.

[43:39] Telly Leung: Oh, uh Bob Martin.

[43:40] Kevin Jaeger: Yes. You can't stop the beat over some.

[43:44] Telly Leung: Yes. Um, I have dreamed thee too long, never seen thee or touched thee, but normally with all of my heart.

[43:49] Kevin Jaeger: Oh my gosh. Bum bab bum bum bum. Hear me now. Thou art bleak and unbearable world. Thou are based and botched as can be.

[43:55] Telly Leung: Oh, uh impossible Dream, uh, Manila Matcha?

[43:58] Kevin Jaeger: Yes. That's a way easier song there.

[44:00] Telly Leung: I know, I know, I know. Um we're all in this.

[44:03] Kevin Jaeger: Oh, high school musical Corbin Blue.

[44:05] Telly Leung: Yes. Um I have a backyard. It's by a fence.

[44:09] Kevin Jaeger: Oh gosh.

[44:12] Telly Leung: Oh, also.

[44:17] Kevin Jaeger: Oh, Heather Hadley.

[44:18] Telly Leung: Yes. Wheel of a dream.

[44:20] Kevin Jaeger: Oh, Heather.

[44:21] Telly Leung: No, Audrey McDonald's. Stop, stop, stop, you're done.

[44:23] Kevin Jaeger: Oh.

[44:23] Telly Leung: Oh my gosh. I have a backyard. I have a backyard.

[44:27] Kevin Jaeger: Two, three, four, five, two.

[44:29] Telly Leung: Viola Damon.

[44:30] Kevin Jaeger: Okay.

[44:32] Telly Leung: Eight! That'll win.

[44:35] Kevin Jaeger: August Wilson was the winning card.

[44:38] Telly Leung: Oh my gosh. To sing August Wilson.

[44:42] Bryan Plavski: Thanks for joining us.

[44:43] Telly Leung: Thank you for having me.

[44:44] Bryan Plavski: Thank you so much for watching. This was really funny. I'm glad you're going to be here. This was really this was a blast.

[44:47] Telly Leung: Yeah. Blast.

[44:51] Bryan Plavski: Here at the wee words. There's a little Carol Channing come out, right? One last question for you. If you could bring one D.Va back from the dead and see them in any show, who would it be?

[45:04] Telly Leung: Oh, the merm. Yeah. It'd be the merm. In Gypsy.

[45:08] Bryan Plavski: I don't know if it would be Gypsy. Call Me Madam.

[45:10] Telly Leung: Call Me Madam is a good one, but I So good. I think it would be any Annie Catch Your Gun.

[45:15] Bryan Plavski: Yeah. Oh, so I actually remain. Because they're being some because I the only reason why I don't say gypsy is because we've seen some pretty stellar roses, right? Like, you know, between uh between Amelda Staunton, LePone, Bet I I love that Bette Midler TV movie.

[45:31] Telly Leung: Yeah, yeah. You know, but Ethel Merman doing Annie Get Your Gun, that's something I feel like I I really want to get to.

[45:38] Bryan Plavski: There's no cheers to an Adam. That's such a good angle.

[45:40] Telly Leung: That's a to Ethel.

[45:42] Bryan Plavski: To Ethel.

[45:43] Telly Leung: To Ethel. And first of all, and also Ethel Merman in Airplane. Can I Ethel Merlin in Airbnb?

[45:48] Bryan Plavski: So good. Which is like my first introduction to Ethel Mervyn.

[45:52] Telly Leung: Yeah, me too. I was like, who is that woman?

[45:54] Bryan Plavski: The second, the close second would have actually been Madeline Khan in On the Twenty Century.

[45:58] Telly Leung: That would have that would have been the second. Because I'm also a huge I also do love me and Madeline Khan.

[46:02] Bryan Plavski: Well, I would just want her back.

[46:04] Telly Leung: Agreed. Madeline Kahn, right? Like, I wouldn't just have her do like a reading of Clue.

[46:09] Bryan Plavski: There's nothing better than Madeline Kahn and Blazing Saddles.

[46:12] Telly Leung: Blazing Saddles. She's incredible.

[46:14] Bryan Plavski: Yeah. Blazing Saddles, Young Frankenstein.

[46:16] Telly Leung: Oh.

[46:17] Bryan Plavski: Any Mel Brooks movie.

[46:18] Telly Leung: Yeah. But Flames on the side of the show. And also, to me, I mean, no offense to any of the ladies who've done this, but that's the best not getting married today. I'm ever seen.

[46:26] Telly Leung: Madeline Kahn doing not getting married today is actually my. That's so good.

[46:32] Bryan Plavski: Because she's she's bananas. So that brings us to the end of our episode.

[46:34] Telly Leung: Oh, thank you guys.

[46:36] Bryan Plavski: Thank you for joining us. Yeah. Um, so we end every oh well before we end the episode with a quote. We want to remind you guys to follow Telly on all social media. It's his full name on both Instagram and Twitter. Um also um I didn't mention it yet, but definitely pick up his two studio albums. I listened to them before this podcast, they're excellent. Um songs for you, and I'll cover you.

[47:00] Telly Leung: Thanks.

[47:00] Bryan Plavski: Um, definitely check those out. Elizabeth Broadway Records, right?

[47:02] Telly Leung: Broadway records and yellow sound labels, yeah.

[47:04] Bryan Plavski: Don't forget uh that Telly starts in Aladdin on what date?

[47:08] Telly Leung: June 13th.

[47:09] Bryan Plavski: June 13th, watch him jumping uh ahead of the breadline. Um it's a whole new world out there. Um, but we end every episode with a quote. No, and that quote is suddenly I'm in the cockpit, suddenly everything's changed, suddenly I'm not too young or too short, and the passage in in the back, don't complain. That is me in the sky from Come From Away.

[47:31] Telly Leung: I was like how Joey.

[47:32] Bryan Plavski: Yeah. I'll see you tomorrow, come from away.

[47:35] Telly Leung: Oh yeah. It's um we'll have to have you back and talk about that.

[47:38] Bryan Plavski: Yes, please. Um, but uh again, follow us on at Broadway said on all social media. Um make sure to go to uh iTunes, subscribe to us as well as rate us. Five stars, please.

[47:50] Telly Leung: Yeah, five stars, please.

[47:52] Bryan Plavski: Um as we end every as we end every episode, we raise a glass.

[47:57] Telly Leung: To the yeah.

[48:03] Bryan Plavski: Cheers.

[48:05] Telly Leung: Thanks, Shelly.

[48:05] Bryan Plavski: Thank you.

[48:06] Telly Leung: Thank you, guys.

[48:13] Telly Leung: Thanks for coming.