This transcript was automatically generated and might contain errors.

[0:24] David Alpert: Welcome to E-Ticket to Broadway, where Broadway meets Main Street.

[0:24] David Alpert: Here's your host, my pal, David Alpert.

[0:24] David Alpert: Hello, you wonderful E-Ticket to Broadway listeners. Thanks for choosing to listen to the only podcast where your favorite Broadway stars recite their favorite Disney Parks attraction speeches.

[0:35] David Alpert: Now is a great time to be sure you're following the podcast on Instagram to see photos of our guests at the parks and play games and answer trivia. It's a great way to get further involved with this magical community.

[0:47] David Alpert: If you're enjoying the podcast, please consider becoming a Patreon supporter. Not only will you be helping yours truly create more episodes, you'll also be making an immediate donation to Gillanus Fund.

[0:57] David Alpert: Gillanis Fund was created in 2007, shortly after my oldest sister Gillana passed away, and this fund honors her legacy by helping organizations across the country who fight for inclusion, justice, and acceptance.

[1:10] David Alpert: There are many different levels of giving and fun perks at each level. Please visit www.eTicketPodcast.com to learn more.

[1:19] David Alpert: The guests on this episode are simply incredible. She has starred on Broadway in Chicago, Boeing Boeing, and on the National Tour of Sweet Charity, and is perhaps best known as the host of Trading Spaces, a show I was obsessed with, and he has starred on Broadway in Beauty and the Beast, The Lion King, Dr. Seuss's How the Grinch Stole Christmas, Spider-Man Turn Off the Dark, and is currently starring on Broadway in Hadestown, for which he was Tony nominated.

[1:45] David Alpert: Together, they started the national tour of Beauty and the Beast. Please welcome the amazing Paige Davis and Patrick Page.

[2:01] David Alpert: Paige and Patrick, thank you both so much for joining on E-Ticket to Broadway. I'm so excited to chat with you both about all things Disney. This is going to be so fun. So welcome to the podcast.

[2:11] Paige Davis: Thank you very much.

[2:13] Patrick Page: So let's start with a tale as old as time and discuss how a certain candlestick and a feather duster met and fell in love. Tell me about that national tour of Beauty and the Beast.

[2:24] Patrick Page: I never expected that I would be in a musical, and I certainly never expected I would be in a Disney movie, or rather a Disney musical. I came to New York to pursue my fame and fortune as a classical actor making two or three hundred dollars a week. So the fact that I ended up in Disney Musicals is the fault of the recently retired, wonderful casting director, Jay Binder, who recently stepped down from Binder casting. He also cast The Lion King.

[2:53] Patrick Page: And I was doing, I was auditioning for the first national company of Angels in America, actually. And I didn't get the part, but at the end of the day, Jay said to me, I'm having auditions tomorrow for the first national tour of Beauty and the Beast, and I just lost my reader. Would you like to be the reader? And I was brand new in New York. And so of course I wanted to spend the day with one of the top casting directors in the city.

[3:23] Patrick Page: So I ran home. I went to a thing that your younger listeners won't recognize, but there used to be this thing called a Blockbuster. And it was a store where you could buy videotapes or rather rent them, bring them back the next day. Unbelievable concept. And I rented Beauty and the Beast, which I had seen in the theater and enjoyed, but I rented it again to remind myself of the rhythms and all of that. Went in the next day, and I was absolutely blown away by the people who were auditioning. As an actor who didn't do musicals, I thought that the level of preparation that the people who did do musicals were bringing in with the songs was unlike anything I had seen before. It was an opening night performance with each one.

[4:11] Patrick Page: So then we were reading the scenes, and we were reading a scene between Cogsworth and Lumiere, and I was reading Cogsworth, and the other fellow was reading Lumiere. And then Jay Binder said, All right, good, now switch roles. The other actor was a bit surprised, as I would have been had I been in his position. And afterwards, he sent the other actor from the room after I had read Lumiere, and he said, You could play this part. I was like, No, no, absolutely not. I do not do musicals, and I certainly don't do Disney musicals. And he said, Listen, I'm going to hire you. He said, Come here to the piano and sing this. And so they had me sing "Be Our Guest." And he said, I'm gonna hire you a coach tonight, and you go home and you come back later and you do it for the producers and the director, and I did. And they offered me the part, and I really didn't want to do it. But then I found out that I made a lot more money at that than I did playing Hamlet.

[5:15] Paige Davis: Yes.

[5:16] Patrick Page: He certainly never thought that he would meet his wife. It just occurred to me, we never, we should have invited Jay Binder to our wedding.

[5:20] Paige Davis: We should have invited Jay Binder.

[5:25] Patrick Page: Yeah, no kidding. He was responsible above everyone else. So, yeah, so I then I did the show and there was a beautiful girl in the ensemble at the time that of course everybody thought was fantastic, and that was Paige, and you know, I just kept my eye on her and then we, this is where we do the Seinfeld yada yada yada part.

[5:49] Paige Davis: Yeah, exactly. Here we are.

[5:52] Patrick Page: Patrick, I cannot make this up. There was a conversation about Blockbuster on this podcast already, and it was Susan Egan talking about the night that she booked Beauty and the Beast, she went to Blockbuster to rent the video to watch it.

[6:08] Patrick Page: It's nowadays it without Blockbuster, you would not have had either me or Susan Egan in Beauty.

[6:15] Paige Davis: That's right.

[6:17] Patrick Page: So Paige, do you remember what it was like to see this classically trained actor who was playing Lumiere? Were you just starstruck and so enamored?

[6:28] Paige Davis: It was a little love at first connection for us because we definitely hit it off. I didn't know that he was noticing me. I had no idea. And actually in those days, I hadn't taken over the role of Babette yet. I was in the ensemble, and we were kept very separate from the scene work that was going on with the principals. So I was mostly in a whole different room, and it wasn't until we started doing run-throughs that I ever even interacted with him at all. But yeah, I mean we were in a notes session in one of our final rehearsals, and he said something and I made a little tiny joke, and he looked down at me and kind of smiled, and I looked up at him and there's this moment of like there was like a ding on his tooth. Oh, and I think we just, I don't know, I don't know if we really knew what that was in the moment, but when we were in our first city, which was Minneapolis, that's when we really started to connect and spend all of our time together.

[7:35] Paige Davis: Well, and also we were just really, really great friends at first. You know, I think you on tour, you a lot of times you kind of find somebody that you really connect with that you want to go hang out with and have dinner with and go to the movies with and everything, and I just immediately connected with Paige.

[7:51] Patrick Page: Are there any character traits of Lumiere and Babette that you feel that you as human beings also contain?

[7:59] Paige Davis: Everyone.

[8:00] Patrick Page: Yeah, pretty much everyone.

[8:04] Paige Davis: I mean, yeah, we're both very flirtatious, although Patrick's a lot more subtle about it.

[8:11] Patrick Page: Yeah.

[8:12] Paige Davis: He loves women and you know, is entranced by lots of women, and I'm very flirtatious and very coquettish. Babette's very coquettish, I think.

[8:23] Patrick Page: Paige, do you like to clean a lot?

[8:25] Paige Davis: Uh yes, I do.

[8:26] Patrick Page: Well, no, let me know.

[8:28] Paige Davis: Because I like to go, yes, thank you.

[8:31] Patrick Page: She does clean a lot. She doesn't like to do it. It's a complaint. It's as if she were a feather duster and was compelled to clean all the time.

[8:42] Paige Davis: Hey, I cleaned naked for you this morning.

[8:44] Patrick Page: I always appreciate the naked cleaning.

[8:47] David Alpert: Well, thank you so much, everyone, for listening to E-Ticket to Broadway, but it's all the time we have. We're gonna talk more about Disney Parks. Patrick, you're from the West Coast. Did you go to Disneyland as a kid?

[9:06] Patrick Page: You know, I have a really seminal story in my life about that. It was going to Disneyland as a kid was a breakthrough moment for me in a whole lot of ways because I lived in a little town called Monmouth, Oregon. And I was growing up in the 70s, and so we would watch the wonderful, first was called The Wonderful World of Color, before it was called The Wonderful World of Disney on Sunday nights, and we would always watch. And they would announce on this program, Walt Disney was actually on the program, he would announce it, and he would be there in the park, so you would see Disneyland, and he would announce the new things he was building. So, for example, I remember vividly when they were building the Haunted Mansion and how much I wanted to go.

[9:49] Patrick Page: And so every year I would beg my parents to take us to Disneyland. And every year, being kind and loving and wanting their children to be happy, my parents said, you know, we would try, but every year, what I now know is there was absolutely no way to do it on the salaries that they were being paid at the time. We were real lower middle class. You know, we were just scraping by with the green stamps and the food stamps and the coupons and all of that, right? There wasn't a big summer vacation in the works. But I was a kid and I didn't know that, so I kept asking and kept asking. And finally I said, Well, if I raise the money to go, can we go? And they said okay.

[10:38] Patrick Page: In that voice at AJ. And they said, Yes, we could. So I said, May I have a garage sale? And sure, there's all kinds of stuff out there. They completely appeased him. Yeah, it's a very bad thing to do to a child. But anyway, I no, I'm saying they like I don't well, I don't want to give away the end of the story. Well, I went and I sold a bunch of stuff, and I as I recall, now granted, I'm 58, so this was probably 50 years ago that this happened, so my memory might be fuzzy. But as I recall, I made 400, which in 1970 something was a lot of money.

[11:20] Paige Davis: Yeah.

[11:21] Patrick Page: Um it wasn't enough to take the whole family to Disneyland, but apparently it was enough to make the difference. And so we went. We all piled into our Pinto station wagon and we drove two days camping in between because we didn't have the money for a hotel room or a motel six. So we drove down Highway One from Oregon, camped in between. I think it took about two or three days and we went. And when we got there through the gates, I kept saying, my I have a younger brother, he's 19 months younger than me, so we're kind of Irish twins, and so we have a lot of love for each other, but we also would really get on each other's nerves, like kids of the same age do. And so I was I got into the park and I kept saying over and over again, I can't believe we're here. I can't believe we're here. To which Mike eventually said, shut up.

[12:20] Patrick Page: But he's told the story in past and previous times, and he says to it made it made up the difference. He sometimes tells the story like it made the difference. His parents were shamed into coming up to the rest of the day. I think they were shamed into it. But I think it was really amazing that your parents were like, okay, like let the kid try. I don't think they ever like, oh my gosh, we're gonna have to actually rise to the occasion and go to Disneyland because serious. I mean, to give them some credit, I think they were doing some kind of good parenting, which is if you if you really what I'm saying.

[12:54] Patrick Page: Yeah, no, but if you if you really work for something, um, then that'll be rewarded.

[12:59] Patrick Page: I'll be rewarded.

[13:01] Paige Davis: Were they concerned when you sold all of your furniture?

[13:05] Patrick Page: I think I did sell a few things that were probably off limits, but anyway, I had the time of my life, and um my in those days there were no, you know, now we can just push a button on our iPhone and record the sounds of things.

[13:19] Patrick Page: So I'm a very oral person. And so my father carried this huge uh I would say it was the size of a small trash can, but it was a real to real tape recorder with a microphone that he carried through the whole trip to record all the sounds of it.

[13:37] Patrick Page: And when I came home, I would just listen to the sounds of the trip over and over again.

[13:42] David Alpert: My gosh, do you do those still exist?

[13:44] Patrick Page: Oh, I don't know.

[13:45] David Alpert: David's like, uh, because if you put those in the garage, I'll buy them.

[13:48] Patrick Page: Yeah, I will buy those. Are you kidding me? I remember I used to listen to um over and over to the music from the uh electrical parade, the main street electrical parade.

[13:58] Paige Davis: Yep.

[13:59] David Alpert: Can either of you sing it right now?

[14:02] Patrick Page: Yeah, boom, baby dean, boom, boom, beep, beep, yeah.

[14:09] Paige Davis: Yeah.

[14:09] Patrick Page: The Baroque Howdown.

[14:11] David Alpert: And Patrick, I read that you were very interested in magic as a kid. Did you go to the magic shop on Main Street where you were there?

[14:17] Patrick Page: I went, because it's right there to the right. As soon as you get past the, you know.

[14:20] Patrick Page: So that's the first place I went. And they used to have magicians in there before my day, Steve Martin worked in there. Um so yeah, first place I went and bought my ears, and uh, I think they sold the ears there.

[14:36] Patrick Page: My brother was infuriated because I bought the yellow and pink ears.

[14:41] Patrick Page: So because I had that recording, I have memorized essentially everything in Disneyland. In other words, I have memorized the haunted mansion, I have memorized the Pirates of the Caribbean. I'm the all the openings of things.

[14:59] Patrick Page: I can do I can do the haunted mansion for you now if you'd like.

[15:02] David Alpert: Well, this is what I was gonna say. You both were very kind for my birthday this year. You sent a Disneyland inspired video greeting and and you sent it to me, and I was like, wow, Patrick is lip syncing to Paul Freeze so well.

[15:07] David Alpert: And I was like, no, this isn't, you're not lip syncing. This is so, and Paige, you were a wonderfully creepy um ghost bride. It's wonderful, but but Patrick, would you be willing to treat our listeners with some of this speech?

[15:28] Patrick Page: I will do it for you if you like. I'll move the mic a little closer so we get the reverberate. Everyone, hold on. This is Patrick Page as your ghost host.

[15:40] Patrick Page: When hinges creak in doorless chambers, and strange and frightening sounds, echoing feet of through the games. Whenever candlelights flicker, the air is deathly still. That is the time when ghosts are present. Practice in there together with ghoulish dinner.

[16:08] David Alpert: I mean, it's it's flawless. It's so good.

[16:12] Paige Davis: I'm here to testify. I know that your listeners can't see, but we we did have that memorized.

[16:20] Patrick Page: Yeah. I mean, it's incredible. It's so good.

[16:24] David Alpert: Um I don't know how to recover from that. So give me a second.

[16:41] David Alpert: Paige, you're from the East Coast from Philly, yeah. Did you go to Walt Disney World then as a kid?

[16:48] Paige Davis: Apparently, as a child, I went to Disneyland, but I don't remember that.

[16:51] Paige Davis: Oh no, maybe I was wrong about that. Actually, I think I asked my mom about that, and it was Disney World, which is weird. Anyway, uh the first time I recall going to a Disney park, I was already essentially an adult. I was in college, I was 19.

[17:09] Paige Davis: And I went with a boyfriend, and we went for a whole week. His mom essentially paid for the trip because I think she wanted us to get married.

[17:23] Paige Davis: I remember the thing I remember most about it, other than just that it was amazing, was we stayed at the Grand Floridian, so we were on one of the hotels that was on the monorail, which meant we never left Disney, and therefore, like in the whole week, and therefore never left the magic.

[17:43] Paige Davis: I was so shocked when we got back home how I'd completely forgotten that the rest of the world even existed. And I was I was taken so taken in by the magic. Like I I definitely have I'm very gullible, it's true, so I don't know how much I can give to Disney credit for this, but we I believed everything so much that when we were standing in line to do the what was it called with a body that joined to the center of the body well it was that was called body boards, body wars, it was called body war.

[18:23] Paige Davis: There was one where you you got a splinter and you used to have to go in and try to help them get out of the splinter. You would go into a human body, you'd be shrunk down the size of a so it's one of those virtual rides, and we're standing in line. You know, you have the monitors taking you through and entertaining you all the way through.

[18:40] Paige Davis: So you're standing in line the whole time is telling us that we're gonna get shrunk down and go into a human finger and pull out a splinter. Well, I I'm getting agita. I am sweating, my heart is racing, I'm clearly agitated. And my boyfriend says, What is wrong? And I go, I I don't think I can do this. I think I had to get out of line. I used to I do not trust this. Nobody's asked this assigned anything. What if we don't get bigger? What if it hurts? I mean this is very dangerous. This is incredibly irresponsible. I can't believe Disney allows this to happen.

[19:13] Paige Davis: And he thought I was pulling one over on him, but I burst into tears, and even he knew I wasn't that good an actress. So I realized that I was dead serious terrified because if anybody could do that it would be Disney Yeah right so I was buying it I was buying the whole thing wow yeah and I I'm surprised you went back to a Disney park after that experience well I survived so you did yeah and what I remember most about it was it enchanted me to such degree I forgot that a world that wasn't Disney and Disney possibilities even existed.

[19:59] Patrick Page: Well that to me that that kind of hermetic feeling when you're at Disney is like it's it's what you pay for. It's what you dream about and it's why I uh we were once in uh Disney World and we had it was during the time that Paige was doing trading spaces and so we needed to have one of the um uh flats they call him a flat vest yeah the one of the plaid vests walk us through and one of the things that he told us was um that you know that if we would were to ask any questions about the the cast members who were playing any of the characters Mickey Mouse Donald Duck he would look at us we would say you know uh how long do they how long are their shifts when can they take the head off etc etc and he would look at us as if we were crazy he's like that's Mickey Mouse.

[20:55] Patrick Page: Yeah, of course we can't take his head off he's like and so I now having been through that and fully appreciated that philosophy, I become apoplectically furious at the Elmos and the people in the time of school playing around with their heads off.

[21:15] Paige Davis: So right. I know there's a Disney magic that we all pr uh subscribe to. And it it especially for those of us that love the theater, it's so similar. You know, it's real. You're able to defend this belief and exactly.

[21:29] Patrick Page: You know, what you use that great word, not antiseptic.

[21:33] Paige Davis: Oh what did you say?

[21:34] Patrick Page: Hermetic.

[21:36] Paige Davis: Hermetic.

[21:38] Patrick Page: And and people might think of that as it gets made fun of, right? A Saturday night live sketch about Disney Parks would be like cheesy smiles and faking, you know, but it's not that. It's just an utter commitment to taking you to a magical place.

[21:54] Paige Davis: That's all it is. It's their commitment to not ruining the magical experience.

[22:01] Patrick Page: I love it. It's unconditional love. It is familiarity, it's safety. I have been very interested lately in learning about emotional trauma and how the Disney Parks can heal. It's been a really interesting journey to discover, especially for young kids, that it's a safe place where no matter what's going on at home, Mickey will be there to hug you. It's really beautiful.

[22:40] Patrick Page: So that incredible voice for the ghost host, that voice just lends itself to Disney villains from Scar to Furlough, which is such a departure from Lumir. Do you have a preference for playing either the villain or the sidekick?

[22:54] Patrick Page: No, I don't have a preference. Um I like variety, so it'd be nice to go from one to the other. There's so many of these parts that I I you know it's so and and you know it's funny because I have dreams about playing them all the time because I played Scar about twelve hundred times, and I played Lumiere about twelve hundred times.

[23:13] Patrick Page: So when you do something that frequently, you know, it's it's in there in your brain and it keeps coming up in my dreams. And and I realize that um, although I'm healthy and strong, I uh you know, those costumes are such that I just don't think I could do it today with either Scar or with Lumiere. Um they're very, very heavy and um awkward to wear. And uh so if you got any issues at all, like I I've got an issue with my left shoulder, there's no way I could play Lumier now.

[23:47] David Alpert: Is there a Disney villain you've yet to play that you'd be interested in?

[23:51] Patrick Page: Oh. Oh, yeah. Cook.

[23:54] Patrick Page: Oh yeah, I'd love to play Captain Hook, yeah.

[23:56] Paige Davis: Okay.

[23:57] Patrick Page: I want to do a production with you as Captain Hook, Paige as Peter Pan.

[24:00] Paige Davis: Let's do it.

[24:01] Patrick Page: Tried to get her as Peter Pan, she refuses to fly.

[24:04] Paige Davis: I really let's be clear, I refuse to wear the green unitard.

[24:08] Patrick Page: Oh fair. Well, the green unitar, you know, you can get it, you can get a modern design for that.

[24:13] Paige Davis: It's just a unit card.

[24:17] Patrick Page: The real answer to your question is, and I'd like to put it out there, because I think that you you know you bring you attract toward you those things that you that you envision and ask for when you wish upon a star, your dreams come true, right? Um and and I believe that the Disney villain that I would like to play is as yet unwritten and unplayed by someone else. I hope that one day to be able to originate uh a Disney villain in one of the animated films.

[24:45] Paige Davis: Well, that is a everybody's dream.

[24:49] Patrick Page: Yes, but I am going to do it.

[24:53] Paige Davis: You've been training for it.

[24:55] David Alpert: Would you ever though, Patrick, one night in Hades Town, play Hades like from Hercules?

[25:01] Patrick Page: James Woods version, just for fun. I went and saw Roger in the show, and then I asked.

[25:06] Patrick Page: Roger Cart did it in the um Shakespeare in the Park this summer. Right. And then I asked Alan afterwards if I could if I could sing that song because I want to I want to do an evening of Disney villain songs, and he has the and the uh the Hades now has a wonderful new song for the stage musical.

[25:23] Paige Davis: I love that idea.

[25:27] David Alpert: David will have like a front row center seat if you have Disney Villain songs.

[25:31] Patrick Page: Yeah, totally. Well, you know, one of the one of the reasons is there's a lot of crossover between uh my fans, for example, on Instagram and Disney fans. And I think that a lot of that crossover has to do with Hunchback of Notre Dame. I noticed on YouTube that one of the versions of Hunchback of Notre Dame, that's a bootleg of the pro production we did in La Jolla, I believe, has over a million um views, and then another bootleg has over a million views.

[26:02] Patrick Page: And so I'm quite sure that more people have seen me play Frollo than have seen me play almost anything else I've done because of those bootlegs.

[26:12] Paige Davis: So yeah, I I I want to do an album with eight hundred and six thousand of those hits were David.

[26:23] Patrick Page: I actually saw you do it at paper mailing an album that appealed to those people um and as oh you didn't tell me that that's a great idea yeah and if it happened oh Josh and I've been working on it we'll see and as as it happened you're helping me interview my own husband kind of the the iconic Disney singer of the you know of the sixties and seventies late 50s 60s and 70s was Earl Ravenscroft who sings in uh Grim Grinning Ghosts and uh Pirates of the Caribbean and a bunch of other Disney things and also uh it is uh sings how the Grinch still uh the Grinch song your mean one Mr. Grinch and how the Grinch stole because I was also the voice voice of Tony the tiger so he's kind of a hero of mine and has been since I was a kid so that's why we want to do this.

[27:17] Paige Davis: He was also one of the birds in the tiki room yeah he is page there's this photo I saw online you're at Disneyland in front of the castle around the winter holidays and you have this expression which is the same as mine which is peaceful overwhelming excitement okay I'm looking at oh yeah that's a great shot I've never seen that shot like what was going through your mind during this photo because it's perfect I have no idea this what am I wearing she goes to what am I wearing you're at Disneyland I must have been when you were in La Jolla I believe that's true.

[28:01] Patrick Page: What my oh, I've just got a goofball.

[28:04] Paige Davis: You just look so happy and at peace.

[28:06] Patrick Page: I was so happy.

[28:07] Paige Davis: I I've always loved I you know, it's funny, I didn't like grow up loving Disney.

[28:13] Patrick Page: I came to it when I was an adult, you know, like I said, when I went down at 19, and that's when the Disney bug really hit me.

[28:21] Paige Davis: With the the magic it just gotten I never disliked Disney.

[28:25] Patrick Page: I just didn't Patrick was like it was this passion from when he was a little kid. We have friends who love they collect Disney things like you, you know.

[28:34] Paige Davis: I have an embarrassing admission to make about that, which is that when I was in college, I I lived a very sheltered childhood, and when I w went to college, I one of my favorite things was I had a map of Disneyland and I put it up on the wall in my dorm.

[28:53] Patrick Page: We're the same person.

[28:54] Paige Davis: I did the same thing.

[28:55] Patrick Page: I kid you not.

[28:58] Paige Davis: It was very comforting to me because I could lay there and look at it and I could go into those little places if I was really nervous, you know, or I had anxiety or depression or whatever.

[29:08] Patrick Page: But then eventually at some point I did bring a girl back to my dorm room who let me know that it was not acceptable.

[29:16] Paige Davis: Well, you know what? When I brought a boy back to my dorm room, he thought it was fabulous.

[29:19] Patrick Page: Uh no, I thought I'm kidding, I didn't bring any boys home.

[29:24] Paige Davis: But I will tell you, Patrick, I had a placemat that had the Disneyland map on it.

[29:29] Patrick Page: Yeah.

[29:29] Paige Davis: And same thing. I would look at it and would make me so happy and calm.

[29:33] Patrick Page: Yeah, because you've been in your mind. One of the ways I used to try to put myself asleep is I would do a little mind tour of going in the front gate, going around, going around to the hall of presidents, going around to the left to the uh to the uh city hall and the fire place and then going down walking.

[29:51] Paige Davis: And then I would choose, you know, do I go left, do I go to Adventureland and Frontierland, or do I go right and go to Tomorrowland? Or do I do I go forward and go into Fantasyland?

[30:01] Patrick Page: So I used to do this all the time to help myself go to sleep at night.

[30:04] Paige Davis: Yeah. Same here.

[30:05] David Alpert: Paige and Patrick, question for you both. Which Disney character most reminds you of the other one.

[30:17] Paige Davis: Be kind.

[30:18] Patrick Page: I I have some ideas in my mind, so I mean, I think of you as Lumiere.

[30:28] Patrick Page: You're Lumiere with one line from the Lion King.

[30:36] Paige Davis: I'm surprised by idiots.

[30:41] Patrick Page: He's Lumier of Lumier sounded like Scar saying that.

[30:46] Paige Davis: Well, I don't, you know, it's funny because uh to my shame, I don't know Coca Hantas and Mulan well enough to to talk about them.

[30:54] Patrick Page: But I know that Paige is exceptionally strong and resilient and and has an enormous amount of perseverance, so I'm tempted to say those, but what I really want to say is uh Mary Poppins, because um she is like that person that cheers you up and sets things straight and you know um uh and also she's and I've been with her now for 24 years, but she's very mysterious.

[31:26] Paige Davis: Oh, sweetie!

[31:38] David Alpert: We'll be right back.

[31:40] Paige Davis: Oh, let's the board?

[31:54] David Alpert: Fast pass!

[32:00] David Alpert: So it's time for Fast Pass answers. I'm gonna put 45 seconds on the clock this time, not 30, like we usually do because we have two wonderful guests. So I'm gonna go back and forth. But 45 seconds after I ask the first question. Are you both ready?

[32:15] Paige Davis: Yes.

[32:16] Patrick Page: You have no idea what's coming.

[32:18] David Alpert: Here we go. Paige, who is your favorite Disney character?

[32:24] Paige Davis: Oh, I'm looking at her in my head and I can't remember her name. Move on.

[32:28] David Alpert: Patrick, name any of the beasts enchanted objects.

[32:33] Patrick Page: Lumier, Cogsworth, Mrs.

[32:36] David Alpert: Paige, name a song from Chicago.

[32:38] Paige Davis: All that's sad.

[32:39] David Alpert: Patrick, what is your favorite Disney movie?

[32:43] Patrick Page: Um Beauty and the Beast.

[32:46] David Alpert: Paige, what is your favorite snack in the parks?

[32:50] Paige Davis: Oh. Do I have one? Anything fattening.

[32:56] David Alpert: Patrick, name a song from The Lion King.

[32:58] Patrick Page: Be prepared.

[33:00] David Alpert: Paige, what is your favorite Broadway musical?

[33:07] Paige Davis: Time.

[33:07] Patrick Page: Uh oh.

[33:08] Paige Davis: You can still answer.

[33:10] Paige Davis: Drowsy Chaperone.

[33:11] Patrick Page: Drowsy Chaperone.

[33:12] David Alpert: Solid choice. Patrick, you love Beauty and the Beast. Do you remember seeing it in the movie theater for the first time?

[33:18] Patrick Page: Yeah.

[33:19] Patrick Page: I didn't see The Little Mermaid because I think I was uh too snobbish about it or something. But it but then they Frank Rich, I think, wrote a review of Beauty and the Beast, saying it was the best Broadway musical that hadn't yet been done on Broadway, and so I went to see it for that reason.

[33:37] Patrick Page: And I remember thinking in particular that the the ballroom scene was exquisite. Nothing like that's ever been done before.

[33:45] Paige Davis: That's what I remember too when I saw it.

[33:47] David Alpert: Is that really your favorite movie though? Or did you just say that for sentimental reasons?

[33:51] Patrick Page: I think it's my favorite. I mean, there are some earlier ones that I love a lot. I love Pinocchio a lot.

[33:57] Paige Davis: Yeah, that's Pinocchio's scary.

[33:59] David Alpert: Paige, do you have a favorite Disney movie?

[34:01] Paige Davis: I have so many. I mean, uh I babysit a little girl who is really, really into Mulan, and I saw that so many times.

[34:10] Patrick Page: Yeah.

[34:10] Paige Davis: And Frozen, honestly, it's so it's so freezing good.

[34:18] Patrick Page: Really wonderful.

[34:19] Paige Davis: Um, I do love Beauty and the Beast, and I love seeing it in the theater, and I was absolutely enchanted and blown away. Um and uh and Nemo.

[34:30] Patrick Page: Nemo and Up.

[34:31] Paige Davis: Oh yes. Up.

[34:32] Patrick Page: Oh my god, up.

[34:35] Paige Davis: Yeah, that's yeah, that's it. Beauty and the Beast, you know, for example, we watched uh the documentary about Howard Ashman the other night on Disney Plus. It's a wonderful documentary if people haven't seen it.

[34:45] Patrick Page: And um they began to play that opening song uh from Beauty and the Beast, and I said to Paige, you know, it tells you something about the experience and about the song that I've heard it over twelve hundred times having to go to work, and it still makes me feel good when I hear those opening notes.

[35:10] David Alpert: Hold on, you're thinking ears. It's trivia time.

[35:13] Paige Davis: Oh boy.

[35:16] David Alpert: So here is your trivia question. We love visiting the Disney theme parks, and to maximize our time spent in the parks, sometimes we splurge and stay on property, like Paige did when she was 19. According to travelandleisure.com, how many hotel rooms are there at Walt Disney World?

[35:37] Patrick Page: Um at Walt Disney World. Well, let's say there are.

[35:43] Patrick Page: I'm going to say there are like 2,000.

[35:51] Paige Davis: I'm gonna say pulling it out of my ear.

[35:57] Patrick Page: Yes.

[35:58] Paige Davis: That there are 10,000 rooms.

[36:04] David Alpert: Paige, do you defer to Patrick on this one?

[36:09] Paige Davis: Yeah, oh yeah. I can't do math.

[36:12] Patrick Page: Yeah.

[36:13] David Alpert: So according to travelandleisure.com, there are over 30,000 hotel rooms spread across the 40-themed hotels of the park.

[36:21] Paige Davis: That's crazy.

[36:22] Patrick Page: You said, oh, when you said in the park, I thought it was a trick question that it had to be on the monorail.

[36:28] Paige Davis: Oh, like on property.

[36:29] Patrick Page: Well, the ones that are associated with the in the park that are on the park. Animal Kingdom, the Grand Floridian. Contemporary.

[36:37] Paige Davis: Contemporary.

[36:38] Patrick Page: Those hotels. There's 30,000.

[36:40] Paige Davis: Yeah, 30,000.

[36:42] Patrick Page: Over 30,000.

[36:44] Paige Davis: Oh my gosh.

[36:48] David Alpert: Now let's hear from some of you.

[36:50] Paige Davis: Huh-huh.

[36:57] David Alpert: We put it on social media, and your fans are very excited to ask about all things Disney, so let's get started. Jess wants to know what would be your perfect Disney couple's Halloween costume.

[37:10] Paige Davis: Well, we've done it once. We had a um a Halloween party on the tour of Beauty and the Beast, where you had to come as a reference from the show.

[37:12] Patrick Page: You had to come as a lyric.

[37:26] Paige Davis: As a lyric. You had to come as a lyric from a song. And so Paige and I came as the gray stuff.

[37:33] Patrick Page: Try the gray stuff. It's delicious.

[37:35] Paige Davis: So we wore all gray clothes and we did our hair gray, and I think we even put some gray in our faces and stuff, and we were the gray stuff.

[37:35] Patrick Page: We were the gray stuff.

[37:43] Paige Davis: That's a great costume.

[37:45] David Alpert: Well done. Nicole wants to know what's the craziest thing that happened on stage during your time in Beauty and the Beast.

[37:52] Paige Davis: Shall I say or do you want to?

[37:54] Patrick Page: You say.

[37:55] Patrick Page: The craziest thing actually isn't a very funny thing. It's that we were on stage in um Washington, DC, and there's a little huddle that happens between the objects, between Mrs. Potts, Cogsworth, and Lumiere during uh there's something there that wasn't there before. And Beast and Belle are getting together, and in the meantime, we have this little huddle, and in that huddle you could say whatever you liked. And we had some quite mischievous actors, Betsy Joclin and Jeff Brooks. We won't say any names, but me. And we were having a good time. So occasionally we'd have a little joke in there. And so I was expecting Betsy to bring on a little joke at this point. She had just been off stage and she came on and into the little huddle. She said, Princess Diana's been killed in a car accident. So in the middle of this scene, I'm told this in the middle of this scene.

[38:53] Patrick Page: And I'm now what am I supposed to do? I have to go on and pretend to be this, uh, you know, debonair French candle opera. Um, but yeah, that's that's what I remember as an event just because it was it was so memorable on stage at the Kennedy Center learning about that in that moment.

[39:14] Paige Davis: That's intense.

[39:16] Patrick Page: I thought you were gonna say like Mrs. Potts fell over one night, but that's also very interesting.

[39:22] Paige Davis: Oh, I dare you.

[39:24] Patrick Page: What?

[39:24] Paige Davis: I dare you to tell.

[39:27] Patrick Page: Um, well I should know that story. I've told this story in other contexts, so my fans are. So maybe maybe people have heard it. People have heard it. Let's bring it. We uh we were doing the show in Denver. If anyone's seen the Lumiere costume, it's essentially a jumpsuit that that zips up the back, so it's impossible to put on by oneself, plus the fact that you have these um braces that strapped to your arms with um hoses that go to butane packs on your back, and then these uh 20,000 volt stun guns on each hand. So you're you it takes a lot of people to get you into it, and a lot of people to get you out of it. And of course, then there's a microphone cord running up through your wig and all of that.

So it's not the fastest process. You can't get in and out of it easily at all. So we had gone to dinner at the Cheesecake Factory. Um, which is a which is a restaurant of sorts where they give you in any individual entree enough to feed a small village. And I had eaten this chicken marsala, which didn't agree with me. And um, so I was getting ready to go on stage and I was having an explosive bowel emergency. And so I kept saying to Jeff Brooks, I don't think I'm gonna make it. I'm not gonna make it, I'm not gonna make it. We're getting ready for the first entrance. And he says, What do you mean you're not going to make it? I'm not gonna make it. So I made it through the scene. And my dresser, God bless me, Jack McGrother.

They got me out of that thing. I hear I'm waiting as Bebette to enter, and I hear them calling Jack McRoter immediately to stage, right? Jack McGrother and Well it's Jack McGrother, it's the Pyro guy, it's the wig guy. I mean, it's a half building has to be there for me to use the restroom. But I'm like, well, I don't know what happened. I'm thinking he's sick, something's gone, you know. I think what people don't know about those hands that Lumiere wears is they don't just come off when you leave the stage. You're stuck with them the entire time. They're on you. Yeah. Um, you can't take them off when you leave. So you're you're you're you're a prisoner. Yeah. With three hours traffic of the stage. I mean, it was Herculean effort. Yeah. There was a Disney reference for you. It was not a quiet village that night. Was it?

[42:04] Paige Davis: It was so this has actually come up media and piece. Uh to quote to quote Kumba, I got so downhearted every time.

[42:14] Patrick Page: Not in front of the listeners.

[42:19] Paige Davis: So this one, um, it's actually come up a little bit in conversation, but um Broadway media asked which costume was more physically demanding for you, Patrick, Scar or Lumiere.

[42:30] Patrick Page: For me, Scar, just because I was older, I think. Um and there also the both costumes you can wear in a kind of a lazy way and not use them to their potential, and they'll be and they're easier to wear. But if you if you wear the costume and use it, for example, the if you do the mask work for Scar, as it can be done to really animate the mask, which is means using the body in a leonine way, as way as well, um, and really getting the walk so that the back is as straight as possible, which was always very hard for me. Um, to do the not not the upright walk, but the the the the animal walk to get that back as straight as possible with a cane. Um, I I think Scar was ultimately harder because of how much how much work went into it.

Lumiere was very hard too, but I was very fortunate that I got to see Gary Beach play the part. And Gary demonstrated the extent to which you needed to wear the costume so the costume didn't wear you. So if you look at any picture of Gary playing that part, you'll see him in these extraordinary poses. And he was always like that on stage, and I learned that from him. And I'd seen other Lumières who didn't take that lesson from Gary. And I always felt that I was grateful that I learned that from him.

[44:03] Paige Davis: Mariana asks, Do you feel that Disney shows are more restrictive when it comes to developing a character?

[44:09] Patrick Page: Um the answer to that is yes. Uh when we were doing Hunchback of Notre Dame, for example, there is an attempted scene between Trollo and Esmeralda, which is quite clear in the book and is reenacted in in uh in the book of the of the stage musical, but we uh had to stage it very carefully so it wasn't too suggestive or too graphic. Uh even though the musical was not being advertised as Disney's Hunchback Notre Dame because the it's so much darker than the uh than the animated film that I think they didn't want parents to be confused. Um, and I think that was part of the problem with perhaps why it didn't move to New York. One of many reasons is that um I think it was just very hard to market under the Disney brand because it's you know, a lot of people die in this, and um it's not a happy ending, and um, and there's a lot of sex and violence and all kinds of stuff that's not normally associated with the Disney brand.

[45:20] Paige Davis: Last question is for Paige, it actually comes from a listener named David, who's a big, big fan, and he says, I'm a big fan of both Trading Spaces and Disney. Would you ever be open to recording a voiceover of you narrating Snow White's home renovations and cleaning of the dwarfs cottage?

[45:38] Paige Davis: Absolutely. I'll do it for scale. Can you imagine? Paige Davis interviewing Snow White. Like, what are you doing? That's a really funny YouTube that somebody needs to direct. And we should shoot. We're gonna do it, I think.

[45:55] Patrick Page: It's time for some tough choices. Let's play Tweedledee or Tweedledum.

[46:02] Paige Davis: Here comes Tweedledeer, Tweedledum. I'm gonna give you two options and you let me know which one you prefer. So Tweedledeeer or Tweedledum, churros or dole whips.

[46:11] Patrick Page: I don't know what either of those are.

[46:13] Paige Davis: I almost said churros my favorite snack at um I almost said that out loud. See, now I wish I wouldn't. So now, so churros probably.

[46:21] Patrick Page: So churros are those like cinnamon sticks, they're breaded, they're really great, very sugary.

[46:25] Paige Davis: Oh yeah. Dole Whip is this pineapple like float that you can get in Adventureland.

[46:31] Patrick Page: Oh, I see. Well, I'll go with the first one. Oh, wait. The pineapple thing in Adventureland. I remember that now.

[46:39] Paige Davis: Yeah, the Dole Whip. Right by the tiki room.

[46:42] Patrick Page: Yeah, it's tricky. Can I get one of those frozen bananas instead?

[46:47] Paige Davis: Sure, yes.

[46:48] Patrick Page: Yes, you can. Tweedledeer, Tweedledum, Space Mountain or Big Thunder Mountain?

[46:50] Paige Davis: Space Mountain.

[46:57] Patrick Page: Solid. Tweedledeeer, Tweedledum, the title song of Beauty and the Beast or The Circle of Life?

[47:04] Paige Davis: Two good ones, but Beauty and the Beast.

[47:06] Patrick Page: Yeah.

[47:06] Paige Davis: Yeah. Perfect, perfect lyric. Almost you can't displace a word of it. It's it's a it's a perfect lyric.

[47:15] Patrick Page: And final Tweedledee or Tweedledum, the enchanted tiki room, or It's a Small World?

[47:15] Paige Davis: Enchanted Tiki Room.

[47:24] Patrick Page: Only because it's a small world.

[47:26] Paige Davis: How dare you end with that lyric?

[47:28] Patrick Page: It's the last one.

[47:29] Paige Davis: Yeah, no. We sign off. I actually am a person who likes the enchanted tiki room, not least the wish for Thurl Ravenscroft's performance.

[47:38] Patrick Page: Yes. Um I I think it has been proven that um it's a small world is in fact what has been identified in ancient texts as purgatory.

[47:52] Paige Davis: No. I love it. It's very sweet. But now you have I love that, except for the you know, the churro versus the frozen banana. You three or the other three you you said the same thing for.

[48:05] Patrick Page: Oh yeah. And he he would prefer a churro over the banana.

[48:11] Paige Davis: I mean the pineapple thing. Over the Dole Whip.

[48:15] Patrick Page: Yeah. Unless is it like an ice creamy thing?

[48:17] Paige Davis: Oh yeah. There's so many great snacks at Disney.

[48:20] Patrick Page: No, no, no. I mean it's Dole Whip an ice cream thing.

[48:24] Paige Davis: No. Question mark, it's a Dole Whip. I mean it's um Oh, it's dull pineapple chunks in a it's been whipped. So is it a drink? Or is it a pinch?

[48:37] Patrick Page: It's like an orange julius, but with pineapple quick.

[48:41] Paige Davis: Oh, like that. Yeah, it's like a I've never been asked to explain what a Dole Whip is. This is very exciting. And creamy.

[48:51] Patrick Page: Yeah.

[48:52] Paige Davis: Yeah, you eat it with a spoon, but they also know how like Dole Whip floats. There's flavor Dole Whip, it's a whole thing. But wait, what is what is your favorite, like retired ride?

[49:04] Patrick Page: Mine?

[49:06] Paige Davis: Yeah.

[49:09] Patrick Page: That's a great question. You know what? I have to say rocket rods, which existed at the people mover track at Disneyland, because I have a very strong memory of going on it with my sisters and it terrifying me. It was a ride that always broke down. It didn't last long, but I always think of that with fond memories.

[49:27] Paige Davis: I like that um Robinson Caruso tree house.

[49:32] Patrick Page: Yeah, the Swiss family uh tree house.

[49:34] Paige Davis: Yeah.

[49:35] Patrick Page: Oh Swiss Family Robinson. That's it's it's still there. It's just Tarzan's treehouse now.

[49:40] Paige Davis: Oh, now it's Tarzan's tree house?

[49:41] Patrick Page: Yeah. You can still do it. Uh those are the things that I marveled at when I was a kid that that wasn't the real tree.

[49:48] Paige Davis: What do you mean?

[49:49] Patrick Page: It it was a real tree.

[49:51] Paige Davis: It wasn't a real tree, it was a concrete.

[49:53] Patrick Page: It's real.

[49:54] Paige Davis: Right. Real concrete.

[50:12] Patrick Page: The next time you go to a Disney park, what's the first thing you want to do?

[50:20] Paige Davis: Well, you know, that that's a tricky question because you base it on like what the day is and who you're with and what which rides are like I usually run like fast to the Tower of Terror because I love it so much. You know, so I want to get like two or three rides on that in before I do anything else. And rock and roller coaster.

[50:40] Patrick Page: I like to run as far back all the way to the back and go on that wooden roller coaster.

[50:45] Paige Davis: Yeah. You know what we do now? It's a very different nowadays than it was in the old days. What we do now is we go to the California side of the park first, and we do all those big fast rides, and we kind of do that for two or three hours, and then we go over to the main park.

[51:01] Patrick Page: Yeah, it was California Screaming, and then they updated it a few years ago to be the Incredicoaster from the Incredibles.

[51:07] Paige Davis: Incredicoaster.

[51:09] Patrick Page: Yeah. Okay, so we'll go on that. So that's what we do. We go we go do those things first.

[51:15] Paige Davis: Yeah, I love it. You guys go right for the thrills.

[51:19] Patrick Page: You go right for it.

[51:20] David Alpert: Well, Paige and Patrick, thank you so much for sharing your wonderful memories of meeting together on Beauty and the Beast and going to the parks for the first time. This was such a delight. So thank you both so much.

[51:30] Paige Davis: Thank you for having us.

[51:30] Patrick Page: Thank you very much.

[51:32] David Alpert: Of course, and we'll see you at the parks.