This transcript was automatically generated and might contain errors.

[0:01] David Alpert: Welcome to this Park Hopper episode of E-Ticket to Broadway. Today I'm chatting with the icon that is Susan Egan, Broadway's original Belle from Beauty and the Beast, as well as the voice of Meg from Hercules. We're catching up about all things Disney, as well as learning more about the Disney Princess concert. See you real soon.

[0:32] David Alpert: Welcome to E-Ticket to Broadway, where Broadway meets Main Street. Here's your host, my pal, David Alpert.

[0:42] David Alpert: Susan, welcome back to E-Ticket to Broadway. You were the very first episode guest back in 2020, and you truly embody the magic that is Disney Broadway. Thank you for joining me today.

[0:53] Susan Egan: Thank you for having me! Congratulations on the long run of this beautiful show and all the people you've talked to. And yes, I love that I'm speaking to you from an office that has a window as opposed to my closet where I see a microphone during COVID.

[1:08] David Alpert: I know, but truly, when I think of Broadway and Disney, it is Susan Egan. You paved the way for Disney on Broadway, and of course, as I see over your right-hand shoulder, Meg. She is the moment, she is the icon. I remember what you said too about when you were talking about Meg, you were saying, you know, not only she's not a princess, she's not a villain, she's kind of a Disney character still. And I mean, it's been 25 years, 26 years. Um, she's still the only female character that starts on the bad side and goes to the good side. Am I incorrect, Disney fans? Give me another one. Like I know. Starting bad and ending good. Yeah. I mean, so many villains, I feel like, but maybe not. Right? Like who, yeah, I don't know.

So she kind of she's so unique in that way. I mean, listen, I go directly to Grumpy the Dwarf, who was so mad and mean, but he actually's always been good. That's a good question. Um, okay, so we got into on the episode of E-Ticket, but can you remind us your favorite Disney character and favorite Disney Parks attraction?

[2:14] Susan Egan: Oh my gosh, am I gonna be consistent? Because I haven't listened to our episode in quite some time. But my favorite character's always been Goofy. I want to say Goofy. Um, I don't know what it is. Maybe it's also because he's sort of undefinable in the sense of like we have that age-old question if Pluto's a dog, and we like what you know. But I also just think there's something um so beautiful about his soul. He's not stupid, he's goofy, but he's smart and he's got a sense of humor about himself. Um, and isn't afraid to be the fool to make people happy. Like his intention is always to make people happy. Um, you never see him mean, you know? Like even gets mad at things sometimes, you know, and Goofy still never does.

Well, it's what you said, his intention is always great. It's always great. I love that. That's beautiful. I want Goofy to become a Disney princess, like hang out with them and Goofy would totally do it, and that's the thing. Goofy would put on the dress and have the wand, and like with no apology, there's just something so beautiful. Honestly, Goofy is such a good actor. Um, and he totally commits in the same way that like Will Ferrell commits in Elf. That's the most impressive thing about Will Ferrell and what makes him so brilliant in comedy is that he's never wink-wink, like he's never in on the joke. He is fully all in, you know. When he shouts in Elf like, congratulations, because it's the world's best cup of coffee, you know, we just won every cup in New York.

Good job. And I feel like Goofy's all in, and we so aren't as humans, do you know? We just we dip our toe in, we see what people are gonna think, we see how it's gonna feel, we see what we get out of it, and that's never him. And so he would be a great princess. He would be on that track, he would be unapologetic and embrace it and also be a hero. You know, I just love that like thank God for this podcast that we just got to hear you talk about how wonderful Goofy is as a character. Like, where else can you get that content? And now you grew up in California, you were you know, right in Disneyland's backyard. Do you have a favorite attraction?

[4:33] Susan Egan: Yeah, I mean, I remember when I'm so old. Um, but I remember when Space Mountain opened, that was like the be all end all. This is the 70s, and you know, I was the youngest of three, and um so when we went to the park, it was still when there were e-tickets and A B C D E tickets, right? And so we'd always bought the E rides because my I had an older brother and sister. Um, so the weird thing about me is that it wasn't until I was in high school when I went with some friends of mine that I actually got to use the A tickets, and like my whole childhood, I never was on the Peter Pan ride. I was never on, you know, we did do Mr. Toad's Wild Ride, but we never did Dumbo. We never did because that was, you know, my my siblings were too cool for school, and we always did the exciting rides.

But so when I was there with my family, Space Mountain was amazing, right? But then in high school, um, I got to go on those those rides, and you know, like Peter Pan and flying over London. It was so magical. I know, and of course, I mean Snow White's Enchanted Wish, which is the option. Love, it's got everything good. Um, those are great options. And Space Mountain is one of the few rides that opened in Florida first, and then came to California.

[5:45] David Alpert: Did it though? Maybe it did. I will say what's interesting about it is that they're different in both parks. Um is it in Orlando you sit side by side, but in Anaheim, did the other way around. Yeah, yeah. In Florida, you sit front to back and then Matterhorn. Yeah, like the old Matterhorn, yeah. And like I went on the one in Florida recently, and it was like terrifying. It's it's bumpy and and Disneyland it it updated in 2005. Yeah, so here's my question. Was it always that way? And we just thought that's what roller coasters were because now I have no tolerance for it, right? I can't do the bumpy jerky rides I have because now the technology is there for these like Tron. Oh my gosh. Have you been on Cosmic Rewind?

[6:30] Susan Egan: Uh which one is it's like Guardians of the Galaxy. Yes. That one is so to the parks a lot, and sometimes this is so entitled. Are you ready? I I'm ready. All right, this is awful, and I feel guilty when I do it, but not so guilty that I don't do it. I'm backdoored into a lot of these rides, and so sometimes I don't even know what they're called.

[6:54] David Alpert: No, I hear you. I will I will join that on Cosmic Rewind. I was backdoored the first time, and it was I felt so terrible, but so blessed.

[7:06] Susan Egan: Yeah, I have something really exciting to say to you, and maybe you've already been there, but I have never been to any of the parks overseas, I've never been to Disney Parks, I've never been Tokyo or anything. But I am about to, so I'm gonna launch the first week of the US tour for Princess, and then I actually go to Korea for a week and then I go to Tokyo for a week. And after we close in Tokyo, they're taking us to the park, but we only have one day, and you can't do both parks. And so we're actually gonna do C.

[7:34] David Alpert: Yeah, I would suggest. Is that the right choice?

[7:36] Susan Egan: It is. Uh Tokyo Disney C is so cool and so unique. Of course, the Magic Kingdom is awesome, but Tokyo Disney C is so unique. I think you're really gonna love it. I feel bad that I'm not seeing Magic Kingdom because you know it's the it's the OG. But um but I also feel like how different is it from Anaheim in Orlando? The culture is different and it's really cool. The merchandise, I mean it's amazing. I'm so excited. But you have to go to Paris because like, of course, Beauty and the Beast is a French influenced. You gotta go. Um, I did get to open the Beauty and the Beast um in Orlando, which is now a while ago. But like when they did the Be Our Guest um restaurant, I got to go and do that and film some stuff there, which was Oh, yes, I remember that.

[8:19] David Alpert: Yeah, yeah. We love it all. Um halfway through the episode, make sure you're following the podcast on Instagram and E-Ticket to Broadway for games, photos, memes, a way to fill your day with sunshine. But Susan, on your episode, you actually tease that you are working on a Disney concert, which of course now we can talk about um the Disney Princess concert, which is now returning March 5th, 2024. 20 years ago. Well, 39 cities coming up. How did the tour get started?

[8:49] Susan Egan: So um Benjamin Rahala had this, was on a Disney cruise. He was flying home with Jeremy Jordan, and they had gone to one of those princess tea party events on the cruise. As of course, they're not the demographic, but they show up and they're sitting there having their tea, and then they see Cinderella and they see Belle and they see Jasmine. And they're like, I know her on Broadway. I know her on Broadway or on Broadway. So Ben was a program developer at 54 Below and always had to come up with these concepts. And he had some great ones of like a night of you know Celine Dion's music or Selena Gomez, or you know, he's got the Demi Lovato, he's got all these, you know, Britney Spears night. And then he thought, what if we did a Disney princess night, just a princess night?

And I just invite all my princess friends on a Monday night when their shows are dark, and we just get together, we sing the canon of music, and it's just gonna be a really fun one off. So of course he gets the best of the best. He's got Laura Osnes, he's got Courtney Reed, he's got you know Christy Altamar, he's got all these people, and they do this one off, and it sells out in two seconds. So then they do it again, it sells out in two seconds. Then he's got these YouTube videos, ultimately, over you know, three years of doing five shows a year at 54 Below, they've got 18 million views on YouTube. Like it's just it's speaking to something even more than than he had thought it would.

[10:09] Susan Egan: And two things happened. First of all, all of those beautiful millennials who grew up with those VHS tapes are now adults of drinking age and can buy a ticket to 54 Below. So they're coming and they're reliving as Disney does so beautifully. It's that nostalgia, it's that touchstone to your childhood, but in particular with this music, especially with like, you know, the the renaissance, right, in the 90s of Disney animation. So they get asked to do a show at Segerstrom in Orange County. I was living in Orange County at the time. They can't fly 15 girls from New York. So they just, so Laura's gonna go, Courtney's gonna go, and Ben's like, Susan lives in Huntington Beach. I bet she, you know, she'll be free with no no plane ticket and no, you know, hotel costs.

I wonder if she'd do it. I'm like, of course I'll do it. That'll be so much fun. And Adam Levy came in for the very first time to sing the duets as the prince, and it was the five of us, and just something just happened, right? It just like we all we didn't know each other very well. Um, I had known Adam since he was 13, but he had just met Courtney and Laura. Ben knew him from a pro a reading that they did. Laura and Ben obviously knew each other, Laura and Courtney knew each other. Courtney kind of knew Laura, but like we all, and then that was kind of cool because it was like OG Cinderella, OG Jasmine, OG Belle, and we just had a lot of fun.

[11:35] Susan Egan: So my husband's a producer, and he was looking at it, going, you know, I think there's more there than than you guys are doing. And so we talked about it for a while, and then I went to Ben and Laura because it was their brainchild. I said, I think there's something to develop here. I think that this would translate because you guys know the world of Broadway, but maybe what you don't know as much is the world of animation. But because I spanned both, I end up having to go to Comic Cons because it's in my contract. And it's not my favorite thing to do because I feel so awkward signing anything that I would totally sign for free at a stage door. Like, I'm like, really? You shouldn't pay any money for this.

But I see these people in these magnificent Belle dresses that they have made themselves. And I and the the energy at a Comic Con is like two Belles meet in the middle of this arena, and they're not like my Belle's better than your Belle. They're like, oh my god, where did you get those shoes? Or oh my gosh, I love your backpack, or what like it's a love fest. It is the most supportive, crazy atmosphere ever. And they spend so long making these costumes, and we should give them another place to wear them. I think those people would come see the show even if they don't even know what Broadway is. And so let's develop this to have a little bit of a wider reach. So we did. So the five of us did this for like two years at little PACs and little clubs around the country.

And then we're all like, well, that was fun, but we all do a lot better in our solo career, so let's just be done. But Laura and I have both been doing a lot of symphony concerts, and individually had been approached by different symphonies saying, Hey, this princess thing you do, do you have the rights to do it as a concert? And so Laura sort of came to me and she's like, Do we have the rights to do this as a concert? And when we play clubs and theaters, they pay an ASCAP VMI license, and so we can sing anything on the stage because we're just with Ben at the piano. But the moment we have an orchestration, we need to rent the chart and pay the licensing through Disney. Well, now I do that all the time.

You know, I call up Roy at Disney and I'm like, hey, I need to sing on Jose for the 20,000th time. So can you rent the chart? Can you send it to Chicago? He's like, yeah, no problem. So I go, I they're gonna say no, you guys. So when they say no, it means we're done with this because now they'll know we exist and it's and we're all we're ready to be done. It's okay. It's been a really good run. We love each other. Let's like have drinks and call Disney. So I call Disney and I say, Hey Roy, I need more than two charts. He's like, No problem, what do you need? I go, I need 26 charts. He's like, above my pay grade. So it escalates up to the president of Disney Music, um, who is about to retire actually, but has her replacement in the meeting, um, who I now work with on a daily, and I sent them some YouTube videos.

I sent them like our following, I explained what we do, and we've got this fairy god fairy at the center of it all, and he tells his story, and we all sing princess songs and kumbaya. And um, and they loved it. And they watched the videos, and it wasn't a cease and desist. It was, hey, we think you should ask for more than the charts. I'm like, hmm, do you think I should be asking for the animation?

[14:40] Susan Egan: They're like, we do. I go, Do you think we should be asking for your marketing department? I'm like, we do. And so what was happening simultaneously, um, and it was Kismet, is that they were 18 months away from launching a new worldwide campaign across every aspect of Disney, every division. They were rebranding the princess brand, which after Star Wars and Marvel is their highest grossing brand. So that's the sausage, right? This is the business behind the mouse. Yeah. Um, and they understood suddenly that it was not this big pink bubble letter brand. Right. That children are naturally gonna come. The new generation is constantly being indoctrinated into Princess Land, but their moms are the ones who watched the VSA VHS tapes.

That like they're those millennials are 35 now, and there's no product for them. And they rebranded the whole thing with this new font and black and gold and like this modern tiara look, and they didn't have a live component. And they said, Would you be our concert? And so we were the very first partnership ever, took a moment with some attorneys to negotiate. But my husband and I negotiated with Disney. We got a great partnership deal. I absolutely love all of my like now siblings in this family at Disney we I was on four meetings with them today um I love them all and we're now you know almost four years into this into this partnership and and it's expanded beyond that so I produced Disney Princess with them but along with my partner Adam Levy I produced a show at the Hollywood Bowl last year that now is going to open the Taipei Dome this year we did um we're writing a show for the cruise line for the uh Disney Vacation Club um we're writing a new show for the Hollywood bowl this year so now I've got four entities with uh with the company now as a producer it's amazing I love that yeah it's awesome right you're saying is like mm-hmm yep yeah and you know what it really was it was like we were Cinderella and we made a really really pretty pink dress we did and then this fairy godmother came called Disney and waved their magic wand and turned it into the that dress right like it was always beautiful and um and and they allowed us to keep the fairy godfurn they allowed us to have like so much creative control um it's just been really really wonderful and we played 18 countries on five continents well that's the thing and even this one this is you said it's the fourth year of it yeah oh well okay so that's the other like there's always another shoe that falls right so we signed our contract on March 4th Ben's birthday 2020 that our tour was going to start in June of 2020.

Go as Courtney would say, go. Um, that didn't happen, obviously. We thought, oh, we'll take six weeks off and record an album. That didn't happen, obviously. Everything got pushed. But what it did allow is the last time I spoke to you, we had a year to build a show. And so we got to make choices that we would not have had the luxury of making. Right. And that includes we rewrote every chart. We have brand new arrangements. We went into a recording studio in Nashville during COVID and we recorded sections one at a time, everybody spaced, and we recorded brand new tracks with a full orchestra. Like we never would have gotten to do that. Right. And what are some of the songs that you know people going expect to hear?

Oh, everything. So we are contractually obligated to represent all 13 now, because Raya's been in court, she's coronated. Um, all 13 Disney princesses plus the two frozen queens, which are their own franchise. Um, so yeah, so we we do everybody, everybody's in there. And our new tour we're really excited about because we've had a chance to really look at it and do a refresh. Um, we've got all the things that you have to do, right? We're not gonna deny you a let it go in Fort Harmony, but um, but we we found what people really loved were us reinventing songs they knew with those Ben Harmony arrangements. So we've added more of those. So for instance, we used to do a classic Princess Medley that was you know two and a half minutes that has a little Cinderella, Snow White and Sleeping Beauty.

Well, now we've got um a five-minute version that has so many songs with all three women in the show and more animation, and it's just like sort of oh, this is what it really meant to be. Like that was a nice appetizer, but this is lush. This is beautiful. Um, we've got a new arrangement at Riverbed, and we've got Asha in there. She's, I don't want to spoiler alert. We she's not a princess, but she's very important to princesses, her character. Yes. Um we've got this wish in there, which is a lot of fun because so much of our show is about women who've played these roles on Broadway, right? So I got to play Belle and I get to tell stories about being Belle on Broadway. And um, you know, Heba El Sheikh is going to be in this tour, and she she's a West End star.

Um, she played Jasmine, so she gets to tell stories about being the very first Middle Eastern woman to play the character of Jasmine. I mean, it's amazing. And Cindy Winters is in the show again, and she was Nala, so she tells that story, and she just went back into the tour of Nola after several years away, and like her new perspective of it, like these are great stories. Well, Ben got to work with Ari on Wish and was in the studio coaching her and vocalizing with her during the recordings of these songs. And so the fact that we get to sing this wish in new harmonies that Ben just wrote, and for him to get to tell his story about his Disney dream coming true about working on an animated feature.

It's really it's amazing. And the whole idea, of course, is that um we're just regular people, you know. It's just Susan and Heva and Cindy and Ben, and you know, we're just the kids who played with the dolls when we were little and we dreamed things, and and it can happen. It's perfect. And what I hear is like people are encouraged to show up in costume, which is oh for sure. And they do, and the dads show up dressed as Elsa with a sign around his neck saying, Let it bro. Like everybody's into it. We've got the sorority girls, each of them is a different princess. We've got, of course, the families. Um, you know, and it's funny. I did press this morning, and they're like, and I bet those kids are singing loud.

I go, they are, but you know who's singing louder? The moms, the moms. Yeah. They're not done being aerial. They're not done. You've conquered the Disney princess concert experience. What would be the next genre? Would you want to do like Disney villains or Disney sidekicks or Disney Animal? You're asking a 54-year-old woman. Now I did in the last version get to sing Mother Gothel. It was my favorite moment in the show. And that has now grown into a whole villains medley for um for one of the women in the show and one of the men in the show. So we get to fully explore Ursula and Mother Gothel and Scar and you know, like, you know, Jafar, like as we should, because who would these princesses be if they didn't have their enemies?

Um, so we love that. Um, we now also we expanded our prince character role because he should get to sing more than three duets in the show. So we've got so now we also get to have Hercules and Aladdin and um Christophe and uh Oquasi is in there, Quasimodo. So, you know, we're just sort of getting to expand the world a little bit more, which is really exciting. For me as a producer, what would I like to do? I think, you know, part of Princess was this um, you know, I was obligated to be on the stage as well as produce it, which is great, but I always wanted to create jobs for other people. Um, it was something that, and it's fitting. Jody Benson gave to me. You know, when I left Broadway and I wanted to start a family, she's the one who took my hand and introduced me to an agent who would book me in symphony concerts because you can sing symphony concerts when you're pregnant, and it's really hard to be Millie Dilmount when you're pregnant, so um, or Sally Bowl, you know.

So she gave me that gift. Um, she took me a woman in my 30s and gave me a whole nother career that would support me getting to fulfill another dream of marriage and motherhood. Um, and I mean it makes me weep because I can't overspeak my love for Jodi. She's in my life daily still. I just I love her. She's been such a sister and a champion. Um, and she shows up on our stages every once in a while um as a special guest. Um, and it's exciting for me to get to pass that torch. You know, Christy Altamar just had a baby this year, and two months after that baby was born, I go, bring him along, bring your breast pump, and let's just do a show. Really? And I'm like, yeah, she's like, I don't fit my best.

I go, I got a classical dresses, baby. Come on. And um, yeah, and as people get, we want to be the show that is constantly rotating so that the audience is getting Alyssa Fox, who just spent the last 14 years in Wicked as Alpha, but she was also Elsa on Broadway, you know, she was a standby for Casey, and so she went on a lot, and so now she gets to come, and we just had her fitting like two weeks ago, and she's like, Do I have to wear green? I go, girl, you can wear any color you want. She's like, I want to be purple, like, okay, you're gonna be purple. So um, you know, just getting to so that now, oh, you know, I saw Chris Daltimore last year, and this year I get to see Alyssa Fox, I get to see Heba, I get to see Izzy, I get to see Lissa DeGuzman, I get to see, you know, we've got this beautiful roster of ladies, and my goal for them always has been is we're not your number one job, we're your job in between your jobs.

Do you know? We're gonna be like, come play with us, because there's always shows. Come play with us, you know, when you're in between your Broadway gigs, you know. And um, you know, Ari just lived her dream last year as a Melda, and I'm like, okay, wanna go to Courier. She's like, okay. And she's going to Korea. I mean, you're creating a kind of a magic queendom, if you will. Like, it's an amazing that you're creating this culture of, you know, and what I love is like having, you know, on the podcast, Jody's been on, and Christy and Courtney and you, and like there's that kind of Broadway Disney fandom that is so loving and open, and I everything you're saying, I agree with. And I have to say too, like, you know, of course, I was there when the Disney was unheard of on Broadway, right?

So I sort of watched that transition and they weren't the most welcomed entity, but now it seems a foregone conclusion. Of course, Disney's on Broadway, right? No. Because every movie studio is now. But what I have to say about Disney is that they have given me space and they've like, they're like, we we know that you understand our brand because you've been representing it for 30 years in other ways, and we're gonna give you a chance to do it in this way now. Like the fact that they've given this old ingenue, you know, like the passport to to create some stuff is pretty amazing. And what I love about Broadway right now is like, you know, I'm a contemporary of LaShawn's, like, and the fact that we're doing similar things, and I'm like, yay for women, yay for the industries for you know, I tried to produce when I was 27 on Broadway, and that was shut down pretty fast, right?

Some mistakes on my level, but also there was no room. I had to choose whether I was gonna be an actress or whether I was gonna be a producer, and now that's not the case. And it is because the industry is expanded, we've got women in different kinds of roles now. There is representation across the board, and so it's like so. When I see LaShawn standing on that red carpet as a performer, I'm like, woohoo, I'm gonna go see that show. Yay! And when I see her on the red carpet as a producer, I'm like, woohoo! I'm gonna go see that show, yay, because she's got taste, you know. Um and we were led by great women, you know. You think about Margot Lyon, you think about um, you know, as as a producer in the animation, um, Alice Dewey was the producer of Hercules in '97, a woman.

Like that was Linda Wolverton as the writer of Beauty and the Beast. Like there weren't many, but I got to work with them, and they were examples. I love everything you're saying. I'm just smiling and listening and nodding my head. You speak so well about all this, and I I just I love that. Um how can people find out more about the tour? Okay, so right now the Disney website is down because um because of uh they're adjusting their website for new privacy standards. But so if you want to find out the dates for Disney Princess, the concert, you can go to Broadway Princess Party, spell it all out, Broadway princessparty.com, and we've got the Disney, all the Disney information there. We are in 40 cities between um March 5th and April 20th, all across a lot of cities in that Midwest.

It's a lot of cities, it's a lot of miles. I'm doing the first week, and then I head to Korea. We've got two shows simultaneously. I'm doing a Korea and Japan. We've got a great cast here. I'm doing the first week, and then Alyssa Fox comes in. She would have started the tour, but she's busy as Alpha Ba for one more week. Um, and then she's gonna come join our tour. And um, and if you're in Korea or Japan, then you can see um Ariel Jacobs and myself with a beautiful Brazilian actress named Laura Castro, who was the live action voice of Ariel in the Brazilian um translation. And um, she did our Brazilian art, Portuguese language, Brazilian production of Disney Princess, the concert last year.

But now she's gonna do the show in English. Oh, great, good, good, good. Teen Asia. So go figure. That's perfect. One uh final shout out on the Park Hopper episodes. We talk about merch. I'm gonna quickly share. I'm wearing a land boy shirt. Susan, you were from California. Do you feel like you're more team land or team world? I am land. I've gotta be land. I have to be loyal. I know. I hear you, even though I did go to Florida last month and had a good time, even though I did get food poisoning, but it was worth it. It was dopey dining. It was worth it. It was fine. Um head to eTicketpodcast.com slash shop to get your team land or teamworld shirts. Um, Susan, thank you so much for your time. Everyone listening, please go visit Broadway Princess Party.com to see the Disney Princess concert. It's wonderful. And we'll see you at the parks. Thanks, Susan.