This transcript was automatically generated and might contain errors.

[0:00] Ben Rimalower: Broadway Podcast Network presents Giants in the Sky. How Sondheim and Lapine went Into the Woods with me, Ben Rimalower.

[0:08] Ben Rimalower: Today's guest, Jeff Blumenkrantz, Rapunzel's Prince in the pre-Broadway workshop.

[0:13] Ben Rimalower: Once upon a time.

[0:18] Ben Rimalower: Jeff Blumenkrantz played Rapunzel's Prince in the pre-Broadway workshop of Into the Woods and went on to understudy the role as well as Jack and The Steward for much of the Broadway run, eventually taking over as Jack.

[0:32] Ben Rimalower: His many other Broadway credits include Three Penny Opera, Damn Yankees, How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying, A Class Act, and Bright Star, not to mention numerous off-Broadway and regional credits, plus concert productions for City Center Encores and the New York Philharmonic.

[0:49] Ben Rimalower: He is a familiar face on many of the best and most popular TV shows, and Jeff is also a Tony-nominated composer, having written songs for Urban Cowboy in addition to a long list of singers, including Audra McDonald and Megan Mullally.

[1:08] Ben Rimalower: When did you first even know about the show? When did you first audition? And what was, I assume you were already kind of like a Sondheim head before that?

[1:18] Jeff Blumenkrantz: Yeah, 100%. In fact, my obsession was with Sunday in the Park.

[1:23] Ben Rimalower: So of course.

[1:48] Jeff Blumenkrantz: Tell me.

[1:50] Jeff Blumenkrantz: It's long, Ben.

[1:52] Jeff Blumenkrantz: I've got as much time as you want to give me.

[1:55] Ben Rimalower: Okay.

[1:56] Jeff Blumenkrantz: So I came to New York in the fall of 1986, right out of college, and one of the first shows that I did in New York was South Pacific at City Opera.

[2:09] Ben Rimalower: Oh wow.

[2:10] Jeff Blumenkrantz: Paul Germaniani.

[2:12] Ben Rimalower: Marcia Mitzman as Nellie Forbush.

[2:14] Jeff Blumenkrantz: That's the one. Well done. It was actually Marcia and Susie Bigelow sharing the role.

[2:20] Ben Rimalower: Okay.

[2:21] Jeff Blumenkrantz: Um, so I was doing South Pacific at the time, and I had a friend in the show. Her name is Ivy Austin. Um, you might know her. I mean, she's had a really interesting career, but um, her big Broadway feature was playing the title role in Raggedy Ann the musical.

[2:45] Ben Rimalower: Oh wow.

[2:46] Jeff Blumenkrantz: Yes, so Ivy was one of the nurses in South Pacific, and we hit it off, and we used to, we had like wide swaths of time off during the show. So we would go down into the practice rooms at City Opera and just sing. I was, you know, playing the piano for her, and she would sing her songs, and she would say, "Oh, you know, play through this for me, and do you know, blah blah blah?" And so we just spent hours down there, and so I had been playing her songs for her, and she was like, "I have this audition for Into the Woods," which I was aware of because I'm a, like you said, Sondheim freak, and I knew it had been done at the Old Globe. And she said, "I have this audition. Would you be my accompanist since you've been playing for it?" I was like, "Sure, no problem."

[3:28] Jeff Blumenkrantz: Wow. So I go to the audition with her, and she sings her song, and as she's leaving, Paul's like, "Well, you're here. Do you feel like singing?" And I think I had actually gone, I might have gone to an open call and like was summarily dismissed. I think that might have happened. Anyway, I'm at Ivy's audition, and Paul says, "You feel like singing?" And I was like, "Okay." And I go over to Paul Ford and like, you know, "Do you know this? Do you know that?" He doesn't know like any of my songs. So then finally I'm like "On the Street Where You Live," and he's like, "Great." And I sing that, and then that's and I leave the end. And then the next day, my agent gets a call from Into the Woods, and they say, "Um, we are wondering if Jeff would do some work for us. Um, we are auditioning choreographers, and we need bodies, you know, people to learn the choreography and to show it to us."

[4:33] Ben Rimalower: So you remember what month this was?

[4:37] Jeff Blumenkrantz: I could guess it was probably March, April.

[4:47] Ben Rimalower: Fascinating, thank you.

[4:49] Jeff Blumenkrantz: Um, so maybe April, May. No, March, April, definitely March, April. So they're like, um, you know, would Jeff come and do this, you know, choreography work? And I was like, I was like, "What? How much does it pay?" I was like 21. I was literally 21. It's not you though. "How much does it pay?" They're like, "You know, $15, whatever, $10 an hour." I was like, "Okay." Because I thought it was gonna be lame. And I walk in to a room with Joanna Gleason, Chip Zien, Kim Crosby. I was like, "Oh wow, this is real. This is real." And then, you know, learned choreography. And then Sondheim and Lapine showed up and we did it for them. And I was like, "Oh my god."

[5:45] Jeff Blumenkrantz: So then I got another call. Wait, was that like Lar Lubovitch choreography?

[5:51] Jeff Blumenkrantz: I mean was that not yet. It wasn't, I don't think I learned his choreography either of the time because there was, I was asked to come back again. I wish I remembered who those people were. I don't, it was like Andy Blank and beers, no please, he wasn't even born yet. Um, I did it, I did the choreography thing again and, you know, along the way I had to learn, I'm pretty sure it was the opening. That's a lot, yeah. So um, so I was doing the opening for them as Jack and Barbara Brynn. No, it was just segmented. It was just like Chip and Joanna. I think it might have been Anne Marie Bobby as Little Red, me as Jack. I think Kim was there, but no Witch, no Jack's mother, just like kind of doing the last chunk of it. And then um, the second time I did that for them, hold on, let me close the door because the dogs are starting to get sure.

[6:00] Jeff Blumenkrantz: Sure, sure, loud. You guys, you guys, I'm gonna lock you out now.

[7:10] Jeff Blumenkrantz: Okay. Um, so the second time I did that, Lapine was there, and he said, "Hey you guys, I'm like the chair of this organization, it's called the Malay Colony. We're doing a big New York benefit, and we want to premiere some songs from the show at this benefit. Would you guys do it for me?" And I was like, "Okay." And I went to this benefit that was called A Night with Stars of Broadway, and I was the first one listed because it was alphabetical, and I was like, "I've never been anywhere near Broadway." But um, you know, we sang songs from the show. I sang "Agony" with Howard McGillan for the first, like for a New York audience before it had ever, you know, been performed in New York.

[8:10] Jeff Blumenkrantz: Oh my god, yeah, and um, I remember being on the other side of "No One is Alone," and we did the opening, and so, you know, we did a bunch of numbers at this thing, and then the next thing that happened was I was doing a, I had a job, he was doing a production of Anything Goes in at what was then called Penn Center Stage, like at Penn State, and they were like, "Could Jeff come and do our group sales presentation? And then we'd like to have him do a callback the week after."

[8:43] Jeff Blumenkrantz: Wow, understudy, and my show was teching that week of the group sales presentation, and the show was like, "No, you cannot go," and I was like, "I want to go." And so what they worked out was that I would go do the group sales presentation, and it would also be my final callback. Like I would not ever be having an audition for the show. So I went into this group sales presentation. I remember it was at Sardi's. And again, we just sang like selections from the show. And then a week later, I got an offer. So I like never had a proper audition for Into the Woods.

[9:29] Ben Rimalower: Oh my god.

[9:30] Jeff Blumenkrantz: Yeah, just fell in my lap.

[9:32] Ben Rimalower: Wait, so okay, were you singing like Rapunzel's Prince and Jack in these things? Or what was it?

[9:41] Jeff Blumenkrantz: You know, if I wasn't like, I wasn't doing "Giants in the Sky." With Jack, I think I did the opening and maybe "No One is Alone." And then for some of them, I sang "Agony," but you know, Rapunzel's Prince part of "Agony," but I can't remember what we did at Sardi's.

[10:01] Jeff Blumenkrantz: With Howard McGillan, or was that just that one time? Howard McGillan was at the Malay Colony event, but I don't remember what happened at Sardi's. Um, and then and then the offer you got was to cover both parts though, and The Steward.

[10:11] Jeff Blumenkrantz: And The Steward. And you know, actually in my contract, it said The Baker, but they never made me learn it. I mean, I was 22 when this, you know, when the job started. It would have been ludicrous.

[10:29] Ben Rimalower: And like, was that um, did your job start like when Broadway rehearsal started or the workshop, or like so I got, I remember the offer came on my birthday, which was June 3rd, 1987. And that was during the show. Like I was still doing the show in Pennsylvania.

[10:54] Jeff Blumenkrantz: Yeah. And then like shortly after I got back from Pennsylvania, they called asking me if I was available to do the workshop because I played Rapunzel's Prince in the workshop because I don't know if you have any of this information. Bob Westenberg was not available for the workshop. So the actor who had been hired to play Rapunzel's Prince on Broadway and cover Cinderella's Prince was bumped up to Cinderella's Prince for the workshop, and I played Rapunzel's Prince.

[11:31] Jeff Blumenkrantz: Now that actor is not the actor who went on to play the role on Broadway.

[11:37] Ben Rimalower: Do you know about this?

[11:39] Jeff Blumenkrantz: Okay, you have just now explained to me. I knew that um, I just found out today from Bob Westenberg that he started the workshop and then had to go finish his run of The Crucible, and then they brought him back. And I knew that there was something with Burke Moses, but I didn't know, I couldn't, I didn't know in how that figured in.

[12:05] Ben Rimalower: Um, so and I knew that Chuck Wagner had done it in at the Globe. So I really have not even now, I mean, you've just given me a lot of information, which I'm just reveling in, but I don't, so tell me like so. Was Chuck not part of the plan coming out of San Diego, and then they when it didn't work out with Burke, that's when they went back to Chuck?

[12:30] Jeff Blumenkrantz: Yes. I mean, I don't know why. I mean it's two track. I know this is so confusing because it's like there's the Cinderella's Prince Wolf thing, which seems kind of straightforward because they wanted Bob, but he couldn't stay for the whole workshop. So in my recollection, Bob was not there for one minute of a workshop.

[12:51] Jeff Blumenkrantz: I, he seemed to say that he was there for two days, but maybe no, as a matter of fact, I can assert because I remember exactly what happened on the first day of that workshop. Maybe it was two days after he signed a contract for it, and then before they started it even started. Maybe that was, maybe, and maybe there was another workshop before the one I did. I did a two-week workshop that was probably in July, maybe.

[13:19] Jeff Blumenkrantz: Um, okay, but so this is fascinating.

[13:21] Jeff Blumenkrantz: So okay, then um, so the Bob thing was kind of straightforward though, it sounds to me. Like they they they couldn't use him for the workshop, they still wanted him on Broadway, so they said Rapunzel's Prince, whoever that is, will play that part and we'll get Jeffy to be Rapunzel's Prince for the next uh two weeks. But then, so then at that time it was Burke who was who they were planning to go to Broadway with as Rapunzel's Prince. I mean, Burke had a contract to go to Broadway. And so then what happened? I mean I don't know what the conversations were, but they decided that they did not want to go to Broadway with Burke, and then they had auditions again. Where during the during the period uh while you were doing the workshop in between the workshop and the start of rehearsals for Broadway.

Oh, so I think Burke did the whole workshop. Yes. Gotcha. And just for the record, I think Burke was good. He's always good, isn't he? I mean, like, I I think he was good. I think it had more to do with like his energy in the room, but that's just my interpretation. I think I I couldn't get a hold of it yet, but I think he actually has talked about this. Like he wrote a book about like about personal. I don't know. I haven't I don't even know what the personal issues were, but but I I think that he's uh I think that his story is that he messed that up somehow or something, but that but I didn't know any details, and I certainly and I didn't even know what he was hired for or what track or what the timing was.

Um but he was good. I mean, he was legit. I don't know, you know that that was a that was a big choice they made to like I because you know we well we joked that like they put him on scholarship for a year, you know, because I think when you when you let someone go and they have a year-long contract, I think you're paying them for the year. Oh wow. I don't think I don't think there's like a buyout for there's only a buyout when it's uh like a chorus contract, I think. Yeah, principal guaranteed contract. I think they paid him for a year, anyway, um it makes sense to hear that he was good because it would have been so unfair if they didn't like him as the wolf, so they fired him from Rapunzel's Prince. I mean, like so it would have to be something else, you know.

[16:00] Jeff Blumenkrantz: Yeah, yeah. So you'd been playing Jack and Rapunzel's Prince in these different things, but then you were Rapunzel's Prince in the Yeah, I think Fenn must have been doing the workshop. And then uh right, because he had done old the old globe also. Yeah, he was, you know, they knew that they were gonna be using him. So his job was never up for grabs. But but he was also like you, uh old, like you know, in his 20s, I think, or something. No. No, he was younger. He was like 16. He was a kid. Gotcha. Um, and then um, I mean, I'm so curious about that workshop. Like it was at 890 Broadway, right? Um, and uh like Betty Buckley was the witch. Well, that's another story. So Betty was only available for the second week of the workshop.

So Suzanne Douglas, do you know about Suzanne? She's she uh the now uh sadly the now deceased Suzanne Douglas, she died young. Um Cinderella and Rapunzel, I guess. So she since Betty was not available, and Pam Winslow wasn't available either. So Suzanne was did the witch for the first week, and then when Betty showed up, Suzanne became Rapunzel. So children will listen was in the show from the beginning before we started. I think so. Um, you know, it was a theme that I think was established in the original second midnight, which was this like I don't know, six or seven minute, everybody on stage singing. Well, I think the reason why they cut it was they they felt like it was a two on the nose.

It was like we everybody was singing the themes of the show. Um, but it included that theme. Whatn't uh uh children may not know. Um I really liked it. I I thought it was good, you know, because you get one of the things that I think they lost by cutting it, was in that when when it was still in act one, you started thinking about the relationships, like even between the stepsisters and the stepmother, like all the parent-child relationships and how complicated they all are. And I I think we we just lost that a little bit, you know. You think about I mean, I guess you get Cinderella and her father, you get the baker and his father. I don't know, you get I guess you get plenty of parents and children stuff, witch and Rapunzel, but I don't know. It's it was a beautiful piece of writing, and I'm sorry, the world doesn't have it.

[19:02] Jeff Blumenkrantz: Yeah, yeah, I I really like I like it on those weird demos with like Maureen Moore and like George Lee Andrews and yeah John Karen Mitchell. Um I haven't listened to that in a long time. I need to go find those. Yeah, I mean uh it's uh I I don't know if it's seven minutes of them. I wonder if it's not even even that may not be the full the full version. Um but it was long, it was long listen, and it has um the the verse of children will listen like that Barbara Streisand has in the song, like that how do you say to a child in the night? Yeah. Oh yeah, that was beautiful. Don't turn I won't also tell. Yeah. But then it has more stuff too that's not in the show musically, or at least you know that this the like um uh I don't understand it.

Yeah, uh-huh, totally. I guess why does everyone obey his mother? I don't understand, yeah. Yes, yeah. There's a lot of back and forth like don't I won't I I wanna do a show um with all the understudies from the revival doing uh all the cut songs from the original. Yeah maybe it should be from both casts, like uh there's a third there are 85 casts and there's no limit, right? There's no limit. So um okay, so tell me tell me about um playing Rapunzel's Prince in the workshop. How how was that for you? I assume because it seems like Agony didn't change that much from all the pre-Broadway incarnations. No. I mean, honestly, like nothing I don't think nothing will I don't think anything will ever top like that Malay colony benefit experience where you know to have people laugh the laughter of like we've never heard this before.

It was it was very heavy. But um I don't really remember the presentations of the of the workshop, I guess. Weren't there three different endings? Like you did one version where the baker's wife didn't die, and one version where everybody died, or like I don't remember. Are people saying like they did that we did that on successive days? Yeah, like that there was like an A ending, a B ending, and a C ending, and that they like were all tried. I didn't remember that we did that in the workshop. I remember that they that they did some like big experimenting in previews. I feel like there were days in previews when the baker's wife didn't die, and you know, the narrator didn't get, you know, like all playing around with all that stuff in the second act.

I remember that in previews. I I don't remember how much that played into the workshop. I mean, there definitely seems to be a lot of confusion in general about what was in the workshop, what was in the broad.

[21:57] Jeff Blumenkrantz: Were the were the workshop at the same studio where Broadway rehearsals took place? Oh, really? Not until um we I feel like we didn't go on the payroll until they had moved into the theater. Wow. Well, it's a good thing that you that you got that you were in the workshop, so you had you had a leg up on everything. Yeah, yeah. Carolyn was also in the workshop. She did Jack's mother. Yeah. So a few of us like we knew each other and we knew the show, and we didn't come in blind. Um, but I think they must have been at 890. Um that's what I wonder if that's part of the confusion. Like if it was the same room, if the stage manager's tape on the floor didn't get pulled up between in the month of August, like no wonder it all seems like one thing.

Yeah. Um and so uh what what was the first time you went on? I mean, you know, I in on Broadway. If I had to guess, I would say it was definitely for the steward, and it was probably a couple of months into the run. Yeah. Um had did did you feel equally ready to go on in any of the tracks? Well, I think I mean we were very well rehearsed. We had understudy rehearsals twice a week for I think the whole time I was in the show. Because the understudies, you know, everybody covered at least two or three parts. Yeah. So everybody had to learn their parts. And then once they learned their parts, we were the you know the people who would put in the replacements. So it was just uh and it became a revolving door eventually.

So I mean, you know, Felicia Rashad was coming in, you know, months after we opened. Right. And uh and then there were always new understudies getting added, and so we were very well prepared. I mean, they even gave us a tech, maybe one or two tech rehearsals, because there was some you know, wonky um scenic stuff that we really needed to like things moving moving parts that we needed to be standing on and you know feel how they they moved. So um we you know, by the time I you know it was it was a blessing, I think, going on for the steward because it was the least responsibility. Uh and uh but I you know these back in the days of Into the Woods understudy assignments were numbered. You were the first cover or the second cover.

Uh you were the first cover and that person was out, they had to put you on. Like you had the advantage, you know, though you were the priority cast person, and I was I had first cover for all three of my parts. So I went on a ton. Wow nowadays, you know, they get it's is at the discretion of the production or the stage manager, you know. Tuesday we're putting on him, Wednesday we're putting on him. Um but I went on a lot. We actually kept a tally in the dress rooms, like how many times people went on. I think I I must have had the the best the highest numbers because you know, if Chip was out, I was on because Philip would play the baker and I would play the steward. And then, you know, people Ben left for a month to go do um a movie, and so I got to go on a lot.

Yeah, I think it was uh you know it was upwards of 200 times, if I'm 200? That sounds like too many. Must have been like a hundred something. It was a lot. Did you stay in the entire run? No, I left uh I think I left in February of 89. No. Yeah, February or March. Um, but so you did it with Lisha Rashad and you did it with uh Betsy Joslin as the witch. Oh yeah. Well, Betsy was Betsy started out as a coach, she was an offstage cover with us. She actually beginning. Say again? From the beginning. No, but early. Yeah. And um I learned how to knit from Betsy Jocelyn. That was a very big deal. Like that was a hobby that took me through many decades.

[26:46] Jeff Blumenkrantz: Um, so Betsy was uh Betsy was with us, and then she would become the star of the show for you know a few months, and then she would be back upstairs with us. That was uh that was a unique journey. I hope you get to talk to her because uh it's her she had a very unique experience, I think, in that show. Everyone that um I've talked to has had such great things to say about Betsy that they've all just loved her and they all just thought she was so great as the witch. She really was. I in fact, Betsy was probably she struck the balance between the Bernadette version and the Betty Buckley feel, you know?

[27:29] Ben Rimalower: Interesting.

[27:30] Jeff Blumenkrantz: Because she has like, you know, she can be really shrewd, and she's also a great comedian. Yeah. She really she's a and and a great singer. So she she was uh an excellent choice for that role. And uh, but also I remember going on with Betsy the one, maybe the one time she played Cinderella, and she just I think she was she felt stupid in that part, like she was too old or something. And I just remember being on the ground, you know, there's another bean, there's another bean, and you know, we're scrambling around picking up the beans, and she looks at me, she's like, Oh my god, I can't believe I'm doing it.

[28:15] Ben Rimalower: That's funny.

[28:16] Jeff Blumenkrantz: Um what about like uh were you still in it when Nancy Dusso was in it?

[28:22] Jeff Blumenkrantz: Oh yeah. I think the only one I missed was Ellen.

[28:26] Ben Rimalower: Oh right, because I guess that was just the last month.

[28:29] Jeff Blumenkrantz: Yeah. Um and um what like so did uh oh, and how did those when you were doing those understudy rehearsals, would you only play one role of your three when you did an understudy rehearsal on a given day?

[28:44] Jeff Blumenkrantz: It was like you'd come in and they'd be like, okay, today Jeff is playing Rapunzel's Prince, Michael's playing Jack, you know, they just kind of divvied it up. Uh and then some days they'd be like, Yeah, we don't need you, we're just doing the stepsisters stuff today. But um, yeah.

[29:02] Ben Rimalower: And wait, was Maren Maisie in the understudy crew from the beginning?

[29:06] Jeff Blumenkrantz: No, but again, I think Maren might have been hired when Betsy became like full-time witch, because I think Maren's track and Betsy's track were identical. Because they were like people that could play the witch and Cinderella kind of a thing. Which Cinderella I know, well Maren ended up replacing us Rapunzel. Uh she must have covered it.

[29:32] Ben Rimalower: Yeah.

[29:34] Jeff Blumenkrantz: Um, and uh was that your first exposure to her?

[29:41] Ben Rimalower: To Maren?

[29:42] Jeff Blumenkrantz: Yeah. You know, I did I did a a reading or workshop of a Michael John LaChiusa piece. And I might have, I can't remember the chronology if, but Maren was the lead in that. So I just don't remember if it was before I knew her from Into the Woods or not.

[30:04] Ben Rimalower: Yeah.

[30:05] Jeff Blumenkrantz: Um, I mean, she must have been incredible in all of those parts.

[30:10] Jeff Blumenkrantz: Yeah, she really was. She was legit. I mean, she was legit back then. And she was, you know, she was not a Broadway diva yet.

[30:17] Ben Rimalower: Yeah.

[30:17] Jeff Blumenkrantz: She was just a real she she seemed very like she was like a corn fed. Where is she from? Is she from like Illinois or something?

[30:24] Ben Rimalower: Something like that, yeah.

[30:27] Jeff Blumenkrantz: She was just like she like a girl from Illinois. Very like wholesome and but you know, still had like a you know a great body sense of humor, but she just was she just looked like corn fed, you know, just like young girl from Kansas or Illinois, wherever. Um, but she was she was legit, yeah. She was great. I love that pictures of her.

[30:51] Ben Rimalower: I know I have pictures of her as Cinderella and Rapunzel.

[30:56] Jeff Blumenkrantz: Yeah. I have good pictures.

[30:59] Ben Rimalower: I want to see them. What about what about the other people in the cast that covered other roles like Kay McLelland covering like the baker's wife? Like, would you go on with her in the understudy rehearsals?

[31:12] Jeff Blumenkrantz: Oh yeah. I mean, you have done every combination with everybody, and so it's fun when you go on at the same time. Like Carolyn and I, as Jack and Jack's mother, that was a really good combo.

[31:24] Ben Rimalower: Yeah.

[31:25] Jeff Blumenkrantz: Because we had a shorthand, you know?

[31:27] Ben Rimalower: Yeah.

[31:30] Jeff Blumenkrantz: Um, wow. Uh that that does sound very fun. I mean, and was it was it clear, like the show's so iconic now. Did it have that sense about it during the run or early in the run?

[31:44] Jeff Blumenkrantz: I don't think it ever does. It's like I was saying, I was obsessed with the Sunday people, and I thought that was iconic, and they were all like, really? That's you know, when you're in the show and you know all the daily drama, and you know like that the set breaks once a week, and you know that they're you know that it's just selling okay, you know, all that stuff. It like feels very kind of earthbound.

[32:06] Ben Rimalower: Yeah.

[32:09] Jeff Blumenkrantz: It doesn't feel like like the stuff of legends when you're doing it. And um what uh what about like um when the stars came back for the um videotaping, were you still there?

[32:26] Jeff Blumenkrantz: I was gone. No.

[32:27] Ben Rimalower: So uh do you remember? Oh, did you ever go see the show after you left?

[32:32] Jeff Blumenkrantz: I'm sure I must have. I mean, the truth is when you're an understudy, you see the show constantly. I mean, at least for the first month or two.

[32:40] Ben Rimalower: Yeah.

[32:41] Jeff Blumenkrantz: Um so you almost, you know, I don't I didn't need to see it, I saw it all the time. And I listened to it all the time.

[32:49] Ben Rimalower: Yeah.

[32:50] Jeff Blumenkrantz: We had to stay for like most of the show. We had to stay until our last character made his last entrance.

[32:57] Ben Rimalower: Wow.

[32:58] Jeff Blumenkrantz: Which is, you know, past the giant scene.

[33:02] Ben Rimalower: Yeah.

[33:02] Jeff Blumenkrantz: So that's that's a that's a full-time job.

[33:12] Ben Rimalower: Frank Hartenstein.

[33:14] Jeff Blumenkrantz: And what what was that like? I mean, he was great. I'd actually, oh no, that was my first time working with Frank.

[33:21] Jeff Blumenkrantz: Um, yeah, he was great. I mean, I don't know. Uh I did like a few shows with him, so my memories of Frank are jumbled, but you know, he was like the real deal. I have to say the whole team that you know ran understudy rehearsals, they were very, very good at it. Marianne Kane, Jonna Murray, um, like real Cracker Jack uh stage managers.

[33:49] Ben Rimalower: And were they had they done Sunday in the park with George or done a lot with Paul Geminiani? What was there sort of like uh a I know Johnna definitely was on Sunday?

[34:00] Jeff Blumenkrantz: I don't think Frank was the PSM for Sunday, but Jonna was around because I read that book. Yes, that was when I read about John and there.

[34:08] Ben Rimalower: Yeah.

[34:09] Jeff Blumenkrantz: Um what what about Geminiani? Was he was he um not heavy-handed, what's the word I mean? But do you know, did he give you a lot of attention as understudies?

[34:26] Jeff Blumenkrantz: I don't remember. Was he intimidating?

[34:31] Jeff Blumenkrantz: Well, again, I knew Paul already from South Pacific. So I, you know, I wasn't intimidated. But he is, you know, Paul is a big personality, and he's also a little like I'm gonna use a if I if this word has like a negative connotation, I don't mean it to, but he's a little like kind of inside clubby, like he, you know, he has this kind of best friends and jokes, and I remember, you know, being on stage and like I'm watching him, you know, chum around with either the band or the people on stage, and I'm like uh I don't know we're up here you know he's like he's a good time guy you know and he likes to he likes to chum around with his friends so yeah if you're not one of those people I could see like where you could feel like maybe intimidated or just like not in the club kind of yeah um I just thought of a story I wanted to tell you.

[34:40] Ben Rimalower: Tell me please.

[34:40] Jeff Blumenkrantz: It's really it's it's really more of a Bernadette Peters is a goddess story always happy to hear those okay so this is previews and it's the day that they are putting the last midnight into the show so what had been Boom Crunch is now becoming the last midnight and is this late in previews it's not early I mean that was a very end of the preview period edition so was boom crunch not working uh I don't know I mean I didn't it didn't disappoint me but I guess they felt like they could do better yeah um because I I mean I still prefer last midnight but I wonder I can't tell if that's just my bias from knowing it first.

[36:33] Ben Rimalower: I wonder if it had to do with the like the groove of it like Boom Crunch has a kind of heaviness and last midnight you know gathers speed and gets that like kind of jazz waltz thing going and um and maybe they were just looking for more of a swirl to get her to do her exit.

[36:55] Jeff Blumenkrantz: Yeah. Um so Ben, for whatever reason was not available for the first staging rehearsal of the last midnight. So I'm playing Jack, and Laura is you know, we're up there with Lar, and he says, Okay, um the first line I want you to walk here, and then on the second line, I want you to do this, and on the third line, I want you to go there, and Bernard's like, you know, listening, and then she says, you know, maybe it would be really powerful if I just stand still for this first part, and he's like, um, actually, uh, what I'd like you to do is walk here on the first line, do that on the second line, go over there on the third line, and she like went okay, and then she did it, and I'm like, don't do it, it's terrible.

What he's asking her to do is terrible, and everybody knows it, and she just did it, she did it for the next whatever 45 minutes of that rehearsal, and then you know, wasn't going into the show that night, it was still like they were still doing boom crunch at night, and then the next time they rehearsed it, she was standing still for the front of the song, as it should be, but I just thought that was so graceful, like most other actors would have gotten into it, gotten into it with him, then and there have been like absolutely not. I am not doing that. And she just showed it to him, you know.

[38:54] Ben Rimalower: So I will always respect Bernadette Peters for letting, you know, showing people what they need to see before. She probably went to James and said, I ain't doing that. And like, you know, she didn't embarrass Laura.

[39:11] Ben Rimalower: Yeah.

[39:12] Jeff Blumenkrantz: She didn't put up a fight. It was very elegant.

[39:14] Ben Rimalower: Um, well, that's great. Well, thank you so much, Jeff. It's great. It's so great to talk to you, and I really appreciate uh your stories and your anytime that. And uh, all right. Well, be well and have a great rest of your day.

[39:27] Jeff Blumenkrantz: Thanks, you too.

[39:33] Ben Rimalower: Thank you for listening to Giants in the Sky, how Sondheim and Lapine went into the woods on the Broadway Podcast Network. Check out episode 13 with Kim Crosby and Robert Westenberg, the original Cinderella and her prince slash wolf.