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[0:06] Alan Seales: Hey everyone, welcome to our final episode of 2024. I'm Alan Seales here with The Theatre Podcast, and we have a special crossover guest, uh Sarah Goodman (, host of Good Show Podcast with Sarah Goodman (. That's her, Sarah Goodman (.

[0:21] Sarah Goodman ( (: Hey, it's me, Sarah Goodman (.

[0:23] Alan Seales: Tell us about your podcast real quick. I love, I personally love your podcast. So I had to have you on.

[0:29] Sarah Goodman ( (: Thank you. That's so kind of you. Yeah, Good Show is with me, Sarah Goodman (. I'm looking at theater through a queer lens and talking about the craft of theater and how it connects with the LGBTQ community. But I also have a really exciting series coming up this year that's gonna be all about designers because I'm a sound designer and I love putting the spotlight on other designers. So we're gonna get a bunch of special episodes in the spring that are all about designers.

[0:57] Alan Seales: Spring 25. All right. Can you believe we're in freaking 2024?

[1:00] Sarah Goodman ( (: Well, we got like a few days left as we're recording this.

[1:03] Alan Seales: Yeah, it's wild. 2025.

[1:04] Sarah Goodman ( (: 2024.

[1:06] Alan Seales: I'm ready to say goodbye to 2024 in many, many ways.

[1:10] Sarah Goodman ( (: And theater, including theater. I think theater still hasn't come back. We've had some changing of the guard in some leadership positions in theater in New York, and I'm anxious to see what happens this year in 25.

[1:25] Alan Seales: Yeah, yeah, some changes. There's been it's been kind of a rocky year, I feel like 24. Overall, completely. Politically, economically, geopolitically.

[1:35] Sarah Goodman ( (: Anyway, so we're not here to talk about that. I've seen I saw a bunch of shows. Tried to do more plays in 24, which was something I had promised myself I was gonna do. And um the first show I saw, January thirteenth, twenty four, was neither a play nor a musical. It was uh Illuminate, which was this.

[1:54] Alan Seales: What was that show about?

[1:56] Sarah Goodman ( (: It's at New Orleans it was at New World Stages. Uh it was like a dance troupe, a hip hop dance troupe where they had like uh uh fluorescent lights basically as skeletons.

[2:05] Alan Seales: Oh, like on their costumes.

[2:06] Sarah Goodman ( (: Yeah, on their costumes, and they would just do dance, like make different shapes and do dances in black light and low light. And it was really cool. I took the kids and they had a good time.

[2:14] Alan Seales: That's fun. And then follow I had a double header and followed by Our Class, also off Broadway.

[2:19] Sarah Goodman ( (: Very different vibes.

[2:21] Alan Seales: Very different vibes. Uh that was for my Al Silber interview. Um, one of my favorite interviews of the year, actually, actually.

[2:29] Sarah Goodman ( (: I love Al Silber. That stands out.

[2:31] Alan Seales: Yeah. Our Class is great. Um, do you remember the first show you saw?

[2:34] Sarah Goodman ( (: I do. It was Here We Are, the last Sondheim musical.

[2:38] Alan Seales: Oh gosh.

[2:39] Sarah Goodman ( (: I saw at the Shed. And I loved it. It's unfinished. Um and it it doesn't have a ton of music in it, but I really liked it. I thought it was cool. It was sort of like if Sondheim made an A24 film. That's what it felt like for me.

[2:53] Alan Seales: But there's no robots or time travel.

[2:55] Sarah Goodman ( (: But it was very it's unsettling, you know what I mean?

[2:58] Alan Seales: Yes. Well, it's just is it was it unsettling because it wasn't finished or just because that's no, it's kind of about the end of the world a little bit.

[3:05] Sarah Goodman ( (: Oh um it's very bizarre, and it's like uh kind of like a dystopian possible apocalypse kind of vibe. It's very strange, and I really liked it.

[3:18] Alan Seales: Is it is it meta in so much as that it was it's unfinished an unfinished project about the end of the world?

[3:26] Sarah Goodman ( (: I mean literally unfinished because the composer died in the middle of making it.

[3:30] Alan Seales: Yes. I think it's it's um it basically the storyline is like a group of rich friends are trying to go to brunch and they keep going to different restaurants and there there's no food at any restaurant they go to.

[3:46] Sarah Goodman ( (: And it's like what's happening, you know? But they're kind of oblivious to the fact that it's like very strange that everywhere they go they can't be served. So they try like three different restaurants and they keep having to leave and start over again.

[4:00] Alan Seales: That sounds like like a fevered dream uh montage from Friends.

[4:04] Sarah Goodman ( (: Totally, or like Seinfeld or something. Like Chandler can't get fed.

[4:09] Alan Seales: They can't get fed. And then the second act, they're trapped in a house and they literally can't leave and they have no food or water, so they're trying to figure out how they're gonna survive or if they're gonna die in this ring.

[4:19] Sarah Goodman ( (: Interesting. Speaking of houses, uh that's about a C plus transition. Um I wanna I want to jump straight to Hills of California, talk about like maybe stuck in a house.

[4:30] Alan Seales: Absolutely. That stands out as my favorite play. My number one from twenty twenty four, uh, in terms of plays. I just I loved everything about it. I love the performances, I love the story, I love the set. I think we saw it together, right?

[4:43] Sarah Goodman ( (: Yeah.

[4:44] Alan Seales: We saw it together, yeah. The set was stunning.

[4:47] Sarah Goodman ( (: Blew me away. Did what's not surprising, the entire giant set. Usually uh especially, you know, these days with the budgets being what they are, you don't get a big set on Broadway even for plays. And uh this one did not disappoint and the whole day thing rotated.

[5:05] Alan Seales: It was amazing.

[5:06] Sarah Goodman ( (: Yeah, and that was a surprise because it's so hyper realistic. The bottom half of the set is like the interior of a bed and breakfast hotel. And it's giant, it's massive, and it has these huge staircases going up and up and up, and then the further up the set goes, it kind of becomes like an MC Escher drawing.

[5:26] Alan Seales: Like the stairs don't end up meeting anything, or there's like doors floating in the middle of the street.

[5:30] Sarah Goodman ( (: Yeah, there's literally doors hanging off the back wall that never get connected to anything. It's just like this sort of like the farther away you go, the more uh abstract it gets. I love it.

[5:41] Alan Seales: Yeah, and I think that was really a beautiful um addition to the storytelling of like what happened upstairs was like bad and scary, and that it's sort of this like distant, almost like you can't even get there. It's a very haunting story.

[5:59] Sarah Goodman ( (: Um, and there is some you know mentioning of sexual assault. It's kind of a big part of the plot, but I feel like they told that story in a very respectful and beautiful way that it wasn't just like traumatizing the audience for no reason. It felt like it had a purpose.

[6:17] Alan Seales: Okay, here's another C plus transition. You know, it traumatized me.

[6:21] Sarah Goodman ( (: Well I know what you're gonna say.

[6:24] Alan Seales: Wait, no, maybe I don't wait, wait.

[6:25] Sarah Goodman ( (: Okay, say it.

[6:26] Alan Seales: One, two, three, Left on Ten.

[6:33] Sarah Goodman ( (: Left on Ten was traumatizing.

[6:36] Alan Seales: It was I mean, I love the actors. Yeah, uh every individual person and item on the surface is great. Put it all together, and it was just not good.

[6:50] Sarah Goodman ( (: Okay. McNeil, I felt traumatized me for no reason. I felt like they were just really bringing us all down for why.

[6:59] Alan Seales: Well, it's nice to see there was a lot of people this year actually coming out of I guess the writer's strike, right? Uh a TV and film people didn't have work to do. So because that long race strike that was happening.

[7:13] Sarah Goodman ( (: So um we had I mean this was Robert Downey Jr.'s Broadway debut and um Uncle Vanya with Steve Carell who he was great in that.

[7:24] Alan Seales: I missed that one. Was that that was at Lincoln Center as well, right?

[7:26] Sarah Goodman ( (: Yeah. Yeah, it was another Lincoln Center performance. He was great. We had Rachel McAdams in Mary Jane, and her performance again was she was great in that.

[7:36] Alan Seales: I wanted her to get dirtier, like in terms of emotionally just messy.

[7:43] Sarah Goodman ( (: You know, would have liked to seen that. That was really good to see her. Um Days of Wine and Roses. I'm doing I'm the king of C Plus Transitions today. Days of Wine and Roses again.

[7:53] Alan Seales: Speaking of people who want it who I want to see dirtier, I thought uh Kelly O'Hara and Brian Darcy James were great in that.

[8:00] Sarah Goodman ( (: That's another one I missed. I missed Days of Wine and Roses. I wanted to see Kelly.

[8:04] Alan Seales: Kelly was Kelly. She was I don't think she was exactly right for that role. I wanted to see her get like messy, like mascara running down her face and just messy alcohol.

[8:15] Sarah Goodman ( (: Yeah, yeah, a little prettier. Something else that I thought was really good was a Russian Troll Farm.

[8:20] Alan Seales: Oh, I loved Russian Troll Farm.

[8:22] Sarah Goodman ( (: That was fabulous.

[8:23] Alan Seales: Right? I was really, really good.

[8:24] Sarah Goodman ( (: It was funny, but it was also like very touching. I was not expecting to have it be both a comedy and also have like some really intense dramatic moments. And like Christine Latti, I've been a huge fan of hers forever. Um, love her on television, had never seen her in a play.

[8:42] Alan Seales: She was phenomenal, and she has a monologue in that play that it took me out.

[8:47] Sarah Goodman ( (: It was amazing. Amazing performance.

[8:51] Alan Seales: It really, really was. And the fact that it was all based on I mean, it wasn't based on, it's literal fact.

[8:58] Sarah Goodman ( (: Yeah, which I didn't really know all the details about that. Like I knew there were bots out there, and I knew there were trolls out there, but I was not aware of the fact that there are human beings sitting in an office and their job is to type up a bunch of fake shit on Facebook.

[9:15] Alan Seales: And have multiple accounts.

[9:17] Sarah Goodman ( (: They have whole conversations with themselves with multiple burner accounts.

[9:21] Alan Seales: Yeah, I had no clue. I mean, I knew that like Russia influenced the 2016 election and that they had bots and they had a bunch of stuff on Facebook, but I didn't realize how deeply it it was like really deep, deep operation with the posting and conversations and like they could be there can be a whole thread that's all one person talking to themselves.

[9:42] Alan Seales: Yeah, yeah. Like Elon is just outed for doing.

[9:46] Sarah Goodman ( (: Um, but we're not going there. Well, I'm looking at my calendar to see what I've seen over the uh last year. Oh, I had a whole day of jury duty. That was I had a couple days of jury duty.

[9:55] Alan Seales: So that's right. That happened.

[9:56] Sarah Goodman ( (: I'm good for another what, eight years.

[9:58] Alan Seales: Oh how long does it last?

[9:59] Sarah Goodman ( (: Eight years, I think. I don't know. Let's see. So we got jury duty, which is not a show. That's what I went to. I saw The Connector.

[10:04] Alan Seales: Oh, I love The Connector as well.

[10:06] Sarah Goodman ( (: And you want to hear a fun story about me going to see The Connector. I went to opening night because my friend Aaron was the PSM, the production stage manager. So I got to be her date for opening night. I loved the musical, it was fabulous. We come out of the show, and we go find our friend Aaron, and she's like Bernadette Peters is here. She's my number one. I'm obsessed with Bernadette Peters. I'm obsessed with her.

[10:30] Alan Seales: I'm obsessed with her.

[10:31] Sarah Goodman ( (: I have a tattoo of her. I like I love her so much. I saw her live for the first time this year, and uh apparently she was in the audience at the opening night of The Connector. I did not get to see her that night, but she sat behind me somewhere.

[10:44] Alan Seales: I really love that.

[10:45] Sarah Goodman ( (: And that was my first exposure to uh to Hannah.

[10:49] Alan Seales: Hannah Cruz.

[10:50] Sarah Goodman ( (: We love Hannah Cruz.

[10:52] Alan Seales: Oh, me too. And she blew me away. That song "Cassandra," I've known for a few years because Jason Robert Brown has performed it at his solo shows at like 54 Below or whatever. And um, I've always loved that song, but in context of the play, it was like even better.

[11:07] Sarah Goodman ( (: I mean, Hannah is just great. I mean, yeah, she's incredible.

[11:10] Alan Seales: Her in SOFS.

[11:11] Sarah Goodman ( (: She was my favorite thing in SOFS, also.

[11:13] Alan Seales: Yeah. Because she, yeah, she she left The Connector a few, I think a week or two early before their run was scheduled to end because she was starting rehearsals for for SOFS.

[11:23] Sarah Goodman ( (: Yeah. So yeah, of course, there's SOFS. There, let's see, this March 4th, I saw Life and Slimes of Mark Summers.

[11:29] Alan Seales: Oh, yeah, we saw that together too.

[11:30] Sarah Goodman ( (: That was so fun.

[11:31] Alan Seales: Right, right. We've run into him a couple times.

[11:35] Sarah Goodman ( (: Like at Red Kingdom. He's been on the carpet a couple times for New World Stages, yeah.

[11:38] Alan Seales: Yeah, he still recognizes us.

[11:40] Sarah Goodman ( (: He's such a speech. Cool, so this cool guy. I love that. The show was great. And his the storyline of his show, like surprised me. I thought it was just gonna be funny and silly, and like, oh, this guy was on Double Dare, and like he did all these silly TV shows about food. But like he did a deep dive into his own personal trauma.

[11:58] Alan Seales: Like he had a lot of really hard stuff he had to go through in his life.

[12:01] Sarah Goodman ( (: He talks about his struggles with OCD, and he talks about this really horrifying car accident he got into where he almost died and had to have all his major surgeries, and like he's really bounced back from a lot of adversity in his life and is still such like a positive guy.

[12:17] Sarah Goodman ( (: It was such a fun show. Also, they had a plant in that show that was so well done. Do you remember that? He was like sitting near us.

[12:25] Alan Seales: Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

[12:27] Sarah Goodman ( (: I remember that. And then, like, I can't remember if the guy's mom was real or part of the fact. I think the plant's mom was actually mom.

[12:35] Alan Seales: Yeah.

[12:35] Sarah Goodman ( (: And maybe he didn't tell her or something. I don't know. She seemed just as blown away as we were that he got pulled into the show and then ended up being the MD. That was really funny.

[12:47] Alan Seales: Uh let's see. Brooklyn Laundry. I saw another TV celebrity.

[12:51] Sarah Goodman ( (: That was Cecily Strong.

[12:52] Alan Seales: Oh, I love Cecily Strong, but I missed out on that one too.

[12:55] Sarah Goodman ( (: That was good. Let's see. Stephen Schwartz event capture.

[13:00] Alan Seales: That was fun. A museum of Broadway.

[13:02] Sarah Goodman ( (: Museum of Broadway. Yep. That was very cool to meet Steven Schwartz. I booty bumped him off the piano bench a little bit.

[13:14] Alan Seales: Oops, sorry, buddy.

[13:15] Sarah Goodman ( (: Sorry, buddy. Oh gosh. Oh, here come here come our big opening.

[13:19] Alan Seales: Oh, yeah.

[13:19] Sarah Goodman ( (: March April.

[13:21] Alan Seales: March April.

[13:22] Sarah Goodman ( (: The notebook.

[13:23] Alan Seales: Notebook.

[13:24] Sarah Goodman ( (: Beautiful music. Very sweet. Beautiful, beautiful. Not necessarily my favorite thing I saw of the season, but I love Joy Woods.

[13:30] Alan Seales: And she really I love the Joy Woods ascension of 2024 is one of my favorite things to watch.

[13:38] Sarah Goodman ( (: Every everything, yeah. Whenever this a new show announced, the joke was is Joy Woods gonna be in that one too? Like what's who's next?

[13:44] Alan Seales: Joy Woods going into it.

[13:45] Sarah Goodman ( (: Well, because here's here's what happened, right? Joy Woods starred in Little Shop of Horrors, which she started in as an urchin and then ascended to being playing Audrey.

[13:54] Alan Seales: And then she goes to Notebook.

[13:55] Sarah Goodman ( (: It's her Broadway debut. She's incredible. She steals the show. She's got the best song in the show.

[14:00] Alan Seales: And then she gets cast as Sarah in the ragtime concert at City Center, and then suddenly she's no longer playing Sarah.

[14:07] Sarah Goodman ( (: And everyone's like, hmm, we smell a Louise somewhere in the mix.

[14:12] Alan Seales: And they were right, because then she was announced as Louise for Gypsy revival with Audrey McDonald's.

[14:18] Sarah Goodman ( (: And uh and behold, that's what she's doing now.

[14:21] Alan Seales: Which I still have not seen.

[14:22] Sarah Goodman ( (: I see it next week.

[14:24] Alan Seales: Me too. My tickets came through next for next week.

[14:26] Sarah Goodman ( (: Uh-huh. So I cannot wait. That's gonna be my first show of 25.

[14:32] Alan Seales: Yes, same.

[14:34] Sarah Goodman ( (: Uh oh, let's see. March 27th. Well, you and I saw Water for Elephants together.

[14:38] Alan Seales: That's right. We saw Water for Elephants.

[14:40] Sarah Goodman ( (: Uh loved the performances. I thought again, the script and the music, not the best.

[14:44] Alan Seales: And then that was a double headed day for me. I saw the outsiders that eat.

[14:47] Sarah Goodman ( (: Oh, and you love the outsiders.

[14:49] Alan Seales: Hands down was my favorite musical of last year.

[14:53] Sarah Goodman ( (: Yeah. I miss that one still. I gotta catch it.

[14:55] Alan Seales: I gotta catch it.

[14:56] Sarah Goodman ( (: Oh, let's see. Then we kick into our kicked into our Aladdin 10th anniversary stuff.

[15:01] Alan Seales: We saw Laddie Bear.

[15:04] Sarah Goodman ( (: The Who's Tommy?

[15:05] Alan Seales: That was interesting.

[15:06] Sarah Goodman ( (: I really liked it. I liked it because it was different, but I wouldn't recommend it to somebody who likes musicals.

[15:12] Alan Seales: I wish it had lasted longer because I missed that one too.

[15:15] Sarah Goodman ( (: They didn't get a super long life, unfortunately.

[15:17] Alan Seales: Yeah, I don't I don't quite know why.

[15:19] Sarah Goodman ( (: Some of that stuff is hit or miss, like that sort of plays to the older crowd when it comes to uh that you know, the jukebox musicals for you know, boomer age people and above which you would think it would have done well because that's sort of like the people now with retirement income and disposable income in this area to buy those that priced those those high price tickets.

[15:40] Alan Seales: Right.

[15:40] Sarah Goodman ( (: So in April I saw SUFs, yeah. Again, Hannah Cruz Hanna Cruise was the best thing about it.

[15:45] Alan Seales: I loved Hannah Cruz when she comes out on the horse during the during the March.

[15:50] Sarah Goodman ( (: That was my favorite. I was like, wow, Lee Silverman. Sometimes she takes a real big swing, and I like that.

[15:56] Alan Seales: Yep, yep, yep.

[15:57] Sarah Goodman ( (: Oh, did you hear did you listen to my interview with Hannah?

[16:00] Alan Seales: Like the there was originally no head on the horse.

[16:02] Sarah Goodman ( (: Yeah.

[16:03] Alan Seales: And then there also was talks of having a real horse at one point.

[16:06] Sarah Goodman ( (: Like on Broadway, they were like, what if we got an actual live horse?

[16:09] Alan Seales: And I was like, please don't.

[16:11] Sarah Goodman ( (: That was the first choice. And it was too expensive.

[16:14] Alan Seales: Don't have a real horse on Broadway.

[16:16] Sarah Goodman ( (: That's wild. Have you ever seen a horse take a giant dump on stage?

[16:19] Alan Seales: I'm sure we would if they had had a real horse.

[16:22] Sarah Goodman ( (: Yes.

[16:23] Alan Seales: Oh my god. Paul Bill Berlone, he's got the horses, I bet.

[16:26] Sarah Goodman ( (: Don't go anywhere. We'll be right back after this break.

[16:31] Alan Seales: Welcome back to the episode. The whiz opened in April.

[16:34] Sarah Goodman ( (: That was a large.

[16:35] Alan Seales: Oh, I was so so sad to miss the whiz. I love that musical so much, and I really wanted to see it and just never got a chance to.

[16:43] Sarah Goodman ( (: Gatsby was one of the best sets I have ever seen.

[16:48] Alan Seales: Oh, is it?

[16:48] Sarah Goodman ( (: I haven't seen Gatsby either. I'm like really behind on a lot of these things.

[16:51] Alan Seales: This is the Eva Jeremy Jordan version.

[16:55] Sarah Goodman ( (: For those keeping track of it. The first of the two, because the we haven't gotten the Florence Welch version yet in New York.

[17:02] Alan Seales: Yeah.

[17:03] Sarah Goodman ( (: Well, yeah. So I saw Teeth in its first incarnation, and I saw Teeth again in New World Stages a few weeks ago.

[17:10] Alan Seales: I saw Teeth at New World Stages in October.

[17:12] Sarah Goodman ( (: Oh, it's just I enjoyed it. I know it wasn't your cup of tea.

[17:15] Alan Seales: It wasn't necessarily my cup of tea, but I appreciate what they're doing with it.

[17:19] Sarah Goodman ( (: Like I could see where they were coming from, but it's just not for me.

[17:22] Alan Seales: Like, I don't I don't love gore um necessarily.

[17:26] Sarah Goodman ( (: Like I will say the score is fantastic. The music's great, and everybody is like singing down, especially um what's the lead's name?

[17:35] Alan Seales: You just interviewed her recently.

[17:36] Sarah Goodman ( (: Elise Allen Louis.

[17:37] Alan Seales: Yes.

[17:38] Sarah Goodman ( (: She was amazing, blew me away with her vocals, truly. And the show, like, I was entertained. I'll say that.

[17:46] Alan Seales: I was very entertained during the whole thing.

[17:48] Sarah Goodman ( (: But I was like, whoa.

[17:51] Alan Seales: Are you not entertained?

[17:52] Sarah Goodman ( (: Some of it, some of it was a little beyond for me, but but you know, it's everyone has their own tastes.

[18:01] Alan Seales: Let's see, Hell's Kitchen.

[18:02] Sarah Goodman ( (: I enjoyed Hell's Kitchen.

[18:03] Alan Seales: Hell's Kitchen had the best sound design that I've heard in the city.

[18:05] Sarah Goodman ( (: That's a Gareth Owen.

[18:06] Alan Seales: That's a Gareth Owen joint.

[18:08] Sarah Goodman ( (: Yes.

[18:08] Alan Seales: Oh yeah. You know all the sound designers. That's your that's your your world.

[18:14] Sarah Goodman ( (: Uh yeah, Hell's Kitchen, I thought was phenomenal. And and Malia Jolie Moon just incredible. Everybody in that show, everybody in the show was great. That was that was a strong contender for best musical along with outsiders.

[18:27] Alan Seales: Very, very, very strong.

[18:28] Sarah Goodman ( (: Um a show that got incredibly snubbed and also barely made it at all was Lempica.

[18:35] Alan Seales: I gotta give a shout out. Pour one out for Lempica.

[18:38] Sarah Goodman ( (: Oh man. I know. And I I when I interviewed Eden Espinoza, uh, she confirmed of the situation. Remember that somebody was recording during it was like the 11 o'clock number, someone had their phone out recording Eden and then final performance, and Eden stopped and was and like called them out during the final performance.

[18:57] Alan Seales: Yeah.

[18:58] Sarah Goodman ( (: And just just etiquette, etiquette, etiquette, theater etiquette. People need to pull it together.

[19:01] Alan Seales: Well, just put their phones away.

[19:04] Sarah Goodman ( (: Pull put your phone away. Pull your phone away. This is a live experience. Just like live in the moment. There's other people. Be considerate.

[19:10] Alan Seales: That's right.

[19:10] Sarah Goodman ( (: Um, oh, going back to Teeth, D plus transition to general off Broadway. Uh I wanna I want to bring up um, let's see, Titanic.

[19:18] Alan Seales: I saw several times.

[19:19] Sarah Goodman ( (: Oh, I've seen Titanic three times, and I would see it ten more times. I love that show.

[19:23] Alan Seales: And and then also uh Mar speaking of Marla Mandel and that team, Big Gay Jamboree, I thought was was hella fun.

[19:29] Sarah Goodman ( (: Um too bad that did not have a longer life as well.

[19:33] Alan Seales: I love Marla Mandel's voice, and I think her kooky crazy ideas are hilarious.

[19:39] Sarah Goodman ( (: I'm just a huge Titanic stan, I gotta say. It's it's such a I love that show.

[19:44] Alan Seales: And my friend Jackie Burns was Celine for a while.

[19:47] Sarah Goodman ( (: I got to see her play it twice. And uh any everyone who goes into that show is incredible.

[19:51] Alan Seales: There's kind of a there's an alphabet of Celine pipeline that's going on.

[19:56] Sarah Goodman ( (: There's been many there's been many former Alphabas playing playing Celine.

[20:01] Alan Seales: What if it's the same range or if it's just kind of like that kooky have to be a little kooky?

[20:05] Sarah Goodman ( (: Yeah, I think like the alphabet's gotta have some vocal stamina, you know what I mean? Like I think vocal first, like they're very similar, you know.

[20:14] Alan Seales: You gotta be able to belt really high and strong, and the the thing I I mean, Celine is way goofier than Alphabet for sure.

[20:21] Sarah Goodman ( (: Alphabet's a little more serious, but I wonder I wonder what's harder.

[20:24] Alan Seales: You should ask Jackie next time you talk to her if it's what's harder, Alphaba or

[20:24] Sarah Goodman ( (: Oh, that's a great question. I will ask her that.

[20:30] Alan Seales: I will for sure.

[20:31] Sarah Goodman ( (: And then yeah, I should have her on my show.

[20:33] Alan Seales: So you've got a like text her and get her voice note, and if you can get it in time, I'll I'll edit it in the case.

[20:37] Sarah Goodman ( (: Okay, yeah, I will. I will. I'll ask her on voice note if she'll be on this podcast and say what's harder.

[20:42] Alan Seales: Set a quick voice note.

[20:43] Sarah Goodman ( (: What's harder? Alphabet or Celine. Go.

[20:45] Alan Seales: What's harder and why?

[20:47] Sarah Goodman ( (: So here is my personal opinion on what is harder. Alphabet and Wicked or Celine and Titanic. They're they are apples and oranges.

[20:58] Alan Seales: I don't feel like you can compare them.

[21:00] Sarah Goodman ( (: Alphabet is hard in itself of just getting green and ungreen every day, and also vocally it is rough.

[21:07] Alan Seales: Um and physically demanding with the dresses, especially in the second act and running up and down the stairs.

[21:14] Sarah Goodman ( (: Celine. Selene is really hard in the fact that the audience is your scene partner, and your audience is different every day.

[21:23] Alan Seales: And sometimes they are rare and to go, and it's a delight and a joy.

[21:28] Sarah Goodman ( (: And then sometimes they are not interested and don't want to be there, and it is really, really hard to have a scene partner that doesn't want to be in the scene with you.

[21:39] Alan Seales: So they're different muscles that are being flexed.

[21:44] Sarah Goodman ( (: Uh so again, I don't think I could compare them. Both of them are ridiculously hard.

[21:49] Alan Seales: I felt after Alpha Bye, I could do anything.

[21:51] Sarah Goodman ( (: And now that I've done Celine, I was like, oh, okay. Now I feel like I can do anything plus something, you know, because it's just they're both extremely difficult roles.

[21:55] Alan Seales: Extremely difficult roles.

[22:06] Sarah Goodman ( (: And amazingly gratifying and rewarding. So that's my that's my story, and I'm sticking to it.

[22:13] Alan Seales: Oh, I gotta mention uh also this is not from this season. I did say my favorite play this season was Hills of California, but my favorite play last season was stereophonic.

[22:22] Sarah Goodman ( (: Yes loved, loved stereophonic.

[22:26] Alan Seales: I still have a hard time thinking of that as a play.

[22:28] Sarah Goodman ( (: I know it is. It feels more like a musical because it has so much music, but it's all diegetic, so it's a play.

[22:34] Alan Seales: Um, I'm just gonna blow through these.

[22:36] Sarah Goodman ( (: Let's see. Cabaret, heart of rock and roll, um, Uncle Vanya.

[22:41] Alan Seales: Oh, my brother's birthday.

[22:43] Sarah Goodman ( (: That's on my calendar too.

[22:44] Alan Seales: Well, this is a long time.

[22:46] Sarah Goodman ( (: Let's see, I'm only halfway through the year.

[22:48] Alan Seales: Uh Patriots?

[22:49] Sarah Goodman ( (: Oh.

[22:50] Alan Seales: Surprisingly.

[22:52] Sarah Goodman ( (: Surprisingly good.

[22:53] Alan Seales: I did I went in with zero expectations, not in a bad way.

[22:56] Sarah Goodman ( (: I just knew nothing about it.

[22:58] Alan Seales: And like, I don't know how much of this is literal fact and or how much is exaggeration, but the story of how Putin played these corporate moguls in Russia to become elected uh the head of the country and then completely flipped on them and became a essentially who he is now.

[23:16] Sarah Goodman ( (: It was really crazy to see this story.

[23:19] Alan Seales: Fascinating.

[23:20] Sarah Goodman ( (: Yeah, it really it really was fascinating. I liked it a lot.

[23:23] Alan Seales: Um I saw Three Houses at Signature Theater, the Dave Mulloy musical off Broadway in June.

[23:29] Sarah Goodman ( (: I loved that. It was uh about the pandemic.

[23:32] Alan Seales: Um it had very cool like chamber music kind of style, and the set was really cool.

[23:37] Sarah Goodman ( (: Like a unit set, and the musicians were all over the stage in different spots in these like armchairs.

[23:45] Alan Seales: It was really cool.

[23:45] Sarah Goodman ( (: Like there's like a cellist and like a guitar player and a per was there percussion?

[23:50] Alan Seales: I don't think there was percussion.

[23:51] Sarah Goodman ( (: With piano and like a little chamber, like four or five musicians.

[23:55] Alan Seales: Um very, very cool. Directed by Annie Tip, one of my favorite directors.

[23:59] Sarah Goodman ( (: I also saw the Lonely Few at MCC that month, which I loved with uh Lauren Patton.

[24:04] Alan Seales: Yep.

[24:05] Sarah Goodman ( (: Did you see that?

[24:05] Alan Seales: Did you see L Lonely Feel?

[24:07] Sarah Goodman ( (: I didn't.

[24:07] Alan Seales: I didn't see I didn't see that.

[24:09] Sarah Goodman ( (: So good.

[24:10] Alan Seales: Helen J. Shen was in that as well.

[24:12] Sarah Goodman ( (: She's now in maybe happy ending on Broadway.

[24:15] Alan Seales: Speaking of musicians that you see that maybe you should or shouldn't, I don't know.

[24:19] Sarah Goodman ( (: Uh, our town? What do you think of that? Our town. I didn't love it. I didn't love it. I felt like they made some weird choices with like time period. Um, it's a period piece. It's set around like the 1910s into the 30s. And they did this like modern clothes. It was like a weird mixture of like modern and old timey, and I didn't understand what they were doing with it. I didn't love it. It felt—I hate to say this—it sort of felt like a high school play. With bacon. And then it smelled like bacon. And I read an article about how, um, they actually do cook bacon. They cook bacon. Wait, wait, every show? The stage manager is cooking bacon? While calling cues, they're cooking bacon. Well, it's probably not the call, it's not the PSM.

It's like there's like five stage managers on every show. Um, that made—that's an exaggeration. But there are multiple stage managers on most Broadway shows. On that show, there's a BSM, the bacon stage manager. That's right. They're the BSM. Yeah. Yeah. The BSM was cooking bacon. They're the sushi getting equity union state hand rates for cooking bacon. Yeah, they're cooking real bacon. I don't know why they did that. I guess, you know, she's talking about breakfast in the scene, but I thought it was so strange. And it kind of made me angry because the play was long and it made me hungry. And I was like, can I just get out of here and get some bacon now? Because what's up? We sat in the front, so it was very bacon-y.

[25:49] Sarah Goodman ( (: I saw Little Shop twice, once with the, uh, it was Constance Wu, Corbin Bleu combo, and then again with Sarah Highland and Andrew Barth Feldman. Oh, I love Andrew Barth Feldman so much. And he's a perfect Seymour, perfect Seymour. He is. He is. I enjoyed both pairings equally, but yeah, Andrew Barth Feldman just embodies that. And for those who don't know who he is, he was in that movie with Jennifer Lawrence. No, also in the—was it called No Hard Feelings or something? No Hard Feelings, yeah, yeah. Yeah. So he was the nerdy kid in that, and he's been in several other things. High School Musical: The Musical: The Series. Yeah, and I think he was in Evan Hansen at one point. Yeah, he was in Evan Hansen straight while he was still in high school.

I think he was seven. Yeah, he won the Jimmy Awards, right? Or he was like the contender for like finalist. He won. Correct me if I'm wrong, listeners. I think it was him and Renée Rapp. I think, yeah. Yeah. Okay. Yeah. Yeah. So it was them that year. They both got on to do some pretty great things. No kidding. But yeah, I love—I love that kid. He has a really amazing one-man show that he's done at 54 Below that's about Disneyland and his mother's death. And like this beautiful, beautiful story. And then he does a one-man version of Phantasmic. It's amazing. It's really amazing.

[27:12] Sarah Goodman ( (: Uh, what's about a mattress? That was fun. At City Center on Broadway. On Broadway. I saw it at City Center. I thought it was delightful. I loved it. I love that musical. Mary Rogers. I mean, so good. It was great. It was absolutely great. Um, let's see. I saw Back to the Future again. So we'll, yeah, okay. I saw Back to the Future for the first time a few months ago, and I was pleasantly surprised. I thought it was really fun. Right? It is fun. It is fun. It is fun. It's not original, that's for sure, because you know it. And they didn't know. Not everything has to be Sondheim, you know, but it was like really entertaining, and the music and the big chorus numbers and stuff were so much better than I anticipated.

So I was pleasantly surprised. Yeah, yeah. And the tech in that show is unbelievable. Like the car and the flying and the whole sequence at the end really blew my mind. And another Gareth Owen show. It was very loud, and the sound design was good. Let's see. I saw Selino V. Barnes off-Broadway. That was a lot of fun. Um, that parenting musical.

[28:16] Sarah Goodman ( (: Oh, so much controversy around that one. Yeah. Yeah. Explain that. Explain that. So they originally had a band. I don't remember how big it was, but let's just say it's like four or five players, right? Not very big. Off-Broadway musical. They had a band orchestrated slash hired for the show. And then in an effort to cut costs, they decided that they were going to start using tracks instead. And then they got in really hot water with the musicians' union. 801, 802. Can't remember. Because you're required to have a certain number of musicians at every house. That is for Broadway. Off-Broadway has different rules, but I think technically they weren't breaking any rules, but they had hired musicians and then fired them.

Oh, and so that was the problem. And then the actors in the show in solidarity for unions said, "Well, we're not going to do this either." Because if the musicians' union says you're on the no work list, then maybe we're not going to do it either. So then they kind of backpedaled and they were like, "Okay, no, we will get a band, we will get a band." And they like tried to hire back the original band, and most of those musicians, I think maybe all of them actually said no. And they had to end up hiring other people. Um, so yeah, it was kind of a big controversy. The musicians' union went so far as to put them on the no work list and also post about it on Instagram saying like this musical is worth—we think they're breaking the rules or like taking advantage of these musicians, and they're trying to skirt the rules and like shows that cut costs and get rid of human jobs, really not good.

[29:56] Sarah Goodman ( (: Not great. Yeah, yeah, yeah. So they had kind of a bad rep going in. I knew there was controversy. I didn't realize it was that involved. Yeah. I thought I remember something similar to, um, Here Lies Love from previous seasons. Yes. Yes. Because Here Lies Love, they were—they wanted to use tracks too. That was a David Byrne thing. Yeah, but that show had always been tracks. So it was a little bit different, but they still forced them to hire a band. And I don't know if that band ended up playing music or not, but they had to pay musicians to be there. Well, they—and they worked around it too by having some people, uh, like just literally walk on stage with like a djembe and a tambourine and some other like, you know, percussion instruments.

Anyway, uh, I want to bring up real quick. I noticed on my calendar, Beetlejuice 2, because that is semi-related to theater. The film Beetlejuice 2, yes. Did you get to see that at all? No, I didn't. It's on my list. I love the first—I love the original Beetlejuice film. I don't know the musical either, I will admit. It's from this time period where I—I don't know a lot about theater, like contemporary musicals. I have a big gap in my knowledge in the teens. I enjoy it. I liked Beetlejuice the musical more than Beetlejuice 2 the movie. Okay. I'll say that. Yeah, yeah. I'll say that. There was one too many interconnected storylines in the movie. They could have cut one and it would have been great. Okay. They're trying to do too much. Trying to do too much, trying to fit it all in there.

[31:15] Sarah Goodman ( (: Yeah. Um, oh my gosh. Uh, from what's open so far, I'm skimming through the rest. What's open so far in 2025? I gotta say, I think maybe Happy Ending is my vote for best musical so far. Okay, my vote is for Death Becomes Her. I love Death Becomes Her. I saw it out of town in Chicago and I loved it. And I saw it on Broadway a few weeks back, and I think it's absolutely phenomenal. It's really fun. It's right up my alley, though. It's very—it's very campy. It's got a lot of diva action. It's like sparkly. It's, uh, very silly, but smart silly, I think. It is, it is. And I wonder though, like when you replace Megan Hilty and Jen Smart and even Chris Sieber, like when their contracts are over, they move on.

I wonder if it's gonna have that staying power because it's made around them, their personalities, right? Yeah. And you know, I would have said actually the same thing about Titanic and Marlon Dell, and look how that's gone. So yeah, I think we got a lot of divas out there. I think there's a lot of divas out there who could come in and step in to those roles and nail it. But right now, if you get a chance, listeners, you gotta see Jen Smart and Megan Hilty. They are serving up some incredible performance. Like truly, truly amazing. I don't know how they're doing it. Megan Hilty, I—I really—she's my—I think number one. I mean, I haven't seen Audrea, and I did see Nicole Scherzinger in Sunset, and that was spectacular. But Megan Hilty, I think is my number one for best actress right now, Tony. Tony Awards. I think she's just working her ass off and nailing it. Absolutely nailing it.

[32:55] Sarah Goodman ( (: Nicole Scherzinger, I think—I don't know if that—if she hurt herself too much with outing herself as a— with the— with a Trump supporter. But the—where do I get that hat? Where do I get that hat? Um, the internet discourse over those few days was so entertaining. That's all I'm ready to talk about. That was all Reddit was talking about. It was really, really funny to me. The way people will turn on you in a heartbeat, you know. You know, how would you dreamcast maybe Happy Ending? Oh, that's hard because I think Helen J. Shen is just so, so good. She really is. I liked Darren Criss, but I think there's other actors out there who could nail that role. Um, Andrew Barth Feldman would be very cute.

I—that would have been adorable if they'd cast them together because they are a real-life couple. Oh, right. Helen J. Shen. Yeah. I was like, Darren Criss is not dating Andrew. No, no, no, no. Yes. Yes. Yes. No, and Andrew Barth Feldman's not gay. No. No. Helen—Helen and Andrew are not. Helen and Andrew are a couple and they are absolutely adorable together. And, um, yeah, I think Helen J. Shen, I can't imagine anyone else taking that role from her, but I think he would be cute in that role, uh, in the Darren Criss role. Who else was I thinking of? And then they escaped my mind. I like to say Chris Fitzgerald as Waboon. For those of you who may not know, Waboon is a plant. An inanimate plant.

A literal plant. Like a succulent, a succulent in a pot. Not an audience plant, not a Mark Summers. No, I did really love Maybe Happy Ending. And if it won the Best Musical Tony, I would be so pleased for them because it's so fresh. It's completely original. It's not based on a movie or a book or anything. It's like it had its own life as a musical in Korea. It's very popular over there. And I think they did a wonderful job adapting it to English. I think it's like a really beautiful story. It made it just like warmed my heart. And it's really nice to see something that's just like beautiful and positive. You know, it's not about trauma, it's not a tragedy, it's not a slog of a million people dying and whatever. It's not some stupid regurgitation of something we've seen a million times. It's like a really cute, sweet story.

[35:16] Sarah Goodman ( (: Yeah. And had a really beautiful projection design. It was great. I—I cannot say enough things about Maybe Happy Ending. Yeah. Enough good things. It's just this cute little like, uh, story wrapped in a bow, right in this feel-good bow. And I just hope it makes it to the Tonies long enough to like to get to still be open after it gets the recognition that I hope it gets. I think so too. Yeah, it's a really—it's a really great show. See, it's tough for a completely original show to open as early as it did before the Tonies and still make it. Yeah, absolutely. And there were some rumors for a while that it wasn't even gonna make it to opening. So like they've—they've been struggling, but they're still surviving. So go see that show, go support Maybe Happy Ending. It's so good. Don't go anywhere. We'll be right back after this break.

[36:03] Sarah Goodman ( (: Welcome back to the episode. Oh, Sunset Boulevard. Wow. You mentioned that, but that's not the set that—the tech, the tech in that show blew me away. I interviewed the video designers for Good Show. Y'all have to hear that in March. That's coming out in March. Their video design for this show is the most ambitious and the most perfectly executed LCD screen, LED wall incorporation into a musical, into a theatrical piece I've ever seen in my life.

[36:36] Alan Seales: It was thrilling and stunning. That for we saw that show together. That first moment that they bring the screen on when he's driving the car, and the credits they do like film credits, like film opening credits. It's so cool. And it's like it makes so much sense for the piece. Yeah, they make you look like make it you feel like you're watching TV while they're performing it live for you. It's really great. It's such an interesting concept. I love it. The beginning of Act Two where they go outside the theater. The walk around was they do the walk around outside. It's incredible.

[37:09] Sarah Goodman ( (: Yeah. Like so go see Sunset Boulevard. I need to go back and see it with Mandy Gonzalez.

[37:12] Alan Seales: Me too. She's the alternate, the scheduled alternate.

[37:14] Sarah Goodman ( (: Yeah, and she's got a lot more dates on the calendar. And I wish I could see Carolyn Bowman do it, but she's about to start doing Smash soon.

[37:20] Alan Seales: Oh, right, right. Um, gosh, just rounding out my list. Uh I skipped a couple things, but gosh, a wonderful world, Elf the musical, uh Tammy Faye.

[37:29] Sarah Goodman ( (: Oh god, wrong place, wrong time, wrong country.

[37:32] Alan Seales: Yeah, looks too bad.

[37:34] Sarah Goodman ( (: Tammy Faye. I grew up in the evangelical South, literally in North Carolina in the area that Tammy Faye set in, and I came out feeling so much hate that was that was revived.

[37:48] Alan Seales: Uh I guess the band-aid was ripped off of my healing from being ostracized by all the uh uh religious people when I was growing up in that area.

[37:59] Sarah Goodman ( (: It was terrible.

[38:01] Alan Seales: Yeah.

[38:01] Sarah Goodman ( (: But but yeah, having that show about the rise of white supremacy isn't white Christianity after right after our election cycle here in the States, uh, was not the right time to have that show.

[38:14] Alan Seales: Totally.

[38:14] Sarah Goodman ( (: Yeah. Closed what? Three weeks? Did it make it three weeks or five? I forget.

[38:17] Alan Seales: Not very many, very short amount of time, unfortunately.

[38:21] Sarah Goodman ( (: Um, let's see. I saw six sit down in DC over Thanksgiving with my brother.

[38:26] Alan Seales: I hadn't seen the touring cast in a while. Death becomes her, yes.

[38:30] Sarah Goodman ( (: So so funny. Um have you seen O'Mary?

[38:34] Alan Seales: I saw O'Mary this year.

[38:35] Sarah Goodman ( (: No, I didn't see all of the ones.

[38:38] Alan Seales: It is so incredible. It's the funniest play I've ever seen. I laughed so hard I could barely breathe.

[38:45] Sarah Goodman ( (: That was one I missed. I want to see it with Betty Gilpin because I just love Betty in general.

[38:49] Alan Seales: Me too, and I loved Glow. Loved Glow.

[38:52] Sarah Goodman ( (: Yeah, gotta go back and see that. Um Eureka Day.

[38:55] Alan Seales: Eureka Day was actually was really fun. I again went into that, knowing nothing about it, and it was very, very uh it's very funny.

[39:03] Sarah Goodman ( (: It was really funny. So what hasn't opened yet, starting in 2025? What are you looking forward to the most?

[39:08] Alan Seales: What am I looking forward to most in 2025? You know, it's already open, but Gypsy with Audra.

[39:15] Sarah Goodman ( (: I mean, I haven't seen it yet. I'm seeing it in a week. I'm so excited.

[39:20] Alan Seales: Highly anticipated revival. People have been rumoring Audra to play Gypsy for years, years and years and years.

[39:27] Sarah Goodman ( (: This rumor's been floating around. And now it's finally happening.

[39:30] Alan Seales: And you know, the sixth time Tony winning queen, I think I think is gonna be hitting one out of the park again.

[39:36] Sarah Goodman ( (: I hear a lot of really positive things, and I love old-fashioned musicals, and Gypsy, I think is the best musical of all time, perhaps.

[39:46] Alan Seales: I think it's the best.

[39:47] Sarah Goodman ( (: That's a claim.

[39:48] Alan Seales: That's a bold claim.

[39:50] Sarah Goodman ( (: I think it has the best book and music of it's it's it's a perfectly written musical.

[39:56] Alan Seales: I'm not saying it's maybe the maybe I'm not saying it's the best of all time, but it is a perfect, perfectly written musical, and I love the storyline, the story arc um of it.

[40:06] Sarah Goodman ( (: I love Steven Sondheim, I love Julie Stein. It looks like they're really putting in the budget for the set and the costumes and the whole thing.

[40:14] Alan Seales: So I can't wait to see that. What else?

[40:17] Sarah Goodman ( (: Smash this list.

[40:19] Alan Seales: Yeah, Smash. There's so much.

[40:21] Sarah Goodman ( (: Smash is gonna be fun. The show is ridiculous.

[40:25] Alan Seales: They've changed it a lot, I've heard from the television show.

[40:28] Sarah Goodman ( (: But I love Robin Herter.

[40:31] Alan Seales: Same.

[40:31] Sarah Goodman ( (: Oh, same. I didn't realize there were so many open theaters.

[40:35] Alan Seales: I'm looking at everything is scheduled to open in 29. There's so many things coming.

[40:39] Sarah Goodman ( (: English uh Redwood with Idina.

[40:42] Alan Seales: Yeah, that'll be interesting.

[40:43] Sarah Goodman ( (: Redwood.

[40:45] Alan Seales: That will be interesting.

[40:46] Sarah Goodman ( (: Boop is gonna be wonderful. I'm very excited for that.

[40:49] Alan Seales: Operation Mince Meat.

[40:51] Sarah Goodman ( (: Yeah, that's very I don't know what the hell that is.

[40:53] Alan Seales: That looks interesting.

[40:54] Sarah Goodman ( (: It's I think it's about World War II.

[40:56] Alan Seales: Yeah, yeah. World War II.

[40:57] Sarah Goodman ( (: That's a comedy.

[40:58] Alan Seales: Um a comedy come that that is did did really well in the West End.

[41:03] Sarah Goodman ( (: It won the won an Olivia Award.

[41:05] Alan Seales: Okay.

[41:05] Sarah Goodman ( (: So it's doing good stuff. Buenavis, the social club.

[41:08] Alan Seales: Oh, that'll be awesome.

[41:09] Sarah Goodman ( (: I'm really curious to see what they do with it. Is it gonna be like Illinois, where it's sort of like a concert that's theatricalized with like dance or something?

[41:17] Alan Seales: Or is there gonna be a book to it?

[41:19] Sarah Goodman ( (: Because the album is a lot of different songs.

[41:24] Alan Seales: I don't know if they're gonna use it to do like a narrative or what, but I can't wait to find out.

[41:28] Sarah Goodman ( (: I don't know. Othello Purpose.

[41:32] Alan Seales: I don't know anything about purpose.

[41:34] Sarah Goodman ( (: The picture of Dorian Gray.

[41:35] Alan Seales: Oh, that looks great.

[41:37] Sarah Goodman ( (: I'm very excited about that. With Sarah Snook, who I guess is from Succession.

[41:41] Alan Seales: I never watched, so I don't know.

[41:43] Sarah Goodman ( (: But the the ads for that, it just looks really cool.

[41:47] Alan Seales: Playing makes her Broadway DB Day Baby Boo.

[41:51] Sarah Goodman ( (: Makes her Broadway debut playing 26 characters.

[41:54] Alan Seales: Yeah, it's a one woman play version.

[41:56] Sarah Goodman ( (: Yeah, that's crazy. It's gonna be cool.

[41:57] Alan Seales: It looks really cool.

[41:59] Sarah Goodman ( (: We're getting Glenn Gary Glenn Ross back with Bob Odenkirk and Kiryah.

[42:03] Alan Seales: Why are we doing that?

[42:04] Sarah Goodman ( (: I like Bob Odenkirk.

[42:05] Alan Seales: I'm excited to see Bob.

[42:07] Sarah Goodman ( (: Okay, sure.

[42:08] Alan Seales: I want to see, I want to see him.

[42:10] Sarah Goodman ( (: Yeah, totally. He's great.

[42:11] Alan Seales: Kieran Kulkin.

[42:12] Sarah Goodman ( (: Eh, there's two succession peoples, though.

[42:14] Alan Seales: Their succession is taking over Broadway.

[42:17] Sarah Goodman ( (: Right.

[42:17] Alan Seales: Um, yeah, Boop, like you said, Smash, good night, and good luck with George Clooney.

[42:23] Sarah Goodman ( (: That'll be very interesting.

[42:24] Alan Seales: Also, very weird that it's going into the palace, which is a huge theater, right?

[42:27] Sarah Goodman ( (: Like, I feel like putting an intimate play into a giant theater is a real choice.

[42:32] Alan Seales: But they're thinking that George Clooney's gonna pull in the ticket sales.

[42:35] Sarah Goodman ( (: We'll see about that.

[42:36] Alan Seales: We'll see.

[42:37] Sarah Goodman ( (: Last five years, I figure, yeah.

[42:39] Alan Seales: Yeah, we'll see.

[42:40] Sarah Goodman ( (: I I like I like Adrian Warren in anything she does.

[42:43] Alan Seales: I don't I don't need Nick Jonas.

[42:44] Sarah Goodman ( (: I don't need another last five years.

[42:45] Alan Seales: But Adrian, I'll go see.

[42:47] Sarah Goodman ( (: John Proctor is the villain.

[42:49] Alan Seales: Oh, I'm curious about that.

[42:50] Sarah Goodman ( (: That sounds interesting.

[42:51] Alan Seales: It does.

[42:52] Sarah Goodman ( (: We're already in March and April now.

[42:54] Alan Seales: Up 25. Let's see.

[42:55] Sarah Goodman ( (: Steven Sondheim's old friends.

[42:56] Alan Seales: Okay, that's Lemo.

[42:59] Sarah Goodman ( (: That's you and Leah Salonga.

[43:01] Alan Seales: Yes.

[43:02] Sarah Goodman ( (: That'll be amazing. I'm so excited for that.

[43:04] Alan Seales: I'll be there a million times.

[43:05] Sarah Goodman ( (: I'll go to that as many times as I possibly can. If anybody listening wants to put me on the sound team or uh give me an associate position on Son Time's Old Friends, I will take it.

[43:16] Alan Seales: We'll see.

[43:16] Sarah Goodman ( (: Floyd Collins.

[43:18] Alan Seales: Oh, that'll be cool.

[43:18] Sarah Goodman ( (: I love that. Adam Gettle, beautiful sport.

[43:20] Alan Seales: Yeah, Adam Gettle's great.

[43:21] Sarah Goodman ( (: Let's see.

[43:21] Alan Seales: Stranger Things, the first shadow.

[43:23] Sarah Goodman ( (: So the official Stranger Things play.

[43:25] Alan Seales: The play, yeah.

[43:26] Sarah Goodman ( (: Not Stranger Things.

[43:28] Alan Seales: No, not the parody.

[43:29] Sarah Goodman ( (: No, no. This is official Olivier Award-winning prequel.

[43:32] Alan Seales: So this is Olivier Award winning as well.

[43:35] Sarah Goodman ( (: London's just bringing over their Olivier's.

[43:39] Alan Seales: Just in time.

[43:40] Sarah Goodman ( (: Real Women have Curves.

[43:41] Alan Seales: Pirates, the Pen the Penzance.

[43:43] Sarah Goodman ( (: Oh, Pirates of Penzance. I was not excited about until they announced that Jinx Monsoon is going to be in it.

[43:48] Alan Seales: And now I want to see it because anything Jinx does is fantastic.

[43:51] Sarah Goodman ( (: And Ramin Caramlew and David Hyde Pierce.

[43:53] Alan Seales: Oh, Ramin's in it too?

[43:55] Sarah Goodman ( (: Yeah.

[43:55] Alan Seales: Okay, that's great.

[43:57] Sarah Goodman ( (: Yes.

[43:57] Alan Seales: Yes.

[43:58] Sarah Goodman ( (: The two of the three of them together.

[44:00] Alan Seales: Let's see, Dead Outlaw, Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil, and Waiting for Godot, starring Keanu Reeves and Alex Winter, which I'm gonna be hilarious.

[44:11] Sarah Goodman ( (: Bill and Ted.

[44:12] Alan Seales: That'll be so funny.

[44:13] Sarah Goodman ( (: I want to see that.

[44:14] Alan Seales: I want to love it.

[44:16] Sarah Goodman ( (: I met Alex Winter once because he's a director.

[44:19] Alan Seales: He became a director.

[44:20] Sarah Goodman ( (: Uh you know, he's he stepped away from acting and started directing, and I met him once on one of his projects he's promoting to direct, and like just a nice guy, but like to see the two of them together again, I think it's gonna be so cool.

[44:30] Alan Seales: Yeah, just to watch them.

[44:31] Sarah Goodman ( (: And then Mating for Godot is just so funny anyway.

[44:33] Alan Seales: Absolutely.

[44:34] Sarah Goodman ( (: Yeah.

[44:34] Alan Seales: Yeah.

[44:35] Sarah Goodman ( (: So I'm excited about it.

[44:36] Alan Seales: I don't know. So okay, so pick one is is Sonheim's Old Friends.

[44:41] Sarah Goodman ( (: Is that your number one? Because it's Bernadette.

[44:43] Alan Seales: Yeah, definitely.

[44:45] Sarah Goodman ( (: Definitely is. It's not a book musical, so I don't know if it really fits into the rest, but um it is the one I'm the most excited to see.

[44:52] Alan Seales: I did see Bernadette Peters in concert at Carnegie Hall this year for the first time ever in my life.

[44:57] Sarah Goodman ( (: I've been in love with her since I was eight years old.

[45:00] Alan Seales: I finally saw her in person for the first time in October.

[45:03] Sarah Goodman ( (: Her concert was so great. She looks and sounds absolutely incredible.

[45:07] Alan Seales: She's ageless, ageless.

[45:09] Sarah Goodman ( (: And so, yeah, Sondheim's Old Friends, I'm really thrilled to see that. But like book musical wise, I'm really torn between Boop and Smash.

[45:17] Alan Seales: I don't know.

[45:18] Sarah Goodman ( (: I don't know. Also, that sounds like such a goofy sentence.

[45:24] Alan Seales: You know, between Boop and Smash, I'm not really sure.

[45:31] Sarah Goodman ( (: What about you?

[45:33] Alan Seales: Um, I was just looking. I think I I okay.

[45:38] Sarah Goodman ( (: Um, from what I know, the stories that I know, I am excited to see actually Dorian Gray and Waiting for Godot because I I love those books.

[45:48] Alan Seales: You know, reading those books in high school, I just I remember loving them.

[45:51] Sarah Goodman ( (: Personally, like I've never seen Pirates of Penzance.

[45:55] Alan Seales: Uh, so I'm excited to see that.

[45:58] Sarah Goodman ( (: I think again, I'm oh god, this is hard.

[46:00] Alan Seales: I think, yeah, I think I also am too.

[46:04] Sarah Goodman ( (: Do I swipe left on Smash or swipe right on Boop?

[46:07] Alan Seales: Let's see.

[46:08] Sarah Goodman ( (: Boob or Smash. What are we doing?

[46:09] Alan Seales: I think plus when I mean, God, this is gonna be tough.

[46:14] Sarah Goodman ( (: It's really gonna be tough.

[46:14] Alan Seales: Uh what I was gonna say though, from what I don't know, I feel like Operation Mint'e might really surprise me because in the same way I went into Hills of California, not knowing anything, not expecting anything, yeah, coming over from the West End and being popular there.

[46:29] Sarah Goodman ( (: I feel like this might have that same sort of sweep.

[46:32] Alan Seales: It might.

[46:33] Sarah Goodman ( (: It might.

[46:33] Alan Seales: You never know.

[46:34] Sarah Goodman ( (: The Brits, the Brits are onto something right now.

[46:36] Alan Seales: They're good, they're good.

[46:37] Sarah Goodman ( (: They they got some good stuff over there.

[46:39] Alan Seales: All right.

[46:39] Sarah Goodman ( (: Well, happy new year, everyone.

[46:42] Alan Seales: Happy New Year's Sarah.

[46:44] Sarah Goodman ( (: Yeah. And I saw 50 shows in 2024. That was the most I've ever seen in one year in my life.

[46:49] Alan Seales: It was really amazing.

[46:50] Sarah Goodman ( (: I saw 50 shows, 19 on 19 on Broadway.

[46:53] Alan Seales: Yeah, it's fun.

[46:54] Sarah Goodman ( (: It's fun to be part of it and see all the stuff like to be in this in New York in the city where in theory so much originates, right?

[47:01] Alan Seales: So either London or or New York.

[47:03] Sarah Goodman ( (: So to see it come out and have these things have longer, you know, longer lives beyond the limited runs that they get here for whatever reason.

[47:10] Alan Seales: It's it's really cool.

[47:11] Sarah Goodman ( (: It's really cool.

[47:12] Alan Seales: So, you know, I don't take that for granted.

[47:14] Sarah Goodman ( (: Totally.

[47:14] Alan Seales: It's a privilege.

[47:16] Sarah Goodman ( (: It's a privilege.

[47:17] Alan Seales: It is a privilege.

[47:18] Sarah Goodman ( (: Well, again, happy new year.

[47:20] Alan Seales: Follow Sarah Goodman.

[47:22] Sarah Goodman ( (: Uh, where can we find your podcast? Where can we find yourself?

[47:25] Alan Seales: Well, my podcast is on the Broadway Podcast Network.

[47:28] Sarah Goodman ( (: So you could go to bpn.fm slash good show or find good show with Sarah Goodman (.

[47:33] Alan Seales: Anywhere you can get your podcasts.

[47:35] Sarah Goodman ( (: You can also follow me on TikTok and Instagram at Good Show Podcast.

[47:39] Alan Seales: And if you're listening to me by now, you know where to find me.

[47:42] Sarah Goodman ( (: I'm on the show notes.

[47:45] Alan Seales: You know him.

[47:46] Sarah Goodman ( (: You know where to find him.

[47:47] Alan Seales: I would TikTok, Instagram.

[47:50] Sarah Goodman ( (: I don't use X anymore because we don't.

[47:54] Alan Seales: Uh I don't I don't.

[47:56] Sarah Goodman ( (: Gosh.

[47:56] Alan Seales: All right.

[47:57] Sarah Goodman ( (: Say goodbye to 2024.

[47:58] Alan Seales: Hello, 2025.

[48:00] Sarah Goodman ( (: It's a nice usually I don't like odd numbered years, but this is a nice multiple of five.

[48:05] Alan Seales: So yeah, twenty-five is a good number.

[48:08] Sarah Goodman ( (: That's a multiple of twenty-five and five.

[48:11] Alan Seales: Which I I think, you know, it's a it's a nice good twenty good number.

[48:14] Sarah Goodman ( (: I think twenty twenty-five. We're gonna bring some good things to twenty-five.

[48:17] Alan Seales: Let's put that out there.

[48:17] Sarah Goodman ( (: Let's matter.

[48:18] Alan Seales: Yeah, let's put some positivity out there.

[48:19] Sarah Goodman ( (: Yeah.

[48:20] Alan Seales: All right.

[48:20] Sarah Goodman ( (: Well, happy new year again.

[48:22] Alan Seales: Thank you so much.

[48:23] Sarah Goodman ( (: And uh Thanks for having me.