This transcript was automatically generated and might contain errors.

[0:13] Sarah Goodman: Hi, I'm Sarah. I'm a sound designer and professional lesbian theater geek. I'm a huge fan of all things theater, Broadway, cabaret, and pop culture. I've got tattoos of Bernadette Peters and Liza Minelli. In my podcast, I'm looking at theater through a queer lens and discussing the intersection between the craft and the LGBTQ community. AKA me, my friends and family. Today's episode is a very special live from the red carpet episode. This play was amazing. I didn't get to see the play on opening night. I went the following night. I've never seen anything like this in my entire life. Sarah Snook is working her ass off in this show. She's playing 26 characters, and rapid fire. I mean, there is narry a breath between them sometimes, and I don't even know how she keeps all these characters straight in her mind because there are so so many.

But each character has their own voice, their own affectation, their own body language. She almost is transforming her face even throughout the play. It was absolutely stunning. My mind was blown. I've never seen anything like that in my life. Also, the use of screens was so creative and really lent itself well to the storytelling. It made so much sense what they were doing with it. There were all of these pre-recorded sequences where they had filmed Sarah Snook playing the other characters, and then she would be live on stage performing with herself in these pre-recorded video, and they would splice together her live performance and her pre-recorded performance in such a seamless and beautiful way.

And I was just absolutely stunned after seeing it. It took me it took me a good half hour to come back down to the earth because this play really took me out. It was amazing. So enjoy my red carpet chats. And at the end of the episode, stick around and we're gonna rank the show on the good show, Queer Scale, and we're gonna find out Picture of Dorian Gray. How queer is it? But let's get out on the pink carpet for the opening night of Picture of Dorian Gray.

[2:37] Sarah Goodman: Hi, I'm Sarah Goodman here with the Broadway Podcast Network and my podcast Good Show, and we're at the opening night of the Picture of Dorian Gray on Broadway.

[2:44] Benjamin Wheelwright: Hi everyone, my name is Benjamin Wheelwright. I'm one of the understudy camera operators in Picture of Dorian Gray.

[2:50] Sarah Goodman: Oh my god, exciting. Congratulations on opening night.

[2:53] Benjamin Wheelwright: Thank you so much. What's going through your mind right now about tonight's events?

[2:55] Benjamin Wheelwright: I'm buzzing. I've drank maybe three cups of coffee and not a whole bunch of food. So I'm really excited for this audience.

[3:02] Sarah Goodman: Yes. A lot of friends and family in the audience tonight. Here we are, we're opening. Oh my god, how exciting. If you could do a play where you were playing all of the parts, what would you pick?

[3:10] Benjamin Wheelwright: Ooh. I'm from Edmonton, Alberta, and growing up at the Edmonton Fringe, there was a one-man Hamlet that was insane. So I think I'd love to like to tackle that script.

[3:19] Sarah Goodman: Oh, I love that.

[3:20] Will Colacito: My name is Will Colosito. I'm an understudy camera operator for The Picture of Dorian Gray.

[3:24] Sarah Goodman: Yay, congratulations on opening night.

[3:26] Will Colosito: Thanks so much. How are you feeling?

[3:28] Will Colosito: I feel incredible. This is such a surreal moment. This is so exciting. Never done anything like this before. I don't think there's been a show like this before. So it's all very exciting to be a part of, for sure.

[3:38] Sarah Goodman: What are you most excited about for this show?

[3:40] Will Colosito: I think what is most exciting is every single night, every single time we run the show, it feels like the most intense high wire act unfolding before your eyes. It starts and it does not stop. Two hours straight. It requires so much from everybody involved. And it's like electric just to watch it all happen. Scary at times, but it's very, very it's it's pretty incredible.

[4:04] Sarah Goodman: Had you had any background in camera work before?

[4:06] Will Colosito: Yes, I'm actually a cinematographer by trade. I've never acted before on a stage in this capacity, and yeah, my background is in film, and so I kind of got in the audition room, had never auditioned for anything. It was a really strange, really strange experience, but it feels very much like a film set, like I am used to, mixed with the trappings of the Broadway theater. It's such an interesting combination of the two things, and it feels right up my alley, and I'm so so lucky to like be a part of it.

[4:37] Sarah Goodman: Oh, that's so exciting.

[4:38] Natalie Rich: Hi, I'm Natalie Rich. I'm a camera operator.

[4:41] Sarah Goodman: Awesome. Congratulations on opening night. What has this experience been like for you?

[4:44] Natalie Rich: It's been incredible. I think it's been just like a real test of how quickly I can learn and how I can execute. I think I'm I think we're all doing a really good job.

[4:53] Sarah Goodman: Do you have camera experience before this?

[4:55] Natalie Rich: I have a little bit, but not exactly like with these types of cameras or like with live theater at all. So this has been yeah, a learning experience for sure.

[5:03] Sarah Goodman: That's very cool. If you could step into the shoes of an actor playing all the parts in a play, what play would you pick?

[5:09] Natalie Rich: Okay, that's a good question. Honestly, this just popped into my head, but Peter Pan.

[5:13] Sarah Goodman: Oh, fun!

[5:14] Natalie Rich: Oh, that could be so interesting.

[5:15] Natalie Rich: Yeah, I don't know why that popped up. Because I left the Lion King, and I was like, oh, like a story from my childhood would be really cool. Uh very whimsical.

[5:22] Sarah Goodman: Yes. I love that.

[5:23] Natalie Rich: Yes. I love whimsy, love comedy. That's fine. Like, oh, you got a perfect cut for like a Peter Pan vibe right now.

[5:29] Sarah Goodman: Yeah, totally.

[5:30] Natalie Rich: I am going. My look is little lad.

[5:32] Sarah Goodman: I love it. I love the socks and the and the loafers. Such a great look. It's fabulous. Everyone's boutonnières are beautiful.

[5:38] Natalie Rich: Thank you. My partner made them.

[5:40] Sarah Goodman: Oh, you're kidding. Shout them out.

[5:41] Natalie Rich: Kelly Robinson.

[5:42] Sarah Goodman: Kelly, great job. The flowers are gorgeous. We love you.

[5:45] Natalie Rich: Thank you so much.

[5:46] Sarah Goodman: Oh my god, that's so fun.

[5:47] Luca Kane: Yeah. My name is Luca Kane. This is not my Broadway debut, but as an adult, that is. When I was eight years old, I was in South Pacific.

[5:54] Sarah Goodman: But this is a Broadway kid.

[5:56] Luca Kane: I know.

[5:56] Sarah Goodman: Oh, I love it. So cute.

[5:59] Luca Kane: Yeah, yeah. But this is this is a lot different. There's a lot more responsibility here.

[6:03] Sarah Goodman: Yeah. So your return to Broadway, what has that entailed for you?

[6:06] Luca Kane: Entailed a lot of PT because this is this is the first time I've kind of been in this camera. I've done some camera work before. I went to school for media studies, but this is my first time in a steady cam rig, and it has been a learning process.

[6:21] Sarah Goodman: Yes.

[6:22] Luca Kane: Yeah. If you were gonna step back into the shoes of an actor and be in a play where you play all the parts, what play would you like to do?

[6:29] Luca Kane: Hmm, this is a good question. I was thinking a musical might be fun. It might be too intense for a one-person show, but I would really like to see Sweeney Todd, I think. Maybe it's because this is so gothic.

[6:43] Sarah Goodman: Yeah.

[6:43] Luca Kane: And the adapter director Kip Williams also did two more gothic plays in this kind of style, Dracula and Jacqueline Hyde. But Sweeney Todd, I think would be cool.

[6:52] Sarah Goodman: That could be very cool.

[6:53] Darabu: Hey, my name is Darabu. I'm one of the camera operators for the show.

[6:57] Sarah Goodman: Exciting. Congratulations on opening night.

[7:00] Darabu: Thank you, thank you. What has this experience been like for you?

[7:02] Darabu: It has been crazy. I quit my nine to five for this. This is my debut. So I'm just excited and honored to be here.

[7:09] Sarah Goodman: Oh, that's so exciting. Tell me about your gorgeous look, please. This gown is stunning.

[7:14] Darabu: Thank you. You know, I really wanted to be on theme tonight with like the flowers.

[7:18] Sarah Goodman: Absolutely.

[7:18] Darabu: But I bought this like all black dress that was beautiful, but I was like, I gotta pop off a little bit for Austin.

[7:23] Sarah Goodman: Yeah, that's right.

[7:24] Darabu: That's how I stumbled upon that.

[7:25] Sarah Goodman: Oh my god, I absolutely love it. And I love everyone's like corsage and boutonnieres. They're so beautiful.

[7:30] Darabu: Yeah, I love that. If you could step into the shoes of an actor playing all of the parts in a play, what play would you like to do?

[7:37] Darabu: Nothing with singing, because I can't sing for yeah.

[7:40] Sarah Goodman: Not a musical.

[7:40] Darabu: Uh not a musical. So yeah, but you know what? This one is a tough one. She plays 26 characters. Seems really intense. So maybe I would do a one-woman show with like 10 characters.

[7:49] Sarah Goodman: There you go. Something a little more simple.

[7:51] Darabu: Oil it down.

[7:52] Sarah Goodman: Boil it down.

[7:53] Nick Enord: Yeah. Hi, my name is Nick Enord. I am the wig hair and makeup supervisor of Dorian Gray.

[7:57] Sarah Goodman: Exciting! Oh my gosh. Tell me about the challenges with working on a show like this where we have one actor playing 26 parts. How do you deal with that with hair and makeup?

[8:04] Nick Enord: Well, it's unique to anything else. We sort of say this show is a bit like pulling the curtain back and you get to see what we do behind the scenes. But that's a bit of an illusion. We're not usually in front of a thousand people and an extreme close-up doing our job. So the pressure is enormous. The adrenaline is also enormous. So it's sort of the biggest thrill you could ever want. I've done this show in Australia and in London and here.

[8:31] Sarah Goodman: Oh, amazing.

[8:32] Nick Enord: And I sort of can't quit it. It's just like the best adrenaline rush of all time.

[8:35] Sarah Goodman: Oh, that's so cool. How exciting. What's been different about the Broadway run so far?

[8:40] Nick Enord: I'm loving how excited the audience is to see. We're loud. Americans, we're loud.

[8:45] Sarah Goodman: Yes, which is great. We love it.

[8:47] Nick Enord: When we were first doing the show, you know, you sort of had to people coming in like, what's this? What's going on? And then in London, maybe a few people have heard of it. And now coming here, you know, people are so excited, which is it's an added layer of pressure, but it's an added layer of joy and excitement coming at us every night. It's just the best.

[9:05] Sarah Goodman: Oh my god, I love that. I would love for you to tell me about your look. You look absolutely fabulous. I love your jewelry. I love your scarf. This is an incredible look. Tell me about your inspiration for your look tonight.

[9:14] Nick Enord: My inspiration is it's a little bit of the show. Marg Horwell's incredible design, which I'm such a fan of, and luckily get to live inside every day. It's also a little bit Oscar Wilde, I don't know.

[9:25] Sarah Goodman: Yes, absolutely.

[9:26] Nick Enord: Something like that. My m I told my mum that I was gonna wear a lot of cheap pink jewelry, and she bought me my Swarovski bracelet, which is not cheap.

[9:33] Sarah Goodman: Oh, okay. One of them's legit, baby. Thanks, Mom.

[9:35] Nick Enord: Oh, thanks, Mom. How sweet.

[9:38] Marg Horwell: Hi, my name's Marg Horwell. I'm the set and costume designer for The Picture of Dorian Gray.

[9:43] Sarah Goodman: Exciting! Oh my god, tell me about your process for working on this play.

[9:47] Marg Horwell: It's a this was an incredibly collaborative process. Kip and I have worked on shows together before. This is our first set and costume design together. So it was a huge undertaking and a kind of really ambitious project coming out of the pandemic. We the kid was writing the show as we were designing the show, so it was something that kind of came to its fruition together, which I think is always kind of a magical thing. Where you can when you all arrive at the same place at the same time, it feels like there's this good things happening.

[10:17] Sarah Goodman: Yeah, then we kind of technically pulled it all apart and then remade it together, which I think is kind of a theme of the show. It feels like it's something that is deconstructed and reconstructed, pulled apart and put back together in front of your eyes over the course of the production.

[10:31] Sarah Goodman: Amazing. What is it like for you to be doing both costumes and set design at the same time?

[10:35] Marg Horwell: They really have different challenges about them, right?

[10:38] Marg Horwell: They really do. It's something that in Australia we do a lot, and it's so it's something that I have really become very fond of. And I wonder if that makes me sound like a very controlling person. I think I just I like to know that everything is I like to be in charge of the balance of the things. I know that if I change something, especially on something that's quite movable like this, you change one side, you can you can balance it on the other. So it feels like they speak to each other very naturally to me. I know on bigger shows and I know on Broadway they're often split, but it's something that I love doing and love making new work and making new work in this way. It's pretty thrilling.

[11:12] Sarah Goodman: Tell me a little bit about your look tonight. I love this dress you're wearing, and I love your flowers that are a bag.

[11:16] Marg Horwell: This is so close to a prop in the show. It's but it's a Simon Rochard clutch bag, and I can see that it holds three things my cardstick and my special rock and my phone. The most important items for an opening night.

[11:29] Sarah Goodman: Tell me about the crystal you brought.

[11:30] Marg Horwell: I'm a crystal girl.

[11:31] Sarah Goodman: Oh, really?

[11:31] Marg Horwell: So my partner gave me this at the Olivier Awards. She couldn't be with me and she said, take this because it will it'll balance you.

[11:39] Sarah Goodman: Oh my god, is it like a Jasper? What is it?

[11:41] Marg Horwell: Yeah. Oh red Jasper, but it feels like that's someone who knows you incredibly well when they say, This will just just put it in your pocket.

[11:48] Sarah Goodman: That's so sweet.

[11:50] Marg Horwell: And this dress is Molly Goddard, and it was a mistake. They made it in the wrong color.

[11:54] Sarah Goodman: Oh.

[11:55] Marg Horwell: And so it's the only one of its kind.

[11:57] Sarah Goodman: Oops. Just for you.

[11:59] Marg Horwell: I know. I was lucky to get it. But yeah, it was a um, I like that something fantastic comes out of a mistake. It's pretty nice.

[12:05] Sarah Goodman: Absolutely. That's so cool. We'll be right back with more Dorian Gray on the pink carpet right after this.

[12:12] Sarah Goodman: And we're back live on the red, I mean pink carpet at The Picture of Dorian Gray on Broadway.

[12:20] Sarah Snook: Hi, I'm Sarah Snook, and we are here at the opening night of The Picture of Dorian Gray. Congratulations on opening night. What has this experience been like for you of playing 26 roles? What a crazy feat.

[12:32] Sarah Snook: It is a feat. Um it has been it's been such a gift and enjoyable experience, and and I mean that enjoyably through the challenge to be rewarded by by achievement and then you know the constant reciprocity of failure and achievement with that. It's been it's been great.

[12:51] Sarah Goodman: How has the Broadway run been different so far? I know we're just getting into it, but you've been in previews for a little bit. How's it been different?

[12:56] Sarah Snook: Yeah. I really love Broadway audiences. They feel really welcoming and happy and wanting to be entertained and laugh. And I I think you know, there's a Oscar was really welcomed here in America when he first when he first came over here, and I think that really resonates with an audience here.

[13:12] Sarah Goodman: Yeah. Do you have a favorite and a least favorite of the 26 characters?

[13:17] Sarah Snook: A favorite was in the pre-record was I think Mrs. Leaf. Old Mrs. Leaf, funny old little lady. And great because like her I really wouldn't have been able to play her. If I had chosen that character choice and had to be her live all the time, it would have been very difficult. Because she had such a crooked back and such a like she was really hunched over. Anyway, but live my favorite is Lord Henry.

[13:42] Sarah Snook: Yes. Yeah, he's really fun. It must be really difficult to keep it all together. How do you keep all of these different personas separate in front?

[13:50] Sarah Snook: I don't know, just concentrate, get the imagination going. Just kind of just specificity is something that I have found is really important in this show, and it's something that I really enjoy as a part of acting, I guess. But within that specificity, being able to be loose and fluid and finding, you know, where where you can expand a very specific moment.

[14:09] Sarah Goodman: Yeah. I would love to know a little bit about your look tonight. I love, love, love the scout, and it's absolutely gorgeous.

[14:15] Sarah Snook: Mugler.

[14:16] Sarah Goodman: I love. Incredible. You look fabulous. My last question is very on brand for the play, but would you rather stay young in real life forever, but age on Instagram?

[14:26] Kip Williams: Or vice versa. I don't know. There's such wonderful things with aging. You get such wisdom, and I was I don't remember if I read this or I someone told me this the other day. But they sort of go like, oh, when would you go back to and what youth would you go back to? And I think I'd go back to toddler. Like that is such a free, you know, you're sad one moment and you're angry, and then you're excited and happy and loving, and you know, it's such a free moment in your body as you're growing. Discoveries.

[14:57] Kip Williams: Yeah. And I think, you know, people go like, oh no, aging, it's so bad. It's not. You get such great wisdom and such, you know, self-assurance and like actual, I don't know, optimism and positivity about like, ugh, you know.

[15:10] Sarah Goodman: Yeah.

[15:10] Kip Williams: Why am I been worrying about that for so long? It actually doesn't matter at all.

[15:14] Sarah Goodman: Yeah, you kind of get over it, right?

[15:16] Kip Williams: You get over it. Yeah. I walked past someone the other day and they were walking, and they looked amazing. They're like this gorgeous woman. And every window she passed, she looked at herself like this. I was like, honey, you are fine. You don't we all know it. You need to know it. You're fine, girl.

[15:31] Kip Williams: My name is Kip Williams. I'm the writer and director of The Picture of Dorian Gray.

[15:35] Sarah Goodman: Congratulations on opening night. It's so exciting. Tell me what this experience has been like for you.

[15:38] Kip Williams: This experience has been amazing. I mean, it's been life-changing working on this piece. I've been working on it for about seven or eight years. It's the thing that I've probably given the most amount of my creative mind and soul to in my career, and for it to come to Broadway is a dream come true. You know, I'm feeling pretty excited.

[15:56] Sarah Goodman: Oh, that's so exciting. Thank you. What has it been like bringing it from the West End? Has it changed? Has it morphed, or is it pretty much the same as the show that you were presenting in London?

[16:07] Kip Williams: I mean, it really has. Like Sarah and I share this sort of desire to always keep working on the material, and I think it's a testament to Wilde's novel and the production that we can continue to do so. Like it's a complex piece that allows artists to continue to work on it. And I've rewritten certain things for New York. I've restaged some things out of the conversations Sarah and I have had with each other. So you know, New York is getting the brand new version of this show.

[16:32] Sarah Goodman: Wow, so you said you started working on this about eight years ago. What was the impetus for you to create this project in this particular style with as a one-woman show?

[16:40] Kip Williams: Well, I reread the novel along with a bunch of other Victorian gothic pieces, and Dorian Gray really struck me as the most contemporary of all of them. You know, it is a story that almost irrelevant. Well, it's sort of like it's a story about a world obsessed with youth and beauty.

[16:54] Sarah Goodman: Yeah.

[16:54] Kip Williams: And that's the world that we're living in. It's sort of like Wilde's a form of, you know, mad genius profit in the way that he conceived the story. So I immediately knew that it was urgent in that sense. And I had this sort of rare set of circumstances that is pretty unusual in my life as a director, where I was struck with a vision for how to do it. You know, that I would have one performer play all the roles, and that I would use cameras and live video and pre-record and synthesize them to allow them to split constantly before us.

[17:23] Sarah Goodman: Yeah.

[17:23] Kip Williams: And then I, you know, got some amazing collaborators and started making the show.

[17:28] Sarah Goodman: Oh, that's so exciting. What do you want audiences to walk away with after seeing this show?

[17:32] Kip Williams: Well, I mean, obviously, there's the way it speaks to now in the lives that we're living, particularly online, and the way that we are performing certain versions of ourselves that there might be some discrepancy with the truth of who we are and the way that we present ourselves. But I also think that it's a piece that very generously embraces the grayness of being a human being, the contradiction of being a human being that actually sometimes you want more than one thing, and sometimes those things contradict each other, and that actually the contradiction of being a human should be celebrated and embraced and acknowledged. So I hope that the piece helps people navigate that in this complex time in which we're living.

[18:09] King Princess: Hi, I'm King Princess. What are you most excited for with this show tonight?

[18:13] King Princess: I mean, it's just such a breathtaking performance. It's so acrobatic, it's entertaining, it's funny. I don't know.

[18:19] Sarah Goodman: I just love I'm with Christine Baranski.

[18:22] King Princess: Tell me more about your date, Christine Baranski. How what's the lore here? I need to know.

[18:27] Christine Baranski: Christine is my forever date. And she takes me to the Broadway.

[18:33] Sarah Goodman: That's incredible. I love that.

[18:35] Christine Baranski: She's truly an angel woman.

[18:37] King Princess: An angel on earth.

[18:38] Christine Baranski: I'm right here.

[18:39] King Princess: I'm almost done. I was just saying how good a date you are.

[18:43] Christine Baranski: Thank you.

[18:46] King Princess: If you could be in a play and play all the parts, what would you like to do?

[18:51] Christine Baranski: I just told them that I'd do Cabaret, but now I'm thinking maybe I was actually walking down the street and I was thinking to myself, like, do I think I could pull off O'Mary?

[18:59] King Princess: Oh, like I mean, I love Cole. I think I could. I think I could pull it off.

[19:04] Sarah Goodman: I want to see this.

[19:04] King Princess: It's not really a lot the singing would get me, honestly.

[19:07] Sarah Goodman: What some of the things you're doing.

[19:08] King Princess: What do you mean the singing would get you?

[19:09] King Princess: I can't do a week and a week sw I can't do seven shows.

[19:12] Sarah Goodman: Oh, okay.

[19:13] King Princess: I would my vocal cords would explode.

[19:15] Sarah Goodman: You could do like a more limited, a more limited thing.

[19:17] King Princess: But oh Mary's do a seven or eight because then I could be drunk.

[19:21] Sarah Goodman: Okay, sure. Why not?

[19:23] King Princess: She is always clamoring for that bottle.

[19:25] Sarah Goodman: Yeah, I think maybe that.

[19:27] King Princess: Amazing. Would you rather stay young forever in real life but age on Instagram or vice versa?

[19:33] King Princess: No. I just rather get old in general.

[19:36] Sarah Goodman: Hell yeah.

[19:36] King Princess: Just like live real life. I'm curious to see what happens.

[19:39] Sarah Goodman: Yeah.

[19:40] King Princess: I might spoil like milk, but I'm cool with that.

[19:44] Sarah Goodman: Might be cute.

[19:45] King Princess: It might be cute.

[19:46] King Princess: Aging is good.

[19:47] Sarah Goodman: Aging is good.

[19:48] King Princess: Yeah, I'm into it.

[19:49] Sarah Goodman: Well, thank you so much for joining me.

[19:50] King Princess: Thanks for watching.

[19:50] King Princess: Stopping by enjoy the play.

[19:52] James Monroe Eichelhart: This is James Monroe Eichelhart here on the Broadway Podcast Network.

[19:55] Sarah Goodman: James, one of our favorites. Thank you for what I'm talking about tonight.

[19:58] James Monroe Eichelhart: I am so excited. I know everyone's already asked you about your top hat, but I need to know what's going on with the top hat.

[20:03] James Monroe Eichelhart: I love it. Well, here's the thing. They sent the email and they said, you know, bring your wild style. And then my wild style is pretty sparkly, so I wore my sparkle shoe.

[20:09] James Monroe Eichelhart: I love it. You know, my sweater. But I was like, you know, it also is a timely piece. I was like, let me pull some history, bring your top hat back. When was the last time you saw a brother wear a top hat?

[20:17] Sarah Goodman: How often do you get to wear a top hat?

[20:19] James Monroe Eichelhart: Yeah, I was like, how often do you like? I pulled it, I was like, I'll do this. Is this part of your wardrobe?

[20:23] James Monroe Eichelhart: Do you own this hat?

[20:23] James Monroe Eichelhart: I do own this hat, yeah. I got it from this biggest little Christmas showdown was this crazy show I did during the pandemic.

[20:25] Sarah Goodman: Biggest little Christmas showdown.

[20:34] James Monroe Eichelhart: It was a reality TV show that I hosted about people in a competition for miniatures, and I wore this hat, and this is only the second time I have worn this hat was here.

[20:44] Sarah Goodman: Okay, James, tell me if you could do a play or a musical and play all the parts, what would you want to do?

[20:48] James Monroe Eichelhart: Oh, there's too many to name. But the first one that comes to mind is A Christmas Carol because I love A Christmas Carol.

[20:54] Sarah Goodman: And you're already drinking.

[20:55] James Monroe Eichelhart: I wanted to do that for you're so true.

[20:58] Sarah Goodman: She's not lying.

[20:59] James Monroe Eichelhart: She's not lying. I look like I'm about to say Molly was dead to begin with.

[21:03] Sarah Goodman: You know, totally totally go off.

[21:04] James Monroe Eichelhart: Yeah, trust me, I already got it. I can't. That one, let's see. If there was any other show that I wanted to do a one-person show of I shouldn't.

[21:12] James Monroe Eichelhart: Probably Dream Girls could be found there. When I'm driving in the car, it's always like, hey, everybody like my show.

[21:19] Sarah Goodman: That's it, brother.

[21:19] James Monroe Eichelhart: You gotta go. Gotta go, gotta go away, gotta go.

[21:22] Sarah Goodman: I told you, brother, you're bringing us down and not having that kind of behavior around.

[21:25] James Monroe Eichelhart: We won't even try.

[21:26] James Monroe Eichelhart: I can go for days. I literally have done it in the car. I need a producer right now to put money behind this.

[21:31] Sarah Goodman: I want to see James Monroe Eichelhart do a one-man version of Dream Girls.

[21:36] James Monroe Eichelhart: Yeah, totally. Totally inappropriate.

[21:37] Sarah Goodman: If you could stay young forever in real life, but age on Instagram or vice versa, what would you pick?

[21:42] James Monroe Eichelhart: Neither. And the reason why is because I have enjoyed getting older.

[21:48] James Monroe Eichelhart: I love being 50. It is an awesome age to be. I can't wait to get older. And I remember what it was like to be 13, 15, 16, 17. And I would never want to go back. Never.

[21:58] James Monroe Eichelhart: When I see those brothers that treated me like crap when I was 15, if we're both 50, the way I have to control myself as to the door and knock knock them the hell out. When they come to my show, it's like, hey, man, remember me? I'm like, yeah, I remember you. I hated you. I'm like, I'm cool.

[22:11] James Monroe Eichelhart: Or when teachers who treated me bad and told me I wouldn't make it, and they're like, I always believe. I'm like, if your old ass don't get away from me.

[22:17] Sarah Goodman: So I have to, I always find it funny because if you watch television from 10 a.m. to 4 a.m., there's some new drug trying to make you feel younger.

[22:24] James Monroe Eichelhart: And I'm like, look, enjoy the life you got. You only got one. But I do understand, but this is an awesome story. The Dorian Gray story is a wonderful fable to let you know what happens when you try to stay young forever.

[22:38] Sarah Goodman: Yeah.

[22:38] James Monroe Eichelhart: And so that's one of the reasons why it's one of my favorites. One of the reasons why I'm here. But as far as that question, nah, I don't want to be yours.

[22:44] Sarah Goodman: You want to take real life.

[22:45] James Monroe Eichelhart: Yeah, and also with Instagram, everything on there is I you can't believe everything you see on Instagram. So I would definitely, when I want to stay young on Instagram, people would be AI in my face and make me say stuff I didn't say.

[22:56] James Monroe Eichelhart: Like somebody made this video where he was gonna do an all one woman Dream Girls.

[23:00] Sarah Goodman: One woman Dream Girls.

[23:01] James Monroe Eichelhart: Who would do that? That's terrible, especially today.

[23:04] Sarah Goodman: Totally AI.

[23:05] James Monroe Eichelhart: Oh my god. Not the AI.

[23:06] Sarah Goodman: I'm not into it.

[23:08] James Monroe Eichelhart: Oh, no, no, no. Not the AI.

[23:10] Sarah Goodman: We like real.

[23:11] James Monroe Eichelhart: I need real people.

[23:12] Sarah Goodman: Real people.

[23:13] James Monroe Eichelhart: Yes, real people. That's what we love about the theater.

[23:14] Sarah Goodman: Yes, I love it. That's the theater is where you can come and see real live people do their thing.

[23:20] James Monroe Eichelhart: I mean, this woman's about to play 26 different characters.

[23:23] Sarah Goodman: Wild.

[23:24] James Monroe Eichelhart: That is skill. That is talent.

[23:26] Sarah Goodman: Yeah.

[23:26] James Monroe Eichelhart: I mean, the amount of programming you'd have to kill yourself to do to make a AI do that.

[23:30] James Monroe Eichelhart: And also, I wouldn't want it to, it would have 12 fingers by the time they were done.

[23:34] Sarah Goodman: This is the cool.

[23:35] James Monroe Eichelhart: This is the cool thing. This live thing is what we're here for.

[23:37] Sarah Goodman: Yeah, awesome. Thanks so much, James. You're always so much fun.

[23:39] James Monroe Eichelhart: Have a good time tonight.

[23:42] Sarah Goodman: All right. That's it for all of my red carpet chats. I hope you enjoyed my little questions with the company of The Picture of Dorian Gray.

[23:50] Sarah Goodman: I gotta give a special shout out to the scenic and costume designer, Marg Horwell.

[23:55] Sarah Goodman: I was so absolutely blown away by her design on this show. The sets are beautiful. You know, I went in expecting there to be no sets because you know, a la Sunset Boulevard just screens and on stage camera people. I was expecting it to be pretty bare.

[24:11] Sarah Goodman: But there were some really intricate and beautiful set pieces that came into play throughout the play. And um also her costume pieces were just stunning. And I think it's very cool when a scenic designer is also the costume designer because they're really designing more of a holistic vision for the show.

[24:32] Sarah Goodman: And I thought that was really wonderful. And then I really must give the biggest of biggest of shout-outs to Nick Enord, who is the hair and makeup supervisor.

[24:42] Sarah Goodman: And I gotta say, Nick, this man deserves his own bio and his own title on the front page of the show. I'm not sure exactly what the politics are there. Um, there's a lot of politics on Broadway, y'all. I just gotta say what Nick Enord is doing and his and his hair and makeup team is doing in this play is absolutely crazy.

[25:04] Sarah Goodman: I mean, when you see a Broadway show, you don't really think about all of the work and all of the precision that's going into all of the wigs and the makeup and the costumes because you know you're not seeing all of that happening. But in this play, they're doing it live on the stage.

[25:21] Sarah Goodman: This man, Nick Enord, is out there on the stage in a costume. I mean, he's in a jumpsuit, but like all of the crew people are in, you know, they're costumed in these jumpsuits, and he's having to apply remove and switch out Sarah Snook's wigs while she's performing.

[25:40] Sarah Goodman: So they're really they have to be lockstep with the performers in the show, with the camera people, with the props. Um, it was really stunning. And I hope I hope this man gets his flowers.

[25:52] Sarah Goodman: I hope that they start incorporating a wig Tony into the permanent lineup for awards because this man really did the work on this show.

[26:03] Sarah Goodman: So congratulations to those two and everyone in the company of The Picture of Dorian Gray. It was really a beautiful production, but I especially wanted to give them both a shout out.

[26:12] Sarah Goodman: So now it's time to determine just how queer is it is it when it comes to the production of The Picture of Dorian Gray. And let me remind you what the various categories are on the queer scale.

[26:25] Sarah Goodman: We start with Fruity, aka Pete Buddig. And then we move to Love is Love, a little bit more gay. Then we get to Heligay. Okay. Hella gay makes sense, right? You know what it is. Then we go to Slays for Days. Okay. Slays for Days is um just getting really, really queer on you.

[26:50] Sarah Goodman: Next step would be queer as in fuck fascism. Okay. That's we're getting very militant with that one. And then the final category, the queerest of them all, is are we gonna get in trouble for this?

[27:03] Sarah Goodman: So where does The Picture of Dorian Gray fall on this scale? I'm gonna say this show slays for days because Dorian Gray is already a little gay, right? I mean, Dorian Gray as a character is gay for sure, and they are making it more explicit in this production than in some of the Oscar Wilde material canonically, right?

[27:30] Sarah Goodman: It's a little bit less implied and a little more obvious. Also, the cross dressing of it all, the fact that Sarah Snook is playing multiple characters in different genders, but majority of the time she is playing men, and there's something really cool about that and very queer.

[27:45] Sarah Goodman: And um the whole show had a very flouncy British queer sensibility to it that I thought was absolutely fabulous. And it was both um validating and terrifying at times, depending on what we were watching.

[28:03] Sarah Goodman: But wow, what a show! Please go see The Picture of Dorian Gray if you get a chance. It was one of the most special things I've seen on Broadway. I feel so privileged to have gotten to see it.

[28:15] Sarah Goodman: And that's all I got for you today on Good Show. Thanks for joining me. Subscribe and follow Good Show on TikTok and Instagram at Good Show Podcast.

[28:24] Sarah Goodman: We are a proud member of the Broadway Podcast Network. Check us out at bpn.fm slash good show and everywhere podcasts are found.

[28:34] Sarah Goodman: I'm Sarah Goodman. This is Good Show. Goodbye.