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[0:00] Dan Tracy: So my question is, do you have the Masters on in the background while we're doing the podcast?

[0:05] Joe Carroll: Sure do.

[0:06] Dan Tracy: Sure do.

[0:08] Joe Carroll: Sure do.

[0:09] Dan Tracy: I was just thinking about um, I was just like, oh man, maybe I should turn the volume of this down. And then I'm like, no, because when Joe starts talking, like Joe starts rambling, which he does, I can just watch the golf. It'll be great. This is like the best situation ever. I wish I could have this happening.

[0:26] Joe Carroll: Don't you wish every week is Masters Week?

[0:28] Dan Tracy: Or do you just mean that you wish that every week you had something to listen to or watch while I'm you're doing it right now?

[0:34] Joe Carroll: I'm barely, I'm barely rambling, and you're, you're right now you're looking at you're watching the golf. I can see you.

[0:39] Dan Tracy: I can see you not paying attention to me.

[0:43] Joe Carroll: Sorry, what? Pay attention to me.

[0:48] Dan Tracy: That's amazing. You know, I'm just captivated by who is gonna swallow Augusta, who is gonna get swallowed whole by Augusta National, you know?

[0:56] Joe Carroll: It's just yeah, yeah. See that guy who had a 45 foot eagle putt and knocked it in the water, you know? That's kind of stuff.

[1:04] Dan Tracy: That's what it is.

[1:05] Joe Carroll: Yeah, that's the carnage.

[1:07] Dan Tracy: That's the carnage that you like.

[1:09] Joe Carroll: Um Justin Rose is two over today, you know.

[1:12] Dan Tracy: Is he really?

[1:13] Joe Carroll: That's fantastic.

[1:14] Dan Tracy: That's fantastic. Well, I told you about my betting. Um, I don't bet on sports. I don't have like, I've never bet on sports. And I was scrolling through Instagram and somebody was like, Jordan Spieth is plus eleven hundred. Uh, and I was like, you know what? I'm gonna do that. And so I put $100 on Jordan Speath, and then I'm looking at FanDuel. This is not an ad for FanDuel, but I'm looking at FanDuel and they're like, Brooks Kepka is plus 2800. So I'm like, you're telling me I could put down a hundred bucks to win twenty eight hundred dollars if Brooks Kepka wins the Masters. I'm gonna do that. That's a fact. So I just, I just lit $200 on fire.

[1:55] Joe Carroll: But um anyway, welcome to Guys Who Like Musicals. I told him he should have put $200 on Ethereum and he didn't listen to me. So here we are.

[2:03] Dan Tracy: Yes. What is this podcast about?

[2:05] Joe Carroll: Damn. What is this podcast?

[2:08] Dan Tracy: Welcome to Guys Who Like Musicals. It is the championship matchup.

[2:14] Joe Carroll: We already say the final countdown, so we can't again.

[2:19] Dan Tracy: So an actor is saying his lines, and then out of nowhere, he just starts singing.

[2:46] Dan Tracy: This is very, this is the end of March Madness, even though the real March Madness is already over. Uh true. And um so here we are with what, what are the total?

[2:58] Joe Carroll: It's, I'm gonna do some additions. Six A. Wait, 698?

[3:03] Dan Tracy: A total of 698 people voted.

[3:06] Joe Carroll: That's correct.

[3:07] Dan Tracy: In the championship matchup between...

[3:07] Joe Carroll: That's correct. West Side Story and Rent.

[3:13] Dan Tracy: Everything is Rent.

[3:15] Joe Carroll: And it is Rent, Rent, French, Rent, Rent. Um just to be clear that this is the battle for the best musical of all time, 2021 edition.

[3:23] Dan Tracy: Correct. Um, that I think we've now figured out something that we're gonna do for years to come. And um have shows battle it out. And so this is by no way, no means the best musical of all time.

[3:36] Joe Carroll: Correct. Which I think is like asking what, you know, what is your favorite movie or something? Like, what is the, like I don't know, who's your favorite child if you have kids? It's like, of course. Like you can't answer that question. What is the greatest musical of all time? Like, no, this is the greatest musical of all time, 2021 edition.

[3:54] Dan Tracy: Yeah, this is more like what's your favorite musical in 2021 is how I would define where you are in your life. I can't say that we're like trying to define what is the best musical of all time. I just think that that's like a tall order and is not based off of like popularity and is also based off of like who and what, according to who and you know, it's just that's just a nonsense thing. This is a popularity contest, and we have who we have, and I'm surprised Hamilton isn't here, but you know, the Rent heads are clearly out in full force.

[4:25] Joe Carroll: Exactly. And I actually I'm thrilled about it because like Hamilton is, is like I've said week after week, it's a cultural phenomenon. But like, do we have to have, is it our best musical in 2021? Do we have to make it like, but uh it's not here, it's not in the ship, it has not made it to the ship.

[4:43] Dan Tracy: So I would argue is as predictable as West Side Story, so you know.

[4:43] Joe Carroll: As what do you mean as predictable?

[4:52] Dan Tracy: Uh sorry, I think that Rent is as predictable as Hamilton if we're talking about popularity contests and like...

[4:52] Joe Carroll: Oh really? We're gonna say Rent, Rent is gonna be here, really?

[5:02] Dan Tracy: Yeah, that's no better than Hamilton.

[5:07] Joe Carroll: I don't, I don't know about that.

[5:08] Dan Tracy: As far as like roll your eyes at it, you know. Like it's, but I mean it's nice to know that that it's still as sort of culturally relevant to our fans and listeners as it was 10, 15 years ago.

[5:24] Joe Carroll: Like for sure. You know, like we talked about it. Eons and eons like Phantom and Lamiz, it's now in the, you know, it's in the zeitgeist as something that will people will forever be fans of so let's keep it short we've talked enough about these shows let's get some drum rolls going and let's figure out who we have here as the winner.

[5:27] Dan Tracy: Was that your drum roll?

[5:27] Joe Carroll: That's my drum roll. Aren't you a drummer?

[5:27] Dan Tracy: No, it I think it, I think it was more of like a, I don't know what that was but but it's half a drum roll.

[5:27] Joe Carroll: Okay so let's get to it so we gotta say how grateful we are that nearly 700 people are it took place on our in our Instagram nonsense um and we have to shout out to Matt with all of the graphics social media Matt um doing you know putting all of this stuff together um it's just just iconic um so Dan what do you think should we should we should we bat should we say anything more about these?

[5:27] Dan Tracy: I gotta correct the record um we gotta we got fact checked on Facebook um which is you know just isn't that what Facebook is for um you know just to humiliate people um so I was humiliated in a joking way by uh a listener who who let us know that our information about West Side Story originally being about black versus white is just fake news that is not true that is in fact not at all at all what it was it was originally gonna be called Eastside Story and it was gonna be Catholics versus Jews.

[7:03] Joe Carroll: And then Arthur Lawrence was like, nah.

[7:06] Dan Tracy: Nah. And uh. And there's some story about um how they ended up uh deciding that it was uh gonna be West Side Story and that it would be uh the Puerto Rican versus white, and and and that is kind of probably up for debate about how that came to be because it's sort of a he said she said, but now we have what we have.

[7:30] Joe Carroll: So it was in fact never black versus white, and that was fake news, and I apologize for my misinformation.

[7:37] Dan Tracy: You know, we've been cool.

[7:41] Joe Carroll: Probably could have done that with the revival.

[7:46] Dan Tracy: Catholics versus pretty no, no, black versus white. Probably could have done that with the most recent revival. That would have been very timely, you know?

[7:53] Joe Carroll: Maybe a little too on the nose, but yeah, I mean, that was that was one of those things that when one of my friends said when I did Romeo and Juliet, one of the, I did that revival where it was the Capulets were black and the Montagues were white, and one of the things that that Shakespeare purists don't like, didn't like about that, among many, many things, um that the uh the uh the grudge between the two families is so ancient.

[8:23] Dan Tracy: Ancient grudge break to new mutiny, meaning that they they don't know why the families are feuding.

[8:29] Joe Carroll: It's just been lost to history. There's no, they can't put a finger on why they're fighting, but they're fighting.

[8:35] Dan Tracy: Right.

[8:36] Joe Carroll: And they have always fought and they will always fight.

[8:38] Dan Tracy: And so when you make it about race and you say that it's black versus white, now all of a sudden it's a race, it's a it's a race war show or whatever, you know, and it's it's like right that is that is, you know, very timely, and there's a bunch of, you know, it's still happening, but it's not what was initially intended I guess you know.

[8:38] Dan Tracy: Right well and that the inter, the most interesting point being that they're not sure why they're fighting and in the black versus white scenario it is a very clear reason why.

[8:38] Joe Carroll: Oh there you go. There was, you know, mass atrocities committed and now there is tension, you know, so it's a little different that context.

[8:38] Dan Tracy: Yeah, yeah, uh, well that's good. Thank you for calling us out, and we gotta be fact-checked. I mean, that's a thing that a lot of podcasts do, Dan, that like we should probably start doing, where like, you know, at the end of it for sure there's a—my favorite murder—and my sister loves my favorite murder, and at the end they always have these facts. They're always like, "Okay, so here's all the stuff we screwed up about the particular facts or whatever." But, um, yeah, I mean, I never heard that Catholics versus Jews thing. That's very interesting that like somebody—yeah, that's how they initially wanted it, you know? You know, yeah, that is, uh, there's a whole like history channel, um, I think it might be a full documentary, but I just read an article about it, and uh, that's the story. So yeah, lost to history.

[8:38] Joe Carroll: But yeah, well, should we talk about what the people voted, or should we just—I mean, we've talked these shows. Yeah, you know, it's—I think we gotta get to it. It's weeks, and let's get to it. The people have spoken, and so we want to—and then we'll have a reaction to this.

[10:31] Dan Tracy: Um, but the uh let me just get the numbers straight. Make sure that where did it go? Okay, so from Matt, our social media guru. The numbers are in after the final two days of voting. The final count is West Side Story with 342 votes and Rent with 356. Rent takes it by 14 votes.

[10:55] Joe Carroll: 14 votes.

[10:59] Dan Tracy: So didn't matter. I even tried to vote twice. Uh I would I'm I'm up at uh my folks have a cabin in northern Michigan. I'm up here with my mom, and my mom was voting last night. She's like, she's like on her phone voting, and she's like, she's like, Rent is not the best musical, the best musical about that. She's all fired up about it. So um, so uh she was clearly in Camp West Side Story. Uh, but the 2021 show that it is cutting down the net is uh is Rent and everything is Rent. You have it. That's it. Your vote matters. I mean, like you said, we gotta we'll we'll get back to um next year. We got it. So we need more than uh we'll need more than 700 votes next year.

[11:46] Joe Carroll: Um but uh I think it's gonna I think it's gonna happen. So what did what's your reaction to this? You know, this is kind of like when your team doesn't make it to the finals, then you're just ambivalent, you know, like watching Gonzaga get really beat down on by Butler.

[12:02] Dan Tracy: I would just couldn't care less.

[12:04] Joe Carroll: Baylor.

[12:04] Dan Tracy: Yeah, this is yes. I wish that Butler was was beating Gonzaga. That would have been great. Uh I just couldn't care less, you know.

[12:14] Joe Carroll: I just was like, oh, okay. This is this is you know.

[12:18] Dan Tracy: Wait, so are you saying that you couldn't care less about about West Side Story versus Rent?

[12:23] Joe Carroll: Yeah.

[12:25] Dan Tracy: This was your idea.

[12:27] Joe Carroll: No, I know. I know it was my idea. But then the teams make it to the thing, and then you're like, oh, well, you know.

[12:35] Dan Tracy: Yeah.

[12:36] Joe Carroll: I wish Sunday in the Park with George was here.

[12:38] Dan Tracy: And that wasn't even an option.

[12:39] Joe Carroll: It wasn't even an option.

[12:41] Dan Tracy: That I know. Listen, well, I'm just saying, this is how sports work. This is a lesson in sports for our listeners, Joe.

[12:48] Joe Carroll: Yeah, sports ball. Sometimes your team isn't in the finals, and then you don't care, even if you are the organizer of the tournament.

[12:59] Dan Tracy: Yeah, you exactly.

[13:00] Joe Carroll: Exactly. You're like the you're the president of March Madness NCAA.

[13:05] Dan Tracy: Yes. You went to Michigan and Michigan lost, and you're like, I don't care about this anymore, even though this is my job.

[13:10] Joe Carroll: That's correct.

[13:11] Dan Tracy: Um, so just um I'm a consummate professional. That's just uh, you know, it's in my bio. So I I do my reaction is just that um I just I think that West Side Story is better.

[13:28] Joe Carroll: I mean, I think I just have to disagree.

[13:31] Dan Tracy: I have to disagree with the people. We've talked about the pros and cons of both of these shows and the things that we love about all of them, but it's like, you know, I it's West Side Story.

[13:33] Joe Carroll: It's West Side Story. Someone said someone said it's a character vehicle for Tony and Maria and not for anyone else.

[13:50] Dan Tracy: And I just don't agree because you have Anita and Bernardo, and like you have lots of. I mean, I guess there's only one like romance that you pay attention to, and Rent has so many, it's like it's just a bunch of romances mixed together.

[14:06] Joe Carroll: I just do I remember watching West Side Story for the first time, and when Riff gets stabbed, right?

[14:14] Dan Tracy: I was like, what no they can't what do you you can't kill you can't kill Riff what you know like still that was like one of those sh moments in movie because I saw the movie before I saw the musical like one of those those move those moments I'll never forget they can't possibly wait so he's dead he's the lead he's the best part of the so I just completely disagree with that fans response to that well but there you have it folks that's it that's it um so so Rent it is Rent is alive and well and living in Paris um and um I th you know we'll we'll tackle it next year with uh with another another round of shows I wonder if next year we're gonna we can't we probably just can't include any of the shows that we included this year.

[14:58] Joe Carroll: So I mean there's there's a whole we're gonna be doing like the most happy fella versus like yeah 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue.

[15:09] Dan Tracy: Right right right taboo versus kiss of the spider woman.

[15:15] Joe Carroll: Actually that's the now we're talking I think that that taboo versus kiss of the spider woman or uh it would be it would be way too niche to do like the greatest flops of all time but I would appreciate it.

[15:27] Dan Tracy: Well yeah I think that I mean next year we're just gonna do a whole nother round of it and I think that Dan is backing the Sunday in the Park with George Horse and frankly I don't know what could possibly I don't know what could possibly beat it.

[15:39] Joe Carroll: But yeah we got like a whole we basically I mean whole region of Sondheim company was the only that would be fun actually, because company was the only Sondheim that we had in this in this bracket, right?

[15:49] Dan Tracy: So we should have just a Sondheim bracket.

[15:53] Joe Carroll: Uh yeah, just a Sondheim full, like yeah you know, corner.

[15:57] Dan Tracy: And like, where is In the Heights in this conversation?

[15:59] Joe Carroll: And like after the In the Heights movie comes out, I'll I think that people are gonna just be completely awakened to if they don't know In the Heights already.

[16:08] Dan Tracy: Um that's right.

[16:09] Joe Carroll: So West Side Story, FTW.

[16:12] Dan Tracy: Um, and uh that's it. Thank you for going on this journey with us. Thank you for uh listening. We got some pretty exciting guests on the horizon for you, and uh we're excited to get to it.

[16:28] Joe Carroll: Yeah, bunch of cool people coming. Thank you for your engagement. Thank you for uh voting.

[16:33] Dan Tracy: Um Rent takes it. Last week we did talk. We we teased our our uh uh one of the the guests we have coming who's probably in the Mount Rushmore of guys who like musicals.

[16:44] Joe Carroll: And um that's a clue.

[16:46] Dan Tracy: That's a clue.

[16:47] Joe Carroll: That's a clue.

[16:48] Dan Tracy: And um, yeah, we're bugging people. We got some really funny, really exciting people um that are coming down the pike.

[16:55] Joe Carroll: Um yeah, what else?

[16:58] Dan Tracy: That's it. Let's get the people out of here.

[17:00] Joe Carroll: They want to go home.

[17:01] Dan Tracy: Let's go already home, but let's go home.

[17:03] Joe Carroll: They're sick of listening to us.

[17:04] Dan Tracy: I want to go home, Dan.

[17:06] Joe Carroll: Dad, I want to go home.

[17:12] Dan Tracy: Thank you for listening to Guys Who Like Musicals. We are now part of the Broadway Podcast Network.

[17:18] Joe Carroll: Woo!

[17:19] Dan Tracy: We are hosted by Dan Tracy. That's you and Joe Carroll. That's me. We're produced by Ryan Kincaid, and Matthew Mucha is the social content manager.

[17:27] Joe Carroll: You can find us on Instagram at Guys Who Like Musicals, on Twitter at Musical Guys, or the old-fashioned way at www.guyslikemusicals.com.

[17:34] Dan Tracy: If you'd like a chance to be featured on the Ask the Guys segment of our show, please call 203-900-7990 and leave a message with your question.

[17:44] Joe Carroll: As always, thanks for listening.