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[0:08] Jeff Malone: Welcome to Half Hour with Jeff & Richie, a Broadway podcast. I'm Jeff.

[0:12] Richie Grasso: And I'm Richie. And on today's show, we have a very special guest joining us today, Tye Blue. Tye is a producer and director whose work spans television, theater, and music. Some popular TV credits include Four Seasons on the Emmy Award-winning casting team of RuPaul's Drag Race, Project Runway, Nailed It, and The Real Housewives. He is most recently best known as the co-author and director of the 2023 Lucille Lortel Award-winning off-Broadway musical Titanic, which received 2023 Drama Desk, Drama League, and Outer Critics Circle nominations as well. So, Tye, welcome to Half Hour Podcast, and thank you so much for joining us today.

[0:49] Tye Blue: Thanks for having me. It's nice to be here. Nice to be had.

[0:53] Jeff Malone: We would love to dive right into Titanic, but before we do that, can you let our listeners know a little bit more about your past experience prior to Titanic?

[1:02] Tye Blue: Sure. I mean, I basically started working in the theater as an actor out of college and did some touring. And from there, I thought, well, I guess I need to live in New York. So, I moved to New York. And when I planted in New York, I started working as an associate director to Stafford Arima on Alter Boys off-Broadway and several other things. And so, that kind of put me on this directing trajectory for a long time. And then, as with most people, at some point, I got tired of New York and moved to LA and bought warmer, more profitable pastures. And it took a long time to get to some of those pastures, but eventually I did do that. And so, I did some years in TV in LA and was all the while still directing theater kind of on the side and getting the balls rolling for Titanic.

And here we are back in New York with a theater production. Very, very, very cool. So, tell us just a little bit more about some of your inspiration for Titanic. We've seen it now. I've seen it twice. And a bunch of friends will be like, where did they come up with this idea? So, it's kind of like, to me, I'm wondering, is it the chicken or the egg? Was it Celine Dion first and then the story? Or was it like, let's do the story and add Celine Dion music? How did this all start?

[2:30] Tye Blue: Well, it was spawned out of a series of shows that I was directing in LA that were all parodies of films turned into musicals on stage that were pretty campy and used pretty basic pop songs to interpolate into the plot, which we kind of rewrite. Just fun, light fare, dinner theater. And I did like six or seven of those in a row. And so, I kind of was getting into this pop parody tunnel. And actually, Konstantin, who played Jack in the show and is one of my co-writers, he was like wasted one night after the show. And he said, you know what we should do next? We should do Titanic. But it's hosted by Celine Dion. And it's all her songs. And pointed at Marla. And we're all like several drinks in at this point.

Pointed at Marla and was like, and you'll be Celine and I'll be Jack. And back out to get it. And you just started orchestrating this whole grand vision. And we did nothing on it for two years. And then out of the blue one day, after Trump got elected, I was in such a dark place and needed something happy to focus on. And I just texted Connie and Marla. And I was like, okay, we need to do this. We need to actually write this now. And so, literally like November 10th, 2017, we just started meeting and writing.

[3:58] Jeff Malone: And what was the process like working with Marla and Konstantin? How long did that writing process go?

[4:04] Tye Blue: Well, I mean, truth be told, we rewrote it so many times all the way up and through the Daryl Roth production even. But that first sort of like egg of a script that we delivered would have taken us about three months was the first draft. Yeah, that's how quickly we did the first little kind of workshop presentation. But then we would literally do revisions every single time we would do a pop-up reading of it again. So it feels like we've never stopped writing it actually. And when you were slotting the Celine Dion songs in, was it challenging to figure out what song to put where? Or were you worried about like, oh, the rights to some songs? How did the Celine Dion aspect kind of go with the process?

[4:58] Tye Blue: Well, we were never worried about the rights when we were writing it. Because we just thought this is something, again, that we would do in like a cheesy dinner theater in LA where no one's paying for shit. You know what I mean?

[5:11] Jeff Malone: Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

[5:12] Tye Blue: We weren't worried about that. And I mean, but honestly, it was great that we weren't because it put us in a free space creatively, and we just like let our brains kind of flow. But it wasn't that hard, you guys. Like, her songs are all so anthemic. They're so, listen, it's a love story. It's just like a catalog full of fun, specific love songs that feel theatrical in nature. And so we just did an outline really quickly of like what songs could go where. And we would have like basic conceptual ideas. You know what I mean? Like, we'll use this song to illustrate him drawing her and them having sex in the car. That'll be this. River Deep will be crashing into the iceberg. We knew conceptually, like what would go where. It was just a matter of then over time, like, you know, splitting all those hairs.

[6:13] Richie Grasso: Yeah. So that kind of leads to what was it like starting this as the concert version first into the first off-Broadway run to now where it's at at Daryl Roth? What has kind of been added or removed? And what are like the challenges along the way that popped up?

[6:30] Tye Blue: Well, I think the biggest challenges that we had were when we did get a commercial producer, then we did have to clear the songs. And it started getting a little treacherous.

[6:46] Richie Grasso: Short, short.

[6:47] Tye Blue: Yeah, we lost. It's All Coming Back to Me Now, which used to be the opening number, which obviously perfect to get into reliving the memory. Yeah, it was glorious. So that one hurt to lose. Yeah, sure. And we repurposed it with I'm Alive. We also lost Power of Love, which also hurt, but we now use Because You Love Me in its place.

[7:16] Richie Grasso: Mm hmm.

[7:18] Tye Blue: And we lost That's The Way It Is. And that's, oh, it's in Julia, because I love that song. And I was like, where is that? And I know it's in Julia. Yeah, it was our finale for the first, you know, four years of the show's life. Wow. Yeah. So that's interesting, you know, that you have to now kind of reformat, but there's luckily she has so many songs, you know?

[7:37] Richie Grasso: Yeah, so that's good. It wasn't that hard.

[7:41] Tye Blue: It wasn't that hard.

[7:42] Richie Grasso: What were you more attached to that was originally in it that's not in it anymore?

[7:49] Tye Blue: Well, I'm torn because I actually like the I'm Alive opening because it feels very sort of welcoming and expository. And like, we're at Caesars Palace and she's, she's something in the top of the show. It feels like the top of the show, that groove. So I don't mind it. But I definitely still miss It's All Coming Back to Me Now. It was just so grand, you know? Yeah. And that's the way it is. I definitely miss that's the way it is, because it just had a certain sort of slightly cynical lift to it. Yeah. That really fit the finale. It was great.

[8:31] Jeff Malone: So now that this show has been running at the Daryl Roth, and it seems like it's continuing to run for a while now, what are the next steps for the show? And where do you see it going? Or that you're allowed to tell us, I guess. Yeah.

[8:41] Tye Blue: Yeah. Yeah. Well, I'll say this. I'm trying to remember exactly what our producer Eva said the other day at Google. She got asked this question on a panel. And it was like, it was like Barack Obama entered her body. Gloriously vague statement. I'll say this. There are definitely lots of locations on this planet that are interested in having Titanic be a part of their cultural landscape. Great. So we're having those conversations. And we just are signing a deal with MTI to, you know, publish and license the script. So we're definitely like putting the bricks in place for the global rollout. And it's playing currently scheduled till January. But it just keeps getting extended. So I have friends that are like, I still got to go.

I'm like, well, they keep extending, but maybe it'll end for good in January. I don't know. But I tell people to go now because, you know, I mean, you never know. I think we've been very, very fortunate with the level of success that we've had. And it's because of a lot of different things aligning simultaneously, I think. Who knows? Yeah. Who wants us to be in her theater? Like, what a great sentence to say, you know? So maybe she'll make it work. But you know, it's hard to keep a show going. Yeah.

[10:08] Tye Blue: Y'all, you might not know this, but Off-Broadway does not pay very much.

[10:13] Jeff Malone: Oh, no, yeah, no, I know, yeah.

[10:16] Tye Blue: Like, it's actually not a livable wage.

[10:18] Richie Grasso: Yeah, no, yeah, yeah.

[10:19] Tye Blue: Yeah, it's hard work, and like, everyone's scraping by. It looks glorious, I think, to the outside world, and we're like, it's scotch tape and hope, babe.

[10:30] Tye Blue: Yeah, and so, and speaking of some of this thing with the casting, so we saw Jackie Burns a few weeks ago. I actually worked on a reading with her really quick one day, like a million years ago, and she was like a pleasure. And so when I saw she's in this, I'm like, yes, this totally makes sense. And then you just last night, I believe, had Drew Jogie start as Ruth, right? And now next week you have Willem from RuPaul coming in. So what's, what are you feeling about some of these new casting? How are the audience responding to some of it? Talk a little bit about some of this new cast.

[10:59] Tye Blue: Well, I'll tell you last night. Here's the crazy thing. I actually wrote this part of Ruth, the mother in Titanic, for Drew Jogie.

[11:10] Richie Grasso: Oh my gosh.

[11:12] Tye Blue: But he was just always so busy in LA. He's very in demand there, and he was never able to do it. And so he said, it's okay, let Steven do it. And so our other friend Steven did it for all those years. And it's just a really cool sort of out of body experience to actually have him on the stage at the biggest, prettiest version of the show, bringing himself and putting his stamp on it. And the crowd just ate him up last night. He's so unique. He's so special. And it's just his tone is his own. And it's nice to have... Titanic is created in a manner that it holds space for certain types of tone to come through, particularly with that character, because we have so much sort of improv included into it. And so it's just nice to have him in it.

[12:07] Tye Blue: But I mean, I'll tell you, Jackie Burns is a star.

[12:11] Richie Grasso: Yeah, no, a star.

[12:12] Tye Blue: That's true.

[12:13] Tye Blue: And she's a... dot com, forward slash, dot html dot UK. She's a GD star.

[12:22] Richie Grasso: No, yeah, she is.

[12:23] Tye Blue: That was my first time seeing it was with Jackie. And what she's doing up on that stage is just hysterical. It's like...

[12:30] Richie Grasso: You know what gets me about Jackie? And I think this is the secret to her success. Even though she's like the longest running Elphaba in Broadway history, she is an actor first. She has an MFA in acting, and she sings. I think that's the secret.

[12:46] Tye Blue: Yeah, some of the best. Yeah, I get it. And I also feel like I saw Marla do it when it was in the other space. And then now I saw Jackie. And two different takes on it. They're both so great. And when people ask me, like, oh, what did you think of both? I'm like, I can't even begin to compare them. They're so different. And they're both so great. I just think what a great role that is.

[13:08] Richie Grasso: Which is one thing that we were saying, too. Like, is that a director choice when you have someone new come in to play the role? Or is it an actor choice to be playing that kind of... Because Selene has so many different characters herself. Like, which one are you going to get? So it's perfect that it worked that way. So that was one thing that we were curious about.

[13:26] Tye Blue: It's tricky. And I'll tell you that in replacing Marla, obviously, it was a very daunting thing to do. Jackie was a clear frontrunner from audition number one. She just embodied her in ways that Marla did not. And I'll never forget it. She started her audition facing upstage. And it literally was the way she turned her body around. It's like Selene entered the chat in that moment. And so there was something about her proportions and her body movement and her angles and her vulnerability and openness and joy, her waterfall of joy that is her spirit, that really drew me to her.

[14:16] Tye Blue: But we have multiple understudies who play Selene, and everyone is slightly different. It's just... We have a roadmap. Like, this sort of a gesture on this. Love is pronounced lurf. We have a little bit of a glossary. But again, the show was built on the authenticity of the performers. And I think that that's part of the success of the show, is that we're not like a cookie cutter, you know, say the exact same line the exact same way, like the first guy did 19 years ago. We are not that. We come from a place of speak in your natural voice and relay the idea. You know, I'm all about that authenticity.

[15:10] Richie Grasso: And to speak more on that, when you're looking at this from the director's perspective, how much of this is actually improvised and how much is script? Because there's definitely moments now that I've seen it twice where I'm like, well, that was really different, but it totally still works. So do you tell the actors, take it and run? Or do you say, well, hold back a little on this part? Where do you fit with the improv from a director's standpoint?

[15:32] Tye Blue: Well, these days, I do not say take it and run. Although I did say to Drew last night, this is your moment. Run. You know, play. We trust you. We'll pull you back. But when we were writing it, we would get together and workshop these scenes in like a writer's room sort of a setting with the actors. And it just created this sort of play in the moment a little bit, enough to kind of keep multiple balls in the air. And that always carried over. Every time we would do another reading, we would keep that sort of, you know, pop culture referential, quirky contemporary asides in the mix. And they just have become part of our formula. And I think it feels more improvised than it actually is.

[16:33] Richie Grasso: Okay. Because I feel like that when they go below deck and Selene takes them, that seems so cool.

[16:40] Tye Blue: That is. That literally was a moment where we didn't know what the hell to write. And Connie and I just said to Marla, just make it up. Just improvise something. And so she did. And we just never got around to writing it.

[16:55] Richie Grasso: Have you created guidelines for that now that they should kind of follow when they're doing that?

[17:00] Tye Blue: Yes. So we have, bless Marla's crazy heart, she didn't want to burden anyone with that task. Even though it was her favorite moment in the show every night, because it was so freeing, she's got a very specific skill set. And not everybody can tell a hilarious improvised story on the spot every night. And we just thought, let's take some of her greatest hits and create a, like an addendum, like a glossary in the back of the script. So we're going to include that with the script now. So all future Selenes have a bank of successful Marla Mindell improvs to pull from.

[17:46] Richie Grasso: Okay.

[17:47] Tye Blue: That's great.

[17:50] Tye Blue: It feels fun for the actress and feels like they're improvising, but it's still of a quality that we want.

[17:59] Richie Grasso: Okay, that's pretty cool. We're like hysterically laughing because it also just felt very current and natural because they're talking about like, you know, pinks on tour, but no one knows because Taylor Swift and Beyonce are on tour. We were just, I was like, I can't believe they ever just said that. But it was the funniest thing. You know, it just worked really well. Which kind of there's a lot of pop culture included in this book of the musical and it makes sense, you know, with your history of RuPaul and the history of the show. So did you know what you kind of wanted to incorporate into this from the pop culture world when you were writing it?

[18:38] Tye Blue: Honestly, no, I don't think that we were conscious of it. It was just something that we would kiki about when we would get together, you know, like we're, we are drag race fans, and music fans. And it just became something that started to be woven in. Maybe it was partly because I worked on the show. I don't I don't know. But no one's ever asked that. Were the pop culture was that an intentional through line that we kind of put in? It wasn't. We just wanted to keep it like cool and contemporary, and kind of be an anti musical musical, getting away from that, like, formulaic Broadway thing.

[19:23] Richie Grasso: Yeah, something that felt more available to a contemporary audience.

[19:28] Tye Blue: Yeah, well, and it makes him feel like it's more downtown, like when the audience that's going to this show gets all the references, you know, but maybe my mom sitting next to me might not, but she still laughs because everyone else is laughing. It just like worked, you know?

[19:42] Richie Grasso: So that was and I feel like I'm come from such the theater world that I love the like, the Patti LuPone cutout moment. It's like the best to me. I think that I don't know, has she ever come or I feel like she should go see it. And like, what would she even do?

[19:58] Tye Blue: Oh, God. To my knowledge, she has not seen it. I think she would find it hilarious. Yeah. And maybe not the punching her off stage. But yeah, it's great. And this

[20:17] Tye Blue: I don't know if we already had the dedication in there, but one thing that is very important to me about this show, because I'm going to be very honest, yes, we wrote a funny book, but like, we didn't write that movie, not live that tragedy. We are not Celine Dion. We did not write those songs. You know what I mean? We're taking a lot of other people's IP and sort of rendering it into something new, and so out of respect to everybody, out of respect to the survivors, out of respect to Jim Cameron, who apparently does not have a good sense of humor, and who takes the wreckage very seriously, it was just something that I wanted to do as kind of a bow on the end to show we are respectful human beings who just want to make people smile.

We do care. And I thought that was nice, that it's almost like this, everyone come together, you can take your phone out, now you can videotape, this is for them, and you sing the song that everyone knows. It's just a nice, as you said, bow to wrap and end. I did appreciate that, that was nice. I was just curious if you ever had gotten kickback like that.

[22:59] Tye Blue: In the beginning we did, now we don't. Well, maybe the marketing people hide the comments from me, I don't know. I think that people get it now.

[23:09] Jeff Malone: Yeah, yeah, yeah. And so, moving off of Titanic a little bit, because we're going to wrap up soon, what for you is next for you? Do you have new projects in store from writing, directing, or acting, or producing? Where are you going next now after Titanic?

[23:23] Tye Blue: Well, yeah, I do, I do. I have a few things at play. There is a new sort of nightlife experience that I'm directing called Tipsy Whisper, which is set in a 1920s speakeasy, loosely based around the life of a woman named Texas Gwinen, who was basically, she dominated the nightlife scene back then, and they called her the Queen of the Night, and she was just an imposing personality. And we've been working on this, and it's fun, kind of exciting, slightly immersive, sexy, kind of a club, kind of a theater, it's a huge dance experience. So, I'm working on that for next year. And it's not a parody.

[24:08] Tye Blue: Not a parody, no. It's some hard-hitting jazz and really, really incredible choreography by Carla Garcia.

[24:16] Jeff Malone: Cool. Is it for New York?

[24:18] Tye Blue: It's for here, yeah. It needs to go to Vegas, too, so I'm trying to get Caesars to grab it. Just bury that also, but yeah, it'll be running in New York in March.

[24:31] Jeff Malone: Cool, cool. I'm working on that, and I've got a couple new musicals that I'm in talks to direct, one of which I won't say anything official, but it looks like it's happening next August off-Broadway. So there are a few things coming.

[24:45] Jeff Malone: Yes. This is great. I love hearing that.

[24:48] Tye Blue: That's awesome. Good for you.

[24:50] Jeff Malone: Thank you. Carla and I are dabbling at a new thing, too.

[24:55] Tye Blue: I love it. Why not? You have all this amazing success. You all do this, what you do so well, and people are eating it up, so keep it up. I mean, why not?

[25:04] Jeff Malone: Right. And so we do have one final question before we get ready to wrap up. We ask all our visitors this. We would love to know one fun behind-the-scenes moment of any project or show that you've worked on, Titanic or not Titanic, something silly and fun backstage that you're allowed to tell us on air here that maybe our viewers have never heard before, or listeners, I should say.

[25:26] Tye Blue: I don't know why this just popped into my brain. Maybe because I was panicking. But when I was just – there's a RuPaul through line as well. In my life, there is a RuPaul through line. So RuPaul came to see the show, and it was crazy. But we were told that he did not want to be sort of known. He wanted to be incognito. He wanted to be held off like in a private area. And it was a long rehearsal day before the show, and I just needed – I'm a big napper. I just needed to grab like literally 13 minutes on a bench in the ante room. And so I'm in there taking a nap, and all of a sudden I hear footsteps. And I open my eyes, and an all-black, adorned, mask-wearing, incognito RuPaul is staring down at me.

And it scares the shit out of me. And I'm immediately like, oh, you want to be alone. You don't want to be touched or talked to. Let me get out of your way. And he was so sweet. He was like, no, no, no, no, no. Stop. Lay back down. It's fine. We're fine. Come here. Take your nap. You need a nap. I was like, no, it's okay. I have to go do things. And he said, no, no, no, listen. I'll tell you a story. It will put you right to sleep. I said, somehow I doubt that, but thank you. And I just said, thank you for coming. It means a lot to us. And he said, are you involved with the production? And I said, yes, I'm the director and co-author. And it means a lot that you're here, and you'll soon know why. But I hope you enjoy it. And then I said, and you must be the husband.

[27:32] Tye Blue: And I'm going to let you know right now. The face that his husband gave me, he would have killed. He was not having it. Oh, really? And Rue was just like, this is fun. I felt horrible. I was sitting right behind him the whole night. So I sent an email the next day apologizing. And the president of Rue's company was like, please. They don't even remember that. They were so blown away by the show. They ended up all, we love you. We want to work with you guys. Yada, yada, yada. So, yeah. That's one of my RuPaul stories.

[28:08] Jeff Malone: And that's so great that RuPaul came. I mean, because there's so much reference. And at the end of the show, did you hear anything specific from him?

[28:18] Tye Blue: Well, I got a meeting with the president of Rue's company, Rue Rue. And Jay Marcus is his name. I mean, one of the biggest compliments we've ever received. He basically said, listen, we went back to the hotel room that night. And just sat around the table. And we're thinking, these kids are geniuses. What can we do with them? And so, you know, I pitched a bunch of things to him.

[28:43] Jeff Malone: Great, great. We're going to see if I can create something for RuPaul to star in.

[28:48] Tye Blue: Oh my gosh, how amazing. Good for you. They should have you write the Ru'sicles for the show.

[28:54] Tye Blue: I would love that. Oh, yeah. I would love to be like a producer on set there. Especially because my experience casting the show was so toxic and so not the brand.

[29:09] Jeff Malone: Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah, I'd love to do that.

[29:12] Jeff Malone: Yeah, for sure. Well, I wish we could talk for another half hour. We're almost out of time. And I hate to say that, but that's all we have time for today. But thank you all so much for listening. We really appreciate you all coming on and listening to us interview Ty today. And we hope you enjoyed our conversation with Ty. Ty, if people want to follow you or connect with you more, where is the best place for them to do that?

[29:34] Tye Blue: Well, you can check out my website. It's TyBlue.com. If you're one of those people of a certain age who likes to sit and read something. Or I use Instagram mostly, and my handle is TyBlue1.

[29:53] Jeff Malone: There. Cool. Amazing. Awesome. And listeners, if you have any suggestions for future episodes, people you'd like to hear us speak with, we would love to hear from you. And you can connect with us on Instagram and on TikTok at Half Hour Podcast. Also, if you'd like to hear and check out more of our full review and thoughts of Titanic, you can go back and listen to our past podcast episode all about that, which is linked in the description of this podcast episode as well.

[30:18] Jeff Malone: Yeah, so thanks so much for joining us today, Ty.

[30:20] Tye Blue: Thanks for having me.

[30:21] Jeff Malone: Yay, thank you. And I'm Richie saying ta-ta for now.

[30:24] Tye Blue: Bye.