This transcript was automatically generated and might contain errors.

[0:00] Jeff Malone: Welcome to Half Hour with Jeff and Richie, the podcast where we explore the latest shows we see, sharing our insights and opinions on the performances, storylines, and everything in between.

[0:09] Richie Grasso: In today's episode, we're discussing the Broadway production of The Picture of Dorian Gray playing at the Music Box Theater in New York City on Broadway.

[0:16] Jeff Malone: Whether you cannot catch the show in person or you want to expand your thoughts after seeing it, this episode is for you.

[0:21] Richie Grasso: And as always, we want to inform you that this episode will contain spoilers.

[0:25] Jeff Malone: So if you're ready to dive into this production, stick around with us.

[0:28] Jeff Malone: I'm Jeff.

[0:28] Richie Grasso: And I'm Richie.

[0:29] Jeff Malone: We're thrilled to be your hosts for today's episode.

[0:31] Richie Grasso: But before we start the conversation about The Picture of Dorian Gray, here are a few words from our advertisers.

[0:37] Jeff Malone: Welcome everyone to a new episode of Half Hour with Jeff and Richie.

[0:41] Richie Grasso: Today we're discussing The Picture of Dorian Gray.

[0:43] Jeff Malone: Emmy Award winner Sarah Snook's, star of HBO's smash hit Succession, reprises her Olivier Award-winning performance in The Picture of Dorian Gray on Broadway.

[0:52] Richie Grasso: In an acting coup for the ages, Snook takes on all 26 roles in this gripping, witty, and vibrant contemporary production that breathes new life into Oscar Wilde's's classic tale.

[1:03] Jeff Malone: This groundbreaking production, adapted and directed by multi-award-winning Kip Williams during his tenure as artistic director at the acclaimed Sydney Theater Company, delivers an explosive interplay of live performance and video in an astonishing collision of form.

[1:17] Richie Grasso: A deal with the devil, eternal youth for the ultimate price.

[1:22] Jeff Malone: Alrighty. So let's start with our hot take on The Picture of Dorian Gray. Who should go first?

[1:26] Richie Grasso: I'll go first. Okay, so I think that if we are going to start talking about technology and projections on Broadway, that this show is blowing everything out of the water right now, and that Sarah Snook's is winning this Tony this year.

[1:45] Jeff Malone: I agree with all of that. I think she is. She's brilliant. And I think this production for me solidifies that the merging and marriage of technology in this way with storytelling is going to be the future of maybe not every Broadway show, but many Broadway shows to come because they make it look so seamless and effortless.

[2:05] Richie Grasso: It takes a lot of work, but when it works, wow. I mean, this production just stuns. I'm stunned by it. I left there quite speechless, and I was wildly impressed.

[2:14] Jeff Malone: A woman was too stunned to speak.

[2:17] Richie Grasso: So Sarah Snook winning the Tony, agree, and everyone needs to run and see this. And now let's dive in.

[2:22] Jeff Malone: Okay, let's do it. So we're talking about our overall thoughts on the plot and concept. So Oscar Wilde writes this famous book, also wrote The Importance of Being Earnest, a very famous writer. Everyone knows who Oscar Wilde's is.

[2:31] Richie Grasso: And I believe Dorian Gray was a movie. Well, it was a book and it was a movie, and there's been adaptations of it. I think it's fascinating that someone like Kip Williams takes something so modern and puts it with the classic tale.

[2:47] Jeff Malone: And I was reading his director's note, and he talked about how he wanted to bring this immersive video experience into something really classic and then bring a one-person show narrator-esque storytelling aspect to it too.

[3:01] Richie Grasso: And I think that the right works work here. Like when you see some simple of Arnold Broadway, when it's about a film star, and they add this film element to it, it works. When you're taking Dorian Gray, which is all about looking at yourself and knowing what your looks are to you and to society and literal looks and the picture that's being painted, why wouldn't you bring some technology like looking at yourself, AI, video visual aspect into the story? It just makes complete sense.

[3:31] Jeff Malone: It's not always gonna work for every story. But if you have the right story to adapt to do this or a new work, it totally, totally works. And we're gonna talk all about the technology of this in a second. But just to talk about The Picture of Dorian Gray, it's a famous title, it's a famous plot. So you already know that people are going to either understand this or relate to it or kind of get it or know of it. And I think that's one step in the right direction for this company.

[3:58] Richie Grasso: And one thing I will say though is I did not know much about this going into this. So I kind of look at this and I kind of throw this question out here, though, about this adapted work, and saying, why do you think that this is picked to be this kind of work? Because I think that it would be interesting if you took something that is so stage known. The Importance of Being Earnest is a play that has been done, right? And maybe if you did that with this, it would have been a little different. But maybe you take something that's a novel or a book and you adapt it in this way. I think that was one smart move.

[4:33] Jeff Malone: Another smart move is that if you're doing a new work, this may not land the same way because who's going to maybe say, okay, this really different immersive experience and it's a new work. But I think there's some comfort. You know, we always say, like, what's the comfort in a show? Oh, I keep saying Casanova's Boulevard because that's the only thing right now that's kind of somewhat similar to this with all the camera work. We know Andrew Lloyd Webber's score, we know who Nicole Scherzinger is, so there's comfort there.

[4:58] Richie Grasso: Yeah. When you're looking at Dorian Gray and Oscar Wilde's, you know that you're gonna get good text. And this is an adaptation. And that's another thing is the adaptation of this is really smart. It's well written, the comedy is there, the drama is there, the placement of characters throughout, and it's two hours, but it feels like 30 minutes. I think that's fascinating too, in the way this is paced.

[5:20] Jeff Malone: Yeah. So this plot and concept make complete sense to me because you're taking something that people kind of have at least the bare minimum, maybe a little bit of knowledge of.

[5:29] Richie Grasso: Yeah. And I think though, looking at this though, when Kip Williams is wanting to adapt something like this and then direct something like this, and we look at it, and it's like, was it always the idea that it was going to be a one-woman show or one anybody show? I think that in the director's note, Kip talked about how he wanted to adapt this into the one-person show and bring that like old classic one person. Because Sarah is built in the playbill as performer, not as Dorian or as this character.

[6:04] Jeff Malone: Right.

[6:04] Richie Grasso: So she plays all these characters. And I think that's what's so smart about this is this way that this story is told. Because the story works. It worked as a book, it worked as a film, it works. So now try it in a different way. But don't change the plot because the plot's not really changed. We were even set in the same time period.

[6:24] Jeff Malone: Yeah.

[6:25] Richie Grasso: You know, with this obviously all this video technology didn't exist there, but they kept the wigs and the costumes and the aesthetic and the verbiage very period still.

[6:33] Jeff Malone: Right. Uh, which worked.

[6:35] Richie Grasso: Yeah, I look at this too because I think there's such a big message in here with the actual text of the book and seeing this more in the modern style, which we'll get into the production part of this. It's like I look at this and you really want to get to like what is in this the whole idea behind the picture, right? So, like what is the picture for you and where are you getting with this picture?

[7:01] Jeff Malone: Right, and where is Dorian's journey with this?

[7:05] Richie Grasso: Right, of looking in or looking out. And I love how in this production we never even see the actual picture that was painted.

[7:11] Jeff Malone: Yeah, we can kind of get the vibe.

[7:13] Richie Grasso: And listen, this is about vanity being vain, having a sense of pride in what you look like, how you age. This might be one of the first stories in history that kind of talks about that. Today's day and age, it's all about how do I look? The 50 is the new 40, 40 is the new 30. Your hair, your skin, you want to look great. And that's something of history of the last maybe hundred years or so. But when you see something older like this, and you see, oh wow, like they were talking about being painted and that painting, what lasts longer? You or the painting? Well, I think in this case it's the painting.

[7:48] Jeff Malone: Yeah.

[7:49] Richie Grasso: And that youthfulness of Dorian Gray and what they're talking about here, you know, they even say it in a deal with the devil, eternal youth for the ultimate price. Well, what is that? The photo right now, the painting right now, is that internal youth and is reminded to Dorian consistently that that's what he used to look like, or they used to look like. And then I think it's interesting because at the very end, you think that he's stabbing the painting, and he really stabs—spoiler alert—he really kills himself, yeah, and destroys himself, not the painting when you think that he put a knife through the painting.

[8:27] Jeff Malone: And then what lives on? Right, the painting, or your memory of Dorian, or both.

[8:32] Richie Grasso: Well, and I think that's what Dorian always tried to latch on to was that painting and everything surrounding that painting was what he wanted to be remembered by, not anything he did after the painting.

[8:45] Jeff Malone: Right, and so that leads me to ask you this question. Does this story, does this classic story live on and relate to people today?

[8:52] Richie Grasso: I mean, I would think it does. An iPhone, AI, videos live on, photos live. How many people would say, Oh, oh yeah, whatever you post on the internet, whatever that lives on.

[9:02] Jeff Malone: Yeah.

[9:02] Richie Grasso: But is that how you will be when we don't know what a 20-something-year-old right now posting videos and photos will be like when they're 80, looking back at those photos and saying, do I regret those photos and videos? Am I proud of them? Do I like the way I am now? Do I not like the way I am now? It's—and so that's why this technology incorporation said this totally made sense. A hand in glove to me.

[9:24] Jeff Malone: Which I think this is a great way to segue into now this overall production.

[9:29] Richie Grasso: Yeah.

[9:29] Jeff Malone: But before we do that, here are a few messages from our sponsors.

[9:33] Richie Grasso: Okay, because I feel like now we're gonna move into the overall production here because it's gonna also tie in again with certain plot elements. But first off, like applauding everyone up on that stage because they are doing something that most of us have never seen on a stage before with what they're doing with the technology.

[9:54] Jeff Malone: It's like extremely busy backstage, it must be for one person to be on stage to see. Not only do you have, I mean, I hope I don't miss job titles of people here, but not only do you have camera operators, you definitely have people in booths and backstage calling these video cues, these lighting cues. There's people pulling scenery in and out, there's people maintaining the audio visual department, there's the sound department syncing all of that up. It's like a TV studio crew that's doing it live eight times a week.

[10:21] Richie Grasso: How many times do you film something in Hollywood or a TV and like up cut, let's do that again?

[10:25] Jeff Malone: Right.

[10:25] Richie Grasso: Oh, let's go back and refil that and then we're moving on. There's no moving on here. You have to kind of get it right. And I will say, I want to say there might have been a technical glitch at some point in our production of it. We had seen this right after opening night. I think when she goes backstage and downstairs and they came up with one of the phones was glitching because she was many times using an actual phone that wasn't plugged into anything, that was relying on Wi-Fi and battery to do some of the things she was doing.

[10:51] Jeff Malone: So and listen, part of me saw that tech glitch, which I think was a tech glitch and said, I don't care.

[10:57] Richie Grasso: Yeah, because I'm so impressed by what's happening here. This whole stage could have gone black for 20 minutes and I wouldn't have cared.

[11:03] Jeff Malone: Yeah, I think you know what I mean.

[11:04] Richie Grasso: I think we shouldn't care because I think it kind of brings in that whole idea of everything being perfect, yeah.

[11:10] Jeff Malone: Right.

[11:10] Richie Grasso: So, like when we go back a little bit into the plot here, and Dorian Gray being this like perfect painting and the way that they see themselves consistently. I think that in this production, like Kip bringing in the technology here and showing us in the modern day what we do to paintings and photos and everything trying to fix, trying to fix something that everyone sees around us all the time.

[11:39] Jeff Malone: Right, you know, like and it's interesting to watch because you're now watching Sarah Snook's go all around this stage playing all of these different roles, becoming all of these characters, and also bringing in the technology part of this.

[11:57] Richie Grasso: So we see her holding the phone, she's doing some of her own camera work somehow.

[12:02] Jeff Malone: I know, which is like mind-blowing to me having to do things in real time.

[12:07] Richie Grasso: And yes, were there things that were pre-recorded, but it didn't feel like it was pre-recorded.

[12:12] Jeff Malone: No, it didn't, and I understand that you know, also I liked how some things were set in the back corners where you could kind of see where you kind of couldn't, and you like trusted that that was happening live because what did not really move was that main large screen in the center of the stage.

[12:24] Richie Grasso: There were smaller screens that came in and out, which I was actually so impressed that that was kind of floating and moving. It kind of almost felt like the moving staircases of Hogwarts and Harry Potter when the paintings talk on the wall and move around the staircases, it kind of felt like that a little bit.

[12:37] Jeff Malone: Yeah.

[12:37] Richie Grasso: And it got—and you know, some people would argue, well, in theater, you're supposed to kind of let your eye go where your eye can go, right? Directors will pull focus with lighting and costumes and staging, but in general, you're supposed to look at the big picture. Here it was very like look here, now look here, now look here. But at the same time, I didn't feel that because I was able to see what she was doing, and it was also like a hey, we're gonna show you the wig reveal, the wig change right now. We're gonna show you the costume change and the mustache. We're just gonna show you all that. We're not gonna hide anything here, so nothing is hidden.

[13:07] Jeff Malone: Yeah, I was gonna say to kind of piggyback off of what you're talking about, is like I would say, yes, some people would also be like, Yeah, no, they're trying to tell me what I should be looking at, but I don't think that at all because you had the choice to either watch what was happening on the screen, the fixed version, so like in film and television, yeah, that's what you're seeing, so that's there for you, and sometimes it's blocked. Your sight line and view of seeing what's actually happening on the stage is blocked, but you can still watch because she is doing everything live, and then there's this when she is in the specific role that is live, because then, yes, there are other moments where she is pre-recorded, but she has to act with that pre-recorded moment of her, and not only that, but there's moments like when she's doing a scene and someone walks into the space and you look at the space and they're not there, and it's like a ghost she's talking to, but it's actually she's with the AI or the pre-recorded whatever.

[14:06] Richie Grasso: Um, when she was talking to all of herself in different costumes and characters at the dining room table, very impressive. The first time that a character entered a scene that wasn't physically there, and she was acting with, I was like blown away by that.

[14:21] Jeff Malone: Blown away.

[14:21] Richie Grasso: When the narrator on the video would try to start, and she'd be like, Oh no, I think I'm gonna take this one now. It takes a lot of patience and a lot of time to really perfect that. You're acting with yourself by yourself, yeah.

[14:32] Jeff Malone: Um, and yes, I understand the argument.

[14:34] Jeff Malone: Some of this is pre-recorded, but there's also this level of she has to work with the pre-record still.

[14:39] Richie Grasso: It's not like she dips off stage for 10 minutes and we sit and watch a video for 10 minutes.

[14:42] Jeff Malone: That's not what's happening here, right?

[14:44] Richie Grasso: And the stuff that you are supposed to watch in that moment that she is doing is just like out of this world. Not to mention, you would think when you in watching something like this, you would say, okay, maybe she's busy or she's no, like you're zoomed in on her face, and she is acting, she's changing her vocals, she's changing her physicality, she's changing the way she stands, the way she speaks, how she delivers a comedic line, how she delivers a dramatic line.

[15:07] Jeff Malone: I thought some of the manic stuff at the end was really dramatic and serious, but then we go to that like gorgeous song, and she's like, and I'm like, oh my god, and like riding the rocking horse, and like it took us on such a journey.

[15:19] Richie Grasso: I was and of course there's no intermission in this because I wouldn't have made any sense for that to have been in there, it would have taken you completely out of it, right?

[15:26] Jeff Malone: Right.

[15:27] Richie Grasso: Costumes are elevated, her performance is elevated. We'll talk about Tony's and potentials in a second. But I think when you look at and I don't watch Succession, and so I don't know who this is.

[15:38] Jeff Malone: Let me tell you something. This is the year of Succession.

[15:41] Richie Grasso: Yeah, I know, and I got I clearly should have watched it because they all are winning Emmys and now Oscars and whatever, and then going to do Broadway.

[15:47] Jeff Malone: Right. I was like, is this the next show we're gonna watch? Because it's like her and Jaron Colkin and Sydney Lemon and Peter Friedman, and the list goes on of like all of these and what was it in last year?

[15:59] Richie Grasso: Someone else was oh, I don't know. In what did we see at Circle in the Square?

[16:03] Jeff Malone: Oh, Enemy of the People.

[16:05] Richie Grasso: Oh, yeah, yeah. Jeremy, no, was it him?

[16:07] Jeff Malone: Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

[16:08] Richie Grasso: So I feel like it's impressive to watch her. She's really captivating. I really want to see her do more work because she's so comfortable on this.

[16:19] Jeff Malone: She is really great. I mean, I really think what she is doing in terms of creating these different dialects that she's also saying, and how do you get your brain to switch?

[16:31] Richie Grasso: I know for 26 different roles for two hours straight. And not only that, but didn't you love that there was this element of like it was the most non-gender neutral, gender neutral thing I've ever seen?

[16:43] Jeff Malone: Where like she was playing male and female characters, some more feminine, some more masculine, but it almost never really mattered.

[16:49] Richie Grasso: I got this like neutral sense of like, here is the actor playing these characters, and she didn't push any character one way or the other. There was just like this simple, like, I'm gonna be a human being, I'm not gonna be a woman playing a man or a woman playing a woman.

[17:04] Jeff Malone: There was no like labeling with it, it was just simply like of course there were wigs and male characters and female characters and whatnot, but I'm saying she just played it with this neutrality that so conveyed like the point of this piece being about this Dorian who was this human who just was maybe whether you want to say was it an effeminate man or a masculine man or whatever?

[17:26] Richie Grasso: It didn't even matter because Sarah played it with this, it's about what does Dorian think Dorian is.

[17:33] Jeff Malone: Right, and I think that was kind of with everyone, and I think back a little bit. I don't know why I keep going a little bit back to like Sunday in the Park with George.

[17:42] Richie Grasso: Because it's not like that, it's like the painting coming to life.

[17:45] Jeff Malone: And I felt like in here, the way she approached things was like the painting style coming to life.

[17:53] Richie Grasso: Yeah. Whether all of those people were painted or they were not.

[17:57] Jeff Malone: Yeah. It just felt like she is the canvas that it works in that way.

[18:02] Richie Grasso: And we were talking with Matt Koplik recently about like what we see as like Tony potential.

[18:08] Jeff Malone: And I thought a little bit more about the scenic design that was happening on the stage for this show.

[18:14] Richie Grasso: Because I think that there were some beautiful moments that were created in these vignettes when she had certain monologues that I said, oh, yeah, there were there was a lot of moments in scenic design.

[18:25] Jeff Malone: And could that be like a potential Tony nomination? Especially since video incorporates into that too.

[18:32] Richie Grasso: And some of the actual brick and mortar scenery, which you didn't have in Sunset. This was like an incorporation of actual scenic elements encompassed with the videography.

[18:42] Jeff Malone: Yeah. There's just something about the room that she would go into. And you know, obviously, lighting like that had so many moments and even costumes that that as well.

[18:52] Richie Grasso: I was like, okay, this show has a lot more to offer than I think a lot of the critics originally penned.

[18:57] Jeff Malone: Well, that's why when the New York Times gave it like a mixed review and said, well, this is more mostly video, and blah blah blah. I'm like, but this is theatrical still.

[19:05] Richie Grasso: This is theater. We are seeing video technology at new heights in international countries, in theme parks, in virtual reality situations.

[19:14] Jeff Malone: Why is Broadway so behind on this technology?

[19:18] Richie Grasso: And that could be something we talk about in the next one. They're like ahead and they're behind.

[19:21] Jeff Malone: You know, I when you look at something like Jesse Green talking about this show in a different way, because I think he actually just likes the material more and was not happy with how the material was presented on the stage.

[19:32] Richie Grasso: If that's my takeaway from his review, but then he praises something like Redwood, which is using massive projections of the Redwood trees and saying that's the future of Broadway.

[19:42] Jeff Malone: I don't think that is. I think that this is right.

[19:45] Richie Grasso: Especially when like actual didn't actual literal trees come down from the ceiling in this production too when she was in the forest at the end.

[19:51] Jeff Malone: Like so, like there was this mix of like real scenic elements with the video, not just a wall, a video wall and one tree. You know what I mean?

[20:00] Richie Grasso: Which is Redwood.

[20:01] Jeff Malone: So yeah.

[20:01] Richie Grasso: But I do want to dive into some of the Tony potentials here and just our experience of the show and the future of Broadway with this.

[20:06] Jeff Malone: So let's go there now. But first, here are a few messages from our sponsors.

[20:10] Richie Grasso: Okay. So I'm talking about, I will say something. I saw the 2000 and oh my gosh, maybe it was 2009 or 2010, Broadway Revival of Guys and Dolls, which was heavy video.

[20:24] Jeff Malone: And if anybody listening saw this or remembers this, it was this not great revival of Guys and Dolls.

[20:29] Richie Grasso: Actually, Titus Burgess was nicely nicely. He was the best part of this.

[20:31] Jeff Malone: But heavy projection for Guys and Dolls.

[20:36] Richie Grasso: Okay. And it wasn't taken very well by the community.

[20:41] Jeff Malone: I'm not saying that every show needs to include heavy visual, because maybe a golden age show like that doesn't quite work as well with something like that.

[20:49] Richie Grasso: Maybe it does, maybe it doesn't. If you had seen this Music Man revival a couple years ago and the whole thing was video, you might have had a different interpretation of the video.

[20:57] Jeff Malone: It was mixed in.

[20:58] Richie Grasso: Right, right. There were some parts that were mixed in when they mix it in.

[21:01] Jeff Malone: So that what I'm trying to say is this excessive video and sound and lighting collaboration mixed with actual scenery, actual costumes, actual acting happening.

[21:12] Richie Grasso: That's to me the perfect storm of what's gonna be the future of Broadway shows.

[21:17] Jeff Malone: Of course, shows with just scenery are still gonna keep working with no videos.

[21:20] Richie Grasso: But I think that this show for me permits what happened on that stage when you can kind of let your own feelings about what you want on the stage versus watching someone else's art and actually looking at it and then saying, okay, I get what they're doing.

[21:35] Jeff Malone: That's how I take this.

[21:37] Richie Grasso: And if I in 10 years from now saw a Broadway production of The Picture of Dorian Gray that was just a standard, no video, just a scenery with 26 actors telling the story.

[21:49] Jeff Malone: I would also be okay with that.

[21:51] Richie Grasso: Right. We can go back to that and then do this.

[21:54] Jeff Malone: Like it's not like the whole world becomes this now.

[21:56] Richie Grasso: I think people get scared, and some of the reviews and people say, oh, this is too video heavy, or this is no, no.

[22:02] Jeff Malone: For now, this was an adaptation of a classic work, and this worked.

[22:06] Richie Grasso: And it doesn't mean that forever we're always gonna see Oscar Wilde's interpreted like this.

[22:11] Jeff Malone: I think people jump to those conclusions so fast.

[22:13] Richie Grasso: When we might get a traditional Glenn Close as Sunset Boulevard in 20 years from now, a very traditional, and that would be totally okay.

[22:21] Jeff Malone: And so I think people have to start opening themselves a little more and being like, this was amazing and groundbreaking, and it's not gonna be like this forever, or it could, and let's keep our minds open to some of that.

[22:32] Richie Grasso: But it's also like one show, right?

[22:35] Jeff Malone: Right, because you'll know you don't see this with every show.

[22:39] Richie Grasso: I think some people don't like how Cats and all these shows kind of get reinvented and reinvented.

[22:45] Jeff Malone: But it's okay because some shows will be and some won't.

[22:48] Richie Grasso: You're gonna get your traditional music bands, you're gonna get your traditional, and that's okay too.

[22:52] Jeff Malone: It's what makes the Broadway world go round.

[22:54] Richie Grasso: But what are they basing it on? Is what I'm going at here.

[22:58] Jeff Malone: It's like the book is there. Go read it.

[23:00] Richie Grasso: There's a film, go watch it.

[23:02] Jeff Malone: Right.

[23:02] Richie Grasso: And now there's an adaptation production that is doing something different with that with someone else's take on how they think Dorian Gray should be portrayed.

[23:12] Jeff Malone: And so when it comes to Tony's, I mean, does Sarah Snook's get nominated and win? Without a doubt.

[23:16] Richie Grasso: Sorry, Laura Donnelly from The Hills of California because I really thought the Tony's not going to be able to do that.

[23:22] Jeff Malone: The Broadway audience is so different than the West End audience.

[23:28] Richie Grasso: It really is. And when I think about this, I'm saying, okay, yeah, she just hand her the Tony because what she is doing on that stage, no one else is doing that.

[23:38] Jeff Malone: But you could look at someone like Laura Donnelly and people be like, oh no, I'm gonna vote for the more traditional style acting that I want to see on the stage, as well as anyone else that's gonna be up for the award.

[23:50] Richie Grasso: But you know, if I was voting, I would say give it to Sarah.

[23:55] Jeff Malone: This is amazing because there is going to be more like this on Broadway.

[24:01] Richie Grasso: And does this get a Best Revival of a Play nomination? I'm not sure how that fits with this being an adaptation and how it was rewritten and for the stage, or is it a new play?

[24:10] Jeff Malone: I don't really know how the Tony committee rules this eligibility for this.

[24:14] Richie Grasso: Does Kip get a Best Director Tony nomination? I think.

[24:17] Jeff Malone: Does this get scenic and video design nomination and win? I mean, I think it could.

[24:20] Richie Grasso: Costumes, maybe too, sound and lighting, sure. It could get a ton of those nominations.

[24:26] Jeff Malone: I could totally see that.

[24:28] Richie Grasso: Yeah, it definitely could get a ton.

[24:32] Jeff Malone: Yeah, I think so.

[24:33] Richie Grasso: And I think that people are going to really take to this very well.

[24:37] Jeff Malone: Yeah.

[24:37] Richie Grasso: I know Cynthia Erivo was at our show, and she was sitting halfway down our row, and I could see over a couple times, and she was enthralled.

[24:45] Jeff Malone: The whole audience was just enthralled by this and really blown away.

[24:48] Richie Grasso: This is selling, and you need to get your tickets.

[24:51] Jeff Malone: I don't care if that means you got to find a day in June and buy the ticket and buy it out that far out. You gotta see this, no doubt.

[24:57] Richie Grasso: Yeah.

[24:58] Jeff Malone: I think if I had one critique about the play, though, like for my own experience, it did take me a little bit of time to actually get into it, maybe about 15 to 20 minutes.

[25:10] Richie Grasso: It's a lot right off the bat.

[25:12] Jeff Malone: She does talk kind of fast.

[25:14] Richie Grasso: Yeah.

[25:15] Jeff Malone: So if you're going into this and you're listening to this before seeing the show, you have to focus in on what she is saying early on.

[25:23] Richie Grasso: In the plot if you don't know the plot.

[25:24] Jeff Malone: And not worry so heavily about figuring out the screens and things like that.

[25:31] Richie Grasso: Because it is still a play.

[25:32] Jeff Malone: Yes, and once in a while you do have to take a step back and look at just the big picture, and you can zone.

[25:37] Richie Grasso: When you go to Sleep No More, you can see how much specificity and how much general you want.

[25:44] Jeff Malone: You can take a literal step back and follow an actor, kind of like this.

[25:48] Richie Grasso: You're stationed in your seat, but you can follow this journey.

[25:52] Jeff Malone: You can stare at the screens the whole time.

[25:53] Richie Grasso: How many times do we go to a concert and the person is this big, so small, way on the stage, and they look much clearer and better in the screen, and you're just watching the screen, and halfway time sometimes I see concerts at like big concert halls, and I say, why am I paying all this money to stare at the screen?

[26:10] Jeff Malone: I should try to look at her, right?

[26:12] Richie Grasso: And I actually I don't know about your concert experience, but I look at both.

[26:15] Jeff Malone: I try to look at some of the more intimate moments of a concert up on the screen, and then I try to look at the big choreography pictures down.

[26:20] Richie Grasso: Yeah, I think when you look at it's what are they trying to present to you.

[26:24] Jeff Malone: Yeah.

[26:24] Richie Grasso: So, yes, I think I caught myself probably in this sense when she had longer monologues on things that you had to kind of follow.

[26:33] Jeff Malone: I probably zoomed a little bit more in on the screen, especially when she was playing multiple roles at the same time.

[26:40] Richie Grasso: But then when a lot was happening, I pulled myself back to see what was happening on the stage, especially like when she's riding around, yeah, or she's going in or she's changing or something like that.

[26:51] Jeff Malone: Because I feel like that's the moment that you're supposed to be connecting with and seeing what's happening there.

[26:57] Richie Grasso: Totally.

[26:57] Jeff Malone: You know, totally really, really impressive stuff.

[26:59] Richie Grasso: Oh big big little director question for you.

[27:02] Jeff Malone: Do you ever see yourself directing with cameras like this one day?

[27:09] Richie Grasso: Totally. I mean, the one thing I will say is if I'm ever gonna direct a show with this high-level tech element, I would want to make sure my design team is on the exact same page as me and I with them, and that you have a great team.

[27:22] Jeff Malone: It is very clear that this doesn't work if one designer doesn't want to do something or can't do something, or won't budge, or won't work together.

[27:29] Richie Grasso: You have to have all departments on the same page, knowing that the director is taking the lead.

[27:35] Jeff Malone: Look at Jamie Lloyd and Sunset. Jamie Lloyd's name is all over Sunset, but Jamie Lloyd has a team behind him.

[27:41] Richie Grasso: Kip has a team here working very hard.

[27:43] Jeff Malone: And if you are all on the same page and you are rowing the same boat, then yes, why wouldn't you as a director want to work with this amazing technology?

[27:51] Richie Grasso: That's how I look at it.

[27:52] Jeff Malone: Yeah.

[27:52] Richie Grasso: For sure.

[27:53] Jeff Malone: Help tell your vision.

[27:54] Richie Grasso: Exactly.

[27:56] Jeff Malone: Oh my gosh, just about out of time. What are your final thoughts on The Picture of Dorian Gray?

[28:01] Richie Grasso: Big standout for me this season so far in the play category.

[28:05] Jeff Malone: Most of the plays this season, just like last season.

[28:09] Richie Grasso: I've been incredible.

[28:10] Jeff Malone: Have been incredible. I have loving seeing as many plays that we do as we do.

[28:14] Richie Grasso: But yeah, I would say be on the lookout because I think that there will is going to be a lot of Tony potential, even some award winnings happening.

[28:24] Jeff Malone: So get your tickets. Highly recommend it.

[28:25] Richie Grasso: Agreed. Totally get there as soon as you can.

[28:29] Jeff Malone: This is very impressive theater. Sarah's giving a performance like you've never seen and running at those tickets.

[28:35] Richie Grasso: It was very, very impressive. I was blown away.

[28:36] Jeff Malone: That does wrap up our discussion for this episode. We hope you enjoyed our deep dive into The Picture of Dorian Gray.

[28:43] Richie Grasso: And remember, we want to hear from you. So continue the conversation with us on Instagram at Half Hour Podcast.

[28:48] Jeff Malone: And drop us a comment on Spotify and let us know your thoughts on The Picture of Dorian Gray.

[28:53] Richie Grasso: If you enjoyed our show, please leave us a review. Your feedback helps us bring more theater to you.

[28:57] Jeff Malone: And remember, you can listen to our past episodes and stay tuned for our upcoming ones as well.

[29:01] Richie Grasso: Until next time, I'm Jeff.

[29:02] Jeff Malone: And I'm Richie saying ta ta for now.

[29:04] Richie Grasso: Bye.