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[0:22] Marc Tumminelli: Hello, welcome back to LITTLE ME with me, Marc Tumminelli. My guest today began working on Broadway at nine years old, performing in the original cast of Gypsy, directed by Sam Mendes, directed by Joe Mantello, 13, The Musical, How the Grinch Stole Christmas, and Everyday Rapture, directed by Micheal Meyer. In recent years, he's become a go-to director and choreographer and has helmed an array of film and theatrical productions, including the short film Color and Light, Paradise Lost, Cyrano, The Last Five Years, Sweeney Todd, Nine, and Hero. He's choreographed Michael Arden's productions of Maryland Rolling and Annie. He's also choreographed for Macy's, Broadway Bears, Princeton University Ballet. He's a proud Gypsy robe winner and a graduate of Princeton University and the artistic director of Grind Arts Company, a nonprofit theater organization. Please welcome Eamon Foley.

[1:10] Eamon Foley: Hello, so happy to be here.

[1:12] Marc Tumminelli: Hi.

[1:13] Eamon Foley: Good.

[1:13] Marc Tumminelli: Did I get most of that right?

[1:15] Eamon Foley: Yeah, you did get most of it right. I mean, it's all there.

[1:18] Marc Tumminelli: It's all there. And you've done more things. I had to leave off more things than I put on there because you've had such a wildly exciting career from ages nine to today. And so I want to sort of break down your time on Broadway and what you've been doing recently.

[1:34] Eamon Foley: Of course, I saw you on Broadway in many shows, so it's very exciting to sit with you today and unhash all of this or rehash.

[1:41] Marc Tumminelli: That's right. Eamon, I need to know what you saw me in, please.

[1:44] Eamon Foley: Okay, well, obviously, I saw you in Gypsy. I saw you in 13, I saw you in Assassins.

[1:49] Marc Tumminelli: I did not see Grinch.

[1:51] Eamon Foley: Um, and I saw you in Everyday Rapture.

[1:54] Marc Tumminelli: You missed it full times. The heartfelt jerking production of How the Grinch Stole Christmas.

[2:00] Eamon Foley: Oh no.

[2:01] Marc Tumminelli: I can't pay for that.

[2:02] Eamon Foley: Um, that was pre-me getting also they were like no comp holiday shows. Do you remember that?

[2:07] Marc Tumminelli: No, I mean, there's no comps to anything anymore.

[2:10] Eamon Foley: It used to be just comp central.

[2:12] Marc Tumminelli: Comp central.

[2:13] Eamon Foley: Yeah, just shuttling friends into shows, but you know, no longer.

[2:17] Marc Tumminelli: I think actually it might be comp central right now too.

[2:20] Eamon Foley: Oh yeah.

[2:20] Marc Tumminelli: Well, we'll talk about it in a minute.

[2:22] Eamon Foley: All right. So you made your Broadway debut at nine years old in Gypsy. Talk to me about sort of having your first Broadway experience to be the most iconic musical ever written, starring Bernadette Peters. And actually last week, listeners, you listened to Brandon Espinoza break down his story of doing Gypsy, who you swapped places with in the trenches of Gypsy too.

[2:42] Eamon Foley: He's older than me.

[2:43] Marc Tumminelli: He's older than you. You guys couldn't look more like if you tried.

[2:44] Eamon Foley: No, not at all. Um, okay, so tell me about making your Broadway debut at nine in Gypsy with Bernadette Peters. I'm sure it was a thrilling experience.

[2:57] Eamon Foley: Well, it was more than that. Like I, uh, the cast was so warm and so kind, and it was, uh, I, I, it was so extraordinarily familial and, um, in a way that I just thought that's what Broadway was. You know, I just thought Broadway was, well, you know, like I've still, you know, made lots of amazing friends over the years, but I didn't, I just, it was just a honeymoon, uh, throughout the entire process. I was definitely such a little weirdo, you know, a little dancer kid, uh, very effeminate child, and I didn't have a lot of self-confidence. And then I walked into that first rehearsal, and you know, uh, and I just disappeared from my mom, and before I knew it, I was, you know, tap dancing for the cast and getting, you know, applauded for my talent.

And you know, just this crazy outpouring of love just came from, you know, just came from every corner immediately. And I was like, oh wow, this is, this is where I belong, you know. And also the other kids in the show were just so smart and confident. And I decided to pick that up from them. I said, why not be, you know, uh, confident? Have Broadway kid confidence.

[4:05] Eamon Foley: Yeah, exactly. That Broadway kid confidence. Oh, I have stories. Here's a story. Um, so, uh, buckle up everyone, turn up the volume. Here we go. Um, so the audition, I think I want to start there because Broadway Kid Confidence. So I walk into this callback on, you know, like the 12th floor of some grody building.

[4:23] Marc Tumminelli: Wait, before you go there, had you been auditioning a lot?

[4:26] Eamon Foley: Like, no, this is the fifth audition, your first audition.

[4:29] Eamon Foley: This was my second audition, actually, third audition. I went in for something without an agent for Dragon Tales Live. I booked, but it was an international tour, and my parents said no. And then, um, the next thing I auditioned for was a replacement in Oklahoma. I got close, but I couldn't do a backhand spring, so I did not book. And then the next thing was Gypsy. And I actually had an audition for Gypsy and A Christmas Carol on the same day. And A Christmas Carol was, you know, my dream because I'd grown up watching it, and there was this boy in it, and that was, you know, kind of a big reason why I wanted to get involved in the industry because I saw this kid doing it, and I said I want to be that kid. Um, but the Gypsy audition went long, so I didn't go to that one. Um, anyway, uh, thank God.

[5:12] Eamon Foley: Um, so the door opens on this callback, this elevator door opens, and it's just this flood of kids, of boys, you know. And my mom, I don't know if she said this or if she just thought it, but she definitely thought and maybe said and maybe did, or maybe didn't say, "Eamon, take this all in because this might never happen again." Because, you know, it was just, we were, who knew what the outcome was gonna be. And you know, the room was, the waiting room was split up into two groups, all the nervous kids with no experience who were there at their first or second callback, and then the Broadway kids in the back who all had their show coats on, you know, they're looking at the colors, smoking a cigarette, show coat, yeah, no adults, you know.

Just like, just this was not their first rodeo, clearly. And my mom was in awe of them because just the way they talked and carried themselves, they seemed more confident adult than her, let alone myself. And, um, and I remember going up to one of them and trying to say hello, and he just completely ignored me. He was like, "I'm not gonna see you again." And you know, and it's sure, you know, I get it. He had to keep his game face on. And then I go in to the audition, and I put on this like face cracking smile. This like, I, I just kind of, my mom didn't know how I was gonna handle myself in that room, but I just figured, okay, if they want like a happy kid in this show, and being a happy kid means getting out of school and like leaving this town, then I'm gonna give them a happy kid.

So I just shamelessly smiled and got through that combo, and I got, you know, I made it to the next round. And then all the Broadway kids were like, "Hey, you were smiling really big in there." It's like, "Yeah, I was." And they invited me into their little circle to talk, talk stories, and here they are all smoking their cigs, being like, "Oh yeah, I almost went in for, I almost booked Susicole, but you know, they measured me and I was just too big," and you know, and talking about like massive flubs on Broadway stages, like it was nothing. Like they, these boys had seen it all.

[7:14] Eamon Foley: So I'm not sure. You're like, I want to be there, I want to be those people. I want that jacket.

[7:20] Eamon Foley: And um, so I, you know, I kind of fell in love with them immediately. And you know, Gerard Canonico was, you know, was one of those boys in that group, and Steven Scarpulla was one of the boys in that group, and all these boys who are still, you know, either doing it or, um, moved on to other, you know, amazing things in the arts, but you know, like it was, they were all, you know, 13, 14, and I was there with them, and it meant, it just meant so much to me because I'd seen these kids in Les Mis, you know, I'd seen them do it, or at least in the shows, and I couldn't believe that I was welcomed into their little group, and then to, you know, and then to get the show, I was, you know, super welcome.

[7:59] Marc Tumminelli: Who told you you got it and how did they tell you?

[8:02] Eamon Foley: Oh my god. So I, uh, I was at, I had to miss my first day of fourth grade, I believe.

[8:11] Eamon Foley: You don't learn, you don't actually don't learn anything that day.

[8:14] Marc Tumminelli: Right, right, right.

[8:15] Eamon Foley: I know. But, but the, for the final callback, and the principal was not happy about this. She was like, "This is a bad idea, you know, this is a great day for people to meet people meet Eamon," you know, she thought it was a bad idea, but my mom took me out of school to do the callback. And you know, a weekend passed, and it was Monday, I'd forgotten about the whole thing. And I, um, come home and my brother says, "Hey, Eamon, Mom wants to talk to you in the office." So I walk into the office and she smiles at me, and I just knew immediately.

[8:43] Eamon Foley: Oh my god, I'm getting chilled right now. Um, that it was happening, you know, that this was a good thing.

[8:48] Marc Tumminelli: I mean, what is better than that?

[8:49] Eamon Foley: Yeah, yeah. But like what's so funny is like you don't know what that means. Like rehearsal, how long is rehearsal? I used to think that they were playing a TV screen in the back of the house. So the actors were on stage watching the show. They knew where to go and knowing where to go. Like I didn't know what rehearsal was or anything. I just had no idea how to do it.

[9:09] Marc Tumminelli: Like you had not even been in like a community theater show.

[9:11] Eamon Foley: Like, at that point, I figured it out. Like I had done a community theater show, but one, you know, and I did The Nutcracker, you know, so I knew what rehearsals were and all that, but I didn't really know how it worked on Broadway. And um, and it was, and yeah, so I was off on this adventure and I just didn't really know what was in store for me.

[9:29] Marc Tumminelli: Tell me about working with Bernadette Peters on that show, which I thought, and I talked about it last week on this podcast with Brandon, but I thought that performance was so exceptional. It wasn't fully, uh, I wasn't fully embraced by the community, but I just thought she was so brilliant in that show and that production was so special. Tell me about sort of being in the room and getting to see some of that happen.

[9:49] Eamon Foley: Well, first before we talk about Bernadette Peters, I have to say that that performance was brilliant, but my performance of doing Rose's Turn below her every night in the male ensemble dressing room every single night for a year and a half was, it was very, you know, uh, nuanced and um, was there a time where your cast members were like, "I know, like enough of you"?

[10:11] Eamon Foley: No, no, no, no, it was just what we, it was just what happened every show. It was just like part of the track, you know. Like now we go downstairs before bows and we watch Eamon do Rose's Turn and then we do bows, and that's just, it's about, it's what we were getting paid to do this. It was like part of the job.

[10:24] Eamon Foley: Part of the job was to watch me do Rose's Turn every night.

[10:26] Marc Tumminelli: Correct.

[10:27] Eamon Foley: Um, so then I might want to ask other people what it was like to watch you creating your Mama Rose in the basement over what was it like watching Bernadette Peters doing it upstairs.

[10:35] Eamon Foley: I was, I'll be real, it was very inspired by Bernadette. I mean, I was lip syncing her voice, so I was really trying to, you know, understand what her choices were. Um, but no, going back to Bernadette, she was, I mean, you know, you've heard the stories. She's just the kindest, most generous soul in the industry. She knows that it's community, community, community, and she knows the names of, you know, she knows the names, birthdays, and parents of everyone in the show, and the cast, sorry, and the crew and the orchestra and front of house. Like she just, she understands that the energy that she's trying to foster in that theater is very important. And she, she's a benevolent queen, you know.

[11:13] Eamon Foley: And um, funny story, she was actually my secret Santa.

[11:16] Marc Tumminelli: So I picked her name.

[11:19] Eamon Foley: What do you get for Bernadette?

[11:21] Eamon Foley: Bernadette Peters for Christmas. Well, I'll tell you what you get, Bernadette Peters for Christmas. Lots of dog-themed things. Little doggy earrings, doggy pajamas. And then for the final gift, well, everyone was giving their big gift. My mom thought it'd be funny if I gave her a picture of us at opening framed that said, "Good luck to you, love, Eamon." As if, and she didn't get the joke. She was like, "Oh."

[11:50] Marc Tumminelli: She's like, "What is this? I don't understand."

[11:54] Eamon Foley: Exactly. Um, my god, how cool. And also to be in your first Broadway show to have so many kids and then young people, all these boys that were sort of in their 20s, the Tim Fetterly, the, you know, the Brandon Espinoza of it all.

[12:08] Eamon Foley: Yeah, sort of like the next gender, like where you were gonna eventually go.

[12:16] Eamon Foley: I thought they were adults, but of course there are children, you know, now that I look back and I'm aged 28 and realize that they were all like 23, 26, you know.

[12:25] Marc Tumminelli: Of course, of course they were such messes backstage.

[12:28] Eamon Foley: But um, yeah, it was actually the perfect number of kids. Because I also did Grinch, which had like 30 children, and that was too much.

[12:33] Marc Tumminelli: That's too many kids.

[12:35] Eamon Foley: But seven, oh, the sweet spot.

[12:38] Eamon Foley: Yes, and we would, we would, we would, so we grew up, you know, at the end of the 30 minutes, and we had two and a half hours backstage to just learn about life.

[12:49] Marc Tumminelli: What do you do for two and a half hours backstage with Brooks Ashmanskas, which is terrifying to me?

[12:54] Eamon Foley: Well, the kids were kind of on the top floor, so we sort of separated ourselves, but that doesn't mean that things weren't salacious and off the walls.

[13:03] Eamon Foley: Um, we would, so Addison Timlin was baby Louise, and she was very adult for her age. She was very cool and very, and she had a, she you know, she knew what was up. And so we would play this game called House that was like playing house, but instead of house, it was like, like dirty, like um soap opera house, you know, in which, you know, the uncle and this and the dog and like, and just like, like just like this crazy sexual minds of children. You know, I'm sure you're in your sexual prime when you're 12, you know, and like, and that was really interesting about the show because like I will mention in this podcast if it comes up, you know, just the amount of just like sexual awakening that was going on backstage, you know, as like a young person and then a young gay person, and um, and it's a really interesting place to sort of discover all that because you're with kids and of all ages and adults who aren't necessarily the most PC people, and so you kind of learn a lot.

So I learned everything about sex, you know, backstage from Addison Timlin playing house, you know, and like just like the wild creativity of these kids, you know, we would um, yeah. In um, in the, in, you know, uh less raunchy news, uh the boys were really creative, and we'd make like, you know, videos together on this little um, this little camcorder. We would create Rube Goldbergs in our dressing room, or um, we'd put on shows and create dances, and we'd um, you know, just uh mine each other for creativity. Our Wrangler taught us how to knit, you know, and then we'd watch movies like we watched like Will and Grace and The Ring, and you know, and it was just like a big, you know, like two sleepover.

Two and a half hour sleepover every day night with kids who were a little beyond their years. So like I grew up, and there were fights, you know. Like I didn't get along with one of the boys in the show, you know, which was and then that was a really interesting story, actually. And like, you know, and I I'd come home crying sometimes, sometimes I'd come home elated. You know, it wasn't all peaches all the time, but it was definitely uh home that I didn't really have in New Canaan. I had friends, sure, but I didn't have friends who got it like this, who were so aware who, you know, it just it was it was we were all just cut from the same cloth and had the same interests. And so it was um, yeah, it was it was like it was definitely like finding a home, even if it was a few.

It's almost like you get a little college experience pre-college that all of a sudden you're away from your parents, other people are kind of in charge of you, and you're like forced to become a family with the people that are happen to have chosen that school, happened to be cast in this musical, and you're doing that at 10 and 11 and 12. It's just like it's truly mind-blowing to me.

[15:56] Eamon Foley: Yeah, yeah. I mean, I had a crazy amount of independence. So my mom, bless her heart, put me on the train alone when I was 10 years old to travel from New Canaan to Grand Central and pump out my little scooter and scooter from Grand Central to the Schubert Theater. So I was changing trains in Stamford. Like I knew what was up. And I had to stay safe. This is for your next therapy session, or I'm sure. Or I'm trying, but like, but basically, you know, that sort of freedom that I had with 10 only got more legit at 12, 13, so much so that I could like make up auditions, get on a train, skip school, go into the city and smoke weed with my friends. Like, you know, I just had so much like autonomy of your life.

Yeah, and it was incredible when I was 13. And then you go to college and you see all these kids who it's first time away from home, and you're like, dude, get it together. Like you grow up very quickly back to the house. You know, I've been I've been, I my first sip of champagne was from Stephen Sondheim's glass, honey, when I was 10, you know what I mean? Like, like I'm not new to drinking, I'm not new to being alone, you know. So like going to college, you know, with all these freshies was was very, it well, yeah. It actually felt like a big step back. It was very lonely.

[17:09] Eamon Foley: Okay. Yeah. So you're, you mentioned Stephen Sondheim because at this point you do two Broadway shows pretty back to back to each other, and you're part of the original Broadway cast of Assassins, because pre-that production it had only been off Broadway. Um, another Stephen Sondheim show. So basically, you just officially just work with Sondheim at this point.

[17:28] Eamon Foley: I only do Sondheims, but I told my agent. Um, that's really, yeah. Yeah, tell me, go ahead.

[17:33] Eamon Foley: I have a, I have a little story. Um, so uh we we got our closing notice from Gypsy on Friday, I believe, and I got cast in Assassins on Monday. Stop like I, yeah, but also, you know, for the youngest person in the cast to bop in the next day and be like, hey everyone, we're gonna be in another project show. It's like so real terrific. Um, exactly this dick. Like this kid needs it, you know. And now you're gonna be in Assassins with, is there another kid to stand by for you, or is you're the only kid.

[18:02] Eamon Foley: Oh, Lonely Town. It is just me. My understudy is an adult, and they didn't even make him a costume, I don't think they were just a good one. Yeah, no, I I had read that and I don't remember there being a cover. So talk to me about this transition of going from this adult show that has a lot of kids and adult themes, and obviously the building becomes kind of as family friendly as possible to doing a show at the Roundabout at Studio 54 that is about killing presidents, um, and you're the only kid.

[18:28] Eamon Foley: It's a it's a it's a it's a left. Well, I like dark things. I like that stark things. I was a weird, sad, lonely child who thought too much and was wildly too aware for his age. So like a show about assassins, I wasn't like, oh no, scary. I was like, yes, this is dark and terrifying. I love this music and I just want more. Um, but it was actors, you know. It wasn't the I wouldn't say prickly, but definitely not the most warm and fuzzy people. Yeah, so we have Mario Cantone, Dennis O'Hare, Michael Service. Mario was my best friend on the show. That's what that was my next question.

[19:00] Eamon Foley: I am okay he's the one who made it less lonely. He would uh he would um give me South Park DVDs to burn so I could watch South Park at 10 uh at 10 years old, and um, you know, on my little DVD player on the train rides in from uh from Buchanan to New York. He got it, and Neil Patrick Harris got it too, because he had reacted as a child. But not everyone had a lot wanted a lot to do with me, you know. Like I was, I was just a little, you know, I was I, I don't know, it was different. Um, and definitely lonelier backstage. But what it turned into was it definitely spun my passion for directing. During Gypsy, I was sure that I wanted to be a choreographer. Um, the first 10 minutes of every rehearsal were spent with me doing interpretive dance while Steven Scrapula played interpretive piano music.

And I um, and and Jerry Mitchell and Pam Remler, the the choreographer and associate choreographer, would just watch, would just watch me dance. And um Jerry Jerry sat me on his lap one day and said, Amon, you're gonna be two things. You're gonna be a choreographer and you're gonna be a Democrat, because my a comes from a very Republican family, and he was right about both. Um so uh so I was definitely into choreography and knew that's what I wanted to do, but it was directing that I fell in love with when I did Assassins because of Joe's work on that show. I just try, you know, the it was a concept musical in the sense that it all took place in this, you know, sort of liminal um fairground space, and I could tell that the director's job was that of a writer in the sense that they were pulling subtext out of the show and and saying something on stage beyond what the words of the show were.

They weren't just staging it, you know, they were they were saying something more with it, and I was in love with that. I was in love with Joe's ideas, and I I wanted to um I wanted to do that. So it just kind of became a master class in like making good theater. You know, I was watching a master do his work, I was watching masterful actors do their work, and the show was brilliant. And so I just kind of fell deeper and deeper in love with dark, interesting theater, and um wanted to make it for myself.

[21:09] Eamon Foley: Yeah. Did you happen? Did you have time to spend with Stephen Sondheim? Did he give you notes? Did you did he like seek you out? You're the only kid in the room.

[21:17] Eamon Foley: He he definitely like I, he was very uh I could tell he was like holding back some real laughter in my audition, you know. I didn't know who that guy was. But um, but uh he definitely was, you know, I he I could tell he was tickled, so that was good. My audition for that was really was really exciting too. It was the first time I'd really even treated like an actor. Um I was reading with Becky Ann Baker, and I um, you know, the the scene's very screamy and very bratty, and I was being very bratty and whiny. And Joe comes up to me and he kind of comes into my ear and he says, You really don't respect her. And I said, Okay. And he walked away. And I was like, and then I took that note, and like I for some some I never had an acting class, but I took the note, you know, and then the next one and and that went, and then I found out later that day that I got the job, but like just like feeling that change in that room, I could I kind of watched Stephen Sondheim and he he liked it. So that was cool. Um I already mentioned the Stephen Sondheim champagne story, so that's uh that was a good one. But no, we didn't like we didn't hang too hard.

[22:20] Eamon Foley: Um, but what I'm holding up for the people who um's watching it, but you can just video. Oh my god. I have this the Sondheim letter. Yeah, do you want to read it to us?

[22:31] Eamon Foley: Oh, actually, I don't know. I mean, I do. You don't have to. No, I really do. It's it's a really interesting thing. So it actually came to me um right before he died on October 27th, 2021. Um he uh I've been because of working on Gypsy and Assassins, I've been obsessed with his work. And I really want to make it my life work to um direct and choreograph his shows when I see choreograph, I I think there's an unmined well of dance in his music. I think he's writing ballets and doesn't know it. I think you know, there's contemporary dance and the stuff. Nothing makes me want to move more like the way I naturally move than Sondheim music. It's funny enough. And your and your project Color and Light, which is a can we talk about that?

[23:13] Eamon Foley: Yeah, of course, of course. That's what this is. So I so at school, I you know, I did Sweeney Todd, I did and and I um with my company Grind Arts, and and then we started venturing into film, and I did this dance piece to color and light from Sunday in the park. That was um these six girls on point um interacting with George, these six colors that he's kind of has this really sensual relationship with that, you know, and you can really tell that he's cheating on Dot with these colors. And that was a proof of concept for a version of Sunday in the park with George that I've been dying to do, you know, in full forever. And I was hounding Stephen Sondheim and you know, and sending him letters and James LePine as well, and trying to trying to get in there and and um it took a while, but you know, on October 27th, he wrote, Dear Eamon, I've spoken with James about your workshop, and both of us are happy to let you do it, providing that you understand that you can't disseminate it online or go any further with a production uh of it without getting our legal permission. Good luck with it, Steve. So very professional letter, not a lovey dovey, but I got the Steve at the end, which is a good one. All right, we'll take that.

[24:12] Eamon Foley: So then what happens now with that project?

[24:15] Eamon Foley: Oh, well, so you know, now we're we have permission to do the workshop. So when Omicron goes down and when um the Sondheim estate is a little more formed, we're gonna, you know, go forth. We have we have everything we need to do that. And then they make the decision if they feel like it's uh appropriate for that to move in a further. I mean, I guess we're gonna figure that out. Exactly. We're gonna make that they're gonna they're gonna see if they like it, and um producers are gonna see if they like it, and then, you know, Broadway 2023. We'll see.

[24:42] Eamon Foley: All right. I love that. That was so good. So doing these two shows back to back and being like a part-time student, you know, or being there as much as you can, and doing Broadway, which is obviously your love, where people are applauding for you and adults love to listen to you. The dynamic between what that is and what being in middle school or elementary school is really, really shocking. How did you sort of deal with sort of the kids at school versus the adults who were watching your roses turn every night?

[25:10] Eamon Foley: Oh my God, it was just like riding that train was like this magical Harry Potter experience where I would just like ride from Mugglesville to Hogwarts, you know, like this world in which I wasn't prized, which people were really either wary of me or nervous for me because I was like just a little queer kid, and they just you know were scared that I, you know, I couldn't didn't excel in ball sports or team sports, you know. I I was girly, like I just didn't have like the uh I didn't have like the cachet in New Canaan, you know. I was very low on that totem pole. And um, and then I take a train and people are asking me for autographs in Times Square because they could recognize me from a show. So like it was just like this crazy flip. Um Canaan was fine.

[26:01] Eamon Foley: I just didn't fit in there, you know, it's not a bad place. It's just like the hierarchy there is very sports oriented and um, you know, it's a suburb, it's what it is.

[26:11] Marc Tumminelli: Did it feel special though?

[26:12] Eamon Foley: I mean, I think for a lot of kids, you know, it makes them be like, "Well, I'm on Broadway, you know, like who cares about this?" You know, it's something special that you can say that not every kid can say in elementary school.

[26:25] Eamon Foley: Yeah, but it meant that I had to work. If I didn't have a job, it felt like the end of the world because I was going back to what I truly felt was hell on wheels.

[26:25] Eamon Foley: So like if I didn't have a job, I didn't have a place to escape to, I'd become wildly depressed. And like I was really, really nervous and I was, you know, uncomfortable. I just ever since I was very, very young, even way before Broadway, the idea of getting on the bus just filled me with so much dread just because of the like totem pull I spoke of. And I um, and so to have a job was a great wonderful escape and you know something that to kind of like that I could hold on to in the face of adversity in New Canaan. But when I didn't have the job, I felt like I didn't have an identity; my whole identity was wrapped up in the work I had.

[27:10] Eamon Foley: So um, it all felt very high stakes. Now you did the off-Broadway production and transport group of the audience which was sort of watching essentially an audience watch a show and in your version of this you're and actually did not see that show but you're watching a fictional production of Falsettos and they wrote you this big beautiful song for you, "I Like What I See," which I've listened to a couple of times. And first of all, you have one of the greatest kid singing voices that has ever existed in the history of Broadway.

[27:14] Eamon Foley: But you know that.

[27:14] Marc Tumminelli: Thank you.

[27:14] Eamon Foley: I don't, but I thank you. It was a moment. It's just really funny because I don't sing anymore.

[27:49] Marc Tumminelli: I know, we're getting to that. We're gonna get to our "Do you sing anymore?" But you had this like crazy, crazy boy soprano belt the whole gamut of like I had the ping.

[27:58] Eamon Foley: You had the ping, the Michigan ping, the Valkyrie in Michigan and being a 12-year-old boy. So you do this show at Transport, um, which is you know pretty well reviewed. Um, the New York Times, um, Charles Isherwood at the time wrote, "Um, a straight-laced husband and wife from out of town trade nervous glances at the shocking antics on stage, but their son doesn't uh share their distaste. He sings a little epiphany titled 'I Like What I See,' hereby announcing a bid for future membership in the ever-renowned um tribe of show queens."

[28:29] Eamon Foley: Now, that review is very problematic for a lot of reasons.

[28:33] Marc Tumminelli: Yeah.

[28:34] Eamon Foley: And so I want to like dive in a little bit about what that felt like to get a New York Times review calling you a future show queen in a musical that's not about a kid being a show queen, it's about a kid's family.

[28:46] Eamon Foley: Yeah, and then like if the kid was like in Everyday Rapture, I played like a very flaming show queen. Like that was the role.

[28:51] Eamon Foley: And like, okay, I and I and I that was really Sean. In this show, I didn't, you know, in this show, I was just like a boy who was just thinking about how theater is kind of awesome and beautiful, and I really like like how you know people express themselves on stage in ways that like my family doesn't express myself, which is a sentiment I really agree with.

[29:09] Marc Tumminelli: Yeah, yeah, absolutely.

[29:11] Eamon Foley: The whole idea of just like, you know, laying it all out there and being loud and proud about how you feel, rather than just like holding in this discomfort, you know, and like this painful brewing feeling of being out of your element. Like that's what it felt like, you know, um, in New Canaan. And so um, and by the way, like I like again, I just need to stress my family's great, and like I New Canaan's a fine town. It just it just wasn't a fit.

[29:36] Eamon Foley: Anyway, moving on from that. Um, this podcast is not brought to you by New Canaan, Connecticut.

[29:42] Eamon Foley: And um, and uh the uh but to the show queen thing, you know, my mom read that review with me and she just put her phone away like really fast. I remember being like, "Oh, I just got outed in the Times, didn't I?" Like, "Oh shit, they can smell it on me, can't they?" And it was really, I just kind of smiled through it, but like it was definitely affecting in the sense that I could tell that they saw something in me and they just broadcast it on the New York Times page.

[30:14] Eamon Foley: And that was, that was you know, that was definitely kind of a tough pill to swallow. We were with another actor while we were reading that review, and they were like, "Oh, that's an interesting interpretation of your song," you know, kind of recognizing that it was a slight, and it was I I don't I don't know where Charles Isherwood um got off trying to, you know, trying to put me in that box at that age.

[30:38] Eamon Foley: It sort of seems strange to be mentioning a young person's sexuality in any way, even though Show Queen is not necessarily saying that, but it just feels like a review that you would not give to a young...

[30:38] Marc Tumminelli: Yeah, you'd be a little careful. You'd just be a little more careful with your verbiage nowadays.

[30:52] Eamon Foley: But with the but this is like the business, you know, it's like you got you're getting the job. So you also yeah, you're having also all the things that the bad things that come along with these great moments for a young person to have.

[31:04] Eamon Foley: I'd like to elaborate that actually on that actually. So then I um then I did Everyday Rapture years later, and I was playing, you know, a flaming teenager, and there were just like all that chat and Broadway World meow meow, what whatever I don't know exactly what the chat rooms are called nowadays, but like they were all just talking about my sexuality.

[31:25] Eamon Foley: Like I'd go on there and like search my name because you know I was 14 and why not? We all done it.

[31:31] Marc Tumminelli: Yeah, we've all done it.

[31:31] Eamon Foley: And and they're talking about like there's whole threads dedicated to is Eamon Foley gay.

[31:37] Marc Tumminelli: But you were how old when Everyday Rapture happened?

[31:40] Eamon Foley: 15.

[31:41] Marc Tumminelli: Okay.

[31:42] Eamon Foley: Yeah, so strange.

[31:43] Marc Tumminelli: So strange.

[31:44] Eamon Foley: Just like adults at home, like typing about you. You know, and like being like, "I saw Eamon at Juniors," and like the only thing gayer would have been if he was doing a Judy Garland impression.

[31:53] Eamon Foley: Like, you know, like which I was doing.

[31:56] Eamon Foley: Like probably answering. Um, no, it was uh and and I wasn't out. And I, you know, and I again like that that New Canaan thing was instilled in me where I was really nervous about being out. And and it was um yeah, it was it was weird, you know, but I I kind of was forced out of the closet through that and through that show Everyday Rapture with some really amazing people, you know, who will talk about it.

[32:18] Marc Tumminelli: Well, let's skip ahead and talk about Everyday Rapture now, and then we'll go back and talk about 13. But Everyday Rapture is essentially a one-woman show on steroids, um, starring the brilliant Sherry Rene Scott, um, who is recounting her story of leaving sort of the men in night religion.

[32:37] Eamon Foley: Is it a religion?

[32:38] Marc Tumminelli: Um, and uh you have life.

[32:40] Eamon Foley: Yes, way of life, and you sort of represented a kid who was a super fan of Sherry's that was engaging with her via the internet in the early days of chat rooms and things like that.

[32:50] Eamon Foley: Is that the early days of YouTube actually?

[32:52] Marc Tumminelli: Oh, the early days of YouTube.

[32:54] Eamon Foley: I am I was based off of a real person.

[32:56] Eamon Foley: So there was actually yeah, so there's actually this video in the early years of YouTube and the early years of viral videos of this just fabulous gay boy, you know, in who knows where, you know, singing my lip syncing my strongest suit with give well giving every single lyric like a very hands-aid gesture.

[33:16] Eamon Foley: And um, and there's a costume change where he changes from one checkered short sleeve button down to another checkered short sleeve button down. And you know, and like he was just like this adorable gay kid in this room, just being like just loud and proud for everyone on the internet to see, and it just made its round to the Broadway community, apparently.

[33:34] Eamon Foley: And Sherry saw it, and she reached out to this kid, and they had like this very, very weird interaction where he just doesn't believe it's her and kind of like shames her for reaching out, and you know, and and act keeps asking for things like pictures of her with Adina Menzel, and you know, and all these like insane, you know, moments where she's trying to help this person and kind of prove to herself her star identity while this kid needs this help and doesn't believe in her star identity.

[34:04] Eamon Foley: So it was um, it's real. And so I I played this boy. I came out in a YouTube screen.

[34:10] Eamon Foley: Actually, off-Broadway, I was an audience plant, and she pulled me out of the audience and I remember that now.

[34:16] Eamon Foley: I didn't see it on Broadway, I only saw it at Second Stage.

[34:18] Eamon Foley: Um, I loved every second of it, and I listened to the cast album all the time, it is so good.

[34:23] Marc Tumminelli: Yeah, um, but it was like a great, it was a great night out.

[34:26] Eamon Foley: It was like a great night at the theater.

[34:28] Eamon Foley: I actually watched a bootleg of it over the pandemic. I just watched your 15 minutes, yeah, your solid 15 minutes like last night in preparation for this.

[34:35] Eamon Foley: I'm like, "Oh, he's a genius."

[34:37] Eamon Foley: And this was so much, this was better than I remembered it.

[34:39] Marc Tumminelli: Like it's so good.

[34:41] Eamon Foley: Um, but like what a master class to be in a show with Sherry where it's really you're the only, I mean, with the exception of the two backup singers, you're really the only two people kind of in the show.

[34:52] Eamon Foley: By the way, it must be mentioned the backup singers are Lindsay Mendes and Betsy Wolf.

[34:56] Marc Tumminelli: I mean, can you know, like, are you kidding me?

[34:58] Eamon Foley: Yeah, like it was.

[35:00] Eamon Foley: It turned out okay for everybody.

[35:01] Marc Tumminelli: Yeah, everyone did fine.

[35:03] Eamon Foley: And um, and it's uh, yeah, and and it was like having three moms, you know what I mean, in a time when when things were, you know, I guess teenagers at home.

[35:11] Eamon Foley: Things are always a little tough those years, and also, like, there teenagers on Broadway don't really exist.

[35:15] Eamon Foley: And you have broken that mold a couple of times, but you know, to be able to do something at you said 15 was so you were in like 10th or 11th grade for that show, you know, to sort of get to do something that exciting.

[35:26] Eamon Foley: And this show was not supposed to happen on Broadway, it was the Second Stage thing, and then Roundabout had an opening in the schedule and put it in there, isn't that what happened?

[35:34] Eamon Foley: Yeah, Megan Mullally had a little falling out with her director, and instead of um, and she was gonna leave the project instead of finding a new Megan Mullally, they just canceled the show and brought and just I was in English class.

[35:46] Marc Tumminelli: Yes, tell us how you found out the show is happening on Broadway.

[35:49] Eamon Foley: So I had a gig for a bit because it was those awkward teenage years. I didn't even have like an audition. Like I was so out of practice, my voice was changing, like it was just this nervous, awkward, you know, time.

[36:01] Eamon Foley: I was actually I did the off-Broadway when I was 15, and now I was 16 actually. And so, you know, and I was a very late bloomer, and so my voice was finally kind of dipping.

[36:10] Eamon Foley: And with that, my thing, my thing was epically high notes. That's what I did. I belted high. That's how I booked the shows.

[36:17] Eamon Foley: And so to lose that, I was like, "Oh well, what do I have anymore?" And then I'm sitting in English class without having had an audition in months, and I see Sherry Rene Scott is calling my cell phone, and I have to just sit there while she's a lot, you know, because I'm in English class, just sit there and like let this call go.

[36:37] Eamon Foley: And I just know in my heart of hearts exactly what's going on.

[36:41] Eamon Foley: The show is transferring to Broadway.

[36:44] Eamon Foley: And I um, and I just got out and just rushed out of that classroom the second the bell rang, and I called her.

[36:49] Eamon Foley: I listened to the voicemail, and it was like, "Hey, don't call me back. The show's transferring to Broadway."

[36:54] Eamon Foley: Like, you know, we're only gonna have about 16 days to put it up, you know.

[36:59] Eamon Foley: And of course I called her back. I mean to call her.

[37:01] Eamon Foley: And you know, and she said, "Do you think you can do this in 16 days?" I said, "I can do it in six days, right? Yeah, I can do it in six hours. Just get the ready to get thee to the theater."

[37:09] Marc Tumminelli: Yes.

[37:10] Eamon Foley: And it was really exciting because we no one could talk about it, you know, and because it was you know on the DL, but people who were hearing the rumors were posting on my Facebook wall, "Is this happening? Is this happening?"

[37:20] Eamon Foley: And and you know, and and I was with my family over Christmas vacation, checking my phone every few minutes for you know, for the for the press release, so I could finally, you know, say that this was happening for real.

[37:35] Eamon Foley: And I was on a chairlift actually in Colorado when I saw the press release, and I was like, "Oh god, this is happening."

[37:41] Eamon Foley: And then minutes later we got a call saying we need Eamon in by Monday for rehearsal.

[37:45] Eamon Foley: So I get off that ski lift.

[37:46] Eamon Foley: So I got off that ski lift. I took a plane, I took my parents stayed back, and I I um I think my my grandma was out of town, but she had an apartment in the city, so I just lived alone at my grandma's place and took myself back and forth to rehearsal for like a week, just kind of doing the New York City lonely kid thing, you know, which was also starring on Broadway.

[38:05] Marc Tumminelli: Tell us about uh sort of kind of working with Sherry and creating this with her, and what kind of things was she like telling you to help you?

[38:12] Eamon Foley: And I know she didn't direct the show, but it's when it's a when it's someone's story, it can't help but be involved.

[38:18] Eamon Foley: Oh gosh. Well, you know, Dick and Sherry and Micheal Meyer were just godsends in that point in my life. I was the my most uncomfortable, you know.

[38:27] Eamon Foley: Yeah.

[38:28] Eamon Foley: And and they were the most supportive.

[38:31] Eamon Foley: Um, Spring Awakening was my favorite piece of theater at that point, and as an aspiring director who loved directors who created concept pieces, um, I was in love with his work and so couldn't believe I was working with him.

[38:42] Eamon Foley: And uh Sherry is just such a prolific artist.

[38:46] Eamon Foley: So watching her work was just so cool, but she was also just such a mom at heart.

[38:51] Eamon Foley: She's really a selfless woman, which is so funny because her character in Everyday Rapture is like this egotistical star or like kind of a hungry for stardom star.

[39:01] Eamon Foley: You know, she has this really great persona that we'd actually just call she instead of Sherry.

[39:06] Eamon Foley: And um, and that so like that it's it's it it's an iconic, you know, thing to have a character of yourself to bounce into and bounce out of when your character out of it is just really quite humble and kind and you know, and just you know, talking to me about acne and and and um just being like a real person. Just being like a real, a real mother, truly. And I I really I really put her in that category. It was hard for the show to close because you know, I at that time that very impressionable state in my life. I was like, You're my mom. And um, and then you know, the show closed, and then you don't see these people ever again. And that's just something that I was kind of used to and kind of you never get used to.

So it was um, yeah, I uh and also, oh, and uh backstage at a second stage, I actually shared a dressing room with Lindsay and Betsy. There was just like a piece of black duvetine between like the dressing room, and so I was just like listening to these girls' lives and talking. They were what um Betsy saw an Oprah special on sex and decided to give me a sex ed talk with like note cards and everything. Like, you know, and like Lindsay's over there, you know, just kind of talking shit. Oh my god. No. Amazing dynamic. The New York Times did come back for this one, and uh Ben Brantley said that you should have gotten a Tony nomination for your performance in Everyday Rapture. So then we back we back to love the New York Times after.

Yeah, the Times did that for off Broadway and Broadway. I got that two years in a row. You should have gotten one. It's a it's a it's a dynamic performance. Thank you. It was fun, but I popped in and I popped out. There were other other more intense supporting actor roles going on. Yes, it would have been nice to have gotten a Tony nomination, but I didn't show up that day upset. You know, I was I was hoping for it. Like it would have been cool. But I wasn't, I wasn't, I was nothing was riding on that. Did you ever call out of that show? So Riley uh Costello, who was also in 13 with you was your understudy for th for everyday rapture. Did he ever did he ever step foot on that stage? I'm a monster.

I don't think I ever called out for that show. I'm a terrible person. I should have given a I should have given him a shot. That's that's rude of me. No, it's fine. It was your it was yours. I understand. But one time at 13, I I popped a tonsil during seeing that high note. I popped a blood vessel and a tonsil uh just like during that during that that big epic note. And um which I'll play right now. The longer it goes, the worse it'll get. So somebody's got it so wrecked. Yeah. That girl is bed. She took our pal. She took our leader and let him go straight. It's a very iconic moment that like stops the second half of the show of like these boys doing this very sort of uh kind of comedic old school vaudeville like number, and then you're you're singing the highest note in the history of boys singing in musical theater.

Which was easy. Oh god, it was so easy. It used to be higher, but then one of the other boys needed to get taken down, and I was livid. Of course, I wanted to like they could have bumped it up a third if uh they wanted to do it. Well, let's talk about 13, which was the Broadway mafia of child actors. It was like, you know, some of the greatest, you know, this will never happen again. And you're really part of a historic moment on Broadway where there are only teenagers in the show, only teenagers in the band. I mean, like it'll never ever happen again. And I'm sure that shouldn't. It shouldn't. Yeah. Tell me about the dark side of Fabulous doing a Broadway show that is really like a children's theater show, like on again once again on Twitter.

Yeah, I'm still right. Oh my god, absolutely. It was like a children's theater, but also belt face. Like it was so amazing about that was it was Jason's music, you know, really, you know, like that and his lyrics that didn't pander. I don't know if this story, the story kind of pandered, but like it was um it was Jason expected the world out of us. Like I remember like like i in music rehearsals, you know, he was he was tough. You know, he really wanted it to sound perfect, and you know, there was no cheating. There is no there he he respected us as artists and really believed that we could pull this off. And the only thing a kid wants, particularly a Broadway kid, is to be treated like an adult.

That's what I learned the most on Broadway is that and and why I think I'm gonna be great working with kids when I get the opportunity is because I know the truth. They don't want to be coddled, they don't want things to be mushy and gushy or soft and plushy. And I'm sure it's something to be really proud of as far historically, you know, to have been in that cast of 13 in that original cast. Building a show around us, like really building a show around our talents. So, what was so fun about that show, Broadway was fine. What was really fun about that show was Good Speed. Goodspeed when they were building the show around us, you know, um, the coreo is built being built around my dance ability because I was one of the you know the more seasoned dancers in the show.

That note was crafted purely because I could sing ridiculously high notes. The uh the uh harmonies were often broken up between the boys on the bottom, the girls in the middle, and then me and Ariana Grande on the top. Like it was just like it was just insane. We'll get to Ariana in a second, everybody. Yeah, no, I mean like that was fun. Like you could like you can hear us, you know, belting face during um during Can't Be True on that top line. It's just terrifying. Um, so yeah, that was a really great time. And Goodspeed was really particularly awesome because not only were we be had so much expected of us in the rehearsal room, and we were, you know, had this show riding on us, this Broadway bound show riding on us, but it was also summer camp in the sense that you know I was living alone in a house with a bunch of kids, you know, running through the woods after rehearsal and dunk and skipping rocks and and streams, and like we had this sort of you know, dual connection to professionalism and also connection to childhood wonder.

And it was the most fun I've ever had on a project. Now, a bunch of people in that cast have gone on to really big things, including Ariana Grande. How strange is to watch someone's star ascend to that level that used to just like sing and dance with. Oh, it's absolutely a trip, but also it makes total sense. You know, I mean, I remember at first I have a lot of dreams about Ari. So she was really my best friend in the show. You know, first person I came out to, you know, like when I was kind of in um school in New York City, I went to ended up going to professional children's school. Um, and uh, you know, instead of commuting every day, I'd stay at Ari's place and I'd stay at Mac Schneider's place and Aaron Simon Gross's place.

I just kind of had this like this kind of constellation of of 13 cast members who I'd just live with and had clothes dash at their home. And then like I just when it happened, it was just so intense. Like I would I would dream about it just because you know your your childhood best friend is now like at this place that felt like untouchable stardom. But um, you know, recently we actually reconnected over a show that I did with her brother uh in Los Angeles. And it it's it's it's still Ari, you know, it's still everybody, you know, it's still Liz, it's still it's still Graham, who's my closest friend in the world, you know. Like um we ended up Graham Phillips, who was the star of 13. We ended up going to Princeton together, starting a theater company together.

Uh we, you know, we take trips together, you know. So uh it's you kind of the the fame and the accolades kind of fall away because at the end of the day we all have like the same awkward embarrassing stories about each other. So it is really funny how there's this kind of great equalizer between us all where we can all like laugh at the little flubs we made backstage and the ridiculous things we did on stage and you know, and our professionalism and lack of professionalism. Oh my god, or seeing 13 was something that I'll never forget, as far as like my students at the time being so obsessed with the show because it really felt like they could be on Broadway and that there was a place for them.

And they, you know, went crazy. I mean, for for the show, and they loved it. And musically it's so exciting as well. Beyond Broadway and and and kick ass while doing it. Like I I find that in um musicals, a lot of the times children's songs like truly scrumptious and all these songs kind of sound like lullabies, you know, because like they like to believe that kids they're this false perception that kids, you know, feel uh are happy. Kids aren't happy, and they don't have complex feelings. You know, kids are I was such an angry kid, and you know, and and like kids aren't simpler, they're they're just as stormy and sometimes they don't have the uh have the wherewithal or like the ability to even communicate what they want to communicate, or they do and people just don't listen.

So to have a show where like you know, you could channel all that feeling into like some crazy belt plus riff, you know, was was profound. Have you worked on 13 since 13? Have you directed anywhere or like yeah, yeah. I directed it down in Ohio. I choreographed it in Chicago, you know. I just did like little little gigs in my weird, awkward years to kind of gloves on to like get into that, you know. Not at all. The music's like deep in my bones. And like I loved Christopher Gotelli's choreography, but I have a very not a very different way of interpreting it. Like I'm sure his work definitely inspires mine, but the music is so in me that like I just know all those orchestral hits, I know all those, you know, all those drum ticks.

Like I just I I I had been because I wanted to be a director choreographer during that show. In fact, it was during that show where I decided I didn't really want to act anymore. I want to talk about Gypsy of the Year, which you staged for your cast of 13, which seems to have changed the course of your life. So tell us about that Gypsy of the Year. So Gypsy of the Year is this benefit concert where Broadway shows put on um put on sketches and dances and pieces in competition, you know, to not only raise the most money, but also put on the best piece, you know. And you do it at a Broadway theater. I think we did it at the New Amsterdam, which is massive. And um, we did a piece called Under 18, which was like under the sea, thinking about how to be on Broadway, you have to be under 18 and like what it's like, and and it was really fun, and uh, you know, lots of talent in that cast, so lots of riffing and fuites and fun fun.

But you write it and direct it, or you just I didn't write it. Our Wrangler wrote it with I believe Brynn Williams, and um, and then I just kind of muscled my way into it. I'm directing and choreography. You're like, I'm the director and choreographer. The director and choreographer, thank you. Um, and so between shows, we'd have these rehearsals, and I got to run these rehearsals, and it just felt awesome to be at that front of a room and to like on the train be drawing charts on graph paper of where everyone goes and how the stage moves, and then watch that come to life. I know it sounds simple because that's just the basis of what a choreographer was, but like you just don't get to feel that feeling of imagining something in your head and then seeing it appear live on stage from the balcony, you know, running up to the balcony and seeing these shapes that you've created and this choreography that you've created and watch it happen and watch those stage effects actually be impactful.

And so I did that, and it was great. And I remember when we did um the run through on the stage, I went up to the top balcony at the Amsterdam Theater and watched the piece from the top and saw those shapes and saw those stage effects be actually affecting, and and I just couldn't believe it. I was like, this is what it looks like to have your choreography on a Broadway stage. Oh, it's so cool. This is what we're doing. I also um didn't really like um who was our director for that. It wasn't Sam Mendes, it was Jeremy Sams. Um we I I was not a fan of his during that show, and um uh he was he was tough. And I remember watching that and being like in rehearsals, being like, I should be directing this.

Like 15-year-old Eamon Foley was like, I should be directing the show, which is absolutely insane. Like, I know that that's insane now, but like it was the beginning of being frustrated being in the ensemble when I had things to say. Like, I I know how this transition could work. Just give me the reins, and I can fix this transition for you in 15 minutes, I swear. And that is like that's a director brain that not every actor has. And it's just the way that you're just seeing stuff that no one else can see. And it's very hard to be an actor when you especially don't have a very smart director.

[51:08] Eamon Foley: Yeah, exactly. He was seeing those things. In recent years, it feels like, you know, you kind of put performance on the other side for you. Was there on stage?

[51:18] Marc Tumminelli: Yeah.

[51:20] Eamon Foley: Was there like a day where you were like, I never ever want to sing again?

[51:23] Eamon Foley: Yes, yes. I did a production of Merrily We Roll Along at Princeton.

[51:29] Marc Tumminelli: While you were at school?

[51:31] Eamon Foley: Yeah, and I did not like not directing the show.

[51:35] Marc Tumminelli: Okay.

[51:35] Eamon Foley: I, you know, and I was just like, I can't, I can't act and like see the answers here and not say them. I hope this doesn't sound terribly pompous. It's just frustrating when you have a vision and you can't see it come to life after you've had that taste of watching your vision come to life, you know, like to be able to do that.

[51:51] Marc Tumminelli: No, I mean, I really understand. It makes total sense to me.

[51:53] Eamon Foley: You know, like once you've figured out that high, you know, like that thrill of watching something that was in your head be real all of a sudden and other people be moved by it, like, you know, to just kind of be a pawn in it, which like I must have not been a brilliant actor because brilliant actors are brilliant creators, like they aren't just pawns in their work, they are the director of their own track.

[52:13] Eamon Foley: And I really felt distracted from my track because I wanted to direct the entire piece.

[52:18] Eamon Foley: So um, that show was the show where I decided I never wanted to act again.

[52:22] Eamon Foley: And then funny enough, the first job I got out of school was choreographing Merrily We Roll Along with Michael Arden.

[52:28] Eamon Foley: So I with my buddy Donna Vivino, right?

[52:31] Eamon Foley: Yes, with Donna.

[52:32] Eamon Foley: Friend of the podcast.

[52:34] Marc Tumminelli: Now, uh, this as far as choreographing is concerned, it feels like you and Michael Arden have a great connection.

[52:39] Eamon Foley: You also choreographed um Annie at the Hollywood Bowl, um, starring Caitlin Hedges, also my student who we love.

[52:46] Eamon Foley: Isn't she a star?

[52:47] Marc Tumminelli: So uh how are you? What is your work like that's different when you're just getting to choreograph when you have this director's mind?

[52:55] Eamon Foley: Oh, that's a really great question. It's really interesting because sometimes as a choreographer, you're sort of choreographing the show the way the director would choreograph the show if they could choreograph a show.

[53:04] Eamon Foley: I think that's the best. That was the best explanation of choreography that I've ever heard in my whole life.

[53:10] Eamon Foley: And I'm 40 plus old.

[53:12] Eamon Foley: Well, you know, it's interesting. Like, obviously, like you sometimes you have more free reign than others, uh, with it depends on the director.

[53:18] Eamon Foley: Um, you have to just really make sure you're telling the same story that they want to be telling.

[53:22] Eamon Foley: So that's kind of what I've learned because sometimes it's hard for directors to communicate to a choreographer what they want to see or what they, you know, and I what I've learned from making mistakes or working really hard on something and then getting a wow, that was wrong.

[53:36] Eamon Foley: Like you really missed the mark. Is like you just have to really make sure you're trying to say the same thing that the director's trying to say, so you're not telling two different stories.

[53:44] Eamon Foley: Then you can kind of go off and like have your fun. Um, so uh that's part of it, but you know, it it's it's it's making sure that you're you're serving someone else's vision, which is amazing in the sense that like you get to choreograph big things on big stages with really talented people, with one of my favorite directors ever.

[54:07] Eamon Foley: That Spring Awakening changed my life of his. Like I think he's a genius.

[54:10] Eamon Foley: Um, but then like there is a it's a whole different ball game choreographing four shows that you're directing because it's just all streamlined through one mind.

[54:20] Eamon Foley: So like I just always it's it's easier, honestly, because I know when I can I know when I'm going to pick up the not the slack from choreography, but you know where where the energy from choreography is going to go into directing and into staging or into just some sort of brilliant lighting effect.

[54:38] Eamon Foley: You know, and then it's gonna when when dance needs to kind of uh take the reins of the storytelling just because it's all the the math the the the math equation of how the show is going is all you know right there in my noggin.

[54:48] Eamon Foley: And it should never look like three people worked on this. Like it's you know yeah and so that's exactly the goal you want to sort of create something seamless with a director.

[54:57] Eamon Foley: But you know there's a give and take you you take missed steps. You come back you ask a lot of questions you ask questions at the right time.

[55:03] Eamon Foley: You know you um you kind of like um play this game where you try to get to that integrated musical that's honestly a little easier to get to when you're doing it on your own.

[55:11] Eamon Foley: I love collaborating but also I kind of love the the game of you know just having something in your head and being able to see the whole when you see the whole show behind your eyelids and then being able to see the whole show in front of you that you can share with other audiences.

[55:25] Eamon Foley: But but Michael gives me these opportunities that are just otherworldly I'm actually going out to Tokyo in a month to choreograph Guys and Dolls at the Imperial theater.

[55:33] Eamon Foley: It's just like this massive opera house with this crazy turntable these elevators and this massive cast and just you know Michael's trust in me is just like so meaningful because he's helping me grow as a director and a choreographer by a being able to learn from him work with his brilliant designers did like Dane Laffrey who's a really genius set designer who I get to learn a lot from just by watching him work.

[55:55] Eamon Foley: And then also having opportunities to choreograph shows at a scale that just make me better and are big challenges. So I'm eternally grateful to Michael.

[56:03] Marc Tumminelli: Well, you have so many thrilling projects, I'm sure, that we have yet to see that are living in this brain of yours that I can't wait to see on Broadway. And I know that will happen.

[56:11] Marc Tumminelli: And like what a legacy to be able to have done this from basically, you know, eight, eight on. You have just sort of uh lived and breathed this world and created so many opportunities for students at Princeton, and so many opportunities for I feel like you're about to create a lot of opportunities for a lot of actors, and that is uh and dancers, and that's really uh special.

[56:32] Marc Tumminelli: So, Eamon, we have to do the quick fire questions, which basically we're gonna run through some questions, don't overthink it and answer them as fast as you can.

[56:41] Marc Tumminelli: And that's the only prerequisite. Are you ready?

[56:44] Eamon Foley: Yes, I'm ready.

[56:45] Marc Tumminelli: First audition song.

[56:46] Eamon Foley: Uh Gary Indiana.

[56:48] Marc Tumminelli: First Broadway show you saw.

[56:50] Eamon Foley: Oh, ooh, ooh. Abby's Song.

[56:54] Marc Tumminelli: What?

[56:55] Eamon Foley: I know.

[56:56] Marc Tumminelli: Google it.

[56:56] Eamon Foley: What what is that?

[56:58] Marc Tumminelli: I know.

[56:59] Eamon Foley: Okay.

[56:59] Marc Tumminelli: Favorite Broadway show of all time, all the years.

[57:03] Eamon Foley: Um Design the Musical.

[57:05] Marc Tumminelli: Okay. Patty or Bernadette.

[57:07] Eamon Foley: Bernadette.

[57:08] Marc Tumminelli: Something you turned down that you had second thoughts about.

[57:11] Eamon Foley: Oh. Oh. Oh, A Tree Grows in Brooklyn.

[57:16] Marc Tumminelli: On course.

[57:17] Eamon Foley: It's okay. It was boring. Um maybe it was amazing. I saw it. I just feel like Sergio was the director, was the choreographer of the city. He's the best.

[57:24] Eamon Foley: We just had a really good time in the rehearsal, and I was an audition, and I was like, I really I booked a pilot, so I had to do that.

[57:29] Marc Tumminelli: But you're like, sorry, TV's coming.

[57:31] Eamon Foley: Okay. Who would you like to see in Gypsy?

[57:34] Marc Tumminelli: What I like to see in Gypsy.

[57:36] Eamon Foley: Oh my God. Lindsay Mendez.

[57:40] Marc Tumminelli: All right.

[57:40] Eamon Foley: Yeah.

[57:41] Marc Tumminelli: Um, the last person you texted.

[57:44] Eamon Foley: Oh, the last person I texted. Um considering you couldn't find your phone before we started this.

[57:50] Eamon Foley: Yeah. Something tells me.

[57:51] Eamon Foley: Oh, Mike Rhodes. I have this friend from Princeton, Mike Rhodes, who's just like who's the CFO of Grind Arts Company, and he is helping me find ways to pay artists.

[58:00] Eamon Foley: So my god, I love him.

[58:01] Marc Tumminelli: All right. Do you have a favorite alphabet?

[58:04] Eamon Foley: Um yes, I do. And it is in the Spinoza.

[58:11] Marc Tumminelli: Okay. What is your go-to album for a car trip?

[58:14] Eamon Foley: Um, oh, Company.

[58:17] Marc Tumminelli: I want blank movie to be a musical.

[58:20] Eamon Foley: Oh. Okay. Um Black Swan.

[58:27] Marc Tumminelli: Can you name two real housewives?

[58:29] Eamon Foley: Nope.

[58:31] Marc Tumminelli: Pancakes or Waffles.

[58:33] Eamon Foley: Pancakes.

[58:34] Marc Tumminelli: That's the only right answer.

[58:35] Eamon Foley: Yeah.

[58:36] Marc Tumminelli: Um, Strangest Stage Door Experience.

[58:39] Eamon Foley: Oh my god, this is great. You're gonna listen to your face. I'm not gonna be wrapping fire. Sorry.

[58:43] Marc Tumminelli: No, take your time with this, baby.

[58:45] Eamon Foley: So so a guy, um follow on oh my god, um, came to the stage door of every Rapshut kind of like multiple times. I was I was a child, by the way.

[58:56] Eamon Foley: And he would like kind of bring me gifts like like a stuffed bunny, and you know, and like candy. And I was like, okay, thank you.

[59:02] Eamon Foley: And then one time I get on the train ride home, and he is he comes onto the train and sits next to me.

[59:11] Eamon Foley: No, no, no, no, no. Follows me home on the train, and I'm just on the train. I can't like get up because like I'm in a three-seater and I'm on the inside and he's on the outside.

[59:19] Eamon Foley: So I'm kind of like stuck on the train with this stalker, you know, and he he rides the train home with me, and then at Stanford I like book out and like go to the connecting train and like, you know, and and and ditch him.

[59:33] Eamon Foley: But yeah, the strangest stranger experience is being followed home to Connecticut by another.

[59:39] Marc Tumminelli: Okay. Did he go to stage door again after that?

[59:42] Eamon Foley: I never saw him again at the stage.

[59:44] Marc Tumminelli: Oh god. Well, sir, if you're listening, don't do that ever again.

[59:47] Eamon Foley: Yeah, please don't.

[59:48] Marc Tumminelli: Okay. Do you do any impressions?

[59:51] Eamon Foley: Um, I used to do uh what's her name? She was the first gypsy, the first the first mummer was in Gypsy.

[59:58] Marc Tumminelli: Ethel Merman?

[59:59] Eamon Foley: I so I used to have Ethel Merman impersonations on my resume. And anytime I was asked to do the Ethel Merman impersonation, I would book the role.

[1:00:06] Eamon Foley: And I cannot do it for you now, and I will not do it for you now.

[1:00:08] Marc Tumminelli: Okay, I'm very sad about it.

[1:00:10] Eamon Foley: All right.

[1:00:10] Marc Tumminelli: Last five years question. You have to pick Kathy or Jamie.

[1:00:14] Eamon Foley: Oh, it's definitely it's it's Kathy's show.

[1:00:16] Eamon Foley: Kathy, Jamie's so mean.

[1:00:18] Eamon Foley: Jamie's mean, but like I I actually directed and choreographed that show actually once with Kristen.

[1:00:22] Eamon Foley: And and yeah, I I've definitely would love doing that show, like from a Kathy perspective. It's it's it's maybe it it softens it, you know.

[1:00:31] Marc Tumminelli: Yeah.

[1:00:32] Eamon Foley: Um, who is your favorite Muppet?

[1:00:35] Marc Tumminelli: Oh, is like is like Monster Muppet or like a Muppet.

[1:00:39] Eamon Foley: Uh Monster.

[1:00:40] Eamon Foley: Well, Monster is a sus, but yeah, Animal is fine. Brandon Espinosa also chills animals. So there you go.

[1:00:45] Eamon Foley: You guys are we're we're we're bad kids.

[1:00:49] Marc Tumminelli: Okay, if you can go back in time and see Annie Broadway show, what would it be?

[1:00:52] Eamon Foley: Um Evita.

[1:00:55] Marc Tumminelli: Yeah, good choice.

[1:00:56] Eamon Foley: Who makes you starstruck?

[1:00:58] Marc Tumminelli: Oh, who makes me starstruck?

[1:00:59] Eamon Foley: Allie Trim.

[1:01:02] Eamon Foley: My dear dear friend Allie Trim makes me starstruck. I just saw her go on for Glinda.

[1:01:06] Eamon Foley: Oh my god, was she thrilling? We've been best friends for years.

[1:01:09] Eamon Foley: She's saying what it means to be a friend to me while I was getting my tattoo. And like I like couldn't speak to like my dear friend.

[1:01:16] Eamon Foley: I was just like so moved by her performance. She was unreal. I've never heard Glinda's song like that.

[1:01:21] Marc Tumminelli: Shout out to Child Star Ali Trim.

[1:01:23] Eamon Foley: Oh, what is your better on the show?

[1:01:24] Eamon Foley: I wear we're working on it.

[1:01:26] Marc Tumminelli: What is your favorite smell?

[1:01:28] Eamon Foley: Oh, my favorite smell. The musk of a man.

[1:01:31] Marc Tumminelli: Oh no. Not that.

[1:01:34] Eamon Foley: But sure, I'll leave it for this.

[1:01:36] Eamon Foley: I'm sweating. My face is red.

[1:01:39] Marc Tumminelli: Okay. What is something you always had in your dressing room?

[1:01:42] Eamon Foley: Oh, what have I always had in my dressing room? Oh, just a scooter.

[1:01:48] Marc Tumminelli: Okay. Um are you into true crime? And the follow-up is what crime would you like to have solved?

[1:01:54] Eamon Foley: Oh, I'm not into true crime, and I would there's no follow-up.

[1:01:54] Eamon Foley: There's no follow-up.

[1:02:00] Eamon Foley: Yeah. The answer is always Jean Benet Ramsey.

[1:02:02] Marc Tumminelli: Okay.

[1:02:03] Eamon Foley: Oh, okay. Um, favorite TV quarantine binge.

[1:02:06] Eamon Foley: We're a little bit past that, but I'll take it.

[1:02:08] Eamon Foley: Oh, we might be right back. Succession.

[1:02:10] Marc Tumminelli: Yes.

[1:02:11] Eamon Foley: Yes. So like the only thing that interested me this whole entire quarantine.

[1:02:15] Marc Tumminelli: Have you ever left a show at intermission?

[1:02:18] Eamon Foley: You don't have to tell us what it is.

[1:02:20] Eamon Foley: Um, I don't think I have, but I left several movies in the middle.

[1:02:24] Eamon Foley: Like, I left Into the Woods in the middle.

[1:02:27] Marc Tumminelli: Just didn't do it for you.

[1:02:28] Eamon Foley: Just didn't do it for me, and I love that musical too much. I was like, you know what? I'm good.

[1:02:30] Marc Tumminelli: Now I know you don't sing anymore, but if nobody's home, would you out do you sing around the house? And if so, what do you say?

[1:02:36] Eamon Foley: I'm learning to rediscover my voice. It's a lot of Wicked.

[1:02:39] Eamon Foley: It's a lot of Wicked and I'm a big slut for Wicked, and I'm not ashamed to say it.

[1:02:47] Eamon Foley: I was um I definitely would sing Wizard and I. When oh yeah, when the train doesn't have anyone in it, like I my test for myself to like rediscover my voice and my bravery is to belt Wizard and I.

[1:03:00] Marc Tumminelli: Like top of my lunch.

[1:03:02] Eamon Foley: Well, friends, if you're on the subway with Eamon, then get off it so he can sing.

[1:03:05] Eamon Foley: Yes, so I can sing.

[1:03:07] Marc Tumminelli: Okay, last couple questions. What do you want on your bagel?

[1:03:10] Eamon Foley: Oh, um, cream cheese and jelly.

[1:03:12] Marc Tumminelli: Ooh. What movie can you watch over and over again?

[1:03:15] Eamon Foley: Boxalon.

[1:03:17] Marc Tumminelli: And what advice do you have for young performers?

[1:03:20] Eamon Foley: Oh, um, you're never done. You know, like I know you think that you're a genius because you booked a Broadway show in your 10, but the truth is you're not.

[1:03:28] Eamon Foley: And like you have to keep working at it. And other kids will surpass you if you don't. So keep honing your craft. You are not done.

[1:03:34] Marc Tumminelli: I love it. Tell the people where they can follow you to see what you're up to.

[1:03:39] Eamon Foley: At Eamon John Foley, E A M O N J O H N F O L E Y on Instagram or at GrindArtsco.com, my company.

[1:03:49] Eamon Foley: And um, yeah, that's it. Or yeah, and also the Grind Arts YouTube is where we post all of our work.

[1:03:53] Marc Tumminelli: So you can tell us, is there something coming up with Grind Arts that we can we should be excited about?

[1:03:58] Eamon Foley: Oh, well, yeah, this the Sunday workshop is through Grind Arts Company. Um so we're gonna be doing some little some little labs and stuff like that.

[1:04:05] Eamon Foley: But um, in terms of our our digital work and our we do a lot of dance films, we're taking a breather from that so that we can focus on the lot the the bigger the big kahuna, you know.

[1:04:14] Marc Tumminelli: Well, I watched a bunch of the YouTube videos and they're beautiful. You're very talented.

[1:04:16] Eamon Foley: Thank you.

[1:04:17] Eamon Foley: You were when you were a child, and you certainly are as an adult. I'm so thrilled to have you with me today.

[1:04:23] Marc Tumminelli: Thank you for sharing your Broadway story. And those of you at home, thank you for listening. We'll be back next week with an all new episode.

[1:04:30] Marc Tumminelli: Thank you, Eamon. You're the best.

[1:04:31] Eamon Foley: Thank you for having me. This was a joy.

[1:04:36] Marc Tumminelli: Thank you, listeners. This podcast is produced by Alan Seals, Dory Berenstein, and the Broadway Podcast Network, and edited by Derek Gunther.

[1:04:45] Marc Tumminelli: For more information on the LITTLE ME podcast, go to bpn.fm slash little me. And follow me on Instagram at Marc Tumminelli or on Twitter at thatTuminelli.

[1:04:55] Marc Tumminelli: And for more information on workshops, classes, and everything Broadway Workshop, go to Broadway Workshop.com.

[1:05:01] Marc Tumminelli: Thank you for listening.