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[0:21] Marc Tumminelli: Hello, welcome back to LITTLE ME: Growing Up Broadway with me, Marc Tumminelli. My guest today began her career at the age of seven in the film *Premonition* before making history in the original Broadway cast of *Annie*, creating the role of the youngest orphan, Molly. After *Annie*, she joined the cast of the hit TV show *All in the Family*, and then co-starred in its continuation, *Archie Bunker's Place*. She appeared on dozens of TV shows, including *Hotel*, *Mr. Belvedere*, *Murder, She Wrote*, *Tales from the Dark Side*, and *Days of Our Lives*. Now a very successful songwriter, collaborating on such hits as Natasha Bedingfield's's "Unwritten" and "Pocketful of Sunshine". She's a Golden Globe nominee, and I'm so happy she's here today. Please welcome Danielle Brisebois.

[1:03] Danielle Brisebois: Did I kind of do the name right?

[1:04] Marc Tumminelli: I did.

[1:06] Danielle Brisebois: You got my starting age wrong.

[1:09] Marc Tumminelli: Okay.

[1:10] Danielle Brisebois: I was old. My first movie, I was five. And I started in *Annie* when I was technically six, but I had to lie to get to be equity.

[1:23] Marc Tumminelli: Oh my god, we're gonna let's break it all down. First of all, I want to just talk about the two things.

[1:29] Danielle Brisebois: Oh, I'm an Oscar nominee too.

[1:30] Marc Tumminelli: Oh my god. Why is that not? Why is that not on your things?

[1:35] Danielle Brisebois: What things?

[1:36] Marc Tumminelli: Like your Wikipedia and things.

[1:38] Danielle Brisebois: I don't know. You know, I have to work on that stuff.

[1:41] Marc Tumminelli: You do. What do you have an Oscar nomination for?

[1:43] Danielle Brisebois: For a song I wrote for a film called *Begin Again* with Mark Ruffalo and Keira Knightley and Adam Levine, and the song "Lost Stars". We did a lot of songs for that movie.

[1:54] Marc Tumminelli: Oh my god, you are such a wildly successful songwriter. I lost my mind when I'm like, she wrote "Unwritten". That's like everyone in the world knows that song.

[2:03] Danielle Brisebois: I mean, also it must be so thrilling to be like, oh, I wrote that.

[2:09] Danielle Brisebois: Like what? Yeah, oh, yeah, it is. I'm very proud of it. I love it. It's so great. I worked up this musical called *Emma*, and it's in that show. It's in like also a lot of jukebox musicals. It's like a great, it's everywhere. I mean, it's you've written a hit song that will outlive everybody. It's kind of thrilling.

[2:28] Marc Tumminelli: Thank you. Yeah, it is. I love it. All right, we'll talk more about songwriting towards the end. But um, let's go back to this five-year-old. How does this happen? How does a three and four-year-old start working in this business?

[2:39] Danielle Brisebois: Well, obviously, my mother was involved.

[2:41] Marc Tumminelli: Yes, okay. That's how it goes.

[2:43] Danielle Brisebois: But not, and my grandmother as well. But not like in a Gypsy Rose kind of a way, was it like that?

[2:52] Danielle Brisebois: So basically, when I was really little, we went to Sears Roebuck, you know those little pictures you can take at there? And the guy that worked there said, "Your daughter comes off really good on camera. You should go see this manager in the city named Kathy Dowd."

[3:08] Marc Tumminelli: Okay.

[3:08] Danielle Brisebois: So we went. And of course, my mother goes, "She's gonna be a star," you know. So we go into the city, and before that, I was always like imitating things on TV. Like I loved listening to opera, like I would be caught like wake my parents up at six in the morning playing the record of Beverly Sills, like opera. Like I loved like weird stuff when I was so we go in the city, we meet Kathy Dowd, and she sends me up on an audition the same day, and I get it. It was for a commercial. And then my mother also knew this singing teacher. I don't know how she knew him, but she was new to this guy named Al Greiner, who was at Phil Black's studio as well in the city. And so we went to see Al and he thought I had talent.

And I started taking lessons with him. And then I started with Phil. And just from being there, you start meeting everything. I, you know, by the time I was like eight, I did over like a hundred commercials. Like I was the only dark-haired, brown-eyed kid at the time in the city working. I would go into these auditions, it was literally blondes and redheads. And I'd be like the one like, "Hey, I got the cannoli," you know.

[4:12] Marc Tumminelli: And you were like a very New York kid, like in look and style. I'm sure that really set you out.

[4:18] Danielle Brisebois: You know, pale skin, dark bangs, you know, brown eyes, you know. And I looked like my parents, you'd own a pizzeria, basically.

[4:26] Marc Tumminelli: Yeah.

[4:27] Danielle Brisebois: And yeah. So I just started booking things, and um, yeah, and then just kind of and how you know, I'll I'm sure you're gonna ask the question of how I get into *Annie*. So I'll save that.

[4:38] Marc Tumminelli: Of course, we're getting there. But before *Annie*, you had done this movie *Premonition* and you did an episode of *Kojak*, which was my grandma's favorite show. A lot of commercials I did. I did also at the same time, while that was going on, my mother and Al Greiner constantly had me performing in old age homes, homes for the deaf, homes for the blind, and at times home for the deaf and blind.

[5:02] Marc Tumminelli: What would you perform there?

[5:04] Danielle Brisebois: Just different songs, like you know, like "Everything's Coming Up Roses" was one of my staples, or "Rain in My Parade". Yeah. Or my favorite was "Soon It's Gonna Rain". I loved that song.

[5:17] Marc Tumminelli: Oh, it's a great song.

[5:18] Danielle Brisebois: It was never the showstopper for a kid, but I felt it. Oh, I forgot to even, and then before even all that, there's a drag club in the city, right? Oh, called Gypsies, that Gypsy ran and owned. And somehow I met Gypsy, and he had me before I was even on Broadway, I was the opening act for the drag show for a few weeks. So I'd be like the special surprise guest, the curtains would open and be me. "Why don't you come up and see me sometime, big boy?" No, it's not the men in your life that counts, it's the life in your men with my sequined bodysuit on and the whole thing, and I loved it.

[5:56] Marc Tumminelli: Oh my god, the gays probably lost their minds for this little kid.

[5:59] Danielle Brisebois: It was so much fun. It was so much fun. And um, I just loved it. It was just such a great we called him Uncle Gypsy. He was awesome. And so I did that, you know. I was always doing different things. So when did the *Annie* audition come to you?

[6:15] Danielle Brisebois: Well, I didn't quite have a proper audition. So here we go. Buckle up, everybody. Buckle up for a couple of stories. You've heard of the Jacobies, Dolores Jacobi and all her kids?

[6:26] Marc Tumminelli: Yes, of course.

[6:27] Danielle Brisebois: At the time they were like everywhere in the city, they were lovely people, and they were at Phil Black's dance studio. Everybody was at Phil Black's dance studio at the time, at least it seemed that way. And um, my grandmother used to have to sit in the car outside Phil's to like not get ticketed by the meter maids because they short the meters all the time. So my grandmother's in the car, where it's like we're rushing to get out to do something with the meter, and Dolores Jacobi is coming up the stairs with her son, Billy Jacobi. And because I was a girl and she was a boy, we were in a competition for things. She would tell us tips. If she had daughters, she wouldn't have told us, but she didn't. Billy was a boy, so she was just, "You guys go to the *Annie* audition."

My mother's like, "What?" "What audition?" I'm like, "The *Annie* audition, it's right now. Get her down there." So that was all we had to hear. We go down there. They're like, "It's a play." We had no clue what it was.

[7:14] Marc Tumminelli: Yeah, why would anyone know?

[7:15] Danielle Brisebois: Yeah. I had to go. So we get to where the audition is. We run in, and they're like, "Oh, the auditions are done for the day." She's like, "No, Danielle has an audition." And then they're like, "How old are you?" I'm like, I knew I had to be seven. I'm like, "Seven," even though I'm only six. And this is before Goodspeed. This is like the beginning, beginning.

[7:32] Marc Tumminelli: Yeah, yeah.

[7:33] Danielle Brisebois: And so they let me go in. And luckily I've always had a song prepared. And I went in and I sang "Over the Rainbow". And then I think I sang "Soon It's Gonna Rain" as well, my other favorite song. Because my mother couldn't direct me what she was. She loves a ballad. That's the song that came out of my mouth when I wasn't being told what to do. But I went in there and I sang. Oh, and then they made me sing "Happy Birthday" as well in the room.

[7:56] Marc Tumminelli: Okay.

[7:56] Danielle Brisebois: And when we left, they were basically like, you know, not official, but basically we wanted her in the play. And I think I reminded Martin so much of Sasha as well when I was little. And it was just kind of like a love affair started right then. And yeah, and I know at that point this character did not have a name. There was like the little one, right? Or something like that.

[8:16] Marc Tumminelli: Yeah, it was called the Little One.

[8:18] Danielle Brisebois: I have my original script, I have all I have the Goodspeed scripts, I have everything.

[8:21] Marc Tumminelli: My God, it might be.

[8:22] Danielle Brisebois: So they called the little one, and then they called her Mary Jane.

[8:25] Marc Tumminelli: Okay.

[8:26] Danielle Brisebois: And I know Sasha thought it was Mary Ann.

[8:27] Marc Tumminelli: Sasha thought it was Mary Ann.

[8:29] Danielle Brisebois: Okay. It was actually I heard it was actually Mary Jane, but close enough. And then it changed to Molly, which did you get to decide what it would be if you got to like I've got to have input, yeah.

[8:40] Marc Tumminelli: I got to have input.

[8:41] Danielle Brisebois: I mean the interesting thing about the early days of *Annie* is that a lot of the characters and what all the other little girls and productions since were they were basically copying a lot of us, you know, our original cast. Because like Peter Jenner and Martin, they were such, they were such instinctual artists that they would look at what they had and go, like, well, let's make this, let's like, let's like, let's not change the nature of this kid that we love. Let's make this in the show. So, like, I was a tap dancer. I loved to do cartwheels all the time. I was always making funny noises, that kind of stuff like that, like going around. And if you look at it in the actual play, then a lot of those characteristics come into the case.

[9:21] Marc Tumminelli: Well, you had a big tap solo and then did cartwheels and then made that sound.

[9:25] Danielle Brisebois: Yeah. So I was like an idiot savant at tap when I was a kid. And that's why, you know, that's and to Peter Gennaro, it was like, that's brilliant, you know, or like, you know, all the different, you know, I mean, and *Annie* is so and I mean, I know Kristen Vigard was Annie before, and there's an it was in the book, but I mean, when once Andrea started doing *Annie*, it was just like the whole thing shed.

[9:49] Marc Tumminelli: What do you remember about those early days when you guys first got to Goodspeed and all these girls were together and you're the baby? Did you feel like the baby? Did you feel like I mean I we just had a blast. I mean, I felt that the baby in some ways, like as I I could work it, but I mean, we were like, has anybody ever told you all the pranks we pulled at the Howard Johnson's hotel?

[10:07] Danielle Brisebois: No, tell us.

[10:08] Danielle Brisebois: Oh my god, we were like how that hotel survived us, I don't know. But first we were at the Banner Lodge staying there, and then we all shifted to the Howard Johnson's. But at that Howard Johnson's, we would like I think like we probably gave tons of people heart attacks. We like scare people coming around the corners. We filled the whole pool up with bubble bath and hair dye.

[10:29] Marc Tumminelli: Oh my god at the pool at the hotel.

[10:31] Danielle Brisebois: We put rats in there. I mean, we did we poor Reed Shelton was in a room next to like some of those kids. That man, I think was about to have a heart attack from us. Like we tortured every we had the best time, we had so much fun.

[10:43] Marc Tumminelli: It was that. It feels like the world's greatest summer camp ever from every single person who was part of Goodspeed. Except Kristen Vigard, it didn't go as well for her. But you know, nobody knows Kristen was okay with it.

[10:54] Danielle Brisebois: Kristen's, I mean, have you have you met Kristen?

[10:56] Marc Tumminelli: I have not met her.

[10:57] Danielle Brisebois: I'm a huge fan of *Grace of My Heart*. Do you know that movie?

[10:59] Marc Tumminelli: She just does all the vocal singing for Eliana Douglas, and it's so good.

[11:04] Danielle Brisebois: It's a great movie. Check it out. Kristen's Kristen is just this beautiful, like she really is like a strawberry plant. She's this beautiful flower. And I remember like we were up at Goodspeed. She had her own little apartment, like place to stand. I used to go in there with hang out with her all the time. And she had this wonderful strawberry shampoo, and she would like let me wash my hair with it. Kristen was just always this beautiful girl, very graceful, never jealous, never, she always had a bigger understanding of things.

[11:32] Marc Tumminelli: And um, yeah, she just was full of she she she handled it beautifully, you know.

[11:37] Danielle Brisebois: I'm sure it was hard, but she handled it well, and and what it never made anybody feel bad for what happened.

[11:43] Marc Tumminelli: Did you feel like while it was happening at Goodspeed, like this is gonna be something, or at that point, you there's no way to have known that.

[11:51] Danielle Brisebois: Well, you gotta realize I was about three years younger than all the girls in the play, which when you're kids, that's huge difference. So some things that other people may remember is a little foggy for me, some of the memories, but um, I did you did feel there was I never I mean I did everything to compare it to. I always thought it was great. I mean, like opening night was a disaster. I even the the night they had us because that they only put us in the the colored rainbow dresses, like Annie dresses, like a few performances in. They decided to do that, and I remember when I first in the rehearsals, I because you had to do your change on stage, right?

[12:26] Danielle Brisebois: And I was had to put on that yellow dress, and I could never do it get it zippered right and then the night we finally do it on stage I do it was like it went really well like oh my god I did this and I walked I'm in the front of the stage everybody's hysterical laughing and I realized my dress was put on backwards I thought that's why it was so easy to zipper up but you're just like a little kid like yeah but but you know I was the first kid to meet Sandy I remember um when Bill brought Sandy in I remember being like sometimes like the moms would be off doing stuff and I would be in the rehearsal room and underneath the good speed and Martin Charles and Tom were working on uh songs for the show and I would just lay and drink the piano with the dog and listen to them writing songs for Annie which was incredible and even as a young kid I knew this was special.

[13:13] Danielle Brisebois: I knew Lori Beachman was special she was amazing. You know you you so I think especially as a young kid you realize certain things are special in how much of watching you know Martin and Tom and everyone create this show how much do you think that had an effect on you as a songwriter? I mean to see oh these people create these things in front of you. I've always had an obsession with songwriters. I mean that was it was it was just I don't think I wish I I could go back now like in my head now and really take it in but maybe it was good that I did it because I just felt the natural beauty of what they were doing. I just knew there was something special in that moment. I couldn't tell you like what it was or why it was special but I remember just really liking being there and hearing it and it felt it felt privileged to me.

[13:59] Danielle Brisebois: So cool so this show goes from you know, we go from good speed to DC, and then we're going to Broadway. What was like your family's reaction to this like kind of overnight startup? I mean, it was super fun. I mean it was exciting. And the good thing about it for being a kid is that I wasn't like the only kid in the place. I was like around other kids. I mean, figuring out school was a bit of a of a challenge. And this is before there were any labor laws. I mean, they we were just rock and roll. I mean, it was like it was like crazy. I mean, nowadays the thing, the hours we did and the the craziness of it all would never happen. I mean, there would be five casts of kids, they would never let one cast do eight shows a week.

Right, which is probably why it ended up being so special, because there wasn't those kinds of restrictions on it. There was a natural like impishness to it. But um, yeah, so it was you know going to Washington, DC was really fun because it was like, Oh, we're doing this, so we're going to Washington, DC. And I was like, Amy Carter's in the White House. I don't have any friends in Washington, DC. I'll write her a letter. Maybe we can hang out. So like I wrote her a letter, say, Hey Amy, my name is Danielle, I'm from Brooklyn. I mean, Annie, we're coming to play, we're gonna be in Washington, DC for a while. I don't have any friends there except for the girls in the show or sometimes mean to me, and I'd like to make a new friend, and maybe we can hang out. And I sent this letter, I never heard back.

[15:26] Danielle Brisebois: And never heard back. And we're uh at the Kennedy Center opening night in Washington, DC, and uh Jimmy Carter and Rosalind Carter come in and they're like meeting everybody, and I look at them like I'm like, hi. She's in no hi. And I'm thinking to myself, you've raised a rude daughter. Like she should have at least written back because it's not proper. Like, I'm Italian, you don't go to somebody's house without a cake. Yeah, you gotta, you can't walk in with you against it. You say thank you, hello, and you're polite, right? Yes. So and she's like, I'm like, well, I wrote to your daughter and she just never wrote back if she didn't want to play that's fine but she could have let me know well that got us an invitation to the White House oh my god is that that's how you all were at the White House.

Oh I mean sure there was other reasons I'm sure there are other but I that was part of like the we went there originally to do the play we did the we did like a shortened version of the play in the and then we did like a Christmas show as well which was really fun but we had a play date or a few play dates there and um I think that that might have been one of the reasons why we got invited as a player that's so funny.

[16:32] Danielle Brisebois: So when you met do you you obviously met Amy Carter then oh yeah yeah oh here's here's a funny White House story so you know you know in MY in the NYC there's you know we're all like plays different like New York people characters and so during NYC I had the weird luck of being slung over the fireman's shoulder pretty much the whole time right okay so and then next to the fireman is the is the character that plays the hooker so every night I'm upside down and backwards look staring at the hooker doing her like little hooker dance is that even a can you save hooker anymore I think it's sex worker but we can say hooker well back when we were doing Annie this is the 70s script it was called hooker that was the that was the that was in the script so um and I saw her do her little sexy dance which I was obsessed with.

I was like this is the most beautiful thing this is you know just it was so cool and so when the evil and I and I of course learned this dance in my head because I mean, as actually I heard Andrea in her podcast with you say, we basically knew every every single part in the show. And she was, I mean, we could have all done any role. We could have been Miss Hannigan. We could have been great. We could have done anything, put the right outfit on it, so we could have been any role. But I remember I memorize this dance, the sex worker dance. Great. And the great sex worker dance. And we're in the elevator with the president of the United States and his wife and some people. And I'm like, I'm like, yeah, I'm gonna impress these people.

I go. Hey Amy, you want to see a hooker's dance? Quote unquote. And proceed to do this dance in the other rooms. I didn't know it was something that wasn't like normal. Like, you know, like I I thought it was a beautiful woman. Yeah, but it's a beautiful woman dancing. How would you know your kid? Yeah, I didn't know, and everybody cracked up apparently.

[18:22] Danielle Brisebois: So that's my god. See, this is why you were such a successful kid, because you were so uniquely yourself in every situation. Um, I want to talk about the Broadway run of or your time in the Broadway run of Annie, because I I don't think young people today can understand the and I'm, you know, I wasn't really around, but I don't think people could possibly understand the success of this show. I mean, it's like Hamilton times two, because there wasn't Broadway, it wasn't what's happening now, this machine. And so I mean, you guys were everywhere. I mean, you're performing everywhere. It was like the hottest tick in New York, you're going to Studio 54. I mean, like the things are so wild. Um, try to explain it to the people listening what the stardom must have felt like when Annie opened on Broadway.

Well, once again, I'm gonna say you have I have to go back to the lens of I was seven. Okay, right. So maybe maybe turning eight at one point, but so as much as I got that, I was still more obsessed with can I have a dollar to go to the arcade? Can I have you know, but it did feel huge, like all of it, you know, it was definitely unique. I wasn't going to school, but I hadn't been doing that for a long time anyway. I had a tutor two doors down, like three days a week. Um and all the the coolest part was all these famous people that would come to see the show, like, oh my god, my blow, like Quinn Cummings, Christine McNichol. I remember Henry Winkler was in the audience, and like we would like you know, always like you know, scan the audience for famous people.

And when when Harry Winkler, aka the Fonds was there, it was like oh my god. So what we did, we planned it during Hard Neck Life. We were doing the the brushing, and we it's the hard neck life where we put when we put the things down, we don't went a with our thumbs up, like the Fons, like the movie. Oh, wait a minute. Oh my god, I love it. And I mean, going to Studio 54, I mean, I knew it was special, but I didn't, I don't have anything to compare it to. Like, I didn't know that it wasn't a possibility for other seven-year-olds. But now, as an adult, can you believe that that was your childhood? No, it's amazing. And it, you know, it was just to see all this crazy stuff going on. I mean, being in this place with this amazing music and this amazing vibrant scene.

I remember we, you know, studio 54 had the the staircase that went upstairs to go to the bathrooms. There was the boys' bathroom on the left and the the ladies' bathroom on the right. And I remember the first time I went upstairs to go to the bathroom, because I would just go crazy all by myself. My mom would be somewhere like it was the 70s, like it was like it wasn't like it is now. Yeah, and I'd go like I would never let my kid just run around a club in a nightclub. Yeah, but I mean, maybe I would a little bit because it didn't hurt me, but but I I'd go to the to the girls' bathroom and there'd be boys in there, but like, oh, maybe it's backwards day. So I'd go to the boys' bathroom, and there'd be everything else in there too.

And I'm like, okay, well, it's just everything bathrooms. And it was really I I'm really happy that I had such a great perspective on just seeing all this fluidity and this beauty going on at this time at such an impressionable age. You know, it was it was a real gift to be able to be around that.

[21:27] Danielle Brisebois: And um, I remember one night in Studio 54, there was this lady, I don't know what how many drinks she'd had, but she had quite a few. And she had one of those wraparound uh dresses on with like stockings underneath, and while she's dancing, she's taking off her dress, and she's just like no top on and her stockings, just like having a good old time. And I'm like, I'm gonna hide my dress. I'm gonna hide her dress. I I took her dress and I hid it, and then I watched her for an hour looking for her dress, cracking up. So I mean, like that's now the dole. I'm like, that's terrible. But like when you're seven, it's like this is great. This is the Oh my god, what a story. Um, tell me about performing at the Tony Awards.

You guys did such an epic like might as well have done the whole musical. It was a kind of time where I know you guys have like a 20-minute performance and you get to do your tap solo and never fully dress, and they do everything. Tell me what you remember about the Tony's, and if you don't remember it, what is it like to watch it now? Well, this is the thing. I I remember more the rehearsals for it because anytime you're doing, at least for me, when you were doing that show very specific way, night after night or night after night, and then you're rehearsing it with like on a different set, like a different thing. It's a bit of a it takes a minute to get used to. So I remember like like the rehearsal and thinking, okay, I can remember this.

This is weird. And then the actual performance, I don't really remember. But now looking back, I'm like, oh my god, I'm like staying there. I'm pulling up my sock. I'm touching, I'm like pulling my hair out of my face, I'm like squiggling around. Like I was not, I was certainly like certainly not nervous because I was on stage like completely just goofy kid on stage. But I did a good job looking back. Oh my god, it's really good. So good. You look like you're having the best time ever. It was that's the thing because I think I was having fun. I, you know, I never, I never really got nervous. Um doing you're like too young to to have that feeling yet. I mean, I would get nervous for other things, but I didn't, because I think we knew it so well.

And we was already like we've been doing it, just you know it. It's like the back of your hand. It's like I could probably still get on stage right now and do the show. It's like that's how ingrained in my especially when you're at that age when your brain is still forming and you learn something so deeply. Yeah, it's like and it's drilled, you know.

[23:43] Danielle Brisebois: Yeah, yeah. I mean, I remember songs from the Good Speed Run that Arn in that never made the play. Like Grace Kelly had a song like He doesn't know I'm alive, just coming blind to the woman I am. He doesn't say what I think is missing. I mean, you really know this song. That's so cool. Oh, I know. I mean, there was another song about Apples, like Apples, they all the hobos were selling Apple. I mean, there was like a all I mean, I can literally probably do every version of the play I was in before treadmills and after treadmills. Before the moving stage and after the moving stage. Oh my god, that's so wild. Um that changed the show, having this treadmills on the stage, yeah. The only bad thing about this is one night, I think it was in Washington DC, Dorothy Loudon got trapped under the her foot got she fell and her foot got stuck under the treadmill.

Oh, that was really scary. That's terrifying. Really scary. Especially when you're a little kid and this is like your family, you know, and you're like, oh my god, my you know. Um, how were the adults with you specifically being the youngest? Oh, fantastic. I have wrapped around my fingers. Of course, of course. We had a blast, especially Lori Beachman.

[24:46] Danielle Brisebois: Lori Beachman was my girl. She used to make me these fantastic... I still have them because she makes these beautiful, intricate kind of these like drawing sketches of like these landscapes with my name in it and like pictures of me, and like really fantastic. I still have them. I made this stationary for a while too. Oh my god, I love that. She was just, oh, you know, like as I said, when you were a kid, you can really spot special, you know, and she really, I mean, she was incredible. She was an incredible person, incredible singer, and incredible, just a more loved this community still has so much love for her.

[25:19] Danielle Brisebois: Um, it just Jimmy Hosbein, I really totally like he was Jimmy Hasbine and Goodsby told me how to do my eyebrows, like one up and down. I used to be obsessed with like he used to do this, like this thing. I used to be obsessed. I remember Steve Book Bar go or like all the different, all the adults were so much fun, and they all had their own fun thing, you know. Um, it was great. I really got along great with that. I was just looking at Martin's book, and there's this beautiful photo of you recording the cast album. And then next to it is all the kids, you guys all with your brushes and mops in your brushes and buckets in the recording studio. And I don't think most people know that you guys had to do all of that stuff while you recorded the album. What do you remember about recording the original?

[26:00] Danielle Brisebois: I remember, you know, that was a moment for me for a few reasons. One is one of the first times I was ever in a really big recording studio. And I remember because I was short. I was like, even though I was like eight years old or seven years old, I looked like I was five. Like I was little, and so like I was kind of eye level with the board in the studio, which was this giant board, roads and roads and roads and rows and rows of lights and buttons. And I was like, this is insane. I was like, how does anybody I didn't realize they're all rows of the same thing? I always just thought it was like a spaceship and all these nobody knows. And then it was, and then like being in that room with the headphones on and recording, it just felt so special.

I mean, the whole cast was there that day. I don't know. It just we just did it really fast. It was a really fun day. I loved when I got to be on the mic by myself. That was my favorite. Because it was just like hear yourself with these beautiful microphones and the way they make your voice sound and headphones and just the energy in the room. And I mean, I certainly uh I gotta say I've been very lucky in my life to be have been blessed with seeing greatness in person, like being around Martin, being around Charles, being around Tom, I mean Dorothy Loudon, Reed Shelton, Andrea, like being around these, it's like I just thought talent was normal. Yeah, you know, and not just talent innovative, great talent was normal. And I feel so lucky to have been around that, you know.

[27:22] Marc Tumminelli: Was there a moment where you're like, I gotta go? Did you had you booked All in the Family? Was that was it right a back to back?

[27:29] Danielle Brisebois: Well, uh basically I was getting too big for Molly, okay, even though I never wanted to leave that role ever. I was getting too big for Molly. And they were like, Well, Danielle can wait six months or a year. So I was I wasn't quite big enough to they wanted me to eventually step into Anne, but I was not big enough yet. That was my next question. Yes, great. So they were like, Well, she can basically do a different role. Because I mean, really, out of the orphans, Molly, it's kind of like Molly was the biggest role after Annie. I, you know, and it felt weird to like for some reason I just didn't want to do a different like move to Tessie. You're like, no, I'm not doing that. Yeah, I mean, Tessie, they're all great roles, but I'm not putting any of the roles down, but it's when you're when you're kind of like the littlest dwarf and you're getting all this like insane attention, then you go to a different role.

I just didn't I didn't want to do it. And at nine years old my aw. And um, and at the same time so my mom and my grandma and I were like let's just go to California and see what happens but I could have always gone back to Annie. And Charles Strauss introduced us to Norman Lear. Oh, he wrote he wrote the All in the Family song and he was like if I can meet meeting with Norman Lear. So my mom and my grandma and I went out to California to stay at the Sheraton Universal Hotel. Side note the only person like I really wanted to meet when I went to California was the Hardy Boys. Our first morning at the Sheraton Universal Hotel I'm like I'm gonna go to the pool with him in California and guess who's filming the Hardy Boys.

I got to meet Sean Cassidy and um oh my God why am I blanking on his name I had such a crush on him. The other guy yeah I can't remember what you know who I'm talking about. Yeah and I got to meet them that day but it was a good sign because Hollywood turned out okay for you.

[29:14] Danielle Brisebois: Well you pretty quickly what's really funny is that at Annie and when you when you first walked in one of the jokes was they have like the message board for like there was the pay phone there and then there was a phone and there was a message board for messages that would come in for people and they're like oh like you know Donna you've got a message Danielle here's some somebody messages for you people would send leave messages back then and the big joke was my mother would come and goes has Hollywood called or people everybody would joke Hollywood's calling all the time was the big joke. So when we first went to California was like Hollywood's calling I remember I would call backstage, be like, it's Hollywood calling.

And Andrea was already, Andrea was there the first week we came to California as well because she was filming that Judy Garland movie. Oh, Rainbow, my favorite. Yeah, she was filming that around she came in like a week a few days after we were there. That was really fun to see her. And her and I were obsessed with buying Tiger's Milk Bars in the gift shop at the hotel. Great. I love it. Um so was it very hard? I imagine I want to jump to All in the Family, but I imagine leaving Annie behind was really hard, you know, to be like, this is gonna be my last show. That had to have been a lot.

[30:22] Danielle Brisebois: It was it, it was to be quite honest. I I I don't remember that much of like about the last show. I just think it was kind of I was probably more freaked out and jealous that somebody was gonna be doing my part. Like I think when I was doing when I was doing Annie, they made me take a vacation for a week. And it was the worst week of my life. I was like, I'm not letting somebody else like somebody do my role. That's me, it's my role. And it was so harsh for me to like, I I mean, I could be bleeding and dying. Not alone of that, every orphan I've ever talked to is like, I didn't want to go on vacation. I didn't want to leave.

[30:56] Marc Tumminelli: Um, all right, so All in the Family, I mean you joined that show, and it's the biggest show on television, you know, as far as sitcoms are concerned. And uh when at some point, I guess someone's like, we're gonna create this role for you. Is that how that sort of went down?

[31:11] Danielle Brisebois: Yeah, basically. So we we came to California. There was a few options I had on the table. Um, there was a guy, um, I can't remember his name at Paramount Studios that wanted to sign me to like a like a kind of a deal with like like TV show and like a TV movie kind of a deal, but it was all new stuff, like stuff that hadn't really happened yet. Like one of the things that was being thrown around was like a Morgan, like with Robin Williams, like with some some version of Mork and Mindy, but like nobody knew what any any of that was. Yeah. And then um I went met with Norman Lear, and I had I sang some songs for him and I had like this big briefcase full of like pictures that my mom had made this like giant like portfolio thing and as a matter of fact I wasn't even gonna sing for him my mother goes have you sung for him Danielle and I'm like okay so I sang City Lights the city lights all over the city lights and I think I probably sang soon it's gonna rain the depressing child song it's your song that was me my soul um and yeah and at the end of it I guess Carol O'Connor was walking down the hallway and it was at the time when the characters of Mike and Gloria were not wanting to do the show anymore and they were trying to figure out what to do and um Norman Lear said to me goes Danielle you've just done so much for me what can I do for you and I literally said I don't know give me a roll that was like my cast me in something that's why I'm here hello um and yeah so then within a few days later they called me back and they were like we want to write this character as another naming thing um my character in All in the Family was going to be Connie at first okay and I didn't feel that name it's I like it's not not a bad name just I wasn't feeling it I'm like I can't be Connie it's not me so then I picked Stephanie because I like Stephanie Mills from I know I was like wait her name was Stephanie Mills and the funny is my name is Stephanie Mills on the show because I love Stephanie Mills and I loved the whiz so have you had this conversation with Stephanie Mills we need to I've never met her.

[33:16] Danielle Brisebois: I would love to. I've been trying to get her on this for a while just because the whiz I was so obsessed with that whiz recording too. Oh my god. All right. So you play this little Stephanie Mills. And I I really remember seeing you in that show. And I and I do remember also my dad being like, that's the same girl who played Molly. Like, you know, like it was just, I was like, oh my God, what a star. Tell us about this learning curve of doing a half hour sitcom uh with huge stars on a big network after doing Broadway for you know a year or so.

[33:46] Danielle Brisebois: Well, you know, it it's all of a sudden everything's small, and there's no music, right? There's no singing. And here I am, like, you know, even today, like people like you're so loud. Like, like I could like be whispering, and you'd hear me in the next the back of the next theater across the street. Like I just had like we didn't have mics when we did any, like we were we had a project, but still sound like I think that's the last show. Last show. We still had to sound now they had these little these like you know, little mics at the end of the stage, and that was it. And um, so I was loud. I was like, even like my soft conversations were not soft conversations, and so I had to learn to reel that in.

That was that was um a learning curve for me. But um, outside of that, like I really missed the music part of it, like you know, just acting alone was not as fun as having songs. And um, but you know, I got to be around incredible, you know, and I I of course had watched the show for a year before I was on it, and I also loved like Maud and I loved Good Times and the Jeffersons and all those great shows. And when we first um my first uh year filming on the show was in the KTLA building where they filmed Good Times and they filmed Jefferson and they had all these shows and then um different strokes, like all these shows. We were all in this lot, and it was like super fun.

[35:06] Danielle Brisebois: It was fun those kids like hang out with each other. Oh yeah, we'd all like hang out and play like like whatever, like actor basketball or actor outside games. We were we all sucked at all of them, but we're like obsessed with child stars of like the 70s, early 80s, just like hanging out in the back lot. Oh, it was totally it was totally like trouble. Yeah, it was totally. I mean, even like uh Lenny Krabs when he was a kid would be there hanging out because his mom was on on the Jefferson.

[35:31] Marc Tumminelli: That's wild. How was Carol O'Connor and Gene Stapleton with you?

[35:36] Danielle Brisebois: They were fantastic. I think you you could sense that Jean was not as present in the room as everybody else. Like it feels like she was trying to get out of the yeah, you could sense that, but it wasn't really none of it was my problem.

[35:48] Marc Tumminelli: And so you joined that show in its last season. And I guess there would there would have been no way to know that there was gonna be a spin-off, right?

[35:56] Danielle Brisebois: I was I said the last two years of All in the Family, and then it turned into Archie Bunker's Place. I mean, I after the first year, we was it was clear that Jean wasn't only gonna come back for certain amount of episodes, and that was also the same year that they did the episode where she dies at the end of the season. I remember it was really funny because Jean sent um a cake to the set on the last day of that filming that episode, and it was a picture of a gravestone and the cake, like a cake that looked like a gravestone, like a really elaborate cake, and it said a ding bat never dies, and it was really cute and it's fun little cake.

[36:32] Marc Tumminelli: Wild story. Um and at what point did they come to you and they say we're gonna do a spin-off for you and Carol O'Connor?

[36:38] Danielle Brisebois: Well, I guess it it wasn't as much for me. I remember we're we were sitting in Carol's restaurant, the Ginger Man that he had in Beverly Hills, and um he uh was tell me just tell me uh you know that we're gonna be doing this. I feel like the network's not really treating us fair. We want he I don't know all the details of what their business that was going on was, but I know that there was a bit of a rub. So and I know he brought he wanted to bring he brought Martin Balsaman, so there was another adult co-star.

[37:07] Danielle Brisebois: They brought in Denise Miller. Um yeah, I mean it for me, it definitely felt like a shift. And I knew they were gonna be focusing on the bar more, which made it hard for them to include the bars. They had to find ways and they did it, but they ended up adding like the restaurant section to the bar so the kid could be there. But um, yeah, I mean it definitely was a shift. It was still the same character, it was still you know, the hardest thing for me was like going starting to go through puberty on camera. That was that was how old were you crazy because you did four seasons of that show, right? So I was I based just I when I finished I started when I was around like nine with everything, and I finished I think around like almost 15.

[37:51] Marc Tumminelli: Wow.

[37:51] Danielle Brisebois: Oh, so you really grew up on a sound stage.

[37:55] Marc Tumminelli: Oh yeah, and you got a golden globe nomination, which kids like never get. Um what do you remember from that experience?

[38:02] Danielle Brisebois: I remember looking back, I don't know why. I the dress that I wore to go to that show was it was right around the time that there was the Princess Diana wedding, and you look back, my dress is almost like a replica of that dress. I'm like, who let me wear this? Who let me wear this like weird Princess Diana dress replica? But I remember loving that dress. I felt very very proud to be in that dress there, and I just remember like the whole lead up to it. There's a lot you have to do to like for these award shows, and then I remember when the um I remember my mom taking the ad out, like in variety or my eight the big ad out in variety match the for your consideration ad and all that kind of stuff, and um it was it was basically that it was for the episode where Edith dies and because Carol O'Connor and I had a really beautiful scene at the end of it, which we almost improved, and um I think that was the episode that it kind of cinched it for me. But and I remember going to the Golden Globes, it was super fun. I remember being really disappointed when I lost a Valerie Bertinelli.

[39:02] Ruth.

[39:03] Danielle Brisebois: I was like, Rude, she's an adult. I could have won. But it was um no, it was it was a great experience to have, and I'm very lucky to I you know, I guess because I was a working actor, so just because I was a kid, I really didn't see the difference between me and somebody else.

[39:22] Marc Tumminelli: Yeah, so it wasn't like I'm a kid, I've got this nomination. It was just kind of like I deserved it. I worked hard and I earned it, and I'm on a great show, and you know, and we worked for this nomination, we did the right ads and we did the stuff, and I got it. And so it it wasn't to me, it wasn't like I'm a kid with this nomination, it's like I'm an actor with this nomination.

[39:40] Yeah, I love that.

[39:42] Danielle Brisebois: Yeah, so you know, that was the one thing about all the people I've gotten to work with over the years, like Martin Charn and Carol Connor and Norma Learn and all these um people, they never they always respected me and treated me with respect, even though I was a kid.

[39:58] Marc Tumminelli: You didn't feel like you were an afterthought.

[40:01] Danielle Brisebois: No, they they let they treated me like an artist. I mean, I'm doing the same work as all of them, plus school, right? Plus, like all the other plus being a kid, and they always treated me with a lot of respect and a lot of um never made me feel like oh, you're just a kid. Like even on the the reads for the for all in the family, Archie Bunker's place, or first table reads. If there was, they let me put input into like, well, this could be a funny joke, or maybe like I could I had just as much say at the table as anybody else.

[40:32] I love that.

[40:33] Danielle Brisebois: Which was and following that show. I mean, you had such a successful TV career um doing Knott's Landing, which was my mother and my we were obsessed with Knots Landing, and I was like a little kid and I loved it. Um, Mr. Belvedere, uh Murder She Wrote, Tales from the Dark Side. I mean, all these shows that are so iconic in my childhood.

[40:50] Marc Tumminelli: So um tell me, we're gonna do some quick fire.

[40:54] Danielle Brisebois: Oh my god, I loved that show.

[40:55] Marc Tumminelli: The turkey.

[40:56] Danielle Brisebois: Oh my gosh. I um there was an episode with John Lithgow that like haunts me. Um, so I just kind of want to quick fire go through these shows and tell me what what you played on them.

[41:06] Danielle Brisebois: Um hopefully I'll remember.

[41:08] Marc Tumminelli: I know.

[41:09] Danielle Brisebois: All right. So what did you do on Knott's Landing?

[41:11] Danielle Brisebois: I played Mary Frances Sumner. I was Greg Sumner's daughter who for some reason had to live with, I can't remember the names of their characters, but the Michelle Lee house.

[41:19] Marc Tumminelli: I live in that house.

[41:20] Danielle Brisebois: Yeah. And I was I was kind of a naughty girl.

[41:24] Marc Tumminelli: Okay.

[41:25] Danielle Brisebois: Um, Mr. Belvedere, Streaks on the China, my favorite 80s sitcom. What did you do on that show?

[41:30] Danielle Brisebois: I I I wore a brown jacket. I remember that.

[41:32] Marc Tumminelli: And I don't remember the best.

[41:33] Danielle Brisebois: I don't remember. I remember my outfit and my hair.

[41:36] Marc Tumminelli: Okay, murder she wrote.

[41:38] Danielle Brisebois: All right, Lancebury, the greatest.

[41:40] Marc Tumminelli: Well, let's let's just talk about my accent on that show.

[41:43] Danielle Brisebois: Oh my god.

[41:45] Marc Tumminelli: Wow.

[41:45] Danielle Brisebois: I had the uh for some reason they cast me as a blonde French model, um, which is completely not me.

[41:52] I'm short, dark hair and from Brooklyn.

[41:54] Marc Tumminelli: You have a very French last name, as we talked about.

[41:57] Danielle Brisebois: I do. Well, it's French Canadian, but yeah. But um, but yeah, so I was I remember that was that was really I was fun to do. I got to, you know, I remember feeling a bit self-conscious doing that episode because I was we're supposed to be like a runway model, and like um they have me on this like this place, like all these women were like five China here. I'm like five five like but the girl is thinking with some horrible French accents, but it was fun and it was a great experience to be on murder. She wrote and I'm really grateful for the chance that I have to say that I have worked with Angela Lensbury.

[42:27] Oh my god, it's so cool, and that makes me feel very proud.

[42:30] Okay.

[42:31] Danielle Brisebois: Um, what about days of our lives? What were you on that show?

[42:34] Danielle Brisebois: Oh, what was my name on that show? God, I can't even remember the name of my character. But I got I got uh nominated for like new daytime star award or whatever, like people's choice.

[42:45] But I remember that another show where I was I either got cast as orphans or like naughty people. That was kind of my thing, like just an outcast always.

[42:55] And on that show, I was another like person that just caused trouble in the main characters' relationships.

[43:01] Marc Tumminelli: You were working a lot as a kid.

[43:06] Danielle Brisebois: What what was this moment that you were like, I I don't want to do this anymore, and I want to write music and I want to shift my career. Tell me how that uh that turn happened for you.

[43:16] Danielle Brisebois: This is like you know, before, like nowadays, if you're in a TV show and you want to do music, it's like everybody's like, Yes, it'll be better. Much money can we make out of you? That's back then it was like, Oh, you can't do both, you're this or that. You're not it was this big divide and this big uh no nobody nobody wanted that. And I mean, this is back before artists would I mean artists at that point. I remember there was a controversy about like a Rolling Stones or some band like licensed a song for commercial, like oh how dare they like they're this everything was so different, you know. And I really wanted to do music and I loved writing songs. And I mean, my love of writing songs goes back to like Phil Black's dance studio, the grill building across the street.

I knew that's where they wrote songs. Sometimes I would grab a piece of pizza and go sit in the hallway and try to listen to them write songs across the street. Like I loved songs. I love songwriting. And um so yeah, I just decided I wasn't gonna get anywhere if I keep acting, doing music. I wasn't gonna have a chance in hell. So I was like, I have to stop acting and just start from the beginning again with trying to become a songwriter and a singer and a singer.

[44:25] Marc Tumminelli: And you have released multiple albums that are very well reviewed and people love them.

[44:28] Danielle Brisebois: Well, yeah, so my records like uh I had one record that did really well in Europe was like a top five single in the UK, and like most of my success as an artist was was there. But then um, you know, luckily that transferred to being able to create music in other ways too.

[44:44] Marc Tumminelli: So and then when how did you start collab finding the right people to collaborate with to write these sort of hit songs?

[44:51] Danielle Brisebois: Oh it's just you just it's it's literally just like you just it's you know I think with most things in life, you just you just keep throwing things at the wall until it sticks, like you don't stop. It's like it's a numbers game, right? Everything a lot of stuff is just a numbers game. You just do what you do. You do work this. Sometimes you're working with one person, you don't realize that that's gonna lead you to the next person you're gonna work with. You just do things until you you find find where your feet stick, you know.

[45:15] Danielle Brisebois: I mean, I literally just I was never had an attitude about I would just go for it. Wherever wherever the wind enabled me to go, I would go and work with you know, work in those situations.

[45:27] Marc Tumminelli: How do you like to write with a new artist that you meet? Like what what kind of things do you ask them so you can figure out what kind of song you want to write for them?

[45:36] Danielle Brisebois: It's it's it's that's a a a a question I don't have a real answer to because it's I have to like I could tell you like with Natasha when I first met her, there was just I saw her and all of a sudden I just knew what to do. I don't know, there was something about her I fell in love with and she was she we were collaborative, it wasn't just me.

[45:58] Marc Tumminelli: Yeah.

[45:59] Danielle Brisebois: And um I don't know, it just it just I just knew I just felt I this this that this instinct in me that like put your energy into this is this is this is right, this is right. And you just kinda I think you still we probably wrote about like four songs before we wrote unwritten, uh-huh, you know, and then or with pocket full of sunshine, for instance, you know, you know, like I like how do you write a follow-up to unwritten, like good luck, right? And um, you know, I was just like, I just try to like what is it? What's what do I feel Natasha could communicate? Like, what is like and I she always remind me of sunshine and and I don't just I've just kind of starts things fall into place. It it's hard it's hard to explain. Like, I don't really feel so like it's so organic. I have to go more on instinct.

[46:50] I guess you know, that goes back to being in such an extreme situation at such a young age, like Annie, like it was all instinct for me. Like you asked about the open night, I realized how big it was. It was like it felt special, but I didn't have anything to compare it to, right? So it was just fun, I'm in it, I'm in it, I'm here. And I think having your brain experience things that way at such a young age has served me well as I've gotten older. It's also probably served me not so well sometimes because sometimes I'm oblivious. But but it's really taught me to go on instincts because I didn't have education, I didn't have like homed skills, I didn't have any of that. I just had my natural instincts and and energy that I could put into stuff.

[47:32] Danielle Brisebois: And that's kind of what I do still. When Jay Z re-released uh Hard Knock Life, it's you. Was that a surprise to you? Did you know it was coming? And then everyone in the world was singing your song again.

[47:43] Danielle Brisebois: I have I have a few issues with that whole thing.

[47:46] Marc Tumminelli: Oh, tell us what you're legally allowed to say.

[47:49] Danielle Brisebois: Well, there's no I can I have no I don't have anything illegal to say because there's never been but basically I remember well the funny part of the story is I was driving down Sunset Boulevard and I see a billboard, it says hard knock life. I'm like, oh what is this going on? And then on the radio comes the like hard knock. I'm like, is this like a DJ thing? Like what is this going? Like who would sample like hard knock life? Right. And it turns out like I've learned really quick, like how what this this amazing big piece of art that's being put out to the world was that really it was a fantastic piece of art. It's wonderful. And then I was like, well, well, shouldn't I be getting paid something to be on here?

I mean, like, shouldn't we get something for this? And basically it ends up none of us ever got a penny for that recording. Like none of us did. And um and and I do have I do have a bit of you know bad feelings about that because and I'm and actually looking back now, I'm realizing it wasn't necessarily I used to be upset with Jay-Z, but it's really not his fault because he legally licensed the song and sampled it and got and and then that all I just feel like the creators of Annie should have taken care of the kids more because they all got paid for it and we never got anything for it. But that's you know, that was that was the contracts we signed in the 70s, you know. You know, we didn't know at that point there was gonna be sampling. There was none of that in our country.

[49:10] Marc Tumminelli: How would anyone know?

[49:12] Danielle Brisebois: Yeah. Um, but also it's very cool that you're like, wait, that's me. Like it's that it's well, I gotta say, it does it, it is a it is a great like credibility story. It's it it's certainly you know it's certainly oh yeah, it's me, you know, I'm singing on hard knock life. When people meet you now, or it comes up in a meeting, or if you're meeting with an artist and they're like, Were you Molly?

[49:31] Danielle Brisebois: And the original like what do people think when you tell them that? I mean, that is like historic moment associated with it. You know, it's just interesting how that how Annie just transcends generation after generation after generation after generation. It's insane, like how all these kids just know about this player a lot, or how many have the red albums still, you know. Um I have one right there. The other day I was in my I have eight-year-old twin daughters, and I was in their classroom and we were just reading stories and stuff to them. And I guess my daughters had told some of their friends about like when I was a kid, and like one of the kids, is it true that you were an Annie on Broadway?

And I was like, Yes, and the which role didn't all the kids like now were asking me these questions, and they were like, Can you sing the heels? Can you say the you'll stay up part? And so like I did it for them. They're like, That's you, that's and it's amazing how many kids, like even like eight-year-old kids who are like so far away from what I was doing in the show, there's still like there's still an excitement and a connection for not all the kids, some you know, yeah, um, for Annie. And it's you know, it's pretty, it's pretty incredible. I gotta say, you know, I mean, listen, all the credit really goes to Martin Charles, Tom, and Andrea. I mean, that was that's the holy grail for this show.

I mean, yeah, I mean, I to this day I still hear Andrea's voice in these songs. I mean, when when to be like laying on Andrea's lap when she's singing maybe every night, so I mean, I remember even being then like I would start crying sometimes on stage because the those lyrics, those freaking lyrics are like still there's just they're delicious. And the way Andrea, Andrea just had this way of singing that was like so matter-of-fact. Wasn't in her head, it wasn't like from her soul. And she's saying it. She's just like saying these words that are just so gut-wrenchingly beautiful and so well written. And I mean, it's just a it's just it's it's a masterpiece. And I love it, you know.

[51:28] Marc Tumminelli: Tell me what you're working on now. What are you excited about? What can you share with us?

[51:33] Danielle Brisebois: I'm always working on music with our different artists, and we're working on some film scores and some things like that, and um working on another little project that it's like a book project that's not about me, just something something different. And you know, but I'm always doing something, and I'm also you know, very involved mom.

[51:54] Marc Tumminelli: Of course.

[51:56] Danielle Brisebois: My one daughter just did a movie. I actually sent you a link to it. Oh my god, please. But it's like she did a um, she did uh she does modeling, one of my daughters, and she she's done like Burberry ads and different stuff like that. And she just did this like amazing like film with the winner of this like uh big kind of contest for Elle and Lexus. So she did this like four minute beautiful women in Hollywood short film for Ellen Us that she just did, which is great. And and I haven't really she just kind of was just kind of falling into it. We're kind of not really been pushing it for her, but um, but she's doing that. My other daughter, she's not interested in in that, and she's interested in dance and gymnastics and art. So yeah, so I I spent a lot of time, you know, trying to be a great mom as well.

[52:41] Marc Tumminelli: Well, I bet you're doing a a killer job. We're gonna do quick fire questions. Are you ready?

[52:45] Danielle Brisebois: Oh.

[52:48] Marc Tumminelli: All right. Just go with your first thought. Don't overthink it. What was your first audition song?

[52:53] Danielle Brisebois: It's probably as soon as it's gonna soon rain, but you can just tell me. I I think it was just rain in my parade, probably.

[53:00] Marc Tumminelli: I'm great. That was the one my mother loved. You have to go see Leah in that show. It is extraordinary. It's uh like I left out of my seat, like I lifted out of my seat. It was unbelievable.

[53:09] Danielle Brisebois: Okay. She's pretty extraordinary.

[53:11] Marc Tumminelli: She's extraordinary. First Broadway show you saw.

[53:15] Danielle Brisebois: Oh God. Well, it would have would have had been on a Monday. I think it was Dracula with Frank Langella.

[53:22] Marc Tumminelli: That's cool. Um, what was the last Broadway show you saw?

[53:27] Danielle Brisebois: Um, a uh Frozen on Broadway with my daughters.

[53:31] Marc Tumminelli: Oh my god, that's so before COVID. I haven't been since COVID.

[53:34] Danielle Brisebois: It's fine. You're we're ready to have you back. Um what is your go-to album for a car trip?

[53:41] Danielle Brisebois: Um I love world party goodbye jumbo.

[53:46] Marc Tumminelli: Okay. Um I want blank movie to be a musical.

[53:51] Danielle Brisebois: Oh wow. Wow. Jeez, you're you're stumping me here. Um I thought to say hocus pocus, but that is a musical.

[54:01] Marc Tumminelli: No, but it's not really, it's not a stage musical. We can make it hocus pocus. Would you write a scope? Would you write a score to a musical? Have we done that?

[54:06] Danielle Brisebois: I would absolutely die to to do that.

[54:11] Marc Tumminelli: All right, I'm sending it out in the universe. Um, an artist you would like to write for or with.

[54:17] Danielle Brisebois: Um, you know, I I would love to write with Adele. I almost had the opportunity years ago. We were at an award show, and she came out to me, she's like, We I wanna write with you. And we were we met, and then it all just kind of didn't happen. And so that's something I would I I regret and I would love to have that happen.

[54:33] Marc Tumminelli: Oh, it's gonna happen. Can you name two real housewives?

[54:36] Danielle Brisebois: Well, yes, Kyle Richards, because he was my best friends growing up. We were oh my god, I'm obsessed. And then um uh who else? What's the one with the the margaritas? Bethany Frankel, it's like all right.

[54:50] Marc Tumminelli: So you don't watch.

[54:51] Danielle Brisebois: Um I used to watch, but I I don't I you know I have eight-year-old kids right now.

[54:55] Marc Tumminelli: Yeah, what are you gonna do? I'm lucky I can sneak in the handmaid's channel on my phone at night.

[54:59] Danielle Brisebois: So let's go there. Okay, pancakes or waffles.

[55:03] Marc Tumminelli: Waffles. What is your favorite piece of Annie memorabilia you have?

[55:08] Danielle Brisebois: The original Broadway. Sorry, the original Good Speed Opera House script.

[55:11] Marc Tumminelli: Yes. Um, did you do any of your high school musicals?

[55:14] Danielle Brisebois: You didn't go to high school.

[55:15] Marc Tumminelli: I never went to high school.

[55:16] Danielle Brisebois: I graduated when I was 15. My high school graduation was at the Beverly Hills Hotel with kids of all different ages. Janet Jackson was one of them as well. I mean, like you're like a real Hollywood kid.

[55:27] Marc Tumminelli: Like Yeah, I never went to high school. It's which is probably why I'm so obsessed with doing things with my daughters at their school. I'm always like in that building, like, oh God, she's here again. I'm like, You're like, because I never went. I literally try to get in that building all the time.

[55:40] Danielle Brisebois: Oh my god, I love it. Um, if you can go back in time and see any Broadway show, any year, any performance, what would it be?

[55:47] Danielle Brisebois: Mame with Angela Lansbury.

[55:48] Marc Tumminelli: Oh, yes, I'm with that. Um, okay, the credit that your family is most impressed by.

[55:55] Danielle Brisebois: Um, probably. Uh I'll probably maybe the Oscar nomination. I don't know.

[56:02] Marc Tumminelli: Yeah, that's a very big deal. All right. Something you really wanted as a kid that you didn't get that you were like like had a lot of uh stress about.

[56:11] Danielle Brisebois: Um a turtle.

[56:13] Marc Tumminelli: You mean a roll?

[56:13] Danielle Brisebois: No, I meant a roll, but let's go turtle. Don't even answer the other question. I really wanted the Annie movie.

[56:20] Marc Tumminelli: Okay, we're gonna I auditioned for that. I really wanted. I put I put a wig and green contacts in. I wanted that audition. I wanted that and I didn't get it. Are you ready? You have to fill in the blank. The 1982 Annie movie is I you know it I you know.

[56:36] Danielle Brisebois: Here's the thing. I can I I'm a I I think I enjoy it. I actually my daughters love it. I enjoy it. It's not the play, and I'd have to go, it's not that. It's a different animal. And I think what as soon as I learned that, then I was really able to enjoy the musical. I think there's some songs in there that are I there's wild things in that movie, but I love it so much. But it is what it is, it's a different animal. And just and just like the play is is not the comic strip. I think the movie is actually more like the comic strip than the play.

[57:09] Marc Tumminelli: Yeah. Um last time you saw a production of Annie.

[57:14] Danielle Brisebois: I saw the last live production I saw was in LA at the Pantages Theater. It was um it was a lot, it was great. I thought it was really, really great. Um, the cast was wonderful. It was really good. I enjoyed it.

[57:27] Marc Tumminelli: I'm glad that you could still see it and see all of the the joy and uh that you created. I mean, also I'm I'm I'm really I'm really excited to see the new version that's come out. I know. I heard the tour is really beautiful.

[57:36] Danielle Brisebois: So everyone I hear it's amazing and check it out. Um right. So obviously that you're gonna, I think the answer is yes to this one. Would you let your kids do a Broadway show?

[57:47] Danielle Brisebois: Sure. If that's what they want to do, they can do my kids. Can do whatever they do want or don't want to do because Thanksgiving is uh next week. Tell me what your favorite Thanksgiving food is.

[57:57] Marc Tumminelli: Well, I'm a vegetarian, so it ain't the turkey.

[58:00] Danielle Brisebois: It ain't that. That's why you look so good. You look incredible. Like you're yes, you're you've you're gorgeous.

[58:08] Marc Tumminelli: Thank you. Um my favorite Thanksgiving food is oh, I know what it is. God, how am I even questioning this? It is candied yams. But I mean, like, not the canned kind, like I've like they've got to be like the yams. I mean, like, I mean, it's like does it pie without the crust basically, but it's just that is that for me. That and create like a cream corn and then like cornbread, like all the all the corners, corn corn things, like uh like don't bother with the green beans, who cares? I don't I don't care about any of that stuff. Just like let's just call it what it is junk food table.

[58:40] Danielle Brisebois: The table. All right, what movie can you watch over and over again?

[58:44] Marc Tumminelli: Um, Daddy Daycare.

[58:46] Danielle Brisebois: I love that movie.

[58:48] Marc Tumminelli: All right, you have to pick one maybe or tomorrow.

[58:51] Danielle Brisebois: Maybe, yeah. Well, it was to you. Um, and what advice do you have for young performers who are kind of in starting out in this business?

[59:00] Danielle Brisebois: Well, you know, it's it's it's I it's interesting because I look at what people have to do nowadays with you know, you not only have to be good at what you do, you have to be social media presence, you have to have so much other things happening. But I would say the most important thing is to still find the naivety in whatever you're doing, find find the innocence in what you're doing and not the slickness, because I mean practice, like make your studies, make make your training become second nature so it's not something you think about, but your imperfections are sometimes what makes you perfect. And so I would say too, I would say to really, you know, don't find what makes you special and and work really hard to be good at what you do, so you don't have to think about it.

[59:46] Marc Tumminelli: Yes. And the and the rest is still unwritten.

[59:48] Danielle Brisebois: That is correct. Um tell the people where they can follow you to see what's up with your life if that's something that you like to show.

[59:55] Danielle Brisebois: Uh you know what? I I don't really I have I I I'm I could update you on that later. I have to, I'm kind of working on all that stuff right now. I'm more of a behind the scenes kind of gal at this point.

[1:00:06] Marc Tumminelli: Would you ever perform again?

[1:00:08] Danielle Brisebois: I you know, I'm I'm I'm kind of itching towards that direction a little bit again.

[1:00:12] Marc Tumminelli: All right, so we I want that to happen.

[1:00:14] Danielle Brisebois: You know, I I think I would I would like to do something. I'd like to I'd like to stop uh stop minimizing myself in terms of like you know and just actually open up a bit more and not be so closed off in life and do some more things like the experience some more things. So yeah, I would love to perform again.

[1:00:32] Marc Tumminelli: You brought so much joy to so many young people and a generation of people watched you grow up on television, and uh you're such a delight and so wonderful to get to spend some time with you. So thank you so much for joining us.

[1:00:41] Danielle Brisebois: I'm gonna fan of your podcast. I love it.

[1:00:44] Marc Tumminelli: Good. Tell your friends. Um and everyone at home go to that Apple Podcast and hit five star write a beautiful review. Um Danielle was so great to share my Thanksgiving episode with you. So yeah, happy Thanksgiving, everybody.

[1:00:55] Danielle Brisebois: So yeah, happy Thanksgiving, everybody.

[1:00:58] Marc Tumminelli: And uh we'll be off next week. Are the two best holidays because there's no presence involved. I love both of those for those who And there's no there's no presence, it's just your presence is the present.

[1:01:08] Danielle Brisebois: My presence is a presence.

[1:01:09] Marc Tumminelli: Yeah, um, it is. Um, and your presence was my present today. Thank you, Danielle. You are the greatest, and I'm so glad to finally meet you.

[1:01:16] Danielle Brisebois: You too.

[1:01:17] Marc Tumminelli: And I'll keep listening and oh my god, yeah. It's awesome.

[1:01:20] Danielle Brisebois: Um bye, everybody. We'll see you in two weeks.

[1:01:22] Marc Tumminelli: Bye, Danielle.

[1:01:24] Danielle Brisebois: Bye.

[1:01:26] Marc Tumminelli: Thank you, listeners. This podcast is produced by Alan Seals, Dory Berenstein, and the Broadway Podcast Network, and edited by Derek Gunther. 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 that Tuminelli. And for more information on workshops, classes, and everything Broadway Workshop, go to BroadwayWorkshop.com. Thank you for listening.