This transcript was automatically generated and might contain errors.

[0:15] Eva: Hello, everybody, and welcome to this episode of My First Show.

[0:20] Eva: My guest is the beautiful, the talented, the multi-medium hopping, should we say, from the television screen to the internet screen to the stage, Carly Hughes?

[0:37] Carly Hughes: Hello.

[0:38] Carly Hughes: Oh my gosh, that intro is everything.

[0:40] Carly Hughes: I'm like, oh no, let me record it.

[0:43] Eva: We have recorded, don't worry.

[0:45] Carly Hughes: Oh my gosh.

[0:46] Carly Hughes: Thank you so much for having me.

[0:48] Eva: My pleasure. Thank you for being here.

[0:51] Eva: There's a lot of interesting things that we talk to our guests about when they get on the show. But the first thing I like to ask first and foremost is how are you doing right now?

[1:05] Carly Hughes: That is just so kind of you. You know what? I am good. I'm taking every day one day at a time. I am not putting pressure on myself, and you know, I'm not a stranger to being alone, but never lonely. You know what I mean? I've been on my own since I was 17, so I know how to have a solo date night and throw myself a party, you know. So the calm that comes with having that experience of being able to sit with yourself is helping me with all the chaos outside of my house. Do you know what I mean? All the chaos in the world. So I am grateful for that. Um and grateful to have a space to shelter in, you know.

[1:56] Eva: Yeah, yeah. Did that younger aloneness from age 17 have a chaoticness as well? Like, are you referencing any emotional themes?

[2:09] Carly Hughes: Oh no, I just moved out when I was 17 to I graduated high school a year early, and I was like, no, this is what I want to do for a living. And you know, set sail to go, like, you know, I don't know, make a living. That's what I thought at that age. At that it was not a living, it was like pennies. But um, you know, I just was like, I've always been very independent and was like, okay, bye, I'm gonna go do the world now. And now it seems the world is doing all of us, so brilliant phrase you know, it's true.

[2:33] Eva: The world is doing us, isn't it? Over and over.

[2:45] Carly Hughes: It's insane. It's insane. Oh god, this year is insane. But I have also tried to like I've been redirecting myself and my how I speak about it and my mindset of 2020 because does it suck? Absolutely. But at the same time, if you look at it in terms of 2020 is when you go to the eye doctor perfect vision. And in this year, while it's a big shitstorm. Oops, sorry.

[3:14] Carly Hughes: Um, we love swears. It is okay, great, because I do it. Um, this year is a big shitstorm. However, if you look at it in terms of 2020 being perfect vision, every single little thing is being brought to light literally like every other week since March, since the pandemic started. Yeah, everything is being uncovered. Everyone is speaking up. People are coming forward with injustice. Everything is coming to light that has been simmering on the back burner for centuries in terms of race, in terms of economics, in terms of our economy, in terms everything that we've talked about or whispered in circles or read about on Instagram or read about on some platform instead of learning it correctly, all of that stuff is being brought to light. So yeah, 2020 sucks because it's all happening at once, and most of it is not good, but it's giving us a whole hell of a lot to have to deal with. And we have not, as a country, been dealing with any of it.

[4:15] Eva: Snaps, snaps. I don't know if you can hear it.

[4:18] Carly Hughes: I hear those snaps.

[4:20] Eva: And around the world.

[4:21] Carly Hughes: Yeah. Yes, yes, and yes, I would be able to do that. So I've been buying actively consciously trying to be like, ew, this day fucking sucks. But okay, now this is out there, just get it all. It's like in your when you're in a relationship and you really, really want to work at it because you already moved in together or something, and you really love each other. So you gotta talk this shit out. Like you have to put everything on the table and America right now is like somebody's old, nasty, angry granny dumping her pocketbook out, looking for the last peppermint, and that peppermint has not fallen out yet. We are just getting bottles of crusty lipstick, used everything, like everything is being dumped out so we can sift through hoping for that last peppermint, and it ain't coming.

[5:05] Eva: That's right.

[5:05] Carly Hughes: Like snotty, hanky just nasty. Here, baby, hold this. You got a lot of hold this, and so we're all holding shit from granny's purse, trying to decipher what we do with it in America. And America right now is a dirty, stinky bottom of a purse.

[5:20] Eva: I'm just no, I mean you're being very kind.

[5:23] Carly Hughes: Not being very kind, but you know, we're gonna keep it the end for it.

[5:26] Eva: Yeah, yeah. So, right when this shit storm was about to begin, you were in rehearsals. Is that right?

[5:33] Carly Hughes: For sure, baby. Oh no, maybe. I didn't even make it there.

[5:39] Carly Hughes: Oh god. I know. Um, right before when this happened, um, I was filming the last episode of American Housewife.

[5:51] Eva: Interesting.

[5:52] Carly Hughes: Um we got delayed um because of you know, set issues by two days. And so I was like, well, you have to shoot me on Wednesday or not, because I leave for New York on Monday. And they're like, Well, what about you know the virus going on? I was like, okay, yeah, what about it? I don't know how to help you. Because we know we didn't know much about it, so I was like, um, I mean, like, I'll be not getting sick or something.

[6:18] Eva: Right.

[6:18] Carly Hughes: Virus Don't Stop Theater. Right. I literally, I was like, you guys, oh, you don't know me in my background. It's gonna be fun. So we shot um on Wednesday, finished it out. That was the 11th of March. Friday the 13th is when all the shit hit the fan, if you remember. Um that was when I think New York shut down on the 13th, Friday the 13th. The Broadway closed on the afternoon of the 12th.

[6:46] Carly Hughes: Of the 12th, right? Because I was like in a doctor's appointment, and I was like, whoa, Broadway's closed. I figure my trip is about to get canceled, and then we got everything got shut down over either that Friday or over the weekend here in LA as well. So I was supposed to be in New York starting rehearsals, not the weekend of Friday the 13th, but the next weekend. Like I was flying out, I think that week coming up to do two projects that I was so excited to do. I was um doing a workshop um of a new show, and I was also about to do Bye Bye Birdie at the Kennedy Center with James Vanderbeek and Harvey Fierstein and uh I can't remember all the other amazing talents, but we you know we didn't none of us got to set foot at least none of us in LA got to set foot in New York.

[7:36] Eva: Yeah.

[7:37] Carly Hughes: And it was pretty and then you know, for the first month, everyone's optimistic. Be an optimistic, don't you be a grumpy.

[7:45] Carly Hughes: And then that changed very quickly. Now we're all just like harm.

[7:49] Eva: I know, I know. The phases of the pandemic from a mental health perspective, from you know, cautious optimism to like full on denial. There was a lot of that.

[7:57] Carly Hughes: Yeah, a lot of denial, then freaking out, then more denial, and then like, well, well, I think the next shirt for 2020 should just say, well, dot dot dot. When you have nothing left to say, well, and then the three iPhone dots that you're thinking about what to say next.

[8:18] Eva: Yeah, yeah. Yep.

[8:19] Carly Hughes: Oh god. Well, let's travel back to your humble beginnings if we're yeah, I feel like there should be some magical music playing to like Dylan's heads, excellent manager.

[8:29] Eva: It is playing.

[8:30] Carly Hughes: It's playing, it's playing in our heads.

[8:34] Eva: Um what was the first show you ever saw?

[8:39] Carly Hughes: First Broadway show? Any show that mattered to you and made you love theater.

[8:47] Carly Hughes: Oh my god, it was probably Seven Brides for Seven Brothers because I grew up, I grew up in Columbia, Maryland, originally from St. Louis, grew up in Columbia, Maryland, and we had Toby's Dinner Theater in Columbia. But I never I've never actually never seen a show there. Um and I didn't know about it when we first moved there. I moved to Maryland in fifth grade. And we I didn't actually know what Broadway was until high school, which we'll get into that too, because you know we weren't a family we didn't take family vacations. They weren't like, hey oh Carly sings 24 hours a day. We should take her to a Broadway show. I don't think my family knew what that was either. So I grew up going to the Howard County Public Library finding their VHS section because that's how we rented movies because they were free because again we didn't have no Montes and so you could rent movies VHS tapes by the way I'm so young.

You could rent them at the library my mom would take us once a week and we'd go once or twice a week get our movies what we wanted to watch and come home and like not bother her. And I found the musical section I remember being in the fifth grade being like musicals music what is that me like music isn't it? And then I so I grabbed like three movies. I think my mom was like oh get this one I like this one and it was Anchors Aweigh with Frank Sinatra and I brought them home and was like the hell is this stuff? Nobody's showed me this yet what like my mind was blown and then I was like okay we have to go back and I went back every time I went to the library I rented a new yeah musical. That's all I rented and that was my introduction into musical theater and into theater in general, because I was watching all the golden age stuff while also in fifth and sixth, you know, grade, thinking, oh, this is stuff I am born at the wrong time.

Like, yeah, I should have been born at this time. Look at what they all got to do for a living, not knowing at that time that Broadway existed, which is so sad, but it's also surreal because I I didn't know. Do you know it wasn't I didn't know I was missing anything until now as an adult, I'm like, what? I missed all those years of the Tony Award. Um but you know, I didn't know. I just thought, what a cool thing that they got to do then. Um and make all of this magic that has me like for Christmas. I was asking, I asked for the cassette tape. Yes, I said cassette tape of um that's entertainment volume one and two, and my mom was like, what the hell is this kind of uh the cassette tape? You know, there was no Google, there was no Amazon Prime, yeah.

And because I had watched it, I had rented the movie from the library, and I was like, this has everything in it! Like I my mind was blown at that age, like despite not having seen, you know, a live show. My mind at that age of being introduced into what I now do as a living was just like what? This is why is nobody doing this now?

[11:48] Eva: Right, right, right. So so what was the live show that you then saw for the first live show I I'd ever seen, you know, by middle school I I started doing oh no, fifth grade. I started I after watching all of this, I did like the you know, the fifth grade musical, which somebody somewhere sent me and was like, look, we were in fifth grade together. Um my parents to camcorded this production of Robin Hood. It was Robin Hood, and I played Robin Hood, and I thought it was so good and cute, and then this girl showed me this during the pandemic, and I was like, Oh, the devil does a lie. What the heck? Sound crazy? Gender bending has been going on for years. Well, I we I remember her setting us all down.

And I took the you know drama class or whatever after school. And she's like, all right, it's our music teacher, Miss Alex Oh no, Alice Zerbach loved Miss Zerbach. And she's like divvying out parts, and everyone's like, oh, we gotta get parts. And she's like, little John and and all of these things and Maiden Marion. And I was like, yeah, I'll be Maiden Marion. As she gives it to whoever, I can't even remember. And I was like, oh, I guess I won't get a part. It's fine. You're fine. Everything's fine. You know what your parents tell you? Like, if you don't get a part, you still get to be a part.

[13:07] Carly Hughes: Which is now as an adult, you're like, bullshit. I need a part. Um, but I was like, fine, it's fine. And then she got to the very end, she goes, and Robin Hood is gonna be, and I was like, what boy is gonna be Robin Hood? And she goes, Carly Hughes. And I was like, I mean, I'm a star, guys. It's fine. Don't even worry about it. I'm gonna be Robin Hood. But now that I also look at these tapes, yeah. I'm looking at all these fifth graders. And I went through puberty so early, like so early, no child should ever be traumatized by that stuff. I look like Andre the fucking giant. I'm not kidding you. I will send a screenshot if I get the courage. Please of us all standing on this um, it was a stage in our cafeteria at Clemens Crossing Elementary, and we're all standing on this stage in a cafeteria doing this quote unquote show, and these little truckers are coming up to me, hitting my boob.

That's how tall. I I'm not even kidding. Even I w in watching it was like, what the what's wrong? I look insane. It's so funny. But anyway, I at the time I had a blast and you know, did um the school plays in middle school, which was I don't even remember. I thought they were all at as an adult. I'm like, were these made-up shows? And then we did also we did the whiz in eighth grade, so I played Dorothy. I was like, Yeah, the whiz. Oh, that's the one. And then every show in high school, but freshman year of high school was the first year I had seen a Broadway show.

[14:40] Eva: And what was that?

[14:42] Carly Hughes: It was footloose. And I got there and we sat in the balcony and everyone was like watching and I can't remember who I sat next to. I want to say maybe it was Sh Shana Shayna. Um I can't remember. Um What color Shayna? It was Shana. Um, I think it was Shayna actually, but we're all sitting there and we're watching, and Stacey Francis, you know, is played as a originated um Rusty. And I'm like on the edge of my seat, like, what? Fuck, people kept this for me. The this is a whole new world that nobody told me about. I feel like I feel like people were holding me back my whole entire life. But it's fine because I'm really excited right now. And I'm literally like looking over the rail, and Shana turns to me and she's like, You could do that.

You could totally I like I see you playing that part. And I was like, wow, right? And like just her I just remember her saying that and me being like, that's what I was thinking in my head, but I'm not gonna tell you because I try because this is all too much like sensory overload, you know what I mean?

[15:47] Carly Hughes: Yeah. But I remember being like, oh my god, people do this. Why did I not know people still do this? Because I always just associated the movies and everything we did grow up seeing and going to the dollar show and going though, that's what those people did. It didn't seem like something that was attainable for me because that is not the household I grew up in. You know while my family was supportive but they were also just like they didn't know about the arts. They were just like oh it's cool Carly sings all the damn time and gets on my nerves probably you know they didn't okay now let's get her and do all you know I didn't have dance lessons growing up I didn't have singing lessons I didn't you know dance came in in high school we happen to have dance in high school but like you know it was a w a whole different world that I wasn't used to that I was just starting to go oh this is what I'm about to do y'all yeah okay go data by yeah I mean it's kind of it's kind of amazing that nowadays people have TikTok and the internet and you know every single every every single social media post and Instagram live to see all that's happening on stages in New York and professional sphere but when we were kids in the 80s and 90s it was like my local community theater in a barn was Broadway to me in New Hampshire until I you know finally went to a Broadway show as well in high school mind blown.

[17:11] Carly Hughes: Now how brilliant is Shayna for like calling that then calling it calling it she was like I mean like you do it all at school anyway. Now mind you it was high school and we had I mean we had the James Rouse theater attached to our high school so we were already balling and James is is the uh founder and creator of of Columbia, Maryland, the city, which was is a planned city that was built specifically and primarily for multiracial, interracial, biracial families, a haven for everyone, but a safe haven specifically for that. So I grew up immensely diverse. I am not mixed myself, but my high school was i every single thing you can imagine. Um James Ross also is um a patron of the arts so we had his theater attached to our high school and it's a professional theater that people would tour in sometimes but we had a whole tech crew a whole everything.

[18:04] Carly Hughes: Um James Rouse is also Edward Norton's grandfather if you didn't know. So we had all of that stuff at our disposal which meant when we did high school musicals we got to do it full out.

[18:17] Eva: So your hometown is not quite full Westport is what you're telling me.

[18:26] Carly Hughes: It is the complete opposite I don't know a full Westport. I don't think I'd ever live anywhere like that no no no we wouldn't survive I'd probably punch someone in the face I don't know so so when you took on the role of American house in in American housewife did you have to sort of like research what it would be like to to be an American housewife in a in a town different from your own or it's sort of I just I mean I just was like oh what is it like being the only black person in a place oh story of my life.

[18:59] Eva: So and then that just went from there.

[19:02] Carly Hughes: Yeah yeah you know because essentially that's what it is.

[19:06] Eva: Right.

[19:06] Carly Hughes: Right, we're right. Or that's what my character was, you know.

[19:09] Eva: Have you been to Westport, Connecticut?

[19:12] Carly Hughes: No, I haven't I'm crossing fingers that if I ever do go that it's not like what we had on the TV show.

[19:20] Eva: Well I don't know, but Justin Paul wrote the you know music for that musical episode, and he's like, Yeah, I'm from Westport, and I was like, Oh, and he goes, Yeah.

[19:20] Carly Hughes: And I was like, good to do.

[19:33] Eva: Yeah, yeah. When when Diablo Cody was creating the book for Jagger Little Pell, it's the town of Greenport, you know, which is clearly I sat in the audience and I was like, mm-hmm. It's like Westport.

[19:46] Carly Hughes: Exactly. It's off to this little black girl. This is Westport.

[19:50] Eva: Exactly. Oh, I'm so glad you saw it.

[19:52] Carly Hughes: So you so you totally get it.

[19:53] Eva: Yeah.

[19:54] Carly Hughes: Well, yeah, because LaShawn's um LaShant is a friend of mine, and so I was like, Oh, baby girls in, I gotta go see it.

[19:59] Eva: Yeah, she's such a genius in it, isn't she?

[20:02] Carly Hughes: Selly up. Oh god, she's so good.

[20:05] Eva: Um, first professional show. What was it?

[20:07] Carly Hughes: First show I got ever got paid to do. I know what okay, I know what it was. I was 18 doing Little Shop of Horrors at Pennsylvania Center Stage, and I was getting paid approximately the equivalent to um an unemployment stipend minus the uh extra bonus. There was no bonus, it was just like 400 or something like that. And I was Ronette and uh of the Ronettes in Little Shop of Horrors followed by that summer, followed by Beehive.

[20:44] Eva: Oh wow, yeah.

[20:45] Carly Hughes: And I was like, I'm doing it, I may I'm making a living. My mom was like, You making two dollars, but you know, I support you, baby. I was like, Wait a shoe me down. And it was two dollars, but it was like really fun because it was the first time I was getting paid to do what I was like, I'm gonna do this forever, you know.

[21:04] Eva: Yeah, where was the Summer stock?

[21:06] Carly Hughes: Pennsylvania Center State.

[21:08] Eva: Okay.

[21:09] Carly Hughes: And then it was followed by Summerstock every year thereafter at like Merry Go Round Playhouse.

[21:15] Carly Hughes: And um, wait, did I Merry Ground Play? I think I did both those years. Merry Go Round Playhouse, where we did Smokey Joe's Cafe, and then West Virginia Public Theater, where we did uh Smokey Joe's Cafe. I've done like eight versions of Smokey Joe Cafe. I'm not even kidding you, and West Virginia Theater that year. And so they put up this what they called a freestanding vinyl structure. Like the all they had merch that year and everything saying like West Virginia Public Theater in our freestanding vinyl structure. A tent. It was a tent. It was a tent, a vinyl tent. Luckily, they put they were able to put AC in there. And it was in so what it made the show every show that happened there that summer in the round.

So they had their same number of audience members. Me and Leslie Odom were up in there as babies doing Smokey Joe's Cafe. And that was also the summer I met my best friend Megan Hilty who came in to do Godspell in the round. Like we were all just in the butt I mean, but it made it fun. We also were like, it's a tent. Is it guys it's a tent? I don't want the shirt that says vinyl structure. I want to I it's a tent.

[22:20] Eva: There seems to be a through line uh of your of your shows and your movies and your television experiences of Christmas. Am I right?

[22:29] Carly Hughes: There are two. I'm obsessed with Christmas.

[22:35] Eva: Tell me more.

[22:37] Carly Hughes: Tell me why. I don't somebody asked me that the who asked me that the other day, like, when did your obsession with Christmas start? I don't was it you and my dreams? I don't know. But I was like, I can't know. My my mom is one of eight, and my dad is one of seven. So that means every holiday growing up was huge, and that's just with in my literal first cousins and all my aunts and uncles. So it was always a big affair without being it because we were all there as kids. And then as we got older, my mom and I, my mom and I have always loved Christmas. We'll we'll watch all the Christmas movies. We decorate. We have like, you know, we'll make uh in high school, she would make get like 18 different cookie recipes and make all 18, and then put them in tens, like a little bit in each 10 to give to neighbors and friends.

Like she don't do that anymore, she don't got the energy. I haven't done it either. But it was a like we made it a uh a thing. And then once I moved out, especially since I moved out early, it was when I came home. So it was always a huge thing, and it was always like surrounded by you know that Christmas air and love and excitement, and in being on my own and often having to do shows, you know, on Broadway on Christmas Eve and on Christmas Day and not getting the holiday off and and sometimes being by myself because I couldn't go home. You have to make the most of it.

[23:55] Carly Hughes: And and also like there's nothing like the the holiday spirit and the the even the grumpiest people become jolly. Uh it ju it just is my nephew, he's 11 now, but when he was he was like six, he was like, you know what, Carly, like everyone's just so much nicer and like this time six, and I was like, Yeah, they are right. He's like, Yeah, I think this was he actually came to see me in Pippin, and I had shows, you know, I had two shows the day before Christmas, the day I had all the shows. So my mom, my brother, my sister in law, my nephew came to see me, and they stayed and we had Christmas in New York, and he was just like, Everyone's so much nicer at Christmas. You could just, it's just different, you could feel it.

And I was like, I know I'm teaching you young. I know. And Charles Dickens was on to something, wasn't he? Right? I was like I was like, you can't be grumpy at Christmas. You just can't. And so um it's just that that air of that time of year that has always made me a happier person and made me f uh hopeful. And I think um, you know, especially now, the world gets grumpy, the world is grumpy, and the world, you know, goes to hell in a handbasket at various different times. And so this particular time of year, for whatever reason, and and I a lot of it, um, it's probably the commercialism associated with it and all everything we've put on it in terms of being the jolliest time of the year, the most wonderful time of the year, but it is now ingrained in us, and that's what we now believe, which is which is a testament to the power of words.

And so when you get to that time of year, it's just a time to I guess kind of refuel because that's how I come away from the holiday season, is refueled with hope and energy and excitement and uh happiness, you know, and so I live I my Christmas decorations go up right after Halloween.

[25:46] Carly Hughes: Yeah, maybe at October 30th, you're starting to pull them out. We can't. I mean, let's consider it. My fall and Halloween are up right now. I'm staring at my my uh fall Halloween display on my mantle. And then, like, you know, right after Halloween, that Christmas is going up. I'm obsessed with Christmas, it makes me so happy. I and we're gonna need it more than ever this year. We're gonna need that Christmas spirit. So so this is so exciting then that your first lifetime Christmas film is gonna be coming out this Christmas.

[26:14] Carly Hughes: It's like a dream. Like, I mean, I already did the Grinch on Broadway, which was hilarious, and um, which I produced. I don't know if you did. I was one of the producers of every year. I did the first, yeah, every year on Broadway, the first two years. Were you not met yet? Were you in it the year of the strike or yes? I was. Yep. I remember that was a very big thing we didn't meet because it was a strike. And so by the time they like you can reopen, it was a mad dash. And we were doing fifteen shows a day a week. I mean. Yep. Um, yeah, I played Trixie, but then um Mama Who got sick from standing outside and standing with um, you know, local one that I did seven shows in two days without rehearsal.

So that's also a story of my life, but that's for another time. So this film is um, was it great to make and so energizing because of yeah, I mean it was it was exactly what I needed at this time. Um, it involved a lot in terms of being COVID friendly and following the protocol, and that's a new strategy that everyone is going to have to implement moving forward, which I appreciate, but it takes a lot of time, it takes a lot of effort, and it takes, you know, um, a lot of time in terms of the medic taking your temperature three times a day and you're being tested every seventy-two hours and everyone has masks, but you kind of can't wear masks as a woman all the time because your makeup just got retouched, so you have to like find a face shield or stand away from, you know, it's a thing to navigate, but um, and we shot in Utah and I was like, I'm not getting on a plane because COVID, so they picked me up in my trailer and drove me back to Utah in my trailer, and um, which you know, I'm glad they did because we were able to make this, you know, little piece of Christmas magic in the middle of chaos that is coming out this year because you know Hallmark and Lifetime, their stuff is rapid fire, they have adapted to an art, a science.

Our director Peter Sullivan directs and writes for Hallmark and Lifetime. He knows the exact formula, how it's gonna edit, you know, he knows everything, so that helped a lot in the mad dash of getting it done. But I was so grateful to be able to work during this time and I was just more grateful that it was a Christmas movie because like I was the one that was like, you know, I used a lot of my own, all of my own wardrobe in this and my manager was like, how hilarious that your wardrobe fits a Christmas movie. I was like, it's just sweaters, okay? Desperate times call for desperate measures. We do what we can. Um, but yeah, it was really magical. And then being able to do it, you know, again, like I said, there were ups and downs along the way for sure, um, in terms of rule following and figuring stuff out.

But um, every scene, I was just like imagining seeing it, and I won't get to see, you know, my mom this year and because I can't fly and I'm immunocompromised and she is immunocompromised from having breast cancer and you know, now my sister is going through something as well. So I won't be able to see my whole family this whole year at all. But she'll get to see me in a Christmas movie at Christmas, you know, so I'll essentially be in the home with her that way, you know, if you look at the little things. So I, you know, I just kept all the bumps along the way in terms of filming the movie and all of that were little dog piles in terms of the final outcome. Yeah, you know, it's worth it. Yeah, and what it's going to do, uh, you know, for the people that like me and my mom who all every year watch all the Hallmark and the Lifetime together.

Like we will sit down for a month and just watch it from afar together and then cut, you know, when I get there, watch it together. So um, it made it all worthwhile and it was nice to have the Christmas spirit in August degree weather wearing 18 layers absolutely no, it's gonna be a gift for everyone.

[30:16] Carly Hughes: So it's dream time on our show where we ask if you could be in any show anywhere at any time, what would it be? It's hard because you know my dream show is one that hasn't been done yet, you know, one that I get to originate and has new music that I get to nuance and has a character that I get to bring to life. Great. Let's create it right now. Who wrote it and what's your character? Oh, we're talking dream time. I can't, you know what? I honestly, what's been going through my mind lately is doing um, which I don't think has been done in this way, but doing kind of like a biopic, a biopic of either Nancy Wilson or Eartha Kitt or Lena Horne. Not, not um, the Lena Horne show that she did, although I would love to recreate that as well.

So we'll put that on the list. That's a duh. Um, but um, a one woman show or a five person cast of one of their lives, so it has all the music they've done, but the book um is about their lives, you know what I mean? So it's kind of like, uh, you know, Lady Day at Emerson's Bar and Grill, but like a tad different, but in that vein of doing one of the iconic women, I would really love to dive into Eartha and Lena, um, you know, and Josephine Baker, but not I would love for it to not necessarily be a musical version of their lives, but more like the musical of their life, if that makes sense.

[31:54] Carly Hughes: Carly, this is like the secret. That's what this talk show is about. So it's now out there, it's in the world. I'm a producer. You're gonna be along for the ride, obviously. Right, rights holders listen. All of this is possible. It's a brilliant idea, and you'd be genius in it. So I mean, I've been toying with doing it for like, you know, a limited series too of one of them, which you know would be great as well. The musical side, the play with music side is like, I mean, that's a dream. The Lena Horne, um, when she made it back to Broadway, that is on YouTube. Yeah, done. That will be tonight's viewing, not a problem. I'm excited. Thank you for that. You're welcome. You may know that there is a lightning round that we end all of our episodes with, and we've been switching up the theme of the lightning round.

It's usually something emotional, something nostalgic, and it's testing your knowledge of classic musicals, which I trust is pretty damn good knowing about your resume. So we put 30 seconds on the clock. I speak, because we should not be so lucky to hear me sing a lyric from a musical, and you have to say the name of the musical it's from. Oh god, okay. I wish you were singing it. Okay, go. Well, you know what? I could. Yay! Let's do it. Let's do it. I support you. But you challenged me. Let's do it, lady. And it is corona. Anything goes. Anything goes. Okay. 30 seconds are on the clock. It only takes a moment. I was like gonna start singing with you, but oh, what is that from? Oh it only takes a box.

I just watched it last week. You did. You did. I can't know. I don't know, tell me. You were in the matchmaker. Oh my gosh! That's what it's from. It is. It is. You know what it is? Hello, Dolly, because also Wally watches it. Watched Wally. Oh, that's so funny. He doesn't do that song, but it's Hello Dolly. Now, now I'm alone, still dreaming of paradise. Once nearly was mine. I can't believe you've got me to sing. I did. I'm loving it. Okay. Do you know what that's from? No, I don't. South Pacific. Okay, I don't know much from South. That's okay. Someone tell me when is it my turn? Don't I get a dream for myself? This is Gypsy. Yes. Yes, that was your best one. I love it. You did great. You did great.

I got one and a half. But you got the host to sing. Yes. I nailed it. I let's just get serious. I nailed it. Take some almost. Oh, I love that. That's how that song actually was supposed to sound. I was like, should I just watch this? I it's because I watched Wally, and you know he's obsessed. Put on your Sunday clothes and then I started singing that song. Oh my god. He also likes to chant Eva. Yeah. Is my understanding. I've never seen Wally, but that's I know. Well, you gotta watch it because then you'll know why. After Lena Horne tonight, I'm putting on Wally. I'm never gonna forget you, Carly Hughes. Thank you for the show. Oh my gosh, you either. This was so fun. This was the best way to start my day.

Cause you know, in LA, like I woke up just before this, so it's only 11 o'clock now. But I'm so excited. You know what I do and that it's fine and uh reminisce a little bit. I'm so glad you had me on. I'm so glad you were here.

[36:26] Eva: My first show is produced by Josh Altman, MEP, Dory Berenstein, and Alan Seales, and is part of the Broadway Podcast Network. This episode was edited by Derek Gunther. Special thanks to Leslie Papa and Whitney Holden Gore at Vibacity Media Group. For more info about the podcast, visit bpn.fm backslash my first show. Follow me on Instagram at Eva R. Price on the blank. I'm wild again, beguiled again, a sim whimpering child again, bewitched by and bewildered am I. I couldn't sleep and wouldn't sleep when love came and told me I shouldn't sleep, bewitched by and bewildered, lost my heart but what of his? He is cold, I agree. He can laugh, but I love it, all the laughs on me. Say to him each spring to him and love for the day when I cling to him, Bewitched, Bothered and Bewildered.