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[0:12] Jayke Workman: Oh my god, did you hear? Did you hear? Did you hear my god guys? Take that hot. Oh my god. What's up, everyone? My name is Jayke Workman, and this is Oh My Pod, you guys, a musical theater and pop culture podcast.

[0:35] Jayke Workman: You guys, there are whispers along the Rialto of Audra McDonald returning to Broadway in the revival of Gypsy as Mama Rose. You guys, my little gay heart cannot handle this information. I mean, like every other homosexual, Gypsy is one of my absolute favorites, and Madame Rose is, you know, just an icon of my theater experience. But to see it done and sung by Audra McDonald, are you kidding me? We need this. This is what we need. I mean, I will say, Friend of the Pod, Douglas Lyons, made an excellent point that was like, do we really need to do this show again when there are so many amazing other stories to be told? However, I think this one deserves a pass because it's Audra. So please, universe, whatever gods are out there, please let this be real and not just a rumor and speculation. Innuendo, out you endo.

[1:40] Jayke Workman: Okay, you guys, with that, let's dive right into this week's Broadway World recap, brought to you by my amazing friends at Broadwayworld.com. First, you guys, we got the unfortunate news of the passing of Glynis Johns at the age of 100 years old. I was first introduced to the magic of Glynis Johns when I saw her performance as Mrs. Banks in the original Mary Poppins film. And then, of course, as I got older, I did a deep dive into her amazing career and learned that, of course, she had originated the role of Desiree Armfeldt in A Little Night Music, my favorite musical, and won the Tony for it. I mean, Glynis Johns, icon. She's an icon. She's done more than 60 films and 30 plays. Like this woman did everything.

[2:27] Jayke Workman: And you guys, oh my god. The incredible Len Careyou, who played opposite Glynis in Night Music, told this amazing story at the Red Bucket Follies that Steven Sondheim originally promised Len the, you know, 11 o'clock number of A Little Night Music. And when he saw them rehearse the scene going into it, he was like, hold on, I gotta write something else. And wrote Send in the Clowns for Glynis Johns. We would not have Send in the Clowns without Glynis. Like, amazing. And of course, hilarious that Len was like, uh, okay, I guess she can have the 11 o'clock number. Fine, whatever. I mean, come on. Icon. So rest in power and peace, Miss Glynis Johns. You will forever be loved.

[3:21] Jayke Workman: Next, you guys, we got the very exciting and long-awaited announcement that Nicole Scherzinger is going to lead Sunset Boulevard on Broadway. The production is actually concluding its limited engagement on the West End on January 6th, and production dates, theater, and additional casting info will be announced shortly. I freaking love Nicole Scherzinger. I think she's an incredible performer, and now I don't have to go to London to see her do this because she's coming to Broadway. The promo photos, you guys, from the West End run look crazy cuckoo nutty. I'm so excited. This is gonna be amazing. So stay tuned because I will, of course, be updating you with all of the info about this Broadway revival of Sunset Boulevard.

[4:08] Jayke Workman: Next, you guys, we got a really fun casting announcement that Jonathan Bennett is going to make his Broadway debut in Spamalot as Sir Robin after Michael Urie departs the show. You will probably know Jonathan Bennett best from his iconic role of Aaron Samuels in the original Mean Girls movie. Michael Urie was, of course, fabulous in this show, but he is set to star in a little known Once Upon a Mattress at City Center, so he's got things to do. So, Jonathan Bennett said, Absolutely, I will be your Sir Robin, and he's gonna be so cute, you guys! I cannot wait to see him in this role. Jonathan is gonna be in the show from January 23rd through Sunday, April 28th. So we have plenty of time to catch him in the show.

[4:56] Jayke Workman: And April 28th is not only Jonathan's final day in Spamalot, but sadly, we got the announcement that the Tony Award winner for Best Musical, Kimberly Akimbo, is set to play its final Broadway performance on April 28th. It's always a bummer to see such a beautiful show like this close, but upon closing, they will have done 32 previews and 612 performances on Broadway, which is amazing. And then, fear not, if you have not been able to see it, they're kicking off a 75-week 60 City National Tour at the Denver Center for the Performing Arts in September. So you will be able to see the show if you didn't get to see it on Broadway. Of course, I don't think that Victoria Clark is going to be reprising her role as Kimberly on the national tour, but the show is so phenomenal.

It stands by itself. It speaks for itself. It's so brilliantly written. So congrats to everybody involved in the show for an incredible run, and I cannot wait to update you guys on all things Kimberly Akimbo National Tour.

[5:58] Jayke Workman: And last but certainly not least, you guys, we got the announcement that Brooks Ashmanskas, Alex Brightman, and Robin Herder are going to lead the workshop for the Broadway bound Smash Musical. You guys I am so excited for this. I was an absolute slut for this TV show. Smash changed my life as a little homosexual, and now I get to see these absolute icons recreate these roles. And shout out to my lovely friend Miss Sarah Sigman, who is going to be in the ensemble. You guys, I cannot wait. Robin Herder, punch me in the face. The show is slated for our Broadway run in the 2024-2025 season, but we don't really know anything else about, you know, the workshop to Broadway pipeline. I mean, this show is gonna be a hit. You guys, Josh Burgas choreographing, who obviously choreographed for the TV show. It's gonna be unreal. I cannot wait to see the show.

[7:03] Jayke Workman: And you guys, this has been the BroadwayWorld Recap. Oh my pod, you guys, I am so excited to welcome my next guest to the show. She is an out and proud trans rock and roll girly. And she has her one woman show this January at Joe's Pub called Trans Am. Please welcome Miss Lisa Stephen Friday.

[7:27] Lisa Stephen Friday: Thank you very much. Thank you for having me.

[7:30] Jayke Workman: I'm so glad to have you. I cannot wait to hear about your show and just your amazing career. But first, would you tell the listeners where you are calling in from?

[7:43] Lisa Stephen Friday: I'm calling in from Manhattan, upper, upper, upper, upper Manhattan.

[7:49] Jayke Workman: Love.

[7:50] Lisa Stephen Friday: I'm currently isolated in my apartment due to COVID.

[7:55] Jayke Workman: Ugh, what's that?

[7:56] Lisa Stephen Friday: It's a little thing that happened. Um, yeah, but you know, I'm being positive about it. I'm like, okay. Well, being positive. Certainly positive. But I think, okay, I'm gonna get this, and then what? Like in a couple of weeks, I can get the latest round of vax, and then I'm set for the winter.

[8:20] Jayke Workman: Yes, exactly. Absolutely. You will be able to bounce back and do your show.

[8:26] Lisa Stephen Friday: Yes, yes.

[8:27] Jayke Workman: Oh my god. So diving right in, tell me about this amazing show. It you've kind of done like many iterations of it from what I've gathered, and it looks like it's just growing and growing to be this like incredible like force of a one person show.

[8:44] Lisa Stephen Friday: Yeah, it is. Thank you. It continues to grow. We started it, speaking of COVID in the pandemic. It was a theater in Washington, DC, the Keegan Theater, and I was slated to do some other stuff with them, you know, pre-shutdown. And then the shutdown happened and the theater of course went dark, but then they started, I did a one night like singer songwriter thing for them virtually and we did it as like a fundraiser for other organizations that were hurting during COVID and I just sang all my old songs from my band back in the day, Lisa Jackson and Girl Friday, and I told these stories around the song. So and it went really well, it was a big hit, and then they wanted to do a fall rep with two shows they're gonna do virtually, and they actually asked me if I could turn that singer songwriter thing into a show.

[9:53] Lisa Stephen Friday: Sure. I've never done that before, but of course I was like, sure. Sure I can do that. Why not? And they said hire whoever you want to direct it. And so of course I called Fred Berman, who was the drummer for Lisa Jackson and Girl Friday, 'cause he's the only person I knew that has like the audacity to be like, Oh yeah, we can do this. Yes. So I wrote the show in like six weeks. We did our first production of it. Again, it was a big success. And then a year later the Keegan asked us to be a part of their twenty fifth anniversary season where we did like a five-week run in DC in front of a live audience.

[10:37] Lisa Stephen Friday: Sorry, that was my cell going off. And then it just yes, it continues to go. You know, I think most people listening to this are probably associated with theater in some way. And when you're in one of those projects that just things just unfold, it's not hard. I mean, the work is hard, to write it was hard, to performance hard, but every step keeps happening. And during the run in DC, folks from the Hangar Theater showed up and they asked us if we would like to come be a part of their new works program, and that was in the summer of 2022, I guess. And that's where we brought in the band, not Lisa Jackson Girl Friday, but an actual band to play all of that music because the first shows I did were literally a hundred percent a solo show. I played all the music, I did everything.

[11:34] Lisa Stephen Friday: So that happened over the summer. We were part of their what they called their flight test program, and then Jeff Gurner, who you've been speaking to, who was the producer of Tequila Talking Theatrics, who was the bass player of Lisa Jackson and Girl Friday in the early 2000s, shows up and is like, Hey, by the way, I've started a producing firm. Let's talk about your project. So Jeff and I talked for a while, and at first I thought, oh, this is my old friend who's excited, blah, blah, blah. I thought nothing of it. And then he shows up with like a full on licensing producing contract and is like, Are you interested? And I was like, uh, sure. Yeah, why the fuck not? So Jeff got busy and brought us to New York to Joe's Pub in March. The show sold out really fast and was a big huge hit.

[12:48] Lisa Stephen Friday: Sure.

[12:49] Lisa Stephen Friday: Which that is like the focus now and the shows at Joe's Pub are basically our showcases for the theater community and the money people.

[13:00] Jayke Workman: The money people, yeah.

[13:06] Jayke Workman: Wow, incredible. I cannot wait to see it.

[13:08] Jayke Workman: And I just think it's so cool that you have been able to sort of meld the worlds of rock and roll and your, you know, own history with that whole side of music and art with this new sort of like contemporary, like just up and coming theater scene.

[13:26] Jayke Workman: I think it's so cool and I'd love to hear about, you know, the sort of like the Venn diagram overlap of your experience working alongside your band and then, you know, crossing over into a more theatrical sort of avenue.

[13:26] Lisa Stephen Friday: Yeah, well, you know, it's interesting how my kind of my life has unfolded, my career has unfolded, and all trans people will relate to this, like we just make it up, right? Because there is no linear path for us because there's so many obstacles in our way just to live our authentic lives.

[14:10] Lisa Stephen Friday: So I actually came to New York. I moved to New York in 1993.

[14:15] Lisa Stephen Friday: Um, yeah, y'all do the math.

[14:19] Lisa Stephen Friday: Um, I was 20 years old.

[14:21] Lisa Stephen Friday: Um, but I came to New York to be a musical theater kid, and that's what I did.

[14:25] Lisa Stephen Friday: I mean, the first ten years of my time in New York, I was, you know, at Goodspeed, at the national tour, the Buddy Holly story, like all the stuff that was happening in the late 90s, you know, I was a part of that.

[14:42] Lisa Stephen Friday: But as I started to understand what was, you know, my identity and come to terms with that and then coming out, I mean, this was 1999, 2000, and there was no room for me.

[14:59] Lisa Stephen Friday: Right. There was nowhere, no way that anyone was gonna put me in a show.

[15:05] Lisa Stephen Friday: It was bizarre, like even Hedwig. I remember getting auditions for Hedwig, and they would stamp on there, like on the breakdowns, do not come to the audition in drag.

[15:16] Lisa Stephen Friday: And I'm like, it doesn't matter how I show up to this, they're not gonna understand that this is, I'm not a drag.

[15:24] Lisa Stephen Friday: I've never been in drag. Right, you know, this is who I am.

[15:28] Lisa Stephen Friday: Um, so that's when I really started focusing on the band and kind of pulling away from theater because it just was so frustrating.

[15:39] Lisa Stephen Friday: Yeah. Um, and no place for me.

[15:42] Lisa Stephen Friday: So yeah, I did that, and then in 2006, you'll see this in the show.

[15:48] Lisa Stephen Friday: The band has a big dramatic breakup, and I actually left performing altogether.

[15:55] Lisa Stephen Friday: I went to engineering school.

[15:57] Lisa Stephen Friday: Oh my god.

[15:58] Lisa Stephen Friday: Like worked in technical theater.

[16:01] Lisa Stephen Friday: Um, and then my career in DC, I was actually working with a company that did renovations and built new performance venues.

[16:12] Lisa Stephen Friday: Um, and I was a project manager for them.

[16:14] Lisa Stephen Friday: And that's what I was doing up until the time I wrote Trans Am.

[16:18] Lisa Stephen Friday: And luckily during that time, the band, we all made our amends to each other and got back together.

[16:25] Lisa Stephen Friday: But then this whole journey of Trans Am has literally brought me back to New York.

[16:29] Lisa Stephen Friday: I left my job and said it's time for me to go back and be a performer.

[16:36] Lisa Stephen Friday: Uh, and the moment I stepped back into New York, it was like I never missed a beat.

[16:42] Lisa Stephen Friday: I was never gone.

[16:43] Lisa Stephen Friday: And the biggest perk about it is I walked in to see the enormous amount of work that has happened in the trans community in theater and just in the arts world in general, and I've just been immersed in it and thriving in it, and I'm just so excited about what I see happening in New York right now.

[17:11] Jayke Workman: Yeah, it's incredible.

[17:12] Jayke Workman: And I mean, you sort of hit the nail on the head with just the fact that like unfortunately it took this long to get even to where we are now, but I'm so grateful that we have come so far because now we get to experience your story and stories so similar to yours in more of like a mainstream vein.

[17:35] Jayke Workman: It's just so, so thrilling and to see non-binary and trans voices get amplified in a commercial space is so exciting, so important.

[17:45] Jayke Workman: And um, yeah, I just cannot wait to see your show.

[17:47] Jayke Workman: So will you tell me a little bit more about the history of being like an out trans front woman for a band like Lisa Jackson and Girl Friday?

[18:00] Jayke Workman: Alongside people like Pat Benatar, Indigo Girls, like you guys were out and doing it in a time when like this was not welcome or like warmly received often.

[18:16] Jayke Workman: Like how did you face that and just say, fuck it, I'm gonna do this?

[18:24] Lisa Stephen Friday: I mostly drank my way through it.

[18:27] Lisa Stephen Friday: Well, there's that.

[18:28] Lisa Stephen Friday: Like, you know, I and I say that, I mean I joke, but it is true.

[18:33] Lisa Stephen Friday: Um, but it was kind of an amazing time because in New York City, you like Squeeze Box had kind of already happened.

[18:45] Lisa Stephen Friday: Squeeze, if for those of you who don't know, Squeeze Box was the big nightlife, like kind of drag, queer rock and roll space.

[18:54] Lisa Stephen Friday: Hedwig was born out of Squeeze Box.

[18:57] Lisa Stephen Friday: Um, but then we moved into the big thing became Homo core at CBGB's, which was run by this amazing queen named Dean Johnson, who has passed on.

[19:11] Lisa Stephen Friday: But Dean was, I mean, Dean had been around for ages before that and had really created a platform for an incredibly diverse queer crowd at CBGB's, like the most notorious punk club in the world, really.

[19:29] Jayke Workman: So cool.

[19:30] Lisa Stephen Friday: Um, and once a month you would just have the most glorious gang of queers, you know, gather in this space, and really cool things started happening, and it was exactly the space that I needed to be in to be able to grow and express myself, not only as like on a personal level, but as an artist, like it just kind of gave me permission to go further than I'd ever gone before as a performer.

[20:06] Lisa Stephen Friday: Um, and that was a kind of like the launching pad for us.

[20:10] Lisa Stephen Friday: Like we'd been kicking around, we were getting hired to do like people would hire us to play at like gay dance clubs and stuff before we really started doing things at CBGB's.

[20:22] Lisa Stephen Friday: And like, I mean, people liked who we were, and I definitely looked a way that was exciting to all the boys in the gay clubs, but they weren't rock and rollers, and they didn't want to come there to see a rock and roll band.

[20:35] Lisa Stephen Friday: They were coming there to do drugs and have sex, right?

[20:38] Lisa Stephen Friday: Um, so getting to CBGB's is where that venue and what we were bringing to the table really melded and fit together really well.

[20:49] Jayke Workman: So cool.

[20:50] Lisa Stephen Friday: But yes, venturing outside of New York, it would become tricky, you know.

[20:57] Lisa Stephen Friday: Um, no one, even like the people who were booking us at even big pride events and stuff like that, you know, this language that we have now surrounding trans and non-binary folks, none of that existed.

[21:12] Lisa Stephen Friday: Right, you know.

[21:13] Lisa Stephen Friday: You know?

[21:13] Lisa Stephen Friday: I was being hired in, there was some big lesbian bar in Jersey, I forget the name of it now, but they brought us in to play one night.

[21:24] Lisa Stephen Friday: And I was, the bartender literally came into the women's bathroom where I was, you know, changing clothes.

[21:32] Lisa Stephen Friday: There's no dressing room or anything, and like starts harassing me to get out of the bathroom.

[21:36] Lisa Stephen Friday: Like you can't be in here.

[21:38] Lisa Stephen Friday: This is women's bathroom.

[21:39] Lisa Stephen Friday: You know, and I was like, oh my fucking God.

[21:41] Lisa Stephen Friday: I was like, your boss, you're paying me to be here right now.

[21:45] Lisa Stephen Friday: And you want to like, but even within, you know, what we would think would be a very safe, queer space, there was no understanding and no empathy for the trans and gender diverse folks at that time.

[22:02] Lisa Stephen Friday: Um, so it was exhausting.

[22:05] Lisa Stephen Friday: Um, we spent a lot of time in a very straight cis world.

[22:12] Lisa Stephen Friday: You know, we were doing shows at Arlene's Grocery and we played at places, you know, in Chicago or Los Angeles.

[22:20] Lisa Stephen Friday: We weren't going there to play gay bars, like we were there at the regular rock and roll venues.

[22:26] Lisa Stephen Friday: Um, and it could be, you know, I, people always thought I was so good at navigating it, but even myself, I didn't, I never really acknowledged the weight of it all.

[22:41] Jayke Workman: Sure.

[22:42] Lisa Stephen Friday: Um, and I really did, I did drink myself through a lot of it.

[22:47] Lisa Stephen Friday: Um, which eventually was a part of why I had to stop doing it and walk away from it.

[22:52] Jayke Workman: Yeah.

[22:52] Jayke Workman: And then, I mean, I'm sure that you touch on that as being a big element of your trans experience in the show Trans Am.

[23:02] Jayke Workman: Um, but I would love to know too, just in writing that show, were you ever afraid to be honest?

[23:13] Jayke Workman: Because I think, I just think it's so, I commend you for your bravery and not only just that whole experience of getting through it, you know, substances or not, but I also just, I'm so in awe of your bravery in telling your own story so openly and publicly in a show like Trans Am.

[23:36] Jayke Workman: So did you ever feel like, ooh, this is a little too open for me. I gotta take a second and reevaluate?

[23:47] Lisa Stephen Friday: Well, I didn't struggle with that too much.

[23:52] Lisa Stephen Friday: There were moments and it did take me some time, like what you're gonna see this coming January is kind of a new version.

[24:01] Lisa Stephen Friday: There's still the core of the story is still there, but there's new stuff that I'll get back to.

[24:15] Lisa Stephen Friday: And I was also doing it at a time when, you know, it was literally the time when the Black Lives Matter movement was just exploding after George Floyd, and you know, I like it makes me sick to admit it, but like it was the first time I really, as a, like started looking at my whiteness and my racism.

[24:39] Lisa Stephen Friday: Right.

[24:40] Lisa Stephen Friday: You know, 'cause yeah, I was going, I was, of course, I'm going to the marches and I'm supporting, but I'd never really done like the work of like how my life and my day-to-day experiences uphold a racist society that as I started looking at that, like Black Lives Matter put it in my face that like not only am I racist, like I'm still attached to my internalized transphobia in a way that is suppressing me and keeping me a prisoner to this whole system of white Christian cisness.

[25:20] Lisa Stephen Friday: Um, and when I kind of stepped into that, it was so empowering that I got really, really honest.

[25:30] Lisa Stephen Friday: You know, I was pretty good.

[25:31] Lisa Stephen Friday: I'd been in recovery for addiction for many, many years.

[25:38] Lisa Stephen Friday: So I was pretty good at being rigorously honest with myself. But was I being honest about the other relationships in my life that were still holding me back, like other people's transphobia and shame. Um, you know, we're talking about close friends, relatives, family, people that I really had to start thinking about the truth of those relationships, and that's where the struggle in writing this came. And what's happened over the past couple of years is I've started to break down that truth as well. And I think what I have been able to accomplish through, you know, Jeff's investment of the show and bringing in dramaturges and stuff and helping me to develop the story a little more, is like the relationship with my parents and specifically with my father.

Um and I'm really excited to present that work because I think it's gonna be even another step, especially that the trans crowd is just gonna see their stories reflected on stage. And also for parents of trans people right now to see like you need to buck up and love your kid right now. That is your one job is to love your fucking kid. Um and uh you know my parent I don't want to say my parents didn't love me. My parents did love me. But there was this unnecessary struggle right that became incredibly difficult and was never resolved. Um so I think I'm now at a place where I can step into the power of writing about that.

[27:22] Jayke Workman: Incredible! I'm I just I think it's so beautiful that you have come to that point and you've said I'm gonna tell this story and now you have these amazing people backing you too to and and friends of yours, you know like it's not just people who have looked at this as an opportunity to be like see how inclusive I am with my money and my whatever you know like these are people who have seen your lived experience from yeah you know the 90s on. It's just it's amazing to me.

[27:55] Lisa Stephen Friday: It is it's it's been really an amazing journey, you know, when it started with Fred and Fred and I, I mean, we were on tour together in in 99. We were the crickets in the Buddy Holly story. Fred was the drummer. I was the bass player. And we were like super best buds from the moment we met, really. Um, and Fred is, you know, our relationship has been through a couple of different shifts now, and it's like Fred is my brother now, and he knows me so well, and I think he's just really good at being the person to guide me through this story. Um, and to see Jeff come on board um and take huge risk on my story and what I'm doing, you know, with financially and career-wise. Um, it's uh yeah, it's great and it's exciting. I think that whole the trio of us is like a really interesting story.

[28:52] Jayke Workman: Yeah, that's so cool. So being, you know, a musical theater girly at heart, and you know, you mentioning things like Hedwig and um other shows that are more on like the realm of gender diversity and what that means in terms of commercial musical theater. Are there things that you look forward to uh being a part of in the future? Or are there things that you would want to write for the musical theater world that would highlight trans voices?

[29:27] Lisa Stephen Friday: Yeah, all of it. I was um one of the one of the things that really influenced me or uh motivated me to come back to New York was um we keep going back to Hedwig. A lot of times the people involved with me now are like, don't talk about Hedwig, it's too similar. But John is a friend of mine, John Cameron Mitchell's a friend of mine. I'm making I was I'd been in New York uh one weekend before I moved back, and we had lunch, and John said to me, Oh, uh, you know, they're they're working on um my friends are working on the new musical for Transparent, and and at the time they were doing workshops, and he said, they they can't seem to find a mora right now who can really sing the role. Would you be interested in like doing a workshop?

I was like, Yes. Yeah. Um so that started the ball rolling, and they actually hired me to do one of the workshops in the spring, and uh that was in 2002, no, the fall of 2002. But it was just this moment of like coming back to New York and being in the room with with Tina Landau and Joey and Faith Soloway, and I just I was like, wow, this is I'm this is where I'm supposed to be. I'm supposed to be back in New York and I'm supposed to be doing this work. Like, I think at 50 years old, I just I have a level of understanding of things a little more of like how what an elevated space that is.

[31:00] Jayke Workman: Yeah.

[31:01] Lisa Stephen Friday: And to be in that and all these other trans folks were were in the room. And it was the first time for me and as a theater artist to ever be in a room where I wasn't the only trans person in the room. It was the first time to be in a like community like that. And I was like, I have to get back. And that's when I decided to get back to New York. And since then, I was approached talking about creating new work um and new stories. I'm also the composer for a new musical called Doll Girl, which um is kind of really taken off as well. And the tr the the trans community seems very excited about it, and it's about a trans artist by the name of Greer Langton. Um that I was approached by uh my friend Joseph Rich, who's writing the lyrics in the book.

Um, and this the way that that one is starting to happen now, it's just informing me that you know, I have two I feel like I have two roles in my life now. One is like a performer, and that is for me, that is my joy, and that's what I want to do. And I'm also really interested as a performer to step. I will always do trans roles, but I really want to make sure that I'm surrounding myself with managers and agents and a team of people who also understand that I'm a woman and I'm capable of playing all kinds of roles. Very and I just want to play interesting people, you know. Um so there's that, but then I feel like I have this skill set that I wasn't quite aware of for many years that I think I create good theater.

Um, and there seems to be a lot of people wanting me to do that, and in that aspect I get very excited about creating work for the trans voice, and that's what Dollgirl is. It's about a trans artist named Greer Langton, and you know, I'm a composer, so I'm a trans woman writing songs that I would sing myself, and it's creating musical theater songs, uh a libretto and a score for the trans voice. And I think that that is key to musical theater right now as we move forward.

[33:26] Jayke Workman: It is, and it's yeah, it's so necessary. And I'm just so thrilled that you have taken that on. Is there in talking about your um composing and being a musician? Was that always part of your life? Like was that an element of your your childhood and upbringing that just like informed you as a person, or or when did you know that you were a musician?

[33:53] Lisa Stephen Friday: I yeah, I think I started writing songs when I was like 14. Wow. I started playing guitar. Uh I talk about this in Transam, how my brother, who's like five years older than me, one of my brothers, got a guitar, and I would get home before they did every day at school, because they were in high school, I was in elementary school, and I was always sneaking around and playing their guitar before they got home. And it just kind of, I don't know, it came very natural to me. And um my dad ended up buying me this four-track recorder, like a little cassette recorder that you could do multiple tracks on. And the first song I wrote, I wrote a song about this girl that I was in love with in junior high named Natalie.

I think the song was even called Natalie. It was like a very like Southern rock song. I grew up in Georgia, so you know, constantly listening to like Leonard Skinner and all that stuff. Um, so uh yeah, I started writing songs then and all of the stuff for Lisa Jackson I wrote before that there was the Steve Friday band. I'd I I think I've had a an I've released an album in kind of every moment of my life now, like every different carnation of my of my life. Um and so I'm actually going back into the studio in February with my dear friend Barb Morrison because we've been talking about um what is my songwriting now for me as an individual? Like what does my 50-year-old grown ass woman self what are the songs I'm gonna write now?

Um so we're go we're gonna start working on that. That's gonna be my project for 2024. Because 2023, I wrote this whole album, but it's doll girl, and it's it's very synthpop, like new wave based. Um and then before that it was Trans Ann. So now it's like, all right, what am I gonna do? I'm I think I'm setting out to write my Kelly Clarkson album. Like that's why I'm at this.

[36:12] Jayke Workman: Oh my god, give us the Kelly Clarkson rock.

[36:17] Lisa Stephen Friday: Yeah, Ziva.

[36:19] Jayke Workman: Oh my god. Well, Lisa, thank you so so much for being on the podcast. I cannot wait to see the show, and I can't wait for other people to get to see the show. Can you tell the listeners where they can um find you on socials and and uh keep up with your amazing shenanigans?

[36:38] Lisa Stephen Friday: Yes, a hundred percent. Um you can find me on Instagram, that's usually where I'm like hanging out the most. Um at Lisa Stephen Friday. Um there's actually a website being launched tomorrow, yay, uh, which will be Lisa Stephen Friday.com. Um you can find me on SoundCloud and Spotify through Dollgirl and Lisa Jackson and Girl Friday. And then everything associated with Transam is at tequila talking.com, who are the current producers of Trans Am. And then come see us. I think I I'm not even like lying here. I'm so excited. I think there are eight tickets left for Trans Am. Whoa. So yeah. Um run over to Joe'spub.com and pick up some tickets.

[37:30] Jayke Workman: Hell yeah. Thank you so much for being here. You are such a treat.

[37:33] Lisa Stephen Friday: Thank you.

[37:34] Jayke Workman: Thank you for doing this. Um I had a chance to listen to some of your other episodes. Of course, I listened to the one with Peppermint.

[37:40] Lisa Stephen Friday: Oh, yes, Queen Pat. Who I was just hanging out with the other day.

[37:44] Jayke Workman: And uh uh it was lovely.

[37:46] Lisa Stephen Friday: Oh, lovely. I'm so glad.

[37:49] Jayke Workman: You guys, that's it for another episode of Oh My Pod You Guys. Don't forget to rate review and subscribe anywhere you listen to the pod, and you can follow the show on Instagram at OmyPod You Guys. And also, while I have you here, you guys check out the Broadway Podcast Network's new incredible website because there are some amazing other podcasts out there. If you like this podcast, you will love what they have to offer on the BPN Network. Thank you so much for listening. I will talk to you soon. Bye.