This transcript was automatically generated and might contain errors.

[0:08] Quincy Brown: My name's Quincy.

[0:09] Kevin Bianchi: And my name's Kevin.

[0:10] Quincy Brown: And this is Sentimental Men from Broadway Podcast Network.

[0:13] Kevin Bianchi: We are here to talk and maybe scream about our favorite women in musical theater.

[0:19] Quincy Brown: Oh my god.

[0:20] Kevin Bianchi: Happy Thanksgiving, everyone.

[0:22] Quincy Brown: Gobble gobble!

[0:23] Kevin Bianchi: Gobble gobble, pour one out for our friends on their parents' sofas right now.

[0:30] Quincy Brown: For our friends braving mass transit.

[0:32] Kevin Bianchi: Wait, what are you doing for Thanksgiving?

[0:34] Quincy Brown: Well, Kevin, what a fun question. Because at present I am 24, 24 and a half hours away from being on vacation.

[0:43] Quincy Brown: And I get back from vacation right before Thanksgiving. And so then I think we're gonna go down to my family's in New Jersey just because it's close.

[0:53] Quincy Brown: But I am predicting a vision almost like a fantasy that it is I am gonna be exhausted.

[0:58] Quincy Brown: And prophecy famously is the quote. What did I say? I said fantasy.

[1:07] Quincy Brown: Anyway, I'm gonna be tired. Both my siblings this holiday season are gonna have significant others.

[1:13] Kevin Bianchi: Isn't that insane?

[1:14] Quincy Brown: Kevin, this is the start of a Hallmark movie for you. Because you're no, but hear me out.

[1:19] Quincy Brown: No, hear me out. Because you are the big brother coming home from the city, capital T, capital C, the city.

[1:29] Quincy Brown: And you're single, and you're like Capital S, Capital S. And all my siblings are gonna be, you know, partnered up at Christmas.

[1:37] Quincy Brown: Enter, I don't know, some lumberjack or something. I know that's not I was close.

[1:44] Quincy Brown: But you know what I mean? I feel like this could be this could be it for you.

[1:48] Kevin Bianchi: And it's fun because usually the big city marketing executive is like the villain in a story, like a Hallmark story, but I like the idea of it being you being the protagonist despite being a villain trainer.

[2:03] Quincy Brown: Thank you for referring to me as the big city marketing executive.

[2:06] Kevin Bianchi: Well, I mean, I'm speaking in Hallmark.

[2:12] Quincy Brown: I like that for me. What are you doing for Thanksgiving?

[2:15] Kevin Bianchi: I am staying in New York. I have a best friend from home who lives in LA now who is flying up with his girlfriend.

[2:22] Kevin Bianchi: And we are gonna get together with some friends from high school and do a friends giving, and then he's here all week, so we're just gonna be gallivanting around the city, which I'm actually excited about.

[2:29] Quincy Brown: I haven't had like a Thanksgiving with a home friend before, I think.

[2:35] Kevin Bianchi: Wow, that's interesting.

[2:36] Quincy Brown: Yeah, I don't think I have either. I'm excited to have like a real house with a real kitchen and like actually like throw Thanksgiving someday.

[2:44] Quincy Brown: You know what I mean? Because you can't like have like full Thanksgiving proper, like in an apartment. Who has the space?

[2:55] Kevin Bianchi: Uh yeah, I mean, I don't want to live in a fucking walk-up for the rest of my life.

[3:01] Kevin Bianchi: I do live in an elevator building with a doorman in a luxury apartment.

[3:05] Quincy Brown: No, I don't want neighbors. That's the real thing. I want no share of the city.

[3:09] Kevin Bianchi: Oh, see, I want neighbors because I don't want to be murdered in the middle of the night.

[3:13] Quincy Brown: I'll take the risk.

[3:14] Kevin Bianchi: With no one to hear my screams.

[3:16] Quincy Brown: This is going off the rails. Hi, welcome to Thanksgiving.

[3:18] Kevin Bianchi: This is our bonus episode for the holiday season. We know you're all busy with your families and friends, so we didn't want to give you a full interview, but we still wanted to check in with you at this every other week mark. Welcome to just QK on Sentimental Men.

[3:33] Quincy Brown: It's a pleasure to be here. Thank you, Kevin, for that marvelous introduction.

[3:38] Quincy Brown: Uh, but we do have a lot to discuss today. I would say the news cycle is very Wicked saturated at the moment.

[3:45] Kevin Bianchi: There's like weirdly a lot to talk about. So today, at the time of recording, Wicked UK announced the 2023 cast that is taking over.

[3:53] Quincy Brown: You know how the West End loves to replace everyone all at once. And we have, let me pull up the full announcement so I don't leave anyone out.

[4:01] Kevin Bianchi: Yes.

[4:01] Quincy Brown: But the zinger for me, well, it's hard to describe, it's hard to pick a zinger, but the one that like got me out of bed this morning is I like begrudgingly rubbed like the sand out of my eyes and like started to look at my phone.

[4:15] Quincy Brown: I see someone had tagged us, had tagged Sentman Pod, and I do want to say their name because I thought it was a hoax at first.

[4:23] Kevin Bianchi: Theater Fan Official, I looked in our story tags and saw that Theatre Fan Official, shout out, tagged us in a graphic he had made that said that Lucy St. Louis and Alexia Kadim were taking over in Wicked UK.

[4:36] Quincy Brown: And I don't know what it was, but like something about the pairing of Lucy St. Louis with Alexia, who famously was Elphaba on the West End.

[4:44] Kevin Bianchi: And what year? If I'm guessing, I'm gonna say 2008, can we confirm?

[4:52] Quincy Brown: She played Elphaba from June to November in 2008.

[4:58] Kevin Bianchi: Yeah, I wouldn't doubt you. That was impressive to me.

[5:01] Quincy Brown: I didn't doubt you first. I doubted me on that one. Quincy, I feel like that one felt like it was tucked away in the back.

[5:07] Kevin Bianchi: You know how they say, Quincy, like if you ever get kidnapped, like you need to have like a safe way of telling the person you're kidnapped.

[5:14] Quincy Brown: Like for me and you, I would hope that if I was like, okay, Quincy, prove that you're fine, like what year with Stephanie J. Block in Wicked, and you'd be like 2017. Like, you know what I mean? Like, I think you would just like spew incorrect dates at me, and I'd be like, we need to get the police involved because my friend Quincy is in trouble.

[5:34] Kevin Bianchi: That Sentimental Men the TV show. Wicked UK at Golden Age Elphaba.

[5:40] Quincy Brown: Yeah. Paired with Lucy St. Louis, who would be brand new to the role of Glinda and who I know from being in The Phantom of the Opera in the UK didn't like click as like an actual news release.

[5:49] Quincy Brown: I was like, oh, this is like some account that's like posting dream casting kind of a thing.

[5:54] Kevin Bianchi: Like a dream cast.

[5:55] Quincy Brown: Yeah, I mean, yeah. And then I was like, let me just check. And then I went on Twitter and saw that it was real. And I was shook.

[6:01] Kevin Bianchi: I was genuinely shook. And I feel like I would liken the way I felt after reading this casting announcement to the way I felt.

[6:08] Quincy Brown: In 2014, I believe, my junior year, I was sitting in, I think I remember the class, it was African American history. I was sitting in African American history, and everyone in my high school had iPads, and I was like scrolling on Broadway.com on my iPad, and I scroll and I see that gorgeous.

[6:22] Kevin Bianchi: You probably know what I'm talking about, the gorgeous headshot of Willemijn Verkaik like holding her face like this, and she's kind of almost like a lime green color and has like a bluish white background to her, and saw that she was coming to Broadway and started to tear up in class.

[6:36] Quincy Brown: That's how I felt.

[6:37] Kevin Bianchi: Yeah. Yeah, I know exactly. We all know that feeling, right? Like we all have the moment when like a dream we didn't know we had come true.

[6:46] Quincy Brown: I also woke up. My favorite thing, Kevin, about—

[6:50] Kevin Bianchi: It was a chorus of texts because what I love about this podcast is that we have like made ourselves the people in everyone's life that they're like, I have to tell Quincy slash Kevin about this.

[7:05] Quincy Brown: It's just very endearing how many people want to like be the one to share the news with you.

[7:12] Kevin Bianchi: You know what I mean? Like it's, I don't know, it's just nice to wake up and like everyone is like, hey, I thought of you because something happened to Wicked or at Wicked.

[7:21] Quincy Brown: Similarly to when I know that whenever Taylor Swift drops music, every guy I've ever dated thinks about me at least once.

[7:27] Kevin Bianchi: Yes.

[7:28] Quincy Brown: I would imagine it's very similar to that.

[7:31] Kevin Bianchi: I kind of think of it from their perspective, though, as like, oh, they know that we are the one person in their life who will definitely be excited and geek out about this with them, as opposed to if you texted like maybe a snarky musical theater friend of yours, they might not meet you with that same enthusiasm.

[7:46] Quincy Brown: Correct, yeah. It's nice, it's a nice feeling.

[7:49] Kevin Bianchi: It's an honor to be nominated. But then as it so I was not the first text you saw about it today.

[7:54] Quincy Brown: I don't know where my eyes fell first.

[7:57] Kevin Bianchi: But yes, it was yours. Yours was the first one I saw.

[8:00] Quincy Brown: Anyways, as the news settled over me, I think that it's such exciting casting because, like you said, it is like a golden age Elphaba, like a classic Elphaba with a brand new Glinda.

[8:14] Quincy Brown: And you know what I mean? Like, it's somebody who has like done it and proven themselves and who we know is great and is gonna like, you know, I'm sure have new things, new things to bring to it, but also to have then this brand new Glinda, who is also, I mean, you know more than me because of like the Phantom of it all, but I mean, she's like relatively fresh on the scene, right?

[8:37] Kevin Bianchi: Like, I know she's not a novice, but right.

[8:39] Kevin Bianchi: I know she did a pretty buzzy production of Camelot in the UK too. I remember seeing things about that.

[8:45] Quincy Brown: I have not been tapped into Lucy St. Louis though, apart from The Phantom of the Opera, which she's phenomenal in.

[8:50] Quincy Brown: I think it's really exciting, and what I think is interesting is my like only window into Lucy is Phantom, just because that's like the most current.

[9:01] Quincy Brown: And she obviously sounds ridiculously beautiful singing the Phantom score. And she has a lovely legit tone to it, but we know that that's not like the sound, like they want kind of like a poppy soprano sound usually.

[9:14] Kevin Bianchi: And so I'm excited.

[9:15] Quincy Brown: Well, I'm interested if that's like an American versus UK difference, maybe.

[9:19] Kevin Bianchi: Right.

[9:20] Quincy Brown: But I am excited. It's also how fierce if it if she does bring like full opera. If she goes full Christine in "No One Warns the Wicked," gag me.

[9:29] Kevin Bianchi: I mean, you would be dragging me through the aisles to get me out of the theater.

[9:35] Quincy Brown: Yeah. My brain went to today. What if like we could convince—this is a pie in the sky—what if we could convince Auntie Theaterly to fly us out to do to go to Lucy Jones's lasty to Lucy pipeline?

[9:49] Kevin Bianchi: Yeah, yeah, yeah. Like I feel like that would be really fun and cute.

[9:52] Quincy Brown: That would be fun and cute. Even if Auntie doesn't do it, that would be such I would be down for that trip.

[9:59] Kevin Bianchi: That would be very fun.

[10:00] Quincy Brown: Yeah, I was just, but so then I thought I went down that same path too where I was like, Auntie, can you hear me? Even if they don't, could we just do it?

[10:06] Quincy Brown: But then I was like, Kevin's going to London literally tomorrow. Also, I have to go to a bachelor party in Utah in March.

[10:13] Quincy Brown: And I don't think the timing like works out where I'm gonna want to be like going to Europe and Utah for a bachelor party.

[10:18] Kevin Bianchi: I don't have to go to a bachelor party. I'm so excited because one of my friends is getting married and I'm going to his bachelor party to celebrate that momentous occasion.

[10:26] Quincy Brown: Yeah.

[10:27] Kevin Bianchi: As I go home alone single for the holidays.

[10:29] Quincy Brown: Yeah. Big city marketing executive Quincy.

[10:34] Kevin Bianchi: Joe's career over here.

[10:35] Quincy Brown: Yeah, I'm really excited to see stuff.

[10:41] Kevin Bianchi: Stop. Can he thaw his icy heart? Will he find someone worth melting for?

[10:48] Quincy Brown: My mom would love that movie. She loves Hallmark movies.

[10:50] Kevin Bianchi: Let it go.

[10:51] Quincy Brown: Anyways, back to it. I'm so excited to see. First of all, I'm excited to see Lucy St. Louis in full Glinda getup. Like I cannot even picture how stunning those photos are gonna be.

[11:02] Quincy Brown: And Wicked UK production photos are always gorgeous.

[11:05] Kevin Bianchi: Yes.

[11:06] Quincy Brown: Because they have a different shot list than the Broadway production.

[11:10] Kevin Bianchi: They do like setup shots.

[11:11] Quincy Brown: Oh, is that no good too?

[11:12] Kevin Bianchi: To me, I'm like sure with the lights.

[11:14] Quincy Brown: I think there's like a wizard picture too with Elphaba.

[11:19] Kevin Bianchi: Uh-huh.

[11:19] Quincy Brown: I also love the West End photo reveal.

[11:22] Kevin Bianchi: Wicked UK, you got it down.

[11:24] Quincy Brown: Should we get into the Alexia of it all?

[11:26] Kevin Bianchi: Yes, please.

[11:28] Quincy Brown: I would love to, I think we should have her on because I found our conversation with Carrie Ellis to be very interesting when she started talking about when she came back in, I think it was like 2014.

[11:40] Kevin Bianchi: Uh-huh.

[11:40] Quincy Brown: Yeah, yeah, yeah. Like I thought it was interesting the way she talked about it and the way she talked about that ass coming in and how she was able to kind of like assess whether or not she had like a reality lens to look at it through.

[11:52] Kevin Bianchi: She had hindsight.

[11:53] Quincy Brown: That I found really interesting.

[11:54] Kevin Bianchi: Right.

[11:55] Quincy Brown: And she had a lot of distance. It wasn't like she was one of the girlies who takes like a year.

[12:02] Kevin Bianchi: Yeah, yeah, yeah.

[12:02] Quincy Brown: And I feel like it would be super like I want to know how this even like came across Alexia Kadim's desk again.

[12:09] Kevin Bianchi: Yeah.

[12:09] Quincy Brown: And what her initial reaction was.

[12:11] Kevin Bianchi: I'm so excited. I mean, she's good, Quincy.

[12:15] Quincy Brown: I'm uh I'm so she was one of like the OG bootlegs that I had because her bootlegs were around back in my day.

[12:22] Kevin Bianchi: Yeah.

[12:23] Quincy Brown: Ugh. I think she has a really unique way of singing the role, too, that I'm excited to hear in 2022 and hear how her voice has kind of matured and how that affects the way in which that she sings and tackles the score.

[12:34] Kevin Bianchi: I don't know. I just think we really have to go see this. And then I know Ryan Reed, friend of the pod, I'm gonna say, has signed on for another year.

[12:43] Quincy Brown: So the trio is all POC, and that to me is historic.

[12:48] Kevin Bianchi: But I do kind of love that that hasn't, at least in my what has been coming across my desk, I haven't been feeling like that is like the headline that this announcement has led with, and I do love that.

[12:58] Quincy Brown: I agree. I feel like the big announcement is that she's coming back, and then the second big announcement.

[13:07] Kevin Bianchi: Yeah, yeah, I agree. I think they're just kind of letting that speak for itself.

[13:11] Quincy Brown: Which is nice, but also I don't know, maybe speaks to like racial dynamics in the UK versus the US because even the fact that Alexia was principal Elphaba so early on in the run of Wicked UK and Wicked Broadway has yet to have a lead, Black Elphaba, correct?

[13:25] Kevin Bianchi: Listen, who knows? Our sources say that exciting things are coming for Wicked Broadway.

[13:29] Quincy Brown: Can't wait to see how this turns out. Consensus is we're both very excited about it. We both need to find ways to be there.

[13:35] Kevin Bianchi: The thing is, I also want to see Lucy Jones' Elphaba.

[13:37] Quincy Brown: I know, I do too.

[13:38] Kevin Bianchi: Well, you can. You do have your trigger.

[13:41] Quincy Brown: Should I go while I'm there?

[13:43] Kevin Bianchi: Absolutely. Are you guys seeing anything while you're there?

[13:45] Quincy Brown: I don't know. This trip is underplanned because we've both we just with what time? We're we know where we're sleeping and we know how we're getting there, and everything else will work itself.

[13:59] Kevin Bianchi: Apparently, there's a Bob Marley musical that's really good on the West End right now.

[14:03] Quincy Brown: Really?

[14:03] Kevin Bianchi: I'll check it out. What else do I hear about? Oh, cabaret and oh, yeah, I do want to see.

[14:09] Quincy Brown: Next thing I want to discuss is Adina Menzel.

[14:12] Kevin Bianchi: Which way to the stage? The film will cover the Tony-winning actor's entire career, including footage from Menzel on Broadway in Rent in Wicked and culminating in her 2018 Madison Square Garden concert appearance.

[14:26] Quincy Brown: The documentary will also follow Menzel's experience with becoming a mother via in vitro fertilization.

[14:31] Kevin Bianchi: Menzel's collaborators, friends, and family have been tapped for newly filmed interviews.

[14:35] Quincy Brown: This is fascinating.

[14:36] Kevin Bianchi: Yeah, I have a lot to say about it.

[14:39] Quincy Brown: I'm gonna say that I just saw the headline and was like, oh my god, yay! An Adina Menzel documentary. That was the first time I read the full synopsis of it. I didn't know we were like going back to Rent and Wicked.

[14:47] Kevin Bianchi: One, do you think we're gonna get unreleased footage, like never before seen footage, Pro Shot kind of from those shows?

[14:54] Quincy Brown: Ooh, I hope so. That'd be fun. There's nothing I want more in the world than never before seen footage of Adina Menzel in Rent.

[15:02] Kevin Bianchi: Yeah, I would be tickled.

[15:04] Quincy Brown: Tickled pink. The Adina Menzel Rent footage is so good.

[15:08] Kevin Bianchi: I'm crossing with the city.

[15:09] Quincy Brown: And like Wicked too. Like, imagine whatever we see of Wicked.

[15:11] Kevin Bianchi: Okay, so like, do you think this is not like chronicling 1997, 2004, Adina?

[15:17] Quincy Brown: Like, I'm sure there'll be flashback situations.

[15:19] Kevin Bianchi: No, it's like um it chronicles her tour culminating in Madison Square Garden.

[15:26] Quincy Brown: Gotcha. In and of itself is just like it's crazy that like Harry Styles and Adina Menzel have played the same venue. You know what I mean?

[15:35] Kevin Bianchi: Because Adina Menzel is a rock star. You know what I mean? I don't mean crazy, like not believable. I mean it like it's wild.

[15:42] Quincy Brown: I just like I love that. But anyway, so it's like centered on that. And I love that it's this format of like the Lady Gaga documentary building for her to her Super Bowl performance, and like the JLo documentary that's the same thing.

[15:57] Kevin Bianchi: And it's like I love Selena Gomez kind of just released one.

[16:00] Quincy Brown: Yeah, yeah, yeah. And I love that Adina Menzel is being inducted into the like legacy documentary family.

[16:08] Kevin Bianchi: I love it. I love it.

[16:09] Quincy Brown: Like I'm curious because I feel like documentaries is where you like see the real personality and stuff. That to me is good entertainment because Adina Menzel just being Adina Menzel is great content.

[16:22] Kevin Bianchi: Like I'm excited for the like dressing room talking head interviews where she's like just shooting the shit about how that performance went.

[16:28] Quincy Brown: Wow, that this is gonna be good.

[16:30] Kevin Bianchi: Yeah, I'm really excited. I can't wait to see who the talking heads are, like who the friends and family are.

[16:37] Quincy Brown: Right, because I feel like we know a lot about Adina Menzel, but we don't really know a lot about Adina Menzel personally, I think.

[16:43] Kevin Bianchi: Yeah, not on a personal level.

[16:45] Quincy Brown: Peel back those layers, baby. I'm so excited. Thank you to whoever's idea this was.

[16:50] Kevin Bianchi: Also, I just want to say while we're talking about Mother Elphaba, whoever is styling her in her current press moment is doing exquisite work.

[17:00] Quincy Brown: She looks so good.

[17:02] Kevin Bianchi: Is it Encore by Adina?

[17:03] Quincy Brown: Well, I mean, I know she wears her like her brand a lot, but like when she's on like late night shows and like morning shows lately, I don't think she's wearing her like her clothing, and she just looks so good.

[17:16] Kevin Bianchi: Like she looks like a star because she is.

[17:19] Quincy Brown: I went to—did I have I talked about this on the podcast yet?

[17:22] Kevin Bianchi: No, you didn't tell the story.

[17:23] Quincy Brown: Tell the story. I went to Adina Menzel's children's book signing for her book Loud Mouse that she wrote with her sister Kara Menzel. It wasn't even a signing, it was a discussion.

[17:31] Kevin Bianchi: So it was a read aloud, actually, is what it was.

[17:34] Quincy Brown: So I arrive and I brought a friend with me who so kindly because I was like, who do I bring to this? I didn't realize this was like something that was like an event for children.

[17:47] Kevin Bianchi: Like no, it was it was at Barnes and Noble.

[17:50] Quincy Brown: The tickets were 20.

[17:52] Kevin Bianchi: Because Quincy, you're six and a half feet tall, and like I'm picturing I'm picturing elf, like I'm picturing just like you on a chair meant for a six-year-old with your neck.

[18:04] Quincy Brown: That's why I didn't want to go alone. I didn't want to go alone because I knew I was gonna be out of place because this event was clearly tailored towards children, people who are genuinely gonna read this book.

[18:15] Kevin Bianchi: It was not tailored to Adina Menzel's fan base, and that was evident in the price of ticket sales, which were like $17.95 or something.

[18:22] Quincy Brown: But that's also why I went because the description of the event was like read aloud of Loud Mouse by Adina Menzel and Kara Menzel, photo opportunity with Adina and Kara and QA session. And I was like, a photo with Adina Menzel for $17.95? I'm gonna do that.

[18:38] Kevin Bianchi: Didn't want to go alone. Asked a friend who was so kind to come with me, yeah, who's maybe not plugged into the musical theater world because I felt like I would receive judgment.

[18:48] Quincy Brown: And like she talked about the inspiration behind the book with her sister and writing it during the pandemic, and it was actually really interesting. We got a signed copy of the book, they read the book out loud, and it was funny because Kara would read the book, and then in the book, so it's autobiographical in a sense.

[19:02] Kevin Bianchi: Yeah, so it's about a mouse whose voice is too loud and she gets made fun of and all of that stuff.

[19:08] Quincy Brown: So don't tell her not to be Adina, just sit and putter. And so Kara would talk and then it would be like, and then the loud mouse sang, and Adina would go la la la la la la la la.

[19:21] Kevin Bianchi: But good.

[19:23] Quincy Brown: And I loved it, it. It was so incredible. And the book's great. If you have a child in your life, highly recommend.

[19:31] Kevin Bianchi: Oh yeah, good holiday present.

[19:33] Quincy Brown: Honestly. And she looked great. I think she might have been wearing Encore by Adina in this, though.

[19:38] Kevin Bianchi: Which is great.

[19:38] Quincy Brown: It was like overalls with a loungey white.

[19:43] Kevin Bianchi: Yeah, that feels right.

[19:44] Quincy Brown: But like I just saw how in her chair. On like Kimmel or something, and she had on this like gold meth, like not mesh, gold, like nude illusion, yeah, like applique dress, and she looked like a million bucks.

[20:01] Kevin Bianchi: So I don't know what this press tour is building.

[20:04] Quincy Brown: Oh my gosh.

[20:05] Kevin Bianchi: Is that one of the two with the bangs?

[20:07] Quincy Brown: Yeah.

[20:07] Kevin Bianchi: The bangs.

[20:08] Quincy Brown: I loved speaking of Adina Menzel's hair, her blonde era.

[20:11] Kevin Bianchi: That really worked.

[20:12] Quincy Brown: That like honey blonde, yeah, that was pretty. And that was like off the heels of Frozen because I feel like she did another tour.

[20:17] Kevin Bianchi: That's when she did Radio City, right?

[20:19] Quincy Brown: I don't know. But I'm excited to watch that documentary.

[20:22] Kevin Bianchi: Well, we do have two new sentimental men gracing the John M. Choo Oz cinematic universe since the last time we talked about.

[20:32] Quincy Brown: Have you ever recorded about Jonathan Bailey?

[20:34] Kevin Bianchi: We have not recorded about Jonathan Bailey.

[20:36] Quincy Brown: Wait, okay, I'm confused though. So Jonathan Bailey will get to. There's a Jeff Goldblum rumor that I feel like from what I've been glancing at the internet, people are talking as if it's confirmed.

[20:45] Kevin Bianchi: Was that confirmed?

[20:46] Quincy Brown: I think it's like all but confirmed because usually when like Variety or the Hollywood Reporter says like somebody's in final talks to join, that usually means like they're negotiating, which means that I saw a casting is incoming.

[21:02] Kevin Bianchi: About this online.

[21:03] Quincy Brown: About Jeff Goldblum.

[21:04] Kevin Bianchi: Yes, the wizard in the Wicked movie.

[21:06] Quincy Brown: Yeah. I honestly think that he'd be so good.

[21:10] Kevin Bianchi: I think he's actually a really good choice.

[21:12] Quincy Brown: I agree. I will say you are the one. When I think of Jeff Goldblum, I do think of you.

[21:17] Kevin Bianchi: Because I think you were the one who like first informed me that Jeff Goldblum was is hot.

[21:24] Quincy Brown: Oh yeah. Jeff Goldblum, it doesn't matter your gender, the gender you're attracted to. Like, to me, I think he's like universally and undeniably, I'm gonna say it's sexy.

[21:33] Kevin Bianchi: I think he's gonna be good.

[21:36] Quincy Brown: No, there you do speak about Jeff Goldblum with veracity and a passion.

[21:42] Kevin Bianchi: With a twinkle in my eye, yeah.

[21:43] Quincy Brown: Yeah. Well, and he's like, he, yeah, I mean, I'm into it. And then I think he's kind of like kooky and funny, which I think is gonna be a good energy to bring.

[21:54] Kevin Bianchi: Yeah, and I think totally yeah, and I think it feels like the rest of the cast is gonna be a little more grounded.

[22:01] Kevin Bianchi: And so like it'll be fun to have the wizard kind of standing out in that way.

[22:06] Quincy Brown: I saw a tweet, and it was like if there's one person that we know for sure is excited about this rumor, it's Miss Ariana Grande.

[22:13] Kevin Bianchi: And it was a screenshot of Ariana like having liked every single Instagram post that Jeff Goldblum has ever posted.

[22:20] Quincy Brown: Listen, when it's right, it's right. But you know what I learned literally today, Quincy, because I knew you wanted to talk about this.

[22:27] Kevin Bianchi: What did you learn, Kevin?

[22:28] Kevin Bianchi: I was like, let me see if I can find a clip of Jeff Goldblum singing. Like, surely he has sung at some point in his life. And I learned that Jeff Goldblum is like a band leader of like a jazz orchestra.

[22:40] Quincy Brown: Like a is that a conductor?

[22:42] Kevin Bianchi: He like plays the piano and like leads the band from the piano. So he's like an incredibly accomplished musician. But I did find a clip of him singing. Also, arguably the wizard doesn't necessarily need to be able to sing.

[22:54] Quincy Brown: Well, and this is what I what I'll say is I found a clip of him kind of like joke singing, and he's gonna be fine. Like he's matching the pitch. Like it's like it's the wizard. Take it from an old man. Like nobody's straining themselves vocally playing the wizard.

[23:10] Kevin Bianchi: No T all shade. Or no shade all T. Don't go to Seawicked to hear the wizard's vocals.

[23:15] Quincy Brown: No, it's not like a are you a sentimental man wizard? A wonderful wizard. It's like we're not, we're not sentimental man reprise.

[23:24] Kevin Bianchi: Or are you a something bad dilemma? There's no like the sentimental wizard. The first wizard we have on. We should seriously ask. So, are you a sentimental man? Wonderful or sentimental man reprise wizard.

[23:39] Quincy Brown: No, I think he's a great choice. I think it'll be really fun if that's true. I do want to talk about two things. Firstly, I want to talk about. I saw a tweet, forgive me, I don't remember who tweeted it, but they were like, Do you think Wicked Movie is just kind of leaking these quote unquote rumors to like test the waters, and if the reception's good, they're like, all right, we'll cast him.

[23:55] Kevin Bianchi: Yeah, maybe. Which actually is kind of a smart strategy. Because was it I feel like before Jeff Goldblum came about, there was someone else rumored to be the wizard.

[24:04] Quincy Brown: Um, yeah, it was I can't remember. Because it was on my head right now, and then it was somebody else, and then it was I think it was Andre DeShield, is who I'm thinking of.

[24:13] Kevin Bianchi: In my head, it's always been going back and forth between Tom Hanks and Will Smith, but I think that's just in my head.

[24:18] Quincy Brown: Oh, Tom Hanks.

[24:20] Kevin Bianchi: I think both would be kind of cute. Yeah, Will Smith would be would be good. That's a moment last night.

[24:32] Quincy Brown: So Ariana Grande, I think it's super fascinating and interesting and fun and fresh and exciting. The way that Ariana Grande is breadcrumbing her involvement in this movie.

[24:45] Kevin Bianchi: She's doing it very Ariana Grande, very pop star, but very modern day Glinda to me, which I know was an aha moment I had with you a while ago when you likened her to a modern day Glinda.

[24:54] Quincy Brown: But seeing the way that she's rolling this out on her Instagram, not even saying shit, she's putting like a bubble emoji in the caption and then like posting a polaroid of her with blonde hair.

[25:03] Kevin Bianchi: Yeah. Right. And we all know exactly what it is. It gets picked up.

[25:07] Quincy Brown: Yeah, everyone is talking about it. I love it. I love it. It is so smart.

[25:12] Kevin Bianchi: Well, and you know what I think is what's been interesting me about it is that we know that wicked capital W, big wicked, is very careful about what behind the scenes is public facing. And so I love that, like, and I don't know if it's like the same for the movie or whatever, but I love that nothing she has like teased us is actually anything from the movie.

[25:35] Quincy Brown: Like it's just like, oh, I dyed my hair blonde vibes. Oh, I have a script. Like, oh, I'm wearing a little bit of a little bit more. Look at this storm that says the witch is in.

[25:44] Kevin Bianchi: Right. Oh, here's here's Cynthia in a black outfit and me in a blue outfit. Like, it's all, it's all her, but it's all wicked. It's like, if you know, you know.

[25:53] Quincy Brown: And I have to say, I love, because okay, I think back to the sweetener thank you next era of Ariana Grande, where she was, she is, but and I think she's intentionally distancing herself from the pop star image.

[26:06] Kevin Bianchi: And I love the commitment. To me, the fact that she is intentionally distancing herself from the pop star image shows how committed she is to this role in this movie and this project.

[26:17] Quincy Brown: That she is like, I am going to like fully do this. And I think part of it is like, I'm busy, I'm rehearsing, I'm doing this movie. But another part of it is like I know what my public perception is and what my image is, and I know that just some extent for this movie and for me to be successful in this movie and perceived well in this movie, there needs to be a disconnect, and I need to kind of distance myself from Pop Girl Ariana.

[26:39] Kevin Bianchi: Yeah. I just I I just think it's so interesting to watch, and I cannot wait.

[26:44] Quincy Brown: No, I think you're right, because she has a lot of people to win over before there's even a trailer. You know what I mean?

[26:52] Kevin Bianchi: Like, I so I think that she is showing us that she can do it, and she is doing it, and she's going to do it. She's kind of in a way, like she really is. She's kind of like selling selling herself as the Which is just so smart.

[27:07] Quincy Brown: I can't wait till we have her on the podcast to like talk about that because it does feel like very intentional in the way that she's doing it all. And I think a part of it too is like she's just like married now, and I think is like trying to establish some sort of private life in her very public persona.

[27:21] Kevin Bianchi: But I think it's great. I think it's the smart move to make. I still, and I'm gonna say this until it happens or doesn't happen. I still really would love for her to release a pop album that's conceptually based off of Wicked, because I just think that would be gangbusters and kind of a cool way to ease her way back into the music career.

[27:39] Quincy Brown: Yeah, something to hold us over between part one and two. And okay, so here's my thing with that. I'm I'm feeling like the first part of Wicked cannot come out in 2024.

[27:52] Kevin Bianchi: Quincy, yeah. I don't know who how to break it to you. It's not gonna get done quicker.

[27:56] Quincy Brown: I it needs to all of it needs to be shifted up. It needs to come out next Christmas, 2023, part one, and then part two, 2024. We cannot, we cannot be teasing this movie out for another two years.

[28:11] Kevin Bianchi: Two whole calendar years, yeah. We cannot be teasing half of this movie out for another two years. That to me feels ridiculous.

[28:19] Quincy Brown: That means I don't think it's so much ridiculous as it is like mammoth. Like it's such a long game plan. Cause it's like maybe I'm just like, I'm excited and I want it now.

[28:30] Kevin Bianchi: It is, yeah, like I I want it, but it's like I don't have any concept of how how long it even takes to like film a movie of this scale. Because if you think about all of like the special like the visual effects and like filming choreography is like very complex and all of that, like it's like a Marvel level movie of green screens and you know uh complex production.

[28:55] Quincy Brown: However, and then think about all of the I don't know, you get enough people and you in my mind, you get enough people whose nine to five is making this movie happen, and you can make it happen. You can make part one happen by Christmas 2023.

[29:15] Kevin Bianchi: Because also, what where my mind goes to is special effects. What if it's different in 2025? What if like CGI and all of that has just progressed so much?

[29:26] Quincy Brown: Quincy, that happens literally any movie that you make. Any movie ever made is out of date by the time it hits streaming.

[29:34] Kevin Bianchi: Maybe what it is is I feel like we're hearing about this movie in the press a lot. Maybe that's my issue, actually. I don't know how I feel about getting hit with press updates about the wicked movie for the next two years without seeing so much as a trailer. You know what I mean?

[29:49] Quincy Brown: I don't think we will. I think we're gonna hear about it a lot now because they're filming it, and then I think it's gonna go away.

[29:55] Kevin Bianchi: And then it's gonna go away.

[29:56] Quincy Brown: Like, no one, it's not gonna be like updates about it while it's going away. And then I think it comes back.

[30:02] Kevin Bianchi: I think. Are they filming all in one?

[30:04] Quincy Brown: I believe so. Yeah. I mean, it wouldn't make sense to like build the sets and everything twice.

[30:09] Kevin Bianchi: Sure. I guess that's where I'm having a hard time. Like the wicked movie. Like, is Wicked the movie gonna be Oscar vibes?

[30:17] Quincy Brown: I'm sure they would like it to be.

[30:21] Kevin Bianchi: I hate that that's how it's I'm sure they're not not trying to win a lot of it. In the same way that I think the Twilight saga is a cinematic masterpiece of a project and a feat of humankind to have accomplished. But it's not Oscar vibes.

[30:34] Quincy Brown: Yeah. But like, think about like West Side Story. You know what I mean? Like that was like a very elevated cinematic movie musical.

[30:45] Kevin Bianchi: So is this gonna be Ariana Grande's A Star is Born moment?

[30:48] Quincy Brown: Gaga, Alagaga. That's what I'm hoping for. I believe in her. I gotta say, this veers off a little bit of the tracks, but my college friends and I have this theory that like Ariana Grande and Taylor Swift don't exist in the same universe.

[31:01] Kevin Bianchi: And the fact that we once again Ariana Grande has kind of taken a back seat and she's focusing on this other project, and Taylor Swift is everywhere. Get out of here.

[31:12] Quincy Brown: It's just so interesting. I guarantee you when Ariana Grande is having her stars born moment, Taylor, that's when Taylor Swift is gonna fade away again.

[31:22] Kevin Bianchi: Yeah. It's so fascinating to me. And I think they know that. I don't think they're friends, but I do think they have this agre understanding that like when one is shining, the other isn't it?

[31:31] Quincy Brown: Maybe they're like, yeah, they're like astrological journeys are exactly opposite of each other.

[31:37] Kevin Bianchi: That's the real Alphabet and Glenda story.

[31:40] Quincy Brown: Yeah, that's it.

[31:45] Kevin Bianchi: All right. Kevin, have so much fun on your vacation. I hope you have the time of your life. I hope you see Lucy Jones in Wicked.

[31:50] Quincy Brown: Thank you, Quincy. I hope so too. And if not, I hope I see her just like on the street.

[31:54] Kevin Bianchi: And just like, uh, sure. Grab a drink at the Pulb.

[31:57] Quincy Brown: No, not planned. Like by accident. I want to run into her.

[32:00] Kevin Bianchi: Oh. I think we should just grab a drink. Anyways, goodbye.

[32:03] Quincy Brown: Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

[32:08] Quincy Brown: You've been listening to Sentimental Men from Theaterly. This episode was produced by Quincy Brown, Kevin Bianchi, and the team at Theaterly.

[32:16] Kevin Bianchi: Thanks to Anthony Abitangelo, the most swankified podcast editor in town. And another thanks to Michaela Reynolds for making us look downright osmopolitan in our new key art.

[32:26] Quincy Brown: And to Julia DiMarzo for our logo design. If you want to get in touch, send us an email. We love to hear from you all. You can reach us at Scent MenPod at theaterly.com.

[32:37] Kevin Bianchi: That's T H E A T R E L Y. You can also connect with us across social media on Instagram, Twitter, and TikTok at Scent Men Pod.

[32:47] Quincy Brown: Thanks for tuning in. Till next time, I'm Quincy.

[32:50] Kevin Bianchi: And I'm Kevin.