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[0:05] Gordon Cox: You're listening to Stagecraft, Variety's Theatre Podcast, bringing you in-depth interviews with the stars and creators of the biggest shows on Broadway, off Broadway, and beyond.

[0:14] Gordon Cox: I'm your host, Variety's Theatre Editor, Gordon Cox.

[0:17] Gordon Cox: On this episode of Stagecraft, I'm talking to the Tony-nominated actors Lauren Ambrose and Harry Hadden-Paton, the stars of My Fair Lady.

[0:24] Gordon Cox: Lincoln Center Theatre's Broadway Revival opened April 19th to critical raves, and last week the production was nominated for ten Tony Awards, including Best Musical Revival, Best Lead Acting Nominations for Ambrose and Hadden-Paton.

[0:38] Gordon Cox: Ambrose memorably played Daughter Claire in HBO series Six Feet Under, and Hadden-Paton is an English actor you're most likely to recognize from his role on Downton Abbey.

[0:47] Gordon Cox: They're both here in the studio with me to talk about the rain in Spain, the hurricanes that hardly happen, the challenges of recalibrating a classic musical for the Time's Up era, and getting those accents just right.

[0:56] Gordon Cox: Lauren and Harry, thanks for being here.

[0:58] Lauren Ambrose: Pleasure.

[1:00] Gordon Cox: So the musical My Fair Lady stands as one of the most celebrated titles in the musical theater canon, right? Many people think of it as kind of the pinnacle of the Broadway Golden Age. Um how well did each of you know the musical going into it? And do you have any uh did you have any like sort of childhood associations with it growing up, or was it uh was it a touchstone for you or not so much?

[1:21] Harry Hadden-Paton: We had the record in our house.

[1:25] Lauren Ambrose: My dad would send get me to the church on time all of the time.

[1:28] Harry Hadden-Paton: Yeah, I think I knew the songs. I didn't have the record.

[1:33] Lauren Ambrose: I saw an old girl production at a girl's school. Um And what how what was the impr what was the impression that you took away from it?

[1:43] Harry Hadden-Paton: But damn I can't really remember much. I was too nervous.

[1:45] Lauren Ambrose: But uh yeah, I hadn't I'd seen the film. I guess I'd seen the film. One of my dear friends played Eliza in a high school production in Maine, and we like made a pilgrimage to go from camp. So we like friends of mine, we went and made a pilgrimage to see her in it. She was amazing when she was like 16.

[2:13] Harry Hadden-Paton: Right, right. So it's not something either of you knew intimately going into this.

[2:18] Lauren Ambrose: No.

[2:18] Harry Hadden-Paton: I'd read the play as well. I knew the songs.

[2:21] Gordon Cox: Right.

[2:22] Harry Hadden-Paton: I had to sing I could have danced all night at auditions.

[2:26] Gordon Cox: Really?

[2:27] Harry Hadden-Paton: Oh yeah?

[2:28] Lauren Ambrose: Yeah.

[2:29] Gordon Cox: Do you enjoy singing it now?

[2:32] Harry Hadden-Paton: I do.

[2:34] Harry Hadden-Paton: It's a little tricky because it's after I've gone through a marathon on stage of um quick changes and we've got a lot of things. And Rain in Spain.

[2:43] Harry Hadden-Paton: Rain in Spain, and then I'm going up and down like 100 foot spiral staircase during the song. So I'm a little bit more.

[2:51] Lauren Ambrose: Yeah, so it's a little bit like uh it's a gauntlet.

[2:54] Harry Hadden-Paton: Yeah.

[2:54] Lauren Ambrose: But um I enjoy listening to it. Thank you, Harry.

[2:58] Harry Hadden-Paton: Harry gives me a high five every night.

[3:00] Lauren Ambrose: Yeah.

[3:00] Gordon Cox: Oh, that's nice.

[3:03] Lauren Ambrose: And I'm going into my emergency quick change ambulance to know I've started now.

[3:08] Lauren Ambrose: We've started that, I have to do it every night. Sorry.

[3:13] Harry Hadden-Paton: Did I do it wrong?

[3:14] Lauren Ambrose: Yeah, just send Laura out.

[3:16] Harry Hadden-Paton: Yeah, can you just someone else go in high five?

[3:20] Gordon Cox: And so Lauren, you've wanted to be in a musical for a while now. Um what's behind that? Why why why the interest?

[3:27] Lauren Ambrose: Oh, well, I don't know. I've just always sung and um it would be a waste of your huge talent.

[3:33] Gordon Cox: We should say, we should say that you were on Star Search uh when you were younger. Um we should mention just so they explain to me what that is. And also we can say that uh that you had a band. Are you still in your is how's how's that band uh going there?

[3:48] Lauren Ambrose: It was a band of friends and I got jobs and people moved away, and so we just didn't and people started doing other stuff. But yeah, so that we own drones. I was singing. It was like a gypsy jazz jazzy kind of a volume.

[4:08] Gordon Cox: All this in illustration of your point that you've been singing all your life, right?

[4:11] Lauren Ambrose: Yeah.

[4:11] Lauren Ambrose: Yeah. And what was it about particularly being in a musical on stage that really appealed to you?

[4:19] Lauren Ambrose: Yeah, just doing something I've never done before. You know, I really like as an actor to uh do things that scare me and uh do things that I haven't tried before. This was this is on the list and um and yeah, like I obviously just wanted to try um using my singing voice as uh another tool for acting and just always I mean I've always been looking for something to to sing in over the years and you know for various reasons, things have not been.

[4:53] Gordon Cox: Right, there was almost a production of Funny Girl, and there is right.

[4:56] Lauren Ambrose: Yeah, but there have been other things over the years as well.

[4:58] Harry Hadden-Paton: Of course, I'm sure.

[4:59] Lauren Ambrose: Yeah, yeah. And and Six Feet Under, they would write little musical moments for me to um sing every once in a while.

[5:05] Harry Hadden-Paton: Yeah, yeah.

[5:06] Gordon Cox: But at Six Feet Under, it seemed like you almost rushed back to the stage. Like one of the first things you did right after that was Awakened Sing. Um was that were you anxious in particular to get back to theater?

[5:18] Lauren Ambrose: Yes, very much, yeah.

[5:20] Harry Hadden-Paton: Yeah.

[5:21] Lauren Ambrose: Yeah. That's uh that was directed by Bartlett Sher, who directed uh this production of My Fair Lady. Is that where you first met him and worked with him?

[5:27] Lauren Ambrose: And yeah.

[5:27] Harry Hadden-Paton: Yes, it was a it was a production of Awakened Sing, and they did it at the Belasco Theater on the where they originally the group it was the group theater's first hit. And um also produced by Lincoln Center actually.

[5:42] Lauren Ambrose: Also produced at Lincoln Center, but we did at the Belasco, which is where they originally did it. And we did it in the exact footprint, and it was Michael Jurgen again, and he used the exact footprint of the set on the stage that they used initially, and it's very cool.

[5:56] Harry Hadden-Paton: And then he eventually had the um the walls fly out by the end of the third. It was very poetic by the end of it.

[6:05] Lauren Ambrose: Yeah, yeah. I saw that production.

[6:07] Harry Hadden-Paton: Also a long one. Two intermissions.

[6:09] Lauren Ambrose: Yes.

[6:10] Harry Hadden-Paton: Not as long as the I to me on Cometh, which I saw last night, but also two intermissions.

[6:14] Gordon Cox: Okay. Um then so Lauren, when this came along, how did you prepare for the audition and what what what went into sort of you preparing for trying for getting this part?

[6:28] Lauren Ambrose: Um I emailed Bart and I asked him if I could audition and and I said, you know, would could I come in and audition for this? And he was like, mm-hmm.

[6:37] Harry Hadden-Paton: All right.

[6:38] Lauren Ambrose: And then it's a very good impression.

[6:41] Harry Hadden-Paton: And I guess.

[6:44] Lauren Ambrose: And uh there's a lot of visual stuff going on here that listeners cannot see alas, but it's entertaining. And uh and they s and they sent me a packet of like a thousand pages to learn, and it was basically I don't know, it's scene upon scene and song after song, and I worked hard at it and went in and sang and there was very old fashioned. There was a nice long line of musical theatre auditioners and we were all there and then you got the part.

[7:18] Harry Hadden-Paton: You blew them away.

[7:19] Lauren Ambrose: I thought about that, Harry, but I got it right.

[7:20] Harry Hadden-Paton: Yeah, well you got the thing. They told me you blew them away.

[7:23] Gordon Cox: And so how did this project get to you, Harry?

[7:26] Harry Hadden-Paton: Uh an audition. Similar similar. I didn't know Bart or his work really. Um and I had an audition in London. I think we have a mutual friend who put in a good word.

[7:39] Harry Hadden-Paton: Got it.

[7:40] Harry Hadden-Paton: Um thank God.

[7:42] Harry Hadden-Paton: Yeah.

[7:43] Harry Hadden-Paton: And this mutual friend had seen me do workshops of musicals in London. And it had been something that I wanted to do.

[7:49] Gordon Cox: A musical.

[7:50] Harry Hadden-Paton: Yeah.

[7:50] Harry Hadden-Paton: And have you ever done a full musical before in the world?

[7:53] Harry Hadden-Paton: Professionally. Yeah.

[7:54] Harry Hadden-Paton: No. I mean I I used to sing in choirs.

[7:58] Gordon Cox: Right, right.

[7:59] Harry Hadden-Paton: When I was a little boy.

[8:00] Gordon Cox: Which already makes you more of a singer than Rex Harrison, right? Like about the thing.

[8:03] Harry Hadden-Paton: I don't know. Apparently he was very musical, right?

[8:09] Gordon Cox: Um is what I've learned.

[8:10] Harry Hadden-Paton: So but but my challenge was singing in Latin for years. I like my wife laughs at me because I can never remember the words to songs. Because I'm just thinking about the melody or the harmony, because I was always like an alto. So that's been my challenge is to actually remember words, lyrics to songs.

[8:29] Harry Hadden-Paton: And I had an amazing singing teacher.

[8:31] Gordon Cox: But you had to remember them in Latin.

[8:34] Harry Hadden-Paton: And that was exactly if I okay. You could sort of I can't I couldn't get away with holding the book.

[8:40] Gordon Cox: No, I see your point. I see your point.

[8:41] Harry Hadden-Paton: Yes.

[8:42] Harry Hadden-Paton: I think that's true.

[8:43] Gordon Cox: Yeah.

[8:43] Harry Hadden-Paton: Um it was auditions and a recall in New York.

[8:47] Gordon Cox: And yeah.

[8:48] Harry Hadden-Paton: Right.

[8:48] Gordon Cox: Right. Similar.

[8:50] Harry Hadden-Paton: You now you know all the words.

[8:52] Harry Hadden-Paton: Okay, occasionally. I know them all.

[8:54] Harry Hadden-Paton: Yeah.

[8:56] Harry Hadden-Paton: And sometimes I get them all the time.

[8:57] Gordon Cox: Sometimes you sing the right order.

[8:58] Harry Hadden-Paton: Yeah.

[8:59] Gordon Cox: And um you've done theater previously in the UK and you've done work at TV, a lot of TV work in the UK. A lot of people will know you from Downton Abbey and The Crown here, particularly in the US. How are you finding the Broadway community and working in the Broadway community as compared to working on stage in the UK?

[9:17] Harry Hadden-Paton: I have to be tricky. I'd be I have to be careful with this because I don't want to never work in London again. But it is um it's amazingly supportive. Like and it seems to be the whole city, not just our building, which we feel very lucky to be in, but everyone is is supporting the show. And you walk in the doors of the Lincoln Center Theatre, and there are hundreds of people who have the same goal, which is to create something and be supportive in that environment. And it's it's amazingly collaborative and exciting.

[9:54] Gordon Cox: It's wonderful. Has Broadway changed much since you were last on it, Lauren? You've been on you've been on Broadway a couple of times on a couple of shows. Um has do you notice anyway?

[10:05] Lauren Ambrose: Was that like yeah, it was Exit the King. What's the difference? I'm interested in the difference between the location and the location.

[10:11] Lauren Ambrose: Yeah. I feel very grateful to be where we are. I mean, it is it's it's a busy part of town, and it's very luxurious to have the space and the plaza and the grandness of the Lincoln Center receiving us daily.

[10:24] Gordon Cox: Yeah. And so My Fair Lady, this Lincoln Center revival of My Fair Lady has been in the works for a while now, and there was no way anyone could sort of anticipate what has happened in the interim in terms of Me Too and Time's Up, and I know that everyone involved in the production thought long and hard about how this musical, which is about a woman into what society considers mostly male society considers sort of a proper lady. That there was a lot of thought about how that can and should play now and be revived in sort of the here and now. I imagine that you two as the two lead actors must have been a big part of that conversation as you were rehearsing that. Did you find that?

[11:05] Lauren Ambrose: Yeah, I I think there was a a conversation that happened before we were even involved, which was about the casting of it. Sure. That we were equals. Um that's why I I was I guess I was cast rather than an older man. Um but it's certainly been something we've been thinking about.

[11:28] Harry Hadden-Paton: Did you have and and the the concept that he moulds this younger woman? Um she's she looks she searches him out. She she remembers where he lives and she you know. She turns up at his house wanting to better herself.

[11:45] Lauren Ambrose: That is true, and that is not a thing that I recalled.

[11:47] Harry Hadden-Paton: Well, I know I I actually found it really interesting that you described it that way.

[12:03] Lauren Ambrose: Is that she she hears this man speaking in a way that she's never heard anyone speak before about language and about equality and about the water? And she senses an opportunity, doesn't it? And very bravely shows up at his house the next day with the coins that she's gotten and says, Well, with this money, what can I do? I'm gonna try to better m she's ambitious. She wants to, she wants to change her life. How can I change my life with what I'm holding in my hand, this money that's presented this opportunity to her.

[12:37] Harry Hadden-Paton: And so I don't know, it's very moving to me that she shows up and says, I want lessons. I want to what can I become? I want to be a lady in a flower shop. Um and that starts the whole trajectory of the thing. That inspires the idea about the bet and on and on it goes.

[12:54] Lauren Ambrose: And what's interesting is it's all it's all in the text. It's not a text. We're not doing a crazy new version of it. We are serving the text in a way that makes me question whether people served it properly in the past in the past.

[13:07] Harry Hadden-Paton: Right.

[13:07] Lauren Ambrose: And and it's easy to believe because Shaw was so ahead of his time.

[13:11] Harry Hadden-Paton: Well, that's I was just gonna say Shaw is it it is not it does not seem like a stretch to feel like Shaw was on the right side of the argument there.

[13:18] Lauren Ambrose: Yeah.

[13:20] Harry Hadden-Paton: And um therefore as much of a feminist as you know, we can say, and he he uh obviously has written incredibly strong female characters in his canon, and she's one of them, and she she's um and so as much as it's a story about gender, it's also a story about class and and uh equality, you know, equality between the classes.

[13:48] Lauren Ambrose: Um what would um what could make that more possible? And that was some that was his thesis and his. Which is like this ethereal, weird sort of pigeonholing system. And um But and then of course once she gets she becomes a lady now, she's really in a pickle because now where does she fit in? She was actually freer as well as her father, you know, w before he inherits the money. She's freer as a flower girl who's in charge of her own life and can can do what she wants than with the manners and veneer of a of a fancy lady because her options become limited. I don't think that's where this play becomes something lasting and amazing is that it doesn't just follow the simple thread of bettering herself.

Yay she's done it. It doesn't end at the ball. It doesn't end at the ball. Right. Right. It's not the story of s the princess who, you know, the trans. Right? It doesn't just she's in leathers and woo right and then they get in a car and it flies away. It's not it's not no, it goes in it goes much deeper and I think that's what makes it so special. And her transformation and his transformation also obviously always thinking about her but and Henry's transformation really begin in act two when they have to consider each other and they have to consider okay well now what? Um now come the difficult questions. And all of a sudden as we learned in the in the rehearsals, it's like a different play in Act Two.

Um it's a different piece. It's a different tone. It's much harder work. But that's where the real transformation comes about as as far as I mean as far as I feel and in the playing of it that you know that's when she has to dig deep and find her agency and strength and that's when she becomes a lady for real in her bones.

[15:58] Harry Hadden-Paton: Right. Um in having, you know, what does she have to shed to what kind of um way of thinking or way of um holding herself in his gaze like does she have to shed to become to become a and how do you think that sorry and how do you both think that resonates with the conversation that's happening uh right now just sort of about times up and me too and all of that. What what is it what is this spark in that conversation for you well I mean it's certainly a nice i it's perfect timing and to have this kind of a discussion and in the in the safe and appropriate place of the theater to have this discussion to see where we come from and to s also hear uh Shaw's you know innately feminist ideas from nineteen eleven coming through uh this even in this antique material right mm I don't know.

[17:02] Lauren Ambrose: What are you finding that audiences really respond to They they seem to be enjoying it. And they seem to be leaving the theater asking a lot of questions. So they are and that's the joy of doing a revival is is like I said, we're not we're just serving the text really um truthfully, maybe with slightly more modern sensibilities, but we are serving the text and it just happens to be a different context in which we're doing it. So if it's making people question their behavior or their past behavior, whatever, then it's great.

[17:39] Harry Hadden-Paton: Right. And what also what they thought the play was. And what they're rooting for.

[17:46] Lauren Ambrose: Yeah. Right. Um I think is also interesting.

[17:50] Harry Hadden-Paton: Yeah. Let's talk about accents. This show is all about them. Um and changing your status by changing the way you speak. Um, Harry, I feel like you have something of a leg up because you are actually English yourself.

[18:04] Harry Hadden-Paton: Yeah, yeah, that helps. Yeah. I mean, I should be doing these with more of a London accent, shouldn't I? To sort of show them a better accent.

[18:12] Lauren Ambrose: Yeah, you should do like Ray Winston.

[18:14] Harry Hadden-Paton: And so you got me now. It is the excellent Danny Danny Don.

[18:20] Lauren Ambrose: Danny Dyer.

[18:21] Harry Hadden-Paton: Yeah, yeah, Danny.

[18:24] Lauren Ambrose: Come on in. What's a question? What do you do you speak on stage with the accent that you spend most of your time speaking in?

[18:32] Harry Hadden-Paton: It it probably doesn't sound that different, but um some thought has gone into it.

[18:38] Lauren Ambrose: Yeah.

[18:39] Harry Hadden-Paton: Yeah. It's heightened. Like I I c I there are different few words I have to pronounce differently, and I have to be very uh

[18:41] Lauren Ambrose: Like what?

[18:50] Harry Hadden-Paton: Just room. I'm not very good at just. Just I should always say just or but but instead of but.

[18:56] Lauren Ambrose: Okay.

[18:56] Harry Hadden-Paton: And I don't usually hit the T's at the end of my words very well.

[19:00] Lauren Ambrose: Right.

[19:01] Harry Hadden-Paton: Right. Um don't you? Things like really it's actually small details, but they make a difference because he's a professor of languages. So um he cares probably more than I do about it.

[19:16] Lauren Ambrose: But uh yeah.

[19:17] Harry Hadden-Paton: Right. And so Lauren, this seems like hard work for you, getting that right.

[19:20] Lauren Ambrose: Yeah, it's awful. Oh my god. It's amazing. Tell me about that. Like, how did it how it's kind of fun?

[19:27] Harry Hadden-Paton: Yeah.

[19:27] Lauren Ambrose: How do you how do you get your mouth around all that? Like there's hard work. It's not only like you have to master two separate accents and then the transition between those accents. I just feel like that's well, I have the good fortune to be surrounded by Alan. It's a phenomenal amount of hard work and preparation.

[19:45] Harry Hadden-Paton: Thanks, Harry.

[19:46] Lauren Ambrose: And it's amazing to watch, honestly. Well done. Harry keeps me honest and tells me. I told him he has full permission to tell me when I'm blowing it.

[19:58] Harry Hadden-Paton: Yeah.

[20:00] Lauren Ambrose: It doesn't happen anymore. Even just on little syllables. So he he's he's my It's in the detail. Police.

[20:07] Harry Hadden-Paton: But you yeah. Did you have any advice for her, Harry? As in terms of getting the accent out.

[20:13] Harry Hadden-Paton: Like, is there such a thing as giving an accent?

[20:15] Lauren Ambrose: No, you just told me we just talked about sounds.

[20:18] Harry Hadden-Paton: I made myself available.

[20:20] Lauren Ambrose: Yes, I would go running to him. Um but honestly, you you got a lot of it.

[20:29] Harry Hadden-Paton: And Liz Smith, our dialect coach.

[20:31] Lauren Ambrose: Yes, Liz Smith was amazing. Who is a Brit but has lived out here for ages is amazing.

[20:37] Harry Hadden-Paton: Yes.

[20:37] Lauren Ambrose: And had lots of notes for me as well. Like stuff I didn't know I was getting wrong.

[20:43] Harry Hadden-Paton: Right?

[20:44] Lauren Ambrose: I'd get postcards of stuff all the time. Yes, her attention to detail. Amazing. And I'm so grateful for her. Was Lauren, was there a secret to getting it? Or like do you re was there a moment where you're like, aha! I think I've got it to quote your George, she's got it.

[21:01] Harry Hadden-Paton: Exactly.

[21:04] Lauren Ambrose: Uh no, there's not a secret. Did you use anyone in particular listening to Adele.

[21:09] Harry Hadden-Paton: Adele.

[21:10] Lauren Ambrose: Yeah, that's.

[21:10] Harry Hadden-Paton: Oh, alright. Listening well, watching E senders.

[21:13] Lauren Ambrose: Yes, right.

[21:14] Harry Hadden-Paton: Uh-huh.

[21:15] Lauren Ambrose: Enders.

[21:16] Harry Hadden-Paton: Danny Dyer's on East.

[21:18] Lauren Ambrose: Danny Da.

[21:19] Harry Hadden-Paton: Um he's come back in the room.

[21:22] Lauren Ambrose: Danny Dyer.

[21:23] Harry Hadden-Paton: He's like our patron saint of this podcast. Having a slack jaw, loose jaw in the cockney, and a tight, tighter lip in the more in the lip spread.

[21:26] Lauren Ambrose: Lip spread.

[21:36] Harry Hadden-Paton: Beg your pardon.

[21:37] Lauren Ambrose: Tighter tighten the corners of the mouth.

[21:40] Harry Hadden-Paton: I don't know.

[21:41] Lauren Ambrose: And and Lauren, which do you gravitate toward more? Is there an Eliza accent that you feel is more you?

[21:51] Lauren Ambrose: Well the posh is easier to do.

[21:58] Harry Hadden-Paton: The other is guttural and more mouthwork, literally.

[22:04] Lauren Ambrose: Literally, with the posh accent, you just you don't move your face at the moment.

[22:08] Harry Hadden-Paton: Yeah, right, yeah.

[22:09] Lauren Ambrose: So it's just calmer. But it takes a more liveliness of breath to sort of send it out to the world.

[22:24] Harry Hadden-Paton: Tell us a little bit about that and what what it is is it about it's about tension in your jaw that I imagine has to do with hockey.

[22:31] Lauren Ambrose: I didn't know what PT was. I thought it was like personal trainer.

[22:34] Harry Hadden-Paton: Yes.

[22:35] Lauren Ambrose: It's also that.

[22:36] Harry Hadden-Paton: So I thought what? I am knackered. I am not having someone telling me to do star jumps.

[22:41] Lauren Ambrose: But it is um Natalie's amazing.

[22:45] Harry Hadden-Paton: Natalie is a and now it is integral a part of the show as anything, is sorting us out.

[22:53] Lauren Ambrose: Yeah.

[22:54] Harry Hadden-Paton: Twice sometimes in a day, and it's a three hour show. And did we mention the spiral staircases?

[23:00] Lauren Ambrose: There's also a giant spirit.

[23:01] Harry Hadden-Paton: And actually, in general, that stage is enormous, and just walking across it takes some.

[23:05] Lauren Ambrose: I'd love someone to count how many times I go up and down that.

[23:08] Harry Hadden-Paton: Yeah.

[23:09] Lauren Ambrose: Yeah. Just phone in.

[23:10] Harry Hadden-Paton: Yeah.

[23:10] Lauren Ambrose: Yeah. Because it's I need work on that.

[23:15] Harry Hadden-Paton: Digging in.

[23:16] Lauren Ambrose: And the jaw is it gets very tight. And as we get into the latter stages of the play, it all gets quite unfortunate.

[23:23] Harry Hadden-Paton: We all get emotional and stressed out.

[23:26] Lauren Ambrose: Yeah, and it's funny, it's like my voice gets tired because of all the muscularity and then and it's not even the the singing as much as the talking of the the emotional scenes and the cockney, which I'm not used to. And so and so yeah, so she comes in and like untangles the necklace.

[23:44] Harry Hadden-Paton: But is it after uh like after a performance comes down? Is it like a curling?

[23:47] Lauren Ambrose: Oh before, okay. Got it.

[23:51] Harry Hadden-Paton: Twice a week.

[23:51] Lauren Ambrose: But it's yeah. Because we hold a lot of tension in your shoulders and you're in your jaw.

[23:56] Harry Hadden-Paton: I made a silly choice in the rehearsal room to to growl quite a lot.

[24:00] Lauren Ambrose: Which you are regretting.

[24:01] Harry Hadden-Paton: Which well now I'm just working out how to do it without doing that.

[24:04] Lauren Ambrose: Right.

[24:05] Harry Hadden-Paton: Because it's hard to sustain.

[24:07] Lauren Ambrose: I made a silly choice in the rehearsal room too.

[24:10] Harry Hadden-Paton: Um curling up our shoulders.

[24:18] Lauren Ambrose: It's great. It makes the transformation.

[24:21] Harry Hadden-Paton: Yeah.

[24:22] Lauren Ambrose: But that probably plays hell with your with your shoulders and your back.

[24:27] Harry Hadden-Paton: Yeah, yeah. Doing it for a long time.

[24:29] Lauren Ambrose: Sure.

[24:31] Harry Hadden-Paton: Um, so you guys are in this uh at the moment. Uh what's next for you both? Do you know what's what's on your plate next?

[24:37] Lauren Ambrose: No.

[24:38] Harry Hadden-Paton: No.

[24:39] Lauren Ambrose: That's fine.

[24:41] Harry Hadden-Paton: This is our life for the end.

[24:43] Lauren Ambrose: Always available.

[24:44] Harry Hadden-Paton: Always available. Anyone listening?

[24:47] Lauren Ambrose: I like New York, by the way.

[24:50] Harry Hadden-Paton: Um, Lauren, would you want to do another musical?

[24:54] Lauren Ambrose: Oh well, yeah, sure. I don't know. It depends on what it is.

[24:57] Harry Hadden-Paton: Yeah, are you do you have a like, oh I've always wanted to be in blank music.

[25:02] Lauren Ambrose: Greece, for instance.

[25:03] Harry Hadden-Paton: Yeah.

[25:03] Lauren Ambrose: This one.

[25:04] Harry Hadden-Paton: It was that one.

[25:04] Lauren Ambrose: They used to say this.

[25:05] Harry Hadden-Paton: Yeah.

[25:06] Lauren Ambrose: Yeah. So cool.

[25:08] Harry Hadden-Paton: Yeah.

[25:18] Lauren Ambrose: The most important transformation in her life.

[25:20] Harry Hadden-Paton: Um every night.

[25:23] Lauren Ambrose: And tell the story. It's it's uh and in this lifetime for me, you know. It's uh I can't believe it. Sometimes you know, that there's so many great parts and there's so many parts I'd love to play, but I can't do them all. And I'm just I I'm tickled that this one worked out.

[25:36] Harry Hadden-Paton: Yeah.

[25:41] Lauren Ambrose: Yeah.

[25:42] Harry Hadden-Paton: And Harry, are you interested in doing another musical sometime?

[25:45] Harry Hadden-Paton: Yeah, sure. I I never I I just keep myself open. I never know what I wanted. Like this, I was was not on my radar for at least 20 years.

[25:54] Lauren Ambrose: Uh like I literally didn't think it would was possible.

[25:57] Harry Hadden-Paton: I tried to do that.

[25:58] Lauren Ambrose: When you say this music you mean musical theater.

[26:00] Harry Hadden-Paton: Oh, okay.

[26:00] Lauren Ambrose: This part I tried to turn it down, but because I thought I'm just gonna work hard and not get it.

[26:06] Harry Hadden-Paton: So it'll just be a heartbreak.

[26:08] Lauren Ambrose: So um I honestly didn't think it was a possibility.

[26:12] Harry Hadden-Paton: So the the lesson is to just stay open and see what comes.

[26:17] Lauren Ambrose: Well, I look forward to seeing what comes from both of you. Um, both on stage and on screen. Thank you both.

[26:21] Harry Hadden-Paton: Thanks for being here.

[26:22] Lauren Ambrose: Thanks, yeah.

[26:22] Harry Hadden-Paton: Nice to talk to you.

[26:23] Lauren Ambrose: Thank you.