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[0:06] Gordon Cox: Welcome to Stagecraft, Variety's Theater Podcast.

[0:10] Gordon Cox: Your backstage pass to revealing conversations with stars, creators, and industry leaders.

[0:15] Gordon Cox: On Broadway, off Broadway, and beyond.

[0:18] Gordon Cox: I'm Gordon Cox.

[0:20] Gordon Cox: On this episode of Stagecraft, I'm talking to Rachel Bloom.

[0:24] Gordon Cox: I first talked to Rachel way back in 2017, when she was in the third season of the musical TV series she created and starred in, Crazy Ex-Girlfriend.

[0:33] Gordon Cox: Broadway fans saw her again the following spring, when she hosted the backstage segments at the Tony Awards.

[0:39] Gordon Cox: A lot has changed since then.

[0:41] Gordon Cox: And that's exactly what Bloom's new stage project is about.

[0:45] Gordon Cox: It's called Death, Let Me Do My Show, and it blends elements of stand-up, storytelling, and musical theater to talk candidly and comically about wrestling with the specter of death.

[0:56] Gordon Cox: It's centered on two things that happened to her early in the pandemic.

[1:00] Gordon Cox: First, in late March 2020, she had a baby.

[1:03] Gordon Cox: And then, soon thereafter, she lost her close friend and collaborator, Adam Schlesinger, to COVID.

[1:09] Gordon Cox: Death, Let Me Do My Show is now playing off Broadway.

[1:13] Gordon Cox: And before we get to the interview, I just want to note that Bloom and Schlesinger were working on a musical adaptation of The Nanny when Schlesinger died.

[1:20] Gordon Cox: But alas, we aren't able to talk about that in our conversation because The Nanny is a TV show and is therefore encompassed by the ongoing WGA and SAG After Strike.

[1:30] Gordon Cox: But there's plenty of other things to talk about in our interview, from sharing the secret to good musical comedy to dealing with hecklers, to her favorite jokes that she had to cut from the show.

[1:42] Gordon Cox: Hi, Rachel.

[1:43] Rachel Bloom: Thanks for joining me.

[1:44] Rachel Bloom: Thank you for having me.

[1:46] Gordon Cox: Yeah.

[1:46] Rachel Bloom: So your new show has it's got elements of stand-up, but it's also deeply influenced by theater and musical theater in terms of, you know, like its form and the people you collaborate and even its subject to an extent. So how do you describe Death, Let Me Do My Show to people? What category does it fall in?

[2:01] Rachel Bloom: I say it's a stand-up show meets a one-act musical.

[2:09] Rachel Bloom: Mm-hmm. Yeah. That's kind of like I mean, I say it's a stand-up show, meets a one-act play, meets a musical, but there are one-act musicals. So pick your poison.

[2:18] Gordon Cox: Yeah. Okay. And was that the form that you were intending for the show from the beginning, even though the form the story you told seems to have morphed, but was the form was that always kind of the form you were thinking about?

[2:34] Rachel Bloom: Well, from the beginning, do you mean like when I first started writing a show in 2020?

[2:39] Gordon Cox: Yeah, like when you were like, 'cause you as we should tell listeners.

[2:41] Rachel Bloom: Okay, yeah, we should tell listeners that you're fairly upfront in the show about, you know, you started working on the show back in 2019, and when you returned to it, you know, post-lockdown, you really wanted to continue writing that show, and then you found yourself unable to for a number of reasons. So first of all, yeah, tell us a little bit about that first impulse back then, what you wanted to do.

[3:08] Rachel Bloom: Well, my first impulse back then was I'd been touring a lot and I'd been interspersing songs that people knew with new songs and then coming up with new stand-up that could almost go with songs of mine that people knew. So I was always working in stand-up and new songs into these concerts I was doing, and I did a residency at Just for Laughs for five days where I tried out some new material. And the idea was in 2020, after I gave birth, I would film a comedy special of what I do, which is stand-up and comedy songs. And so it was just very fun and very silly and like balls out. And then 2020 happened and I had all of the kind of bullet points of that show listed out on a whiteboard in my office, which had now become my daughter's playroom as well.

[4:06] Rachel Bloom: Right. And I remember looking at the whiteboard. There's nothing that makes things seem dumber than seeing stand-up bits or comedy songs, you know, bullet pointed out because you know it's just like pregnancy tests. My butthole's like the hurricane. Like it's just like little things out of that only you understand and I was like, this is so stupid. I don't think there's room for this in the world anymore. I can't just pretend that the world is back to normal and that's what inspired the show.

[4:34] Gordon Cox: Right, right. So that show could you could have just done that show. That show existed basically, right?

[4:39] Rachel Bloom: You could, yes, and in fact a big kind of real life arc I went through was this show originally had so basically without spoiling anything I start the show and I say I'm gonna do the show in 2019 something happens that prevents me from continuing and I have to talk about 2020. So the 2019 material quickly fades out. In versions of the show that I've been trying to do in the past couple years, I included a lot more of my old material and my character being playing myself being unwilling to let go of that old material and clinging to it more. And then when I re-watched the shows, it just started to all lift out. So there's about an hour of cut material.

[5:23] Gordon Cox: Yeah.

[5:24] Rachel Bloom: Yeah.

[5:25] Gordon Cox: And you tell us about the development process.

[5:28] Rachel Bloom: Yeah, tell us a little bit more about kind of how you worked. You said you've been working on it for a couple of years.

[5:34] Rachel Bloom: So I had my stand-up. The first time I ever did this was at Dynasty Typewriter, a theater in Los Angeles. It was in late 2021. And I just sat on I stood on stage with 40 pages of just new stuff. And I just like on a music stand, and I just kind of almost not read it, but I was very on book, just and it was a mix of stand-up and new songs and stories, and then a couple months after that I added in this more global structure that is kind of the structure of the show, but the show kept changing, and I was from a very early time working with Seth Barish, who's my director, on honing this show, and really how do you meld the stand-up into the one-act play of it all?

[6:33] Rachel Bloom: And him, for instance, asking me to do a free ride on my anger.

[6:37] Gordon Cox: Hmm.

[6:38] Rachel Bloom: Okay. Was that useful?

[6:40] Rachel Bloom: Yeah, some of it's in the show.

[6:42] Gordon Cox: Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

[6:43] Rachel Bloom: Okay, cool.

[6:44] Gordon Cox: And how did you yeah, he's one of his, he's you mentioned Seth Barish, and he is kind of the go-to guy for shows like yours, like these sort of storytelling kind of stand-up, also theatrical, like often solo shows. How do you work with a director? Because this material is so like you know, for and about you. How what what does the outside perspective, how is that useful for you as a creator?

[7:13] Rachel Bloom: Well, he's really looking at story and arc first so what helped is that he wasn't precious about you know the stand-up bit lifts out. Unfortunately, so he had very much he came from a story place as opposed to I think that a director who came from more of a stand-up or comedy place might have been oh well we can't lose this joke but right his unpreciousness with jokes has served the story of the show and served the structure of the show and there are so many cut jokes.

[7:13] Rachel Bloom: Yeah, there are still a lot of jokes but there are a lot of jokes I had to let go.

[7:49] Gordon Cox: Yeah, yeah right yeah and how tell me about the process of writing the songs for this how does how does that is it like writing the book of a music you were you were working on a musical like is it like writing the book of a musical and you think oh I need a song here or tell me about when the how you know a moment needs music.

[7:49] Rachel Bloom: Well I think especially in this show for most of the songs it's when does a stand-up bit or a story become better if it's in song because the first couple songs in this are very much stand-up bits expanded into songs with a genre that heightens the joke in a way you couldn't if it were just a stand-up bit.

[8:40] Gordon Cox: Right.

[8:40] Rachel Bloom: So there were definitely songs added where it felt like there was a gap in storytelling where it was like, oh, it's been a while without a song. And then the last song is very much in the story. So that more was like writing a book musical where okay, what's the conclusion the characters are coming to?

[8:58] Gordon Cox: Right, right. That is the song you wrote with Shana Tao, is that right?

[9:02] Rachel Bloom: Yes.

[9:02] Gordon Cox: Yes.

[9:03] Rachel Bloom: Yeah.

[9:03] Gordon Cox: That is a name that listeners of this podcast will know. How do you know her? Did you go to school with her or...?

[9:08] Rachel Bloom: We went to school together.

[9:10] Gordon Cox: Yeah, yeah.

[9:11] Rachel Bloom: That would have been my guess.

[9:12] Gordon Cox: Yeah.

[9:13] Rachel Bloom: Yes.

[9:13] Gordon Cox: Yes.

[9:14] Rachel Bloom: So she's wonderful. We've worked together a little bit before. This was amazing because I came to her with a set of lyrics and I said, you know, this song is in a pastiche. I want to explore this idea. But unlike the songs, many of the songs, most of the songs in this show, which are kind of pastiches of genres, I don't know what genre this is. I just know the feeling that I want. So we really crafted it together.

[9:43] Gordon Cox: Yeah, I you know, I was gonna ask because you work with a number of collaborators on the songs throughout the show, and how does that... I wondered if like do you break it down with like you write the lyrics and they write the music, or do you both collaborate? Like, do you also contribute to the music? Like, how does that work?

[10:00] Rachel Bloom: No, it just depends. So for one of the songs I wrote with Eli Bolin, I said, here's some lyrics I have. I'm kind of leaving the music to you on this one. And then another song I went, here are chords, here's a demo of this song. This song is more fully written, open to any and all changes in thoughts.

[10:20] Rachel Bloom: So it just depends on the song.

[10:22] Rachel Bloom: Um, there is a version of this story that could be, oh, I thought I was gonna do a show, and then I just decided not to do a show.

[10:31] Gordon Cox: You know, uh what did you feel like you needed to do with this, particularly with this show, and how has it served you as you've uh as you've been working on it?

[10:43] I think the show is not only me processing how I personally feel about death, working through this show and the conclusion I come to in the show is an actual conclusion I came to in my life. I came to that conclusion first and then worked it into the show. So it helps me process; it helps kind of scab over some things because once you—one of the things I like about sharing personal things with an audience is you almost give an experience over to an audience. It's not just yours anymore, if that makes sense, and I find that very healing. Then I like creating. So it was just another—it was, you know, a thing to contribute to the joy of creating and a little having my cake and eating it too and being able to do stand-up still but morphing into something more.

[11:37] Gordon Cox: Right.

[11:38] Rachel Bloom: How much harder is it to be funny in a song versus in, you know, a story or in stand-up? It's harder in that you also have to—where's the song come in? Is this a line that has to rhyme? But in some ways, a song structure gives—it's nice because you're like, okay, I'm in the chorus now, I need a line here for the chorus. Okay, I'm in the verse, I'm in the bridge. There's a nice structure to songwriting that I like working within, but the parameters are definitely incredibly tricky because especially when you're rhyming, and it's why I actually kind of—especially in verses I wrote—avoided rhyming. Adam, working with Adam Schlesinger, he was much more, "Let's try to make it rhyme, let's try to make it rhyme." And he really—it's harder, but part of making people laugh in general is surprise.

[12:44] Right.

[12:45] Rachel Bloom: And when you're in a song and you know it's coming because you've heard this chorus before, right? How does the song not just become repetitive? And that is harder to do than if you're just doing a stand-up bit because you're not following any sort of structure.

[13:00] Yeah, yeah.

[13:01] Rachel Bloom: I feel like there's probably something about—because audiences can anticipate a rhyme, right? Like that can also lead to a lessening of the surprise for a punchline, right? If they can see the rhyme, then they can see the punchline, right? So you have to find different ways. So, like, okay, there's a song about the Rainbow Bridge in the show, which is, you know, this idea—it's a theory about pet death. I know something's gonna end with, like, something has to rhyme with bridge, so it's the name Midge, which is not a joke, right? Something—I am Midge. Right? But the next line is a joke. Right? I got answers at the base of the Rainbow Bridge, which makes sense in the context of the song, and so it's also finding, right? If I'm gonna rhyme here and that's not gonna be the joke, where maybe before the rhyme, there's something after it, it is harder.

[13:54] Yeah, yeah, yeah.

[13:56] Rachel Bloom: Is there—do you have kind of a secret? Like, is there a secret that you can identify to good musical comedy, to like when a song works or when it doesn't work?

[14:07] I think just surprise.

[14:08] Yeah, that's it.

[14:09] Rachel Bloom: Like just stuff you don't—just getting really specific and really continuing to surprise the audience.

[14:18] Which is harder to do in songs.

[14:22] Gordon Cox: I'll have more with Rachel right after the break.

[14:34] Gordon Cox: And now here's more with Rachel Bloom, the creator and star of "Death, Let Me Do My Show." As we've alluded to, you talk a lot in the show about Adam Schlesinger and his death during early on in COVID. And he was your frequent collaborator. You worked with him on "Crazy Ex-Girlfriend," and he also wrote musicals like, you know, he wrote "Crybaby" and "The Bedwetter," and, you know, he's a musical guy. He was also in the band Fountains of Wayne. What can you tell us about—and you were in the middle of working on a Broadway musical with him. Can you tell us a little bit about kind of what that collaboration was like? Why were you a good fit creatively?

[15:13] Rachel Bloom: When I started writing with him, yes, he was introduced in the fold because he had been roommates with Aline Brosh McKenna's husband, Aline Brosh McKenna, with whom I created "Crazy Ex-Girlfriend." They've been roommates in the early 90s, and Aline said you should meet Adam. And I'd always worked with my other writing partner, Jack Dolgen. He had written and co-written and produced most of my music videos. So we started working with Adam, and it was a fit. Sorry, he did one of the songs in the show, yeah, at least one, is that right?

[15:45] Gordon Cox: In your show now.

[15:46] Rachel Bloom: He co—yes, yes, yes, he co-wrote the lyrics of one of the songs.

[15:50] Gordon Cox: Got it, got it.

[15:51] Rachel Bloom: You know, in a way, this show was—basically what I found in Adam was just a collaborator on all fronts, including musical theater. It's very rare to find someone who has such a command of pop and rock, but also major command of writing musical theater.

[16:11] Yeah.

[16:12] Rachel Bloom: So that's one of the many reasons we were a fit. And part of me writing every song in this show pretty much is written with a different collaborator, different collaborator setup, because it's kind of me experimenting with, okay, what is my songwriting life look like now that Adam's gone?

[16:30] Yeah.

[16:31] Gordon Cox: Because before he was gone, yeah, I just would have gone to him with everything.

[16:37] Right.

[16:38] Rachel Bloom: And what have you learned during that process about what your songwriting life looks like?

[16:46] I think different people bring different things, but there's so many talented people out there. There's no one who's ever gonna be, you know, a one-stop shop, for lack of a better way of saying it, than Adam. Adam could just—he just could do everything. He knew every genre; he just could do everything. And also, he's in my ear with—he was very not precious and very not sentimental and not saccharine. So I think he also—I’ve tried to write a show that he would like.

[17:27] You are someone who works across genres and in various media, and I just wondered if there were artists whose work and trajectory you consider sort of influential for you, like you've thought, oh, they're influences, or I'm interested in modeling my career to some extent after what they do.

[17:39] Oh, Mel Brooks.

[18:02] Yeah.

[18:03] Rachel Bloom: Especially comedy music. Those are two of the main influences and career models that come to mind. I mean, I was first inspired to write comedy music by someone who showed me the comedian Julie Brown, her music videos of "Cause I'm a Blonde" and "The Homecoming Queen's Got a Gun," which are these music videos from the late 80s, I think, and it hadn't occurred to me—I’d only seen men doing comedy music and comedy parodies, and it hadn't occurred to me, oh no, women can do it too, and we can parody our own sexuality in that way, and we can make fun of the way that music and pop culture sexualize women and we can turn that on its head.

[18:53] Yeah, yeah.

[18:54] Gordon Cox: Do you find in the broader entertainment industry that there is an interest in musical storytelling, or is it a thing—a hump you have to get over? Tell me what the—because there's the perennial, you know, impression that musical theater is terminally uncool.

[19:12] Rachel Bloom: Um, and I just wonder if that is a thing you encounter when you're going into pitch meetings.

[19:19] Yeah. Look, the sale of a musical show is always gonna be harder.

[19:23] Yeah.

[19:25] Rachel Bloom: But it depends. People say—what I find interesting is sometimes people say we want to do a musical. And then you go, okay, so you want books to go into song, you want people to burst into song. They go, oh no, no, no, no, no. We just want is like cool music. And you're like, well, oh, you're just trying to—you just want a good soundtrack. Right? So I think a lot of people in film and TV don't understand what musicals are, and then you'll see, I don't know, a screenplay or a TV script that's written to be a musical, but the person writing it isn't a musical writer, and so they'll write dialogue, write a scene, and then it'll be like insert song here, something about this, but it doesn't work, and you're like, well, no, this doesn't—this isn't the right placement for a song.

[20:16] And so I think there's—I think there's this idea of, I don't know, yeah, make it a musical. You put a fucking song here. And I think there's a—yeah, there's a lack of appreciation. I think that when you make a musical film or TV show, especially now, you're gonna have a narrower audience because people aren't used to seeing musicals. It's not like we're in the, you know, the 40s, 50s, 60s anymore where musical films were ubiquitous.

[20:43] Rachel Bloom: Um yeah, and I think it look, I also this is a separate issue, but I think that songwriters in general are undervalued. Songwriters in film and TV don't have a union, and it's how you can get into these things called demo derbies, which is where you are asked for no money to make a full song, a fully produced song, you are gonna go into a studio, you're gonna pay musicians, and you're gonna get nothing, and that's the norm. And sometimes those are amazing. That's how Adam got that thing you do. It was just from he was one of you know a hundred people to submit a song, but there's a lack of appreciation, I think, for what goes into songwriting, and people just go, oh yeah, I just write a little singy song, you beep beep beep.

[21:32] Rachel Bloom: And how do you think about, you know, the show is live and on stage, and you have worked on, presumably are working on other musical theater projects. How do you think about stage and theater fitting into your broader career? How do you will it always be a part of what you do? Do you think? Like tell me tell me about how you think of balancing that and like your screen work.

[21:55] Rachel Bloom: Oh, absolutely. It'll always fit. I have this mindset, you go where the gigs are. Stage is my first love. It's where I come from, so it's always going to be something that I'll be excited to do, that I'll be thinking about how to work it into my life. I have another idea for a musical that I've started working on. Um so it it's always it depends on the idea. Honestly, like I come, I'm an idea first person, then okay, what's the right medium for this idea? I'm not opposed to someday writing a graphic novel if it's the best, you know, way to communicate a certain story or idea.

[22:39] Rachel Bloom: What makes an idea right for the musical theater, do you think?

[22:43] Rachel Bloom: I don't know. I think a lot of ideas are right for musical theater. And I think a big misconception, and this is more on the musical film side, is people think if something's gonna be a musical and film and TV, there has to be, um, it has to be about, you know, a choir or something where music is inherent, but anything can be a musical. So what's freeing about stage is you don't have to have the excuse or reason of people bursting into song, but with TV and film you almost need that more, yeah, and it's not good or bad, it's just different. So I don't know, it really depends on the idea.

[23:21] Rachel Bloom: Yeah, and it also depends on, you know, frankly, the market, what's getting made. And yeah, if you have an expensive, I'm working on something right now that would be an expensive period piece. Yeah, I think that's more conducive to stage, frankly.

[23:39] Gordon Cox: Right.

[23:39] Gordon Cox: Uh can you tell us about anything, uh, any of the other things that you're working on for stage?

[23:45] Rachel Bloom: Um, I don't, I'm potentially working on it with another place, so I don't want to spoil it, but it's a story that I've wanted to work on for quite some time. And that's that that's boring. I know that's a boring answer.

[24:00] Gordon Cox: No, that's okay. That's uh but you are working on something.

[24:02] Rachel Bloom: Yes, it's one of several things.

[24:04] Gordon Cox: Um, so what's next for uh Death Let Me Do My Show?

[24:09] Rachel Bloom: I don't know. You're talking to me in the middle of, you know, an opening night is day after tomorrow. Yeah, let's see how this run goes. I obviously want to do it again. There are so many ways to go with this. Of course, in the back of my mind, I'm thinking of like, okay, how would you eventually film this?

[24:27] Gordon Cox: Yeah.

[24:28] Rachel Bloom: Um would love to explore Broadway in the West End. Uh that's a matter of, you know, who can make that happen seeing the show and coming to me.

[24:39] Gordon Cox: Right.

[24:39] Gordon Cox: Yeah.

[24:41] Rachel Bloom: And what are you learning? What do you learn from an audience about this show as you as it's been developing? Like how do you how do how does that inform, uh, you show to show and then also how the show grows over its development?

[24:56] Rachel Bloom: Oh, I mean, first of all, with jokes, audience is everything, right? So if there's a joke that I'm telling that's consistently not getting laughs, I gotta cut that joke. But also audiences really vary. It's unbelievable how much something that gets a huge laugh one night doesn't get a laugh another night. Um it it's kind of you just need their audiences have taste makers in them. And if you have one or two laughers who decide to laugh at a thing, but also maybe it's the way I'm doing it, because I kind of change up the way that I do the show every night. I mean, you saw the show, it's it's loose. There's a there's a I am always kind of putting things into my own words. So there's an unpredictability to that.

[25:42] Rachel Bloom: And New York audience, I would say theater audiences more than comedy theater audiences, because I've done this in both. The theater audiences are thirsting for plot and they're looking for it. And the stand-up audiences, it comes out of nowhere and they don't even know what to make of it.

[25:57] Gordon Cox: Yeah, the plot? Interesting.

[26:01] Rachel Bloom: Yeah, yeah.

[26:05] Gordon Cox: Is that mostly do you find that's determined by venue often? Like like what people expect from you and from your show.

[26:14] Rachel Bloom: Um, yes.

[26:16] Rachel Bloom: Yeah. I think so. I was in Boulder and it was a very big venue, very big comedy venue there, the Boulder Theater, and everyone there is lovely, but um I had a genuine I had a I had a heckler one night and he went, I just thought there'd be jokes in this show because the show gets quite serious. And he went, tell a joke, and it was really intense.

[26:34] Gordon Cox: Yeah.

[26:40] Rachel Bloom: And how'd you deal with them?

[26:43] Rachel Bloom: Um so the audience, the show gets kind of meta. The audience thought it was maybe built in, and I had to stop and explain this is not built in. This is actually just a person being an asshole. And I said, get the fuck out, you're ruining the show. Please get the fuck out right now.

[27:03] Gordon Cox: Yeah.

[27:04] Rachel Bloom: And they got the fuck out.

[27:05] Gordon Cox: Good good for them, I guess.

[27:07] Rachel Bloom: Good on them.

[27:08] Rachel Bloom: And good on you.

[27:09] Gordon Cox: Um tell us, give us a couple of your favorite cut jokes from this show.

[27:16] Rachel Bloom: Oh god. Well, oh, this was a hard one to lose. So the first time my husband and I had sex after I gave birth, um, it's funny, I'm doing this podcast in my in-laws' house in Long Island right now. Um, but I told this regularly on stage. Um, the first time my husband and I had sex after I gave birth, I said like we did it at the six-week mark when it's safe. And I said, How was it down there? And he said, You know when you're walking around a house after there's been an earthquake and the furniture's moved around, the photos are askew. You can tell something bad has happened here, but it's essentially the same house. I missed that joke.

[28:00] Gordon Cox: Yeah, yeah.

[28:01] Rachel Bloom: It probably it got a big laugh, I bet.

[28:03] Gordon Cox: Huge laugh.

[28:04] Rachel Bloom: Yeah, yeah, yeah.

[28:05] Gordon Cox: Did you write any songs that got cut?

[28:08] Rachel Bloom: Yeah.

[28:09] Rachel Bloom: Yeah. Tell us about them.

[28:10] Rachel Bloom: Um well, there were a couple songs that were in the previous version of the show. Oh, right, of course. Yeah. That I wanted to hang on to. So there was one about realistic pop star. There was another song. I'll release them someday about what if Billy Eilish were really, really old. Um where it's just basically a Billy Eilish style song, but like sung in a nursing home.

[28:31] Gordon Cox: Right.

[28:31] Rachel Bloom: Where it's like, why is pop music owned by the super young young people haven't experienced the world? So it was like old Billy Eilish. Um I used to talk about, I mean, I used there's a whole detour in the show about my experiences with death up until 2020, which is which is more of my fascination with the macabre and how I was raised to be fascinated with the macabre. Uh and I basically voluntarily I went to visit Auschwitz like alone. Um, which was everyone was like, why would you do that? But I was raised, especially by my father, to really appreciate history and appreciate the darkest parts of history. Um and so there was a song about that.

[29:19] Gordon Cox: And it's but will be will be released at some time, you think.

[29:24] Rachel Bloom: At some point, at some point.

[29:25] Rachel Bloom: Yeah, yeah, yeah.

[29:26] Gordon Cox: Do you could you imagine working it into another show at some point? Like is there is that even

[29:30] Rachel Bloom: Yeah, yeah.

[29:33] Rachel Bloom: Yeah, I think there's a whole other thing to be mined with the idea of um I don't know, light and dark and my fascination with the macabre and how that's actually changed since I had a kid. There's a sensitivity to dark things that I didn't have before I had a kid.

[29:53] Gordon Cox: Yeah.

[29:54] Rachel Bloom: Yeah.

[29:55] Rachel Bloom: Um, well, we will look forward to hearing that song and many others, and all the jokes that we miss whenever you release them. And then in the meantime, you're in Death Let Me Do My Show. Um, thanks very much for chatting with me and enjoy the rest of the run.

[30:09] Rachel Bloom: Thank you so much.

[30:13] Gordon Cox: That was Rachel Bloom, now starring off Broadway in Death Let Me Do My Show. If you enjoyed this conversation here on Stagecraft, I'd really appreciate it if you took the time to rate and review us wherever you listen to podcasts. It really does help. Or tell a friend about Stagecraft. Find past episodes and subscribe at all the places you get your pods, including Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and on the Broadway Podcast Network, a great place to find more theater for your ears. Until next episode, find me on Instagram and Twitter at GordonB. Cox. Thanks for listening and see you at the theater.