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[0:43] Gordon Cox: Welcome to Stagecraft, Variety's Theater Podcast, bringing you backstage and behind the scenes at the Tony Awards.

[0:49] Gordon Cox: I'm your host, Gordon Cox. On this episode of Stagecraft, I'm talking to James Corden, the host of the 73rd Annual Tony Awards. America at large knows Corden best as the host of the Late Late Show on CBS, but theatergoers got to know him first, both in the UK and here in the US, where he was in the original Broadway cast of the History Boys in 2006, and then he won a Tony Award for his performance in One Man, Two Governors in 2012. Since then, of course, the Late Late Show has been keeping him busy. But he's back on Broadway for one night only this Sunday. It'll mark his second time MCing the Tonys after he hosted the awards in 2016, and he took a little time out of his crazy week of pre-ceremony prep to take us behind the curtain for a glimpse at everything that goes into pulling together Broadway's biggest night. Hi, James.

[1:36] James Corden: Thanks for being here.

[1:38] James Corden: Thanks for having me.

[1:40] Gordon Cox: So I'm talking to you midweek. This episode is going to come out on Friday, but I'm talking to you midweek, uh, the week before the Tony Awards.

[1:47] James Corden: Yes, and this is, you know, the sprintiest part of the sprint on the way to the ceremony.

[1:54] Gordon Cox: Uh yeah, w uh tell what was your day today? Tell me about where you are in the process.

[1:58] James Corden: Oh man. It's uh well we're in we've been working on we've been working on the Tony Awards now for three months, four months working on what we're gonna do, how we're gonna do it, you know, and that's and who t who's we? Uh myself and the exec producer and my best friend of the Late Late Show, uh Ben Winston.

[2:26] James Corden: Yeah. And Glenn and Ricky. Yeah who they are the producers of the Tony Tele. And have done for many years. And a wonderful lyricist called David Javerbaum who used to work on the Late Late Show.

[2:45] James Corden: Before that he worked on the Daily Show. He wrote the lyrics to the opening song that I did in 2016. Right. And a wonderful composer called Tom Kitt who is uh who? People would know him. Sure, who has um done the score and the music for this song and for listeners who actually don't know who Tom Kitt is that's he wrote Next to Normal and a lot of other things.

[3:09] James Corden: He's incredible an excellent orchestra is an incredible um musician and composer and so we've been working for a long time on that. Then there's like it's a strange thing the Tony Awards because you can really fixate on the first ten minutes of the show.

[3:25] James Corden: Because you know there is an expectation to do a big musical opening number yeah you know the open we did last time I I sort of I I just loved I I had just an absolute ball yeah doing it and so then you're like well that okay well now we've got to try and beat that with something else um that people might enjoy so we started with a dance rehearsal myself Rob Ashford who is directing and uh choreographing the number who is amongst Broadway talent and London and elsewhere.

[4:07] James Corden: One of the greatest people you could ever wish to collaborate with anything on I'm every time I'm sort of in his orbit I'm I'm bowled over by him if I'm honest. And so we've been talking for a long time about the open and and then and then so today we were did the dancing we worked on like the choreography the dancing with our sort of if you like our company of perhaps I think twelve dancers.

[4:32] James Corden: Okay yeah and then we then had um maybe I think I think maybe like a hundred people arrive um and in the lobby of Radio City Music Hall were were working out the end of this song and and I I would say there was two or three times I could have burst into tears probably because I'm tired.

[4:32] James Corden: I was gonna say out of exhaustion or joy no I think well I but maybe because I'm tired but mostly because I just I'm just sort of I you know I'm bowled over by the enthusiasm and willingness to participate uh from the companies of these shows who are already doing eight shows a week. I I just I find it inspiring actually their attitude towards the entire thing and it was yeah and it was a joy so we did that and then costume fitting and then I had to have like a you know tux fitting and things which is always quite depressing for me um because there will always be a conversation happening behind your back about quite how much there is to let out and then I came here and then I'm gonna go back after this.

[5:21] Gordon Cox: Yeah I was gonna say are you gonna go back after this?

[5:54] James Corden: Okay. I'll go back not to Radio City, I'll go back to uh meeting room with some of our writers and then and then tomorrow it starts to become a kind of press so I think I do like Howard Stern and then we then we go to the orchestra and and work it out with that with a huge orchestra so I think Tom might be there now and then we'll figure that out tomorrow.

[6:16] James Corden: And then we're rehearsing another bit of the show um with some people I I don't want to give away but it's for a for a bit in the middle of the show which we have to rehearse which is incredibly ambitious.

[6:27] James Corden: We're gonna try and do a little sort of two and a half minute uh kind of one shot segment um which may or may not fall away depending on how this goes so it's it's a lot it's i it's kind of but it's brilliant it's what it's it's wonderful it is it's uh I I'm I'm very excited to to host it again.

[6:47] Gordon Cox: When did you start rehearsals in earnest?

[6:50] James Corden: Like here in town starting with the uh yesterday yeah I was just gonna say you've just got this week right yeah so we started yesterday.

[6:58] Gordon Cox: Right. Yesterday being Monday yeah um and how much from an outsider's perspective, it feels like MCing an award show is an entirely different thing from uh you know your gig on the Late Late Show, but also they have some similarities, it seems.

[7:13] James Corden: Um well, I guess it's similar in a sense if you're thinking what will people want to see, will this be fun?

[7:21] James Corden: Um but then you know, our show is there's another one tomorrow.

[7:26] Gordon Cox: So that's sure it's true.

[7:28] James Corden: You know, yeah and it's not live.

[7:30] Gordon Cox: Right.

[7:31] James Corden: So on our show, if we were going to do a big we're gonna try and do a big musical opening monologue or whatever, if we if someone if I slip over or the entire thing falls apart, you can go, well, let's do it again. Turn over. This is just absolutely live and happening right there, and there and that is where the feeling of uh nausea comes from.

[7:54] Gordon Cox: Does so uh is this this feels entirely different uh to you?

[7:59] James Corden: It couldn't feel more different, it couldn't feel more different. It's this is a a a beast of kind of epic proportions where I I I feel well I c I couldn't sleep last night through just fear and and sort of worry, really.

[8:15] James Corden: Uh because there's so many things that that could go wrong and and that that's just it. But that's also the thing that makes it the most thrilling and the most exciting.

[8:28] Gordon Cox: Does it is it related at all to that feeling you get before you go on stage for a you know, like when you would go on stage for One Man, Two Governors or something like that?

[8:37] James Corden: Well, so I'm just like that times a million. Well, I'm a fan of nerves. I like nerves, I think nerves are good, I think nerves and I experience them uh almost to a sort of crippling degree.

[8:51] James Corden: Um but I think it's because you're only ever nervous when something matters. You're only nervous when you want to do your best. You're never nervous for something that eh doesn't matter, you know.

[9:05] James Corden: So I mean, the nerves I felt One Man, Two Governors is probably maybe the most nervous I've I've ever felt in the fur the first preview at the National Theatre.

[9:20] James Corden: Where even thinking about it now makes my sort of stomach turn. Where I because the play would begin, and then I my character would enter about sort of seven or eight minutes into the first scene.

[9:32] James Corden: So I would have a seven or eight minutes just stood on my own behind a door, and the rest of the cast is on stage, and were you standing behind the door that will open with the Yeah, you're just standing behind the door.

[9:45] James Corden: I would stand behind the door, and that's where I sort of really started to encounter some incredibly ridiculous obsessive, compulsive disorders of like certain things that I do in a certain way and routine and things and stuff.

[10:01] James Corden: There was I take something out of my pocket and put it on a shelf and I would move something to somewhere else. All these things because you're just trying to eliminate doubt. That's all you're trying to do.

[10:11] James Corden: That's all those things are just eliminate doubt from your body. I'll be beyond nervous on Sunday night.

[10:27] James Corden: I will be, you know, I'll really be in a uh uh yeah, for a bit. You mentioned this, you last hosted in 2016, which was uh memorable for a number of reasons.

[10:39] James Corden: First of all, it was the year of Hamilton, yeah, and that was what everyone was talking about. But what I remember most vividly is I that year I went to the dress rehearsal, which is a thing that is a lot of fun.

[10:49] James Corden: But that year I remember all of us standing in line waiting to get to the Radio City, we were all getting these news alerts about a shooting that turned out to be the Pulse shooting in Orlando.

[10:58] Gordon Cox: Yeah.

[10:59] James Corden: Um what do you remember?

[11:01] Gordon Cox: Well I I remember being so impressed by how you ended up handling it.

[11:04] Gordon Cox: Um both both in the rehearsal and even more importantly in the in the telecast itself. What do you remember about those moments and sort of when you figured out that it would have to be acknowledged and what went into figuring out how you did that?

[11:17] James Corden: Well, I remember it incredibly vividly, actually. It became absolutely clear that that that we should that we had to talk about it.

[11:25] James Corden: Um there was I remember at one point, and I I don't remember who uh mentioned, but I remember the people were starting to say that they were going to mention it during the in memoriam package of the show, and myself and Ben felt incredibly passionate that that was a mistake.

[11:46] James Corden: Yeah. Um incredibly passionate. We were like, this this is this is completely wrong. We cannot we cannot wait two hours into a show like this to talk about something so monumental, so tragic, the thing that everybody is talking about.

[12:10] James Corden: Um then and we said we we we we want we think we should talk about it at the very top of the show. I think the absolute top of the show. We'll uh we will acknowledge it, we will talk about it, we will talk about it as eloquently as as we can. Uh and then we will carry on. So then Ben had already started jotting down some notes during the dress run of things to say, and then he and I talked and we talked mainly about feelings. What is the feeling in the room? And I remember saying to Ben, like that this is a community. This is a theatre full of people representing a community that has never excluded anybody. They have welcomed everyone. Nobody is excluded from this gang, if you like. That this is a group of people that say, come and you will we will welcome you here and we'll put our arms around you, regardless of gender, race, sexuality, anything, anything at all.

We are open to you. And so we were like, that that's what we should say. Yeah. That this that this is a place which is always and that that hate won't win, and and and that that that's all so. Then we we wrote it, right? And and then and then talking about that, if we're to talking about that 20 minutes before the show where there's nothing you can do. I uh I went and lay down, and I honestly I remember it like it was yesterday. I I I lay down and I had put a sweater over my eyes, because it was like it was too bright in my room, and I thought in 20 minutes time we're gonna talk about America's biggest mass shooting. Then we're gonna do a parody of Hamilton and then I'm gonna tell like four jokes, and then we're gonna do this seven minute musical number, which at this moment we have never done 100% successfully.

Uh and I remember thinking, ah, this this will 100% define how this night goes. This next 15 minutes will determine what the feeling is like in this room. And uh and that would that was a really strange sort of feeling, really, that that I thought, well, if this goes wrong, I don't know if the show will recover really. Uh like it of course it will on one level, but I it you know, right, will it be the celebration that it should be that it could be given what a monumental year on Broadway that had been, you know? Right, yeah.

[15:14] Gordon Cox: What did you learn overall from that last time hosting the Tonies that you are glad to know now as you're doing it this time?

[15:22] James Corden: That you've just got to enjoy it. Like you've gotta be you gotta be in it and enjoying it at that moment there and then like you gotta enjoy the whole night. Don't enjoy it uh retroactively. Okay, you know, don't uh don't look back on it and go, oh, I wish I'd enjoyed it more. Right. Like, I might never host this show again, I might never be asked to, so let's just try and enjoy it and make the entire night feel like what it is, which I think is a celebration of per square mile, the most talented people in the world who are just so gifted, it's ridiculous. And we're going to celebrate every single one of them, every single one of them, and jump in and enjoy the fact that this is on television.

Enjoy the fact that it's there and we're doing it. And like even like last time, which I think I might do this time again, we we had a pianist and a songbook, and I was just getting people to sing karaoke in the commercial break. Oh, right. I remember that. Yeah. Because you're like, I don't ever want the air to leave this room. Right. I don't want the commercial break to just be people going so anyway. So I said to John, hang on, it's back. You want it to be like, no, no, no, we're gonna be in this the whole time. This is gonna be a romp. This is going to be fun from start to finish. There's never ever gonna be a let up in that, you know. Right, right. And I and I'll I will I'll try and do it again. It's a bigger room, it's a less intimate room. So we'll see, you know.

[17:14] Gordon Cox: I'll be back with more from James Corden right after this.

[17:18] James Corden: With an unrivaled passion for the performing arts, City National Bank is the way up for Broadway. With a 65-year commitment to the entertainment industry, they have unique insight that other banks do not. Center stage, backstage, offstage. City National works behind the scenes, helping others to elevate their performance. The official bank of the 2019 Tony Awards, City National proudly backs Broadway and all of its supporting casts. Get to know them better at cnb.com. That's cnb.com. City National Bank, member FDIC is a subsidiary of Royal Bank of Canada.

[18:00] Gordon Cox: And we're back with more from James Corden. Tell me about how we've talked a little bit about your gig on the late late show, but because that has it's not live, as you mentioned, but it has a kind of live feel to it, right?

[18:13] James Corden: Yeah. Um in what ways did your work in the theater kind of prep you for uh the stuff you do on the late show?

[18:22] James Corden: Oh, in every way, in every way. In in mostly in discipline, um just the routine of doing a show every day. Like that's the that's the thing. And it's funny, you know, I I see from time to time uh other late-night hosts, and uh um um we all talk about how tired we are. Sure. But I often think this is this is nothing compared to the tiredness that I felt doing one man two governors. Like that was genuinely I was sort of in pain when I would wake up in the morning from just the sheer sort of physicality of it. Yeah. And doing that eight times a week was um was was just an absolute grind, you know. And and lots of people sort of ask, oh well, how is it different? And of course it's different, the late late Show in in in basically everywhere.

Sure. But um I often say to people that the the highs of hosting that show will never be as high as doing one man two governors. It just won't. It can't, nothing can, I don't think. I don't know if I'll ever experience a feeling like I would have sometimes doing that show, but by the same token, the lows are never as low as when you as when you're in Plymouth on a Wednesday afternoon and it's raining and it's show 387, you know? Right, right.

[19:57] Gordon Cox: Um what what was it about that show in particular that means so much to you?

[20:03] James Corden: Oh man. Well, it just I just don't know if I'll ever play a better part than that. I don't I don't know if I will. I hope to, but I do can I do think that would be a miracle because the the entire thing of playing that character of Francis is the play refuses the the play the way that Richard Bean wrote act one of that play it basically refuses to allow the audience not to root for this guy, right? Like from the second he walks on, you're falling flipping backwards over a chair, doing a thing, then you're swallowing a cigarette, then you're having then you're eating a letter, then you're having a fight with yourself, then you know what I mean. Then you're gonna pull someone up out of the order, then all of those things, all of the interactions, all of that stuff, to the point where then you get to this 20, I think 23-minute dinner scene at the end of Act One, which some nights, and I will say particularly the I remember the nights at the music box more than I think I do at the Adelphi or the National in a way, maybe because they're just but I think American audiences are more um enthusiastic, I think. And there were moments doing that scene where I would think if if I could stay in this minute forever, I would stay here.

[21:40] Gordon Cox: Your first time on Broadway was back in I looked it up. 2006 was History Boys. I can't believe it was that long ago. Um what and as we mentioned, you had a Broadway run in uh one man, two governors. How do you think of Broadway as a place and as a community?

[21:55] James Corden: And I love it, I love it so much. I d I do. I I I think it's uh I think it's it's the best place that you can go and work, uh you know. Um I think there's a million things wrong with it, which I could tell you about whatever you want. But I I I think what makes it great is the people. The it's funny when we were in London doing the History Boys, yeah, we were at the National Theatre, and and lots of people kept talking about to us about this Broadway community, and we didn't really know what that meant really. Because if you're in London, it it really isn't it doesn't it's not you're not in such close proximity, right? So it's very difficult to have a feeling of community because if you're in a play at the Haymarket and I'm in a play at Drury Lane, our paths are never gonna cross, we're never gonna drink in the same place. But here, on this, what is it, eight blocks, twelve blocks? Yeah, twelve blocks, yeah. Backing onto each other, and the same, you know, whether you're at Angus.

[23:01] Gordon Cox: Yeah, Magando suddenly departed, yes. Is it gone now?

[23:04] James Corden: Oh, yes. No. Oh fuck, that's really taking the window on something.

[23:09] Gordon Cox: Oh no, I'm sorry to hear that.

[23:11] James Corden: Because that was us. It's been a few years now.

[23:13] Gordon Cox: Right.

[23:14] James Corden: That's where we would. We were right across the street in that alley.

[23:16] Gordon Cox: Yeah.

[23:17] James Corden: That alleyway. I believe I f met you once in that alleyway. We were there every single night. That was it. And then, you know, like I when I went to see the prom the other day, uh Christopher Sieva said, Do you remember those parties we used to have? And behind and I was like, when he was in Spam a lot on a like a Friday or Saturday night, they would have this drinks thing in the alley behind the shoe but it's it's just glorious. Like I have had some of the greatest nights of my life in Bar Central. Yeah, just the proximity of doing it, the closeness of the people, the feeling of we're all in this together, is I think the thing that makes it alive and vibrant and incredible.

[24:03] Gordon Cox: Looking ahead, how do you think of theatre sort of fitting into your career overall?

[24:09] James Corden: Oh, and I hope so much that that's something that I will still get to do. I it's if I'm honest, it's the only thing I miss.

[24:19] James Corden: I don't really miss filming television shows or films, really. I don't hanker for it because I felt like I know what that is, and I know that, like, you know, I don't know what Brad Pitt was shooting today, but there's a strong chance that his days acting was like walk getting out of a car.

[24:40] Gordon Cox: Right.

[24:40] James Corden: Right, yes. Do you know what I mean?

[24:42] Gordon Cox: Yeah, yeah.

[24:42] James Corden: Turn over, sound speed, action, open the door, look left, look right, walk off. Okay, let's stop down, let's do it again. Right. Okay, Brad, maybe like look right and then let okay, you know what I mean?

[24:52] Gordon Cox: Yeah.

[24:53] James Corden: And look, I'm a huge fan of film, I love it, I love it. But uh, there's a really, really good um, I don't know if we're allowed to plug other theatrical podcasts or not, that's true. There is an absolutely brilliant, brilliant podcast that the Royal Court do, which uh Simon Stevens talks to different playwrights.

[25:10] James Corden: So Simon Stevens, who wrote *Curious Incident The Dog in the Night Time*, and there's a brilliant one where he's talking to Jez Butterworth, who I think is who you'll see on Sunday, yeah, and I they consider him a very dear friend of mine, and I and I think he is one of the greatest playwrights alive. I just do and there's a really interesting point where Jez has written lots of films, he's written the Bonds, he's written stuff like that, and Simon has never ventured into that world.

[25:37] James Corden: And Jez says in that thing, and it it's a really wonderful thing, that's why I attribute it to him. I don't want anyone to think that's me, but he says, I don't really know when film happens. He goes, Does it happen when you're writing it? Well, not really, because you're just writing it. Does it happen when you're shooting it, but you're not because you're shooting it out of sequence and you're perhaps never telling the story. Does it happen when you're editing it, but then everybody else is gone and they're not around? And maybe it happens when it comes out, but by the time it comes out, everybody's working on something else. So when does it actually happen?

[26:09] James Corden: And you can never say that about a play or a musical or any theatrical experience. It's like you know when it's happening, and it's happening right now, and that's why you're there. You're there to be part of a collective experience. So I will be deeply disappointed in myself if I don't pursue um a well a life or a part of my life to be in the theatre when this ridiculous job I'm doing now ends.

[26:22] Gordon Cox: How much longer is it?

[26:24] James Corden: Well, I mean there is the question that I'm I'm asked almost daily at the moment. I mean yeah, yeah because you're coming to the what is it one more year on your contract or something?

[26:22] Gordon Cox: I have a year left and at some point you'll decide whether you want to do more.

[26:22] James Corden: Right, yeah, it's a hard yeah I yeah it's but but it's so much more than just what do I want to do because you know we're a long way from home my wife and I and our children and there are people at home that we that we miss deeply and we care about and they're getting older and then there's a question of where do we want to educate our children and where would the best environment for them to be and all of those things.

[26:22] James Corden: So I've always looked upon the show I've always looked upon the late late show even before I started as that it would just be a it will be a moment and I knew it would be a pivotal momental yeah a pivotal moment I always knew it would be like good or bad success or failure this is a moment but I always knew it would only it would just be that I never thought I've never seen myself going, oh well, I'll just be doing this for 25 years.

[28:06] James Corden: Um and I understand why it would be, but I I just you know I think you've got to be really careful to not get too into m like money. I think can be a really dangerous thing if you if you are seeking new creative endeavors, you know.

[28:25] James Corden: So I hope and listen, I'm saying this, I don't even know if that door will be open to me when this is done. It's not for it's it's it absolutely isn't for me to decide to say, well, when I finish this show, I shall I shall go back to the theatre. Is that well, they might not want me.

[28:40] James Corden: So I have to be open to the notion that when I finish this show that might be it, and I might just slip away and just be a sort of footnote, or I'll be a memory for someone to go, I wonder what happened to that guy. I have to make peace with that, yeah.

[28:55] James Corden: But at the same time, I think you're either a you're either like a mountain climber or you're a mountain observer, and if you sit too long on a mountain, you might become an observer, and you always want to go, well, is there something else I can climb? Is there something else I can do?

[29:09] James Corden: And I sort of felt like doing the show in itself was kind of a punk move.

[29:16] Gordon Cox: Yeah.

[29:16] James Corden: Um and I and I think um I I always I always always will be drawn to what's the punk move? Is it going to do a play at the West Yorkshire Playhouse?

[29:28] Gordon Cox: Right.

[29:28] James Corden: Is it doing something off Broadway? Is it trying to direct something? Is it trying to write something? Who knows? But I do know that I would seek that in the theatre.

[29:39] Gordon Cox: Right.

[29:40] James Corden: Great. You've never been in a musical on Broadway.

[29:44] Gordon Cox: No.

[29:45] James Corden: If you were to star in one tomorrow, which one would it be?

[29:49] James Corden: Well, I would hope it would be something new. Um but there's there's a there's been a a few different moments sort of in my life where I I've it's been where I've you know gone down a road of talks to to to think about potentially doing a musical.

[30:10] James Corden: Um there was a I I there was a moment where it looked like I might do *A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum*.

[30:16] Gordon Cox: Oh yeah.

[30:16] James Corden: Which I think is an incredible part. I really really do. I don't know if you could do that show today. I'm not I'm not a hundred percent convinced, but I do think that is a wonderful part, I really do.

[30:30] James Corden: Um a show which has always meant a great deal to me, and I don't know why, because I don't think it's perfect by any stretch at all, is a musical called *Kiss of the Spider Woman*.

[30:42] Gordon Cox: Oh yeah.

[30:42] James Corden: Which uh I saw when I was at school, uh I was 15, and I saw it at the Sharpsbury Theatre with Brent Carver and Cheetah Rivera and Anthony Cravello.

[30:58] Gordon Cox: Oh yeah.

[30:58] James Corden: And I um and I was just like beyond moved by like Brent Carver's performance in that show, like that she's a woman song, I think is one of the most underrated in musicals, and I I I really uh people ask me m now for for I'm sure uh uh kind of obvious reasons, what do I listen to in the car?

[31:25] James Corden: And and I'll I'll often just be singing that song in a car.

[31:29] Gordon Cox: Right.

[31:29] James Corden: Um so I love that, but then at the same time, you know, if someone came to me and said, Do you and Jim Parsons want to do *The Producers* on Broadway?

[31:42] James Corden: I would probably drop everything to go and do it, you know?

[31:45] Gordon Cox: Right.

[31:46] James Corden: So I know.

[31:48] James Corden: Well, we've talked about it before, never seriously.

[31:51] Gordon Cox: Just jokingly like, ah, that would be a fun.

[31:51] James Corden: That would be a fun thing to do, you know.

[31:57] James Corden: Um So I I I don't know really.

[32:00] James Corden: I would also love to do I would love to do something that's completely sort of out of my comfort zone. Nathan Lane said uh last year at the Tonies in Nathan Lane's speech, I'm gonna get it wrong what he said, but he said something along the lines of I think he thanked his partner for allowing him to go on a journey to see if the thing he thought was there might be and that that play doing *Angels in America* at the National was kind of the start of that journey, and I don't know why, but it kind of flawed me when I was sat on a couch where I thought I I thought I know exactly I know exactly what you're talking about, which is I wonder if the thing I think is in there, I wonder if it's there, because I've I've scratched the surface at this and I know I know there is a world where I can be this Nathan Lane that you've seen and know very very well.

[33:05] James Corden: But I wonder I wonder if I can explore a a different strand of my abilities and push myself a little.

[33:15] James Corden: Um and I and that that really spoke to me a lot, and I I would I would hope so much that I would be brave enough should opportunities like that come my way to explore a different side of myself and find be able to be comfortable in something so uncomfortable you know for both the audience and me you know yeah but I I like the idea of figuring that out you know yeah we can't wait to see what that is when is that might never be it might never exist but you know I'm saying like you know yeah before you leave us and get back to work leave us with a tantalizing teaser for Sunday night it's uh well I mean look I hope it's gonna be fun I do I do I hope so much but um we're we're yeah the the the opening number that we're doing is um we we've left no stone unturned to try and make something worthy of the people in that room that's mainly it and it's live and because it's live it's gonna be alive and that is a great thing is that all right that's perfect well thank you thanks for taking the time it was great to chat with you James we'll we'll see you Sunday that was James Corden.

[35:07] Gordon Cox: We'll be hosting the 2019 Tony Awards this Sunday, June 9th, airing live from Radio City Music Hall at 8 p.m. Eastern on CBS.

[35:16] Gordon Cox: If you like what you're hearing on this and other episodes of *Stagecraft*, we'd so appreciate it if you took the time to rate and rebuild us on Apple Podcasts.

[35:24] Gordon Cox: Or tell a friend you think might enjoy the show too. Next week, I'll be back in my usual Tuesday slot with Thomas Schumacher, the president and producer of Disney Theatrical Productions, a Broadway powerhouse that's celebrating its 25th birthday this year.

[35:38] Gordon Cox: Thanks for listening. And until then, see you at the theater.

[36:07] Gordon Cox: And they're part of the Royal Bank of Canada, which is another name you can trust.com.

[36:17] Gordon Cox: That's CNB.com. City National Bank, member FDIC, is a subsidiary of Royal Bank of Canada.