This transcript was automatically generated and might contain errors.

[0:00] Eli Tokash: Hello everyone and welcome to episode 119 of Take A Bow. I'm your host, Eli Tokash, and this week we have such an exciting episode for all of you. You're probably listening to this podcast just for our incredible guest this week. I'm so excited for this episode. I'm so excited for you all to listen to it and hear it. It's so fantastic, and he is just a joy. We have Larry Saperstein on the show today, and we talk all things High School Musical: The Musical: The Series. We talk about his new project that he's currently creating called Tap With Larry and his journey with that and what it is and trying to get all of you excited that are listening, and hopefully that does the trick. And yeah, we talk about so many things.

We really get into the High School Musical conversation. I ask some questions and all the things. I'm excited for all of you to hear it. I get his perspective on a lot of filming stuff and kind of the writing of the show, really pick his brain about it all. So it's just a good episode. This is an episode really for High School Musical: The Musical: The Series fans. If you don't know the show or aren't too familiar with it, you may be a little confused, but I promise you there's some fun stories here, and there's a lot to learn, and it's just entertaining because Larry's a joy, so you're still gonna love it. But before we turn it over to that, before we talk about it, we have to talk about some Broadway news because there's a ton of Broadway news this week.

[1:26] Eli Tokash: Specifically over at Funny Girl, it seems like literally my entire social media, whether I'm on TikTok or Instagram, wherever I am, it's all about Funny Girl. It's all about Lea Michele. She's even overshadowing her co-star Tovah Feldshuh, who also made their debut in Funny Girl, like not Broadway debut, but her debut in Funny Girl, her first performance, I guess I should say. Very exciting stuff. Congratulations to both of them. Next week I will actually have a full review of Lea's performance and Tovah's, of course, because I'm going to see it tomorrow. So I'm very excited for that. And yeah, I'm just thrilled because I saw the videos, it's nuts. The crowd was electric. I was told on very good authority by multiple people that there were seven standing ovations.

Crazy talk. Okay, just madness. So I'm excited to see it. And yeah, I'll let you all know how it is because I see it tomorrow, Friday, September 9th. I'm so excited. Shout out to Pat, by the way, who's probably listening to this, who actually is going with me tomorrow. So very exciting stuff.

[2:36] Eli Tokash: Now, talking about performances, because Lea Michele totally overshadowed the rest of them. And there's actually a ton of first performances. First, I'll start off with the Take A Bow family. Lena Hall made her debut in Little Shop of Horrors yesterday. So, so exciting. I think she's like the perfect fit for this role. I'm so excited for it. And actually, they also announced this week that Rob McClure is bringing Brad Oscar over to his Little Shop. And Brad Oscar, also a Take A Bow family member, is going to be playing Mr. Mushnik. And I'm so excited for that. To see those two together have that banter and all the things in the show. I'm so excited. You have Rob McClure, you have Brad Oscar, you have Lena Hall as the stars, and then of course they also brought in Bryce Pinkham to play Dr. Orin and all those other fabulous characters that Christian Borle seemed to have played off-Broadway in this production for a million years.

So it's exciting stuff. They have an incredible cast. So those four leading the way, it's just pretty incredible. So go back to see Little Shop of Horrors with this cast, because they got a full new cast, and they're all fantastic, and everyone we love.

[3:44] Eli Tokash: So we're gonna go check that out soon, and I'll give you all a review on that, as always. And then also exciting stuff for first performances, the Into the Woods new cast. So you have Crystal Rodriguez, you have Stephanie J. Block, you have Andy Carl. All of those fabulous people made their first performances in their respective shows, this case Into the Woods. So excited for them. This seemed to have been like the biggest thing, literally, when it came out that there was a new cast going into Into the Woods. And I just have not seen like anything about it. So I'm shocked by it, but I have heard from people that saw it that it was fantastic. Shocker, they say Montego Glover is amazing, who's splitting the role with Patina Miller.

They say Stephanie J. Block's amazing. They say everyone is amazing, that everyone's getting great reviews, just not as much coverage because of the Lea Michele thing. So I just wanted to give them a little shout out and congratulate literally all of them, everyone I just named on either getting a new job in Bryce Pinkham and Brad Oscar's case, or the first performances, such as Lena Hall, Lea Michele, and Stephanie J. Block, as well as all those other fabulous Into the Woods people because there's so many to name.

[4:54] Eli Tokash: Also, news out of Into the Woods, since we're on the topic, they announced that they're extending until January. Now I knew this. I told everybody this to prepare for another extension when they announced their latest extension that they were going to like October and that, or I don't know exactly when. Maybe it was November, and they were like, we're gonna bring in a new cast for it for the extension and everything. So no shocker there, no surprise there. Everyone kind of saw it coming, but they officially made it official that they are extending again until January. But they announced that it was their last extension. I don't know if I believe that. They're advertising it in such a way that, okay, we're extending for one final time, blah, blah, blah, till January.

And I just truly hope that that's not true. And I really think that that has to do with the ticket sales. Talking to Telly Leung, if you didn't listen to that interview, talking about ticket sales being your vote, like that's literally how you keep a show on Broadway. It's just so true. Everything we talk about, I have a couple more interviews coming up, and we talk more about that because he just put that in my head, and it's just been so thought-provoking for me lately. I guess I never really thought of it that way, and now that I am, it's just like wow, I'm open to a new world.

[6:16] Eli Tokash: So everyone, if you want Into the Woods on Broadway, and if you want to see like new casts and all these stars come into the show, just continue to go see it and go support the show and these fabulous casts that they keep on bringing in. Shout out to Kennedy Kanagawa, who we had from Into the Woods on the podcast. He gave us all the scoop from City Center now to Broadway with the new cast coming in, all the things. So hopefully we'll get another Into the Woods cast member on here to talk more about it. But for now, that's kind of the Into the Woods content I can give you to hopefully feed your fix. Moving on, speaking of actually Telly Leung, it was announced that George Takei and Telly Leung will be performing and reprising their roles in Allegiance in London in the UK.

I'm so excited for that. Telly had kind of mentioned something about it offline, not on record, that he was like, oh, Allegiance means the world to me. I can't wait to do it again, blah, blah, blah. And I was just like, I kind of overshadowed that. And I was like, oh, he just like wants to do it again. You know, like he said he could do Rent forever. But he did mention it, and I just totally overlooked it. So congratulations to Telly and of course George Takei and everyone involved in the production on bringing Allegiance to the UK. They've never had a production over there. So the production itself is making their UK debut, West End debut, London debut, I guess. Very exciting stuff for them.

[7:43] Eli Tokash: And more stuff happening. Oh, another casting announcement here with Brandon Victor Dixon and Amra Faye Wright joining Angelica Ross in Chicago this month. Very exciting. I love Brandon Victor Dixon. I'm a big Brandon Victor Dixon fan. I reached out to him. I'm going to try to get him on the show to talk about, I know Chicago, it's just like it's so just stars after stars. I actually tweeted something from the Take A Bow Twitter saying it came out that Kelly Clarkson is like the one thing she hasn't done in her career that she's like dying to do is be in a Broadway show. And I was like, oh, Chicago's on the phone. Just making a joke because it's like all these stars just rotate in and out of Chicago.

I literally, anyone I have on the podcast could probably did Chicago at one point or another because it's been on forever and it just has star after star and always rotating people. So congratulations to Brandon Victor Dixon and Amra Faye Wright, the latest performers to go into Chicago, I guess.

[8:50] Eli Tokash: Exciting stuff. If you're a fan of the show and all the things, and of course of them, check it out. Moving on, we have Sweeney Todd finally announced that it's happening. It's happening and it's going at the Lunt-Fontanne Theater with tons of Broadway stars in this revival. It's currently slated for Josh Groban and Annaleigh Ashford. There are a ton of other stars going to be in this production. This production may be bigger than the Company revival. This may be the biggest revival or the most anticipated revival in Broadway history. Not only because it's Sweeney Todd, and like Sweeney Todd's amazing, and everybody loves the music, and that story is hilarious, and all the things. It's crazy to think that it's hilarious because it's literally about like it's so dark.

[9:44] Eli Tokash: Anyways, moving on. It's exciting because there's stars named being thrown out, like Eva Noblezada, Patrick Page. I just named like basically the Hadestown cast. Okay. That would be so sad for them to leave. Anyways, there's been a ton of people being thrown around that's also going to be joining Josh Groban and Annaleigh Ashford in this production. So very exciting stuff for that. I'm so excited. Their first performance is going to be on February 26th of 2023, according to Ticketmaster. But the actual press release, I don't believe has been announced yet on like when it was coming. But you could buy tickets for it, I believe starting tomorrow, September 9th. But it says the first show will be February 26th.

Moving on. Oh, actually, I have that's it for the Broadway news this week, but I have very exciting news coming from Take A Bow, where I have exciting news that we are on YouTube and we are going to be doing a lot more video content. I'm so excited to bring it to YouTube. I think that it will be newer content. You're gonna be able to watch the podcasts soon. Those episodes are not up yet. Right now, we are currently kind of putting all the content that we have on TikTok and on Instagram reels and all the things to YouTube for now. And then we're going to, in the near future, I will obviously keep you all posted. We're gonna have the ability to watch the episodes so you can watch them and not just listen to them and have a little bit more entertainment there.

[11:21] Eli Tokash: And then we're gonna be doing very exciting content, and hopefully, we're gonna be doing content with shows, working with shows, and getting some performers, hopefully going backstage, doing something fun with them in between shows, all the things. And that's all gonna be video content, and we're gonna do stuff with audience members and Broadway fans and all the things with the Broadway flea market coming around. We're gonna be doing a lot of stuff there. I'm so excited. I obviously will keep you updated here, but the best way to keep up with all of that is if you subscribe to our YouTube. And I'm gonna give you three reasons to do that right now. Number one, you'll most likely see yourself or someone that you love and know that you're a fan of on YouTube, and you're gonna be able to watch them do fun content.

Number two, you get to now watch the podcast, and you get to see all the stupid and silly faces I make during a podcast episode. I never knew I was doing this, and no one ever told me this, but watching these podcast episodes back because we do video that record them, I make the dumbest faces I've ever seen in my life. And I don't know why. I just get lost in conversation. I'm just like, oh my God, so fascinated. And people just pull me in, and my face just like it doesn't care. And it's just doing what it wants. And it's just embarrassing. So you get to see that, which is so fun. And you get to laugh at me.

[12:45] Eli Tokash: And then number three, you will see extra content, just more stuff around Take A Bow. And it's not just gonna be podcasts, there's gonna be so much more fun things that we're gonna be doing, and we're gonna be doing it all for Broadway, and it's all gonna be surrounded through Broadway. And of course, like if we have it, we're gonna be able to do TV shows and movies and stuff like that, and with like those kind of celebrities. But for now, we're sticking with Broadway because I mean, why not? So yeah, just you'll get to see me being more of a fool, and you'll get to see more people that you love, and you get to actually watch it and have the visual entertainment. It also takes like two seconds to do it.

You literally go to YouTube, you search up Take A Bow Podcast, and then you hit a button. Like it literally takes two seconds. So I don't know why you wouldn't. I will love you forever if you do. And I just really hope that we can make something fun on YouTube and have even more content. And I think that watching it and doing stuff like that will really continue to help grow the podcast and hopefully keep you all around.

[13:50] Eli Tokash: So, anyways, I just want to make something fun and I just wanted to do something new. So here we are, we're going to YouTube. Go subscribe to Take About Podcast on YouTube. All right, that's all I have for you folks this week. Without further ado, I've talked way too much. Let's turn it over to the fabulous guest this week, Larry Saperstein. Curtain up.

[14:15] Eli Tokash: This week's guest is a fan favorite from the hit show, High School Musical: The Musical: The Series. Oh my goodness. Tongue twister every time. He is currently working on something special to connect and share his love for tap with all of you called Tap with Larry. You may know him as Big Red, but today we'll get to know him as Larry Saperstein. Everyone, welcome to Take A Bow, Larry Saperstein.

[14:22] Larry Saperstein: Hi.

[14:22] Eli Tokash: Hello.

[14:22] Larry Saperstein: Oh my goodness.

[14:43] Eli Tokash: Oh my gosh.

[14:44] Larry Saperstein: What an introduction.

[14:45] Eli Tokash: My fan favorite. Like, oh my God, come on. You're iconic in the show. I'm obsessed. Seriously. It's so funny because I told my mom, like who I was interviewing. She doesn't know the show. Like, we I like watch it, so she'll like listen to bits and pieces of it. And every time you come on, she'll like actually sit down and be like, oh my God.

[15:04] Larry Saperstein: Yeah, yeah.

[15:05] Eli Tokash: You and Joe, because I'm from Pittsburgh. So Joe, Joe and I know each other from the CLO and all those things. So funny. But yeah, love High School Musical. And uh we'll get to into all of that. But I usually like to start off by asking, you know, guests and whoever comes on here, kind of what inspired them to get into the industry and what inspired you to tell stories, or like in your case, kind of tap dance, all the things. How did you get into it involved?

[15:32] Larry Saperstein: Well, so I grew up on Long Island, which you know is right outside of New York City, and when I uh when I was like I think I started dance lessons when I was like six years old. Um, and that was like my first, you know, thing that I was doing that was like remotely part of performance. Both of my parents, my mom is a music teacher, and my dad was an actor kind of before I was born. And um when I was born and when I was younger, was doing like a lot of community theater, you know, in the area. And so I would start doing community theater with them. So like one of my first shows that I did was I did The Music Man and I was like 10 years old and I played Winthrop.

[16:20] Eli Tokash: Oh my gosh.

[16:22] Larry Saperstein: And I actually they actually put in at that at that point I had already been taking dance classes for a few years, and I had already like sort of really taken a liking to tap, and they um they put in a tap solo in Gary, Indiana for his oh my god. Oh, Harold Hill taught Winthrop how to dance kind of oh my god, that's brilliant.

[16:43] Larry Saperstein: Um yeah, so um so that was kind of like my first like when I started, you know, being more interested in performance, and then um when I was 10 years old, I did a production of Oliver at the John W. Engamin Theater in Northport, uh, which is like a regional theater. Um, and so that was like me and you know, a bunch of other kids my age were all like sort of getting into this world of like what is a professional actor and like what does it mean to be a professional?

[17:14] Eli Tokash: Right.

[17:14] Larry Saperstein: Um, and so from there, uh, you know, a lot of the moms had been talking and whatever, and it and they all were sort of talking about getting their kids uh managers and agents, and my parents were like, Oh, is that something that you want to do? Like, is that something we should look into? And I said yes. And so um shortly after that, I did an industry showcase. Uh it was called with uh man named Mark Tumanelli, who runs Yes, uh yeah, he he runs something called Broadway Workshop, and he also has a podcast with uh the Broadway Podcast Network.

[17:48] Eli Tokash: Yes, like Little Me shout out two years ago, Little Me, yeah.

[17:51] Larry Saperstein: Um and so actually, so I did that, and I was probably um I was still like 10, maybe 11 at the time. And so I did this uh showcase, and that's how I got my manager. Um, and so from then on I started, you know, auditioning with all of the Broadway kids at the time.

[18:10] Eli Tokash: Sure.

[18:10] Larry Saperstein: Um, and then I started taking tap class with a guy named Tommy Redder, who was in Billy Elliott musical at the time. And so what happened was I started uh I started being like in the same room and like in the same dance classes as all of these people that were on Broadway at the time, so they were in Billy Elliott or Mary Poppins, or I was a little bit older than the Matilda kids. Like Matilda kids came in maybe like when I was probably like 14 or 15, and those kids were like maybe 11 or 12, so they were like maybe three or four years younger.

[18:45] Eli Tokash: Gotcha.

[18:45] Larry Saperstein: But you know, there's like all these kids that are sort of in whatever show that they're in, and they all take the same dance classes and all that.

[18:52] Eli Tokash: Yeah, you were kind of like the Annie and the Billy Elliott kind of.

[18:55] Larry Saperstein: Yeah, even Annie was a little bit younger than me. I was early, I was like early Billy Elliott. So like oh wow.

[19:02] Eli Tokash: Um, so I was taking classes with like um not like not like the Billy's at the time, but it was like Tommy Bachelor, and like so some of some of the like younger billies that were like maybe like first replacement billies.

[19:16] Larry Saperstein: Gotcha. If that makes sense, yeah, yeah, yeah. Um so that was like, yeah, so that was like my community for most of my like young years. Um and then when I was in high school I kind of stopped a little bit because I was like really invested in like being in high school kind of thing.

[19:37] Eli Tokash: Yeah.

[19:37] Larry Saperstein: Um and I did a lot of my like school shows. So I did like high school theater uh I was like in Beauty and the Beast. I we did um I was it was very funny when high school musical season two did be um but I in my production I was Lumiere.

[19:54] Eli Tokash: My God that'd be amazing.

[19:56] Larry Saperstein: Yeah so then I g I got to do so I've got to do Beauty in the Beast three times in my life I say because the first time was when I was like 10 I did a community theater and I was chip and then in high school I did it and I was Lumiere and then I did it on the show and I was LaFeu. So I played all the characters. I love it.

[20:11] Larry Saperstein: But anyway so yeah so then um that was uh yeah that was like my high school kind of years a lot of uh community or a lot of community theater and high school theater um and then also at the time I was doing like a lot of commercials kind of um and I did like a commercial for Goldfish Puffs and I did a commercial for uh Samsung like Samsung Pay it was called at the time and uh an American express like a bunch of kind of international commercials.

[20:44] Eli Tokash: Amazing but then when it came time to uh do college stuff we were just talking about pace before um I sort of I I are I had a manager, you know I I was still with my manager from when I was younger and I didn't really necessarily think that like a musical theater degree was going to like move me forward in a way because I was still training with all these like New York City people.

[21:14] Larry Saperstein: Right.

[21:15] Eli Tokash: Um so I wound up uh I was very interested in filmmaking at the time and also in design for theater. So I did audition for like a handful of musical theater programs. I got into like Wagner, um maybe some other ones, but I wound up choosing the the theatrical design, the production design program at Pace um because it felt to me at the time like it was maybe a more um like holistic kind of uh exploration of theater that I could at the time like learning not just about like what it is to be an actor but also like what it is to actually like make a show from the ground up.

[21:58] Larry Saperstein: Totally um and so I did that uh for a couple of years but then um the fates gave me High School Musical.

[21:58] Eli Tokash: Yeah they dragged you back into the performing um oh my god fantastic first of all that's so cool um I I couldn't agree with you more like being in New York is is is a blessing it truly is um especially if you want to like be in this industry um because not only like you don't have to go to college to get that high quality training that like all these colleges you know think about so you can get this incredible um coaching and all of these lessons that you can learn here in the city at any age literally when you're after college before college whenever you want to do it and then you are doing something where you're kind of like giving back and you're providing a something that uh can kind of teach people of all ages.

[22:51] Larry Saperstein: So let's talk about Tap with Larry and your current adventure.

[22:54] Eli Tokash: Um sure.

[22:55] Larry Saperstein: Yeah. First of all, like what can people expect to get out of it? Talk to us about it.

[23:00] Larry Saperstein: Okay, so so Tap with Larry is a 10-week online video masterclass series. Uh so basically, uh when you sign up for the course, uh you get a username and password, and you go every week, we're doing it on Fridays starting September 16th for 10 weeks. Uh you log in and there will be a new lesson available uh for you to practice. And there's actually there's a community forum as well. There's like a comments section, so different students can talk to each other if they're having trouble with a lesson. I can actually see the comments and reply to people as well if they're having trouble with a lesson. So I'll be checking in periodically with the classes as well.

[23:47] Larry Saperstein: Um, but every week uh there's a new lesson, and you have forever basically, you can go at your own pace to practice the material. Um, because once it's up, it'll be up forever. So once you sign up and once you pay for it, you have lifetime access to the material in the class. Um so we're just we're we're just releasing it every week to kind of uh give it like some structure and momentum. But once those 10 weeks are over, uh those lessons don't disappear. You can literally go back forever and look at the material and and keep practicing with the exercises.

[24:26] Larry Saperstein: So in each lesson, each week, there's a discussion portion where we will discuss a new step. So, for example, we'll talk about a shuffle. Like, what is a shuffle, how to do a shuffle, what is a flap, what is a cramp roll? Um, and there's 10 there's actually eight of those, eight new steps, and then those are accompanied by uh an exercise portion where we'll learn a combination. And with that comp that combination will feature the step that we just talked about.

[24:56] Larry Saperstein: So it'll be like shuffles discussion and the shuffles exercise. Uh we release like at in the same week. So you can look at this step and then you practice the exercise and you work in the exercise all week until next week, and then we do a new lesson. And then at the very end of the 10 weeks, the last two weeks are just combinations. So one is an original combination that I choreographed for the class using all of the different steps that we learned, kind of an amalgamation of everything that we learned in the class.

[25:28] Larry Saperstein: And then the final, final, final combination is a combination called the Shim Sham Shimmy, which is a very, very uh important historic piece in the tap dance community. It's a routine that's over a hundred years old. Um it's like part of the tap dance community. Like when I was growing up and doing these tap dance shows, every single show would end instead of a curtain call, they would bring everybody on and they would do the shim sham shimmy, the entire like company.

[25:57] Eli Tokash: Um, so it's like this big part of tap dance culture, and I felt that it was the best way to end this uh introductory course because at the end of the course it was kind of like uh is kind of like a diploma in the sense of like now you know like the the most fundamental aspects of tap dance, including this like fundamental important piece of choreography, and you can go and be part of the tap dance community anywhere in the world.

[26:24] Eli Tokash: Oh, that's so fun. And it's so cool to hear that you're you kind of are forming your own little community within the tap dancing world with their discussion part and everything like that. And you get to really, you know, kind of be there for for everyone while being while they're in like all the different states. You could literally enroll anywhere.

[26:43] Larry Saperstein: Um you can enroll anywhere in the world.

[26:46] Eli Tokash: Yeah.

[26:46] Larry Saperstein: It's fully global. And that was that was the thing, you know, over the years I've gotten so many messages from people. After uh, you know, we put the tap dance into the season one finale of High School Musical.

[26:59] Eli Tokash: Yes.

[26:59] Larry Saperstein: I've gotten I've gotten so many messages from people saying, like, I I tap danced when I was younger, but I stopped. And when I saw your tap dance, I decided to start tap dancing again. Or, you know, I was watching the show with my son, who's 10, and when he saw you tap dance, he said that he wanted to go take tap classes. And like those kinds of things, I feel I've I've been very grateful that I've been able to kind of contribute to the tap dance world, like getting people inspired and getting people excited to start tap dancing.

[27:34] Eli Tokash: Totally. And for me, this was a way to help those people that got inspired from me tap dancing and seeing me tap dance, uh, help them continue on their tap dance journey or help them start if they were inspired by seeing me tap dance, but they didn't know how to begin or they didn't have access to a dance studio that offers tap dance uh or or really anything.

[27:56] Larry Saperstein: So uh so it's really about accessibility and growing the tap dance community.

[28:03] Eli Tokash: Yeah, that a hundred percent.

[28:05] Larry Saperstein: What you're doing with the accessibility, like anyone can do it. It's it's fantastic, truly. Um, and the fact that you know, you kind of get to be their teacher, like they can say, like, they taught they took classes from Larry Saperstein. Like, that's so so cool. And it's something also very interesting that I really love what you're doing. Um, is that like, yes, it is in a virtual uh setting, but honestly, like when you're someone like me, I kind of get intimidated walking into like a tap class because like I may compare myself to other students and everything. So, like this you can do from the comfort of your home, you know, you're by yourself or someone you're comfortable with, like your parent or whatever, whoever's in the room with you.

[28:44] Larry Saperstein: Yeah, and you could do it with friends if you want to too, you know?

[28:46] Eli Tokash: Yeah, which which is like brilliant. And so, like, nobody has to watch you, you don't have to worry about that. You can be comfortable and do it when you want because you have it forever. Like, I think that this whole thing is just so brilliant, and I love what you're doing with it. So tell everyone how they can enroll and kind of uh find all the information.

[29:05] Larry Saperstein: Yeah, so all of the information is on tapwithlarry.com. Uh, or you can go to my Instagram at Larry Saperstein. Yes. Um, or there's also a Tap with Larry specific Instagram, which is us at tap with Larry that has more information uh about that on the there's different posts and stuff. So yeah, if you go on TapwithLarry.com, that's probably the most direct way to find all the material. There's a frequently asked questions uh section on the page, and there's also uh a section to preview the course material if you're not sure if the class is right for you, can watch the first uh week of lessons for free um to see if it's something that works for you. Um on the site, we answer questions like people are asking uh if they can do the class if they don't have a studio to go to or if they don't have tap shoes.

[29:59] Eli Tokash: Sure.

[29:59] Larry Saperstein: And all of those things are absolutely yes. You can take this class from anywhere. You can do it in sneakers, you can do it with tap shoes on a portable tap board. We're actually, I think by the time this comes out, this will be announced. We're actually partnering with a man named Tony Hernandez here in LA who makes uh handmade custom portable tap dance floors. Um he he's incredibly amazing. And we're actually doing a giveaway. So if you sign up for the course, everybody that signs up for the course uh will be entered to win their own portable tap board. We're only giving one away, um, and we'll pick that after the enrollment has ended on September 16th. So if you're nervous that you don't have a place to tap dance and you really want to take the class anyway, yeah, sign up because there might be a chance that you'll win a board and we'll send it directly to you.

[30:53] Eli Tokash: Oh, that's brilliant. That's so freaking cool. And you can customize it. How cool is that? Um, yeah, so I want to encourage everyone. Like, I know this is for all ages, but specifically, like I know there's a lot of people listening that are a high school age. You mentioned like learning Oh my gosh. Yeah, you mentioned like learning combinations. And I don't think a lot of people realize that for like when you audition for college, especially in a musical theater program, you have to do like pre-screens before you like go and audition.

[31:22] Larry Saperstein: Yes.

[31:23] Eli Tokash: And a lot of those times, most if not all colleges will ask for like two combinations. And if you don't know combinations, then it's kind of difficult to send in those pre-screens for the colleges to bring you in for an in-person audition. So if you take this course, Larry's providing you with two uh combinations that you could potentially do for these college auditions. So highly recommend this is so cool, everything that you're doing.

[31:49] Larry Saperstein: Yeah, and especially especially people that are looking to go into a musical theater program in college, yeah. Uh I think you know, they also will have you do tap dance in your audition. And if you want maybe a a greater chance of being accepted into that program, or or just sort of nailing that tap dance audition, even if you've taken tap dance before, but you just want like a little bit of a refresher or a little bit more of uh kind of tap dance practice before you go into your audition. I think this course is like absolutely totally 150% perfect for anybody that's looking to do uh a musical theater program, college audition or anything like that.

[32:33] Eli Tokash: Amazing. I'm so excited. I want to take this class. I'm I may actually end up taking this class. I'm not even kidding.

[32:40] Larry Saperstein: Yeah.

[32:40] Eli Tokash: Uh tablet.com. Oh my god, I'm not even kidding. I actually may sign up because I mentioned I hate going in, like I cannot go to Broadway Dance Center, I cannot go to like any of those places. Um I it would be a mess. Anyways. And but you know what? This is also a perfect way to build that confidence.

[32:57] Larry Saperstein: Exactly.

[32:58] Eli Tokash: And do your sort of fundamental tap class and get a little bit more confident with it, and then say, you know what? Now I am ready to go to that class at Broadway Dance Center. Now I feel more confident in my abilities that I'm ready to kind of continue on my tap journey.

[33:13] Larry Saperstein: Yeah, I love it. And it's uh it's a great it's I could talk about it all the time, but learning like tap literally helps you with like all types of dance, you know, like you're learning you're strengthening your your muscles for ballet, you're strengthening jazz, like all just the rhythm and everything, like just dancing and moving the body is just gonna help you literally in all aspects of theater. So highly recommend obsessed with tap with Larry.com and uh go and roll.

[33:40] Eli Tokash: Yeah, well, and yeah, tap with Larry.com. But you know, the tap dance really, and like maybe I'm getting sentimental here, but like tap dance has really been one of the things in my life that has always made me feel like special and unique and like talented and creative. Um it's honestly it's one of the things that helped me get high school musical.

[34:04] Larry Saperstein: Yes.

[34:05] Eli Tokash: Uh, you know, the character of Big Red was not supposed to do any of the things that he wound up doing, right?

[34:13] Larry Saperstein: Like he was just supposed to be in the original version of the pilot before I was hired. He was really just like in the crew. He was like Ricky's best friend in the crew. And once they saw that I had this skill of tap dance, which is something that not many people have, right? They realized that it was like a unique thing that they could bring into the character, and not only into my character, it also uh helps them kind of understand that like Gina was you know gonna be a big dancer, and that dance was was like a bigger part of this show than they had initially realized. And then of course they put the wonderful tap solo in at the end, but uh it really was the reason that I stood out in that audition and and got uh the role, I think.

[35:02] Eli Tokash: So cool. I let's let's just get into it then. Like, let's talk about high school musical, the musical, the series. Because Tony you mentioned, you know, getting an auditioning and getting the role. Like, what was that like to get the call? Cause this, like coming from like a theater background and like being a theater kid almost, um, doing regional theater and stuff like that. I know you did commercials and other TV projects and everything. But you know, theater kids are always theater kids at heart. So, like, what was it like to be able to like do theater on TV where you can reach like a bigger audience and just getting that call and being like, oh my god, this is gonna be amazing.

[35:37] Larry Saperstein: I mean, you know, I don't know if any of us really realized the scope of what it was until we started. Come on. I knew it was called High School Musical, the musical. Right. Uh at the time it was not called the series, it was just called High School Musical the Musical. They added the series later because they didn't want people to get confused and think that it was another movie. Right. They wanted, you know, anyway. But um, but uh we we didn't know anything about Disney Plus at the time. Right. The it was before they had really like announced Disney Plus on like a global massive scale. Um so I didn't know if this was like a Disney Channel show or if this was like gonna be on free form or or something like that.

Like I we really didn't know until we started what it was gonna be. And then once we started, they were like, this is for Disney Plus, this is a new streaming service, you know, this is going to be one of the things that launches the service. And we were like, oh, that's a big deal. And you're going to Utah.

[36:42] Eli Tokash: Yeah.

[36:43] Larry Saperstein: And we're going to the Real East High, and it all takes place there. And it was like, it was like, oh my gosh. Like, like this is like a big when I first auditioned, I didn't know if like it was filming in New York, if I had to move. Like, there was just a lot of details that I didn't really fully know until I got it. And then it was like, oh, we're filming in Utah. We're going to the we're going to East High. We're gonna be like in the cafeteria. Right. With like the s you know, stick to the status quo cafeteria. Iconic. The gym, the auditorium. Like it was insane.

[37:15] Eli Tokash: So cool.

[37:17] Larry Saperstein: So so then yeah, like once we started, it was like not only were we doing, you know, high school musical, which is something that all of us grew up with, and we were all sort of like stepping into that legacy. And, you know, at our very first mixer, you know, we met like people that put high school musical together, you know, people that were part of the development team for the original high school musical movies, and now they were like giving us their trust, which was like insane.

[37:44] Eli Tokash: So cool.

[37:45] Larry Saperstein: Um, and we're at the school. Yeah. But we're also, you know, doing a show about high school theater, which for me I just felt so connected to. Um, and like weirdly enough, I had just gone to Pace for two and a half years studying lighting design. Yeah. And my character what joins the crew and like does the lighting for the shit. And that was like totally a coincidence. That was not like part of them hiring me. That was already written before I was hired. And then it was just like so many things had like come together where it just felt like, you know, this is the job that I'm meant to be doing, and like this is the show that I'm meant to be part of.

[38:26] Eli Tokash: Yeah.

[38:26] Larry Saperstein: Because I felt like I felt like I could bring so much truth to it. And I felt like there was so much sincerity in um, you know, the character of Big Red being someone who doesn't know anything about theater and then is like opening his eyes to this like magical world of a theater community um all in that first season and so that for me was like so so exciting to be able to play and uh and and of course like creating our own drama club of sorts and like having a rehearsal room and having a stage and like as we were shooting the season they would um they would build more and more of the sets for high school musical and like throw them into the rehearsal room. I don't know if you like noticed that in the season but like as it goes on like starting in like episode six now all of a sudden there's the ladder.

You know what I mean? And it's like they would sort of like plop these different set pieces for high school musical into the rehearsal room as it was like we were getting closer and closer to the show.

[39:17] Eli Tokash: Right.

[39:17] Larry Saperstein: You know what I mean? That's so cool. I didn't even realize that and I would like love watching those details.

[39:31] Eli Tokash: Right.

[39:32] Larry Saperstein: I would just be like oh my gosh look we've we got the we got the gold ladder. Yeah we got the we got a set of lockers like we're moving towards the show date. You know it really did feel when we were shooting that first season like we were moving towards opening night.

[39:45] Eli Tokash: Wow yeah that's really cool.

[39:47] Larry Saperstein: And so we were just like this like theater kit theater group. We were just a uh you know a drama club and it was it was so fun.

[39:54] Eli Tokash: Yeah, well I to I'm just going off of what you were saying about like Big Red is totally like made for you. Like I can't seriously like it was written for you. And it's it's incredible to watch kind of from the beginning and then into like season two where you know big red was no longer just like Ricky's sidekick or like a person in a lighting department and like a stage crew. Like they fully gave you a whole arc and a large part of it is because people fell in love with you. Like people fell in love with Larry. You know, and they wanted to see more. So then like in season two, when you you start to get Ashlyn and you start to get slices, and like they give you like a whole arc and everything.

And it was just so cool to watch. Like, first of all, I guess we could talk about Ashlyn and like Julia Lester. Like, I don't know, with like a bunch of kids like your age on set and everything, like, does it ever get like awkward when it's like, oh, Ricky and Nene, or like Gina and Ricky, and then like Ashlyn and Big Red, like, does that couple y stuff ever get like awkward on set?

[41:02] Larry Saperstein: No, I mean, I think we just know that that's like that's the show. You know what I mean? Like, that's that's the show that we're making, and that's part of the story is like the couples and the sort of drama of what are the couples gonna be. Oh my god. Kind of thing. I mean, I think that's always been a huge part of the show since it first, you know, um, but I think like for me, it's especially especially with me. I mean, I really only can speak to me and Julia because uh I that's the only relationship on the show that I know.

[41:36] Larry Saperstein: Um for us, it's really just like we just like savor every moment that we are each other's scene partner. I think like I could say this and not be speaking too much for her when I say that like I think for both of us, like we are each other's favorite scene partner. Oh like when we first met at the like there was a cast mixer kind of thing, when we were all like hired, like just before we did because basically what happens is you get hired for a show and then you all kind of meet, and then you do a table read of the very first episode, and you present that table read to the network as like and it's like this big presentation, and so we were kind of getting prepared to do this presentation. Um, and we didn't know how the season was gonna end.

We only knew the first couple of episodes of season one at the time. Oh and obviously the big red Ashland stuff doesn't start until later in season one. But we sort of got a whisper in our ears that like our characters were gonna be together a lot. And um, and like I just remember like we just got so excited. We had just met each other and we were just like it just felt like it made sense that our characters were gonna be together.

[42:52] Larry Saperstein: So then for it to be like this big beautiful thing and to have like an awesome number that we got to do together with Red Means Love, and you know, to have like so many sweet moments throughout like those first two seasons, um, and a little bit in season three as well. Um what? Are you in season three?

[43:09] Eli Tokash: Yeah, of course I'm in season three.

[43:13] Larry Saperstein: Oh my god. Wait, okay, I'm not there yet. I don't think. I haven't been there yet. I was gonna say, in my I don't think do you come in prom no?

[43:23] Eli Tokash: I don't I think this this I think this will come out the day after prom, right?

[43:26] Larry Saperstein: So uh I I won't be there.

[43:28] Eli Tokash: Okay, but I will be there after that.

[43:31] Larry Saperstein: Oh my god. Which I think I can say because I think by the time this comes out, the little teaser for it will be out or it will be soon out. Um, and I think it'll be okay to say. But yes, it's been announced that I am in the season, it just didn't say where. And by the time this comes out, there's only one more option.

[43:46] Eli Tokash: Oh my god. I'm so excited.

[43:48] Larry Saperstein: Um, but we like, you know, I I think and even shooting that was like such a moment of like, oh, like it's so nice to be back with like our scene partner, our person. And like I think we just whenever we're shooting together, we just like do these amazing scenes and we just like do amazing work, and it's um it's been so amazing to like find that acting partner, you know.

[44:14] Eli Tokash: Yeah, oh my god, that's so I'm like so excited right now. I have to say, like, I was like their writing this season is actually really good.

[44:23] Larry Saperstein: Like I've actually really enjoyed this season three, um, and just like what Ashlyn, like as a character is kind of like going through is like all this self-discovery thing.

[44:33] Eli Tokash: Oh, totally. So, like, I've been questioning the whole big red Ashlyn relationship lately, but like I'm here for it if they're if they're happening back.

[44:41] Larry Saperstein: I think that's I think that's one of the one of the reasons why not everybody is in season three, is I think they wanted to like push the growth of all of the characters.

[44:51] Eli Tokash: I love it.

[44:52] Larry Saperstein: Um and you know, going into obviously we're gonna do a fourth season, and going into that, like the characters needed to change in some way, especially Ashlyn, you know, especially people like you know, Carlos Ashlyn, like those kinds of people, even even Courtney to extent, like needed these like big changes. Um, and I think the best way to do that was to kind of put them in situations that were uncomfortable.

[45:12] Eli Tokash: Um, but I think you'll find that like Big Red has also changed.

[45:15] Larry Saperstein: Oh, even though even though he hasn't been there, like he's coming back into this world having changed, and Ashlyn is having changed, and like now, how do we adapt to that going forward? So I think in a way, it really kind of pushes the show forward um into like the new era of of season four.

[45:34] Eli Tokash: Oh my god. I'm so excited.

[45:36] Larry Saperstein: It'd be so exciting.

[45:37] Eli Tokash: It is really exciting.

[45:39] Larry Saperstein: I'm so excited. I'm I'm a huge fan of the show. I love the show. I can talk about it all day, seriously.

[45:43] Eli Tokash: Um I want to talk about like speaking of being like huge fans and everything, like I don't know if you like end up working with him or not, but like Corbin Bleu, like Corbin Bleu being this.

[45:52] Larry Saperstein: Yeah, Corbin being in this season is just iconic.

[45:56] Eli Tokash: And the fact that he's like playing himself and like everybody knows he's Chad, like it's so brilliant.

[46:02] Larry Saperstein: Um like a and like a a jerk.

[46:06] Eli Tokash: Yeah, and like totally because he's actually like one of the nicest people I've ever met in my life.

[46:11] Larry Saperstein: I can't imagine him being mean, like true.

[46:13] Eli Tokash: Yeah, but even though he plays it, it's just like I know that's not who he is, you know, like they're totally making a joke out of it.

[46:20] Larry Saperstein: Um, like you've had some other incredible people on, both from the high school musical franchise and like Derek Hoff, like all these yeah, wonderful people, like and as like a dancer and everything, like what is it like to have these superstars on?

[46:35] Eli Tokash: I mean, I saw Jojo Siwa in the teaser for the next episode, like yeah, she is.

[46:39] Larry Saperstein: Yeah, like how cool is that? Like, does that I don't know, does any of that like phase you um when like you know, you have these other celebrities come on set?

[46:47] Larry Saperstein: Honestly, I think for me, it's just been an example and a reminder of the fact that this is like a big show.

[46:57] Eli Tokash: Yeah.

[46:58] Larry Saperstein: And because I think like even when I watch the show sometimes, to me, it looks like you know, a home video.

[47:04] Eli Tokash: Yeah.

[47:05] Larry Saperstein: Like or when we're shooting it, it just like doesn't always feel like it's gonna become a show that people are gonna see.

[47:10] Eli Tokash: Yeah.

[47:10] Larry Saperstein: Because it just it feels so private and it feels so like community and family, and and I forget sometimes that people are actually gonna see it and it's actually a real show.

[47:20] Eli Tokash: Um and so when we have these people on that are like a big deal, it's like oh wow, like they see they've seen the show, they respect the show they respect our show creator you know what I mean Tim totally and and uh and he's he's done an amazing job getting these people here and and there I'm like let's let's do it like we're I'm it's just kind of a reminder that like we're all at that level yeah um because I think for so long I wanted to be at that level so seeing these people in the same room that I'm in and being like oh wow like maybe uh I maybe I am good at this kind of thing like I I'm good enough to be in the room with these people and that's like really really cool I love that that is so cool I remember I remember for me like when we first started the the principal principal Gutierrez was played by Valente Rodriguez who um played Ernie on the George Lopez show and I just was like oh my gosh like and they know nobody told us that he was coming I don't think that like they really thought that we would recognize him but like we turned around and like he was there and I was like that's insane and also one of the big ones for me um was one of Nini's moms uh is Nicole Sullivan yeah who was the voice of Shego in Kim Possible obsessed and I was like that's Nicole Sullivan like I knew who she was I don't know if anybody else knew who she was but like I knew who she was and I I thought that was so cool and that was like very early on so I think those were some early reminders that this was like a huge deal.

[48:57] Eli Tokash: Yeah for sure well um you talked about you know we we're talking about like season three and everything and like how it's like camp you know like it's literally I can't like does that feel like is that just like a regular day on set like does it feel like you know you guys are just like hanging out with your friends and just like creating a a special piece of art like because you mentioned like you don't even realize it's a TV show until you get to see it.

[49:22] Larry Saperstein: So like what's the vibe on set? Like how is that?

[49:24] Larry Saperstein: Well you know there's a lot of moving parts yeah on a TV show set in general you know so sometimes we're we're very separate. I it was definitely different during COVID that during COVID that was maybe not as much the vibe because we had to be separate and we had to wear our masks and it was like a a whole like Missagas but during season one it was like definitely like definitely we were you know so cool.

[49:53] Eli Tokash: We were trying to we had we had to be quiet most of the time but like you know when you're on a set there's snacks and you're like going and like you get snacks.

[49:59] Larry Saperstein: A lot of times it was not uncommon for somebody to rap for the day um but then maybe there were still a couple of scenes that we're shooting for the rest of the day and they would just like stay.

[50:11] Eli Tokash: You know like I did that I did that plenty where like I would rap for the day but you know we still had another scene of the day and I would stay and kind of watch um I spent a lot of time watching the monitors so I would like go sit near the director and near our executive producer and I would watch the monitor a lot because I also am very interested in directing and I'm very interested in you know creating my own projects and so for me that was like a way of really just absorbing all of the awesome knowledge that I could be you know getting by being on a set.

[50:46] Larry Saperstein: Right.

[50:47] Eli Tokash: So so that so yeah, yeah, there's there's a lot of that though.

[50:50] Larry Saperstein: Like it is definitely like fun theater vibe.

[50:54] Larry Saperstein: I mean, Kate who plays Miss Jen is like definitely, definitely, definitely like a mom to all of us.

[51:00] Eli Tokash: Oh to all of us.

[51:03] Larry Saperstein: And she has a son who's five now. And I've been to every one of his birthday parties since he was like two, which is insane.

[51:11] Eli Tokash: That's so cute.

[51:12] Larry Saperstein: Yeah, so it's like you know, we we're we're now like this family and we're growing up together, and totally.

[51:18] Eli Tokash: I hope that it stays that way forever.

[51:19] Larry Saperstein: Oh, I love that.

[51:20] Eli Tokash: It seems like you guys are so like supportive of one another too.

[51:24] Larry Saperstein: Like, I see everyone like I I mean, I obviously like follow you guys on social media and stuff.

[51:29] Eli Tokash: So I saw like everyone at like sour, like Olivia Rodriguez tour, and then like I went to Joe Serafini's cabaret here in New York, and Julia Lester was there, uh Frankie Rodriguez was there.

[51:40] Larry Saperstein: Um the there's a couple new characters that were there, and I don't know their name.

[51:44] Eli Tokash: Sailor, yes, Sailor Kurda.

[51:49] Larry Saperstein: She's the Kurda family is uh is pretty legendary.

[51:52] Eli Tokash: Oh my god, really?

[51:54] Larry Saperstein: Yes.

[51:54] Larry Saperstein: Her older brother Major was um in The Little Mermaid on Broadway and a couple of maybe something else as well.

[52:02] Eli Tokash: Um and I've known him since I was probably like 11 or 12 years old, major Kurda.

[52:08] Larry Saperstein: And then her older sister Piper was in another Disney Channel show.

[52:11] Eli Tokash: I can't remember the name of it right now, but yeah, the Kurda family is pretty legendary, so oh my god, iconic.

[52:16] Larry Saperstein: Yeah, they're all mm stars, okay.

[52:18] Eli Tokash: Amazing, casual.

[52:20] Larry Saperstein: Um but that's so cool.

[52:22] Eli Tokash: Yeah, like it just seems like everyone is always just like there for one another.

[52:26] Larry Saperstein: And you can honestly, like, in following that journey, you can kind of it really does translate to like what we see on TV.

[52:33] Eli Tokash: Like you all totally have your each other's back in a scene, and like, especially like as another actor who can kind of look for those things and like what it's like to like react to like a scene partner, like all of it translates.

[52:46] Larry Saperstein: And it's just so it just seems like you guys are like the best family.

[52:50] Larry Saperstein: I mean, there's so many times where we will only have to do like one or maybe two takes of a scene because everybody is just so like true to themselves and like true to their characters, and the the connection is like so real that like there's no reason to do it again because it's already there.

[53:09] Eli Tokash: Right.

[53:09] Larry Saperstein: And that's like that that happens often.

[53:11] Larry Saperstein: Especially like that's I think that's the sign of of a good show.

[53:15] Eli Tokash: Yeah, totally.

[53:15] Larry Saperstein: And like the first scene is like, you know, like one it's like kind of like raw, you know, like it's like oh, you don't want to mess that up, you know, because the more you do it, it kind of gets like more routine and robotic and all of that.

[53:27] Eli Tokash: Like it's the most pure version.

[53:30] Larry Saperstein: So that's so cool to hear.

[53:31] Eli Tokash: And it you can totally tell, like, truly.

[53:33] Larry Saperstein: Yeah.

[53:34] Larry Saperstein: I I love it.

[53:35] Larry Saperstein: I love the rawness of the whole show.

[53:37] Eli Tokash: Like, truly.

[53:38] Larry Saperstein: Um, okay, I more questions, because I I just want to talk to you about um high school musical.

[53:44] Eli Tokash: Uh first of all, can you watch yourself?

[53:46] Larry Saperstein: Like, can you watch the show?

[53:48] Eli Tokash: Like, do you watch the show?

[53:49] Larry Saperstein: I guess.

[53:50] Larry Saperstein: Yeah, you do can.

[53:51] Eli Tokash: Okay.

[53:52] Larry Saperstein: I like it.

[53:52] Larry Saperstein: I like doing that.

[53:54] Larry Saperstein: Because for me, for me, it's less about watching myself and it's more about um seeing the progression of like what happened from when we were on set to how it made it to TV.

[54:07] Larry Saperstein: And like what changed, you know, between when we filmed it and how it was edited, and what music did they add to this scene, and like what camera shots did they wind up using?

[54:18] Larry Saperstein: What did they cut from the scene? Like stuff like that, I always find very, very interesting.

[54:22] Eli Tokash: So for me, that's like why I really love watching it.

[54:24] Larry Saperstein: Oh.

[54:25] Larry Saperstein: Um yeah.

[54:28] Eli Tokash: Fascinating.

[54:28] Larry Saperstein: I think that that's it.

[54:29] Larry Saperstein: Yeah.

[54:29] Eli Tokash: Yeah.

[54:30] Larry Saperstein: Yeah.

[54:30] Larry Saperstein: So I do like to watch it, yeah.

[54:31] Eli Tokash: Yeah, because you like to see like the post production side of it, you know, because that's another part of your the love of the industry that you love.

[54:40] Larry Saperstein: Um fascinating, because I cannot watch myself do anything um or hear myself talk.

[54:45] Eli Tokash: Like I don't even listen to these, and I don't even have to look at myself.

[54:48] Larry Saperstein: Um truly, it's just like I'm just gonna judge myself and just like do all the things.

[54:53] Eli Tokash: So I understand that though.

[54:55] Larry Saperstein: Yeah.

[54:55] Larry Saperstein: I mean, there's I think there's some episodes that I'll only watch once, maybe.

[54:58] Eli Tokash: Okay.

[54:59] Larry Saperstein: And I'll just I I try not to watch it too many times because then I start you start hyperfixating, and that's not good.

[55:05] Larry Saperstein: But I think a once through to just kind of get the sense of of what happened and where it is now is like really cool.

[55:14] Eli Tokash: Yeah, totally.

[55:15] Larry Saperstein: And and you mentioned like I guess we'll get to a new topic here, but you mentioned Red Means Love earlier.

[55:21] Eli Tokash: My brain's like all over the place right now. Um, but like I still think "Red Means Love" is like one of the most underrated songs on the whole outro. I love that song. Um, but it's so brilliant. So, um, but like though like a number like that and a number like all the your tap dancing, and just like performing like the big showcases, like at the end where they finally put on "High School Musical," "Beauty and the Beast," um, and all the things, and now with "Frozen," I guess. Um, what is like that like? Like filming those like big glee almost breakout songs.

[55:56] Larry Saperstein: So every one of those is usually a full day. Really? So like "Red Means Love" was a full day. Um, the tap thing in season one was not a full day. That was like at the end of the day, but that day, the biggest thing on the to-do list of that day was filming "We're All in This Together," this sort of like finale of the high school musical show. Um, that was like what we were doing that day, and then we'd sort of tacked on the tap thing at the end, I remember. Um, yeah, it's gotten shorter as we've gotten better at it. Like some of the numbers we've been able to put into just a half a day or something like that. But um, definitely the bigger ones are a full day. And usually going into the theater is either a full week or a full two weeks, where we'll just do a number every single day for like three or four days, and then like maybe there's some scenes that need to happen as well.

But like it's a lot of like okay, today we're doing what's that song, uh, uh, "Be Our Guest." My mind went blank. Uh, like today we're doing "Be Our Guest" on the stage, and today we're doing something there on the stage, and then you know, so it's usually like those kinds of things that get scheduled like that. Um, usually they put them towards the end of the episode.

[57:19] Eli Tokash: So, you know, even if the number is like earlier on the episode, they'll move it to the end so that we have time to do dance rehearsals because a lot of times we're doing shooting, and then on days that we're not shooting, we're doing a dance rehearsal. Uh, or you know, maybe they take a day off from shooting specifically so that we can do a full dance rehearsal of a number. Um, I know for like "Red Means Love," we did like three separate rehearsals that were like full days. Um, one of them was like just me and Julia. One of them was like me and Julia and a couple of the dancers. One of them was like me and Julia, and then like the full, like all of the dancers, like all everybody that was doing the backup dancing kind of stuff.

[58:01] Larry Saperstein: And this is like in a rehearsal space, not like on set or is it on set?

[58:05] Eli Tokash: So yeah, so it'll usually be in a rehearsal space for the first like couple of times until you get it down and then maybe they'll do like a blocking rehearsal on the set. So like for "Red Means Love" because we had all those set pieces, we kind of had to like choreograph how are we gonna go in between the set pieces. So that was one full rehearsal day of like okay you gotta walk on the bridge and like is this thing slippery and are you gonna be able to do that in these shoes and like that kind of stuff. You know what I mean?

[58:34] Larry Saperstein: Because all those details have to be worked out before we're shooting otherwise if a shoe doesn't work.

[58:40] Eli Tokash: See I love that way to go and change it.

[58:42] Larry Saperstein: Right. And I love learning about this stuff and talking about it because literally like you watch it and you just like don't realize the amount of like work and rehearsal that kind of went into it.

[58:53] Eli Tokash: Yeah. I mean I think "Red Means Love" for me is one of the proudest things that I've ever done like in my life I think because it's just like to me it's like a culmination of just like so many different things. Like I'm tap dancing, I'm singing, I love the song. Like I was in a recording studio which was like a new experience for me and like recording my own track in the studio and like, uh, I actually had recorded the song before COVID and then we didn't shoot it until after we came back from COVID. So it was like this long build up of like eight months between like when we recorded the song and then like did the number so I was like waiting and waiting and waiting for it and then like you know, uh doing it with Julia and like all these dance numbers and all these props and all these set pieces and like it was just like such a huge like thing.

[59:42] Larry Saperstein: Totally that wound up just being so cool.

[59:45] Eli Tokash: Yeah, oh my god that's so so cool I can't imagine doing the whole filming during COVID I'm sure that was wild and just

[59:45] Larry Saperstein: Oh it was crazy because you guys stopped mid season.

[59:45] Eli Tokash: Um, yeah we stopped after season two episode two. Yeah Joe was on and he talked about that like I can't I don't how did like I don't know it's crazy that you guys are able to like you know come back in and just pick up where you left off but hey at the same day it's like your job you know like that's what you're expected to do.

[1:00:15] Larry Saperstein: Yeah and it it's crazy when you look back at it because uh you know there's some scenes that are like shot before COVID and then the next scene is like after COVID and you're like whoa that was like eight months different in between there but like in the story it's 10 seconds like it's insane.

[1:00:30] Eli Tokash: Right. I know it's interesting honestly like not to like point anything out but like there are a couple scenes where I was like oh my god this they like suddenly like lost baby fat like especially like Josh especially yeah especially the younger kids.

[1:00:44] Larry Saperstein: Yeah like you totally see where like Josh kind of came back and had like uh almost a year to like develop a little bit more um yeah so that's so funny that you say that anyways I I want to ask you one last question about his musical and then I'll let you go.

[1:00:59] Larry Saperstein: Me too.

[1:00:59] Eli Tokash: Me too. It'll be a quick I'll sit here all day.

[1:01:01] Larry Saperstein: Oh my god Larry don't tell me. Um, so there's been a lot of speculation lately because I saw like on TikTok and Instagram that like Zach Efron and Vanessa Hudgens and like all these old high school musical people are posting their East High photos and like revisiting it. What do you know anything about like a high school musical reboot or a collab between you guys and the high school musical team? Like what's going on there?

[1:01:28] Larry Saperstein: I know absolutely nothing.

[1:01:30] Eli Tokash: Nothing.

[1:01:32] Larry Saperstein: I wish that I knew something, but I truly know absolutely nothing. Maybe them being in Utah was something, but I think it was probably just a coincidence. Maybe.

[1:01:43] Eli Tokash: Um, but I I really genuinely don't know.

[1:01:47] Larry Saperstein: Okay, okay. I'm gonna trust you on it. I'm gonna take your word because you did tell me that you're gonna be in season three. So I'm I'm here for it.

[1:01:51] Larry Saperstein: Yeah.

[1:01:53] Eli Tokash: I I'll take your word. But I think I can speak for everyone, especially like everyone listening, that uh we definitely would not be upset if if something was in the works.

[1:02:04] Larry Saperstein: Me neither. I wouldn't be upset either.

[1:02:06] Eli Tokash: But yeah, oh my god, that would be nuts.

[1:02:10] Larry Saperstein: Literally, it would break the internet.

[1:02:11] Eli Tokash: Um, okay. And then one final question because everyone literally, I like sent out a blast of like what I should ask, and everyone, all the uh listeners and everyone said, You have to ask if he's a team Rainy or a team Rena. Ricky and Nene, Ricky and Gina. Who are you?

[1:02:30] Larry Saperstein: What's I don't know what team are you?

[1:02:33] Eli Tokash: I don't know. Doesn't it change every week?

[1:02:36] Larry Saperstein: I know. I do, I feel like some weeks were Rainy and some weeks were Rena.

[1:02:39] Eli Tokash: It's so true.

[1:02:41] Larry Saperstein: I don't know.

[1:02:41] Eli Tokash: You don't know.

[1:02:42] Larry Saperstein: I think I think I'm a Portwell.

[1:02:44] Eli Tokash: I am too.

[1:02:45] Larry Saperstein: That's why I is that a thing?

[1:02:47] Eli Tokash: That's what we say.

[1:02:48] Larry Saperstein: It is well.

[1:02:49] Eli Tokash: It is.

[1:02:49] Larry Saperstein: That's what we say. And that's I guess if I'm a Portwell, then I can't be also a Rena.

[1:02:54] Eli Tokash: Right.

[1:02:55] Larry Saperstein: I don't know. I don't use these ship words.

[1:02:58] Eli Tokash: I let I let the fans do the ship words.

[1:03:01] Larry Saperstein: I hear you, I hear you. And uh No offense, but you sound like an old cast member right now.

[1:03:08] Eli Tokash: You're not gonna be around.

[1:03:09] Larry Saperstein: Yeah, I don't know these shipwork.

[1:03:11] Eli Tokash: I don't know the new fangled talker tick thing.

[1:03:15] Larry Saperstein: The ticking talk.

[1:03:17] Eli Tokash: The ticking talk. That's amazing.

[1:03:19] Larry Saperstein: Well, I had to ask because I I'm in your boat. I feel like I'm Arena, but I'm also a Portwell. And I'm not upset to be both, but I feel like I can't be.

[1:03:29] Eli Tokash: Um, anyways.

[1:03:30] Larry Saperstein: Yeah, I don't know. If if someone knows whether or not that's against the rules, yeah.

[1:03:35] Eli Tokash: Okay. If it's against the rules, then I then I guess I have to be uh a Reenie.

[1:03:39] Larry Saperstein: A Reenie.

[1:03:40] Eli Tokash: Okay, fair enough.

[1:03:41] Larry Saperstein: Fair enough.

[1:03:42] Eli Tokash: Yep.

[1:03:42] Larry Saperstein: Okay, me too.

[1:03:44] Eli Tokash: So setting the record straight, everyone got their answer. I thank you for for uh answering that. And I thank you for coming on here and giving me your time.

[1:03:52] Larry Saperstein: Um, especially with you for having me.

[1:03:54] Eli Tokash: Yeah, oh my god, of course. Especially with all of the incredible things that you're doing right now with Tap with Larry, and then you're about to do uh I mean, I guess you already did it, but you're also about to come on season three of "High School Musical: The Musical: The Series."

[1:04:06] Larry Saperstein: So yeah, very exciting stuff.

[1:04:08] Eli Tokash: And uh yeah, again, thank you for coming on here and sharing your story. And uh hopefully everyone goes and enrolls for Tap with Larry, and you can do that at TapwithLarry.com until September 16th.

[1:04:20] Larry Saperstein: So don't miss out.

[1:04:21] Eli Tokash: Yeah, so so once September 16th happens, the enrollment will close.

[1:04:25] Larry Saperstein: Uh and you won't be able to sign up for the class anymore.

[1:04:28] Eli Tokash: So please do it. Please go to TapwithLarry.com and sign up.

[1:04:31] Larry Saperstein: And does that mean, sorry, one follow-up question. Does that mean the class doesn't start until after the 16th? Or is it like when you enroll, you kind of get access?

[1:04:39] Eli Tokash: No, so once you enroll right away, you will get the first week lesson is already available upon enrollment.

[1:04:46] Larry Saperstein: Got it.

[1:04:47] Eli Tokash: And then uh on September 16th, we will release the second week, and then from then on, every Friday, we will release the new lesson.

[1:04:55] Larry Saperstein: So September 16th will technically be week two, and then from then on, the week after is week three, four, five, six, and so on.

[1:05:02] Eli Tokash: Amazing.

[1:05:03] Larry Saperstein: Yeah.

[1:05:04] Eli Tokash: So exciting. Everyone go check it out. And then give it your social medias once again for everyone to go follow, both yourself and Tap with Larry.

[1:05:12] Larry Saperstein: Yeah. So you can find me personally on Instagram, Twitter, and TikTok at Larry Saperstein. And then you can find Tap with Larry on Instagram at Tap with Larry. And you can go to TapwithLarry.com to enroll.

[1:05:29] Eli Tokash: Yay! Amazing. Everyone, go do it. Highly recommend. I'm probably gonna do it myself. So I'll be right there with you in the little comment section.

[1:05:37] Larry Saperstein: Uh, but I really hope you do. Honestly, I'm thinking about it. So who knows? Maybe I'll see you there.

[1:05:43] Eli Tokash: Uh, but thank you again for coming on and taking a bow with us.

[1:05:46] Larry Saperstein: Thank you so much.

[1:05:47] Eli Tokash: Of course. Take a bow, Larry Saperstein. Thank you so much for coming on the podcast.

[1:05:53] Larry Saperstein: This was literally a blast to do.

[1:05:55] Eli Tokash: There were some crazy internet connection type things. So my brain was all over the place. So we got a little out of order there. But it was so much fun nonetheless.

[1:06:04] Larry Saperstein: We literally did like four separate interviews just because we were having internet problems.

[1:06:10] Eli Tokash: So it's it was out of order and like my brain was in a million places. I didn't know what I actually asked him, and blah, blah, blah. So, anyways, it was a blast nonetheless.

[1:06:20] Larry Saperstein: It all came together, and I appreciate you all for listening.

[1:06:23] Eli Tokash: And hopefully, you all enjoyed it. There were some exciting uh behind the scenes talk, literally how "High School Musical" gets made, his story, what he's doing with Tap with Larry is so amazing.

[1:06:35] Larry Saperstein: I think that we're gonna be able to get a promo code for everybody that listens to Take A Bow.

[1:06:41] Eli Tokash: We're gonna be doing a little discount code for Tap with Larry. I'm so excited to bring you all with that because that just makes it even more accessible.

[1:06:49] Larry Saperstein: Grab a friend, split the cost if times are hard, and stay tuned for the discount code.

[1:06:55] Eli Tokash: Go tap, have so much fun. You can literally say you take tap lessons from Larry Saperstein, which everybody knows and loves, especially in the tap world.

[1:07:03] Larry Saperstein: He's literally like a young tap prodigy.

[1:07:06] Eli Tokash: Everybody knows who he is. So exciting to have him on the show and talk to you about "High School Musical: The Musical: The Series," and have him say, I was so thrown off guard when he was like, I'm in the next episode of "High School Musical: The Musical: The Series." And I was like, yes, I had no idea.

[1:07:19] Larry Saperstein: Anyways, very excited, and I'm sorry if like I hurt your ears if you're wearing headphones when that happened, but it happened and it was so fun.

[1:07:30] Eli Tokash: Anyways, so with that being said, that's all I have for this week's episode. Once again, go like, comment, all the things on the YouTube.

[1:07:38] Larry Saperstein: Subscribe, please subscribe.

[1:07:39] Eli Tokash: That is most important. I can check it, so I will know who's a real one, who's a real friend, who's a real listener, all the things.

[1:07:47] Larry Saperstein: Go do it, please.

[1:07:48] Eli Tokash: That's all I ask. Just go hit a couple buttons. And yeah, Take A Bow podcast. That's it.

[1:07:52] Larry Saperstein: 119.

[1:07:54] Eli Tokash: Thank you all so much for listening, and I hope that you all have a great week. Next week's episode is gonna be very fun, and it's gonna have a review of Lea Michele and "Funny Girl." So stay tuned for next week, and I hope that you all have a great week. Bye, everyone.

[1:08:08] Larry Saperstein: Thanks for listening.

[1:08:13] Eli Tokash: For this episode's curtain call, I would like to recognize a few people who also deserve to take a bow. This podcast would not be possible without the help from Jory Berenstein, Brittany Bigelow, Katie Rosen, Alan Seales, and the team at the Broadway Podcast Network.

[1:08:26] Larry Saperstein: Next in line to Take A Bow is Tessie Tokash, who edits the audio and all the visuals for this podcast.

[1:08:32] Eli Tokash: A special thanks to patrons Brian Thompson, Pat McNamara, the listeners at PCC, as well as all the other patrons for their continued support.

[1:08:40] Larry Saperstein: If you're interested in becoming a patron, go to patreon.com slash TAB.

[1:08:46] Eli Tokash: And if you enjoyed this week's episode, don't forget to subscribe on the platform that you're currently listening to this on.

[1:08:52] Larry Saperstein: Also, feel free to give us a follow on Instagram at TakeABow Podcast.

[1:08:57] Eli Tokash: TakeABow's logo is designed by Giselle Bustos, and the music is by Nikki Torsha and Cormac Collinon.

[1:09:03] Larry Saperstein: Bye everyone.

[1:09:04] Eli Tokash: Hope to see you next week.