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[0:13] Noel MacNeal: I just wanted to say um I'm so grateful to be here tonight and be a part of this incredible, incredible group of people.

[0:20] Noel MacNeal: I'm gonna try to lucky enough to get to Studio 54 a few weeks ago. Yeah, thank you.

[0:27] Noel MacNeal: I spent about four years of my life, the last four years of my life in four years told her than the last ten in London, and this is the first show I've gotten the chance to open in New York in seven years, and I'm bizarrely nervous tonight. It's weird.

[0:41] Noel MacNeal: Uh I don't know why I'm frightened. I mean I know my way around here. The cardboard trees, the painted seeds, the sound here yes, a world to rediscover.

[1:00] Noel MacNeal: And I'm not in any hurry. And I need a moment. Hi Titus.

[1:11] Noel MacNeal: The whispered conversation in overcrowded hallways. The atmosphere is thrilling here as always.

[1:26] Noel MacNeal: Feel the early morning madness. Feel the magic in the making. Why everything's as if we never said goodbye.

[1:42] Noel MacNeal: I've spent so many mornings just trying to resist you. I'm trembling now. You can't know how. I've missed you.

[1:57] Noel MacNeal: Miss the fairy tale adventures in this ever-spinning playground. We were young together. I'm coming out of makeup.

[2:13] Noel MacNeal: The lights already burning. Not long until the cameras will start turning. And the early morning madness and the magic in the making.

[2:30] Noel MacNeal: Yes, everything's as if we never said goodbye. That's all in the past. This world's waited long enough. I've come home at last.

[2:55] Noel MacNeal: And this time we'll be bigger and brighter than we knew it. So watch me fly. We all know I do it.

[3:12] Noel MacNeal: Could I stop my hand from shaking? Has there ever been a moment with so much to live for? My penis is literally on your leg. You're welcome. The whispered conversation.

[3:36] Amber Brzezinski: In an overcrowded hallway. So much to say. Not just today, but always we'll have early morning magic. We'll have magic in the making. Yes, everything's as if we never say goodbye. Oh everything's as if we never said goodbye. Hopefully, everyone else is too eye because I cannot listen to it. I know, honestly. Well, here, what is let's get out of her funk. What? What an amazing performer. My goodness. Um I'm sad that this is the only video that I can find of my favorite song. So let's let's happy it up a little bit for our friends that are joining us. Um thank you for joining us a little bit early before the podcast. Um, for those of you that are unaware, the incredible Gavin Creel passed away from cancer today at the young age of 48.

Um, and it shook our worlds. Um very evident these are real tears, guys. Um, so I'm gonna play my favorite song, and um hopefully you can enjoy it. Somebody's TikTok video. Um, I give them credit, it's off of YouTube. Um, so here we go.

[5:18] ♪ Musical number: "Agony" — performed by Gavin Creel ♪

[7:21] Amber Brzezinski: I must have her to that.

[7:37] Heather Bedor: And that was a good timing because Noel just grabbed you.

[7:40] Amber Brzezinski: Let me turn this off.

[7:42] Heather Bedor: All right. Well, hello, everybody. Um, we are in for a juicy show. Noel, I'm just gonna bring you on now. You're just gonna be here. You ready for us? No? Yeah, doesn't matter. Here, we'll just bring you on. Welcome to the show.

[7:56] Noel MacNeal: Hello.

[7:57] Heather Bedor: Hello. Hello, hello.

[8:02] Heather Bedor: So Noel, Amber, Amber, Noel, uh, world, Noel MacNeal. Um, yes, we were watching some Gavin Creel videos and I posted a story. I didn't, I've never gotten a chance to see Gavin, but the outpouring of tributes and stories, and because I, um, I'm in Little Shop of Horrors, I'm the swing puppeteer and swing voice, so um, I'm getting more familiar with the world of theater and Broadway and all Broadway, and just seeing like my colleagues and everybody in the community. I just give everybody like my deepest condolences for someone who, seeing the clips, was so talented and seeing the age was far too young to suddenly be gone. And so yes, I am truly sorry for like, for everybody, fans, families, colleagues, like everybody. It's amazing. Like my whole Facebook feed is like Gavin Creel exclusive. So, but um, the sad part's over for the time being. We're happy to have you on the show here.

[9:05] Heather Bedor: I'm not dismissing Gavin in any way, by the way.

[9:08] Amber Brzezinski: No, no, no, no, no. We're not dismissing Gavin.

[9:10] Heather Bedor: I'm sure he would also believe in on with the show, but you know, which is like we'll get back to Gavin later, it's fine.

[9:16] Amber Brzezinski: Yes, absolutely. Um, for those of you that don't know me or Amber or this handsome gentleman at the bottom of the page. Uh, I am Heather. Uh, Amber is the lovely lady with the pink, and Noel MacNeal. Uh, you might know him from Little Shop, Bear in the Big Blue House, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, Eureka's Castle, Gullah Gullah Island, Adventures of Pooh. I there's like five bajillion things that you're doing.

[9:39] Noel MacNeal: Oh, yeah.

[9:39] Heather Bedor: If you're a kid in the 90s and watched way too much television, you probably saw something.

[9:47] Noel MacNeal: Yes, and you're welcome. Um, you have an extensive career, and you're joining us for the show today. So I'm super excited for that.

[9:53] Noel MacNeal: Thank you.

[9:53] Noel MacNeal: Yes.

[9:53] Heather Bedor: Um, we generally go over a little bit of quick Broadway news. Please feel free to jump in. This is your time. Don't feel like it's gonna be just an interview. This is gonna be time for people to get to know you, your thoughts, your opinions.

[10:06] Amber Brzezinski: Well, say hello. In terms of off-Broadway news, um, yesterday, uh, we said, uh, happy trails to Sarah Hyland and Andrew Barth Feldman.

[10:15] Heather Bedor: Yep, we did, who you could not have asked for two nicer, like talented, ridiculously talented people, as well as offstage, the positivity and the joy that just energy they had. It was great.

[10:30] Amber Brzezinski: And I was at the fifth anniversary a week and a half ago, and I think you were there too, but we were like running in opposite circles.

[10:37] Heather Bedor: Um, and it was just so much fun to see that. That was really cool, especially with Audrey II right in the middle of Times Square.

[10:43] Amber Brzezinski: Yes, and Times Square, in case you missed it. She's still there, apparently, because somebody said she's still there. You wanted to go by and take a picture of her. It was to mark the fifth anniversary of the show. And um, which I believe opened on the 19th of September five years ago, and then of course the 21st of September, you know, something happened.

[11:03] Heather Bedor: So yeah, so she's still there. I was there. I was at previews for um, when it was uh, crazy craziness, but it was a lot of fun.

[11:14] Amber Brzezinski: And we're still Little Shop fans, so why not?

[11:16] Noel MacNeal: Oh, yeah.

[11:17] Amber Brzezinski: And starting October 22nd, we have the next Seymour and Audrey, uh, Sherry. Um, my god, Sherry, what's her name? I'm so bad.

[11:27] Heather Bedor: And uh, Nicholas Christopher, yep. Um, Audrey and uh, Seymour, and we couldn't be more excited, but in the interim starting tomorrow, yeah, for those two weeks, you know, you get to see the, as they've been nicknamed, not understudies, wonderstudies, yes, wonderstudies of Little Shop like Cameron Hampton and Jeff Sears and Johnny Newcomb, and you get to see these and Weston Channel Long and Teddy Jane, you get to see these people take over the roles until Nicholas and uh, and Sherry. And that's a rare opportunity. So go, go, go, go support Little Shop at the West Side Theater.

[12:08] Amber Brzezinski: There's also a flash sale. If you go to the Little Shop site, you get a flash sale, which is, yeah, it's also, it's also part of off-Broadway's two-for-one flash sale. So, yes, by all means, because it's a great show, and these people are so incredibly talented.

[12:21] Heather Bedor: So the puppeteers behind the show too, Noel.

[12:25] Noel MacNeal: Well, that's the thing. Weston and Kitty are so for them.

[12:29] Heather Bedor: So Teddy will get to be Seymour and then Weston will make his debut as Seymour, which is great.

[12:35] Noel MacNeal: So yeah, we did post the cast information in our Skid Row group as well. So if people want to know if they're looking to see a specific actor, they can go to our Skid Row group and find out who's gonna be performing when we are on top of it.

[12:49] Noel MacNeal: It's great. It's a great show. I'm so proud and honored to be a part of it. I mean, and what a cool theater. That theater's seen a lot. And like everyone's like, oh, you know, it's am I gonna have a good seat? I'm like, it is one of the smallest theaters you'll encounter. There's no such thing as a bad seat. Except the last time I went, I was so excited. I was like closest to the stage that I've been, which you don't have to be, but I was waiting for like things to come out. Spoiler alert. Um and I sat directly behind an NBA player. Wow. It was fun though. Um it was wonderful. Actually, I think the last time I didn't get a chance to see Sarah and Andrew, but I did see Darren and Evan Rachel Wood.

Yes. So I've seen each incoming cast. Um Darren has a new show coming out. Yes, maybe happy ending with Helen Shen. So it's just like who is um Andrew's girlfriend. So it's like it's yeah. So when they did that um that um like they they sang a song together at that festival that was like the recent festival, yeah it was like Helen and two Seymours just singing lessons. Yep, it was great. I mean, it's just it's everyone always, and this is kind of the way I put about it, and you know, we talked with Larry Lelly, and um the way I always see Broadway and off Broadway or you know, New York theater itself is it's local theater, it's just on a much grander scale. And everyone knows everybody, but there's still that familial, um, like everyone's working hard for that local theater vibe, you know, you're still having to go out there and like you're busting your ass.

Um continuously week. I still I still I'm flawed. I mean, you know, you know, I I get to go in when they need me, but oh you know, when they don't need me, they're still doing it eight times a week. And then I've seen other shows, like I I got a chance to see um Aladdin finally. Oh yeah, oh amazing, and which was great, but then like seeing them like dance and the choreography, it suddenly dawned on me. It's like you all have to do this seven more times. Right. This is insane. And look at Cabaret, Cabaret doesn't have a day off. Oh, yeah. God bless whoever Alphabet is because this is like you're doing this eight times a week. Right. Yeah, she defies gravity and time. So yeah. Oh, it's it's yeah, you always see them with their breathing treatments and just they do so much behind the scenes to be able to do the show.

Oh, yeah, there's so much that goes into it. Oh, yeah, and just keeping behind it and keeping healthy, yeah. Right. I was gonna say, especially now, when you're puppeteering, um, let we can we can start forward and go backwards. Um, but let's say with Little Shop, are you how how prepared are you? Like you stretching and you working out just to be able to do that for the entire life. Oh, yeah, I've worked, I've I've been working out more times now than I ever did in my 20s because of the fact that um Audrey II is um she's a big girl, especially in act three. So it's like, and you know, yeah, um, you know, you have to be gentle while still like respecting like what you have to do. So um there's four we call them the pods.

So there's the first pod, the little the little one that gets put on the counter, and then there's the second one, which Seymour actually puppeteers. Yes, so it's teaching the actor like how to puppeteer, right? Um, unless unless you get somebody like you know, Rob McClure or Corbin Bleu, who you know, like Rob's had experience puppeteering in Avenue Q. And of course, Corbin's a dancer, so he just approached it like choreography, so it was like great. Um then pod three is the one that does the song get it or feed me. Okay, and that's the one where you know you're inside and you're like sitting like this and you're just waiting. That's the thing about the plants. No matter whenever you see the plant, you're waiting.

Because it just does it's not like an actor. As soon as an actor comes on, they're doing something. No, the plant's there, and you're just waiting, waiting, waiting, waiting, wait, even in act two. When act two starts and the curtain opens, and you see the ginormous Titanic sitting there, you know, we're just waiting. Like just hanging. It's incredible. Suddenly Seymour, and suddenly this will be over. So we'll finally get to do something, but yeah, okay, fine. Yeah, yeah. So in order to do that, but like I work out like three or four times a week, and then I do stretch so this way I can get and sometimes at the the last minute, and so uh yeah, that's why I've not invested a lot of like you know, evening plans.

Well, thank you for joining us for this evening plan. Uh Monday, we love Monday on Broadway. That's why we that's why we do our podcasts on Monday, because Broadway's dark. We don't have to be. People can still get their theater fix a little bit. Um, but yeah, I mean, we're so happy. Cheyenne, feed me, Seymour. You got a lot of you got a lot of fans coming in. Um, a lot. Um, from everywhere. I mean, from everywhere, but you have such a crazy career. Um in the best way possible. And we'll get to that. Um, and we'll get to that. All right, let's let's throw out some like Broadway off Broadway news. Uh let's chit chat and uh then we'll we'll get into the awesomeness of Noel. All right.

[18:24] Amber Brzezinski: First up, we we do have some more sad news. Forgive me, I'm dog sitting, so these are my house guests. It's a furry tax we get. It's fine. My fur tax. Um, we do have the August Wilson Theater dimming its lights on October 10th at 7:30 in memory of uh Broadway producer Adam Epstein, um, who you might know from shows like Hairspray, The Wedding Singer, and more. So uh just be mindful if you will be in the area that the August Wilson will be doing uh their own light dimming that night out of respect for uh Adam Epstein. We also have some new faces joining Broadway. This is gonna be pretty exciting for the youths out there, Charlie D'Amelio. Oh yeah, I saw that joining Broadway as uh going to be joining and Juliet as Charmaine beginning October 29th for a limited engagement through January 19th, which that kind of excites me because she is a trained dancer, so that's a great choice of a show for her to join.

If she's gonna join any show, and Juliet is the perfect choice. I mean, she could work out like Nol can and then be part of the pod. Exactly. Exactly. Go on Instagram and do like workouts for everybody, like Broadway workouts. That'd be a great idea. Okay, now we've come up with a new concept. We'll copyright it. So we're gonna do like plant training 101. Okay. Exactly. The mist, the mist can be the first workout. It's the mean it's the mean green mother uh, you know, exercise. Right. Um, also just a reminder to join all of our groups where you can find fun announcements, like the full cast for Gypsy, which was just announced uh I believe yesterday. So make sure you're following along. Heather can drop our link to our groups.

[20:21] Heather Bedor: Oh, I can do it. Including Joy Woods, who was including Joy Woods of Little Shop as a version of the show. Yes. I love it again, such a small world, full circle, constantly, full circle.

[20:38] Noel MacNeal: Oh, yeah. I've learned that with the with the whole thing of community. I mean, I've watched the the Tony Awards for years, and I've and you know, if you played a drinking game, every time somebody said community, you beat alcohol poisoned by the having worked at Little Shop. I realized it really is a community, and y'all know each other like crazy. Little Shop is like oh, what was the term uh that Jeff used the other other week, Amber? Between Little Shop and Chicago, like you're getting like you're just like a training ground for Broadway stars. It's really great.

[21:10] Amber Brzezinski: Right. Or off Broadway, anybody.

[21:14] Noel MacNeal: Right. It's just one of those shows that's constantly cycling through new people.

[21:19] Amber Brzezinski: Yeah.

[21:19] Noel MacNeal: And it's just getting people in and out. And it it's like you're not you're not anyone if you haven't been through one of those shows. You know what I mean?

[21:29] Amber Brzezinski: It's also it's not it's not stunt casting.

[21:31] Noel MacNeal: And we we have people.

[21:33] Amber Brzezinski: No, not at all.

[21:34] Noel MacNeal: No, it's not stunt cast because you can't stunt well, I can put it this way you can't stunt cast that show because that show is a very small cast. Right is doing a bajillion things. My buddy Andrew Cole was part of it at Orin a couple couple well last year.

[21:50] Amber Brzezinski: Yeah, Andrew, love him.

[21:52] Noel MacNeal: Um and now he's uh King George in Hamilton again.

[21:55] Amber Brzezinski: Yeah, exactly. And that's the thing about the the show too, is like the theater itself is very small, yes, and so you know, we have the the guys' dressing room and the ladies' dressing room, and like that's it. So there's like seven guys in this little room, so we don't have room for your Tony Award, let alone your ego.

[22:16] Amber Brzezinski: So you need to want to be here if you really want to be here, and luckily, like all the guys uh that have been there have like been so good.

[22:25] Noel MacNeal: I have not laughed so hard, yeah, in a production than I have in that dressing room.

[22:31] Amber Brzezinski: I mean, that's good though, because that's like that breeding ground for like familiarity and like almost like a uh for fraternity or sorority.

[22:41] Noel MacNeal: Oh, you have a dog looking your face, Amber.

[22:43] Amber Brzezinski: I know fur eternities, right?

[22:46] Noel MacNeal: Thank you.

[22:49] Amber Brzezinski: Well, I mean, Noah, you know your fair share of stuff with fur.

[22:52] Noel MacNeal: Uh very true.

[22:54] Amber Brzezinski: And a self selfish question. Um I know that you performed uh with Henson for forever.

[23:02] Noel MacNeal: Forever.

[23:04] Amber Brzezinski: And you did Sesame Street 30 years.

[23:02] Noel MacNeal: 30 years.

[23:05] Noel MacNeal: Um actually I started on Sesame Street um in the fall of um 1982.

[23:13] Amber Brzezinski: Oh, so right before I was born.

[23:14] Noel MacNeal: Yes.

[23:15] Amber Brzezinski: Yeah, there we go.

[23:15] Noel MacNeal: Wow.

[23:15] Noel MacNeal: Because of that, I got to actually meet and work with Jim Henson and Frank Oz and all the people I I grew up with on Sesame Street. And the Wrangler is the person who takes care of the puppets and make sure they're camera ready. And then I transferred from that to being a background puppeteer. And now I am uh one of the directors uh for the show. In fact, we just I just uh directed uh three new songs for the YouTube channel of Sesame.

[23:41] Amber Brzezinski: Oh, that's awesome.

[23:41] Noel MacNeal: One for Halloween, which will be coming up in a couple of weeks, and Christmas, and then Valentine's Day. We did all those in one day.

[23:48] Amber Brzezinski: I love the resurgence, like you keep trying, you know.

[23:50] Noel MacNeal: I live in Orlando, we have Muppet Vision 3D, like there's such a resurgence of Muppets, and like they keep trying like the every kind of Muppet show, but more geared towards like us that grew up with the Muppets too.

[24:02] Noel MacNeal: Yeah, and it's just so cool.

[24:04] Noel MacNeal: And then you also uh puppeteered Sweetums.

[24:08] Amber Brzezinski: Yes, I got to do that for um actually for the uh the TV movie, um Muppets Letters to Santa.

[24:15] Noel MacNeal: So I got to I got to uh puppeteer and voice him for that, which was really nice.

[24:20] Amber Brzezinski: And we had Broadway stars in that. We had Jesse Martin and who played who played the postmaster in that.

[24:26] Noel MacNeal: I mean, I will watch like the haunted mansion Muppets every time I can too. Like there's just so much.

[24:30] Amber Brzezinski: So you're you're bringing her childhood back to life, and you're you're the OG too.

[24:37] Noel MacNeal: I mean, it's so cool.

[24:39] Noel MacNeal: Thank you.

[24:39] Noel MacNeal: There's also a really great if you happen to be in New York, the Museum of the Moving Image has this great Jim exhibition that's there all the time. And you can even design your own anything Muppet. They have like well, that's what the ones on Sesame Street are called, where you can just take eyes and wigs and put them on different kinds of Muppets to make them look like anything you want. So you can actually and then go in front of a camera and try to puppeteer puppetry the way we do on Sesame Street.

[25:06] Amber Brzezinski: So it's a really great exhibition.

[25:07] Noel MacNeal: I was Disney trained puppeteering for entertainment, but all I learned was this.

[25:14] Amber Brzezinski: And then like the arm up.

[25:15] Noel MacNeal: Yeah, that was that was about it.

[25:23] Heather Bedor: Oh yeah. Everybody, it's a very small world that we live in. Um, I you know, Amber and I were kind of tossing back and forth if we wanted to talk about uh the incident that happened like a week and a half ago at Little Shop.

[25:39] Amber Brzezinski: Oh, um, well, you don't have to.

[25:45] Heather Bedor: No, no. Oh, yeah, that was it was it was just yeah, it was just it was one of those things where I kind of look at it as um, you know, on on Sesame Street, every now and then, you know, Sesame Street is like you know, the safe haven where you can go and hang out with your friends, but but every now and then, you know, the real world intrudes, and so Sesame Street has to you know address it, like when um Mr. Hooper died and decided to explain death, or when uh we had the hurricane coming through New York. Uh Sesame Street decided to to have the same thing happen to Big Bird, and so that kids could relate to what he's feeling too. So every now and then the real world does come in, and so that's kind of what I see like what happened with with Little Shop. Like the real world, like kind of.

[26:35] Amber Brzezinski: I think, but it was handled so well.

[26:37] Heather Bedor: It was.

[26:40] Amber Brzezinski: And we're not we're not giving energy to the negativity by mentioning all the stuff. But for those of you that have been following along, but I I want to commend on behalf of Little Shop to you. Like you guys handled it so clean and so well that it's just gone.

[26:56] Heather Bedor: Yes. Yeah, it's like it's it's yeah, it's it's moved on, and that particular person will not be allowed back into our theater.

[27:06] Amber Brzezinski: And that person is blacklisted from Broadway.

[27:09] Heather Bedor: Yes, that's one thing I found out from like from such places, yes.

[27:13] Amber Brzezinski: So can't get a ticket, so like no, no, and can't be part of any of the fan groups. Uh we run 67 of them and other admin, yeah, true.

[27:22] Heather Bedor: It's true. Uh and uh Jeff Cohen. Um we'll we'll message you after the show. We don't want to spend any more energy on it, but we just wanted to commend the but again it's like it shows like that whole you know community like sticking together. Like when people heard about this, they like you know, rallied around and said, like what we can do, we're so sorry, how can we support? And like this is this is what's happened. So it's a it's a big dysfunctional family. We put the fun in school.

[27:49] Amber Brzezinski: Absolutely. Oh, yeah. I found that out because what the I uh starting tomorrow is October. Um crazy, right?

[27:57] Heather Bedor: I know. So in October of 2022, that's when I started on Little Shop. So it'll be two years coming up to your anniversary. And when I started this, I said this was my first legit theater experience. Because I've done like on stage stuff, but nothing like on this level of like sure, like you know, especially like off-Broadway.

[28:15] Amber Brzezinski: Well, you're not performing the same show over and over and over again with the stuff that you've done.

[28:19] Heather Bedor: Yeah, yeah. It's like I mean, it may be the same characters, but it's like it's a whole new script. So it's just like, you know. And so um, after one rehearsal, during a break during one rehearsal, the stage manager at the time said he was listening to this podcast, and this host had a guest. And the last question he asked the host, um the last the the guest was what he always asks his guests is like, okay, what are your three threats? And everybody on stage was just like, oh wow, what do you think? And me being the non-theater person was going like, why would you ask somebody what threatens them? What kind of question is that? And then I found out it's like the three talents you have like singing, dancing, and I said to them, it's like, oh, you see, I'm new to theater. So to me, my three threats are being pushed in the subway, another pandemic, yes, yes, and Republicans.

[29:13] Amber Brzezinski: So that's exactly mine.

[29:15] Heather Bedor: Right. Yeah. So yeah, I've learned a lot since then. Well, since now that you know the theater threats, what would you say? Because you've done so much. What would you think? You're you're like a triple quadruple quadruple threat.

[29:32] Noel MacNeal: Um, so what would you say?

[29:34] Heather Bedor: I don't know, it's like I would say um, it's like well, singing, because I I can't sing, uh puppeteering, and uh I guess uh would it have to be something on stage or something behind the scenes? Uh whatever you want.

[29:50] Noel MacNeal: Well, maybe directing.

[29:52] Heather Bedor: Yeah, yeah, absolutely. That's great.

[29:55] Noel MacNeal: Yeah. And would you ever do you think you'd ever find yourself directing a Broadway or off an off-Broadway show or Broadway show?

[30:02] Noel MacNeal: I'm gonna put a petition together. You guys heard it here first. Gonna petition.

[30:07] Heather Bedor: Yes. Because it's like I'm getting to you know, I I just had a birthday, so it's just like what roles can a guy my age kind of play.

[30:16] Noel MacNeal: Anything, yeah, anything absolutely you're like theater is like how glee was on TV, like adults playing children's role.

[30:26] Heather Bedor: That's fine. There's there's not adult. It's blind casting. Like you could totally if I got to play like the the wizard in Wicked. That would be fun.

[30:38] Noel MacNeal: So dude, why are you not doing that? Let's let's reach out to it.

[30:43] Heather Bedor: He's now yeah, Wicked.

[30:45] Noel MacNeal: Yeah, and love Brad. He's like he's perfect for it. So my god. It it's just so cool to kind of see, you know, we run so many groups, we have a lot of casting crew in them, and it's just fun to see like where everybody is like from one to the other to and everyone's bouncing. It's fun to see like people, it just go from the show to show.

[31:06] Amber Brzezinski: I don't have time now to try and see, like you know, Kevin's in um yellow face, and yeah, I was just gonna say Kevin just started in Yellow Face with his opening up, yeah.

[31:16] Noel MacNeal: And Joy before she leaves Notebook, and Drew, who's in, and Juliet now is Shakespeare. So yeah, so all these people like in all these things, it's great. But it's but it's good because they still have a home at Little Shop, which is something I noticed at the fifth anniversary. Like so much cast came back, so much fruit came back. Um the dogs are just this is gonna be the the secondary show. They're discussing the revival of cats, the jellico bowl.

[31:45] Amber Brzezinski: It's very delighted right now.

[31:47] Noel MacNeal: Sorry. They thought they were not happy.

[31:52] Amber Brzezinski: No, they made it. They're waiting for the 1001 Dalmatians show from London.

[31:56] Noel MacNeal: Right. Yes, yeah, exactly. Exactly. Which I saw they had puppets, so I would love to work on that. Anybody out there hello.

[32:04] Heather Bedor: I mean, well, you know, the majority of the people I think within like me and Amber's age group are gonna really know Bear in the Big Blue House. Um, and like I have friends that are professional puppeteers. I was sent with a question, but we'll get into that in a second. Um, and I don't know, I I guess I can kind of give the snippet as to how you and I met Noel. Um, and I've told her on the podcast before, and I actually talked to Kara and Austin last night to make sure it was okay to share again. Um, so we were at BroadwayCon and Noel had had a workshop that was completely sold out. Um, the Hintons, who you guys know and love. Um, Austin um and his mom Kara used to watch Bear in the Big Blue House um after he would have medical episodes, and the goodnight song was the only thing that would get him to calm down.

[32:55] Amber Brzezinski: And so he really wanted to get into the workshop, and it was completely sold out like way in advance, which is amazing, by the way. Because if you guys ever need to learn about building puppets or any kind of puppetry, noel is your guy.

[33:07] Noel MacNeal: Right.

[33:07] Amber Brzezinski: Um also I also co-instructed it with Jake Basil, who's a voiceover artist, and it was a girl, the winning the poo off Broadway show, and Jed Barnhart, who is puppeteer, an original cast member from Broadway's Avenue Q. So we ran it in the world.

[33:20] Noel MacNeal: Yeah. I mean, I'm a 41-year old who loves puppets. I'm sorry. Like it's never gonna stop.

[33:24] Amber Brzezinski: Um, but um Austin's a little bit shy, and Kara said, Um, that's that's that's bear in the big blue house right there. And I was like, Where's I'm looking for the puppet? I'm like, what are you talking about? And she pointed to you, and I was like, she's like, Can you like I'm really shot? Kara is shy, it's weird. Um, but she's like, I I can you maybe see if he could like maybe come over. And I'm like, sure. I have no shame. I walked over, I introduced myself, he came over. Um, we all shared a good cry.

[33:57] Noel MacNeal: And then Noel did something that was, I mean, I think a very big surprise is you took out, I guess, what would you call the bear that you took out?

[34:06] Noel MacNeal: It's it's a very meta thing, it's a puppet of a puppet, so it's a puppet of bear. So it's if if bear got stuck in the dryer, it's a much smaller version of him, but much easier to take around to things like this. So yeah, but it's still bear. In fact, it was uh built by my friend James Voital, who was one of the builders for the original Bear puppet for the series.

[34:25] Amber Brzezinski: So Austin still has this picture as his Facebook profile.

[34:31] Heather Bedor: So and they still talk about it to this day five months later, four months later, whatever it was, two months later, one of those things. Um but you've taught you touched a lot of people.

[34:44] Noel MacNeal: That sounds really inappropriate.

[34:46] Amber Brzezinski: Um you've been able to like, you know, embody and and be the spirit of a lot, um, without ruining the magic. But it's just incredible. Okay, so now I have to ask you my bear question.

[34:59] Noel MacNeal: Yeah, and I'm gonna read it.

[35:01] Amber Brzezinski: So my dear friend Adam, um, who is Canadian and I love him. Um, he he travels with his puppeteering show. He creates all of his puppets, and he's lovely. I've met him during fringe, and I was like, Hey, send this out to your group of people. And he was like, Oh my god, like I have to pick up my parents from the airport, but I can't be at it. He's like, but I have a question, and I said, Okay, I will ask. So it says questions. I'm reading exactly how it says, I think people find it interesting, the setup inside of Bear, and also the different versions of the left hand, filament, filament, extra performer, tack to a ledge, etc. That was that was the question. So it's like a statement question.

[35:48] Noel MacNeal: Like um, you know, it's very mysterious inside the the temple of Egypt.

[35:53] Amber Brzezinski: You write we don't want to learn the inner working thing with the bear, okay?

[35:57] Noel MacNeal: Exactly. So it's like yeah, with bear bear is uh for those of you not familiar with him, uh, bear was uh what we call a full body puppet, similar to Big Bird. So I was inside Bear and I could walk that sounds dirty now. Well Bear and I were very close back then, and so yeah, so and so it's the kind of technology where um I have a monitor, a tiny TV set strapped to my chest with a microphone, and so I'm looking down at this monitor. So what you would see at home, that's the only vision I had because I couldn't see out.

[36:31] Amber Brzezinski: Okay, and because of this, uh monitor training, the images not mirror, it's reversed.

[36:37] Noel MacNeal: Well, oh wow, so you just have to rewire your brain so that if your hand is going this way on the screen, this actually looks like it's going this way.

[36:46] Amber Brzezinski: Right.

[36:46] Noel MacNeal: It's oh wow, but you just that's that's the way I'm and there's no way they can clip the image for you, or it's not a few.

[36:52] Amber Brzezinski: They could, but that would throw me off. I was on a shoe years ago one time, and we were looking at the monitors, like, wait, something's wrong. And they said they they flipped it because they had other puppeteers who asked for it, and we're like, No, no, no, no. We want it the normal like you should probably warn me about that first.

[37:08] Noel MacNeal: I know exactly. It's like, thank you, but we're not lazy. Could you please put it back to the the way it was before?

[37:14] Amber Brzezinski: Yeah, yes.

[37:15] Noel MacNeal: Yeah. And and then and so my hand would go up inside Bear's neck into his head.

[37:21] Amber Brzezinski: Yeah.

[37:21] Noel MacNeal: And then my left hand would be in his left hand, and then there would be the little string, the monofilament that would go through a ring under his neck, and then down to the to the right hand, which was stuffed. So whenever I did this, it would just naturally move. And when Bear would dance, we would use shorter ones. So this way, no matter what I did, it looked right like he was alive. But then we would have this trick. We would have a like a wild arm. So Bear could be back here, but if he like you know came forward, then Jim Krupa, uh, who's a great puppeteer and I've worked with so long, he would have the wild arm on. So he he would come in from the side, okay, and then there could like actually hold something, look at it, and it's like, oh, oh, that's great, and then put it down and then walk back, and you never know the difference.

[38:08] Noel MacNeal: Well, and as I say, it's like taking down that wall, um, or like keeping up the mystique. But then if you go back to Avenue Q, anybody, um, you very much see the hands. Yeah, there's rod puppets, that's what Rod, uh, was. That's it's it's kind of like the joke. His name was like Rod because he's a rod puppet, right? Those little sticks that come out of his wrists, and then, you know, uh, the other puppets, uh, were like practical hands, yeah. So Treky, for instance, a practical hand puppet, so that the puppeteer, the main puppeteer is in the head with his or their left hand, and then a right hand is doing the other right hand, and it becomes this choreographed like dance, especially on stage.

[38:51] Noel MacNeal: Yeah, it's great. I was part of this classic on Sesame called, uh, the baddie bat, uh, which is on YouTube. Everything I mentioned, by the way, is on YouTube. It's like a video. And we will post it linked. It's great. We're gonna we're gonna post all the YouTube links to our. And it was, um, and I was with, uh, one of my heroes, um, Jerry Nelson. Okay, the master of puppetry and voices, and he was the count. And so we were doing this dance, and Richard Hunt, another hero of my puppeteer on Sesame, um, he was Janice on the Muppet Show, uh, he was scooter. Um, he told me that whenever he did something like this with Richard, he said, just take your thumb and loop it to his belt.

[39:30] Noel MacNeal: Oh, that makes sense, yeah. Because you're just doing this, loop it and then just hang on. And that's what we did because we had to actually the crown had to like twirl, he had the waltz around the room, and so right that's what we did. Oh, and it was it was great, it was like so cool. It's like it's so cool. But I'm knowing I know what's going on underneath. Well, right, it's, uh, Amber and I were talking about it yesterday, getting ready for the show, and I'm like, okay, so like I've seen the behind the scenes stuff for like Muppet Show, and like it's really cool because you have a whole other world built above you, yeah, but then you watch all these like original behind the scenes and you just watch everybody and where the camera's at, and it's just it's so choreographed, like there's so much between it.

[40:10] Noel MacNeal: But do you find do you ever find yourself talking with puppeteering hands when you're having a normal conversation? Like it's just much of your brain. Well, actually, it's funny whenever we do like an interview with our character, like if the character is on my arm, doing an interview, the interviewer will always point the microphone at the puppet and not at well, but you were but you were very specific, and actually, um, oh gosh, why can't I think of his name? The gentleman that was at Broadway Con that was Rot.

[40:38] Noel MacNeal: Oh, um, well, there was, um, uh, McLyan who was like he was there, and he's also Tricky Monster and really good friend of mine. And he was very specific when I took photos to make sure the eyes were straight on, and you taught me that as well. Yeah, it's like make sure it's like you know, like the puppets just like glaring off. I don't know, just like look. It's like yes, yeah. That's what we do. It's like you know, we'll have a photographer like who's not used to like puppets. So if they're on sesame, they'll say, Okay, look over here. It's like where's here because sometimes we're like under a table, or if I'm in bear or big birds, like, where's over here?

[41:13] Noel MacNeal: And so that's when, uh, Michelle, who's, um, the Wrangler and Sesame, she'll say, Okay, big bird, up to your left a little bit, elbow down, slightly to your right. And so this, and she's standing right beside the photographer, so then she can get that perfect shot. That's smart, and I love it because there's there's there's life behind the puppets. I always notice too with interviews and stuff. If somebody has a puppet, that it's not just sitting there, it's constantly like there's life to it.

[41:40] Noel MacNeal: It's it is you do want to talk to that puppet, you want to be able to respect it. Um, but one that you and this again, selfish reasons, one that I don't think was just this, uh, Raphael. Oh, yeah. Um, puppeteer for Teenage Intellects Three, three, yes, with a samurai gear on, one of my favorites. Yeah. Um, so there's I always say there's there's five people to make one turtle. So for Raphael, there was me, the puppeteer who was remote controlling the facial expressions off camera to make the mouth move and the eyes and all that.

[42:18] Noel MacNeal: Inside was, uh, my friend actor Matt Hill, who's a voice actor. He went on to voice, uh, one of the eds for Ed Ed Eddie. Okay. Um, you could look him up. Um, then there's, um, there was the, uh, the martial artist who does all the fighting. Uh, because this was back in time, there were stud riders for the turtles to like fall off horses. Right, right. All principal photography and all that's done, they take it back to LA, and then you got the voice actor they've hired to be the voice to sits in the studio and just watches the screen and dubs his voice over mine.

[42:54] Noel MacNeal: But it's still cool. I mean, that's a very different kind of puppeteering though, with all the mechanisms off inside. Oh, yeah. It was like, yeah, it was like I call it like I called like a glorified oven mitt. So it was like this this thing on a pole, and I would have my hand inside, and there was a computer, so that I pre-programmed if I went forward, then the mouth could like do this, or if I went back, or do that, and then if I leaned it up, like like the eyebrows could go.

[43:21] Noel MacNeal: So it's all this pre-programmed um stuff back in 1992. So yeah, it I was just so fascinated by you know how look, guys, like technology's come a long way, but 35, 40 years ago, like come on. It still holds up, it's still yeah, absolutely. That one, the first two, it still holds up. There's still there's something about seeing them actually like you know, in the actual world, right? You know, computer generated. So yeah, I I mean I prefer it. Like CGI stuff's okay, but I just the the old school physical method of it.

[43:56] Noel MacNeal: I think there's such a nuance and an art to it that it really it's never gonna go away. Yeah. And plus, how good did that pizza always look? Exactly. You always wanted the pizza. Did you at least get pizza on something? Right. That's how good the prop department was. It looked good, but you did not want to eat it. No. No, no, no, no, no.

[44:20] Amber Brzezinski: All right. What, uh, what, uh, we're we're kind of like just riding along here. What other Broadway news do we have?

[44:25] Amber Brzezinski: Do we have anything else, Heather? We really just had just a bunch of theater openings. Just wanted to let everybody know that, um, we had McNeil opening today. I mean how convenient.

[44:40] Heather Bedor: I turned it down.

[44:42] Amber Brzezinski: We have Yellow Face opening tomorrow, which, um, as we mentioned, has, uh, Kevin in it who was just in Little Shop of Horrors. He's coming back once because it's Yellow Face is a limited run. So he's gonna be able to do that.

[44:56] Heather Bedor: Yeah, oh, what's the channel?

[44:57] Amber Brzezinski: Oh, excellent, excellent. Um, we have, um, Left On 10th, which started its first preview on the 26th. We had Romeo and Juliet start their first preview again, which everyone's very excited.

[45:12] Heather Bedor: It's horny.

[45:13] Amber Brzezinski: The horny version of Romeo and Juliet that we keep hearing about.

[45:19] Heather Bedor: That's that's the word on Reddit.

[45:23] Amber Brzezinski: What theater is this again?

[45:25] Heather Bedor: Yeah, circle in the square theater.

[45:29] Amber Brzezinski: All right.

[45:29] Heather Bedor: Ah, theater in the round.

[45:31] Amber Brzezinski: All right, so there's no very seat.

[45:33] Heather Bedor: Okay, right.

[45:34] Amber Brzezinski: Um, and then of course, Sunset Boulevard played its first preview on the 28th, and that's at the St. James Theater.

[45:41] Heather Bedor: You guys heard the now infamous photo of Nicole Schirzinger.

[45:46] Amber Brzezinski: Uh, no shoes covered in blood in her black slip at the stage door.

[45:50] Heather Bedor: Right.

[45:51] Amber Brzezinski: The producers yelling, get back inside.

[45:54] Heather Bedor: For those of you who remember Carrie, it's not Carrie.

[45:57] Amber Brzezinski: No, it's not Carrie, no.

[46:00] Heather Bedor: But that show is also getting rave reviews as well.

[46:03] Amber Brzezinski: Yeah, I remember seeing the original when it was on Broadway.

[46:06] Heather Bedor: Nice with, um, uh, Glenn Close.

[46:08] Amber Brzezinski: Oh my god.

[46:09] Heather Bedor: And then the set and the set that would like raise and like lower so it's like it was crazy.

[46:14] Amber Brzezinski: So yeah, so it's curious. Like, this looks very minimal.

[46:17] Heather Bedor: This is it's a very minimal version of the show, and a little bit more modernized from what I understand.

[46:23] Amber Brzezinski: Yeah, well, okay.

[46:26] Heather Bedor: Doesn't there's a lot of great chess command, and then I don't know, Amber, if you have us in your news, but we're kind of touching on like the immersive stuff a little bit minimalized.

[46:34] Amber Brzezinski: Um, Andrew Lloyd Weber has now officially said that there is an immersive off Broadway version of Phantom coming.

[46:40] Heather Bedor: Yes, that is in my news.

[46:42] Amber Brzezinski: Thank you for bringing that up.

[46:44] Heather Bedor: So welcome.

[46:45] Amber Brzezinski: Yeah, I don't know how that's gonna be, but we're I don't know.

[46:48] Heather Bedor: I didn't that's right up your alley.

[46:52] Amber Brzezinski: I love immersive theater and I love Phantom, but I don't know if I love them together.

[46:56] Heather Bedor: Yeah, so so is it like one of those like haunted houses, like you walk through and I don't know.

[47:02] Amber Brzezinski: Um, there's suddenly falling, and you gotta run, or got zombie ushers going after you, or that'd be kind of cool.

[47:11] Heather Bedor: Um I don't know. I I'm I want to think it would be more like sleep no more or like how life and trust is, but also how do you do that?

[47:21] Amber Brzezinski: Um like we'll see. They're also doing like a teen version of Phantom for, uh, Disney Plus.

[47:28] Heather Bedor: Yes, I saw the time I don't I don't know how much that's gonna be interesting.

[47:36] Amber Brzezinski: Yes, is it like a darker high school musical or is it basically yes, uh-huh?

[47:42] Heather Bedor: Yes, Kenny Howard, or, uh, what's not Kenny Howard.

[47:44] Amber Brzezinski: Oh my god.

[47:45] Heather Bedor: Ah, Kenny Howard's a friend of mine who also does stuff.

[47:48] Amber Brzezinski: Oh my god, why can I think of his name?

[47:50] Heather Bedor: The choreographer.

[47:52] Amber Brzezinski: Oh, Kenny Ortega.

[47:53] Heather Bedor: Thank you, Kenny Ortega.

[47:54] Amber Brzezinski: I was like, the they looked identical.

[47:56] Heather Bedor: Yeah, yeah, Kenny Ortega, um, doing Phantom of the Opera masquerade.

[48:01] Amber Brzezinski: Yes.

[48:03] Heather Bedor: That's all I oh my god, no, please don't.

[48:08] Amber Brzezinski: Disney Plus, right?

[48:11] Heather Bedor: Is it I'm just curious, is it gonna have like the original music?

[48:15] Amber Brzezinski: Are they gonna or are they gonna have their own original music that's gonna pay tribute to occasionally the past?

[48:22] Heather Bedor: I know they said they include like the big songs, so like Masquerade, Think of Me, Angel of Music, um, and then Phantom of the Opera.

[48:31] Amber Brzezinski: I don't know.

[48:32] Heather Bedor: And it's just it's it's I'm a huge Phantom fan.

[48:36] Amber Brzezinski: Um, it's just weird.

[48:38] Heather Bedor: It's just I and well, when Phantom closed, what over a year ago, um, people lost their minds, they're like, oh no, no, no, they're gonna revamp the majestic and bring it back, and it's like no no no, they revamped the majestic, and now that's where Audrey McDonald's is gonna live with Gypsy.

[48:54] Amber Brzezinski: Yes, right, but how are they bringing it back?

[48:58] Heather Bedor: And originally the rumor was they were clipping it a little bit, pulling back the orchestra because Andrew Lloyd Weber can only collect the the royalties of the original show, and hand over foot, they were just continuously grab, grab, grab.

[49:15] Amber Brzezinski: So they've like condensed the show, pulled back the orchestra, and redesigned it, but everyone thought it was gonna go into the majestic, and now we're getting off Broadway immersive and a Disney version.

[49:26] Heather Bedor: Okay.

[49:27] Amber Brzezinski: So do you think the Disney version will then lend itself to being like its own little like high school version, the way high school musical has been performed for high schools?

[49:37] Heather Bedor: That this will then like Phantom Jr.

[49:40] Amber Brzezinski: Yeah, yeah.

[49:40] Heather Bedor: So that high schools can then do this.

[49:43] Amber Brzezinski: Um, I know that high schools can do, um, Love Never Dies now.

[49:48] Heather Bedor: So I'd be curious, yeah.

[49:52] Amber Brzezinski: Um, if you guys didn't know, that really deep subject matter for high school, yeah.

[49:57] Heather Bedor: Although my my my son, when he was in his senior year of high school a few years ago, they did, uh, Carrie, you know, the revamp room.

[50:04] Amber Brzezinski: Oh, yeah.

[50:05] Heather Bedor: But Carrie's a great music.

[50:06] Amber Brzezinski: And it actually made sense seeing like teenagers do the story.

[50:11] Heather Bedor: Right.

[50:11] Amber Brzezinski: So it just suddenly had a whole new level to it, like about high school and bullying and peer pressure and and whatnot.

[50:19] Heather Bedor: So yeah, so they did the full version of Rent, not Red Jr., the full version of Red the year before.

[50:26] Amber Brzezinski: You know, Red Jr. probably has like, you know, Angel catching a cold.

[50:29] Heather Bedor: No, this was before real rent where you know it's everything.

[50:34] Amber Brzezinski: They did it, and it was great.

[50:36] Heather Bedor: That's impressive.

[50:37] Amber Brzezinski: That's really cool.

[50:39] Heather Bedor: Yeah, it's like Frank Sinatra School of the Arts in Queens, and then, uh, every spring they had their show, and it's open to the public.

[50:46] Amber Brzezinski: You can get tickets to just see the show. Like this is the same thing. Are they the ones that did Rent that um Adam Pascal was supposed to do something with? I know that there was a local production and then something happened. Um, no, it was like um I don't what do you know? I know I know that um out in Queens, Frank Sinatra School of the Arts, that's the that's where they did Rent. And oh no, he um he like zoomed in and and cheered them on. So he couldn't actually come, but still wanted to like send his regards and zoomed in and like gave everybody and everybody was like thrilled. So it wasn't. I know that he and Anthony Rapp are gonna be on the Rocket Cruise next March, which I'm obsessed with. Um and they're actually gonna do their cabaret, so I'll be in like Brent Heaven for a little bit, which is great. Oh, and next spring, Frank Sinatra School of the Arts in Queens, they're doing Sweeney Todd. Oh looks like we're making a field trip, Heather.

[51:41] Heather Bedor: I'm there.

[51:43] Amber Brzezinski: I'm there at at Broadway Flea. I had a stipulation, so I don't know if you knew at Flea, they had a lot of Sondheim's estate books. And I was like, oh well, we'll come well if we come across one, it's fine. We had a couple of members to pick stuff up for. And I said, the only thing that I want is if there's Sweeney Todd from the Sondheim Estate. And we were at, was it at the Limpica table or something? I think it was Limpika. I don't even I think it was just like a random table. I well, I think that's where we got the Limpica napkin from because I was buying it and you're like, and we're gonna take that Sweeney Todd book, and I'm like, and it was the Sweeney Todd, like the movie lyrics book from the Sondheim Estate.

And I was like, done. So that's cool. Yes, we'll take it, we'll take a field trip. Um and it's a weird transition, but I'm looking at Jeff Cohen asking about um Patty out of roommates and COVID. Um I'm gonna yes, um, and I want to kind of turn that because Noel, um, I want your opinion because you're a very outgoing individual, you're very lovely. We always preach to people about stage door. And especially with West Side Theater, you kind of it's it's inevitable, like somebody's gonna come out and the fans seem to be respectful. What are your feelings on stage touring?

[53:04] Noel MacNeal: Oh, it's like I could totally understand, and um the actors totally understand, uh too. Um, I mean, you know, there really wouldn't be a show if it weren't for all you fans out there buying the tickets, and so for the and they have to leave the theater anyway. So in the moment to like sign something, um, it's great. Um, but you know, like if every like person, you know, there are boundaries, and so it's like of course, you know, so you have to be respectful that you know this person who's just been performing for like over two hours, yeah, might be a little tired. And so if they uh don't sign your program or can't sign your program for whatever reason, just you know, understand that. Um, like with um Darren and Evan, what they would do is um if you wanted a signed audit uh program, just like leave it and they would take the time to do it inside.

Right. So then it got as you left, then you got your program that was already assigned. Right. Because we always tell people it's like it's not a guarantee because people are like, oh, I'm so like um my my famous story was actually with the Hintons. We saw Hadestown, and um they were in their full cosplay, and a woman saw them, maybe thinking they were part of the show, and she's like, I'm gonna write a terrible review about the show. And we're like, oh god, why? And she's like, Well, because the uh Jordan Fisher didn't come out for the stage store. And we're like, You're gonna write a bad review about the show because a performer who just performed his ass off for almost three hours isn't coming outside.

And also, and we were like, Well, but think about it, there's bugs going around, there's stomach bugs, there's COVID. Oh, well, I'm from California. We have all that stuff. No, you're not going to eat this week. Um, you need to protect yourself. Um people are very upset because Bebe Neuwirth doesn't come out for Cabaret. She comes out, she wears a mask, she goes right into her car and she leaves. Right. But she doesn't want to get sick, and she's also incredibly shy. Yeah. And so, yeah, so just being respectful of like the person because it's still a person. They did a great performance as this great character, but they're still a person at the end of the day. So they're also not getting paid to be there after the shows, don't they?

So it's an individual uh kind of thing. So, like, you know, Bebe Neuwirth does that, Jordan does that. Um, you know, Sarah and Andrew always took the time coming out to like to sign, as does um James Capanella, who's I love him more than now. He's ridiculous. I love him so much. I was watching him at the end of the first screen, and I was like, I could just watch you because you're ridiculous.

[55:43] Amber Brzezinski: Yeah, oh yeah, it's like it's like and every performance is like a hundred and ninety percent like, oh my god, yeah, too exhausting. Yeah, so it's just an individual thing. So just try and I mean, you know, just try and understand that you know sometimes it's just not going to happen that you'll get to have that one on one moment or get that that autograph. But don't let that, you know, spoil the experience you just had, and the person who just gave it. You can kind of slink out though, unless people know you, which I think out all the time. I like you need to be a good like you know, like yeah, I was like, I'm just a musician from the city. We want to meet them. I'm going out the side doors, like it's fine, just like no problem.

[56:27] Noel MacNeal: Exactly, exactly. That's so funny. The beauty of getting to be in the puppet.

[56:32] Amber Brzezinski: Well, yeah, that's why my wife uh for years called me like Clark Kid because I would do exactly at like you know at like bookstores and and like shopping malls and Disney stores and all that, and so people would like go crazy for Bear, and then I would go back and then I would come out as me and walk by these same people who had no idea who I was and would just leave me alone. My wife could just walk out, and she's like, that's good too. Because I mean, she's uh uh Susan is let me read an award-winning Maggie Hope Historical Award-winning, it just says award-winning Maggie Hope Historical Mystery series and mother-daughter traitor spy from Penguin Random House. Yeah, so yeah, give her the credit where credit's due, and you don't have to be all Mr. Famous.

[57:19] Noel MacNeal: No, it's like, yeah, it's like let my characters be famous, like I'm fine, right? Yeah, like anonymity, great. Yeah, it's great. But that's uh up until do so. I've had a couple of podcasts prior, and up until this podcast, um, so we do have just about half a million followers amongst all of our groups, um, which we're very honored for. Um, and within the last several months, when I go up to New York, um, especially in the theater district, I get recognized. Hey, it's weird. Um, because I like to be on the production side. I'm like, you don't need to look at my face like it's fine I'm cool, like we're good. So now I'm getting people like stopping and asking for photos, and I'm like why um yeah this is it's a whole new era now with the internet and like Instagram and YouTube and TikTok like you know you have enough followers and like suddenly you are the celebrity to them and they want your autograph which is which is amazing nope not happening but I mean sure no photos please no photos um you know but it's it's always fascinating to kind of be part of that world but no you brought up a good point social media it's a different era how do you feel it is impacting the puppeteering side or the directing side like do you feel that people are showing too much or do you like the fact that there are these behind the scenes things that people are able to educate and learn?

[57:56] Noel MacNeal: Um yeah, it's I mean it's dependent depends on the the content and um some of the people I I follow so it it's it is kind of the thing where you can just like lift up your phone and like turn it on you could see like almost anything so you know, you know you click on one thing suddenly the algorithm's like oh you like this so it's like it pops through so it's like no no no I don't like all of that it's just like I like one like cute little kitten video and then exactly so yeah so again it's like it's like an individual choice but it's like I don't like I have a an account on TikTok where I use my bear puppet and I don't do it all the time.

[59:28] Amber Brzezinski: Right.

[59:28] Noel MacNeal: You know whatever it's like inspires me you know I do it or if my son gives me an idea yeah um I do it because I'm not going on to like oh I gotta get more followers and it's like it's like stop I'll lose the followers and it's I I can't do that. It's like that's not that's not right that's not your driving factor yeah I often wonder yeah yeah if I were in my 20s you know again maybe you know if I had grown up with this would I have done something like that um I don't know but right now it's like no but I I do follow other people who are doing like puppetry yeah and and like good puppetry um which I encourage um and then yeah it's like it's it's it's great like even like YouTube is our follow like I follow this great YouTube channel called Mammoth Club and it's in and it's in Orlando and it's like yeah with Molly McAwesome and they're great like Matt um Molly Max and Alan and they do these this great content about the theme parks but it's also very informative they'll have inform like she does this whole series about like about the whole like you know Genie Plus that turn in the fast pass and like how to use it in this park and use it in this park and how to use it as a guest and how to use it as a non-resort guest and which is great which is like you know for someone who has to like you know plan their vacation like D Day this is the the person to go to but then they have like fun challenges while still giving you the information about in this park there's this great snack place and all that but they're they're really fun.

[1:00:59] Amber Brzezinski: So yeah so it's fun and informative.

[1:01:01] Noel MacNeal: So but I do try to look at it that's our goal too exactly but you know I do try to take like a like an internet break every now and then like you know I'll go on the internet like in the morning for like an hour and then like okay I'm done until like later that afternoon. It just like sometimes you're like, I'm gonna put you away now.

[1:01:23] Amber Brzezinski: We're checking maybe the mail, but it's okay.

[1:01:26] Noel MacNeal: We're not going online, so it's fine.

[1:01:28] Amber Brzezinski: Yeah, we're gonna take a social media pause, just a digital digital decompression.

[1:01:33] Noel MacNeal: Yeah, exactly.

[1:01:35] Amber Brzezinski: Well, um, we are nearing the end of our hour, which I can't believe, but you are amazing. Um you mentioned BroadwayCon. BroadwayCon's coming back in the winter now.

[1:01:42] Noel MacNeal: Yes, uh February.

[1:01:47] Amber Brzezinski: Yes, February. Yep. Are you gonna be back there?

[1:01:49] Noel MacNeal: I don't know. We'll see.

[1:01:51] Amber Brzezinski: Me either.

[1:01:53] Noel MacNeal: Maybe if some people ask, maybe we will.

[1:01:56] Amber Brzezinski: I think they should.

[1:01:57] Noel MacNeal: I think they should. I mean, I think that you should be getting some panels.

[1:02:01] Amber Brzezinski: I mean, you've won an Emmy, at least one, right?

[1:02:03] Noel MacNeal: Yes.

[1:02:04] Amber Brzezinski: As the ending director for Sesame Street.

[1:02:06] Noel MacNeal: Yep.

[1:02:07] Amber Brzezinski: That's kind of because now where is it displaying your house?

[1:02:10] Noel MacNeal: Oh, it's in the living room in a in a glass case.

[1:02:12] Amber Brzezinski: It is that I got so yeah.

[1:02:14] Noel MacNeal: It's not just sitting as a paperweight on the no, they like it. But the actual statues in the living room.

[1:02:21] Amber Brzezinski: Fair enough.

[1:02:22] Noel MacNeal: Fair enough. Do you um do you have any words of wisdom? I'm sure you do for um people that are looking to do puppeteering. Um, maybe they've never done it, or maybe this is this is their whole life. Like, do you have any Noel MacNeal-isms?

[1:02:39] Noel MacNeal: Um just basically for anything that you want, and not just puppetry, just like you know, just do it, just try it. Like life is short. So just go for it. Don't keep going. Yeah, don't end up at the end like regretting, oh, I should have done that. Like, just do it. And my mom always said, You haven't failed if you tried.

[1:03:01] Amber Brzezinski: Oh, I love that.

[1:03:01] Noel MacNeal: So keep trying.

[1:03:02] Amber Brzezinski: That's great. There they go. And if you want to be a puppeteer, well, then you know, there are there is um the Puppeteers of America, and they have local chapters all over the country. So check out what local chapters in in your town or city, and um what puppetry festival might be coming by um your town or city. Um here in New York, we've got uh the Museum of the Moving Image that has the Jim Henson exhibition.

[1:03:28] Noel MacNeal: There's in Atlanta, there's the Center for Puppetry Arts.

[1:03:32] Amber Brzezinski: Okay.

[1:03:33] Noel MacNeal: Um and also there are places that do hire puppeteers like Walt Disney World and the Disney Cruise Line.

[1:03:40] Amber Brzezinski: So always looking for performers and build up your upper arm strength.

[1:03:45] Noel MacNeal: Yes.

[1:03:49] Amber Brzezinski: So there are ways to do it.

[1:03:50] Noel MacNeal: Not people always ask me, like, you know, how can I get on Sesame Street? Like, it's like, well, it's like, you know, right now at Sesame Street, they have everybody they need.

[1:04:00] Noel MacNeal: Now I'm not saying that's never gonna happen, like you could get on Sesame Street, but right now, you know, things are pretty level, but then I'll say, but instead of trying to get on Sesame Street, why don't you think of the next Sesame Street?

[1:04:16] Noel MacNeal: And you create that, so then you'll already be on it, and then people will be on your show, right?

[1:04:23] Amber Brzezinski: Sure, I love that.

[1:04:24] Noel MacNeal: Yeah, I mean, that's you're not trying to recreate the wheel, you're just trying to perpetuate and continue through.

[1:04:31] Noel MacNeal: Yeah, exactly.

[1:04:32] Noel MacNeal: I mean, I have this ongoing project that I've been trying to get like on a streaming or a network for years, and it would be a show for autistic and special needs kids.

[1:04:42] Noel MacNeal: I saw that the show me show, and it's just like it's every time you pitch it, it ends up being, oh, it's too specific, it's too specialized, and it's like, well, what show isn't specific and specialized?

[1:04:57] Amber Brzezinski: So yeah, so market for that.

[1:05:01] Noel MacNeal: I was gonna say I think it's something that needs to be there, right?

[1:05:04] Noel MacNeal: Well, I think at this point there are a lot of people who don't see how they could make a profit off of a show for autistic and special needs kids, as opposed to something simple like, you know, puppies who ride fire engines, you know.

[1:05:20] Amber Brzezinski: Fair, fair enough.

[1:05:23] Noel MacNeal: Uh no, absolutely.

[1:05:25] Noel MacNeal: Um we'll have to talk more about this because I have some people I can we can do the thing.

[1:05:32] Amber Brzezinski: My people will call your people.

[1:05:34] Noel MacNeal: Um sorry, there's puppetry on puppets on Broadway run by Julia Darling.

[1:05:40] Noel MacNeal: So you guys should like check her out and join her group because they got us into Broadway COD.

[1:05:47] Amber Brzezinski: So I love that.

[1:05:49] Noel MacNeal: Yes, um, oh Jeff Cohen, any relationship to Mr. P Bonnie, the Sherman show?

[1:05:55] Noel MacNeal: Oh no, no, no, no, it's just it's called the show me show because it's like with kids um autism and special needs, like you know, you have to show them right, like you know, social cues and certain things, so that's why it's the show me, like show me how to do this, show me how to navigate the world.

[1:06:11] Amber Brzezinski: So I love that.

[1:06:13] Noel MacNeal: I love it.

[1:06:13] Amber Brzezinski: So you have your first viewer right there.

[1:06:15] Noel MacNeal: It's gonna be well, I do have a little channel on YouTube, so I put on some videos, so you can check out.

[1:06:20] Amber Brzezinski: I'll go take a look.

[1:06:21] Noel MacNeal: Yeah, absolutely.

[1:06:22] Noel MacNeal: We'll definitely post those to our groups.

[1:06:24] Amber Brzezinski: I'm gonna ask you the question you probably get all the time, and I know you're gonna give me the same answer that everybody in the right line.

[1:06:31] Amber Brzezinski: I know there's no favorite character you've portrayed.

[1:06:35] Noel MacNeal: Do you have oh, or is there?

[1:06:37] Noel MacNeal: Well, it's like right now, like I would think of everybody, it's bear.

[1:06:41] Noel MacNeal: So because uh bear strives to be like, you know, the caretaker we all want to be.

[1:06:48] Noel MacNeal: And so um when I became a dad, like I just used all that to become the overtiera dad.

[1:06:53] Noel MacNeal: So and also um bear was like is one of those rare characters where Bear was a grown-up.

[1:06:59] Noel MacNeal: So many puppet characters on kids shows of little kids.

[1:07:02] Noel MacNeal: Bear was a grown-up, so this way he could actually, you know, in the big blue house, he could go to the kitchen and turn on the oven and it'd be fine.

[1:07:08] Amber Brzezinski: Right, right.

[1:07:09] Noel MacNeal: That's a good point.

[1:07:10] Noel MacNeal: Yeah, yeah.

[1:07:10] Noel MacNeal: Or he could go on like Hollywood Squares and like, you know, be a little cheeky with his answers, but yeah, so I would say he was bear.

[1:07:16] Noel MacNeal: But I've done so many other characters, I still still love having done them.

[1:07:21] Amber Brzezinski: I love that.

[1:07:22] Amber Brzezinski: No, that's that makes me feel better because I was waiting for you to be like, no, it's like asking me my favorite kid.

[1:07:28] Noel MacNeal: Well, luckily I only have one kid, and he's still my favorite.

[1:07:30] Amber Brzezinski: So well, I mean, then he'd beat out the other competition.

[1:07:34] Amber Brzezinski: And we want to hear more about Sweeney Todd coming up in the spring because Amber and I will go.

[1:07:40] Noel MacNeal: Yes, well, go to Instagram for uh Ranksonatro School of the Arts, and then you can follow them as they just started rehearsals like yesterday.

[1:07:48] Noel MacNeal: Like on their story, they had like the orchestra that's awesome, and the girls singing about uh who's there's there's two casts, so this was one of the casts is Mrs. Lovett singing about pies in London.

[1:07:57] Amber Brzezinski: So yes, okay.

[1:08:01] Amber Brzezinski: Yeah, now talking about online social media, where can people find you?

[1:08:05] Amber Brzezinski: How can they follow you and get to see the show me show?

[1:08:08] Noel MacNeal: Um, well, the show me shows on um YouTube on right here on YouTube, the show me show.

[1:08:16] Noel MacNeal: Um, I'm on Instagram and uh in MacNeil.

[1:08:19] Noel MacNeal: I'm on TikTok, which is mostly bear, so it's like little bearisms.

[1:08:24] Amber Brzezinski: I love it.

[1:08:25] Noel MacNeal: Um, yeah, there we go.

[1:08:27] Noel MacNeal: And I think that's pretty much all my social media, really.

[1:08:30] Amber Brzezinski: Yeah, no, that's good.

[1:08:32] Amber Brzezinski: So it's just like we'll post some direct links directly over to your YouTube and your TikToks.

[1:08:37] Amber Brzezinski: And um, yeah, I mean I have my memoir on Amazon.

[1:08:41] Noel MacNeal: So oh, that's right.

[1:08:42] Noel MacNeal: Yes, you can buy that.

[1:08:43] Noel MacNeal: So read about me droning on.

[1:08:47] Amber Brzezinski: No, you're not droning on at all.

[1:08:48] Amber Brzezinski: We could talk just another five hours and be fine.

[1:08:52] Noel MacNeal: But we're so appreciative for you coming and join us.

[1:08:55] Noel MacNeal: Great, thank you so much for having me.

[1:08:56] Noel MacNeal: I can't believe the hour just flew by, so it's like yeah.

[1:08:59] Amber Brzezinski: I mean, anytime you want to come back, you are welcome to come back.

[1:09:02] Noel MacNeal: Thank you.

[1:09:03] Noel MacNeal: Um, you know, Broadway Cares is going to be starting soon.

[1:09:06] Noel MacNeal: We're gonna start um at the theater, so yes, you know, maybe back for the holidays.

[1:09:11] Amber Brzezinski: It was like oh, yeah.

[1:09:13] Amber Brzezinski: It's gonna be great.

[1:09:14] Noel MacNeal: We actually started making bracelets for collaborating with Broadway Cares um on our Etsy shop for a dollar from each one of our bracelets sales was going right to Broadway Cares.

[1:09:22] Amber Brzezinski: Yeah, we we won the uh the um for off Broadway.

[1:09:26] Amber Brzezinski: We raised like the most money, like amazing thousand dollars.

[1:09:30] Noel MacNeal: So it was like it was great.

[1:09:31] Noel MacNeal: So we're very proud.

[1:09:32] Amber Brzezinski: So I'm excited.

[1:09:33] Amber Brzezinski: And the new cast, I think, is gonna bring in a lot of different kind of demographic too.

[1:09:38] Noel MacNeal: Oh yeah, that that's what we've noticed, like with the different crowds.

[1:09:41] Noel MacNeal: Like Darren and Evan had their demographic, right from like TV, and Corbin has his.

[1:09:46] Noel MacNeal: Oh yeah.

[1:09:47] Noel MacNeal: Um, you know, from and then Jinx was on a whole other level.

[1:09:52] Amber Brzezinski: Whole nother level, yeah.

[1:09:54] Noel MacNeal: The first, but the first one I got to see was Jonathan Groff, like enough said.

[1:10:00] Noel MacNeal: Um that was at the show the other night to see um Andrew and Sarah before they left.

[1:10:04] Amber Brzezinski: Oh so sweet.

[1:10:06] Noel MacNeal: Yeah, it was really like a golden boy.

[1:10:08] Noel MacNeal: I saw his I saw him and I saw Andrew Randall's post about Gavin Creel earlier, and I'm like, yep, nope, this is just the precious, precious little Broadway boys.

[1:10:16] Amber Brzezinski: So we love it.

[1:10:18] Noel MacNeal: Yeah, and like you said at the Times Square celebration, it was really nice seeing like old home week with all the past people coming back and being a part of it.

[1:10:26] Amber Brzezinski: It was great.

[1:10:27] Noel MacNeal: I was there an hour and a half before the um presentation and sat because I um had just gotten to a car accident.

[1:10:36] Noel MacNeal: I actually have a concussion right now.

[1:10:37] Amber Brzezinski: Oh, I'm so sorry.

[1:10:38] Noel MacNeal: I actually have a concussion right now.

[1:10:39] Noel MacNeal: So I sat and I introduced myself to the company manager and everyone that was there, and then they moved everything around.

[1:10:45] Noel MacNeal: So instead of having like the perfect view, I was behind the wall of media.

[1:10:49] Noel MacNeal: So I stood on a chair for like 45 minutes, like doing this, but I was like, I see Noel, but I'll just I'll I'll talk to him next.

[1:11:01] Amber Brzezinski: All right.

[1:11:02] Noel MacNeal: Yeah, no, the celebration was really great.

[1:11:04] Noel MacNeal: And uh um one of our Richards Khadija, who's had been there for over two years, she just left.

[1:11:10] Amber Brzezinski: Oh yeah, she left the company.

[1:11:12] Noel MacNeal: Yeah, we had a whole ceremony for her, like she graduated, and uh the commencement speaker was uh Christian Borle.

[1:11:20] Noel MacNeal: He came back and uh yeah, it was it was great.

[1:11:23] Noel MacNeal: I got to I saw him on the Broadway cruise this past year.

[1:11:26] Noel MacNeal: Um, I'm obsessed, and I told him, I said, I was there for your first preview when you took seven minutes to die.

[1:11:34] Noel MacNeal: And then minutes of Orin on the ground just flapping and laughing in his face, he was like, I'm I'm so sorry.

[1:11:42] Noel MacNeal: And I was like, No, it was like the best seven minutes that I've ever had, just watching him flop around with freaking goggles, so unhinged, so unwind yeah.

[1:11:52] Amber Brzezinski: The guys who do Orin and like James and then like the Johnny and the Jeff, they all have their own.

[1:11:57] Noel MacNeal: Andrew's death was ridiculous.

[1:11:59] Amber Brzezinski: Andrew was Andrew's great.

[1:12:01] Noel MacNeal: Drew was so funny.

[1:12:03] Noel MacNeal: It was just like it was great.

[1:12:05] Noel MacNeal: All in this one, that's what's interesting about when people come in and take over the roles, like they do their own little touches, and you never thought of, oh yeah, like it has a whole new meaning to a line or to a movement, or even just like a pause just long enough.

[1:12:18] Amber Brzezinski: Right, right.

[1:12:20] Noel MacNeal: It's so good.

[1:12:21] Noel MacNeal: It's like it's great.

[1:12:22] Noel MacNeal: So I can't wait to see what Nicky was.

[1:12:24] Amber Brzezinski: I'm just so happy.

[1:12:25] Noel MacNeal: Yeah.

[1:12:26] Noel MacNeal: The whole whole conversation was, you know, when Little Shop came back, they're like, well, why isn't it on Broadway?

[1:12:31] Noel MacNeal: I'm like, no, no, no.

[1:12:33] Noel MacNeal: It was written for off Broadway.

[1:12:35] Noel MacNeal: It does not need to be to this massive house.

[1:12:37] Noel MacNeal: It is perfect that West Side Theater is the perfect little home.

[1:12:41] Amber Brzezinski: Yeah.

[1:12:41] Noel MacNeal: And actually, fun fact in Amberl Giggle, I learned about my favorite soup dumpling place because of the box office, which is GD Soup Dumpling.

[1:12:51] Noel MacNeal: Um right around the corner.

[1:12:53] Noel MacNeal: And um, I came, it was raining one day, and they're like, Oh, you should go get soup dumplings.

[1:12:57] Noel MacNeal: And I learned from the box office at West Side Theater where my favorite soup dumplings are from.

[1:13:01] Amber Brzezinski: There we go.

[1:13:01] Noel MacNeal: See?

[1:13:02] Noel MacNeal: It's right there.

[1:13:03] Amber Brzezinski: Uh but yes.

[1:13:05] Amber Brzezinski: Well, we were doing my 54 Below cabaret debut in March.

[1:13:11] Noel MacNeal: Okay.

[1:13:11] Amber Brzezinski: Yes.

[1:13:12] Noel MacNeal: Yes, definitely let us know about that.

[1:13:14] Noel MacNeal: Yes, March 24th, but you can get tickets now.

[1:13:17] Noel MacNeal: So it's just my cabaret debut with Fergie Philippe and Jen Barnhart, and uh yeah, my son might make an appearance, and might be a surprise guest.

[1:13:28] Amber Brzezinski: Very cool.

[1:13:29] Amber Brzezinski: Okay, well, please send me the link for tickets and we will absolutely post that up.

[1:13:34] Amber Brzezinski: Um, and then we will try to be there.

[1:13:35] Amber Brzezinski: You said March 24th.

[1:13:37] Noel MacNeal: March 24th.

[1:13:38] Amber Brzezinski: Hey, a Monday.

[1:13:40] Amber Brzezinski: Hey Andrew, uh, I think I think we're gonna have to we're gonna have to do 54 Below on March.

[1:13:46] Amber Brzezinski: We'll just go live.

[1:13:47] Noel MacNeal: There you go.

[1:13:50] Amber Brzezinski: Oh yeah.

[1:13:50] Amber Brzezinski: Well that's good.

[1:13:51] Amber Brzezinski: The live stream.

[1:13:52] Amber Brzezinski: So uh I'm here for it.

[1:13:54] Noel MacNeal: I'm I'm here for it.

[1:13:55] Noel MacNeal: Whatever we can do.

[1:13:56] Amber Brzezinski: Um now I really want you at a cabaret 54 Below.

[1:14:01] Noel MacNeal: Oh my goodness.

[1:14:01] Noel MacNeal: Uh oh, all things, all the possibilities.

[1:14:06] Noel MacNeal: This bear might make an appearance, maybe possibly.

[1:14:08] Noel MacNeal: We don't know.

[1:14:10] Amber Brzezinski: Uh I can take it.

[1:14:11] Noel MacNeal: Find out.

[1:14:13] Amber Brzezinski: Well, you are simply lovely.

[1:14:15] Amber Brzezinski: Um, please, please send us the links.

[1:14:17] Amber Brzezinski: We'll share that with all of our members.

[1:14:18] Amber Brzezinski: And please, anytime you want to come back and hang out, you are more than welcome to.

[1:14:23] Noel MacNeal: You are this is an open house.

[1:14:25] Noel MacNeal: So hopefully, hopefully it's not seven sweaty guys in a locker room essentially.

[1:14:31] Amber Brzezinski: It's a it's a pretty ventilated room, but yes, this is this is nice for a change.

[1:14:34] Noel MacNeal: So we're glad that we can help.

[1:14:36] Amber Brzezinski: Um thank you all for watching and tuning in.

[1:14:40] Amber Brzezinski: I have a feeling our numbers that's really funny.

[1:14:42] Amber Brzezinski: When we go live, we have like these little tiny numbers on the top of the screen, and then we actually check what our viewership is.

[1:14:49] Amber Brzezinski: So I'm actually gonna do that now because I'm just morbidly curious.

[1:14:52] Noel MacNeal: I don't think it shows it until we sign off.

[1:14:55] Amber Brzezinski: Oh, possibly.

[1:14:56] Amber Brzezinski: But I have a feeling we're gonna be we're gonna probably be at the 2000 person mark um by the time we sign off in a couple of seconds.

[1:15:04] Noel MacNeal: So oh no, we're already at a thousand.

[1:15:06] Amber Brzezinski: So yeah.

[1:15:08] Amber Brzezinski: Um look, we're just we're here for you and we want people to get to know you better.

[1:15:13] Amber Brzezinski: What's inside the plant is what really matters.

[1:15:15] Noel MacNeal: Um but yeah, um, we'd love to be able to share whatever we can for you.

[1:15:22] Amber Brzezinski: And guys, go visit Noel and the rest of the incredible casting crew over at Little Shop Apart.

[1:15:27] Amber Brzezinski: Um, and please go to the 20 March 24th 54 Below we'll also post the link for your memoir on Amazon also send me the link for your wife's books like let's do this we'll just pimp you guys out.

[1:15:27] Noel MacNeal: Thank you.

[1:15:27] Noel MacNeal: Thank you so much.

[1:15:27] Amber Brzezinski: Thank you everybody we really appreciate you guys um thank you for tuning into the Broadway podcast noel hang up for a second and uh we hope everybody has a great night remember when Broadway is dark we keep that ghost light burning and don't feed the plants.

[1:15:27] Noel MacNeal: Oh yes, don't feed the plants.