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[0:38] Jess: Hello and welcome to this extra special bonus episode of Musicals with Cheese, where we're gonna talk about the Company National Tour. But unfortunately, I had the novel coronavirus and was not able to see this production. So thankfully, in my stead, I sent my girlfriend and a first-time guest of any Musicals with Cheese. It is the incredible Miranda Moffat!

[1:03] Miranda Moffat: Hello!

[1:04] Jess: Hello, everyone. And of course, as my partner and our researcher for this little bonus episode, it is Liz Eston.

[1:13] Liz Eston: Hello.

[1:14] Jess: Ooh, go Liz.

[1:15] Liz Eston: Yeah.

[1:16] Jess: Go Liz. Um, so I was supposed to go to this. Um, I had every intention of going, but then I got the coronavirus at your sister's wedding. Is that not correct, Maria?

[1:26] Liz Eston: That is accurate.

[1:27] Jess: Um, so you had to go in my stead with your mother. Um, have you ever seen any production of Company at all before seeing this national tour?

[1:37] Miranda Moffat: No, I had not. I mean, like, of course, I'm familiar with like the big, you know, the big numbers from the show. You know, I've heard "Being Alive," like I've heard the Patter song and bits and pieces of everything before and enjoyed them, but I have never seen a production in any form.

[1:54] Jess: Um, and if you don't mind me asking, who is your date that evening?

[1:57] Miranda Moffat: Um, my date, graciously, was my mother, Terry, who uh canceled an appointment just to go with me so we could enjoy a night out, which it was a really good night, actually.

[2:09] Jess: Okay. Um, so you are aware at the very least that the show was um in this production, the National Tour is a tour of the new Broadway revival where Bobby is played by a woman, and you are aware that in previous productions, Bobby was played by a man.

[2:24] Miranda Moffat: Oh, yeah. I mean, like I think we had seen bits and pieces of like the 70s, 70s, right? 70s version of it.

[2:32] Jess: Um, Anthony Perkins.

[2:34] Miranda Moffat: Yeah, with all the men in suits and all that. Um, and I, you know, I've seen bits and pieces all, you know, from the new version of Company as well. Like the, you know, the red dress suit I've seen. Like I knew that Jonathan Bailey and um, what is her name? Um, Patti LuPone was like in this new production of it. So like I was aware of it generally.

[2:54] Jess: Awesome. Awesome. So what is your overall thoughts? Like you went to see this. I don't think you had much expectations going into the show. What was it like?

[3:04] Miranda Moffat: Um, I mean, like the cast obviously knocked it out of the park. I think that was like the big, the big thing for me is just like wow, what talented performers. Like it was very high quality, like the production design and everything was incredible. Um, I think overall I really enjoyed it. Um, you know, it's very, at least from my limited understanding, it's very Sondheim, you know, very on brand for him, and that it's very punchy, like it's really all about the timing, it's about the rhymes, it's about the themes, like it says something very deep about human nature and humans, like it's very, very on brand for him I think. Um, I did not expect it to be like just a Twilight Zone vignette um marathon, you know, like I did I thought it was going to be a narrative centered around Bobby which it kind of is.

Um, but getting to the end of it I was like oh that's that's the end we're just gonna we're just gonna cut it off there okay. Um, so I mean I guess I was a little bit surprised by that and this is sort of like more I took more issue with the like the content and the structure overall as opposed to the cast like I think again the cast did an amazing job and I so much enjoyed watching it.

[4:26] Miranda Moffat: The best parts of it are the ones that you know like for what Sondheim lacks in sort of the grandeur and the spectacle he very much makes up for like I said with the wit and the timing like my favorite piece of it was the uh "Not Getting Married Today" where you know the you have people popping out of closets and doorways and fridges and stuff um like the comedic timing was just impeccable it was so funny um it was just you know like the way that it was put together was absolutely masterful and that's really what you take away from it is just like the timing and the wit and the things that it says about people being people was was my favorite part about it.

[5:08] Jess: Well let's talk about the casting there. So Brittany Coleman um as Liz and I kind of idolized from our StarKid years. Um, played Bobby. Um, Liz, if you wouldn't mind explaining like Brittany Coleman's trajectory from um youthful U of M student to Broadway star.

[5:28] Liz Eston: Uh, I am not I'm not an expert in Brittany Coleman StarKid lore, admittedly, um, because I came in late to the game, but she started off in the early days. Uh, she was in the Potters, she was in the classic ones. And she like, I think the most recent one later before she came back into it was uh Firebringer?

[5:48] Miranda Moffat: Yeah, she was in Firebringer's person that did this the whole time.

[5:51] Liz Eston: Um, then she ended up in National Tour Beetlejuice and Company. She was in Wicked and she's incredible.

[6:00] Miranda Moffat: Yeah, she was also in the original Broadway cast of Company as one of the minor players.

[6:06] Liz Eston: Liz, if you remember when we went to BroadwayCon and we went to that um very strange like the cult panel.

[6:06] Miranda Moffat: Yeah, the cult panel.

[6:17] Liz Eston: She was a part of that cult panel.

[6:19] Miranda Moffat: She was yeah, she was.

[6:20] Jess: Oh my god. Um, and then she graduated to lead star as Bobby, taking over for Katrina Lenk. Um, and from what I gather, based on the Beetlejuice tour, she fucking nailed it. Am I incorrect, Miranda?

[6:33] Miranda Moffat: No, she did. I mean, to the point that I felt like, wow, Bobby really doesn't have I mean she she certainly has a whole lot to do as a character, of course. But a lot of it is her sort of like watching people talking in rooms at her, singing at her, you know, like to the point that I was like, I want more of her. I can tell that her voice is amazing. I can tell that her comedic timing is amazing, and I want to see her doing more.

[7:00] Jess: Which goes from the way that George Firth wrote this. Um, so he wrote this as individualized plays about marriage. Um, and then Sondheim read these plays and thought, I can tie these together. So we interviewed his friend Mary Rogers about basically as he describes as if it were a lecture to describe what marriage was like, the pros and cons, and he wrote songs based upon that that tied all these individual short scenes together, which as written were not meant to be tied together. They were just individualized scenes, and the only thing that they added was this cipher character of Bobby, who just watched these things happen.

[7:49] Miranda Moffat: Yeah, which I mean, I I didn't have any issue with that. I thought, you know, I thought that it all tied together very well for having been, you know, quite created quite separately, or not with the intention of being a cohesive whole. I thought that it all did go together really well. And Bobby is a really good, you know, is a really good sort of segue between all of the pieces. And I think, you know, getting back to the sort of change between Bobby being like a male character to a female character, I think, at least in my own mind, it makes more sense to me because you know, watching it really the the people who are like, well, when are you gonna get married? When are you gonna have kids? Like I think the people that receive the brunt of that, at least today are definitely women.

Not that men don't also get that, but you know, all the time, you know, even as even at my sister's wedding, people were coming up to me, like, when are you guys gonna get married? When are you guys gonna get married? And I'm like, hey, let's just enjoy the wedding that we're at, guys. So like it it definitely made a lot of sense to me that Bobby is a woman.

[8:53] Jess: Was there any other points where it's like, oh, that was obviously written for a man or anything like that?

[8:58] Miranda Moffat: No, I mean there were little pieces or changes of dialogue where I'm like, oh, I can see where the rhyme was, that they had to take some kind of word out of this, that the rhyme is no longer fully there. So like some like small pieces seem like they're mashed together. Um, but no, I mean, I can definitely see where it would have been a man in sort of like a stereotypical way of a man being sort of like, you know, a bachelor having a bachelor pad and sleeping around. Like I I can see where that would have come from out of the out of the 70s, but I think like today, women can very much have game and be live the bachelor lifestyle and and you know, do all of that as well. So I think like it makes perfect sense in a more modern context for for all of that.

[9:43] Jess: Well, I hear that because of the gender swap and because of the general kind of disorientation of this musical. Because as far as this is concerned, this is the first concept musical to ever hit Broadway. So it kind of created the concept musical. Um, that being said, you had some confusion about character relations, did you not, Miranda?

[10:05] Miranda Moffat: Oh, yeah, I did.

[10:06] Jess: Meaning that you thought that Joanne was Bobby's mother.

[10:09] Miranda Moffat: Sure did. Well, I mean, you know, the the main character, the person who played Bobby was, you know, at least what I could see, either light skinned or maybe mixed. And so I thought that, you know, Joanne and her husband were it was like it would have made sense, at least to me, that they would be her parents in this sort of universe. Like I definitely see now, like when I got to the end, I was like, this is really, really strange. Like the fact that Joanne was basically asking Bobby to go off with her husband. I was like, isn't that her dad or her stepfather or something? Like, like it did it did not click. The pieces did not click for me before, but like thinking about it again, I'm like, okay, yeah, it just makes sense that they were like an older, more mature couple in her life, which you know, of course, anybody's gonna have sort of a variety of age groups and people that they interact with, but yeah, I some of it was like I I just wasn't following, and I don't know, maybe that's just a me thing.

[11:04] Jess: Well, how would you describe the staging? Because I know like the staging on Broadway was so intricate, so intense that they often had to call like holds and stops it, like they basically had to stop the entire show several times during its Broadway run because of how intricate the set design was.

[11:23] Miranda Moffat: Um, how did that transfer to the touring production?

[11:25] Jess: Oh, yeah.

[11:26] Miranda Moffat: I mean, it was very intricate, and I can see how that would be an absolute logistical nightmare to put on. Um, it's basically it's sort of like you see in the, you know, like same to the Broadway run, I think, based on what I saw, um, where sort of everything's taking place in a series of rooms, and the rooms are like in boxes that sort of shift around, so you know, the sets are changing where you're getting this couple's room and this couple's stoop and Bobby's bedroom and bathroom, and like all of the staging and the way that it sort of shifted into these different people's homes, like that was and just a work of genius, I think, in the staging.

[12:05] Um, very, very intricate, especially like I said that not getting married today.

[12:09] There were people coming out of the woodwork.

[12:11] I had no clue.

[12:13] People were like appearing in corners and out of fridges and just like coming out, and I was like, how in the hell did they manage that?

[12:22] Like, I could not, it was like a magic trick.

[12:25] I could not fathom how some of it was happening.

[12:28] So, like I can see.

[12:30] Um, it's very fast paced, so people are coming out every second.

[12:34] Like you have to be exactly on time for everything.

[12:37] And I think I told you, Jess, like when I saw the very first number where everybody's sort of chiming in, you know, they're like Bobby's Bobby Baby, Bobby Boo Boo, like when everybody's chiming in.

[12:48] I saw one person like that was just a hair off of their, you know, like off of what they were supposed to say, and you could tell, like every piece had to be right on point to sort of create the overall magic, which I think for most of the night, all the night, everything was like really, really on top of it, and everybody was really on top of it.

[13:07] It was just like, like I said, it was like watching a magic trick.

[13:11] Now, Liz, um, as someone that has an experience with Company strictly through the documentary now, um, co-op.

[13:20] Um, what do you think the plot of Company is?

[13:25] And what do you think like the interpretation based on what Miranda said is?

[13:29] Liz Eston: Uh, I will say, um, we did a Patreon episode, which I think is on the feed now, regular feed, so you can check it out, uh, where we talk about co-op and also talk about the Company documentary.

[13:41] So we talked both the same time.

[13:44] So for before that I watched the Company documentary, I was like, I need to figure out the plot of Company.

[13:49] I don't know anything.

[14:21] There is no plot to Company.

[14:21] I don't know anything about this show.

[14:21] So I went to the Wikipedia page and I tried to read it, and it sounded like a foreign language at a certain point because I got confused.

[14:21] Uh, so I don't know the I didn't know the plot of Company.

[14:21] I still don't know the plot of Company, and I'm pretty sure the plot is a bunch of middle-aged married people trying to figure out how to be adults, and I think that's it.

[14:21] Miranda Moffat: You're not wrong.

[14:21] Liz Eston: You're not wrong.

[14:21] Miranda Moffat: Yeah, I mean that the like the question, what is the plot?

[14:21] Like, great question.

[14:19] There is none.

[14:21] Liz Eston: Um, in the plot, there is no plot.

[14:22] Miranda Moffat: Yeah, I got and that was the thing.

[14:23] I didn't know it was a concept musical.

[14:25] Although I'm fine with the idea of it, and I thought it was like watching it was fine because I didn't expect it at the end of it.

[14:32] I was like asking myself, like, did anybody learn anything?

[14:35] Did anybody grow?

[14:36] Did anybody have an arc?

[14:38] Like, what was the what was the climax?

[14:41] Uh, you know, you you sort of get to the end of being alive and like being alive by itself is super cool, but it sort of feels like, you know, it like it putters out as opposed to sort of like ending on a really satisfying note, but I think that's just by virtue of like it being a concept musical.

[14:56] Jess: Yeah, yeah, exactly.

[14:57] Miranda Moffat: And the documentary now one I think is just the same plot, but with more coke.

[15:01] Jess: Um, and more Richard Kine.

[15:05] Miranda Moffat: Don't remove Richard.

[15:09] Jess: I like to this is from the musical studies recording we just did.

[15:11] He was in a forum um production recently, so um, so that being said, um, Company is a strange, strange show, and I I feel like the average Broadway and theater goer probably wouldn't get it.

[15:27] Miranda Moffat: If you wouldn't mind, do you mind if I read your mother's review of Company?

[15:33] Jess: Because you did take her to this.

[15:35] Miranda Moffat: I did.

[15:36] I will say, like, overall my mom is a very hard woman to please when it comes to musical theater.

[15:42] Um, she she has her very specific likes and theater just is not one of them.

[15:48] Like we we took her to um, Jesus Christ Superstar back in March and she just walked out of there like, what did I watch?

[15:57] Why was I here?

[15:58] Like, this is what you guys decided to take me to.

[16:01] Jess: Which like, you know, for for the general audience, like I think Jesus Christ Superstar is a pretty good one because everybody loves rock music and it's like it's an easy sell.

[16:11] Miranda Moffat: Yeah, she was not happy, but she I think really did, although she probably didn't totally get it in the same way that I didn't, she enjoyed it.

[16:18] Like I heard her laughing.

[16:20] You know, she's been married, her and my father have been married for how many decades now?

[16:25] Jess: 30.

[16:26] Miranda Moffat: Yeah, 30 something.

[16:27] Um, so like I think that she obviously could relate really well to what was happening and had experienced some of it in her own life.

[16:36] So, you know, I think she did actually genuinely enjoy it.

[16:41] Jess: Well, here's what she said to me, and I shared this to our Patreon as well.

[16:46] Um, she said, um, gosh, where is it?

[16:49] No, I I liked it.

[16:51] Good vocals.

[16:52] A scene or two could probably be cut, but overall B plus.

[16:52] Miranda Moffat: That's a high praise.

[17:01] Jess: High praise coming from my mom.

[17:02] Miranda Moffat: Um, it really is.

[17:04] Jess: No, I mean I agree.

[17:04] I think you know, for maybe it's just me being like a zillenial or something, but I mean my short attention span we're sitting there sort of like, hmm, lots of people talking in rooms.

[17:14] Why can't they burst into song now?

[17:16] Miranda Moffat: Like it was it is a lot of talking in rooms, which I mean, what scene would you have cut?

[17:16] Would you have cut the Taekwondo scene?

[17:22] Would you have cut the scene of, uh, I see I'm used to the male version?

[17:27] Is it Bobby and Susan, or would you have cut, um, see there's I think that film that show is fairly tight.

[17:35] Liz Eston: There's very little that I would cut.

[17:37] Miranda Moffat: I mean, yeah, I think overall, for sure, but like I think things could definitely be trimmed down.

[17:43] Like during the Joanne scene, like in the club.

[17:46] Like I I probably would have just I I get that the club scene is important and it sort of leads into the big number, but I was like, eh, you know.

[17:54] Jess: You see, okay, here goes to uh me and Andrew, big debate that we had in our original episode three years ago, or uh or whatever.

[18:03] Miranda Moffat: Um, I think that scene is very important, and I think that the having Sondheim's weird kind of ultimatum with that show has made that scene worse.

[18:15] Jess: Um, so Liz, here's the context for that scene.

[18:19] Um, in the original version with like male versions, um, Joanne, who is usually played by like a Patti LuPone, Elaine Stritch type, is like, all right, Bobby, you're so fucking miserable, come marry me.

[18:31] I've got money, I'll take care of you, I'll make you happy.

[18:34] And then Bobby replies with, but then who will I take care of?

[18:39] And then Elaine's like, well, or Joanne's like, well, fuck you, you figured out something in your own brain and you've gotta unravel that on your own, which leads into the climax of the show.

[18:50] Miranda Moffat: Um, and in the female version, Sondheim has an ultimatum, which Bobby cannot be anything other than heterosexual.

[18:58] Jess: So Bobby can be a woman, but it cannot be a bisexual woman.

[19:02] Miranda Moffat: Bobby can be a man, but it cannot be a bisexual man.

[19:05] Jess: So Joanne is like, well, then fuck my husband.

[19:08] He will take care of you and all that.

[19:10] Miranda Moffat: And it just doesn't hit the same way.

[19:13] Jess: Uh, when Bobby says, well, then who will I take care of?

[19:17] Miranda Moffat: Yeah, it is a little strange.

[19:19] Jess: Yeah.

[19:20] Miranda Moffat: It doesn't work and honestly removes any and all emotional context from that final moment.

[19:26] Jess: Um, truly, and it's even more baffling.

[19:29] Because I Miranda, please answer this because I don't remember.

[19:32] There was a scene in the original version of Company where one of the actors is like, well, Bobby, did you ever like have any gay experiences in at all?

[19:41] And Bobby's like, yeah, once or twice in college, but I I kind of grew out of it.

[19:47] Um, where it kind of implies that Bobby did have a few gay experiences in college.

[19:52] Was that in the in your production at all or any implication of that?

[19:56] Miranda Moffat: Oh, I don't remember.

[19:58] I mean, it's been about a week and a half since I've seen it at this point, so I'm not super sure, but I I personally don't remember hearing anything about that.

[20:09] Jess: It could have been there, and I just maybe I missed it, but I don't remember hearing that.

[20:13] Miranda Moffat: Which is fair enough.

[20:14] Jess: I just think that being alive works really well when he's given an actual way out and he rejects it because he is too conflicted.

[20:23] Um, now back to our proper measures with cheese episode.

[20:26] Andrew and I have very different distinctive opinions on what the end of the show means.

[20:32] So Andrew is very staunch in the belief that being alive means that marriage is useless, it is not worth your time, and truly you're worse off if you get married.

[20:42] Miranda Moffat: And I am of the belief that it's worth trying because maybe you'll be happy.

[20:47] Jess: What do you think being alive means in based on the production you saw?

[20:51] Miranda Moffat: I well, I mean, first off, like the ending is like in that production.

[20:55] I was very confused about what it means because there is this part where you know you start off the musical, seeing her in her room with the balloons and the cake and all of that, like after a party, and then at the very end of it, you see all of the people in that room, you know, like trying to they're to sort of surprise her for her birthday, and she doesn't show up.

[21:19] So, like, they're showing a couple different versions of events, and then at the end, there's like a tiny version of her room that she like sticks her head into, and like I I'm sure there were some higher order themes or something going on there that just like went over my head, but like it is it is very confusing.

[21:36] Like, you're not sure what exactly it means as far as like the timeline of events.

[21:41] Like, did she not show up?

[21:42] Like, they were implying basically that she didn't show up because she was with somebody else, maybe like maybe she had found someone, or at least that's what I thought.

[21:50] So, like, in that context, with my interpretation of those events, I figured that being alive did like I would agree with you, was basically trying to say, like, marriage and life is a crapshoot anyway, so you might as well have somebody there to do it with.

[22:05] Um, like you might as well try and have somebody there to live through it with.

[22:09] Um, so like that was what I figured it was, but I could totally see the opposite because based on the rest of the musical, I think the rest of it does imply the very cynical, like, don't get married, it sucks, everything is terrible about it, and then at the end you get being alive and you're kind of like, Oh, I guess we're changing course here.

[22:31] Jess: So, like, I can see how somebody would interpret it either of those two ways. Well, based on the context of the original show where Hal Prince and Sondheim wrote it, Sondheim's original ending was a song called "Happily Ever After," where he basically says, marriage is a mess and you should not do it. And then Hal Prince said that was too much of a downer ending. So he made this more ambiguous ending of "Being Alive," where if you look at what Bobby is saying in every line, it is very negative about getting married. The only contradiction is those of the married couples around him saying, like, come on, add them up, Bobby. Uh, but that's not what it's all about, is it? Um, so did you feel that as much or not?

[23:15] Miranda Moffat: Well, like, what do you think Brittany Coleman was playing on stage? I don't know, because again, you can like based on your perception, I think, of the first, like the rest of it, I think would inform how you thought about that last moment, and also too, just like your people's personal experiences with marriage, I think would inform their interpretation of that song. Like again, for me, watching her hearing the song, I still think like "Being Alive" is yeah, there are all of these crappy parts of it, but part of being alive is like as humans is making social connections, and one of them being romantic connections, not that romantic connections are the be-all-end-all of relationships, but like I think I still thought that "Being Alive" and sort of the end of it was saying, you know, it's worth giving it a try, basically.

[24:06] Jess: Well, let's talk about favorite songs. What is your favorite song in the musical Company, Miranda?

[24:11] Miranda Moffat: Um, I mean, favorite song that I would probably find myself self-singing would be "Being Alive," but my favorite song to watch happen was still "Not Getting Married Today." Just because of the production value of that scene was like "Being Alive" was just her in the middle of a foggy stage singing, whereas like "Not Getting Married Today" was a very intricate piece. So that was probably more fun to watch.

[24:35] Jess: What made it so intricate?

[24:36] Miranda Moffat: Because there's been so many different variations of "Not Getting Married Today," from, you know, Madeline Kahn from the 1980s to the more recent production. So what made it so impressive in this specific like male and male relationship version?

[24:53] Miranda Moffat: I mean, I would just say it was impressive for me. You know, like I said, because of the set design and also the actors, like the actor that did the patter song, like I was just impressed by number one, the speed at which he was able to get the words out, and also with the speed, the clarity, like I can just imagine those words trying to come out of my mouth. It would be an absolute jumbled mess. Nobody would understand what I was saying. Um, but like you could get every word, like you knew what was going on. Um and also, like I said, just the staging, which I can't remember if it was the part, you know, like it's sort of bookended by a couple of things, like that whole piece, like the song before and after that whole piece of "Not Getting Married Today" was just impressive because you've got, um like I said, that's the part where like characters are coming out of, if my memory serves correct, that's like the part where the characters are coming out of the woodwork and you know, like the quote-unquote priest is popping out of various places and putting their two cents in, like the staging of that moment is crazy. The pace and the like it's very, it's just breakneck everything that's going on at once. You're just like moving your eyes around the stage constantly. It was just very cool to watch.

[26:08] Jess: Um, and what do you think was the worst moment in the show? Like, is there a song that you didn't enjoy or a scene that you were like, uh I wish this would end? Like, are you like one of the few that hates "Sorry Grateful" so much?

[26:20] Miranda Moffat: Which one was "Sorry Grateful"? Where it's like one of the early songs where Bobby's like, oh, are you ever do you ever get getting married, Harry? And he's like, you're always sorry, you're always grateful. And Steven, I can tell you this whole entire show beginning to end. That's my secret motive in asking that question is just to make you sing to me.

[26:42] Miranda Moffat: Um, I will sing any song you want. You know this. I'll just leave. Liz can hear me sing whatever she wants. She has heard me sing so many horrible songs. Um, no, I actually really like that part. I actually really liked it. Um, the main one, like I said, it's not super fresh in my mind, but like the main one that I remember being like, uh, this is dragging on a bit too long. I don't really get this is that last club scene where you're like, you know, get to the point.

[27:14] Jess: You don't like the ladies at lunch, uh is what I'm hearing.

[27:18] Miranda Moffat: Kind of. Well, I mean, I think like I said, me and my Zillennial brain like wanted the talking to stop and the music to start a lot.

[27:25] Jess: That is a song.

[27:27] Miranda Moffat: No, I know, but they're like the pieces where they're talking in that section, like a lot of the sections, every section in fact, like does have a song, but is also a lot of talking in rooms. Like those parts I think I'm just like, eh, okay, this is nice. I want them to sing now.

[27:44] Jess: Um so alright. A lot of the most popular songs in Company um are by women in normal production, but they give them to men. So like when I think about Company, I think about the famous like female-driven songs, like "Another Hundred People" and um "You Could Drive a Person Crazy." How did you feel about those songs? And did you feel they had less power because they were sung by men?

[28:08] Miranda Moffat: I mean, no, because I didn't know any different. And I think, especially, like I said, today, where gender roles are not as rigid. We're not thinking about, you know, gender in this specifically binary way anymore. I think it does. I think it makes sense for either because both men and women and everybody in between is playing these roles in modern society, does have these types of feelings and these relationships together. Like I don't think that it really detracted from it. Maybe I'd have to see a production first in the traditional sense of it to get a feel for whether like whether I would prefer it being women, but like I personally didn't miss it.

[28:50] Jess: Alright. And last question, um, before we kind of wrap this on up. Um, there's a song called "Barcelona," and usually it is about um a woman getting kind of naked on stage and us uh objectifying her, and then you know, Bobby gets a little shirtless. Um famously in the 2011 production, it is Neil Patrick Harris and Christina Hendricks, who gets her like tickle biddies out and shows them all for the stage, and then Neil Patrick Harris is kind of like, you know, a little shirtless showing his chest hair and all that. Um for that scene, like what was the kind of male to female representation of nudity? Because that is like the real big kind of sexual.

[29:34] Miranda Moffat: Oh, by far male nudity. I mean, Bobby, I think like the back of that red jumpsuit was down, and I think it eventually came off, but she was under the like under the covers for a majority of it to the point where you really didn't see much, at least I didn't. But like that guy was full on, full on up there in your face, like just in his underwear. You could see the mic pack on his back. Like you could see the thing taped to his back. Um in his little blue undies. It was it was practically a speedo. It was very form fitting, and his ass was up, like butt up to the stage, laying on his stomach. Like, yeah, you could really see everything. It was a very objectifying moment. And you could kind of similar to when we saw uh My Fair Lady, where like when the guy comes out, you everybody's like, oh was it when we saw Funny Girl and then everyone's like, oh my god, the abs.

[30:39] Jess: Kind of, yes.

[30:41] Miranda Moffat: Um, everybody was just sort of like you could feel the temperature rising in the room, like all the old ladies are fanning themselves. It was uh it's an interesting moment. A lot of fun though.

[30:54] Jess: Alright. That being said, what is our overall thoughts on our cheese rating? Um I've given mine already for the show, but Miranda, what about yours?

[31:03] Miranda Moffat: Oh geez. Um I'm gonna go with um a goat cheese. I think it's um it's tangy, it's exciting. Um, but for people who don't like it hate it, and people who like it love it. So I'm gonna go with goat cheese. I feel like that was Bree's favorite, too.

[31:24] Jess: Um that being said, um I love Company. It is a wonderful show, and truly every part of me regrets not being able to go, but I'm glad you had a good night with your mother. Um, Liz, what did you think about this discussion?

[31:37] Liz Eston: I was very good. I learned a lot about Company, which I barely know anything about because I...

[31:38] Miranda Moffat: But you love Raúl Esparza.

[31:38] Liz Eston: Yeah, I love Raúl Esparza when I had to watch that one video of him singing "Being Alive" for a video one time. Uh yeah, I love Raúl Esparza. Um yeah, it was a lot of fun. I had a lot of fun with you guys tonight, and I'm gonna give this discussion Brie for Brie though.

[32:04] Jess: For Brie.

[32:05] Liz Eston: For uh the missing um Lady Brie.

[32:08] Jess: Yes.

[32:10] Liz Eston: Um now I gotta pull up Juliet Antonio's wonderful cheese reading list so I can just give it what I gave Company the first time. I gave him some weird cheese readings on the show. I feel bad.

[32:22] Jess: Yeah, it is weird until you like actually have to.

[32:22] Liz Eston: So what did I give it? Asher Blue Cheese from the American Cheese Company.

[32:32] Jess: Of course you did.

[32:33] Liz Eston: And Andrew gave it Brie as well.

[32:35] Jess: Oh, what is that for back for it didn't give the reasoning and Brie, I don't think it was on the show yet.

[32:43] Miranda Moffat: So that was our ratings. I put effort into my cheese rating, Andrew gave it a uh bullshit rating.

[32:50] Jess: Well, Andrew once gave a cheesy rating of a character named a cheese that was an actual mouse in a cartoon, so you know.

[32:57] Miranda Moffat: Alright, and we'll see you next time on Musicals with Cheese. We love you, and thank you for joining us, Miranda.

[33:04] Miranda Moffat: Thank you for having me. Um, yeah, next time I get COVID, you'll join us again to help us.

[33:10] Jess: Alright, bye-bye now.

[33:14] ♪ Musical number: "Being Alive" — performed by Miranda Moffat ♪