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[0:04] Jess: Hello and welcome to Musicals with Cheese, a very bonus special episode where I interview a couple wonderful people.

[0:11] Jess: And today the wonderful person I have is Amanda Hunt, who is an actor, comedian, writer, and currently she is having a presentation of her new cabaret musical, so to say.

[0:23] Amanda Hunt: Is that the best way to describe it?

[0:24] Jess: I think that's right.

[0:26] Jess: Um, it is called Monica Lewinsky Sings Your Heart Out, or sings your heart out.

[0:32] Amanda Hunt: Forgive me.

[0:33] Jess: Let me just start that read again.

[0:35] Jess: Um, it is called Monica Lewinsky Sings Your Heart Out, and it will be playing August 15th at oh, what is it?

[0:42] Jess: I'm looking for the location.

[0:44] Jess: The Crane Theater.

[0:45] Jess: Um, it'll be playing at the Crane Theater Um both August 15th and August 22nd, both of those at 7:30 p.m.

[0:53] Jess: So welcome to the show.

[0:55] Amanda Hunt: Hi, thank you for having me.

[0:58] Jess: Oh no, thank you so much for giving me your time and coming on uh coming on to my little show here.

[1:04] Jess: So just the first question out of the gate.

[1:07] Jess: How would you describe yourself, your art, your artistic goals for those who may not have heard of you before?

[1:13] Amanda Hunt: So just a casual question.

[1:15] Amanda Hunt: Uh, I would describe myself, I'm 5'8, uh single.

[1:20] Amanda Hunt: Um, I am uh I'm so I guess I would describe myself as a comedian first, with um I have a musical theater background.

[1:31] Amanda Hunt: I went to school for a musical theater at the University of Arizona.

[1:36] Amanda Hunt: Um, and came to the city to do that.

[1:39] Amanda Hunt: That didn't really pan out, and we can kind of get into that later, I guess.

[1:43] Amanda Hunt: I went to UCB on a whim just to like get on stage and do something fun, and I never really left uh the Upright Citizens Brigade, so I perform there every other week, and then I do some sketch there as well.

[1:57] Amanda Hunt: And I started working on cabarets and writing sketch and writing other other things.

[2:04] Amanda Hunt: So I guess like that the all of it comes from loving to be on stage and then being like, oh, I should write stuff for myself.

[2:11] Amanda Hunt: Oh, I guess I can write stuff for other people too, which is really fun and exciting.

[2:15] Amanda Hunt: So I'm I'm an actor, writer, singer, uh administrative assistant, uh the whole the whole nine.

[2:26] Jess: Uh that's fantastic.

[2:28] Jess: So you've always had musical theater in your bones, so to say.

[2:31] Amanda Hunt: Yes.

[2:32] Amanda Hunt: Yes.

[2:32] Amanda Hunt: Growing up, my family would always watch The Sound of Music, Fiddler on the Roof, um, Wizard of Oz and Mary Poppins were like the oh, and Oliver.

[2:42] Amanda Hunt: Those were the ones that were in like very heavy rotation, which like it's wild that Oliver is a children's musical because it is a very dark musical.

[2:52] Jess: Yeah.

[2:54] Amanda Hunt: It is, it is grim.

[2:55] Jess: Mm-hmm.

[2:56] Amanda Hunt: Just and just that, you know, a casual domestic violence, murder, suicide, just thrown right in at the end.

[3:01] Amanda Hunt: Uh and that's a bummer, but you know, Oliver finds love.

[3:05] Amanda Hunt: Spoilers for Oliver.

[3:06] Amanda Hunt: Um, but he does find a family, and so I guess it's fine.

[3:09] Amanda Hunt: I mean, I feel the same way when I watch The Sound of Music, and right as soon as like you see them get married and you think the movie's over, you get a swastika in the middle of the screen.

[3:17] Amanda Hunt: You're like, oh, the Nazis.

[3:20] Amanda Hunt: Okay, that's that's still here.

[3:23] Amanda Hunt: I did think this was just about a family of its things, but I guess that's too bad.

[3:23] Jess: That's too bad.

[3:29] Jess: Um, so those were deep impacts on you.

[3:32] Jess: Um, are there any more modern musicals that you feel have had an impact on both your current work and your like your comedy and all that?

[3:38] Amanda Hunt: Oh, yes.

[3:39] Amanda Hunt: Um, I I'm a huge Tom Kitt fan.

[3:43] Amanda Hunt: Uh, so I love bring it on.

[3:45] Amanda Hunt: I love High Fidelity.

[3:47] Amanda Hunt: It's like there are songs that I love, and there are songs that like I wouldn't personally want somebody to find on Shuffle on my phone.

[3:55] Amanda Hunt: Uh, and then Debbie does Dallas is so fun.

[3:58] Amanda Hunt: Um, gosh, I obviously Hamilton, but like Hamilton is something that I enjoy, but don't really like feel too much proprietary ownership over, you know, where there are things where you're just like, oh, I just like that.

[4:10] Amanda Hunt: Um let's see, what else do I more modern?

[4:15] Amanda Hunt: I mean, I guess Steven Schwartz in high s in like the summer between freshman year and sophomore year, my community theater did Godspell.

[4:25] Amanda Hunt: And I feel like that was a really formative experience for me as a performer and as somebody who learned like in how in learning how to collaborate with other performers.

[4:37] Amanda Hunt: Um, so that's that's like that's a big one.

[4:40] Amanda Hunt: Then I guess wicked right now, the things I'm really into, um Kerrigan and Louder Milk, I'm like you know, when you just go through a period of your life and you're like, all I want to hear is these beautiful ballads.

[4:53] Amanda Hunt: Like, I don't want to, I just want to hear their gorgeous love songs about like wistful 20s love.

[5:00] Amanda Hunt: Um I'm really into both the Broadway and West End versions of Heathers right now.

[5:10] Amanda Hunt: Um, Love Heathers the movie, love the musical.

[5:13] Amanda Hunt: Uh would have, or I guess it's off Broadway.

[5:15] Amanda Hunt: I would have loved to see that come to Broadway.

[5:17] Amanda Hunt: Um maybe hopefully it would be.

[5:20] Amanda Hunt: Some of the things that came to Broadway, it makes me sad that Heather's never saw a Broadway stage.

[5:24] Jess: Right.

[5:25] Jess: Out of everything, I mean, I guess if it's around the same time as you're talking about.

[5:30] Jess: I love you know what?

[5:31] Jess: Everything on Broadway is wonderful, and God wouldn't I love to get there.

[5:35] Jess: But like I like um I loved I loved Mean Girls, which is how I found Heathers.

[5:40] Jess: Um because of Barrett uh Weed.

[5:44] Amanda Hunt: Wilbert Weed?

[5:44] Jess: Yes, Barrett Wilbert Weed.

[5:46] Amanda Hunt: I thought she was so good, and then it was like, oh, she was in Heathers.

[5:48] Amanda Hunt: Oh, Heathers is so good.

[5:50] Jess: Um so that's always it's always exciting to like find stuff from artists that you like.

[5:57] Amanda Hunt: I agree completely.

[5:58] Amanda Hunt: Now, here's just a fanboy question.

[6:00] Amanda Hunt: Do you have a preference between the original and the West End version of Heathers?

[6:04] Jess: That is okay.

[6:05] Jess: So, yes, but it's complicated.

[6:08] Amanda Hunt: Um I pref I would say I prefer the US version in terms of like the I I think it's a little bit more fun, but I love that song I say no, that's on the UK uh soundtrack.

[6:24] Jess: So like I go back and forth.

[6:25] Jess: I think they're both really good, but they are very different to me.

[6:31] Jess: Do you have a preface between your welcome and blue?

[6:36] Amanda Hunt: I what how does blue go?

[6:39] Jess: Um, you make my ball so blue.

[6:44] Amanda Hunt: Yeah, that's a better song.

[6:46] Amanda Hunt: I think that's a better song for me personally.

[6:48] Amanda Hunt: Like it's funny and it's like really upsetting.

[6:51] Amanda Hunt: Like I think it does like the the highest goal of comedy where you're like, oh, now I'm thinking about this thing, and I am laughing, but this is terrible.

[7:00] Amanda Hunt: And it has that right, it wrote the line the same line that the Heathers movie wrote that kind of makes you feel upset about what you're laughing at, but also you can't stop laughing at it.

[7:09] Jess: Yes.

[7:10] Amanda Hunt: I do, I really do wonder if Heathers, because of how much violence there is in schools because of the school shootings, if that's why we'll never see it on Broadway.

[7:19] Jess: Probably.

[7:20] Jess: Which that's fair.

[7:22] Jess: You know, like of all the things that I've been sad about, that feels very fair.

[7:28] Amanda Hunt: Yep, and I completely agree with that.

[7:30] Jess: But back on to you.

[7:31] Jess: Um, I want to talk about um what made you choose the Monica Lewinsky scandal to frame this cabaret musical around.

[7:39] Amanda Hunt: So I have been doing characters since like 2015.

[7:44] Amanda Hunt: Um, characters such as Scary Dance Teacher and um Child Who's Leading a Braveheart Rebellion, you know, beloved characters that we're all familiar with.

[7:56] Amanda Hunt: And I started trying to do impressions, and I'm like okay at them.

[7:59] Amanda Hunt: Some of them I'm good at, but most of them like I'm okay.

[8:02] Amanda Hunt: Um I do like a fun Nancy Grace and a fun Sarah Huckabee Sanders.

[8:07] Amanda Hunt: And I started trying to build a political character set with like Mitch McConnell and uh gosh, I can't even remember who else was in it.

[8:18] Amanda Hunt: Whoever was like very hot, like two and a half years ago, I tried to like put this set together, and I thought Monica would be interesting, but Monica is not so much of a like one note caricature.

[8:32] Amanda Hunt: She's she's so interesting and her story is so complicated.

[8:37] Amanda Hunt: And I've been doing cabarets separate from my comedy in the city since 2010.

[8:42] Amanda Hunt: And I thought, like, oh, maybe like maybe that could be something interesting.

[8:47] Amanda Hunt: I was in a class at UCB on how to build your own show in November of 2017.

[8:55] Amanda Hunt: And I was like, I think I want to build something around Monica Lewinsky, but I don't, I don't know the direction.

[9:00] Amanda Hunt: So I brought in like a bunch of different drafts of things.

[9:03] Amanda Hunt: And then I brought in this song, a parody song of Crime of the Century from Ragtime, changed to be the lyrics of um the Clinton impeachment scandal.

[9:16] Amanda Hunt: And that was like, oh, this is the show.

[9:19] Amanda Hunt: Like I don't know what else this is gonna be, but this feels like something that's real and compelling.

[9:25] Amanda Hunt: And so um, you know, it was inspired a little bit by Evelyn Nesbitt and like the girl on the swing, and so like all of the songs in the show are parody songs, either from pop culture or from musical theater.

[9:39] Amanda Hunt: And they're all chosen pretty carefully to to like evoke in your mind a moment from that musical, but like mapped on to to the Monica Lewinsky story.

[9:53] Amanda Hunt: So, you know, like the first song is science fiction, and we go back to the 90s in that song, so it's like a time warp kind of feeling.

[10:02] Amanda Hunt: But like if you don't know Rocky Horror, you don't know that song, it's not like oh, this is like it doesn't it doesn't take away to not know it.

[10:10] Amanda Hunt: But if you are a musical theater fan, it gives you a lot more depth and understanding of the show, I think.

[10:16] Amanda Hunt: And that's what parody should do.

[10:18] Amanda Hunt: They should get they shouldn't have to rely on you seeing the source material, but if you have seen the source material, it helps.

[10:25] Jess: Yes.

[10:27] Jess: So what screamed out to you like this is perfect material to use?

[10:30] Amanda Hunt: Like, like what screamed out to you, this needs to sing?

[10:33] Amanda Hunt: Well, I always want to sing all the time.

[10:36] Amanda Hunt: So um, but I it felt I don't remember who said this, probably someone famous, definitely not me originally.

[10:45] Amanda Hunt: But you know, in musicals, people sing when their emotions are too big to speak anymore.

[10:52] Amanda Hunt: And I feel like we're there with her and there with like believing women and listening to women's stories.

[10:59] Amanda Hunt: It's like we've heard the podcasts, we've certainly heard a million awful late night jokes and a million bad takes.

[11:09] Amanda Hunt: But it's like what what she must have gone through and the way she writes about it in Vanity Fair and talks about it in her TED Talk and uh on Last Week Tonight and other places, the emotions are so big.

[11:22] Amanda Hunt: It feels like music is the right place to capture them.

[11:29] Jess: And I I think you did that brilliantly.

[11:32] Jess: I was looking at some clips today, and I was just like, oh wow, this really sings in a way that I didn't expect.

[11:38] Jess: Like sometimes you just hear something like I'm sure a lot of people heard Hamilton, it's like, what?

[11:43] Amanda Hunt: And like this, I was like, oh, let's take a look. And then I was like, oh, this works, especially in the setting that you have it as a cabaret, it really works.

[11:52] Jess: Thank you.

[11:53] Amanda Hunt: Thank you so much. I feel like cabaret is so fun because it gives you, especially like I like to collaborate with people a lot, but when you're doing a one-woman show, you're kind of alone. But cabaret gives you a little bit of like give and take with the audience, which I feel like is so rewarding and so fun.

[12:12] Jess: Now you usually do a lot of stand-up, and I'm curious as to what is the difference between preparing a stand-up set and preparing a cabaret set.

[12:20] Amanda Hunt: Oh boy, uh hours and hours of work, I would say is the difference. It's when you do stand-up, it stand-up is so much fun and it's so nice because it's like, oh, right now I'm wearing jeans and a sweater. And if someone was like, oh, hey, can you do some stand-up? I'd be like, yeah, give me five minutes to just kind of look over and pick out my jokes, and then I'll go up there and do it. So there, it's still a grind where you have to be going to open mics all the time and always writing and always thinking critically about stuff and being like, well, that doesn't work. Let's change that word. But cabaret is like, there are just so many more elements, you know, where it's like, well, the jokes have to be funny, of course.

But then you also want to be able to like hear the piano player and make sure they have the right information and make sure that like you are really letting yourself be in that moment. I do feel like they inform each other really well. Because whenever you're standing on stage, it like the biggest hardest thing for me, at least is to like the thing I've worked on the most, I guess, is to stay present and stay connected to whatever I'm doing in that moment. Um, I think stand-up helps you do that the most of any art form because you really, if you go away, you lose the audience. And like if you're doing a musical or a cabaret or anything else, and there's a moment where people aren't laughing, it's fine.

But if you're doing stand-up and all of a sudden the room falls like a rock, it's like, oh, you have lost this energy. You have to figure out how to get it back. So I think that makes me a better actor and a better cabaret performer and better at everything else because it gives you such a sense of like how to have that give and take with an audience.

[14:10] Jess: Um, so my next question is just about you personally as a performer. Um, who are your biggest influences as both a performer musical theater wise as well as comedy wise?

[14:22] Amanda Hunt: Oh gosh. I would say, I mean, obviously Julie Andrews. Um, you know, she's got those kids out, and that's we can never forget that. Um, I would say Linda Edder is a huge, uh God, I love, I love her voice. I love the Wildhorn um group of musicals. Um, I love her in them. Uh more on the comedy side, I would say like I am very different from, but aspire to be like Nicole Bayer, um, who I think is probably one of the funniest comedians uh like uh alive and working today. Um, John Early is somebody whose character work in his stand-up, I think is really fun and really like an inspiration to me. Um, in terms of I was just listening to a podcast um that had Anthony Ataminick on it. He does uh he does a Donald Trump impression and had a Donald Trump show on Comedy Central, and he talks about like, well, I like give them the impression, I give them a little bit of what I want, and then or what they want, and then I get to say what I want.

Like I get to like give my opinions on what's going on and what I think is important for people to be paying attention to. And I thought that was so like that was so interesting. And I listened to it the morning. Um, my show went up last Thursday, August 8th, and I it was just like that's that is what I'm doing. You know, like it's really cool to hear somebody else put what you want out of your work into their words. Obviously, it wasn't talking about me, but it was very impactful.

[16:07] Jess: That's great. Um, I like that you bring up Linda Edder, because I think she has a very huge stamba musical theater as is right now, and she doesn't quite get the respect that she deserves.

[16:17] Amanda Hunt: Mm-hmm. I agree.

[16:19] Jess: And so that really made my like little um Jekyll and Hyde fan heart like flutter. I mean, that musical is so good. I love, I love Jekyll and Hyde much more than like, you know, people are ashamed of their love of Jekyll and Hyde, and I am not ashamed. I will not hide.

[16:36] Amanda Hunt: The thing about Jekyll and Hyde is like some productions are great. Like I've seen just as many terrible productions as I've seen great productions.

[16:47] Jess: Very fair.

[16:48] Amanda Hunt: It is, it's it is a show about like huge emotions and um huge, huge, huge swings. And if you miss, you miss.

[17:00] Jess: I agree with that. Like just as many brilliant productions or been bad productions, and it really depends on the cast and what you can do with it. So I get why it gets a bad rap, but I don't think it's fully deserved. But either way.

[17:16] Amanda Hunt: Um, I've got a question about performing in a cabaret. Um, what do you do to prepare for a cabaret performance?

[17:23] Jess: Um, it's like writing a piece of musical theater and then mixing it up with the timing and humor of a stand-up set. Like, how do you go about writing that?

[17:32] Amanda Hunt: Well, so for Monica, that's it's like a different experience because it's a narrative arc. Um, so that was the way I went about writing the Monica show was to like kind of pick the moments that I wanted to talk about about her, and then also about present-day political, uh the our present-day political environment, and then kind of go back and like make all of that make sense with a regular cabaret. Uh, I've worked with my partner Kate Wolf for years on different cabarets. We've done them together. I think probably we've probably done six at this point. And basically what we do is we pick songs that we each have been dying to sing and songs that we wanna sing together. And then we put them in the order that we think makes the most sense for the show, like makes the show feel like, okay, so we don't have like too many slow songs next to each other, too many like it's not like oh, a big pocket of funny and then like a bunch of sad songs for a while.

Like we try to make it feel musically even, and then we go through and say, like, oh, I want to like tell a story before this song. Like, uh, okay, one of our more recent cabarets, and it's it's been a few years, I think. But I um I sing that puddle of mud song. She can I do you swear on this podcast?

[18:54] Jess: Yes, swear as much as you want.

[18:56] Amanda Hunt: You know the song She Fucking Hates Me. So I was like, oh, that would be fun to sing. I'm gonna sing that and I'll tell a story beforehand of like when I was when I had just moved to the city and was like working in restaurants, and somebody was like, I don't know why you're working in restaurants, you could get a sugar daddy. And I was like, I'm insulted, I'm a feminist. Um, gonna go drink some margaritas with my friend. And then later that night, we were like, let's just go online and see. So then I ended up signed up. Uh only I, we both were curious, but only I ended up being signed up for sugar daddy.com. Um I used my real name and I was like, well, it's a three-day trial. So at the end of the three days, I'll just pull myself off and it'll be fine.

And at the end of the three days, I couldn't get myself pulled off. Um, and I couldn't access my account because it was like three, the three days were up. So I'm just like on that site forever. Uh, which is very funny. Like, I'll occasionally get a message that I can kind of see in my, like, I'll see a little preview of it in my email. So I talked about like joining SugarDaddy.com and like, oh, what would my life be like if I had, if I had like taken a different path, and then I sing this puddle of mud song. So that's like an example of like what's a funny story, and like how does it contrast really well to something that I'm trying to do. Um, but sometimes you'll look at the show and you'll be like, well, we don't really need an intro here.

The song is like obviously powerful enough and meaningful enough without words and words might just diminish it. So it's it's like figuring out it, I guess every show you put on, it's like, well, what's the best flow? Like, what's gonna like feel the most satisfying to us and hopefully to the audience, but you know, you can only you gotta write for what you're for your own taste.

[20:42] Jess: And speaking of your own taste, I was gonna ask you about lyric writing rules because I've had other lyricists describe them to me. I was wondering if you had any rules for yourself in lyric writing, like only perfect rhymes or like things like that.

[20:54] Amanda Hunt: Oh my gosh, what a disciplined writer I would be if I did have those things. Um, I mean, my number one rule is like I don't want to feel embarrassed to say it. Um, like if it feels like cheesy or like it was, it was like, oh, well, this rhymed, so it makes the most sense. Like, I'm okay for things not to rhyme if it's funny or point, like if it stands out in a fun way. Um, but if it's like, oh, I can't find a good rhyme for this, then I'll go back and change the whole lyric. Um, but I I'm pretty I'm pretty casual. I don't need it, doesn't have to be a perfect rhyme. It should be something that's interesting. And my origin the original director of the show, Michael Hartney, um, who had to step down to become artistic director at the Upright Citizens Brigade, he when I was originally writing the lyrics, he was like, um, you are repeating these lyrics, and when you write a comedy song, you shouldn't repeat lyrics.

Every every lyric is a new opportunity for a joke. Which is so stupid. Right? You know, what a good way of thinking of it. And like, if you're writing a song for a real musical, you would want to have lyrics repeat because um it's satisfying for the audience and like it makes sense musically to have them build in the show, uh like, you know, for the cast. But when you're writing comedy stuff, it's like everything should be a surprise. Like surprise is the biggest thing that makes people laugh. So that I guess is a rule that I have. If it's specifically for comedy, you can't repeat lyrics without uh it has to be super, super comedically earned. Otherwise, get something new in there.

[22:42] Jess: Mm-hmm. That's that's great. Now, another question about performing as a cabaret. Um, it's a little bit of a different moodset than say, like an actual theater performance. So I'm always wondering: do you ever find yourself getting heckled at these cabaret performances? And if so, how do you usually go about handling them?

[22:59] Amanda Hunt: Oh my gosh, what a good question. Oh, I so I did 15 minutes of this show at like a at a bigger comedy show not too long ago. And there was an audience member who had really been having a party before she got there and continued having a party in the room, and she was heckling all these poor stand-ups to the point where the stand-ups were like, shut up, like truly just like telling her, like, you are you have to stop this is horrible.

[23:27] Amanda Hunt: And so then I'm like, oh no, I'm playing a character and I'm playing Monica Lewinsky, who I try to be really respectful. I admire Monica Lewinsky. I never want to make her the joke. She can tell the jokes, but she's never the joke. So it's like I don't want to get up there and have her be heckled by this drunk woman and like make that feel that that just feels because like heckle me all you want. Like I'm a stand-up, I'll be, I'll I can handle I mean please don't heckle me. But like if you do, I don't I don't want to invite that, but like if you do, uh it will be fine. But playing Monica is different because Monica would never tell somebody to like shut the fuck up in the way that I would. So it's like, oh gosh, what am I gonna do?

So this woman, as soon as I get up there and start singing, she stops, she stops heckling, she just quietly listens, and I was like, Yes, oh I've nailed it. And then I get to this part of the show where I'm where I start talking and she yells out. Oh my gosh, she yells out, just shut up and start singing. Oh god. And I think I said something like, Um, is my mother here? Like, I don't, you know, like you just try to, the audience also hates this heckler, but you can't be weak in front of them. So I feel like I feel like the best way to address it is like to make a light joke. And then if that doesn't work, if it's a cabaret where I'm just playing myself, I don't mind kind of getting a little bit tougher and being like, okay, so actually you have to book this space.

You can't just perform here without without booking in advance. And I actually have the space reserved right now, so be quiet. But playing Monica, I don't want to be like, I just want I'm so much more careful of and like try to be sensitive because it's already, it's already a little dicey for me to say, like, oh, I'm playing the voice of Monica Lewinsky. Like my show is written very heavily influenced by everything that she's written and her words and the things that she has said about the Clinton impeachment scandal and like what she's been through. But I am always very mindful that like this is someone I respect, and this is someone who I ultimately would love to see the show or be part of it in some way.

So I don't ever want, even for a second, to forget like she's not the joke of this show. She's telling the jokes in this show. And so it's like you have to balance, you have to balance that. So if it's when a heckler's on my own, yeah, you can you can go scratch hecklers, but when it's hecklers with Monica, I try to be a little more sensitive.

[26:11] Jess: That's such a great answer. I never even thought about the fact that you're not just representing yourself up there anymore. You are representing a character who is a real life figure. So that is a terrifying line to walk down the more I think about. It definitely gives me anxiety. Like for a little while, I was really hoping she would see this run, and then I got nervous that she would see it, which like just because she's been through so much. God knows I don't want to see her to see a show of herself that she doesn't like. But the like the show is written with such love and respect for her. So hopefully I I think the feedback I've gotten is that that really comes across, and I would I would be proud for anyone to see it.

[26:55] Amanda Hunt: That's fantastic. And now I gotta jump back into my musical theater hole.

[27:00] Jess: Oh yeah, get in there. There is a hundred percent some obscure references. And I don't want you to ruin like your best jokes here, but I am curious, what do you think are the most obscure references you snuck in musical theater-wise?

[27:14] Amanda Hunt: There are two Jekyll and Hyde references. And I told my director, I was like, oh my god, well, it's that Jekyll and Hyde moment. She was like, I don't know what you're talking about. And I was like, okay, so only too many there, Jekyll and Hyde. Those are snuck in. I gosh, what else? There's so many like little little moments. There's a lot of um of Chicago snuck in there. There's a lot of um, there are a lot of themes. The show, there's only one song in the show from Into the Woods, but I do feel like there is a kit like a little bit of a thematic influence from Into the Woods. Like everyone tells their own story in the show. Like all the characters that I play in the show, their goal is to tell their story from their perspective.

And that doesn't necessarily mean that they come off well. It just means like they think they're coming off well. Um and I feel like that's very Into the Woods to have these characters who want things and want to tell their stories. And some of them come across really badly, and some of them you're like, oh, that's interesting. I thought she was pure evil, but there is actually something else that has happened there that's influenced that.

[28:39] Jess: Um let me just see if I can guess more of the Into the Woods or Into the Woods uh Jekyll and Hyde references. Is it it has to be the Monica Lewinsky and Hillary Clinton song, right?

[28:49] Amanda Hunt: You'd think, you would think, but I mean, I guess I guess that is then there are three. Then there are three. I'm just staring at that. I'm like watching you like flip a wig back and forth, and I'm like, that has to be. That has to be a it's not not influenced by confrontation. I'll say that. But like I I heard you give some ragtime love in there too, which I feel like doesn't get nearly enough love nowadays.

[29:18] Jess: Oh my god, it is one of the best musicals, in my opinion. It's it like I listen to it sometimes and then have to stop because it's like, oh, I'm crying. Like I'm crying in public, just listening to this beautiful music. And it feels very relevant today. I'm really surprised that it hasn't been revived. Um, if it does get revived and your casting mother, please um get at me, dreamroll. Uh, but the it I feel like Monica's story has echoes of Evelyn Nesbitt, you know, somebody who like was thrust into the spotlight as a very young woman after engaging with an older, much more powerful, much more famous man. And Evelyn Nesbitt's story at the end of ragtime, she doesn't get anything that she wanted.

And I think what's beautiful is Monica's story ends up differently, you know, has ended up differently. She's such a powerful and compelling figure. But some of that is like, well, we live in 2019, not 1924 or whatever, where like women had so much less autonomy and so much less say in what happens to them.

[30:30] Amanda Hunt: That's incredible. And a good way to end this off. So Monica Lewinsky sings your heart out. We'll be playing at the Crane Theater on Thursday, August 15th, and Thursday, August 22nd, um, at 7:30 p.m. And the Crane Theater is located on 85 East Fourth Street between 2nd and 3rd Avenues in New York, New York. Um, so is there anything else you want to say before we wrap this up, Amanda?

[30:52] Amanda Hunt: Oh my gosh, it has been a blast to take a little time, talk a little musical theater. I was I I like I'm always so nervous because I I was so in musical theater, and then I really stepped back, and now I feel like a fraud, but it's like, no, it's all still inside of you, you know. Um we I don't know what it is, but it is very common between musical theater people to feel like I'm not snobby enough to like it. Or does that mean I even like it at all?

[31:19] Jess: Yeah, yeah. Like if I like the wrong wild party, which I do, um, I'm so ashamed of it.

[31:24] Amanda Hunt: Which wild party do you like?

[31:26] Jess: Okay, there's the Lippa one, and then there's the who's the other composer? Uh John Michael John Luciusia, I think they said that right.

[31:34] Amanda Hunt: Yes, yes. I like the one that Idina Menzel and Tay Diggs fell in love doing. And I think that's that's the one that people are always like, well, that's not the real one. And it's like, but that's the one I love. Um, I actually had Andrew Lippa on the show, and I just gushed about how much I loved his wild party. So I I am with you. I am uh Andrew Lippa wild party stan. Um as much as I appreciate the other one for everything it does and how much I like Mandy Patinkin and Eartha Kitt. Come on, Adina Menzel singing Life of the Party. Like Right. Queenie was a blonde and her age should still oh, I'm gonna go listen to it right now.

[32:15] Amanda Hunt: Um fun fact make me happy is still um my alarm every morning.

[32:20] Jess: That's beautiful. That's really does it make you happy when you wake up?

[32:25] Amanda Hunt: No, it's not it's not a very happy song to wake up to, but it sure does wake me up, I'll tell you that. Any song that ends with a gunshot, you're like, you're up.

[32:34] Jess: I feel like I could never get to the end of a song with my alarm. I'm always like snoozing, snoozing, snoozing, turning off and running away.

[32:41] Amanda Hunt: Well, the thing about that song is I'm like, I want to get to the end. So yeah, that's true. Like I'll get up when with the gunshot. Like, like you're running a relay during your day. Because it's a five minute song, and you're just like, well, I got a five minutes before this ends before the gunshot means I can get up.

[33:00] Jess: Oh, but Amanda, anytime you want to come back on the show and talk about a musical, there's always a spot open for you. If there's any Wednesday evenings you will be free in the near future, feel free to reach out. We'd love to have you on.

[33:11] Amanda Hunt: Oh, thank you so much, Jess. I absolutely will.

[33:17] Jess: And alright. Thank you guys for listening. Amanda, thank you so much for coming on. Um, please go check out Monica Lewinsky's Sings Your Heart Out. It looks incredible. I really wish I could be there. I really do. I wish so much. I wish I was in New York that week.

[33:31] Amanda Hunt: Are you where are you located?

[33:33] Jess: I'm in Michigan. I'm in the sh the the the ruins of Detroit.

[33:38] Amanda Hunt: Oh wow. I would have guessed that you because I'm from North Carolina, and there are a couple of things you say, and I was like, I wonder if he's in North Carolina.

[33:46] Jess: But no. Oh, terrible Midwest.

[33:51] Amanda Hunt: Oh no. There's so much great theater in the Midwest.

[33:55] Jess: Oh, there is. I I think I heard a statistic saying Detroit was like the second biggest theater city, but I feel like that was made up a little bit. But the Detroit, the Detroit Visitors Bureau is working very hard and we loved it.

[34:08] Amanda Hunt: Yes, yes, exactly. I mean, we do get like all the national tours, like, and we're like the first stop on every national tour, so we get them when they're like plucky and excited and not like seven months down the road when they're like a little like I we can't sing these songs anymore.

[34:25] Jess: But no, it's been great having you on. I can't I I really can't wait to see more of this because it looks incredible. And seeing the little clip that was on YouTube, it just wasn't enough. I need more. I need this like ejected right into my veins. It looks incredible. So congratulations to you on getting it done. I can't wait to see more of your work, Amanda.

[34:44] Amanda Hunt: Thank you so much for your time.

[34:48] Jess: Thank you. Enjoy the rest of your day.

[34:52] Amanda Hunt: Thank you, you too.