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[0:00] Joshua Turchin: Hello and welcome back to the Early Night Show Virtual Edition. My name is Joshua Turchin, and thank you so much for being with us today. I'm so excited to welcome the incredible Camille de la Cruz from School of Rock and John Mulaney and the Sack Lunch Bunch to the show today. Welcome to the Early Night Show. Today marks our 100th episode. I truly can't believe we've been celebrating performers on stage and screen for over a year and a half now on the Broadway Podcast Network. I am so thankful for the connections and opportunities we've made while supporting the Actors Fund and other not-for-profits during this challenging time. So thank you all so so much for tuning in. I have a lot of exciting news on this episode.

I am so thrilled to share that I will be back on the stage in New York City in the Urban Stages Winter Rhythm series. I will be playing Ludlow Lad in the concert presentation of Ludlow Lad. It's a comic Christmas tale by the brilliant team of Michael Colby, who wrote the libretto, and Gerald J. Marco, who wrote the music. The cast is so incredible, and I'm so honored to be a part of it. You can catch our performances on December 8th at 7 p.m. and December 11th at 2 p.m. You can also purchase your tickets online at UrbanStages.org. Now a very, very limited number of special discount tickets are available for our listeners and viewers of the Early Night Show with the coupon code EAG20. I hope to see you there.

Now, as excited as I am to be back performing on a New York stage this weekend, um, I was devastated by the passing of legend Stephen Sondheim. Now I know that much of the theater community and world was floored by this loss. He was such a huge inspiration to so many, including me. In fact, in front of where I write and compose, like where my computer is, I have his three rules of songwriting hanging on the wall. I never had the opportunity to meet him when I was in Forbidden Broadway because he was injured, but I loved hearing the stories of his visits to previous iterations of the show. He was truly a gift to musical theater, and as a composer, I will always be inspired by his work.

[2:20] ♪ Musical number: "Being Alive" — performed by Joshua Turchin ♪

[4:36] Joshua Turchin: In honor of the late great Stephen Sondheim, that was one of my favorite songs of his, "Being Alive." Because even though he may not be here in physical form, his music and words are very much alive and with us every day. I really hope that when I'm older, I'll have the privilege to be in one of Stephen Sondheim's shows on Broadway. I also hope to work with my next guest one day in the future. She is so incredibly accomplished at a very young age. From the Broadway National Tour of School of Rock to Karma's World and John Mulaney and the Sack Lunch Bunch and so much more. Hi Camille!

[5:16] Camille de la Cruz: Hey!

[5:18] Joshua Turchin: Hi, I'm so happy to have you on today's show.

[5:22] Camille de la Cruz: Yes, I'm excited too.

[5:25] Joshua Turchin: Now you are so so accomplished at such a young age. How did you get started in this like theater industry?

[5:32] Camille de la Cruz: Oh yeah, uh, thank you so much. And you're so accomplished too. Um, congrats on um the success of this show.

[5:39] Joshua Turchin: Thank you.

[5:40] Camille de la Cruz: So um I uh I've always loved performing and like I was at theater camp. I also did like the drama club at my school. Um but I got started when I was about like 10 years old, and uh believe it or not, I just got started with an open call at uh the School of Rock National Tour. Um and it was just like an open call. I just wanted to see what would happen. And I auditioned and I did my best and I had a lot of fun, and I guess they liked me, so I got the part.

[6:14] Joshua Turchin: Oh, that's so cool. Now, what was your like favorite part of being on tour like in general with School of Rock?

[6:22] Camille de la Cruz: Um yeah, I guess it's just like the people and uh like the cast. You really became a family, and it was just fun um coming to the theater every day. I also loved like the energy of the crowd when um you're on stage and it's just so much fun.

[6:39] Joshua Turchin: Oh yay. I remember being on tour and just going to all the different cities and sightseeing. It was just so so much fun. Did you have like a favorite city to visit?

[6:49] Camille de la Cruz: Um, well, I really loved all the cities, but I would say that my favorite one was um Florida when we were in Florida. We spent like about a month there. We went to like Miami and West Palm. We also went to Naples and Jacksonville, and I just love it there because of the weather. It's really nice, and we got to like go to the pool and go to the beach.

[7:12] Joshua Turchin: Ooh, that sounds like a lot of fun. And now, after you finished the tour, um, you went from theater to TV and starred in John Mulaney and the Sack Lunch Bunch, right? Now, what was the shooting process like for that project?

[7:28] Camille de la Cruz: Uh well, the shooting process was really fun. Again, everyone there was really nice, and like John Mulaney, he's not only hilarious, but he's also uh a really nice person. Um we were preparing for shooting for like a few weeks, like we would work on the songs and record the songs and also like the dance choreo, and then we spent about a week shooting, and it was just really fun coming to set every day. And I remember uh John would also bring us like food trucks every day. Um, like he brought like a lobster truck, which was delicious. He also brought like ice cream truck and a taco truck.

[8:09] Joshua Turchin: That's insane.

[8:11] Camille de la Cruz: Yeah, it was really good.

[8:15] Joshua Turchin: Um, what was your favorite part of being on the show?

[8:18] Camille de la Cruz: Um, my favorite part of being on the show was um meeting a lot of new and fun people like John Mulaney. I also got to work with like um Richard Kind, and we had like a whole segment together, which was just all improv and he's really talented. Um, I also got to work with Jake Gyllenhaal, and he's a really good actor. And I also got to work with Andre DeShields. He was on Hadestown on Broadway, and he's a really cool and great dancer, and despite being like a little bit on the older side, he can like still do the splits, which is really impressive.

[8:59] Joshua Turchin: That's really cool. Um now when the full Sack Lunch Bunch released, I actually watched it during quarantine and I absolutely loved it. You were so amazing.

[9:11] Camille de la Cruz: Thank you.

[9:13] Joshua Turchin: Now, although COVID has paused many projects, it's been really really amazing how you've stayed so busy. Congratulations on the new show, Karma's World.

[9:23] Camille de la Cruz: Oh yeah, thank you so much.

[9:25] Joshua Turchin: Now who who do you play on the show?

[9:28] Camille de la Cruz: Uh yeah, uh Karma's World. It's by uh Chris Bridges, aka Ludacris, and I play Carrie Bautista, the diva, and also the mean girl in the show.

[9:41] Camille de la Cruz: That's so cool.

[9:42] Joshua Turchin: What was the recording process like for it?

[9:47] Camille de la Cruz: Uh, well, again, the recording process was really fun. I um actually booked this project before quarantine. So um I recorded half of it in a recording studio in New York, and then like halfway through the project, COVID hit, and um, so they still wanted to continue with the project. So I shot our I recorded like half of it at home. So my dad, he set up uh this like recording mini recording studio, and I would go on Zoom with the voice director, and we would just record Karma's World there.

[10:27] Joshua Turchin: Oh, that's so cool. Um now with like the recording studio, what was your favorite part of working from home?

[10:35] Camille de la Cruz: Um, working at home was really fun because I felt really relaxed because I was like in the comfort of my home, and it was um a different experience, but it was still really fun.

[10:49] Joshua Turchin: Now, when and where can our viewers and listeners watch it?

[10:54] Camille de la Cruz: Oh, well, you can watch it right now on Netflix.

[10:58] Joshua Turchin: Yay! Now, on top of Karma's World, you just wrapped a film, right?

[11:03] Camille de la Cruz: Yeah, I did.

[11:04] Joshua Turchin: Cool. Um, are you able to tell us like a little more about it?

[11:08] Camille de la Cruz: Um, yeah, totally. Um, so it's called Rally Caps, and it's based on a novel called Rally Caps by um Jody Cutler and Stephen Cutler, and it's inspired by true events. It's a baseball movie, but uh I feel like it's really a lot more than that. I mean, um it talks about like friendship and really like finding yourself. Um it's about this boy, and he's deaf, so he's obviously finding things really challenging, but it's a really inspiring story, and um yeah, being on set was really fun. I got to meet um Leek Polo, which was our director. He's a great director. I also got to meet um uh baseball star Curtis Pride. He was on the Mets and he also uh played for the Yankees. And um he's also a deaf player, and he was like the only deaf player since 1945, which was really cool. And yeah, it's really inspiring, and I hope that a lot of people enjoy it.

[12:11] Joshua Turchin: Okay, when and where can we watch it?

[12:14] Camille de la Cruz: Um well I'm not sure when yet. We don't have like a set date, um, but they said that it should be coming out um in the beginning of next year, and I actually heard that a teaser came out already, and I can't wait to watch that. But I promise as soon as I know, uh, you'll be the first to know when it's coming out.

[12:33] Joshua Turchin: Yay! I really can't wait to watch it. Um, and now on top of all of your work, I know that you also find time to support the Rocket Academy, right?

[12:43] Camille de la Cruz: Yeah.

[12:45] Joshua Turchin: So what is the Rocket Academy?

[12:48] Camille de la Cruz: Um, the Rocket Academy is a non-profit organization where um a bunch of musicians like you and me can um work together and learn all about live music and performing, and um it's a really um special program founded by Bruce Galapani, and it's a program that's really dear to my heart because that's actually where like I realized that I wanted to um pursue acting as a career and like performing. I remember my first concert working with them, I was like eight or nine, and I was super nervous. Um, but as soon as I got on stage, like all my fears went away and I was just in the moment.

[13:31] Joshua Turchin: Now, how can our listeners and viewers support your efforts and the Rocket Live Foundation?

[13:37] Camille de la Cruz: Uh well you can just uh go to um the website which is Rocket Academy.org.

[13:43] Joshua Turchin: Yay, I'll make sure to check it out. Now for today's early night show, how about singing the song with me?

[13:51] Camille de la Cruz: Oh totally.

[13:52] Joshua Turchin: Cool. Now, what song would you like to sing and why did you select that song?

[13:57] Camille de la Cruz: Uh well I'm going to be singing Easy On Me by Adele. And I wanted to sing the song because um it's one of Adele's newest songs, and um when I listen to it, I feel like it was very inspiring. I feel like a lot of people could relate to it. So can you actually just give me a second to set up?

[14:15] Joshua Turchin: Oh, sure.

[14:17] Camille de la Cruz: Cool. Well, here we go.

[14:38] ♪ Musical number: "Easy On Me" — performed by Camille de la Cruz ♪

[17:59] Joshua Turchin: That was incredible, Camille. I'm so glad we were able to collaborate virtually, and I hope that one of these days we can collaborate in person too. For some more information on Camille, visit our Instagram at Camille DLC Sings. If you're enjoying these virtual cabarets, please consider making a donation to the Actors Fund's Emergency Relief Fund at www.actorsfund.org to help support people working in the entertainment industry who have suddenly found themselves out of work. Any bit helps. You can also find the Early Night Show on the Broadway Podcast Network, wherever podcasts are found, and videos for episodes online on theearlynightshow.com. For some more Broadway fun original music and parodies, check out my TikTok at Joshua Turchin.

And you can download my original music on all music stream platforms. Thanks again to my guest, Camille de la Cruz, and I hope to see you all at Ludla Lad this December. So make sure to get your tickets now. And let's keep entertaining and make music to help the world. Stay healthy, wear a mask, and please, please get vaccinated so that way we can stay at work.