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[0:01] Aaron Albano: You're listening to Tony Telecasts from The Ensemblist, the only podcast that shows you Broadway from the inside out. I'm Aaron Albano. And I'm Mo Brady.

[0:21] Mo Brady: Welcome, listeners, to our mini-series about the Tonys, bringing you all the drama behind the drama of a theatre season in Broadway history. In each podcast episode, we watch a telecast of a previous Tony Awards, not only the performances, but the opening and the speeches to see how it reflects the season as a whole. So let's dive back in and talk about the 2009 Tony Awards. Our first performance by a nominated musical is Shrek. What's up, Duloc? What's up, Duloc? Aaron, what's up, Duloc? Take it away.

[0:58] Aaron Albano: Okay, so it starts with a lead-in scene featuring Brian Darcy James, Sutton Foster, and Daniel Braker, all in costume. And they set the stage for the number. And it's a pretty long scene. It's jokes, right? They're doing air quotes. They're doing jokes about Farquad. That's his name. Because the whole scene is about telling Fiona about who Farquad is, because she's like, tell me all about him. And they just tell short jokes the whole time. Which I was like, did we need this? I can't decide. Or should we have just led straight into the number? It's the weirdness that we've already seen these three actors in costume for their component of the opening number when they did Freak Flag. So they're already there. They already got a check. So might as well use them.

[1:54] Mo Brady: Yeah. I mean, the only reason I could think of maybe using them was that you see someone that looks like Shrek from the animated film or Fiona, and you're like, oh, this is that thing I like, because these people look like the people I know.

[2:08] Aaron Albano: Oh, fair, fair, fair, fair, fair, because they're the most love Farquad and love Christopher Sieber, but he's not the most recognizable character in this property.

[2:18] Mo Brady: And yet is nominated.

[2:20] Aaron Albano: Well, yeah, but so is Brian Darcy James, so.

[2:23] Mo Brady: And so is Sutton Foster.

[2:24] Aaron Albano: And so is Sutton Foster. So we're good to go. Did you see Shrek? I've never seen Shrek. I've never seen Shrek.

[2:29] Mo Brady: I didn't see Shrek live. I was a dick actor at that point and was like, why is Hollywood invading Broadway? And then...

[2:40] Aaron Albano: Hey, wait, remind me what show you made your Broadway debut in.

[2:42] Mo Brady: Not a Hollywood show, a Bollywood show. Thank you.

[2:45] Aaron Albano: Yeah, right. OK, so Mr. Bombay Dreams is putting the smack down on Shrek the musical.

[2:52] Mo Brady: Sure.

[2:53] Aaron Albano: That's a high horse you're on.

[2:55] Mo Brady: Hey, that high horse was born and bred at CCM, so let's not.

[3:01] Aaron Albano: But so I was too stuck up to watch Shrek. And then years later, I discovered that it was on Netflix, which it's still on Netflix, so you should watch it on Netflix. And I just on a whim, I turned it on and was like, wait, this was Shrek. It's fantastic. The show is really great.

[3:21] Mo Brady: Wait, what? It's really great? I've never seen it. I've already said that.

[3:26] Aaron Albano: Yes.

[3:26] Mo Brady: It's good.

[3:27] Aaron Albano: It's wonderful. Go watch it on Netflix. It's on Netflix. They did a live cap of the show and it is on Netflix and you should watch it. And all of the listeners should watch it too, if you've never heard it or seen it. It's wonderful.

[3:39] Mo Brady: Is this Tony Award performance a good representation of the show? Is it a good commercial for Shrek the musical?

[3:45] Aaron Albano: I think it is because the movie itself, like the movie movie is like pure comedies and send ups. This is definitely, it shows you that we're in the world of the movie, both in sort of environment and timbre.

[4:01] Mo Brady: I thought it was fine. I thought this was perfectly fine. It did not make me want to buy a ticket.

[4:06] Aaron Albano: As everything is, it's better in context, but I think it's a, it's generally a good performance for them to, especially, and I guess we'll get here too, because they did Freak Flag in the opening. I think this is a good sort of also performance.

[4:21] Mo Brady: Yeah. For some reason, I didn't count Freak Flag in the opening as like a commercial for Shrek.

[4:26] Aaron Albano: Sure. I don't know why.

[4:27] Mo Brady: I didn't either. But I think in terms of pre-production, if you think, oh, what two performances can we do? These were the only two numbers you could do?

[4:37] Aaron Albano: Oh, you could do the opening of Act Two.

[4:39] Mo Brady: Aaron Albano, Shrek historian.

[4:42] Aaron Albano: But also just also to support Chris Sieber.

[4:44] Mo Brady: Yeah.

[4:45] Aaron Albano: I think Chris Sieber was a favorite to win. So they were campaigning hard for him.

[4:48] Mo Brady: Got it.

[4:48] Aaron Albano: You should watch it on Netflix.

[4:49] Mo Brady: Fine. Stop yelling.

[4:50] Aaron Albano: Brady would love it. That's why I'm going to get you to watch it.

[4:53] Mo Brady: West Side Story, Dance at the Gym. This is a good cut of West Side Story.

[4:58] Aaron Albano: This is a great cut of West Side.

[5:00] Mo Brady: This is a great cut of West Side Story.

[5:03] Aaron Albano: I never get tired of listening to this music or watching this choreography. Like this is good music. This is good storytelling. This is good dancing.

[5:10] Mo Brady: They are clean.

[5:12] Aaron Albano: This is some good dancing.

[5:15] Mo Brady: Yeah, they are all like some of my favorite dancers in the business are in this revival.

[5:20] Aaron Albano: Names, names. We want names, Aaron Albano.

[5:24] Aaron Albano: I mean, okay, just to name a few. We got Curtis Holbrook in there. We got Mikey Winslow in there. We got Ryan Steele, who's my favorite dancer of all time ever on Broadway in anything he does. We have Peter Churson, who's equally as flawless as Steele. We have Manny Herrera, again, also equally. They're just flawless, flawless dancers.

[5:48] Mo Brady: It's like obnoxious how flawless these people are.

[5:51] Aaron Albano: It's good dancing. And so again, I'm all in one revival of this iconic choreography. Like forget about it. It was thrilling. It was great. It was the perfect way to feature the show.

[6:04] Mo Brady: I don't know if they feature their nominees very well, but at this point I was like, but you're featuring the show and the show is what we're going to go see.

[6:10] Aaron Albano: Oh, it's a fantastic commercial. Like here in 2020 watching it, it made me like, oh gosh, I really want to see the movie.

[6:15] Mo Brady: I really want to watch like-

[6:18] Aaron Albano: Oh, the new movie?

[6:19] Mo Brady: Yeah, I really want to see the Spielberg movie and watch like current best of the best dancers dance to this score.

[6:28] Aaron Albano: So the 2009 performance was a really good add for the 2021 movie.

[6:35] Mo Brady: Yeah, it was fun. It was wonderful.

[6:37] Aaron Albano: No notes.

[6:38] Mo Brady: No notes.

[6:39] Aaron Albano: No notes for this clean, iconic performance.

[6:53] Mo Brady: And then we get to Rock of Ages.

[6:57] Aaron Albano: Not a clean, not a clean performance?

[6:59] Mo Brady: What do you think? Like it's, I mean, on one hand, it's not supposed to be clean. It's Rock of Ages.

[7:04] Aaron Albano: No.

[7:06] Mo Brady: Go.

[7:06] Aaron Albano: I like Rock of Ages.

[7:09] Mo Brady: Is it my favorite show? No. Has it ever been in my top 10? No. Have I seen it five times and enjoyed myself every single time? Yes.

[7:18] Aaron Albano: I think that Rock of Ages is a fucking fun show. And this is a great cast.

[7:23] Mo Brady: It's a great cast.

[7:26] Aaron Albano: It's a great number, right? Like we have a great ensemble here. We're featuring original company of West Side Story includes Jeremy Jordan as a swing, Bahia Hiba, Jeremy Woodard, Savannah Wise, Smash alum, Erica Hunter. I fell in love with Erica Hunter head over heels. She did that thing with the firecracker popsicle. And she was like milking the audience for me. I was brilliant.

[7:50] Mo Brady: It was really brilliant.

[7:52] Aaron Albano: I will get on a Rock of Ages and an Erica Hunter train whenever you want me to.

[7:57] Mo Brady: Work.

[7:57] Aaron Albano: This song is a bop. The choreography is just right for the story. The vocals are good.

[8:04] Mo Brady: Yes, I like this.

[8:06] Aaron Albano: This is wonderful. This is fantastic. I'm not sure why this was ever on Broadway.

[8:11] Mo Brady: And I watched it and I loved it.

[8:13] Aaron Albano: It's nothing but a good time. How can I resist?

[8:16] Mo Brady: Fair, fair, fair, fair, fair. It doesn't seem to be anything else. So here we are.

[8:22] Aaron Albano: There is room for all here on Broadway. I think that when we're talking about jukebox musicals, and we have a Jersey Boys, and we have a Beautiful, and we have, you know, we have an All Shook Up. We have all of these different, we have a Cher show.

[8:34] Mo Brady: Sure.

[8:35] Aaron Albano: This is my favorite of them.

[8:38] Mo Brady: Okay.

[8:38] Aaron Albano: I will say what Rock of Ages does right. When you end a show with Don't Stop Believing, forget about it. Don't Stop Believing is like rock gold. Like you do that and you do that well, like no one can touch you. And Constantine Maroulis can blow in this show.

[8:53] Mo Brady: Like, yeah, he's really good at the singing.

[8:56] Aaron Albano: Those pipes are unstoppable, especially when you're singing this kind of music. So yes, it was fine. I liked it.

[9:04] Mo Brady: Sure.

[9:06] Aaron Albano: Did you like Guys and Dolls, Sit Down, You're Rocking the Boat?

[9:09] Mo Brady: Okay, let's talk about this mic problem.

[9:12] Aaron Albano: The most iconic of all mic problems, mic problems in 2009. Mic problem. Can I walk you through it?

[9:16] Mo Brady: Sure, yeah, do it.

[9:20] Aaron Albano: Okay, so the number is announced. Titus Burgess as Nicely Nicely Johnson starts singing, and his mic is popping. Like you can hear the sort of...

[9:27] Mo Brady: Yes, you can literally hear it.

[9:29] Aaron Albano: We hear an offstage voice saying, am I going in with it? I'm going, I'm going. A man comes on the stage. Titus gets handed a handheld mic from a man in a tuxedo, and the audience applauds. This is very early in the number. That probably all takes place in the first 12 seconds.

[9:46] Mo Brady: Yeah.

[9:47] Aaron Albano: Yeah, it's very fast. Everyone's clearly watching him struggle to get these lines out and not being heard. And that's what the applause is for. It's like, finally, we can hear him. And then, God bless Titus Burgess, because A, he handles it like a champ.

[10:03] Mo Brady: He handles it like a champ.

[10:05] Aaron Albano: Like you think this was supposed to happen.

[10:08] Mo Brady: I don't know if I go that far, but...

[10:12] Aaron Albano: He definitely...

[10:13] Mo Brady: No, but there is never a...

[10:14] Aaron Albano: I mean, he's doing a lot of movement, right? He's climbing across chairs, and he's running around the stage, and yet he does it all with this handheld mic that he was never supposed to be holding.

[10:23] Mo Brady: Correct.

[10:24] Aaron Albano: That is very true. And makes it look like...

[10:26] Mo Brady: Effortless.

[10:27] Aaron Albano: He had planned to be holding a handheld mic the entire time. Boy has some mic technique, which is great. And he's single-handedly carrying this number. I enjoy the Sergio Trujillo choreography. This is probably pretty early in Sergio's choreographic career.

[10:41] Mo Brady: 2009.

[10:42] Aaron Albano: Yeah. I mean, he also choreographed Next to Normal this season.

[10:45] Mo Brady: But this is...

[10:46] Aaron Albano: He choreographed Next to Normal?

[10:48] Mo Brady: Sure did. All those dance numbers in Next to Normal? Ba-ba-do-ba-ba-do-ba-ba-ba-psychopharmacologist and I add up in something and something. All that stuff, that's all him.

[11:00] Aaron Albano: Yeah, this is like in that time where Sergio was doing everything and getting nominated for nothing.

[11:06] Mo Brady: Yeah, that's true.

[11:07] Aaron Albano: I liked it. This is a good version of Sit Down, You're Rockin' the Boat.

[11:10] Mo Brady: I would agree.

[11:11] Aaron Albano: I'd agree with that.

[11:12] Mo Brady: Titus carries the whole thing though.

[11:14] Aaron Albano: Titus, thank you for being you. Can't do this number without Titus.

[11:30] Mo Brady: Okay, Next to Normal.

[11:33] Aaron Albano: You Don't Know I Am The One.

[11:36] Mo Brady: Did you see... You saw this on Broadway, right?

[11:38] Aaron Albano: I saw a reading of this starring Amy Spanger and Anthony Rapp in like 2005.

[11:46] Mo Brady: Wow.

[11:48] Aaron Albano: Mary Faber was Natalie at the time. This is back when it was Feeling Electric. So I would listen to the board mix from the reading of Feeling Electric like circa 2005. I saw this multiple times on Broadway with multiple casts. I did the show in a mini tour in 2012. I like this show.

[12:08] Mo Brady: I like this show.

[12:09] Aaron Albano: It is a good show.

[12:11] Mo Brady: I like the show.

[12:12] Aaron Albano: I saw it once off-Broadway. I saw it at the second stage complete with Costco number and I regret not seeing it on Broadway because I remember at the time I was like, I think I got it. And then it moved to Broadway and I was like, I saw it off-Broadway. I'm fine. Again, an asshole.

[12:33] Mo Brady: Yeah, so that was my only experience with Next to Normal. I will say that in my mind, part of the reason I pitched 2009 was because I had put a rivalry in my head of Next to Normal and Billy Elliot along the lines of Matilda and the Kinky Boots rivalry. I don't know if it was really a rivalry watching this or if I just really liked Next to Normal and Billy Elliot. That might've been a little bit of bias.

[13:01] Aaron Albano: Okay, cool, cool, cool, cool, cool. If we were to choose a rivalry, it would definitely be between those two because I don't think Shrek was in there. I don't think Rock of Ages was in there. But for this miniseries, we specifically didn't choose seasons where there was a blowout in terms of nominations or wins. We didn't choose 2016 because we just talked about Hamilton for two and a half hours.

[13:24] Mo Brady: Because LOL, yeah.

[13:25] Aaron Albano: You saw it once. You felt like you got it.

[13:28] Mo Brady: I saw it three billion times and I have a lot of feelings.

[13:30] Aaron Albano: Did you like this performance? Is this a good performance? Did this sell you on Next to Normal?

[13:35] Mo Brady: I love this performance. This is the song that I remember from my watch at it. And that's the-

[13:41] Mo Brady: It's the song that I remember watching, what was it, when would this have been, at Second Stage? Like in 2007? 2008? Sounds right. Where this is the song, both in this part of the show, and in the reprise, where I just start crying. Because it's that song. I don't know if it's the emotional climax of the show, but it is the emotional climax of the show. And it gets me, every time. Talking about the way the chords and orchestration and all of the feels in the song of all three characters and the intensity, the way they all line up, I don't think anybody can watch this number and not be moved by this song. I question, if you don't know what this show is about, is there that much of an impact? Because I wonder, I think it's a great commercial for me, but I've already spent my money and seen the show.

I actually think, I don't think it's the obvious choice, but I do think it's a good choice. Because what would the obvious choice be? The opening or the closing, right? Sort of something that says, like, here's everybody, and we're not going to tell, you know, the opening doesn't have a great end to it, right? It's Diana on the floor with all the bread, like, how would you end that? And the closing doesn't have a ton of meat to it. I feel like showing us sort of the moment where things take off, in terms of storytelling, is perhaps the smartest move. And for as much as Alice has trouble keeping up with the band, or hearing the band, I'm not sure what the problem is, but there are some points in the song where she is not with the band.

Where the band is not with her, I should say. I felt like her performance, I understood who this woman was, and I could see seeing at home being like, oh, that's interesting. Oh, for sure. I want to know more about that. Well, I think that's where I'm like... The challenge with Diana is either you seem too unaffected by the circumstances, and it doesn't feel like it has the emotional weight that would make it interesting to see. Or you'd be watching someone overact and be a crazy person, and you'd be like, oh, that doesn't feel realistic. Alice is writing this wonderfully fine line in her performance on the telecast, in my opinion.

[15:49] Aaron Albano: Yeah. When I think that, like, we get to see why she won. When she wins, we're like, oh, based on that performance, I get it. I know. And I honestly don't think it matters that we don't know exactly what's happening in the scene, because the way they're performing it is compelling enough that it makes us want to go watch it. Do you want to know another number where I don't know what's happening?

[16:11] Mo Brady: Go ahead.

[16:12] Aaron Albano: Billy Elliot.

[16:13] Mo Brady: I never saw Billy Elliot.

[16:14] Aaron Albano: I've never seen Billy Elliot. I've seen the movie.

[16:16] Mo Brady: I haven't...

[16:17] Aaron Albano: So on Broadway HD, you should go watch Billy Elliot. Just get all of these streaming services that you should have already and go watch Billy Elliot.

[16:24] Mo Brady: I'm too busy recording podcasts and watching the Tony Awards with you.

[16:29] Aaron Albano: I didn't like this. Tell me why I should like this.

[16:31] Mo Brady: Tell me why.

[16:32] Aaron Albano: I think you're cool.

[16:33] Mo Brady: I think you're cool.

[16:34] Aaron Albano: Why?

[16:35] Mo Brady: Why you don't like this?

[16:36] Aaron Albano: It's a good moment in the show. It's a confusing moment in the show. Billy's a... Billy's a weird... It's a great watch, but it's a weird watch, because I would say that even with the movie...

[16:46] Mo Brady: Have you seen... You've seen the movie.

[16:47] Aaron Albano: Yeah, I've seen the non-musical version of Billy Elliot.

[16:51] Mo Brady: So the movie of Billy, because there's the storyline of Billy trying to dance, and then there's the story of the union workers trying to unionize. And for the longest time, especially when I saw this for the first time, I was like, I don't understand why I identify with half of this show. I think Elton John's intro, had he nailed it, would have explained a lot more. When I heard it, I was like, oh, that's a good, clear distinction of what the throughline of Billy Elliot and connection to his father's story is, which I think is powerful if you know the show. If you don't know this show, and you don't know the movie, this is a weird performance, because you have no idea what's going on.

[17:31] Aaron Albano: Yep, no idea. The one thing that I think probably came into play here, in the same vein as my theory on the Shrek performance, again, it's all speculation. I have no fact on any of this. But because Billy started the show with Elton John singing electricity, and the three boys dancing electricity, I was like, oh, they thought they had that covered. And so they chose to do something a little less commercial with their actual Tony performance. Did it work? I don't know.

[18:00] Mo Brady: Okay, so this is like, I think about this as like choreography from Peter Darling, who also gave us the movement in Matilda, which we know that you like, Groundhog Day. The first half, for me, is a lot of a tween boy stomping his feet and saying, ACK!

[18:19] Aaron Albano: Yeah.

[18:20] Mo Brady: Does it work for you, Aaron? Because I found it really repetitive, and not very engaging. Again, because I know the show, as a Tony performance, no.

[18:27] Aaron Albano: Because you don't get it.

[18:28] Mo Brady: We don't get it. I don't think this is, as a Tony performance, I don't think this is a successful performance. As a number in the show, when you see the show, because you should see it on Broadway, you understand what's happening. And arguably, like, this is what TAP is supposed to do. All contextually, it makes sense.

[18:43] Aaron Albano: Out of context? No.

[18:46] Mo Brady: This was like, look at us be like evolved theater, because you already saw our press event at the beginning of the show. And all the people, all the kids who'd want to see the show have gone to bed already. And they saw the opening, so we're fine.

[19:08] Aaron Albano: You know what is a good Tony Award performance?

[19:14] Mo Brady: It's hair?

[19:15] Aaron Albano: It's hair.

[19:16] Mo Brady: Doing hair. First off, let's talk about this ensemble. It is Jackie Burns, Andrew Kober, Tomar Wilson. Your male swing room is Josh Lehman, JR Armstrong Johnson, and Michael James Scott. Imagine the dress code. I mean, the music echoing out of it is a party alone.

[19:34] Aaron Albano: This is a good, good cast.

[19:36] Mo Brady: It's a fantastic cast. Not a lot of choreography, but just the right amount of staging to me, like the whole opening tableau where they're all just like shaking their hair, you're like, yeah, that's what hair should look like.

[19:46] Aaron Albano: Absolutely.

[19:47] Mo Brady: Right?

[19:48] Aaron Albano: Yeah.

[19:49] Mo Brady: And they all spread out and they've got their own sort of moments. And you get sort of that camera pan that we remember from 1998 from Ragtime, where you see everybody sort of in their windows. I'm just like, this is great.

[20:00] Aaron Albano: Deserved audience interaction.

[20:01] Mo Brady: Oh my God. Yeah, this is just touching and breathing on faces pre-COVID. I was like, my first thought was like, oh my God, a COVID nightmare.

[20:12] Aaron Albano: No one could do this show right now.

[20:13] Mo Brady: Berkshire Theatre Group is not doing, which is a bummer because there really was a point about three months into this where we all were getting haircuts or not getting haircuts that would have made us all wait for hair. That would have made it a great production of hair, for sure. You could have saved a lot on your wig budget.

[20:26] Aaron Albano: And yet.

[20:27] Mo Brady: And nope. COVID precautions. Here we go. I mean, there's not a lot to this number other than like, you write a really great song and you put really magnanimous performers to lead it. Like Will Swenson and Gavin Creel. And you're like, okay. And I will say I love and tell me if because I don't know hair that well. But I feel like hair is that beautiful number where it's only the second tier of popularity.

[21:06] Aaron Albano: Like you got all like the really big like, Age of Aquarius, Let the Sun Shine In, all of those like, everybody knows these songs, songs.

[21:11] Mo Brady: And then like the title song is not on that echelon, but it's a like a level below. And so you feel like you're watching something new, but something you know, at the same time.

[21:17] Mo Brady: Yeah.

[21:18] Aaron Albano: So then you get, so it showcased the nominees.

[21:20] Aaron Albano: And also it did a good job at like, correct me if I'm wrong. I think the two nominated performances were Gavin Creel and Will Swenson.

[21:20] Mo Brady: Yeah.

[21:21] Aaron Albano: It showcased the nominees. It showcased the show. Yeah. It made you want to see it.

[21:25] Mo Brady: I don't want to spoil our Yelp review, Aaron, but yeah, it was great.

[21:30] Aaron Albano: It was, it was no notes, no notes here.

[21:46] Mo Brady: Let's give a Yelp review.

[21:47] Aaron Albano: I feel like Yelp is going to yell at us for calling it a Yelp review.

[21:50] Mo Brady: Yelp does not care.

[21:51] Aaron Albano: Yelp is not listening for sure.

[21:54] Mo Brady: Which performance made the show look better than it was, Mo?

[21:57] Aaron Albano: I have to say Guys and Dolls because it was a good sit down, you're rocking the boat. And I did not see that revival, but I heard it was not received well and closed quickly. So I'm just going to guess because I liked that number and buzz of the show was bad.

[22:11] Mo Brady: Guys and Dolls.

[22:12] Aaron Albano: Yeah.

[22:13] Mo Brady: I would say the same, but for a different performance. I would say the Guys and Dolls, actually, frankly, both the Guys and Dolls and the West Side Story to Night Medley in the opening. I actually thought you saw more of Sergio's choreography in that performance than you did in the actual number.

[22:29] Aaron Albano: Oh, sure.

[22:30] Mo Brady: So getting to see these two sort of iconic shows together hit me in all the right ways. And I was like, okay, I could believe in these shows.

[22:39] Aaron Albano: Which performance made you want to buy a ticket?

[22:40] Mo Brady: West Side, hands down.

[22:42] Aaron Albano: I love a clean number.

[22:43] Mo Brady: I love a clean number.

[22:44] Aaron Albano: And I love an iconic number.

[22:46] Mo Brady: And these both, it ticked both of those boxes.

[22:48] Aaron Albano: I almost wrote West Side Story.

[22:50] Mo Brady: I wrote Next to Normal. I think that this voices the score of the story, but West Side Story.

[22:56] Aaron Albano: I could buy Next to Normal, too, except that I didn't buy a ticket because I saw it at second stage.

[23:03] Mo Brady: I could buy Next to Normal, but only if it was an off-Broadway.

[23:08] Aaron Albano: What speech moved you the most?

[23:10] Mo Brady: I liked Brian and Tom's for best score for Next to Normal.

[23:14] Aaron Albano: Yes, that was a good one.

[23:15] Mo Brady: I thought they were very endearing. And I liked when Brian, Brian had a couple of quotes I liked. He said, for all of you in this room and out there in America who are crazy enough to attempt an original musical, we salute you.

[23:26] Aaron Albano: And that feels very true. That sort of feels like Next to Normal is sort of the most original musical you can get, right? It's not based on a book or a movie or a song book, right?

[23:36] Mo Brady: It's totally original.

[23:37] Aaron Albano: And it won the Pulitzer, right?

[23:38] Mo Brady: Yeah.

[23:39] Aaron Albano: And he says later, if you're working on something you believe in, keep going no matter how long it takes.

[23:44] Mo Brady: Maybe it's like just like COVID quarantine, but like that idea that like putting time into creating something, even if you're not seeing results, that actually feels like something that we can do in this moment.

[23:54] Aaron Albano: And that, I don't know, that just hit me in a way that was effective.

[23:57] Mo Brady: So what did you think?

[24:00] Aaron Albano: What speech stood out to you the most, Aaron?

[24:02] Mo Brady: It was the Three Billies, which like we keep referring to the Three Billies as the Three Billies. So I'm going to say their names right now. David Alvarez, Kirill Kulish, and Trent Kowalik. Not even just we, like you and me, but like we like the Broadway community, like groups them all together too many times and don't say their names out loud. I loved their Tony speech.

[24:21] Aaron Albano: Yes, they took too long, but I thought it was so true. Of the people who were like on board with them, I was one of them because they were so polite and just like so shocked and so taken aback that they were just like, no, you go. No, you go. No, you go. Which I was like, oh, these guys. And then they thank their dresser, which I was like, bravo, thank you, your dresser. But what really hit me was that then in their Tony stupor, they then thanked their Dolly Dinkle Dance Studios. For those of you wondering, I refer to the Dolly Dinkle Dance Studios as like your hometown dance studio. My Dolly Dinkle Studio is Marie Stanette Dance Studio in Campbell, California. But they literally on national TV started thanking their Dolly Dinkle Dance Studios, which Trent is Dorothy's School of Dance on Long Island, which I was like, does it get more Dolly Dinkle than that?

Pyrrhals was San Diego Academy of Ballet, which fine, okay, it's an academy. It's not really a Dolly Dinkle Academy. David then goes 92nd Y and ABT, which I was like, I mean, that's not really Dolly Dinkle, but okay. It's like if Dolly Dinkle and like Agnes DeMille had competing dance studios, that would be like the Agnes DeMille Dance Studio. But that there's got to be more love to all of your Dolly Dinkles. And that's why I love theirs.

[25:43] Mo Brady: What a surprise win, Aaron.

[25:44] Aaron Albano: I didn't really have any.

[25:45] Mo Brady: Yeah, I didn't really have any other.

[25:48] Aaron Albano: So would you recommend watching the 2009 Tony Awards?

[25:51] Mo Brady: No. There were there were good moments. But when the broadcast can't get it together after the first like 10 minutes, I'm like, I gotta go. I gotta get out of here.

[26:03] Aaron Albano: Yeah. Hard pass.

[26:05] Mo Brady: Yeah. I'm just like, because you'll just be pissed while you're watching the whole time.

[26:08] Aaron Albano: Well, I think at this point, people should either watch Shrek the Musical or Billy Elliot on Broadway HD.

[26:14] Mo Brady: Yep.

[26:15] Aaron Albano: Mm hmm.

[26:16] Mo Brady: Yes. Just go watch those instead.

[26:18] Aaron Albano: All right. So in our last episode, part one of 2009, we randomly selected 1982.

[26:30] Mo Brady: 1982.

[26:31] Aaron Albano: All right.

[26:33] Mo Brady: So we'll be watching that next Tuesday for the episode.

[26:36] Aaron Albano: We'll be watching that and talking about it next Tuesday.

[26:39] Mo Brady: Oh, right. That too.

[26:41] Mo Brady: The Ensemblist was produced today by me, Mo Brady.

[26:45] Aaron Albano: And by me, Aaron Albano.

[26:47] Mo Brady: Special thanks to Wasif Sami for providing the background research for this Broadway season. There are two great ways you can be helping The Ensemblist right now. One is by leaving us a rating and review on Apple Podcasts. And the second is by becoming a Patreon member at patreon.com slash The Ensemblist.

[27:01] Aaron Albano: Please follow The Ensemblist wherever you listen to podcasts on Spotify, on Apple Podcasts or at bpn.fm, the home of Broadway Podcast Network.

[27:09] Mo Brady: You can also follow us on Instagram. Thanks for listening, everybody. Until next time!