This transcript was automatically generated and might contain errors.

[0:00] Priscilla Lopez: Hi, I'm Priscilla Lopez, and this is the Fabulous Invalid.

[0:13] Jamie DuMont: Welcome to the Fabulous Invalid, Broadway's podcast, where we present essential conversations with a curated roster of the best, most important, and innovative theater makers working today, from actors to writers, directors, designers, and everyone in between.

[0:27] Jamie DuMont: We took our name from the title of a 1938 play by Kaufman and Hart that has since become a loving nickname for Broadway itself.

[0:34] Jamie DuMont: Always deemed on the verge of decline, yet always bouncing back, the Fabulous Invalid.

[0:39] Rob Russo: I'm Theodore Savant, Jamie DuMont.

[0:41] Rob Russo: And I'm Rob Russo, writer and theater critic with Stage Left at NYC, and my new podcast, Stage Left the Podcast, which you should also check out.

[0:49] Rob Russo: Well, we're back at Orso, and we have an amazing guest for this episode.

[0:53] Jamie DuMont: Well, yes.

[0:55] Jamie DuMont: I'm a little um starstruck?

[0:58] Jamie DuMont: I'm a little starstruck.

[0:59] Jamie DuMont: I'm a little I'm all those things.

[1:02] Jamie DuMont: Who do we have on today, Rob?

[1:03] Rob Russo: The one and only Priscilla Lopez.

[1:06] Rob Russo: Morales.

[1:07] Rob Russo: Uh, Diana Morales.

[1:09] Rob Russo: Deanna Morales.

[1:10] Rob Russo: Uh, I almost said Diana.

[1:12] Jamie DuMont: Oh.

[1:12] Jamie DuMont: Strike me dead.

[1:13] Rob Russo: Uh-oh.

[1:14] Rob Russo: Wow.

[1:14] Rob Russo: Um, and so many other iconic roles over the years.

[1:17] Rob Russo: I mean, it's amazing.

[1:17] Rob Russo: I in preparation for this interview.

[1:19] Rob Russo: I I just went on uh the Internet Broadway database, plugged her name in, and I was like, oh yeah.

[1:24] Rob Russo: She, you know, I had forgotten all the things that she's done over the years.

[1:28] Rob Russo: Or things that like I had no idea that well let's let's say what she did, shall we?

[1:34] Jamie DuMont: Yeah.

[1:35] Jamie DuMont: With a career that spans over five decades.

[1:37] Rob Russo: Five fifty years.

[1:38] Rob Russo: Priscilla Lopez, beginning in the late 60s with shows like Breakfast at Tiffany's, which is, you know, a very famous flop.

[1:46] Rob Russo: And Henry Sweet Henry.

[1:48] Rob Russo: And then in the 70s, in musicals like Company, Pippin.

[1:52] Jamie DuMont: Who knew she was in Pippin?

[1:54] Rob Russo: Right.

[1:54] Jamie DuMont: Did you know that?

[1:55] Rob Russo: No, I I did not know that.

[1:56] Rob Russo: I learned that researching this.

[1:58] Jamie DuMont: Yeah.

[1:58] Jamie DuMont: Um, but also with Michael Bennett's landmark A Chorus Line, which everybody knows her for.

[2:03] Rob Russo: Deanna Moran.

[2:04] Rob Russo: And finally winning a Tony Award in 1980 for Tommy Tune's A Day in Hollywood, A Night in the Ukraine.

[2:09] Rob Russo: She has also starred off Broadway in Extremities, which I did know because I'm a big fan of that show.

[2:17] Rob Russo: And of course, Lynn Manuel Miranda's In the Heights.

[2:20] Jamie DuMont: Right, right.

[2:21] Rob Russo: And not to mention uh Nine.

[2:23] Rob Russo: She was a replacement in Nine, the original production of the list.

[2:27] Jamie DuMont: Right, right.

[2:28] Jamie DuMont: And is currently starring on Broadway in uh Grand Horizons, the new best wall play.

[2:32] Rob Russo: We love a best wall.

[2:33] Rob Russo: We love the best wall plays, the third one we've had in the last 12 months, and uh I'm living for it.

[2:38] Jamie DuMont: Um, we saw not that long ago.

[2:41] Rob Russo: Right, right, yes.

[2:42] Jamie DuMont: So we're we're totally thrilled to be sitting down with her.

[2:45] Jamie DuMont: I'm so delighted that she said yes.

[2:47] Jamie DuMont: Uh, and that we're gonna get to talk to a legend.

[2:50] Rob Russo: A true legend.

[2:51] Rob Russo: A true legend, yeah, yeah.

[2:53] Jamie DuMont: But before we get to our guest, do you have anything on your mind?

[2:57] Rob Russo: Well, I wanted to share a little experience that I had because I know one of the missions of this show is to um examine all aspects of the theater, right?

[3:06] Rob Russo: Um, I was at uh Tina, the Tina Turner musical uh a couple weeks ago with my boss, Hillary Clinton.

[3:12] Rob Russo: Um, and you know, when I take her, I'm there as staff, so you know, she sits, the show starts, and then I go usually and stand in the back.

[3:19] Rob Russo: And I found myself standing next to the soundboard during the show, and it's a show I'd seen before a couple times.

[3:24] Rob Russo: Um, and at some point during Act Two, no offense to the magic that was happening on stage, I found myself watching the soundboard operator.

[3:33] Jamie DuMont: And I had never done that before.

[3:34] Jamie DuMont: I don't know if you have, Rob.

[3:36] Rob Russo: I have, but I don't think in a way that made an impression on me.

[3:40] Rob Russo: Yes, I ended up being so enraptured by the artistry of this technician who is uh flipping between the mics during a book scene, right?

[3:51] Rob Russo: And there's a different button for each mic.

[3:53] Rob Russo: And without referencing a script, without it seemed like even looking, she would press on and off the mics for a full scene between all these characters.

[4:05] Rob Russo: And it was incredible.

[4:07] Rob Russo: I was just completely mesmerized by it.

[4:10] Rob Russo: And as I sat back from that experience, what it made me think of the fact that when you're watching a show on Broadway, when you're seeing a show, you know, live, the actors are so reliant on tens, dozens, perhaps maybe even a hundred people who you don't even see, who are making it all happen.

[4:31] Rob Russo: The reason you could hear Adrian Warren in that scene is because the soundboard operator was turning on her mic.

[4:37] Rob Russo: And when she wasn't speaking, turning it off and then turning it back on for the next line.

[4:40] Rob Russo: And she knew exactly when to turn it off, exactly when to turn it on.

[4:44] Rob Russo: The audience heard every single word, you never missed a beat.

[4:47] Rob Russo: And yet you have to have this trust and this faith that as a performer that there's someone at a booth, you know, in the back of the theater who knows exactly when you're about to talk.

[4:58] Rob Russo: Who isn't looking at Instagram or checking their text.

[5:01] Jamie DuMont: Right.

[5:01] Jamie DuMont: No, it's just completely there live, you know.

[5:04] Rob Russo: And it's just it's I was so struck by that and then how incredible that is.

[5:08] Rob Russo: I'm sure they don't think of this this way, but it sounds stressful to me.

[5:12] Jamie DuMont: That feels like a big responsibility.

[5:14] Rob Russo: Well, that's what I asked Peter Lawrence.

[5:15] Rob Russo: I said it must be very stressful.

[5:17] Rob Russo: And he he rebutted that no, it's not.

[5:20] Rob Russo: You know, that's what you do.

[5:22] Rob Russo: You know, it's it's it's thrilling.

[5:23] Rob Russo: It's the the art of it all, right?

[5:25] Jamie DuMont: Um, and and that too was something I was struck by is just how calmly this woman was operating the board.

[5:31] Jamie DuMont: I would be a nervous wreck.

[5:32] Rob Russo: But then again, it's not my job.

[5:33] Rob Russo: I'm not a trained professional.

[5:34] Jamie DuMont: Right.

[5:35] Jamie DuMont: Who's been doing because you don't start on Broadway, I'm sure she's been doing this for years, and you build up to it, and it's you know, it's a skill, it's an art, it's a science.

[5:43] Rob Russo: Um, you know what I would be terrible at, and what would stress me out?

[5:47] Jamie DuMont: What?

[5:47] Rob Russo: Doing your job.

[5:48] Jamie DuMont: Oh, well, sure, so it's a relative, right?

[5:51] Rob Russo: Of course, of course.

[5:52] Rob Russo: Um, but I just wanted to share that because uh it was such a beautiful moment.

[5:56] Jamie DuMont: You kept that.

[5:57] Rob Russo: I know, I know that show a couple of weeks ago.

[6:00] Rob Russo: You've been thinking about it.

[6:01] Rob Russo: It's been keeping this on the side.

[6:03] Jamie DuMont: I love it.

[6:03] Jamie DuMont: Yeah.

[6:03] Jamie DuMont: Well, because it's not just as simple as off and on, right?

[6:06] Jamie DuMont: You don't just turn all the mics on and then turn them all off, right?

[6:09] Jamie DuMont: They're individually operated.

[6:10] Rob Russo: Right, and you've have four, five, ten, twelve people on scene in a musical, whatever it is.

[6:16] Jamie DuMont: Yeah.

[6:16] Jamie DuMont: That's a lot.

[6:16] Rob Russo: Is it just was it just one operator?

[6:18] Jamie DuMont: It was one person.

[6:19] Rob Russo: Yeah.

[6:20] Rob Russo: No, I don't know who else is in the theater and other places doing other things, but this was the one person I observed at the back of the theater.

[6:26] Jamie DuMont: Well, kudos to that operator.

[6:28] Rob Russo: Yes, yes.

[6:29] Rob Russo: Um, and shall we get to our conversation with one of the greatest performers in Broadway history?

[6:37] Jamie DuMont: Yeah.

[6:37] Jamie DuMont: Uh, I I think it's safe to say that Priscilla Lopez has inspired many, many, many people in her life.

[6:47] Rob Russo: That's an understatement.

[6:48] Rob Russo: A huge understatement.

[6:49] Jamie DuMont: Okay, let's talk to her.

[6:50] Rob Russo: Let's do it.

[6:52] Priscilla Lopez: I'm so excited because I'm gonna go to the high school of performing arts.

[6:56] Priscilla Lopez: I mean, I was dying to be a serious actress.

[6:58] Priscilla Lopez: Anyway, it's the first day of acting class, and we're in the auditorium, and the teacher, Mr. Carp, puts us up on the stage with our legs around everybody, one in back of the other, and he says, okay, we're gonna do improvisations now.

[7:10] Priscilla Lopez: You're on a bobsled and it's snowing out, and it's cold.

[7:14] Priscilla Lopez: Okay, go.

[7:18] Priscilla Lopez: Hello, welcome.

[7:20] Priscilla Lopez: Thank you.

[7:20] Priscilla Lopez: Thank you so much for joining us at Orso.

[7:22] Priscilla Lopez: I love Orso.

[7:23] Priscilla Lopez: I'm coming here on Wednesday.

[7:24] Priscilla Lopez: It's my husband's 70th birthday.

[7:27] Jamie DuMont: Let's see which table they're gonna put us at.

[7:29] Jamie DuMont: Right, exactly.

[7:29] Jamie DuMont: So go put a good one right up at front, would be my guess.

[7:32] Priscilla Lopez: Well, we are thrilled to have you with us uh for this episode.

[7:36] Priscilla Lopez: Um, you're currently appearing in Bestwall's play Grand Horizons on Broadway.

[7:40] Priscilla Lopez: Absolutely.

[7:41] Priscilla Lopez: Um, what can you tell us about the show and your character Carla specifically?

[7:45] Priscilla Lopez: Well, the show is uh fabulous, it's written so beautifully, and the wonderful surprise of it is that it appeals to, you know, children of all ages, except real children.

[7:57] Priscilla Lopez: Um yeah, you know, I wouldn't take, you know, a childhood, but it's an adult play that uh it either you're a mother, you're a son, you're a father, you're a brother, you're whatever.

[8:08] Priscilla Lopez: There's something in it, and it especially deals with the older generation, 55 and over, and it's uh um it's one of the first plays that really talks about sexuality of older people, and the the the lead uh Jane Alexander's character decides she wants a divorce and she's hitting 80, so the children just totally freak out, and you know, so the whole play is about why are you doing this and what's happening, and and then I'm supposedly the other woman.

[8:35] Priscilla Lopez: I love being the other woman.

[8:38] Priscilla Lopez: But um, the way she's described is um not quite who she really is either.

[8:44] Priscilla Lopez: So she's a nice surprise.

[8:46] Priscilla Lopez: And there are just a lot of surprises in the show.

[8:48] Jamie DuMont: You mean the way the characters talk about her before before you come on stage, right?

[8:53] Priscilla Lopez: Right.

[8:53] Priscilla Lopez: Then you come on and you're actually not what they've set up.

[8:56] Priscilla Lopez: That's true.

[8:56] Priscilla Lopez: Yes.

[8:57] Priscilla Lopez: Well, I'm worse.

[9:00] Jamie DuMont: Oh, hardly.

[9:00] Priscilla Lopez: That's what I found to be one of the greatest uh and most notable things about Bess Wall's writing is that it contains so many secrets in all of her plays that I've seen, and especially in in this play, and you're you're exactly right.

[9:12] Priscilla Lopez: The character of Carla, you know, she's set up to be one thing, and then you meet her at the beginning of act two, and she's not what you expected.

[9:20] Priscilla Lopez: Yeah, and uh and then what happens in relation to Jane Alexander's character Nancy, you know, that's another surprise.

[9:28] Jamie DuMont: Right.

[9:29] Priscilla Lopez: So yeah, there's a lot of surprises, and a lot of confessions and a lot of a lot of everything.

[9:35] Priscilla Lopez: And it's really funny.

[9:36] Priscilla Lopez: It is hysterical.

[9:38] Priscilla Lopez: You know, I'm sitting back there because I had the whole first act to get ready, and I laugh every night.

[9:43] Priscilla Lopez: You know, certain things just you just always laugh.

[9:46] Priscilla Lopez: You know it's coming, you know what it sounds like, you know, and you just laugh.

[9:50] Priscilla Lopez: So that's a true test of something that's good.

[9:54] Rob Russo: There's there's one joke in particular that I will not uh describe here, but I think you know exactly what I'm talking about that everybody's been talking about because you mean the actual joke that the Jane tells?

[10:04] Priscilla Lopez: Yes.

[10:06] Priscilla Lopez: It's too funny.

[10:07] Priscilla Lopez: That is funny, yes.

[10:08] Rob Russo: Um, it's interesting.

[10:09] Rob Russo: So um this is a play written by a female playwright and directed by a female director, Lee Silverman.

[10:15] Priscilla Lopez: Um, and when I saw that, it reminded me of something that Patty LuPone had said recently, which is that you know, at this point in her career, all the shows she's done, that she's for the first time working with a female director in a musical, and like how mind-blowing it is that you could make it this far in a career.

[10:31] Rob Russo: You've had a career longer than Patty LuPone's.

[10:34] Priscilla Lopez: I've had a few female directors.

[10:36] Priscilla Lopez: Um, the first one, oh god, what was her last name?

[10:39] Priscilla Lopez: She directed Other People's Money.

[10:41] Priscilla Lopez: Gloria, and I can't remember her name, but I think she was probably the first one.

[10:46] Priscilla Lopez: And then there was um Etnun Pippin, uh Diane Paulus, and um uh Rebecca Taichman in The Clean House, and now um Lee Silverman.

[10:58] Priscilla Lopez: Lee Silverman here in Grand Horizons.

[11:01] Rob Russo: Do you find that working with a female director and a female writer changes the room, the experience?

[11:07] Priscilla Lopez: I think it does if you're a female.

[11:10] Priscilla Lopez: No, there's just a certain relaxation and an unspoken um understanding, I think, you know.

[11:16] Priscilla Lopez: I mean, the first time I laid eyes on Bess Wall, she was in the ladies' bathroom pumping.

[11:22] Priscilla Lopez: She had just given birth to her third child.

[11:26] Priscilla Lopez: And I mean, how much more female can you get?

[11:29] Priscilla Lopez: You know.

[11:30] Priscilla Lopez: So that was great.

[11:31] Priscilla Lopez: And it's just I I don't know.

[11:34] Priscilla Lopez: I know it sounds, you know, corny, but it's true.

[11:36] Priscilla Lopez: The sisterhood, you know, it's just like it's it's familiar, and we all are very familiar with what it is to be women, so it's comfortable.

[11:46] Rob Russo: Right.

[11:47] Priscilla Lopez: You know, and they're you know, smart.

[11:50] Priscilla Lopez: They certainly are two of the greatest people working in theater today.

[11:54] Priscilla Lopez: Yeah, no, I I love working with both of them.

[11:57] Priscilla Lopez: I love Lee, she's very tough, but in the right way.

[12:00] Priscilla Lopez: She's very concise.

[12:02] Priscilla Lopez: She gives you one word to go, oh, that's it.

[12:04] Priscilla Lopez: Okay.

[12:04] Priscilla Lopez: And so it makes it easy.

[12:06] Priscilla Lopez: You don't have to think about, I just have to be that, right?

[12:08] Priscilla Lopez: Or I have to think of that.

[12:10] Priscilla Lopez: You know, so it's it's kind of like a shorthand.

[12:13] Priscilla Lopez: I think the best thing she ever said to me, which she didn't want me to do, so she said, uh, can we have a little less teabag acting?

[12:22] Priscilla Lopez: So I said, got it.

[12:25] Priscilla Lopez: I'll give you knew exactly what she meant.

[12:27] Rob Russo: Exactly.

[12:27] Priscilla Lopez: That's fantastic.

[12:28] Priscilla Lopez: Wow, if a male director had said that, it would be a little different, wouldn't it?

[12:32] Priscilla Lopez: It depends who it is.

[12:33] Priscilla Lopez: Yeah, or how it's said, right?

[12:34] Priscilla Lopez: Or how it's said.

[12:35] Priscilla Lopez: I mean, I've had many male directors that I absolutely love and cherish and adore, Michael Grief being one of them.

[12:42] Priscilla Lopez: I just love him.

[12:44] Priscilla Lopez: I worked with uh who was the other one.

[12:47] Priscilla Lopez: Well, Michael Bennett.

[12:50] Rob Russo: We'll get to him.

[12:51] Priscilla Lopez: We'll get to him.

[12:52] Priscilla Lopez: Tommy Kail.

[12:53] Priscilla Lopez: Tommy Kail.

[12:54] Priscilla Lopez: Another great director.

[12:55] Priscilla Lopez: Yes.

[12:55] Priscilla Lopez: I mean, so you know, I've I've had the a spectrum of choices.

[13:00] Priscilla Lopez: And I can't, I'm trying to think if there was ever someone.

[13:05] Priscilla Lopez: Oh, we won't talk about that.

[13:07] Rob Russo: So I won't have to call you up.

[13:08] Priscilla Lopez: Right.

[13:09] Priscilla Lopez: We won't have to edit it if you don't say it.

[13:11] Rob Russo: Saves us the trouble, right?

[13:13] Priscilla Lopez: Still makes my eyeballs spin.

[13:17] Jamie DuMont: Well, going back a few years to your first show, which was the ill-fated Breakfast at Tiffany's.

[13:24] Priscilla Lopez: The first poster up at Drew Allen's.

[13:27] Jamie DuMont: Oh.

[13:27] Priscilla Lopez: It was.

[13:29] Jamie DuMont: You know, I don't think I knew that.

[13:31] Priscilla Lopez: Yes.

[13:31] Jamie DuMont: That's the show that started it all.

[13:33] Priscilla Lopez: Yes. Well, okay, so for anybody out there who's listening that doesn't know, it was obviously based on the Truman Capote short story and the film.

[13:43] Jamie DuMont: It starred Mary Tyler Moore and Richard Chamberlain, produced by the legendary David Merrick.

[13:48] Priscilla Lopez: Yes.

[13:48] Jamie DuMont: And he pulled the very famously pulled the plug before you even opened.

[13:52] Priscilla Lopez: Two previews.

[13:53] Jamie DuMont: Two two previews.

[13:54] Priscilla Lopez: Oh, I that I didn't know.

[13:55] Jamie DuMont: Two previews. What what happened? Do you what can you tell us what went wrong?

[14:00] Priscilla Lopez: Well, you see, this is my first Broadway show, and I was all of 18 years old, and I was like, wow. So I thought it was the greatest thing ever. You know. And but now, thinking back on it, it wasn't that bad. You know, I've I've been It wasn't that bad. No.

[14:13] Jamie DuMont: So I've listened to it. You know, there's a there's a book recording.

[14:16] Priscilla Lopez: Yes.

[14:17] Jamie DuMont: It's quite charming.

[14:18] Priscilla Lopez: It's long.

[14:19] Jamie DuMont: It's long.

[14:20] Priscilla Lopez: Oh, and I you know what I used to do? Right after because it was a big flop, and it was a so I after that I'd go to auditions and a cappella sing Breakfast at Tiffany's. Breakfast. And they'd all go, you know, like trying to get the scoop. I'd give them the scoop, but I didn't get the job. Thank you very much, everyone. But uh so it yeah, it it had a lot of great stuff in it. But I don't know, I don't know what one it I think there was a thing of, you know, people were after the whole thing because it was two television stars, Richard Chamberlain. I mean, even the some of the reviews out of town were, well, Dr. Kale Dare has no cure for this one, you know, stuff like that. So it's just like what, you know, it was just uh what's the word?

Um, you know, picked on and um single singled out, I think. I don't know, it was not that bad. And the choreography by Michael Kidd was wonderful, he's very physical, and he had all this great stuff, and uh and it had some good songs, you know.

[15:23] Jamie DuMont: How did you get cast in the show? Is it just an open call that you showed up to? You were 18 years old.

[15:27] Priscilla Lopez: Well, I had just gotten in the union uh that summer I got my equity card, and that was my first union audition. But I hadn't been auditioned for five years before that. I mean, I started picking up uh showbiz and backstage when I was 13, going, oh, here's a donor. And I'd go to all these auditions thinking, oh god, when I get this job, I'm gonna have to go to quit school. What am I gonna do? Well, I never got any of the jobs, but what I did get was learn how to audition. And I learned it's not a social event, they are not your friends here around you, they're your competition, dress like this, keep yourself quiet, focus. So I learned all that stuff. And when it was really the right time when I could really get in there, I got it. So and despite uh the two performances of Breakfast at Tiffany's. Which I was not in, because by that time they had fired, or they didn't fire, but they laid off in a way the whole chorus.

[16:27] Jamie DuMont: Oh my god, you're kidding.

[16:28] Priscilla Lopez: No, yeah, it was crazy.

[16:29] Jamie DuMont: So you actually didn't perform and get the performance.

[16:32] Priscilla Lopez: Not in New York, no. Luckily, the next season you were cast in Henry Sweet Honey.

[16:37] Jamie DuMont: Well, this is what happened. Because Robert Merrill, who did the music for Breakfast at Tiffany's, said, you know, I'm working on this show. I think you'd be right for it. So uh, you know, keep in touch, here's my number. And so I thought, after that, I thought, oh God, I'll never work again. So I auditioned for uh Ron Field had just won the Tony for Cabaret, so he was doing some sort of cabaret thing down in Miami Beach, you know, and uh so I auditioned for that and got it, but it turns out he wasn't choreographing it at all. They just stamped his name on it, and there was this other guy named Michael Stewart, who was the choreographer. So um I I was down there working in this, it it was uh once it was the Caroline Hotel on 69th Street and Collins Avenue, and once upon a time, it was this big tits and ass room, you know, where you you're having your dinner, and then all of a sudden the show girl comes out and goes woman, and you know, this stops.

She closes her her robe and everybody starts eating again. So I but what happened was that they decided to change their image and make it a red, white, and blue review. So, you know, it was like da-da-da-da-da. Big flop. So they said, Oh my, oh, and in the meantime, myself and my roommate, another girl, we used to go up to the costume and try on all the showgirl costumes, go, ha ha, isn't this funny? We wound up wearing those costumes.

[18:12] Jamie DuMont: Oh, you're kidding.

[18:13] Priscilla Lopez: It was like, so it was crazy. But anyway, so there I was down in Florida, and um I get a call, or somehow I found out, you know, that the auditions were happening. So when we were switching the show from the red, white and blue review to the back to the go-go girls, uh, we would had two shows. One was like at nine and one was at twelve. So after the 12 o'clock show, I jumped on a plane. No, and then we had rehearsal all night long for the new show. So we would finish around seven o'clock in the morning. I hopped on a plane, came up, did the audition. First time I laid eyes on Michael Bennett, who is like, he I had no clue who he was. He wasn't even Michael Bennett yet. And I just there was just something about him who you just he just grabbed to.

He there's and I went, did my whole audition, da-da-da-da-da-da. Then at the end of the edition he said, Well, how would you like to be the swing? I went, yeah. I didn't know what a swing was. I imagine you sit on a swing and literal.

[19:19] Jamie DuMont: In your showgirl costume?

[19:21] Priscilla Lopez: In the showgirl costume. And I said, sure. And then it turns out that I was the swing for all the little girls and all the adult women. And um that was a trip. And that was quite a cast because I had to write some of these names down because I didn't even know this. I I knew that it was Donna Amici. I knew Bob Avian, who you would work with again shortly. Robert Finn, Fitch. Oh, Fitch, yes. Fitch from Annie. Fame. Carol Bruce, Alice Playton, who won a Tony Award for that performance. Right. Or was she nominated? She was nominated. I'm not sure if she won. She may not have. No body steps on Capitol. What's the other one? Um Poor Little Person. Was another little person. We did that on the Ed Selevision show.

[20:04] Jamie DuMont: Yeah. Are you in that number?

[20:05] Priscilla Lopez: Uh yes, because I was this there's a swing, right? And someone couldn't make it. So I got to go on. I've got my little pigtails.

[20:12] Jamie DuMont: Was that someone maybe Louise Lasser?

[20:15] Priscilla Lopez: No.

[20:16] Jamie DuMont: Bayork Lee?

[20:17] Priscilla Lopez: No.

[20:17] Jamie DuMont: Or was it Pia Zidora?

[20:19] Priscilla Lopez: P is adorable. That's what that's about.

[20:23] Jamie DuMont: Yeah.

[20:23] Priscilla Lopez: P is adorable. And so she just her mother changed it to the changed it to Zidora.

[20:29] Jamie DuMont: Yeah.

[20:29] Priscilla Lopez: Oh my gosh. No, it wasn't any of those. It was uh what was her name? Little Brunette. Um, I can't remember.

[20:38] Jamie DuMont: I see.

[20:38] Priscilla Lopez: It was quite a company though.

[20:39] Jamie DuMont: Yeah, yeah, yeah.

[20:41] Priscilla Lopez: Uh and uh Woody Allen would be in the state in the in the alleyway because it was at the Palace Theater waiting for Louise Lasser.

[20:48] Jamie DuMont: Oh, because were they dating?

[20:49] Priscilla Lopez: I think so, yeah.

[20:51] Jamie DuMont: Wow.

[20:52] Priscilla Lopez: That's crazy. All right, so but this is your first show with Michael Bennett.

[20:56] Jamie DuMont: Yes.

[20:57] Priscilla Lopez: And what was that experience like working with him for the first time?

[21:00] Priscilla Lopez: It was great. I had such a good time. You know, what was great about it is I would walk in and just be nobody sometimes, and then I'd go and do the big dance number. You know, so it was great. Or just do something else. I had a really good time in that show, and I I Bob Avian was the dance captain. I used to drive him insane. Because I was so bad. I you know, I like to play, I like to have a good time. You know, you're doing your show, but the people see, and then there's the show that nobody sees. Right. You know, so one day we were had the where people watching people, and was all this choreograph stuff, and and then every time the music was up, we'd have to freeze. So and I was at a hot dog stand and he was the hot dog guy. And so I filled up this water bottle. So we went, people watching people freeze, shh, squeeze the water right in his face. He said, Yeah, yeah. So he he he was I was just so bad, but I had a good time.

[21:58] Jamie DuMont: But he loved it.

[21:59] Priscilla Lopez: He did, he did, he did. And he said, Yeah, I'm taking you out of this number, and then I'm taking you out of this number, but the next night I'd be on dancing the main thing because the girl's out.

[22:09] Jamie DuMont: Right. Well, a couple years later, you had the rather unenviable task, I can imagine, of replacing Donna McKechney in company dancing the the famous show stopping TikTok.

[22:20] Priscilla Lopez: Yes, uh, as the role of Kathy. Um because I hadn't seen Michael Bennett, that was crazy because I had after my third show, which was Henry uh no, her first Roman. That's right, and I said, There's gotta be something better than this. Because I, you know, you rehearse eight weeks in town, and then you go out for four or four weeks in town, that four weeks in da-da da, four weeks in there, come back, flop. You know, I did a Broadway show every year. I mean, there were so many shows, you could audition for four and five shows a week. There was another show, the boyfriend went out of town with that. Uh it was funny because I I inherited Sandy Duncan's costumes, you know, from the Broadway show. Because I did the last two weeks in New York, and then we went on tour.

So I inherited her costume and she had this hat, and inside it said, the Texas Grasshopper. So I took on my magic marker, crossed it out, and I said, the Puerto Rican cockroach. So yeah, that was that. But I hadn't seen Michael Bennett like in three years. And when I came back, and uh he was auditioning for Follies. So Eddie Strauss, do you remember Eddie Strauss?

[23:33] Jamie DuMont: No.

[23:34] Priscilla Lopez: He was a wonderful pianist, and he was always my uh we actually started out on the road together in your own thing, and then he he was a brilliant pianist, audition person. He was kind of like a Seth Rodetsky, not as verbal, but in the same kind of space. And so um I said, Eddie, I'm gonna audition for Follies. And I just okay. I said, I want to sing uh War Babies from The Me Nobody Knows. Do you know that song?

[24:01] Jamie DuMont: I do.

[24:02] Priscilla Lopez: They saw him again last night, down by the Red Roger. I mean, it's a horrible song.

[24:06] Jamie DuMont: No, it's a great song, but it was he says, You can't sing that for Follies.

[24:11] Priscilla Lopez: I said, I'm not auditioning for Follies. I'm not auditioning for Pal Prince. I'm auditioning for Michael Bennett. I said, because the last time he saw me, I was ensemble. I actually said chorus girl, because that's what I was back then. Now you're an ensemble. But I said, I want to show him what I can do. And that's how I got company.

[24:43] Jamie DuMont: What was that voice in your head that said, Audition for Michael Bennett?

[24:48] Priscilla Lopez: Because it would seem like How Prince was sort of the bigger deal at that moment.

[24:52] Jamie DuMont: No, it was all Michael?

[24:53] Priscilla Lopez: No. I hadn't had any interaction.

[24:56] Jamie DuMont: Yeah.

[24:57] Priscilla Lopez: So Michael Bennett was my. Like I said, the moment I laid eyes on him, it was like, whoa. And he did that to everybody.

[25:18] Priscilla Lopez: And then Donna McKeckley had me terrified, thinking that um she said, Oh, you know, when you get up there, because the stage was black and shiny or whatever, lights go down, go up in the elevator. And so I thought, she said, you can't see anything when you're up there. I said, Really? You can't see anything. And so I go on one matinee, and I'm going, and so I get up there and I'm looking around. I said, What is she talking about? I can see. I can see everything. What is she talking about? I kept waiting not to be able to see, but I could see. So uh that was it. But that was a killer.

[25:56] Jamie DuMont: Yeah.

[25:57] Priscilla Lopez: That number was a killer. But it was fabulous.

[25:59] Jamie DuMont: Yeah.

[26:00] Priscilla Lopez: It was so fabulous.

[26:10] Jamie DuMont: Well, you did get uh a principal singing and dancing role with Fistrata in Pippin.

[26:16] Priscilla Lopez: Yes, I did. Another another replacement uh job. Um, how did that come about? Because this was now working for Bob Fosse, right?

[26:24] Priscilla Lopez: Well, what happened was that um I was doing a cabaret thing.

[26:28] Priscilla Lopez: Uh uh uh it used to be on 52nd Street.

[26:31] Jamie DuMont: Birdland?

[26:33] Priscilla Lopez: No, it was uh it was some man's name.

[26:36] Priscilla Lopez: Oh and it was a you know, it was when you used to go to bars and get people to pick up people, those that time.

[26:43] Priscilla Lopez: So it was kind of like 72 ish in there. And um, so I was doing this review, uh, it was called What's a Nice Country Like You Doing in Estate Like This, written by Carrie Hoffman and Ira Gasman, and it was a political review, and it was the first time I really got some attention. Uh so Leland Palmer had come to see the play, and because she was in Pippin was doing postrapping. So she said, you know, I'm gonna be leaving. You should audition for this part. I went, oh, okay, and I don't know how I got there, but she told me about it. And I said, okay. So then um what happened was that the hairdresser from her first Roman, who had a thing for me, not that anything ever happened, but he was working on Pippin.

And so he actually got me Leland's wig to wear to the audience. So one of her wigs. Sent me to NBC with he had a friend in um makeup trying to make me look. I mean, I was I was only what year was that? I had just been married. It was the first show I got after I got married. So I got married when I was 22. So I had just turned 23. Wow. You know, and so I went to see the show and I saw what it was, and I said, okay, I don't know the career, I'll make up my own choreography. But I sang the song, and I was the only one who could really belt the whole thing. I didn't go, oh I was um, so and I practiced in front of my mirror forever and ever. I didn't go as myself because I said that's not gonna, I can never go as myself.

I'm happy and that I am a character actress. That's what I am, and most comfortable in. I find it very hard to just be a person, you know, like a normal person. But um, so I actually wore this big wig, and I wore this uh, you know, kind of a Roman toga kind of thing that was slit, and I did I sang the whole song and did my own choreography, and this is one of my favorite things of my life. Bob Fosse was the back of the house. This is when you auditioned on stage like a person instead of so he was in the back of the house, he comes running down, he slams his hands on the stage and he says, Now that's what I call a well-prepared audition. And I went, so then he got up on the stage and said, Do this, and he started doing bumps and grinds and all the whole thing.

And then I didn't hear for three days, and I went, I guess I didn't get it, but I did. Did the wig help? Probably. You were prepared. Probably, probably. Wow. Now, did he come back to set you into the show, or did you work again with a dance captain for that?

[29:38] Priscilla Lopez: Dance captain, Kathy Doby. And um, yeah, did that. And the crazy part is that John Rubenstein was Pippin. Ben Verene, who was we were classmates together, was the uh leading player player, and myself. Okay, so now fast forward 42 years, Pippin on the road, uh pippin' this other Pippin' with the trappies. Right. Uh now John is the king, and I'm the granny. And it was like it was amazing. And I love John Rubinstein forever and ever. Amen, because he's from my time. And there is definitely sometimes a different mindset about stuff, you know, and God bless him, never for a second uh marked anything, never came down from this level. He never did a show here or here. He did it here. Every time. Every time.

Every time. I mean, and I just love that. And he's a nice guy. He's a nice guy. That always helps, doesn't it? He's a nice guy. Cute too. That's very true. Um, I can still picture him in that mesh shirt with that curly hair. I'm saying. And those, yeah. Yeah. Again, when the mics are off, we'll go further. Um before we leave Pippin, I just want to ask, is there a there's a perception, I think, in the world that um there was a rivalry between the Fosse school of uh of theater and Michael Bennett's sort of school of theater.

[31:13] Priscilla Lopez: It was no rivalry. It was camps, you know, you just had your choreographer who always hired you and you work for. It wasn't a rivalry. Right. Uh not that I ex thought it that way, because we in the workshop had a lot of people who wound up in um that show that's still running. Chicago. Yeah. And so, and their stories are in a chorus line. But they, when Chicago happened, and then he went like this, gotta go to my guru, you know, because that they were Fossey dancers. Right. It's it's it's like, you know, the Oscars. Everybody says, I love all my uh all the other contenders, I just love you all. And there's a truth to that. Right. But you're in competition, it's a business, it's whatever. And but you respect the people, you respect their work, and I don't think that's true because I can remember being in Michael Bennett's apartment with Tommy Tune and you know a bunch of other people during um Hollywood Ukraine. So it's Michael Bennett's apartment with I never felt that either. Did I know every single second that went on with everybody? No, but that was not my impression. Yeah, I thought it was just good.

[32:23] Priscilla Lopez: Well, you just mentioned or alluded to the the very famous workshops of a chorus line. And I understand you were there for the first uh taping session that Michael Bennett held on January 12th, 1974. Uh what do you remember from that night? It was the greatest thing ever. It was like I got a call from Tony Stevens and say, hey, you know, bunch of us dance, we were getting together to see maybe we could form like um, you know, a repertory company and make work for ourselves because not any work happening, and you know, and and you're someone who started as a dance and you've done more things, and you know, we wanted to do that whole thing, and and uh would you like to be come and just see what happens?

We're meeting that night on 23rd street above Dunkin' Donuts, and uh would you like to come? I said, sure. He said, Oh, by the way, Michael will be there. I went Michael Bennett, I'll be there. That's all you needed, right? So then we get there. I'm doing Pippin at the time, that's what I was doing. So I don't tell anybody that I got this call because you know, you just do your thing or whatever happens, and I don't know what's going on. When I get there, he writes from Pippin's there. All these I was like, what the hell? You got the call too? You got the call too. And so suddenly, you know, it's like, hmm, what's going on here? We all go into this dance, you know, and we start just doing what we do, dance, we warm up, we dance, and then all of a sudden Michael walks in with Don McKechney and his fur, and it's like what the hell is going on here?

And so, and you didn't know if it was an audition, what it was, you just didn't know what was happening. We finish that, we move into another room, and um we have wine, we have a little, and then we sit down, and what happened in that room that night is what you see on stage for a chorus line. The way we were sitting, the way we wound up online, I was at the end of the line on stage, I was at the end of that circle, and then it was Donna and Michael. So it was like that's really what was a chorus line, and all those questions, and uh even what Zach says, you know, uh what Michael said, because I don't know the you'd think I'd know the dialogue, but what Michael said was I think the dancers have a story to tell.

And he said, I I'm gonna ask you some questions. He said, uh you don't have to answer anything you don't want to say, but whatever you do say, just be honest. And so he was always, he'd ask a question, and he was the first one who would answer it. He said, and you can talk as long or as little as you want. So the first question was, what is your name, your real name, and where are you from? And we ran around, and all those jokes. Hi, my name is Judy Turner. I really is Lana Turner. You know, but it was it was really Trish Garland. My real name is Judy Garland. Ha ha ha. So all that stuff, everything. Was that night.

[35:30] ♪ Musical number: "What I Did For Love" — performed by Priscilla Lopez ♪

[36:08] Priscilla Lopez: But what happened, it really was a superfied therapy session. That's what it turned out to be. Suddenly you're just like and saying all these things because you ask a question and you start telling these stories and what happened, and everything that's in a chorus line is true. It's someone's story along the way. I gratefully got to tell my story. You know, Kelly got to tell her story. Tommy Walsh told his story. Pam Blair told her story. Donna McKechme. It was part of her story. She had other things put in there. Renee Bauman. I could really couldn't sing. I couldn't sing. She was such a mess. But she said, she said stuff that I said. The story she tells about a man came around to my house selling dancing lessons, put me up against the television, said spun me around, pick up my nectar.

This little girl's gonna be a star. That was something I said. I said, which uh the thing about a long and narrow stairway. Oh the steep and very narrow stairway. So all that stuff that is in chorus line came with her here all our mouths. Was there any any rhyme or reason why you got to tell your story versus you telling someone else's.

[37:32] Jamie DuMont: Right.

[37:33] Priscilla Lopez: No, you know who's responsible for that story? Ed Cleban. That story captured his imagination, and he wanted to tell that story. Because before that, the music did it. All that was for another song of another story I had told. And it selt with how I feel when I'm on stage. And I told this whole story. I said, when I'm on stage, I feel like I feel like this balloon has been blown up, and it just gets bigger and bigger and bigger. And then when it can't get any bigger, because shh, you know, that sort of thing. So this was a whole song about Ed Cleban wanted the other story. He wanted to talk about the high school of performing arts. Well, he went to music and art, so maybe that had something to do with it. Yeah, he could relate. Did you now correct me if I'm wrong, but Morales is an early principal character of a Latinx woman who is not a gang member's girlfriend, not a prostitute.

[38:34] Priscilla Lopez: My God, just a woman living her life.

[38:36] Jamie DuMont: I had no idea.

[38:37] Priscilla Lopez: Well, I think you might have a little idea. But I'm assuming there was you you felt a certain responsibility.

[38:43] Jamie DuMont: No, I felt no responsibility because I wasn't proving anything.

[38:47] Priscilla Lopez: I was just being me. Just doing you. Now that's what's so crazy about this. That just being me and trying to make a living in this business from that moment to 25 or more years later, realizing what Diana Morales has meant, not only to the general population, but especially the Latino. I won't give up Latino. I have to say Latino. The Latino community has astounded me. First day rehearsal for um In the Heights. I love Mandy Gonzalez. She's my adopted heart's daughter. I have my own daughter, but she's also my daughter. I just care so much for her. I've never met such a pure spirit. She's so good, good lady. Okay, so Mandy Gonzalez down at 37 Arts.

[39:40] Priscilla Lopez: She's literally jumping over the seats in the audience. And she looks like, you know, like a big floppy dog. Her hair is like, and she's literally going like this over all the seats, and she comes up to you, says, and I don't know. She's I'm so happy we're working together. I said, Oh, well, me too. I'm happy too. And she says, and I don't know if it was that moment, but I will tell the story that way. She said, when I saw the that Z at the end of your name, I knew I could make it. And that was the first indication I went, oh. Oh, okay. Wow. I didn't know. I didn't have any idea. I'm just trying to do my thing, you know, make a living, work, get a job, and then eventually you move into, you know, your marriage, you have kids, you gotta I really need this job.

You know, just trying to stay vital. Whatever. And not realizing at all. So that's the Latino end of it. The other one, other people said, that was the first show I ever saw when I came to New York, and I knew I had to do this. Thank you so very much. You know, all those stories, I remember it so clearly because it's it was a point in my life where my life started. I mean, all these different stories are going, wow, nothing could have paid off more than that. No amount of money. I mean, it would have been nice, but it's something you can't buy. It's something you cannot buy. And to have that space in theater history, I'm blessed. It's powerful. I'm more than blessed. And now, even more so, I'm going, it just the thing about theater that's wonderful and horrible, and I'm really upset because now everything that's filmed, anything that I am so thoroughly proud of, there's no record of it.

There is no visual record of it. I mean, I have a couple of times uh singing like nothing and what I did for love that were good, but not in the setting of the show. Even a day in Hollywood. Nothing. I just so it's very upsetting. But what I have learned that it's in people's imaginations, and they always make things bigger than they are. So I said, as long as somebody's alive, I will be too. But when they go, it's all over.

[42:13] Jamie DuMont: Well, it's funny you say that. I remember very clearly um watching you, I believe on the Merv Griffin show. Oh. And when you sang nothing. And I and the thing I remember about it was A, it was my I think my introduction to a chorus line. It began my obsession with the show. But I remember that you got bleeped, right? Because it was an app. Yeah, yeah. Um my brother wouldn't let his kids, Matthew, listen to it because he said bullshit. I said, are you fucking kidding me? Well, you have to bleep that. We're explicit. We're explicit, don't worry. And everybody's going, shh, shh.

[42:50] ⚠ About 3 minutes of audio could not be automatically transcribed.

[45:48] Priscilla Lopez: And I see it as it was. I'm not seeing what's on the stage. And I think the first time I ever saw what was on stage, it was this bunch of kids up in Mount Kisko, something or other, and didn't have a clue what a chorus line was. Didn't have and they did the chorus line, and it was so refreshing because they weren't trying to imitate us because they had no idea where we were or anything. And it was so fresh and wonderful that I loved that production of it. Because it was just like kids being real and taking it for what they it meant to them.

[46:22] Jamie DuMont: Right.

[46:22] Priscilla Lopez: They didn't have any preconceived notion. That's hard to believe, but I guess so. But anyway, so yeah. Uh it's wonderful. It really the other day my husband put it on because he said, Oh, they said that this is a new um, oh, that this is a new release of with you know, different when they separate the sound. Oh, mm-hmm. And he put it on, he said, I don't hear any difference. I said, either do I. But but every once in a while when I hear it, I go, Oh my god, who's that baby? Who's that baby person? It's just she's so I'm so excited because I'm gonna go to the high school of performing arts. I mean, she's up there, and now she's out here. I'm so excited, I'm going to nothing. The kids yelled, nothing.

They called me nothing, and Carpa louded, which really makes me burn. They were so helpful. They called me hopeless until I really didn't know where else to turn. And Carp kept saying, Morales, I think you should transfer to girls high. You'll never be an actress, never. Jesus Christ.

[47:42] Jamie DuMont: Is it hard to listen to recordings outside of that experience of other recordings that you've done?

[47:47] Priscilla Lopez: I was always so and still am critical of myself. So critical of how I looked, how I sounded, how it was terrible. Just and I look back and I say, what the hell is wrong with you, Priscilla? You were beautiful. You were your voice was great. You were so emotional, you know, and it's but never always like, ugh, suck, I'm really terrible. So insecure, you know. And it's like, I look back on it and I go, girl, don't waste these last few, you know. Enjoy it. Look in the mirror and say, Yeah, that that thing right there on your eye. Well, who cares? You know, next year it's gonna be down to here. So uh, you know, just appreciate what it is now. And that's the whole thing that I think in maturing and getting older, realizing how we miss so much, because we're not we're not looking at it in a real kind of way.

We're looking at it from such a negative point of view about ourselves. So now I'm at the moment of just giving thanks, you know, and saying thank you, thank you so much, and accepting whatever positive thing I've been in people's lives, you know.

[49:03] Rob Russo: Well, which is I think enormous. I I think you know, we've spoken a little bit about spoken a lot about the effect that a course line has had on generations, but also uh a show you did not that long ago in the heights had a huge impact on and there's a film coming out, I think sometime this year.

[49:23] Priscilla Lopez: I was just interviewed by someone, and it was a great interview, and then at the end, and I'm sure he'll end the interview this way, he said. So, um, how did it feel when you found out that you weren't in the movie? What did how did you feel? And I took a pause because I hadn't even thought about it. I went that show biz and I thought it couldn't have been a more perfect answer.

[49:48] Jamie DuMont: Oh, you gave him his ending for sure.

[49:50] Priscilla Lopez: Yeah. For sure. And if he doesn't take it, he's a schmuck. But no, it was perfect because that's the reality. Yeah, you know, and I go, yeah, it would have been nice, would have been great. Hey, and it wasn't for me. It wasn't supposed, whatever it is, it's fine. What I do like is that nobody else got to do it.

[50:10] Rob Russo: Right.

[50:11] Priscilla Lopez: They killed her.

[50:12] Rob Russo: Right.

[50:12] Priscilla Lopez: Okay. That's definitely Priscilla, that they they couldn't find anyone else. They just had to kill the character, right?

[50:18] Rob Russo: Exactly.

[50:18] Priscilla Lopez: Well, why kill her? I think they killed her because they wanted the father to be the focus of Nina's world or whatever. Which is weird because usually it's mothers in the Latino family, but I'm not gonna say any more about that. That's showbiz.

[50:36] Rob Russo: Well, in 1980, uh you won a Tony Award for A Day in Hollywood, a night in the Ukraine. Uh, and that was I believe your first collaboration with uh Tommy Toon, right? Or had you worked with him before then?

[50:46] Priscilla Lopez: No, I had seen him, I was a big fan. I remember the first time I ever saw him was at the village gate, and he was doing his act, and I just was like, who is this Spider-Man? I mean, because talk about the legs and the arms and the tapping, and I was just like mesmerized, mesmerized by him. I was just like, oh my God. And so I spent a couple of years experiencing him just as a person. And you know, if he did something, I'd go see him again or whatever. But and then when Hollywood Ukraine came, it was like, whoa. That was that was something sent from God. I guess it's all sent from God, but that one was pretty obvious. I was in LA, and there was a um, we had just bought a DVR because we couldn't, and it was this big.

This big huge huge a DVR because we tried to get the tape from the Tonight Show. You know, when I was on the Tonight Show, and they wouldn't give it to us. Too many clearances, you couldn't get this, you couldn't get it. We're gonna get a D VR, and if ever I'm doing something, I'll gotta tape it. Okay, so we got the D VR, and there just happened to be on that week a film festival of all the Marx Brothers movies. My husband taped them all. This is before anything.

[52:05] Priscilla Lopez: Wow. So um now I get an attack from oh New York, what am I doing in LA? So I get up and go to New York and said, I'm out of here. I'll see you things. So I go to New York, Tommy Toon lands in LA looking for me, and my husband Vincent says, Tommy Toon is here, and he's he wants you to audition for his show. I go, What? So he said, but he's going back to New York. You could do a you know when you go back to New York. And he said, Guess what the show's about? I said, because it's about the Marx Brothers. He says, Guess who he wants you to audition for? And I went, Margaret Dumont? He said, no. And then I thought and thought I said, Harpo? He said, Yeah.

[52:52] Priscilla Lopez: I carry a sleep. You are flying down to Rio. Share the marquee with Mrs. Marks' Any Trio. So when your life seems a big key, just let some shadows appear on the screen. Shine like a star for a brief while. Whenever you're down in the dumps, try putting on Judy's red pumps. Just go to a Mammon Spoonie and small. And then when I went and I sang for Tommy Tune, I hadn't sung in like three years and feeling kind of. He said, okay, come back. And they gave me this assignment of do an improv. Do a physical improv of anything you want. So I sat and I thought and I thought. So I did this thing about, you know, reading a book and suddenly a bee coming and bite. Ow. And I did this whole thing. And I tried a few other things, and I went, wait a minute.

I'm auditioning for Harpo Marx. I'm gonna be Harpo Marx. So I went dressed, my father's pants, shoes, shirt, raincoat, hat. I went to a place on 14th Street that had this blonde wig up with the head wig on. I got the horn from Jonathan Tunick's horn. You had Jonathan Tunick's horn? Just something he had. And so I went. I went and I did all of Harpo's shtick. Not shtick, his beautiful work. I did all his stuff. And I only chickened out on one thing. Because at the end of the audition, what I did was I actually, you know, the pit goes like this. So I went to this side and jumped over the pit, ran up, and I didn't know who anybody was. Jumped in their laps in the audience, took his tie and yanked his tie, and ran away. Harpo would have taken the tie and cut it. Cut it. But I said, I don't know, maybe his mother gave him that tie, you know. So and that was it.

[55:03] Jamie DuMont: Well, you were talking earlier about how working with John Rubenstein, you know, you both sort of get it, because you're from the same era when you started your careers. As you look back over the transformation that you've observed on Broadway, what do you miss from the old days? What do you love about the present, and what do you hope for the future?

[55:23] Priscilla Lopez: I miss, well, it's probably, it still affects me to this day. I was look, the union rules back then were you don't take a vacation until you're in the show for a year. So I never took a vacation because they didn't last that long. Two personal days didn't exist. They didn't exist. You had to be sick and dying before you could take off. So that was the other thing. So when I I guess when I got into In the Heights, because I had had a big space, one child rearing, and two, I was started to do plays, a lot of plays, which I was dying to be a serious actress. That was the truth. I said, I've got to do my plays. So I had been away for a long time, and suddenly I said, Well, where's so and so? Oh, he took a personal day.

I said, What? A personal? A personal day? What what is that? Oh, well, you can take off. I said, Really? Okay. So then fast forward. Where so is oh, he took his vacation. Vacation? Well, we haven't been here for a year. Oh, you can take a vacation every six months. You could take one week of six months, and then if you want, you know, six months later, you could take another one. I go, really? So anyway, that was something that kind of shocked me. And I get it. Right. I get it. I mean, it's you know, part of it is it's just a show. But I don't know. I that's what I came into, and I and the only reason I took a vacation after about a year and a half being in In the Heights was because Mandy Gonzalez said, This is ridiculous.

And she went downstairs and she signed me up for a vacation during Christmas, like the second Christmas. And I went, okay, and I loved it. I went to London and spent time with my daughter, and we went to Paris, and we had a great time. And the show went on, and I came back and we did it some more. So that's one of the things. What do I hope for? Well, I don't I don't think I have to hope for it. There will always be theater. There will always be theater. I mean, it's just innate in people's need to tell stories and do all the things you did as a kid, looking in the mirror and making believe, and we all want to make believe, and we all have these hopes and dreams. And the day that doesn't happen, then there's no more earth, I don't think.

There's no more human race because I think, in spite of what we're surrounded with nowadays, which is, and I truly believe in good and evil, which is a lot of evil, I s I'm hopeful always that good is stronger and will will out and give us lessons of how dangerous evil is if we don't keep doing good, good, good. So I'm I with Nancy Pelosi, pray for the good in humanity and to keep taking this human race forward to you know higher whatever levels. And if we don't individually as souls reach it in this plane in this time, that my spirit will go and join whatever that energy is and help create the good versus evil. So I pray for good and love. I think we all pray for good and love.

[58:56] Jamie DuMont: Um, I know that you have to um go to another event. And uh we wanna we wanna we wanna let you out of here. Um we have one very quick final question that we ask everyone that comes on the show, and that is how old I am 24 or 25. We've established that. Um, that question is what was that thing that made you want to work in the theater?

[59:17] Priscilla Lopez: I was eight years old. Um my sister was graduating like from junior high school. My mother was taking us to the movies, we were gonna go see The King and I. I have to commit, I have to admit that she used to call me little Hitler, so that'll give you uh an indication of who I was. And I used to like throw tantrums and throw myself on the ground. So I threw one of these tantrums like, I don't want to go out, I don't want to say this. Because somehow I don't know why. She said King and I, and I went, I imagined, you know, and it wasn't even a king, but those, you know, those barristers in court, they sit on those high pedestals and they wear the black robes, English, and they've got the wings.

Yeah. When she said king and I, that's what I saw in my head, and I went, kicking and screaming. I went to see The King and I, and I just about died. I was like, I mean, it was like somebody was hitting me over the head with from that burgundy garb that he wears with all the gold spots on it, to his bald head, to her lavender dress that is wider than you could ever imagine with the puffed sleeves and the king and the children. I mean, it made such an impression on me that I will never ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever forget it. And as a kid, I I was eight years old, I probably saw it in the movies, and I had to pay for it eight times, probably 25 cents, but I paid 25 cents eight times to see it, and I was just like, oh my God. So that was the first time in terms of a musical color, uh, dancing, love, trauma. I mean, it was just like everything.

[1:01:11] Jamie DuMont: Oh my gosh. Well, thank you so much for being so generous with your time and for sharing your your gifts with us over the years.

[1:01:12] Priscilla Lopez: Thank you.

[1:01:12] Jamie DuMont: Thank you so much.

[1:01:26] Rob Russo: Rob here with you, maybe wondering. As we mentioned in her introduction and during our conversation with Priscilla Lopez, she won a Tony Award for her performance in A Day in Hollywood, A Night in the Ukraine, a hit show from 1980 that is little remembered today. In fact, you may be wondering just what is A Day in Hollywood, A Night in the Ukraine. I've always been fascinated by it too. The title alone is quite evocative. Well, as that title does suggest, the show itself consists of what are essentially two independent one-act plays. The first act, A Day in Hollywood, is a review of classic Hollywood songs of the 1930s, performed by singers and dancers representing ushers from Grauman's Chinese theater on Hollywood Boulevard.

And the second act, A Night in the Ukraine, is loosely based on Anton Chekhov's one-act play, The Bear, but is presented in the style of a Marx Brothers movie, as Priscilla alluded to. The book and lyrics by Dick Vosberg and the music by Frank Lazarus are supplemented in Act 1 by a whole suite of songs by Richard Whiting, a prolific composer of popular movie music who penned such classics as Hooray for Hollywood, Ain't We Got Fun, and On The Good Ship Lollipop. The show started on the West End, where it had a modest run in 1979. Hopping across the Atlantic, director Tommy Tune took the helm and choreographed alongside Tommy Walsh, who was, as we mentioned, a fellow alumnus of the original cast of A Chorus Line with Priscilla.

While out of town in Baltimore, Tommy Tune called up composer Jerry Herman to ask for an opening number about the movies. After Jerry said, sure, sounds like fun, Tommy informed him he needed it in 24 hours. So, Jerry went to work, using every old Hollywood image he could think of, and delivered Just Go to the Movies on Time. He went on to contribute one other song to the score. A Day in Hollywood, A Night in the Ukraine opened on Broadway at the Golden Theater on May 1st, 1980, picked up nine Tony Award nominations, and won two, Priscilla's Award for Best Featured Actress, and Tony's for Tommy Tune and Tommy Walsh's choreography. The show then moved to the Royale Theater, today the Bernard Jacobs Theater, before closing in September 1981 after 588 performances.

A great success in its time and, well, in any time. One particularly notable and clever number by Vosberg and Lazarus is Doin't the Production Code, which was performed at the Tony's. A tap dance set mostly to the words of the infamous Motion Picture Production Code, which was the stringent set of moral guidelines that was applied to movies released by major studios from 1934 to 1968. For her part, Priscilla was one of those ushers in Act 1 and played the role of Harpo, as she mentioned, in that Act Two take on Chekhov by the Marx Brothers. A clear star, she got rave reviews and yes, won a Tony Award. If, like me, you love discovering old musicals forgotten by time, give a listen to the delightful cast album of A Day in Hollywood, A Night in the Ukraine. And if you do so, be sure to listen for Priscilla Lopez's Unmissable Voice.

[1:04:26] Rob Russo: Rob here, that's our show. Thanks for listening. You can hear us anytime on iTunes. In this election year, are you looking to make a statement and make change? Well, check out Social Goods, an online store that offers a curated slate of statement-making merchandise that gives back to nonprofits, tackling some of today's most pressing issues. From Everytown for Gun Safety to Planned Parenthood of New York, the Special Olympics, and more. Best of all, we've partnered with Social Goods to offer a special discount for listeners of The Fabulous Invalid. Go to social-goods.com and use the code FAB15 at checkout to receive 15% off your first order. That's Social Goods, where every transaction comes with real action.

The Fabulous Invalid is a production of OM Etc. and The Fabulous Invalid LLC, and a proud member of the Broadway Podcast Network. Our theme music is by Lucky Chops. Today's episode was edited and engineered by Aaron Kaufman. You can find us online at thefabulousinvalid.com and on social media at Fabulous Invalid, and on iTunes, Spotify, and wherever you find your podcasts. And a very special thanks as always to Orso for hosting us tonight. Be sure to tune in next Wednesday.