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[0:00] Robert Bannon: Stole his job.

[0:01] Stephen DeRosa: Whose job I gleefully stole.

[0:03] Robert Bannon: Speaking of glee, the star of Little Shop of Horrors right now is the one and only Darren Criss.

[0:11] Stephen DeRosa: Yes.

[0:13] Robert Bannon: Emmy and Golden Globe winner.

[0:15] Stephen DeRosa: He is playing Seymour alongside the brilliant, gorgeous Evan Rachel Wood.

[0:19] Robert Bannon: And I get to be Mushnick.

[0:21] Stephen DeRosa: So Darren Criss is there in all his handsomeness.

[0:25] Robert Bannon: Oh, yeah.

[0:26] Stephen DeRosa: And his voice.

[0:27] Robert Bannon: Oh, please.

[0:28] Stephen DeRosa: And the girls are screaming, and the guys are screaming, and everyone is screaming.

[0:33] Robert Bannon: There's so much screaming.

[0:35] Stephen DeRosa: And the stage, they're screaming on stage, even.

[0:38] Robert Bannon: I scream backstage, but for different reasons.

[0:41] Stephen DeRosa: Steven's screaming backstage.

[0:43] Robert Bannon: And you're up there, and you were running this flower shop singing and upset and spoiler alert, eaten by a gigantic plant.

[0:52] Stephen DeRosa: Crazy.

[0:53] Robert Bannon: Crazy.

[0:54] Stephen DeRosa: Every night I get eaten.

[0:56] Robert Bannon: But that's a whole nother story.

[0:58] Stephen DeRosa: This is a family show for God's sake.

[1:01] Robert Bannon: Let's keep it clean.

[1:06] Stephen DeRosa: Yeah, yeah, we are.

[1:07] Robert Bannon: But they, we look.

[1:09] Stephen DeRosa: I went to see Little Shop of Horrors.

[1:11] Robert Bannon: I sat with my goddaughter.

[1:13] Stephen DeRosa: She was like nine years old.

[1:14] Robert Bannon: We sat in the third row.

[1:15] Stephen DeRosa: The plant literally comes right over us.

[1:17] Robert Bannon: Yeah, it does.

[1:18] Stephen DeRosa: It was the most important thing.

[1:25] Robert Bannon: To be perfectly honest.

[1:27] Stephen DeRosa: Yes.

[1:28] Robert Bannon: We don't want you to go outside and think that this dandelion.

[1:32] Stephen DeRosa: Yeah, it's gonna hurt you.

[1:33] Robert Bannon: Yeah, it's too crazy.

[1:34] Stephen DeRosa: I, it's above eight years old, they seem to get it and have fun, and they can, I guess, you know, what's that sort of fourth grade?

[1:43] Robert Bannon: But anyone younger, some people bring these like little children, and I worry about them.

[1:47] Stephen DeRosa: But you know, the music is so much fun.

[1:50] Robert Bannon: Well, it's Little Mermaid before the Little Mermaid, you know.

[1:56] Stephen DeRosa: Can I go to lunch with you?

[1:59] Robert Bannon: Anthony Hursler.

[2:01] Stephen DeRosa: I want to go to lunch with you because I think you're the most fun person in the world.

[2:05] Robert Bannon: Hardly, but I will pay for lunch.

[2:07] Stephen DeRosa: So that'll make it worth it.

[2:11] Robert Bannon: So we may know you from Boardwalk Empire.

[2:14] Stephen DeRosa: You played Eddie Cantor.

[2:15] Robert Bannon: I did.

[2:16] Stephen DeRosa: That was a dream.

[2:17] Robert Bannon: And are you like a good little Italian boy?

[2:20] Stephen DeRosa: Like what is your history?

[2:21] Robert Bannon: You know what?

[2:22] Stephen DeRosa: I only play Jews, but I am actually Italian.

[2:26] Robert Bannon: Italian Catholic.

[2:27] Stephen DeRosa: Go figure.

[2:29] Robert Bannon: I'm a gay Catholic, whatever that means.

[2:32] Stephen DeRosa: Me too.

[2:34] Robert Bannon: It is, it's its own thing.

[2:36] Stephen DeRosa: It's its own thing.

[2:37] Robert Bannon: And you know what?

[2:38] Stephen DeRosa: The Pope loves me, so screw you if you don't love me.

[2:42] Robert Bannon: We had two choices as little Italian Catholic boys.

[2:45] Stephen DeRosa: We could have been a priest, or we could have gone into showbiz.

[2:48] Robert Bannon: Hello.

[2:52] Stephen DeRosa: Stew.

[2:53] Robert Bannon: I forgot where this is all going, but I'm very happy to just ride the ride.

[3:01] Stephen DeRosa: Yeah, so you're an Italian from where?

[3:04] Robert Bannon: Where were you born?

[3:05] Stephen DeRosa: I was born in New York.

[3:07] Robert Bannon: Here, I was born at what was, is no longer St. Vincent's Hospital, which was a sacred space back in the day.

[3:14] Stephen DeRosa: And then it was, of course, you know, vital in the 80s, and then now it's a bunch of condos.

[3:21] Robert Bannon: But I lived in Queens.

[3:25] Stephen DeRosa: I grew up, I grew up in actually a very Jewish neighborhood.

[3:28] Robert Bannon: My mom was Louise Cohen for 10 years.

[3:32] Stephen DeRosa: She was not, she went back to being a Catholic when she remarried my father, but for her first husband, she was.

[3:39] Robert Bannon: But I grew up surrounded by a lot of wonderful New York Jews, especially my teachers growing up, really through high school, because then I went to Bronx Science.

[3:51] Stephen DeRosa: I was very fancy.

[3:52] Robert Bannon: Yeah.

[3:53] Stephen DeRosa: I could do math and read and all the, I can do all the things.

[3:58] Robert Bannon: Now forget it, Doug.

[4:00] Stephen DeRosa: Steven, you're not just getting fitted for gowns and going to galas.

[4:04] Robert Bannon: That's all I do.

[4:05] Stephen DeRosa: That's all I do.

[4:06] Robert Bannon: You're not only just fancy, I mean you went to Yale.

[4:11] Stephen DeRosa: Yes.

[4:12] Robert Bannon: I did.

[4:14] Stephen DeRosa: I'm not gonna lie.

[4:15] Robert Bannon: Do you know who was a year above me?

[4:17] Stephen DeRosa: Oscar nominee, hopefully winner Paul Giamatti was a year ahead of me.

[4:21] Robert Bannon: See, so I just took whatever talents I could find around me and stuffed it in.

[4:27] Stephen DeRosa: And then I pushed Tom Robbins into Neil Diamond's, and here I am.

[4:34] Robert Bannon: Tom better watch out.

[4:35] Stephen DeRosa: Neil Diamond, that show better keep running.

[4:38] Robert Bannon: That's the next job, I guess.

[4:39] Stephen DeRosa: We just jump in.

[4:41] Robert Bannon: No, I have to promote something.

[4:43] Stephen DeRosa: Book the musical.

[4:45] Robert Bannon: I did it in Chicago, and I think it's sensational.

[4:49] Stephen DeRosa: I think all the musical theater kids and of all ages who are listening to this, all 13 of you, you run.

[4:58] Robert Bannon: You better support the boop because it's fun, it's just an old fashioned, dumb, fun, brilliant, touching musical.

[5:09] Stephen DeRosa: That's a lot of talented people.

[5:12] Robert Bannon: Isn't that what we all want?

[5:14] Stephen DeRosa: Yes, for God's sake.

[5:16] Robert Bannon: Doesn't all have to drag you down.

[5:19] Stephen DeRosa: Yeah, we don't need all of that.

[5:21] Robert Bannon: Sometimes we need to just have fun.

[5:23] Stephen DeRosa: Exactly.

[5:23] Robert Bannon: Speaking of fun, yes, you're the voice.

[5:27] Stephen DeRosa: I am.

[5:28] Robert Bannon: Of Twits.

[5:28] Stephen DeRosa: So speaking of Tom.

[5:30] Robert Bannon: Speaking of the genius, that is Tom Allen Robbins who gave me a job during the pandemic in this brilliant, brilliant podcast of the Twits.

[5:41] Stephen DeRosa: It's a series.

[5:42] Robert Bannon: Yes.

[5:42] Stephen DeRosa: Twits.

[5:43] Robert Bannon: And I'm one of the twits, along with talk about geniuses.

[5:46] Stephen DeRosa: Christian Borle.

[5:49] Robert Bannon: Michael Urie, heard of him.

[5:51] Stephen DeRosa: I have and you were on Ugly Betty.

[5:53] Robert Bannon: She, I was.

[5:53] Stephen DeRosa: That's where I met Michael.

[5:55] Robert Bannon: Mary Testa.

[5:57] Stephen DeRosa: And I wore glasses very similar to this on Ugly Betty.

[6:01] Robert Bannon: And the, um, who else is it?

[6:03] Stephen DeRosa: Like Anne Horat, like just I think James Monroe Inglehart does a guest spot.

[6:08] Robert Bannon: So many fancy, famous, fabulous people.

[6:14] Stephen DeRosa: I am just, I, I'm so honored, and I get to be very, you know, practic by Yale chops, which means I get to do a voice and make the faces at the same time.

[6:29] Robert Bannon: So that's what I'm doing.

[6:31] Stephen DeRosa: No, I heard a rumor because I spoke to some other people, but not that they were more important than you, and they were first, because that was, I deferred.

[6:40] Robert Bannon: I spoke to her, we, you guys did like a Zoom call where you got to sometimes like play off of each other, or did you just do it in a closet somewhere?

[6:48] Stephen DeRosa: No, no, no.

[6:49] Robert Bannon: We were zooming and it was so joyful and so much fun.

[6:53] Stephen DeRosa: But I will be honest, when we actually had to record the thing, I was technically challenged because my computer, I've upgraded since, but then was, was, was what was, it's 10 years old, which is in the computer world a dinosaur.

[7:11] Robert Bannon: So really I'm prehistoric.

[7:13] Stephen DeRosa: I'm just like, you know, dust, like stardust matter compared to like what's hip and happening.

[7:20] Robert Bannon: I, for God's sake, I'm like, have you seen Instagram?

[7:23] Stephen DeRosa: And they're like, oh, but I'm on TikTok, and I'm like, crying out loud, I'm ruined.

[7:28] Robert Bannon: And so in any case, I, uh, so I was behind on the technology, and so I had to re-record after they had all recorded, but with the generous souls that are Michael Urie and Christian Borle, who took extra time out, and they're the ones that are busy.

[7:49] Stephen DeRosa: So this is the thing.

[7:50] Robert Bannon: So I don't want to hear about, oh, I'm such a big star and yada yada yada.

[7:55] Stephen DeRosa: When you're a good person, and you can be as busy and you'll find the time for the little people.

[8:02] Robert Bannon: And I mean, obviously, I'm not so little, but I'm working on it.

[8:06] Stephen DeRosa: You someone knows about Ozempic.

[8:08] Robert Bannon: Write it in the comments and send it to me.

[8:11] Stephen DeRosa: Let me, I just don't know how.

[8:13] Robert Bannon: I'm afraid of needles, but I want to slim down.

[8:16] Stephen DeRosa: It's supposedly a little needle, but that's beside, that's what they all say.

[8:19] Robert Bannon: But that's, I'm not interested.

[8:23] Stephen DeRosa: I understand.

[8:25] Robert Bannon: So your story is fascinating to me because you, you are this Italian guy, you go to Yale, you end up on Broadway.

[8:35] Stephen DeRosa: I do. Very, very lucky. Just I guess I don't know, someone else must have been busy. I lucked out. No, Jerry Zach's cast me in the minute came to dinner. That was my first with the glorious Nathan Lane starring and Gene Smart and Harriet Harris, and I understudied Louis Stadlin, who's one of the and that performance is on PBS it was filmed so it was like it was incredible a dream come true and I was like and it is kind of amazing when you're doing this business and suddenly you get a break and you have and you get a chance to oh yeah oh I'm doing it because I mean I'll be honest I went to the fanciest one of the fanciest schools right in the country and some people you know they five or ten years into the into showbiz they're like I'm done I want to be happy doing something else because it's a rough business and it's even rough when you're a working whore I mean actress like me but you take what you get and you do you make sacrifices like crazy and you have to decide your priorities and everything and I know I'm getting very deep to something called twits but it's important that people remember that you know it's I'm trying to always remember to count my blessings and remember that I am lucky just to be employed and to stay in the game and how many crazy talented people and beautiful people just you know the business for whatever reason shuffled them into a different path in their life and it didn't work out the way you know it never works out the way you plan it right and so but yeah I have been just a lucky lucky guy.

[10:34] Stephen DeRosa: And I'm happy to do this. And then when Tom Alan Robbins, who is who knew that who did, I didn't even know he was a writer. And his writing is frickin' hilarious. I will say to this, I will say, if you like Monty Python, if you like like a spam-alot kind of vibe, you will love this podcast. If you like, I mean, who doesn't like Michael Ure and Christian Borle? I mean, come on. You know, I'm here. We love them. I could not say better, more wonderful things about those two twits. Yes. That I adore them. I was still sitting here trying to figure out whatever happened to Nathan Lane and Gene Smart ever since that show disappeared.

[11:22] Stephen DeRosa: Right, they never worked again. Yeah, yeah. He runs a flower shop somewhere in Key West. And yeah, didn't they? They never worked again. And she who knows, who knows? I actually got she she won her, I don't know, she was on such a roll for so many years, and I hadn't spoken to her in so long, Jean, who's she's just a she's a box of diamonds, she's a whole jewelry store of goodness. I love her, and I but I hadn't spoken to her in years, and she was at the height of her fame with I she just kept winning award after award after award. And so finally I was just like, screw it, I have her number, I'm gonna give her a text. Maybe if she doesn't respond, she doesn't respond. But I texted her and she immediately texts me back as if she's as if we haven't spoken in 20 years, and we had a little beautiful exchange, and I just like I said, you're you know, sometimes you meet really good people, and you're very, very lucky to be part of this world of people.

[12:29] Stephen DeRosa: So here I am, you know, go into the stopping shop in Yonkers, trying to see if the yogurt is on sale, because when it's when the Chevani's on sale, that's when you gotta get it. But it's so, but um, and then you know, that's my life, and then I'm texting with this multi Emmy Golden Globe superstar in Hollywood. And so, you know, that it's that's part of the adventure of life. You know, it's we're all twits on some level. Yes, but I kind of love it. That sounds pretty good. We are we are even I'm even if I were to go to Bergen, New Jersey right now and give you a big hug. I want to give Stephen, I'm gonna see you somewhere and give you a big hug.

[13:12] Stephen DeRosa: Well, I would love that. Come to see Little Shop. My fiancé. Oh, he is from Detroit. He has never seen the Little Shop. He kind of has a little crush on Darren Criss, though. Who doesn't? I didn't, and now I do. I don't know if it's in that way. I think it's just in, you know, he's so handsome and his hair swoops right and he plays he's but he's also a divine human being. Yes, and I want to see Evan Rachel Wood sing somewhere that's green. You Stephen, that's what makes me cry. Prepare yourself. I'm gonna cry. The only thing I think about Evan's performance is flawless. The only thing I think about is that she's so gorgeous. Sometimes I look at her, and I was just like, what the hell is she doing on Skid Row? I would take she should be a mo she'd be on the cover of Life Magazine. She's so gorgeous, but she is a terrific actor, and they're both there, it's a and it's so much fun. It's just a great show.

[14:15] Stephen DeRosa: And I don't, I shouldn't, you know, good. They don't need to sell tickets. You need to listen to Twits. All 72 of you who are listening to this podcast, you go and listen to Twits, you will laugh. You will laugh. The link isn't a smart list. Enough of those three guys. Listen to Twits. For fuck's sake. Excuse me. You can say that. We're in an elementary school. You can say it. Well, right below us is the link to listen to Twits. We're here on the Broadway Podcast Network as well. So all you gotta do is go over, listen to our friends on the Broadway Podcast Network. And you can you can be on the elliptical machine or in your car or at the laundromat, listening to Steven and all of the amazing all-star casts.

If you want to get your tickets to shuffle off to go see him in Little Shop, go to his website, stephenjerosa.com. You can see all the credits, all the information, his resume, his contact information. You can send him money, you could book him for jobs, he'll do bar mitzvahs. I don't think any of that is true, but you could try.

[15:15] Stephen DeRosa: Remember, I'm technologically challenged. I think that website is from 2004. You're gonna see, like, just started our new show, Ugly Betty, which is off the air for 17 years. So I wouldn't recommend that. You have a better chance of just stopping me in the deli where I'll get my coffee at half hour. You just stop me there and I'll see you there. That's it. Find him at half hour at the deli or find him at the stage door. Just move around all of the Darren Criss groupies and chance. Yes, Steven, I'm thank you for making time for us. I really love you. I loved your performance with Tom at the gala. I love your energy. I love your comedy. I love your presence, and you are my Italian paison now.

[15:56] Stephen DeRosa: Thursday Vicey. Birthday Vicy. We'll go, we'll get some delicious Italian in New York. Come visit me. I'm gonna email you. Bring your fiancé. We're gonna go out to dinner afterwards. All right, deal. I appreciate it. Love you, pizza pieces. Thank you. Thank you for doing this. Thank you for watching. It's so much fun. You make it like divine. You make it hill. No, you're the best. I mean it. I'm gonna come see your show. I'm gonna tell I'm gonna email you. You better text me. Let me give you. I'm gonna send you my number. I'll email you my number. Okay, deal. And I'll give you mine. And I'll email Vivacity, all those ladies over there, and they'll give me tickets and I have to come see your show. Yeah, they will. Oh my god. I will. I love that. I'm kissing you. Have the most amazing days. Thank you. You're the best. Bye, honey.