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[0:11] Robert Bannon: Are you ready? It's the round table with me, Robert Bannon. Welcome to the round table, everybody. My name is Robert Bannon. You are watching us on YouTube or on Broadway World, or you're listening to us on the Broadway Podcast Network. It's another lunchtime edition. We are in the fifth grade classroom. The kids are at lunch. Thank you, Jesus. And we are gonna spend our lunchtime right now. Jersey, I'm in Jersey right now. You know, Paper Mill Playhouse is where it's at for theater in New Jersey. It's really theater in this country. It's at the forefront of theater. I have never seen Beautiful. Isn't that terrible? So I'm gonna sing the whole score with Carole King herself. Kyra Kennedy, welcome to the show!

[0:55] Kyra Kennedy: Hello! I'm so excited to have you here.

[0:59] Robert Bannon: I'm so excited to be here. Look, before we get started, can we just tell people that June 5th till July 3rd? Some shows are already sold out. So y'all better just hustle.

[1:12] Kyra Kennedy: We are very well sold.

[1:15] Robert Bannon: So selling. I'm coming. I'm coming. The last show. So you'll be crying. Oh emotional and beautiful. July 3rd. I'll be there July 3rd, but you could be there from June 5th. Come on. Papermill.org, papermill.org. There's not a bad seat in the house. You can have a little food. Millburn's so cute. Go to the Millburn Jelly.

[1:40] Kyra Kennedy: Have you been to the Millburn Jelly?

[1:42] Robert Bannon: I have, and I've had maybe one of the best chicken parm sandwiches I've ever had.

[1:47] Kyra Kennedy: Come on. Yes, yes. It's pretty spectacular. I might see if they want to sponsor us.

[1:52] Robert Bannon: I think they please. I would just like a sandwich. Can you just give me a sandwich and a bag of chips? Congratulations.

[1:59] Kyra Kennedy: Thank you so much.

[2:01] Robert Bannon: Thank you. What has it been like for you? This show in particular. How did this show come to you? Did you go to an audition? Did you get a call? Was it an in-person? Tell us.

[2:10] Kyra Kennedy: So this show has been a part of my life for over a decade. It was one of my very first auditions when I moved here in 2014. So I auditioned for the Broadway production, the touring production, then COVID hit, touring production again. And then when the rights were released last year, it was sort of like this club, this very mysterious club that you couldn't get in because different theaters wanted people who had done it before. And I was like, well, how can I do it if nobody lets me do it? So I've been very, I've been such a fan of the musical since I heard about it in 2014. It is like my favorite, favorite musical. And I got this audition for Paper Mill, and again, like I've had, I think I still have my sides that I printed out in 2014, and so I've known the whole audition packet for a very long time.

So I felt very prepared. But when the Paper Mill audition came about, I kind of whether it's like that actor brain of just not letting you get your hopes up, but I was like, ah, I probably won't. They'll probably again give it to somebody who's done this before. But I went in and I just felt so good about it, and it feels so very kismet because I've never worked at Paper Mill before. I of course like heard the incredible, incredible stories and hoped and wished and kept my fingers crossed since I heard about Paper Mill. So I won't work there. And so this sort of cross in my life of finally getting this role, but also being able to do it at Paper Mill and with a director I just so love and respect, Casey Hushin.

It feels very, very universe. I just keep telling my friends and family like it doesn't even feel like work. This is truly my dream. This is what I would go to bed dreaming about being able to go into a room every day for eight hours and like sing these songs. And it's just also just a great, great group of people. Every single cast member and crew member is just a singular talent and it's really special. It feels very, very special.

[4:19] Robert Bannon: I'm so excited for you and I'm so excited for everyone that's gonna get to experience this show. It's literally the music many of us have grown up with.

[4:26] Kyra Kennedy: Yes, yes, an icon is Carole King a genius.

[4:34] Robert Bannon: An icon yes. So how do you take like, you know, some of these recordings that have been in our head, "Earth Move" and "You've Got a Friend" and all, they're ingrained in us. You hear her voice. So how do you take your voice and these arrangements and pay homage to her without doing an impersonation of Carole King, quote unquote?

[4:59] Kyra Kennedy: Sure. Yeah, our director and our music director, Wendy, Casey and Wendy were very, we're not interested in doing like an impersonation of Carole. But I think I have a pretty unique voice compared with music theater in general. I'm pretty raspy and very have a little of a folk vein in me. And so again, the music feels like it comes out of my heart. It's not if I were to sing like Wicked every night, I would not have a life. I would be so scared. But this, I'm just like, oh yes, I'll warm up, I'll make sure my body and my voice are ready. But it truly feels like the song and the music and all of these beautiful, well-known songs are coming from my heart as opposed to being stressed about it or trying to imitate somebody. And I think the benefit of living in this for 10 years, and of course, like most of the songs we've known, is like it kind of let me be free and gave permission to enjoy the songs, sort of how I've enjoyed them in my shower for the last 10 years.

[6:10] Robert Bannon: I get that, I get it. I totally understand. I'm such a nerd there about Carole King, and that's why my friend Mike called me. He saw it on Broadway like four times. He sees it wherever it's done. He bought us tickets with his family, which is why I'm going on July 3rd, because I was like, I'll pick the day that we could all go together. And yes, he was like, you have to see the show. How have you not seen the show? I be in my car, like I'm at the Planet Fitness in Jersey, rocking out to Carole King because it makes me think of growing up.

[6:42] Kyra Kennedy: Yes, yes, and Carole King and James Taylor's live album at the Troubadour where she sits at the... it's amazing.

[6:50] Robert Bannon: So amazing. Let's go. I'm excited.

[6:52] Kyra Kennedy: Robert, I cannot wait for you to see this show. The fact that this is your first time, and you're such a Carole King fan, you're gonna... it's gonna be perfect.

[7:02] Robert Bannon: I'm gonna be perfect. It will be one fine day, no pun intended.

[7:06] Kyra Kennedy: Well, but I can't resist, I'm sorry. You gotta... where did you grow up? When did you get the bug for the musical theaterness of it all?

[7:13] Kyra Kennedy: So I grew up in a very tiny town in Oklahoma called Muskogee. It's right outside of Tulsa. And like most small towns in the South, a lot of my... it was a football school, you know? Music theater was not like a big... to for example, when I was little, I didn't even know you could go to school for this. I just thought you got discovered in a mall and were put on Nickelodeon. And so I was very late to figuring out that, oh, you can train. And so my senior year in high school, I got into the college I wanted, and it was Baldwin-Wallace in Cleveland. But I was very lucky in that both my parents were very active in our community theater. And so growing up, I just thought that was normal. And they always... I feel very, very blessed and privileged that I had parents who just were like, you can do whatever you want and were so encouraging and opened the doors and made me feel like I wasn't crazy for wanting to do this. It was sort of like, yeah, what else would you do? And so I felt really lucky.

[8:29] Robert Bannon: Yeah, don't... we'll edit this right out. Welcome to public school. So Oklahoma, like Muskogee, Muskogee, Oklahoma, like an okey from Muskogee, like the song.

[8:47] Kyra Kennedy: Exactly that.

[8:48] Robert Bannon: Yes. Okay. Look, you made me pull that right out. That was like a deep dive into my memory. But and then from there, you have done, you know, Mystic Pizza or the Waitress tour or Blue Bloods for television, folks out here. We just had Lenga Roo on, and I know that season is... that show is ending, and they're so brilliant. And then the grind of being on the road doing a show like Waitress. How does it feel to be in one place?

[9:21] Kyra Kennedy: Yes. I... it has been, I think since 2016 that I've worked this close to New York. So it is thrilling. And again, I'm pinching myself. We're going... like in three hours, I will be going to Paper Mill for the first time as an employee. And I'm still just like, this isn't real. This isn't real. This can't be real. I'm thrilled. And the style, like it's just... it truly is a dream. I keep coming home and I'm like, this is what I've wanted for 10 years, and I just never... like I knew it was possible, but the fact that it's reality right now is mind-blowing. And I'm just especially with the show and this place. So it feels so good to be settled in this tri-state area that I love doing a musical that I love.

And I was telling... I was talking to my partner earlier of like I also realized it's been quite a long time, probably since Waitress in 2017, that I've not been doing a new show. So to do a new show, to do a show that isn't in development, it's also exciting because while we're not like reinventing the wheel, we do get to discover while also not having to have the stress of like first time teching it, you know, of like, oh no, we only have a couple days to do this.

[10:45] Robert Bannon: It's um a little more accessible, I think. For the people who have are new or are fans of the art form, when you have a new show, when you take a show like Mystic Pizza, is it is it ex and then you take a show like Beautiful that has won the Tonies and been on the road and did Broadway. Mystic Pizza, it's gotta be a different feeling, like you said, because it's it could be heartbreaking. You don't know what's gonna happen. Is the show gonna be well received? What how do you navigate the ups and downs of this business? You've been doing it for a minute. It's it's not for the weak. It's not for the weak. And good I I think good friends, good wine, good support, but also just like you learn so much about yourself.

Of just I think um, I I read something during the pandemic because during I mean, during the pandemic, we were all like, are we ever going to do this again? But um the the no you you see you hear so many no's in this industry, and and when you when you care so deeply, especially like I feel like it's just that that dichotomy of you want it so badly and you want to show your heart in every audition room, but then you want to protect it because you're like, oh my god, it's just gonna hurt that much worse. But every day there's something you're celebrating somebody, it's fleeting in the best way, it's all temporary. Success, failure, it's all it's all temporary. And that really put it in perspective for me because I was during the pandemic, you know, you see people who were like booking these incredible television jobs, and I was like, I don't even know if I have an agent anymore.

And so I think it's it just put everything into perspective of um the possibility that you know each day could be your yes, um as opposed to somebody else's, and just celebrating the wins when they come.

[12:35] Kyra Kennedy: Oh, I love that. So I I said this to my my partner the other day. I said, like, I like to wake up in the morning because you don't know what adventure it's gonna be. And I I you could be it could be the day of the yes, it could be the yes yes, and you got the yes. What was it like when you heard you booked Carole, you booked beautiful? I might cry. Um so I went in for my final callback on a Thursday, and I felt great, but I I also, you know, you you kind of have to gaslight yourself into being like, yeah, but they could also hate me. Um so I left the room, and it was like an hour later. I was like at some coffee shop uh in Midtown, and Casey, the director, called me, and when I saw it pop up on my phone, I was like, this is a dear John call.

I didn't get it. I just had that feeling. But then I answered, and she goes, So do you want to work together at Paper Mill Playhouse is beautiful? And I was like, Are you kidding? Yes, that's all I've ever wanted. Um, and to find out that that soon after was a gift because uh it as I'm sure you know, it's just who knows when you could hear. It could be like two weeks you could never hear. So to hear so soon and to have such good news and get it from her was it was magical and just it it was very validating of like, oh, that you can trust that feeling when you're like, oh, I think I did a good job. I think I think this might be going my way.

[14:02] Robert Bannon: I I think you did. I and it's and it's ready, we're ready. You did it, you got it. We did it. When you look at this, the the songs like uh Natural Woman and Beautiful, and I feel the earth move, and even the songs that she wrote for other artists, like the locomotion and You've Lost the Loving Feeling. Well, not all of the Cynthia Wilde, Mary Man, and on the camera. What is the audience's well, you when the audience is there? You haven't done that kind of an audience yet.

[14:28] Kyra Kennedy: Not yet. Tomorrow will be our first audience. They have to be a whole other character because these songs are memories in everyone's life. Yes. And I this is I we have to like have an offline conversation after you see it for the first time because one of my favorite things about the show is the transitions into these like epic songs that we all remember are thrilling. They're so thrilling. Like we have the drifters, the shirelles, and it just it literally takes you away. And something that I love that Wendy Cavot, our music director, told us yesterday. We did our final run, and she just sort of gave us an overall note of just remember that eat like the way this show is constructed is when we sing a song, when we perform a number, it is the first time it's ever been performed.

Like imagine it being the very first time people are listening to it and like, oh my god, did you just hear up on the roof or some kind of wonderful Will You Still Love Me Tomorrow? It just like these epic, epic songs. And so that it that made it it, it's again giving us permission to like lift it up in how special it really is. It was just so special for that time and the way it upholds is it's wild.

[15:46] Robert Bannon: It is so wild and thrilling. Uh I I don't think there is a more beautiful song ever written than Will You Still Love Me Tomorrow. I I think it's the most beautiful and smart, well-written song. Yes. And you get to sing it. And I can't wait to be in the house for this moment. You gotta deep dive, deep dive her voice. Your voice is gorgeous, gorgeous, gorgeous, gorgeous. And this is the moment. All this work and all of these auditions and all the no's and all of the travel and all of the vocal lessons and the the calls. This is it. We're gonna go do it. This is so exciting. What do you think is the and when you when now that you're gonna be Carole, you live her arc, you know, much is made of her marriage, her her job, her career, being a solo artist after writing all this music. What do you hope people leave? What is the message of the show? What is the lesson in her telling her story every night?

[16:48] Kyra Kennedy: I it's it kind of it's it's changed throughout the process for sure. And something that always hits me, especially since we're getting into runs, is we end the show with beautiful, the song, and the lyrics of that are just they while very simple in a way, they just it I find myself emotional because of the world we're in right now and the world she was in when she wrote it, and getting up each morning with a smile on your face, not not in a toxic positivity sense, but just in a joy is a choice sometimes. Like you do have to kind of choose every day to be like, okay, XYZ really sucks. My circumstances are terrible. Turning on the news makes me so it puts me in such a despair hole. But I can also choose this path each day.

And I think her I I just love how unassuming she was, but also just how brilliant she was as a woman and as an artist of she she truly she changed the fabric of a lot of our of American music in general. But I think one of my my favorite things in my research is just hearing these people who have worked with her, and they're huge musicians, but the one thing that everyone says is just how how cool and how warm she was, how just heart forward and kind and brilliant musically. And I think I think woman like not it's not just a show for women because it is of course very empowering from being a woman and telling her story every night and choosing herself instead of pain and heartbreak. But um I think for a vast like zoom out big picture that everybody can take from it is hope and joy and choice in all of that.

And I think we were talking the other day in rehearsal of like we I think now more than ever we are hungry for joy and joyous moments and the again the permission to be in a theater and get on our feet and sing I feel the earth move. And we may not be changing, you know, global policies or or curing anything, but it at least for a night or at least for a matinee, somebody can release the the terrors and the horrors of life and feel joyful and hopeful and listen to really beautiful music. And I think this is a very long way of saying how I just think music is incredibly healing. Um not for everything, obviously. It's not a catch-all, but I do think it man does it make our lives a little easier.

[19:44] Robert Bannon: Um it's so that's so beautiful. It's sure now. I'm gonna have beautiful, I'm gonna be, you've gotta get up every morning. It's gonna be in my head the rest I'm gonna have to sing it out on my way home. So I get it out of my head, and we're um we will be there, we'll be singing, and you just summed up exactly what theater is. Not everything needs to be. We sometimes need a moment to just remember and laugh and love and sing and smile. It it heals the heart and the soul, and that's what your art is gonna do. Do for so many people. That's what her music does. That's what you do when you get up on that stage. So thank you for sharing your heart and art with us because it really uh changes the world in our lives.

Beautiful, everybody, is June 5th to July 3rd. Just go to papermill.org. You can get your tickets. It's in Jersey, it's cheaper than going to see a big old Broadway show. So take your family, bring your friends, take your parents. It's good for Father's Day. It's great for your it's a great gift for Father's Day. Send your parents and uh and and thank you so much. We're excited for this, and we're so excited for all the work that's to come. Thank you for hanging out with us.

[20:52] Kyra Kennedy: Of course. Thank you so much, Robert. This was so lovely. It's been wonderful meeting you and I can't. I can't wait.