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[0:00] Robert Bannon: Are you ready? It's the round table with me, Robert Bannon.

[0:04] Robert Bannon: Well, welcome to the round table, everybody. My name is Robert Bannon. You're listening to us on Broadway World over here on the Broadway Podcast Network, iHeartSpotify.

[0:10] Robert Bannon: I grew up, oh my god, the first musical I ever did was Greece. Can you imagine if they did Greece? Can you imagine if they did Greece and they made it fun and funky and called it Vape and it's a parody and it's not, and there's music and it's fantastic and it's great music.

[0:15] Robert Bannon: Hello, Billy Reese is my friend, and I'm so proud and amazed of all the things that he's done. So we have a really special, we have a very interesting duo for you here today. Look at when you watch this show, Kanicki and Rizzo are the troublemakers of this whole thing.

[0:40] Robert Bannon: You both are the trouble. Ryan, you're a troublemaker. Slee, you're a troublemaker. The Rizzo and the Kanicki of Vape, the people that probably bought the first vapes are here with us. Ryan, thank you so much for being here.

[0:54] Ryan Avoux: Yeah, of course.

[0:55] Ryan Avoux: Oh my gosh, thanks for having us. It's so exciting.

[0:58] Ryan Avoux: We're excited for this. While we're talking, everybody, I want everyone to be able to go out and buy their tickets. Go to vapethemusical.com and go see it.

[1:05] Robert Bannon: So, Ryan, what the hell did they all make and put you on stage to do? What is this show about?

[1:13] Ryan Avoux: I mean, I guess in short terms, it is a Greece parody, but it's also so much more. It matches up like so many silly ideas, and I don't want to give everything away, but it's basically a small cast of eight, and we jump around and actually play a lot of different characters.

[1:27] Ryan Avoux: Slee and I both not only play Rizzo and Kanicki, but some others as well. And it's just 85 minutes of buffoonery and hilarity, and it takes the idea of parody and really brings it to the finish line and beyond.

[1:43] Ryan Avoux: I mean, there's so many things that we make fun of within Greece, and then just like culture in general, Gen Z slang. We even make fun of some other IP that you'll see. It's just, it's an insanely good time, and it's called Vape for reasons that we don't know.

[2:04] Ryan Avoux: It's held together really by just like the starting point is parody and then it like spins out of control in the most delicious way. So I'm not trying to give anything away.

[2:19] Ryan Avoux: But when you read like some of the press releases and some of the articles about it, this is almost, is it a modern, like it's not cigarettes, it's vape pens, it's not hot rods, it's hybrids. And making out is still making out.

[2:34] Ryan Avoux: But maybe your characters are more fluid in who they make out with. It is a modern, is it a pun on Greece? Is it a pun on the crazy times we're living in? It's D all of the above, just a wild time to have be had by all.

[2:48] Ryan Avoux: Yeah, I think kind of D all of the above in a lot of beautiful ways. I think in the ways that a lot of the cast is Gen Z. I bring a lot of my character of Rizzo and my other characters bring a lot more of the like Gen X, Gen Alpha.

[3:04] Ryan Avoux: Is that, is Gen Alpha before? Is or is Gen Alpha earlier? I don't even know.

[3:07] Slee: No, yeah.

[3:08] Ryan Avoux: You bring the boomer, babe.

[3:10] Slee: Yeah, I bring the boomer. There we go. That's the words I was looking for. I'm just so young, I don't even know what a boomer is.

[3:15] Ryan Avoux: But I bring the boomer.

[3:18] Slee: Yes.

[3:19] Ryan Avoux: Listen.

[3:20] Ryan Avoux: Yeah, so we really do span like a decades of parody and generations of what jokes people will understand. There it's so funny to be in the audience or to hear the audience laugh at certain things because you hear one half of the audience laugh at the Gen Z jokes and one half laugh at the boomer jokes, and then this like weird middle ground of people that just like love Greece and get it all.

[3:41] Slee: You know?

[3:42] Robert Bannon: So yeah. I feel like I get that vibe because I am old, like I'm 42 years old, but I teach the young. But see, as a teacher, I'm deciding.

[3:52] Robert Bannon: I feel that way. As a teacher, I know what the world is like these days, and we fight vapes all day long. We fight delay and slang that I don't understand. And I'm trying to stay young and hip.

[4:04] Robert Bannon: So, Ryan, I need to come see this because if I want to be in touch, I gotta do what all you young crazy kids are doing, and I gotta watch this musical.

[4:11] Ryan Avoux: Honored that you called me a young crazy kid.

[4:13] Ryan Avoux: You're a young crazy kid.

[4:16] Ryan Avoux: Yeah, I mean, it's, I think you'll learn a lot. And also, yeah, it truly covers every generation. Like Slee said, there are pockets of people that are laughing at different jokes or Lydia Newton John jokes and a bunch of Greece jokes.

[4:31] Ryan Avoux: But I truly feel like if you haven't seen Greece, you'd still have an incredible time because it is just so funny and ridiculous.

[4:38] Ryan Avoux: I love it. It's now playing off Broadway at Theater 555 right on 42nd Street. Go to vapethemusical.com, you can get your tickets, and the show is running, so you gotta get Greece is no longer the word now, the word is Vape.

[4:50] Robert Bannon: I can't even handle this whole show. So for you, Slee, how did the show come to you and what was it like when you first read it?

[4:57] Slee: Yeah, so I knew about, they did a couple readings of it at Town Hall, and they had some like really incredible names, like Jackie Hoffman and Beth Leavel both played Rizzo, and that was definitely on my radar.

[5:07] Slee: I know, I know incredible, like genuinely incredible casting. And just had these like incredible names attached to it. So it definitely drew my attention because of that.

[5:17] Slee: And I also grew up watching Greece. I had a birthday party when I was in elementary school where we all wore poodle skirts and we had a sleepover and we watched Greece.

[5:26] Slee: And so Greece has always been on my radar. I love Greece. It was a big, it was big in my household. I had a record of it.

[5:30] Slee: But I think when I first read the script, I just got very lucky because I, it just kind of surrounded like Billy Reese is a good friend of mine as well and some of the cast, I'm sorry, some of the crew are people that I've gotten to work with in the past.

[5:30] Slee: And so to step into this show blindly basically, I mean we had such a small amount of time for rehearsal which made the rehearsal process so much fun. We got to just step in and trust.

[5:30] Slee: I got to step in and trust because I knew the team pretty well and felt really comfortable with what we were able to bring to the table, what they were able to bring to the table.

[6:08] Slee: When I first read the script, it moves so fast and the script shows that and we sitting around that like table that first table read, I was in awe and shock about how many jokes there are on just one page.

[6:08] Slee: And that is such a, if you're thinking about comedy in terms of like working out, like doing our push-ups every day and having to get ready for that kind of speed of comedy was really difficult and fun and exciting.

[6:08] Slee: And yeah, I don't know if I answered your question but that is like what my heart wanted me to say.

[6:43] Robert Bannon: I really feel Slee when you read it and you got the part I mean like oh my god when you got the part how did you audition or how did you get did you are you offer she's offer only she she did you have to go through no she's not offer only but she pretends she is neighbor dens.

[7:02] Slee: No, I came into the audition and they had me read for a different character completely because Rizzo is an older, has written as an older woman.

[7:13] Slee: And I bring youth to every room I walk into, unfortunately. So I was, it wasn't even on my radar, it was the role that I wanted.

[7:22] Slee: I've always wanted to play Rizzo. I mean just Stalker Channing is, it was really like a important, I mean I said that Greece is such an important part of my childhood, but like Stalker Channing especially is Rizzo was important to me.

[7:35] Slee: And I was excited that they were doing a parody version, so like this is my chance to be in Greece. And so I stepped into the audition and I was auditioning for another role, and then I got a callback for Rizzo, and I got very excited, it was the next day, and then I got to dust off a song that I never get to sing in an audition, which is I Dreamed a Dream from Le Miz, and I made it a comedy.

[7:59] Slee: I pretended I had a wind machine in front of me, and I did a little Patti LuPone impression, and that was my Rizzo audition.

[8:08] Robert Bannon: Nice. I would do slate your book for everything. Just do that at every audition from now on.

[8:14] Slee: Now I'm offer only.

[8:16] Robert Bannon: Ryan, how did the show come to you?

[8:19] Ryan Avoux: Yeah, I auditioned.

[8:20] Robert Bannon: And did you also make a parody of Le Miz?

[8:24] Ryan Avoux: No, I wish. Now I'm kicking myself. Gavroche is a dream role of mine, and I'm holding on to it. I don't know if I've aged out yet, but that's definitely on my bucket list.

[8:32] Ryan Avoux: Also, Le Miz would be amazing to parody. I definitely like that should be next.

[8:37] Ryan Avoux: But yes, I auditioned. When I first got the audition in my inbox, I think I had a glance at it and I didn't understand what it was.

[8:45] Ryan Avoux: It's like Vape, okay. This is an ad. And I kind of, I think like my agent's assistant emailed me again and was like, hey, are you gonna audition for this?

[8:55] Ryan Avoux: And then I opened the sides and I saw there was one for Kanicki and one for Patty Simcox, and then also one for Vince Fontaine. I was like, wait, what is this?

[9:03] Ryan Avoux: And then I realized it was a Greece parody. I realized it was calling for me to play a puppet version of Patty Simcox and Kanicki and this shmarmy like announcer guy.

[9:15] Ryan Avoux: And I love, love, love getting to play like all different characters. I think that's like one of the most exciting things ever that I ever get to do, and that motivates me to even be an actor.

[9:27] Ryan Avoux: And so I was like, okay, I think this might just be the perfect insane project. And from the minute I walked into my audition, I remember I was kind of frazzled on my audition day, and my sheet music wasn't printed out properly, and like nothing was really going my way, but I kind of just like, and there's a moment where I almost didn't even go because I had so much going on that day, and I'm so glad that I did because from the moment I walked in, I just, I don't know, I just had a good feeling about it.

[9:54] Ryan Avoux: I got a lot of notes from Jack Plotnik, our who ended up being our director, that were really helpful and kind of indicated what the vibe would be in the room, which was very professional, very fun, very intense.

[10:10] Ryan Avoux: And yeah, it just, it's been amazing. Like from the audition, we basically jumped right into rehearsals, and then that led us to where we are now, which is doing five shows a week.

[10:22] Ryan Avoux: And yeah, it's been like one of my favorite professional experiences ever, and I'm so glad that I ended up listening to the intern at my agent's office and going to the audition.

[10:35] Robert Bannon: Oh thank God you listened to the intern at your agent. Shout out to the interns.

[10:39] Ryan Avoux: Yeah, we're gonna send you out on these auditions from your agent's office.

[10:42] Robert Bannon: So Slee, were you when you talk about the creative team? We talked, you just talked about the director, you know, people have seen him in Disaster and all the work that he's done, et cetera.

[10:51] Robert Bannon: And then you add to that all of the incredible Billy. We talked about Billy, this whole entire creative team of people that are working. What's it like to work with this team and this cast, Lane?

[11:00] Slee: Oh yeah. So from the audition, like from the beginning, Jack was such a powerful voice in the room and had such a very specific vision, which is so helpful coming into a space like this.

[11:13] Slee: Cause if I find that yes, there's like absolutely collaboration that happened, but if you come into a room that's a high comedy like this and someone doesn't know exactly the kind of tone they want, it can get a little frazzled and frayed at the edges.

[11:27] Slee: Jack knew exactly the tone he wanted from the beginning. And that was so helpful to step into. I'm really thankful for that.

[11:34] Slee: And then um Danny, uh Danny, our assistant director, and Billy, uh were all just so excited to collaborate with all of us, and like it was an incredible team of people to collaborate with.

[11:48] Slee: Like, um, yeah, it was it just was like you start at the at the starting line and then you just race to the finish line while we all held hands.

[11:57] Slee: It like never was like who's ahead, who's behind. It was like, let's all hold hands together and let's cross the finish line together.

[12:04] Slee: Um, and we did. It was really great. Um, it was a lot, it was a very fast process, like we said.

[12:10] Slee: Uh and so there was a lot of moving pieces. We did a lot of the show out of order.

[12:14] Slee: So when we actually stepped into the theater and started running the show for the first time, I know I was backstage like with a chicken with our head cut off, being like, I don't know where I'm supposed to go.

[12:25] Slee: Um, and so that that was a really uh crazy process because they definitely come from a film background, the directors do.

[12:31] Slee: Um, and so that's so that's that's unique to film where you can rehearse and shoot in um out of sequence.

[12:37] Slee: Uh so that was a really good exercise from my brain to be like, you have to know where you live in this show, and that's your job.

[12:44] Slee: Uh, and you're not rehearsal's not gonna give that to you. Like you have to do that.

[12:48] Slee: And that that for me brought a lot of my own personality to the characters because I was able to find my own journey through it while we were still all holding hands.

[12:58] Slee: Um yeah, and I mean it's it's one of those shows that uh Jack and Danny both when we got into the space after we rehearsed it and we understood the tone and we all knew the beats we were supposed to be hitting.

[13:10] Slee: They finally released us and said, This show is yours, which I've never had a director say this before, but like this show is yours now.

[13:17] Slee: I want you to improvise, like improvise where you want to improvise, bring yourselves to it, like you all know what you're doing.

[13:24] Slee: Now you can just play and have fun.

[13:26] Slee: And it really is so much fun to play with this show because the structure is so solid and the cast is so talented and like professional and trustworthy that we can play, and it never feels like it goes out of bounds.

[13:41] Slee: It's it's we all know where the bounds are, and then we can come back together and just support every person.

[13:48] Slee: Yeah, it's been incredible.

[13:49] Robert Bannon: I think that sounds like an actor's dream. It sounds like Ryan for you.

[13:55] Robert Bannon: How do you describe the music? And what is the big Knicky like, you know, Kinicki's kind of famous for, you know, grease lightning.

[14:02] Robert Bannon: So is there a grease lightning something?

[14:07] Ryan Avoux: There certainly is. Basically, we're doing we're doing all the songs you know and love from Greece, but all the lyrics are changed thanks to Billy Reese and the creative team.

[14:15] Ryan Avoux: Um, and that you know, the show sort of was born at Sketchworks in Atlanta and sort of went through all these processes.

[14:21] Ryan Avoux: Like, um, you know, we talked about the town hall reading and um in it, it's at this current iteration.

[14:27] Ryan Avoux: And yes, your friend Billy Reese like contributed the most amazing, ridiculous lyrics.

[14:33] Ryan Avoux: Um, they're brilliant. And I don't know if I want to give away too much, but it's basically it's Greece, it's Grease Lightning, but it's turning on its head.

[14:41] Ryan Avoux: Um, and I'll say this like it's called Green Lightning, and it's about how they're trying to get uh like chicks who love the environment and like the hottest girls have tattoos and like you know they care about go green and recycle.

[14:53] Ryan Avoux: And so like Kanicki's whole thing is like trying to land that kind of babe. By the way, he fully has a girlfriend, Rizzo, but I guess that's in the movie too.

[15:01] Ryan Avoux: So I don't know what's going on there.

[15:02] Slee: What the hell, Slee?

[15:03] Ryan Avoux: I know. I know.

[15:06] Ryan Avoux: What the hell is that about?

[15:09] Ryan Avoux: But we're not going for realism because I'm you know, I'm also playing Patty as a puppet, which is insane.

[15:13] Ryan Avoux: But we yeah, basically, all the melodies are the same, and every single song has a joke, like there's a conceptual twist to every single song.

[15:24] Ryan Avoux: Like instead of Grease is the word, it's vape is the show, and it goes from there.

[15:27] Ryan Avoux: And I don't want to give everything away because so many of the the choruses are the punchlines.

[15:32] Ryan Avoux: Um, but yeah, it's like it's truly almost like to a T, like all the songs and all the scenes from the movie, but everything is a joke, and everything has a twist.

[15:45] Ryan Avoux: So uh obsessed, everybody. Come on, vape the musical.com, get your tickets, let's go.

[15:49] Robert Bannon: This is perfect.

[15:50] Robert Bannon: Slee, were people who are coming into the city, they're visiting New York City for the holidays.

[15:54] Robert Bannon: It's Thanksgiving, you're with your family on Thursday, and you need to run out of it like you're on fire on Friday.

[15:59] Robert Bannon: This is something that's gonna break up the monotony of the stress of the holidays of the cold, of the buying gifts, of the seeing busyness, take a night and treat yourself to something fun.

[16:08] Robert Bannon: Who do you recommend Slee come see this?

[16:11] Slee: Yeah, um, I think people who have vices and want to come and like enjoy their vice and see a parody.

[16:18] Slee: I think that's definitely who we're here for.

[16:20] Slee: Um, and I think also like people who are maybe like struggling to find uh try struggling to find like a little bit of lightness uh in the world that we're in right now.

[16:34] Slee: If you're really struggling to find a a pocket of that, this is an hour and a half, maybe uh of a show where you can come in, just forget about the world outside and laugh for a good amount of time.

[16:48] Slee: Like we just like let us take care of you for the hour and a half.

[16:50] Slee: I think that's especially who they are.

[16:52] Slee: Um, but also people who just enjoy the 50s and 60s and and want to see something that they love so much turned on its head and see something refreshed.

[17:04] Slee: Uh, I think that's that's the kind of people that you want to come.

[17:07] Slee: I I think people get allergic to the word parody when they see it.

[17:11] Slee: They think that it is just gonna be bad sketch comedy, and and I think parody gets a really bad rap, especially someone who's done a lot of parodies at this point in her career.

[17:23] Slee: Um, there's some really beautiful work that can come from a parody and and a lot of uh and real a lot of talent that can come into a parody.

[17:32] Slee: And just let us just let us take the world off your shoulders for a second, you know.

[17:37] Slee: Uh, don't bring your 10 year old though.

[17:39] Slee: Okay, yes, it's grow. This is not like literally even old school Greece had a lot of lines in there where you go, like, wait, they let what they let kids what?

[17:48] Slee: Why is this what I can't believe that I had a sleepover and watched this movie with all of my friends in elementary school because it is fully an adult show problem.

[18:00] Ryan Avoux: Yeah, it is there's a lot.

[18:03] Robert Bannon: So, Ryan, you both both of you, Ryan and Savannah.

[18:05] Robert Bannon: What I Slee.

[18:03] Robert Bannon: Well, that's okay.

[18:03] Robert Bannon: Both of you, Ryan and Flee, you both have had careers where you've done interesting pieces of work, you all have done various work toward different different theater around the country, different mediums, etc.

[18:20] Robert Bannon: Why, why does art, even fun art that's entertaining, why is it so vital for I know this is a deep question for vape's parody musical, but why, Ryan, should we take the time, money, and invest investment and go see a show?

[18:40] Ryan Avoux: I mean, there's so many reasons that I can think of why it's important to experience art.

[18:45] Ryan Avoux: Um, I think I think it's really cool and sacred to get people off their phones and together in a space for an hour and a half, like that is becoming such a rare currency and a rare experience in today's world.

[19:01] Ryan Avoux: I mean, obviously, you know, we all know this, but we're on our phones all the time, and uh we don't have really sustained uh periods of time where we're connected to other human beings.

[19:14] Ryan Avoux: And I personally find like sharing laughs with people, even stranger than the audience, like completely electric and healing, and uh it gives me so much energy and it gives me so much joy.

[19:26] Ryan Avoux: And even though the show is, as the creators love to say, stupider than Jupiter, it is such a special time.

[19:32] Ryan Avoux: I love showing up to work and I love doing this show.

[19:36] Ryan Avoux: And I'm so glad that we get to do more of it because sharing laughter with other human beings for 90 minutes, like I think is doing really, really good things for my insides and probably for the other people uh in the audience as well.

[19:50] Slee: Amen.

[19:50] Robert Bannon: How about you, Slee?

[19:52] Slee: Yeah, I mean, I I think Ryan hit it on the head, uh, especially, but I I think going to the theater is really important, um, especially for people that excuse me, people that feel like they they don't know.

[20:08] Slee: Hold on, how do I say this?

[20:10] Slee: I feel like the theater is really important for people who feel like they can't see themselves outside on the street.

[20:16] Slee: They they don't they don't they don't see people that remind them of them, they feel really lonely in this world.

[20:21] Slee: And if you go to the theater, you are bound to find someone either on that stage or in the space that is watching or participating in the show that is like them, and it will make you feel a lot less lonely.

[20:35] Slee: Um, I think this is a really good show for that, especially because we have such a wide range of uh people and and types of of life experience that we're showcasing on this stage.

[20:48] Slee: I was just talking to Jen Clark, the uh person that plays Jan and Putsi and a bunch of other characters um about queer people coming to see the show and the importance of queer queer representation, even in a show that is as silly as this is, it's so important to have representation.

[21:06] Slee: And uh in in any spectrum of that word.

[21:10] Slee: And um, and um I think parodies uh is a really great way to do that, uh, especially if you take care of the person that you were trying to represent.

[21:18] Slee: Um, don't make butt of it the joke or uh at all times, like really lift them up in some ways, and you can do that with humor.

[21:24] Slee: Um, and we're really lucky.

[21:25] Slee: We get to do that in a lot of ways in this show, I think.

[21:29] Robert Bannon: I love that.

[21:30] Robert Bannon: Well, this little eighth in eighth grade when I did Greece as a little gay boy.

[21:35] Robert Bannon: Gay?

[21:36] Ryan Avoux: Gay and I was duty, I was duty in Greece.

[21:41] Ryan Avoux: Yeah, you are I gave him gay.

[21:43] Ryan Avoux: I think duty is the original.

[21:47] Ryan Avoux: Duty was the first gay guy.

[21:48] Ryan Avoux: He is the first the first gay Greaser.

[21:52] Ryan Avoux: Yeah, and all the other greasers, I think, are on the down low anyway.

[21:54] Robert Bannon: I don't trust that they're fully.

[21:56] Ryan Avoux: Well, you gotta see vape.

[21:57] Ryan Avoux: That's a little sexy.

[21:59] Robert Bannon: Yeah.

[22:00] Robert Bannon: Greece like never mind.

[22:02] Robert Bannon: That's the difference.

[22:02] Ryan Avoux: That's a whole lot.

[22:03] Robert Bannon: Listen, I am excited for people to see this.

[22:05] Robert Bannon: Go see vape the musical.com.

[22:07] Robert Bannon: Billy Reese pretending he's young.

[22:09] Robert Bannon: He ain't that young either, people.

[22:10] Robert Bannon: I'm just letting you all know.

[22:11] Robert Bannon: He ain't read him.

[22:14] Robert Bannon: He's not that young.

[22:19] Ryan Avoux: But that's besides the point.

[22:20] Robert Bannon: We still got this.

[22:21] Robert Bannon: Is exciting.

[22:21] Robert Bannon: Vape the musical.com is out and about, and you gotta get your tickets and see it.

[22:24] Robert Bannon: It's perfect for this holiday season.

[22:25] Robert Bannon: Take your friends, we'll go have a holiday out and go celebrate, go celebrate friendship, love, laughter, some fun times that we're living in.

[22:32] Robert Bannon: Uh, make some fun times if we don't have them.

[22:35] Robert Bannon: That's what's so important about the art that's out here.

[22:37] Robert Bannon: We all need a break, and we all need to see something really that makes us smile.

[22:40] Robert Bannon: Congratulations, Ryan.

[22:41] Robert Bannon: Congratulations, Slee.

[22:42] Robert Bannon: I'm so excited for you both.

[22:43] Robert Bannon: I hope this is an incredible fun run.

[22:45] Robert Bannon: Break legs, and I can't wait to see the show.

[22:48] Ryan Avoux: Thank you so much.

[22:48] Slee: Can't wait for you to see it.

[22:50] Robert Bannon: Thank you for being here.