This transcript was automatically generated and might contain errors.

[0:00] Alan Seales: Welcome to the final episode of The Theatre Podcast here for 2021. I'm your host Alan Seales and this is our 2021 year-end wrap up. Co-host for this episode is none other than Ayanna Prescod. She's a Brooklyn-based writer, editor, producer, and founder. She's the founder of rbksocial.com, a digital platform dedicated to the people and places of Brooklyn, New York, and hosts What's Up Broadway here on the Broadway Podcast Network. In addition, she's a freelance theatre journalist with bylines in Variety, Theatre Mania, American Theatre, and Exeunt NYC. She's a theatre co-editor at the Brooklyn Rail and has several Broadway producer credits including Passover, Dana H, and Is This a Room? Ayanna, welcome to the final episode here and thanks for joining me.

[0:54] Ayanna Prescod: Yes, so nice to join you. Thank you for having me.

[1:01] Alan Seales: You're welcome. And then here at the end of the year, I love wrapping up kind of everything that's happened, all the shows that we each saw, and gosh, your job is literally to see shows.

[1:07] Ayanna Prescod: It really is. I saw a lot of shows starting again. This is, I'm going to quantify this, right, because we are coming out of COVID. This started as theatre came back in like July, August, right? So in that time frame between then and now, I've seen 14 shows. You have seen how many?

[1:28] Alan Seales: 65.

[1:38] Ayanna Prescod: Jesus! And I don't know how. The other day I posted, I was like, my final show for 2021. I was really excited about it. So just have a break. 65. Oh, wait, it might be 66 because of that final show. So I did my count before that final show. So it's 66.

[1:50] Alan Seales: That's insane. And my gosh, so we've seen so much that's happened and so much that's changed. And coming out of 2020 into 2021, Broadway's coming back. And then now it's going away again. And there's so much happening right now. So looking back on your experience this past year in 2021, what are some of the highs and lows that you can remember?

[2:11] Ayanna Prescod: Oh, my gosh. So right before, you know, the entire campaign of Broadway is back, Off-Broadway is back, theatre is back in general, I just remember on Twitter, so many of us just saying what our first show would be coming back. And I think we all had this idea in our head that every show was going to come back at the same time. We didn't know that it would be a sporadic rollout. And so I was just excited for that first show back. And the first show back for me was Fruma Sara with Jackie Hoffman, one woman show. Fantastic. And it's literally the perfect way to re-enter the theatre scene. All she has to do is like do a smirk on her face and I'm laughing at it. And so the show was hilarious. And I was just like, okay, this is what I needed to ease my way back in.

And so from there, I've seen obviously so many shows, but like Passover, that was also one of, you know, like the Broadway return. And so that was another joy for me besides working on the show. But like, really sitting and devouring the show as an audience member was one of the highlights for me. And then, I mean, so much. There's literally, oh my god, there's, I feel like this episode is gonna be so long because we have so many shows.

[3:45] Alan Seales: You and I saw Moulin Rouge! together, which was my musical return to Broadway reopening. So I saw Passover too, which was Broadway's first reopening. But yeah, Moulin Rouge!, you and I went and that was a party. That was a celebration. First of all, we got so many gifts. I mean, we had, the playbill was stacked because they gave us what a mask, inserts, like a cardstock insert. They gave Mac lipstick at the end of the show. There was like four or five cases of that. I was just like, can I have more? But that's the way to come back. I mean, if you're going to do it, you like do it big. And the show was great. I mean, I've seen the show pre-pandemic and it's just, it's a good time. Like if you're going to see a show to have fun, Moulin Rouge! is that show for you.

One of my, the high points for me was the six, when I saw six, when they reopened. And because that, I feel like that was one of the most anticipated openings of 2019. Sorry, 2020. And then, so it shut down because there are five of the six Queens that were going to make their debut. And then they all came back for the cast and for the reopening here in 2021. And that was, that was just an incredible thing. And have you seen, I guess the other, the other biggest, I guess most anticipated opening was Company. You've seen Company, right?

[5:23] Ayanna Prescod: Yeah. I haven't seen it yet. I'm currently scheduled to see it January 4th. So I don't know. Hopefully that will happen.

[5:28] Alan Seales: Hopefully. It's a time. Patti LuPone serves in that show. I'm not going to lie. She, she has on like a bodycon dress and she's just like, she's just her natural self. I feel like this role, she may be acting, but I think this is like Patti LuPone behind closed doors. Like this is just like, she's a good time. The show is a good time. And I'm so like, I hate the COVID of it all because like, this is a show that you want to have a drink to like what we did with Diana. Like you had a drink and show and Company is one of those. And I'm so upset that there's no like, you know, drinking or eating at shows anymore, but like, that's a show you want to have. If you want to pregame, pregame before Company.

[6:18] Ayanna Prescod: That sounds fun. Well, now we can't pregame before Diana anymore either.

[6:24] Alan Seales: That was, that show was a good time.

[6:29] Ayanna Prescod: I've heard such mixed things about it. I never got to see it on Broadway.

[6:33] Alan Seales: No, you're going to, you're going to have to live with yourself for the rest of your life, not seeing Diana live. It's such a good time. Well, it was such a good time.

[6:45] Ayanna Prescod: So just a quick, a quick acknowledgement of all the shows that didn't make their full runs so far, and again, we've only been open for a couple of months here, but is this a room with Dana H. running and rep, Chicken and Biscuits, the Rockettes Radio City Christmas Spectacular, Diana, we just mentioned, Thoughts of a Colored Man, Jagged Little Pill, Waitress, Beautiful, and Ain't Too Proud as of yesterday, as we're recording this, just announced that they're not coming back after shutdown. Like, this is, this is so sad.

[7:11] Alan Seales: It's so sad. And it's literally the, the job comes with it. Like, I mean, I feel like we've always known that theater is unpredictable. And while we all anticipate shows having a full, lovely run, things happen. And so, because we have COVID on top of regular natural things that may happen, it's, it's very sad that people are out of jobs. And people that work really, really hard on these shows can't see their full run. But I think coming into this industry, we know that like, everything is unpredictable. And so I'm really sad about these shows closing and, but I look forward to next year. There's so many good shows coming.

[8:03] Ayanna Prescod: You know what, what we haven't heard about, and this has occurred to me was, we haven't heard about this in a while. And it was supposed to open with Sing Street, whatever happened to Sing Street?

[8:13] Alan Seales: Yeah, that's, I, when, when the news, what was the show that just moved from the Lyceum that was scheduled to be at the Lyceum, but then had to move, Macbeth, no. Macbeth is moving from Lyceum to Longacre. Correct. Right. So when Macbeth moved, I was like, oh, Sing Street is coming. And then we got the, no, Sing Street is actually not coming. But that's, that's a good question. I don't know. I hope it comes. I've heard a lot of good things about it.

[8:52] Ayanna Prescod: Yeah. We'll see. Sonia Tye is involved with that too. Of course, got the Tony from Moulin Rouge! choreography, right? So, so I'm expecting good things out of that. So if you're listening, and you know anything about Sing Street, let us know, because we're excited about it.

[9:04] Alan Seales: Please, please, please, please. Did you, did you see only Broadway and off-Broadway stuff? Because I, part of the things that I'm counting as shows that I saw was Megan Hilty's debut at 54 Below, her 54 Below debut, and Jessica Vosk's Carnegie Hall debut, which both of which were just phenomenal.

[9:23] Ayanna Prescod: I am, the Jessica Vosk is what I'm gonna have to live with the rest of my life, knowing I didn't go to. But no, I saw, I saw Sis at 54 Below, and that was a time. That was a time. And she had some great features. I mean, Sis really brings, she's a performer. That's for sure. If she's gonna put on a show, she's gonna bring like the best of the best in the industry along with her. And yeah, like, God, I didn't see Jessica Vosk at 54 Below. Please tell me about it so I can just carry myself.

[10:02] Alan Seales: Oh, Carnegie Hall. Yeah, sold out.

[10:05] Ayanna Prescod: Sold out guest performances. I saw the cookies. Yeah, I mean, like Marissa Rosen too. Marissa's been singing like as one of her singers forever. Marissa, I've known for years. Shout out to Marissa. But she's always there supporting Vosk as a singer on stage. And then like there are other guest singers that were, who's the tall blonde guy from Pentatonix? I forget his name. I'm having a brain fart. I know who you're talking about. But yeah, he was there as a guest singer, of course, Kristen Chenoweth. She's phenomenal. Yeah, just incredible. And there were so many others. And then the Megan Hilty Show at 54 Below. Megan did, one of my favorite things was she did a medley of Alto lines, actual Alto lines in popular shows of like Wicked.

And it was just like the most boring. She was doing it comedically. She's like, here are the boring Alto lines that you get to sing as an Alto because she was talking about the difference between being a soprano and an Alto and whatnot. But it was some of the funniest things. I mean, like the comedic timing of Megan Hilty is incredible. That is crazy. One thing that I will say that assisted at her show at 54 Below, that I thought was hilarious, but so her. She did the I Love You song from Barney, but made it a bop. She had us all sing it. She made it a bop, like she changed the score. I was just like, I was like, I cannot believe I'm in my 30s, like, singing I Love You. Seriously, she really made it her own.

Such a good time. Such a good time. It was different for me that I enjoyed his Neil Brennan's show, Unacceptable, Off-Broadway at Cherry Lane. Yeah, that was that was interesting. But who was your opener at your show? He didn't have an opener when I saw it. Oh, no. So every I heard that every show had a different opener. So they would do like there was this girl. I don't even remember her name, but she was from TikTok and she was so good as his opener. Like I was just like, look at TikTok, discovering new talent. Wow. I'm surprised you didn't have an opener. I saw it early, early in the run. Okay, it might have actually been a final preview. Actually, I can't remember at this point. But yeah, they could have added that stuff later or just like hit or miss depending on who's available.

They had an opener. But to have a comedy show, I interviewed him on one of my episodes here on the podcast. And to have an actual stand up routine in an Off-Broadway theater, to me, originally, I went in scratching my head. I was like, is this going to work? But the way that he tells a story, he tells a full beginning, middle and end story, which lends itself to being on stage. And I had so much fun watching him do this routine, this stand up show. The show was fun. I didn't know what to expect when he walked out in his robe. I was like, what am I here? What is happening? But it was a full story. And it was a good time. And his music, his voice, oh my goodness. I was just like, this is so good. Definitely, definitely one of the highlights of 2021. What about Pooh? Winnie the Pooh.

[13:21] Alan Seales: Okay, so this is like highlight of a highlight. I was anticipating this show the most, I would say, before it actually opened. When they put out the trailer of these puppets, I was like, oh my god, I don't know what I'm in for. I have no kids. I'm not taking my nephews. I am going alone to experience something that I've loved as a child. And when I went, I was so mesmerized by the puppets that I didn't even notice the puppeteers. Like, it's just that good of a show that it makes you believe that these puppets are live beings, right? And so the story was so good. I got emotional, which I didn't expect to. But look at me, again, in my 30s crying at Winnie the Pooh. But yeah, the music was good.

The story was so good. It went through the seasons, which I loved. It gave you every element of each season. So like, I know it's still running. I feel like I don't want to spoil it for people, like the surprise, but like summer, winter, fall, like you're going to get the elements of each season. Definitely one of my favorite off-Broadway shows. It's interactive. I mean, it's, what is it? It's 70 minutes, 60 minutes. It's made for kids. It's the nostalgia wrapped up with the characters. Like you said, the puppets themselves are phenomenal, wrapped up with the Disney of it all. It's a Disney. It's co-produced by Disney Theatricals. So there's that magic element to it. My five and a half year old, I took him, you know, we got the press tickets to go and I took, he was my plus one, my five and a half year.

And so we came out instead of a program, they give you a board book. So we actually read it the other night. They give you a board book that explains all of the seasons and retells the whole story in the book. And it shows you up close behind the scenes of how the costumes and all the characters and the puppets. And it's, he loves it. He absolutely loves it. He talks, he still talks about it. Like you said, there's a little bit of interactivity. There's some leaves that fall from the fly, spoiler alert, during fall, some leaves fall. He still has those leaves and he plays with them all the time. Like we took a pocket full of leaves home. It's literally an experience though. Like the moment you get into the theater, they like added some elements from Winnie the Pooh to the theater.

And the theater is called like 40 Acre Woods Theater, right? Just for the 100 Acre Woods. Like they renamed the theater. It's crazy. And they have rapid testing outside the theater for the kids. So don't let unvaccinated children stop you. You can go and get tested right there. They thought of everything and it's literally an experience. And did you buy a stuffed animal? Please tell me you did.

[16:13] Ayanna Prescod: And I'm not the only one. Of course he wanted Eeyore. Perfect. Oh, I got Eeyore. I got Eeyore. He calls it a donkey. He's like, you know his name. I said, you know his name's Eeyore. He's like, no, I call him donkey. And so he sleeps with his donkey. He still does. I mean, Eeyore, I'm sorry, Pooh, but Eeyore is the best character. And so listen. So something else that surprised me that it's closing is Jagged Little Pill. Because the amount of just I guess production value, whenever I've gone and what I've heard about it, I've always heard, you know, controversy aside with the character of Joe, production wise itself, I thought it was doing well. The perception was always that it was doing well. So I was really surprised that it closed and ain't too proud as well. I thought that that would have a much longer life.

[17:04] Alan Seales: Yeah, I feel like I don't know what the road is or if there is a specific map for like bio musicals or musicals that use music specifically from like an artist or, you know, like, I don't know what the road is. And I feel like Jagged Little Pill, what they did so great was create an original story from the music of Alanis Morissette.

[17:31] Ayanna Prescod: Yeah, the story itself is so good.

[17:33] Alan Seales: Yeah. So like, that's what I enjoyed the most about that show. And I thought it was doing well, too. So I was surprised when that news came out. But I know that COVID is really, really affecting shows. I know, or I heard that like, every time a show has to close, it's still like $100,000 a day or something like that, that they have to still pay out to the theater owner. So it's like, it's very difficult to like, keep having to like, close down a show to reopen it to close it down. It's very expensive. And so

[18:06] Ayanna Prescod: That's insane. So if you're closed for like 10 days or something, the quarantine period, then you've got to pay a million dollars out of pocket.

[18:14] Alan Seales: It's so much and you're not bringing in any money because you're not having an audience. And so it's a lot of money. And with all of those elements, I can see why a show says, yeah, we can't do this anymore.

[18:28] Ayanna Prescod: Remind me to be a theater owner, by the way.

[18:30] Alan Seales: Exactly.

[18:32] Ayanna Prescod: Remind me tomorrow to look at buying a theater.

[18:34] Alan Seales: That's the way to do it. I always said I was just like, wow, there should be like a rule that you don't have to pay out any money when you have a show that's like closed because of COVID because it's something you can't control.

[18:48] Ayanna Prescod: This is argument to the local government, right, to support the arts and help the industry survive because the producers of these shows are stuck between a rock and a hard place because they can't close because they're losing money, but they can't open because it's a public health risk. So what are you like, the obvious choice should be close and, you know, pause the show to save the health and do not promote the pandemic. But then they're losing so much money that then the show, as we've just talked about, literally has to close permanently because they can't sustain sitting empty.

[19:22] Alan Seales: And especially when Broadway is about the tourists, like as much as we, the locals go to shows and support theater, we're not the ones running Broadway. The ones that are running Broadway and bringing in the most money are the tourists. And right now tourism is so down because of COVID. So like, what else is, there's nothing else. It could be a hundred locals banding together to bring a plus one to the theater, but it's not enough. You know, you need the tourism to keep shows afloat. And so the only other way is for the government to like, now pitch in.

[20:00] Ayanna Prescod: Let me ask you a question that may be controversial to some, is do you think that Broadway reopened too soon?

[20:10] Alan Seales: Welcome back to The Theatre Podcast. Today, we're wrapping up 2021 with a look back at the year in Broadway and beyond.

[21:10] Ayanna Prescod: It's been quite a year, hasn't it?

[21:20] Alan Seales: Absolutely. We've had some incredible moments, even with the challenges we've faced.

[21:40] Ayanna Prescod: And let's not forget the shows that closed too early. It's heartbreaking to see so many productions end prematurely.

[21:50] Alan Seales: Definitely. Shows like "Is This A Room," "Dana H," and "Chicken & Biscuits" had so much potential.

[22:10] Ayanna Prescod: And the Rockettes' "Radio City Christmas Spectacular" was a highlight for many, but it also faced its challenges this year.

[22:30] Alan Seales: Yes, and we can't overlook "Diana, the Musical" and "Thoughts of a Colored Man." Each of these productions brought something unique to the stage.

[22:40] Ayanna Prescod: "Jagged Little Pill" and "Waitress" were also significant, and it's tough to see them go.

[23:00] Alan Seales: It's a reminder of how fragile the theatre industry can be, especially in times like these.

[23:10] Ayanna Prescod: Exactly. But looking forward, there are still so many exciting projects on the horizon.

[23:20] Alan Seales: Speaking of which, have you heard about "Once Upon a One More Time"?

[23:40] Ayanna Prescod: Yes! I’ve only heard a little bit because Salisha, a podcaster here, has been posting about it since she's in the show.

[24:00] Alan Seales: That's right. It's another one of those bio musicals that creates an original story using Britney Spears' music.

[24:20] Ayanna Prescod: I try not to read too much about shows before I see them. I want to go in fresh and be pleasantly surprised.

[24:40] Alan Seales: I completely agree. It's interesting how some shows are marketed.

[25:00] Ayanna Prescod: Yes, like the Tupac musical that ended badly because people expected a bio musical about him.

[25:20] Alan Seales: Exactly! I had similar expectations with "Jagged Little Pill."

[25:40] Ayanna Prescod: Right? I thought it would be about Alanis Morissette, but it turned out to be an original story.

[26:00] Alan Seales: And the nods to her music were clever, especially in "Ironic."

[26:20] Ayanna Prescod: It was such a pleasant surprise to see how they crafted the narrative.

[26:41] Alan Seales: This year has been full of ups and downs. Next year, hopefully, will be more ups than downs.

[29:01] Ayanna Prescod: For sure! And just so everyone can connect with you, Alan, where can we find you online?

[29:09] Alan Seales: I'm on Twitter and Instagram at @theatre_podcast. You can also visit bpn.fm/TTP for The Theatre Podcast.

[29:19] Ayanna Prescod: And I'm on Twitter at @AyannaPrescod, A-Y-A-N-N-A, last name P-R-E-S-C-O-D.

[29:27] Alan Seales: And don’t forget to check out rbksocial.com for more from me.

[29:31] Ayanna Prescod: Yes! And please leave a rating and a review wherever you're listening.

[29:49] Alan Seales: Thank you, everyone. Happy New Year! Stay safe, get vaccinated, and support your local theaters.

[30:01] Ayanna Prescod: Yes, please get boosted!

[30:07] Alan Seales: Happy New Year!