This transcript was automatically generated and might contain errors.

[0:00] Steven Sater: Hi, I'm Steven Sater. Welcome to The Theatre Podcast with Alan Seales.

[0:11] Alan Seales: Hey, everyone. Welcome back to The Theatre Podcast with Alan Seales. I am so incredibly excited to share this episode with you today because I'm getting to sit down again with a very dear friend of mine who's making his triumphant return to the podcast, Mr. Steven Sater. And the last time he was here was all the way back in Episode 71, which aired just three weeks before the entire world locked down in 2020. And obviously so much has changed since then and he has been busy creating nonstop. This episode actually is really cool because we recorded it right before Murder at the Gates, his most recent musical concept album was announced. It was announced just a few days ago as this episode is dropping. But what's very cool about this episode here is that not only do we get to play a little bit of the single that just dropped, we get to play a bit of the next single that hasn't been released yet. So you get to hear literally the first of this album that nobody else has got to hear yet. So that's very, very cool. Make sure you check out Murder at the Gates. We get into some behind the scenes stories of just the history, the deep, deep history of Spring Awakening. We're just discovering Jonathan Groff, Lea Michele, all of these amazing individuals who have gone on to just make incredible careers. And you're just going to love it. If you're a theater fan at all, this is just history exposed in such a real way. It's great. So find me online, Instagram, Twitter, TikTok, Facebook, all the places. Leave a rating, leave a review. Apologies for the audio quality of this intro. I'm traveling as I'm recording this intro and forgot my mic. So I'm doing this from my headphones, but you do what you can. Anyway, enjoy this episode now with Steven Sater.

[2:14] Alan Seales: My guest for this episode is a returning guest and a friend of mine that I am so happy to see again, a Tony, Grammy, and Olivier Award winning playwright, lyricist, and screenwriter. He's best known for his landmark collaboration on Spring Awakening as well as his acclaimed work on Alice by Heart and Nero. And he is currently preparing for a major new off-Broadway revival of his seminal musical at Studio Seaview alongside the premiere of his black comic murder mystery musical Murder at the Gates. Did I get all that right, Steven Sater?

[2:48] Steven Sater: You did, you did, you did.

[2:49] Alan Seales: Steven Sater, welcome back to The Theatre Podcast.

[2:51] Steven Sater: Thank you.

[2:52] Alan Seales: We were asking before we started recording, when was the last time we spoke? It was episode 71.

[2:59] Steven Sater: Oh, my God.

[3:00] Alan Seales: And this podcast, this is going to be episode 450 something.

[3:03] Steven Sater: Oh, my God. It's almost 400 episodes ago.

[3:06] Alan Seales: Almost 400 episodes ago. And it dropped January, where did I have this? January 19th, 2020, I believe, if I get that. Yeah, January 28th.

[3:17] Steven Sater: Three weeks before the world locked down.

[3:19] Alan Seales: January 28th, yeah, is when the last episode dropped. So, it's been a hot minute.

[3:24] Steven Sater: It has been.

[3:24] Alan Seales: And you've been all over the freaking world.

[3:27] Steven Sater: We do what we can.

[3:28] Alan Seales: Opening. How many projects of Spring Awakening have happened in the last four years?

[3:33] Steven Sater: There's no way to count. I mean, I don't even have that information. I could go through MTI to see how many have been licensed. It's just all over the place.

[3:41] Alan Seales: That's insane.

[3:42] Steven Sater: It's insane.

[3:42] Alan Seales: But there's some notable ones that were astonishing and including the Almeida production, which was so beautiful that Rupert Coole did with Laurie Kenniston, a great company of actors in London.

[3:52] Steven Sater: Yeah, I remember the London one, because we were texting when you were out in London, because I was trying to get in touch with you then. We were trying to meet up with you, and you're like, oh, I'm in London. I was like, oh, yes, of course. Of course you're going to be out there.

[4:04] Steven Sater: Yeah, I have something I can't tell you. I'm going to say I have something super cool coming in London. And I'm also saying this month is crazy for me because of all this stuff I'm going to be announcing. It's just happened.

[4:15] Alan Seales: Right, right.

[4:16] Steven Sater: But anyway, there's something if you're in London, and you're listening, and you love Alan, and you trust him, I'm saying, which I'm not sure, but I'm saying if you do, then something's coming in London.

[4:28] Alan Seales: That's so exciting. Okay, send me a voice note or something. Once you can announce it, we'll do like a quick little bonus episode to announce it.

[4:37] Steven Sater: Oh, good.

[4:37] Alan Seales: Or something.

[4:38] Steven Sater: Oh, good. That would be fun.

[4:39] Alan Seales: But yes, so The Spring Awakening is coming back to New York.

[4:43] Steven Sater: It is with Donya Taymor, who's to die from, and Celia Rawson-Hall. I got my dream director and my dream producer in Greg Noble. He's so great. I love him. And we're doing it at Seaview. It's amazing. We're going back, it's like 20 years ago. Today, we were in performance at the Atlantic Theatre.

[5:05] Alan Seales: That's crazy.

[5:06] Steven Sater: Is that crazy?

[5:06] Alan Seales: 20 years ago?

[5:08] Steven Sater: 20 years. We were not on Broadway yet.

[5:09] Alan Seales: Right, right.

[5:10] Steven Sater: But we were, yeah, we're playing, desperately praying to sell 190 seats a night.

[5:19] Alan Seales: The work that you do, and maybe this is a theme, or maybe this is just what kind of catches on in the zeitgeist. I mean, you write so much, and you create so much, but like Spring Awakening, Alice by Heart, Nero, and then now Murder at the Gates. It's aimed at a younger audience.

[5:31] Steven Sater: It's true.

[5:32] Alan Seales: And why is that? Is that just how...

[5:35] Steven Sater: I think when young people come into the room, they bring the future. And so, it's so exciting for me to have young... I mean, the fact of this open call to all of these young people, I'm going to start crying. Just that, you know, I'm on TikTok now, and I post something, and I just get open call, open call, open call. And I thought, if there's any way on earth we can make this work for Spring Awakening, and Don, you want to do it. And Greg, amazing, Greg said yes. So, that's been amazing.

[6:01] Steven Sater: So, I don't know why I'm... I don't know, I like writing for young people. I like discovering new people. I like working with... I don't know. They are the future.

[6:10] Alan Seales: Well, is that a conversation that you have had yet with Greg and with Donya in terms of casting? Because this is just a landscape. And I think since we last talked, literally, we talked right before the pandemic shut Broadway down. And things have gone a little bit sideways, or maybe a lot bit, depending on how big of a check you want to write for these kind of things. But I feel like you can't get something across the finish line without a major name attached anymore.

[6:35] Steven Sater: So, it's true. And you know who the biggest names are, Jonathan Groff and Lea Michele. I mean, it's crazy.

[6:45] Alan Seales: Are they coming back?

[6:46] Steven Sater: Oh, no, I don't mean that.

[6:47] Alan Seales: Oh, I was gonna say, are we breaking this?

[6:49] Steven Sater: No, we're not breaking this. They're my friends. And they're amazing. And they're like the biggest stars on Broadway. And they were like, how old was Lea then? She'd been doing it for seven years or something, six years. So, she was 20, maybe, and Jonathan was 21. John Gallagher was 21. Lily Cooper was 16.

[7:07] Alan Seales: Yeah, they were actual kids.

[7:08] Steven Sater: They were actual kids. I think we can't do that now legally, but I could be wrong.

[7:13] Alan Seales: I could be wrong. I've been getting asked this a lot. And I'm sorry about my throat.

[7:16] Steven Sater: Have a drink?

[7:18] Alan Seales: Excuse me, I'll have a drink. I think this has to be 18 and up.

[7:23] Steven Sater: Because of the nudity?

[7:25] Alan Seales: I don't know if there will be nudity.

[7:26] Steven Sater: Are you gonna change that?

[7:27] Alan Seales: Not to discourage everyone, but Donny is doing her own production. I mean, that's part of what's been thrilling about Donny. First of all, she and I have been talking about this for over a year.

[7:37] Steven Sater: Which I love Donny, by the way.

[7:38] Alan Seales: She's amazing.

[7:40] Steven Sater: What she did with Outsiders and the rehearsal process. She is gonna do so much good with this.

[7:45] Alan Seales: I agree. And that she gave everyone a story in The Outsiders. That entire ensemble had a story going on. And to say nothing of John Proctor. How strong was that? It was brilliant.

[7:56] Steven Sater: Exactly, yeah.

[7:57] Alan Seales: And she works with a lot of young people. She was my first thought. And I love her. So, we're really close now. And she is certainly developing her own vision for the show.

[8:09] Steven Sater: That's cool.

[8:10] Alan Seales: Or our joint vision, whatever it is, you know, with Celia and...

[8:13] Steven Sater: Well, that's what I've always kind of said, too, is that if you're gonna revive something, something that really is so notable, so instrumental in changing the zeitgeist, like Spring Awakening truly changed the zeitgeist of theater. And, you know, I hope you don't forget that when you're looking back at your history and your impact on the world, literally.

[8:32] Steven Sater: Oh, my God.

[8:34] Alan Seales: But you have to bring something back in a way. And I feel, producer hat on again, if we're bringing it back, there's gotta be a reason you're bringing it back, besides more than a cash grab.

[8:43] Steven Sater: My friend Jalen directed Cats. How about that?

[8:46] Alan Seales: Jalen is amazing.

[8:47] Steven Sater: I know.

[8:48] Alan Seales: Perfect example of bringing something back and doing it completely differently.

[8:52] Steven Sater: Yeah. And bringing so much life to it.

[8:54] Alan Seales: That's what I felt about this Cats jockeyball. It just has our lives in it. And so much that you see is like, it's like in a musical theater lane only. Do you mind my saying that?

[9:06] Steven Sater: No, not at all.

[9:06] Alan Seales: But that's what I feel. Okay, I'm not gonna say anything.

[9:09] Steven Sater: Well, no, for like, for Danya coming back, and Danya and Greg, and like deciding to bring back Spring Awakening, my original question, like, are you allowed to say it, like how it's gonna be a little different? Or have you gotten that far yet?

[9:19] Steven Sater: We've gotten, we're off on our footing. I think I can't, I think I have to respect what's the process. There's a choreography workshop, like today, I'm not there, because I'm seeing my friend Alan Seals. But, you know, and I'm giving them a day to like not have me in the room. But...

[9:38] Alan Seales: So this is cast now? You just haven't announced the cast?

[9:39] Steven Sater: No, no, no, no, no, no, not at all. There's no one cast. And there have been these posts saying such and such a star is doing it, and they're false.

[9:47] Alan Seales: Wow.

[9:48] Steven Sater: Yeah. And I'm not saying stars might not do it.

[9:50] Alan Seales: Right.

[9:50] Steven Sater: We're not saying we're only going to cast people out of the open call. We don't know if we'll cast anyone from the open call, but we could cast multiple people. You know, we don't know who we're going to discover. We're seeing everybody.

[10:00] Alan Seales: Yeah, there's so many people that literally are discovered now through open calls, and even through TikTok. Like, literally, in the last four years, the game has changed so much.

[10:09] Steven Sater: It's fantastic.

[10:09] Alan Seales: And I'm sure like you being on TikTok, your feed is full of people trying to perform and slide into your DMs.

[10:15] Steven Sater: Constantly.

[10:15] Alan Seales: Yeah.

[10:16] Steven Sater: But I like it.

[10:18] Alan Seales: I do.

[10:19] Steven Sater: As this amazingly talented 19-year-old is singing my song on TikTok, I want to see it.

[10:25] Alan Seales: Yeah. Like, how does that make you feel, though? Do you sit back and take all of this in in a way that's like a very meta way of like, I'm a fan of theater, I write for theater, but holy cow, these fans of mine are giving back. Like, this 19-year-old wasn't born when Spring Awakening first was performing.

[10:44] Steven Sater: I know. I mean, personally, I was too young to see the original, but I caught up on the Deaf West.

[10:52] Alan Seales: That's what he said?

[10:53] Steven Sater: That's what I say.

[10:57] Alan Seales: I don't know, you know, I get stopped on the street. And it's not like people are, you know, rushing up to me like they're big fans of my TV show. It's not like that. But people are coming up to me and saying, I played Ilsa in college and it did tell me how it changed their life, or how it affected them, or how, you know, saved them in some way. And so, it has a huge impact on me. I don't ever think about, whoa, I have had this impact on the theater landscape, or oh, my show's meant... I don't ever think that way. But when individuals tell me what the show has meant to them, it really touches me profoundly.

[11:36] Alan Seales: Mm-hmm. The other day, after you had texted me, and you were like, hey, what's up, let's hang, I started listening to Spring Awakening again, the original cast album, and just the flood of emotion, was it memory emotion, emotion memory, that came back of just like, I remember, you know, this is long before I met you, long before I was like professionally involved in the Broadway industry. And I remember as a fan, in my 20s, listening to this album, and having it get through relationship troubles, and personal value troubles, and the voice in my head saying I'm not good enough, and being like, well, I'm not actually alone. There's a whole musical about this kind of thing. And it's one of those things that, again, 20 years later, this is a great time to bring it back, I think, because the world is in such a steaming pile of shit, to put it mildly. And we need comedy, and we need drama for young people, because there doesn't seem to be much of either of those, enough of either of those.

[12:42] Steven Sater: I think that part of what it is about Spring Awakening, and also Alice by Heart, is it takes young people seriously.

[12:48] Alan Seales: Yes, yes.

[12:49] Steven Sater: And it creates roles that allow them to, you know, there's a part they can't tell about The Dark Thing that well, and they get to tell it. You know what I mean?

[12:59] Alan Seales: That's a good lyric. You should write that down.

[13:02] Steven Sater: I'm thinking, yeah, yeah. But I want to talk about this new thing for young people I'm doing. Can we talk about it?

[13:09] Alan Seales: Yes, Murder at the Gates.

[13:12] Steven Sater: I'm so excited about it. I'm so invested in it. And by the way, you're interviewing me. This has been since like 2013 or 14 that I've been working on with James Bond. Everything that I do takes so long. And I'm not saying it's just me and my pencil that takes so long. I'm saying, you don't have a brand name, you don't have an IP, we don't have a movie studio involved, we don't have money, we don't have a star attached. So it just takes a long time. And everything is hard anyway. But yes, it's Murder at the Gates. And after all these years, well, do you want to know the whole story?

[13:46] Alan Seales: Yeah, yeah.

[13:46] Steven Sater: We did this workshop in 2024 that was so fantastic. Not to put down anything else, but all these years, all my projects was like the best workshop ever. And we had these huge plans to be doing this super professional workshop where we invite the town, because this is private, and release an album. And it all fell apart.

[14:10] Alan Seales: In 2024?

[14:11] Steven Sater: No, at the end of 25. Or no, somewhere in 25.

[14:16] Alan Seales: Oh, wow.

[14:16] Steven Sater: Summer, the fall, and whenever. It fell apart. And I turned to my…

[14:22] Steven Sater: So James Bourne, who's a brilliant, brilliant musician and part of this band Busted, they're huge in the UK. He wrote the Year 3000. Do you know that song by the Jonas Brothers? Well, a lot of people do.

[14:36] Alan Seales: Not in your playlist.

[14:36] Steven Sater: Jonas Brothers. Listen, I skipped a generation because I have kids that now are getting into music. But anyway.

[14:43] Steven Sater: Those were forgotten years. But James and I hit it off in this really profound way. And I had written this murder mystery. Here's what it is. Let me go back. When Spring Awakening, when I was first writing Spring Awakening, this is going back to 1999 before you were born. And we said…

[15:03] Alan Seales: I am 45. Excuse you.

[15:05] Steven Sater: There you go. Rent was all the rage. I was being pushed, pushed, pushed to create a contemporary version of Spring Awakening. And I said it will never work. And it didn't work. But the energy of trying to write something about how totally effed young people are today led to this murder, this black comic murder mystery. It's sort of like think clue meets clueless of Murder at the Gates. And I had written it for a theater in Minneapolis, and we're working, working, working. And then I met James Bourne, and he was at my house. But you're talking like early 2000s.

[15:40] Alan Seales: No, no, no. I didn't know. This was with James in like 2013 or 14.

[15:47] Steven Sater: So years later, and we met through Burt Bacharach and my Burt Bacharach album and all that amazing stuff. And he was at my place, and we had written a couple pop songs together. And for some reason, he said, you know, maybe we should give this song to Lea Michele. And so I said, well, we flicked on her on YouTube, and it was a video of Lea singing on my own at the Hollywood Bowl. And we were watching this video, and James, who was actually Oliver in Sam Mendes' Oliver on the West End all those years before. He was so leaned in, and I thought, oh, fuck, what if Murder at the Gates were full of these outrageous, seductive pop songs? And underneath, you felt this teen despair and nihilism that was leading to murder. And we just started like that. He just got it. And he said, you know, there's this video of Panic! at the Disco you need to see, and we watched it. All right, sins, not tragedies. And the music of the show is sort of Panic! at the Disco meets Phantom of the Opera with a bit of Spring Awakening. And we just started, and then it's taken 10 plus years. I mean, we had workshops right away. We had a workshop at NYU because it was free. So anyway, now going back to 2025, when this fell apart, I turned to James and said, you know, we've spent so much time and money recording demos for this album that sounds so incredible for the show. Let's just finish the album ourselves. So James and I are actually producing this concept album. I mean, such as it is. We have amazing people working with us. But, Alan, have you seen the stars that are on this album?

[17:29] Alan Seales: Dude, yes. Like what? Milo Manheim, Issa Briones, Gaten Matarazzo, Joy Woods, Helen Shen, Mason Alexander-Park, Casey Likes, and Ramin Karimloo? Come on. Come on.

[17:41] Steven Sater: Yeah, they're amazing. Joy Woods, did you say her? Amazing. She knocks it out of the park twice. Milo's on four songs. Anyway, by the time people are hearing this, you may have heard the first single, which is Gaten, and he destroys it.

[17:59] Alan Seales: Well, which one is that? Is that Fucking Screaming?

[18:01] Steven Sater: Yeah, Fucking Scream.

[18:03] Alan Seales: Should we play some?

[18:04] Steven Sater: Yes.

[18:04] Alan Seales: Should we play some? All right, let's play a little bit here.

[18:08] Steven Sater: Pretend you're in the things you do. Pretend that you're not buried too. Feeling closed in a body of dirt. And swallowed by something so inert. Walk a world that's gone from you. A world that holds no part of you. And never know how to live on this earth. No darling, piss shit, and bleed from birth. Fucking scream from the horror, from the dream.

[18:36] Alan Seales: I was listening to this the whole way here, by the way.

[18:38] Steven Sater: Really?

[18:39] Alan Seales: Yes.

[18:39] Steven Sater: Oh, that's good. Encouraging.

[18:40] Alan Seales: That you're a beastie too, for an hour.

[18:43] Steven Sater: Fucking scream. Fucking scream from the horror, from the dream. The dream that distinguishes you. Bend and weep, that you're a beastie too, for an hour of the dream.

[18:58] Alan Seales: Oh, I love this.

[19:00] Steven Sater: I love...

[19:01] Alan Seales: Oh, God, God, God.

[19:02] Steven Sater: Okay, okay, okay.

[19:04] Alan Seales: Don't go anywhere. We'll be right back after this break.

[19:09] Alan Seales: Welcome back to the episode. Like, how do you find these people?

[19:13] Steven Sater: This was... Do you know who did the first workshops of this? It was Mike Feist.

[19:16] Alan Seales: That's how far back it goes.

[19:19] Steven Sater: Wow.

[19:19] Alan Seales: He was also the White Rabbit and Alice at that point.

[19:21] Steven Sater: Right, right. Do you know, when we were first doing this, it was Ashley Park, Derek Klena, Mike Feist. I mean, we had all stars then. And then they all blew up.

[19:34] Alan Seales: The whole cast blew up.

[19:35] Steven Sater: Molly Gordon.

[19:36] Alan Seales: Right.

[19:36] Steven Sater: And Molly's got her own TV show.

[19:38] Alan Seales: Well, hello.

[19:39] Steven Sater: Yeah, everything.

[19:40] Alan Seales: Yeah, when you say that's worked out. Like, you make stars, it seems.

[19:45] Steven Sater: Or I can see them.

[19:47] Alan Seales: Do you know what I mean? I don't know that I make them, but I can see, oh, God, they have so much star quality.

[19:53] Steven Sater: Yeah.

[19:54] Alan Seales: What does that mean?

[19:54] Steven Sater: And people say that to me, like, how do you see that? And it's just...

[19:58] Alan Seales: I have a very, very close film producer friend who says the same thing. You just see it.

[20:02] Steven Sater: It's not hidden.

[20:04] Alan Seales: What makes... Is it attitude or is it talent or both?

[20:08] Steven Sater: I think it's conviction. I think it's something innate. And I think there's a... You know, when Lea Michele came into this room at 14, she said to me, I'm a triple threat. And it's not just that they're cocky or like, you don't cast those people. It's really that they know and they kind of know in their bones when they're doing something that it's right.

[20:28] Alan Seales: Right.

[20:30] Steven Sater: Or if it's wrong, that they're right, sort of.

[20:34] Alan Seales: Right. You can see it.

[20:36] Steven Sater: At that age...

[20:37] Alan Seales: Yeah, you're right.

[20:38] Steven Sater: It takes a special person at any age to be confident without being cocky, but knowing what makes you different, what your worth is, right? Lean into your uniqueness. Don't be the next Lea Michele. Be the next whoever you are.

[20:52] Steven Sater: 100%.

[20:52] Alan Seales: Right? But then at that age, too, especially in the teenage years when you don't have the life experience yet to draw upon.

[21:00] Steven Sater: Yeah, I have to tell you, when Lea in Spring Awakening, she's like, she came in and she was 14. She said to me, I'm a triple threat.

[21:07] Alan Seales: It was like, oh, Molly Gordon.

[21:12] Steven Sater: So, Molly Gordon was best friends with Ben Platt and Beanie Feldstein and Katherine Gallagher. And that was how we conceived Alice by Heart. I wrote it for those kids.

[21:23] Alan Seales: Wow.

[21:24] Steven Sater: Because my friend Jessie invited me to that. She's Molly's mom. She became the director and co-writer of the show later years. We had Darren Criss. No one knew who Darren Criss was.

[21:34] Alan Seales: Really?

[21:36] Steven Sater: So what's the goal with Murder at the Gates? Because you mentioned film studios and whatnot. Do you want to make it a stage production?

[21:32] Steven Sater: It's completely written as a stage musical. That's what we've been developing all these years. Now, at one point, do you know that Jeff Katzenberg did this thing called Quibi?

[21:41] Alan Seales: Yeah.

[21:41] Steven Sater: They were doing short films.

[21:43] Alan Seales: This was probably when I saw you last.

[21:47] Steven Sater: I sold it to them. And I protected the stage rights. And it was going to be – I got paid. I wrote these – Quibi was like 10-minute films. And because it's really a movie, it's a stage play, but it really tells the beginning, middle, and end. I didn't want to make it a series. I wanted to make it – and so that seemed great. And they wouldn't take the stage rights, whatever. Then they fell apart.

[23:10] Alan Seales: Do you remember that?

[23:12] Steven Sater: Quibi.

[23:13] Alan Seales: Oh, Quibi was a studio.

[23:14] Steven Sater: Oh yeah, yeah, yeah. They went bankrupt. And so, well, they launched in the pandemic. And so suddenly, all these people who only had two minutes to watch stuff on the way to work had time to just stream Netflix all day. So it wasn't the best timing for them. But yes, I think Murder at the Gates is 100% an amazing movie about to come. And it leans into that teen horror and teen murder mystery. But it really began as sort of – my grandfather read – do you know Agatha Christie?

[23:43] Alan Seales: Of course.

[23:43] Steven Sater: She wrote these great murder mysteries. And I saw The Mouse Trap, which is the longest-running play in the world. And I thought, no, someone should do this as a musical. Want to know something? I had an argument with Steve Sondheim about this. He said to me, Stephen, there is no way you can create a murder mystery musical. You don't put two Stevens in a room.

[24:04] Alan Seales: Yeah, well, he would get yell at me if I called him Stephen.

[24:07] Steven Sater: So he said, Steve.

[24:09] Alan Seales: Stephen, Stephen, all right.

[24:10] Steven Sater: Okay, Stephen, Stephen, Steve. But he was Stephen Sondheim. Let's be honest. So he – yeah, I had a fight with him. And not a fight. We argued about it. I said, yes, you can. He said, no, no, no. And he had all these reasons because you can't get on anyone's side. And I said, Stephen – I said, Steve, it's not about whose side are you on. It's who do you suspect. And so I don't know. All these things from my history came back to me in writing this show. And he said, the ending is all so boring. And a detective's wrapping everything up. And I said, it doesn't have to be that way. He said, no, you can change things. Hello. So anyway, it's a completely original musical. But it so happens we have these amazing stars. And we – James and I could afford to finish this album.

[24:59] Alan Seales: Yeah.

[25:00] Steven Sater: I can't produce a show, you know. So yeah, super invested in this album in every way, every way, every way. But I'm also hoping it will catch on. And a lot of people will pre-save it. And we can create a following to get the show on. Because I hear what you're saying about Broadway, and it's true.

[25:19] Alan Seales: Yeah.

[25:20] Steven Sater: But if we have a big following...

[25:22] Alan Seales: So the first single from Murder at the Gates, Fucking Scream, just dropped on – what'd you say?

[25:30] Steven Sater: It was June 17th.

[25:31] Alan Seales: June 18th.

[25:32] Steven Sater: June 18th.

[25:32] Alan Seales: It just dropped on the 18th. So if you're listening now, you can go out everywhere you find your music, pre-save this thing, listen...

[25:39] Steven Sater: Pre-save Murder at the Gates.

[25:40] Alan Seales: Pre-save Murder at the Gates of the album. But you can hear the single now. And then when's the next single dropping?

[25:44] Steven Sater: July 1st.

[25:44] Alan Seales: July 1st. Okay. I can't wait for that. And then are we allowed to play...

[25:50] Steven Sater: Yes.

[25:51] Alan Seales: It's the second single.

[25:52] Steven Sater: The second single.

[25:52] Alan Seales: That's what we're talking about, Milo and...

[25:54] Steven Sater: A Fine Rigor Mortis.

[25:55] Alan Seales: Mason Alexander Park, yeah.

[25:56] Steven Sater: All right. So here is the second single, which if this is dropping on the 23rd, is this going to be when we're breaking the music first?

[26:04] Alan Seales: Yeah.

[26:05] Steven Sater: This is going to be a sneak peek.

[26:06] Alan Seales: All right. Let's only play a section of it.

[26:08] Steven Sater: Okay.

[26:09] Alan Seales: Where do you want to start?

[26:10] Steven Sater: You can start... Didn't we say seven seconds in? Like get the instrumental out of the way.

[26:15] Alan Seales: All right, here we go. Here's a sneak peek of A Fine Rigor Mortis.

[26:37] Steven Sater: This is Mason Alexander Park.

[26:38] Alan Seales: No, this is Milo.

[26:40] Steven Sater: Oh, Milo.

[26:40] Alan Seales: A Fine Rigor Mortis, lying like corpses.

[26:43] Steven Sater: All right, we're just gorgeous.

[26:46] Alan Seales: Me and you.

[26:49] Steven Sater: Yes, it's a fine rigor mortis, just gorgeous, just fucking gorgeous, me and you.

[27:01] Alan Seales: Now, maybe we should go out.

[27:02] Steven Sater: Yeah, yeah, yeah.

[27:03] Alan Seales: That was going to say that. That's a great sneak peek.

[27:06] Steven Sater: Yeah.

[27:06] Alan Seales: Well, thank you for sharing that. I'm so excited for this. And then as the producing world happens to be so all types of fine and messed up all at the same time, you're going to drop this and then what's the next step if people want to get involved? And like you said, you're looking for your perfect producer. So what do you want to happen with this?

[27:28] Steven Sater: Someone who completely gets it and loves it to option it.

[27:32] Alan Seales: Is that...

[27:32] Steven Sater: Oh, where do I want it to be? Well, it could be a lot of places. We could start doing readings of it somewhere. We could launch it at an amazing regional theater like Pasadena Playhouse or the Huntington where you worked recently, I know. I don't know if this would be for their audience or maybe it would be or ART or...

[27:51] Alan Seales: Yeah.

[27:52] Steven Sater: La Jolla would be great.

[27:53] Alan Seales: Fifth Avenue in Seattle?

[27:55] Steven Sater: Fifth Avenue would be amazing.

[27:56] Alan Seales: Yeah, they'd both be amazing. I've worked at La Jolla a couple of times. But and then I would want it to be in New York and I'd want it to... I mean, of course you want your show to be on Broadway, but it could be commercially off-Broadway. That would be exciting.

[28:08] Alan Seales: How do you as the owner of the IP, as the person who wrote this, you and James, I'm sure that once the announcement comes out, your phone's going to be blowing up with producer friends saying...

[28:18] Steven Sater: I hope so.

[28:19] Alan Seales: Really?

[28:20] Steven Sater: I think, to be honest with you, I'm perceived as risky. Even though my shows have been commercially successful, there's a reason Alan Seales that it's been 17 years to get the Spring Awakening movie made. And everyone's like, why don't you make it? And I'm like, you have no idea. I've been working on this relentlessly. And we are getting it made. We're in it. But it's still not green lit. It still doesn't have a studio attached. Still doesn't have financing. There's this thing of musicals don't work. This is now we're on the film.

[29:04] Alan Seales: Right.

[29:04] Steven Sater: But also, how are you going to do... This is Spring Awakening the film. Yes. X-rated or R-rated. How are you going to do an R-rated film whose demographic is teen? Yeah. And it's a period piece. And I'm just like, you have no idea. And they're saying it has no foreign appeal. And it's like, wait a minute. Like it's been done in 32 countries. How many different languages?

[29:21] Alan Seales: So many languages.

[29:23] Steven Sater: Yeah. Every drama school's around the world, right? So I say this to come back to Murder at the Gates. I think Murder at the Gates is a huge hit waiting to happen. I'm not kidding. It completely taps into this young genre. There aren't murder mystery musicals that are successful where you're actually on the edge of your seat and scared. And people are singing like rock songs like that. So I don't have any doubts about it. But I don't have the money. So I don't... It's not like my phone is ringing off the wall of producers chasing my project. I don't get that. It's like work to get my stuff on.

[30:02] Alan Seales: But I mean, in the limit... Maybe I shouldn't present that as... But that's the truth.

[30:07] Steven Sater: Well, I think that people need to come, producers and people especially who write the checks. Because before you have a Broadway house, you need people who love you, who love the work and who are willing to take a bigger risk. Because it's always a giant risk until you have a Broadway house. And then it's still a risk, but it's less of a risk, much less of a risk. So right now, though, I feel like there are so many people like me who are now in the midlife who have a little bit of money tucked away under a mattress who might want to come out and say, like, hey, let's help invest and make this dream happen for your next project, Murder at the Gates, because you have a proven track record of changing my generation's lives. I mean, I can't say that enough of just how much it means to me that we are friends, that we are sitting here together, and we're still in touch. But the fact that you're still writing, you're still creating, and just these two songs that we've heard so far, I'm like, I cannot wait to see this thing on its feet. Because I feel like it's going to do that same thing for me when I was 20 that it did for the kids who are 17, 18, 19, 20 now.

[31:17] Steven Sater: I think you're right. And I also think that the same way, like my friend Barbara Broccoli said to me after she saw Spring Awakening, and she loves Spring Awakening, she said, you know, you're watching it like you're one of the kids. And then suddenly, at some point, it hits you, oh, damn, I'm the grown-ups.

[31:33] Alan Seales: Yeah, yeah.

[31:34] Steven Sater: And I think something, I mean, the grown-ups, this is a black comic. It's not hard on your sleeve the way Spring Awakening is. It has a huge emotional wallop, but it's not the tone. But there are two adults in this, too. There's the dad and the housekeeper that he's been having an affair with for years, since the mother. The mother dies at the beginning. It's a little Hamlet. And the daughter, Cameron, it's a dark and stormy night. All her friends have, she's been, her mom died, and she was uncool enough to really feel something. And so her friends got sick of it. She was grieving, and they've ghosted her. And her dad wants to get her out of her room. He's moved the family to this gated community. They're the first family to move in. So they're the one house that's finished in this wasteland of half-finished mansions. So no one is there. And they're in the woods of New England. And it's raining hard. And he's thrown his daughter a party. And she's mortified. Who are the guests? Well, they're all the people who have become her enemies. And beyond that, it's a murder mystery party. And she's just mortified. And all these people show up in their limousines. And the party starts. And they're doing a murder mystery play. And the murder comes, and the murder's real. And the house locks down. So they start dying.

[33:03] Alan Seales: Where did you get the idea for this? You said this was like 2013, 2012, you started writing it?

[33:06] Steven Sater: Yeah.

[33:06] Alan Seales: So where did you get this idea? Because this is after you were writing Spring Awakening, but before Spring Awakening.

[33:12] Steven Sater: I just thought I was thinking about messed up kids today. And guns. And just like all the stuff that's pertinent. And the lack of parenting. And the lack of responsibility. And ghosting. The heartlessness. And the emotional pain of that. And I just thought, well, you want to murder everyone. And so then I thought of Agatha Christie, whom I loved when I was so young.

[33:39] Alan Seales: And I don't know, it just evolved.

[33:41] Steven Sater: Because you read a lot of Agatha Christie when you were in your bubble, yeah?

[33:46] Alan Seales: When I was like six...

[33:47] Steven Sater: Oh, you mean when I had my accident?

[33:48] Alan Seales: You're right.

[33:49] Steven Sater: No, that was later.

[33:51] Alan Seales: So you had an accident...

[33:51] Steven Sater: I had Agatha Christie, like 70 of them when I was in sixth grade.

[33:55] Alan Seales: Oh, wow.

[33:55] Steven Sater: So if you want to know what we're talking about, about the bubble and his accident, go back to episode 71.

[34:00] Alan Seales: Yeah.

[34:01] Steven Sater: Well, I had a bad accident.

[34:02] Alan Seales: Yes.

[34:02] Steven Sater: And then I was in a bubble.

[34:03] Alan Seales: Yes.

[34:04] Steven Sater: For a while.

[34:04] Alan Seales: But that bubble led to Spring Awakening.

[34:06] Steven Sater: A literal bubble, yes.

[34:08] Alan Seales: Yeah. I remember one of the memories that sticks with me, or the image that sticks with me. You said, literally, you were kind of spit-roasted where they had to...

[34:15] Steven Sater: Yeah.

[34:16] Alan Seales: Turn me from my back to my stomach for two hours.

[34:17] Steven Sater: Turn you from your back to your front because you were immobile.

[34:19] Alan Seales: Yeah, anyway. Episode 71, folks. Go back and listen.

[34:22] Alan Seales: So then... All right. So this episode... I mean, the single just dropped. The album's coming out soon.

[34:28] Steven Sater: Yeah.

[34:28] Alan Seales: And then is there a place for people to write in if producers want to get in touch or anything?

[34:34] Steven Sater: Yeah.

[34:36] Alan Seales: How can they reach me?

[34:37] Steven Sater: Well, they can reach out to my agent at CA.

[34:40] Alan Seales: There you go.

[34:41] Steven Sater: They can't... I don't know if I'll see it in my DMs, is the truth.

[34:45] Alan Seales: I could say, DM me.

[34:46] Steven Sater: They could write to Alan Seals.

[34:47] Alan Seales: Write me, and I'll send it to you.

[34:49] Steven Sater: Yeah. I mean, people can write me on social media, but CA might be better.

[34:56] Alan Seales: Yeah, yeah, probably.

[34:58] Steven Sater: There's a press team for this album.

[35:01] Alan Seales: Yeah.

[35:01] Steven Sater: That's smart. You're doing it so smart. And ever since... I feel like since COVID, concept albums have become a thing, like a real thing.

[35:11] Alan Seales: I love that you're saying that. I hadn't thought about that.

[35:12] Steven Sater: Well, The Warriors, obviously.

[35:14] Alan Seales: Yeah.

[35:15] Steven Sater: And then there are these other in pieces, and there are these new shows coming out. But I have... Maybe it was just that I started paying attention to it, or maybe... But during COVID, it was 2020, 21, 22. It was because it was so nearly impossible to put things on stage, people were just redirecting the money and finishing albums.

[35:35] Alan Seales: Alan, I did that.

[35:36] Steven Sater: Yeah.

[35:36] Alan Seales: Some lovers.

[35:37] Steven Sater: Burt Bacharach and Steven Spielberg, some lovers.

[35:39] Yes, yes.

[35:40] Alan Seales: I did do that.

[35:40] Steven Sater: Right.

[35:42] Alan Seales: And it was the last thing in Burt's life.

[35:44] Steven Sater: Yeah, I remember you telling me that.

[35:45] Alan Seales: It meant so much to him, and the Grammy nomination, and all the rest of it.

[35:48] Steven Sater: Oh, God. This music is so different from Burt's, and so I think it will reach a different generation, and it's social media friendly. It's not designed to be. I'm just saying it actually is.

[36:00] Alan Seales: You have your pulse on such the opposite ends of the generational spectrums.

[36:05] Steven Sater: Well, I grew up loving Burt.

[36:07] Alan Seales: Yeah.

[36:08] Steven Sater: My mother was in love with him, actually. And I loved his music, so it was... You know what happened? When Spring Awakening was sort of in its zenith, my music publishing deal ran out, and I was in all these meetings with these CEOs of music publishing companies, and they were saying, like, what composers do you want to meet? And I would draw a blank. And I said, Burt Bacharach. And they were all like, yeah, yeah, yeah, Burt, and who else? And then I said it at the right company, and Burt called me.

[36:36] Alan Seales: Wow.

[36:37] Steven Sater: His daughter was a big fan of the show.

[36:41] Alan Seales: And I loved him. When was that?

[36:42] Steven Sater: Get it off. Like, did your...

[36:44] Alan Seales: 2010.

[36:46] Steven Sater: Was your mother around to see you?

[36:47] Alan Seales: Oh, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes.

[36:48] Steven Sater: Did she get to meet him?

[36:50] Alan Seales: Yes.

[36:50] Steven Sater: I'm sure that was a big experience.

[36:52] Alan Seales: It was huge, and they came to the musical. You know, my show with them, Some Lovers at the Old Globe.

[36:57] Steven Sater: Wow.

[36:58] Alan Seales: Trying to get that show on right now. I don't know if I'm allowed to say this on air, but someone... let's say a recent Tony Award winning director, whom I would be happy to name, but I'm not sure I should, we're uniting on Some Lovers. So I want to get that going.

[37:15] Steven Sater: Does his name start with Michael and end with Arden?

[37:18] Alan Seales: No, but that would be good.

[37:20] Steven Sater: That would be good.

[37:22] Alan Seales: We're talking about something else, he and I. This guy's name starts with a Z.

[37:26] Steven Sater: Hmm.

[37:27] Alan Seales: Dude, you have your hands on everything, and I love it. And this goes to show you too that for people out there who want to be part of the industry and want to be part of the... want to create in this industry, it's just incessant, nonstop, never give up.

[37:41] Steven Sater: It 100% is.

[37:42] Alan Seales: Because if you give up, there's a million other people who are going to walk right by you.

[37:46] Steven Sater: Hello.

[37:47] Alan Seales: Yeah. And I have to say, you know, I grew up in this small town in Evansville, Indiana. I went to Washington University in St. Louis. I was an academic. I was in English literature and classics. Then I was at Princeton in English literature. So it's not like I moved to New York and was connected to the network. I wasn't.

[38:03] Steven Sater: Yeah.

[38:04] Alan Seales: It took forever. Continuing, it's who you know, it's being in the right place at the right time. And just like you said with your Burt Bacharach story, you're saying the same thing over and over again until it hits. Something's going to hit. How many times did Spring Awakening not get greenlit?

[38:17] Steven Sater: It was eight years.

[38:18] Alan Seales: Right.

[38:18] Steven Sater: And then now you're saying that you're trying to get Murder at the Gates produced, and there's going to be a bunch of people who will be like, yeah, like you said, you're risky. I don't want to write a check for that. I'm going to go write a check for adapted IP that already has an audience.

[38:30] Steven Sater: Exactly.

[38:30] Alan Seales: Because...

[38:31] Steven Sater: With two big stars.

[38:32] Alan Seales: With two big stars. And you can't blame them.

[38:33] Steven Sater: No.

[38:34] Alan Seales: But it's not my thing.

[38:36] Steven Sater: No.

[38:36] Alan Seales: It's not my thing either. And that's why I got involved with When Playwrights Kill that you mentioned in Huntington Theatre because it's a completely original story.

[38:44] Steven Sater: Yeah.

[38:44] Alan Seales: And I didn't want to get involved and spend all this time on something that was just kind of recycled. And I'm not throwing any of that content under the bus. It's just not what I go for. I want to find a good original story, and along with what you said, discover new talent. Take a risk. Because it's so much more exciting.

[39:01] Steven Sater: Bigger swings, bigger hits.

[39:06] Alan Seales: Don't go anywhere. We'll be right back after this break.

[39:10] Alan Seales: Welcome back to the episode. Not that I wouldn't love to do something with Jonathan and Leah again. I would. I'd love to do it. Be a dream come true. But I do love this thing of finding new people.

[39:21] Steven Sater: You wait another 30 years, and you can do spring going to bed.

[39:24] Alan Seales: There you go.

[39:26] Steven Sater: Winter dormancy or something like that.

[39:28] Alan Seales: Winter dormancy.

[39:30] Steven Sater: You're my junk.

[39:31] Alan Seales: My junk is you.

[39:33] Steven Sater: We talk about that, that Jonathan said to me. Well, we did this, you know, the reunion in 15 years. And we said, well, maybe we'll do it again in 15 years. And Jonathan's like, ah, we'll be able to. Okay, we'll do it while we can.

[39:46] Alan Seales: Hopefully.

[39:47] Steven Sater: Well, I mean, they're still young. They're in their early 30s, mid 30s.

[39:51] Alan Seales: Yeah.

[39:51] Steven Sater: So they've got time.

[39:52] Alan Seales: They're amazing.

[39:53] Steven Sater: They've got lots of time. They're working. You're still working. Obviously, this is going to be it. I love this music. I really hope. Thank you. I really hope that it goes well, and I can be a part of it in some small way or one way or another.

[40:05] Steven Sater: Yeah.

[40:05] Alan Seales: That would be exciting. All right. Well, let's wrap up again with Plot in 60 Seconds, which is new since episode 71. I think I started it in the 200s.

[40:13] Steven Sater: All of this is new. The office, the lighting.

[40:16] Alan Seales: Oh, boy. Okay. So I have 17 popular musicals in front of me. Actually, I'm going to add Avenue. I'm going to add Spring Awakening.

[40:23] Steven Sater: Oh, Spring Awakening.

[40:24] Alan Seales: Now I have 18 popular musicals in front of me. Okay. Give me a number one through 18, and you will have picked from my list, and you have to give me the plot to that musical in 60 seconds or less.

[40:33] Steven Sater: Wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait. What are you saying? You're going to name 18 things that I have to tell you?

[40:37] Alan Seales: No. You give me a number one through 18. I will tell you what you picked, and then you give me that plot.

[40:43] Steven Sater: Oh, I don't know if I'll know it.

[40:44] Alan Seales: Make it up. I'm kind of bad at this.

[40:47] Steven Sater: Nine.

[40:48] Alan Seales: Nine. You should know this, and nine is Rent. Go.

[40:51] Steven Sater: What's the plot of Rent?

[40:53] Steven Sater: Yes. But the issue with Rent is that the plot never gets resolved. There's this whole thing about finding, and they're trying to find a place to rent. Like, that just gets dropped. But there's this... I'm sorry. I don't mean to... You know?

[41:07] Alan Seales: No.

[41:08] Steven Sater: I remember seeing it with my friend Dinah Manhoff. It's... I mean, there's the boy, he... Does she have AIDS? Does the boy have AIDS?

[41:14] Alan Seales: Pretty much everyone does.

[41:16] Steven Sater: They all... So it's set in the AIDS crisis in New York in the early 2000s, right?

[41:21] Alan Seales: Yeah.

[41:23] Steven Sater: I don't know. There's fantastic songs. Will You Light My Candle and all that. That's what I sort of took in. The plot, I thought, was not that well done. I'm sorry, Jonathan Larson. I think it's fantastic.

[41:37] Alan Seales: Am I really in trouble now for saying that?

[41:40] Steven Sater: No. What I mean is, Rent is iconic. Rent is fantastic. Rent is all these things. To me, the storytelling is not...

[41:47] Alan Seales: Well, it's based on Love, O.M.

[41:48] Steven Sater: There you have it. It's a story of Love, O.M. It's a story of me, me, who passes away.

[41:53] Alan Seales: Okay. Okay, good, good, good, good.

[41:55] Alan Seales: All right. So then, still three standard closing questions that I've asked since the beginning. The first one simply is just what motivates you.

[42:03] Steven Sater: Wanting to make a dent.

[42:05] Alan Seales: I think you've made more than a dent, my friend.

[42:08] Steven Sater: All right. Keep going.

[42:10] Alan Seales: What advice would you give to your younger self and younger people listening now starting out down a similar path?

[42:14] Steven Sater: Have patience. And never let up.

[42:18] Alan Seales: I love it. All right. If you could only see one show for the rest of your life, if you could see it as many times as you want, what would you see?

[42:24] Steven Sater: Like, Alice by Heart. Am I allowed that or no?

[42:26] Alan Seales: Yeah, any show.

[42:28] Steven Sater: I mean, any show is going to be like Hamlet for me, or Oedipus, or something amazing. I have this new thing coming that I modeled on a Greek tragedy. I won't tell you what it is yet.

[42:38] Alan Seales: So many new things, dude. You'd never quit.

[42:39] Steven Sater: I know.

[42:40] Alan Seales: I love it. Well, now you're on TikTok and everywhere. Plug all the places we can follow you online.

[42:52] Steven Sater: Thank you. Oh, tell you TikTok, Instagram, YouTube, where no one knows, no one follows me there. I just Facebook.

[43:02] Alan Seales: You still just Facebook?

[43:02] Steven Sater: Are you saying there's places you can find me?

[43:04] Alan Seales: Yeah, all the places online where you play the social media game.

[43:07] Steven Sater: Mostly TikTok, but also Instagram.

[43:10] Alan Seales: That's so cool that you've found this corner of TikTok.

[43:15] Steven Sater: I have to tell you something. I think TikTok is amazing, and I understand people putting down TikTok. But first of all, I watch the news on TikTok all the time. I get cutting edge news from, yeah, the young, may we say, lefty commentators. But yeah, here's what I love most about TikTok, and I'll go on record for it, is the community. There's this musical theater community. I stay in all weekend writing, as much as I can. I don't see anyone. I don't pick up my phone. I can, at seven at night on a Sunday night, I can go on TikTok live, and there's this whole community of people who love my work, who've been part of my work, who are loaded with questions about their audition for the Mad Hatter or the Queen of Hearts, or Malky or more. It's so beautiful. They tell me, I was a theater kid, so I still am. It just touches the very heart of me.

[44:11] Alan Seales: It's beautiful. I love that. Well, I'm still on Threads, TikTok, Instagram, Facebook. I'm out there. Check the show notes. Look at you. Leave a rating, leave a review. It helps people spread the word. Tell everyone you can about Murder at the Gates, and listen to that single. Holy crap, guys. Thank you, Steve, and thank you to WelcomeToTimesSquare.com for the lovely use of this studio. I just can't wait to see what comes of this.

[44:34] Steven Sater: Thanks for showing up.

[44:35] Alan Seales: Very exciting.

[44:36] Steven Sater: Very exciting.

[44:36] Alan Seales: Thank you, Alan, for having me.

[44:38] Steven Sater: Of course.