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[0:00] Alan Seales: Welcome to The Theatre Podcast, intimate personal conversations with theatre's biggest names. I'm Alan Seales and this is part two of the interview with William Ivey Long. If you didn't listen to part one, rewind a few days in however you rewind on the internet and go back and listen to part one because damn, it's good. Enjoy. I'm just looking through your credits here. It takes me so long to scroll through your, your, I am your IGB. Bless your heart. Bless your heart. Wow. Yeah. Okay. Um, so goodness, we've been talking for a while. Okay. So let's fast forward a little bit and now Tootsie and Beetlejuice. Yeah. Skip all those. Let's go to now. Forget the producers.

[0:57] William Ivey Long: Okay. Okay. No, no. Forget the producers. Really? Let's go to Tootsie and Beetlejuice. Well, do you want to talk? They opened a day apart? No. There are books on that.

[1:07] Alan Seales: See preposterous pompous. There are books on that.

[1:10] William Ivey Long: Yeah. Beetlejuice and Tootsie. Um, did you, do you, did you know they were both going to hit Broadway at the same time? You mean open a day apart? Yes. You mean Tootsie be my 74th Broadway show and Beetlejuice be my diamond jubilee 75th? No, not a clue. You start working on shows whenever the director, whenever you're lucky enough and privileged enough for somebody to want you, uh, there's a real visceral react. People say, how does it start? And I'd say, well, it starts with a phone call. And the director asked you, would you like to do such and such? And, uh, I have never gotten a job from an interview. I'm a very bad interview. Everyone that from the very beginning, my agent, Helen Merrill, but I've only had one agent sort of Helen Merrill morphed into a Patrick Harold at ICM, but it's been the Harold Helen Merrill.

Uh, she said, Oh, William, uh, everyone, she had a slight list and a German list, but that, uh, everyone thinks you're, you're, you're flip. I said, Helen flip. It seems I was flip F L I P, but I'm always flip in my mind. And I haven't stopped being flip. So no one hires me, uh, cold. I only get referenced. So I know it's a catch 22. So I had a slow start, but, uh, so I don't know. I think David Correns forced Alex Timbers to hire me. Really? Yeah. I think so. I don't think Alex would have just hired me. Maybe he hadn't met me and thought he liked my work, but hadn't met me, but then he was stuck with me. Well, he could have dropped me, but anyway, but you work for the director and that's how you start.

The director is the boss. Anyone who thinks that producers are the bosses on the Broadway, that's not right. Producers are the bosses in movies and in television, but on Broadway, the director is head of the top of the mountain. And, uh, I've mostly worked with Jerry Zack's in this order, Jerry Zack, Susan Stroman, Scott Ellis, Walter, Bob, you know, I have a great Leave Your Cholet, uh, those numbers and Jerry Zack's like 35. We're over 30 with Susan. It's hard to count because we do it a full, we've done so many different projects, ballets and everything.

[3:34] Alan Seales: So, um, the director calls you and you start working and you don't know whether it's going to happen next year or two years from then. And that's how I got into this jungle trap of Beetlejuice and Tootsie. I also had two other shows. I had four shows last year open within eight weeks.

[3:56] William Ivey Long: What? I know. Right. Well, the, on Broadway, Beetlejuice, well, we had done out of town tryouts for Beetlejuice in DC and Tootsie in Chicago. So those technically did open at a pre another year, a previous year. But then I had Princess Diana, the musical open at La Jolla.

[4:17] Alan Seales: Oh, you were working on that?

[4:18] William Ivey Long: Yeah. Coming up again. And then, uh, Marie, the musical sometimes called Little Dancer about Degas with Terry Mann as Degas, just saying. Um, so that Terry Mann in as Degas, Susan Stroman directing, uh, Little Dancer that opened in Seattle, Princess Diana opened at La Jolla and then, uh, Tootsie opened on Broadway, Beetlejuice, all within eight weeks. So it was a little schizo. Fortunately we had done each, except for Diana, I had done all of them previous, either out of town or at the Kennedy Center.

[4:59] Alan Seales: That's incredible. So do you, do you, are you good at, uh, multitasking or context searching?

[5:06] William Ivey Long: I'm a virgin. August 30th. Yes. Want to see today? Here's today.

[5:10] Alan Seales: Oh, that's your will schedule. Who makes this?

[5:14] William Ivey Long: Donald Sanders. Uh, and, uh, Butler Robertson makes it for me and they type it up charmingly as if it's been done on a typewriter and on an index card. So you can just keep it. So that's today. There you are right there in the middle. That's right. So you gotta be somewhere. This is the second one because I was supposed to have a fitting with Latonya, Richardson, Jackson, but we've scheduled it. So that's that open space there. That's Latonya. But other than that, that's the day. That's how I do it.

[5:46] Alan Seales: I wish someone would do that with my day.

[5:47] William Ivey Long: It's charming, isn't it? It's charming.

[5:50] Alan Seales: Yeah. Just be like, all right, now wake up, let the kids wake you up, prepare to have them jump on your face.

[5:54] William Ivey Long: That's right. And then take them to school, prepare to struggle with them to get them to go to school, go to work, be prepared to be stuck on the subway.

[6:00] Alan Seales: You said you were stuck.

[6:01] William Ivey Long: Yeah. No, you were stuck in the Dunkin Donuts.

[6:04] Alan Seales: Oh yeah. Come here. I was. Yeah, that was it.

[6:06] William Ivey Long: Yeah. Yeah. No, I, I would like to do lists like that. I just use Google calendar, which kind of helps me out most of the time.

[6:14] Alan Seales: Oh, you mean cyberspace? I'm not good with cyberspace. No, I couldn't find you on social media.

[6:17] William Ivey Long: No, I'm not. No, I can't. I can't do it.

[6:20] Alan Seales: Okay. I do have an Instagram account. Do you?

[6:22] William Ivey Long: But it's the only things I love.

[6:24] Alan Seales: Oh, okay. Well, we'll get to that at the end. I'll let you, let you plug that.

[6:26] William Ivey Long: Oh, I won't. I won't. No, no, no, no.

[6:30] Alan Seales: Okay. Assume name.

[6:31] William Ivey Long: Oh, all right. Long Ivy Williams. That's it.

[6:34] Alan Seales: Oh my goodness. There's another joke in that, but we'll do, won't do that now. We need a cocktail.

[6:37] William Ivey Long: Oh, too early. We'll go out again for cocktails.

[6:45] Alan Seales: Scanning through my notes. Okay. So Beetlejuice obviously takes place in the netherworld. All this weird alternate reality, dead people, Tootsie, uh, in a different, it's set in modern times now. Um, what, I guess, okay. Take me back to like one-on-one here. How do you approach each one and dissect how you're going to start drawing up the costume, the concepts?

[7:07] William Ivey Long: I can't remember which came first, the chicken or the egg. Was it my dear friend and collaborator who I love more than life itself, Scott Ellis, uh, asking me to do Tootsie or was it my brand new? Oh, wait till he meets me. Will he send me out the tall, dark and handsome, uh, Alex Timbers. So I don't know which, which called first. I've totally forgotten because, but I know they were like a year apart. They all ended up being a day apart, actually opening. But, uh, you start with the phone call. Then you say yes. The only time you don't say yes is because then they will never ask you again. So you have to choose the no very carefully is if you're going to be on another continent and you can't do it. So, um, anyway, I said yes. Uh, but remember there were no dates. I didn't plan eight shows opening within, uh, four shows opening within eight weeks. I did not plan this.

[8:14] Alan Seales: Yeah. Tell that to the producers and directors.

[8:16] William Ivey Long: Um, so you say yes. And then you ask, well, should I, if it's a film and both were, I have a series of film to stage. There's a reason people, uh, based Broadway shows on films and it's to get butts in seats. Is there an expectation? Is there a joy in the title? You know, then that's a, that's a lead and gets you into the theater. That's at least somebody's thinking. So then you say, well, are we got, you know, do we relate to the film? Do we copy the film? Do we ignore the film? And like when I, when we do producers, I asked, uh, the great Mel Brooks, I said, do we, uh, should I acknowledge me? He said, no, just re-imagine it thing. I said, well, springtime for him. He said, no, re-imagine that, that, that totally new.

Then when we did young Frankenstein, he wanted me to be closer to the film, but on producers. So they'll tell you like, um, guys and dolls, of course that began as a stage play, but then it was a film. And you asked Jerry Zack in our revived famous revival, they changed the street name. Uh, it was, uh, Runyon land now. Uh, and he says, no, don't look at, don't look at either. Don't look at either, but by, so then you, any way you ask. And so Tootsie, let's talk, start with Tootsie. Tootsie was, um, you know, in the, in the eighties, shoulder pads, big glasses, big hair, big shoulders. Uh, and it was the soap opera play within the play was the soap opera. Yes.

[9:55] William Ivey Long: Uh, also we didn't have today back in the eighties. So my first question was, uh, minefield. What about the minefields of the today moment? Yeah. All that was just everything. Yeah.

[10:12] Alan Seales: Yeah. And I said, and they said, no, he said, no, we got this fabulous new writer, you know, named Robert Horne, who had never written a Broadway show. I said, oh, poor he, he'll step in on a landmine and never work again. Well, won the Tony. Yeah. But, uh, so that was the big question. How, why Tootsie? Why now? Really? Those are my questions. So it began like that, but the entire production of Scott Sanders, we have three Scots on, on Tootsie. We have Scott Sanders, the producer who thought of it and convinced the rights holder to let an unknown writer, Robert Horne, write it. Then we have the great Scott Ellis who sets the clocks in motion. If you, he's just the it man. And then we have Scott Rawlinson, our production, uh, stage manager.

So the three Scots in my life are on that show. And you can ask any of them a question at any time of day or night, all three of them are star word and true. And, uh, it became a moral, uh, journey, moral M O R a L journey Tootsie. And you ask, well, where's the humor? Oh no, there's humor, but you have to really know why are we doing this? What are our values, core values? So, uh, because it's fraught.

[12:29] William Ivey Long: He's beyond. I could do a whole thing. I could do a book on the alphabet according to David Yazbeck's clothing choices. I really must do that, actually, one day.

[12:39] Alan Seales: In all of your spare time.

[12:40] William Ivey Long: For grown-up children to use. Then we skip to The Beetlejuice, which, of course, so Scott Ellis says, no, we're not copying the movie at all. We're dealing directly with these undercurrent, overcurrent, on top current issues, face-on, full-on. Okay, so that's Tootsie. Then Alex Timbers. I can't remember which came first. We did lots of workshops with Alex. Oh, the Scots for that are Alex. Alex Timbers and Alex Brightman. Those are the Alexes. So, that's the Alex show. We learned a lot. I kept saying, is Mr. Burton going to come? Is Mr. Burton going to be around? Because what my whole focus on working on Beetlejuice was, well, are we going to, we're not, obviously the script, we're not copying the movie in any way, but how about this black and white striped suit?

Are we going to have that? So, we said yes, but different. So, to reimagine Burtonland, and of course, I was the first person there the first day of the opening day of his exhibit at MoMA. I bought all the cocktail napkins, all the straws, every book, you know, all the little room dividers that, you know, I bought everything. And just then, and I got them all out, they were on my shelf, and I just went into Burtonland, into his drawing. So, the idea was to make his wrist, David Correns makes fun of me, talking about the wriest. It's all about the wriest. To hear David Correns do my Southern accent and talk, and starting with the wriest, it's really worth it. You should hear that sometime. It's humiliating when it's in public, and he will only humiliate you in public, never in private, only in public.

So, me and my wriest, but that was really it. I was trying to channel how does Tim Burton draw the world according to him, how to get inside that brain. And there's so much great art. I mean, it's all great art, everything he touches. And I had previously worked on a production that didn't work, that was based on one of his films. And I, so I was determined this time to really get inside his drawing, his wriest, and try to figure out how he looks at people, and how to make state, from brain to the page, to the experience for the audience members. The audience. So, anyway, so that was how I started Beetlejuice.

[15:33] Alan Seales: Did you ever get to meet him?

[15:35] William Ivey Long: No.

[15:35] Alan Seales: Mr. Burton?

[15:36] William Ivey Long: No, Mr. Burton, not met him. No.

[15:37] Alan Seales: Really?

[15:38] William Ivey Long: I'm told we won't meet him either.

[15:40] Alan Seales: Why?

[15:40] William Ivey Long: He's shy. I think he's shy.

[15:44] Alan Seales: Wow.

[15:44] William Ivey Long: I think he's as shy as Mr. Sondheim is shy. You know, Mr. Sondheim is very shy.

[15:49] Alan Seales: Yeah.

[15:51] William Ivey Long: So, and you know, Mr. Yazbek's pretty shy.

[15:55] Alan Seales: Well, I've met Yazbek.

[15:56] William Ivey Long: Yeah. Well, aren't you?

[15:58] Alan Seales: Well, it's award ceremonies.

[15:59] William Ivey Long: See? But I mean, they're shy. I worked with Leonard Bernstein. I did the Maestro's last opera. It was called A Quiet Place, and we did it all over the world. Vienna Stadtsoberb, La Scala, Kennedy Center, Houston Grand Opera, started Houston Grand Opera. He was not shy. Lenny was not shy.

[16:22] Alan Seales: Probably not.

[16:23] William Ivey Long: But anyway, they're shy, and I get it. They're shy.

[16:27] Alan Seales: So in terms of logistics of the production, directors, choreographers, they go back. Their job is not done after opening night. They go back, and they tweak, and they clean.

[16:36] William Ivey Long: Oh, no. The London production often doesn't look like the New York production.

[16:41] Alan Seales: So that's what I was going to ask. After a show opens, are you typically done until they open a touring production or another location or something?

[16:49] William Ivey Long: Typically. I like to be hands-on. Certain times, we don't finish all the understudy costumes by opening night.

[16:57] Alan Seales: Yes.

[16:58] William Ivey Long: See? Got it?

[16:59] Alan Seales: Yes.

[16:59] William Ivey Long: So I'm still a little behind on some of that. Not for Tootsie. Tootsie is very... All those Scots, buy the book. We sort of fell into the netherworld on Beetlejuice. There's some free form by the evening, when it becomes a rock concert that you've never seen. Oh, and I did the Steel Wheels tour for Mick Jagger years ago in 1989. And so I know from rock concerts and crazy. And so I only did his clothes. No one else wore special made. Charlie Watts always was Savile Row, and heaven knows what the others wore. But Mick, I did lots and dozens and dozens of that for him. So the screaming, I've heard the screaming. But except for that, I've never heard screaming. Except for the Steel Wheels tour, I personally have never heard something I've worked on break your eardrums quite at all like a Beetlejuice.

[18:02] Alan Seales: Oh, yeah.

[18:02] William Ivey Long: They're just screaming.

[18:03] Alan Seales: The audience goes nuts.

[18:04] William Ivey Long: Nuts. Nuts. Completely nuts.

[18:06] Alan Seales: I talked to Leslie Kritzer the other day.

[18:08] William Ivey Long: Oh, well, the goddess.

[18:10] Alan Seales: And she was bringing up the fact that there's a young audience now who's here, who was born after the movie came out, that is enjoying it with their parents who loved the movie.

[18:25] William Ivey Long: I did not. She's really analyzed that.

[18:28] Alan Seales: Yeah.

[18:28] William Ivey Long: You know, they can see everything. Those actors can see everything. And they can especially see with this new footlight experience called the cell phone. They light up blue faces watching you. Anyway, just saying.

[18:41] Alan Seales: I saw Sea Wall the other day.

[18:44] William Ivey Long: I'm seeing it tonight.

[18:45] Alan Seales: Oh, it's so good.

[18:46] William Ivey Long: Yeah. I was talking with Jake a while ago and he was like, yeah, if someone's cell phone goes off, I'm just like, you need to take that. You need to do that. They acknowledge it.

[18:55] Alan Seales: They are just going to rub their nose in it.

[18:58] William Ivey Long: You'll see it tonight.

[18:58] Alan Seales: Well, I worked on the show where Patti DuPone snatched one out of the hands of the front row audience member.

[19:05] William Ivey Long: I love that.

[19:06] Alan Seales: Took it right off stage with her.

[19:07] William Ivey Long: I love it when actors do that, actually, because it's acknowledging like, hey, we're not TV. We're actually real people up here doing real things.

[19:16] Alan Seales: So get the hell off your phone and pay attention.

[19:18] William Ivey Long: I think, what was it? Oh, it was...

[19:21] Alan Seales: What show is it that I think Kanye came and was on his phone and the actor tweeted about it?

[19:27] William Ivey Long: I'm totally blanking on what it was.

[19:30] Alan Seales: Anyway, bad story.

[19:32] William Ivey Long: Yeah, some actor, it was like a lead in a show was like, yeah, Kanye, we can see you. You're on your phone right now. It was like an intermission.

[19:38] Alan Seales: At the end of it. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

[19:39] William Ivey Long: Wrong.

[19:41] Alan Seales: Wrong.

[19:42] William Ivey Long: Quick changes.

[19:45] Alan Seales: Do you know ahead of time what's like going into the costume design? What needs to be super, super quick?

[19:49] William Ivey Long: Are you referring to my now infamous being known as a practitioner of the transformation?

[20:00] Alan Seales: Go on.

[20:03] William Ivey Long: Someone asked me once in an interview. I don't know if it was comfortable like this where no one can see my stupid Southern face drooling and staring at you in disbelief at the questions. But so I think it was a written one. And the interviewer asked me, what was my signature? And I thought, is it red? Oh, no, it's black and white. She said, you're struggling. Shall I tell you what your signature is? And she says, transformation. She told me that I am known for transformations.

[20:43] Alan Seales: People changing in front of your very eyes.

[20:46] William Ivey Long: Yeah. I was told this. So I guess that's it.

[20:50] Alan Seales: Wow.

[20:50] William Ivey Long: She was bright, very bright. So and I thought, oh, well, okay. I can no longer hem and haw and say black and white or lace, black lace on skin, which I think is my trademark. But I'm totally turned on by that. Don't even do not even go there. It's not nearly late enough. But I am turned on by black lace on skin tone.

[21:15] Alan Seales: Really?

[21:15] William Ivey Long: Like men and women. I'm just saying.

[21:18] Alan Seales: Well, if you can get a man in black lace, yes, it's theater.

[21:22] William Ivey Long: It's happened.

[21:24] Alan Seales: It's happened.

[21:24] William Ivey Long: I've happened it. I'll put me on stage. I'll wear whatever black lace you want.

[21:27] Alan Seales: I have a bit of that in Chicago, if you can channel that.

[21:32] William Ivey Long: Right, right. And cabaret. And my very first one was in Nine, the musical. Maury Estin, Arthur Coppett. Well, Fellini, Tommy Tune, Mario Frati. They brought that to us. And it was a black and white. They said, let's do black and white. And so that started me on my black and white.

[21:53] Alan Seales: Wow.

[21:54] William Ivey Long: Have you seen Moulin Rouge yet?

[21:56] Alan Seales: Not yet.

[21:56] William Ivey Long: I have to wait, wait to see until they invite me.

[21:58] Alan Seales: The costumes.

[22:00] William Ivey Long: Oh, Catherine Zuber.

[22:01] Alan Seales: Oh, yes, absolutely.

[22:02] William Ivey Long: Incredible.

[22:04] Alan Seales: Yeah.

[22:04] William Ivey Long: Well, you know, Catherine Zuber, what can I say?

[22:06] Alan Seales: Oh, yeah, it's wonderful.

[22:08] William Ivey Long: The show will run for years.

[22:08] Alan Seales: And Derek McLean.

[22:09] William Ivey Long: And, you know, it's wonderful.

[22:12] Alan Seales: TV, you did Grease Live.

[22:15] William Ivey Long: Yes, Tommy Kail.

[22:16] Alan Seales: Yes.

[22:17] William Ivey Long: David Korenz forced him to hire me. I only have a career in the sunset of my life because of David Korenz and my Rias.

[22:25] Alan Seales: I know your Rias and my Rias.

[22:26] William Ivey Long: In the audience.

[22:27] Alan Seales: In the audience.

[22:28] William Ivey Long: I don't understand.

[22:29] Alan Seales: You have your credits, your resume speaks for itself.

[22:33] William Ivey Long: And you're such a nice guy to talk with.

[22:36] Alan Seales: I'm a terrible interview.

[22:37] William Ivey Long: But you don't need to interview. You just you have all this stuff out there.

[22:41] Alan Seales: Well.

[22:41] William Ivey Long: It's credit after credit, after win, after Tony win.

[22:44] Alan Seales: You see the fear, the fear that that comes over all of us.

[22:50] William Ivey Long: Do you still feel you get fear? Do you still feel like you're not good enough?

[22:53] Alan Seales: Don't I look like I'm showing that I have fear?

[23:27] Alan Seales: I'm not surprised by that now, after 40-something interviews for this podcast and whatnot. The common through line is that these amazing Tony Award winning this and that and leads and people who've worked with Fosse and been around for half a decade, they still do it because they're trying to prove something. They don't feel like they're good enough. I keep waiting to do the really good work. I keep really wanting it and I know it's going to happen. I have a few things I'm proud of, really proud of. What are you proud of?

[23:59] William Ivey Long: Bits of shows.

[24:06] Alan Seales: Really?

[24:06] William Ivey Long: Yes, bits of shows.

[24:10] Alan Seales: Not whole shows?

[24:10] William Ivey Long: Not whole shows. Because I don't control the whole show. Yes. I am just a support area. So part of, I'm proud of the Anita Morris costume in Nine in the Museum. Anita Morris, born and raised in Durham.

[24:19] Alan Seales: Durham, our neighbor.

[24:19] William Ivey Long: That's right. In the Triangle. I'm proud of much of what I did on the revival of Guys and Dolls with Nathan Lane and Faith Prince that Jerry Zaks steered with Tony Walton scenery. I'm proud of much of that. I'm proud of many transformations in Cinderella.

[24:41] Alan Seales: Oh, that was beautiful.

[24:41] William Ivey Long: That I did, Russian Time Assigned Cinderella, Laura Osnes, my very goddaughter. I love her. And I'm proud of many of the things we did with Kiki Palmer, her transformations in Grease Live. We did it live. Yes. And it looks like it was a cutaway. It was not. I'm proud of various things. I am. But I still think, okay, what's next? And that's a direct quote from the late, great Hal Prince, with whom I did three Broadway shows. Hal was amazing. Amazing, amazing. Our hearts skipped a beat, didn't they? Our 12s. But he would always say, what's next? In fact, that was the last number in Prince of Broadway. What's next?

[25:32] Alan Seales: That's interesting. And maybe it's a Raleigh thing. Maybe it's a Southern thing. And that's a lot of why I started this podcast, is because I was in chorus, and then I got into computers, and then I was in tech, and then I got a computer science degree. And then with that degree, I was a professional actor, and then got back into tech. And then now, podcasting is not my full-time job, but I love this because I miss artistics. And I'm constantly reinventing who I am and what I'm interested in.

[26:04] William Ivey Long: Of course you are. And always, I'm like, all right, conquered that. What's next?

[26:08] Alan Seales: What's next?

[26:08] William Ivey Long: Well, and some of the things you're mentioning are changing in front of our very eyes and ears. I mean, you're talking about many technical things. In theory, what I'm working on is still a human being standing on a stage, reading a script.

[26:27] Alan Seales: You're responsible for changing people, though. You're changing their minds.

[26:35] William Ivey Long: Yes, yes.

[26:35] Alan Seales: Taking them on a journey.

[26:36] William Ivey Long: The audience on a journey. Let's evoke Hal Prince another moment. The mirror, the famous mirror in Cabaret that then focused and showed the audience themselves, and that they were complicit like the Nazis, like the people around the Nazis with what was happening right here. I wish I had been in that audience when that debuted, that first preview, back in the 50s, I guess it was. So that is chilling. It's still chilling when you are indicted along with, you know, you're indicted by the production.

[27:24] Alan Seales: So what else are you proud of? You were saying a couple things.

[27:26] William Ivey Long: I don't know. I think I'm off my roll. I'm still holding on to my chair. I'm scared. I don't think I can brag anymore. Those are my bragging bits.

[27:35] Alan Seales: Well, we got off topic when I brought up Grease Live.

[27:38] William Ivey Long: Oh, yeah.

[27:40] Alan Seales: Working on Grease Live TV, did you approach that differently than any other production? Or was it just, it's a live show, it's a live show?

[27:45] William Ivey Long: I approached it as a live show.

[27:53] Alan Seales: A TV show or a live?

[27:54] William Ivey Long: Live show with gorilla cameras. Because I met, we had Tommy Kail and Alex Rudnitsky, bad with his, anyway, fabulous camera director. And they said, we're going to do our show, and the cameras are going to discover it. It was great. So I just knew that there would be 360 degrees of visibility of the costumes as kinetic things moving in time and with lighting and design and everything. And so I was just ready for it to be a live film, a gorilla film happening in actual time, which was very exciting for me. I loved that challenge. And I think we pulled off a few things on that. That was exciting. We included for the first time in those great ideas during live Broadway shows, we included an audience.

And we had like five audiences in the different places. So, and now, they've got that new thing over. They started it with The Prince of Orange, wasn't it, in the Netherlands, where there's a big plane landing in the water. But the stage, the audience moves, and there's these whole big, huge things around. Anyway.

[29:17] Alan Seales: Sounds like Disney World.

[29:19] William Ivey Long: I like Disney World.

[29:21] Alan Seales: The Carousel of Progress.

[29:22] William Ivey Long: That's exactly. Thank you very much. See, nothing is new. And I'm sure the Greeks, Aeschylus, planned it. I'm telling you. It's all been done before. All been done before.

[29:31] Alan Seales: Wow. Well, I've seen your schedule. I know we need to wrap this up now. So, God, my cheeks hurt from smiling so much.

[29:40] William Ivey Long: Oh, good. Well, it is fun, and we are Raleigh boys.

[29:43] Alan Seales: That's right. We can just talk forever.

[29:45] William Ivey Long: We can just go on. Oh, my goodness. Here we come. Let me ask you my three standard closing questions that I ask everybody on the podcast. First is, very simply, what motivates you?

[29:54] William Ivey Long: What motivates me? I wake up every day thinking, okay, this is going to be the day. It's going to be great.

[30:05] Alan Seales: Do you ever get discouraged if it's not, or you have a bad day?

[30:08] William Ivey Long: All the time. All the time. And I take to my bed, and I read my books.

[30:13] Alan Seales: What do you read?

[30:14] William Ivey Long: Biographies, mostly, and histories.

[30:16] Alan Seales: Yeah. Okay. All right. So, the second question is, what advice would you give to your younger self and younger people now starting out in the business?

[30:23] William Ivey Long: Oh, my God. I made so many mistakes. Oh, gosh. I don't think I'd be possible to give advice. Well, remember, I came to New York in 1975. There are a lot of stop signs I should have noticed. Don't do this. Don't go there. That was the, and I moved to the Chelsea Hotel. I think I could have done a lot of, don't go there. That was a, that was a, that was a, that was a, that was a dangerous, exciting, thrilling time. I don't know how to answer that question. Can I pass on that one?

[31:00] Alan Seales: All right. Don't do what you do.

[31:01] William Ivey Long: Yeah, don't do it. Do what I say, not what I do. Is that what they say parents sometimes say?

[31:06] Alan Seales: All right. So, the final question, and this is going to be hard for you. If you could only see one show for the rest of your life, but you can see it as many times as you want, what would you see?

[31:12] William Ivey Long: What show?

[31:17] Alan Seales: You, do you mean like film, television, Broadway?

[31:21] William Ivey Long: Anything. I'll make it hard.

[31:23] Alan Seales: Anything?

[31:24] William Ivey Long: Yeah. Or pick one from each category.

[31:28] Alan Seales: Oh my gosh. Of shows.

[31:30] William Ivey Long: Well, I will tell you right now. Well, I'm just going to answer it. I love The Music Man.

[31:36] Alan Seales: Yes.

[31:37] William Ivey Long: I love The Music Man. Susan Stroman directed and choreographed The Music Man, and we had a 60 by 40 foot American flag that dropped down. And everyone quick changed in the wings, literally almost in front of your eyes, and came out and every one of them played an instrument, most of them the trombones. I cried and cried and cried. And then in the second week of production, we had 9-11.

[32:05] Alan Seales: Yeah.

[32:06] William Ivey Long: And we saw it again, and we cried even more. I'm a big American flag person. I'm a Raleigh, North Carolina boy. We waved the flag. That made me so happy to see that particular production. Of course, it had the glorious Rebecca Luker in it. She's one of the constellations and things just go around her. I just love that. I would say that's the show that I can watch and watch and watch and watch and watch and watch. And I did.

[32:40] Alan Seales: Is that your answer?

[32:42] William Ivey Long: Yes. Yes. When I was a little boy, I wore the VHS tape of Music Man out. I watched it so many times. I love it. I love it. I just loved it. And I think everything came together and then it happened. Then 9-11 happened, and it just made it more so.

[33:00] Alan Seales: Yeah.

[33:01] William Ivey Long: And I would go back and I'd be near the theater and walk in. And wherever it started, I just loved it.

[33:09] Alan Seales: Cool.

[33:10] William Ivey Long: Cool.

[33:10] Alan Seales: All right. So we can find you online. You're not into the socials much, but not at all.

[33:16] William Ivey Long: Yeah.

[33:16] Alan Seales: WillYouMightBeLong.com, right?

[33:18] William Ivey Long: That's still valid. People can go to that.

[33:20] William Ivey Long: Yes, I think that's...

[33:21] Alan Seales: Yeah.

[33:21] William Ivey Long: All right. And of course, Beetlejuice...

[33:22] Alan Seales: Wait a minute. What's the www?

[33:23] William Ivey Long: That's just a domain prefix.

[33:26] Alan Seales: Okay.

[33:26] William Ivey Long: You take it or leave it.

[33:27] Alan Seales: Okay.

[33:28] William Ivey Long: These days doesn't matter.

[33:29] Alan Seales: Okay, good, good.

[33:30] William Ivey Long: You can have like whatever dot WillYouMightBeLong.com.

[33:32] Alan Seales: Okay, good.

[33:33] William Ivey Long: BeetlejuiceBroadway.com.

[33:35] Alan Seales: Of course, Beetlejuice playing at the Winter Garden Theater. Tootsiemusical.com playing at the Marquis Theater. Get your tickets to both of those shows because they are so amazingly different, but so different. So good.

[33:46] Alan Seales: You can get more of me, thetheaterpodcast.com. Show your support at thetheaterpodcast.com slash Patreon. You can get me online, theater underscore podcast on Instagram and Twitter. Leave a rating, leave a review everywhere that you're listening right now. It helps. This is produced by Jillian Hockman, edited by Matthew Hendershot. Thank you to Jukebox the Ghost for all of the intro and outro music. You're hearing underneath us right now. And then, William Ivey Long, final thanks to you for coming out here. This has been absolutely incredible.

[34:12] William Ivey Long: Well, thank you. Bless your heart.

[34:17] Alan Seales: Bless your heart.