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[0:00] Speaker 1: Hi, I'm Ariana Grande, Hi, I'm Cynthia ARIBO, and you're listening to the Broadway Podcast Network, visit vpn.fm to discover more.

[0:27] Mike Abrams: the rocket die the podcast breakdown of the cast atrophy. I'm your host, Mike Abrams and today our guests are a little bit different. They recently finished a successful run of a sold out, Off Broadway show called The Wizard of friendship. They are now releasing an original cast recording of lewberger The Wizard of friendship, which will be available on June 23 anywhere you listen to comedy albums, music you'll be able to find everywhere. So welcome the members of Lou burger, Huey stone fish, Keith habersberger and Alex Lewis. And thank you for joining me. Hey, thanks for being here, having us excited to have you. I, you know this is a cat's based podcast, so I want to get to your album, but I gotta at least start with a little bit of your familiarity and history with cats and Alex. I know you have some, but I'm curious here for all three of you, how much about cats do you know? What's your experience? Have you seen the show? Have you seen the 2019 movie? Like, where are we in the cats world?

[1:19] Speaker 2: I actually yeah, because we know Alex, obviously you know, obviously knows everything. But actually, I'm fairly well versed in the cat verse the album, of course, I would know more or less front to back, and then I've seen lots of different iterations of it, of course, all the movies, and I've tried to watch the bootlegs and the Twitter things, the YouTube so I'm coming into this conversation feeling pretty prepared. Great.

[1:48] Speaker 3: and I am familiar with the songs and generally the plot, but I actually never seen a production of Cats on stage, and I, my wife, refused to watch the cats movie with me and everyone else saw it, and a lot of people didn't want to watch it again, and I couldn't go it alone. So I actually haven't seen it, but I it's I want to, I just would need a friend.

[2:11] Speaker 2: Got it all right? I feel guilty Now, listen, I don't know cats at all. I'm not familiar with this musical, pretty much, in any regard, I had a cat. She died, tragically. It's a lot, you know, the whole cat thing. I got to watch a whole musical, and they're all cats up there, and one of them is going to be a fucking Prince. We'll see how this podcast goes for us.

[2:36] Speaker 4: Here. Cats was my favorite musical growing up. When I was a kid, I saw it was one of the first shows I ever I think it was the first show I saw on Broadway. My mom tried to get me to go sit on Old Deuteronomy lap during intermission because he stayed on stage. I had the VHS tape of the pro shot when I was a kid, watched it front to back till the thing broke. I have seen it several times since then, on both on Broadway and on tour. I love cats. I was Mr. Mistopolies, like I said for think three Halloweens and one Halloween, the biggest heartbreak was that I spilled milk all over the sparkles, and it was never the same. And I saw the movie when my wife dragged me to it, and that I didn't want to see the movie because it didn't look to me like they had put the care and love into that movie that I thought it deserved and I was right. They didn't. It was made by a bunch of people that don't give a shit about cats, if you ask me. And I think it couldn't. I think you could maybe make a great movie. That's weird, that's and it's the 90s shot, and that's what they just put that out again, or make another pro shot. I don't care. There you go. Anyway. Don't hold back, spam. Oh, there you go. This is the podcast for me.

[4:15] Mike Abrams: craziness of the plot went over your head.

[4:19] Speaker 4: Oh yeah. I mean, the first time I really even recognized that there was a plot, I was probably like 15 when I said when I it was when I saw it at the pantalist. Because, you know, when I was a kid just watching it back and forth, I just was excited about the songs as I thought they were so amazing and and, like, the only thing I really knew when I was a kid, was, Oh, Mr. Mustafa Lee's is like the big Savior cat. And that's, he's like the star of the show to me. So that's, that's, that's that love is about all I knew when I when I went for me to just, please, oh,

[4:57] Speaker 2: if you don't mind Alek, I was just gonna say, speaking of our sort. Childhood memories. It was like the first time I saw Bumble arena up there. Because the whole time I've been seeing Bumble arena and I've been thinking about Mumbo Jerry, because I knew the song so well. So to see that with Rumpel teaser, finally, just coming in at the end there with the big song. For me, it was really a special experience. What

[5:26] Speaker 4: yeah, I forget what it can you just sing a little bit of it? Yeah, of

[5:37] Speaker 5: Jerry, but we've done this one, Mongo Jerry and rumble. Teaser,

[5:51] Speaker 2: Mongo Jerry again, rather than

[5:56] Speaker 6: sir, notorious couple, yes, cats.

[6:01] Speaker 4: But there's a controversy there, because there's two versions of that song, one that I think is terrible and one that I think is amazing.

[6:08] Mike Abrams: Which one is? Which one are you on? Because the new movie did the did one, and the productions I've seen have done the other, and I it's a mixed crowd.

[6:18] Speaker 4: The movie did the shit version. I

[6:21] Mike Abrams: agree. I agree. I was. I just want to make sure I think it's a British version, and it's, I think it's

[6:31] Mike Abrams: So Keith, how would you explain the plot of cats to someone who's going to see it for the first time

[6:37] Speaker 3: you got it? There's all these cats. First of all, there's all these cats, and there's always, there's a time where one of the cats gets to be chosen to die, but through death, they maybe live on forever or something, and they're all just sort of trying to figure out who gets to die, and they're not sure, and they have to work it out through song and dance, and then finally, one of them dies, right? It's pretty

[7:08] Mike Abrams: right, pretty close. Yeah. I mean, that's what I love about is that you all need to become the Jellicle cat. Yeah, you all know more than I did when I saw it the first time I walked in and knew nothing. I didn't even know memory was in the show. Spaceship

[7:20] Speaker 4: comes down at the beginning of the show, right? Oh,

[7:30] Speaker 4: Express. They have to, they have to make the Jellicle choice. They have to the Jellicle cats. Have to make the Jellicle choice and decide which cat gets to be Ray boy, So Keith, you're

[7:42] Speaker 2: kind of right, right? Yeah. I saw nine of them go on a journey all of their different skills to bring the Jellicle cat to Mordor,

[7:58] Mike Abrams: I saw Leona Lewis. I just thought I saw an X factor on drugs. The first time I saw it with with death being the the win, like, that's what you win, is the surprise then and then you don't get a million dollars or an album. You get to go to the heavy side layer, which, I didn't know what that was, but so you, you all like, clearly, are familiar with the show. You've done, Mango ripple teaser, I know in your the I know the words, I don't you've done memory, right? You've done that kind of for Yes, memory and, and how did you like, were you Keith? Are you at all familiar? You obviously know that the tune, like memory was the one, the only song I knew when I saw the show the first time. Like, did you know some of it, but just not clearly, the words,

[8:37] Speaker 3: yeah. And I so most of like the Broadway songs that, like, people know, you know, because some of them have made their way into pop culture. I know, like the first verse or the first chorus, like most people do, but I don't know anything beyond that. So, like, I know memory all alone in the moonlight, and that's it. That's it. I know the the part that gets quoted when there's, like a compilation CD in the 90s, and they're sort of telling you the songs will be on it, and they play about 10 seconds of a song. I know that much of a Broadway song that I might know, and I often know how they go musically. I can remember, you know, melody, and I can guess harmony pretty easily. A lot of them follow a lot of similar tropes even there, especially when their musical is written by the same person, right? They have some similar musical genre is to themselves, but yeah, every time we do those things, also, one of the reasons I know them is Huey is learning how to play it in about 60 seconds while Alex plays it for him in his ear. And also, sort of hits Huey establish the rhythm and go. And I'm like, You guys doing just do it. And like, Okay, let's go for it. And we used to try to and keep it quiet from key. We used to try to, like, do it all whispering to each other. And they were like, hey, it's too much. It's too much. Just Just go on your phone. Like, try to not pay then. Now it's like, maybe we should all just take a second. It. Learn a melody. Yeah, I love it, yeah. Just learning the melody is the most important part. Otherwise, I really rail things.

[10:05] Mike Abrams: Well, I want to, I want to play a version of this game, but we don't have the musical instruments, but I know that Hugh and Alex, and I know the characters, Keith, I don't think you probably know as well. So what I'm thinking we do is I want to list off a character name, and I want to have you describe them as their cat form, and then we will decide how close he is to their actual character background. And the best part about this is that there isn't consensus in a lot of this, in the fandom, the cat's fandom, there's a lot of ways you can go where there's gonna be a group that's gonna be like, that's definitely not at all, right, there's a group that might be like, Oh, I could see that. So are you? Are you up to play this game?

[10:43] Speaker 3: I'm so into playing guess the cat. All right, so

[10:47] Mike Abrams: let's start with with Alex's potential grandfather that he almost sat on stage with, with Old Deuteronomy.

[10:54] Speaker 3: Old Deuteronomy, dude Deuteronomy. He's gray cat. He's known for his incredibly long hair, and he's sort of the sage, right? He's like all the cat he knows the deal all the cats. If they didn't know how to be Jellicle, they would go to him be like, what's gonna happen? Am I gonna be reborn? Do you think I have what it takes? And he's probably the least dancing of the cats, but he can bust a move. Love

[11:21] Mike Abrams: it. Alex, here, how, right? How do you feel about that?

[11:43] Mike Abrams: let's go with the rum tone Tugger.

[11:48] Speaker 3: Rum tone, Tugger, obviously the funniest, one of the funnier names, definitely, he's the horny one. So horny, always trying to fuck all the other cats. Effectively, does fuck one of the cats and is a cat himself, and he is sort of black and white.

[12:10] Mike Abrams: Who do you think he's fucking? Wow?

[12:16] Speaker 3: One who sings memory, that's

[12:25] Mike Abrams: What's our scoring here on this one?

[12:29] Speaker 2: To me, I gotta, I gotta, I gotta take half a point off, because it felt like you know just something about I just want you to be confident with your answer, so I'm gonna give you 99.5 for a second. 99.5 for that. Other than that, all the information was, was

[12:45] Speaker 4: correct, right? Honestly, if you had stopped at he wants to fuck all the other cats, you would have, like gotten 100% from me, but everything, wow, including him wanting to fuck Grizabella. I'm sorry, but no, he doesn't want to, no, I don't think so. And he does, and he doesn't,

[13:16] Mike Abrams: What about? What about before she went to the dark side, you know, pre when she was the glamor cat. You think

[13:24] Speaker 4: he would have been in glamor cats when, when she was the glamor cat. This is a different, you know, this, I don't even think he was alive, though, for that, he's fair, you know. So I'm gonna say, I'm gonna say that he wouldn't fuck Grizabella. And I maybe, I guess, maybe in her prime. But we're talking within the scope of the show. It's just not happening. And, you know, I'm sorry, Keith, I can only give you about 30% for that.

[13:55] Speaker 2: You know what, I'm gonna retroactively give you 105 thank

[14:00] Mike Abrams: you so much. I thought you were about to say Mustafa is because there is a big, big contingency that think those two are together. Grisabelle, Rum Tugger, Mustafa, oh. Rum,

[14:11] Speaker 2: thumb Tugger, oh, I can see. I could definitely see Mr. Mustafa. Lee, yeah, that's what I Yeah,

[14:18] Mike Abrams: exactly. Okay. What about bomb Valley arena and Demeter, because they sing a song together,

[14:24] Speaker 3: right? Yeah, it's weird, because how much should we talk about incest on this show? I mean, they're cats, they're clearly from the same litter, but they're also romantically involved, right? And they, you know, and that that makes us all feel weird, but at the same time, it's fiction their cat, and no one's really talking about that, and no one's talking I remember. One of the things I remember most about them is how much they love spaghetti. In the show, how much spaghetti they eat. Now it's from a garbage can a rose is rose by any other name, kind of thing. Mean it's still spaghetti, yep, yep,

[15:02] Speaker 2: exactly, and it's just not talked about enough here. So I'm glad we're I'm glad you're doing that so you got him at 110 honestly, for this one, I'm gonna have to go 120 just because I feel like, what more could? Could I possibly do?

[15:20] Speaker 4: Alex, I'm ready, yeah, do you think? Do you think Demeter is a man, is a male cat?

[15:28] Speaker 4: I'm asking. I'm asking, if that's what you think. Nope.

[15:32] Speaker 3: Actually think the both of them were sisters, okay, which is why they, you know, the insisting it gets to be dodged, right? Because they can't create, oh, my god,

[15:48] Speaker 4: okay, well, the

[15:53] Speaker 3: same winner. It's not that I you know, it's the fact that the show itself dares to deal with those themes that I have to bring it up course, of course, wouldn't ever bring this up on my own accord, but I know, of course, one of the underlying names and cats, and I

[16:11] Speaker 2: mean Andrew Lloyd Webber, that's part of what you get with him, from The Phantom of the Opera to Joseph and the Amazing tech by dreamcatch, Vita, School of Rock, Sunset Boulevard. What habits getting cutting edge bad Cinderella. I mean, he's taking swings and and, you know, we take swings too, and you don't knock them all out of the park. But maybe, if you're lucky, you get a bunt. Yep,

[16:40] Speaker 4: All right, I'm gonna give Keith 20% on that one. I'm afraid

[16:46] Mike Abrams: Keith, you know the song they sing so it's firm, but

[16:49] Speaker 3: no, okay, sure, don't it's, is it not romantic at all? It's

[16:54] Mike Abrams: not very sexual, but they're singing about the villain, and there's potential that one was abused by exactly and that one might have been abused by, could one interpret

[17:07] Speaker 3: that song as them wanting to have a three way with the villain for sure. You know, maybe would that not? Perhaps, yes, yeah, yeah. Have a beam. Yes. For sure, yes, I'm

[17:28] Mike Abrams: there, the debate of sisters or friends is definitely hotly contested, and I sparked that on social media the other day. And what was interesting is everyone who'd been in the cast all said friends, and a lot of the fans said, sisters. So it's, it is a there's no answer. Okay,

[17:50] Speaker 3: Skimbo Shanks, the railway cat. I, I've heard that phrase from you working that up online. No, no. I wish I could show you my screen. I can't. No, no, I hands are here. No, I know that from Zach Kornfeld, who's one of the other Try Guys, loves the cats movie, and he has mentioned scrimple Shanks, the railway cat, more than one. So I'm just gonna leave it there, because I know I aced it.

[18:18] Speaker 4: Yeah, all right, I'll give you 100% I'll give you 100% on that. Just because, bam, you know, he's a

[18:27] Mike Abrams: we're gonna do two more. We're gonna do more because I do miss a lot of characters. I mean, there's 30 ish of them, if you want to go to all the hang that's so many tabs, and all the other

[18:40] Mike Abrams: the rats too, right? Yeah, there. There are that was, well, let's go to that one. Then we'll go to Jenny. Any dots?

[18:48] Speaker 3: What? They're a rat. And they're played. James Corden, doesn't he play one of the rats?

[19:00] Speaker 4: Hold on. Hold on. With some Keith rat. There are no, there are no rat characters. There is a cat that hangs out with rats,

[19:11] Mike Abrams: for like, kind of, in the tap number, they come out and but it's, it's cats, kind of portraying it as, like a, this is part of my story. All

[19:20] Speaker 3: right. What was this cat's name? Again? Jenny, any dots. I was Jenny, any Johnny? Any dots? Well, she's got docs spots on her fur, right? See, that's how she looks, and that's where she gets her name. And she, she is sort of known for, I don't know, being hilarious. She's just hilarious. She's sort of the comic relief in a show about a bunch of cats fucking until they die, right?

[19:50] Speaker 7: Well, that, that last part 100% accurate.

[19:58] Speaker 4: I am gonna give you. 90% this time, Keith, because you left out one key, you only left out one key factor. Jenny, any dots, is a Gumby cat, right?

[20:15] Mike Abrams: Clay. It's in the it's in the song. I don't actually know what I mean. I have no idea what I mean, it's,

[20:21] Speaker 4: I don't think it's ever really explored. What a gum let me google it real quick.

[20:25] Mike Abrams: She's, she's technically like the supposed to be the motherly cat. It's Rebel Wilson in the movie. She's one that eats the cockroach that went viral,

[20:34] Speaker 3: right? But, yeah, she, I mean, I'm seeing all this trailer clips of the movie because they were, I don't think

[20:40] Mike Abrams: I've never heard an explanation of the Gumby cat. That's a I think it's

[20:44] Speaker 4: just, yeah, I don't know. They just says in the song, they mean they explained it in the song, he sits and sits and sits and sits and that's what makes a Gumby cat. That's what makes a Gumby cat sits. I guess

[20:56] Speaker 7: she says, That's it. That's what it's all it is. All

[20:59] Speaker 2: it is. In the Wizard of friendship, there's a lot of lore that we've built into it that it's just part of the lore. You know, it's like you just expected to know what a flimflam the sausage man is. He has this whole backstory. We know his backstory. And as you delve into the cats universe, as you delve into the wizard friendship universe, you know, you understand the lore a little bit

[21:21] Mike Abrams: better. So all right, before we get to that, I want to come back to that point here, because I actually do have some, some what's their friendship cats questions. I think I heard some, oh, there were some inspiration. Maybe, was there or maybe not there, and I'm very curious. But we gotta do Grizabella before we one for in this game. Of course,

[21:37] Speaker 3: Grizabella, who, again, sings memory, we know that. And she dies. She dies and she like floats up into the sky,

[21:51] Mike Abrams: yeah, something depends on the product, depends on the production, how much money they have,

[21:57] Speaker 3: right? She dies in like, a sense, because she, she, she becomes the the cat of Jellicle miss, right? She chose she, she dies, reborn. Yeah, I knew that. And that's and she's, she seems like she's having a rough go throughout the whole show, right? She's sort of like shat on by all the other cats, and that's why she sings memory, because she is willfully alone,

[22:23] Speaker 7: because Tugger rejected her. Yeah, okay, what's what's the scope, what's the scoring here, I'll

[22:31] Speaker 4: give them, I'll give them 100% Yeah, I gotta give them a boy something. Yeah. Love

[22:37] Mike Abrams: that I appreciate. Thank you for playing this game has been super fun to kind of go through my

[22:45] Speaker 2: was, I was, I was Keith's total average. I did,

[22:51] Speaker 4: don't, don't tell us. I want it to be a mystery,

[22:54] Speaker 2: okay, maybe someone can tweet it as hashtag, Keith score. Hashtag, key score. I love it. Hashtag, Rum Tum Tugger key. Hashtag,

[23:07] Speaker 7: Tum total. Hashtag, the Rum Tum total. I love it. We're gonna take a quick break, and then we back for more of the wrong cat died.

[23:20] Mike Abrams: Okay, so let's, let's pivot to the wizard friendship, because the album is, it's hilarious. It's so fun. And there are a couple parts where I was listening to it and going, I'm assuming it's not cats related, but there are some things where, since that's my knowledge of Broadway, is cats, it's like, wow, I could see some inspiration here. But here I want to start with that first part, because part because part of cats is rehearsal process, is they actually go through the story with each character, because you don't get, like, that much information to work off of. So when you all were producing your show, and you know, as you just said, you know, there's the lore, how much lore did you tell everybody before you went on stage, not the audience, like with the actual cast members. A

[24:05] Speaker 6: lot of the lore was developed as it went, Okay, you know, with a flip flop,

[24:15] Speaker 2: exactly. That's my point. But if you see the show, you'll know, but we there's so much of the Wizard of friendship is really based off of our friendship and our history and, like, who we are as people. So certainly, as we were working on the show, as we're working with the cast, like, as we're trying to explain, like, you know, this is why this thing is happening right now, like, it's based off of this thing that actually happened. So there definitely was a lot of, like, lore discussion in that regard. And then

[24:39] Speaker 3: something that's very fun is we go to the land of no friendia, and the cast actually made our lore reality. At the end they, you know, how you can, like, buy and name a star. They actually named a star no friendia. So they made no friendia a real place, which is, was very, very sweet. But also, you know, like you said, we were building the lore. Sure, but yeah. I mean, we sort of it was inspired by this old few things, both like labyrinth and Wizard of Oz, obviously, but also these old things called we sing, which were direct to BHS children's movies that told taught you folk songs, and the children always get sent to a magical land where they learn basically little lessons about sharing and friendship. So we wanted to make a sort of whimsical, ridiculous thing that actually did explore how adult friendships work, and adult friendships are different than child's friendships. Is that in children, you're told to be like you know, you be nice to each other, and you will be friends and be kind, and that's true. But as adults, you all have your own lives and sort of done becoming who you are. So part of being a built friend is understanding the negative parts or or the and basically, I have more favorable experiences with you than non so we are friends. It's how much can you tolerate one another's silliness? Because you enjoy the positive so much more, and all of us were very much brothers at this point. We get on each other's nerves from time to time, but never so much that would stop us from being friends. Is

[26:11] Mike Abrams: there any, as you've kind of now gone through this process and you've had, you know, you have a finished product? Did you go back and realize that there's any moment from one of those childhood videos that you saw that was just like, wait, that was that, was it? That was part of it, like, I know the inspiration came from it was there, like, an actual, like, one, one scene, or one thing that came from it.

[26:33] Speaker 3: Well, I would say the costuming for Alex's tickle monster is really, really one to one, a costume from we sing big rock candy mountain specifically. And it was like the exact esthetic, even like the giant burn to Man suit in that one, there's also like this goofy giant bird. So the characters from that one kind of exist in our show, and the way that we sing in sillyville, which is like they go and they meet different pockets of people and learn little lessons from each pocket of people. Our show absolutely has that we have, like the depressed punks who we learn the lesson of depression. Don't cure depression, you just learn to live with it. And how do you do that? By filling your life with things that make you happy despite your sadness. And so is very, very silly, but I think the depression song ended up being something that grew to have more importance than we realized when we first started staging, and because we even discovered the idea of you fill your life with distractions because you you're never not depressed. If you have depression, you just have to learn to live with it and work through it and find things that make you happy regardless of that. And that is actually something that happened in figuring out how to explain that on stage was something we discovered through the process,

[27:52] Speaker 4: yeah, kind of came up in the run really, because it was like, Yeah, you know, we'd been doing the show a couple times, and we sort of found that line, like he was talking about about, sort of how, you know, like we would it was a joke that we were making, sort of in the scene, like, you know, Huey and Keith sort of improvised this bit about, like, yeah, you're depressed, so just focus on your hobbies, you know, like how you surf and box and how you got married, but it really did. Marriage obviously being not, not a hobby, but that's what's funny about it. So, you know, like they would do that, and then it would cause me to sort of react a certain way. And like, those lines would change every night, and all of a sudden it, like, made it, made the song make more sense in the scene.

[28:44] Mike Abrams: Yeah, I, I'm very curious about, you know, you've been doing musical comedy for a while, and improv and all this, like, amazing stuff. And, you know, you guys are super well known. When was the like, the idea to pivot it to a musical, like, to actually turn it into this, like, full story musical, versus some of the other stuff where you've done in the past.

[29:04] Speaker 3: We just, we were inspired, definitely by the comedy specials in the pandemic overdose inside and even before that sack lunch bunch, and just thinking about, like, truly, we thought about the word comedy special, and thought about what makes us special in terms of comedy musicians, like, what makes us different, and what makes us different is how our shows are incredibly physical, very theatrical, like, in our concerts, I'll leave stage and come back as Santa Claus, like Huey will leave sage and come back as, like, a gay club chili server, like we have all these, like, very theatrical moments in the show. And we sort of realized we were doing musical theater, even though we weren't doing a musical. So we thought, well, we should just do a musical. And Alex really spearheaded the effort of writing a script that sort of wove through the songs we were performing on tour. We created this story. We developed it, and we did it in LA we then took it and developed it more and brought it to New York. And, you know, we've been working on it, it for a year and a half at this point in some capacity, but, and we'll, we'll continue working on it. We'll, we'll take it on tour and next spring, and it'll have changed slightly. But this album is the combination of tons and tons of work, and the album also has narration tracks that help you guide through the musical storyline still. So it really, it's halfway between a comedy album and, you know, a cast Broadway Album, and just almost an audiobook, and it just catches you up on what's going on right now.

[30:39] Mike Abrams: You can having listened to it from start to finish, you can follow the story like you hear what the narration is super like. It tells you I like the Wizard of Oz, kind of inspiration, because that's how I felt listening to it, of like I'm going Stage to Stage, and then in between each one, instead of meeting, you know, the Scarecrow, I'm meeting, I'm meeting the wicked waltz. You know, it's like I'm getting something hilarious in between, which was, which was super fun. That's

[31:01] Speaker 2: awesome. That's what we wanted it to feel like, amazing. Yeah. What other like,

[31:04] Mike Abrams: I know you said some of the shows, but like, when you talk to when you thought about musical, and then you obviously brought in some of these incredible performers with you, with the Wayne Braves and Alex brightmans. Like, what other inspirations? Like, did you pull from a cat and Andrew Lloyd Webber, uh, Sondheim? Like, did you think about those things? Or did you really try to stick to your comments? Yes,

[31:23] Speaker 2: when we were producing the album, we definitely were very aware of musical theater, you know, this is a musical theater album, and so we are jump genres, and we tried to, like, honor the genre and really produce the music, you know, to sound cool and in whatever style that we're doing, it to sound authentic, and we're making a musical theater album. So we did want to, you know, pay homage, show our respect, like be a part of this world where, if you're, you know, a hardcore theater person, you can really enjoy the sonic quality of our album. If you're not a hardcore theater person, you can really enjoy the sonic quality. And so there were certain, you know, Jay, who's, who's our other co producer, and he's phenomenal. He's a Grammy Award winning engineer. And we talked a lot about records we were listening to that were theater albums. We send each other records back and forth, and, you know, just catch, like, even for we have a song by our merch, it was like, Oh, we both were really drawn to songs that, you know, a lot of great theater songs start with just a piano and our song, we produce it. You know, there's so much Sonic quality. But we were like, Wait, we need to have one moment where it's just piano and vocal. So those, those were definitely intentional decisions that we love,

[32:34] Speaker 3: that Yeah. And then in the staging of the musical, we really found ways to try to pay on my eyes and also spear the tropes of musicals. So I'm a dick. We really leaned into the fact that it sounded like a Les Miserables lament. So we have it in a spotlight, and there's this hot dog costume to feed us singing the sad song. And the background dances are incredibly dramatic, and they move very slowly and stoically. I didn't buy our merch. It's very much like this colorful explosion. It's just, you know, it's a first act finale, and it's, it's sort of, it's kind of irrelevant to the plot, but it also is meant to make fun of the fact that all musicals really make their money by selling merch and buy and you want your fans to buy that wicked hoodie, and the fans want to wear it so they have, they will connect with someone on the street because they both wear a wicked hoodie. Wicked hoodie, and then depression is meant to be a big bombastic, you know, opener of Act Two, you need a high energy thing that gets people back in. We've actually wrapped up Alex's like his personal journey storyline, but we need something that brings us back into the second act that still touches on that, and there's a big group number and has tap dance, right? You got to have tap dance somewhere in the show. We've got to have our opening number, which is like, very, very traditional, like name and lights Broadway, the stupid idea song. So we really tried to hit all those bullet points. And when we when we staged them, was the fun of figuring out, how do we make this look like that music over this? Yeah, how do we make this look like that musical? And it was really quite fun. And then,

[34:06] Mike Abrams: what was it like having, I mean, you brought in, I mean, Wayne Brady and Alex Reimer, two incredible improvisers and performers. Like, how much did they add to your already, you know, incredible, like, what you had started like they come in and collaborate with you. What was it like having those two and everyone else had joined you?

[34:26] Speaker 2: It was really cool to collaborate with them. And Deshaun Wesley is also an incredible improviser as well, and he really got a chance to improvise in giant burden of man suit. He came in with some parts that he had written, and then he just gave us a bunch of takes in the studio just sort of going through his style of commentating, and it was really cool. And Wayne and Alex, I mean, they're just, they're like, Who's, who's, who's cooler and better than Wayne Brady and Alex Brightman at doing this. So, you know, you get in the studio with guys like that, and for us, it's like, please. Whatever you want to change about this, whatever choice you want to make, like, please, please, please, please make it. And for them, it's cool, because they were excited to be a part of our project, and they appreciate, you know, the artistry that we bring. So they were also coming from a place of we really want to do this the way that you guys intended when you wrote it. So everyone coming from that perspective, and everybody on both sides, being like, No, you should try something new, and then being like, No, we I want to keep it this way, like it all really came to this beautiful collaboration between us and them. Yeah.

[35:29] Speaker 3: And you might think that, because they're such great improvisers, they came in and the things that they would change would be lyrics, but actually the things they changed were musical decisions. Wayne really his like how he felt that musically should go into the wizard friendship solo. And we love that. And Brightman changed how the performance of his songs as well was performed compared to how we thought it. But they all honored the lyrics, which is super cool of them. And they just, they found a way to make it theirs while still, like you said, honoring the work that we had done prior. So

[36:07] Mike Abrams: you've mentioned Les Mis and loser vas a couple others. Was there any cats? Inspiration?

[36:17] Speaker 4: would know best. I'm thinking. I'm thinking, um, I will say, like the the like turning into an evil thing, like turning into the ANA stickle monster was slightly inspired by cats and like the Andrew Lloyd Webber mystic, mysticism, but nothing like in, you know, as directly like it was never like, oh, this song is exactly like, you know, memory, or whatever. Can I tell you where I heard it? Maybe a little bit in biomark. Where did you hear

[36:52] Mike Abrams: it? So the wicked waltz feels a little bit, no, I was not. It feels like the ball, because the ball is an orgy at its core. And so the jell cabal is an orgy, and the wicked waltz. The minute I started hearing the explanation, I'm like, This feels kind of gel cabal the

[37:09] Speaker 3: I mean, I know that in staging that number, it became quite a physical number. What that's something we like do on tour, and I sing it, and it's, it's incredibly different. The touring version that song and the musical version that song couldn't be more different, while actually sounding and being the same lyrics, because it's very movement based choreography, in probably the closest choreography look to a cat's number, because everyone is fully embodying all the monsters as we name them. So you're really hopping quickly through a very physical number. And they were fully grinding on the ground, and it was a lot of floor work. It was really so funny because it was so uncomfortably sexy and and while still being monsters, it's probably the closest thing we have to a cat's esque number. I

[38:05] Speaker 4: would agree. I would agree with that, maybe, maybe a little bit in Keith in the band too.

[38:15] Speaker 4: just because, or even, you know, the Wizard of friendship song also kind of has a little bit of cats in it, because I feel like Keith and the band, it's rock, but it's like it is, kind of, it's got Andrew Lloyd Webber rock a little bit in it. And what we're doing sort of the whole narration, almost of like, you know, singing about Keith and his life from two other characters. It's very Andrew Wood Webber, and it's very cats like in that moment, Keith almost is the rum tug Tugger, and we're singing about how he's a curious cat. Wow. So I see that a little bit there. I think

[38:58] Mike Abrams: Keith, you look honored to be called Rum Tum Tugger, right there.

[39:01] Speaker 3: I sure do. I feel. I'm so honored.

[39:05] Speaker 4: yeah. And the Wizard of friendship, you could say, is a little Macavity, as I heard some

[39:13] Mike Abrams: Macavity and modern tortures. But I think it's because I was just

[39:18] Speaker 3: thinking, villain, it's the wizards number, yeah. So

[39:23] Speaker 4: what I'm saying is like, what I'm saying is like, the the song is about the wizard friendship, sort of how Macavity is about my cavity. Yeah,

[39:31] Mike Abrams: yeah. See, cats just really influences everything. People just don't know it. That's true. The reason we're here still today, the reason I have 100 most episodes talking about this crazy show that I had never seen until 2016 Wow, we're gonna do a little rapid fire, yeah, yeah. I didn't know anything about I moved to New York, so the cats came through Indiana, but I didn't go well, Susan, rapid fire, about. Cats. So each one of you, if you could go on and play one character in cats for one night. Which character would you want to perform as Mr. Mustafa police immediately. I love it.

[40:14] Speaker 7: The pawn you want? Jenny? Any day, you're in for Jenny. Any dots now? Yeah,

[40:24] Mike Abrams: okay, who are your favorite and least favorite cats characters,

[40:30] Speaker 2: uh, favorite is Mr. Mesopheles. Least favorite is rum, Rum Tum. Tugger, okay.

[41:04] Speaker 4: Can I change though, Matt the cat? Who I'd want to be? Yeah,

[41:14] Speaker 6: Oh. Plot twist, plot twist. Wow.

[41:18] Mike Abrams: What a dick. You want to do the cartwheels across the stage and everything,

[41:29] Speaker 3: go ahead, Jerry and rum bull teaza. My least

[41:34] Speaker 4: favorite cat is probably, I don't know. I don't know. I, like a lot of the cats, it's hard. It's that's such a hard question to answer, I guess my cavity, just because he's the bad guy.

[41:48] Speaker 4: what? No, you know who my least favorite is. I'm gonna say Buster for Jones.

[41:57] Mike Abrams: honestly, that cat, there's a Royal Caribbean 90 minute version, cruise, version of cats, and Buster Jones is not in it. So it's, it's the first cat cut from productions. So, yeah,

[42:09] Speaker 4: like, what's it? His whole thing is, this whole thing, respectfully, is that he's fat, he's

[42:17] Speaker 8: Like, that's a fact. It's just like, yeah,

[42:21] Speaker 4: he's like that. You know what? He's like, he's like, the A, N, P, T, P, who the writers are striking against right now.

[42:33] Speaker 4: And my favorite cat, my favorite cat, will probably always be Mr. Misto police. I wouldn't want to play him because he doesn't really get this thing, but, yeah, one, he's got that amazing outfit. And he's, you

[42:43] Mike Abrams: did it for three years, so for Halloween. So I

[42:50] Speaker 2: gets to do the 360 on the roller skating, uh, pipe, yeah, yeah.

[42:55] Mike Abrams: The combining a lot to handle shows here, yeah,

[43:03] Mike Abrams: yeah. He's, he's a prince charming. Okay, if you could umbrella, if you could add one of the cat's characters to lewberger, who would you want to bring on with tour with you?

[43:28] Speaker 2: Grizabella, I would like to bring her. I know when I Wikipedia her. While we were talking about her earlier, I saw that she was Lloyd,

[43:37] Mike Abrams: that that might be most memorable, heavily debated, because she abandons her family, so I'm not sure I'd call her loyal. She comes back, though, that's the arc of the story.

[43:50] Speaker 4: I would bring Gus the theater cat on tour with us. What? There's a theater cat.

[43:59] Speaker 3: you scribble shanks. And I would scribble Shanks because he's the railway cat, because so often we're renting cars and flying, and maybe we should be taking the train. Yeah, you know, to get around. Maybe Paul could show us how to get to our destinations a different way that's maybe more economical.

[44:17] Mike Abrams: Keep you in order, for sure. Good idea. Okay, good idea. Great, great, great. This is the thesis of this podcast, is that I don't think Grizabella is the right Jellicle choice. So I'd love to hear if you want to defend Grizabella, or if you want to pick any other cats. And I'm going to tell you that the fact that y'all didn't know Gus is one of the most common choices non Grizabella. So I'm excited to hear if you want to pick somebody else or if you want to

[44:42] Speaker 3: we want to choose the one who we think should be reborn, other than if we if we think that someone else should have been reborn other than Correct. Who

[44:51] Speaker 4: would you? Who would be your jealous? Should we give Keith? Should we give Keith and Huey? A couple of the names that haven't been said? Just

[44:58] Speaker 2: no, I've had, I think. Isabella. I think Grizabella is my choice. I'm doing I'm perusing the fuck out of this Wikipedia page right now, and I feel like paragraph and a half in, she should be the Jellicle chat cat.

[45:16] Speaker 4: yeah, go ahead. Well, I just want to give you your options before you make a decision, Keith, because there's some great cat options. You've got moncus trap, you've got pouncable, you've got Rumpus Cat, and you've also got jelly Lorem. We haven't talked at all about jelly more. There's Jemima and etc, and car buckety. So you know, you've got

[45:46] Speaker 3: I'm gonna go with Rumpus Cat, because when you isn't there something like a rumpus room in your house, which is like for all the fun. So I think, you know, the Jellicle cat should be a cat that's going to be bringing fun and youth into their next life. Vincent being born, this, this, you know, the the memory cat. She's so sad. Do we really need another sad cat to be born? No, we need a happy cat, one that we even have a rumpus good time. So I gotta go for Rumpus Cat. It's, oh, actually, personally, always been my secret faith, and I think that he should have died to be reborn, to see a sequel. Finally, a secret cats too.

[46:43] Speaker 4: I would go with Mungo Jerry and rumble teaser over Grizabella,

[46:47] Speaker 7: yeah, I mean, but you're allowed to be like cats.

[46:57] Speaker 7: I think there's no, you know, they, but

[47:02] Speaker 4: yeah, and they're there, it's like they're sort of two Calico looking cats. And I feel like they get, they get a lot of heat, because they sort of seem like macavities, little, you know, Crohn's. But I feel like if they just had another chance at life with, like, maybe a better human. They could really just, you know, I think they'd be more like my my kitties, my cats and taxi and they, you know, they just need. They really, you know, they cause mischief. They knock things off the shelf and rake Ming bosses. But they just needed the right person to give them the right amount of love. Yeah? And they would have, that would have been kind. And I think, I think if they had been the Jellico Morris, it would have sold everything.

[47:58] Mike Abrams: yeah. Well, this has been so awesome. How can people stay in touch with you? Find you on social media, and we'll put everything in the description as well. Yeah, check

[48:07] Speaker 3: us out at lewberger, l, e, w, B, E R, G, E R. Our YouTube channel, we have lots of great stuff coming through the pipeline. You'll see music videos for some of the singles. It'll drop early, but then the album drops on 23rd which is Friday. We'll also have some more music videos coming out after that. We're on Twitter. We're on Twitter, we're on Instagram. We're on tick tock on tick tock at Blue burger music. That's the only difference. And then you can find me at Keith Habs. You can find Huey at Huey stone fish. And you can find Alex Luke Alex at i The number eight a thumb tack on Twitter and beyond. I love it.

[48:44] Mike Abrams: Thank you all for humoring me through the cats going through all this fun. The album is incredible, and I'm so excited humor everybody to get to to hear it.

[48:55] Speaker 3: Thanks. Thanks. Yeah, we're really excited about it, and thanks everyone

[48:58] Mike Abrams: so listening to this episode of The Ron cat die the wrong cat diet, the podcast, break down the catastrophe. To follow along. You can subscribe on Apple podcast, Spotify, Stitcher, or any of us listen to podcasts, follow us on Twitter, Instagram and Tiktok at the wrong cat diet, or check our website, theroncave.com,