This transcript was automatically generated and might contain errors.

[0:05] Kate Jarecki: Hey Josh, what are you listening to?

[0:07] Joshua Keen: Time to go.

[0:09] Kate Jarecki: Oh, where?

[0:11] Joshua Keen: Oh, no, it's a song.

[0:13] Kate Jarecki: What's that from?

[0:18] Joshua Keen: You could be standing on wrong where the lights saw the glow, but the marquee is displaying a name you don't know.

[0:27] Kate Jarecki: Well, there's no need to be nervous. We're still glad that you've come, and we welcome you to What's That From.

[0:35] Joshua Keen: It's Kate and Josh on What's That From.

[0:46] Kate Jarecki: Hello!

[0:48] Joshua Keen: And welcome back to What's That From?

[0:52] Kate Jarecki: A podcast exploring musicals we don't know, but probably should.

[0:56] Joshua Keen: I'm Josh, and this week we'll be diving deep underground, exploring the musical Floyd Collins.

[1:07] Kate Jarecki: Whoa.

[1:12] Joshua Keen: Q mining sounds.

[1:17] Kate Jarecki: I don't know what our like need to make a sound cue for every show is, but we're running out of them if they're if the sound isn't.

[1:25] Joshua Keen: I'm like what we're underground.

[1:28] Kate Jarecki: It's like, hello.

[1:29] Joshua Keen: Hello, hello, hello, hello down there.

[1:32] Kate Jarecki: Q echo, echo go.

[1:36] Joshua Keen: Um, before we get get into it, Kate, it is it is simply your turn to do the 30-second board.

[1:44] Kate Jarecki: We're just going right off the bat, aren't we?

[1:45] Joshua Keen: Yeah.

[1:47] Kate Jarecki: We have no time to waste.

[1:48] Joshua Keen: Let's hope I don't cave in.

[1:51] Kate Jarecki: Whoa.

[1:52] Joshua Keen: We just made up on at the exact same time.

[1:54] Kate Jarecki: Two different cave buttons.

[1:58] Joshua Keen: Alright, my clock is ready.

[2:00] Kate Jarecki: Okay.

[2:01] Joshua Keen: Ready, set, go.

[2:05] Kate Jarecki: It's based on a true story from the 1920s where this guy loves going underground and digging deep into tunnels.

[2:13] Joshua Keen: And he gets trapped underneath one while exploring it.

[2:16] Kate Jarecki: Um and it turns into this big spiral of a national story that people are wondering if they're gonna save this man from being trapped underground.

[2:26] Joshua Keen: And we meet his family members along the way, a reporter, and just basically the whole story is just whether or not this guy's gonna get outside.

[2:34] Kate Jarecki: 30 seconds.

[2:35] Joshua Keen: Yeah.

[2:35] Kate Jarecki: Yeah.

[2:36] Joshua Keen: And my drop because it did awesome.

[2:44] Kate Jarecki: Yeah, that's um I feel like this one's a little not like easier to do the 30-second plot challenge, but it's like nothing happens and everything happens.

[2:56] Joshua Keen: How dare you?

[2:57] Kate Jarecki: No, but do you know what I mean? Like it's kind of like um Yeah.

[3:01] Joshua Keen: I mean, speaking of like it's kinda hard to find a really good synopsis of the story online.

[3:07] Kate Jarecki: It's kind of like all of them are basically like my 30-second plot challenge description.

[3:13] Joshua Keen: Yeah.

[3:13] Kate Jarecki: Yeah.

[3:14] Joshua Keen: Um, and I think it's just because it's sort of like an internal exploration of like exp yeah.

[3:24] Kate Jarecki: Yeah.

[3:24] Joshua Keen: And like a lot of it, I just think is the characters going through things and like talking it out, but it's not a lot of action.

[3:31] Kate Jarecki: So I think it's hard to like just like describe the synopsis of it because it not not that much like happens physically.

[3:39] Joshua Keen: A lot more feeling explanation than physical appearance.

[3:45] Kate Jarecki: Yeah.

[3:46] Joshua Keen: Yeah.

[3:46] Kate Jarecki: Um, but as Josh said in his 30-second plot challenge, it's based off a story from the 1920s.

[3:53] Joshua Keen: Um about Floyd Collins.

[3:55] Kate Jarecki: This is a true story. This happened near Cave City in Kentucky.

[4:00] Joshua Keen: The show had music and lyrics written by Adam Guettel and book by Tina Landau.

[4:05] Kate Jarecki: Obviously, two people who have big figures and pretty pretty good careers.

[4:11] Joshua Keen: Yeah.

[4:12] Kate Jarecki: Tina Landau is my Spongebob Queen, okay?

[4:14] Joshua Keen: Literally.

[4:16] Kate Jarecki: Yeah.

[4:17] Joshua Keen: And Adam Guettel obviously has written like The Light in the Piazza, my literal favorite musical.

[4:24] Kate Jarecki: Um most recently, like Days of Wine and Roses.

[4:28] Joshua Keen: Um they both met at Yale University.

[4:31] Kate Jarecki: So that's sort of where this sparked.

[4:34] Joshua Keen: Um, but interest sparked from a Reader's Digest article that they read about Floyd Collins.

[4:41] Kate Jarecki: The show was originally called Death Watch Carnival, which I'm really glad that they changed that.

[4:48] Joshua Keen: Death Watch Carnival. This is such a scary title for a show.

[4:52] Kate Jarecki: Um I was saying it sounds like it should be like the sister show to Ride the Cyclone at the Death Watch Carnival.

[5:01] Joshua Keen: Um it opened off Broadway at Playwrights Horizons in 1996.

[5:07] Kate Jarecki: And you know what? Surprisingly, not too much conning and murder in this show.

[5:13] Joshua Keen: Um, actually I guess like he kind of conned and murdered himself.

[5:18] Kate Jarecki: Whoa.

[5:20] Joshua Keen: So that's deep.

[5:22] Kate Jarecki: Yeah. You know, it's sort of like from this in the 20s, like, yeah, I'm just like, what an interesting thing. They're like all of these farmers were just battling to find these cool caves as like a tourist attraction.

[5:36] Joshua Keen: Right, because I didn't mention this, but I mean he had a business that he sold the experience to people of going into these caves.

[5:45] Kate Jarecki: Yeah, what do you mean in your thirty seconds you didn't get it?

[5:50] Joshua Keen: I'm sorry I'm slacking.

[5:52] Kate Jarecki: Um personally I would not be giving my money to go shimmy down a tube underground that's a big thing.

[6:00] Joshua Keen: Certainly not me.

[6:03] Kate Jarecki: When they are describing him like going into the cave and it's like it was so small he was going feet first, like shimmying his body through a hole that only fit him. I was like, no.

[6:12] Joshua Keen: No.

[6:13] Kate Jarecki: And why?

[6:16] Joshua Keen: No.

[6:16] Kate Jarecki: You know, I'm not not to yuck somebody's yum, but he's up there.

[6:21] Joshua Keen: Well, unfortunately, he couldn't even defend his yum because he didn't even make it out.

[6:25] Kate Jarecki: Spoiler.

[6:26] Joshua Keen: Sorry.

[6:27] Kate Jarecki: Should we dive deep into the actual synopsis?

[6:30] Joshua Keen: Yeah, let's get into it.

[6:32] Kate Jarecki: Okay. So like we mentioned, it's 1925. We're near Cave City, Kentucky, and it's the winter.

[6:40] Joshua Keen: And as Kate mentioned, our farmers and landowners are um in a bit of a cave war.

[6:49] Kate Jarecki: Where they're all trying to find the most interesting and sellable caves.

[6:56] Joshua Keen: And beautiful caves, you know, because there's there's minerals, there's some cool looking rocks down there, I guess.

[7:02] Kate Jarecki: Um, I'm still not sold.

[7:05] Joshua Keen: Yeah.

[7:06] Kate Jarecki: Also, like, no way with just like a lantern light, you're like having an enjoyable experience looking into this dark cave.

[7:15] Joshua Keen: Yeah, I'm not really buying it either.

[7:18] Kate Jarecki: And so Floyd, um, who has his family has a farm.

[7:23] Joshua Keen: Um, he loves it, loves it, loves it.

[7:26] Kate Jarecki: And he opened a cave called Crystal Cave.

[7:30] Joshua Keen: Um, but it's not as successful as he dreams it could be.

[7:36] Kate Jarecki: So on January 30th, 1925, Floyd is going to explore Sand Cave, hoping that this is gonna finally be the one.

[7:47] Joshua Keen: I feel like the name Sand Cave just sounds like it's gonna collapse.

[7:53] Kate Jarecki: Sorry, but I feel like he should have seen that coming.

[7:56] Joshua Keen: Like, whoa.

[7:57] Kate Jarecki: He has eyes set on the prize.

[8:00] Joshua Keen: He has his eyes set on the prize.

[8:01] Kate Jarecki: He's greedy, he wants more.

[8:03] Joshua Keen: So he goes to exploring Sand Cave.

[8:07] Kate Jarecki: He's kind of going through a series of underground tunnels, trying to like just reach these other uh beautiful cavernous places.

[8:19] Joshua Keen: So he's winding his way through, and all he has is his oil lantern to guide him.

[8:24] Kate Jarecki: I'm like, oh my gosh, not you fire and underground, but go off.

[8:31] Joshua Keen: So he uses the echoes of his voice, sort of like I guess a bat, like sonar technology, kind of, to as he sings these yodels, the echoes will sort of guide him where to go.

[8:48] Kate Jarecki: And this is our first big like musical sequence. We've got like the show is kind of chunked out in sections in terms of like these four songs correlate to like one part of it, these next four correlate to the next part, you know, like um, and so these first three songs that we meet, the call, it moves, and time to go are all part of this initial setup of him diving into the cave.

[9:20] Joshua Keen: Yeah.

[9:21] Kate Jarecki: And the show, the music is stunning.

[9:25] Joshua Keen: It is primarily sung through, um, which is also kind of giving like Light in the Piazza as well.

[9:31] Kate Jarecki: Like, so, um, once we finish that first section, which is entitled The Cave, um, you can also like see this on the cast album, everything's split up into like act one, the cave, act one, the rescue, act two, the carnival.

[9:48] Joshua Keen: These are like the three sections of the show.

[9:52] Kate Jarecki: So after we finish the cave section of the show, we move um as Floyd is kind of exploring, he's squirming feet first through a tight passageway a hundred and fifty feet underground.

[10:09] Joshua Keen: Whoa, and that's crazy.

[10:14] Kate Jarecki: And a small rock falls on his left foot that wedges between him and the ceiling.

[10:23] Joshua Keen: So he's trapped in this passageway.

[10:32] Kate Jarecki: That like is honestly my nightmare.

[10:35] Joshua Keen: That sounds so terrifying and horrible.

[10:38] Kate Jarecki: I'm like, he had to know it was coming. If he does this all the time.

[10:43] Joshua Keen: If you are shimmying and squirming your way through a tight passageway, it's just like you have to know that something's gonna something's gonna give.

[10:52] Kate Jarecki: Or not, or not give.

[10:54] Joshua Keen: Or not.

[10:55] Kate Jarecki: So there's obviously as word gets out that this has happened, there are some rescue attempts, and a handful of locals, including Floyd's family.

[11:06] Joshua Keen: Um like the song Lucky comes in here, and a few fellow cavers, Tween a Rock and a Hard Place, um, who are confident that the trapped man would be quickly freed.

[11:19] Kate Jarecki: These are some songs that come into play sung by these different groups in this rescue sequence section of the show. Everybody's very confident that they'll just get him out. Yeah. There's really not that much stress about it. They're like, oh, you know, this is scary, but we're gonna get him out. It's just Floyd in the caves. I really like that the song titles have the twang written into it. Like instead of between a rock and a hard place, it's between a rock and a hard place. That's how it's spelled. Yeah, I kinda love it. I love it. So night falls at Sand Cave, and Floyd's brother, Homer, crawls into the passageways to spend the night with him, and they have a song called Daybreak. So this so he didn't feel lonely.

Something something crazy about this mindset is all these people crawling in there to like hang out with him. I'm like, he is stuck and you're gonna go down in there and just chill with him and then leave. A lot of people are doing that in this show. All I know is, brother or not, if somebody crawled into a hole and got stuck, you will not catch me crawling into that same hole.

[12:29] Joshua Keen: No, no, Josh. Unfortunately, if you were stuck in a passageway, I would just have to send my vibes.

[12:35] Kate Jarecki: Vibes only. Like, yeah. So this operation is turning is it's just dawning on everyone that this might take a second. So many people are trying to reach him with supplies and just honest good vibes, honestly, comfort. And only a few people made it because they were turned back because of how narrow it was, um, obviously, or the sudden fear of the cave, I don't know, collapsing. These people with sense. Sorry, we're dragging Floyd Collins. I know about to say, like, I feel so bad. This is a true story of this poor man that literally got trapped, and we are just dragging. Yeah, he was he was an inspired person. And people have risky hobbies, so it's okay. And one of the few people who was able to reach Floyd was a reporter from the Louisville Choreo Journal named William Burke Skeets Miller.

[13:37] Kate Jarecki: Skeets. And they called him Skeets, quote unquote, because he was no bigger than a skew. Same. And he he was able to slide down the narrow shoots and sit with Floyd in his cave. I'm just like, you're telling me this skinny little boy go all the way to him and couldn't help him out. Like they couldn't have just like grabbed his hand and like pulled really hard. I'm like, that is so mean that this skinny little boy shimmied down there to to interview him and then left. And like no one gave him like a shovel or like perhaps a tool to help pull him out. He's like, I got my pen and my paper. I got I got the journal to write, okay? I mean, like, get your coin, Skeets. Skeet's but so and then he um sings a song called I Landed on Him, and that's this is all still part of the rescue.

So then we find out that he has eight visits with Floyd, not just once, multiple times he gets down there and back out. And like again, no spoilers, Floyd does not make it out of here, and he dies of like starvation and dehydration. I'm like, you sat there with him and you couldn't bring him something to eat.

[14:50] Joshua Keen: Right, like if if I was like on the local okay, this is such a stretch. If I was on the local like firefighting team in Kentucky. I would hire this if I knew this was the only guy that could fit into this hole to reach him. Wouldn't you like use him as the resource to save him or to keep him alive?

[15:15] Kate Jarecki: Yeah, I think so. I've got questions. Yeah, one thing about Josh and I is it upon exploring this musical, we we have a lot of questions for Floyd himself. But also, like, why are we taking the stance that like if we were there in 1925, we would have saved Floyd Collins? That's the stance we're taking right now. It's like we could have saved that man. Yeah, and I've never lived in 1925, so I guess I don't really understand. I've never been in a game before. I also am like, why couldn't someone bring him food? I'm like, maybe because food was hard to come by. You know what I mean? Like, I'm like talking about these resources, like they're so easily accessible. So it he Skeet ends up having eight visits with Floyd Collins, and he conducts a series of interviews with him, and people are enamored with this story and this first hand hand account of a person being buried alive.

[16:15] Joshua Keen: So it's it's sort of like a 1925 influencer. He puts out this article, it becomes viral, essentially, and people start flocking. So we've got Floyd Collins was like the modern day Charlie Dumelia.

[16:36] Kate Jarecki: Is what you're saying. Um yeah, that's exactly what I was saying. Skeets is like that guy in Washington Square Park that interviews people.

[16:51] Joshua Keen: Yeah. Yeah, he's got a tiny microphone. If it was if they're do if the Broadway production's a modern production, he's making TikToks in the cave. Watch that be it, Kate. Watch that be it. Also, we didn't mention this. How did we not get there? We we didn't even talk about this. It's coming to Broadway for the first time. Yeah. That's why we decided uh to go with it, because it's relevant. They just announced that Lou Collins is coming to Broadway in 2025. Yeah. So get excited, everyone. The music is really slayful. So um, so anyways, he's been interviewing him, it goes it goes big, and um days are now turning into weeks, and the rescue attempts are now becoming a national crisis, and we've got engineers, miners, the National Guard, the Red Cross, they've called everybody, and they all are disagreeing on what the right plan is to get him out of there.

[17:52] Kate Jarecki: This is like just so sad, because I I feel like it reminds me of I feel like a few times in our lifetime there have been people who have been stuck underground. Normally it's not because they're just doing it for their own fun, but sometimes I guess it is like just on accident, like those kids that were stuck in it is kind of like really helpless because one wrong move and like the whole cave just like collapses.

[18:01] Joshua Keen: Yeah. Yeah, so it's kind of like, hmm. It is kind of tough. But sometimes I'm like, wow, we have so much technology. I guess they didn't back then, but I'm like, they really had to put all their heads together, and then they still didn't figure it out.

[18:30] Kate Jarecki: Right. But a man could go sit next to him in the cave. I have questions, and so did Skeets. Um, but the family, um, Floyd's family is they're trying to stay positive, and we get a song called Heart and Hand. And um, Homer is leading the efforts to get Floyd's foot free. And we get a song called The Riddle Song. This was fun. That was a fun one. Yeah. There are a lot of factors, obviously, contributing to this. Weather, crumbling walls of the cave, tightness of the squeeze, and just general fear. No one was able to get in to rescue him.

[19:15] Joshua Keen: Right. And that's the end of Act One. Whew. It's heavy. The show's really heavy. And also, I think it's important to note just to visualize sort of what's happening. Once Floyd Collins gets stuck in the cave, the actor playing Floyd Collins stays in that same position for the whole show.

[19:35] Kate Jarecki: That is bonkers to me. That he's just like laying in a in a on his back, like propped up on this like wood board. New princess track unlocked. I'm like, whoa, to sing some of these songs are not easy songs to sing. I guess not really a princess track, but I guess not really a princess track. But you get to lay down. But you get to lay down, but you do have to be singing for your life. Um I will say, like, in lieu of the like physical or like visual experience of the show, since he is trapped and like still, you know, the music really fills the void. Yeah, they really captured the like bluegrass and the like the yodeling and the oh it's like good. This score is like a it's funny that we did this right after Bright Star because um it taps into that very similar sonic world.

[20:29] Joshua Keen: So yeah, act one sort of ends on a bit of a down note.

[20:34] Kate Jarecki: Yeah. Then act two, we learn that a bunch of reporters are now populating at the scene, and we get a number called Is That Remarkable. And now we enter the section of the show called the Carnival The Carnival. Now it's estimated that there's around 20,000 people that have arrived from all over America, um, wanting to get eyes on Floyd, who's now kind of painted as a an American hero that's been trapped. But the growing crowd is starting to exploit um the situation with souvenirs and balloons, and it's like turned from a media carnival into almost a literal carnival of energy.

[21:21] Joshua Keen: Yeah, like a circus.

[21:22] Kate Jarecki: Yeah. Yeah, because like people were like, I mean, obviously, like they're they're all drawn to this event, and it's all happening underground. So what is there even really to experience besides like the person that they're all there for? It's all sort of happening, yeah. So I feel like they you know, made all this I don't know the word coming to my mind is hullabaloo, and I have never used that word before.

[21:47] Joshua Keen: Are you in the 1920s right now?

[21:49] Kate Jarecki: But they are making they are making a lot of hullabaloo, okay, about Floyd Collins. And I'm about to put you in a cave. And then there's you know, like jugglers and preachers and movie people like Cruz trying to get this on film and in all of this hullabaloo, okay. The like Floyd Collins is sort of forgotten. Like they don't even remember why they're there. I think people forget that like there's somebody trapped that they have like ticking down the clock to get them out of there. They're stretching it out for the the the money of it all. Isn't it kind of interesting though? Like even looking at this and then like sort of how media works today, it's sort of the same thing.

[22:35] Kate Jarecki: Like it's so easy how quickly people get caught up in things and then forget about the important thing at its core, or like why you're even there in the first place, or I'm just like, whoa, so a hundred years later, we're still doing that.

[22:47] Joshua Keen: Not that all roads lead back to Chicago, but it's kind of similar in that way about like the exploitation of media and a dark situation, yeah, turn to fame, you know.

[22:56] Kate Jarecki: Yeah, and it was this was sort of the first great media circus of the modern era.

[23:02] Joshua Keen: So this was sort of like the first time that the media had attracted an event like this.

[23:07] Kate Jarecki: Right. So now different cave-ins into the series of tunnels he's in. Um the passageways are all blocked. And so now he's like truly cut off from the world. And his sister Nellie, we get a number called Through the Mountains, where she's dreaming of a way to reach him.

[23:28] Joshua Keen: And it's a really pretty song.

[23:29] Kate Jarecki: So sad.

[23:30] Joshua Keen: It is sad.

[23:31] Kate Jarecki: Just must like so helpless. There's just like nothing you can do.

[23:34] Joshua Keen: Yeah.

[23:35] Kate Jarecki: So Homer eventually has like a clash, a clash with the authorities, and he's banned from the site.

[23:45] Joshua Keen: Get comfortable is the song.

[23:47] Kate Jarecki: Git comfortable. G-I-T.

[23:50] Joshua Keen: And he was banned from the site like as a vertical shaft was like just starting to reach Floyd.

[23:57] Kate Jarecki: Right. Now they're trying to just like dig a new hole.

[23:59] Joshua Keen: Yeah. So they're entering their third week of this. It's been going on for quite some time. This poor poor man has just been stuck in the same position underground.

[24:08] Kate Jarecki: That's just like so horrifying. Anyway.

[24:10] Joshua Keen: I bet there's bugs too.

[24:12] Kate Jarecki: Yeah.

[24:13] Joshua Keen: For sure. And then they sing the ballad of Floyd Collins again. The show sort of also opens with the ballad of Floyd Collins, but now it's obviously in a different tune.

[24:23] Kate Jarecki: Floyd is still remains alone, and he's just left with contemplating his own fate and coming to terms with the fact that he is gonna die.

[24:33] Joshua Keen: And we get like a number called the Dream, and this is where it gets super artsy because he's just kind of like sitting in the dark, can't move, and now his brain is just like running wild.

[24:44] Kate Jarecki: Yeah. And so does the music. I can imagine too, if you're like hungry, thirsty, underground, like you kind of start to probably go a little like get a little delusional, you know.

[24:54] Joshua Keen: Yeah. So then on February 16th, 17 days after entering the cave, a shaft finally reaches Floyd, but they find out that he had already died of exposure, exhaustion, and starvation three days earlier on Friday the 13th.

[25:14] Kate Jarecki: Whoa.

[25:15] Joshua Keen: Spooky.

[25:16] Kate Jarecki: That is spooky. And he sings How Glory Goes, which I'm gonna make a bold statement here and say it's probably one of the most beautiful songs uh period in musical theater.

[25:30] Joshua Keen: Oh my gosh.

[25:33] Kate Jarecki: Anytime I've ever heard anyone sing this, I cry automatically. It's so beautiful.

[25:40] Joshua Keen: It's just like I'm like Adam Gettle, you're crazy for this.

[25:46] Kate Jarecki: For writing a song that so accurately and innocently describes having to like contemplate and accept death and what it is. Oh it's so good.

[25:58] Joshua Keen: Deep.

[25:58] Kate Jarecki: And so deep like that tunnel. The carnival at Sand Cave, packed up and went home. There's nothing there for them anymore. And I'm just like, y'all, if y'all had just like started digging that hole initially, maybe you could have got him.

[26:11] Joshua Keen: Yeah.

[26:12] Kate Jarecki: Skeet was too busy climbing in the little hole next to him. They needed he needed to go in that way.

[26:18] Joshua Keen: This show is really sad.

[26:22] Kate Jarecki: I think that's also like sort of why I feel uh a need to like make light of it or like comment on it. It's sort of like when something's scary or sad. I think like thinking about this show too much would make me really, really depressed, might I say. Like I just think the show is it the situation is just really heartbreaking, and it's just like a really sad story.

[26:46] Joshua Keen: I think they do a good job with the show with the structure and with the music that they kind of they don't they pull you out of the heaviness with the media stuff.

[26:59] Kate Jarecki: Yeah. Where musically it's kind of light and like fun. So I think they do a good job of like making the audience experience not feel so daunting and down.

[27:11] Joshua Keen: Yeah, you know, like it is like, and that's part of the part of the effect is that you do kind of feel stuck with him.

[27:18] Kate Jarecki: Yeah, but I think they do a good job of not making it feel down the whole thing.

[27:24] Joshua Keen: So true.

[27:25] Kate Jarecki: So true. I just think if I think about him being stuck too much, it just like makes me really sad. And like, I mean, Adam Gettle described it himself as like it's a dark show with a very light-filled center, kind of a crusty outside with a gooey center.

[27:43] Joshua Keen: And I agree. I think like you also have to like in order for it to be as sad as it is, you also have to like feel connected to the like light that Floyd Collins was, or his fa how his family sees him, or how people see him and people describe him, like you know what I mean.

[28:00] Kate Jarecki: Yeah. What's crazy is that this show only ran for 25 performances off Broadway.

[28:05] Joshua Keen: Mm-hmm.

[28:05] Kate Jarecki: That's crazy. At the Playwright's Horizons in 1996, it did win several awards, including the Lucille Laurel Award and an Obi, which is obviously not here, but um for composer lyricist Gettle and librettist director Tina Landau.

[28:23] Joshua Keen: Um in spring nineteen ninety seven. They released a cast album and it featured the Playwrights Horizons cast. And like we mentioned, it's coming to Broadway. Also directed by Tina Landau.

[28:34] Kate Jarecki: Yeah. Which is I think is really awesome. At Lincoln Center. And I'm really curious to see who's gonna play Floyd Collins.

[28:44] Joshua Keen: That and also what changes they make to it, because I read something that said that they're probably updating it a little bit.

[28:44] Kate Jarecki: Really?

[28:44] Joshua Keen: Updating it.

[28:52] Kate Jarecki: But it's like what is there well TikTok Tiny Microphone. Um I feel like media is pretty like prevalent today. So you could say some like pretty interesting stuff about the media, I think.

[29:07] Joshua Keen: Yeah.

[29:08] Kate Jarecki: Me thinks.

[29:09] Joshua Keen: Me thinks. Um what would you rate this show?

[29:12] Kate Jarecki: You know, I without having seen it in person, I think that is a big part of like what carries this show is how you deliver it, the appearance of it, because it is so artsy. Just just from the music and the idea that alone, I guess I give it an eight out of ten for being like really complex and um bold. Like I just think it's a bold idea to go with for a musical.

[29:40] Joshua Keen: Yeah.

[29:40] Kate Jarecki: Um, I think it could have the potential to getting in nine out of ten territory if I saw something that really equaled the concept on paper visually.

[29:54] Joshua Keen: Yeah.

[29:54] Kate Jarecki: Cause like right now it's hard for me to kind of visualize and fathom it, which I like that I like shows like that because I'm like, okay, then I really want to see how somebody does deliver it. And I think if somebody does, which she obviously knows what it's required of because she wrote it.

[30:10] Joshua Keen: Yeah.

[30:10] Kate Jarecki: Um she's had a lot of time to to work on it and think about it since it originally premiered. Um I just think it's also so cool. Like, I just love that like they were young and they wrote this show, and now finally, all this time later, after they've had successful careers, they get to revisit it again on like a really big scale, and I'm sure a much bigger budget than they had at Playwrights Horizon.

[30:33] Joshua Keen: So I'm excited to see what the full concept after all this time marinating has turned out to be.

[30:41] Kate Jarecki: Yeah. It was a long answer for that. And it wasn't earlier work for them.

[30:45] Joshua Keen: Um so I also think it's interesting, you know, now that they've had a lot the in the past, you know, twenty something years, like they've had a lot of experience.

[30:59] Kate Jarecki: So I also think seeing it with like fresh eyes, something that you wrote early on in your career, I think is really cool.

[31:06] Joshua Keen: I would also I think I would give it, I think I agree with you. I think it's like has a nine out of ten potential.

[31:12] Kate Jarecki: Um, but I think the cast album and like the concept of it is like definitely an eight and a half for me. The music is really good, but I'm also a huge Adam Gettles stan. Like I just love like the Land of the Piazza is like truly my favorite musical. I think he writes hit well, oh, I guess also like maybe important to note for people who might not know Adam Gettle is Richard Rogers' grandson.

[31:35] Joshua Keen: Right.

[31:36] Kate Jarecki: Neppo baby.

[31:38] Joshua Keen: But in an awesome way.

[31:40] Kate Jarecki: Like I think I like the way Adam Gettle writes because it feels reminiscent of composers that I love and respect from like a a time past.

[31:50] Joshua Keen: Yeah, he does he does a really good job of it being a contemporary sound, but um classically inspired.

[31:57] Kate Jarecki: Yeah, and like the music makes you feel a certain way. Like the orchestrations matter almost, I feel like just as much as the vocal line, which I think is really important.

[32:07] Joshua Keen: Yeah. So one thing about Josh and I is we'll be sat at Floyd Collins on Broadway, okay?

[32:14] Kate Jarecki: Oh, we'll be there.

[32:15] Joshua Keen: We'll be there.

[32:16] Kate Jarecki: If not in it, we'll be there.

[32:18] Joshua Keen: If we're not in it.

[32:20] Kate Jarecki: I think you could be the sister.

[32:23] Joshua Keen: Whoa.

[32:24] Kate Jarecki: Or we could easily be carnival goers.

[32:27] Joshua Keen: Skeets.

[32:28] Kate Jarecki: Actually, I want you to play Skeets.

[32:30] Joshua Keen: The tiny.

[32:34] Kate Jarecki: I'm like, I'm just so I'm just so little. I'm so little, I can fit in the cavern.

[32:41] Joshua Keen: I picture that little kid from Harry Potter that's like running around annoying him, Callin'.

[32:46] Kate Jarecki: You know what I'm talking about?

[32:47] Joshua Keen: I don't know why that's who I imagine Skeets as.

[32:49] Kate Jarecki: It's like that little annoying reporter boy from Harry Potter.

[32:52] Joshua Keen: Yeah.

[32:52] Kate Jarecki: Anyways.

[32:53] Joshua Keen: No, that's so true. That's exactly what he is.

[32:56] Kate Jarecki: Yeah. So that's Floyd Collins.

[33:00] Joshua Keen: That's Floyd Collins.

[33:02] Kate Jarecki: Alright, listen. Nothing but respect people in their dreams, okay?

[33:06] Joshua Keen: But be safe.

[33:07] Kate Jarecki: But be safe.

[33:08] Joshua Keen: But be safe.

[33:09] Kate Jarecki: Yeah. You can follow us on Instagram at WTF B W A Y that or at WTF B-U-A. And you can catch us with new episodes every Wednesday on the Broadway Podcast Network.

[33:22] Joshua Keen: We release what uh show we're doing on every musical reveal Monday.

[33:26] Kate Jarecki: And every Wednesday, we got a new episode coming your way. You can listen on the Broadway Podcast Network or wherever you do your podcast listening.

[33:35] Joshua Keen: I'm Kate.

[33:36] Kate Jarecki: And I'm Josh.

[33:37] Joshua Keen: And this is What's That From?