This transcript was automatically generated and might contain errors.

[0:00] Patrick Oliver Jones: Thanks for coming back to join me and Hal Luftig as we continue our conversation with the final five questions.

[0:07] Hal Luftig: He opens up about how much he adores Audra McDonald. I mean, who doesn't, and why it's so important to trust your gut.

[0:14] Patrick Oliver Jones: I'm your host, Patrick Oliver Jones, and this is the final five.

[0:25] Patrick Oliver Jones: So here we go. The first question. If you could have any other job outside of the arts, what would it be?

[0:32] Hal Luftig: I would do something that involved public, whether that be, you know, some kind of customer relations or something. I enjoy interacting with a lot of people and the public. So something in that sector. I don't know exactly what. Yeah, something like that. Yeah. Yeah, something out front. Yeah, or interacting with people. Right. Even teaching. I love that. I do that sometimes. I'm asked as a guest to come in and talk to a class and stuff like that. And I love that too.

[1:04] Patrick Oliver Jones: Number two, what is a bucket list show or maybe an actor that you've wanted to work with? What’s on your list of things?

[1:13] Hal Luftig: Audra McDonald. In fact, we are trying to work on a project together. This is again an example of why things take forever. You know, she's very busy, and then we have an actress who we love to play opposite her, but they need to read the script together, getting that to happen. It's been a year now. But I've said this to her, so I'm not saying anything out of school. When we do get to work together, I will just on opening night will lay down on the ground and say, Lordy, do you take me now? Because I've had there's something else too I have come to the peak. You know, and when I told her she was so funny, she'd looked at me and she said, Oh, honey, we need to get out more. I, you know, I have other things on my bucket list, but yeah, I would add that as well. I think to be in the same room with someone as gifted and I want to be part of something creating something that she's in, yeah.

[2:13] Patrick Oliver Jones: All right, number three. Who is it that you look up to, whether it's a mentor or someone that inspires you in your work?

[2:20] Hal Luftig: Well, of course that changes over time, but the one constant Manny Azenberg, when I was growing up as a kid and he was, you know, producing Neil Simon's plays and things like that. I would get very excited. In fact, you know, it was the days of the New York Times ad was all we had. And I would run in and say, Mom, mom, Manny Azenberg has a new show, you know, because I was reading the Times, and she probably had no idea what would she be. That's nice. But getting to work with him the few times I had it was I would sit there and pinch myself and go, It's really Manny. I'm talking to Manny, you know.

[3:02] Patrick Oliver Jones: So what was it about him that triggered this response in you?

[3:07] Hal Luftig: Well, I loved the shows that he produced. And as I got to know him, I just he's I love his demeanor, I love his sense of humor. He's just to me like the consummate producer. He's nobody's fool, he doesn't suffer fools gladly, knows exactly what's going on at every moment, and yet he kind of does it in this way where you're like, I'm not sure if he's aware of what, you know, that kind of thing. And I just love his whole spirit. Yeah, that was that was the high one of the highlights of getting to work with my hero.

[3:51] Patrick Oliver Jones: All right, number four. We've touched on it a bit, but maybe you can narrow it down. Name a lesson or trait that took you a while to learn, or maybe one that you're still learning today.

[4:02] Hal Luftig: Trust your gut. Trust your gut. It usually doesn't steer me wrong. And the times that I haven't, or I've been talked out of something or into something, it usually does not have great con, you know, it doesn't usually end happily, as they say. So the one thing I've learned is I might not be right, but I'm listening to my that inner voice that's telling me, you know, don't do this, or don't, you know, yeah.

[4:32] Patrick Oliver Jones: So where does the elevator in Millie fall? Was that true?

[4:35] Hal Luftig: I well, that one, you know what? I'm gonna be really honest, Patrick. That was a learning experience. I was sort of new, I was the first time I was a lead producer, and my gut didn't tell me no, my gut said, Oh, that makes sense. But the lesson I took from that was now I know when a director or designer wants something of that magnitude to actually question A, how much to build it, B, how much to get it into the theater, and C, how much is it gonna cost on a weekly basis to operate, you know. If it's something of that magnitude, if the question is, can we just have another dress? You know, I usually don't dig my heels in, even if my gut says, we don't need another dress, the problem is not the dress.

[5:30] Patrick Oliver Jones: Right.

[5:31] Hal Luftig: Yeah, but now if a Millie situation were to happen today, I would handle it completely differently. Yeah, yeah, because it's about trusting your gut, but also educating that gut along the way.

[5:42] Hal Luftig: Yes, a little right, and learning that I say your gut doesn't wake up in the morning and say, Hey, let's like really screw over Hal. I'm making him do something that's gonna be disastrous. Yeah, you know, it's that kind of thing.

[5:54] Patrick Oliver Jones: Yeah. All right, here we are at number five. What is the best advice you have received?

[6:00] Hal Luftig: It would be if I'm kind of paraphrasing, is don't let the totality of the task of producing a new show overwhelm you to make you feel like you can't do it. I and I kind of live by that. You know, when I start a new show, it's like looking at Mount Vesuvius. I have to climb Mount Vesuvius, but instead of looking at it that way, I look at it, you know what, just put one foot in front of the other, and then the other foot in front of the other, and eventually, you know, it might be a tough climb, but you will get to the top of the mountain, and that you know, is sort of what somebody taught me, and something that I try to pass on to others who ask, you know, how do I produce, or why do you know what do I have to do? So that would be it, it just be don't let the totality of the task overwhelm you and paralyze you with fear or anxiety.

[7:01] Patrick Oliver Jones: And so would you say that you have a basic blueprint that you follow for every show, or does every show really different when it comes to that process?

[7:10] Hal Luftig: Every show is different, but the basic tenant is the same. Because if I sat down and looked at the enormity of creating a new show, which I have several in the pipeline now. God only knows, you know, when we can get back to it. But I have several in the pipeline now, and I'm in that exact place. You know, it's like, oh my gosh, we have to write this, and you know, how do we stage it and who's gonna, you know, where do we go with it and out of town? I just, you know, I catch myself and I say, you know, just stop one foot in front of the other. Do today we have to, you know, hire the composer, you know, tomorrow we'll do something, but I don't think of it, you know, you know, and all these things I have to do, because it would just paralyze me with fear and anxiety about how am I gonna do that? You know, so I just I try to heap my own advice and just think one foot one day in front of the other.

[8:11] Hal Luftig: Some days I play a little game with myself. I say, you know what, Al, it's 2 p.m. You just have to get to 3 p.m. And then I would say, oh, you just have to get to 4 p.m. Because there's so much going on that if you think how you know, I'm sure everyone's felt this when they wake up in the morning at some point. I can't do everything. I, you know, the what I have to do today is just you know, enormous. I'm just gonna stay in bed, and you know, you can't really do that. You get out and you that's a little game, like I said, I play with myself, just get to the next hour, get to the next, you know, and then well, you know what? The day's done and you've accomplished a lot of stuff. Well, you know what?

You're standing back over the theater and going it's opening that curtain is going up, and you think, how the hell did we get to this place? You know, yeah, yeah. Because all of a sudden, six years, like even with Evita, seems I mean, like it was 10 minutes ago. You know, I didn't let this happen. Yeah. But you just have to, that's what I do. I just keep moving forward.

[9:11] Patrick Oliver Jones: Well, thank you so much, Hal. This has been it's really been great to have you on the podcast.

[9:15] Hal Luftig: It's been great for me too, and it's great seeing you again.

[9:19] Patrick Oliver Jones: I know, I know. It's been too long.

[9:21] Hal Luftig: Yeah, we're way too long.

[9:23] Patrick Oliver Jones: So yeah, when we're out of quarantine.

[9:25] Hal Luftig: When we're out of quarantine, we'll have to do a face-to-face again.

[9:31] Patrick Oliver Jones: All right, my friend, thank you so much for having me and be safe, be healthy, and hopefully we'll see each other soon.

[9:38] Patrick Oliver Jones: Many thanks to Hal and thank you for joining us for our conversation. I know I certainly gleaned a lot of information from all the insights and all the stories that Hal had to tell. Well, there will be more stories next week with Andrew Lippa as he and I sit down and reminisce about the days when we worked together in the Addams Family National Tour and about his early days in finding his voice as both a composer and a lyricist. Now I'm your host, Patrick Oliver Jones, and I'll see you next time on Why I'll Never Make It.