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[0:08] Patrick Oliver Jones: Hello and welcome to a midweek bonus episode here on Why I'll Never Make It.

[0:14] Patrick Oliver Jones: On Monday, I hope you caught my episode with Kristin Stoltz Presley, otherwise known as Dr. Broadway.

[0:20] Patrick Oliver Jones: She and I discussed all about Tony Awards, Broadway history, great shows from Hamilton to Come From Away, as well as the current slate of nominees this Broadway Award season.

[0:34] Patrick Oliver Jones: After all of that conversation about the history and the makings of Broadway, I had a few trivia questions to ask our musical theater historian.

[0:45] Patrick Oliver Jones: So I posed some of these questions, and I will readily admit that I barely knew any of them myself, but I thought I would pose these to Kristin just to have a little fun with some trivia knowledge.

[0:58] Patrick Oliver Jones: So here is the very first theater trivia challenge on the podcast.

[1:08] Patrick Oliver Jones: So as we end, I wanted to throw some trivia at you.

[1:13] Kristin Stoltz Presley: Okay.

[1:13] Patrick Oliver Jones: Uh oh, okay.

[1:14] Kristin Stoltz Presley: I know.

[1:15] Patrick Oliver Jones: Here we go.

[1:15] Patrick Oliver Jones: So we'll start off with some easy ones, you know, and then we'll kind of work our way.

[1:21] Patrick Oliver Jones: So we'll start with Dorothy Fields.

[1:23] Patrick Oliver Jones: This should be a little brainer.

[1:24] Kristin Stoltz Presley: Yeah.

[1:24] Patrick Oliver Jones: So name Dorothy Fields' three Tony nominations.

[1:29] Kristin Stoltz Presley: Oh gosh, for three turns.

[1:30] Kristin Stoltz Presley: I know she won for Redhead.

[1:32] Patrick Oliver Jones: Right.

[1:33] Kristin Stoltz Presley: Um, and that was 1959.

[1:35] Kristin Stoltz Presley: Uh she would have also been nominated for Sweet Charity, I imagine.

[1:40] Patrick Oliver Jones: Right.

[1:41] Kristin Stoltz Presley: And then the third was it my gut is saying A Tree Grows in Brooklyn.

[1:47] Patrick Oliver Jones: No, you've mentioned it before.

[1:49] Kristin Stoltz Presley: Okay, I mentioned Seesaw.

[1:50] Patrick Oliver Jones: It wouldn't be Seesaw, would it?

[1:52] Kristin Stoltz Presley: Seesaw.

[1:52] Patrick Oliver Jones: Are you kidding me?

[1:54] Kristin Stoltz Presley: I'm shocked.

[1:54] Kristin Stoltz Presley: I love that show.

[1:56] Patrick Oliver Jones: I don't see it being loved by many other people.

[2:00] Kristin Stoltz Presley: But yeah, that was in 1974.

[2:02] Patrick Oliver Jones: Yeah.

[2:02] Patrick Oliver Jones: So that was her third nomination.

[2:05] Patrick Oliver Jones: Okay.

[2:05] Patrick Oliver Jones: So in what year were the Tony Awards first given?

[2:11] Kristin Stoltz Presley: 1947.

[2:12] Patrick Oliver Jones: Right, right.

[2:13] Patrick Oliver Jones: Uh, who was Steven Sondheim's famous mentor?

[2:17] Kristin Stoltz Presley: Oh, that would be Oscar Hammerstein.

[2:19] Patrick Oliver Jones: Right, right, exactly.

[2:20] Patrick Oliver Jones: The first musical to win the Best Musical award at the Tonys.

[2:25] Kristin Stoltz Presley: The first musical to win the Best.

[2:28] Kristin Stoltz Presley: Okay.

[2:29] Kristin Stoltz Presley: I've know this.

[2:31] Kristin Stoltz Presley: Um, was it South Pacific?

[2:34] Patrick Oliver Jones: No, it actually surprised me.

[2:36] Patrick Oliver Jones: Was it 1949?

[2:37] Kristin Stoltz Presley: Because that's when they did the first Best Play.

[2:39] Patrick Oliver Jones: Okay, so let me add, let me think again.

[2:41] Patrick Oliver Jones: 1949.

[2:42] Kristin Stoltz Presley: Yeah, yeah.

[2:42] Patrick Oliver Jones: So while you think of it, so a little back history.

[2:44] Patrick Oliver Jones: When it started in 1947, they were just kind of giving out random awards, but it wasn't until three years later that they started actually giving specific awards Best Musical, Best Play, Best.

[2:55] Patrick Oliver Jones: So the first Best Musical was actually given in '49, correct?

[3:00] Kristin Stoltz Presley: '49.

[3:01] Patrick Oliver Jones: And South Pacific was '50.

[3:03] Kristin Stoltz Presley: Um, I do not know.

[3:05] Kristin Stoltz Presley: I have my cheeks.

[3:06] Patrick Oliver Jones: Cole Porter.

[3:07] Patrick Oliver Jones: Was it Kiss Me, Kate?

[3:08] Kristin Stoltz Presley: Kiss Me, Kate.

[3:09] Patrick Oliver Jones: That's the one.

[3:11] Patrick Oliver Jones: Yeah.

[3:11] Patrick Oliver Jones: Everything old is new again back on Broadway.

[3:14] Kristin Stoltz Presley: Right, right.

[3:14] Kristin Stoltz Presley: It's having its own revival.

[3:20] Patrick Oliver Jones: Oklahoma and Kiss Me, Kate.

[3:22] Kristin Stoltz Presley: Isn't that crazy?

[3:22] Patrick Oliver Jones: With all the new, all the new news.

[3:24] Kristin Stoltz Presley: Yes.

[3:25] Kristin Stoltz Presley: Yeah.

[3:26] Patrick Oliver Jones: That was shocking to me that there's only two nominated revivals.

[3:30] Patrick Oliver Jones: Um Oklahoma and Kiss Me, Kate.

[3:33] Patrick Oliver Jones: That was I was surprised because typically we see a lot more than that.

[3:36] Patrick Oliver Jones: And it seems like both of them kind of tried to take new texts, you know, Kiss Me, Kate in the Me Too era, and then Oklahoma trying to give a bit more like in your face, kind of I guess less staged.

[3:49] Kristin Stoltz Presley: Yeah, yeah, a bit more gritty.

[3:51] Patrick Oliver Jones: It'll be interesting to see which of the I think Oklahoma has the edge, just because it's taking more chances.

[3:58] Kristin Stoltz Presley: I think so too.

[4:00] Patrick Oliver Jones: All right, so here we are back to which one of these musicals did not win the Pulitzer Prize for Drama.

[4:08] Patrick Oliver Jones: Okay, so I'm gonna give you four choices.

[4:10] Kristin Stoltz Presley: Oh no, right.

[4:12] Patrick Oliver Jones: You're exposing me as a fraud.

[4:14] Kristin Stoltz Presley: I'm not sure.

[4:16] Patrick Oliver Jones: You might know this one.

[4:17] Patrick Oliver Jones: Okay, so we have Hamilton, South Pacific, Fun Home, and Fiorello.

[4:23] Kristin Stoltz Presley: I'm going to go with Fiorello.

[4:26] Kristin Stoltz Presley: Whenever I guessed, I guess Fiorello as well.

[4:29] Patrick Oliver Jones: But Fun Home was nominated, but it didn't win the Pulitzer that year.

[4:33] Kristin Stoltz Presley: Okay, how about that?

[4:35] Patrick Oliver Jones: Okay.

[4:35] Patrick Oliver Jones: I knew South Pacific had, I knew Hamilton had.

[4:38] Kristin Stoltz Presley: I would have assumed Fun Home would have, I didn't know Fiorello had so much groundbreaking, so many groundbreaking things to say.

[4:45] Patrick Oliver Jones: Right.

[4:45] Patrick Oliver Jones: Right.

[4:46] Patrick Oliver Jones: It's kind of crazy.

[4:47] Patrick Oliver Jones: Like Fiorello, it's one of those shows that was huge and won all these awards, the Pulitzer, the Tony Award.

[4:53] Patrick Oliver Jones: I mean, it won so much when it came out, but it has not stood the test of time.

[4:57] Kristin Stoltz Presley: Like who does Fiorello?

[4:58] Patrick Oliver Jones: Not at all.

[4:59] Kristin Stoltz Presley: No, not at all.

[4:59] Kristin Stoltz Presley: I mean, maybe you hear numbers done and on audition, but certainly not the show.

[5:04] Patrick Oliver Jones: Right.

[5:05] Patrick Oliver Jones: So let's see.

[5:06] Patrick Oliver Jones: Here we go.

[5:08] Patrick Oliver Jones: The longest running Broadway show that is not still currently running.

[5:13] Kristin Stoltz Presley: So you go through the shows that are still running, they're the longest.

[5:16] Kristin Stoltz Presley: And then what's that first show that is no longer running that is still in the top echelon?

[5:21] Patrick Oliver Jones: Okay, so long as The Phantom of the Opera.

[5:24] Kristin Stoltz Presley: Right.

[5:25] Patrick Oliver Jones: Let's see.

[5:25] Patrick Oliver Jones: Lion King is up there, I think.

[5:28] Kristin Stoltz Presley: Lion King's in the top three, right?

[5:29] Patrick Oliver Jones: Okay, so the ones that are up there would be that aren't running.

[5:32] Patrick Oliver Jones: I think top five is or at least top ten would be Beauty and the Beast, Jersey Boys, Mamma Mia, um Les Mis.

[5:44] Kristin Stoltz Presley: There's one other '80s big musical.

[5:46] Patrick Oliver Jones: Cats.

[5:47] Kristin Stoltz Presley: There you go.

[5:48] Patrick Oliver Jones: So Cats is the longest running musical that is no longer running.

[5:52] Kristin Stoltz Presley: Long, long running.

[5:53] Patrick Oliver Jones: Okay.

[5:53] Kristin Stoltz Presley: Yeah.

[5:53] Patrick Oliver Jones: Okay.

[5:53] Patrick Oliver Jones: And the other top three is Chicago.

[5:56] Kristin Stoltz Presley: So the top three are Phantom, Chicago, and Lion King.

[5:56] Patrick Oliver Jones: Lion King.

[6:00] Patrick Oliver Jones: Let's see.

[6:00] Patrick Oliver Jones: So Lion King was '98, Chicago was '96.

[6:04] Kristin Stoltz Presley: Okay.

[6:05] Patrick Oliver Jones: Got it.

[6:05] Patrick Oliver Jones: Yeah, I feel like you have totally exposed me as a fraud.

[6:08] Kristin Stoltz Presley: No, no, no.

[6:09] Patrick Oliver Jones: I went digging for these questions, but also Playbill helped a lot with these questions.

[6:13] Kristin Stoltz Presley: I gotcha.

[6:14] Patrick Oliver Jones: I gotcha.

[6:14] Kristin Stoltz Presley: Playbill helps me a lot too.

[6:16] Patrick Oliver Jones: Trust me.

[6:17] Patrick Oliver Jones: Right, right.

[6:18] Patrick Oliver Jones: Okay.

[6:19] Patrick Oliver Jones: So this one, this one was interesting.

[6:21] Patrick Oliver Jones: The oldest Broadway theater that is still in operation today.

[6:25] Kristin Stoltz Presley: I think this one's really interesting.

[6:27] Patrick Oliver Jones: Is it the Palace?

[6:30] Kristin Stoltz Presley: No.

[6:31] Patrick Oliver Jones: This one may be totally off your radar, which is maybe.

[6:35] Kristin Stoltz Presley: Um, so I know the Palace was a vaudeville house that was built in about 1913.

[6:39] Kristin Stoltz Presley: Um, so this would have been before that.

[6:42] Patrick Oliver Jones: Before that, yeah, I have no, I mean, New Amsterdam.

[6:46] Patrick Oliver Jones: So in 1903 is when it opened, and then a month later there was another theater that's still in operation, but this one beat it by a month.

[6:54] Kristin Stoltz Presley: So the Hudson Theater.

[6:56] Patrick Oliver Jones: Nice.

[6:57] Kristin Stoltz Presley: Never heard of it, never heard of it.

[6:59] Patrick Oliver Jones: Where is it?

[7:01] Kristin Stoltz Presley: Okay, see, that wasn't part of the question.

[7:01] Patrick Oliver Jones: Okay, okay.

[7:02] Patrick Oliver Jones: So now I'm like supposing you as a fraud.

[7:07] Kristin Stoltz Presley: Never heard of the Hudson Theater.

[7:09] Kristin Stoltz Presley: But I will go and Google it as soon as I'm done here.

[7:12] Patrick Oliver Jones: Yes, yes.

[7:13] Patrick Oliver Jones: All right.

[7:13] Patrick Oliver Jones: Here we go.

[7:13] Patrick Oliver Jones: This one, okay.

[7:15] Patrick Oliver Jones: The first Black woman to direct on Broadway.

[7:19] Kristin Stoltz Presley: Oh gosh.

[7:20] Kristin Stoltz Presley: I'd heard of the show, but I honestly not heard of her name before.

[7:24] Kristin Stoltz Presley: I don't know.

[7:25] Patrick Oliver Jones: Was it Raisin for Raisin?

[7:27] Kristin Stoltz Presley: No.

[7:27] Kristin Stoltz Presley: No, I guess not.

[7:29] Kristin Stoltz Presley: I'm batting a thousand here.

[7:31] Patrick Oliver Jones: Oh no, no, no, that's fine.

[7:33] Patrick Oliver Jones: These are really obscure.

[7:34] Patrick Oliver Jones: It was for the musical Brother, Don't Bother Me, I Can't Cope.

[7:38] Patrick Oliver Jones: And the director was Vinnette Carroll in 1970.

[7:42] Kristin Stoltz Presley: How about that?

[7:43] Patrick Oliver Jones: So Raisin would have been like '75, so not too far behind that.

[7:47] Kristin Stoltz Presley: Right.

[7:48] Kristin Stoltz Presley: It's a musical version of Raisin in the Sun.

[8:44] Patrick Oliver Jones: I love that show.

[8:44] Kristin Stoltz Presley: Okay.

[8:44] Kristin Stoltz Presley: Sorry.

[8:44] Patrick Oliver Jones: What else you got for me?

[8:44] Patrick Oliver Jones: All right.

[8:44] Patrick Oliver Jones: So then you may get something like who named two musicals Andrew Lloyd Webber wrote.

[8:44] Kristin Stoltz Presley: So I can go out on top, feeling good about myself.

[8:44] Patrick Oliver Jones: Okay.

[8:44] Kristin Stoltz Presley: I feel like I'm gonna have to reevaluate all of my life choices now.

[8:44] Patrick Oliver Jones: You're gonna need to like you're not Dr. Broadway.

[8:44] Kristin Stoltz Presley: Maybe you're just Ms. Broadway.

[8:44] Patrick Oliver Jones: You're not quite a baby Broadway.

[8:44] Kristin Stoltz Presley: Yeah, yeah, yeah.

[8:44] Patrick Oliver Jones: Baby Broadway.

[8:44] Patrick Oliver Jones: Let's see.

[8:44] Patrick Oliver Jones: Let's see here.

[8:44] Patrick Oliver Jones: Uh this could be more of an interesting one because I had to look this up myself.

[8:44] Patrick Oliver Jones: The only performer that was nominated for Best Actor, a Tony Award, and he was not a part of the opening night cast.

[8:44] Kristin Stoltz Presley: Oh, I do not know that, but that's interesting.

[8:44] Patrick Oliver Jones: Who was it?

[8:44] Patrick Oliver Jones: And how did that happen?

[8:44] Kristin Stoltz Presley: Right.

[8:44] Patrick Oliver Jones: So this would have been for the musical Company.

[8:44] Kristin Stoltz Presley: I love that show.

[8:46] Patrick Oliver Jones: I mean, it's one of Steven Sondheim's best.

[8:48] Patrick Oliver Jones: Dean Jones starred in the leading role, but he left shortly after the musical opened.

[8:53] Patrick Oliver Jones: And then an actor named Larry Kurt took over, and he was the one who was around by the time nominations came out.

[9:00] Patrick Oliver Jones: So they decided to nominate him.

[9:01] Kristin Stoltz Presley: No, since he was the one who had done the role the most.

[9:04] Patrick Oliver Jones: That's really interesting.

[9:06] Kristin Stoltz Presley: I love that.

[9:06] Kristin Stoltz Presley: You know, when I was in college, I would go check out ten CDs at a time, cast recordings at a time, and because that's as many in the library would let me get and Company, that original company recording with Elaine Stritch and Dean Jones, and oh my gosh, I love it.

[9:23] Kristin Stoltz Presley: It is still one of my favorites of all time.

[9:25] Patrick Oliver Jones: I love it.

[9:26] Patrick Oliver Jones: Yeah, and so many classics of musical theater came from that score.

[9:30] Kristin Stoltz Presley: Oh, it's awesome.

[9:31] Patrick Oliver Jones: Yeah, but and it holds up.

[9:32] Kristin Stoltz Presley: I mean, that's what's incredible, you know.

[9:34] Patrick Oliver Jones: It's because it's still done regionally and has had Broadway revivals.

[9:38] Kristin Stoltz Presley: Yeah, and just that London, there's a London company with a female Bobby that with Patti LuPone in it.

[9:44] Patrick Oliver Jones: That's great.

[9:45] Kristin Stoltz Presley: I had heard about that.

[9:46] Patrick Oliver Jones: I'm sure we'll come to Broadway.

[9:48] Patrick Oliver Jones: Um, if those talks aren't already being had, I'm sure they will at some point.

[9:52] Kristin Stoltz Presley: That show is one of my favorites for sure.

[9:55] Patrick Oliver Jones: All right, so we will end on an easy question for you.

[9:58] Patrick Oliver Jones: So you could end on top.

[10:00] Kristin Stoltz Presley: Please.

[10:01] Patrick Oliver Jones: All right.

[10:02] Patrick Oliver Jones: The top, the top Tony Award getter of all time.

[10:06] Kristin Stoltz Presley: The Producers.

[10:07] Patrick Oliver Jones: Sorry, sorry, I mean in an individual, an individual who's won the most who has the most.

[10:13] Kristin Stoltz Presley: Hal Prince.

[10:14] Patrick Oliver Jones: There you go.

[10:14] Patrick Oliver Jones: Bam.

[10:14] Patrick Oliver Jones: I mean, his name may be Prince, but he's definitely the king of Broadway when it comes to that.

[10:21] Patrick Oliver Jones: He is the king of Broadway.

[10:22] Kristin Stoltz Presley: King of Broadway, exactly.

[10:22] Patrick Oliver Jones: But yes, I'm sorry, I thought you were talking about shows, and it was Producers, and Hamilton almost beat it, but didn't quite.

[10:28] Patrick Oliver Jones: So I still think it's interesting that I think Producers is going to be one of those that 20 years from now may not be done as much as it has been done.

[10:38] Kristin Stoltz Presley: Yeah.

[10:39] Kristin Stoltz Presley: Yeah.

[10:40] Patrick Oliver Jones: I think Producers, you know, Producers was 2001.

[10:44] Kristin Stoltz Presley: Right.

[10:44] Patrick Oliver Jones: And I think that was one of those times when we as a country needed to escape.

[10:48] Patrick Oliver Jones: And granted, it won the Tony Award before September 11th.

[10:51] Kristin Stoltz Presley: But if you remember, after September 11th, I'll never forget that commercial.

[10:55] Patrick Oliver Jones: People weren't traveling, and the theater industry was tanking because nobody was coming to see the shows.

[10:59] Kristin Stoltz Presley: And then you have that, you know, all of these Broadway performers coming out in a commercial saying, come to Broadway.

[11:08] Kristin Stoltz Presley: And it was a very Producers-style kind of tap line sort of thing of all these actors.

[11:13] Patrick Oliver Jones: I think it was Bernadette Peters actually who beckoned to everyone, but nonetheless, I think Producers benefited from that.

[11:22] Kristin Stoltz Presley: Yeah, because it was the ultimate in escapist theater, right?

[11:25] Kristin Stoltz Presley: I mean, it's ridiculous and hilarious and wonderful, and that's what we needed at that moment in America.

[11:31] Patrick Oliver Jones: That's very true.

[11:32] Patrick Oliver Jones: It was definitely a necessity at its time.

[11:35] Kristin Stoltz Presley: Absolutely.

[11:35] Patrick Oliver Jones: So I think it benefited from the time in which it was created for sure.

[11:40] Patrick Oliver Jones: Yeah, well, to borrow from that, I think we have all benefited from your time here on the podcast.

[11:45] Kristin Stoltz Presley: Except for the trivia questions.

[11:49] Patrick Oliver Jones: But here's the thing I will openly admit I whenever I took that quiz, I think I got four or five out of all those.

[11:55] Patrick Oliver Jones: So I mean, I knew barely any of them, they were tough questions.

[11:58] Kristin Stoltz Presley: Well, Kristin, thank you so much.

[11:59] Patrick Oliver Jones: I just appreciate giving up your time to be on the show.

[12:02] Kristin Stoltz Presley: So glad to do it.

[12:03] Kristin Stoltz Presley: I'm so glad to do it.

[12:04] Kristin Stoltz Presley: Anytime you need somebody to fail a theater history quiz, just ask the theater historian.

[12:10] Kristin Stoltz Presley: I'll be here for you.

[12:13] Patrick Oliver Jones: Sounds good.

[12:14] Patrick Oliver Jones: Yeah, thank you so much.

[12:16] Kristin Stoltz Presley: See ya.

[12:21] Patrick Oliver Jones: Well, as you can see, even a musical theater historian and myself, there is so much Broadway history to know about, and it's impossible to know all of it.

[12:30] Patrick Oliver Jones: So thank you for joining me and Kristin today.

[12:33] Patrick Oliver Jones: Don't miss a single episode by subscribing on Apple Podcasts and your favorite podcast app.

[12:39] Patrick Oliver Jones: Maybe we'll do more of these trivia challenges in the future.

[12:42] Patrick Oliver Jones: So I enjoyed this one, and I hope you did too.

[12:45] Patrick Oliver Jones: We'll see you next time on Why I'll Never Make It.