How To Do Everything - Broadway Musicals And Best In Show

Episode Date: November 12, 2025

This week: A Broadway star tells us how he finished the New York Marathon and then performed in two shows back to back, a wife seeks advice on how best to shave her hairy companion, plus, are the lyrics to Bye Bye Birdie what we think they are?You can email your burning questions to [e-mail] To Do Everything is available without sponsor messages for supporters of Wait Wait…Don't Tell Me+, who also get bonus episodes of Wait Wait Don't…Tell Me! featuring show outtakes, extended guest interviews, and a chance to play an exclusive WW+ quiz game with Peter! Sign up and support NPR at plus.npr.org. How To Do Everything is hosted by Mike Danforth and Ian Chillag. It is produced by Heena Srivastava and Schuyler Swenson. Technical direction from Lorna White.******And if you’d like us to be your out of office emergency contact, use this copy:“I am OOO from (INSERT DATES HERE). For any urgent concerns, please email Mike and Ian at [e-mail]. Please bear in mind that Mike and Ian don’t know anything about anything and their help may in fact make your urgent concern worse, but they did promise to answer any email they get from this out of office message.”Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy

Support for NPR and the following message comes from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. R.WJF is a national philanthropy, working toward a future where health is no longer a privilege but a right. Learn more at RWJF.org. So I was playing the song Bye Bye Birdie for my kid. You know the song. From the musical Bye By By Birdie. Yeah, I was playing the original cast recording with Anne Margaret. Okay. So my daughter, she got really into it.

She wanted to hear it again and again. And then I heard her singing it to herself. Uh-huh. And she was singing bye-bye bur-he. Okay. And I was like, what, why are you, why are you, it's bye-bye birdie? Why are you singing bye-bye-bur he? And she's, she was like, that's what the song says.

And so we listen back. Listen to this. Right? Sure enough. She sings through the whole song. Right. Bye, bye, burhy. Why you have to.

The song called Bye Bye Birdie. She sings bye bye burr he for the whole song. How has that gotten unnoticed before? Is it, is it just? The power of the title, like, overwhelms the subcommittee. You're like, oh, I guess that, yeah, I hear it. That's right. Birdie.

I don't, like, I don't get it. I feel like maybe it's, like, a thing where it's, like, easier to sing that way. So, uh, really there's no choice but to call Anne Margaret, who sang the song 60 years ago. Hello. Hello, Anne Margaret. Yes, that's me. How are you? I feel great.

What do you guys have to? your neck That's right That's about right Well, Ann Berger We wanted to ask you My daughter discovered That in bye-bye birdie

You sing Bye-bye bur-he Instead of birdie And I was just wondering Where does that come from? From me That's interesting That she would get it

Yeah, so why that choice? It's interesting. Does it make it easier to sing or what? It's just my clerk. That's just the way I hear it. Oh, funny. Did anyone else ever ask you about it? No, never.

After all these years. What a mystery we've got. We've uncovered and solved all in one conversation. I know. Bird. Actually, I say the D. but I say it with he, Bertie, was he behind it? Amherty, you still got it.

You still got it. We can hear it right there. Good. I'm so glad. This is How to Do Everything. I'm Ian. And I'm Mike. On today's show, how to shave your chest.

But first. Almost 60,000 people completed the New York City Marathon last weekend. And on the line with us now is one of those runners, Jordan Litts. So, Jordan, why don't you tell us what you did after the race? Well, I ran the New York City Marathon, and then I proceeded to perform Fierro and Wicked on Broadway twice. Twice? Yes. I finished the race about 1250.

And then our half hour call for the show was 1.30. So I did a little press at the finish line and then walked straight to the theater, got into my shower, tried to loosen up as best I could, and then walked on and did Wicked. Wow. That is amazing. It was wild. I've run a marathon. And the thing I wanted to do after running a marathon is absolutely nothing.

Like I couldn't imagine moving, let alone moving in front of people. And you are, I get, you are dancing, right? Yeah, I mean, yes, Eurro, his title song is dancing through life. So, you know, you're dancing around. You're leading the students and teaching them dance moves. Whoa. Climbing on statues, jumping off the statues. What was the point in the either performance where you were most aware of,

the marathon in your body um there are two pretty big moments for me where i become hyper aware of any residual effects from running or just how my body's feeling that day not from running um one is kneeling and singing as long as your mind for five six minutes just for some reason having the compression on your knees and your ankles and your quads for that long and then having to try and stand up after you've been kneeling for so long is always a gut check that moment was that moment i was like okay am i going to be able to be able to stand up and fortunately it was it was totally fine i didn't even think about it um and then the other one was swinging in on the rope um because that was the only super high impact moment um of the show a lot of you know there's a lot of

dance steps there's a lot of running up and downstairs there's a lot of jumping and and things like that. But that one was the one that I was thinking, if I'm going to get injured and I'm going to snap an Achilles tendon right now, it's going to be this moment. So, you know, I just tried to swing in and land as gently as I could and absorb the landing. And I think even the guards were watching me come in and hoping and praying that I was going to be just fine. And fortunately, it worked out just fine. Is it possible, Jordan, that if you, if you'd been kneeling for five minutes or whatever, and you couldn't get up that you could have figured out how to make it make sense that your character just sits down on the ground from that point on?

There's no way. There's absolutely no way, because, I mean, the rest of the scene is me, like, trying to get Elfabah to safety. You know, I'm telling her, like, you've got to go to my castle in Keamako. You'll be safe there. And then at the end of the scene, this cyclone comes and whips me up, and it goes into a blackout. So, I mean, there's, I can't even imagine how embarrassing that would be. I don't know what I would do. There's no way.

Is it, I can imagine that it's hard to get excited for a Sunday where you're doing two shows, like for a Sunday matinee. What's it like then for that second show after you've kind of come off the post-marathon high, then you still have to do a whole other run? Yeah, I mean, I've always said that Sunday matinee is my least favorite show of the week. you're just kind of you're almost at the finish line but you're not quite there and you're feeling really fatigued it's the seventh show of the week you just did a double the day before so it's already a tough show anyway and then you throw 26.2 miles on top of that and that just makes it really pretty grueling but yeah you're right the adrenaline had completely worn off at that point my wife and daughter came to hang out with me in between shows and we just, you know, chilled in the dressing room. I, you know, played with my daughter, put my legs up on the wall, tried to drain the blood out of them to kind of reset the system.

And then I think maybe because the adrenaline had worn off, and I knew that it was the last show of the week and the last little hurdle that I had to get over, it was one of the best shows I've had in weeks, to be honest. Really? Yeah, I was just, I was free to, to just give whatever I had left in the tank. I finished dancing through life, and I was like,

that's a darn good performance. I'm so happy with that. So, yeah, I mean, maybe I need to run a marathon before every two-show day. There you go, folks. Yeah, you got a PR and wicket. Exactly. This message comes from Wise, the app for using money around the globe. When you manage your money with Wise, you'll always get the mid-market exchange rate with no hidden fees.

Join millions of customers and visit Wise.com. T's and C's Apply. Support for this podcast and the following message come from Dignity Memorial. When you think about the people you love, it's not the big things you miss the most. It's the details. What memories will your loved ones cherish when your goal? At Dignity Memorial, the details aren't just little things. They're everything. They help families create meaningful celebrations of life with professionalism and compassion. To find a provider near you, visit DignityMemorial.com. Support for NPR and the following message comes from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. RWJF is a national philanthropy working toward a future where health is no longer a privilege but a right. Learn more at RWJF.org. Hey, if you've got a question that we can help you get to the bottom of, get it to us at how to at npr.org. Maybe you encountered something that's 60 years old and no one has thought of in a very long time, and you want us to delve into it, to look a little deeper.

We're going to help you out to send it to us at how to at npr.org. I feel like your tone there insulted my daughter's childlike curiosity, and I don't like it. at all. Not at all. To you and your family, I have nothing but respect. Hey, Sarah and Jacob, what can we help you with? My question is, when I'm shaving my chest, I've got, I'm pretty hairy, so I want to make sure I get everything, but then I just don't know really when to stop, right? You got the abs and up through the pecks and stuff, but how far do I need to go over my shoulders? Oh. I'm not going to shave all the way down my arm. I mean, it's, there was a lot.

was just something I was thinking about. Huh. Yeah, I guess if someone did have abs and pecks, that would, that would be a concern. Yeah, so Jacob is very fit. He's very in shape and he worked hard. And I think I kind of tactfully suggested to him a few years ago that he might consider shaving his test to just check, show off all his hard work and effort. But now it's a part of the routine, but he's just not sure.

where do you stop unshaving? Is there a proper protocol? I feel that this feels like a very personal question, but so are we, if you are, Jacob, unshaven, are we talking about a pretty thick coat from over the shoulders and down the back? Is it? Luckily for me, it's not all the way down the back, but definitely my entire front is a thick coat. Entire front. Do you have a beard?

I don't maintain a beard. I try to shave my face and my stomach regularly, chest area. Okay. So if we visualize you now when you've shaved your chest, shoulders, abs, does it look like you're wearing a flesh-colored sweater? A sweater vest, flesh sweater vest. That is not something that I ever imagined previously, but yeah, my arms are still hairy. There's also quite a process, too, for the hair cleanup, because you can't put it down a drain or a sink. So it has to, like, flop onto a towel on the floor and then get thrown out.

It's the whole process. I just don't think we're doing it correctly. Yeah. Sounds like maybe a pet spa would be. Oh, that's interesting. Yeah, that's a great idea, like a dog groomer. Yeah, they have all the equipment. Hi.

My name's Crystal Murray hyphenate class, and I am a professional dog handler, and so we go to dog shows every weekend, and we have the fortunate job of showing beautiful standard poodles. We showed a very exceptional standard poodle named Siba, and she won the very prestigious Westminster Kennel Club. And you groomed Siba for that win, for that performance. Absolutely, yep. Could you describe Siba what Siba looks like? Is Siba a she or how do we just? She is a C. She is a black standard poodle female.

And this is if for someone who doesn't, isn't maybe that versed in how showing dogs works, this is the sort of poodle that we imagine when we imagine kind of the family. Pudel with the kind of balls at the feet and the big kind of compador. Yeah. So actually what I used to, what I like to tell people is so Germany kind of developed the breed, but then the French got them. That's why we have what we have today. Was that right?

So wait, what did they look like before France got involved? A little shaggy, a little less pretty, more working, less, you know, pampered. pet kind of thing. Can I ask, actually, like, I, I just said the little balls at their feet. What is the term for that when you're, well, you actually know what you're talking about? Yeah. So actually, I can give you a super quick rundown on it. Those little balls are called their bracelets.

Oh. The ones that they have over their hips are called their hip rosettes. And then the tail is usually just a tail, pom-pom type thing. So they've got their four bracelets. the hip rosettes, the body we usually call a pack, and then they literally have a top knot. A top knot. Yeah, so, like, obviously back in the day, they would have just tied the hair on top of their head into a knot, so it didn't get into their eyes.

And now we do it with elastics and hairspray, and it's quite a deal. So, as you heard, we got this call from Sarah and Jacob. Jacob, I think, is to min what Siba is to poodles. He is, as we understand, a perfect specimen. But he is, he's very hairy. So he's not able to fully show off the definition that he has worked so hard to achieve. Using your expertise from the world of poodle grooming, what would your advice for Jacob be? Well, there's a couple different things you can do.

I mean, we, if you really want to see any of like the sculpting, tisling contours kind of like that, you would want a really short blade. You know, with the poodles, we can clipper them at different lengths. So you get that different effect there. So wait, if I understand, it could be possible to sort of not do a complete hair removal, but actually use some hair remaining to do a little contouring. maybe add some shadow to the abs and pecs and actually enhance what Jacob is working with their muscle-wise. Yes, absolutely. Oh, wait.

Does Siba have abs? Well, not really. She had a litter of puppies, so she's got a mom's body now. Good for her. So, yeah, you can almost create kind of like some shadowing or whatever. Can I ask? So when you're at a competition, a show, are you, like, backstage doing it right before they go on, or is it... Yep, yep.

There's a whole grooming area for all the different competitors and their dogs. Are you nervous back there in that kind of final groom? Sometimes. I mean, the regular shows, it's just kind of a routine thing. For the show, like, Westminster that we did, I was a wreck. What's the vibe like back? there, is it pretty competitive? Like, do you see all the other dogs?

It's, yeah, you can see all the other dogs. It's competitive because, you know, you're competing against people from really all over the world. And it's nerve-wracking because if you screw up, it's like you have no one to blame but yourself, right? Yeah. So it's a lot. So, but do you see another dog back there?

And you're like, oh, that top knot is phenomenal. Oh, absolutely. Really? Yeah, we totally do that. Really? We're like, oh, did you see? We're like, oh, did you see? She must have been really nervous.

She just trimmed all the hair off. Oh, no. Yeah, okay. So you can tell, like, oh, they're not going to make it. Yeah. Well, that does it for this week's show. What did you learn, Ian? It's weird how much Broadway we ended up with in today's show.

Oh, yeah. I did. I had no intention of this happening, but we started with Anne Margaret. and Bye Bye Birdie, one of the classics. Talk to Jordan from who's currently starring in Wicked on Broadway. And Jacob was super hairy, which is like the musical hair. I learned that maybe the best way to recover from a marathon is to dance for three hours, take a short break,

and then dance for another three hours. Yeah, in front of people. Not dance like no one's watching. Dance like people have paid hundreds. of dollars to come see your dance. I will say, I think we got a satisfying result from the bye-bye birdie question, right? Like, we went into it not knowing exactly what was going on, and talking to Anne Margaret, she basically confirmed that's how she did it.

What if we listen back to all the great Broadway songs, and it turns out, every D is an age? If this is true, do you think Hamilton is actually Damilton? How to Do Everything is produced by Skylar Swenson with Hina Shravastava. Technical direction from Lorna White. We did use music this week, I believe, from Moby Gratis. You can get us your questions at how-to at npr.org. I'm Ian. And I'm Mike.

Thanks. Thanks. RWJF is a national philanthropy, working toward a future where health is no longer a privilege but a right. Learn more at RWJF.org.