The Downside with Gianmarco Soresi - #130 The Downside of Broadway with Joshua Henry

Episode Date: April 11, 2023

By popular demand, we are releasing this Patreon-exclusive episode to the main feed! Join the Patreon to listen to more exclusive live episodes with special guests including Dusty Ray Bottoms (Ru Paul's Drag Race), comedian Alia Janine, and comedian Lucas Connolly. You also get exclusive access to my clean comedy album, The Rats Are In Me, and much much more. Broadway star Joshua Henry joins to discuss the downsides of audience members filming on their phone, going to the same college as Gianmarco for musical theatre, how live live tv musicals actually are, cracking onstage, what’s the best way to deal with Mike Pence in the audience, and a high school production of RENT where Roger had pink eye instead of AIDS. Watch the full episode HERE! Get tickets to our next live podcast recording on April 24 at Sesh Comedy in LES. Follow Joshua Henry on Instagram, TikTok, and Spotify Listen to Joshua's single, Can’t Nobody Tell Us Nothin Follow Gianmarco Soresi on Twitter, Instagram, TikTok, Facebook, & YouTube Subscribe to Gianmarco Soresi's email & texting lists Check out Gianmarco Soresi's bi-monthly show in NYC Get tickets to see Gianmarco Soresi in a city near you Watch Gianmarco Soresi's special "Shelf Life" on Amazon Follow Russell Daniels on Twitter & Instagram See Russell in Titanique in NYC! E-mail the show at [e-mail] Produced by Paige Asachika & Gianmarco Soresi Video edited by Dave Columbo Special Thanks Tovah Silbermann Part of the Authentic Podcast Network Original music by Douglas Goodhart Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Debbie Downsiders, this is Joe Marco Cerezi with a little special intro. I guess special or maybe not special. Probably you'd think the latter if you're a fan of this show. We recorded a live episode with Broadway's two-time Tony-nominated performer, Joshua Henry. And normally what we do with these live episodes, we exclusively put them on the Patreon. And then as you may remember, we release an excerpt on the main feed. This episode was getting a lot of good attention. And and some people really wanted it on the main feed and i want to give you guys

a taste of like uh you know what you're missing out by not being a patreon member so here it is in full uh our episode with joshua henry i say here it is like i'm not going to talk for another two minutes so bear with me we're going to get to the episode soon i promise um uh if you're a fan of the show and you want uh bonus episodes all the live episodes, my clean comedy special, The Rats Are In Me, which is not going to be released publicly, join the Patreon. Patreon.com slash downside for as little as $5 a month. You can help support the show and help us grow. We have some insane guests coming up. This thing is growing.

We got merch coming out soon. I haven't shown it yet publicly, but I'm wearing a Debbie Downsider shirt right now. So join the movement. Join the depression. I feel like that's what a group of geese is called a gaggle. A group of Debbie Downsiders is called a depression of Debbie Downsiders. As always, if you want to see Russell, go watch him. Go see him in Titanic off-Broadway. Tonight, I'm headlining in Portland, Oregon at the Helium, April 11th. Tomorrow night, I'll be doing a benefit for Make-A-Wish in San Francisco.

And then for this weekend, I'll be at Grand Rapids, Michigan at Dr. Grin's Comedy Club. But otherwise, enjoy this fantastic fucking episode with truly a guest above our punching class, weight class, above our weight class. Very good guest. Enjoy and join the Patreon, patreon.com slash downside. Thank you very much. No, you know what? I'm back. I realize join the Patreon, patreon.com slash downside. Thank you very much.

No, you know what? I'm back. I realize I do these intros. I record them alone. They feel horrible and sterile. I feel like a, like a car salesman. I don't say anything funny. So, uh, uh, maybe what I'll do for now. And if I do these things, I'll try to throw in, throw in a joke I'm working on. So I turned 34 recently. And my friend told me he made a donation for my birthday. He made a donation in my name to Children's Cancer Research. Which is, you know, that's sweet. But it's too late for me to get children's cancer.

Okay, maybe I won't do it. Here's the episode. Bye. This episode is brought to you by Dyson OnTrack. Dyson OnTrack headphones offer best-in-class noise cancellation and an enhanced sound range, making them perfect for enjoying music and podcasts. Get up to 55 hours of listening with active noise cancelling enabled, soft microfiber cushions engineered for comfort, and a range of colors and finishes.

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Woo-hoo! One, two, three. Downside. You're listening to The Downside. The Downside. With Gianmarco Cerezi. How are y'all doing tonight, everyone? Hello.

Sorry, forgive me. Hello. How are you? Thank you for coming. Thank you for braving the cold to be here. My name is Gianmarco Cerezi. This is a live recording of The Downside podcast. So just so you guys know, a round of applause if you listen to the podcast, I assume.

Some of you. Good. Good. So just so you know, I know when you listen at home, you know, in the privacy of your room, you're laughing hard. You're laughing at all the jokes. This is a live show, so feel free, don't, you don't have to be polite. You can laugh, you can make noise. This is, this is a show, and we're very happy to have you. I'm here with my co-host, star of Titanic off-Broadway, Russell Daniels. Hi. There you go.

Yes. Thank you. And we're joined today. We're so, we're so, this is above our pay grade. Very excited to have our second Tony-nominated guest of The Downside. Please, big round of applause for Joshua Henry, joining The Downside. Hello, Joshua. How are you?

I'm so good. How are you doing? Thank you. Dan, I want to say, we've talked a little bit. I went to the University of Miami for musical theater. One of the biggest mistakes I made in my entire life. But one of the stars, one of the names that always was passed around to keep us writing our tuition checks for $50,000 was Joshua Henry. He graduated the year before I got there,

but you were the guy. I had a teacher, and he would talk about your work ethic, and he said, this teacher, he said, I told Joshua one summer, I said, if you want to be on Broadway, you got to get strong,

and he said, you came back from that summer with big, huge fucking arms, and that was like, I didn't take that advice. I didn't do that part at all. But I'm very honored to have you here. Oh, gosh, thank you so much. It's nice to be here representing the you, as we call it.

You know, you had a better experience than me, I think. But I did know you from that you did a master class. And then I met you once on a subway. You don't remember. It's And then I met you once on a subway. You don't remember. It's okay. I met you briefly. I remember specifically because it was about a 30-second discussion. I shook your hand three times during that discussion.

Oh, Jamarco. That's how anxious I was that I shook your hand. I shook it again for some reason. And you were very nice. But the third one, I saw just a glint in your eye of why. I forgot. Why is he shaking my hand again? Yeah.

But it all came to here. So, yes. Yeah. How are you doing? I'm good. I'm really good. I really don't remember that. Yes, please.

You would think three times. Like, I'm going to definitely remember. Yeah. Maybe I'd done four. You would have remembered. You would have been like that. Oh, my God. The four handshake guy wants to do the podcast.

So welcome to the downside. For people listening at home, this is a place where we're free to complain. We can be negative. You seem like a very positive guy. I am. But feel free to let it go. Let it slide. Be honest.

All the auditions you didn't get, let them fester through you and let it bleed out today. For those of you who don't know Josh, Josh was a very accomplished Broadway performer. You just did Beauty and the Beast live. Woo! Stressful? It was not, actually. I mean, it was really fast-paced. Beauty and the Beast live we did for, you can see it on Disney Plus anywhere now.

pace. Beauty and the Beast Live we did for you can see it on Disney Plus anywhere now. But it was four and a half weeks of rehearsal and performance and getting like 6,000 shots. So that was the stressful part about it. But was it live? It was live. It was

in front of a live audience. It wasn't live when you were seeing it. At that point we had it in the can. Has that always been the case or is that new? No, sometimes they try to actually do it live, which in my opinion, everyone says, that's why I don't think they're that good. Sure, sure. So, you know, you can record it live in front of an audience.

But, you know, we did like three passes of everything so that we can just select a little bit oh you know because when you but it's still billed a little bit uh it's not quite clear in the billing no one says live pre-recorded i'm gonna start billing this is live for now on all the podcast episodes say well it was live when we recorded it people were alive during the recording session because what was the first one of this, like, what was the first live one? Sound of Music. Sound of Music. With Carrie Underwood, if you saw that.

And who was the guy? The guy from True Blood, right? What's his name? The guy from True Blood. I don't know. He was the guy. I don't remember his name. And it was met with...

I think people liked it. I think people loved Carrie, and I think... What was the one they hated? Peter Pan they were pretty tough on. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Broadway always has a mix where, first of all, Broadway, a lot of, and I say this with love, as myself included,

a lot of bitchy, a lot of bitchiness, a lot of jabbing, but there's also a mix, like, an extreme positivity. Because we all know theater is about to die any day now, and we have to support. Yes. So there was always, like, someone, like, there's always, like, a contingency complaining. And then there's another contingency on Twitter, like, guys, do you know how hard it is to make a Broadway show? Yeah. And I've been a part of that contingency.

way show yeah and i've been a part of that back contingency because it's like half of the like 70 of the banter online is like you know they could have gotten somebody to do this or why did they get that person i'm like this is the first time especially the sound of music sure there's only been like 10 of them in the last 10 years yeah well i remember rent was the one which i think that was live? That was... Where someone got injured? Yeah, and then halfway through, you saw him, he was in a wheelchair, Roger.

Oh, brutal, brutal. With the guitar, yeah, it was... They should have just changed it. Instead of AIDS, he just hurt his leg, and that was like the thing. I feel like that's... Well, that was the rumor that, like for high school productions of Rent, that they did... I that was the rumor that like for high school productions

of rent that they did i had heard a rumor that they had a high school version of rent where it was pink eye instead of aids yeah which i don't know how because that mean roger's girlfriend killed herself over pink eye and it's like just wait a couple days yeah no need to do this uh i love when i love when schools change something of the show to add their own. I heard a story once of, they didn't change it to make it safer or anything, but it was a production of Annie,

and at the end they changed it so the very last scene after they're like, getting a new deal for Christmas, she's been adopted, everything's exciting. They had her wake up in the orphanage again. It was all a dream. Oh, I love that. None of that good stuff happened.

And that was just a dream. I was like, what a bold take as a high school to be like, this is what we're going to say. Do that with every musical, every happy ending musical. What other musicals could you just flip on? I also heard of a production once that had um at the end of company you know uh he sings being alive yeah they had him shoot himself i love it i love it i love it every play i ever wrote by the way the first draft always

involved me killing myself on stage i love that kind of ending. I was trying, oh, there was a production of Hamilton that was at- In Texas somewhere, right? In Texas at a church where they somehow made it anti-gay. They somehow slipped that message in there somehow in the story of the founding fathers.

I don't remember all the messages, but there were a few messages that they took out and put their own message in there. And I'm really cool with Lin-Manuel Miranda. And I remember when he just started tweeting about that. I think he just got on Instagram

and he sent them a cease and desist. And it was like, Twitter was blowing up. But yeah, he was not too pleased about that. Thankfully, they owned up to it afterwards and they were like, we were so wrong. We should have never done this without permission

and changing. We're still anti-gay, but we should have gotten permission for all of this. Our position is the same, but we were wrong to not ask first. So, I thought to kind of start off, we'd go through, because

I was a big theater kid. Russell is still a theater kid. You're a full-on off-Broadway boy now. So we thought we'd talk about our most disastrous performance, something going wrong. Did you have one? I have a couple, but I think one that I always think of when I was a freshman in high school, I had a small part I was in Bye Bye Birdie and I was playing

I don't remember the name it was like I had one line and but I was the understudy for like the leads like the dad part you know sure sure sure and my line was come on Alice Conrad's over here and we like I grab Alice we run across the stage, say the line, and we run to the train station.

You didn't say it like that, did you? No, no, no. I really sold it. So one day we're backstage, and it's the show, and Alice isn't there. And it's time to go. And I'm panicking, and I was like, I have to do this line. So I grabbed the nearest person to me which was like a fourth grade boy. Kept the blocking the same. Ran out holding

his hand. And I said, come on. Realized I didn't have a name for him. And I'm not great at improv. So I was like, come on. Longest pause ever. Come on, Tom. Didn't even use his real name. Just made up Tom. And Conrad's over here, so flustered, ran into the train station, which was on wheels, rolled across the stage, and then sadly just walked off. Stopped running and just walked sadly off.

That was, yeah. Names are tough. Stopped running and just walked, sadly, off. That was, yeah. Names are tough. That's why I just... It's hard to leave one line in the show and you completely ruin it. You just built it up and you just couldn't... Now, mine is singing. Mine's a singing fail.

And I think it's... Because you did Carousel. And it was at Miami. We both went to University of Miami. And we did... It was a Rodgers and Hammerstein... What do you call it? University of Miami, and we did, it was a Rochester and Hammerstein, what do you call it, a song medley show? Review, yeah.

It means you gave up, and it means you needed something that fit 12 people that don't really fit a musical. You need to give them all a part. These are all the people that didn't get into the musical. They paid $50,000 a year, give them a song on a stage for this, and I was, I mean, we sang that song from The King and I,

which I should not be singing. You know, that's, it's racist. And, but I did soliloquy, and soliloquy, epic song. Epic 10-minute song where Billy Bigelow, he's imagining raising, having to raise a boy. How he's going to raise him. And then he's like, but what if it's a girl? I got to take care of her.

And it ends with this big, him. And then he's like, but what if it's a girl? I got to take care of her. And it ends with this big moment where he's like, if I have a girl, and he goes, he's going to take care of her. And he's like, I'll go out and make it or steal it or take it. And so I was doing it. And listen, thank you. Thank you. I think it's higher. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

And I went up there, and I, it's a long song, and I went, you know, I'll go out and make it or steal it or take it or die.

Oh, no. And let me say, I've bombed on stage as a stand-up comedian, and it hurts, but nothing will ever come close to that feeling i had that night because it's like a it's seven minutes leading up to this moment and no one can tell you it was the audience's fault no one can tell you no one can comfort you people people cannot make eye contact with you you're walking back there no one can comfort you People cannot make eye contact with you

You're walking back there No one can say No one can say They didn't know No one noticed Because there's just something With the male voice The sound of the crack is so awful

And I really do think This happened to me like a couple times Like that epic of a crack And I think that was for me The beginning of the end of of being a singer i think after four years of college was that senior year it was senior year yeah so i practiced and i practice every day and i feel like when i look back at like my musical theater career i'm like i don't think i was good enough to be a singer eight times a week. I don't think my body

was right for it. And I feel like if you're a basketball player and you're four feet tall, you know pretty quick. You're going to have a tough time. But the voice, it's inside you. So you think maybe you got it, maybe you don't. You work and then you hit a wall.

You don't hit the note. You don't hit the note. And then you want to go into a wall because And so... Well, you don't hit the note. You don't hit the note. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And then you want to go into a wall because it's so painful. Now, have you always... I mean... I understand that feeling. I mean, there were a few times

when I was doing Carousel on Broadway where, you know, that was... Why are you laughing already? No, they're comparable experiences. Me at the University of Miami and you on Broadway. One night only for 20 people. I think it was performance 250.

And I had a son during that run of the show. So I was waking up early some nights trying to give my wife a break and it was like this one morning I was like 3 in the morning and I was like, oh this is not going to be good if i try to go to the show but i did um and there's a song

called highest judge of all um and i won't do the whole thing but it's the end is like take me before the highest throne and let me be judged by the highest judge of all and it's really loud and huge. And it's like this statement, just like at the end of Soliloquy. And boy, there was nothing. I mean, you could judge a lot about it. I mean, it was like, I mean, it didn't even like the of. You know when you have like two notes leading up to the high note? Uh-huh.

That are roasted? Yeah, yeah, yeah. If you're giving scorched tone on the leading notes up, then you're just gassed. And at the end, it goes, rum, rum, rum. Like, that's the music. And so I'm standing there looking all ferocious like I did something.

And inside, what I really felt was like, I'm so, I just wanted to apologize to 1,500 people. So it happens. And it's, I's i mean that was it was pretty rough yeah it's it was just and i was it was uh it was a tough life i was very neurotic about it i i it's very i still get neurotic about my voice but the worst i have to do is talk for an hour for stand-up but like i can't imagine your whole life do you feel do you get nervous ever for these shows when do you call out i mean how do you figure it out you know i at this point i've been doing it for about since 2006 about 17 years so i don't get nervous about my voice but i have trained myself to sort of live like a monk when i'm doing a show yeah so i'm drinking a gallon

of water a day and i'm working out a lot and I'm thinking, I'm practicing all the time. But there's nothing like that moment where sometimes you go to a show and you're just like, I don't know if it's going to happen today. But you kind of roll the dice. That is a feeling like, you know when you're on a roller coaster,

you just go, that feeling that's right here. Yeah. It's rough. And when it happens, you're like, oh, it just happened. I guess it's kind of

like if you happen to not that you've ever been like well i'm in front of an audience you know oh yeah but but then you just go you know what there's 1500 people and um i still have a job they're not gonna fire me and this happens sometimes it's life when you move sure but sometimes people do get fired for for like a bad i'm sure it's happened before i've heard i've heard the stories you got to be consistently messing up to like to get fired yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah if you're stringing them together and you can't do it you know then if you you know what's it like with with uh with with uh steroids for for like i remember back in college, you would be like, you heard like,

ooh, someone took a steroid. Is it Pregn... Yes. Pregnason? Could it be? Pregnason? No. Gosh, I don't remember what it's called.

But I feel like people, singers use it a lot. Pills or an injection? There's both. So there's something you get kind of on your booty and it kind of helps you go, you know, you can just kind of,

all of a sudden you're a vocal Olympic athlete. Really? Yeah. What does it do? I could try it once, right? You have to be careful. Just to sing Carousel one time, go on stage, give me a shot.

Retain yourself. Take it. I heard you have to be careful because then you feel like a superhuman, like you could do anything, but then people accidentally push and hurt themselves because they don't know that they're pushing because it's so... You could severely damage yourself.

You feel like... I've taken them before. In 2019, I think it was 19, I was doing a show called The Wrong Man Off-Broadway, and I just didn't have it. But once you take the pill, you have to be really, really careful. Because all of a sudden you feel like you're Stevie Wonder and Katy Perry. And it feels like you're like, yeah!

You're blind walking around like, oh shit, this pill. But your muscles aren't strong. It's just like a momentary... What happens? It becomes like it... What does it do to your cords? I think if there's a lot of severe inflammation, it can thin your cords out a little bit,

like ibuprofen, but in a much more intense way so that your cords are just pristine. Do you have this at home in a cabinet just in case? No, no, no. You have to go see uh there's some doctors that you can see like some vocal doctors i feel like there must be people who abuse it sure you know you but i think it's easy once you're once you're in broadway like there's like they know

what doctor to go to quickly yeah i'm saying like some people who like they fall down that hole and then oh yeah it stops working yeah yeah they need a second shot all that stuff just to get through it yeah yeah that's that's a fear like i've taken it i've had two in my career and the thought is well i don't want to have to get used to this but the the show after you don't take it you're definitely like oh am i still there i'm good right i don't know i don't know so what about is notes surgery because i remember the the whole thing with julie andrews had notes and she could never sing again that was what they said you didn't know that well she she got notes removed and then she couldn't

like i think i think it sounds weird if she sustains a note or something and this was like way back when the surgery was like they went in there with like scissors and it was brutal but like i assume it got better but like i'm sure you know people have got a nodes and had to take a break yeah and some some haven't recovered oh yeah yeah because if you start singing back again too soon then you just develop these habits it's like if you break your leg and then you just you're always walking on one leg and so he's stuffing your hip jacks up and then your back and you're just not walking the same don't get notes you were scared for a second you i was i well i i my throat was hurting because i do a lot of yelling in the show i don't have like a lot of singing i could i have like three little tiny lines within songs so i don't have to sing a lot

but i mean i sing a lot in the chorus but not like you know i don't have a solo but I sing a lot in the chorus, but not like, you know, I don't have a solo. But I scream a lot. And so there was a week where I was like, I'm hurting myself. But I think I've figured it out now where I can do it in a healthier way. That it's not, I don't feel like I'm in danger. Do you ever dream about leaving the Broadway grind? I mean, or do you really hope that it's always kind of a part of your life? You know, I've talked about this pretty openly because music is such a big part of my life now. And that was like my first love.

I, there are very few things on Broadway that excite me these days. I can see the end of it. You know, I definitely can see the end of it. I don't know when that's going to be, but when you stop having like dream roles and you stop getting excited to do eight shows a week, it's, yeah, I mean. If it was no matinees, could you picture that?

It's too many shows. Matinees is a problem. Matinees need to go. It is. The audiences are bad, and they're not fun. They're not fun, those shows. And it should be six, I think. If it's six, the next show that I do, even if it's seven, because for you who don't know, it's Tuesday, Wednesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday, Saturday, Sunday.

Monday is the only day you have off. Yeah. Just to not do anything. So for me, if I could not do the Sunday, then I'd have all of Sunday, all of Monday, all of Tuesday, and then the night show. So you have like two and a half days. That's manageable. Is that a place... Do you have to be insanely

famous to request that? You have to be at least as famous as I am. Uh-huh. Uh-huh. Uh-huh. Uh-huh. Because that's Lea Michele right now. I think that's her thing. She doesn't do matinees. Yeah, yeah. She doesn't do matinees. Yeah, what's it, Funny Girl? Yeah, yeah.

She doesn't do matinees. I didn't, in 2019, the show Wrong Man, I didn't do, I did seven shows a week. Sure. And that was like a new lease on life

after 15 years of doing eight shows. Yeah. Wasn't it famous, it was, who's that famous actress who, like in Russia,

she played Ophelia and she said something, she's like, I can only bare my soul four times a week. That's all you gotta say. So, to your family,

they're from Jamaica. And they immigrated to Canada? Yeah. To Winnipeg. To Winnipeg, which is where... Yep. Yeah, yeah. And why? Why Jamaica to Winnipeg? Jamaica's... What was the reason oh yeah so there's a big connection between the caribbean and uh canada or at least there was in the 70s so they

went to university in in canada and didn't have to deal with the drama that it takes to come to the states sure sure so me my brother were born there, and my sister, and then when we were three years old, they were like, this is too cold. So we went back down to Miami when I was like three years old. How'd they get their green card and stuff for Miami?

I don't know. I was just three. Sure. But they did. I really don't know. Do you consider yourself, because it says you're, I was surprised I forgot

that you have, do you have Canadian citizenship? I do. I've got both. Have you spent a lot, like do you consider yourself a Canadian or just? Only when it's convenient.

Only when it's, uh-huh, uh-huh. Yeah, I mean, I don't, people are like, oh, what team, what hockey team are you from? I'm like, nah.

Is there a good theater there in Canadaada i know of there's a lot of film and tv that films there yeah that helps to when you have dual citizenship you just breeze through i saw lord of the rings the musical which was a big in toronto i was in high school we went there it was like a five hour it was like supposed to be three hours but they kept having technical difficulties so it always go like four or five hours and they tried to cram all three books into this one musical so the government paid for it and it was a disaster it was one of the worst shows i've ever seen in my life and it was uh it was a big flop um but you liked miami that's where you were living yeah yeah i'm what you know what miami was way too slow what does that mean like it was just if you don't know Miami, it's like a half of it is a party town and the other half is retired folks.

So I wasn't into the party scene. But, you know, and everything just felt really slow for me. So even at our University of Miami days, like it's like palm trees and it's beautiful. But everything just seemed to be moving at like five miles an hour. It wasn't until I got up to New York in in 2006 that i was like i felt like i belonged here yeah yeah the pace like the passion the the crowds are just moving faster i'm like okay yeah yeah this feels good yeah i really i would i shouldn't have gone to that college because i didn't i went to one football game i went to the beach three times disney world once i mean it was

totally wasted on me i spent every fucking day at a practice room just singing and that didn't go anywhere it was it was a it was a mess you sound great spent every fucking day In a practice room Just singing And that didn't go anywhere It was a mess You sound great by the way That's Oh please Doesn't he sound great Please please please

You could have been My honor study Please I warmed up for three hours Before this podcast And you were When did you start Getting into theater

Were you a theater kid In high school I did something Junior year So I guess kind of late I did The Music Man I played Harold Hill I did Harold junior year, so I guess kind of late. I did The Music Man. I played Harold Hill.

I did Harold Hill, eighth grade. Hey, great role. Now, would you do that one on? First of all, you're too good looking to be The Music Man. Let me tell you something. Hugh Jackman,

I have a huge beef with Hugh Jackman being The Music Man. I can't do it on stand-up because no one fucking knows, but Hugh Jackman is too good looking to be The Music Man

because The Music Man, the whole thing is he's a seducer He's a con man He goes into the library and has to seduce Marian If Hugh Jackman walked into any library In America And said hey you want to go on a date He wouldn't have to sing a song

She'd say yes I'm sick of good looking people Playing Seymour and Little Shop And Harold Hill What's hislooking people playing Seymour in Little Shop and Harold Hill. Oh, what's his name? What's his name played to Seymour in the Encore's production? Jake Gyllenhaal. Jake Gyllenhaal plays Seymour.

Get the fuck out of here. The plant should have eaten him first. I can't. I have an issue with Hugh Jackman in the music man, because, no offense, but I found out that they had a bit every night that they staged like a blooper that was choreographed. What do you mean? Like they broke.

Like him and Sutton Foster, like every night in the same part, like pretended this thing went wrong, and it was like staged and it was like every night like I it just feels like

that's infuriating like they had one natural moment on stage and they said let's do that forever every night yeah yeah yeah

do you know what they did because it's just like kind of a boring show I think that they were just like you know I don't think so it's a great if the music band's

not fucking stunning I think it could be a fantastic show I don't know be a fantastic show. I love that show. Me too. I mean, Will You Got Trouble? That was the most fun I ever had in my life.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. You got trouble, my friend. Right here's the trouble, right here in New Jersey. When you did it in high school, were people like, holy shit. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, yeah. I kind of killed it.

Sure, sure. That was when I sort of got bit by the bug, the performing bug. And I had a teacher that came up to me afterwards, and she was like, this is something you could really do. And she was, like, crying when she said it. And, you know, when someone is, like, crying and, like, saying, your future, I was like, it was a little intense. Okay, where is this? Is this, like, are there people around being like, does anyone know this woman? Does she work here? This is, like, is she the, no, no, no.

She was the music teacher. She was the choir teacher. And it was her first year at the school. This school graduating class was like 20 people. So the chances that I'm here right now are crazy. So it's like she came there just for me. She literally left the year after I graduated. So we did the production that she put on and then she took me to this hallway after the last

performance we did like five performances and she was like you know the sake of that yeah i was like you know i was like a 17 year old 16 year old kid being like what do you she said you can do this for a living and i was like what do what i really was i didn't know so how did you decide to audition like what was well yeah well there's some songs in it like till there was you this beautiful song and i sang so i was like okay well i say i love i like to sing i grew up just like singing in church and that was fun so i decided to try out and um were you the star of the church singing like no, not really. No? No. Was it fun singing or was it boring singing? Was it like

really like wailing? Or was it just like Jesus? I don't know that song. You don't know that song? There must be a song with those pitches that starts out Jesus. I'm sure of it. You're like, is it white church? Well, of course. I've been to both.

I remember when I lived in Harlem for a long time and I went to a church one day just to see some singing and you're like, I'm like, you know, I could see being a Christian if this had been the songs. I mean, it really is, it's a whole different ballgame. Was it like, which church is it all,

is it a certain like kind of a sect of Christianity that has like the real fucking jams? So the Pentecostal, what's it called, sect of Christianity, like those churches are usually pretty lively. The praise and worship is like jamming. Yeah. Like if you switch a couple words out you'd be like is that that is that that cardi you know i mean like sometimes um but yeah you got tambourines you got like just incredible players that's how i i got my singing chops is in church um and so i i wasn't anything special until i got to university miami and they were like oh wow you actually sure can

sing they had me i. They had a gospel. They had three a cappella groups in my high school and they added me to the gospel choir and it was pretty rough. I'm sure it was. Can you do gospel? Can I do gospel? You're in Titanic. You're in Titanic.

Jazz it up. I could. I don't know if I should. Physically, yes. Yes, good. So then you went from there. You went to Miami. Were you the star of Miami from the gate? I think after sophomore year, I kind of became the star.

But honestly, I was the lowest on the totem pole. You can ask Bruce Miller, all of our teachers there. I knew nothing. I didn't know what music theory was. I couldn't name you one musical. So I failed music theory. You couldn't even name music after you started it? I could sing it, but I couldn't write it.

It was crazy. I had to stay longer after I graduated to finish music theory class. I hate that shit. I hate music theory. I hate it. I hate it. So music theory, it's like they'll be like, there's someone on a piano where you can't see.

They go, boom, boom. What's that? And you're like a fourth, a fifth. It's that kind of shit. Was it really important? Was it really important? Music theory, no. Ear training, yes.

Because then you're... The music theory is just like, I don't know, it's like learning... Is learning Latin important? It's like math. It's not. I took that too. Neither is important. Latin and music theory.

Both entire ways. It expands your mind, but it doesn't help me in my profession. Yeah. Now as a producer, more like trying to put together sounds and chords to make music yeah but that's something that i got into a little bit later now i i've talked play in the pockets about my feelings about getting a degree in musical theater and complicated feelings not not entirely resentful uh but like but but yeah yeah yeah you you have kids now if they were getting into theater, would you, and they said to you, they said to you, dad, clearly you had such success with this musical theater degree.

You're on the flyer that they're going to use for the next a hundred years saying you are, you are the, you are the reason. Send your kid to the college Joshua Henry went to. What would you tell your kids? You got trouble, my friend. I don't know. It's so hard. Like, I really believe in, like, you're pursuing your dream. I would say, hey, if you want to do it, you don't have to do it how daddy did it.

But you have to know that it's really, really hard. It's one of the hardest things you will ever do. So if you want to, this is how you have to know that it's really really hard it's one of the hardest things you will ever do so if you want to this is how you have to prepare yeah this if you want a sliver of a chance at success and so i would just paint a really clear picture and but if you know they want to go for it then they'll go for it i mean you know pretty soon enough if, you know. I think that's my four years is just, the four-year structure was not designed for the arts. Isolating yourself on a campus away from everything, that's a structure they built for mathematicians and scientists, and now they're like, now it's a musical theater degree.

I think you could go for two years somewhere. I think those programs are better. Or go somewhere where you're working the moment. Be an ensemble member in the regional theater. Do that because you've got to get in the real world. Partially because you might find out, you know what? I want to do stand-up comedy instead. Or I want to do costume design instead.

Like you need to be in it. And I think the problem is colleges can isolate you. So you figure out where you fit into that ecosystem and you become a creature who like you thrive there and then you think oh i'll be like this in the real world and you're not you're really that that's i thought about it a great deal well because there were so many people in and i won't name any names but that i went to school with that were like this is going to be the you know yeah and then pretty soon after senior year it was clear that they didn't want that yes and but they didn't really it was nice

to be the it girl or it guy on campus yeah of course starring in all the things um but a lot of people don't it's a hard life like it's a really really hard life and i think the thing that you can't understand either uh is doing the same show for that long a time you can't even you can't even conceive of it because in college the most what you do three weeks of a show maybe two weeks and i remember the first play i did that was like six weeks long and that's when i kind of realized i said this is not i'm going crazy this is not, I'm going crazy. This is not what I like to do. I do not like to do the same thing over and over.

I go nuts. What year was this? This was, I mean, I graduated 2011. So this was like 2013. I did an off-Broadway play. And it was like, it was not a good play. First of all, also to be in something that's getting panned is tough.

And you're still doing it for six weeks. But I just got bored and I realized, oh, this is not what I wanted to. You've been doing this show how long now? November. And you've never done a show this long. Eight shows a week? No, not this much. I did three shows that were a year, like a Shakespeare tour that was a year long.

But you were rotating three shows and it wasn't always eight shows a week because you were touring. What's the longest you've been in one show? The longest was a year and a half. That was Hamilton. I opened the Chicago company, and then did the first national tour. But like you, I got to kind of split it up. the first national tour. But like you,

I got to kind of split it up. So I did it for six months in Chicago and then I did it for, what, another nine or ten months in LA. I'd imagine, too, touring for those

where you're there for like two or three weeks, sometimes a month, that helps the kind of break up the monotony of like, oh, you're getting to kind of explore another place.

I don't know. Yeah. On a tour. For sure. Our tour wasn't even, it was two cities. It was San Francisco and LA so it wasn't really a tour but i want to ask you like with shakespeare what did it feel repetitive after because yes yeah yeah i had one show i liked and then by the end of it i hated the other two shows uh what's the one you liked othello i like no i like doing merry wives uh and i didn't like doing

othello i was barely in um so it just was like kind of like i would basically move furniture for that one kind of so i hated doing that one because it was like it was felt like a lot of work for no payoff and then uh the other one was just really boring to me henry for part one like one behind things one behind the scenes thing about russell russell and i are on a sketch team together he's a great performer great to work with but but if you're in the wrong place on stage russell will pick you up and move you to where you you are very you you will i've been picked up by you go you go here you're very you you will you will run that stage stage you're very genteel

and non-confrontational but when the lights go out you become a bulldozer we had an understudy in the other day and I noticed that I like snapped at her Russell

I'm playing her mom though I'm like I'm mean but I like she wasn't in the right spot and I was like but I had and I recognized in the moment

I was like oh John Marco does say I do like grab people move them but no I think this show is helpful the one i'm doing right now is that it is quick and it is a little different every night just because there's a couple of built-in like things that we can change slightly so it feels sometimes there's definitely like you're gonna start

you're like i'm not really feeling it right now but once it starts it feels fun and still um but i think of like those people that have like been with phantom from the beginning and are still doing it like how like or that how do you not lion king i know people have been doing it for 20 years yeah what can you do for 20 if i hear the lion king now having seen it 20 times in my life i'm just like i can't even listen to the songs. I go crazy. 20 years, I can't even think about. Like I said, a year and a half is the longest. But I would say if any performers out there who are thinking about doing this,

one thing that really helps is think about a different word for the day, for the show. Like, I might think about just, and this sounds a little funny, but like glide or ease or or diction just something of the focus on that you're still improving although you're doing the same thing every day because it's not unlike if you had any other job like to not make it monotonous you have to think about how you're

growing in one aspect of it that's one thing that help you think it fans and they're like I'm gonna think don't kill myself on stage. That's good. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Don't put myself in the way of the chandelier right as it's crashing to the stage. What's going to be your word for your next Titanic performance? Oh, that's good. I don't know.

I've been noticing that when I am not bored, isn't the right word, but I get extra annoyed with bad audience members. I noticed that that's something that I want to stop doing. Cause I'm like in fights in my head about someone who's not enjoying the show. And that's not a great place to live in. When,

when Mike Pence went to see Hamilton and they did their speech at the end, what did you, what would you have done if they, if they had called you and they said, Joshua, I know we didn't cast you in the original cast of this, but could you tell us what to do with Mike Pence in the audience? What would you have said?

What's... Oh my gosh. Because to me it came off from outside of the world, it came off as lame. It came off as you gave him the show, he doesn't care what you have to say he's he's there he doesn't give a shit he's gonna happen so okay so mike pence showed up at the hamilton and uh they performed the show and then at the end like as he was about to leave

they who do you know who said yeah brandon victor dixon great friend he was playing amber at the time he got nothing against him i'm just saying like I'm just saying it's a tough position to be. You have to perform for people. That's the job. You perform for people. So basically the producers and the creative team came up with a statement that they wanted to tell Mike Pence. And then someone had to deliver it. I thought the selection process, that must have been weird.

Who wants to give this message? I'm like, what are you going to say? Yeah. Yeah. I don't message? I'm like, what you going to say? Yeah. Yeah. I don't know. I will say this. After that, it was pretty rough online for a minute. Oh, yes?

I was slated to then go into the Chicago company. I was getting death threats. Oh, my God. Anyone associated with that, not to bring it down, but this is the downside. Yeah. Yeah. It was rough. You ever get any? God. Anyone associated with that, you know, not to bring it down, but this is the downside. Yeah. Yeah. It was rough.

You ever get any... What was the statement they said, though, to Mike Pence? Yeah, you know, I mean... I mean, Mike Pence was, you know, known also very homophobic

and had lots of bad beliefs and it was just... I know who Mike Pence is, but... And Trump was president During this whole thing too So that added to the fire of it But it was like a statement

About inclusivity And like you see Look what we've done here And this is about The founding fathers And it was a This was the problem with it It was a generic

In my mind Generic Positive Be more welcoming statement The kind that any politician Could nod their head out and then walk about and do nothing differently. As opposed to A, not saying anything at all. B, going out there going, fuck you. C, not performing the show.

Which to me, if you're really going to, you really want to stick it. You really want to say, fuck you. You go out there, the whole cast, and you go, fuck you, Mike Pence, and then you go off, and that's it. But you can't put on a good show and then be like, please be more inclusive. We know you won't, and we know you haven't been.

Bye. I don't think they could have done that. Why? Lin-Manuel could make that call. Because he really wanted the show to run. You think it would have canceled the whole show? Yeah. Really?

Yeah. That would have been amazing. But then you go down. But what a great way to end a show, to tell the vice president to go fuck himself. I'm starting to understand some things. Stand-up is the world for you, Mike. This is not the way.

I don't think the show had been running for a year. I think it may be a year. But if they would have come out and said something like thrashing, then you just spit in the face of your art because you're talking about being inclusive and you're talking about togetherness. This is the way the country should look. And then you're like, but screw you.

They're like, what are you? Thank you for not saying fuck. So, yeah, I just think it's, it just didn't do anything. And ultimately, I think another time that Broadway, I feel like has, Broadway can come off as corny. And I remember at the DNCC I forget which DNC this was I think it was for Hillary Clinton and

there was just like Broadway singers on the stage and Broadway has always been associated but it felt this weird whenever the arts becomes too tied to a specific political party it's like in a way it just becomes propaganda and it's like in a in a way it just becomes propaganda and it's like i i think sometimes art has to divorce itself from propaganda if you ever hope

for it to uh affect people's minds and i would argue on like the flip side of saying fuck you to mike pence that by making that kind of statement you are you are uh forcing an audience to see your show specifically through party lines thus preventing you from possibly inception style sneaking into their minds and changing their thoughts naturally agreed and that's why we have ted cruz here tonight no um has there ever been anyone in the audience where you were like oh fuck i gotta put on a show for this motherfucker uh or vice versa you You can say a nice one, too. No, no.

I would say there was one moment. I like to know who's coming. It doesn't bother me. Some people are like, don't tell me, don't tell me, don't tell me. Do you like? I like knowing, too. Yeah. There was this one time.

It wasn't anyone that was really special, but where someone was filming, which happens from time to time. Of course. We're all dealing with it. But they were the front. I mean, but I'm saying like, we're all dealing with like this. You either take away the phones or they're going to film it.

And even if you do take away the phones, they might have a second one. We don't know what to do. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. This guy was front row.

And I was like, yep. It was like three quarter round, which is basically this. So they're here, here, and here. And a show, it was called The Wrong Man, where it was a pretty intense show. And y'all have heard of this Patti LuPone incident. Perhaps you haven't. But like where she will stop a show. She will stop a show and be like, you stop filming.

but like where she will stop a show. She will stop a show and be like, you stop filming. And famously, she did it once, and it was an approved New York Times photographer taking press photos. It was like, yeah, yeah, it was. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And so in the moment, like I never saw myself doing it, but he was like, I felt like I was like a dolphin at SeaWorld. Like he was kind of just like...

And he wasn't being discreet about it. He was just holding it up like this. I'm two feet away from him. And so I went up to him, and I took the phone out of his hand. I'm singing at the same time. I took the phone out of his hand, and I threw it under his seat. And the audience erupted. I was like, oh, I'm that guy now.

Oh my God. I'm that guy. Now, it happened to be on a day where there were cameras in the audience taking B-roll, which is like just, I didn't even know that. So here it is, like the one time I do something like that, that happens. Every show wanted to call me to come in and talk about, okay, well, it was this huge story. I'm this nice, positive theater guy,

and it was a pretty ferocious little moment. But yeah, to his credit, he stayed afterwards because he felt really bad. And it was like an hour and a half after the show, and he waited for me outside the stage door, and he was like, man, I'm really sorry. I just got really excited in the moment. And I like it's all right i'm still gonna keep your phone but don't people don't know that it's it it's weird like we've had people uh dm us as cast

members like 10 15 minute clips from the show and you're like you're not allowed to do this and why why then send it to us like we're like cool like people people me post this yeah it's it's scary in stand-up obviously because like i'll be working on something new or something edgy and you see people film and i mean they'll have every i've i've like any i can't become if i do that moment or if i become mean then i'm not the cool guy anymore i'm like the principal and now i can't be funny and and i'll i have little lines like oh could you stop? I'm hoping to be on a bigger platform than your phone and I get a little laugh, but then it's good and But I mean I've had people they go and then they go no, I'm sorry my friend She I want her to see you too, and I've you know we got to buy tickets

And they're like oh she lives in you know France And it's it's the you you would hope that the ushers and maybe they don't have the staff or the broadway theaters aren't paying enough to have enough people they need to be the ones looking at the audience you can't be doing it from on stage yeah and i i but i will say when i was in theater in college bootlegs were very cool yeah bootlegs it's a whole underground. It's a whole thing. I can't believe there's enough people to sustain it.

But there were websites where it would be like, I got this Mandy Patinkin in falsettos. And I was like, I'll pay whatever you want. And it's shot over someone's shoulder. You're like, I wish they had front row. And they were just doing it like this. It would have been greater. But it is a

bummer broadway seems to have never figured out like the lincoln center has all these recordings of all these broadways just but you gotta like i remember i had to pretend i was writing a paper you gotta go there you can't just roll up in there and be like i'd like to see this performance thing and be like why and you're like because i like it i just watched it the one thing i saw it was it was uh um the seagull and it was with meryl Streep, Natalie Portman, Philip Seymour Hoffman, 18-year-old Natalie Portman in her first lead role, Philip Seymour Hoffman. Who's the guy from Roseanne? John Goodman. John Goodman, Christopher Wall.

I mean, it was crazy. And it shot beautifully. It's not shot like a bootleg. And you just think this library exists out there that can never be released because it would require a lot of paperwork and everyone would want different rights. But it sucks. It's too bad. And then choreography would get stolen. Like there's a whole market in terms of like regional shows and it's complicated.

It is. And then you can do it overseas or in high schools. And if people get that, they can just pretend like, oh, I made this up. And they can't sell your show i made this up and they can sell your show so yeah it's tricky what's your stage door policy the last show i did at the st james theater on like 44th street um into the woods we weren't allowed to do to take pictures or sign any autographs just because just covid while it's not as much of a thing now, they just didn't want to risk it at all.

Yeah. I don't know. Was that a relief? Yeah, kind of. Yeah? Yeah, because I got three kids now. So I have a five-year-old and twins that are two years old. So I just, that little less interaction with folks.

Y'all are fine. Autographs after the show, you want we got hugs and kisses like whatever you want um that so that was a relief at that point uh but before that i mean were you i loved it yeah i mean i was all up in it to win it like yeah autographs and did you ever see the guys because i know there's people out there were there they just want your autograph to sell it on ebay oh here's how you deal with those um you just they it's usually like a piece of white a white paper that they just want to lift your signature off so i just never give them a real signature i just like kind of go like like a smiley face and i'm like no that's my signature like i just don't really give them the real yeah yeah yeah

what is what is your autograph go for these days what what platform are you it depends like i don't know um i haven't heard a quote recently yeah um yeah i'll look it up i'd have to guess i'd have to guess at least like two grand yeah yeah hell yeah that's just i got my own card like they have like these broadway trading cards so i have a couple of those that they are the stats on the back or there's things like yeah he hits the b flat 80 of the time he's there in 90 of the shows he hits a b once he hit a c it's like once he had the grand slam yeah there's some stats there um so so your your first broadway show was in the heights

yo i think i saw it i think i saw it jam uh oh god it was so cool before i knew anything about lin-man it was just an such a such a good show uh when you got that ensemble role are ensemble members paid decently for broadway or do you think it's it's it's not great? I think they do get paid well. Yeah. At the time, like right now, an ensemble roll, you're getting like 90K plus a year. Damn, that's pretty good.

With like contributions to your 401K. When I got into the ensemble of In the Heights, I called my mom and I was like, this is it. Like this is, I don't need to see anymore like i've um and it was also like salsa and hip-hop i grew up in miami and that's like all i heard and so it was a moment where i was like i don't i don't need to see anything

was the first time you you played was it benny you were understudying yeah what was the first time that you was it good the first time you did it? As you played Benny? So we started off Broadway and I did it a couple times off Broadway and I nailed it. But my first Broadway performance was not the best. Because there's a scene of the second act and I was across from Manny Gonzalez, who's this incredible performer, she played Nina. And she and Benny are like in this romantic little pose. And she's teaching him Spanish.

And I just butcher the words. It's like I butcher the words. And she starts laughing hysterically. Not like, you know. Not in character. Yeah, yeah. And I'm like, just trying to stay in love. Oh, it's funny, man.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. I don't know Spanish. Then I see Lin-Manuel come stage right. You know when you can see someone in the wings? Yeah. You can kind of see them come up. And I was like, oh, man. And four or five other cast members come out.

And he's just like, and I'm like, this is not good. This is not good. She didn't, for like two minutes, she laughed in my face. That's a long time. So that was probably the longest two minutes

of my life. I think my parents were there, and it was like my principal Broadway debut. It did not go according to plan. That's actually the scene that Hugh Jackman and Son Foster did

in the music band. It's the scene where she's teaching him Spanish so he can start selling to Spanish speakers his musical instruments. And then I know you left in the Heights and you went to do Godspell. It was your first principal. I was about to. You were about to. And that was 2008.

So the marquee was up. So I was in the ensemble and i was about to do my first principal role like originate on broadway um godspell and the marquee was up and then everything crashed and we were literally in rehearsal and they told us this is not gonna happen how they tell you mid rehearsal and a rehearsal but did they like like what like how close to opening night or previews were you we weren't i think we were uh a week away actually and you left in the heights to do this like you you left a grammy award winning tony award winning show with i mean that's job security and then to take that leap and you're like and then that that fails and so you you can't just say it's like can i can i uh can i get back

but it happened you could go back and beg and crawl but they've signed new contracts with And then that fails. And so you can't just say, can I get back? But it happened to me. I mean, you could go back and beg and crawl, but they've signed new contracts with new people. Yeah, someone already took my place. But I'm glad that happened early on because you really, it's nice to get the reality of the business. And then you realize, well, it can't be a contract or it can't be, you know, it's like money that I put all my heart and soul into because if that's what you – it's got to be something else. That's the through line of all this. Were there warning signs that you should have – that looking back you would have known now or reasons you would have not taken that Godspell job? No.

No. Because we did it – it was already – we did a show before like in an off-Broadway place in New Jersey. It's not off-Broadway but at the Paper Mill Playhouse so we did it and it was really well received so that production was going to go to Broadway

but everything was fine the only thing that happened is everything crashed so the producers were like sorry we just can't do this I just talked to someone

this week who similar experience they were about to make their Broadway debut in a show but the lead of the i'm not gonna say who it was they are a tv film person who uh was the whole show was kind of built around them it's gonna go to broadway because they're gonna be in it you know and they were

asking for they asked for too much money and uh refused to do the show then and so the whole thing was canceled and they were like they had rehearsed it, it had been played for a while off-Broadway, and no more. No more Broadway debuts. So, brutal. That's rough. You could tell us.

It was off-Broadway. You could put the things together, maybe, what I just said. It ran off-Broadway, and it was going to go to Broadway, and now it's not. There's a thousand different things that are going to pop up. I had

a show that I could fit into that slot. I'll tell you offline. You'll tell me offline. Okay, good. It wasn't a musical. The first and only movie I got cast as a lead in, the funding fell through and it became a podcast. They changed the movie and they decided to turn it into a podcast and it was the

saddest moment of my entire... So, you're a very successful Broadway performer, but do you have any overall critiques, as a downside, of how the Broadway system currently works, whether it be financial, whether it be the kinds of contracts and the kind of exclusivity,

whether it be... How do you feel about the state of the industry? I mean, it's complicated. There's so many incredible things, but we're going to focus on the downside. And I think eight shows a week is brutal to have a life. And I also think, and I've talked about this openly, all the producers,

all the theater owners, or 99% of them are white. Yeah. White men. And the stories that are being told are, there's a lot of different kinds of stories being told, but the people that are profiting from that are the same type of person.

And so I think that needs to change. And it's changing slowly. Were there any shows particularly that you were like either didn't get a fair shake or you thought should have gone to Broadway and didn't? Like what are we talking about? Well, for me, I've been really lucky and I've been really, really blessed in my trajectory. me, I've been really lucky and I've been really blessed in my trajectory. I mean, so I have not had a direct problem

with like, I've had a pretty easy path, but I've seen it with so many other colleagues and so many other creative teams and I think we're just at a moment now where we want to tell authentic stories

and we also want the people who the stories are about to benefit financially from them. That's the main one of the main things that I think needs to happen more. And you've got amazing organizations like Broadway Advocacy Coalition, Black Theater United that are

trying to ensure more of that inclusion in that way. In many different ways. But that's been a ensure more of that inclusion in that way, in many different ways. But that's been a big point of emphasis in the last couple of years. Does it ever feel, though, you are, because I've only bought tickets to a couple of Broadway shows in the last couple of years, and I just can't help but go,

this is a rich people's game. Facts. And there's a degree where I'm like, if you want to if you want to get like theater that is into the vein of of humanity get out of these old dusty theaters where the the these gigantic mammoth things that cost a bazillion dollars to rent every month and get i'm going to see what is it corn chucked the musical it's a music chucked it's about corn maybe that's cool i you know corn needs representation i guess as well but

there's a degree of like there's a degree of like well if you want if you want that get out of broadway there's a listen i know this is me saying it very flippantly not not i know people depend their lives depend on this industry but from the outside there's part of me a kind of tear it down mentality where i'm like oh broadway struggling after covid well these theaters are insanely big and these budgets are way too high and you have to do revivals and based off other entities and let it all let it all go you're never going to find change in one of the the most expensive theatrical institutions in the world i think that's a really good point i had a friend of mine daniel watts who's this incredible poet and actor. And he was like, you know what? I'm not even mad at Broadway. They are doing what they set out to do.

Yeah. To tell these stories on a huge scale and get mostly tourists to come in here and see these things. And so that has a certain model. But as someone who has gotten a lot of, I'm now a little bit influential in the Broadway scene. And I know a lot of the producers and I know a lot of the creative teams. I care about the space. Sure. You know what I mean?

I've done all Broadway shows before that don't have to adhere to all the Broadway rules. There are amazing theaters, as you all know, like out in Brooklyn, or like all over the Tri-State area, and great regional theaters where you don't have to adhere to the Broadway model, but I care about it. I've seen it. I know that it can be powerful, and I know that it can do more than it has done. So I'm going to try to work towards that.

Yeah. Do you think you'll be in the producer space? Yeah. Yeah, 100%. One thing I did want to ask before we go on tour, this has got to stop, is about Carousel specifically, because I think it's an interesting point about revivals,

where you guys took out a part of carousel um uh which i find it's such a fascinating part of the musical i think we've talked about once on the podcast before where billy bigelow spoiler dies uh and then at some point at least in the original version uh he sees his daughter and hits her as the ghost or something and the daughter goes to the mom and when was this musical written oh gosh i forget now uh i don't remember the year 60s 60s that'd be late 50s i feel like i can't remember the year now yeah well this will give an indication of the time the the little girl says to her mom, Mommy, can a man ever hit you and it feel like a kiss? And she goes, yes, sweetheart, yes.

And it is a, it is a, it is a, I'm not making this up. I feel like there's a judgment. Like I, like I was like, what if we did this to the show? And it was all a dream. judgment like i like i was like what if we did this to the show and it was all a dream uh this was this was in in the show and there's a degree where okay here's another example south pacific which i saw the revival of the song younger than springtime is about a soldier where is south pacific said it's in south pacific it's the song younger than springtime is you are so young that i love you so much because you're young and we're not talking like oh a youthful 21 year old yeah we're talking some some and i go like look if you want to do

revivals you you, we got to admit what it is this was about. We have college kids. I sang younger than springtime. No idea I was singing about something, a crime. I was singing it

full heartedly, fully. If I was singing it now, I would sing it like younger than spring. No one can know about nobody needs to know. Oh,

that's a deep cut. Deep last five years real deep uh and and with with like carousel there's a degree where i'm like write something new if you don't want to confront the world that this is from it's it's a degree of like it's a degree of what i think the squeakiness of broadway where it's not really confronting you and you go oh robson hammerstein they were so wonderful it's like well you have to confront that they also wrote this line and we deal with it artistic that was gonna be my this guy stop but it's a but similar and also in the way that sometimes they do revivals and it's like we're gonna twist this one thing about it which doesn't really make it that much

more interesting it's just like it feels like a a trick to be like, look what we're doing here. Aren't we subversive or something? But it doesn't feel like it does anything. It's kind of still a boring show or not really related. Does that make sense? We have these beloved revivals that mean so much to us, whether it's Carousel or West Side Story. And we have a different sensibility now. We love the music.

We love the emotional content. We love where the characters went. But then it just makes us cringe a little bit. So for a Broadway whose major audience is a little bit older, do they want, do they need their classics, they need their music? Because that's guaranteed money, for yeah and and we we love the stories but we just love like 90 of it and the other 10 is like problematic so that's been a thing that you know you're like write something new for sure

and and broadway also it has a hard time rolling the dice on new shows which is another reason to your point where it's like go create your own thing yeah yeah yeah were there any shows that you were in that where you looked at the audience and you said, fuck, I'm not performing for like, it's like a bunch of old, old people. I want to perform for. You know what? It was when we did Pordium Best. Interesting. We, which was like, it's pretty much an all black show.

And you're looking out and you're like they're not black folks out here like seeing this incredible thing moment that is happening um and those are the moments you're like you feel a little bit like are you a part of this weird uh puppetry you're like this is my dream i want to tell this incredible story but no one out there looks like me and is actually seeing this. Everyone is like it's a weird sensation because we trained for this and I love it. Yeah.

Yeah. So is that your this has got to stop? This is our segment we do this has got to stop. I'll complain. It's about, no offense, it's about this has nothing to do with Broadway, so forgive me. This is about your wife. Jesus, the look.

I see that Shakespeare. That Shakespeare coming out. He's like, I'm going to hit you. It's not going to feel like a kiss, I'll tell you that. It's going to feel like a hit. I don't mean to be too blue at the end of this podcast. We went to see a show, my girlfriend and I, with your wonderful wife. Oh, my God. blue at the end of this podcast we went to see a show uh my girlfriend and i with with your your wonderful wife oh my god and we were walking to the car and and your wife said oh did somebody

fart and now there's three of us there and now when she says this she knows she's not one of them so i do what i normally do i go i don't i don't i don't notice anything and i mean literally you can't even see that's how that's how intense this fart was. So well, Tova and I convene. So then I say, oh, I don't smell anything. And we get in the car, and your wife goes, no, there's definitely, someone definitely farted. And I go to convene later on with Tova, and we found out that it was both of us. Okay, I was going to say, I was going to say, it's it's interesting uh because you know i'm in the sketch group with you i feel like you're the most private about farting yes then everyone i i'm not that

open about it like i feel like chris and douglas yes do it loudly they go they go hey and then they do it yes they do it like and jessica too j, too. Jessica, too. So I feel like I'm usually right above you in terms of, but I will say it if I'm going to go and do it in another room or something. I'm open about it. But you. I would deny it if someone's life was on the line. If someone had a gun to your head, I'd say, if it wasn't me, you're going to have to kill them. I feel like once or twice I've been like, you definitely farted. So it's just interesting.

Was Tova there at the time when this happened? I've been like, you definitely farted. So it's just interesting. Was Tova there at the time when this happened? Okay, so that's... Please send the word back to her. I was shocked. Do you and her, do you go like, hey, Nicole, catch this. Yeah, we're open about the farting.

Sure. I'm not seeking it out sure like it's not like a kink you know i'm not like i'm not it's not our thing but you know um wait wait i don't know how much time we have but like why why the the secrecy around the farning um i think i think it must be a family thing like listen my my my girlfriend and i were we're we did whole 30 and we had to move past that uh we just had to move past that uncomfortability with each other but i think it's like it must be a family thing i i don't know i've always been like my more my mom always in the morning should be like oh i gotta take my morning constitutional and i wanted to kill myself i found

something about it was so i don't know i feel so ashamed and i feel guilty and and i like for pooping like do you uh i still keep the door closed yeah the door closed with do you have like sprays or candles or no no i just don't want to talk about it i i'm like i'm like we'll smell what we smell and then happen we all know what happened and my sister she's different that's why i don't know how but my sister will be she'll be like did you just poop and i'm like ah stop it i don't what are we doing of course yes we all it's like when nicole of course someone farted we know what happened it's not a mystery yeah i think i think a lot of people are really comfortable with it so it's just like oh i farted you know like i just feel like it's something we gotta embrace yeah you know i'm not getting a lot of amens out here but

everyone's like really yeah the down underside um uh uh the downside and uh do you have this has got to stop um i you know i think it's got to stop? When you call, I've been thinking about this for a while. When you make a phone call and you get, like, whatever business you're going for, and they say anything other than exactly how much time it's going to be until you get to speak to someone. I don't care, like, if it's Domino's. Hey, welcome to Domino's. No, no, no. Tell me I don't need to know down to the second's hey welcome to Domino's no no no tell me

I don't need to know down to the second two minutes until I get to speak to someone like that's just whatever the place is it just really

and you know it's because they want you to hang up all these things are so you hang up the phone the music every time I'm like

I hate that why do they play music it's because they want you to hang up the phone and then you press 0 like 5 times oh sorry we didn't get that

stop playing with me it's like tell me how much time yeah I don't know I I I think it should be illegal

for companies to say call times are are longer than usual because we all know they're they're what does that mean it's always

playing it doesn't matter what time you call and i i truly think that we should make a a contingency to free speech where you cannot say that phrase yeah if it's not true um uh i agree with that 100 so uh uh and then we do you know we've complained a lot and thank you thank you for sometimes listen sometimes you get broadway people they they don't want to they don't want to complain they just want to sing a song and uh they just want oh what a beautiful morning we get it uh but what a what a shitty night it was so um uh do you have a we end with a blessing something we're appreciative of uh do you have a do a thing you want to say you start um oh okay i'm gonna i'm gonna i'm gonna blow yours out of the water so you might want to say yours oh okay wow okay i'm gonna i'm gonna i'm gonna blow yours out of the water so you might

want to say yours oh okay wow okay um you know i was thinking um i i haven't done this uh this on the podcast yet um but i would i i think i'm i'm very thankful for my castmates at titanic they're very uh welcoming sweet kind people that are uh it's a joy to be doing that show with them. And I feel like... I just feel pretty lucky to be in the group that I'm in. I feel very comfortable now and very welcomed. And everyone's super funny. They're a very fun group of people.

It's true. You don't complain about the cast to me ever. It seems to be really good. Other aspects, sure, but about the cast to me ever it seems to be like really good yeah very other aspects sure but not the cast you know uh uh so so we we have a podcast studio and uh we've been building it it's it's been at tova's old place and and we have some some you know framed pictures and it's a lot of me you know it's a lot of uh the downside which is my big fat face and other plays but i i recently got two uh photos framed of my buddy Russell. We got Russell. What is this? What is this, Russell?

Oh my God. This is Touchstone. Touchstone? And then this is Russell as some kind of dark Shakespearean king. What's that one? That's King John. That's King John. We're hanging them up tomorrow, but I wanted you to see.

I got to send a picture to my friend Vince. Oh, yes, please do. And Nicole, despite the farting, she told us these were the two pictures to do. So I'm thankful to her. I don't think you were like imagining playing the piano on the. That's where you were. I remember that when we did that photo shoot the guy was playing very weird Euro

tech kind of like music the whole time and I was like this is such a weird like we're doing a Shakespeare photo shoot very like coked up energy well good good and Joshua do you have a blessing that you want to share

what have I been thinking about recently i'm grateful for like for new york and because it's such a beautiful place where you can see so many different aspects of humanity in like five minutes i live on the upper west side and it's close to the park. But every time I go, any time I walk in New York, I'm like, I get to live here? Like I get to see this, all these different types of people

from many walks of life. And this air is different. Anywhere I travel outside of New York, I'm always wanting to get back. So I just love it. I've been here for 16 years and I just,

don't y'all love it? Yeah. For real. A study came out today that the air in New York actually will take five years off of your life, but I'm glad it's beautiful right now. And let's plug, because please check

out Joshua Henry's, all his Broadway work. I saw An American Idiot, too, way back in the day. But tell us about, you have a new single out, Can't Nobody Tell Us Nothing. Yeah, Can't Nobody Tell Us Nothing. It's about that feeling of intimacy and fireworks of love that only the heart

knows. If you've ever been in love or hope to be one day, check it out. It's really cool. And I just released that first song I'm going to release from my album I'm releasing this spring. So check it out. Give a big round of applause for Joshua Henry. This is The Downside. Thank you it out. Oh, yeah. Well, everyone, give a big round of applause to Joshua Henry. This is The Downside.

Thank you very much. Good night. Thank you. Thank you. Downside. Downside. You're listening to The Downside.

The Downside. With Gianmarco Ceresi.