The Downside with Gianmarco Soresi - Theater Adult ft. Natalie Walker (Live Show Excerpt)

Episode Date: September 14, 2024

An excerpt from Gianmarco Soresi's live show, "Theater Adult," featuring special guest Natalie Walker. Get tickets to the next "Theater Adult" show in NYC on October 20 at Joe's Pub! https://publictheater.org/productions/joes-pub/2024/g/gianmarco-soresi/ Watch this excerpt here! https://youtu.be/2wxy0vtZdH4 Special appearance by Heath Saunders Accompaniment by James Harvey  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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Shop at Sephora today. Limitations apply. Must be a beauty insider. See terms at sephora.com for complete details. Hello, Debbie Downsiders. This is a special excerpt. It's not even part of the Patreon. It's public. This is from a show I did called Theater Adult at the Caveat in New York City. This is kind of an idea I've been taking around with for a while where I have someone on and we talk about their theater past. We talk about, you know, not the professional life,

but what they did in high school and the summer camps. And there's theater, crowd work, and some singing. And so I just want to give you guys some footage. I want to give a very special thanks to my guest for this episode is Natalie Walker, who's phenomenal. Please, please follow her. Heath Saunders. I went to college with them. And then our pianist, James Harvey. So I also want to tell you, we're doing another theater adult at Joe's Pub, October 20th. Link will be, you know, wherever you find the link.

But we're not announcing the guest yet, but it's very exciting. And I'm hoping that this is going to be a regular New York thing and something I'd take around to comedy festivals and to other cities. So if you want some real comedy, some standup that really gets into the weeds of theater

and some crowd work and some singing and some, you know, just all that jazz. Join us October 20th at Joe's Pub. That's a Sunday at 8.30 p.m. And enjoy this very generous excerpt. This is Not the Downside. this is not the downside. We met probably right around the time that I left a theater for good. Probably because of our experience together.

We were in a show, if we can bring up this picture, called Buzz. This was, uh... As you can see, there wasn't a lot of budget for the wardrobe. There is something about putting a tie over your bare chest that makes you go, how the fuck did I get here? This was a show called Buzz.

It's by, I pray he's not here, a man named Benjamin Kunkel. Yes. A themed, celebrated novelist turned playwright. Less celebrated playwright. Less celebrated. As the New York Times said,

for every Chekhov, there's a Henry James who gave us the famously bad Guy Dunville or Virginia Woolf who wrote the lavishly unfunny Freshwater and lots more like them. Basically saying, not every good novelist

is a good playwright. Can you tell them why we were dressed like this? Yeah. Because I still don't know, and I was in the show. So, have you guys heard of climate change? You know how Earth getting hotter? So that's why no clothes. And it was sort of a real commentary.

It was subtle, and so you'd really have to sort of blink, and you'll miss it. It was subtle, and so you'd really have to sort of blink, and you'll miss it. But yeah, we were all in a future dystopian world where there's still a struggling novelist who is the centerpiece of the show. Of course, of course. And we are sort of the Nick and Honey in Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf of the proceedings. Yeah, we're sort of a 6'5 finance guy. 6'5 blue eyes.

When I took this, I was excited. It paid money. It did pay money. It paid money. Oh, at that time? I believe, if I'm correct, the number was 1,200. Yes. The number was 1,200? Yes. The number was 1,200.

Anything above 1,000. Was something. Something. Oh, wow. But it was for six weeks that we did this show. Yeah, and in the middle of nowhere, some would say. Oh, you took the train to Atlantic and you walked a long ways. Uh-huh.

Uh-huh. By the end of the show, I was really on the side of the climate change, if I'm being honest. And they did a device. I know we have a lot of theater people here. Sometimes they make a choice where they want the audience to get in the mode of the play before the show. Music will suffice, but sometimes they say,

well, let's get the actors to do a task. So for this particular one, we were dressed, you would do this too, right? Yeah, of course I did this. I was a nobody as well. I wasn't going, Patti LuPone doesn't want to do the barricade. We were dressed. Thank you. Thank you, there we go.

That's how we know for the full theater. Thank you, thank you. If he's laughing and you're not, it's on you. Thank you. There we go. That's how we know we're the full theater. Thank you. Thank you. If he's laughing and you're not, it's on you. Do you understand? Dressed in full hazmat suits, we had to fake clean, as in there was crumpled paper, there were

boxes, and we had to fake just move things for about 30 minutes. Awful. Just busy work and Wallace Shawn is right there looking Wallace Shawn dead in the eye. I'm going, don't remember me this way. Don't remember this. And now did you ever, I did a show, I did How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying. And they wanted, really? Yeah? Okay good. And they wanted... Really? Yeah? Okay, good. And they wanted the cast frozen as the

audience came in for 20 minutes with a suitcase. And there's just gotta be a better way. I actually did this at camp. I did a production of Company at Stage Door where our director

decided he wanted everyone on stage in trench coats with our backs to the audience just standing in a formation while like Bobby was lounging center stage in his boxers and we were just there and then it happened to be during, like, a heat wave summer. And I was in, like, thigh-high, like, patent leather boots. So I'm just, like, sweating, running down my thigh into the boots and just, like, squelching off stage when we finally got to leave. Just really nasty stuff. And I think that the bigger point is it doesn't help. If you all walked in, and as you, you just came in, right? And I think that the bigger point is it doesn't help. If you all walked in and as you, you just came in, right? And I was here the whole time, like it would not have made the show better

at all. And I think that's the biggest problem. We open with it's hot up here. That's the time do that. So let's go way back. I, were you, were you always an extroverted kid? Were you a performer? Were you at the dining table putting on skits and whatnot? I had to be because I realized when my sister was born and was much naturally cuter than I was. How old were you at this time? I was three.

Okay. I was three, and then it sort of became apparent. I mean, I didn't know when I was. How old were you at this time? I was three. Okay. I was three. And then it sort of became apparent. I mean, I didn't know when I was three, I did try to kill her a bunch of times when I was three, because I noticed that attention was being taken away. Hold up. We got, we can't move past. How? I would, uh, I would go over and I would try, I would ask if I could hug her and I would go love the baby, love the baby. And my mom would realize I was gradually squeezing her harder and harder. People are horrified by this. It's like a funny story in my family.

She's three. It's not a death grip. It's okay. She's alive, right? Yeah, she survived. It's fine. She has a beautiful baby who I will also do that to. It will be amazing.

But then it took until I was like six, and I realized that she, beautiful blonde, big blue eyes. I already am developing cataracts. I'm already so blind. I'm so chunky, and it stopped being cute and precocious. I'm also very annoying And so I was like well if I'm gonna be annoying and I want to get attention for being annoying That isn't just like shut up then I have to do something and so then I started Singing little songs. I see I always thought about that. That's what I always do comedy

I go I'm so I complain so much. I better figure out a way to make it funny or no one's going to put up with me. Yes. What kind of things were you singing? Just like kid songs? I was singing anything that was on TV. So I did a lot of Sister Act.

Sister Act 1 and 2. You know, you have a friend back here who actually also sang a lot of Sister Act. Sister Act 1 and 2. You know, you have a friend back here who actually also sang a lot of black songs. The Wiz, yeah. Good, good. Yeah, a lot of Sister Act 1 and 2. Well, one, one I was just being like the innocent nun that discovers she can sing over the course of the movie.

I've never seen it, if I'm being honest with you. That's insane. You have to go to jail. Really? Yes, it's a classic film. Harvey Keitel is in the first one. the course of the movie. I've never seen it, if I'm being honest with you. That's insane. You have to go to jail. Yes, it's a classic film. Harvey Keitel is in the first one. Harvey Keitel is in Sister Act and is giving

his all to it. People don't know this about Harvey Keitel's filmography. Harvey Keitel is going for it like it's a Scorsese picture. Please watch

the original Sister Act for that alone. It holds up. I'll watch it. It holds up. And then watch two. Can I just ask real quick, because you clearly, when I said I hadn't seen Sister Act, he almost squeezed me like she used to squeeze my sister.

Are you in the theater now? No. You just love it? It's Sister Act. Sister Act. You just love it? It's sister act. Okay, so. Even non-theater people love it. Okay, I get it, all right?

I'm a little bit, sorry, I'm a little too, I'm a weird theater kid. We're turning on him, we're turning on him. You nailed the bounty. When the theater kids go, you're weird for our group, that is a low place to be. I'm going to have to turn to my anime passion after this.

You deal with that. Yeah, some of them are like, yeah, Dragon Ball Z, please. Okay, so do you remember your first time seeing a show? I do. What was it?

It was Les Mis. It was the national tour of Les Mis. Okay. And I was so excited. I got all dressed up in a little velvet dress to go see it. And my mom took me to a French restaurant before because she thought that would be like so special and I was like seven or

something and I already was the pickiest eater I only wanted Cheetos ever and I asked the waiter for a croissant because that was like the fanciest like French thing I could think that I might like and he laughed in my face a seven-year-old girl my mom still talks about it she still is angry about it he went no we have no croissant I guess because it was dinner time sure sure angry that I asked was it a full like oh yeah absolutely yeah yeah well the way that my mom tells it, he was probably from Peoria in the actual happening of it. I see. Sure. But in my mom's retelling, he has become absolutely

ratatouille. And where was this that you saw the tour? Kennedy Center. Oh. I'm from DC. We're both from DC, baby. I forgot about that. Oh.

Oh. Where'd you go to high school? St. Stephen's and St. Agnes School. Okay. Catholic? Lacrosse. Yeah. Episcopalian.

Oh, Episcopalian. I don't know. Loser. I don't know. That's why Sister Act. I just don't know any of the Christian shit. You know what I mean? I was busy watching Fiddler while you were watching Sister Act.

That's true. So that was probably a good production. That tour was like a good production, that tour. It was like a good- Oh, yeah. I thought it was so magical, and I wanted to be, because that's so badly, like, after I saw it, I was so mad at my mom that she didn't let me go audition for it. And she was like, I don't think that's how it works. But I was really angry that I wasn't that girl.

So you said, how old were you when you saw this? Seven. Seven. And is that usually the age that people play that that role yeah these kids are young yeah maybe or maybe they were like 10. i don't know sure because sometimes with touring productions i've seen some bad i saw jesus christ superstar on tour once and they had ted neely play it ted neely is the original jesus in the movie and he was hot Ted Neely is the original Jesus in the movie. And he was hot and sexy when they filmed that movie in the 1800s.

But in this production, he was in his mid 70s. I mean, and it was the first production I was ever on the side of the Romans. It was a brutal. But Taurus, okay, so this was a good show. You fell in love. Well, cause there's young Cosette. I feel like you think,

there is young Cosette that sings Castle on a Cloud to translate for you. Because I thought you maybe thought that I was saying I should be adult Cosette. Sure. Who sings a love song with a grown man. I did not want that. I did not want that at the time.

Sure. Now, did your school have any theater programs? Were you doing theater in middle school? I did a little bit of theater in middle school. I went to a hippy-dippy country day school where there were farm animals and stuff. And everyone had to do the musical. And we did Damn Yankees. And I was Lola.

You were Lola. Damn Yankees. And I was Lola, Damn Yankees. You were Lola. And I towered over everyone. I shot up to 5'3 when I was in seventh grade. No, at that time, I was absolutely, I was going, oh my God, I'm a supermodel. I'm Naomi Campbell. I camp Linda Pangelista. But I was towering over everyone else in that show.

In middle school? Yeah, in eighth grade at that little country high school. That role is very, it's a sexy role. I don't know why. I guess it was because the senators, they just like brought back the senators, which is what Damn Yankees is about.

I see. As the nationals. So I think they thought it would be fun and then forgot about how the whole show is about the sexual power of one woman and do you remember when you did that did you feel, did people go holy shit, like were you getting compliments were you like oh something's clicking here

yes and I was so excited for that to be my niche and then when I went to St. Stevens I was nobody at St. Stephen's. I ate lunch by myself the whole first month, I would say, of school because it was a K-12 school, and I came in just for freshman year, just for high school. So it felt like everyone had their friends.

I didn't have anywhere to go. And then it took until the musical that year. I was like, well, I know that I'll have the musical. And then I did the musical, and it was footloose, and I was rusty. I got to sing Let's Hear It for the Boy. And then all of the lacrosse girls suddenly were paying attention to me

and wanted me to be their court jester friend. So then that's how I got through high school being the jester of the popular girls. So I was the theater geek that wasn't getting shoved in lockers, but it would just be a football player going, come here, do the popular girls. So I was the theater geek that wasn't getting shoved in lockers, but it would just be like a football player going, come here, do the aerial voice. She does the aerial voice.

She can do it. What's, if I may ask, what's, do the aerial voice? Look at this stuff. Isn't it neat? Wouldn't you think my collection's complete? Wouldn't you think I'm a girl? A girl who has everything Look at this trove, treasures untold

How many wonders can one cavern hold? Looking around, who you think? Sure. She's got everything. I've got gadgets and gizmos aplenty. I've got whozits and whatzits galore. You want think-a-ma-bops? I got twenty.

But who cares? No big deal. I want more. Stuff like that. Yeah. Hell yeah. And then would the lacrosse people be like, we just wanted one measure. Yeah, yeah, yeah. There you go. Alright, I think that's enough. We have a picture of you in a talent show. We may have to go back. Can you just do another picture? So what's this from? This is from my eighth grade talent show

when I was being sexy Lola. This is not that, but in the talent show, I, of course, did popular from Wicked. Oh, wow. Because as you can see, you know, you think, oh, she has dark hair. She's probably an Elphaba, but clearly I was so popular and beautiful that everyone was obsessed with me I was like I can't relate to

this alphabet character I can only relate to being the queen of the school so that's that's that I did like sausage curls we're now okay I know we went back a little bit in eighth grade were you celebrated did they like you for this were you popular were you were you I? Did they like you for this? Were you popular? Were you... I mean, there were so few people in that class that it was sort of... There was not... There were 30 of us, so there wasn't really a social hierarchy

in that way, which is very beautiful, but then also it's like, well, I haven't overcome anything. It was very exciting when I got to high school. Well, that's why you had to play Glinda. I did claw on my way up. That's exactly why. That's the only character you're related to. Yeah, exactly. What about in high school. Well, that's why you had to play Glinda. I did claw on my way up. That's exactly why. That's the only character you're related to. Yeah, yeah, exactly. What about

in high school? You said you became this kind of jester figure, which I haven't been exactly that thing, but was it fulfilling? Did you feel oh, I'm liked, but just as the entertainment? Were you... I liked it. I got a

kick out of it. I got invited to the parties, and then finally after I graduated, I got to go to Beach Week with all of the cool kids, and that's when... Beach Week? I know Beach Week! I never went! I never went to Beach Week!

I didn't even remember it until you just said it now. And now I brought back something. Yeah, you brought back nothing. It's an empty void. Well, unprocessed sadness. So, but you had, like, was there, like, the theater group, and you were able to, like, not be a part of it? You were part of the group?

No, I had really good friends in the theater group. They were just, like, two years above me were my main friends and so then it was nice after they graduated that I still had a social life because I had like played a long game of being jester yeah cuz the kids in my class that did theater weren't people that really liked theater they're just people that were too, sorry, weird to go anywhere. Sure, sure.

And I was like, well, if none of you are talented, then this is not fun for me. All right, we're getting a little sneak preview of the girl in this book, I think. But let's talk about that. So clearly, you're talented at a young age. Yeah? Sure.

You're a very talented high schooler. Sure, yeah. Do you remember looking back, were you purposefully intimidating to any people? Were you... You know, I always... There's that story about... What's Lady Gagaaga's real name stephanie germanosa yeah and there's there's always that thing about oh well there was a facebook group where they like stephanie will never be famous stephanie will never be

famous and everyone loves to gloat they love to say those fucking losers that started that facebook group little did they know she'd become this famous and I'm like I bet 99% of you if you knew Stephanie when she was in high school or college or whatever you would have joined that group fucking immediately absolutely there's no doubt yes so what kind of annoying were you um I was annoying in that I was very boy crazy because no one paid attention to me during the school year. And so then when I went to camp and people would have a crush based on what part you were playing at camp, then I was a terror and I was hooking up with everyone. And then I would go back home and think that I was like this woman of the world Okay, loser. No one here cares that you can sing all of the parts in the company opening now

I I think we should so so what your high school. Did you finally go to stage door? What would it was this summer before my freshman year of high school, but I had braces and It was the summer before my freshman year of high school, but I had braces, and there's, like, something at Stage Door where they don't want kids with braces playing leads because it feels more inappropriate that you're playing one. I think braces are a reminder that, like, you shouldn't be playing the Acid Queen and Tommy. It's, like, a very physical marker.

And so I didn't, I wasn't cool at stage door my first summer but i knew that i loved being there and singing all the time so it's it's tough for uh i know only two people here went to stage show and one of them blacked it out but i i i i watched there's a great stage door documentary can you just break down what stage door is? Yes. It is a theater camp. If any of you saw the movie theater camp that came out last summer, it's a lot of it was filmed at stage door. And,

or actually I don't think it was, I think stage door was like, this isn't kosher by us or something, but it's based on Stage Door. It's very much based on Stage Door. The people who wrote it and directed it went to Stage Door. And you can go for three weeks. There are three-week sessions throughout the summer.

And you show up the first day and audition. You do your little 16 bars. And then they put you in a wildly age-inappropriate, sometimes race-inappropriate show all together. And I think there are four regular plays and then six musicals every session. All the kids are there. As someone, I went to a lot of theater camps.

Stage Door was one I did not go. I wish I had, looking back at it. But I think the real difference that I feel from everything I read about Stage Door and other theater camps is Stage Door, the production is end all and be all, and the hierarchy and the social strata are immediately set upon casting and where you're at. the production is end all and be all, and the hierarchy and the social strata

are immediately set upon casting, and like where you're at. Whereas other camps I did, there were shows, but it was kind of like it was part of it. It was a seven week program, and you explored, and maybe you had a small part or a bigger part, didn't really matter, but it feels like stage door was like, you knew in the first couple days where you sat.

So I got one clip from this that I think just captures, I don't know, the beauty, if you're crazy, or the toxicity if you're a regular person. This is an excerpt from an acting class at Stage Door that we have, so let's play that. You might see a future Tony winner in this clip. At the end of this lesson there will be 15 of you. You have 15 minutes to leave.

Don't say anything out loud. You need to start thinking in your head who should not be here by the end of this lesson. In one minute's time I'm going to ask you to say who and why you cannot say yourself. We really need it. Pan byddwch chi'n tynnu, byddaf yn gofyn i chi ddweud pwy a phwy. Ni allwch chi ddweud eich hun. Roedden ni'n dweud hynny.

Mae dim ond 15 lle. Nid wyf yn cymryd rhywun arall heddiw. Pwy sydd angen mynd? Yw rhywun yn arfer mynd? Nid ydych yn cwestiwnio. Cofiwch yn eich gofyn. Mae hynny'n mynd i ddechrau gyda Jeff a dod ymlaen yma. Um... Um... I'm sorry, I don't know your name. What's your name? Because I haven't, um, even in the one session it has been, I haven't seen anything to notice, to make me notice. I'm sorry, I'm sorry.

In all sincerity, I have to say myself, I'm gonna have to sit on the back row. Sit on the back row please. John! I think he should leave because I think he already is a master actor. And I think that this class is for people to become them. I don't think he's too good to be here. I think he should leave because I'm not convinced on how talented she is. No, you didn't believe in the masterclass. It was an exercise. Okay? So relax. Okay. That...

Now... Now you tell me, there is a part of me that goes, oh, I miss it. I miss the days when I could be psychologically manipulated in a way that could maybe crack me open for a second and think and feel. What do you think? Oh, yeah, in a Lord of the Flies. Yeah. Yeah. I took master Acting with him

like three years after that. Now let me guess what you said. All 15 of them should go. It should just be me here. No, I think they made him stop asking that question. So then he just became sort of like a little head-a-hopper, like gossip monger among the campers.

So he used the game to be like, who in this circle do you think is the most attractive? All of these things you cannot do now. But at the time we were like, so glad that someone gave us an opportunity to like, be like, I want to make out with Harrison. What he would use, he wouldn't say, like, who shouldn't be here. He would be like, who do you think has, like, the best chance of making it?

And things like that. And so it would just, like, go around, go around and around that way. And when you look at that stuff, because I know based on the sounds people are making, they see it as child abuse. Tell me, like, yeah, okay, we're getting a lot of yeses. Okay, we'll lock him up after the show. We'll track him down.

We'll find him online. What is your honest assessment of, like, what, how they train actors at a young age? You know, I think part of it's just... I think they're nicer now because of the reaction to things like that I

Certainly would probably be nicer to myself now if I had not gone through that type of Experience But also when you're when you're a kid especially of experience. But also, when you're a kid, especially if you are in an environment during your school year where nobody else cares about the thing as much as you do, nobody else is going home and ripping the closing night bootleg of Carolina Change to their ancient iPod. When you do get to like be in a room with a bunch of people who are

doing the same thing where you're like splitting air pods on the bus ride to the movies listening to see what I want to see, it does it like it creates its own weird ethos where it's like, okay, we all care about it that much. It's a cult. It is fully a cult, and I do understand that. And you're just getting a bunch of kids into a cult.

Sure, but at least the cult ends after nine weeks. I think the thing is that... I think we all need... I don't know about you guys. Sometimes when I see a cult documentary, for the first third of it,

I'm really jealous of the group. I'm like, wow, it's a whole group of friends. They're having a lot of breakthroughs. And then, oh, what do you got to fuck the Messiah? I'm sorry. But I think one thing that, again, I don't know if once you go to college for this, I don't think anyone should go to college, period. No. But I sometimes see, you'll see later adult things, and people make fun of it.

Right now, for example, I feel like there's a lot of guys doing man camp. out for example i feel like there's a lot of like uh guys doing like man camp and it's it's it's a bunch of guys and uh you know they're forced to do uh physical tasks or or they're forced to like push up against something hard while someone goes you can do better you can do better and i'm like that is the same thing as this they just never got it in any way shape or form and the way that they were raised it has to be presented to them in some kind of masculine way but it's this it's just them opening up

or like challenging or feeling bad and being with a group and trauma bonding ultimately and that's what he's just kind of forcing trauma bonding on these kids absolutely also certain levels of high school sports get to that point he's just kind of forcing trauma bonding on these kids. Absolutely. Also, certain levels of high school sports get to that point.

Where a 40-year-old man is screaming at a group of teenagers about why they're worthless. Fraternities, sororities, hazing. I mean, this is just hazing for non-athletic kids. And now we get to be part of something.

And isn't that beautiful? So when you went to Stage Door your first year, because this book really talks about you as truly the queen of Stage Door. It does. I'll find the passage. But that first year with the braces, were you or no?

Was I the queen? Did you walk in and you fucking did your little mermaid and they said, well. No, no, no, no, no, no. I didn't know anybody. And I went from being Lola and Jim Yankees, and I was really feeling myself. I was ready to go in.

And then I was third Londoner from left in Jekyll and Hyde. And the lead of that production, who some eagle-eyed audience members might have spotted in that clip, was Shana Taub, who now has a Tony for writing Sufs. And I- So for those of you who don't know Sufs, Sufs is a musical on Broadway right now.

On Broadway. And she is also starring in Sufs. Yes. In addition to having written the entire show herself. And I was mad that I was third Londoner from left until I heard Shna open her mouth. And then I was like, oh, this is going to be a longer road than I anticipated.

I was like, but I'll claw my way up. But yeah, listening to her sing the first time, it was just, and my parents are sports people. So when they came to see the show, they were sort of like, well, why do we even have to see Natalie if she doesn't even have a line? And so they came and then she was like, Is that what your parents were like?

Yeah, kind of. Really? They were like, you don't do anything in the show. And especially because my parents aren't theater people. They don't care about it. If I were sitting on the bench in a softball game, my mom would be so much happier to watch that than like most things that I have been a star in. When you look back, do you think that gave you

the competitive edge needed to one day skip the leads? Or do you go, oh, I wish they had said, hey, you did, you were a great Londoner. You were the best one on the left by far. No, I think it's good. I think it's healthy. OK, yeah, yeah, yeah. As you can see, we're both.

And that's why I'm well-adjusted now. That's why I have normal vibes now. I want to dive a little more into Stage Door, but I feel like we should go to, I mean, at some point, you did get to bigger roles in Stage Door. And one of them was in the show that you saw when you were just a seven-year-old girl you were in Les Mis and I wanted you to sing a song from Les Mis but but there's a lot of duets a lot of things going on

in Les Mis so we figured we'd asked a mutual friend yeah they told me to introduce them as the assistant music director to Hello Dolly at the University of Miami's production, which I was in as Cornelius because we went to college together. Please give a big round of applause for Heath Saunders, everybody.

Heath, make your way to the stage. So this is from Les Mis. Yes, that's perfect. Yes. And what you need to know is I did Les Mis when I was 15, and I had grown up after I saw it when I was so young. I became really obsessed with the 10th anniversary cast, which has, you know, Colm Wilkinson, Ruthie Henschel. I was obsessed with Ruthie Henschel.

I was obsessed with Ruthie Henschel as Fantine. And so when I finally got to play the part, I stole all of her choices down to the fact that I have a British accent while I'm doing it. Like I showed the video to a friend when I got home that summer and he was like, why do you have a British accent in this? So I will be honoring those choices. Also, I thought Fantine died of tuberculosis,

and my director, who was a messy bitch who loved, lived for drama, came over and was like, she actually dies of syphilis. And so then I like looked up, verisimilitude was very important to me, and so I looked up, verisimilitude was very important to me, and so I looked up what happens as syphilis ravages your body. And one of the things is that you go blind towards the end,

so you'll also see a little bit of that. I just sort of wanted to give you that experience. I'm also gonna take all of my choices from the 10th anniversary. Yeah. Which just means that I'm also going to take all of my choices from the 10th anniversary. Yeah. Which just means that I'm going to not move. Cosette, it's turned so cold Cosette, the night is fading. Don't you see the evening star appearing?

Come to me and rest against my shoulder. How fast the minutes fly away and every minute colder. I mean, another day is dying Don't you hear the winter wind is crying? There's a darkness which comes without a warning But I will sing you lullabies and wake you in the morning Oh, Fontaine, our time is running out Oh, Fontaine, I swear this on my life Look, Monsieur, while all the children play

Be at peace, be at peace evermore My Cosette Shall live in my protection Take her now Your child will want for nothing Good Monsieur You come from God in heaven And none shall ever haunt Cosette as long as I am living Take my hand, the night grows ever colder

Then I shall keep you warm Take my child. I give to your keeping. Take shelter from the storm. For God's sake, please stay till I am sleeping. And tell Corsette I love her and I'll see her when I wake.

Valjean At last We see each other play Monsieur Maire You wear a different chain Before you say another word Javert Before you chain me up like a slave again

Listen to me There is something I must do This woman leaves behind a suffering child There is none but me who can intercede In mercy's name, three days are all I need Then I'll return, I pledge my word Then I'll return You must think me mad I've hunted you across the years.

Men like you can never change a man such as you. Believe in me, watch and learn. There's a duty I am sworn to do. You know nothing of my life. All I did was steal some bread You know nothing of the world You would sooner see me dead Not before I see this justice done

Your battle, John, is nothing now I am warning you, Javier I am a strong demand by far There is power in me yet! My race is not yet over! I am warning you, J'Amer! There is nothing I won't dare! If I have to kill tonight Wherever you may hide away You're troubling my care Wherever you may hide away I'm not a laser to the light

I swear to you I will be there Yeah Well, it's time for Heath Saunders, everybody. Make some noise. Oh my God, I'm shaking. That was terrifying.