Wait Wait... Don't Tell Me! - HTDE: Broadway Musicals And Best In Show

Episode Date: November 12, 2025

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

Hey, it's Peter Sengel. Last time I didn't ask me anything, I got asked about my first job, my favorite Star Trek episode, best fill-in host, and cheese. So what do you want to know? Call and leave us your question at 1-3-8-Wait-Wate. We might answer it in a future bonus episode. Sign up for NPR Plus to hear this and other great bonus content. Just go to plus.npr.org. Hey guys, it's Peter once again in your wait, wait, wait feed. I am so pleased to present to you another episode of How to Do Everything by Wait, Wait, producers, Ian and Mike. Now, remember, you can only get these episodes of how to do everything in our feed for a short while. So if you love the kind of mysteries that Mike and Ian are revealing, make sure you subscribe

to how to do everything at their own feed. Thanks. So I was playing the song by, By By Birdie for my kid. You know the song. From the musical Bye Bye Birdie. Yeah, I was playing the original cast recording with Anne Margaret. Okay.

So my daughter, she got really into it. She wanted to hear it again and again. And then I heard her singing it to herself. Uh-huh. And she was singing. bye-bye-ber-hee. Okay. And I was like, what, why are you, why, it's bye-bye-burty.

Why are you singing bye-bye-bur-he? And she's, she was like, that's what the song says. And so we listen back, listen to this. Bye-bye-bye-he. Right? Sure enough. She sings through the whole song. Right.

Why you have to... The song called Bye Bye Birdie. She sings Bye Bye Bye Burr He for the whole song. How has that gotten unnoticed before? Is it just the power of the title, like, overwhelms the sub... You're like, oh, I guess that, yeah, I hear it. That's right. Birdie.

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

What do you guys have to? Your neck? Yeah, that's right. That's about right. Well, Ann Margaret, we wanted to ask you, my daughter discovered that in Bye Bye Birdie, you sing Bye Bye Bye Bur He instead of Birdie. And I was just wondering, where does that come from? From me.

That's interesting that she would get it. Yeah, so why that choice? It's interesting. Does it make it easier to sing or what? It's just my quirk. That's just the way I hear it. Oh, funny. Did anyone else ever ask you about it?

No, never. After all these years. What a mystery we've got. We've uncovered and solved all in one conversation. I know. Bertie. Actually, I say the D, but I say it with heat. Burty.

With he behind it. Amherty, you still got it. You still got it. We can hear it right there. Good. I'm so glad. This is How to Do Everything. I'm Ian.

And I'm Mike. On today's show, how to shave your chest. But first, almost 60,000 people completed the New York City Marathon last weekend. And on the line with us now is one of those runners, Jordan Litts. So, Jordan, why don't you tell us what you did after the race? Well, I ran the New York City Marathon, and then I proceeded to perform a hero. and Wicked on Broadway twice. Twice?

Yes. I finished the race about 12, 150, and then our half-hour call for the show was 1.30. So I did a little press at the finish line and then walked straight to the theater, got into my shower, tried to loosen up as best I could, and then walked on and did Wicked. Wow.

That is amazing. It was wild. I've run a marathon, and the thing I wanted to do after run, a marathon is absolutely nothing. Like, I couldn't imagine moving, let alone, moving in front of people. And you are, I get, you are dancing, right? Yeah.

I mean, yeah, Firo's, his title song is dancing through life. So, you know, you're dancing around. You're leading the students and teaching them dance moves. Whoa. Climbing on statues, jumping off the statue. What was the point in the either performance where you were most aware of the marathon in your body? There are two pretty big moments for me where I become hyper aware of any residual effects from running or just how my body's feeling that day, not from running. one is kneeling and singing as long as your mind for five six minutes just for some reason

having the compression on your knees and your ankles and your quads for that long and then having to try and stand up after you've been kneeling for so long is uh is always a gut check that moment was that moment i was like okay am i going to be able to be able to stand up and fortunately it was it was totally fine i didn't even think about it um and then the other one was swinging in on the rope because that was the only super high impact moment of the show a lot of you know there's a lot of dance steps there's a lot of running up and downstairs there's a lot of jumping and and things like that but that one was the one that I was thinking if I'm going to get injured and I'm going to snap an Achilles tendon right now it's going to be this moment so you know I

just tried to swing in and land as gently as I could and absorb the landing and I think even the guards were watching me come in and hoping and praying that I was going to be just fine. And fortunately, it worked out just fine. Is it possible, Jordan, that if you'd been kneeling for five minutes or whatever, and you couldn't get up, that you could have figured out how to make it make sense, that your character just sits down on the ground from that point on? There's no way. There's absolutely no way.

Because, I mean, the rest of the scene is me, like, trying to get Elfaba to safety. You know, I'm telling her, like, you've got to go to my castle in Tiamico, you'll be safe there. And then at the end of the scene, this cyclone comes and whips me up, and it goes into a blackout. So, I mean, there's, I can't even imagine how embarrassing that would be. I don't know what I would do. There's no way. Is it, I can imagine that it's hard to get excited for a Sunday where you're doing two shows, like for a Sunday matinee. What's it like then for that second show after you've kind of come off.

the post-marathon high, then you still have to do a whole other run. Yeah, I mean, I've always said that Sunday matinee is my least favorite show of the week. You're just kind of, you're almost at the finish line, but you're not quite there, and you're feeling really fatigued. It's the seventh show of the week. You just did a double the day before. So it's already a tough show anyway, and then you throw 26.2 miles on top of that. Yeah.

And that just makes it really pretty much. grueling um but yeah you're right the adrenaline was had completely worn off at that point um my wife and daughter came to hang out with me in between shows and we just you know chilled in the dressing room i you know played with my daughter put my legs up on the wall tried to drain the blood out of them to kind of reset the system um and then i think maybe because the adrenaline had worn off and i knew that it was the last show of the week and the last little hurdle that i had to get over It was one of the best shows I've had in weeks, to be honest. Really?

Yeah, I was just, I was free to just give whatever I had left in the tank. I finished dancing through life and I was like, that's a darn good performance. I'm so happy with that. So yeah, I mean, maybe I need to run a marathon before every two show day. There you go, folks. Yeah, you got a PR and Wicked. Exactly. This message comes from WISE, the app for using money around the globe.

When you manage your money with WISE, you'll always get the mid-market exchange rate with no hidden fees. Join millions of customers and visit WISE.com. T's and Cs apply. Support for NPR and the following message comes. from the Kreske Foundation with Pathbreakers, a podcast about transforming communities through innovation, from revolutionizing higher education to supporting artists who are driving change. Pathbreakers is available on podcast platforms. Hey, if you've got a question that we can help you get to the bottom of, get us at how-to at npr.org.

Maybe you encountered something that's 60 years old and no one has thought of in a very long time. and you want us to delve into it, to look a little deeper. We're going to help you out. Just send it to us at how-to at npr.org. I feel like your tone there insulted my daughter's childlike curiosity, and I don't like it. Not at all. Not at all. To you and your family, I have nothing but respect.

Hey, Sarah and Jacob, what can we help you with? My question is, when I'm shaving my chest, I've got pretty hairy. so I want to make sure I get everything but then I just don't know really when to stop right you got the abs and up through the pecks and stuff but how far do I need to go over my shoulders I'm not going to save all the way down my arm

I mean there was just something I was thinking about huh yeah I guess if someone did have abs and pecks that would that would be a concern yeah so Jacob is very fit he's very in shape and he worked hard and I think I kind of tactfully suggested to him a few years ago that he might consider shaving his test to just check chest show off all his, his hard work and effort.

So now it's probably the routine, but he's just not sure where do you stop when shaving? Is there a proper protocol? I feel this feels like a very personal question, but so are we, if you are Jacob unshaven, Are we talking about a pretty thick coat from over the shoulders and down the back? Is it... Luckily, for me, it's not all the way down the back, but definitely my entire front is a thick coat. Entire front. Do you have a beard? I don't maintain a beard. I try to shave my face and my stomach regularly.

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

Sounds like maybe a pet spa Would be Oh, that's interesting Yeah, that's a great idea Like a dog groomer Yeah, they have all the equipment Hi My name's Crystal Murray

Hyphen 8 class And I am a Professional dog handler And so we go to dog shows every weekend And we have the fortunate job of showing beautiful standard poodles. We showed a very exceptional standard poodle named Siba,

and he won the very prestigious Westminster Kennel Club. And you groomed Siba for that win, for that performance? Absolutely, yep. Could you describe Siba what Siba looks like? Is Siba a she? Or how do we just...

She? She is a C. She is a black standard poodle female. And this is, if, for someone who doesn't, isn't maybe that versed in how showing dogs works. This is the sort of poodle that we imagine, when we imagine kind of the fancy poodle with the kind of balls at the feet and the big kind of comp a door. Yeah, so actually what I used to, what I like to tell people is, so Germany kind of developed the breed, but then the French got them.

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

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

we got this call from uh sarah and jacob jacob i think is to uh men what siba is to poodles uh he's he is as we understand a perfect specimen uh but he is he's very hairy so he's not able to fully show off the definition that he has worked so hard to achieve. Using your expertise from the world of poodle grooming, what would your advice for Jacob be? Well, there's a couple different things you can do. I mean, if you really want to see any of like the sculpting, tisling contours, kind of like that, you would want a really short blade.

You know, with the poodles, we can clipper them at different lengths. So you get that different effect there. So wait, if I understand, it could be possible to sort of not do a complete hair removal, but actually use some hair remaining to do a little contouring, maybe add some shadow to the abs and pecks and actually enhance what Jacob is working with their muscle-wise. Yes, absolutely. Oh, wait, does Siba have abs? well not really she had a litter of puppies so she's got she's got a mom's body now good for her so yeah you can almost create kind of like some shadowing or whatever can i ask so when you're when you're at a competition a show um are you like backstage

doing it right before they go on or is it yep yep there's a whole grooming area for all the different competitors and their dogs are you nervous back there in that kind of final groom? Sometimes. I mean, the regular shows, it's just kind of a routine thing. For the show like Westminster that we did, I was a wreck. What's the vibe like back there? Is it pretty competitive?

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

So, but do you see another dog back there and you're like, oh, that top knot is phenomenal? Oh, absolutely. Really? Yeah, we totally do that. Really? We're like, oh, did you see? We're like, oh, did you see? She must have been really nervous.

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

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

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

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

Thanks