This transcript was automatically generated and might contain errors.

[0:00] Sarah Stiles: Hey guys, this is Sarah Stiles. I am so excited to welcome you to episode one of Bleeding Love.

[0:07] Sarah Stiles: Bleeding Love is set in a world where people are cloistered inside because it's too dangerous to go out. That sounds familiar. Most of the songs were recorded before the current pandemic, but all of the actors, and we have an amazing cast, recorded their dialogue in their homes, cloistered inside because it's too dangerous to go out. Broadway may have shut down, for now, but you can't stop musical theater. Our story takes place on Kingfisher Avenue, a residential street in a nearly deserted post-apocalyptic metropolis. It's always night, and it often snows. A spindly teenage girl, that's me, looks out from the third floor window of a decrepit Victorian-era brownstone. She's practicing the cello.

[1:15] Sarah Stiles: Cracked. Uneven pavement. Dangerous, some might say. You could break your neck going from there to here. I say there to here because no one's gone from here to there in a long time. No one leaves this building nowadays. It's called the Halcyon, a word my wife told me when she was living. A word that meant peaceful, happy. Halcyon don't mean that no more. Not to us, anyhow.

[2:12] Sarah Stiles: This too shall not pass. Troubling. Thirteen. Below. Zero. Nothing. Can grow. Dead at. Handle. Hell has. Frozen. God has. Chosen. Fate laughs. It's fine. Tears freeze. As we cry. There's not a weed here. There's only meat here. And the sun may rise again. A can of meat now would be a treat now. And the sun may rise again. But it's still snowing.

[2:59] Sarah Stiles: No one's lived in the Halcyon longer than Madame Floy. Don't underplay the downbeat. She taught music from the top floor of this luxury tenement until her final student moved away 12 long years ago. Watch your vibrato. That was about the time her great niece arrived. Special delivery. Bronwyn, being newly orphaned, was sent to live with Madame Floy, who it turned out was her last lingering relative. At the tender age of almost four, Bronwyn climbed that stoop and walked through those exterior doors, never to leave. At least not yet.

[3:34] Bronwyn: Stop staring out that window. You're distracted.

[3:41] Madame Floy: I'm not. Move your chair next to my bed.

[3:46] Bronwyn: Don't make me sit over there, Auntie. I might miss something.

[3:53] Madame Floy: Burnt out buildings, broken glass. Nothing out there's worth looking at.

[4:01] Bronwyn: How can you say that? When I was a child prodigy, we had sunlight. We had blue skies and fields of green. Did we sit in front of windows? Did you? No! We practiced in dusty rooms and cement basements. We sacrificed our lives pour la musique. You've locked me in here for 12 years. At least let me look outside.

[4:17] Madame Floy: What for? Outlaws, hooligans, and wild drug fiends. That's what's stalking those avenues. Outlaws, hooligans, and wild drug fiends. They'll rape you, then they'll kill you, then they'll take your shoes.

[4:29] Bronwyn: But, Auntie, you haven't been out in how long? I've been watching for years and I've never seen anyone. Outlaws, hooligans, and wild drug fiends. Each one looking to start a fight. Outlaws, hooligans, and wild drug fiends. They'll slash you, then they'll bash you, and they're not polite. If you went outside, then who'd protect you? There are things I won't subject you to. That's what I do. Don't you know outside is only danger? Say you met a wicked stranger and this fellow broke your cello.

[5:07] Outlaws, hooligans, and wild drug fiends. High as a kite while drunk on booze. Outlaws, hooligans, and wild drug fiends. Seriously wrong when they will take your shoes. Red lips, white toes, blue hands, wet nose, chaplains, dry mouth, chalmer, through soap. While we suffer, life gets tougher. This is our march, we kill. Still feel hot outside, we shelter. It's helter-skelter. And the sun didn't rise again.

[5:59] Madame Floy: It's still sleeting. Years ago, when the climate started turning bitter, most folks headed south, way, way south. One moment, father. Like other holdouts, I spent those final shrinking days stockpiling foodstuffs. Three locks to go. With severe rationing, we've survived. Two. But supplies are dwindling.

[6:20] Bronwyn: What? Outlaws, hooligans, and wild drug fiends. Looks like they're back from oblivion. Outlaws, hooligans, and wild drug fiends. They'll take what they can take, but they won't take my gun. I swept up all the stairs while you're out. I'm a real good sweeper, aren't I, father? Outlaws, hooligans, and wild drug fiends. Those damn morons are real damn close. Outlaws, hooligans, and wild drug fiends. They're criminals and bastards. And they're really gross. How many did you see this time?

[6:50] Bronwyn: Just two. But they were mean and ugly looking. Look! That's lots and lots of stuff. I found an unmolested pantry in a tenement a few miles out. Put it in the stockpile. One can of sauerkraut. One can of canned kale. One can of ravioli. Canned fruit cocktail. Green jalapeno. Canned whole chicken. Healthy weight cat food. Spotted dick in a can. What's flan? Canned fish mouth. Canned fresh snail. Canned rattlesnake. Canned fruit cocktail. Canned fruit cocktail. Canned fruit cocktail. Canned fruit cocktail. Canned cheeseburger.

[7:25] Madame Floy: Where's your broom?

[7:30] Bronwyn: Uh, must have left it somewhere.

[7:37] Madame Floy: On the top floor? Were you hovering outside that apartment?

[7:42] Bronwyn: No, promise. You leave be that old lady. And her scrubby little niece. I can't bother them. They don't ever ever come out. Leave some of that canned fruit cocktail outside their door. And fetch your broom. Across the street is another building. Still badly damaged from a fire a few years back. Uninhabitable. But that don't stop squatters.

[8:01] Madame Floy: Shut up! But lollipapy, I didn't say nothing. I'm sick of listening to your teeth chattering and clattering. It's so shivery. Need me to get you hot?

[8:11] Bronwyn: Uh-huh. Slobber, slobber. Oh yeah, puppy. Yeah, yeah. I need a lolly. Alcyon. That building might have something in it.

[8:16] Bronwyn: Pantries, pennies, and some more grannies. That's what's usually up in there. Pantries, pennies, and some more grannies. Come on, why don't we look inside? Don't touch the hair. Pantries, pennies, and some more grannies. Not like they got a lot of options here. Pantries, pennies, and some more grannies. For this reason, can we look inside? Away for a beer. Bronwyn, listen to me. You'll never see anyone outside that window.

[8:43] Bronwyn: Auntie, outside. I see, I see.

[8:54] Madame Floy: What? People.

[8:59] Bronwyn: What's taking so long? It must be bolted shut. Break it.

[9:03] Madame Floy: Ow! I can't. I'm so cold. You can't bust a window. What kind of puppy are you?

[9:12] Bronwyn: Okay, okay. Ow! Someone who really loved me could smash that thing. Ow!

[9:20] Madame Floy: Lolly baby. That's it? You're giving up? I can't do it. You don't love me. You don't love me. Tyrant.

[9:29] Madame Floy: I do love you. Aggressor.

[9:34] Bronwyn: I love you.

[9:37] Madame Floy: Yeah? Prove it. How? Do I gotta think of everything?

[9:51] Bronwyn: Looking at her lollipop, Lolly got an idea. I want a rose.

[9:54] Madame Floy: Rose? Nothing says I love you better than a single red rose. Aren't those just like in fairy tales? Bring me a rose. A red rose.

[10:02] Madame Floy: That's impossible. There's no plants, baby. Nothing grows no more. Bring me a rose. A red rose.

[10:13] Bronwyn: Do it. Otherwise, take this. Because it's the only Lolly you'll ever get.

[10:19] Madame Floy: You know what you can do with that, don't you? Suck it. I'm out. Lolly baby. Suck it.

[10:29] Bronwyn: Lolly. Lolly. I need booze. Bronwyn found her thoughts kept returning to this strange vision of love outside her window. Auntie, were you ever in love?

[10:44] Madame Floy: Many times. What's it like? Love announces itself like a cuckoo clock striking the hours with small bellows and pipes that imitate the call of a common bird. Also, it's pendulum driven. But this love outside Bronwyn's window was so different than the stories she would hear from her great aunt and much more real.

[11:07] Madame Floy: Time for your shot. Was that the cuckoo already?

[11:23] Bronwyn: That was the cuckoo. Here we go. Bronwyn had come to think of love the way that she felt about daylight. Something distant, extinct, something she could never know. But now she wasn't so sure.

[11:34] Bronwyn: How strange. This boy sees that as love. Is that love? Can that be love? To him, love is cold and harsh as winter. But to me, if I ever felt it, I think it would be warmer. Yes, I'm sure it must be warmer like a sun. But the sun never rose and a rose is a family.

[12:07] ♪ Musical number: "Prologue (And the Sun Didn't Rise Again)" — performed by Company ♪

[13:56] Sweet William: Hey, Bronwyn!

[13:58] Bronwyn: I'm not going outside!

[14:01] Sweet William: Well, you're in the stairs!

[14:05] Bronwyn: The stairwell! You better not say anything to Auntie Floy, or your father!

[14:10] Sweet William: Like what?

[14:12] Bronwyn: Like, don't say I'm going outside, because I'm definitely not doing that!

[14:16] Sweet William: Father would be super, super mad if you went outside, I mean. Get it? Get it why I said it like that, super, super mad?

[14:22] Bronwyn: Because he's the super?

[14:24] Sweet William: Uh-huh. You want some glue?

[14:26] Bronwyn: I'm full, thanks.

[14:28] Sweet William: I'm glad you popped out. You never, ever pop out.

[14:32] Bronwyn: I know, because I'm always toodling out here.

[14:35] Sweet William: In fact, sometimes when I'm outside your door, I think it sure would be nice if brilliant, beautiful Bronwyn popped out so we could have us a chat.

[14:43] Bronwyn: I like chatting with you, Sweet William.

[14:46] Sweet William: You called me Sweet William!

[14:48] Bronwyn: That's your name.

[14:50] Sweet William: Sweet William's a flower. I'm a flower. My mother did that. She liked flowers a lot, when she was alive, I mean.

[15:01] Bronwyn: Hey, you know about that greenhouse on the roof?

[15:03] Sweet William: Heard about it.

[15:04] Bronwyn: But you never saw it. Wanna see it?

[15:07] Sweet William: We can't go on the roof.

[15:09] Bronwyn: No one can! It's locked! Your father keeps the—

[15:11] Sweet William: The key?

[15:13] Bronwyn: Where'd you get that?

[15:15] Sweet William: Shh! Stole it. Took it right off old father's neck while he was snoring.

[15:20] Bronwyn: Father has lots and lots of rules. Don't bother him when he's polishing rifles, that's one. Two, don't go in the greenhouse on the roof. It was my mother's greenhouse. She loved it up there.

[15:31] Sweet William: Ooh, I sure would like to show you that greenhouse, brilliant, beautiful Bronwyn.

[15:35] Bronwyn: What's going on up there?

[15:37] Sweet William: Your father! Quick, hide the key!

[15:42] Bronwyn: Hmm.

[15:44] Sweet William: Hello.

[15:46] Bronwyn: Ooh, that's a sparkling rifle, Father.

[15:49] Sweet William: Two naughty minds shaping shenanigans in the stairwell, I see.

[15:54] Father: William! I said not to hover up here!

[15:57] Sweet William: Not hovering, I'm sweeping, Father. See? See?

[15:59] Father: I'm afraid it's my fault.

[16:01] Sweet William: You. Sneaking out while the old lady's conked?

[16:05] Bronwyn: Not sneaking out.

[16:07] Sweet William: She's not sneaking out, Father. There's nowhere to go. It's too dangerous outside and you won't let us go to the greenhouse.

[16:12] Bronwyn: We were just—just doing some eating, right?

[16:16] Sweet William: Sweet William, where's the—where's the—

[16:19] Bronwyn: Glue?

[16:21] Sweet William: Here.

[16:23] Bronwyn: Oh, it's okay. Just dip your finger in it and slurp it off. That's what I do.

[16:30] Sweet William: Yum.

[16:34] Father: I came up from the basement because I thought I heard an intruder.

[16:38] Sweet William: No intruder! No intruder! This building hasn't had intruders for a long time. Not since Mother died.

[16:44] Father: That's enough about that! Don't be mad, Father.

[16:47] Sweet William: That sure is a sparkling rifle.

[16:51] Father: I like my rifles clean. They get dirty so fast.

[16:56] Father: Bronwyn, you'd best get back to your flat where it's safe for a spindly young gal. And don't let me catch you doing nothing foolish. It's a mean world full of bad people. And you don't got no rifle.

[17:12] Bronwyn: Your father's scary.

[17:22] Sweet William: Oh, he don't mean nothing by it.

[17:25] Bronwyn: Don't mean nothing by it.

[17:27] Sweet William: So, hey, you wanna go out there? On the roof, I mean. To the greenhouse.

[17:30] Bronwyn: I have to do something. I can't say what.

[17:33] Sweet William: What?

[17:35] Bronwyn: I can't say.

[17:37] Sweet William: Take me with you, brilliant, beautiful Bronwyn. I'll protect you.

[17:40] Bronwyn: How? You don't got no rifle.

[17:42] Sweet William: Well, I got sweeping to do anyways.

[17:45] Bronwyn:

[17:45] Bronwyn creeps down the stairs to the ground floor.

[17:48] In the vestibule, she tentatively opens the exterior door...

[17:51] ...and almost, almost steps outside.

[18:05] ♪ Musical number: "Twilight" — performed by Bronwyn ♪

[20:55] ♪ Musical number: "Bleeding Love" — performed by Puppy ♪

[24:12] ♪ Musical number: "Bleeding Love" — performed by Tony Vincent ♪

[25:59] Lolly: (finishing her lolly)

[26:04] Lolly: (slipping through the tenement window, bolting it shut behind her)

[26:08] Puppy: (collapsing in the snow)

[26:13] Puppy: Leave me for dead. Let the snow turn red. Let it tattoo the earth, so when you walk by, someday you might cry.

[26:32] Puppy: Oh, my day is full of pain. Let my blood fall like rain. Let my blood fall like rain.

[26:52] Bronwyn: (peeking out from the halcyon vestibule) Hey. Hey. Puppy?

[27:00] Bronwyn: (seeing Puppy, bleeding in the snow, looks up at the fire escape) You'll freeze if you stay out there.

[27:10] Puppy: (whimpering, crawls towards Bronwyn and into the halcyon)

[27:18] Bronwyn: You'll be warmer here.

[27:20] Puppy: Here? We don't go inside?

[27:22] Bronwyn: Shh. This is inside.

[27:24] Puppy: This is stairs, man.

[27:25] Bronwyn: It's the stairwell. I live with my auntie. She's bedridden. She doesn't allow me to have boys over.

[27:31] Bronwyn: And there's a super in the building with a thing for rifles.

[27:34] Puppy: Hey, you got anything like booze? I'm a booze hound. I need booze.

[27:40] Bronwyn: You mean liquid spirits? We're fresh out. I'm Bronwyn.

[27:45] Puppy: Ew.

[27:49] Bronwyn: I'm a mess.

[27:51] Puppy: You're tall. We have to get you cleaned up.

[27:55] Bronwyn: I guess you can come into the flat, but keep it down and try not to bleed on anything.

[28:00] Bronwyn: (taking Puppy to the third floor landing where Sweet William is sleeping with his broom) Shh.

[28:06] Bronwyn: (leading Puppy to her apartment door)

[28:11] Sweet William: (who is only pretending to sleep, opens his eyes)

[28:16] Sweet William: (eating glue as he watches Bronwyn and Puppy slip into Madam Floy's flat)

[28:24] Bronwyn: May I take your hat?

[28:27] Puppy: My trooper trapper trapper trooper hat?

[28:29] Bronwyn: I'm preparing you a bath. She can't wear a hat in the bathtub.

[28:33] Puppy: You're nice. What makes you nice when I'm so disgusting?

[28:37] Bronwyn: Just am, I guess.

[28:39] Puppy: You want to touch my head?

[28:46] Bronwyn: Why?

[28:47] Puppy: Girls like to do that.

[28:49] Bronwyn: Um, your bath's ready.

[28:52] Puppy: (as he strips out of his clothes and slides into the tub) You should have touched it when you had the chance.

[29:00] Bronwyn: What?

[29:03] Puppy: You're staring at my head, man.

[29:05] Bronwyn: Why'd you shave it?

[29:07] Puppy: Okay, so I'm combing my hair one day. I had great hair.

[29:12] Puppy: Lolly sees me and goes, spending all that time in front of the mirror?

[29:16] Puppy: You love your hair more than me.

[29:18] Puppy: Well, one of them had to go.

[29:22] Bronwyn: Excuse me for saying, but that Lolly, she seems like a real stinker.

[29:26] Puppy: Who's big and bad? I am.

[29:30] Puppy: I'm a big, bad baby.

[29:32] Puppy: I was her type, and I ruined everything.

[29:37] Puppy: I love her.

[29:40] Bronwyn: I don't think love's supposed to hurt so much.

[29:43] Puppy: What do you know about it?

[29:45] Bronwyn: Uh...

[29:46] Puppy: Have you ever even ever been kissed?

[29:48] Bronwyn: I've basically never been outside this building, but I've seen a lot.

[29:52] Bronwyn: Love's a razor. Slice and open my veins.

[29:58] Puppy: Don't cry.

[30:00] Bronwyn: My heart's like completely mangled, and I got no hair. I gotta cry.

[30:05] Puppy: I can make it better.

[30:06] Bronwyn: Cool.

[30:07] Puppy: Okay, maybe not me, but my music can. Let me get my cello.

[30:12] Bronwyn: I'm gonna be sick again.

[30:14] Puppy: They say music's good for the heart.

[30:20] Bronwyn: I'll clean that up later.

[30:30] Bronwyn: Ta-da!

[30:31] Puppy: Music's useless.

[30:33] Bronwyn: Useless?

[30:34] Puppy: My only hope is to find a single red...

[30:37] Bronwyn: Roses don't grow. Nothing does. It's cold, and there's no sunlight.

[30:42] Bronwyn: Haven't you, like, heard of the metaphor for the impossible?

[30:45] Puppy: Ma'am, that's the whole entire...

[30:47] Bronwyn: Whoa. Whoa, whoa! What is that?

[30:50] Puppy: (emerging from the tub and donning a silly old lady's bathrobe from nearby) Did she say real? She said red rose. That's that!

[31:01] Bronwyn: This isn't... This is just wire and paint. It scratches off, see?

[31:06] Bronwyn: It only looks like a flower.

[31:08] Puppy: I thought you were nice.

[31:10] Bronwyn: I am.

[31:11] Puppy: Someone nice would give me that flower, so once again, I may know the miracle that's true love.

[31:16] Bronwyn: Yeah!

[31:17] Puppy: Uh, but...

[31:18] Bronwyn: What?

[31:36] Puppy: Maybe she'll like it, like she likes, well, drugs.

[31:42] Bronwyn: A good imitation. See, it's got no... bugs.

[31:48] Bronwyn: And since we live when nothing grows, take this plastic rose.

[32:01] Bronwyn: Can you tell the difference between false and real?

[32:08] Bronwyn: You tell by the scent and in the way they feel.

[32:14] Bronwyn: Unlock your senses, then it shows.

[32:20] Bronwyn: Take this plastic rose.

[32:27] Bronwyn: If the task is daunting and it makes you bleed,

[32:34] Bronwyn: Maybe what you're wanting isn't what you need.

[32:40] Bronwyn: If things don't go the way you planned,

[32:46] Bronwyn: Then fate can offer you her hand.

[32:52] Bronwyn: So take it. It's yours. It's such an easy gift.

[32:59] Bronwyn: Go give it to her, and how she feels might shift.

[33:06] Bronwyn: (giving Puppy the fake flower) Sorry I called you cruel.

[33:09] Puppy: Now I see you have a good, pure heart.

[33:14] Bronwyn: A pure heart?

[33:16] Puppy: Where's my trooper trapper trapper trooper hat?

[33:19] Bronwyn: Oh, hmm, where could it have gone to?

[33:23] Bronwyn: It must be here someplace.

[33:25] Puppy: (looking for his hat, spots a vial of Madam Floy's medication)

[33:29] Puppy: (seeing that Bronwyn isn't looking, he steals it) Uh, got it, Jetman.

[33:36] Puppy: (is gone)

[33:38] Bronwyn: (going to the window and seeing him trudging away from the Halcyon) Puppy! See me tomorrow. I'll get you a real rose.

[34:10] Bronwyn: Cross my good, pure heart.

[34:15] Puppy: (distraught, lifts his gaze) Does he smile?

[34:19] Bronwyn: When all that's left is fake and has no worth,

[34:26] Bronwyn: Might a seed still wake underneath the earth?

[34:32] Bronwyn: Maybe, maybe, who knows?

[34:41] Bronwyn: (fetching Puppy's Trapper Trooper hat from beneath the cushion and cuddling with it)

[34:46] Bronwyn: (shutting her eyes and falling asleep)

[35:12] Harris Doran: Lyrics by Harris Doran.

[35:14] Harris Doran: Directed and edited by Harris Doran.

[35:16] Harris Doran: Produced by the Broadway Podcast Network, Dori Berenstein and Alan Seales, in association with Kent Nicholson, Katie Rosin, and Steve Saporito.

[35:24] Harris Doran: Starring Annie Golden as Madam Floy, Rebecca Naomi Jones as Lolly, Marc Kudisch as The Super, Sarah Stiles as Bronwyn, Taylor Trensch as Sweet William, Tony Vincent as Puppy.

[35:36] Harris Doran: Orchestrated by Bruce Coughlin.

[35:38] Harris Doran: Full production and orchestration by Arthur Lafrentz Bacon.

[35:41] Harris Doran: Re-recording mixing by Ric Schnupp.

[35:43] Harris Doran: Sound edited by José Villaman.

[35:45] Harris Doran: Sound engineering by Alan Seales.

[35:47] Harris Doran: Song recordings produced by Tim Andreasen with Søren Møller, creative producer of the Fredericia Teater.

[35:53] Harris Doran: Martin Konge, musical director and keyboards.

[35:56] Harris Doran: Steffen Schackinger on guitar.

[35:58] Harris Doran: Florian Navarro on reeds.

[36:00] Harris Doran: Jakob Rosendahl Povisen on violin.

[36:02] Harris Doran: Tobias Lautrup on cello.

[36:04] Harris Doran: Allan Nagel on bass.

[36:06] Harris Doran: Lars Mollenberg on drums.

[36:08] Harris Doran: Additional vocals on "Prologue" by Aaron Ramey and Lucia Spina.

[36:12] Harris Doran: Vocals recorded at Avatar Studios, NYC, and the actors’ apartments during self-isolation.