This transcript was automatically generated and might contain errors.

[0:01] Rob Russo: I'm recording. Talk. Say something. I'm talking into a microphone.

[0:10] Jamie DuMont: You are. All right. I am Rob Russo.

[0:30] Jamie DuMont: I'm Jamie DuMont. I'm Rob Russo. And this is The Fabulous Invalid. How can we never do that? Well, with just the two of us, we get that done. But we always struggled with... Three's hard. Three's a crap.

[0:48] Rob Russo: Three's... Wow. We love you, Jen. We love you, Leslie. Three's company. Three's company. Three's company.

[0:51] Jamie DuMont: Okay. Well, Suzanne Somers, dead. Okay. So if you haven't noticed, surprise, surprise, we're back. Hi.

[1:01] Rob Russo: Hi. We are back for a special bonus episode. Our first special bonus episode of The Fabulous Invalid since our Stephen Sondheim retrospective.

[1:09] Jamie DuMont: Which is, I'm told, worth a listen.

[1:11] Rob Russo: It is worth a listen. I took a little listen last night as a little warm up for today's recording. That was in January 2022. A lot has happened.

[1:20] Jamie DuMont: It's been a packed year. It's been a terrible year.

[1:25] Rob Russo: A lot of highs, a lot of lows.

[1:26] Jamie DuMont: A lot of highs, a lot of lows. And I think we're here because we felt the need to end on a positive note. Correct?

[1:33] Rob Russo: Yeah, yeah. So we're doing our favorite thing, a list show. We've each put together a list of our personal top 10 favorite theatrical experiences of 2023. To quote one show, the positive is what we will be accentuating.

[1:45] Jamie DuMont: I guess it's worth stating some rules before we get started. Very simply, we each had to pick our 10 favorite shows that we saw this calendar year and rank them.

[1:54] Rob Russo: I should add that we have decided to omit anything that we may have worked on this year. So that puts Danson, the Broadway revival of Bob Fosse's Danson, directed by the delicious Wayne Solento, out of the running.

[2:08] Jamie DuMont: Yeah, yeah. I mean, obviously, that would have been both of our number one.

[2:12] Rob Russo: It sure would have.

[2:13] Jamie DuMont: Theatrical experiences of 2023, because it was for us. It was not only our Broadway co-producing debut as The Fabulous Invalid, but also it was such a good show.

[2:24] Rob Russo: I hope that folks listening had a chance to see it.

[2:27] Jamie DuMont: Unfortunately, the run was not as long as anyone would have hoped. But damn, that was such a good show.

[2:33] Rob Russo: If you did see it, or you didn't see it, well, you can listen to our special podcast.

[2:37] Jamie DuMont: Is that the right way to put it?

[2:39] Rob Russo: It was a podcast miniseries, where we talked to the cast of Danson.

[2:45] Jamie DuMont: Yeah, 24 episodes. We got through most of the principal cast and some top creatives. And it was really fun. We joked that when we finished it, we sat back and we were like, we made a chorus line.

[2:55] Rob Russo: Yeah, we really did.

[2:56] Jamie DuMont: Whoops. We didn't intend to, but we ended up talking to all the dancers about their lives and their careers. And it was like, wow, okay, we really did a Michael Bennett.

[3:06] Rob Russo: We did. And you know, I think for me, the thing about it that was so remarkable, and I think this speaks to why each and every one of them got cast in the show. They're all special. They're all... I sound like Cassie.

[3:23] Jamie DuMont: You are Cassie, yeah.

[3:24] Rob Russo: But they are. The cast of Danson was an incredibly talented, smart, interesting group of people from all backgrounds of dance, theatre, you name it. And it's a really great look into not only the process of putting a show together, but also how someone gets to where they, you know, from where they started to where they are, which is I'm literally describing a chorus line again.

[3:50] Jamie DuMont: You've done it.

[3:50] Rob Russo: Well, we also, you know, in 2023, we produced a run of Broadway Barbara live off Broadway at Soho Playhouse. Barbara Dixon, the amazingly talented Lea Sprecher's character, Barbara Dixon, which was such a hoot if you caught it. And if not, I'm sure Broadway Barbara will be back in New York at some point, hopefully in 2024.

[4:11] Jamie DuMont: Do you know something I don't know?

[4:13] Rob Russo: I'm not saying anything. I'm a steel box.

[4:15] Jamie DuMont: And then, of course, we spent the summer working on Mimi Quillen's solo piece called Fosse at the Minskoff, which we've been developing for a number of years. And we're really fortunate to present at Vassar College as part of their powerhouse theatre season. And we made a little trip to Nantucket to the White Heron Theatre Company to present the play there and more to come on Mimi's play called Fosse at the Minskoff.

[4:38] Rob Russo: I think in what, five, six days we were on the island of Nantucket, we maybe got 30 minutes of beach time.

[4:44] Jamie DuMont: I know.

[4:45] Rob Russo: I saw a shark. There was a shark that washed up on the shore.

[4:48] Jamie DuMont: You did see a shark.

[4:49] Rob Russo: I did an actual like five foot, like not a small, not a dogfish. And if anybody knows what that is.

[4:55] Jamie DuMont: Yeah.

[4:55] Rob Russo: No, a legitimate like shark.

[4:57] Jamie DuMont: See, so 2023 wasn't all so bad.

[4:59] Rob Russo: Jamie saw a shark.

[5:01] Jamie DuMont: 2023 was a shit year. And I will say, as we should dive into our best of, but I will say something when putting my list together, something that I completely sort of had forgotten that had happened, is that after 36 years, The Phantom of the Opera closed its run.

[5:19] Rob Russo: Yeah. Oh, yeah.

[5:21] Jamie DuMont: That's not on your list, is it?

[5:22] Rob Russo: Well, we'll talk. We'll see.

[5:24] Jamie DuMont: Oh my God.

[5:26] Rob Russo: Oh my God. All right.

[5:27] Jamie DuMont: Well, maybe it is.

[5:28] Rob Russo: Oh, wow.

[5:28] Jamie DuMont: That was a momentous moment in Broadway history. And it's worth staying at the top, even if we might mention it later in the show.

[5:35] Rob Russo: See, this is what happens when we don't check our notes.

[5:37] Jamie DuMont: Well, so this proves to anyone listening that our lists are a complete mystery to one another.

[5:43] Rob Russo: Well, I don't know what's on your list.

[5:44] Jamie DuMont: You don't know what's on my list.

[5:45] Rob Russo: I mean, we do because we know each other.

[5:46] Jamie DuMont: Well, we haven't discussed it.

[5:47] Rob Russo: We haven't discussed it.

[5:48] Jamie DuMont: We haven't shared lists.

[5:49] Rob Russo: So let's do it.

[5:50] Jamie DuMont: Let's dive right in.

[5:51] Rob Russo: Okay.

[5:52] Jamie DuMont: Alrighty.

[5:52] Rob Russo: So top 10 theatrical experiences of 2023. Jamie, you're going to laugh because, of course, I did the math.

[5:58] Jamie DuMont: I always have to do the math.

[5:59] Rob Russo: Yeah.

[6:00] Jamie DuMont: I saw 228 performances in 2023.

[6:04] Rob Russo: Jesus.

[6:04] Jamie DuMont: It's only 365 days.

[6:06] Rob Russo: That's a lot.

[6:07] Jamie DuMont: I thought you didn't keep an Excel anymore.

[6:09] Rob Russo: I don't keep an Excel. I have a calendar. I'm very organized.

[6:12] Jamie DuMont: So say that number again.

[6:13] Rob Russo: 228.

[6:15] Jamie DuMont: So I probably saw 226. Maybe.

[6:17] Rob Russo: Yeah. I mean, you know, 14 of those are Bob Fosse's Dancing on Broadway. So it's obviously it's not 228 different shows.

[6:23] Jamie DuMont: But you did see that one more time than I did.

[6:26] Rob Russo: And I saw it in San Diego.

[6:28] Jamie DuMont: Oh, I wasn't including pre-Broadway.

[6:31] Rob Russo: Oh, because that was 2022.

[6:32] Jamie DuMont: That was 2022.

[6:33] Rob Russo: Yeah. You know, when you get to my age, all the years just mush together.

[6:37] Jamie DuMont: I'm starting to get there.

[6:38] Rob Russo: Anyway. Well, that's an impressive and slightly sad number.

[6:41] Jamie DuMont: It's a lot, especially because I think last January I stated my intention to see less in 2023.

[6:47] Rob Russo: Well, that didn't work.

[6:48] Jamie DuMont: Yeah.

[6:49] Rob Russo: And, you know, every time you get frustrated and flustered, I glaze over.

[6:53] Jamie DuMont: You know, I'm going to come around to saying yes to seeing a play on Broadway.

[6:57] Rob Russo: It's going to hold 50 days in January.

[6:59] Jamie DuMont: Well, there's that, too.

[6:59] Rob Russo: Yeah.

[7:00] Jamie DuMont: All righty. So let's dive right in.

[7:02] Rob Russo: Jamie.

[7:03] Jamie DuMont: Yes.

[7:03] Rob Russo: Kick us off. What's your number 10 theatrical experience of 2023?

[7:06] Jamie DuMont: This is going to shock you. It's a tie.

[7:08] Rob Russo: What?

[7:09] Jamie DuMont: Yes.

[7:11] Rob Russo: But it's a tie with the same show.

[7:13] Jamie DuMont: Oh, okay.

[7:14] Rob Russo: So it's English.

[7:15] Jamie DuMont: Uh-huh.

[7:15] Rob Russo: The play by Sanaz Tusi, which we saw premiered at the Atlantic Theatre Company in what? 2022?

[7:21] Jamie DuMont: You can say.

[7:23] Rob Russo: Something, somewhere in there.

[7:26] Jamie DuMont: But I saw two productions of this marvelous play. I think we both walked away from the Atlantic Theatre whenever that was.

[7:32] Rob Russo: Oh.

[7:32] Jamie DuMont: Thinking.

[7:33] Rob Russo: Pitch perfect.

[7:34] Jamie DuMont: Pitch perfect.

[7:35] Rob Russo: No, no. I think it was 2022.

[7:35] Jamie DuMont: It was winter or spring 2022.

[7:37] Rob Russo: Because I remember thinking this is like the best thing I've seen since theatre had come back.

[7:41] Jamie DuMont: Yes.

[7:41] Rob Russo: Right.

[7:42] Jamie DuMont: Yes.

[7:42] Rob Russo: Fall of 2021.

[7:43] Jamie DuMont: And so in winter of 2023, I saw a production at the Studio Theatre in DC, somewhere I'd never been to before. And I highly encourage anyone who lives within driving distance or is in DC to just go and see whatever they have on.

[8:01] Rob Russo: Just walk in the door, buy a ticket. It is a fabulous theatre. It was a fabulous production. It was intimate and just thrilling. Directed by Knute Adams, again, as he has directed the production at Atlantic, this production at Studio Theatre.

[8:17] Jamie DuMont: And then this October, we went to the Barrington Stage Company and saw another production of it. And I struggle to formulate why I love this play so much, but I think it boils down to that it is a simple play about language and culture and one's sort of relationship to the two.

[8:41] Rob Russo: And I don't think we think enough about what it's like to have your language taken away from you and how much language means to you and how different it can be when you're learning a new language. And then you have to wrap your culture and your history and who you are as a person into all of that.

[8:58] Jamie DuMont: I hope it continues to get done over and over and over again.

[9:02] Rob Russo: Yeah, it won the Pulitzer Prize for drama in 2022. We both remarked at the time, like, yes, 100 percent loved it. I missed it at Studio Theatre, but I did see it with you at Barrington Stage Company.

[9:12] Jamie DuMont: I'm so glad this is on your list because there wasn't room on mine for it.

[9:16] Rob Russo: But love the play. Love the play. Hope it has a long life.

[9:19] Jamie DuMont: So my number 10 is not something new. In fact, it's something very old. I had the chance to see the ballet Fancy Free at the New York City Ballet last May. I went for my birthday with my parents.

[9:33] Rob Russo: And if you don't know, Fancy Free was a piece, a 29-minute piece that was done in 1944, choreographed by Jerome Robbins to an original score by Leonard Bernstein. And it is the sort of inspiration for the musical On the Town, which they would write within a year of Fancy Free premiering.

[9:51] Jamie DuMont: It's been a part of the New York City Ballet repertoire since 1980. For some reason, I'd never seen it. You know, they do it every couple of years. And I jumped at the chance to see it because, for all the obvious reasons, right? I mean, On the Town is very special to me. I've loved that show my entire life, the music, the songs, the dance, obsessed with it. And so it's really cool to see the kernel that inspired that, right? Which, and to think about in 1944, you have these incredible artists, but they were so young. Jerome Robbins was 26 years old. Leonard Bernstein was the same age, 26 years old. He wrote this incredible score. The choreography is, it's beautiful. It's, there's a whole story to it. It's its own little, you know, perfect little gem of a piece. So coming in contact with that in 2023, you know, many, many, many, many years after its creation, it still felt like brand new.

[10:45] Rob Russo: I agree with you entirely. I had a similar experience seeing it a few years ago. And I had seen it as a child, but I hadn't seen it as an adult. And the thing that struck me so much about it was just how the, obviously the choreography would go unchanged. I understand that. But I was slightly surprised that it's the same set.

[11:02] Jamie DuMont: Oliver Smith, that original set.

[11:04] Rob Russo: It's the original set. And costumes.

[11:06] Jamie DuMont: And costumes.

[11:07] Rob Russo: But what's cool is that it could easily be thought of as like a museum piece, but it's not. It's so vibrant. It's so alive. And I guess that's, you know, that's the joy of seeing a piece of theater or dance or any, you know, performing art is that it's always current because it's always being done by the people who are doing it right now in front of you.

[11:21] Jamie DuMont: Well, I also think that like you pointing out that Jerome Robbins was 26 when he choreographed that says to me, one of the things that's brilliant about the piece is the youth. And, you know, he's not been corrupted by time and jaded or now granted, other things come with age, right? You get other wisdoms, but there's something so pure and jubilant.

[11:46] Rob Russo: Yeah.

[11:46] Jamie DuMont: Is that the right word?

[11:47] Rob Russo: Yeah, jubilant.

[11:48] Jamie DuMont: Joyful about the piece. And I think that that's a testament to somebody who's young and looking at the world through the lens of young eyes.

[11:57] Rob Russo: Yeah, I'd have to say it was cool because it was part of a larger program that was celebrating Balanchine and Robbins, who were the founding choreographers of the New York City Ballet. And in its 75th year, 2023, they paired it with the first piece that George Balanchine choreographed and the last piece that Balanchine choreographed. And that was a really incredible experience to see in stark juxtaposition the first piece of a master choreographer and the last piece of a master choreographer.

[12:22] Jamie DuMont: Anyway, Fancy Free, it's back this winter. So if you missed it, it'll be at the New York State Theater.

[12:30] Rob Russo: I refuse to call it by its other name this January.

[12:33] Jamie DuMont: So get tickets.

[12:34] Rob Russo: This is why we're friends.

[12:35] Jamie DuMont: Fancy Free.

[12:35] Rob Russo: Because I wouldn't call it by the other name either.

[12:38] Jamie DuMont: I'm also still calling it the Avery Fisher Hall.

[12:41] Rob Russo: Number nine. Okay. So my number nine, you're going to notice a theme with my list very shortly, but my number nine... Are you going to break all the rules? Is that the theme?

[12:49] Jamie DuMont: Well, I wanted to break the rules by saying that my number nine was another tie, but I knew you wouldn't let me. Not enough back to back. So I'm not going to say that it's the cast of Annie Baker's Infinite Life and what my actual number nine is, which is Ride the Cyclone at Arena Stage. Again, D.C. Great theater happening in D.C. as always. There always has been. This is not new. Ride the Cyclone is a musical by music, book, music and lyrics by Jacob Richmond and Brooke Maxwell. It was such a perfect experience. It's such a weird show. And this cast was absolutely fabulous. And the fact that someone did this show in the world in which we live in, and by that I mean produce this commercially when things are so tough to produce.

[13:38] Rob Russo: Well, give a little capsule description of the show itself for those who don't know it, because it's not a well-known property. So how would you describe it? Because it's an odd musical.

[13:48] Jamie DuMont: It's an odd musical. So it's about a group of young people. I think they're in grade school or middle school or something like that. And they're at an amusement park, I assume Coney Island, but it's never really made clear. And they die on the cyclone. They die on a roller coaster. And then it sort of tells their story of who they were before they got to that day. And each character gets their own sort of moment. There's a couple of moments where they all sing together, but they all kind of get their own moment and they're all archetypes. And it's a comment, I think, about the world in which we live. It's delightfully sort of oddball.

[14:27] Rob Russo: This actually is on my list. This is my number eight. So we share this as our top experience of the year. I was with you. We went to DC to see a couple things. And this was the last thing we saw.

[14:42] Jamie DuMont: I sort of remember I had to bully you into it slightly.

[14:45] Rob Russo: Yeah, I don't know. I wasn't terribly enthusiastic about going for whatever reason. I don't think it was a show. It was sort of like life. And I walked in with no expectation. This is why it's in my top 10. It's my number eight, one higher than you, because it was so good. I was blown away. I mean, we're still talking about it. I hope this production, which started at the McCarter Theatre Center in Princeton, New Jersey, and then was at Arena Stage in DC, I hope it has life beyond these performances. I haven't heard anything. And perhaps it's a property that schools and regional theatres will take and run with. I don't know. I hope so. But if you ever have a chance to see Ride the Cyclone, I say go for it. It's a really, really great show.

[15:26] Jamie DuMont: Amazing. Well, in stark contrast, although, I don't know, maybe thematically similar, my number nine is the opera Dead Man Walking.

[15:36] Rob Russo: Ah! Controversial.

[15:40] Jamie DuMont: Well, it's controversial. It opened the Met season, the Met Opera season, this past September with a new, well, I don't know if it was a new production, but it was a production that was premiering. It was new to the Met. It is actually, it's the most performed opera of the 21st century. Incredible score by Jay Keggy and a libretto by Terrence McNally. And it's an Ivo van Hove production. I was completely spellbound by it. I've gotten into opera in the last couple of years. I try to go see as much as I can, a mix of old and new. And this is one of the best experiences I've ever had with an opera. You know, it's based on the book by Sister Helen Prejean that was made into the famous 1995 film with Susan Sarandon and Tim Robbins.

[16:23] Rob Russo: Tim Robbins?

[16:23] Jamie DuMont: Tim Robbins, yeah.

[16:24] Rob Russo: And Celia Weston.

[16:26] Jamie DuMont: Sure. And, you know, if you know anything about it, you know, it's about a man who's on death row for committing a heinous crime and the sort of relationship he strikes up or that a nun strikes up with him, who's, you know, against the death penalty. And that second act in particular, this opera, as you're marching towards this man being put to death, was so striking and sad. And, you know, it's the kind of thing where you know what's going to happen, but even still, as it's happening, you're just sort of like cringing.

[17:01] Rob Russo: Well, it's also so filled with tension.

[17:04] Jamie DuMont: Yes.

[17:04] Rob Russo: And the way that Ivo builds that tension, again, to your point, to a conclusion that we all know is coming, is so remarkable.

[17:15] Jamie DuMont: Yeah. And also, I mean, just to be sitting in the Met Opera, right, which is not necessarily known as an institution that's sort of pushing the envelope and, you know, embracing the 21st century. And that's, you know, of course, great. We love the Met Opera. And to see their La Boheme or Aida or whatever it is, you know, obviously, you know, that's a tradition that you want to keep alive. And thankfully, we have them to do it. But to see such a new opera, and to witness in terms of the style of it, but also the theatre making, you know, the use of a video in it, and to watch someone be put to death on stage in high definition film at the Met Opera, you know, was quite the experience.

[18:00] Rob Russo: Well, when you put it that way.

[18:01] Jamie DuMont: Right? It was fabulous. I hope it comes back. You know, they cycle their operas. If you have a chance to see it, be prepared. I mean, obviously, trigger warning. I absolutely loved it.

[18:10] Rob Russo: I would imagine it would be back.

[18:11] Jamie DuMont: Yeah.

[18:12] Rob Russo: I don't think so. I didn't feel the same way you did.

[18:14] Jamie DuMont: I know.

[18:16] Rob Russo: I actually wanted to leave after the first act. I was not enjoying it. I also will say I had a migraine, so I was uncomfortable. But the second act was thrilling. And I walked away from it really grateful that I had seen it and really happy that I had seen it. I had a little trouble with the first act, but the second act was stunning. And I'm the only one on the planet that feels that way. Everybody else thinks it's quite perfect.

[18:41] Jamie DuMont: There you go. Perfect. Okay, your number eight.

[18:44] Rob Russo: The Motive in the Queue by Jack Thorne. I saw it at the National Theatre this summer. It's moved to the West End. I would imagine it will come to New York at some point. Jack Thorne might sort of be known to all of you listeners out there, because he wrote the adaptation of Harry Potter and the Cursed Child, which is currently playing on Broadway.

[19:04] Jamie DuMont: That fabulous A Christmas Carol.

[19:06] Rob Russo: Yes, yes, which you loved.

[19:08] Jamie DuMont: That was at the Old Vic, and that was at the Lyceum, you know, pre-pandemic. And oddly, I did not know this. I learned this when I was looking it up, and I should have known it because we did an episode about it. But he also wrote the book to King Kong, the musical.

[19:20] Rob Russo: Yes, that's right.

[19:21] Jamie DuMont: Our episode, in fairness, was not about that.

[19:23] Rob Russo: It was about the puppet.

[19:23] Jamie DuMont: It was about the puppet. But I didn't know that. Anyway, if you don't know, The Motive in the Queue tells the story of the very famous production of Hamlet, directed by Sir John Gielgud, starring Richard Burton, who in, I believe it was 1964 that this happened, he couldn't have been a bigger star in that moment. He was married to Elizabeth Taylor again. John Gielgud, who was also sort of one of the most famous and legendary actors of the English stage, had turned to directing. And basically, The Motive in the Queue tells the story of the very rocky rehearsal period to get this production off the ground. It is directed by Sam Mendes. Honestly, I feel like I say this every time I see something that Sam Mendes directs, whether it's a film or stage, it's his best work yet.

But really, it's about the two actors. And it's really about the relationship between Gielgud and Burton, which you can imagine was rocky. And then, of course, you have Elizabeth Taylor thrown in for good measure, and who doesn't want a bit of that?

[20:32] Jamie DuMont: Totally. Amazing. Well, The Motive in the Queue. Great name.

[20:35] Rob Russo: Great name. Doesn't tell you what you're seeing.

[20:38] Jamie DuMont: That's why I have no idea what it's about. Well, now I do, though.

[20:41] Rob Russo: Now you do.

[20:42] Jamie DuMont: Thank you, Jamie. Amazing. Well, my number eight was Ride the Cyclone. We've already talked about it.

[20:46] Rob Russo: We have. So you're back up. What's your number seven?

[20:48] Jamie DuMont: Well, we're back in England. We're back in London in the West End for Operation Mincemeat. A musical which is written by Spitlip. But that's Spitlip, which is a great name.

[21:00] Rob Russo: Spit or Split?

[21:04] Jamie DuMont: Spitlip.

[21:04] Rob Russo: Spitlip.

[21:05] Jamie DuMont: Spitlip is comprised of David Cummings, Felix Hagen, Natasha Hodson, and Zoe Roberts, three of whom actually star in the musical. So it was written and stars three of the members of the company. It is the story, it's a true story of sort of World War II intrigue. It's about a MI5 mission in coordination or sort of not in coordination with the government. I don't want to give away too much because I think it's going to run on the West End for a really long time. I wouldn't be surprised if it traveled over here at some point for some sort of limited engagement at one of the theatre companies. I hope it does because I want to see it again. But yes, it's actually the biggest hit in the West End.

It has the best reviews. They have all these qualifications for why it's so special. But why it's so special is because it's very clever. It's very British. It is wholly original. It is very entertaining. It's very funny. And it's also very tender. There's some really sweet moments in the piece that I found quite lovely.

[22:18] Jamie DuMont: Love that. Operation Mincemeat. Another great title.

[22:21] Rob Russo: It's a great title. I saw it twice. We saw it together. And I just love it.

[22:28] Jamie DuMont: And yet you have.

[22:30] Rob Russo: And now I'm done.

[22:32] Jamie DuMont: Now you're done. Amazing. Well, my number seven. Now I'm going to cheat. It's time for me to break a rule. It's one show that has been in my life a lot over the last year.

[22:39] Rob Russo: We're here.

[22:45] Jamie DuMont: Yeah, we're here. We've arrived. So this is the ragtime portion of our program, at least on my end. Over the last 18 months, to stretch the timeline a little, I've had the good fortune of seeing four different productions of Ragtime with Jamie Dumont. Three of them with Jamie Dumont.

[23:02] Rob Russo: I didn't make one of them.

[23:03] Jamie DuMont: You didn't make one of them.

[23:04] Rob Russo: I was moving.

[23:05] Jamie DuMont: Yeah, you were busy. But starting with the terrific production at Bay Street out in Sag Harbor, and then the incredible Entertainment Community Fund reunion concert at the Minskoff Theatre that brought back the entire original cast, which is a highlight in a lifetime of theatergoing. It was so incredible to watch all of those iconic performers step right back into their performances and perform that concert. And then the Boston Symphony Orchestra at Tanglewood in western Massachusetts premiered the new Symphonic Ragtime, which was the last thing that Terrence McNally worked on. Second time Mr. McNally has appeared in this top 10. Famously wrote the book to Ragtime, and it was the last thing he worked on before he passed away.

It's sort of an abridged version of the show that can be done by symphony orchestras or pop orchestras. And then last and certainly not least, and in fact, I think perhaps the best of all of those, a late addition because I just saw it last week, is the production of Ragtime at Signature Theatre in Arlington, Virginia. The third episode of this podcast was about Signature Theatre. Go back and listen to it. It's one of my favorite regional theater companies in the whole country. And this production was just incredible. I think because the original production looms so large in people's memory and lives and that cast is so iconic, it's been hard for subsequent productions to sort of meet that level.

It's like the Hal Prince problem, right? His original productions were so great. It's like, where do you go from there? And at the Ford Center in 1997-98, the scale of it was just so huge, right? Like, you know, how do you recreate that?

[25:03] Rob Russo: And everyone at the prime of their... I mean, ever.

[25:06] Jamie DuMont: Yes.

[25:06] Rob Russo: Like that...

[25:07] Jamie DuMont: Audra McDonald, Brian Stokes Mitchell, Marin Mazzi.

[25:08] Rob Russo: Yes.

[25:10] Rob Russo: Very stacked.

[25:10] Jamie DuMont: I mean, yeah.

[25:11] Rob Russo: Peter Friedman.

[25:12] Jamie DuMont: Peter Friedman. Oh my god, little baby Lea Michele. Right? You know, I mean, it's just so, so damn good. It's also just, let's pause and reflect, it's one of the best musicals ever written. Right? Let's just say that.

[25:16] Rob Russo: Of the 20th century, one of the great scores of the latter half of the 20th century, the last 35 years, however you want to qualify. And I agree with all of that. But I will also say it's one of the best books. Yes. And I've read the novel Ragtime since knowing the musical really well. And it's a masterclass, pun intended, in adaptation from source material to book to musical. Because the way that Terrence McNally crafted the show with his collaborators, of course, the way he captures the essence of the novel while maintaining a narrative clarity. I mean, one of the great critiques of musicals often is, oh, there's too much story or there's too many characters. Well, in Ragtime, there's a hell of a lot of story and there's a hell of a lot of characters.

And yet it works perfectly because of the craft at hand. But what I was going to say is, you know, the Bay Street production was very small and it was very intimate. And that, to me, made the case that, oh, you know what? Ragtime can work in an intimate space. It can work with a smaller cast. You know, I'd seen it at Barrington Stage Company many years ago with a smaller cast. And, you know, it didn't quite do the thing, right? Because you miss that power and that scale. But it really worked at Bay Street. But this production at Signature Theatre had a cast of 33, a 16-piece orchestra, and was in a really intimate space. And the combination of having that scale of performance, but in a really small venue with a very simple set, really worked.

[26:43] Jamie DuMont: I agree with you. I also think it's the best Sarah outside of Audra McDonald and LaChanze that we're ever going to see. She was absolutely phenomenal. Well, the entire cast, you know, it's directed by the artistic director Matthew Gardner. You know, I said this on the way out, three words, intensity, clarity, and simplicity. They, this production, there was such commitment, such intensity on the part of the performers. Clarity, everyone knew what they were doing at every moment, right? Everyone was in the same show.

[27:12] Rob Russo: Everyone was in the same show, and that is not often the case. But like, anytime someone walks two feet to the left, you knew why, they knew why, then we knew why, right? You know, like, there was just such clarity of intention throughout the entire piece. And then simplicity, because it is such a big show, and they're doing it in a small space, it'd be easy to get caught up in tricks, you know, like hanging a lantern on the fact that, oh, we are in a small space, we have to overdo it. You know, this curtain has to become this, and then there has to be this projection and this prop and that. It was so simple. And I really admire that attention to detail and that simplicity, because as we know, simplicity is often the hardest thing to do, right?

It's really easy to throw a lot of tricks onto a stage to pare it back and actually think, okay, what's the essence of what we're saying in the story? And then how do we tell it in a clear, simple way? That's what Matthew Gardner did with this production of Ragtime.

[28:01] Jamie DuMont: I couldn't agree with you more. And I do think that's part of the problem with productions of Ragtime is that everybody, people don't pull back. They don't look at the simplicity of the piece. They do hang lanterns, to use your phrase, on everything. Because the original Broadway production looms so large in everyone's lives. Even if you didn't see it, you saw it on the Tony Awards. We've seen that, you know it.

[28:24] Rob Russo: Or you've listened to it. You know from that album that it was epic.

[28:28] Jamie DuMont: Absolutely. Well, this will come as no surprise that this is my number five. So we're jumping ahead. I obviously did not see the Tanglewood production because I was moving, so I had to let my tickets go. But I was with you at the...

[28:43] Rob Russo: Bay Street.

[28:44] Jamie DuMont: Bay Street. I was with you in March. Then obviously just last week in D.C. I do want to say two things. I do want to say that I didn't think it was possible for someone to come as close to perfection as Maren Mazzi did playing mother as Kelly O'Hara did. That might sound convoluted, but what I'm really trying to say is that Kelly O'Hara was perfection. And I didn't think that was possible because Maren, I saw her do it several times. I listened to that recording all the time. It's in stone. And Kelly was wonderful.

[29:23] Rob Russo: As we talked about with Arianne Moyad, the dirty little secret is that Kelly O'Hara is a phenomenal actress.

[29:28] Jamie DuMont: She really is.

[29:30] Rob Russo: And obviously that voice is just... Where does it come from? It's like from the gods, right? So that's the first thing you think of when you think of Kelly O'Hara. But what makes her so... why the reason she works nonstop is she's such a good actor.

[29:45] Jamie DuMont: Yes, yes.

[29:46] Rob Russo: Such a good actor.

[29:47] Jamie DuMont: I agree. And if you don't believe us, you can watch The Accidental Wolf. Just Google it. It will come right up. If you want to see Kelly O'Hara really tearing it up as an actress, watch that. So ragtime. Yes. I also want to just say that I think that, again, we've said this a few times now, the original production looming so large and people not liking subsequent productions. I think that you have to find that ragtime that breaks that for you, right? For me, it was the Broadway revival where I realized, oh, a smaller production can be great. For you, it was maybe Bay Street.

[30:24] Rob Russo: Bay Street. Yeah, Bay Street was the one that really just clicked for me.

[30:27] Jamie DuMont: Yeah, that broke that idea. And oh, and you can look at it in a new way. And I hope more theaters do ragtime. I hope more theaters like what Matthew Gardner did was find the simplicity in this big story, right? This big three hour...

[30:42] Rob Russo: It's a hard show to do.

[30:43] Jamie DuMont: It's a hard, hard show to do.

[30:45] Rob Russo: There's a lot of material there. And to pull it off, A, is a miracle. And then with a cast that strong, loved it. And I will say for all... We keep saying simple, simple, simple, simple, simple. Yes, that is true. There was also a Model T that drove on the stage, right?

[30:59] Jamie DuMont: Yes, yes.

[31:00] Rob Russo: But that's brilliant, right? That speaks to the brilliance of this production is when everything else is so simple and streamlined. Suddenly, when an autonomous vehicle drives onto this very small stage in this black box theater in Arlington, Virginia, you're like, holy shit. And that's the point, right? You should be wowed by that car. And if you have all these other tricks, then you wouldn't be, right? So again, just that intention, really worth celebrating. Thank you, Matthew Gardner. Thank you, Signature Theater. And I agree. I hope more theaters do ragtime.

[31:31] Jamie DuMont: Well, I've lost the script. What number are we up to?

[31:34] Rob Russo: Well, we are at my number six.

[31:36] Jamie DuMont: Okay, great.

[31:37] Rob Russo: Which would...

[31:37] Jamie DuMont: Let's go for it.

[31:38] Rob Russo: My number six is The Wolf Play by Hansel Young.

[31:41] Jamie DuMont: I'm surprised.

[31:45] Rob Russo: This last year. We saw it originally at Soho Rep, and that was maybe two years ago. I think it was still pandemic-y. I think we were wearing masks and all of that. I could be wrong. But it came back.

[31:59] Jamie DuMont: It's all a blur. It came back. MCC, thank goodness. Another theater that does incredible work decided to do this play in their smaller theater.

[32:07] Rob Russo: Was it a replica of the original production? Or was it a new production?

[32:10] Jamie DuMont: Yes, it was a replica in the sense that it was several of the same cast members. And it's obviously the same play. It was staged slightly differently, but mostly because I think they had more money to do a bit more than they could do at Soho Rep because it's such a small space.

[32:27] Rob Russo: It's the very moving story of a guy who gives his kid up on the internet to a lesbian couple, not knowing at the time that they're a lesbian couple, and then decides he wants the child back. So again, it's a family drama. It's a story about our community, the gay and lesbian community. It's a story about boxing. It's a story...

[32:50] Jamie DuMont: Of course.

[32:52] Rob Russo: One of the characters is a boxer. But it's really, really take all of that away. And it's about a family, right? And it's about a family that comes together and becomes a family through very difficult circumstances. And then, you know, what happens when that gets threatened? And the maternal instinct takes in?

[33:10] Jamie DuMont: Yeah.

[33:10] Rob Russo: And it's a beautiful story. The boy is played partly by... The young boy is played partly by a puppet and a puppeteer. And it's really moving. You know, that can go one way or the other. That can be really well done, or it can really not work. And it works in this. And I assume it's written into the script. I assume that's how it's meant to, because that's the way it's been done the last two times I've seen it.

[33:35] Jamie DuMont: Yeah, yeah. Well, it poses the question, should all children on stage be puppets?

[33:41] Rob Russo: Well, I think I said that on Twitter.

[33:43] Jamie DuMont: You did. Not well received.

[33:45] Rob Russo: No. Well, you know, my Instagram handle says that I hate children, racists, and food trucks. And both those three things are true. But yes, apparently hating children doesn't...

[33:56] Jamie DuMont: You don't hate children. You say that.

[33:59] Rob Russo: You know what I hate? I hate parents. The parents, the bad parenting. I don't really hate children, although I...

[34:06] Jamie DuMont: Let's not hate. There's enough hate in the world.

[34:07] Rob Russo: I mean, have you met me?

[34:09] Jamie DuMont: There's enough hate in the world.

[34:10] Rob Russo: There is enough hate in the world. Anyway, this is a beautiful play.

[34:12] Jamie DuMont: Yeah, the whole play was incredible.

[34:14] Rob Russo: You couldn't go for some reason. But I think you would have gone back, right? You enjoyed it.

[34:18] Jamie DuMont: The first time I was quite moved by it. Yeah. And it was also just a remarkable feat of theatre making, as you've described, you know, the use of puppetry and lighting.

[34:28] Rob Russo: I remember the whole shadow, you know, puppet sequence as well.

[34:33] Jamie DuMont: There's a lot of tricks. There's a lot of, like, things become other things. And, you know, it's sort of like that Peter and the Starcatcher, where suddenly a rope becomes a ship.

[34:41] Rob Russo: Poor theatre approach, as Rick Ellis called it.

[34:43] Jamie DuMont: Yeah. But when it's done well.

[34:46] Rob Russo: Yeah.

[34:46] Jamie DuMont: When it's high art.

[34:48] Rob Russo: It invites you to collaborate. It's a collective act of imagination. And that's often when theatre is at its best. So I love that. I'd completely forgotten that it came back.

[34:59] Jamie DuMont: Oh, I love it. I would see it tonight, if I could. Okay, because now we're at your number five.

[35:04] Rob Russo: No, we're at my number six.

[35:06] Jamie DuMont: Oh, we're at your number six. Oh, sorry.

[35:07] Rob Russo: Don't cut my number six. Well, no. Well, you might want to. You're gonna be, you might be angry.

[35:12] Jamie DuMont: Oh.

[35:12] Rob Russo: Uh-oh. It's a good thing I'm across the table from you. My number six. I'm back at Signature Theatre in Arlington, Virginia. One of my favorite regional theatres in the country.

[35:21] Jamie DuMont: I am mad at you.

[35:23] Rob Russo: Yes. This past March, April, Signature presented their own original production of Stephen Sondheim and John Weidman's Pacific Overtures. In the wake of Sondheim's passing, a lot of theatres have been programming Sondheim shows.

[35:40] Jamie DuMont: Some better than others.

[35:41] Rob Russo: Well, sure. A lot of Sweeney Todd's, a lot of Into the Woods-es-es, you know, a little night music here or there, some Sunday in the Park with George-es-es. I think I saw two night musics this year alone.

[35:52] Jamie DuMont: Yeah. This is the only theatre I know of in the country that has been bold enough to program Pacific Overtures, the 1976 musical that was not commercially successful, has never been commercially successful, but is an exquisite piece of art.

[36:08] Rob Russo: It's one of my favorite Sondheim shows. I jump at the opportunity to see it, whether it's Roundabout in 2004 or Classic Stage Company, which did a production, a John Doyle production in 2017. It's currently playing in London at the Menier Chocolate Factory. It's taken a lot of will, but unfortunately, a small bank account to prevent me from going over to London right now to see that production. I love this show, but that's not enough. The reason it's on my list is because this was a pitch-perfect production, a PPP, if you will, of Pacific Overtures.

[36:41] Jamie DuMont: I don't know what more to say about it. You know, it's kind of the thing you just have to experience. One thing that was really cool about it, though, is that the show, if you don't know it, it's a musicalization of the opening of Japan by the West, right? So Japan was in a period of isolation, and then the United States shows up with a warship, and we want to trade, and the country is opened up. And so it really deals with a piece of history, diplomatic history, cultural exchange, a lot of sort of big themes. But what was special about seeing it in DC specifically, I guess in Arlington, Virginia, so just Northern Virginia, right outside of DC, is that there was sort of a knowing sensibility in the audience, because a lot of people in the audience are either in the military or serve in the federal government.

And you could feel this energy of like, uh-huh, yes, we understand this notion of diplomacy, of treaty negotiation, of, you know, all the elements of the show coming in contact with another culture. Oh, it's just a masterpiece, and it was a perfect production. Loved it.

[37:47] Jamie DuMont: I wonder if our audience is wondering why I'm being so quiet.

[37:50] Rob Russo: Well, Jamie couldn't make it.

[37:53] Jamie DuMont: Time. So what is, well, we already talked about it. So I think we've covered Ragtime. You didn't forget to say anything about it. I didn't forget to say anything about it. Although I will say this, I will say this, which is as long as we do these list shows, I hope Terrence McNally makes it on there somehow.

[38:12] Rob Russo: Yeah, I think you will.

[38:13] Jamie DuMont: Yeah, chances are high. Chances are good. The man was so prolific. So what's your number five?

[38:16] Rob Russo: So my number five, this is the one that is a theme. Okay. If I'm permitted, if I'm permitted.

[38:21] Jamie DuMont: You're permitted.

[38:22] Rob Russo: I said on our last episode, episode 100, that part of the fun of making a podcast is you get to make the rules, then you get to break the rules. It's my favorite game.

[38:29] Jamie DuMont: Exactly.

[38:30] Rob Russo: So my number five best theatrical experience of 2023 was actually revisiting some Broadway shows. So here we go. Well, well, there's a theme here. And you and I went back to Hadestown. It was my ninth time seeing Hadestown.

[38:48] Jamie DuMont: The Hades, as you like to call it.

[38:49] Rob Russo: The Hades. The Hades. To see Reeve Carney before he left. Just an incredible performer. But also to catch new cast members, Celia Pfeiffer, Betty Who, Lilius White. And for me, the one who just stole the show was Philip Boykin as Hades. Such a magnificent company. I maintain it is the reigning best musical of Broadway. I say that every time I see it.

[39:14] Jamie DuMont: Best crafted, you also said.

[39:16] Rob Russo: Oh, it is just gorgeous. Every moment of that show. Rachel Chavkin's a genius. Anyway, what was really fun about it was returning to it. I hadn't seen it in over a year. And it's easy to forget that you see a show and then they keep running. And some of them keep running for quite a long time. And if you don't check back in, it's easy to forget that they're still happening, right? And so every time I see Hadestown, I walk out and I say, gosh, this is like the best musical. How come people aren't constantly talking about it? And of course they are. They fill that house every night in its fifth year on Broadway.

[39:48] Jamie DuMont: So that was one. But there are two others I want to shout out to. You and I, again, had the experience of seeing Some Like It Hot back in September. And it was my fifth time seeing it. But I hadn't seen it since the prior January, right? So it had been a nine-month gap, eight-month gap. And what was amazing about that, and you and I always talk about this, is that shows open. I usually see them right when they open. And then they continue to run if they're lucky. And a beautiful thing happens, which of course is that the show doesn't settle. That's not the right word. But it settles into a groove, right? And everything gels and performances get better. It's such a shame that shows are reviewed right when they open and then usually never again, right? Because seeing Some Like It Hot in September versus January was the same show, wildly different experience.

[40:40] Rob Russo: I agree.

[40:41] Jamie DuMont: It found its audience. The audience was there for it. And the cast was just on fire. And unfortunately, Jay Harrison Key was out, but Demarius Copes was filling in. And that was an exciting thing for the company, for us as an audience. Demarius was terrific. Fabulous. Oh my gosh. And we loved that show. And it was so fun. It was exactly just sort of the kick in the butt I needed to get started this fall. So Some Like It Hot, unfortunately closed, but we'll be touring. So catch it when it tours.

[41:11] Rob Russo: In a city near you.

[41:12] Jamie DuMont: In a city near you. And then the third, this is The Phantom Moment.

[41:15] Rob Russo: The Phantom Moment.

[41:16] Jamie DuMont: Been waiting.

[41:17] Rob Russo: Yes. Once it was announced that The Phantom of the Opera was closing on Broadway, I got the chance, very fortunately, to see it a handful of times, final times. And I won't shout out the last performance, because the last performance, I was a little sad. And also, the last performance was filled with people who had done the show before. So it was a very different audience than normal. It was full of people who knew the show, who had a relationship to the show, and who had a lot. Everybody had a lot of different feelings.

[41:45] Jamie DuMont: It was more like a family reunion.

[41:46] Rob Russo: Correct.

[41:46] Jamie DuMont: And a show was happening in the background.

[41:48] Rob Russo: Right. And everybody knows that family reunions can be awful.

[41:52] Jamie DuMont: No, but I mean, honored to be there, a piece of history, just absolute history. But the second to last time I went, the penultimate time I went to see The Phantom of the Opera, I saw it with my father and my brother, with whom I saw it the first time, in 1996. And so it was a real full circle moment. We had the best seats. And that company, that show, in its 36th year on Broadway, 35th year on Broadway, it was so crisp and fabulous. And when I moved back to New York in 2013, I made a little ritual of seeing The Phantom of the Opera at least once a year, sometimes more, checking in on it, because I like the show, but almost more importantly, because it was the only opportunity to come in contact with the work of Harold Prince. And that show, it's in the DNA of it, of course, but that Harold Prince production, which is now closed and will never be seen again that way.

[42:44] Rob Russo: The Phantom of the Opera runs in London. It will come back to Broadway, I'm sure, at some point. It'll tour, but it'll never quite be the Harold Prince production at the Majestic Theatre from 1988, for many reasons. And so just coming in contact with that was always such a thrill. So seeing it a handful of last times this year was a favorite theatrical experience.

[43:05] Jamie DuMont: I feel like were we at the 35th? What were we at?

[43:09] Rob Russo: In January.

[43:09] Jamie DuMont: Yeah, it was so remarkable.

[43:11] Rob Russo: Yeah, it was the anniversary. And the final cast was so... I mean, it felt like the show had just opened, right? I remember seeing The Fantastics a week before it closed after 40 years off Broadway and thinking, how is this closing? It feels so vibrant and new.

[43:26] Jamie DuMont: And it's like it was my first time seeing it.

[43:28] Rob Russo: You had the same relationship with seeing Stomp right at the end of the run, too.

[43:32] Jamie DuMont: Exactly. How is Stomp closing after 30 years? I couldn't believe it.

[43:36] Rob Russo: Let me tell you.

[43:37] Jamie DuMont: I felt the same way after seeing The Phantom of the Opera. I never felt tired in that last year. There was such a jolt. The audiences were packed. It was the hottest ticket in New York. You couldn't get a ticket. So yeah, that was a very special thing that happened in 2023. Revisiting Broadway shows. My number five.

[43:52] Rob Russo: Wow.

[43:53] Jamie DuMont: I got three shows in for the price of one.

[43:57] Rob Russo: Feels like me. You've taken a page from my book.

[44:00] Jamie DuMont: Well, what is your five?

[44:01] Rob Russo: My five was Ragtime.

[44:03] Jamie DuMont: What is your four?

[44:05] Rob Russo: Well, this is another thing we saw together. It's also something else that happened in the UK, in London, in The Regent's Park. I had to stop because I always called it Regent's Park.

[44:20] Jamie DuMont: But you very rightfully noticed when we were there this summer, it said The Regent's Park.

[44:26] Rob Russo: And the show that I'm referring to is The Revival of La Cage Aux Folies, which was directed by the outgoing Artistic Director of The Regent's Park Open Air Theatre, Tim Shader.

[44:35] Jamie DuMont: I think I'm saying that right. Tim Shader.

[44:42] Rob Russo: If you're not, we're sorry, Tim.

[44:46] Jamie DuMont: We're sorry. Well, we're not sorry because he's going on to become the Artistic Director, or he is now the Artistic Director of the Donmar.

[44:52] Rob Russo: Oh, that's exciting.

[44:54] Jamie DuMont: I guess we also saw the final production of outgoing Artistic Director Michael Longhurst.

[44:59] Rob Russo: So it was a theme.

[45:00] Jamie DuMont: Changing of the guard. Very British.

[45:02] Rob Russo: It was a theme. But this La Cage, and I will say, I've seen many, many productions of La Cage Aux Folies. I am very forgiving. Because again, it's another very hard show to do well. And I did see the original and it lives large in my memory. But this was perfect. It was very well directed. They really leaned into the sort of RuPaul's drag race world that we live in now. The sort of modern drag, for lack of a better way to put it.

[45:31] Jamie DuMont: Modern drag.

[45:32] Rob Russo: With reference to the Cajels. And that was really interesting and fabulous. And the audience understood what they were seeing. But mostly, the two leads were played by gay men. And that's not how that show is oftentimes done. And I have nothing but respect for all of the straight men who have played these gay men in years past. But it really hits differently when you see a gay couple who understand a gay relationship and understand all of those things. Because this is really a story about a family. That's really ultimately what La Cage is, right? It's about two people who have raised a child who has come home with a new bride, and it's not quite what everyone expected it would be. And that's fundamentally what the show is about. And it's a brilliant show, brilliant book by Harvey Fierstein. Jerry Herman's score. I mean, what can be better?

[46:32] Jamie DuMont: And Regent's Park, the open air theater, is a hard place to do shows. I've seen some really terrific things. And I've seen things that don't work because of the outdoors. It's the same problem we have with the Delacorte, right? Some things work really well, and the environment lends itself to the production. And sometimes the productions are fighting against the environment. For some reason, it all worked.

[46:54] Rob Russo: You saw it.

[46:54] Jamie DuMont: I saw it, and it's my number two.

[46:57] Rob Russo: Oh, my God!

[46:58] Jamie DuMont: It's my number two of the year. And it might have been number one, except my number one's my number one. We'll get there. But 2023 marks the 40th anniversary of La Cage aux Folles. And I'm kind of shocked that more theaters didn't do it. I'm really thrilled that Barrington Stage Company will be doing it next year. And for all the reasons that you just said, right? I mean, not only is it just a perfect musical, amazing score, terrific book, what it's ultimately about is always, every time I encounter it, even though I know it so well, it's always like, oh, yeah, that's right. This is about a family. It's such a beautiful story.

[47:32] Rob Russo: And a love story.

[47:33] Jamie DuMont: It's a love story. And it's so urgently needed. And what was so striking to me about seeing this production, and again, I've seen, like you, several productions of La Cage, this was the best one I've ever seen, hands down. And with no disrespect to any, I always enjoy La Cage. But this, to your point, had an authenticity to it that was just woven throughout. And what was exciting to see is that Jerry Herman and Harvey Fierstein and Arthur Lawrence, the original director, put together a show in 1983, that in many ways, couldn't be its full version of itself, given the climate into which it was birthed, right? And what's so cool to see is that in the writing of it, they sort of planted seeds that are now blossoming or blooming, or whatever the phrase is.

Without changing a word, the show resonates in a different way in 2023. And I'm usually such a grump about like, when is this production set? Is it a period piece? Is it the present? Give me the time and place. And this lived in sort of a beautiful in between. It had nods to the setting of it, which is actually the 70s in France, but also to today. And that was really exciting. And to your point, it was the first time I've ever seen the show where it felt like drag culture was accurately represented on stage. Usually it's like a theatre version of drag, or as in the original, half the ensemble are women, right?

[49:10] Rob Russo: And they did have women in this ensemble.

[49:12] Jamie DuMont: They were in drag as men, right? So the play on gender, again, like I'm saying, this is all in the DNA of the show. It's the setting, it's the story, it's the place. I've never seen it so fully realized. And I have to hope and believe that if Jerry were alive and saw it, he would say, yes, they got it. And if Harvey had traveled to London, I don't know if he saw it, would say the same, that yes, yes, they're really accurately representing this culture, this family, this moment. I could not have loved it more. I walked out of the open air theatre in the Regent's Park, riding a high that I'm only now just coming down from. Loved it. Loved it. Loved it.

[49:47] Rob Russo: Lovely. That was my number two. And it was your number four. Well, my number four is one that you didn't see, which is fun, but you might get to see again. And that is choreographer Sharon Aiel's piece, Soul Chain, which was presented at the Joyce Theatre last January. So I just got it in under the wire. It is a dance piece, like a 55-minute dance piece from 2017, that is sort of the calling card of this German dance ensemble called Tanzmeins out of Mainz, Germany, which is right outside of Frankfurt. It's sort of the dance division of the Staatstheater Mainz, which is a performing arts company, I guess. And I have never, ever seen anything like it.

[50:31] Jamie DuMont: It's a large ensemble piece. I love large ensemble work when it comes to dance. And cast of 17 men and women. And everyone in the company is in demi pointe for the entire 55-minute piece. There are a few moments of flat foot release, but you hardly see them. And they're all sort of walking about the stage in this sort of rhythmic, repetitive movement as an ensemble. And they break apart at times. There's all sorts of shapes and stuff. It's ostensibly about love. I don't know. Sure, maybe. It's not a narrative to it. It's just sort of an atmospheric type piece. And the sheer mechanics of it are mind-blowing. By the end of that 55 minutes, you're like, how is this possible that they're all still on their toes?

I don't know how they do it. It's an extraordinary feat. You can find video. In fact, I would recommend anyone who's listening, after you finish, go to YouTube and just put in Soul Chain, Sharon Eyal, and you'll find it. There's video all over the internet. It's coming back to the Joyce Theater this coming July. Get tickets. It is unlike anything you've ever seen. It's everything that I want dance to be. And it's exciting to encounter a new company and something that I've never seen before. Soul Chain.

[51:52] Rob Russo: I look forward to seeing it.

[51:53] Jamie DuMont: Yeah, yeah.

[51:54] Rob Russo: Sounds great.

[51:55] Jamie DuMont: Have to get tickets. Yeah, yeah. Really incredible.

[51:56] Rob Russo: Flat foot release.

[51:58] Jamie DuMont: I'm using that phrase later in casual conversation.

[52:02] Rob Russo: Well, okay. Fabulous. Well, number three.

[52:06] Jamie DuMont: Kimberly Akimbo.

[52:07] Rob Russo: Oh, a revisitation.

[52:09] Jamie DuMont: Why not?

[52:11] Rob Russo: It was this year. It won Best Musical.

[52:12] Jamie DuMont: It did win Best Musical this year.

[52:14] Rob Russo: Back in June.

[52:14] Jamie DuMont: We were fortunate to be at the first performance after it won Best Musical.

[52:18] Rob Russo: We sure were.

[52:19] Jamie DuMont: And that was incredible.

[52:21] Rob Russo: I saw it no fewer than five times this year.

[52:24] Jamie DuMont: Wow.

[52:25] Rob Russo: Yeah.

[52:26] Jamie DuMont: You're a fan.

[52:27] Rob Russo: I'm a big fan. I think it's a terrific score by Janine Tesori. I think it's a terrific book based on his original play.

[52:35] Jamie DuMont: And lyrics.

[52:36] Rob Russo: And lyrics by David Lindsay-Aber. I think it's a terrific adaptation of his play. I think it's Bonnie Milligan at her best. I think it's Victoria Clark at her best. It's Ali Mousey. It's literally every actor on that stage at their literal best. Probably most people listening to this know this story, so I won't go into that. But I will say what I think David Lindsay-Aber and Janine Tesori do so brilliantly is they take a story that has a very clear, from the beginning, sad outcome. You know how it ends. You know what's going to happen to the character. And they figure out a way to make the audience going out feeling hopeful, happy. And that is hard to do and still get across the message of what the story is about and to still convey the sadness throughout.

And it's not just the sadness of the eventuality of her death, but it's the sadness of her life. It's the sadness of her fucked up family. It's the sadness of her loneliness, never fitting in, all the things that people can relate to. And they do a beautiful job of making you feel that, but walking away feeling hopeful. And I think in today's day and age, where there is sometimes little hope in certain things, it's nice to find hope in a hopeless situation. It lives on a razor's edge from start to finish and is such a triumph of craft. The way that they wrote that show. And they wrote it pretty fast, too. They just started working on it until the pandemic. And then boom, it was at the Atlantic.

And boom, it was on Broadway. And if you haven't seen it, do yourself a favor and get a ticket. It is just a perfect piece of musical theatre. Love, love, love. I hope to see it many more times in 2024.

[54:24] Rob Russo: Yes, I hope you do.

[54:26] Jamie DuMont: And beyond, and beyond. Okay, so my number three, which I think, doing process of elimination, it might be your one or two, is Stereophonic.

[54:35] Rob Russo: Yes, that's my number one.

[54:40] Jamie DuMont: Okay, cats out of the bag. Well, it's my number three. Stereophonic, a new play at Playwrights Horizons by David Adjmi with music by Will Butler of Arcade Fire. Play seems like the wrong word. And again, that's what's so absolutely thrilling about this piece of theatre. It's like the experience I had seeing Dana H at the Vineyard Theatre a couple years back. It's like, you think you've seen everything, right? You think you've seen every type of theatre, every type of storytelling. And then an artist comes along and proves you wrong. You've never, ever seen all that can be done and created. This play with music, musical, I don't know, this experience, I don't know what you call it, this documentary, it felt like, if you don't know, is set in the recording studio of a fictional music group recording their second album in the 1970s, mid-1970s, loosely based sort of on the experience of Fleetwood Mac recording Rumours. And you sit in the recording studio with them, and you just watch almost like a fly on the wall, the process unfold and their relationships be revealed. And it's a three-hour play.

[55:54] Rob Russo: It sure is.

[55:54] Jamie DuMont: That you sit down, you're like, wow, this is gonna be three hours. And then those three hours are over, and you're like, I could watch that forever.

[56:02] Rob Russo: I could live with those people forever.

[56:04] Jamie DuMont: Yes, yes. The great trick is not the right word, but the great achievement, I think, of the play beyond the just impeccable writing, the impeccable cast, David Zinn's set, The Man's a Genius. But the thing they managed to pull off that is near impossible to do, and that is anytime within a work of art, there is a work of art that that work of art's about, right? Like the film That Thing You Do, right? It's about that one hit wonder song, right? And the song has to be worthy of proving that this was a hit song, right? And that's really hard to do. It's hard to write on demand a hit song. It's really hard to write a play about a fictional music group, and then convince your audience that they're the real deal, right?

And that both the music and the performances are the real deal. And not to give too much away, but well, I guess just to give it all away, as you're watching this play, you're watching them record in real time. The actors are playing the instruments and singing live, and it is being mixed by some soundboard in the theater, and you are hearing them record what sounds like, and in fact is, a hit album.

[57:18] Rob Russo: How did they do it, Jamie?

[57:19] Jamie DuMont: I don't know.

[57:20] Rob Russo: How does... How?

[57:21] Jamie DuMont: I don't know. I think it's also important to note that while they're recording the second album, in their world, their first album is slowly becoming a hit. So the dynamics of the group really change, particularly in the first act, where they really emphasize the fact that this song's a hit, and now your solo's a hit, and this is charting, and this is... We're almost at number one, and it's very stressful to watch this band go through this, because they're enjoying it, but they're getting jealous of each other. And then there's so many other relationship dynamics that...

[57:58] Rob Russo: And it takes place over several months.

[58:00] Jamie DuMont: Several months.

[58:01] Rob Russo: Almost like a year, actually, by the time it's over.

[58:01] Jamie DuMont: Yeah, they change locations, right? They leave Sausalito and go to LA at one point.

[58:05] Rob Russo: Yeah, yeah.

[58:06] Jamie DuMont: It's brilliant.

[58:07] Rob Russo: It really is.

[58:08] Jamie DuMont: I want the album. I want it all. I want it all to happen.

[58:13] Rob Russo: Yes, totally sold out at Playwrights Horizons. And they keep teasing on social media that there's a future for the play.

[58:21] Jamie DuMont: I can only hope that some smart producer has gobbled that up, and we will hear an announcement sometime.

[58:29] Rob Russo: Toothsweet.

[58:29] Jamie DuMont: Toothsweet, yeah.

[58:30] Rob Russo: Yes, I mean, give it all the awards. Give it the Pulitzer Prize.

[58:33] Jamie DuMont: Yeah, it could very easily win the Pulitzer Prize.

[58:36] Rob Russo: Oh my gosh!

[58:37] Jamie DuMont: That's very realistic.

[58:39] Rob Russo: Yes, just stunning. Just stunning, stunning, stunning. I really hope it has a long and fruitful future, and that everyone gets to see it, because it's the kind of work that we're so starved for and loved.

[58:51] Jamie DuMont: Loved. And a shout out to everyone in the cast. I have to say, a classmate of mine from high school plays one of the principals. Tom Pasinka gives an incredible performance.

[59:00] Rob Russo: He's terrific.

[59:00] Jamie DuMont: And I'm not just biased because he's my friend.

[59:03] Rob Russo: I felt the same way. In fact, there's a moment that he doesn't say anything and says so much, and I love when that happens. Because again, that's hard to do. As an actor, I would imagine that's a very challenging thing to give an entire speech with no words, which is kind of what he does.

[59:20] Jamie DuMont: Yeah, no. But the whole cast, Will Brill, Andrew Butler, Julianna Canfield.

[59:25] Rob Russo: Of Succession fame.

[59:26] Jamie DuMont: Sarah Pidgeon. I hope I'm saying that right. Chris Stack, Eli Gelb. The whole company, just pitch perfect.

[59:33] Rob Russo: Yeah, I agree.

[59:34] Jamie DuMont: All right. Well, that's my number one.

[59:35] Rob Russo: Oh, wow. Okay. Bye, everyone.

[59:37] Jamie DuMont: You're done.

[59:38] Rob Russo: Yeah. Now Rob's just going to talk.

[59:40] Jamie DuMont: Well, no, I think we can sum this up really quickly.

[59:42] Rob Russo: Well, because I think our number two.

[59:43] Jamie DuMont: Well, my number two was La Cage. What's your number two?

[59:48] Rob Russo: Well, I think my number two might be your number one.

[59:50] Jamie DuMont: It certainly is.

[59:51] Rob Russo: The Buena Vista Social Club.

[59:53] Jamie DuMont: Oh.

[59:55] Rob Russo: No?

[59:56] Jamie DuMont: Twist.

[59:56] Rob Russo: Twist.

[59:59] Jamie DuMont: Wow.

[1:00:00] Rob Russo: Wow.

[1:00:01] Jamie DuMont: I am stunned.

[1:00:05] Rob Russo: Wow.

[1:00:06] Jamie DuMont: I was so sure.

[1:00:08] Rob Russo: That my number two was your number one.

[1:00:10] Jamie DuMont: Yes.

[1:00:10] Rob Russo: Wow.

[1:00:11] Jamie DuMont: Well, let's do your number two.

[1:00:12] Rob Russo: All right.

[1:00:12] Jamie DuMont: And then we'll do my number one.

[1:00:14] Rob Russo: Oh, wow. This is crazy.

[1:00:16] Jamie DuMont: See, we really didn't share our lists with each other.

[1:00:19] Rob Russo: No, you're hearing this in real time. Okay. So the Buena Vista Social Club.

[1:00:23] Jamie DuMont: I'm shocked.

[1:00:24] Rob Russo: Is a musical currently at the Atlantic Theatre Company. Again, if you haven't noticed the theme, all of my shows, except for one, are not Broadway shows.

[1:00:34] Jamie DuMont: I mean, same, except for my little Broadway interlude.

[1:00:37] Rob Russo: All Broadway and regional.

[1:00:40] Jamie DuMont: Exactly. Which I think says a lot about not only where we are just in terms of theater, but I cannot say this enough. If you live outside of New York, visit your nearest regional theater, if you don't already. When you travel, go see a show in that town that's not the big touring production. Go look at, there are so many incredible regional theaters and smaller theaters outside of just everywhere and visit them. Pay attention to them and help them thrive because they're doing some incredible, incredible work. And it's the future, I think, of theater.

[1:01:25] Rob Russo: I think it's so easy for people in our world to think that theater equals Broadway.

[1:01:30] Jamie DuMont: Yes, yes.

[1:01:31] Rob Russo: And boys, I hope this episode is proving that that is not necessarily the case. Broadway is one piece of a large constellation that is theater.

[1:01:38] Jamie DuMont: Correct. So that brings us back to Buena Vista Social Club, which will probably end up on Broadway next season or the season after. And I think it should. I think it's extraordinarily entertaining, very, very, very rewarding piece of theater. It's obviously based on the award-winning documentary from the 90s. I think 99, I could be wrong about that.

[1:02:02] Rob Russo: It's the 96.

[1:02:02] Jamie DuMont: 96, could be 96. The 90s are very fuzzy for me, as I've said on this show before. But at any rate, the book is by Marco Ramirez and then the music is by the Grammy award-winning Buena Vista Social Club. And it tells the story of this legendary musical place in Cuba. Basically, it's like stereophonic, as you pointed out, because it's basically a recording session. But then within that, they go back in time, and you learn the story of these two sisters. And I don't want to give too, too much of it away. It is a wonderful marriage of a great score, an interesting story, and then some of the best choreography I have seen in a theater in recent memory. Really, really top-level work from Patricia Delgado and Justin Peck.

[1:02:47] Rob Russo: Husband and wife.

[1:02:53] Jamie DuMont: Husband and wife. And sometimes that works out well, and sometimes it doesn't.

[1:02:58] Rob Russo: Works really well here.

[1:03:00] Jamie DuMont: Works really well here. And I will just simply say that it is rare these days that I see a

[1:03:09] Jamie DuMont: That lives inside of me so deeply, as both Stereophonic and Buena Vista Social Club do. And I think they both touch on, without overtly saying, we are going to comment on the world in which you live. I think they do a very good job of touching on the reality of the state of affairs of the world, not just America, and the values that people have, but also they look back. And they can sort of draw a line and then tell their own stories, all of which without, to use your phrase, hanging a lantern on anything.

[1:03:48] Rob Russo: Yeah. Well, I have a confession to make. I made my list. And then in the last week, we saw so much good theater that I struggled to update my list without a presentist bias. And I was really hoping that on your Top Ten, the show would make an appearance so that I wouldn't have to sacrifice one of my slots. So I'm really glad you did.

[1:04:08] Jamie DuMont: The truth comes out. This was also a Top Ten theatrical experience for me of 2023. I agree with every single—

[1:04:13] Rob Russo: You didn't make your list.

[1:04:14] Jamie DuMont: Again, because I was betting they would make your list, and then I would get to talk about Fancy Free. The truth comes out in the end. But I agree with every single word you said. It is a stunning, stunning musical. Again, sort of unlike anything I've seen, the best choreography in a new musical that I've seen in years, years. Choreography as storytelling, which so often gets left out. There's a lot of dancing on Broadway. A lot of it is routines. This is choreography. These are two masters who really understand how to use the form. Loved, loved. I can't wait to see it again. I knew nothing walking in. I knew nothing. Not a peep of the music, not a bit of the story. And two hours later, two and a half hours later, I just was so bowled over by it. And I'm kind of surprised that more people aren't talking about it.

[1:05:09] Rob Russo: Yeah. Well, it's a late entry.

[1:05:10] Jamie DuMont: It's a late entry, end of the year, and it's sold out through January. So let's praise that it has a future. And let's say no more about it.

[1:05:23] Rob Russo: Yep.

[1:05:24] Jamie DuMont: All right. Well, now the mic is over to you. I'm done.

[1:05:26] Rob Russo: We'll have plenty to say about it. Number one, I am shocked, shocked that this isn't on your list. When we recorded our last bonus episode, released in January 2022, about Stephen Sondheim, we both confidently agreed that we were never going to see Square One. We both went, well, no one's ever going to see that. And I guess we didn't see Square One. But what we did get in 2023 was Here We Are, the final Stephen Sondheim musical, which is my favorite theatrical experience of 2023 for multiple reasons. Number one, the show is exquisite. And that on its own grounds would have been enough to make my list. But it was the last time that I will ever have the experience or anyone will ever have the experience of seeing a Stephen Sondheim musical for the first time.

There's no cast recording. There's no video. Nobody had seen it. Nobody knew what it looked like, what it sounded like, frankly, what it was about. We had a little press statement saying that it was based on the two Bunuel films. But beyond that, no one really knew. And to sit in a room of diehard theater fans and experience Here We Are together for the first time was something I will never forget. You never forget the first time you hear any of Sondheim's music, let alone experience the story. And I think that was the other great takeaway from this is that, as I said on that last bonus episode, there's no such thing as a Sondheim musical. He wrote all of his shows with collaborators and their work usually came first.

And in David Ives, his final collaborator, it was the first time, to my knowledge, that they had worked together. He wrote the book. The two of them, the sort of alchemy of their collaboration is there on the stage at the Shed to see the way that Ives matches Sondheim's wit and spirit and style in the words is exquisite. And a lot has been said and written about the show, so we don't need to go too much into it. But there's not a lot of music in Act 2, and that's for a reason. And it works, by my estimation. I think it is as good as anything else that Stephen Sondheim ever wrote. And I'm really glad that we got to see it. A major tip of the hat to the producers, Tom Curtahy, Sue Wagner, and John Johnson, the Stephen Sondheim Trust, and the Shed for collaborating to make sure that the world got to see the last Stephen Sondheim musical because it is the perfect close to his canon.

[1:08:03] Jamie DuMont: I agree with that. I am so happy that this is the final.

[1:08:06] Rob Russo: Yes, yes, yes, yes, yes. We all love Roadshow, but Roadshow doesn't have the same sort of lift that this show does or the same innovation. And that's the thing that I was most struck by walking out of the Shed was, hot damn, this man in his 90s, by the time he was finished writing the show or his portion of the show, was still pointing the way forward, was still innovating, was still not complacent with the form of musical theatre. And this show is unlike any of his other shows. Of course, it's the same style. It's Stephen Sondheim. He wrote it. But it is a unique piece of theatre that feels as experimental and forward-looking as I imagine Follies must have felt like in 1971. Pick your Sondheim. Loved it, loved it, loved it.

[1:08:56] Jamie DuMont: And I also want to say that the cast is terrific. Some heavy hitters in there, Bobby Cannavale, David Hyde Pierce, Amber Gray, Rachel Bay Jones.

[1:09:05] Rob Russo: But I will say, for me, the two standouts, Dennis O'Hare and Tracy Bennett, who play the second, they truly play the second bananas, if you will, but they each have a moment. He has a little more to do, particularly in the second act. But they're both exceptional. And it's an absolute privilege to be able to see them on the stage anytime. But that whole company, it's really a marvelously cast show.

[1:09:35] Jamie DuMont: Yes. And it's so elegant and sophisticated and accessible. Again, a beautiful set design.

[1:09:41] Rob Russo: David's in.

[1:09:42] Jamie DuMont: David's in.

[1:09:43] Rob Russo: David's in for the win. And the choreography by Sam Pinkleton. We haven't mentioned Joe Mantello, I mean, just a group of artists rising to the occasion of birthing the final Sondheim into the world without Sondheim present. And that's the one thing that is missing, I guess, from the equation is that he wasn't here in the final year plus to fine-tune as he would have. But I don't think the show suffers for that at all.

[1:10:12] Jamie DuMont: No, not at all.

[1:10:13] Rob Russo: And I will say, we talked about in A Little Priest, Sweeney Todd, some Shepherd's Pie Peppered with actual Shepherd, how that song just slays. And if you've ever heard a bootleg of audiences hearing it for the first time, they lose their minds. We get a taste of that in Here We Are. There's a lyric, we do expect a little latte later, but we haven't got a lot of latte now. And the audience just laughs and smiles with that recognition of, aha, he did it again. In his last show, he's still just making us smile and catching us off guard with a lyric like that, which advances the scene. And it's also really funny and so clever. And who comes up with that?

[1:11:04] Jamie DuMont: Stephen Sondheim.

[1:11:04] Rob Russo: Stephen Sondheim, right? So an ode to Stephen Sondheim. We've come full circle.

[1:11:09] Jamie DuMont: We have. Well, that's 2023.

[1:11:11] Rob Russo: That is 2023.

[1:11:12] Jamie DuMont: In a nutshell.

[1:11:13] Rob Russo: In a, well, in some sort of shell. One thing that we did not mention at the top of the show, we lied to you, dear listener, when we talked about the shows that we were involved with in 2023.

[1:11:18] Jamie DuMont: Lying is not something you do.

[1:11:24] Rob Russo: Well, well, it was a collective. It was both of us. We're both guilty here. There's one other show that we worked on in 2023.

[1:11:31] Jamie DuMont: That we are going to talk about.

[1:11:32] Rob Russo: Yes. And that is the Broadway-bound revival of The Wiz.

[1:11:36] Jamie DuMont: Yes.

[1:11:37] Rob Russo: Yes. We are so thrilled and honored and excited to be co-producers on the show through the Fabulous Envelope. And The Wiz, if you haven't missed it, if you're living under a rock, it started its pre-Broadway national tour in Baltimore back in September. It's been wending its way across the country. We'll finish that tour in March in Los Angeles, City of Angels. And then we'll be opening on Broadway. Starting performance is March 29th at the Marquee Theatre and officially opening April 17th. We cannot wait.

[1:12:09] Jamie DuMont: No. And I think if audience reaction across the US of A is any indication, people love it. And I think that it's a wonderful production of a show that everybody loves. And everyone has a relationship to it, whether you saw the film, whether you saw the original, whether you've seen a regional production of it, whether you just listened to the original cast album or the soundtrack of the film or whatever it is. Everyone has a relationship to The Wiz. Everyone understands it. And one of the great things, one of the great privileges that we have had in seeing it in a couple of the tour stops is watching families come. And not just the mom and dad and the kids, the grandparents.

[1:12:53] Rob Russo: It's intergenerational.

[1:12:53] Jamie DuMont: Yes. And it is thrilling to see that and to be a part of that and to know that that's wending its way towards New York.

[1:13:03] Rob Russo: Yeah, yeah. And just to come in contact with The Wiz, it hasn't been on Broadway in 40 years. And when it was on Broadway in 1984, it was a short-lived tour stop, basically, replica of the original production with Stephanie Mills.

[1:13:15] Jamie DuMont: It's sped up beyond belief.

[1:13:18] Rob Russo: Some fast tempos. But this is a new production of The Wiz with a revised book by Amber Ruffin. Jaquel Knight, the acclaimed choreographer who's worked with Beyoncé, has done the choreography. Shelley Williams is directing it. It's the first time that Dorothy's story is being directed and written by Black women, which, you know...

[1:13:39] Jamie DuMont: Feels important.

[1:13:40] Rob Russo: Feels important, yes. I mean, and is important. And it's just such a celebration. And it's fascinating because everyone knows the story. And yet, and yet, you were on the edge of your seat and you're along for the ride. And it just works, you know? Not to bring Sondheim into it, but why not? He loved The Wiz.

[1:13:59] Jamie DuMont: Yeah.

[1:13:59] Rob Russo: Right? He's on record saying it's like the favorite musical of his that he didn't write, you know? And he saw it like 10 times on Broadway originally. It's impossible to walk out of The Wiz without a smile on your face. And boy, that's what this world needed in 2023 and will need in 2024. So if you haven't already, look up that dance video that I mentioned earlier. And then, or simultaneously, buy tickets for The Wiz on Broadway. Broadway Direct is the official ticket vendor for the show. You can find out all the information you need at wizmusical.com. We made it super easy. You will not want to miss The Wiz on Broadway this spring.

[1:14:37] Jamie DuMont: I agree. And you might see us in the theater.

[1:14:39] Rob Russo: You might see us in the theater, or you might hear us, you know? There might be another podcast miniseries coming your way.

[1:14:45] Jamie DuMont: Another one?

[1:14:46] Rob Russo: To tease, you know? To tease. So you'll just have to—

[1:14:49] Jamie DuMont: I can't wait.

[1:14:51] Rob Russo: Stay tuned on that front. All righty. Well, happy 2024. We hope you have a great year.

[1:14:56] Jamie DuMont: And we'll see you soon.

[1:14:59] Rob Russo: Vote.

[1:14:59] Jamie DuMont: Vote. Well, yeah.

[1:15:00] Rob Russo: Remember to vote.

[1:15:01] Jamie DuMont: Remember to vote in November. Please, please.

[1:15:04] Rob Russo: We're begging you.

[1:15:05] Jamie DuMont: Yes, honestly. All righty.

[1:15:07] Rob Russo: Bye.

[1:15:08] Jamie DuMont: Bye.

[1:15:09] Rob Russo: Bye.