The sun's rising, the coffee's burning, the morning we mourned it without doing frozen.
WRGN
Hi guys, what are you doing?
Hi guys, what are you doing?
Dear Ellie, she's a lucky guy, I might as well cry.
I got tears coming out of my nose.
Matt, pop!
If the campus catch, you're a perfect match.
Cause you both have such great tables.
Or they will propose.
Dear El, honey, muzzle top, features taken up.
We're not bringing back and show it to me.
For carrots, pups and sacks cut.
Are you psyched or what?
I just wish I could eat and feed.
When he gets down on one knee.
Oh my god, oh my god, you guys.
Loves my gals when I win the prize.
If there ever was a perfect couple, this would pull the prize.
Oh my god, you guys.
Oh my god, this is happening.
Our old home coming with acting.
Finally, she'll be trying on a huge engagement ring.
Oh my god, you guys.
Oh my god.
All right, that's from legally blonde.
That's the new show opening up on this.
Was it this Friday?
This Friday, May 16th.
This Friday at the Racine Theater Guild.
What's your name, L?
L Woods.
L Woods.
Yeah, we also the movie originally with Reese Witherspoon.
That wasn't a musical.
This is the Broadway musical.
Yes.
And with me today is Janssen Fish Director of Marketing
and Development over at the Racine Theater Guild.
And look at this, we have one of the actresses in the show.
We do.
Megan Benson, one of the 12 Benson's.
What a working on this production.
Yes.
Who's character do you play?
I play Vivian Kensington.
Who is she in the show?
She is kind of the mean one.
She's not very nice to L.
But she does have some great character development at the end
and the friend's L.
You're the villain.
I am sort of.
There's a couple of villains.
There are a couple of villains, yeah.
There's always villains in these shows.
Yes.
This is the one.
I remember when this ran at the palace theater on Broadway
for a long time, legally blonde.
And so this opens up.
Give us a little rundown on the show.
For people who haven't seen the original movie.
Sure.
It stays close to the original, right?
It does.
So L is dating the love of her life Warner,
Huntington III.
Oh, yeah.
Right now.
She's very convinced that he's going to propose
and he actually breaks it off with her to go to Harvard Law
because she's not serious.
She's not marriage material on his path in life.
And so she decides to win him back.
She's also going to go to Harvard Law,
even though a lot of people would not expect her to,
because she's blonde.
She loves pink.
She got her degree in fashion merchandising.
So she studies up and gets into Harvard Law,
and ends up just killing it out there.
Like she learns so much about herself
and about what she has to offer to the world.
And it's all about defining expectations.
And it's a really powerful message, actually,
in the middle of a very fun bubbly musical.
May 16th through June 1st at the Racine Theater Guild.
I've got the May 31st tickets.
Okay.
I want to make sure everybody knows their lines.
They all have a picture out of the way.
And we could all enjoy the show.
Actually, I don't, in 18 years,
I always got the whatever weekend it was.
I just say every year, do it again.
And I'm very lucky because we have a third seat.
We buy, it used to be a mother's seat,
but we still buy it.
And so I have my brother and sister law coming,
but we only have three seats.
So there's always the seat in front of us.
It's empty.
So we buy that seat.
There you go.
They can come to the show.
I'm not going to sit in the open.
I got my own seat.
And you're good that you already bought that
because I will tell you that many of our shows
are selling very, very well.
And I think we're going to get very close
to selling out on some even before we open.
Now, we're going to mention this a couple of times.
When you want to buy tickets to Racine Theater Guild,
you buy them at the box office
or you can buy them at Racine Theater.org.
Correct. Yes.
Any other way you buy them is not the good way to buy them.
No. No. No.
Buy them at the box office.
One of the cheery volunteers.
We'll sell you the seats.
And they're not that expensive.
Or you can get them at Racine Theater.org.
The reason is because there are secondary sellers
through party sellers.
And they jack up the prices by 500%.
A huge percentage.
We actually found one listing that was 2800%.
Whoa.
Percent.
There was a stub hub ticket price of $615.
That's what you pay to see a fellow with dental.
A dental.
A dental.
A dental ticket to go in for that on Broadway.
But we got calls last week,
even saying someone found them for $99 online.
So again, like Dunn said,
you want to make sure that you're talking to the theater guild
and make sure you're at the theater guild website
before you purchase tickets.
It should only be $22.
That's our highest ticket price.
If it's listed more than $22, you are in the wrong place.
Whoa.
And I remember when you volunteers paid the high price.
And that surprised me that they should have known better.
Yeah.
Yeah.
The scams are scams.
They are there to trick people.
Yeah.
That's unfortunately the reality of things.
It is unfortunate.
So how long have you been doing some acting, Megan?
Is this your first show with the guild?
No.
Definitely not.
I have been a volunteer at the theater guild since 2017.
I was in a Christmas Carol,
which is actually where I met the Benson's.
You're a Benson by in law.
Yes.
But you have all the rights and privileges of a Benson.
I do.
Awesome.
All right.
And Megan's on our board, too.
Yes.
Let's see.
Let me show you.
You think you've been in like acting probably five.
Yeah.
But I've been backstage.
A whole bunch.
Now, your father-in-law is legendary at the scene.
I had him in here.
He's legendary.
He's an actor.
And had the leads in a lot of shows over the years.
Yeah.
Yeah.
How many people are...
How many in the Benson family are actors?
Oh.
Well, in this show, specifically, we have...
Bob, my father-in-law, my husband, my brother-in-law, and me.
And those are usually the people who act.
Actually, my husband doesn't usually.
We really got it.
We've got it.
We've got it.
You're Amazon Delivery Guy.
You're a new PS guy.
You're a new PS guy.
You're a new PS guy.
The guy who delivers the mail.
They're all in the show.
If you have anything to do with the Benson home, you'll be in the show this year.
Yes.
Well, that's good.
So I was kidding around before we got on the air that if the Benson's get ticked off at the guild and they decide to walk, you don't have a show.
Hey, but they love the place.
They love the place.
I mean, part of the reason...
When we talk about the theater, one of the really cool things is how people get involved.
And actually part of the reason that Bob is involved at the theater guild and his whole extended family is because Connor wanted to be in a production and Connor his son.
And he came out to audition.
And now they've both been involved since 2000.
Well, Bob's been involved since 2005.
Was Connor in that production as well?
Music man?
Yeah.
Yes.
Who picked the legally blonde?
How do you get these shows?
Because I know some shows you can't get.
Right.
So we have a play reading committee that reads about 150 to 180 plays a year depending on the year.
Megan was actually chair of the play reading committee for our next upcoming season.
What do we talk about?
Yes.
And so it changes every single year of what we, of who's on the committee and how we decide what we're going to do.
We look at plays.
We look at musicals.
We look at comedies.
We look at dramas.
And we have a lot of discussion about if we can cast it, if we can produce it.
Will people come see it?
And this is a show that has so much love around it because obviously everyone pretty much knows the movie.
But also the musical really captures the spirit of the movie, I think, personally.
And has great music and lots of fun moments.
Remember with the old theater axiom as if you leave the theater home at a tune, you got to hit.
There we go.
Okay, we're talking to Jason Fisch, director of marketing and development for the received theater guild.
And actress Megan Benson who's in the latest production musical, legally blonde.
That's a short but sweet song.
That one is fine, but it was good.
That's from legally blonde.
What's the name of the song?
It was so much better.
So much better from legally blonde.
That's good.
The musical coming to the received theater guild, it starts Friday, runs through June 1.
And tickets that you said, they're not sold out, but they're not sold out.
They're not sold out.
Take a sale seven picked up incredibly for this upcoming Sunday in particular, we have less than 50 tickets left.
Really?
So yes, there are some shows that are very close to selling out.
And it's amazing.
People that call, you know, this week, they're like, what do you mean?
You don't have seats where I want the seats.
It's like these tickets have been sale for years.
But still some available.
So definitely call, visit the website, et cetera.
Well, what about that seat?
Rose is not using.
Used to be for his mother.
Can I get that seat?
Please using it this time.
Yeah.
Can I still get it?
Can you take it away?
You know what happened?
I went to the, the land show you did.
And I said, I want to buy those extra seats.
I need the extra seats.
And I told him the wrong.
I just pulled out the tickets out, looking out of my pocket.
And they said, okay, we'll give it.
So I looked at the tickets when I sat there and said, whoa, these are for this show.
I don't need the extra tickets.
So I went back and the lady who was doing the season tickets.
I'll take care of it.
Yeah.
I said, well, I'm stupid.
What can I tell you?
I didn't pay an attention.
I don't know what's going on in my head.
All right.
So legally blonde.
This played at the palace theater on Broadway for a long time.
But it's an original musical.
It's not like Oklahoma or had revivals.
This is an original.
It took a, they took a hit movie without music and music to it.
Which is tough to do.
Yes it is.
And again, in capturing the spirit of the movie.
Because the movie is so iconic.
It has so much humor and so many jokes and is so portable.
And characters that we all remember.
There's not only L Woods, but there's Paulette, the hairstylist.
There's Vivian, who's kind of not a very nice person.
There's Warner.
There's Emmett.
And then there's Professor Kellyanne.
And of course, the dogs too.
Yeah.
I asked you, you have real dogs.
And we do have two real dogs in this production.
I was a little too.
I was.
Yeah.
Well, yapping, snapping dogs.
Yeah.
So they behaved though during the show.
They are behaved.
They've been there.
When working with like pieces of chicken as a little enticing moment to try and come on stage
or stand in the right spot.
Does that mean you work with your actors too?
I'll give you a chicken knock.
If you do your lines right this time.
But I mean, Megan's been, you guys have been rehearsing this for three months.
Yes.
Yeah.
So I mean, the great thing about this production in particular is I would say it's about 50% new
people and 50% people who have been at the theater guild before.
So that makes a really great combination of people that can kind of mentor other people in how
a production at the theater guild works, what all the roles entail, who's helping with crew,
who's helping with wardrobe.
And not only will I mean the lines but the dances and the music and all come together.
When people audition and they're just terrible in the auditions and it happens.
I mean, nobody goes out to make a terrible audition.
But it happens.
They have trouble telling them next.
Well, I don't get to do that.
That's all done.
So I mean, but the wonderful thing about our community theater is anyone can audition.
No one has to have any experience.
No one has to get the part.
No, but well, in this production, we have 28 cast members and I think we had a close to 100 people audition.
So sometimes it's not even about that you're not talented.
It's just what is going to work right for the show itself too and the chemistry between people
and whose voice fits the part and lots of different elements go into the casting process.
Well, in high school, they ain't no problem telling me next.
I bred for a part in high school.
And I just when I was reading it, this is just terrible.
I'm just reading a piece of paper up here.
I know it was not going to work.
And I did it.
They made me the stage manager for four years.
And that's what I did it.
Lighting and stage.
Also a huge role.
Yeah.
Yeah, but I know, but I wanted to try out.
And you know, I'm glad I didn't get it because there's no way I'm going to remember.
It was for, um, it was 12 angry men tried out for.
There's no way I was going to remember those lines.
No, I can't remember the call letters here.
I got to have it in front of me.
I've been here 26 years and I still can't remember the call letters.
So, okay, we're going to talk about some of the, now this is the last show of the season.
Yes, of this 87 season.
And the new season begins and when?
After July 1st.
Now, why does it start in the summer and not the fall?
That's what most theaters do.
It's July 1st to June 30th as our fiscal year and our season year.
So.
And you were lucky.
You recovered after COVID.
Mm-hmm.
A lot of businesses did not recover.
Yes.
Yes.
Because I remember you canceled a lot of shows.
We did.
And we were closed for over 600 days.
It was a long time.
Yeah, that was a terrible time.
Okay, so legally blinds the last show.
And we're going to talk more about the new season.
Yes.
But I want to talk about children's theater you have.
Yes.
Jeans jazz with the children's theater.
What's going on up there?
Yeah, so children's theaters actually and Jeans jazz are both done for this season.
Well, thanks for bringing back.
But we do have for our TG limited edition series.
We do have a production still coming up in June at June 14th and 15th.
And that is the nanny affine parody.
I saw that on the Facebook.
I didn't see it on my list here.
Goodness.
Yeah, I get you.
It's not in any year brochures you got out here.
We got to get you an RTG.
I know.
Oh, pressure.
This brochure is from 2003.
Okay, so what production is that?
That's not children's.
What is that?
No, that's kind of in our.
It's a comedy.
Any type of event umbrella.
It's RTG limited edition.
And so it is actually a drag parody of the nanny.
And so this is the third year.
The TV show.
The nanny of the TV show.
Yes.
There's a third year we've worked with per strings productions.
And they come down.
They did the golden girls a couple of years ago.
A couple of years ago.
Yeah, yeah.
And so they're a great group to work with and have sold out each time they've been here.
So we're hoping that June will have that happen again.
Friend dresser.
Yeah.
Okay.
We're talking to Justin Fish from the received data gold Megan Benson, one of the actresses.
And it's the actor actresses.
Well, people are actors, right?
Yeah.
The work.
Do I say actor's not going to?
It will not come down.
You're not going to storm out here and leave.
No.
And curse on your way out.
Okay.
Megan Benson is here, one of the actors in the legally blind musical.
Oh.
Ow.
What's up?
Doc.
Oh.
Love.
Excuse me.
I put my faith in love.
I followed where it led.
Love led you here?
To my personal circle of hell.
It has not worked out well.
I wish that I were dead.
Because instead of a wedding and a love.
I'm talking out of school.
The total laughing stock.
Somebody in his friends get just a box.
I'll go under my head.
Just stand with a rock.
Sweet.
Go back.
You came out here to follow a man.
Harvard Law was just part of that plan.
Man.
What rich romantic planet are you?
That is from legally blind, the musical,
which is opening at the Racine Theatre Guild this Friday.
So what is that song?
What's going on there?
So shortly before this moment, Megan's character, a Vivian.
What did you do, Megan?
So I tell L that we are having a costume party.
In reality, though, we are not.
So she shows up in a playboy bunny costume.
To this very swanky Harvard party.
And kind of looks a fool.
Yeah.
It's a mean thing to do.
Mean girls.
I don't take after my character.
And so she's left the party and really defeated.
And this is Emmett for us to find her and is kind of like,
what are you so down on yourself?
Like, you got to just buck up and start to study.
And then you'll prove who you are to the world.
Like, it doesn't matter what people think of you.
It's what you think of yourself.
So people just tuning in now,
because then the morning people tune in now in and out.
We're talking to Jasmine Fish, director of marketing and development for the Racine Theatre Guild.
Megan Benson, who's one of the actors, actresses, actors in legally blind,
the musical opening up this Friday and running through June 1.
And we're going to tell you to get tickets and everything in just a moment.
We're going to talk about the new season.
So quite legally blind.
This was the, this was a regular straight movie with no music with Reese Witherspoon.
It was a huge hit.
Yes.
They actually had a sequel to it.
Yes.
I read the book about the weekend that it opened up.
There's a whole book because it opened up.
Yes.
It opened up against two blockbusters.
Terminator 2.
Oh.
Oh.
And I forget what the third movie was.
There were three major movies opening up and legally blind, red, white, and blue.
Yes.
Yes.
They couldn't, they say, what were they thinking opening this up against Terminator 2?
And I forget the third movie.
It's another blockbuster movie.
What were they thinking?
Yeah.
Oh, buddy.
They spent all this money on publicity and and putting this movie together.
And they opened it up against Terminator 2.
And it just got designated.
It was on a memorial a weekend.
Oh, sure.
Or a portrait just like we get where there was a big weekend.
Anyway, so the sequel didn't do up at the movie.
The original was a bit smashy.
Yeah.
Big hit.
Big hit.
And again, just an iconic movie that so many people know and so many people know parts of it.
And the musical does such a wonderful job of giving all the characters, I think, more depth.
Yes.
They have a lot of stronger storylines.
Vivian has a much stronger arch, I think, in the musical pallets.
Um, you know, kind of lost in her life as the hairdresser and finds her way.
I'll obviously find her way.
And it learns a bit about himself.
Warner.
I don't know what Warner does.
Warner.
He finds his own way.
So he finds his own way.
Yeah.
He, uh, finds out he's more of a jerk maybe.
He thought he was.
So more just not cut out to be a lawyer.
Yeah.
So when he was opening the Godfather, the musical.
Oh.
And don't wait.
Simpsons did it parody a musical of the Godfather.
Huh.
And it was not bad.
They had the, uh, everybody shooting their Tommy guns off and dancing at the same time on the
Simpsons.
It was actually not that bad.
Interesting.
So I guess you could take any movie and make them do a musical if you got the right tunes.
And, you know, no, no Tommy guns in this one.
There are.
There are a lot of pom poms.
There are, uh, two dogs like we talked about.
A lot of pink.
A lot of pink.
Um, we have a golf cart that's going to be on stage.
We have a lot.
There are a lot of scenes in the show.
So our crew is working incredibly hard, not only with the set changes and all the lights
and everything like that.
But lots of costumes as well.
The costumes are a big part of the show.
Now when you, when you cast the lead in this, everyone's going to think of Reese Witherspoon
because it's natural to do it when you see the original movie.
Do you cast a person who reminds people of Reese Witherspoon?
I, it's, it's actually better that the person doesn't try to copy who, who, who, how the movie portrays
someone or even how the Broadway actress portrays, I mean, obviously the person has to be
blunt.
Uh, but you can do that with a wig.
You can do that with, um, box braids.
You can do that with however you want.
I've seen lots of different productions that have just put a blonde wig on someone.
And so that's the biggest thing in the scheme of what this show in particular calls for.
How many male leads are there in there?
Is that Warner's the, obviously, the, uh, Warner and Emmett.
And then there's Professor Callahan as well.
Um, and then, uh, who is Bob Ben?
Who does her father-in-law play?
Bob Ben some place, Professor Callahan, who is unfortunately not a very nice guy.
The whole family is rotten to the core.
Actually, Connor, my brother-in-law plays Emmett.
He was the good guy.
Yes.
He plays that guy.
Yes.
Yes.
The whole family rotten to the core of this.
All right.
Good.
I think there is something to be said about some of the nicest people play the meanest characters,
you know?
Some of the best villains in movies are some of the nicest people you meet them in real life.
Yes.
They're nasty on screen.
Mm-hmm.
I mean, who was the guy who, uh, the guy who, uh, Ray Finds, he played the horrible Nazi and
Schindler's list.
That's just a horrible.
And Lord Voldemort.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Bad human being.
But then he plays nice roles like, you know, quiz show.
Sure, yeah.
And he plays nice people.
And he is a nice person.
But that's a great actor who can make you hate him.
Yep.
Okay.
Let's talk about some of that.
Transition.
You want to get tickets to the Racine Theatre Guild production of Legally Blonde.
Two ways to get them.
And only two ways to get them.
You can go down to the box office, talk to one of their cheery volunteers and they always
are cheery at the box office.
And I think top ticket price is $22.
$22.
That's it.
And you shouldn't pay more than that.
Or you can go to Racine Theatre.org.
Don't go to a third party seller because if you're paying more than $22, hang up on them.
Yep.
Don't do it because that's the top price.
And there are third party ticket sellers is perfectly legal what they're doing.
Mm-hmm.
I mean, that's why on Broadway, a fellow with Denzel Washington and Jake Gyllenhaal, they're
going for $1,000, $2,000 and that's legal to do that.
Yeah.
I don't know how.
I thought ticket scalping was against the law.
It's not scalping though.
I guess somehow or in another fashion, I don't know what the law, someone bent the rule
somewhere.
Let's talk about some of the shows coming up for the next season, which begins July 18th.
And we're going to talk about the big shows that we have two big show stopping musicals
for the season.
And those must be pretty heavy to put on because they are because you need, it's a lot of
music you need.
And you need people who can sing and dance.
And usually lots of production elements and musicals.
I mean, legally bond is a good example of that.
But yeah.
So I'm going to draw Zia Perone has our first production of season eight or 88 season.
And actually, if anyone is interested in auditioning for that show in particular, we have auditions
this Saturday and Sunday for the drowsy chaperone.
Now for what type of characters, everybody, obviously, everybody.
Yes.
So that's kind of a tribute to golden age musicals.
It's a little bit of a parody, a little bit of tribute, lots of cookie fun characters,
very fun music.
And it's going to be, I think, a fun time this summer, which is great.
And that runs July 18th through the 27th.
But this weekend is auditions for it.
Yes.
All right.
Um, what's it going to you said something?
I'm not.
It's something really.
Yeah.
Was it.
Is it, does it help when they come in character dressed as a character?
We actually definitely don't.
Don't do that.
Oh, normally encourage that.
Yes.
All right.
I was just wondering when I show up.
Excuse me, if somebody was to show up.
Yeah.
The importance of being heard is this is a classic.
A classic play been around for 150 years.
We were very excited to.
This is the third time.
It will be performed at the Racine Theater Guild, but it's been since the 70s since it was
performed.
So, uh, Aldrinan, um, on grief and, uh, oh my goodness.
I'm going to forget his name.
Jack Worthing.
Uh, our, um, kind of competing against each other to win the favor of two different ladies,
but they're pretending to be other people, specifically a gentleman named Ernest.
So, it all is a farcical, um, very witty, very comedic, uh, play that is just so beloved
by so many people myself included.
Yeah.
And so this is one of Jocelyn's favorites.
September 5th for the 21th.
And you are, you know, are you going to audition for any of these?
I may.
Who knows?
All right.
No guarantees.
Exactly.
Now, people don't realize the original horror movie Dracula from 1931 was originally a Broadway
play.
And on Broadway, Bella Legosi played Dracula.
That's how we got.
In those days, either on Broadway, you get the movie role.
No.
I mean, they didn't, it wasn't a big deal.
Unless Julie Andrew is apparently.
Oh, yeah.
Didn't, didn't get my family.
No, she did not, but she did get Mary Poppins.
And here's the thing.
Everybody in my fair lady, one of the Academy Award for their acting, except Audrey Hepburn
and Julie Andrews got it.
Mm-hmm.
For Mary Poppins.
Oh, that was like karma, wasn't it?
Yeah.
But I didn't really enjoy that time.
It's fantastic.
I think it was a great time.
And it was a great time.
It was not fair.
That she wasn't a name at the time.
Right.
I didn't need a big name on the marquee.
And Audrey Hepburn didn't even do the singing yet.
No, he didn't.
I can't remember.
But I'm...
And there you go.
She did a lot of voices here.
Her son was Andrew Gold.
He had a couple of hit records, but he also did the theme song to the Golden Girls.
That was his song.
And her husband was a movie composer, who composed Exodus and a million other scores.
It's a mad mad world.
All those scores.
I don't really think.
Big musical family.
Yeah.
This isn't the Dracula with Bella Legosi.
This is a comedy.
This is a comedy.
This is a very fast-paced, campy, everything's just kind of heightened.
Super comedic.
It's actually only about seven actors, if I remember correctly.
I'll play multiple roles.
Running around Transylvania.
Trying to find Dracula.
But all of the same characters that people know from the classic story as well.
I love you.
I love you.
I love you.
I love you.
I love you.
I love you.
I love you.
Dear Ellie, this is a lucky guy.
I like his gun.
I cry.
I got tears coming out of my nose.
Mad breath.
He's a campus catch.
You're a perfect match.
Cause you both have such great news balls.
Of course he will propose.
Dear Ellie, honey, muzzle top.
Features take it off.
We're not playing.
I can show it to me.
We're going to be blind opening up this Friday at the Racine Theater Guild.
We'll talk more about Legally Blonde, the musical coming up at just a moment.
But first we are talking about next season at the Guild.
Cause this is the last show of the 87th season.
Yes.
Then you kick off the 88th years.
I know.
I don't know anybody 88 years old.
I don't know.
Anybody 88 years old?
My mother was 92, but she's not here anymore.
Oh yeah, I do my aunt is 91.
Yeah.
Three years old when you started the Racine Theater Guild.
And it's not where it is now.
It was somewhere else.
Yes.
Well, we performed all over town before we had our church space that's on the corner of
High and Eerie Street, the Guild Playhouse.
And that was we were there.
We rented a couple years, but we're there from about 1954 to 1976.
In the walkie, they had the Melody Top Theatre.
And if you look online, you'll see some of the history of it.
They had the biggest stars in movies and TV performed.
And it was a tent.
Oh.
Yeah.
Yeah.
It was a big tent.
And later on, they made it into a, it was still a tent, but they couldn't fortified
it a little bit.
But yeah, they put on big musicals there with the biggest names in movies and TVs.
All right.
So we're up to next season.
Yes.
A musical.
Chitty, Chitty Bang Bang.
Chitty, Chitty Bang Bang, yes.
We know the movie, but there was actually a Broadway musical myself, Broadway.
December 12th through the 21st, the big Christmas musical.
Yes.
And that will have outreach performances as well for local schools.
So if anyone's interested in that, they can sign up their class for that to attend.
As well, but it's a story of a father fixing up a car for his kids.
And the car kind of becomes a magical flying machine and helps save the day and rescue grandpa.
And it's just, it's a wonderful story of imagination and ingenuity.
So just lots of fun.
And we're going to have a car.
Yeah.
Maybe.
Do you remember who the villain was in the movie?
The Baroness and Baron of.
Right.
Do you know the actor?
Oh, no.
He was like Goldfinger in the James Bond film.
What?
The best villain ever.
It was Kurt Froba.
He was, uh, he was the bad guy in Chitty, Chitty.
It was in he in Fleming.
He in Fleming wrote Chitty, Chitty Bang Bang.
He wrote all the James Bond movies.
And Kurt Froba became from, he went from Goldfinger to this.
That was his next room.
Okay.
All right.
Rick Cored.
Yes.
Uh, newer comedy about two women that are sharing a room at a senior living center.
One of them does not want the other to stay.
She kind of is setting her ways.
Uh, doesn't like her bubbly personality either.
So they make a bet and they decide whoever wins the bet gets this day and the other gets to go.
So there's a lot of trying to one man up each other in the scheme of, uh, who's going to win the bet.
Comedy is tough because it's all in timing when you do it.
It is all in timing.
I mean, you could do a straight play and get away with bad timing, but you can't do with a comedy.
No.
No.
And not only obviously the text with a punchline, but sometimes it's the physical comedy or the pause.
The pause you put in sometimes can just make people cackle.
And we play comedians top and bottom of the hour.
You could hear the pause.
They know what to stop and start again.
Yeah, that's tough.
So Rick Cored is January 16 through February 1.
The girl on the train.
I saw the movie.
It was great.
Now you say this might be a little different though.
It is based off of the movie and the book as well.
It's very theatrical.
It will be really exciting because it's not only obviously Rachel gets wrapped up in this story of a woman that's disappeared,
but she's kind of lost in her own memory and what is reality and what is not.
So it's a very theatrical play in the scheme of things.
So not only a kind of a mystery and an edge of the seat, what's going to happen, but I think it's going to be challenging but exciting to stage on our stage.
I think still in the movie.
Yeah, it was a great movie.
Really mysterious.
All right, now you got the Hobbit.
Now this is the Lord of the Rings Hobbit stuff right now.
Yes, yes.
Which is like one of the top selling books for children of all time.
I guess I didn't realize that until I was researching it.
But yeah, Hobbit of Bilbo Baggins gets coursed by Gandalf to go on a journey.
But he just wants to stay at home because he doesn't want a journey anywhere.
And so he's kind of like, why am I here?
What am I doing?
What do I have to offer?
And he learns a lot about that he has so much more to give and to provide than people expect.
And it's a wonderful journey through Middle Earth with lots of familiar characters that everyone knows.
And the big show stopping musical to end the season next year is Pippin.
Is Pippin the most amazing music in Pippin?
Yes.
Wonderful music.
And a really interesting storyline too of a young man who thinks he knows what he wants.
And again, throughout the show, he learns what's truly important as far as it's not fame.
It's not fortune.
It's who you're surrounded with and who you love and and the people that make.
Yeah, Ben Verine, I think, stored in the original Broadway fan.
Ben Verine was, yes, yes.
Great music.
And last time you found out the Jackson five had a hit.
I did.
I learned that for you.
Corner corner of the sky.
Jackson five had a hit record that that's next season.
This season, the big show stopper is the big finale is legally blonde and musical.
Do you ever get distracted during the show?
Because you could tell people to shut their cell phones off.
Yes.
One million that you can scream it in their face.
You could point fingers at them.
And people don't turn them off.
I was at a funeral yesterday.
They said, please turn up your cell phones right in the middle when they're doing a very touching tribute.
Oh, no.
Right in the middle.
And the lady couldn't find the phone.
Oh, no.
And it kept going on.
And I felt like, say, check the phone off.
They were told to do it.
Did you get distracted at all?
I mean, phones definitely happen.
But I honestly think it's.
Mostly between other actors will try something new or have a different moment.
And someone will break on stage or we'll just be laughing at each other.
So that's really where I get distracted.
Do you break each other up sometimes?
Oh, all the time.
And there have been a couple of rehearsals that I've been at where someone tries a little improv.
Yeah.
My cast mate.
I love improv.
If you guys do it all the time.
Your line is dependent on the line before you.
It's just a little like ad lib here and there.
So like in the middle of a line, there will be something added.
Or when someone else is talking and we are just acting.
I tend to have a conversation on this idea.
Yeah.
Those are usually real conversations that were just very hushed.
Yeah.
There have been a few times on Broadway and I've seen the footage of it where somebody's cell phone
go off and the actor stops.
Right in the middle and says, give me the phone.
Give me the phone.
And the audience likes it because it's kind of funny.
Yeah.
Yeah.
They don't handle it in anger.
Yeah.
Although I'm sure they're pretty angry.
Give me the phone.
Give me the phone.
You'll get it back later.
Maybe.
And they take the phone and they hand through a stage hand and they continue with the show.
How would you like to do that?
And in the guild, it's such an intimate space that I really could just grab it.
And then you get the people who sound like they just escaped from a tuberculosis ward.
The coffee.
There's always one of those people in the show who just they should have taken a coffee drop
before they got there.
But I don't think I never ran into a show where people were talking.
I never had that.
Yeah.
And the really great thing about, again, our space and our theater is that we have a lot
of very dedicated patrons that have come time and time and time again.
You've been one of them.
We have a lot of new people that come through the door and it's their first theater experience
or they haven't been to theater in a long time or they've never been in our space.
So it's always interesting how people react to the show or are good audience members or
maybe not good audience.
I was lucky.
My parents, not so much my father, he came to a few of them.
But I went to a ton of Broadway for musicals growing up in the city.
And we always went to these big shows.
My mother's first, I want to remember, it's a funny girl with Barbara Strison if you went
to.
I saw Hello Dolly on Broadway, Miss Saigon on Broadway, 42nd Street on Broadway, I'm
really well.
There were so many of them, but my mother said, come on, don't go to a movie.
We were going to take you to a Broadway musical and they were cheap.
They were like $10 a day.
Yeah.
Go to Broadway now.
I mean, you need three references from your parents together.
Chitty, chitty bang bang at the box office cost me $125 a seat.
And that's what they were charging to go see it legally blind.
The musical opens up Friday.
You can get your tickets two ways and two ways only go to the box office of the recene
theater guild or go to recene theater dot org.
Don't do it any other way.
If you do it any other way, you'll be sorry.
So those are the two ways to do it.
I can't wait for it.
Mine are the 31st.
You should know your lines by name.
I know.
I think it's crossed it.
Megan Benson is here with her family in the in the show, legally blonde the musical.
And of course, we thank Jocelyn fish director of marketing and development for the recene
theater guild.
If you missed any part of this, it's going to be podcasts probably tomorrow.
And you can relive some of the music and the talking about legally blonde and next season.
Do you have forgot what the first show was next season?
Listen to the podcast.
I'll hear it.
Thank you, ladies for coming.
Thank you so much.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Bye.
Bye.
Bye.
Bye.
Bye.
Bye.
Bye.
