Musical Lyrical Lingo
We're Musical Lyrical Lingo!
Join Tim and Lj who delve deep into the wonderful world of musical theatre and more importantly the lessons they have learned from different musicals.
Join them as they explore some of the greatest musicals ever created, from the classics to the new and exciting shows that continue to teach us something new.
So whether you're a seasoned fan of the stage or a newcomer, this podcast is for you.
So sit back, relax and get ready to immerse yourself in the world of musical theatre.
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Musical Lyrical Lingo
Cinderella Rodgers and Hammerstein.
The magic of musical theater lies not just in its ability to entertain, but in how it teaches us about life, love, and ourselves. This week, we reunite as a hosting duo to explore Rodgers and Hammerstein's classic "Cinderella," a musical that uniquely straddles the line between traditional musical theater and pantomime.
We dive into the fascinating origin story of this beloved show—created specifically for television in 1957 with Julie Andrews in the title role and reaching a staggering 100 million viewers. This makes it the only Rodgers and Hammerstein musical written for the small screen rather than the stage. We trace its evolution through multiple TV adaptations, including the groundbreaking 1997 version starring Brandy and Whitney Houston, before it finally made its Broadway debut in 2013.
The musical teaches timeless lessons about kindness, perseverance, and the power of impossible dreams becoming possible. We analyze memorable songs like the transformative "Impossible/Possible" sequence (which might be one of musical theater's most magical moments) and the comic relief of "The Stepsisters' Lament." The simple yet profound lyrics of love songs like "Do I love you because you're beautiful, or are you beautiful because I love you?" showcase Rodgers and Hammerstein's ability to express complex emotions through accessible language.
Beyond the music, we share behind-the-scenes stories from personal experience with the show, including the challenges of working with live animals (rats and horses—including an attempted horse theft mid-performance!) and the technical magic of on-stage costume transformations. We also debate whether the familiar Cinderella story provides enough narrative tension for a full musical, considering that the glass slipper drops within the first ten minutes.
Whether you're a longtime fan of this classic or discovering it for the first time, join us for a heartfelt exploration of how this fairy tale musical continues to enchant audiences with its timeless message that impossible things are happening every day. Subscribe now to ensure you never miss an episode of our musical theater journey!
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Hello and welcome to Musical Lyrical Lingo. We're your hosts, Tim and LJ.
Speaker 2:Today and every week we will be discussing musicals, but specifically what they taught us. You're back.
Speaker 1:I am back.
Speaker 2:yes, what is that like Tor.
Speaker 1:I'm back with sound and videography and everything. I'm like oh, here here we go. He's off for a week and the sound's perfect and there's video. Did I look so terrible for the last six months that you felt you couldn't record me?
Speaker 2:or something.
Speaker 1:No, we did have recordings, sure, you did we did.
Speaker 2:Just we didn't have it the last two times because I can't function and do everything, so I've wrote EP back to actually do his job, including hosting.
Speaker 1:Do you want my notes? I can't function and do everything, so I've wrote EP back to actually do his job, including hosting. Yeah, do you want my notes? I've got some notes.
Speaker 2:Okay, go for it.
Speaker 1:Tell me what are your notes. I thought he was rather good. Yeah, he was rather good, wasn't he? So my question is when are you taking a week off?
Speaker 2:Has this podcast become like used to you rather than me?
Speaker 1:Well, I'm just saying that you became bronze in the podcast awards last year, so maybe if we shake it up a wee bit this year, we might get the gold. Okay, I'm only joking you. I could never replace you. You're irreplaceable. Thank you.
Speaker 2:I didn't replace you either, just was like.
Speaker 1:Just replaced my microphone, clearly Sorry.
Speaker 2:Yes, I just thought it would be really fun to interview Aaron and see what musicals taught him.
Speaker 1:It was extremely interesting. As I said, I would give him a solid five out of ten. No, I'm joking. More than that. More than that, it's only because he's in the room. No one's joking. You were very. He was very good. You were very good, thank you. Well done.
Speaker 2:That's nice, was I alright?
Speaker 1:I'll give you your notes off camera. I always give personal notes. Personally, I don't give it in the room.
Speaker 2:Okay, because that's a wee bit unfair.
Speaker 1:Yeah, do you know what I mean? I'll go to the person and give them their note. Anyway, no, I'm joking, you've still got the lurgy though I know I'm still a bit sick. And we're sitting very close because you've got a fancy new camera, as I've already mentioned, so we have to sit quite close together, don't we?
Speaker 2:yeah, but like it's okay, it's just like a little cough thing, like you're not gonna get that if I get the lurgy from you, I'm telling you we'll all hear about it now that my mic's on, I wonder how many it's a bit like you and your documentaries.
Speaker 1:How many times can I?
Speaker 2:get this into this podcast you know well, I think it'll be three years to come.
Speaker 1:Oh honestly, I'm gonna feast on this bad boy. Anyway, we're back. How's life been, apart from having the lurks?
Speaker 2:Yeah, it's been good.
Speaker 1:Good.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it's been good, apart from just being very sick. But I'm okay, like I'm fine. I sold your all.
Speaker 1:I just struggle through.
Speaker 2:Just one of those. You know brave soldiers, but what about life for you?
Speaker 1:You've been super busy, yes, super busy, are you glad for? Really we would have. It has been lovely. It's taken at least a week. To be honest, I'm still a bit busted I don't know why like I wasn't doing anything come production week, but I think it's just nervous energy and all the rest of it and yeah, nights as well, and then you're working and yeah, and really late nights because, like Les Mis is a really long show.
Speaker 1:But can I just put it out there, we didn't drag the back side out of it because our running times were the same as the West End running times, so we kept it snappy, as snappy as we can keep a Les Mis. Do you know what I mean? Yeah, but yeah, no, it was a fantastic week. The both casts were incredible and the audience has really enjoyed it.
Speaker 2:So, and the feedback's been lovely but I mean, you just had a wee bit of scandal with people like selling fake tickets.
Speaker 1:I know like it is quite ridiculous people. Yeah, so there was a few scams. So because obviously it was sold out the whole week and there was a few scams like going out. It was sold out the whole week and there was a few scams that going out there, apparently, of people setting up competitions to win tickets and all the rest of it and there wasn't a thing. So yeah, it is a bit ridiculous. Like people need to catch themselves on like that's kind of cool, kind of cool is that I think it is, I don't know.
Speaker 1:But yeah, so anyway, that's it, job done. No more shows for at least a year really I think so I don't know if I'm done done yeah, okay I thought I was done, done um and I don't know.
Speaker 2:I think yeah just see what comes along see what comes along yeah that's nice to kind of still have those options though, isn't it?
Speaker 1:I think so, but I'm like last week I had every night in my house and I haven't had that since September oh, so I'm sure that was a nice feeling like literally, monday night came and I was like I'm, I'm at and I'm making dinner and it was really lovely.
Speaker 1:So yeah, I'm looking forward to a bit of normality like that again, because it's a lot of commitment, like it's a lot of rehearsal time, so yeah. But yeah, no, it's over and it went well and I'm glad we did it and we're very lucky to have been given that opportunity and I think you know I I should be grateful and thankful of that. So, yeah, it's lovely, but let's move on to some more musical theater that doesn't involve les mis.
Speaker 1:Thank you, I don't want to hear, honest to goodness. I don't want to hear the soundtrack or anything to do with les Mets ever again.
Speaker 2:Okay, it's done.
Speaker 1:Yeah, however, after a six-week run in the Théâtre du Chalet in Paris, les Mets will be doing a French tour in the spring of 2026, yeah, before returning for the 2026-2027 season. Interesting, so yeah, clearly the French have been bitten by the bug again, because it hasn't been in France for quite a long time.
Speaker 2:Maybe it's all part of this like anniversary.
Speaker 1:I would say probably is yeah, but yeah, so that's the last we'll talk of Okay.
Speaker 2:Well, what other theatre news have you got for?
Speaker 1:us. Well, I don't know if you saw Like. I don't know if I can share this or not, because neither of them have posted this news on their own social media accounts, but everywhere is posting about it at the moment, even Noblesada and Reeves Kearney, I think they're engaged.
Speaker 1:Oh, okay, yeah but they haven't actually posted it on theirs yet, but the whole Hadestown world and like Hadestown actual social media account and lots of other like fan accounts are congratulating them on their engagement and it seems that they were obviously both in London because they've just done the pro shot, haven't they? Of Hadestown, which will be amazing. I'm so excited. I can't wait for it to come out. I think they did it at one of the London bridges. Oh, that would be cute. I know really cute, like the picture looked really adorable him down on one knee.
Speaker 2:Stalking. What Were you stalking him?
Speaker 1:No, it just came up on my social media. No, I wasn kingdom. No, it just came up on my, on my, my social media. No, no, I wasn't there. If I had been there, I would have been whipping and cheering. And then eva noble is at. It has also, just, uh, been announced as broadway's next sally bowls I know, yeah, that'll be exciting I think she will be amazing.
Speaker 1:So she starts in it on the 31st of march, so she doesn't have too long end of this month. That girl's like story is class, isn't it? At some point they have to do a documentary or like a film about her life, like how she was plucked from the Jimmy Awards and thrown into Miss Saigon and and from there she's just like taken off and taken on big roles, big female roles Massive.
Speaker 1:And she definitely has a name out there now. Do you know what I mean? And she's so flipping young to have the name she has. Do you know what I mean? So fair do's to her. Good on her, Absolutely. The other thing I'm quite excited about is that it's quickly becoming one of my favourite nights of the year. The National Lotteries Big Night at the Musicals has now been given like. When was the concert? Like February, like it was like a long time ago, and there was no chat of when it would be televised. So we now have the date the 22nd of March. Is that next Saturday?
Speaker 2:Yeah, so when people are listening to this, then it'll be out on the Saturday.
Speaker 1:Oh, it's this coming week Even more exciting. Yeah, so I'm looking forward to that. 650 BBC Maybe not.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I'm not sure.
Speaker 1:Don't know, maybe it's ITV. I'll just name them all. Could be Channel 4, or it's not Channel 4. Okay, but Channel 5? I'm just naming them all so that nobody can be offended, because they obviously all listen to our podcast.
Speaker 2:But I like all of the musicals that are going on. There's a real mix.
Speaker 1:Yeah, particularly this year, I agree.
Speaker 2:Yeah, there's a real mix yeah, there's a real, so cabaret's going to be on um Hercules are doing a spot oh, I'm sure you can't wait, I can't wait.
Speaker 1:Titanic, titanic, yep. And Marisha Wallace is obviously. I think she's given us a wee, a wee number, isn't she from her cabaret? So yeah very good, yep, so that's exciting. And then have you heard it is BBC One, bbc One 6.50 on BBC. I got the time right and I got the channel right. I just doubted myself.
Speaker 2:Go you.
Speaker 1:I'm back, baby, with the mic that works. People can hear me loud and clear, really Direct. No, we're turning yours off and replacing you with that. No, I'm joking. And then, last bit of news. I would love to see this it was announced that the Wicked stars Kerry Ellis, louise Dierman and Rachel Tucker will come together once again for a special concert in the Theatre Royal Drury Lane on the 31st of August. That will be a concert.
Speaker 2:Amazing concert yeah.
Speaker 1:Although I am annoyed. I had tickets to go and see Kerry Ellis in Belfast and then she cancelled the week before, or like two weeks before, oh really, and then it turned up because of other work commitments, or last minute work commitments. I think she actually went and did a concert in America, in Broadway, but I might be wrong there. But she has rescheduled it, but not until the summer. That's disappointing. I was so looking forward to a bit of like, like rocky defying gravity, because she is a bit of a rock chick as well, isn't she?
Speaker 1:Yeah, she's got nice tone to her. Yeah, but there you go, there you go. Did you miss? Did you miss Timmy's Theatre News? You did attempt a tie, but then you went. I'm treading on toes here, which I'm kind of glad, because you know I well we agreed in the first season of this podcast apparently I'm the diva of the two, yeah exactly. Just watch yourself, sister. Anyway, I know my place. You are the brains of the operation, so that's Without you there would be no musical lyrical lingo.
Speaker 2:So what are we going to talk about this week? What?
Speaker 1:are we talking? I feel I've talked an awful lot, so I'm going to shut up now and let you have a go.
Speaker 2:We're going to continue with the French theme.
Speaker 1:Do we have to? Well, we are. Is there any Italian musicals out there?
Speaker 2:I'm sorry to tell you we're continuing with French for a while, so Rodgers and Hammerstein Cinderella. That's what we're looking at and it's funny because when we were doing our love episode Rodgers and Hammerstein, it came up quite a bit and this is a really sweet musical yeah a huge amount of people know about it, though yeah, it's a funny fish for me, I think I.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it's almost. I think it's almost like a musical that doesn't know what it wants, what it is or what it wants to be. Do you know what I mean? I think it's in a middle. From my point of view, it feels like it's in a middle. From my point of view, it feels like it's in a middle kind of ground of. It's not. For me, it doesn't feel like a fully-fledged musical, but it's not a fully-fledged pantomime. It's kind of somewhere in the middle which I then think jars with some people or confuses other people. Do you know what I mean?
Speaker 2:do you think that's because of its conception? Probably?
Speaker 1:yeah, and when I did research because I have choreographed yes, um Rogers and Amberson, cinderella, and I thought the same at the time I was like there's something amiss in this show, like I don't, I don't know what it is. And then, when I was doing research for this podcast, when we talk about the background, I went, oh right, maybe that's why it feels the way it does, but that's also only my opinion. Why are you playing with your microphone?
Speaker 2:I'm just turning one of them on.
Speaker 1:Oh here, oh here.
Speaker 2:It's OK. One of them has been on, but the other one hasn't. It's OK. One of them has been on, but the other one hasn't. It's okay, we're all right.
Speaker 1:I'm sure both microphones were on last week when you were recording the podcast with your husband who did the checks last week. Honestly, you make a bigger stick to beat yourself with, don't you? It's fine, keep going. It's fine now. Sorry for those people who oh, no, the other microphone's been on. The other microphone's fine, keep going. It's fine now. Sorry for those people who oh, no, the other microphone's been on. The other microphone's on. Aye, ok, yeah. Are you just giving me two to make me feel more at?
Speaker 2:ease. Yeah, confirming that they're definitely sound.
Speaker 1:Anyway, moving on, let's talk about Rodgers and Hammerstein's Cinderella. Shall we now that both mics are working?
Speaker 2:So it's a musical that was written for television. I know which is so odd.
Speaker 1:Yeah, there's not very many, is there really? It's the only Rodgers-Hammerstein musical that was written for television.
Speaker 2:Yeah, Rodgers, as always, did the music and Hammerstein did the book and the lyrics. Yeah, it was written in 1957, and this televised version starred Julie Andrews, john Cypher, edith Adams, kay Ballard and Alice Goosley.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and it was perfect timing, wasn't it? Because at that time, julie Andrews had been starring as Eliza Doolittle in my Fair Lady on Broadway.
Speaker 2:That's right, and was it the year before there was the live version of Peter Pan? So the audiences were sort of there for TV musicals.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah.
Speaker 2:So it was released actually on the 31st of March 1957. So you know we're in March now.
Speaker 1:We're kind of close to it.
Speaker 2:It was viewed by 100 million people. Yeah 100 million people, and there is a documentary on YouTube on the making of Cinderella.
Speaker 1:That's, I think, the tally's up to four now, isn't it Moving documentaries this season?
Speaker 2:I'm a smart keeping count.
Speaker 1:I am.
Speaker 2:And Julie Andrews does say that even if she was to do my Fair Lady for years and years and years at that point they would never have reached that audience. So this was a big deal. This is the only musical written for TV. The fact that it was live was remade in 1965. And then again in 1997. And 1997 is the one that I'm most familiar with. It starred Brandy as Cinderella, Whitney Houston as Very Godmother, Bernadette Peters as the stepmother and Whippy Goldberg as the queen.
Speaker 2:That's it it adapted for stage for a little while. So what was that? 1957? But it was like 2013 before it made it to Broadway, Am I right?
Speaker 1:Yeah, the stage version began to appear in the US theatres in 1961 with more rewrites to scripts and beefing out of the playing time, with more Roger songs and numbers being put into it from other Roger shows. For the stepmother she didn't have a song and I think good old Bernie like threw her weight around a bit and they plucked a song from. Can you remember the show?
Speaker 2:No, I can't remember. The song is Falling in Love with. The Love is in the 1987 for Bernadette Peters.
Speaker 1:Was it the boys from? It is one of Roger's other musicals, I'm not sure. I forgot to write it down.
Speaker 2:I know the Loneliness of Evening was cut from South Pacific and then the Sweetest Sounds from. Cinderella, but was that maybe or Boys and Girls like you and Me was out of the drama.
Speaker 1:That's it. And then the other thing I had thought was when it came to the stage, the musical was also sorry. First performed on stage in London Coliseum in 1958 in a holiday pantomime adaptation. And I went yes, I see that, I completely see that, because if you throw more of the like pantomimey kind of production behind it, yeah, yeah, like I totally would get it. And then, sorry, those stage versions began to appear in the US after that. Yeah, I just, I should really read my notes in order, shouldn't I?
Speaker 2:No, I was probably meaning to confuse you there because, then, but it was the 2013 adapted version with Laura I can never say her name Bonnie and Clyde Osnes, osnes, yeah.
Speaker 1:And With Laura I can never say her name Bonnie and Clyde Osnes.
Speaker 2:Constantino Fontana.
Speaker 1:And it was the first time I came across him, oh really, and he became one of he's one of my favourite. I love his voice in cast recordings. I've never seen him live.
Speaker 2:He's Hans in Frozen.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 2:But the book was there. There was a new book associated with that 2013 one, and it was Douglas. Carter being.
Speaker 1:Brandy's sister act. Yeah, and it ran for 770 performances and was nominated for nine Tony Awards.
Speaker 2:That's quite a lot.
Speaker 1:Yeah, no, a thousand percent. The 1997 version with Brandy and Whitney Houston. Originally Whitney Houston had hoped to play Cinderella, but then I think there was like a delay to signing on the you know, to agreeing to do it, and she then realised that maybe that time had passed. But how great that she was involved and actually she is class as the Fairy Godmother, or Marie as they call her, in the show. It was given a budget of $12 million, making it one of the most expensive TV musicals ever made to this day.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I love it honestly. My sister and I watched it inside out and that was the first time that I knew that there was a Rodgers and Hammerstein musical.
Speaker 1:I wasn't aware of.
Speaker 2:Julie Andrews, even though obviously I was aware of Julie Andrews.
Speaker 1:Yeah, but even in her back catalogue of things like it's not one of those things that people pluck out about Julie Andrews, do you know what I mean? Like there's so many other things that people will talk about first, like Victor and Victoria, or Sound of Music, obviously. Or my Fair Lady, do you know what I mean during Victoria? Or Sound of Music, obviously. Or my Fair Lady, do you know what I mean? Or Mary Poppins they don't mention. You know Cinderella? Obviously. You said that there's a link to France, so, in case anybody doesn't know, although there was this one of your musical lyrical lingos, no, it's based on, obviously, the fairy tale Cinderella, particularly the French version, the Little Glass Slipper by Charles Peralt. I'm not sure.
Speaker 2:I just knew it was a French version.
Speaker 1:Well, there you go. That's where the French comes in. Oui, oui, oui.
Speaker 2:Rodgers and Hammerstein were actually given creative control over this Cinderella, you know. So, whatever the idea was given to them, and they were so excited to work with jillian andrews, but this is the only musical where they actually weren't writing the music and the lyrics in the same room. Oh, they were writing it um separate and there's letters that you can see. It's in that documentary um, and it will like give a little bit of an insight into their creative and was there a reason why they weren't together?
Speaker 1:Just projects had them in different places Interesting. I would think that for like a songwriting team, that must be really difficult not being together.
Speaker 2:Maybe for your first.
Speaker 1:Maybe? Yeah, because they knew each other quite well, didn't they? Yeah, fair enough. Maybe they were just sick of each other at that point and they were like, do you know what it is? We'll just do this separately. Like you do the lyrics in your house, I'll do the music in mine. Imagine if we subdivided our podcast. And I tell you what it is, I'll do it from my house. It would be a disaster.
Speaker 2:No, I don't think I'd like that.
Speaker 1:My sign might work though.
Speaker 2:It might work. Anyway. Julie Andrews was nominated for an Emmy and Rogers was nominated for the score.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:There is a black and white version of the dress rehearsal which was found and released in DVD in 2002.
Speaker 1:That would be fascinating, wouldn't it? I would be all over that.
Speaker 2:Yeah, maybe you get a DVD for yourself and watch it. Yeah, anyway, what about musicals?
Speaker 1:What a bizarre thing to release, though. Why would you release a black and white dress rehearsal on that?
Speaker 2:Um, I don't know, maybe, like Interesting, she didn't have to do that with a live rent because your mom broke his leg, that's right, so they had to release the dress rehearsal.
Speaker 1:I mean, I have such love for rent, but they should never have done that, they should never have released that dress rehearsal. It was very clearly a dress rehearsal and let me tell you I've sat through many of them that have been just as oh no, but the man broke his leg. They couldn't do Rent Live because I don't know, but like you, just go due to unseen circumstances, this evening's performance, this evening's telecast, has been cancelled.
Speaker 2:I don't think that was Do you need to give a cough. No, I'm good.
Speaker 1:You're doing very well holding it in. I know you were giving your orders before the recording instructions.
Speaker 2:Do not cough so right, let's move on to our musical lyrical lingoing so in prince ball it says and me I'm in a pink brocade, b-r-o-c-a-d-e, which is a a rich decorative fabric with raised patterns that often is woven with gold or silver thread.
Speaker 1:There you go. That's the most annoying song you know.
Speaker 2:Because it's like.
Speaker 1:It's like an earworm. The prince is giving a ball. The prince is giving a ball. Honestly, no, no, rings no. Maybe I just have trauma.
Speaker 2:Maybe that's what it is. I love where they're naming all the people's names the prince's names.
Speaker 1:Like the prince has about 72 names it's so funny.
Speaker 2:And then they get to harman and they go harman frederick james yeah. And then they get to, they do the Queens and her buddy name is Maisie and they go Maisie and then, the Kings and Sydney.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:That part I love.
Speaker 1:I like Topher, though I like that he's called Topher.
Speaker 2:Just because it's your name.
Speaker 1:Topher's, not my name.
Speaker 2:Well, it's a take on Christopher.
Speaker 1:Oh.
Speaker 2:I've never linked that to. Oh my gosh, what Christopher. Oh, that's very clever. That is actually hilarious. That is your name.
Speaker 1:I thought Topher's a great name. I get a great idea for a name.
Speaker 2:That's so funny. It's your name.
Speaker 1:it's your actual name which I don't use no, but it's still your name, that is so people are going to think I'm really weird, that, like, obviously I'm. They now know I'm called christopher, but I don't use that choice? No, I well, I just want to make that clear yeah that clear that I'm not above my station or anything going. I'm not using that name. I will use Timothy instead.
Speaker 2:Whenever I used to get really crossy or want to get your attention, I used to shout your. I got the full title.
Speaker 1:The full title. That's when I knew I'd really like irked you, like I knew I would have crossed the line.
Speaker 2:Or like if you just weren't paying the attention in the common room. I would just like shout it across Where's the head of the?
Speaker 1:name of my palil, Because that was really like. I really enjoyed that.
Speaker 2:I know, but you were ignoring me. I was trying to get your attention.
Speaker 1:And I continued to ignore you when you shouted you were like a better girl. I actually think it just fired you one dirty eye.
Speaker 2:Well, you did. In the beginning of the book.
Speaker 1:You were like it's not worth to ignore it Fair that If I don't like the Prince is Giving a Ball, one of the songs I do really, really, really like is Impossible. Impossible for a plain yellow pumpkin to become a golden carriage Impossible, it's class, isn't it? So Marie, who is like the fairy godmother character she sings, and four white mice will never be four white horses, such Falderol and Fiddle-E-Dee, of course, is impossible. I actually had thought, like Falderol and Fiddly Dee were just like you know the way, sometimes lyricists especially in musicals, let's be honest like make up nonsense words that just kind of keep, you know, go with the rhythm or go with the. So I thought Falderall and Fiddly Dee were like made up like nonsense words. But actually Falderall is a gaudy thing of little value, like you know, like a mouse, yeah, oh yeah, that's true, per mouse. Um, excessive excerpts, sorry, excessive efforts expended on something really trivial trivial, do you know what I mean? So that's folderol, and then fiddly D is an exclamation of impatience, disbelief or disagreement.
Speaker 2:I honestly didn't know that so well done.
Speaker 1:There you go.
Speaker 2:Yeah, well done for looking into that. I just wanted to know about the word bumpkin. I see you here.
Speaker 1:Oh, wee bumpkin Aye.
Speaker 2:It's just slang from somebody from a rural area.
Speaker 1:There you go. Yeah, it's actually being really rude about somebody. Aye wee bumpkin.
Speaker 2:No, but I always thought it was like an endearing term.
Speaker 1:Yeah, sort of aye, it was fair.
Speaker 2:But it's not.
Speaker 1:Just because it's slang doesn't mean it's not endearing. Maybe, yeah, they also sing. And because these daft and dewy-eyed dopes keep building up impossible hopes, impossible things are happening every. It sometimes is easier just to sing the lyric, isn't it, than say it, especially like those wee bits. Yeah, so dewy eyed yeah having.
Speaker 1:I think it's a really cute way of describing having like eyes moist with tears. Yeah, it's a really cute way of describing having like eyes moist with tears. Yeah, it's really sad. Used typically to indicate that a person is nostalgic, naive or sentimental. Yeah, and a dope is a stupid person.
Speaker 2:It is a stupid person.
Speaker 1:What a dope. I think that's a. I love the message of that line and because these daft and dewy eyed dopes keep building up impossible hopes, impossible things are happening every day. Just that idea of don't let others, you know, stop you from dreaming big and striving for what you want.
Speaker 2:Absolutely.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:My line I love, but the world is full of Sienese, I'm not going to sing it. Absolutely. Yeah, my line I love, but the world is full of Sienese and fools. I'm not going to sing it, which is Sienese are a comically dressed performer, which is all the same as a fool. Yeah, somebody who entertains with playful tricks.
Speaker 1:And you know that's my favourite line that Whitney Houston sings in the whole thing I love the way she sings that line.
Speaker 2:It's so class, isn't it? And that's with my mad voice.
Speaker 1:Out of respect for Whitney Houston, I'm not going to do it.
Speaker 2:I would love to do it. Yeah, that's all I have for impossible. But I do, and that is a real earworm Of a song. It gets stuck in there and you can sing it like all day.
Speaker 1:Yeah, that's a thousand percent and I might come back to it in our stand ovations when we get to it. But yeah, what else did you learn?
Speaker 2:Gavotte. G-a-v-o-t-t-e is a French dance and musical that originated in the 16th and 17th century.
Speaker 1:There you go.
Speaker 2:Didn't know that.
Speaker 1:I bet you you did. I did only because I'm a choreographer. Well, done. And I've choreographed this show Well done. So let me tell you something. Sorry, I need to retract that last. I was assistant choreographer on this show and we'll maybe get onto that later. But that ballroom scene, it goes on for a long time. It's very long. There is a lot of music to that.
Speaker 2:Yeah, but that's typical of that.
Speaker 1:One of the sections was a gavotte.
Speaker 2:Yeah, here we go. What else did you learn?
Speaker 1:Do you know? That was kind of it for, like lyrically, yeah, Um, obviously, like Cinderella teaches, and particularly this one teaches you, you know, the power of kindness and perseverance and hope and kindness will be rewarded, selfishness will not. Yes, you know. So I went really deep. In a lesser deep, I learned, having worked on the show, that it is possible to do costume changes on stage. Yeah, so, like in Impossible Transformation, both Marie transforms from like a wee old haggie kind of character into fairy godmother, and then Cinderella also her work clothes were transformed into. That was fun to tech. I'm sure it was. This show was really fun to tech.
Speaker 2:Diana, musical style where you just put your head in a cardboard no, no, no, we didn't quite go there.
Speaker 1:And then I also learned from this show that what they say about not working with kids and animals is 100% true, because we worked with two different types of animals. So we first of all had a box of rats what? And they were kept in a perplexed, perspex like see-through box so that obviously the audience could see them. Oh my they. They freaked me out the whole week of the show. See, this is catching, I'm not coughing. The other. The other animal that we did use was I don't know if they were Shetland ponies or like they were small white horses, but the funny story about the show was that somebody so the horses were obviously kept out the side of the theatre beside stage door Mid-show one night we all hell broke loose because we were.
Speaker 2:Word got back to us that somebody was trying to steal the horses. Oh my goodness.
Speaker 1:Yes, somebody tried to steal our white horses in Cinderella. What they were trying to?
Speaker 2:break into the back of the horse box and take the horses.
Speaker 1:They are actors darling, I know Get rid of them.
Speaker 2:So there you go.
Speaker 1:And it wasn't like a protest of like you can't make these horses work, like somebody just wanted to steal the horses, yeah, so that's kind of my overriding, lasting memory of that show. Someone tried to steal the horses, so don't work with animals.
Speaker 2:No, a lot of rats.
Speaker 1:Disgusting. Oh, and they were like I'm sorry, I know there are people out there that love them. I can't be doing with them. No they're not there I wouldn't go near them and fair dues to the actors that actually did have to handle the box and I was like more you than me, I, because I just lived in fear the whole week. I was like what if that box, what if somebody drops that box? Those rats are gone. Yeah, and there were big guy things like Do you know?
Speaker 2:what I also discovered doing the research for this is that Rogers and Hoverstein. There is a website dedicated to them and all their work. I've never come across it before, I think because we haven't.
Speaker 1:Nor me. Me that would have been useful.
Speaker 2:So we've done like Oklahoma.
Speaker 1:Oklahoma.
Speaker 2:But anyway, yeah, we haven't done. A huge number of them have we? No, we haven't no Interesting like.
Speaker 1:And there's loads of them like gosh. That'll be a whole seven, seven seasons.
Speaker 2:Rogers and Hamilton website there is a little quiz which says which Cinderella character are you. So I took it and I'm apparently the queen.
Speaker 1:That sounds about right. Yeah, I wonder what I'll have to take it and let you know what I am.
Speaker 2:Yeah, did you also know there was a 60 minute youth edition of Cinderella?
Speaker 1:Well, I know it's, it's part of that list of, like the junior shows that you can get on um musical theater international.
Speaker 2:It's quite, it's longish that cinderella, isn't it so like?
Speaker 1:I wonder how they it's long and nothing happens. Like that was the other thing. Like within the first 10 minutes of the show she's she's dropped her glass slipper. Do you know what I mean? Like she's running it just so. Then you're kind of going. The majority, like three quarters of the show, is what happens after she's dropped the glass slipper. And I'm going. Well, the only thing that can happen after she's dropped the glass slipper is he finds it, it fits and he marries her, do you know?
Speaker 2:what I mean yeah but then there's that whole scene where she's like saying to the stepsisters like what, what you know?
Speaker 1:I imagine it would look like this yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah yeah the story um and a 42 42 minute um ballroom, um scene and dance number.
Speaker 2:What are your sound innovations?
Speaker 1:So my sound innovations are I, in my opinion? I think so you've got that number impossible. Then you've got the transformation scene, where the carriage transforms and then it ends with possible, where it's like the same number, but they've flipped it right. I think that's possibly one of the best sequences in musical theater. Oh okay, yeah, I do, because I just think it, it it's, it's clever and that you know it's impossible, and then it's possible, and then that transformation in the middle of it there's loads goes on over those three numbers, which I think, if done correctly, is mesmerising. Do you know what I mean? Could be really like wow. And certainly that, what year was the Broadway revival? 2013. Yeah, the 2013 revival got that so right, like it was wow, wowzer. Do you know what I mean? So I really like it. My other stand ovation is the stepsisters lament, because actually the show needs a few more of those kind of moments.
Speaker 1:Do you know what I mean when they just totally like rip Cinderella apart or the girl that they saw at the ball you know they don't realise it's Cinderella, but it's very funny and very witty. And two good actresses If they get their hands on that and a good director and choreographer that's really class.
Speaker 2:Yeah, true, I really like that. I also. Just my salvation is the simplicity Of some of the lyrics. So, do I love you because you're beautiful, or are you beautiful because I love you?
Speaker 1:yeah that's just beautiful well, we talked about it when we were talking about our love songs. Like there were a few that we mentioned and I think you're right, the love songs are initial, are, yeah, some of the best.
Speaker 1:I I would say like I mean they're they're gushy but, as you say, they're very gushy and understated. They're opposites, tim. Do you know what I mean? They're a love song. Yeah, they're very clearly a love song, but the simplicity of them, as you say, is really, and I think that's why I didn't have a huge number of musical lyrical lingo to do with the lyrics, because the lyrics are self-explanatory. They are very simple in their nature but they do the job. All of the tune, all of the songs are memorable, I think.
Speaker 2:Oh yeah, In.
Speaker 1:Rodgers and Hammerstein.
Speaker 2:You hummed them like 10 minutes ago. Impossible, my Own Little Corner Self-Sustained Lament the Prince is Giving a Ball. Rodgers and Hammerstein, you hummed them like 10 minutes ago. Impossible. My Own Little Corner. Yeah, sif, sister Lament, like all of them, the prince is giving a ball. Herman lazy, they're all. They all have little wee bits where you'll find yourself humming them. But yes, sif, sister Lament makes it that little like I don't know, like it's a feel good piece of theatre.
Speaker 1:It is.
Speaker 2:It makes you go aw. That was lovely.
Speaker 1:Aw, if a little boring.
Speaker 2:But Cinderella story is a little boring.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah but, that's true, you're right, you're right. Yeah, yeah, I don't know, I just really.
Speaker 2:I was like eh yeah, but it's not super exciting.
Speaker 1:I also think when I was involved in it god bless the poor company, because they the slot they got for the theater was like early November or something and like the actual pantomime season was knocking at the door. Do you know what I mean? So I think selling tickets was really difficult too, because why would any family come and see you know Rodgers and Hammerstein Cinderella when next week they can go to the pantomime or whatever? Do you know what I mean? But it was one of the first experiences that I really, really, really, really got to know our good friend of the podcast, jennifer Rennie.
Speaker 1:Yeah, because Jennifer had been in, jennifer was choreographing this show and then she had started the process and then she got the Once gig in London and she's been on the pod talking about Once and all the rest of it. So that's when I came on board, because she was in London working on once. I was in Belfast, yeah, now, working on Cinderella, but obviously she'd been employed to choreograph the show. So it was in the days where, like, we didn't have all these zoom calls and things that we have now. It was the early days of Skype.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:And I remember, you know, nights on end like sitting three or four hours with Jen her in London, me in Belfast, like me like drawing out diagrams or writing my own notes for her choreography. So that was a period where we really really got to know each other and like that's where our like you know, part of, yeah, collaboration and like I've worked with her number of times, like I'm very fortunate with the opportunities I get through her and I love her for it but also just getting to know her and like really having a lovely bond and friendship. I haven't seen her in a long time. I do miss her. I'll have to see her soon, but, yeah, so that's where that kind of came. And then fast forward years later she's on the pod talking about all the wants and all the wonderful things that came after that. But, yeah, that's, that was the start of it, yeah yeah, crazy there you go?
Speaker 1:do you want your? What would Paddy Do? Did you miss it? I did Notice. Aaron didn't do that last week when he took my spot. It's funny how quick somebody can be replaced, isn't it? We're all replaceable. Just you remember that now. Okay, yeah, here's your. What Would Paddy Do for this week? Would you rather perform a heartwarming duet with Julianne Andrews or belt out a Broadway baby number with Bernadette Peters? Do you notice how I kind of went with two people that were?
Speaker 2:linked to the show Belt out with Bernadette Peters.
Speaker 1:What Broadway baby number would you do? What number would you happily G-et with Bernie? I talk about her like I know her, Bernie.
Speaker 2:Ooh, a G-et. I can't even think of any G-ets right now in my life. Um.
Speaker 1:I don't know, you don't know.
Speaker 2:Yeah, oh, I think I don't know, you don't know. Yeah, oh, I don't think she does a great.
Speaker 1:Children will listen from into the woods. Not so much yet, but you can make it into it yeah, okay.
Speaker 2:Well, either that or or Rose's turn what Rose's turn?
Speaker 1:oh jeez, that's, that's someone to be, I know, isn't it anyway very good. What Rose's turn? Oh jeez, that's someone to be, I know, isn't it Anyway very good. Poor Julie Didn't even get a look in there.
Speaker 2:That was very quick of you, but I think Julie is.
Speaker 1:Don't touch Julie.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah fair. Well, there we go, there we go. That was good, good one back. We're going to stick with the French oh.
Speaker 1:There we go. That was good.
Speaker 2:Good one back. We're going to stick with the.
Speaker 1:French oh, can't wait Just for one more week. Oh, oui, oui, oui. I can't remember anything else to say in French. Oui, oui, oui, that was a très bien episode.
Speaker 2:That was good. We're back.
Speaker 1:The sound was magnifique.
Speaker 2:Ah, you're getting your GCSE French just coming through.
Speaker 1:I do remember the beginning of my French oral, but that's about all I remember.
Speaker 2:I didn't do it, so I didn't do French.
Speaker 1:I'm not doing it.
Speaker 2:I just couldn't. I just do not have the brain for languages.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I enjoyed it at the time. To be quite honest with you, I don't miss.
Speaker 2:Trying to learn a different language.
Speaker 1:No, I don't miss not speaking the French anymore. No, I am. I'm going to be going on. Now that my theatre escapades are over, I am going to be re-channeling all of my efforts into doing a wee bit of learning Italian.
Speaker 2:Are you going to use Duolingo?
Speaker 1:I don't know if I could say the name on the pod. Yeah, I am going to be Duolingoing. However, somebody else is on a 65 day streak and it started before me, so I am not happy Because I well. No, it's not even a case of catching up, I'm always going to be behind.
Speaker 2:Well, it depends on where you learn. You could be just a faster learner.
Speaker 1:Can I do more? Well, you can't do. You can do more in one day. I can do more in one day. Right, let's finish this episode. I need to go and start my Duolingo.
Speaker 2:Well, thank you so much for joining us again. We're so glad to be both back in your ears.
Speaker 1:Are you talking to me or the listeners? I thought you were talking to me there. I was like, thank you so much for coming back to the pod. I was like, no problem, lauren, delighted to be back. Okay, thank you, listeners, for coming back. Too Great, you see, if there's more listeners, you see if there's more people who have downloaded the last episode than this episode, I'll be livid. You may get onto the. You may check that out now, because I will not be a happy chappy.
Speaker 2:Well, thank you, and we will be back next week, both of us.
Speaker 1:Maybe depending on how good the listening figures are.
Speaker 2:All right, see you next week. Bye.
