Latest / The BSB Podcast / 'Suffs the Musical' Music and Stagecraft | The BSB Podcast

Transcript

'Suffs the Musical' Music and Stagecraft | The BSB Podcast · The BSB Podcast

• 0:00
  Welcome back listeners to another episode of the BSB Podcast.
• 0:03
  Today we're asking why did it take so long to let mother vote as we keep marching
• 0:07
  on with our discussion of the North American tour of Suffs But before
• 0:10
  we dive into the music and stagecraft,
• 0:13
  like follow and subscribe to us at BSB insider on all social media platforms.
• 0:18
  warning, if you haven't seen stuff yet and wish to avoid spoilers,
• 0:21
  then pause this podcast and come back once you've finished the fight with this
• 0:24
  incredible story. Joining us is one of our favorite people who wants
• 0:28
  the world to know she was there,
• 0:29
  Emily Brown. Thank you so much for being here for part two.
• 0:32
  Any Time!
• 0:33
  You got so excited there for a second.
• 0:35
  because
• 0:35
  that was so cute.
• 0:36
  Thank
• 0:37
  I spent a lot of time writing these even though you would never know with
• 0:40
  how much I stumbled over the words to getting to the end.
• 0:42
  my gosh.
• 0:44
  I always want to have some punny things,
• 0:46
  some heartfelt things, and you truly are somebody who,
• 0:49
  when this show originally came around,
• 0:52
  ~ I want you to know that you were my original plus one because I wanted
• 0:57
  you to see that and see that show.
• 0:58
  And then of course somebody had to be in a show and doing great,
• 1:01
  credible work at Avon Players.
• 1:02
  please.
• 1:03
  like, but.
• 1:06
  Truthfully, this was a show as soon as it came around.
• 1:07
  was like, this is a show that Emily Brown has to be at.
• 1:09
  And so I'm so glad that you got to see it and you got to witness it because
• 1:12
  it does speak volumes to, as we mentioned in part one,
• 1:15
  it speaks volumes to the world we're kind of living in now.
• 1:17
  It speaks to a very important aspect of the world we live,
• 1:20
  the world that was living in, you know,
• 1:23
  the early 19th century, 19th century.
• 1:25
  Yeah, that's right. I can do math.
• 1:27
  The 20th century. Listen,
• 1:28
  20th. 20th, you got it.
• 1:30
  because you always have to go one plus one.
• 1:31
  I know.
• 1:32
  See, and
• 1:32
  I.
• 1:32
  I know.
• 1:33
  I don't do math, I'm a psychologist.
• 1:35
  ~ But the early 20th...
• 1:38
  Is that the real reason I'm on?
• 1:40
  Yes, you are my math teacher, thank you very so much.
• 1:42
  So the early 20th century, but it truly is kind of this timeless tale that still
• 1:47
  carries on to the importance that we're doing in today's world,
• 1:50
  just a different fight maybe, you know?
• 1:51
  So I did want you to be here. And I really wanted you to be a part of this.
• 1:56
  again, thank you for being here and talking about the music and
• 1:59
  the stagecraft of this beautiful production.
• 1:59
  Yes, yes, yes.
• 2:02
  Thank you so much. Yeah, if you ever doubt how much RJ loves this show,
• 2:05
  I got to text Friday night. Are you still free?
• 2:09
  I got a ticket.
• 2:10
  You
• 2:11
  I'm like, yeah, sure,
• 2:13
  So I
• 2:13
  let's do it.
• 2:14
  just have to say this, while we were at the Thursday show,
• 2:17
  we were standing in the lobby.
• 2:18
  RJ came to check on me because I was actually,
• 2:20
  I was dying just a little bit.
• 2:23
  Correct response.
• 2:24
  And so he came to check on me and he's like,
• 2:26
  I don't know if I'm gonna come see you tomorrow.
• 2:28
  Maybe I should come see you tomorrow.
• 2:29
  And I was literally like, I was like in my dying voice,
• 2:31
  I was like, do it. so
• 2:32
  Yeah
• 2:34
  he was like, literally he texted you right after.
• 2:37
  I was like, just do it. know you want to,
• 2:39
  just do it, go see the show.
• 2:40
  Just do
• 2:41
  it.
• 2:42
  Because ~ this show is the Nike show for RJ.
• 2:45
  He just wants to do it with this show.
• 2:47
  wants no. That came
• 2:49
  You
• 2:49
  out wrong.
• 2:51
  RJ loves
• 2:51
  ~
• 2:51
  this show. I love how RJ has not used that two words in this podcast yet.
• 2:57
  It's just been me monologuing,
• 3:00
  Emily commenting, and just... But this is a show that RJ mentioned in part
• 3:05
  one that he wanted to take everybody to.
• 3:06
  There's a lot of importance to this story.
• 3:08
  And so he did. He got to see it with quite a few different people this week,
• 3:12
  three times in a row, back to back to back.
• 3:14
  ~ And so, you know, this does,
• 3:17
  I think it speaks volumes to the show that is really good.
• 3:21
  Mm-hmm.
• 3:21
  RJ,
• 3:21
  now that I've embarrassed you,
• 3:22
  please kick us off with the music.
• 3:24
  Just, you know, what's what's the music of this show that just like this
• 3:29
  is classic Broadway. Obviously,
• 3:31
  we we love to say those words classic Broadway as the very Broadway feel,
• 3:34
  RJ. But what is it about this music that really spoke to you?
• 3:37
  Because I know that was kind of the key component that brought us into the show.
• 3:41
  Keep marching and then the clip of a great American bitch.
• 3:44
  I mean, lyrics are so important to me personally.
• 3:49
  That's what makes or breaks the show.
• 3:52
  And lyrically, this show is just one massive story.
• 3:57
  And it's so smooth and it tells so much history.
• 4:03
  And it's easy to understand.
• 4:06
  You don't have to work to understand what is being portrayed.
• 4:13
  which I think just naturally happens,
• 4:15
  of course, when, you know, Shayna Taub wrote the music lyrics and book.
• 4:19
  So like the flow naturally just feels very succinct with each other.
• 4:25
  I think sometimes when you have different writers on all of those things,
• 4:30
  ~ it makes it, you can just tell a little bit.
• 4:35
  But with this, ~ and especially since ~ reading the book,
• 4:40
  ~
• 4:43
  It's poetry, actually. Like the story,
• 4:45
  the way that it's written is just very artistic.
• 4:49
  And so while the music, yes,
• 4:52
  the literal melodic happenings are traditional Broadway in the sense of we
• 4:58
  get a lot of foreshadowing. We get a lot of callbacks.
• 5:01
  We get a lot of ~ melodic lines assigned to particular characters,
• 5:07
  which makes it very easy for the listener to.
• 5:11
  interpret
• 5:11
  or kind of know what's about to happen or what's coming.
• 5:14
  ~ A couple reprises here and there,
• 5:18
  but nothing that's like, my god,
• 5:20
  I'm so sick of hearing this song.
• 5:21
  So yeah, if we consider that classic Broadway,
• 5:26
  but still like, but I would argue that the sound is contemporary,
• 5:30
  if that makes sense, like, because of the orchestration of it
• 5:35
  and the fluctuation between
• 5:39
  We don't have like too many ballads.
• 5:41
  It feels like the right blend,
• 5:43
  I will say, for like a contemporary musical,
• 5:47
  ~ but with everything that you kind of want or expect from a Broadway show.
• 5:52
  Emily, would you agree with that?
• 5:52
  except maybe like aside from
• 5:54
  a tap number, but does anyone really need that?
• 5:57
  Probably not.
• 5:58
  Um, real quick, real quick, before Emily,
• 6:01
  I'm just gonna, I'm I was gonna let you have the mic,
• 6:03
  but I'm just gonna stop for a moment.
• 6:03
  RJ, your
• 6:04
  Do it.
• 6:05
  favorite historical musical of the last trip was Operation Mincemeat,
• 6:09
  correct me if I'm wrong, had a fucking tap number in it.
• 6:14
  You guys are get tap dancers in your comments,
• 6:16
  stop!
• 6:17
  It did. I mean, I have no problem with tap.
• 6:21
  I think there's a time and place and I don't know where they would have
• 6:26
  put a tap number into Suffs but yes,
• 6:29
  You know, I think that what you're saying.
• 6:30
  no, I did
• 6:31
  enjoy operation. Mincemeat and the tap number.
• 6:34
  So.
• 6:35
  I'll just say that I think that like the time and place is clearly World War 2.
• 6:38
  So like, that's fine. This is that's the time and place.
• 6:40
  Yeah, people were too sad to
• 6:42
  tap in World War I.
• 6:45
  Yeah, I mean, but think about it.
• 6:46
  I'm just saying, and Emily, promise I'm gonna give you the mic.
• 6:49
  I promise it's coming. But the tab number,
• 6:53
  if you're gonna do anywhere, think about the jail scene.
• 6:56
  Put a little tap in there.
• 6:58
  Come on. Come on.
• 6:59
  in between them getting
• 7:00
  force fed.
• 7:01
  Yeah,
• 7:01
  as I say, they're starving to death.
• 7:02
  Yeah, well, Off to the side,
• 7:03
  They're all mad at each other,
• 7:04
  but goddamn, they're form.
• 7:07
  off to the side, like the part of that song where,
• 7:09
  know, Woodrow Wilson's like, those ones are being treated well.
• 7:11
  Like he could have done a little tap number,
• 7:12
  but like that. ~
• 7:13
  Okay, Woodrow Wilson
• 7:15
  Wilson could have done a tap number.
• 7:16
  should tap. I'm actually going back on my previous statements.
• 7:17
  That's true. That actually
• 7:20
  Woodrow Wilson should tap.
• 7:21
  would be hysterical.
• 7:23
  Yeah, because I think it also would have if if we're talking about
• 7:26
  the diametrically opposed parts here,
• 7:28
  like the women are being force fed.
• 7:30
  Life is horrible. And he's doing a tab number telling himself he's doing such
• 7:33
  a great fucking job. Like. Of course,
• 7:37
  what is man? Man is just a fucking joke.
• 7:39
  And so like that is sorry, but ~ Woodrow Wilson would have
• 7:45
  100 percent been like it's like it's almost like a comical thing that could have
• 7:49
  been in there. But I digress.
• 7:51
  I'm
• 7:51
  not trying to improve the story here,
• 7:52
  but tap could have easily been worked into here.
• 7:55
  And if anybody wants to do it at a local production,
• 7:58
  when it eventually goes to that,
• 7:59
  give me a call. I'll be your choreographer.
• 8:02
  But Emily, do you agree with the sentiment that it's like classic Broadway with
• 8:06
  a contemporary feel?
• 8:08
  Yeah, I mean, there are a lot of like,
• 8:10
  like RJ said, these really strong motifs sometimes attached to a character,
• 8:14
  sometimes attached to an action that weave their way into the score.
• 8:19
  And it's absolutely beautiful.
• 8:21
  And ~ when you know it's coming and you hear the first couple of notes
• 8:26
  and you're just like, yes, that took me back to that feeling that I had
• 8:30
  in Act One or that I had before.
• 8:32
  And it's fantastic, especially when it.
• 8:35
  can morph meaning towards the end.
• 8:38
  The idea of let mother vote really,
• 8:41
  really progresses and changes through the story.
• 8:44
  ~ And it does have that contemporary feel.
• 8:47
  Like I said ~ in the first episode,
• 8:50
  that very like, pattery, rhythmic ~ script in between pockets of song,
• 8:57
  ~ especially in Find ~ Away,
• 9:01
  ~
• 9:02
  where they're doing the character introductions,
• 9:04
  it's like, okay, boom, boom, boom,
• 9:06
  boom, boom, let's get to getting to know these characters right away,
• 9:08
  we're not gonna spend all of Act One introducing them.
• 9:11
  Like, let's get to it. And that was ~ very contemporary,
• 9:15
  in my opinion.
• 9:17
  I will say one of the things that I always love,
• 9:18
  cause I love a good callback. know,
• 9:20
  one of my favorite things of Hamilton literally is just Angelica Schuler doing like
• 9:24
  singing satisfied, like here and there in the background of things.
• 9:27
  And so when I went to go see soft spool times now,
• 9:30
  cause I have not seen it six times like RJ,
• 9:32
  I've only seen it twice. Some of us have day jobs,
• 9:35
  you know, but the one of the things that I love is that when Carrie ever comes
• 9:41
  on stage,
• 9:43
  There is the old school Let Mother Vote kind of playing in the background.
• 9:48
  Mm-hmm.
• 9:49
  It almost feels like it's following behind her.
• 9:52
  It's like the old, I don't know,
• 9:54
  it's just such a cool way to do it.
• 9:55
  And there's a lot of those motifs of just like,
• 9:58
  that was the song that she was associated with.
• 10:00
  That was kind of her ideology throughout the end,
• 10:03
  which is kind of that old school Let Mother Vote.
• 10:04
  And so the fact that they would just play almost quietly in the background,
• 10:08
  almost like stepping with her.
• 10:10
  And that's just one example of kind of those callbacks that really just are like,
• 10:13
  wow, like it's so well thought out every aspect of this.
• 10:17
  Mm-hmm. Yeah, I mean, that's another like Hamilton connection.
• 10:20
  There's a reason King George doesn't rap in Hamilton because he's stuck
• 10:25
  in the old classic Broadway ways and all he does is sing his little song.
• 10:29
  And so when ~ Carrie Chapman Catt comes on that same like,
• 10:33
  all right, let's bring this back.
• 10:35
  We're proper and we drink tea and that's what we do.
• 10:37
  And we ask, please. It's
• 10:40
  Yeah.
• 10:40
  very interesting.
• 10:42
  Speaking of Hamilton that way too,
• 10:43
  it's the same way with, ~ my God,
• 10:47
  the guy Thomas Jefferson. ~ Cause he's stuck in the old ways,
• 10:51
  he sings jazz for most of his things.
• 10:54
  And when he's learning how to do it,
• 10:55
  he's still singing a jazz version of hip hop because he's not quite associated with
• 11:00
  the new world yet. So like there's little callbacks like that.
• 11:03
  And I know that RJ loves those things.
• 11:05
  I could feel it every time he like gets like,
• 11:08
  the
• 11:08
  goose pimples, you know, because he gets so excited when there's just
• 11:10
  a little callback, especially in a show like this one,
• 11:12
  like Suffs
• 11:13
  Well, there's so much.
• 11:16
  between act one and act two, the intentionality is just so clear.
• 11:21
  ~ And I love a show that doesn't like,
• 11:26
  that makes you work in a way that is beyond just working to understand what's
• 11:30
  in front of you, but working to understand the actual messaging and theme.
• 11:35
  So rather than working to understand the music or the lyrics,
• 11:41
  I, it was very simple in the sense that
• 11:45
  I could just be like, here's the like prime messaging.
• 11:49
  Like we're talking about women's rights.
• 11:52
  We're talking about the discrepancies with race.
• 11:56
  and those items too,
• 12:01
  like even internally within the character choices,
• 12:04
  like when I think of Ida B.
• 12:07
  Wells song versus Alice Paul's ballads or
• 12:13
  I know as or like, I mean, you could just go down the line,
• 12:15
  right? But it's very like, they just feel true to who that character is.
• 12:20
  ~ Especially the more that you historically look at the real person.
• 12:25
  just, it's very clear that there was so much research done to try
• 12:30
  to be as correct as possible with the undertones
• 12:37
  and the feelings that people would get when they,
• 12:39
  when they hear these characters speak.
• 12:42
  Because it is like this show is based on the real ~ book that Doris Stevens wrote,
• 12:49
  which I started listening to it.
• 12:52
  But let me tell you, like it's also,
• 12:54
  it's quite difficult.
• 12:55
  because it's written in a very proper English kind of way.
• 12:59
  And so it's just very intriguing to me how Shayna took that
• 13:05
  and transformed it into this, which again,
• 13:09
  just like, okay, you're brilliant.
• 13:11
  ~ But all that to say,
• 13:15
  Finish the Fight is probably one of my favorites in the sense that we open with it,
• 13:20
  right? ~ Alice Paul opens, I mean,
• 13:23
  technically it's the second song.
• 13:25
  But then the very end, ~ I'm trying to remember her character name,
• 13:30
  but the new guard comes in and says,
• 13:35
  I'm done. Like what you did was great and I appreciate everything that
• 13:41
  happened, but like it wasn't good for everyone.
• 13:45
  And so now this generation is here to try to make it good for everyone,
• 13:48
  but you're still using the same words,
• 13:51
  right? And you're still using like,
• 13:53
  those
• 13:54
  drawbacks between Carrie Chapman chat.
• 13:57
  Why did I say that backwards Carrie Chapman cat and Alice
• 14:01
  You
• 14:02
  Paul and now the new Gen So
• 14:07
  feel so much more vindicated knowing that I wasn't the only one who messed
• 14:10
  up the name because when I said her name
• 14:11
  Haha.
• 14:11
  I said Carrie Catman Cat. So like,
• 14:14
  listen, the only person that's nailed
• 14:15
  It is, it's
• 14:16
  that perfectly is Emily.
• 14:17
  Okay, I'll mess it up later, I promise.
• 14:17
  triple C, C
• 14:20
  to the third.
• 14:22
  I also am shocked that RJ, you picked a favorite song so quickly,
• 14:25
  I was playing on asking you and you were like,
• 14:27
  Lamenting for 40 minutes about which one and going through each one of them,
• 14:31
  why they're important. But you just,
• 14:32
  without even prompting, picked a favorite song,
• 14:35
  which I'm proud of you. I'm proud of you.
• 14:37
  That's so un-Aquarius of you. ~ But I have to say that
• 14:43
  I think that one of my favorite songs,
• 14:45
  will always and again, it's so weird that it's my favorite song.
• 14:48
  Let Mother Vote for some reason.
• 14:49
  I just think it's such a brilliant way to start the show.
• 14:51
  It reminds me very much of just like Mary Poppins.
• 14:55
  I think we used in the last time,
• 14:56
  you know, I think that's a great one.
• 14:58
  And then I always will a thousand percent the song where Inez dies.
• 15:02
  I'm going to
• 15:03
  Ugh.
• 15:03
  be a fucking mess from start to finish.
• 15:06
  That is such a brilliant, brilliant,
• 15:07
  brilliant song. But Emily, now you get to lament over your favorites.
• 15:12
  Perfect. ~ I mean, Great American Bitch obviously will always hold a very,
• 15:16
  yeah, how can we forget about that?
• 15:17
  very
• 15:18
  special place in my heart. ~ But I also love like
• 15:25
  a good villain song. And I think that Ladies gets overlooked
• 15:31
  ~ because it's
• 15:34
  It's funny. Like it's, and it's meant to be,
• 15:38
  but it's not meant to be. It's like,
• 15:40
  no, we are protecting these women.
• 15:43
  They don't know what they're doing.
• 15:46
  And I just think that that is hilarious.
• 15:49
  And the very obvious casting decisions to have all female presenting cast members
• 15:56
  and having someone who's female presenting play Woodrow Wilson adds just another
• 16:01
  level to that number.
• 16:02
  and watching it be this like big piece where Wilson standing on his desk
• 16:08
  and like going through all this like I'm doing this for them and like
• 16:12
  I have no doubt he actually thought that and that's ridiculous and we
• 16:16
  all get to like have that moment of you're ridiculous and ~ that theme
• 16:23
  of ladies must be protected coming up over and over again and being shoved
• 16:28
  in their face ~ which then
• 16:32
  transforms into them being force-fed in prison.
• 16:35
  It's like we are protecting you by shoving tubes and raw eggs down your throat.