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Exclusive Interview: Emily Brown of Avon Players' 'Young Frankenstein' · The BSB Podcast

• 0:00
  Thank you so much for joining us today.
• 0:01
  Emily, how are you doing?
• 0:03
  Great, how are you?
• 0:05
  We are doing well.
• 0:06
  Thank you, RJ, for being here too.
• 0:07
  First interview in the books.
• 0:09
  Bring it.
• 0:10
  ah So we're so excited for Young Frankenstein the musical to come to Avon Players.
• 0:15
  ah How has the rehearsal process been so far for you?
• 0:19
  my gosh, it's actually been ridiculously easy.
• 0:22
  We kind of found out slowly going into this that this is kind of a dream role for everyone involved.
• 0:29
  And everyone kind of came into vocal rehearsals already like kind of show ready.
• 0:35
  It was a little scary.
• 0:37
  I mean, that's the unheard of.
• 0:42
  This was the dream role for you?
• 0:44
  Uh, yes, actually it's been a heavy dream role for, well, I guess it's not a lifelong dream role, but about a year.
• 0:52
  Um, when Avon players did their preview and they did roll in the hay, I like fell in love with the first line that was sung.
• 1:02
  And I just knew I wanted it so bad.
• 1:04
  And then when RJ and I watched a production of it, I was like, no, I need this in my life and I need it quick.
• 1:13
  And so I had auditions on my calendar since then.
• 1:17
  What was it about this production?
• 1:19
  You're like, have to audition for this.
• 1:21
  What is it about even that video you watched with the shot?
• 1:24
  oh
• 1:26
  It's just so ridiculously over the top, Mel Brooks, goofy.
• 1:32
  Like, I don't mind flopping around in a cart if it means that people are, you know, gut laughing the way that I gut laughed when I saw it.
• 1:44
  I feel like we need that on a t-shirt.
• 1:47
  I don't mind flopping around in a cart to make other people happy.
• 1:51
  oh I know that again, we haven't seen it yet.
• 1:54
  It's not, it's not, hasn't arrived at Avon players, but RJ has been an absolute fiend with the behind the scenes shots and videos.
• 2:01
  So getting to kind of see a little tastes here and there of it has been a lot of fun so far.
• 2:08
  yeah, oh my gosh.
• 2:11
  Every once in a while we just kind of get like a sniped picture and like, oh man, got me while I wasn't paying attention.
• 2:18
  He's good at that.
• 2:18
  He does that quite frequently.
• 2:19
  He's just like, you weren't looking, but now the world has to see it.
• 2:24
  I know, and now I'm trying to get him back.
• 2:26
  I have a couple, but.
• 2:28
  Candid shots, candid shots.
• 2:29
  I mean, you could absolutely get those candid shots of him because he's the prop person or a prop person on this production.
• 2:37
  person.
• 2:38
  He's been trying.
• 2:39
  Have we gotten the violin and the French horn yet?
• 2:41
  We did.
• 2:42
  Success.
• 2:43
  congratulations.
• 2:43
  ah
• 2:46
  look so much shinier.
• 2:47
  Yeah.
• 2:48
  Fun fact about the pitchforks is that when he posted them to his story, I was just like, why does he need to paint two pitchforks if he's going to use them in his yard?
• 2:55
  And it took me eight hours until I was sitting at home to be like, this is for young Frankenstein.
• 3:01
  So that shows you how well I was legitimately like knew what I was doing here.
• 3:07
  No.
• 3:07
  Um, so prior to seeing that first, you know, that video with RJ, how familiar were you with young Frankenstein, either the movie.
• 3:17
  or the musical, both from Mel Brooks.
• 3:21
  So I knew the movie existed, but it's kind of one of those like elusive streaming service moments where like it exists, but never in your country.
• 3:33
  You know, and so I kind of had to wait to get a DVD copy actually after I was cast in the show and the DVD copy kind of went around to like Eric to me uh to Jill and we all kind of
• 3:46
  passed it around and watched it um and it to me it made the musical even funnier uh knowing that Mel Brooks himself like adapted it to a stage production where like the bits
• 4:02
  are kind of preserved
• 4:03
  but also make it so that it can happen on a stage.
• 4:07
  uh It's, man, I thought it was perfect.
• 4:12
  I was going to say, I, for the first time in my life saw Young Frankenstein back in October.
• 4:16
  And it was like, somebody pulled out their dusty copy of their DVD and like, like blew off the dust.
• 4:22
  And I was like, wow, this is, this is legit.
• 4:24
  Cause it is not streaming anywhere.
• 4:26
  Like this is not a film that you just found.
• 4:28
  um so for those who maybe are unfamiliar with Young Frankenstein, what is kind of the story of Young Frankenstein?
• 4:38
  and then who are you playing in the show?
• 4:41
  Uh, so Young Frankenstein is about, uh, Victor Frankenstein's grandson, who's kind of in denial of everything that has happened before.
• 4:51
  And he's kind of tried to move on so much that he's even trying to pronounce his name differently.
• 4:57
  And, but when his grandfather dies, he has to make his way back to Transylvania and confront all of the things that he's been trying to very quickly push under the rug.
• 5:07
  Um, but of course, when he arrives, meets, um, Inga.
• 5:11
  his lab assistant, who's me, and Igor, who is Igor's relative and this housekeeper that lives in this mansion that he's trying to kind of settle up, who all kind of get wrapped
• 5:30
  up into this experiment.
• 5:34
  Yeah, there's a lot of like name puns, know, a lot of...
• 5:38
  I mean, I the show is just puns.
• 5:40
  ah
• 5:44
  So you're playing Inga, you said, who's kind of the assistant.
• 5:47
  um What's kind of her narrative journey through the show?
• 5:52
  So she kind of starts as this local girl that I go or has hired to try to convince the doctor to do some more experiments um because she's dumb and sexy and You know
• 6:10
  with that.
• 6:11
  There's nothing wrong with it.
• 6:12
  And I actually, was kind of going back and forth before auditions trying to decide whether she's so dumb she doesn't know she's sexy or she's so smart and she's using that to her
• 6:25
  advantage.
• 6:26
  um And to be honest, I'm still going back and forth.
• 6:29
  Don't tell Joy.
• 6:31
  Why, does she have a specific vision for the character in her head for you?
• 6:35
  Oh, it's a lot of, um, like distraction.
• 6:39
  Um, but you know, of course there's, there's a little romance.
• 6:43
  It gets a little cutesy.
• 6:45
  It's not all Mel Brooks puns.
• 6:48
  But I think that there is something to say about that role in a lot of musicals.
• 6:52
  Because I think about the producers, where there's a similar role, where it's like, is she so dumb and sexy, or is she so smart that she's using that as a tactic?
• 7:03
  And so Inga kind of falls into that role here.
• 7:07
  Yeah, absolutely for sure.
• 7:10
  Um, so I do have to take a step back.
• 7:12
  So this is a movie that is adapted from, you know, this is a musical that's adapted from a movie.
• 7:17
  Um, what are your general thoughts on musicals that follow that pattern?
• 7:21
  Like a pretty woman, a young Frankenstein.
• 7:23
  Do you like musicals that are adapted from films?
• 7:26
  Generally, yes.
• 7:28
  I think sometimes the other way is where it gets tricky sometimes taking something on stage and putting it into a movie.
• 7:37
  But not anything with music in it is like good.
• 7:41
  I'm an easy to please in that category for sure.
• 7:45
  uh But I think it helps a lot that the original director and the writers are involved in the adaptation.
• 7:53
  think that makes a huge difference.
• 7:56
  of gives you some more of that vision, you know, like.
• 8:00
  So with that being said, then what makes Young Frankenstein unique in the aspect that it was adapted?
• 8:05
  Like maybe that's what it is.
• 8:06
  Maybe it's the fact that I had that same creator uh through the process.
• 8:10
  But what do feel like Young Frankenstein the musical, what makes it unique from the adaptation?
• 8:14
  That's a good question.
• 8:16
  think it's, wow, really.
• 8:20
  I think it really adds another layer of that satire, because the movie itself is making fun of those low budget cheapo horror movies, and then adapting that into theater.
• 8:34
  Well, now you can add all of more visual bits, more theater bits, more meta things with an audience that's live, rather than an audience on their couch.
• 8:44
  I mean, that makes a lot of sense.
• 8:47
  Do you have a favorite song or number from the production to perform?
• 8:51
  my gosh, rolling the hay hands down every time.
• 8:56
  Every time I cannot wait for it.
• 8:59
  Let me just lean this chair back, hold up.
• 9:03
  What is it about that song that you enjoy performing so much?
• 9:06
  um I think it's, it really is the first song I fell in love with, it's, you know, it's always stuck in my head.
• 9:13
  And it also really stretched me.
• 9:16
  I've never had, well, physically stretched me also, but I've, I've never had to.
• 9:26
  yodel in a show while also literally rolling and like kicking my feet.
• 9:32
  So it's been like a lot of stamina work for me.
• 9:36
  uh But I also can't stop smiling the entire time.
• 9:40
  RJ I have to know what is that like to see that from the outward perspective already?
• 9:44
  I mean...
• 9:45
  I think this is one of the only shows that I've ever been a part of where it actually takes work for the actors to not crack up at themselves because it is so like the
• 9:56
  physicality and the puns like in the script and like everything about it is just so over the top that it's actually very hard and I give kudos to Eric and Emily um for staying in
• 10:10
  character and honestly the rest of the cast too but
• 10:14
  particularly in the number that we're talking about.
• 10:17
  It is, I think I even asked Emily a couple rehearsals ago, like, how are you doing this?
• 10:22
  Because it is physically very demanding and not something that you see.
• 10:31
  I don't think I've seen it in a show that I've done before.
• 10:34
  So yeah, it's quite, quite a visual spectacle happening.
• 10:40
  I would say that it has, like, what is that like to be able to balance?
• 10:44
  Like, how do you sing and also do things like rolling in the hay?
• 10:48
  Like, that has to be pretty difficult.
• 10:51
  And hit your notes.
• 10:52
  my gosh, it's been a very slow progression of like adding all of the elements uh So, you know at first you're just standing and singing it and you're trying to
• 11:02
  hit all of the notes and that's the basic concept.
• 11:05
  And then you get into the blocking.
• 11:09
  And at first, uh Eric and Jeff and I were blocking it on the floor.
• 11:13
  So there was no like fall risk.
• 11:15
  And then you move to the cart and then you do it with a corset.
• 11:19
  And then you do it with our horsemen, Jack and Max in the back moving it.
• 11:25
  And that slow progression helps a lot, but it's still like.
• 11:31
  It's really hard.
• 11:32
  I'm glad I'm allowed to smile during that number.
• 11:36
  Is there times where you feel yourself almost breaking character in scenes like that?
• 11:40
  Especially a show like this?
• 11:42
  Mm-hmm.
• 11:42
  yeah, I have to not look at Eric during that number I've learned too many times even if I even if it's a peripheral glance, I'm done.
• 11:51
  I have to I kind of focus
• 11:55
  That would be so hard.
• 11:55
  Again, I'm not an actor at all.
• 11:57
  And so this is why I can't do things like this because I would break character way too often.
• 12:02
  ah you besides maybe this scene or this song, is there one that you like to see other like maybe you're not in, but there's another song that like you, you're just in awe when you
• 12:14
  see your castmates perform it.
• 12:16
  Oh my gosh, yes.
• 12:19
  One of my best friends, Hosanna, who's playing Elizabeth, who's uh the fiance that Frederick leaves uh behind.
• 12:29
  And she sings uh Deep Love, which is her lovely ballad full of double entendres naturally.
• 12:38
  And it's so beautiful and so funny at the same time.
• 12:46
  drawn in and I'm captivated by her talent and comedy every single time.
• 12:53
  That sounds like it's gonna be really exciting number to see.
• 12:55
  So besides maybe the rolling in the hay scene, how has this show challenged you as an actor?
• 13:01
  How has it pushed your boundaries?
• 13:03
  You're like, how's it not?
• 13:04
  It's like, wow, I know I'm trying to like, think about it.
• 13:09
  When I feel like all I'm taught, all I can think about is breaking now.
• 13:13
  When you're with um our director, Joy calls us the lab rats, is uh Frederick and Inga and Igor and Frau Blucher.
• 13:27
  And the four of us are in a lot of scenes together.
• 13:29
  And it's really tough being with.
• 13:32
  three other hilarious people all with incredible comedic timing who are like trying new things every night in rehearsal where you think you know what's going to happen and then
• 13:43
  something even funnier happens.
• 13:45
  And it really pushes you to kind of think of the script in a different way as well, where you start looking at your lines in a different kind of way.
• 13:53
  And if they've done something different, you can try something different because of what they've done.
• 13:58
  And we're lucky that uh Joy also
• 14:04
  allows for like a certain amount of like improv when we're rehearsing too and a lot of times when we're done she's like I don't know what that was but do it again and again and
• 14:11
  again and you're like okay okay write that down I forgot what I did
• 14:16
  So it sounds like it's a very collaborative approach to bringing the show together.
• 14:20
  Absolutely.
• 14:22
  uh What themes from Young Frankenstein resonate the most with you?
• 14:30
  That's an RJ question.
• 14:31
  came up with that one.
• 14:31
  Yeah, no, no, that's an RJ question.
• 14:33
  He came up with that one months and months and months ago, and I've stuck with it because it's, that's top notch.
• 14:39
  That's good.
• 14:40
  Cause if you said he just came up with that 10 minutes ago and texted you, I would have been mad.
• 14:44
  No, he like, so Moulin Rouge back in September, he was like, here's some questions I think would be great.
• 14:48
  And that one was on there.
• 14:49
  was like, oh fuck, that's a great one.
• 14:52
  It's stuck ever since.
• 14:54
  um I do think that uh Frederick's part of the story is really important about He's very ashamed of his past um And I feel like a lot of people um Hide a lot of parts of
• 15:11
  themselves in their history And not because it's bad or because it's good because they're they might be afraid of it um
• 15:20
  But even just taking time and thinking that through and going back to those places, no matter how difficult or curious you might be about it, finding who you are in yourself,
• 15:31
  whether you want to, you know, bring someone dead back to life or not, shouldn't matter what your grandfather did, what do you want to do?
• 15:41
  I love that this show, I once interviewed somebody who said that like comedy shows don't always have like a uh theme that like, like this question is maybe a little deep for like
• 15:51
  a comedy, but this show speaks that to the fact that there's levels of volumes to it, that there is something that you can still take away.
• 15:59
  And it's like such a deep message that you maybe don't even naturally associate with something like a Mel Brooks show.
• 16:06
  Mm-hmm.
• 16:07
  Yeah, for sure.
• 16:09
  It hits ya.
• 16:11
  Final question for you is just what do you hope an audience take away from this production from Avon Players?
• 16:16
  my gosh, a good time.
• 16:19
  Leave with tears in your eyes from laughing.
• 16:22
  Leave with a bruise on your knee from slapping it so hard.
• 16:26
  Just enjoy yourself.
• 16:28
  Let it go.
• 16:30
  Relax.
• 16:31
  Be free.
• 16:32
  ah
• 16:36
  It's Mel Brooks.
• 16:40
  Exactly.
• 16:42
  Well, thank you so much for your time, Emily.
• 16:43
  We are so excited to see this production when it arrives.
• 16:47
  so congratulations, good luck, break a leg.
• 16:50
  Don't actually break a leg, but...
• 16:52
  ah So Avon Players Young Frankenstein runs May 30th through June 14th.
• 17:00
  So get your tickets now and we will see you there.