Episode Transcript
[00:00:00] Speaker A: Hi, this is Monica Hooper for the what's up? Podcast. Today I'm joined by Brittany Coleman and Judy McClain, the two main actors in company. Based on Stephen Sondheim and George Firth's original 1970 production. The show still contains those recognizable songs like you could drive a person crazy, the ladies who lunch side by side by side and being alive. But there has been a little change. The main character is now played by a woman, so it's company with a twist.
Today I'm joined by the two main actors in the production. Thank you for joining me today, Brittany and Judy.
[00:00:50] Speaker B: Hi.
[00:00:52] Speaker C: All right, so this is company with a twist. So can you tell me just real quick, in what ways have company's many stories changed?
[00:01:03] Speaker D: The biggest twist, I think, from the original version is that the main character is now gender flipped. So Bobby is a woman, as well as some of the other couples who know her friends throughout the show. Some of them have been gender swapped as well. That's our biggest flip.
[00:01:20] Speaker E: Okay. All right.
[00:01:21] Speaker C: And what ways has the musical stayed the same?
[00:01:25] Speaker B: Primarily the book. There's some changes in the book, but the music obviously is still the same. And I mean, obviously there's pronouns that are switched.
But I think. Britt, don't you think most of the book has remained intact?
[00:01:37] Speaker E: Okay, that's interesting.
[00:01:39] Speaker C: I know at the center of the show this time is a same sex wedding, and there's been some more feminist themes incorporated. So I'm wondering, in what ways do you feel like this narrative reflects your beliefs and opinions?
[00:01:55] Speaker B: You should take that since you're the lead on it.
[00:01:57] Speaker D: Yeah, I mean, it's just interesting how certain themes pop up when there has been very little switch to any of the book or the script.
People seeing the show who are familiar with the original have had so many brand new things pop out into them, even though they're seeing almost the exact same show.
But it is different, for the premise of our show is that Bobby is turning 35. It's her 35th birthday, and it would be like any other normal birthday, except for the fact that she is single, and a lot of her friends in the show have very strong opinions about it.
And so the concept of a woman turning 35 who is single without any kids has different stakes than a man turning 35 without kids. And I think it just resonates really differently. And I think a lot of people, especially in 2023, 2024, really identify with a lot of these things that kind of pop up with the show.
[00:02:58] Speaker E: Okay. All right.
[00:02:59] Speaker C: So they just kind of came up organically, and it wasn't so much somebody inserting anything else then.
[00:03:08] Speaker D: No, it's very organic and especially for me. I just turned 35 last month, and it's been a very easy transition into this role because I definitely do identify with a lot of stuff that Bobby feels throughout the show.
[00:03:23] Speaker E: All right.
[00:03:26] Speaker B: The fact that there is a same sex marriage in the show is great, too, and the fact that for those of that have been comfortable with that for years, and it's great to see how it gets affected across the country and how different audiences react to that. So it's been lovely, kind of present a same sex couple as the norm.
[00:03:52] Speaker E: Right.
[00:03:53] Speaker B: That's a pretty wonderful thing about our show, I think, too.
[00:03:55] Speaker C: Okay, so what was your experience with the show prior to joining the cast? Were you two fans of the original musical?
[00:04:02] Speaker B: Yeah, for sure. I mean, the music, I think it's some of his best written music he's ever done. I mean, the song being alive that Brittany gets to sing as Bobby is a brilliant piece of material.
Another hundred people marry me a little. There's just some of his greatest songs he's ever written. So the score is, I think I knew most of the songs before I really knew the show.
That's kind of how I came into, so. But, yeah, it's incredible music, as well as George Firth, who I guess gets underestimated as writing the book, is pretty brilliant. He's a brilliant writer.
[00:04:38] Speaker E: All right.
[00:04:39] Speaker C: What about you, Brittany?
[00:04:41] Speaker D: Yeah, I would say the same. I definitely knew the music before going into this and then seeing the show, especially on the West End, when it was first gender swapped, I just went on a whim and I realized how funny and cohesive the show is as a whole, with all of these iconic songs sprinkled throughout. It's really interesting. I loved the West End and then got to do it on Broadway, and now I'm here.
[00:05:13] Speaker C: All right, so, Brittany, tell me a little bit more about yourself. How did you find yourself pursuing musical theater?
[00:05:21] Speaker D: I had a really ambitious music teacher in elementary school who came in into our program around the third grade, and he wanted to do condensed versions of big musicals with elementary school kids, like 45 minutes long, tops. And he made all of us audition for all of the roles, and then whoever didn't get roles would be in the chorus in the back. And he basically pulled me out of the chorus and had me play Mary, little Mary in the secret garden, and that's basically when I got hooked, the school plays after that.
[00:05:58] Speaker C: Has he been able to see you on stage now? Have you had. Yeah, that's wonderful.
All right. So, Judy, what about you? How did you get into musical?
[00:06:11] Speaker B: Know I came by the way of when I was growing up, obviously I started singing in church. That's probably my neighborhood. We had a very musical neighborhood for some reason, all the kids in the neighborhood. So I kind of just immediately started doing that. But I actually went to school for classical music. I studied as a classical singer. I got my degree in classical music as more of a classical singer. And then it was during college. I didn't really know that musical theater where I was from. I was from Pennsylvania, small town. Didn't realize that you could actually major in musical know. I thought you had to go the classical route. So I did.
So basically during my college years, I started more investigating. I went to Ithaca College and started investigating more musical theater. I had seen a bunch. I'd been to New York when I was, since we were so close to Pennsylvania, I'd gone to see shows and always was. That's what I wanted. But it didn't turn out that way that I had studied it. So got to New York and basically after college I did a whole degree in musical theater in New York City. So I think most of my training in musical theater was doing classes and voice know dance all in, in New York City. I kind of concentrated on that for four years afterwards. So it's like kind of my master's was in New York and continues to be. I'm always a student. I love being a student of musical theater and I teach it as well. So I got my degree in that. But yeah, so it came with a classical route.
[00:07:43] Speaker E: Okay. All right.
[00:07:43] Speaker C: And then I know that in the notes that they sent me, they said that you have done a lot with Mama Mia.
[00:07:51] Speaker B: A lot would be an understatement.
I spent eleven years. I did over 4000 performances of Mama Mia just on Broadway. I played Tanya for seven and a half years and then I played Donna for the last four years that the show was on Broadway.
[00:08:09] Speaker D: Wow.
[00:08:10] Speaker C: Yeah.
[00:08:10] Speaker B: I have some experience with it.
The beauty of it was that I had kind of a double career at the same time. I was doing a lot of symphony work and they let me go for all these symphony gigs that I had. So I had kind of the best of both worlds. I was doing other things and doing the show. So it was pretty remarkable.
[00:08:31] Speaker C: And now you're playing a very iconic character, I always think of Patti Lapone.
So how do you approach such an iconic role and still make it your.
[00:08:43] Speaker B: Know, I'm not Elaine Stretch, obviously. I'm not patty. We're very different. You know, I always go start from the text and what the text informs me about that character, and then how do I find the relationship of myself to that character, and what do I relate? You know, that's going to just immediately give me something different than they would have know. I think exploring, you know, the relationship with who Bobby is to Joanne is know, through the text and what that gives us. So it was primarily, I always approach it for how alike I am to a character and how different I am from a character, and then I kind of springboard off of that. So I think I found my way was, it was daunting at first because you think, oh, I have to do Elaine. I have to do Elaine or Patty. But I always think of Elaine in this role. Honestly, that's how I first came to it, and that's extremely different than me. So, yeah, it was approaching my way in from the text and from my relationship to the part. I am not an alcoholic or a drinker. Not that she's an alcoholic, but she is a heavy drinker, obviously.
But it's really finding the underbelly to a character. And what's the crack in a character? What makes her or any character do what they do? There's the surface. This role has a lot of surface. So I had to find what was the underbelly and what makes that person do what they do. That's always the fun thing for me, not the outside. She's tough. She's abroad. Right. But why?
[00:10:21] Speaker E: All right.
[00:10:22] Speaker B: I spent a lot of time with that.
[00:10:23] Speaker E: Okay.
[00:10:24] Speaker C: And, Brittany, what was it like playing a character that was originally written for a man?
[00:10:32] Speaker D: Yeah, it's interesting.
I mean, I don't know. I haven't really had the hardest time of it just because it feels when I read the script with myself in mind, I don't have to do a lot of work of like, oh, okay. Well, it was written this way because a man would indicate this and that. I think it actually has just been a very natural kind of progression. I think it's been interesting with certain double standards. Like, we have a whole kind of date scene where Bobby brings one of the boyfriends home, and that's been interesting to see how audiences have kind of reacted to that.
But I don't feel anything particularly masculine in the writing. I think it's more circumstantial, and it hasn't been a heavy lift to make the flip.
[00:11:38] Speaker E: Okay.
[00:11:39] Speaker C: Do you have any previous roles that this one puts you in mind of?
[00:11:46] Speaker D: No. Bobby is particularly singular. And I think, especially for a leading role, I'm on stage almost the entire time, except for one song in which I am changing costumes. But the beauty of this role is that it's slightly passive in the way that Bobby gets to highlight all of her friends. I get to sit there and enjoy everyone's company literally on stage, while each couple really shines in who they are and what their opinions are and what they bring to the table. I love it. I love just being able to sit back and enjoy everyone's antics. It's been really interesting, and I don't think there are any leading roles of that caliber. I've said that Bobby is more or less passive until she is forced to not be passive, which makes for being on stage actually tolerable the entire show.
[00:12:45] Speaker C: All right, so do you think that with the retelling and with the gender swaps, that the message in the show, that no matter your relationship status, life can make you crazy? Do you think that that message has remained intact, or do you think it's changed at all?
[00:13:04] Speaker D: No, I think at the end of the day, really is about being alive and opening yourself up to new ideas, new explorations, keeping your loved ones close and not taking them for granted. I think that resonated when it was originally written, and I think it's still very similar.
[00:13:27] Speaker E: Okay. All right.
[00:13:29] Speaker C: And what have you noticed about the audiences so far? What do you think they're taking away from the show?
[00:13:39] Speaker B: It's really exciting to see and very curious to see how different parts of the country relate to it and what they laugh at in theater. It's remarkable how the audience is part of art's journey. Always we get in theater and we think, well, what are they laughing at? What are they responding to? And definitely the east coast is different than the south and different to the midwest. And it's been fascinating to watch what they laugh at and what they find funny, and that's been a really revelatory kind of thing for me.
Yeah.
And I think regardless of what they do laugh and what they respond to, we've pretty consistently have people standing and screaming at the end.
[00:14:33] Speaker C: Okay.
[00:14:34] Speaker B: So whether they are moved to laugh, I think there's someone in the show that everyone relates to or can relate to. I think that's really a wonderful thing about the show and the couples and relationships, whether you're in a relationship, whether you're not. We have an incredible following of younger people in their kind of. It's because it's about them. Right. And their journey that they're on some of them, not all of them, but that's been really fascinating to watch, what people take away in different parts of the, you know, because of what they bring to know their beliefs or not. And. Interesting.
[00:15:15] Speaker C: All right, well, that was all I had for you both today. Thank you so much for joining me. Brittany and Judy, y'all have a great day. Thanks so much.
[00:15:24] Speaker B: Thank you so much.
[00:15:25] Speaker C: Okay, bye.
