 Welcome. Thank you so much for joining us for today's Artist Encounter. We're thrilled to have you here to hear a little bit behind the scenes of the making of Brigadoon. My name is Adam Belcourt. I'm the Associate Producer here at the Goodman and also Director of Casting and I'm thrilled to introduce the people to my right. Before we get to that though, I did want to give some attention to the people that make Brigadoon possible and those would be our production sponsors. For this production the major corporate sponsor is J.P. Morgan Chase. Our corporate sponsor partners are Allstate and PWCLLP. Production support from National Endowment for the Arts and our media partner is the Chicago Tribune. Additional support has also been provided by the Season and Production sponsors and the Musical and Classics Endowment Fund donors. So thank you so much to all of you who supported the show. A couple of housekeeping things. If you would please, you have cell phones turning them to silent. Even turning them off of vibrate would be great. We'd really appreciate it. And lastly today's discussion is going to be live streamed via HowlRound.tv. It's the theater commons that platform and so if you miss future Artist Encounters please do check in on HowlRound.tv. You can watch them here in our rehearsal room. Now without further ado, I'd like to turn to our guests. Introducing, please do note in your program, you can look at their bios a little bit more completely, but I'll just introduce our artists on the far right, Roberta Ducek, our musical director, book reviser Brian Hill, Rachel Rockwell, our director and choreographer, and our producer, Goodman's producer Steve Scott to moderate. Steve? All right. Thank you, Adam. Well, we always stop with applause. So thank you very much and that's it for today. I learned that a long time ago. When they applaud, just shut up. It is a great pleasure for me to be here today. Brigadune has long been one of my favorite musicals and I've had the experience of when we first announced the show and when we've been talking about the show throughout the season. Invariably when you tell a group of people that we're doing Brigadune, at least some of them will go, oh, that's my favorite musical. I was in it in high school or we got it. We got an email a couple of weeks ago. Brigadune was the, I went to see Brigadune the night that my husband proposed to me. Yeah, it's one of those pieces that seems to hold a very special place in everybody's heart. And it's one of the great musicals from the golden age of American musical theater in the 1940s and early 50s. First done in 1947, it was the first major success of the team of Alan J. Lerner and Frederick Lowe, who would then go on to write My Fair Lady and Gigi and Camelot, among others. And it was for a time produced by a lot of different theaters across the country. And on TV and, of course, the film version with Gene Kelly. It has been kept alive, I think, in the last few decades by high school and college productions and community theater productions. But this production of Brigadune is the first major professional revival of the show in several decades. So we want to talk a little bit about how the show came to be and how this production came to be. And really, what Brigadune means to audiences in 2014, as opposed to 1947. So I guess my first question to all of you is what attracted you to this production? What previous experience have you had with the show? Why was this a project that you wanted to become involved with? Well, yeah, because you have the longest history with it. Well, this musical changed my life. I used to listen to the album when I was six years old at my grandmother's place every single weekend. And it's the thing that got me into musical theater. It's the thing that made me fall in love with musical theater. So it's fantastic that, you know, from many decades later, I can be here working on this piece that I've loved since I was a kid. And the score really is one of the great classic scores. It's hit after hit after hit. Yeah, yeah. And every time I watch it, I think, my God, all of these songs came from this show. It's kind of amazing. Well, Rachel, as a director, what attracted you to this show? Well, the first thing was seeing the movie when I was a teenager, the Citrus and Gene Kelly film as a young ballet dancer. I think we were all obsessed with that movie. Then when I grew up and saw the stage version, I realized that they were not terribly similar to one another. There were a lot of differences. They made it more of a dance love story for Gene and Sid. But when Liza Lerner, Alan Jay Lerner's daughter approached me about directing and choreographing this piece, I was floored, first of all, because that doesn't happen every day of your professional life. But the idea that we would get to create these new story dances was so very exciting to me, really exciting to me. It was originally choreographed by the legendary Agnes DeMille. But I have never seen any of that original choreography. I don't even know if it exists on film. But we're doing all new dances. So it was really an incredible challenge as a storyteller and choreographer to create narratives for characters that don't speak much in the play. Previously hadn't spoken at all, actually, until we decided now that in this age of musicals, dancers have a much broader skill set than when they had separate singing and dancing choruses. So now we thought Maggie Anderson deserved to speak for herself. And that Gene could say more and that we could hear more from Harry Beaton so that we could learn a little bit more about them before we plunged into kind of a dance narrative. So that was very exciting for me. So for this particular production, there was a new book created by Brian. Why did you decide that that was important for Brigadine? I mean, we've been talking about the wonderful score and the wonderful dances. Isn't that enough? Well, there were quite a few holes in the plot because it's a very fairy tale-esque plot. And we wanted to make sure that all of the fairy tale logic kind of scanned all the way through and that all of the questions were answered and also to give it just kind of a slightly more historical foundation than it had originally. The reason that Brigadine disappeared in the first place was that there was a rumor of witches in the woods, but they weren't really witches. They were maybe witches. And we thought maybe we needed a slightly stronger, more historically-based reason for an entire town to worry so much for the preservation of it that it needed to disappear for every 100 years and only appear for one day. So mercifully and completely by accident, the play takes place in 1746, which is an incredibly rich period in Scottish history. It's the Battle of Culloden when the Scots tried to reclaim the English throne and failed. And then essentially the English disbanded the entire Highland clan system, took away their Highland clothes, their ability to govern themselves and self-identify. So we were, I mean, when we first started researching it, there was so much rich, actual Scottish history that we could pull from that it seemed a shame not to really dig into it and use it. And so, Brian, you took on the task of revising the book and doing an adaptation of a classic must be kind of a daunting- It's terrifying. And people love this piece. People who love this piece love it deeply. And I don't want to mess that up. So what we try to retain is the heart and soul and the passion and magic that's in this. And just do what Rachel said. Make sure any plot holes are filled. Do some restructuring to make sure that the characters' stories make human sense to a contemporary audience. And in the original book, there's a lot of humor that probably would have been very funny to audiences in 1947, but not so much so to audiences in 2013. There are a lot of topical references that mean nothing to us now. And a lot of jokes that felt like 1947 jokes that we just, we wanted to, some of them remain and some of them are really funny. But we just wanted us to take the edge off those and bring it into something that we would understand. Well, also the play being done so soon after World War II, interestingly, the original doesn't really allude to all of the trauma that America had been through in the first half of the 1940s. I think those scars were, those wounds were still pretty fresh. And I think what was originally written was an escapist piece, which I completely understand. But I think now we can add that historical element and elevate the piece beyond that. And you've done so very movingly, I think. And very deftly, I think. It could be very easy to have a heavy hand in making that kind of revision. One of the happiest things that has happened in the past two days is I was at a show last night and there was a woman behind me talking about seeing Brigadoon and loving it. Her friend hadn't seen it. And her friend said, well, I heard they made changes. What did they do to the show? That's a good show. And the woman said, I don't think they did anything. She said it's exactly the show I remember. She said all the songs are in the same order, I swear. As much as I would love people to look at the show and say, oh my God, look at what they did, I would rather people looked at the show and said, oh my God, we love that show. We still do. Well, and as many of our audiences can probably attest to, the Goodman is known for doing kind of revisionist looks at certain classics. And I know we had a lady on the phone a couple of weeks ago who was demanding to know what we'd done to Brigadoon, whether we'd set it on Mars in 2030 or something like that. Hang on, we missed a great opportunity. Think about that for yourself, that would be fun. So, Rabuda, what did this mean for you, in terms of revisiting the score of this? Well, it seems like every time Rachel calls me, we never do a nonsense, something small. Everything's epic. And no, I was thrilled. I've always been a learner and low fan. They're classical by nature. And that's my background. That's where I come from. I was a classical pianist from the time I was three. And so I grew up with these songs, too. I didn't really grow up with the story as much, but as the songbook of Learner and Low. And I have such, I just love their music so much, I didn't want to screw it up. But we kept the score intact. It's classical in nature. We have full belles. I mean, some of these songs are seven, eight minutes. And they are classical pieces. The different part one and part two, we go from Adagio to Andante, just like a classical score. And for my musicians and my singers to attack it in a classical way is really, really great for me. I didn't hire a bunch of pop singers or jazz quartets. We have a 12-piece orchestra plus a pianist. Budgets always a concern for us. And of course, we'd love to have 18 or 19 pieces. But I think what we achieved with 12 classically trained musicians is pretty successful. It's beautiful. Oh, and the other thing that I think was so, that was challenging and surprising was that underscoring wasn't used in the way then that it is now. And we are, Roberta and I, and Brian too, underscoring is such a critical part of the emotional tone that you want to set for a scene that you're doing. And what we found was that almost all of the music that bridged one scene to another was basically 24 bars of the song you had just heard. Because that was the way that they did it. But you want to set a mood and a tone and so trying to pull from within the score to create underscoring that tells an emotional story in between the scene or keeps the tension that you've created or creates tension going into a place or buoys the romanticism of a moment that you left was something that we were really conscious of. And some of these, the book scenes, some of them are lengthy for a musical because there's a lot of exposition to get out. And you want to make sure that if it needs musical support that you can do it in a way that is the right voice for the story that you're telling. Contemporary audiences aren't used to really dry scenes. If you go to the movies, everything's underscored. Right. Every moment, here's the scary part. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Here's where you cry. So we do the same thing with this show, but we have to compose it with existing melodies. I can't just say, hey, doesn't this sound great? Well, that wasn't an original melody. So then we have to start weaving, you know, different melodies in and out, which is so much fun for us. And it actually started out at Rachel's house. She's like, let's come on over, you know. Let's, let's, let's figure it out. So she's like, how about this? And we just start singing things and I start playing it. And I'll talk over the top of her and see if it times out. And if we hit the kiss right when the kiss is supposed to be happening and, and then, you know, Brian would come in with new pages and we'd all sit around the piano like a radio play and try to figure out how we could tell the most emotionally clear story that was supported by the music that we were choosing. One of the challenges is that there are very few minor themes in this musical. And when you need something that gives you tension or gives you fear or pathos, it's, it's, it's all in the second act. So if you're in the first act, we, you know, we're like, okay, well, I think we have to pull from the Mysterioso, which is a very small part of music. Or we have to try to figure out a way to make something minor, but that it, so it doesn't sound like we're trying to make something minor. So it was challenging, but really exciting and fun. A lot of fun. And you mentioned that you were working very closely with Liza Lerner, who is one of Allen J. Lerner's daughters on this. Did you have to get all of these things approved by the Lerner? Yes, these things were, these things, we needed to make sure that these things were copacetic with the estate. You know, they, of course, they care very deeply about the legacy of their, of their clients and, and of Allen J. Lerner and, and Frederick Lowe. So we wanted to make sure that everybody understood that, you know, we, we love the, we love Brigadune too, and that we're trying to just take it into a slightly more contemporary direction without getting rid of what is so beautiful about it, the magic and the charm and, you know, it just introducing it to a new audience. But it was great. And they were so great about supporting us and, you know, allowing this production to happen. So did you make any changes in the songs themselves? Any, any, any revisions in the songs or? All the lyrics are the same. We changed a few order, order of two songs. Restructured a little bit. Uh-huh, uh-huh. But lyrically, they're completely intact. Okay. Which is a tribute to the, to the songwriting. Absolutely. Yeah. Exactly. Yeah. And Roberta brought up the horrible word budget. Oh, sorry. Because one of the challenges of doing Brigadune is that it's a huge show. I mean, when it was first done in 1947, it had a cast of 60, I think. It had a singing chorus and a dancing chorus. And nine principles. Yes. Right. And so our, our dancers have to sing. Right. So how, how did you find these people? You, you have a cast of 29. Oh, they're, they're kind of amazing. Did you scour the earth to, to bring this cast together? We did, we did. We started in Chicago and we were so incredibly pleased at what we found here. We did some casting in New York, but primarily the company comes from the Chicago and surrounding area. And the bio is just filled with people making their Goodman debut, making their Goodman debut. So it's very exciting for us as musical theater performers. We don't get to perform in our theater district very often, unless it's with a tour, because there are so few musical theater houses in our theater district. So for all of those incredibly gifted musical theater performers from the Chicago area to get to spend the summer bringing this beautiful show to people in their theater district is an incredible source of pride and, just, we're all really grateful. It's an incredible company of people and they would do anything in service of this play. So it's, it's, it's been pretty magical. That's great. Now you spoke a little bit about the dance and this is one of those classic musicals where there is a lot of dance. Yes, there it is. And you're the director and the choreographer and I can't imagine doing both, but so how did you approach the dance and there's, there are many varieties of dance. Absolutely. Well, I, I am the choreographer, but there is a team of people. So it is not me. It is also Gordon Pierce Schmidt, my associate choreographer, and Katie Spellman, our assistant choreographer and dance captain. So it takes a village, believe me. There is, for us, we would storyboard these dances and sometimes for days or weeks before we would ever dance a step so that we could say, all right, musically, this is the story that we want to tell for these characters and this is when this happens and this is when this needs to happen. And then we would figure out what the steps were to support that story. So the Scottish culture, we're very fortunate because the Scottish culture has a dance that's attached to almost every event. Battle, oppression, there's a dance for when the English took away their kilts and made them wear pants, where there's a lot of kicking of, we call it, I don't want to wear those pants dance. It's called the Chantreuse, where you kick, literally kick the pants off and it represents the oppression and feeling like you can't be free in your movements like when you were wearing a kilt. So, and there's a dance called the Flora McDonald's Fancy which is about the woman that helped Bonnie Prince Charlie escape to the Isle of Skye. So there are all these incredible national story dances that are in the Scottish culture and so we researched them all as best we could and tried to educate ourselves as much as we possibly could. But it also wonderfully, it blends beautifully with classical ballet. Scottish dance is very similar to ballet in its movement, in its style and feel. So we were able to kind of blend those things together to create a kind of new vernacular and there are moments of slightly contemporary dance but nothing that you would go, oh that's a so-you-think-you-can-dance kind of contemporary take on it. But we're a much more dance savvy culture now than we were even 10 years ago because of all of these television shows that have gotten families around the TV again to watch the art form of dancing. So it was a big, it was a big challenge and an incredible one. And also giving, because it is the primary narrative for a lot of these characters so we have to make sure that we know them through this dancing. And that was really, really great. And one of our dancers is also a bagpiper. Oh yes, yes. That was a surprise, right? That was a surprise. He did not lead with this information at his audition. I thought it would be wise. He said, by the way, I'm a pretty proficient bagpipe player. Like, you're in! Fantastic! What else can you do? You're a tenor, a ballet dancer, a actor, and a bagpiper. And one of your principal dancers, the actress who plays the character Jean, just graduated from high school. Yes, on the first day of rehearsal, I had to allow her to go to her high school graduation. Yes, she just turned 18 years old and she is one of the finest dance storytellers I have ever seen. And she's, to have that kind of emotional, well-spring in such a young person is just amazing. She's all joy and all limbs and all heart and just, you're just mesmerized by her. She's so lovely. And it just brings a tear to your eye because she's so delicate and strong at the same time and darling. Oh, and the come to me bend to the ballet. One of the many places where I start sobbing is in the show. And one of the things that I noticed watching the show again today is that everything is staged so specifically and is very character-driven, even in the ensemble. How do you do that kind of work with a group of people who are basically there to sing and dance? What do you do with them to create that kind of specific? Well, I mean, every cross, every exchange, every everything is choreographed. So it's like looking at a living picture you want to be able to see the picture clearly all the time. And if this person moves two counts earlier, it will expose that part of the picture. And if this person moves here and lingers just a little longer, it will expose that perspective on a picture. And luckily, I mean, I was so fortunate because this company is so incredibly committed to creating a believable community of people who are so grateful for the opportunity to look into the eyes of their loved ones for however many years they've lived. For however many hours they get every 100 years. And as an ensemble, they understand that there is not one thing that they do that is superfluous or does not enrich this play in some way. And I think because all of us have an ensemble and principal background, they know that we know how important what they're doing is. They know that when they're moving that chair, that it is an important part of the picture and the story that we're telling. It isn't just please move that chair because we've all moved our chair furniture and had it not mean anything. And I think that's what's unique about Chicago Talent is that we are an ensemble town. Yeah, it's just absolutely who we are. What can we do? How can we tell this story better? How can we commit to it? Constantly stunned by the conversations that would bubble to the surface in the middle of a dance rehearsal, suddenly things would grind to a halt because someone started to ask a question about the history of this town. And we would talk for hours about that. And you don't really find that everywhere in this particular community. Yeah, we have a Brigadoon family tree. Everybody in that community knows exactly how they're related to everybody else. So everybody knows what their place is and their function is in this community and it's a very symbiotic community. Everybody does for everyone else. Oh, I just lost the thread. I had a good thing to say. It really pays off in the specificity because I've seen the show five times now and I've discovered each time that there are lots of things that I didn't see before and lots of discoveries that an audience member can make. But I love that it doesn't pull you away from the... It's a bedrock for the primary story and we like to talk about it in terms of dynamic levels like music. This experience is kind of mezzo-piano right now and the primary action needs to be mezzo-forte and then I need this thing that's mezzo-piano to kind of jump up to forte and then this thing, de crescendos. So everybody kind of knows what the level is of their activity and how it relates and because they all have such a great foundation they really understand what the parameters are and the boundaries are so we won't come back in two weeks and go, wow, that thing has really grown and not in a good way. They all understand how it functions and what it's meant to achieve and how it supports the primary action. One of the things you mentioned earlier is that you all have backgrounds as actors. You all began in this profession as actors and first of all, how did you make the leap to director choreographer, to musical director, to librettist and playwright and how does your acting background kind of influence how you do those jobs now? I directed my first equity show by accident when I was 22 years old. I was choreographing a production of 10 types at the New Harmony Theater and the director was suddenly unable to do the project and the artistic director said, could you direct this play? And my 22-year-old self said, sure. Can I direct this play? I had no idea. I didn't know how to communicate my ideas or communicate with actors, but I did it and I had always kind of choreographed because you know in high school, there's always the one girl who takes ballet, who does all the musicals and that was me. But that one show kind of opened a door that I could never close again and I was never able to just look at my place in a production, which must have been incredibly annoying for the director so that was working. Because I couldn't stop looking at the big picture and going, gosh, I wonder if we did this. So it really did open up something in me that I know was the right thing. It's the right place for me to be. And then when I got pregnant with my son almost a decade ago, my gosh, during those nine months, I wasn't dancing or performing. So I was choreographing a lot and then in that time period, I kind of got some opportunities to start directing family theater and then it just kind of snowballed. I will tell you, I could never have engineered this career for myself. I marvel at it every day and I am in awe of what I've gotten to do every single day. Roberta, how about you? I didn't see it coming. I was acting for over 20 years and as an actor, you're always taught to say, yes, I can do that. Sure. And so someone offered me an opportunity and I said, yes, I could do that. And I did it. But you know, what's funny, my friends around me, they're always like, oh, you've been musical directing your whole life. While I'm in a show, they're like, oh, I could fix that. I could fix that. Oh, yeah. And I was like, I said that? That's terrible. But yeah, it's so interesting. I think we all wear many hats in our lifetime and I think we put them on when we're ready to. And I think I just was ready. I had done enough things. And I'm also a voice teacher and a vocal coach and a pianist. And so, you know, and I was a singer and a dancer and an actress. So you just, you just keep saying yes. And then you surround yourself with the right people. And then it really, all the magic happens. Well, and I think that's one of the special things about working in Chicago, too, is that those opportunities open up. They do. They do. Very quickly. They do. And if you're good, then they keep opening. Yeah. Correct. Yeah. Even if you're not so good, sometimes they're just like, that's good. Yeah. Well, and Brian, I know you were an actor for many years at the Shaw Festival and all over the place. How did you begin writing? It's the same story. It's just grabbing an opportunity when it comes your way and you feel like you're ready for it. I was an actor for 20 years. I had started transitioning into directing. And then literally out of the blue, I got a phone call saying that someone had recommended me to submit a proposal to design a training program and write a show for that training program. My God. So I called up my partner, Neil Bartram, who's a genius composer and lyricist. He's sitting in the back row there. And he had never written a musical and wasn't a big musical fan. He was popping jazz. And I said, do you want to write a musical? And he said, I've never done it. But sure. So we put together this proposal for a training program and the show that would showcase the students and we got accepted. So our first job writing something was a commission for a musical. And again, the door opened and it never closed. I thought, this is good. This is where I want to live and I'll keep doing this. And I kept acting for a little bit then and still direct and all those things definitely feed off each other. They do. I don't think I could be a decent writer if I hadn't been an actor and a director. No, not at all. And the same thing. I agree. You can never forget those things that you learned. It's so important to remember what it feels like to be in their shoes. Especially casting. Rachel and I will be sitting behind a desk casting. The first time we did it, we're like, oh my God. I can't believe we're behind this desk. OK. But I still, we breathe with them. We see either nerves. You're exhausted by the end of the day. And we're like, just breathe. Just breathe. So yeah, but we want to see their best. We really do. Yeah, always, always. And you can just never forget. I remember somebody saying, I don't know why they're taking it so personally. When they were giving notes. And I was like, because it is tremendously personal what we're asking them to do. We're asking them to stand in the dark on that stage in a pin spot and risk everything. And we get the safety of being in the dark house. I mean, during the rehearsal process, you put it all out there. But they're the ones that have to bring it to life every day. So you can never forget what it is that they go through every single day. Does any of you want to act again? Are there roles that you're dying to play now? Or just let me know. I'm going to do something here. Oh, wait a minute. There is a Christopher Durang play that's happening right now. So that's really interesting to me. I hear it's being directed by a brilliant actor. By a brilliant actor, I guess. No, I can't imagine what it would be that would. I'm just singing. I don't miss the eight shows a week. I did that for over 20 years. I'm good. I miss tap dancing. Do you? Just because it feels good to do it. You know, that's it. I only miss it when I'm watching something and going, oh, I could do that. And then I realize, no, I couldn't do it. And then the first day when you do choral music, I miss that day because the first day that you put all those voices together and they make something astonishing, I miss being one of those voices and feeling that feeling when you make that first chord and it just blows your mind. Rachael's one of the only directors. You know, that's usually the director's day off when I teach all the music. And she's right there. She just loves every second. Or a first orchestra rehearsal. She's like, can I stay? I want to be here. I want to be here. I want to stay. It's like Christmas. So talk a little about the physical production because I think it's gorgeous. And yet it's very spare in many ways. I know. It's a challenging piece because you have to create a town. And the way people think about that is kind of wing and drop and wagons and stuff. And to me the idea, it needed to feel like an Impressionist painting almost and something that could disappear easily and that you could see through and that was there and not there. And I was so fortunate to get introduced to this incredible theatrical artist from Argentina named Leandro Panetta who had done a production in Argentina and I was looking through a book of his production shots and I saw this material that was strands of silk thread that almost looks like a flapper skirt and I said, what is that material? He told me what it was and you can project onto it but at the same time you can light through it so you can see through it and you can make things behind it appear and disappear. It was just something so original and magical and I saw it and I thought, okay, that is a big component of what I think this set needs to be. And then our scenic designer who's a long-time collaborator of mine, Kevin Depanay, came up with this beautiful kind of ethereal sky that can change and really show us time of day because time of day when you only have about 18 hours to be alive every century is really important and that clock is something that you're constantly aware of. So he found a way of showing the time of day. We have a projection designer, Sean Sagady who's done some really incredible, subtle and beautiful original kind of projections that make this town and there are some very ethereal kind of mountain pieces that you can see through. So it's all very, very light and it's only ever anchored by the people on the stage or a piece of scenery. It's very, very spare and I felt like that was kind of a new way to look at this world that could get really heavy and bogged down if you were to actualize every single location. But if you could just keep it moving and keep the air moving and the time moving quickly it would really help bolster the idea of this place that was there and then gone in an instant. And of course fog, the element of fog. And it's such a temperamental thing but it's a very necessary part of the storytelling. And the clothes that Merrill Blumenfeld created she went to Scotland. She did. She went on a research trip to Inverness, the Tartan Mills in Inverness because every family has its own specific Tartan and they're, I mean they're registered and they are made by thread count and there's a dress version and a modern version and an ancient version and every family has a very identifiable Tartan. And then there are a couple of characters in our play that belong to kind of different subsets of these different clans. But Merrill went to these Tartan Mills and talked to all of these brilliant Tartan makers about the fabric, the weight of the fabric, the families they belong to. So all of our kilts themselves were manufactured in the Tartan Mills in Scotland and all of the jackets and the accessories and things were made in the Goodman shop. It was really important to us because part of the English, the punishment of the English was the dress act of 1746 where they said that no man or boy could wear any of their highland clothes or they could be thrown in jail. So in the beginning of this play it's really important to us that it is largely Tartan-free. It's not a lot of plaid because I feel like if you introduce plaid in the first scene it's plaid plaid and more plaid and then it isn't special. But so when they go to the wedding that night and they introduce their clans, their individual clans and you see them in their full dress regalia and the pride that they feel when they put those clothes on and what it means to them to identify as their own individual family and clan it's very moving and very emotional and who knew that clothes could be so emotional but it really is and quite lovely. And the Scottish instrumentation that you included adds to all of that I think too. How did you research that? On a budget. Thank you, Lippert. I had bigger plans. No, really we have two bagpipers. We paid one of our musicians. We gave both of our bagpipers lessons. So we found an amazing teacher and then we also have an actor in the play who we gave him Scottish tenor drum lessons and so he learned how to play that. Now my favorite part about the Scottish tenor I don't know if you guys have ever seen yeah, pipers, a pipe band. Well the Scottish tenor drummers are to be seen and not heard. That's my favorite thing so but he had to learn all the flourishes so when you see the show you could see George doing all the physical movement and he learned it really quickly. Actually, he was offered a job with his pipe. By the teacher. Yeah, by the teacher. Really? Boy, is he good. Yeah, he's really good. Yes. And he learned that for this. He learned that for this. And he also learned how to play the baron too. I mean I'm telling you in Chicago it's like sure what do you want me to do? Sure. So yes, we have two bagpipers in our show and then we also have penny whistles and all different types of tin whistles. And Celtic violin. I mean it really does sound very authentic and lovely. Yet lush and classical. Almost part of the original orchestration? No, with a brand new orchestrator. His name is Josh Clayton. He's from New York and he did a wonderful job really combining the two worlds. Yeah, it's a very distinctive and lovely sound. Yeah. Now, while I've got you, there's something on your resume I have to ask you. I knew it was coming. You were the vocal director for the film of Les Misérables. I was. How did you get that gig? And what was that like? This is the People Magazine segment. Yes it is. You know, I was very fortunate. My old voice teacher, John Kamasa, was actually commissioned to work with a star, Russell Crowe. He was here filming Superman and he was auditioning for the movie. And John wasn't able to work with him the whole time. So he called me up, which was really nice. He was like could you take over and at the time Rachel and I were working on Sweeney Todd and I thought to myself, I have to make time. So I went to his house that he was renting in Neighborville and I worked with Russell Crowe and he turned out to be the nicest guy. And we spent a few, I know it's great. He didn't throw phones at you? No, no he did not. He was so gracious. And what's great about Russell is that and Hugh Jackman, I ended up working with him too, they treat everything like it's an Olympic event and that's why they're so good. You know, of course they can afford the lessons. But yeah, we worked together in Neighborville and then he asked me to continue to work with him. And so I would just kind of follow him along wherever he would go. I would go as well. And we'd continue the voice lessons. And I actually went to his audition and I met Cameron McIntosh and all the creators of Les Mis. So it was just Russell Crowe, me, Cameron McIntosh, let's see, Claude Michel and Alain Boublil, the composers of Les Mis and a few producers. And we were in there for about two hours singing and the director and over and over and over again and he was offered the job in the room. It was really exciting and Russell was like, I can't believe how much time we spent in an audition. I said, welcome to musical theater. So then I was invited to work with him on the film and when I was on the film, Russell was great. He kept kind of telling everyone else how great I was to work with. So Hugh Jackman asked me to work with him for the rest of the film. So I said, of course, sure, I can fit you in. And then I worked with Annie Hathaway and Samantha Barks and really whoever. I was, again, I don't know if this is a Chicago mentality or just a Midwestern thing, but you're hired for a job and we just dig in. You need help, sure. We just do it. And I think because I've worn so many different hats, it was easy to just kind of move in and do what was needed. So I worked with the musical director. I worked with whoever, the man in my attention. Well, it doesn't hurt that you're like the nicest person. The planet either. Well, what was tricky is we did everything live. Everything was live. And so I don't know if you know anything about the background of the film, but basically they were singing acapella to everybody who was in the production of the film and they only had a pianist in their ear. So all the orchestrations were done post, not pre. So the director's vision was to allow the actor to lead the way the instrumentation would go. And so sometimes it was me playing in Russell's ear. So it was pretty intense. And then I'd get camera Macintosh and the composer and lyricist giving me notes to give to Russell Crowe and Hugh Jackman. Sometimes I did. Yeah, even when they're nice, there's a limit. Yeah. Oh, well, back to Brigadoonland. So all the work that you've been describing, over what period of time did this take place? How long did it take to put this production together? Well, over a year. Well, over a year. I want to say it was two years, but am I exaggerating? No, I think it's about two. Yeah, yeah. It feels like we've been working on it since we were very young. I was never very young. I was always very old. But and I can't believe that it's kind of coming to it. Like the work is coming to an end. It kind of breaks my heart a little bit. But it needs to just we need to put that baby in the basket and send it down the river, you know? But yeah, it's been it's been a long time coming. And you know, there's so many components to decide ahead of time to give yourself adequate time to really develop the ideas. And I mean, essentially, we ended up kind of workshopping a new musical on top of rehearsing it. Yeah, I keep saying this is on one hand a revival. And on the other hand, it's a new musical with pages this morning. Every race went in today. And I don't think there's a page that wasn't touched or changed or altered at some point in the process. I was a late addition to the process. And I only put pen to paper in February of this year. So it's been it's been fast and furious. Wow, it was. And it was like you're hired. And then I had a draft in like a week. It was amazing. You liked that. Yeah, it was great. But we collaborated before. So I think that it was it just made it easier for us to get right down into the work. We didn't have to get to know one another. We already kind of knew the other one's sensibility. And we all think the same language. Yeah, we do. And just kind of dug in in that way. Really made it easy. So the show opens tomorrow night. Will you come back? Oh, absolutely. Yes. Yes, absolutely. I mean, you come back and you you see how it grows. And you, you know, some things grow in the right ways. And then other things you go, oh, you know, we're tipping the balance a little bit here. We need to keep it. We need to keep it where it wants to live. But it is a living, breathing thing. So you need to give it a wide berth so that it can continue to evolve. And we've also got wonderful, you know, a stage manager, Alden, who will keep it, you know, where he knows we want it. And a brilliant dance captain, Katie Spellman, who will keep it clean and tidy and moving forward. And we also have a company of actors who have the greatest sense of personal pride and commitment to the show, who will also help keep it where it where we have, you know, started and then grow it in the right ways from there like a garden. And you just come back and prune every once in a while. Okay. Well, now let's turn it over to you. What questions do you have? And because we are live streaming this, we're, we would ask you to come up and use this microphone. Is that what we're doing, Adam? Yes. I got it right. So if you have questions for, for the group or for any particular person, please come up and ask. And if not, I have a few songs that I can do. Last question. Ask, please. Okay. Thank you. The first time that my wife and I saw Rachel and Roberta, you were both, along with Heidi Kettenring, you were both on roller skates. They were, I was on my butt most of the time. This was in an esteemed location that no longer exists, Dury Lane Evergreen Park. And I'm just wondering, did you have any concept then? She probably did. That you'd be doing this now. I don't know. I don't know that we did. I just knew that at that time, I think we were all kind of getting to a point where we, we needed to find a new way to express ourselves, you know, and, and, and, and roller skates. Well, it was not doing it. Was this for Starlight Express or was this for Evita on Ice or something? And the world goes round. Although I did not crack her on ice and we don't skate. And I've done two shows where three, where I've been on skates. Terrible. Terrifying. Yeah. Horrible. She was a figure skater, so it was easy for her. That was another life of mine. So no, I don't think we really did know that this was going to be, I don't think we could have ever quite known that it would be. However, I remember I did one show without you and I, and I thought that was going to be my last. And then, and then you said, Oh, will you be my musical director? Yeah. I thought to myself, Oh, I don't really like this. And, and then, but I said for Rachel anything. And then I turned out just so beautifully. And yeah. Yeah. I changed my life. Mine too. Mine too. Okay. Anyone else? Yay. On skates. I wish I had been. I came crashing down in Iowa one day and both feet went out from underneath and I landed on my tailbone right in front of Terry James, who's the executive producer at the Marriott and he goes, Oh, that looked like it really hurt. I said, it really did. Oh, well. Yeah. Yes, sir. Yeah. Can you go into detail about what underscoring is? Oh, absolutely. Oh, absolutely. Yes. Underscoring is music that happens during dialogue. So it's something that, that literally underscores or supports dialogue. And it has the power to change everything that you say. It can really emotionally support something, especially if you're passionate. And then when it's to get really gentle, it can do that as well. So that's what, see how that goes. That was brilliant. Thank you. That's how that, that's what that does. And it, and it's, it's a really, when it's well done, you barely notice it at all. But it also, it does have an incredible emotional impact on the psyche of the people watching the, the scene. And sometimes you'll go, something, even the other day, we had done a scene for a very long time. And, and someone suggested, I think there needs to be underscoring in this moment, because it feels like it's a very long period of time where we go without any music. And so we added it on our, like our last 10 minutes of rehearsal time. It's going play faster, play faster, get it in. And, and it's, now it's like one of my favorite things. It's really sweet. And it was originally written in a minor key. And, and then Brian and Rachel were like, no, it has to be major. And so again, we have like three minutes of, if you know how much musicians cost, I know I said that like 4,000 times, but it cost a lot of money. Three minutes left in musician time. And our orchestrator said, play it in a major key. And they did perfectly, beautifully, because they're brilliant. And, and it's cut print. Yeah. So that's what underscoring is. It's a really important part of what we do. And if you craft it just right, you can, you can it, you know, it's, it's a subtle form of emotional manipulation that is only for your benefit. It's not an, it's not an evil mind control thing. I promise. It's only to make a scene richer and stronger. All right. Yes, please. All right. Thank you. My question has to do with musical revivals. Rodgers and Hammerstein had several in New York, South Pacific, and, Carousel, Cinderella, with Hugh Jack, Oklahoma, Oklahoma, and so on. And the, this is the first time in Chicago that we're having a major musical revival of Learner and Low. How are these received? I read somewhere that it's very difficult to get producers for revivals. Yes. But how, yes, how, how do you think, how have they been received in those situations? They've been received very well. Yeah. I think if they're done well and done with respect, they can be really, really well received. And respect is the big thing. Yeah. And I think in the right hands, you can find, you can take something like Oklahoma, which some people think is just a sweet little musical, and really dig deep and find some depth and richness in those pieces that you didn't know was there or didn't expect. I think they can be very well received. But the, yes. Well, and the challenge now, as I said earlier with Brigadine, is that those old shows are very expensive to produce now because they require a lot of people and sometimes a great, a fairly large physical production. So you have to find producers who have the resources to do them and the integrity to do them well. Yeah. And don't do them cynically because they think, anybody else in Oklahoma will just do it. Right. So yeah. Well, I mean, they're classics for a reason. They're classics because they are incredibly well written. The scores are, you know, timeless and incredibly emotionally effective. That's why they endure because they are such, you know, cornerstones of what we do. And I mostly do, we mostly do revivals, starting to do some new works, but almost all of what we have done as a team, Roberta and I certainly have been revivals. And I love them. I mean, when we did Sound of Music, people said, what did you do to Sound of Music? And I said, we didn't do anything to it. We didn't change a word. We didn't do anything other than bring the emotional storytelling that already existed on the page and try to make it front and center. And I think what happens with some of these classics very often is that they become cliches of themselves because they get produced so often in, you know, non-professional arenas. And, you know, some of those productions are beautiful because of the incredible heart that the people bring to them. But they focus on things like in Sound of Music, the children being adorable, instead of the children being in a tremendous amount of pain and needing love. Or in Brigadoon, you know, it's a lot of, it's a lot of plaid and it's a lot of, you know, kind of like Disneyland Scotland, like Epcot Scotland, I like to call it. But what's really there on the page, even before we revised a single word of it, is an incredible amount of faith and gratitude that is required to be a person in Brigadoon. And the incredible amount of faith and gratitude that it requires, that's required of the principal character, Tommy Albright, to take that step of that leap of faith for love. And it's about, it's about faith and love and what you will do, what it means to truly love. And now those are all timeless themes. So I think that's why these stories endure and why I think they, if they're done well, they will be very successful. I also think that we all revere the musical theater art form. And that makes a difference. You know, we know it's it's truly American. We were just talking about that today. And it's something that we have and we have such pride in it. There's some, sometimes you work with a director who doesn't come from a musical background and the first words out of their mouths are, well, it's not a musical. You know, but working with Brian and Rachel, you know, they love the musical art form. And so I think we really do treat it with respect. I worked, I did a production on The Town Ones with the director who started the rehearsal by saying, all you musical theater actors, I want you to throw it, everything you care and know about musical theater. We're going to do this right. And it was a disastrous production because she took away all the tools that we could have brought to that piece to bring it to life. And if you don't treat it with that kind of respect, it's not going to work. It's not going to be well received. Okay. Yes. Yes. Oh, did somebody tweet something? Yes, indeed they did. Oh, I'm so excited we've been tweeting before. One of our viewers is curious if Tams Whitmark is aware of the orchestral changes and what it's like working around such limitations. No, we did everything on the slide. We're just telling everybody now. Tams Whitmark which is the leasing agency that controls Brigadine works very closely with the learner in low estates. And so, yes, they know. We've been dealing with Emily Altman directly from the low estate about the things that are happening with the show. And in terms of the orchestrations, this very often happens when you take something that was originally orchestrated for what 32 pieces and then you reduce it. So this is very common place. This is a common place thing to do with the musical. For us, we just added some different colors because we don't have 18 brass. We needed something that would give it the flavor that we needed it to have but in a different way. So this is a very common practice reducing an orchestration. But you still have to get permission to do it. Absolutely. Absolutely you do. You have to get permission to change a single thing about a piece. And oftentimes, companies don't do that. But when they say you must get permission to cut, change, or significantly alter this work, they're serious. Yes, ma'am. Could you choreograph the crossing? Absolutely. I know. I feel like I need to put another. Doing a great job. So I have a question on behalf of myself and my daughter. I know I've read somewhat about this and you addressed it at the outset of the talk too, but just more about the genesis of how this came to be rewritten. Was the Goodman approached by the Lerner family? Did the Lerner family approach the Goodman? Or sort of which came first? Check Rachel or the Goodman or the Lerner's? And I guess my daughter's question is when a revival was discussed, was it presumed that it would be significantly rewritten and reshaped? Or did that happen sort of as you got into it? Well, from the Goodman point of view, it happened in a couple of different ways. Rachel has had tremendous success as a director around Chicago in recent years. And so we have been talking to Rachel for a couple of years or for several years about bringing her to the Goodman to do something that she wanted to do. At the same time, as I recall, and Liza can correct me if I'm wrong, the idea for doing Brigadoon with Rachel came from Liza Lerner and the Lerner family because they had heard of Rachel's success in Chicago. And it was their idea to bring it to the Goodman because we have a reputation for doing things well, hopefully. So it was presented to us and we kind of said, yes, immediately. I don't even recall there being one of our infamous staff meetings to talk about this. I think all of a sudden we were announcing Brigadoon. And I think from the outset, it was planned that there would be revisions and freshening, although I don't know that we knew exactly what that meant. Yes. Yeah. Yeah, no. It was when Liza and I first met a couple of summers ago, we went to a little wine bar a couple blocks away and met blindly. It was a blind date. And she had spoken to the head of my agency and needed a director. And they said, well, there's a female director that we have as a client who does revivals of musicals and we think you two should meet. And so we sat down and had this meeting and we started talking and our ideas meshed immediately. And then by the end of the night, Liza said, so do you want to do you want to direct and choreograph Brigadoon? And I remember going, is this happening to me right now? This cannot be happening to me right now. And I think I said yes. I think I kind of murmured. Sure. And then I left and was walking back to my car and called my husband on the phone immediately and said, I think I just got a major revival of Brigadoon. But even then it didn't seem real until a couple of weeks later and then deals were made and then we were looking for a home for the piece and trying to find the right place to produce it. And then I think Liza brought it to you. And there it was. Yeah. And the rest is history. Yes, it is. All right. Other questions? I just have to acknowledge that that question came from a little girl who wants very much to be a director named Cassidy who I met last year at production of Shrek that I was directing when her mother said she wants to be a female director like you. And nobody had ever said that to me before. And she said she wanted to spend her birthday at one of your shows. And I've never been more touched. So I just recognize that Cassidy is in the audience and that she asked that question. And I think she's pretty awesome. I hope she becomes a female director. With those sunglasses. Now she's mad. And Cassidy, I'm going to be very nice to you because I will be asking you for a job sometime. Probably in the next couple of years. So do you have favorite moments in this production? Are there things that you especially look forward to seeing or that you especially love? I think it changes every night. It does. Yeah. I'm always surprised when I watch it. Little things creep to the surface that I didn't think were going to hit me. Yeah. I was like, oh, I've never seen that. I've never appreciated that moment in that way before. But I got to say come to me, Ben, to me. I look forward to it every night. I look forward to the wedding every night too because it's so visually rich and you can just feel the pride coming off of that stage and the community and the, you know, the sense of emotion and family. It's really beautiful. But there are moments that hit me differently every night. Moments of comedy that I just look so forward to. I always look forward to Craig's vitals. Anytime he's on stage, you know, and Roger Mueller. I just wait. I can't wait for him to tell me the story of Brigadoon every again. I'm like, tell me more Santa every time. I mean, you just find yourself on the edge of your seat because he makes it sound fresh every single time. But I think there are new moments every day. Yeah. So what do you have coming up? What's next for all of you? You go. In a week, I'm going to be in Montreal workshopping a new musical based on Michel Trombley's Les Belceux. Oh, really? Which is going to be fascinating. Yeah, Neil and I wrote that. We're the week before this began. It's kind of busy. We're back to back. We were working on bed nubs and broomsticks with Chicago Shakes. Good. Workshopping that. What else is happening, Neil? It's busy. There's a lot of stuff. There's a lot of stuff going on. It's good. I like being busy. Good. I have a new, a workshop of a new musical called Ride the Cyclone that comes from Canada at Chicago Shakespeare. It's a really original, interesting piece. And then Mary Poppins at the Paramount. And then Roberta and I are heading into West Side Story and then Billy Elliott. And then Michael Mahler and I wrote a musical based on Alice in Wonderland that Chicago Children's Theater is going to do this spring. So I know, I know, but I'm taking a vacation with my family first. Well, thank God. Thank God. And Roberta, what else for you? I'm doing West Side Story and Billy Elliott with Rachel. I'm teaching a musical theater camp for 50 children at the Drury Lane like in two weeks. So I'm going to sleep a little bit. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And I have a couple other things that I'm hoping happen in the movie industry. I don't know. We'll see. Good. Yeah. And I have a studio too that I teach Private Voice. You're round. And I teach at Columbia College. So just a few jobs. Well, that's good. That's good. So give my best to Russell and Hugh. Tell him Steve says hi. I will. Yeah. Okay. Okay. And listen, I just want to commend all of you. It's just a beautiful production. And we're very, very proud to be able to house it here at the Goodman Theater. So thank you. Congratulations to you all and thank you all for joining us today and enjoy Brigadu.