August 22, 2024 • 28 mins
Today Darren Criss stops by our studio to chat with us and discuss Elsie Fest
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Mercedes benz in.
Speaker 2 (00:02):
Wow, it's been a month of Sundays since we've had
Darren Chris on the show. Hi Darren, Hi guys, Hi daddy, Hi,
Hi baby. I've never been in this room ever.
Speaker 3 (00:14):
This is crazy. You guys moved uptown. You're uptown gals
now we are?
Speaker 1 (00:17):
Yeah? Can you believe it?
Speaker 2 (00:18):
And of course he almost went to the old studios downtown.
I'm glad we detored you to the problem. Downtown boy
hanging out with uptown girls. That's my that's my thing.
Speaker 3 (00:30):
So much to talk about, so much we haven't I mean, look,
last time, I haven't seen you in person for I
don't know, at least five or six years, because you've
been on a screen or you know, fallowing away in
your palace in Santa Fe while.
Speaker 1 (00:43):
Talking.
Speaker 3 (00:44):
Oh you know what I'm talking about.
Speaker 1 (00:46):
Stop it. Stop looking at yourself on the screen.
Speaker 3 (00:48):
I'm seeing. I'm just making sure that I don't that
you don't look as oh good, your face is covered
by a mic.
Speaker 2 (00:54):
I'll look like Pam at hell. Okay, So Darren, okay, okay,
let's get to business. Okay, stop looking at yourself. Let's
radio anymore.
Speaker 3 (01:01):
It's basically TV.
Speaker 1 (01:02):
I got to close up.
Speaker 3 (01:03):
Yeah, this is it? Oh no, oh no, nor okay,
get that water bottle.
Speaker 2 (01:09):
Okay, okay, Darren christ is here. Let's let's reframe the conversation.
All right, really we have business to talk about. Yes,
Elsie Fest is back, hasn't You haven't had Elsie fest
since twenty one?
Speaker 3 (01:19):
I believe, Yeah, twenty twenty one.
Speaker 1 (01:21):
We're back. And how can you top that one?
Speaker 2 (01:23):
That was You could have ended it there and it
would have been that was just great because that was
an amazing show.
Speaker 1 (01:29):
God, you're sweet.
Speaker 3 (01:30):
For those of you who are listening that don't know
Elsie Festus, this is something that I feel like has
become an Elvis Duran show tradition every time we've we
started the show in twenty fifteen. It's crazy. I know,
what's what's a couple of years ago?
Speaker 2 (01:42):
Everyone listening because we have people in Miami and Philly ads,
we're like, what is Elsie fest.
Speaker 3 (01:46):
I think the closest comparison, I mean, because we're at
the iHeart family table right now, the closest comparison is
it's sort of like an iHeart lineup in the way
that I heard Music Festival has this sort of like
all killer, no filler, a bunch of people from a
certain genre or world. In this case, Elsiefest is a
collection of Broadway inspired artists. So that's people from obviously
(02:06):
from the stage, but screen and music and comedy, people
that have some sort of connection to Broadway. That is
sort of like a super lineup, kind of one night
only thing of I don't know everybody that if you
love Broadway and the Broadway ecosystem, then we have people
from that performing.
Speaker 2 (02:23):
I love elsie Fest because these are the performers that
play these gigantic and fun and great and serious roles
in shows on Broadway and off Broadway. This gives us
elsie Fest gives them an opportunity to come out and
just kind of do their own thing.
Speaker 3 (02:37):
Yeah, they can sing their own songs, yeah, exactly. And
also for audience members, you know, probably tickets they ain't
cheap man. And that's like its own problem in its
own conversation that we could go on forever. But if
you're going to see I don't know, like certain your
favorite divas at Carnegie Hall, it's going to be its
own concert, but you got to get sort of a
dressed up nature to it. Whereas Elsie is. You know,
(02:58):
you can let your hair down. It's an out door
music festival, so you can like drink and be rowdy
and sing along to a degree that you know, for
at a piano bar, and we're singing our favorite show tunes.
That rowdiness is encouraged and allowed, as opposed to if
you go to Broadway Theater. It's kind of this nature,
but the enthusiasm is the same. So that's what Elsie
Fest is. And we got a really killer lineup that
(03:19):
I'm super proud to have because I feel like it's
a great sort of splash back into the pool that
we've been away from for a few years.
Speaker 2 (03:25):
And I'm going to get into that. And another thing
is the venue this year is fantastic. You know we
love Peer seventeen. Oh yeah, the rooftop is what a
view and Brooklyn whatever. It's gonna be an amazing Elsie
Fest this year. I want to go through these artists
just a moment, okay, please in a few moments. Also
want to talk about your new show that's coming up,
and there's so much to talk about us.
Speaker 1 (03:47):
Even read the script and it starts in like a week.
Speaker 3 (03:49):
Yeah, yeah, who knows what that is that's not true.
Speaker 2 (03:53):
There is just such a wonderful, wonderful tumble with Broadway
and all Broadway right now, a good tumble. It's a good,
good thing. After a pandemic. We didn't know if theater
in the stage in New York City would ever recover.
That was a sad, sad time. I know, pandemic is
way back in the rear view mar it's not even
of recent days. But we never thought it would ever
(04:16):
ever come back. And now people are coming back to
New York City and droves they want to see these shows.
Speaker 1 (04:22):
Danielle. I mean, you're you're going to see shows like
every year. I love it.
Speaker 3 (04:25):
Every day one of my favorite things to do go
into the city, see a show, get a nice dinner.
Speaker 1 (04:29):
It's nice.
Speaker 3 (04:30):
Yeah. I think we were just saying before this interview,
like New York feels like it's sort of just awakening again,
and there's this sort of vibrancy that I think we
all felt was missing. I think a lot of you know,
major metropolitan areas are you know, new places are opening.
There was this period where all your favorite places were
going and now there's this I think in the last
year I have new favorite places that have been open
(04:52):
for like a year and a half. So we've risen
from the ashes a little bit and it's exciting. Yeah,
people are coming back to the You know, it used to.
Speaker 2 (05:00):
Be New York City smelled like urine and pooh, and
now it just smells like pooh, well and marijuana, marijuana
to varying degrees of you know control. New York City
just add rain and it makes its own gravy. It's
kind of a beautiful thing.
Speaker 3 (05:18):
Wow, this is really selling New York City.
Speaker 1 (05:21):
It's okay, I love New York City.
Speaker 2 (05:22):
Okay, So what are in your opinion, because you are
a theater nutt, what are the shows?
Speaker 1 (05:28):
The shows right now?
Speaker 3 (05:30):
Well, I mean, I don't say fast is coming up,
but that's another conversation. Uh, I mean, gosh, there are
so many things about to open, and we're kind of
in this crossover section and you're kind of post Tony season,
so you know, i'd be remiss not to mention my
own show, maybe Happy Ending, which is opening in the fall.
Of course I'm biased, but I don't know. I mean,
(05:52):
if I'm gonna shout out one thing, it did very
well last year. It was sort of less of a
musical more of a play with music, and also the
gentleman who wrote the music is gonna be performing Elsie,
So I'm going to tie it all in together Stereophonic.
If you haven't got a chance to see Stereophonic, I
kind of I'm proud of my dual citizenship between the
music world and the more kind of traditional theater world.
And it's a really wonderful portrait of I don't know,
(06:15):
the recording process, the creative process. Yeah, I think that's
a really cool piece to check out if you haven't
gotten Outsiders. Outsiders very sexy? Was it hot? Guys with feelings?
Speaker 1 (06:27):
Isn't that.
Speaker 3 (06:29):
I haven't seen. I've been away guys because I was
in Los Angeles.
Speaker 2 (06:33):
Odd Man out very interesting. It's all in the dark. No,
I couldn't go, but they extended the wrong.
Speaker 3 (06:38):
You guys are probably closer to the pulse than I've
been because I've been I've been away from the city
for a little bit, so I know what's open. So
I'm actually kind of hesitating to like give my opinions because.
Speaker 2 (06:47):
I so d Darren and I back in the day
he would call up and go, let's go get drunk tonight.
Speaker 1 (06:52):
And go see an interesting show.
Speaker 3 (06:56):
Or it was either let's go see a show, we'd
end up getting drunk, or it was let's get drunk
and and then we'd end up like go, No, We'd
end up I said let's go see a show, but
we get drunk, or say let's get drunk and we'd
end up seeing a show. One of the I didn't
know they would be together.
Speaker 1 (07:08):
But we saw some good show.
Speaker 3 (07:09):
We did see some good shows together.
Speaker 2 (07:13):
Glenn Close, Oh Sunset fule Ofvard, remember, and they we
went backstage to meet her, and then they thought I
was gonna stab her.
Speaker 1 (07:19):
Do you remember that I someone tried to kill her.
Someone tried to kill her the night before. And they
looked at me like, I don't know.
Speaker 3 (07:26):
Wow, I don't know what to say to that. I
was like, Elvis, what I think? I think? Glenn Close
was just happy to see you. But maybe that's just
your default assumption when you meet people as five us
as Glenn Close.
Speaker 1 (07:39):
But that was our thing.
Speaker 3 (07:41):
Be your thing again, because now he's in New York.
It's back again. I haven't seen you. It's so long
because again, the pandemic was that was wacky.
Speaker 1 (07:48):
You've been a lot going on.
Speaker 2 (07:49):
Okay, let's talk about your bi coastal thing Los Angeles.
Now you're on your eleventh apartment in New York City
because you're back for the show and for Elsie Fest.
Speaker 3 (07:57):
That's crazy? Is it?
Speaker 1 (07:58):
Eleven apartments in New York City?
Speaker 3 (08:00):
It's crazy. I do not recommend it. I do not, guys.
I wouldn't say that I'm like a pro now at moving,
but I definitely qualify for like the miners, for sure,
you just.
Speaker 4 (08:09):
Get like a furner's department. Are you actually moving your
stuff back and forth over and over?
Speaker 3 (08:13):
I don't. I don't want to bore our listeners with
the nuance and complexities of the answer to that. It's
but it's tedious, annoying, and like the storage units, the
borrowing of cars, the whole thing. Moving to New York
City is its own circle of health that I have,
like I have all, I have all the codes. So well,
I'm glad we haven't talked for a while. I don't
want to help you move, so thank god, exactly you don't.
(08:33):
This is such a tedious conversation to go into. But
if you've ever moved into major city, New York is
probably one of the hardest and worst to do it,
and let alone several times in one calendar year, which
I've done.
Speaker 2 (08:43):
Just turning us on Darren Chris is here. We're about
to talk about Elsfest, which you need to be a
part of, and his new show which is going to
hit in October.
Speaker 1 (08:50):
I do believe yes, being.
Speaker 2 (08:52):
An actor on that West Coast versus East Coast, I mean,
and how it affects you personally? Which which do you
prefer the I'm in front of your face or being
on a stage.
Speaker 3 (09:02):
Well, I mean this is this is entirely personal. I mean,
I come from the theater, so obviously I have a
yen for the theater. And there are more there's a
higher concentration of theater people in New York. Which is
not to say that I dislike Los Angeles. You know,
I've had the great fortune of getting to have some
kind of career in film and television in in Los Angeles.
(09:22):
But and it's a it's a different vibe apples and oranges.
I mean, I I prefer being on stage because I'm
a people. I like people. I like human beings. Even
me being excited about seeing you in person is like
a direct extension of my preference to being around human beings.
You know, there is an immediacy to me, an inevitability
(09:44):
that is required of you know, the human experience, which
is just being with other people. That theater is you know,
and so I so I love that. You know, film
and television is is separate. It is inherently an m
person impersonal. I am pr no. How would you spell
the rest of personal impersonal art form? Because you know
(10:04):
you see it later. It's edited together by a sort
of team of people, which again is its own beautiful
art form. But you cannot deny the the I don't
know the magic of being in person.
Speaker 1 (10:13):
What about living?
Speaker 3 (10:14):
Would you rather live here or live in La, which,
if you had a choice, it is My life has
been bifurcated between both personalities in LA and New York.
If you have to choose, you you're just screaming with
privilege because those are two of the greatest cities in
the whole world. And I'm not going to sit here
and give the age old conversation of the two versus
each other. They are both beautiful. Yin Yang's that I'm
(10:36):
always sorry, I'm always sad to leave, but always happy
to get to the other one.
Speaker 1 (10:39):
You know, Wow, you should run for politics.
Speaker 3 (10:43):
Well, they're both of the greatest cities in the world. Man,
It's like, I love both of them dearly and I
wouldn't be.
Speaker 1 (10:48):
Able to live without them.
Speaker 4 (10:48):
I want to go back to something you said earlier
about people singing like you can sing it Elsie Fest.
You can sing all with everybody, but you can't really
do it when you're in the theater. Does that really
throw you, guys off when people start doing it, Because
I've definitely been at shows people start singing along.
Speaker 3 (11:01):
Well, you know, the intent is so pure that I'm
never gonna get mad at intent, you know, even though
it sometimes clashes with like protocol or so you hate that. No, yeah, no,
not at all. I think I think it's very sweet.
Speaker 1 (11:14):
I think.
Speaker 3 (11:15):
I mean, it just depends on the venue. It's amazing
how venue dictates vibe. You know, you could see the
same show in different venues and it and it yields
different attitudes. It's like the difference between seeing a movie
and IMAX and a crowded theater and opening night, or
watching it on a plane. It changes the way that
you like the thing. It's a complete psychological sort of
(11:36):
mind trick. So if you can displace that enthusiasm correctly,
then you can encourage it for not only the performers,
but for the audience. So again that's why Elsie to
me was so important. Again, I was seeing these I
go to, these small cabaret venues or these really dressed
up venues, and I was like, this should be this
should feel like Coachella, this should feel like iHeart radiofests,
should feel like you know, any number of these festivals
(11:58):
where people come and are excited and sing along and
scream at the top of their lungs.
Speaker 1 (12:02):
So let's get into it. Let's get into it.
Speaker 2 (12:04):
But Elsiefest, all right, So Elsiaefest is going to hit
the rooftop at Peer seventeen ta gets on sale now, right,
They are right now as as we speak at AXS
dot Com. So Peer seventeen September eight, that's going to
be soon. Yes, what who's performing? Talk about it?
Speaker 3 (12:23):
What's what I love about? Okay? So if you if
you think about if people are listening, they're like, they
don't really know. It's like Broadway, So that just means
people from Broadway shows. It's there's such a large swath
of people who are known artists that have been influenced
by Broadway. So if you think of like this would
be you know, Grand Grand Hope. Maybe down the line,
if you think of somebody like Okay, the Who, Green Day,
(12:45):
Bette Midler, Barbis streisand to Alicia Keys. When you think
of all these people, what do they all have in common?
They've all had ties to Broadway and not small ones,
like pretty significant ones. So my my goals to kind
of make as big as of a sort of spectrum
of people from the Broadway world come together for this vessel.
So this year we're lucky enough to have Lizzie McAlpine,
(13:06):
who's such an exquisite singer songwriter and has such a
has had such a wonderful wave of popularity these past
few years. She's not traditionally somebody would think as a
Broadway person, but she's so outspoken about her love for Broadway,
and she's always on you know, Instagram live doing covers
of like deep Broadway things. Even though she's like a
beloved artist in you know, the the interwebs, of of
(13:28):
in the streaming world and on TikTok, so you know,
having her as one of our headliners is really great.
On the other side of that, we have Rachel Zegler,
who is you know, we know her from West Side Story.
I'm just about to be the new snow White. She's
coming to Broadway as Juliette and Roman and Juliet about her.
Speaker 1 (13:43):
So you know.
Speaker 3 (13:45):
Jordan Fisher, who's who's kind of my my obsession is
to sort of get as many cross pollinating people as possible.
We have Joy Woods who's currently killing it in The Notebook,
who was also one of the urchins in Little Sperh Horrors.
Will Butler, Well Butler who wrote the music for Stereophonic,
also from Arcade Fire, so gosh.
Speaker 1 (14:05):
We have John gollag Jr.
Speaker 3 (14:06):
John Gallagher Junior, of course, and he he wanted Tony
for Spring Awakening, but he was also an American idiot,
and he himself is his own you know. He's a
wonderful singer songwriter, and he's going to be in the
new Avid Brothers show Swept Away. I mean, I get
I'm tripping over myself because there's so many people. We've
just added people for people who are a fan of
the descension.
Speaker 1 (14:27):
Who's going to be there? Yeah, I wish who's who
will be there.
Speaker 3 (14:31):
Yeah, we added the people you know love the Descendants
from from the Disney Channel, the new film Descendant's Rise
of the Red. We have Darrel Renee who's in that film,
and that's not stereotypical broadly, but it's Broadway inspired, right,
So that's kind of like the key sort of a
descriptor is Broadway inspired people.
Speaker 2 (14:52):
So it's something able to keep in mind. I'll take
you back to twenty twenty one, the last LG Fest
and some of these performers. Back then a lot people
had never heard of them, but they were just getting
to know them, and now they're right the uh Cynthia
Arrivos of the world and the Leslie Odam Juniors of
the world.
Speaker 3 (15:09):
Otem was one of our first performers at the very
first Elson. Titus Burgess was there, Leah Michelle was there.
I mean that twenty nineteen. Can I tell you who
is like at the bottom not I don't want to
say bottom of the bill, but like I may have
like for I may have not mentioned them when we
were proponing it in twenty nineteen. Do you know who's
at our twenty nineteen ELC Fest.
Speaker 1 (15:26):
You gotta remind me.
Speaker 3 (15:27):
Ari Debos and Olivia Rodrigo, right what. Olivia Rodrigo was
there for High School Musical, the musical of the series,
right uh. And Ari was there. She was performing because
she was in the Donna Summer Show. And it's just
it's amazing to see the places these people have gone
since they're they were always stars. But it's interesting how
(15:49):
you know you stick around long enough.
Speaker 1 (15:50):
Well that's the thing.
Speaker 2 (15:51):
Now, the thing about this the rundown for the run
of show for this year, this year, these are the
stars that you if you're a Broadway fanatic or fantic
all the above, you know who they are. If you
don't know who they are, you will know who they
are next year. I mean, that's why it's important to
check out Elsiefest on Peer seventeen exact this year. Yes,
(16:11):
and you can't get tickets at axs dot com And
it's happening September eighth, So I mean, roll in, get
your friends. I mean, I would take I would buy
a row if you can find one, and that would
be awesome.
Speaker 3 (16:22):
And it's a great way to discover new talent that
you may not have known. I mean, it's been so
fun watching these artists grow and kind of take over
in their own in their own way. But so often
do I find people people come to the show one
of my biggest compliments is they didn't know what they
were getting into. It's like, oh, I didn't really know
Broadway or didn't know this person. I came to this
one person. But by the end, because I can rely
(16:43):
on the caliber of talent for Broadway people just putting
on an amazing show, I'm never worried about, God, I
hope I'm not jigsing myself about after the show people
having an experience that was very unique to that show,
and people going, oh, I need to go see more
Broadway shows. I do so, And so who's that that was?
What a singer? I'm like, Yeah, that's kind of that's
(17:03):
Broadway's deal.
Speaker 2 (17:04):
So much fun to watch the LCI festers and there's
a bar, of course there is, And we have.
Speaker 3 (17:08):
Maurice Crisis there, who's always been one of our you know,
beloved partners for many years. We talked about piano bars.
They're playing songs in between sets and everyone's singing along.
It's it's just a big, rollicking good time for Broaday
people and non Broadably people alike.
Speaker 2 (17:21):
All Right, Darren, let's put you to the test, and
then we're gonna talk about your show. Please finish the lyric, boy,
can you handle this too easy?
Speaker 1 (17:33):
Oh?
Speaker 3 (17:33):
Bet your bottom dollar. That's a morrow, but a great.
Speaker 1 (17:39):
Song there'll be sung. Okay, let me, let me, let
me check it up a little bit. Here we go.
Speaker 3 (17:45):
Business like show business, no business. I know my business,
so everything about it is a feeling Craig for me.
Speaker 2 (18:02):
Gent.
Speaker 3 (18:05):
The truth is I never the time.
Speaker 1 (18:10):
This is child's play. Hold on, give the.
Speaker 3 (18:19):
Get rid of because I'm a coma and you are,
aren't we all?
Speaker 1 (18:29):
Hold on? Hold on, here we go.
Speaker 3 (18:32):
Whoa boots? Oh that's right. I couldn't tell you the
rest of those. That's there you go. I'm sorry, Billy,
I'm sorry, Cindy Lauper, stop to dream him. Oh it's
Brian's version to Brian Soakes Mitchell. That's one of the
greatest recordings at time.
Speaker 1 (18:51):
I guess you know it. Okay, Brian, Okay, here's hell young, Hello,
young lovers.
Speaker 3 (19:01):
Wherever I mean? I could have named the singers, the shows,
the productions and the composers of every single one of
those where useful nowhere. That's the skill that I don't
think you'll get to you'll get this one because well,
you started in this one. It's time holiday. I wish
I starred in this one. I did it, But that's cabaret.
(19:24):
Life is a cabaret.
Speaker 1 (19:25):
I saw you do cabaret.
Speaker 3 (19:27):
I think you saw me as sort of a gender bendy,
a character in Hedwig and the Angry and which cabaret
also has echoes of operations.
Speaker 1 (19:39):
And that's a very delicate way of handling the situation.
Was one of the greatest shows ever. And I just
turned sixty, so I can screw things up.
Speaker 3 (19:46):
That's all right. They have similar things.
Speaker 1 (19:49):
I never played this for you.
Speaker 3 (19:52):
Oh yeah, that's a good one.
Speaker 1 (19:54):
Do you dare me?
Speaker 3 (19:55):
That's you can if you want this. That's my acoustic
cover of of this song titled dream Time Gone By. Yeah,
that's my acoustic melo version.
Speaker 2 (20:08):
Miss You came to my apartment one night with your
guitar and you sang this to me and my dog.
Speaker 1 (20:12):
Really you did.
Speaker 3 (20:14):
I think I was probably on something. I don't remember that,
of course I remember that. When you describe it, it
sounds so much more sultric. You came to my apartment.
Speaker 1 (20:23):
Saying this to me.
Speaker 3 (20:24):
Although I feel like I was probably like drinking with you,
and I was like playing by myself in a corner,
and you probably witnessed it as opposed to me, like, no, you.
Speaker 1 (20:31):
Played it to be on your phone?
Speaker 3 (20:33):
Oh there you go, Okay, Yeah, see I knew there
was something wrong there.
Speaker 2 (20:37):
Yeah, nothing romantic, all right, Darren Chris. You know every
once one of a song will come out. For instance,
have you heard the New Lady Gaga Bruno Mars song.
Speaker 3 (20:48):
No. I was on the way over here. I actually
wrote down to myself like, oh yeah, new New Lady Gaga.
Speaker 1 (20:53):
Did you hear it? No, I haven't heard yet.
Speaker 3 (20:54):
Honestly, you know what happened. I was in I was
in the car, and I was I saw it on
my phone with like notification. I was like, I'm not
gonna listen to this until I have really good headphones.
Speaker 2 (21:02):
One of the comments on the text was this would
be perfect for Glee.
Speaker 3 (21:09):
Well, a lot of things would we did all the
heads every I mean, there's such a by the end
of the year, there's like a good twenty songs that
I was like, I probably would have sung the song Clay.
I probably would have thrown this or I would have
asked for it. Ord over Street, of course, I do.
We love I think he's here somewhere or now. Yeah, Chords,
(21:29):
but we have we have a problem. Cord and I
go out and we get snotchlinging crazy.
Speaker 1 (21:33):
You go out with other Creek cast members.
Speaker 3 (21:37):
We had something unique and specific to our relationships. All
three way you boys got the whiz mister mister Duran Bolly,
what an honor?
Speaker 1 (21:46):
Debbie will double up? Okay, Okay, So Darren cla on Broadway.
Speaker 2 (21:51):
One of the reasons he's back here in beautiful New
York City is a show called Maybe Happy Ending.
Speaker 3 (21:56):
If I'm wrong, is it taking you everything to not
make a dirty joke about that? Just are you holding back?
Speaker 1 (22:02):
Walked into that?
Speaker 3 (22:03):
Okay? Good? I mean it is inevitable. So let's just
peel that band aid right as fast as we can.
Speaker 2 (22:08):
So I read the synopsis for this show that you're in,
and I'm thinking, Wow, someone was someone was going through
Gandhi's stash.
Speaker 3 (22:16):
Where's this going?
Speaker 2 (22:18):
And and uh came up with this incredible storyline where
can correct me if I'm wrong? Two obsolete retired robots,
which you are one of, strike up an unexpected friendship
that might even be Love in Soul, South Korea in
an apartment. Yeah, explain this to me. Uh well, it's
(22:39):
a it's a fair question. Well, I mean, you know
a thing or two about being obsolete Elvis, so.
Speaker 1 (22:43):
That being in I'm obsoletely I have no stay for
the jokes.
Speaker 3 (22:53):
No, it's uh well, first of all, it's it's a
wildly original show, which and this is not to uh
poo poo any of the shows that have perhaps more familiarity.
We were talking about The Outsider as we're talking, there's
a lot of shows that are based on films and
music and excuse me, and just books and ip that
we're familiar with. Because you know, putting up a Broadway
show is hard, so you know, you want to be
sure that there's some kind of familiarity. This is a huge,
(23:14):
you know, endeavor, because I have to do that thing
that most artists have to do when ask about their project,
which is try and explain it.
Speaker 1 (23:22):
You know.
Speaker 3 (23:22):
It's not like, oh, of course Cabaret, I get it,
Oh of course Headwig and the NGRNE, I get it,
Little shop Hoarse. This is, like you said, this is
a unique little story about It takes place one hundred
years in the future, about what happens when our technology
becomes more humanoid, and what happens when we're a little
more you know, if the series and the Alexas of
the world become actually more human like, when they become obsolete,
(23:46):
what do we do with them? You know, we have
a hard enough time throwing away old sweater, is how
do we feel about something that you know is more
like somebody you have a relationship with. And so the
show takes place in a sort of a retirement home
for these obsolete you know, helper bots, and they're coming
to grips with their own I guess, for lack of
(24:08):
a better word, mortality, and they kind of meet under
these funny circumstances and they hatch this plan to find
their previous owners. The storytake starts with I play this
helper bot, who's like a Model three in a world
of model like I don't know fifteen's who's kind of
wasting way in his little like I don't I don't
want to call it a cell by any means, but
(24:29):
his little his little spot. And the story starts where
Oliver is just waiting for his owner to pick him up.
See if you.
Speaker 2 (24:37):
Put it that way, it's a genius move. Yeah, whoever
wrote this fabulous.
Speaker 3 (24:42):
It's I mean, I think also when they wrote this story,
you know, things like AI were something of a sci
fi concept, and now it's much more common for people
to understand all generations, understand ais impending and current, you know,
utility and all this gary things about and all the
kind of exciting things about it people are aware of.
(25:04):
And this kind of explores a lot of that and
a potential future that we might be facing. But again,
we have a musical about two help er bots in Soul,
Korea one hundred years in the future. I get excited
about things that I go, wait, I've never I don't,
I've never heard anything like that before.
Speaker 1 (25:23):
That's the thing.
Speaker 2 (25:24):
And someone who can actually spark this story, I find
that fascinating.
Speaker 3 (25:29):
There's so much I want to say about the show,
but I get conscious about time and everything that we
have on Live in the air. But the bottom line
here is that it is again widely original and to me,
a really exciting piece of theater. That is directly I
was gonna say antithetical, but I don't. Again, I don't
want to like antagonize any of the other shows that
(25:50):
are that perhaps have a bigger familiarity. I think it's
just a great counterpoint, a great counterweight to things that
people are familiar with and to take a chance on
something new. And also here's the here's the ace in
the hall that I think I'm going to try and
promote as much as I can. This is going to
be a spectacle and a half.
Speaker 1 (26:06):
What do you mean by that? Oh?
Speaker 3 (26:07):
I think people think this is going to be a small, cute,
little show about robots in the future. This is a
like like like like can I say, I can say
balls to the walls? Balls to the walls? Like spectacle
in a way that you know in the eighties we
had Miss Saigon and Phantom of the Opera, these huge
theatrical spectacles that like when you went to the theater
(26:28):
it was like, whoa, how do they do that?
Speaker 1 (26:29):
And this will rival then, I think so will be
a chandelier.
Speaker 3 (26:32):
Wow. I think there will be something like a chandelier
that will be at the new version of like, Oh
my god, like that's the big thing to see on broad.
Speaker 1 (26:39):
Well Challenges on I can't wait to see it.
Speaker 3 (26:41):
Ye?
Speaker 1 (26:41):
Yeah? When is it open? October?
Speaker 3 (26:43):
October? Yeah, October that it was previews and then we
opened officially in November.
Speaker 1 (26:47):
So you should probably read the script.
Speaker 3 (26:48):
What do you think I should probably read descript, listen
to music. No, the music's fabulous, and then I get
to be guys. This is my second time at the Belasco.
My name is on the marque right now and westward
Fourth just a couple of blocks down, and I'm sharing
the marquee with a young news Arlotte Hell and Jayshen,
which is really exciting because I guess this is the
first time I've ever been like the veteran in the cast.
Speaker 2 (27:06):
Hey veteran Darren Chris, what's it like to drive through
the Broadway district of New York City and see your
name on a marquee again.
Speaker 3 (27:15):
It's exciting. It's good for you if.
Speaker 1 (27:17):
You're ready to put your feedback on the stage.
Speaker 3 (27:19):
I'm so excited. I'm really excited for people to see
this show, and I'm excited for people to just for
it to finally be out there and word of mouth
to get around and I don't have to do all
the legwork of like trying to explain what this show is.
It's like trying to explain fan of the opera, trying
to explain I don't dear of Enhanson from the you know,
from nothing, it's kind of a pain. Whereas once people
see it and understand what this is, I'm so excited
(27:40):
to be showing up for it every day.
Speaker 2 (27:41):
Maybe happy ending a preview start October sixteenth, opening night
November twelfth. Of course, congratulations to Darren and of course
elsiefest Axcess dot com. That show's coming up to September eighth.
You better hop on that now. It's going to be
an amazing day.
Speaker 3 (27:56):
Are you going to be there, Elvis dat? I hope
so I just lie to me let me be there.
Speaker 1 (28:03):
Yeah, of course everybody will beat it, right if some
free tickets. It's a Sunday. Oh, we're in town.
Speaker 3 (28:10):
I live that you're checking right now, don't you on
the air that we're live on the air. Thank you
for coming by, Thank you for having me, guys, I'm
always so happy to be here.
Speaker 2 (28:18):
Thank you for for always including me in the family.
And all the info about all the above. We'll have
an Elvis rand show on Instagram, so there's no problem. Darren,
Chris fabrious, thank you, my friend. Megany Stallion, good morning,
Mercedes benz in.
Speaker 2 (00:02):
Wow, it's been a month of Sundays since we've had
Darren Chris on the show. Hi Darren, Hi guys, Hi daddy, Hi,
Hi baby. I've never been in this room ever.
Speaker 3 (00:14):
This is crazy. You guys moved uptown. You're uptown gals
now we are?
Speaker 1 (00:17):
Yeah? Can you believe it?
Speaker 2 (00:18):
And of course he almost went to the old studios downtown.
I'm glad we detored you to the problem. Downtown boy
hanging out with uptown girls. That's my that's my thing.
Speaker 3 (00:30):
So much to talk about, so much we haven't I mean, look,
last time, I haven't seen you in person for I
don't know, at least five or six years, because you've
been on a screen or you know, fallowing away in
your palace in Santa Fe while.
Speaker 1 (00:43):
Talking.
Speaker 3 (00:44):
Oh you know what I'm talking about.
Speaker 1 (00:46):
Stop it. Stop looking at yourself on the screen.
Speaker 3 (00:48):
I'm seeing. I'm just making sure that I don't that
you don't look as oh good, your face is covered
by a mic.
Speaker 2 (00:54):
I'll look like Pam at hell. Okay, So Darren, okay, okay,
let's get to business. Okay, stop looking at yourself. Let's
radio anymore.
Speaker 3 (01:01):
It's basically TV.
Speaker 1 (01:02):
I got to close up.
Speaker 3 (01:03):
Yeah, this is it? Oh no, oh no, nor okay,
get that water bottle.
Speaker 2 (01:09):
Okay, okay, Darren christ is here. Let's let's reframe the conversation.
All right, really we have business to talk about. Yes,
Elsie Fest is back, hasn't You haven't had Elsie fest
since twenty one?
Speaker 3 (01:19):
I believe, Yeah, twenty twenty one.
Speaker 1 (01:21):
We're back. And how can you top that one?
Speaker 2 (01:23):
That was You could have ended it there and it
would have been that was just great because that was
an amazing show.
Speaker 1 (01:29):
God, you're sweet.
Speaker 3 (01:30):
For those of you who are listening that don't know
Elsie Festus, this is something that I feel like has
become an Elvis Duran show tradition every time we've we
started the show in twenty fifteen. It's crazy. I know,
what's what's a couple of years ago?
Speaker 2 (01:42):
Everyone listening because we have people in Miami and Philly ads,
we're like, what is Elsie fest.
Speaker 3 (01:46):
I think the closest comparison, I mean, because we're at
the iHeart family table right now, the closest comparison is
it's sort of like an iHeart lineup in the way
that I heard Music Festival has this sort of like
all killer, no filler, a bunch of people from a
certain genre or world. In this case, Elsiefest is a
collection of Broadway inspired artists. So that's people from obviously
(02:06):
from the stage, but screen and music and comedy, people
that have some sort of connection to Broadway. That is
sort of like a super lineup, kind of one night
only thing of I don't know everybody that if you
love Broadway and the Broadway ecosystem, then we have people
from that performing.
Speaker 2 (02:23):
I love elsie Fest because these are the performers that
play these gigantic and fun and great and serious roles
in shows on Broadway and off Broadway. This gives us
elsie Fest gives them an opportunity to come out and
just kind of do their own thing.
Speaker 3 (02:37):
Yeah, they can sing their own songs, yeah, exactly. And
also for audience members, you know, probably tickets they ain't
cheap man. And that's like its own problem in its
own conversation that we could go on forever. But if
you're going to see I don't know, like certain your
favorite divas at Carnegie Hall, it's going to be its
own concert, but you got to get sort of a
dressed up nature to it. Whereas Elsie is. You know,
(02:58):
you can let your hair down. It's an out door
music festival, so you can like drink and be rowdy
and sing along to a degree that you know, for
at a piano bar, and we're singing our favorite show tunes.
That rowdiness is encouraged and allowed, as opposed to if
you go to Broadway Theater. It's kind of this nature,
but the enthusiasm is the same. So that's what Elsie
Fest is. And we got a really killer lineup that
(03:19):
I'm super proud to have because I feel like it's
a great sort of splash back into the pool that
we've been away from for a few years.
Speaker 2 (03:25):
And I'm going to get into that. And another thing
is the venue this year is fantastic. You know we
love Peer seventeen. Oh yeah, the rooftop is what a
view and Brooklyn whatever. It's gonna be an amazing Elsie
Fest this year. I want to go through these artists
just a moment, okay, please in a few moments. Also
want to talk about your new show that's coming up,
and there's so much to talk about us.
Speaker 1 (03:47):
Even read the script and it starts in like a week.
Speaker 3 (03:49):
Yeah, yeah, who knows what that is that's not true.
Speaker 2 (03:53):
There is just such a wonderful, wonderful tumble with Broadway
and all Broadway right now, a good tumble. It's a good,
good thing. After a pandemic. We didn't know if theater
in the stage in New York City would ever recover.
That was a sad, sad time. I know, pandemic is
way back in the rear view mar it's not even
of recent days. But we never thought it would ever
(04:16):
ever come back. And now people are coming back to
New York City and droves they want to see these shows.
Speaker 1 (04:22):
Danielle. I mean, you're you're going to see shows like
every year. I love it.
Speaker 3 (04:25):
Every day one of my favorite things to do go
into the city, see a show, get a nice dinner.
Speaker 1 (04:29):
It's nice.
Speaker 3 (04:30):
Yeah. I think we were just saying before this interview,
like New York feels like it's sort of just awakening again,
and there's this sort of vibrancy that I think we
all felt was missing. I think a lot of you know,
major metropolitan areas are you know, new places are opening.
There was this period where all your favorite places were
going and now there's this I think in the last
year I have new favorite places that have been open
(04:52):
for like a year and a half. So we've risen
from the ashes a little bit and it's exciting. Yeah,
people are coming back to the You know, it used to.
Speaker 2 (05:00):
Be New York City smelled like urine and pooh, and
now it just smells like pooh, well and marijuana, marijuana
to varying degrees of you know control. New York City
just add rain and it makes its own gravy. It's
kind of a beautiful thing.
Speaker 3 (05:18):
Wow, this is really selling New York City.
Speaker 1 (05:21):
It's okay, I love New York City.
Speaker 2 (05:22):
Okay, So what are in your opinion, because you are
a theater nutt, what are the shows?
Speaker 1 (05:28):
The shows right now?
Speaker 3 (05:30):
Well, I mean, I don't say fast is coming up,
but that's another conversation. Uh, I mean, gosh, there are
so many things about to open, and we're kind of
in this crossover section and you're kind of post Tony season,
so you know, i'd be remiss not to mention my
own show, maybe Happy Ending, which is opening in the fall.
Of course I'm biased, but I don't know. I mean,
(05:52):
if I'm gonna shout out one thing, it did very
well last year. It was sort of less of a
musical more of a play with music, and also the
gentleman who wrote the music is gonna be performing Elsie,
So I'm going to tie it all in together Stereophonic.
If you haven't got a chance to see Stereophonic, I
kind of I'm proud of my dual citizenship between the
music world and the more kind of traditional theater world.
And it's a really wonderful portrait of I don't know,
(06:15):
the recording process, the creative process. Yeah, I think that's
a really cool piece to check out if you haven't
gotten Outsiders. Outsiders very sexy? Was it hot? Guys with feelings?
Speaker 1 (06:27):
Isn't that.
Speaker 3 (06:29):
I haven't seen. I've been away guys because I was
in Los Angeles.
Speaker 2 (06:33):
Odd Man out very interesting. It's all in the dark. No,
I couldn't go, but they extended the wrong.
Speaker 3 (06:38):
You guys are probably closer to the pulse than I've
been because I've been I've been away from the city
for a little bit, so I know what's open. So
I'm actually kind of hesitating to like give my opinions because.
Speaker 2 (06:47):
I so d Darren and I back in the day
he would call up and go, let's go get drunk tonight.
Speaker 1 (06:52):
And go see an interesting show.
Speaker 3 (06:56):
Or it was either let's go see a show, we'd
end up getting drunk, or it was let's get drunk
and and then we'd end up like go, No, We'd
end up I said let's go see a show, but
we get drunk, or say let's get drunk and we'd
end up seeing a show. One of the I didn't
know they would be together.
Speaker 1 (07:08):
But we saw some good show.
Speaker 3 (07:09):
We did see some good shows together.
Speaker 2 (07:13):
Glenn Close, Oh Sunset fule Ofvard, remember, and they we
went backstage to meet her, and then they thought I
was gonna stab her.
Speaker 1 (07:19):
Do you remember that I someone tried to kill her.
Someone tried to kill her the night before. And they
looked at me like, I don't know.
Speaker 3 (07:26):
Wow, I don't know what to say to that. I
was like, Elvis, what I think? I think? Glenn Close
was just happy to see you. But maybe that's just
your default assumption when you meet people as five us
as Glenn Close.
Speaker 1 (07:39):
But that was our thing.
Speaker 3 (07:41):
Be your thing again, because now he's in New York.
It's back again. I haven't seen you. It's so long
because again, the pandemic was that was wacky.
Speaker 1 (07:48):
You've been a lot going on.
Speaker 2 (07:49):
Okay, let's talk about your bi coastal thing Los Angeles.
Now you're on your eleventh apartment in New York City
because you're back for the show and for Elsie Fest.
Speaker 3 (07:57):
That's crazy? Is it?
Speaker 1 (07:58):
Eleven apartments in New York City?
Speaker 3 (08:00):
It's crazy. I do not recommend it. I do not, guys.
I wouldn't say that I'm like a pro now at moving,
but I definitely qualify for like the miners, for sure,
you just.
Speaker 4 (08:09):
Get like a furner's department. Are you actually moving your
stuff back and forth over and over?
Speaker 3 (08:13):
I don't. I don't want to bore our listeners with
the nuance and complexities of the answer to that. It's
but it's tedious, annoying, and like the storage units, the
borrowing of cars, the whole thing. Moving to New York
City is its own circle of health that I have,
like I have all, I have all the codes. So well,
I'm glad we haven't talked for a while. I don't
want to help you move, so thank god, exactly you don't.
(08:33):
This is such a tedious conversation to go into. But
if you've ever moved into major city, New York is
probably one of the hardest and worst to do it,
and let alone several times in one calendar year, which
I've done.
Speaker 2 (08:43):
Just turning us on Darren Chris is here. We're about
to talk about Elsfest, which you need to be a
part of, and his new show which is going to
hit in October.
Speaker 1 (08:50):
I do believe yes, being.
Speaker 2 (08:52):
An actor on that West Coast versus East Coast, I mean,
and how it affects you personally? Which which do you
prefer the I'm in front of your face or being
on a stage.
Speaker 3 (09:02):
Well, I mean this is this is entirely personal. I mean,
I come from the theater, so obviously I have a
yen for the theater. And there are more there's a
higher concentration of theater people in New York. Which is
not to say that I dislike Los Angeles. You know,
I've had the great fortune of getting to have some
kind of career in film and television in in Los Angeles.
(09:22):
But and it's a it's a different vibe apples and oranges.
I mean, I I prefer being on stage because I'm
a people. I like people. I like human beings. Even
me being excited about seeing you in person is like
a direct extension of my preference to being around human beings.
You know, there is an immediacy to me, an inevitability
(09:44):
that is required of you know, the human experience, which
is just being with other people. That theater is you know,
and so I so I love that. You know, film
and television is is separate. It is inherently an m
person impersonal. I am pr no. How would you spell
the rest of personal impersonal art form? Because you know
(10:04):
you see it later. It's edited together by a sort
of team of people, which again is its own beautiful
art form. But you cannot deny the the I don't
know the magic of being in person.
Speaker 1 (10:13):
What about living?
Speaker 3 (10:14):
Would you rather live here or live in La, which,
if you had a choice, it is My life has
been bifurcated between both personalities in LA and New York.
If you have to choose, you you're just screaming with
privilege because those are two of the greatest cities in
the whole world. And I'm not going to sit here
and give the age old conversation of the two versus
each other. They are both beautiful. Yin Yang's that I'm
(10:36):
always sorry, I'm always sad to leave, but always happy
to get to the other one.
Speaker 1 (10:39):
You know, Wow, you should run for politics.
Speaker 3 (10:43):
Well, they're both of the greatest cities in the world. Man,
It's like, I love both of them dearly and I
wouldn't be.
Speaker 1 (10:48):
Able to live without them.
Speaker 4 (10:48):
I want to go back to something you said earlier
about people singing like you can sing it Elsie Fest.
You can sing all with everybody, but you can't really
do it when you're in the theater. Does that really
throw you, guys off when people start doing it, Because
I've definitely been at shows people start singing along.
Speaker 3 (11:01):
Well, you know, the intent is so pure that I'm
never gonna get mad at intent, you know, even though
it sometimes clashes with like protocol or so you hate that. No, yeah, no,
not at all. I think I think it's very sweet.
Speaker 1 (11:14):
I think.
Speaker 3 (11:15):
I mean, it just depends on the venue. It's amazing
how venue dictates vibe. You know, you could see the
same show in different venues and it and it yields
different attitudes. It's like the difference between seeing a movie
and IMAX and a crowded theater and opening night, or
watching it on a plane. It changes the way that
you like the thing. It's a complete psychological sort of
(11:36):
mind trick. So if you can displace that enthusiasm correctly,
then you can encourage it for not only the performers,
but for the audience. So again that's why Elsie to
me was so important. Again, I was seeing these I
go to, these small cabaret venues or these really dressed
up venues, and I was like, this should be this
should feel like Coachella, this should feel like iHeart radiofests,
should feel like you know, any number of these festivals
(11:58):
where people come and are excited and sing along and
scream at the top of their lungs.
Speaker 1 (12:02):
So let's get into it. Let's get into it.
Speaker 2 (12:04):
But Elsiefest, all right, So Elsiaefest is going to hit
the rooftop at Peer seventeen ta gets on sale now, right,
They are right now as as we speak at AXS
dot Com. So Peer seventeen September eight, that's going to
be soon. Yes, what who's performing? Talk about it?
Speaker 3 (12:23):
What's what I love about? Okay? So if you if
you think about if people are listening, they're like, they
don't really know. It's like Broadway, So that just means
people from Broadway shows. It's there's such a large swath
of people who are known artists that have been influenced
by Broadway. So if you think of like this would
be you know, Grand Grand Hope. Maybe down the line,
if you think of somebody like Okay, the Who, Green Day,
(12:45):
Bette Midler, Barbis streisand to Alicia Keys. When you think
of all these people, what do they all have in common?
They've all had ties to Broadway and not small ones,
like pretty significant ones. So my my goals to kind
of make as big as of a sort of spectrum
of people from the Broadway world come together for this vessel.
So this year we're lucky enough to have Lizzie McAlpine,
(13:06):
who's such an exquisite singer songwriter and has such a
has had such a wonderful wave of popularity these past
few years. She's not traditionally somebody would think as a
Broadway person, but she's so outspoken about her love for Broadway,
and she's always on you know, Instagram live doing covers
of like deep Broadway things. Even though she's like a
beloved artist in you know, the the interwebs, of of
(13:28):
in the streaming world and on TikTok, so you know,
having her as one of our headliners is really great.
On the other side of that, we have Rachel Zegler,
who is you know, we know her from West Side Story.
I'm just about to be the new snow White. She's
coming to Broadway as Juliette and Roman and Juliet about her.
Speaker 1 (13:43):
So you know.
Speaker 3 (13:45):
Jordan Fisher, who's who's kind of my my obsession is
to sort of get as many cross pollinating people as possible.
We have Joy Woods who's currently killing it in The Notebook,
who was also one of the urchins in Little Sperh Horrors.
Will Butler, Well Butler who wrote the music for Stereophonic,
also from Arcade Fire, so gosh.
Speaker 1 (14:05):
We have John gollag Jr.
Speaker 3 (14:06):
John Gallagher Junior, of course, and he he wanted Tony
for Spring Awakening, but he was also an American idiot,
and he himself is his own you know. He's a
wonderful singer songwriter, and he's going to be in the
new Avid Brothers show Swept Away. I mean, I get
I'm tripping over myself because there's so many people. We've
just added people for people who are a fan of
the descension.
Speaker 1 (14:27):
Who's going to be there? Yeah, I wish who's who
will be there.
Speaker 3 (14:31):
Yeah, we added the people you know love the Descendants
from from the Disney Channel, the new film Descendant's Rise
of the Red. We have Darrel Renee who's in that film,
and that's not stereotypical broadly, but it's Broadway inspired, right,
So that's kind of like the key sort of a
descriptor is Broadway inspired people.
Speaker 2 (14:52):
So it's something able to keep in mind. I'll take
you back to twenty twenty one, the last LG Fest
and some of these performers. Back then a lot people
had never heard of them, but they were just getting
to know them, and now they're right the uh Cynthia
Arrivos of the world and the Leslie Odam Juniors of
the world.
Speaker 3 (15:09):
Otem was one of our first performers at the very
first Elson. Titus Burgess was there, Leah Michelle was there.
I mean that twenty nineteen. Can I tell you who
is like at the bottom not I don't want to
say bottom of the bill, but like I may have
like for I may have not mentioned them when we
were proponing it in twenty nineteen. Do you know who's
at our twenty nineteen ELC Fest.
Speaker 1 (15:26):
You gotta remind me.
Speaker 3 (15:27):
Ari Debos and Olivia Rodrigo, right what. Olivia Rodrigo was
there for High School Musical, the musical of the series,
right uh. And Ari was there. She was performing because
she was in the Donna Summer Show. And it's just
it's amazing to see the places these people have gone
since they're they were always stars. But it's interesting how
(15:49):
you know you stick around long enough.
Speaker 1 (15:50):
Well that's the thing.
Speaker 2 (15:51):
Now, the thing about this the rundown for the run
of show for this year, this year, these are the
stars that you if you're a Broadway fanatic or fantic
all the above, you know who they are. If you
don't know who they are, you will know who they
are next year. I mean, that's why it's important to
check out Elsiefest on Peer seventeen exact this year. Yes,
(16:11):
and you can't get tickets at axs dot com And
it's happening September eighth, So I mean, roll in, get
your friends. I mean, I would take I would buy
a row if you can find one, and that would
be awesome.
Speaker 3 (16:22):
And it's a great way to discover new talent that
you may not have known. I mean, it's been so
fun watching these artists grow and kind of take over
in their own in their own way. But so often
do I find people people come to the show one
of my biggest compliments is they didn't know what they
were getting into. It's like, oh, I didn't really know
Broadway or didn't know this person. I came to this
one person. But by the end, because I can rely
(16:43):
on the caliber of talent for Broadway people just putting
on an amazing show, I'm never worried about, God, I
hope I'm not jigsing myself about after the show people
having an experience that was very unique to that show,
and people going, oh, I need to go see more
Broadway shows. I do so, And so who's that that was?
What a singer? I'm like, Yeah, that's kind of that's
(17:03):
Broadway's deal.
Speaker 2 (17:04):
So much fun to watch the LCI festers and there's
a bar, of course there is, And we have.
Speaker 3 (17:08):
Maurice Crisis there, who's always been one of our you know,
beloved partners for many years. We talked about piano bars.
They're playing songs in between sets and everyone's singing along.
It's it's just a big, rollicking good time for Broaday
people and non Broadably people alike.
Speaker 2 (17:21):
All Right, Darren, let's put you to the test, and
then we're gonna talk about your show. Please finish the lyric, boy,
can you handle this too easy?
Speaker 1 (17:33):
Oh?
Speaker 3 (17:33):
Bet your bottom dollar. That's a morrow, but a great.
Speaker 1 (17:39):
Song there'll be sung. Okay, let me, let me, let
me check it up a little bit. Here we go.
Speaker 3 (17:45):
Business like show business, no business. I know my business,
so everything about it is a feeling Craig for me.
Speaker 2 (18:02):
Gent.
Speaker 3 (18:05):
The truth is I never the time.
Speaker 1 (18:10):
This is child's play. Hold on, give the.
Speaker 3 (18:19):
Get rid of because I'm a coma and you are,
aren't we all?
Speaker 1 (18:29):
Hold on? Hold on, here we go.
Speaker 3 (18:32):
Whoa boots? Oh that's right. I couldn't tell you the
rest of those. That's there you go. I'm sorry, Billy,
I'm sorry, Cindy Lauper, stop to dream him. Oh it's
Brian's version to Brian Soakes Mitchell. That's one of the
greatest recordings at time.
Speaker 1 (18:51):
I guess you know it. Okay, Brian, Okay, here's hell young, Hello,
young lovers.
Speaker 3 (19:01):
Wherever I mean? I could have named the singers, the shows,
the productions and the composers of every single one of
those where useful nowhere. That's the skill that I don't
think you'll get to you'll get this one because well,
you started in this one. It's time holiday. I wish
I starred in this one. I did it, But that's cabaret.
(19:24):
Life is a cabaret.
Speaker 1 (19:25):
I saw you do cabaret.
Speaker 3 (19:27):
I think you saw me as sort of a gender bendy,
a character in Hedwig and the Angry and which cabaret
also has echoes of operations.
Speaker 1 (19:39):
And that's a very delicate way of handling the situation.
Was one of the greatest shows ever. And I just
turned sixty, so I can screw things up.
Speaker 3 (19:46):
That's all right. They have similar things.
Speaker 1 (19:49):
I never played this for you.
Speaker 3 (19:52):
Oh yeah, that's a good one.
Speaker 1 (19:54):
Do you dare me?
Speaker 3 (19:55):
That's you can if you want this. That's my acoustic
cover of of this song titled dream Time Gone By. Yeah,
that's my acoustic melo version.
Speaker 2 (20:08):
Miss You came to my apartment one night with your
guitar and you sang this to me and my dog.
Speaker 1 (20:12):
Really you did.
Speaker 3 (20:14):
I think I was probably on something. I don't remember that,
of course I remember that. When you describe it, it
sounds so much more sultric. You came to my apartment.
Speaker 1 (20:23):
Saying this to me.
Speaker 3 (20:24):
Although I feel like I was probably like drinking with you,
and I was like playing by myself in a corner,
and you probably witnessed it as opposed to me, like, no, you.
Speaker 1 (20:31):
Played it to be on your phone?
Speaker 3 (20:33):
Oh there you go, Okay, Yeah, see I knew there
was something wrong there.
Speaker 2 (20:37):
Yeah, nothing romantic, all right, Darren Chris. You know every
once one of a song will come out. For instance,
have you heard the New Lady Gaga Bruno Mars song.
Speaker 3 (20:48):
No. I was on the way over here. I actually
wrote down to myself like, oh yeah, new New Lady Gaga.
Speaker 1 (20:53):
Did you hear it? No, I haven't heard yet.
Speaker 3 (20:54):
Honestly, you know what happened. I was in I was
in the car, and I was I saw it on
my phone with like notification. I was like, I'm not
gonna listen to this until I have really good headphones.
Speaker 2 (21:02):
One of the comments on the text was this would
be perfect for Glee.
Speaker 3 (21:09):
Well, a lot of things would we did all the
heads every I mean, there's such a by the end
of the year, there's like a good twenty songs that
I was like, I probably would have sung the song Clay.
I probably would have thrown this or I would have
asked for it. Ord over Street, of course, I do.
We love I think he's here somewhere or now. Yeah, Chords,
(21:29):
but we have we have a problem. Cord and I
go out and we get snotchlinging crazy.
Speaker 1 (21:33):
You go out with other Creek cast members.
Speaker 3 (21:37):
We had something unique and specific to our relationships. All
three way you boys got the whiz mister mister Duran Bolly,
what an honor?
Speaker 1 (21:46):
Debbie will double up? Okay, Okay, So Darren cla on Broadway.
Speaker 2 (21:51):
One of the reasons he's back here in beautiful New
York City is a show called Maybe Happy Ending.
Speaker 3 (21:56):
If I'm wrong, is it taking you everything to not
make a dirty joke about that? Just are you holding back?
Speaker 1 (22:02):
Walked into that?
Speaker 3 (22:03):
Okay? Good? I mean it is inevitable. So let's just
peel that band aid right as fast as we can.
Speaker 2 (22:08):
So I read the synopsis for this show that you're in,
and I'm thinking, Wow, someone was someone was going through
Gandhi's stash.
Speaker 3 (22:16):
Where's this going?
Speaker 2 (22:18):
And and uh came up with this incredible storyline where
can correct me if I'm wrong? Two obsolete retired robots,
which you are one of, strike up an unexpected friendship
that might even be Love in Soul, South Korea in
an apartment. Yeah, explain this to me. Uh well, it's
(22:39):
a it's a fair question. Well, I mean, you know
a thing or two about being obsolete Elvis, so.
Speaker 1 (22:43):
That being in I'm obsoletely I have no stay for
the jokes.
Speaker 3 (22:53):
No, it's uh well, first of all, it's it's a
wildly original show, which and this is not to uh
poo poo any of the shows that have perhaps more familiarity.
We were talking about The Outsider as we're talking, there's
a lot of shows that are based on films and
music and excuse me, and just books and ip that
we're familiar with. Because you know, putting up a Broadway
show is hard, so you know, you want to be
sure that there's some kind of familiarity. This is a huge,
(23:14):
you know, endeavor, because I have to do that thing
that most artists have to do when ask about their project,
which is try and explain it.
Speaker 1 (23:22):
You know.
Speaker 3 (23:22):
It's not like, oh, of course Cabaret, I get it,
Oh of course Headwig and the NGRNE, I get it,
Little shop Hoarse. This is, like you said, this is
a unique little story about It takes place one hundred
years in the future, about what happens when our technology
becomes more humanoid, and what happens when we're a little
more you know, if the series and the Alexas of
the world become actually more human like, when they become obsolete,
(23:46):
what do we do with them? You know, we have
a hard enough time throwing away old sweater, is how
do we feel about something that you know is more
like somebody you have a relationship with. And so the
show takes place in a sort of a retirement home
for these obsolete you know, helper bots, and they're coming
to grips with their own I guess, for lack of
(24:08):
a better word, mortality, and they kind of meet under
these funny circumstances and they hatch this plan to find
their previous owners. The storytake starts with I play this
helper bot, who's like a Model three in a world
of model like I don't know fifteen's who's kind of
wasting way in his little like I don't I don't
want to call it a cell by any means, but
(24:29):
his little his little spot. And the story starts where
Oliver is just waiting for his owner to pick him up.
See if you.
Speaker 2 (24:37):
Put it that way, it's a genius move. Yeah, whoever
wrote this fabulous.
Speaker 3 (24:42):
It's I mean, I think also when they wrote this story,
you know, things like AI were something of a sci
fi concept, and now it's much more common for people
to understand all generations, understand ais impending and current, you know,
utility and all this gary things about and all the
kind of exciting things about it people are aware of.
(25:04):
And this kind of explores a lot of that and
a potential future that we might be facing. But again,
we have a musical about two help er bots in Soul,
Korea one hundred years in the future. I get excited
about things that I go, wait, I've never I don't,
I've never heard anything like that before.
Speaker 1 (25:23):
That's the thing.
Speaker 2 (25:24):
And someone who can actually spark this story, I find
that fascinating.
Speaker 3 (25:29):
There's so much I want to say about the show,
but I get conscious about time and everything that we
have on Live in the air. But the bottom line
here is that it is again widely original and to me,
a really exciting piece of theater. That is directly I
was gonna say antithetical, but I don't. Again, I don't
want to like antagonize any of the other shows that
(25:50):
are that perhaps have a bigger familiarity. I think it's
just a great counterpoint, a great counterweight to things that
people are familiar with and to take a chance on
something new. And also here's the here's the ace in
the hall that I think I'm going to try and
promote as much as I can. This is going to
be a spectacle and a half.
Speaker 1 (26:06):
What do you mean by that? Oh?
Speaker 3 (26:07):
I think people think this is going to be a small, cute,
little show about robots in the future. This is a
like like like like can I say, I can say
balls to the walls? Balls to the walls? Like spectacle
in a way that you know in the eighties we
had Miss Saigon and Phantom of the Opera, these huge
theatrical spectacles that like when you went to the theater
(26:28):
it was like, whoa, how do they do that?
Speaker 1 (26:29):
And this will rival then, I think so will be
a chandelier.
Speaker 3 (26:32):
Wow. I think there will be something like a chandelier
that will be at the new version of like, Oh
my god, like that's the big thing to see on broad.
Speaker 1 (26:39):
Well Challenges on I can't wait to see it.
Speaker 3 (26:41):
Ye?
Speaker 1 (26:41):
Yeah? When is it open? October?
Speaker 3 (26:43):
October? Yeah, October that it was previews and then we
opened officially in November.
Speaker 1 (26:47):
So you should probably read the script.
Speaker 3 (26:48):
What do you think I should probably read descript, listen
to music. No, the music's fabulous, and then I get
to be guys. This is my second time at the Belasco.
My name is on the marque right now and westward
Fourth just a couple of blocks down, and I'm sharing
the marquee with a young news Arlotte Hell and Jayshen,
which is really exciting because I guess this is the
first time I've ever been like the veteran in the cast.
Speaker 2 (27:06):
Hey veteran Darren Chris, what's it like to drive through
the Broadway district of New York City and see your
name on a marquee again.
Speaker 3 (27:15):
It's exciting. It's good for you if.
Speaker 1 (27:17):
You're ready to put your feedback on the stage.
Speaker 3 (27:19):
I'm so excited. I'm really excited for people to see
this show, and I'm excited for people to just for
it to finally be out there and word of mouth
to get around and I don't have to do all
the legwork of like trying to explain what this show is.
It's like trying to explain fan of the opera, trying
to explain I don't dear of Enhanson from the you know,
from nothing, it's kind of a pain. Whereas once people
see it and understand what this is, I'm so excited
(27:40):
to be showing up for it every day.
Speaker 2 (27:41):
Maybe happy ending a preview start October sixteenth, opening night
November twelfth. Of course, congratulations to Darren and of course
elsiefest Axcess dot com. That show's coming up to September eighth.
You better hop on that now. It's going to be
an amazing day.
Speaker 3 (27:56):
Are you going to be there, Elvis dat? I hope
so I just lie to me let me be there.
Speaker 1 (28:03):
Yeah, of course everybody will beat it, right if some
free tickets. It's a Sunday. Oh, we're in town.
Speaker 3 (28:10):
I live that you're checking right now, don't you on
the air that we're live on the air. Thank you
for coming by, Thank you for having me, guys, I'm
always so happy to be here.
Speaker 2 (28:18):
Thank you for for always including me in the family.
And all the info about all the above. We'll have
an Elvis rand show on Instagram, so there's no problem. Darren,
Chris fabrious, thank you, my friend. Megany Stallion, good morning,
Elvis Duran and the Morning Show ON DEMAND News
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