The Sunrise Episode - May Edition: Tony Noms, Story Time, and TED Talk

This week it's time for another sunrise episode! I talk Tony Award nominations, my latest brush with magic, give an impromptu TED talk with interview/job application advice, and throw in some bloopers at the end for good measure! 

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Time Codes:
00:00 - Opening Act: Tony Award Nominations
16:08 - Magic Branches
17:43 - Welcome to My TED Talk
25:05 - Curtain Call
29:54 - Bloopers

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Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:00

What's up everyone? Welcome to another episode of Down Once More. I'm your host, Matt, and this week we are doing another sunrise episode outside. So, what that's going to be is I have a few notes on the Tony Award noms because those dropped, and I want to talk about that a little bit. But then it will be just casual story time, uh, see where the episode takes us. So let's get in. This is a musical podcast after all. Let's get into the Tony Award nominations. Noms were revealed, and leading the pack in the musical world is The Lost Boys and Shmigadoon, which each have 12 nominations total. Uh Shmigadoon, I really enjoyed that Apple TV series. Very unfortunate, it got canceled after two seasons. Supposedly, the success of this on Broadway are kind of sparking uh conversations that it might be return with a season three. Because season three was already written, they had new songs and everything. So they could pick it up. I mean, you gotta get the finances in order and make sure cast is available. And Aaron Fiat currently on chess. Is he still in chess or did he get replaced? I don't know. But you got some of the key cast members, but people have other roles and responsibilities that they're dealing with. Um just got distracted by the bird flying and attaching. Oh, there's a bird back there too. Hello, bird. Uh this is my literal squirrel. Well, not literal squirrel, because bird's not a squirrel, but you get the picture. Um, but besides those two, ragtime was next up with 11 nominations, which I've talked about on here at length. Joshua Henry's performance as Colehouse in Ragtime. His voice is amazing, very impressed with it. And it did land him uh best leading actor in a musical nom, which we'll get to in a bit. And then Two Strangers Carry a Cake Across New York also had eight nominations. I just recently got into the Two Strangers uh cast album. Uh a co-worker of mine, we were talking about musicals, and she recommended it to me. I had heard of it before, had not listened to it before, so went started listening to the cast album and instantly got obsessed. Sam Tutney and Christiani Pitts are amazing in it, and like just from the opening number, New York is one that just really grabbed me. And I think one of my favorite opening numbers in a musical that I have heard in quite a while is a really fun score. The lyrics are fun. The story is essentially Sam Tutty plays a guy who is invited to his Estrange Father's wedding in New York. Now he's a foreigner and he's just so excited about New York, everything he knows about New York, he's learned from movies, and he references Home Alone 2 a lot in it. And so he comes to his Estrange Father's wedding hoping to reconnect with him. Uh, he's picked up at the airport by his father's bride's sister, uh, portrayed by Christiani Pitts, who then takes him through the city. They go on the mission to get the wedding cake, get it to the wedding, uh, learn more about each other, the city, a lot of uh emotional beats, a lot of fun beats. There's a song on the app when they're kind of going through her like Tinder, something like that, and it's very cleverly written and catchy, and one of my favorite songs on the album. So if you haven't listened to Two Strangers, Carry a Cake Across New York, I highly recommend you do. The cast album is fun. There is also a recording because it did originate in uh London back in 2024, I believe it was, and so it started out there and then transferred over to Broadway. But let's get into the key musical categories. Best musical is The Lost Boys, which is the musical adaptation of the classic movie Schmigadoon, Two Strangers, Carry Cake Across New York, and Titanic, which is the Celine Dion musical. And that one I don't know much about. I've heard great things, I've heard it's a lot of fun, but I haven't listened to any of the songs from it. I mean, besides, yes, I know some Celine Dion songs. I haven't dived into the story and what it's like at all. And The Lost Boys is a relatively new one. I think it just opened a month or so ago, and it's one I've heard some great things. Uh, Shoshana Bean is the only uh featured like actor or actress in this case that is nominated for it. No one got leading actor or actress knobs, but from all the technical categories, the book categories, it got right up there with Shmigadoon. And so, in that same vein, the same musicals that were nominated for best musical were nominated for best book of musical, which isn't too surprising. There's something that put it in the best musical category, right? Besides just the characters, the songs, the actors. So having a good book is key in this case. For best revival of musical, only three nominees: Ragtime, uh, Cats of the Jellicle Ball, and Rocky Horror Picture Show, which is another one that started fairly recently with uh Luke Evans as Dr. Frankenfurter, uh Stephanie Sue as uh Janet, and I I enjoy Rocky Hor for what it is. I didn't grow up on it like a lot of people. Uh, and Amy and I talked about it a little bit in I think the first episode that she was on. I I've been seeing that there are great performances on this. They were on one of the night shows, and um Luke Evans is fully committing to this role and doing an amazing job there, which got him an actor nom, uh, which we'll talk about here shortly. But I I've been seeing posts about just Rocky horror. One of the main things that there is about it are the callbacks where the audience uh kind of yells back the stage, uh, and that has been a thing since it got its like cult classic status for showings that were in theaters, but now it's translating to the live performances, and it is distracting for people who don't know. The musical is failing to like commit to an answer of hey, don't do call-outs as a live performance with live actors, or hey, it's part of the show, we want you to do it. They're not really giving an answer one way or another, which can be confusing for audiences because for some audiences who love this musical, the call-outs or the callbacks are a big portion of it. Amy even referenced them when we talked about it, and so I think that could be where it's struggling from like an and it's not really struggling, obviously. It got um numerous knobs, but from an audience perspective, for me, I think that would be distracting where I'm like I would be curious and interested to see the show because of the cast, because the music is catchy and fun, but I am someone who when I'm there to see live performances, I want to be able to fully enjoy those performers. So I am a little bit of a stick in the mud with that. I don't want people yelling out or making comments constantly throughout the show. I want to be able to focus and enjoy the show and the production that I'm watching. So I don't know uh how I would feel about that. I feel like it could be, especially like tourists who are just looking for a show and want to catch a Broadway show who may not know what they're getting into, that would be a distracting uh thing that could affect how much you're enjoying the show, right? And then uh Cats a Jelical Ball, I don't know a ton about. I have been thoroughly enjoying. And so let's get to best performance by a leading actor. Nicholas Christopher was nominated for his role in chess, which man, some of the clips I've seen out of that, and just his voice on the cast recording, absolutely amazing. Uh, only for like a lead character in chess, only nomination. Leah Michelle did not nab one, Aaron Fiette did not nab one. Uh I forgot someone got a nomination for Best Featured Actress in a musical for it, but Nicholas Christopher, the only like lead performer in it, and so good for him. Luke Evans did get a nom for his performance as Dr. Frankenfurter in Rocky Horror. Joshua Henry got a nom for his Folis Coal House in Ragtime. Uh Sam Tutty got a nom for Two Strangers Carac across New York. And then Brandon Uranowitz from Ragtime also got a nom. So two ragtime actors in here. From things that I've been seeing, Joshua Henry is probably the favorite in this category right now, and I think that is well deserved. Uh Best Performance by a leading actress, uh Sarah Chase from Shmegadoon, which I will say, like Alex Brightman. I have heard great things about his performance in this. I think the leading actor category was just so what got a lot of heavy hitters and great performances this year that um he missed out as well because he was nominated for his role in Beetlejuice, if I'm not mistaken, and has just been a great like Broadway performer. Uh he played Nui Finn in School of Rock when it was nominated. I almost said School of I don't know what I almost said. I almost said like School of House or something weird. I I full disclosure, I've been up for 30 minutes this morning, and I have not had coffee yet, which is a problem for me. But uh back to Tony Noms. So best performance by a leading actress, just start at the beginning. Sarah Chase for Shmigadoon, Stephanie Sue for Rocky Horror Picture Show, Casey Levy for Ragtime, which is great to see. I thought she was fantastic as Diana in Next to Normal. And uh there are a lot of rumors about Next to Normal transferring to Broadway. Evita was just announced that it's transferring to Broadway from its West End run, the Rachel Zegler starring musical from Jamie Bell, the revival of that. So Next to Normal transferring to Broadway with Casey Levy and um Jack Wolfe, now that he's done in Hades Town, would be amazing. Uh, there have been very unsubstantiated rumors that potentially uh Aaron Fiette would play Dan in it, and he originated the role of Gabe. So that would be amazing, but at this point, that's just rumors and wishful thinking. Other two nominees in the category, uh Marla Mandel in Titanic, and then Christiani Pitts uh for Two Strangers carry a cake across New York. So those are the lead and the main category for musicals that I wanted to touch on. I'm very kind of excited about the nominations because most of them are ones that I have been following or have heard about so far. So, like I said, Lost Boys and Titanic, still a little bit of a blind spot, but Shmig and Dune, I'm familiar because of the TV show, and from all accounts that I've seen, at least from during previews, it is a pretty close adaptation to the first season of the show. So I am excited about that. I did really enjoy the show. I think it's got a really good cast behind it, and so I'll be excited to see how it does. Alright, Tony Tongue. Oh, if I had to do my picks at for not seeing any of these shows in person and not being familiar with any others, uh for best musical, I think I would probably want it to go to two strangers just because I think that is a lot of fun and amazing, and for being essentially a two-person show, which I actually really enjoy two people's shows. Like The Last Five Years is another one, it's a pretty stripped back show, and I thoroughly enjoy it. I think two strangers uh is my favorite cast album to listen to out of these. Best revival, I would give to Ragtime just because I'm loving the Ragtime cast album. I've heard really good things about uh Cats the Jellico Ball, but like Cats isn't very much my speed, and this it seems like it's more I I've heard it's an amazing experience. Like they have people on the stage during it, like audience members, and it seems like a fun live experience. So I guess it depends on how you're going to look at that. Is it best overall or best experience for a musical? I don't know how Tony Nombs work. I'm a noob when it comes to that novice, so don't come to me for expertise with that. Best performance for a leading actor. I Sam Tutty and Two Strangers is great, but man, Joshua Henry is so powerful in this role, and I love his voice so much. I I'm rooting for Joshua Henry in this category, and then leading actress. This one I I think I would hope for uh Christiani Pitts. Uh Casey Levy's amazing, but Christiani Pitts is so good in Two Strangers Carry a cake across New York. And so I think I'm kind of rooting for her, but honestly, any of these like Stephanie Sue, I love uh from Be More Chill and some of her roles in movies, like in I almost said Parasite, but it was everything everywhere all at once, not Parasite, completely different movies. Uh, and I think that she is insanely talented. I haven't seen much about her role as Janet. Um Janet, yeah. I I was then going back forth if it was Janice or Janet. Uh, this is what happens when you don't have thorough notes. But uh, I Casey Levy, Stephanie Sue, uh, and um Marlo Mandel being like the lead role in Titanic, the main one holding that together. I think I could see arguments there for her and Sarah Chase and Shemigadoon. The role she's playing, that is the focal point and the drip point and the driving factor of the musical. So I don't know. We'll see. We'll see what happens. Excited to see the results. Uh, I should have figured out when the Tony Awards actually are because I have no idea. It's coming up at some point. Uh it'd be funny if it like already happened, or if it's this weekend, and I could have just included it on here. Anyways, let's get to some random story time. The other week I was outside mowing, and I think I witnessed a miracle, magic trick, a wizard, or most likely just something really fucking weird. Uh, the birds are very loud this morning. I saw this older gentleman, I would say probably 60s, riding a bicycle, and across the handlebars, he was like riding with two large sticks with flowers on them, probably about four or five feet each. Um, and so there were like tree branches that he had cut down that still had the flowering petals. So he drove by with that, and then about five minutes later, he came back on his bicycle, branches gone, but instead a set of aluminum crutches. So I I was so confused. Uh, one this man I would assume did not need crutches as he was pedaling his bicycle just fine. I I don't know, was it a barter system? He's like, hey, I will bring bring you branches, you give me crutches. Did he just have to go and hide in the alley and magically transform these branches to crutches? I I don't know what was going on with there, but it was it was very odd. Okay, so we've had musical talk with the Tonies, we have had magic talk with magic crutches. Now it's time for some business professional talk, just what everyone comes to the podcast for, right? Um, we've been doing interviews to hire for a new position at work. This one is a little more entry-level, and so I've been one of three members on the interview panel, and so it's got me thinking more about the interview and hiring process, and something that I think is so hard to truly identify in an interview, but in almost any job role is going to be one of the most important things that you can bring into it, and that is critical thinking. Uh, for the position that we're hiring for, having some experience and technical expertise in the field is definitely preferred. However, how we do that arg organization is so different than how others do it. So you're gonna have to be relearning things anyway. You just might know some of the jargon already is one of the benefits you could bring from another field. Sometimes, when you have such a unique process for doing things, I feel like having previous experience, the only thing that shows is they may be able to pick it up quicker, but sometimes it can almost be a detriment because you need people to kind of unlearn what they've already learned from previous roles and previous experience doing this job. And I find that I'm not the hiring manager on this position, so I don't have to be the one to make the decision, but so many, so many, so much of what I look for and I think are is important in an interview, are the kind of intangibles. How what are your transferable skills? What are your soft skills that you're bringing from your previous positions? How are you able to communicate how what you did there, even if it doesn't completely align with this, can fit into the job description and why you think you would be a good fit for the role? Why we think you think we should hire you? Are you going to be able to connect those dots and critically think? Okay, did you actually read the job description and have you done your research to know what you're getting into? That kind of effort and ability to present yourself and sell yourself in a sense and critically think, okay, this is what I did here that didn't align perfectly with this, but the skills that I had to do to accomplish this task, I believe will set me up for success in this one in the future. That's always been my approach to interviews, and I try to make sure when I'm applying for jobs, which I haven't done in a while, but that I spend the time to put together a cover letter if I feel like there are things in my resume that could appear as deficiencies that I have in the desired category or area. So if I don't have any specific technical expertise for what this position has, I'm gonna write you a cover letter to say why my experience doing XYZ is going to make me a great fit and help me be successful in this new position now. And for entry-level positions, I mean it's not fully entry level, it's probably a little bit more mid-level, but you the technical expertise required is entry level. I a lot of people don't take that time to do that work, and I can understand that, but that to me, and we have HR does initial screening for minimum qualifications and everything like that. So I'm not the first one seeing resumes or anything, but that to me shows some effort, it shows that you are actually. Actually interested, and it shows that you know, hey, my resume may not exactly translate to what you're looking for here, but I know that I have the skills and I will be successful in this job, and I would do an amazing, amazing job, and I think I will excel in it. So I think I would be a great hire. That's something that I always appreciate. And I think a lot of people don't take the time to do it. And right now, at least for like our positions that we hire for, uh, you're getting 20 to 30, 40 applicants for um, and some of those really more competitive jobs, you're gonna be getting a ton more and more entry level, you're gonna be getting a lot more. So, what can separate you from the other pack of resumes that we're seeing? If you are self-aware that your resume maybe has some gaps and doesn't uh translate exactly to this job role, and if you are self-aware enough to do that and you're able to put the effort together in communicating that, that is gonna make you stand out uh from the pack and just be a little bit of a differentiator there, in my opinion. Because in almost every job role that you have, critical thinking is going to be one of the most important things that you can't really teach. You can teach skills and tasks, you can't teach work ethic, you can't teach uh you can try to teach communication some, but there's going to be a level if they just don't have it, they just don't have it. And it's very, very, very difficult, if not impossible, to teach critical thinking because you have to have someone that's willing to learn, willing to ask questions, and cares about why things work certain ways, and doesn't just want to be told, do XYZ, wants to kind of be able to figure it out and make sure they have an understanding of why things work a certain way, so that when they get different unique situations, they can use that logic to apply it and say, okay, we did XYZ before, the things we were looking for is this, this, this. And so this is a little bit different situation. I'm trying not to give specifics and details because I don't like doxing jobs and stuff like that, because it's a different world, podcast world, job world, different. But this is my professional advice to you. If you're looking for a job, if you find yourself struggling, take some time, make sure you learn the job description, put together a cover letter on how your experience in the other roles will make you a great fit and help you excel in this role. Uh, it's worked out for me so far. The last two jobs that I did that for, I got an interview and got hired. So that's my tip there. Are there any other random things that I want to touch on today? I don't think so. Just that next week is when I plan to have Brad on and do a rockadoodle review. So tune in to that. I'll give another plug for watching the SUFs Pro Shot. Had a great time seeing it and then reviewing it with Sage last week. It's available on PBS Great Performances through July 31st. I'll also mention, because I mentioned in the podcast, the Next to Normal West End Pro Shot. It's been on Broadway HD. It is now available to rent or buy on digital platforms. So Fandango at home, uh Prime Video, Apple, all those places wherever you get your digital movies, Next to Normal is available now in the US. So if you don't have Broadway HD, or if you just want to have it for longer and watch it whenever you want, uh it's 10 bucks on Fandango at home right now. So a nice steal there for a fantastic show. Uh, one thing in the Sufs Pro Shot, there were a couple times where I noticed because there was a lot of talk about the Next Normal Pro Shot, about Casey Levy's like the double mic and how low it was hanging on her head, where it almost looked like two big moles on her forehead. Uh, in the SUFS Pro Shot, the mics are either very well hidden, or there is one scene in Dudley Malone's song where it almost looked like I felt like I could see where they like photoshopped, like airbrushed it out. And I could be wrong, but I just thought that was interesting. Uh, the differences also, Shadow had someone comment on the Bat Out of Hell review that I did, where I'm like, This movie is a fever dream. I watched the whole thing and barely know what the fuck was going on with it, and they commented and said, Hey, there were actually a lot of changes. The script, the book was a lot bigger, the story had some extra numbers and plot points that made sense with Zahara and everything like that, and it got changed. And the the holding the stick mics was added in the 2025 when they started doing that in that production. I'm like, okay, that makes me feel better about it. Said people did have a lot to say. Show, so shout out that YouTube commenter giving that additional disclaimer. That makes me feel better. That while it was still probably a little bit of a fever dream, it was maybe not as much of a nonsensical fever dream. So I thought that was good. So the sun is peaking up between these trees right now. Sunrise, fairly committed. It's fully over the horizon, and it is now in the sky. It was not as colorful of a sunrise as I was hoping for, but hey, still your morning episode. It's time for me to make my morning coffee. Also, in that, head over to TikTok, Instagram, Reels, YouTube Shorts to check out Matt's Coffee Corner. New series dropping on Sundays, one to three minutes long. Me just talking about a few random things while I have my morning coffee. Video of me making my coffee. I think I am going to do well, I haven't recorded it yet, obviously. Uh, and this will air Wednesday, so it'll already be out. But so you'll be able to see if I stuck to my plan or not. My plan is to do espresso this time with my out in Mino Electric little portable espresso maker. So tune into that. Trying to do something a little bit unique, make it different, make it pop every week. So having some fun with that. Head over, subscribe, like, share, comment, YouTube, Apple, Spotify, wherever you listen to your podcast, we are gonna start having the video option available on Apple Podcasts as well, where they implemented it, and with the platform I use to distribute it, it's fairly easy to get that going. And I might dig into getting the video on Spotify as well sooner or later. So, tune into that. Maybe more ways to watch the podcast than just YouTube. So then you can switch back and forth if you're like, wait, I want to see what he's doing here, or I want to see the pretty sunrise, but I don't want to go to YouTube. There you go. However, I would appreciate it if you go to YouTube. That's where I see the most uh interaction and I can see the most stats. That is helpful to me. So thank you all. Love y'all. Don't forget to go down once more. Later. Okay. So we had musical talk, we had magic talk, now we're gonna do some uh business advice talk for your full broad spec. Doing this before coffee was a mistake. Okay. There was a bird that was just sounding like a baby. I um I don't know if that's really a baby sound, but I'm not around babies often. Anyway.