Episode #8
Dracula A Comedy of Terrors
With Gordon Greenberg and Christopher Sieber and steve rosen
Note that transcripts are generated using speech recognition software and are checked by over-worked and under-paid interns. So, please excuse any inaccuracies. Thank you.
Original Release: Monday, October 4,2020
Zack 00:00
This is just a phone call. This is Steven Gordon just calling up the friends or was there an audition process?
Christopher Sieber 00:06
No, no. They asked everybody. Well, because we were all in the same boat. None of us had anything to do. So I said yes, absolutely. I don't even know if we got paid.
Zack 00:18
That and so much more. Coming right up on today's episode of The Pod Spotter.
MUSIC INTRO TO BREAK
You're listening to The Pod Spotter. I'm Zack Robidas, there are a shitload of pods out there to weed through and that is why we are here we're going to do the heavy lifting we're going to find the diamonds in the rough. And every Monday we're going to talk to the hosts and the creators of those pods. We're gonna play clips and if it's useful/entertaining, please subscribe to our little pod, visit us at thepodspotter.com and on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, @thepodspotter and you're gonna find some extra content there and info for upcoming shows. Thanks, everybody.
MUSIC OUT OF BREAK
You know, they say it's hard to book your first Broadway show and impossible to book your second but our guest today would say “hold my beer” because I have worked on roughly 14 Broadway productions. You might know Christopher Sieber from Broadway's Matilda, Pippin, Shrek, Monty Python's Spamalot, Chicago, Thoroughly Modern Millie or Into The Woods to name a few, but yeah, it's a lot. But today, this Broadway bloodsucker joins us to talk about his new podcast, which is just so darn delightfully funny. I do need to warn you that once you invite it into your library, it just might never leave. Dracula, A Comedy of Terrors is in The Pod Spotlight for today. And we are joined by Dracula himself. How are you, Christopher?
Christopher Sieber 02:32
I’m great, Zack, of course, Zack. Thank you. Thank you for giving me something to do. I love this. Let’s talk to other people!
Zack 02:37
Let's talk some Dracula, shall we? Because we have just been really enjoying this pod. And it's just odd now seeing this vibrant, handsome, robust man across from me on Zoom and I've been listening to this stuffy thousand-year-old vampire for the past couple days. It's very incongruous – it’s - the voice is beautiful. How did you land on the voice? Of all the Dracula voices, how did you choose?
Christopher Sieber 03:04
That was actually the hardest part for me, I was, you know, as an actor, you kind of try and I sometimes, depending on the character I always try and find the voice first and I will walk around my house making weird noises with my voice and seeing if that kind of clicks in. But to find my voice was challenging because I started sounding like Ricardo Montalban from the 1980s Chrysler commercial. He kept on saying “rich Corinthian leather”. Rich Corinthians leather. When we were recording I said, “am I sounding like Ricardo Montalban, because I don't want to sound like Ricardo Montalban”. But if you listen to the podcast, there's a couple of Ricardo Montalban there.
Zack 03:51
Let's hear Ricardo-isms or not, in a little piece of audio from Dracula's introduction, your first scene in Dracula, A Comedy of Terrors. Let's listen to Christopher, shall we?
Cut to Excerpt:
Intro Music
04:09
Dracula: Welcome to my house please note that you ever entered under no duress and of your own free will.
04:20
Isn't that a unique greeting?
04:22
Dracula: Liability issues.
BACK TO INTERVIEW
Zack 04:26
You get some in there, for sure.
Christopher Sieber 04:28
It just makes me laugh hearing it again. You know I've listened to it so many times myself because it's just so goofy. But yeah, I was laughing just because oh - there's Ricardo Montalban.
Zack 04:41
It's the thing you can't steer away from once your thinking about it. It's like oh, there it is. I can't get out of it. I can't get out of the way now, but are you outside typically when you're doing not just voice acting but full body acting? Are you outside-in kind of worker or inside-out. I mean, do you try to find the exterior things first? The movements, the voice?
Christopher Sieber 04:57
Yeah, I usually what I call it is the big broad-brush stroke, you know, just get it down, just get the words in your face, and then the movements in your body. And then, for me, it just kind of tumbles along and then I get into the story and the relationships between people and characters. And then it kind of just kind of morphs all in one thing. I take my time doing things like that. And you know, especially when you're doing theater, you'd discover things, new things, every single time you do a performance, so there's always something new. But yeah, I usually start with a big broad brushstroke, and then find little details as I go along and just kind of add them on. So, it's like a truckload of stuff behind me of just ideas and things that, you know, I draw from.
Zack 05:54
You know, this is done once it's in once it's in the can, it's recorded. It's out there, you can't add to it. There’s not 700 performances. So I'm curious, then, are you building after the fact now that you've listened to it so many times? You're like, oh I should have…
Christopher Sieber 06:06
Well, the weird part about it because this whole thing came about with Steven and Gordon's amazing story. Gordon was the director and Steve was the writer and they were on with us the entire time. But I recorded it. I didn't have this fancy schmancy microphone that I had. I recorded it with this. This is a Rosetta Stone. A Rosetta Stone headpiece. “Yes. Yo hablo espanol”.
Zack 06:34
Oh, so that's, that helps you with the accent then,
Christopher Sieber 06:39
But it was so funny because this is not necessarily any kind of professional mic whatsoever. But we made it work because I had a pillow. I put a pillow over here while I was talking in the mic so it wouldn't bounce back. I've had a bureau that I would put around it to give it a little more or less pop. It was insane. It was insane. It was it was total Gonzo recording, but it ended up doing so great.
Zack 07:00
Yeah, it may have lended itself to the sort of ethereal otherworldliness that we that we hear there. It's so funny how you're hearing that now. How like everyone seems to be building these ad hoc sort of..it's amazing that there's not just a cheap home, put a sack over our head for $50 and let me record something every time you talk to someone they're like, you know, I hid in the curtains, I went out to my car. It’s crazy.
Christopher Sieber 07:26
Do you know Alan Tudyk? Who was also -
Zack 07:29
Of course, of course, the narrator, yeah.
Christopher Sieber 07:30
He's a voiceover God, I mean, he’s the voice of Star Wars and all sorts of things. And we did Spamalot together. And there's a picture of him because I don't think he was actually in his home, I think he was somewhere in Canada or something. But he recorded it. And he had a blanket fort that he built, and he was in this blanket fort. None of us were in the same room the entire time. I recorded most of mine just by myself and Gordon and Steven would just tell me, “Do this. Don't do that. That sounds weird. Just that.” So that's how we did it. But it was a play. And I believe they were going to do it out at Bucks County Playhouse in Pennsylvania, or in San Diego or they had done it already. I think that asked me to do it but I was doing something else and I wasn't able to do it. But it was an actual play. And then they thought, well, if we have this, why don't we make it a radio play? And they made it in the style of a radio play. I think I was originally they asked me originally to play the Grave Digger. It goes by really fast. But he had it he had some funny, it's just like one scene, it was really small, but only one scene.
Zack 08:47
You went from an extra to the guy.
Christopher Sieber 08:52
Well I think originally Steven Gordon, because you know they always ask me to do their things and I'm always, luckily knock on wood, I've always been busy and I am unavailable for them but you know, I love them and I always say yes when I’m around. And this was one of those cases where I was around and they offered me Grave Digger. I was like yeah, fine, whatever you need, whatever you need. And then I think somebody dropped out.
Zack 09:17
Come on! Whose busy? Who has a job?
Christopher Sieber 09:19
I think it was John Stamos was supposed to be Dracula.
Zack 09:24
But John's in it right? He’s still is in?
Christopher Sieber 09:26
He’s in it, he’s the Elvis guy.
Zack 09:28
Let's hear a little of Lord Swizzle Hips. Here’s John Stamos as Lord Swizzle Hips.
Cut to Excerpt:
09:38
Lord Swizzle Hips: Oh, thank you. Well, thank you very much.
09:39
Father: Pleasure. Nice to see all this attention being lavished on my daughter.
09:43
Suitor: Your other daughter.
09:46
Lord Swizzle Hips: Yeah, the hot one. You know, if I if I get a little alone time with her, you know, I'm sure I could convince her to change her mind.
09:51
Suitor: Don't be rude Swivel Hips. I was the first to arrive this evening.
09:54
Lord Swizzle Hips: We came together, moron.
BACK TO INTERVIEW
Zack 09:57
There’s John. I think that he did quite a bit of Elvis on Full House. That’s probably why. Your creative team was like, easy, easy one here, let’s get him in here.
Christopher Sieber 10:10
John and I actually met years ago, actually we have one thing in common. We also I worked with the Olsen twins, I was their father on ABC, a show called “Two of a Kind” on TJ F. And I was a single father, you know, dead wife. Hilarious. And I had a loving – that’s comedy gold, always a dead wife is hilarious - but John came by the set, we were at Warner Brothers, and he came by the set and we just started talking and because he's a swell guy, just really great, wonderful, lovely guy, and then, of course, John's been doing Broadway and I've been doing Broadway and so we've just kind of known each other and it's kind of one of those great things where he just, Broadway always brings people together. And so, when I heard John was doing it I was like, oh, I hope I'm on the on the recording, you know, we can something together. But it was, I think what makes it even funnier is the video or the audio editing with the sound effects. Because we didn't, we didn't know what they were going to do with it. And they end up with these amazing sound effects.
Cut to Excerpt:
11:13
See you soon Jonathan, Godspeed!
SFX: Footsteps and door slam
11:17
Jonathan: But I thought -
SFX noises
11:27
Jonathan: Perhaps I ought to sing to make myself a little less afraid. Yes. (sings) Raindrops on roses…
SFX: water dropping
11:35
Jonathan: Oh, look at that! (sings)And whiskers on kittens..
SFX: Scary cat sound
SFX: Laughter
11:45
Jonathan: Oh! Oh! Hello, hello, is someone there?
SFX: Whispers “Jonathan, Jonathan”
11:50
Jonathan: Yes, that's me.
BACK TO INTERVIEW
Zack 11:52
You're not gonna get that listening to “Nice White Parents”. You're just not gonna get that kind of sound engineering anywhere but here. And you come with some voice experience though, to Dracula, this wasn’t your first rodeo with just doing voiceovers.
Christopher Sieber 12:03
I have been the voice of so many Broadway shows. The commercials you hear on TV and the radio. I was the voice of Pippin and Chicago and Matilda and I think Beauty and the Beast.
Zack 12:33
Can we get a little of that?
Christopher Sieber 12:35
Yeah, I was like come see Pippin at the music box theater.
Zack 12:36
Oh, that guy! Do you ever get to use that voice in other facets of your life? Do you ever answer the phone as that guy or ask your partner to make eggs in that voice?
Christopher Sieber 12:49
No, he finds that annoying. “Please make some eggs. Why don't you make some eggs for me, now.”
Zack 12:56
It's not all silliness, here. Dracula gets, he gets so impassioned.
Christopher 13:04
He gets so like, everything is so sexy. Yes. Whoo. And he just loves the words he's using and everything's good. I was so like, impassioned talking.
Zack 13:16
That's what I hear. That's what I hear. I hear that guy, I hear that guy.
Christopher Sieber 13:26
And my back and shoulders hurt and I was like what did I do? And it was because I was acting too hard.
Zack 13:29
Stop acting so hard. My goodness. Let's hear some of that hard acting and not just the silly but in the dramatic side of Dracula, shall we?
Cut to Excerpt:
13:40
Dracula: You don't know what it is to be alone. From the time I was a child, I had to endure the scorn and ridicule of other children in my village. They bullied me, stormed my house with torches and horrible epithets. But I got my revenge.
13:57
How’s that?
13:59
By becoming very good looking. Also, rich and immortal. That's pretty major.
14:05
Did you say…?
14:07
But you can only drink and shop and sleep around for so long until it begins to feel like you've eaten too much desert and you're rotting inside.
14:15
You poor thing.
14:16
Share my life with me the good and the bad. Celebrate the extraordinary, bear witness to the mundane. And this is something I have never said to anyone before in my life…tell me more about you.
BACK TO INTERVIEW
Zack 14:31
Such a great line. That's such a good line. I feel it, I also feel that I'm in that room. It's a little smoky. There's a candle over there and you're telling me that it's not that, you're painting a very different picture. You know, I'm just seeing this contorted body.
Christopher Sieber 14:49
And me trying to scream into a pillow.
Zack 14:53
Dracula, we're a fan of games here. We're a fan of trivia. And you'll see behind me we have this bookshelf adorned with some swag, some pod swag from all the pods that have visited us and answered their trivia questions correctly. And so, if you're willing, I'd like to put the test to you, sir. Christopher Sieber, I'm gonna play for you three famous vampires. And let's see how many of you can identify. Get two out of three and we're gonna place this Dracula, A Comedy of Terrors koozie proudly on the bookshelf behind us in perpetuity forever.
Christopher Sieber 15:27
So much pressure, so much pressure.
Zack 15:30
Are you ready to identify these famous vampires? Number one.
Cut to Excerpt:
15:40
Dracula: Welcome to my home. Enter freely of your own will and leave some of the happiness you bring.
15:45
Mr. Hart: Count Dracula, I -
15:51
I am Dracula, and I bid you welcome Mr. Hart to my house.
BACK TO INTERVIEW
Christopher Sieber 15:58
It’s either Bella or Gary Oldman.
Zack 16:05
Gary Oldman is correct. He is out of his mind in that performance, he was so good.
Christopher Sieber 16:09
Was amazing.
Zack 16:11
He’s holding up some clothes. Just nice in that one. He’s waiting for John Wick. He's fine. He's very handsome. He's very handsome.
Christopher Sieber 16:22
He kind of had an English accent.
Zack 16:27
It didn’t matter. So good looking, impossibly good looking at that age, it just doesn't matter. Your one for one. Let's hear vampire number two.
Cut to Excerpt:
16:36
Dracula: Mr. Haka.I'm glad that you arrived safely.I am Dracula, and I welcome you to my house. I must apologize for not being here to greet you personally. But I trust that you have found everything you needed. It was the least I could do after such a journey and tiring for you, no doubt. Permit me to show you to your room.
16:57
No, pleaseallow me.
BACK TO INTERVIEW
Christopher Sieber 16:55
Oh my god. Is it Ben Kingsly?
Zack 17:00
That is the famous Christopher Lee Dracula.
Christopher Sieber 17:03
Christopher Lee Dracula!
Zack 17:06
Terrifying, terrifying! We had only seen Bella and you know these the slow-moving Draculas, and then Christopher Lee comes in like, this buoyant bat thing, he’s terrifying. Very iconic vampire performance.
Christopher Sieber 17:17
Oh, I forgot Christopher Lee did that.
Zack 17:21
That's okay. You catch this last vampire and the koozie makes the bookshelf. Let's hear vampire number three.
Cut to Excerpt:
17:28
Dracula: Ah, that's 1, 1 bat; 2, 2 bats, 3, 3 fabulous fliers! Ah ha ha.
BACK TO INTERVIEW
Zack 17:39
Correctly identify vampire number three.
Christopher Sieber 17:41
Is that the Count from Sesame Street?
Zack 17:42
Oh, that's Count Von Count from Sesame Street. Correct! Two out of three. That ain’t bad. Dracula koozie makes it.
Christopher Sieber 17:50
Oh, thank god, I was scared.
Zack 17:55
Guys, we're gonna take a little break. When we come back, we'll be joined by a few more creatives from Dracula, A Comedy of Terrors.
MUSIC INTRO TO BREAK
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MUSIC OUT OF BREAK
So, some call this period in our history the great reset, economists are seeing a revitalization of old forgotten trends. Drive ins are seeing a surge in popularity, looms are nearly impossible to buy, just about everyone learned how to knit. And so, it's only appropriate that two Broadway creatives should have the audacity to attempt to resurrect the ancient art form of radio theater. Joining us to continue our discussion of Dracula, A Comedy of Terrors, is Gordon Greenberg and Steve Rosen. Welcome gentlemen, thank you for sharing this pod. And thank you for joining us today. How are you?
Steve Rosen 19:30
Great, thank you so much for inviting us.
Gordon Greenberg 19:32
Hi, thank you for having us.
Zack 19:34
Can you take us through the early days of just assembling this, getting this together, getting it on its feet in the time of COVID what that process was like?
Gordon Greenberg 19:45
Sure, we had a lot of creative energy to burn in the beginning of COVID and we were right there, you know sort of trying to figure out what we wanted to make next, what we wanted to create and I remember that when we did the very first ever reading of Dracula, it was actually in Florida at a theater called the Malts, which is in Palm Beach. My father was there, and he had never seen a reading. And after the reading, he kept calling it our “radio show”. Because to him, it looked like a radio show from the 40s or 50s that he used to see. And he'd say, “when are you going to put that radio show up?”. I finally said, what if we made it a radio show? Because it makes sense. And it fits stylistically into that world. And we were fortunate to have an amazing score already completed from the production that we had done in Florida, we were continuing to work on the show, at Chicago Shakes. And we really wanted to put it up again. And here are some of the changes and the great advantage, the blessing of the whole thing was this cast, and that we had people of the caliber of Chris, who Steve and I both adore, and we're huge fans of, but Chris is never available. That's the thing, because he works so much. So, I'm used to always getting the “thank you. He's honored, he can't do it.” And in this case, I knew that was a lie. We know you're available, come and do it. And he did and he was so good and joined by just a glorious parade of super talented and motley people.
Zack 21:38
Tell me about Dracula, A Comedy of Terrors. What else other than working with those guys, and this cast drew you to this project? Because this is a fundraiser also, correct?
Steve Rosen 21:43
It's also fundraiser. Yeah, for Broadway Cares and the Actors Fund and Broadway Cares Equity Fights AIDS, both of which I've been very involved in mostly Broadway Cares Equity Fights AIDS, because what we do…well, first of all, let me tell about the organization and the Actors Fund. Broadway Cares Equity Fights AIDS is a wonderful organization, where they collect money from us, the Broadway performers, we will do a show, we will make an appeal to the audience after a Broadway show with red buckets and people just drop $1 in there. But what Broadway Cares, it's a grants program and so what they do is, if there is like a, let's say, a hospice, that might need a new refrigerator, or their van needs new tires, or like the small things that people really don't ever think about, it's not just like a gigantic tier here's $5,000 or something, sometimes it's just a new refrigerator. And Broadway Cares will take care of large things, but also like detailed things just like new tires on a van or just helping even prescriptions, you know, they will help out and the Phyllis Newman Women's Health Initiative is also included in that. And it's a free clinic for cervical or breast cancer. They give to the American Red Cross, Wounded Warriors program and we give, it is non-political, and we give to whomever needs it. But we also give money from Broadway Cares that we raise to the Actors Fund, which is another charity I'm involved with, but Actors Fund will help you, if you're in the entertainment industry, whatever you're doing it doesn't matter. You don't have to be an actor, you don't have to be a performer or if you're even an usher, or a box office person if as long as you work in the industry in any capacity The Actors Fund is there for you to help with financial things.
Zack 23:36
It’s a big reason why this response is near and dear to me. I mean, I got some of my early health care from the Actors Fund when I was a poor 20 something moved to New York, you know, it's an amazing organization, you show them paycheck that you know, or anything like I did a reading for $50. And their belief is if you are contributing, culturally in some way, then we're taking care of you. We're gonna take care of some, like I got some flu shots or something from them when I was like bartending. And it's an amazing organization. The Actors Fund I think was set up in like the 18 like 1880.
Gordon Greenberg 24:10
It's been there for over 100 years now. Yeah.
Zack 24:12
1880 it was because actors post Civil War, actors post the Lincoln had kinda a bad reputation that John Wilkes guy. And so, actors notoriously couldn't get like we couldn't panhandle like we couldn't, like people wouldn't, there was a horrible stigma. So, the Actors Fund initially was set up to help people. And so fast forward, you know, 100 some years and I'm getting a flu shot. Thank God from the Actors Fund.
Steve Rosen 24:42
That was really the huge thing for us at the start of all of this because Gordon and I - First of all, Gordon Greenberg is like one of the most stalwart and ambitious and creative people that you could ever possibly meet and whenever one was sitting around going, like, what are we going to do? We're all so stuck. Gordon was like, “We have to do something! How can we help?” and sort of used this combination of this show that we had written that could work in this format as a means to doing what we could do to help it's very much in theater makers wheelhouse to use what we do to be helpful, whether it's a benefit, you know, concert we're in or, or something.
Zack 25:29
And so Dracula, is here to help. This is a helping Dracula. Can you explain to me how it works exactly? Is the pod there to raise awareness for the Actors Fund? How does it actually monetarily help the fund on Broadway Cares Equity Fights AIDS.
Gordon Greenberg 25:45
The idea is that before and after every episode, because this is divided into four different episodes, actually, the play itself is written as a one act 90-minute play. But we divided it into four episodes, so that before and after each one, there is an appeal for donations to the Actors Fund. There was a special release of one straight through episode that doesn't do commercial breaks in and out. But that appeal is designed to raise money and bring people's attention to the Actors Fund as a charity not only for actors that industry has been hit especially hard by COVID because there is no theater happening now and there won't be for at least another six months. So, it's difficult for all of us to comprehend, not only emotionally but financially. And for people in dire straits the Actors Fund is there.
Zack 26:46
Yeah, tough time for everyone indeed. And so, when you head over to the Actors Fund, I made my donation because I enjoyed your pod so much the other day. What's awesome about it is you can pick where the funds go to and you can pick whose name your donation is made out to. You can be specific about how you want the gift made out and so there are a lot of options for you to give and you can give you know whatever you want, you can give $5, it doesn't matter. Give whatever you can. Ashley Park is Lucy, John Stamos as Swizzle Hips, you got Alan Tudyk just being a narrator. And let's hear a little bit from Richard Klein's old sea captain, shall we?
Cut to Excerpt:
27:26
I am now left alone at the helm of what is essentially a ghost ship battling 30-foot swells and winds of 18 knots or more. If I should meet my watery end, please tell my wife and my mistress that she was the only woman I ever loved!
Here it comes, the big one!
BACK TO INTERVIEW
Steve Rosen 28:00
Such a genius that guy. I mean just the ability to - acting and voice acting are, like stage acting and screen acting and voice acting is a totally different thing. And he is just so magnificent. Just amazing.
Gordon Greenberg 28:14
And he holds nothing back.
Zack 28:16
And he is who he is. He is exactly that all the time. He's all heart. Genuine dude.
Steve Rosen 28:23
That’s what we love about him.
Zack 28:24
Yeah, guys, how do you listen to this pod? There are jogging pods. There are cooking pods. You know, there's workout pods. How would you like people to experience your pod Dracula, A Comedy of Terrors.
Gordon Greenberg 28:35
You know I would say in a romantic setting. Candles, light rain. It's interesting, because I actually think this is a great thing to listen to with your kids. I think it's a really fun family podcast that everyone can enjoy together because the sense of humor. It gets a bit naughty at times, but I feel like it would fly over your kids heads if it's something that they shouldn't be responding to. We've heard good things about hikes, you know, for the Los Angeles based people seem to enjoy it as a hiking companion, because it's 90 minutes. So, it's a short hike. But a healthy and humorous one.
Zack 29:21
Yeah. Gordon and Steve are giving you an evening of theater. I think I’d agree with you. Let's go way back with this one, turn the lights down low light a few candles and have an evening of theater, make dinner, have a meal and then sit down with your family. Sit down with your loved ones and put on the old radio play. And it's two acts, take a little break in between and enjoy it. And if you have a few laughs and enjoy yourselves then head over and support the Actors Fund and Broadway Cares. Because, you know, it's just a good cause. And that's what we're doing. That's what we're here for, helping folks, using our art to help folks. Yes. I was thinking about my Dracula history here and about how we're 100 years now from Nosferatu, from Dracula coming over here to America for the very first time, and I'm thinking about how audiences then we're enjoying Dracula, Nosferatu, with the backdrop of that plague just ending, it was right on the heels of the great Spanish influenza. And here we are, again, in a revisiting Dracula under a similar sort of microscope thinking about these huge things of life, and death, and what are you going to do with the time you are given? That's a huge sort of plot theme of your play of, you know, you hear Lucy talk about how you have to come close to death in order to figure out how to live. And I'm wondering if any of that was in your thought at all, when you were coming up with which play will we pick for, you know, for this benefit.
Gordon Greenberg 30:45
Um, interestingly, when we, when we started working on it, I mean, it carried the same resonance, but for different reasons. And then, in the midst of the pandemic, it all of a sudden became relevant in a way that we were not necessarily happy about. But it certainly speaks to the time that we're in right now, because of the, you know, the notion of a plague that's inside of this, that is transmitted from one person to another. I think that it's ever present in this play and probably the reason that the story itself has remained so popular for all these years, that it's terrifying in that we understand that although there is no such thing as a vampire, or, you know, we may choose to believe that there's no such thing as a vampire, we understand that the underlying illness that's running through the veins of this play exists in different ways, whether it's informational, whether it's about ignorance, or racism, or actual disease. It exists. And we all have to sort of be aware of it if we want to circumnavigate it and control it.
Zack 32:05
But before we get too lofty and too heady, let's remember,
Gordon Greenberg 32:09
It's also funny, sorry.
Steve Rosen 32:12
We wanted to make people laugh.
Zack 32:16
We’re eating bugs, and yeah.
Gordon Greenberg 32:18
Yeah, play Alex Brightman eating bugs. Just go back to the bugs.
Zack 32:16
It is both things. But that is sort of, you know, the nature of these clips that we've been playing. It's both. It's the serious, and it's the silly and you can't get too dark. And you can't be too light either. But I think that it's just the huge success of the pod is that everybody's in the same play, and everybody's having such a damn good time. Everybody, your whole cast is having fun.
Gordon Greenberg 32:30
Which is amazing because none of them were there at the same time.
Zack 32:47
How do you create, I guess, chemistry and that camaraderie when everyone's on Zoom, alone, isolated in a box?
Steve Rosen 32:53
Well, this was still at the very, very early stages of all of this before most people had done any real sort of recording at home, and would send their entire file in. And we did a lot of sort of coaching through sections with actors if we couldn't get two people together. Usually, I or Gordon would read with the other person. And, you know, the cast was also professional and so funny and easy that they were willing to really go for it and try anything. And it is a testament to like, to Bart Fassbender. And to all the people at BPN how good it sounds considering that no two people were recording in the same condition.
Zack 33:34
Unbelievable. I wanted us to hear it. You know, just to highlight Bart's deafness at editing. Let's listen to a group scene. This is from Episode Two:
Cut to Excerpt:
33:44
Well done, Daddy!
33:45
Thank you, Mina. Why don't you introduce me to your gentlemen friends?
33:50
Yes, father. This is the very charming Lord Cavendish.
33:55
How do you do?
33:56
And the handsome Lord Windsor.
33:59
Lovely to meet you. Charmed, I'm sure.
34:02
Pleasure. Nice to see all this attention being lavished on my daughter.
34:06
But Lucy is no longer on the market. I, however, am unencumbered by any suitors at all. So, if you gentlemen should have even the slightest bit of interest -
34:17
All right, all right. Soft touch, darling.
34:19
Care for -
34:21
Kitty,please go fetch Lucy and Jonathan. You can tell the lovebirds they have a restless crowd down here.
BACK TO INTERVIEW
Zack 34:28
There's so much going on in that scene. You know, people are responding to intonation, responding to energy. They're responding to sound cues that aren't there. You're telling me no one was in a room together for any of that? That's just -
Gordon Greenberg 34:40
Two of the actors were. Rob McClure was in the room with Rob McClure because he played two of those suitors. He was Cavendish and Lord Windsor, so he was actually having a conversation with himself. So, he was in the same place.
Zack 34:54
So good guys, so good. And Bart really does it. What was his last name again, Bart Fassbender?
Gordon Greenberg 34:59
Fassbender, yeah.
Zack 35:03
That's a nice job. That's really good stuff. I could have just played all of Annalee Ashford’s stuff, she's out of her mind in this. Was there any direction there for Annalee? Or did she come in with that character? And you're like, yep, go, yep, do that weirdness, whatever that is.
Gordon Greenberg 35:21
She really picked up on it. It was quite different than the version in the stage play. It was played by a 60-year-old man, dressed as a young girl, Whatever Happened to Baby Jane, it was different. And so, we just leaned hard into what her instincts were, and there, as we know, eexcellent. So, she created something brand new.
Zack 35:44
Let's hear a bit of Mina, the daughter who got all the recessive genes.
Cut to Excerpt:
35:50
Mina: I'm back. Ha ha.Down the hatch.If I may say so. That's a very handsome dress you're wearing.
36:01
Dracula: Oh, it's a cape.
36:02
Mina: Whatever it is. It's very becoming.
36:05
Dracula: Thank you, Mina.
36:06
Mina: Oh, you remember my name? Ah!
36:10
Dracula: Has anyone ever told you that you have a beautiful neck?
36:14
Mina: No, no, they haven't. They usually comment on my strong shoulders and prominent Adam's apple.
36:22
Dracula: You don't say!
36:24
I know, it's silly! Men are ever so predictable. But my neck - what a refreshing compliment!
BACK TO INTERVIEW
Zack 36:32
Oh my god. Out of her mind.
Gordon Greenberg 36:34
I mean to have her and Christopher doing this scene together. It's just mind blowing for us as writers. The talent is amazing. We were just so lucky.
Zack 36:44
Annaleigh was a nice find from the 60-year-old man version. I'm wondering if there are other, can you think of some other things that worked better in an audio version that you couldn't do in a stage? What were what were some advantages of working this form?
Gordon Greenberg 37:00
The interesting thing is the stage version affords us a lot of territory for physical comedy. So, absent that, we were able to write into things that couldn't be done on stage. For example, when Mina is possessed, we sort of do a whole bit with how long her arms become. Because onstage you're only looking at it from the back of the headboard. So, you don't see the body you just see almost a rubber arm that's reaching all the way up and goes 17 feet on either side and chokes because they're both puppets, there children, the people that are trying to hold her. But what we did instead for this is write something that feels so far out that you probably couldn't do it on stage. And if you did, it would be so costly and cumbersome, it would lose the humor. So, we have her floating around and dancing on the ceiling, like Lionel Richie, and we just sort of wrote into the absurdity of it all.
Steve Rosen 38:15
The cast size as well when we did this at the Malt Jupiter, we did the entire show with a cast of five people. So, they every part, every actor was playing three or four different characters. So, there was there was a lot of fun to be had at accurate sort of exiting as one character and immediately returning as someone else. And so, what this afforded us the ability to do is really flesh out the world and the characters, so you have all of these different kinds of voices, types of actors. And so, it was a really fun way to hear it done that way.
Zack 38:39
When is this gratifying, this process? In you know, you get the applause you get opening night for a play and how is this gratifying, I guess? And how does that differ from obviously, you know, getting the full run and production of a Broadway show?
Steve Rosen 38:54
Well, I think that, speaking for myself, that the getting the chance to collaborate with people outside of the box in which you live, that was extremely gratifying the idea that we could, you can spend time making something and it's a difficult time, I think for everybody within our business. I think writers especially at this moment, what you do have that you usually don't have is a lot more time. And so, in many senses, there's a tremendous urge and desire to be proactive and creative and be making all the time. But at the same time, you're still feeling this, you know, this thing in front of you, the carrot that has been motivating you. We don't know when we're going to be able to do any of these things. So, are we doing it as a creative exercise? Or are we doing it knowing when that next place is going to be? But I think that the joy is in the making and so any opportunities that we can have to sort of do something, to do a reading to communicate with each other. I think that it's just a great time to sort of observe what's happening in the world, taking that rest and then trying to spend your days making something positive, you know.
Zack 40:09
Beautifully said, Steve. Yeah. Well, gentlemen, Christopher answered his trivia questions correctly and earned a Dracula koozie on our bookshelf. But if you answer these questions correctly, you're going to become a top shelf pod. We're gonna put it way up here, predominantly displayed the Dracula koozie in perpetuity. If you answer these questions, in a little segment, we like to call “How Well Do You Know Your Pod”?
Game Music
Three questions about your podcast. And let's see how well you know your baby. Are you ready? And you can answer them together. You can even use Christopher. Question the first.
What is the name of the show Alan Tudyk the narrator mistakenly says during the end credits?
Gordon Greenberg 40:53
Oh my goodness! I cannot believe this. And there's no cheating, right?
Zack 41:00
Yeah, no Google-ing. Yeah, hands up, hands up for these answers.
Steve Rosen 41:02
I know what it is. I know what it is. We had a couple of them. A couple of them. But I think the one we landed was “Geppetto And His Little Wooden Boy”.
Zack 41:16
Let’s have a listen and see if that's correct.
Cut to Excerpt:
SFX: Laughter
41:26
Narrator: Thus concludes the heartwarming tale of “Geppetto, A Man And His” – Shit. Dracula, A Comedy of Terrors was written by Gordon Greenberg and Steve Rosen.
BACK TO INTERVIEW:
Gordon Greenberg 41:37
Isn't that guy amazing? I mean, holy cow -
Zack 41:39
So, he fired some alts at you and you were like, yeah, that one. Is that how it worked?
Steve Rosen 41:44
Yeah, I think honestly, I think we just went through a bunch of like, ridiculousness.
Zack 41:49
You create that space? Right? You create that space of like, hey, whatever you guys you know, if you have something you can throw it in here. You clearly weren't like, uh - I believe it says Dracula there. You have to say Dracula. Is that correct?
Steve Rosen 42:03
Well, I will say, I mean, there was a bit of improv around the dial on but pretty much it was all scripted. I got to say, including Geppetto, all of that was written down.
Zack 42:18
You didn't like Christopher keep any babies?
Gordon Greenberg 42:31
Christopher did, Christopher did do one very, very funny thing that wound up in there. And every time Dracula signs.
Zack 42:34
No, no, no, hold it, hold it! You’re going to kill my next question! No, let’s go right to it. This is amazing. How does Dracula punctuate his signature of Jonathan's legal documents?
Gordon Greenberg 42:39
Well, there you go. And that's a Sieber-ism.
Zack 42:42
And that is a Christopher baby. Does that get cut in the live version? Do you think like he gets through previews and then you're like - nah, get that out of here. That's got to stay right. Let's hear it. We have it queued up. Let's hear how Dracula punctuates his paperwork.
Cut to Excerpt:
42:56
I have all the legal documents for you to take ownership of your five new properties.
43:01
Dracula: Wonderful!
43:02
So, I’ll just need your autograph here -
43:04
Dracula: Bla bla
43:05
Here
43:05
Dracula: Bla Bla
43:06
Here
43:06
Dracula: Bla Bla
43:07
Here
43:07
Dracula: Bla
43:08
And here
43:09
Dracula: Bla bla
43:09
Lovely!
BACK TO INTERVIEW:
Zack 43:09
I’m pulling this audio. And you know, I hear these, you know, I hear these sometimes like eight or nine times. And like, every time, every time Christopher that got me, that broke me, that stupid bla, bla, bla,
Christopher Sieber 43:21
It just kind of came out. And it was one of those moments. And I didn't even think it was that funny. I just kind of did “bla bla bla” and it was really stupid.
Zack 43:30
To the playground that is created that allows you to go ahead and go.
Steve Rosen 43:36
It's also what's amazing about this art form, I will say like because you're listening so closely, all of these little idiomatic expressions that may come out. And, Chris, I'm sure this happens to do a lot in a play in a show. But nobody really notices because they're looking at a 40-foot stage and a set in your body and your costume and everything else. But when you're zeroed in on just that one sense it's fascinating how much you can really take in. And that the humor becomes something that he was doing to amuse himself in the moment. But because he's under a microscope, we're enjoying it and cracking up and we have a great window into his sensibility.
Zack 44:16
Isn't that the best?
Christopher Sieber 44:17
We, Steve and I and Alan Tudyk, we did Spamalot on Broadway together and Mike Nichols was so good with us and Eric Idle, as well, as kind of letting us go. But Mike would always just say hey you know, he would, he would call a thing a baby. So, it's like a bit or something. That's a turn in a squeak that just kind of happens, but it gets a reaction from the audience. It doesn't necessarily help the story, but it's funny. And Mike was always encouraging us, “Have a baby, have a baby. That's great, but that baby needs to die soon. You can only have that baby for so long”
Zack 44:55
Oh, isn't it the worst when they die in front of people? Like you’re making the cast laugh the whole run, and then you get up there for first preview and it just falls on its face. And you're like, oh my god…
Gordon Greenberg 45:06
I mean, sometimes it's just, there's no laugh, there's no laugh where there was a laugh, but sometimes that turn and squeak, as Christopher put it sometimes if that's getting a laugh every night, you stop playing into the story, and you start playing into the turn and the squeak and it’s not helping the story. And so sometimes you just got to get rid of it, for the sake of telling the story. And Christopher is so fucking brilliant, sorry, so brilliant at doing that.
Steve Rosen 45:32
There's a famous story about that, that I always, I always use with casts, and I'm sure you probably both heard it at some point. But apparently, there was a show with both of the Lunts were in, I guess, and one of them had to ask for a cup of tea at a certain point. And it was the key to a big laugh based on whatever came before it in the narrative in the script. And as the laughs died over the months, one of them, whoever said it, pushed harder and harder into the request for the beat until he ground that thing into zero laughs. And he said to his wife, “I do not understand it. What is happening? I'm asking, and I'm asking, I really want that tea. I mean, I'm asking as hard as possible.” And she says, “if you could ask for a cup of tea, you will get the laugh. If you ask for a laugh, you'll get nothing.” And that's sort of what it boils down to is remembering.
Zack 46:28
First you asked for the tea and then he began asking for the laugh. Yes, yeah. Oh, brutal. But there's no audience for this? See, you don't know when you're like, what is your barometer for those little moments? If it's making you laugh, then? Or did you let other people listen to a cut before you released it to the world?
Christopher Sieber 46:47
There were moments, there were moments where we just cracked ourselves up. Because Steven and Gordon’s script is so funny. The other thing too, is we actually are very good friends that we've known each other for decades. So, we already know our personalities, how we work together anyway. But if there were moments where we had to just stop, because we were just laughing so hard. We were just giggling. We couldn't get through lines and stuff, because we're just laughing because it's so ridiculously weird and funny and absurd at times. So.
Gordon Greenberg 47:20
And the other thing about a podcast is there's not a lot of rehearsal. So, you're kind of sparking immediately with someone's sense of whimsy, and truth. And so, you're getting that first impulse frequently, or at least third. And it doesn't have the time to become stale, which is great.
Zack 47:41
Well, good directors recognize those moments and good writers recognize them and say, yeah, run with it. So, a testament to your true collaboration. We have one more question, you've gotten two right already, but let's just ask the third one out of formality. This one's “Spot The Troll”. There's gonna be three reviews read to you, reviews of your podcast. You’re gonna spot the troll here. There's one troll, two are real ones. The troll one I just made up.
Gordon Greenberg 48:06
It's going to be my mother. I have a feeling it’s going to be my mother.
Zack 48:09
It's not a real, it's just me making bullshit up. To our real though. Spot the troll.
“Just wish there were more”
“Fantastic performances from Broadway, heavy hitters.”
“This pod sucks, but in a good way.”
Two are real, one is fake, spot the troll.
Gordon Greenberg 48:31
I guess number three, it sounds a little troll-y.
Zack 48:34
Number three is the troll, but it will be the real one. We're gonna put that up. That's my review. This pod sucks but in a good way. Listen to the pod with your loved one sit around, take an intermission and then head over to the Actors Fund and give a little, for crying out loud.
Steve Rosen 48:49
It's also great in the car. Gordon and I strangely had the exact same childhood where we both had pediatric dentist fathers who made us look, not made us, but listened to old radio dramas in the car. So, this is a perfect road trip thing if you're deciding to take a trip out of the city for the day, that's a good thing to listen to in the car too.
Zack 49:08
And get some good stereo system here though in the car because, Bart, we talked about earlier, he just crushed it with the ambient noises and the thing is this ear and then a bat flying around your head over here like what the shit is going on? This is a two pod or nice sound system podcast for you guys to take in and you can bang it out in a night. Gentlemen, it's the last five minutes of our podcast here on The Pod Spotter and no one is listening to the last five minutes. No one listens to the last five minutes of any podcast. Think to yourself, have you ever listened to the end of any podcast? No. By now the jog is done. The Blue Apron is cooked. Everyone is gone. And so, I use this time to basically to ourselves to you can recite a poem you can tell off a former loved one a former boss. Basically, use it for whatever you want to talk about it because after all, no one is listening, and I will go for I have to get this story off my chest because it was a little bit of a stressful incident here the other day taking a jog. And I want to apologize to somebody because I was out jogging, I hunker down through the pandemic, I've been in Queens here. And so, I'm exercising in the streets and I'm running around taking a jog and this guy runs a red light, almost hits me and the car comes like really close to me very close, just runs right through the red light. And I must, I must have been pent up stress that day or something, but I didn't know what I didn't know else to react. And I just gave it a, just a jab, just a car gave it like a hostile little jab. And, um, you know, I'm a theater kid, I'm not a fighter, but I did that, and I apologize for that. But I kept running. And then this, the soda bottle came flying by me. And I turn around and there's the guy. And he got out of the car. And it's like, it's this mountain of a guy. And, and I'm like, what, what's with the bottle? Man, you throw a bottle and you run a red light? And he's like, “what are you gonna do about it?” He’s like this big Italian guy like, “what are you gonna do about it?”. And I instinctively just shouted, “Nothing. I'm afraid of you!”
Gordon Greenberg 51:18
Do you think he went home and was like, “Jeanette, am I a scary guy? Are people just naturally afraid of me. I wanted to have a discourse?”
Christopher Sieber 51:31
You, there! Let us talk!
Steve Rosen 51:36
Zack, sometimes in a time of great stress we see things through a prism. And even though this man was in fact, very polite, and was asking you for conversation, you brought your own preconceived notions of what you expected. So, whose at fault here, Zack?
Zack 51:58
Clearly me and I'm sorry, not only for punching your car, but for failing to recognize that you wanted to have human interaction. I'm sorry, COVID make us a little crazy. If you're out there. He's not listening, because no one’s listening. So, it doesn't matter. Ah, that's my share. If anybody else has anything, it is not you know, you don't have to share anything if you don't want to.
Christopher Sieber 52:18
I have gained 19 pounds
Steve Rosen 52:21
Of muscle!
Christopher Sieber 52:23
Yeah, yeah. Right around the midsection, though. Right around the midsection.
Steve Rosen 52:25
But that's where you need it. That's the core.
Christopher Sieber 52:30
I have actually, I actually made a rule early on. I think it started late March early April that I have to wear pants or shorts by 9AM. And that actually helps you a lot.
Zack 52:43
Did you set a pants alarm? Do you have like an Alexa reminder?
Christopher Sieber 52:45
I would always check the clock, because I would be getting up at 6 in the morning, I don’t know about you, but I've been getting up at six in the morning. I wake up with the sun, I go to bed with the sun. I have to make the bed but I also have to wear pants or shorts by 9 AM. That's the rule and I've been very good about that. And it actually has helped.
Zack 53:08
I love the idea of you sitting around at like 8:50, like come on…pants…just put them on…
Gordon Greenberg 53:17
Those rituals are important. I think they help during times like this might be my I went for a dental cleaning recently because I, you know, I like a clean mouth. And my dentist said that there has been a huge incidence in people getting cavities because they just weren't brushing their teeth during COVID because of that sort of that routine and that ritual. People living by themselves, they were like, for what? You know?
Zack 53:42
We got to be careful with corollary and cause, because it might also be the people are just eating shittier. They could just be eating and drinking more coffee to medicate. Who knows? I don't know.
Gordon Greenberg 53:56
Alcohol doesn't give you cavities, though.
Christopher Sieber 54:01
No, but the bleaching tray that I put tootsie rolls in did. I have a feeling that…
Zack 54:15
That’s pretty good. Let's end on teeth. Let's end the Dracula podcast on teeth. It feels appropriate unless Gordon, you wanted to share anything that feels like a nice place to stop. About anything, about life in general, anything to share.
Gordon Greenberg 54:28
Oh, I got, well we got a new puppy three weeks ago. That was a departure. And now we have a little ray of sunshine named Anton Chekhov, who is our little, our little 11 week old Maltipoo apricot colored who is adorable and also bites.
Zack 54:58
That’s beautiful. So, you are kind of in my boat right now. I keep calling this pa-ternity leave. I have a young, I have a seven-month-old at home. And this is a human, this is a human form baby. Thank you, thank you. She was rescued from my wife. We're taking care of her. Yeah.
Guys, thanks for sharing the pod. Thanks for sharing your time with us and anyone still listening, though you shouldn't still be listening please go over and give whatever you can to the Actors Fund because it helps everybody that is helping our society culturally, no matter of race, color, age, shape, size religion. Thanks, everybody. Hope you enjoyed the pod!
Steve Rosen 55:34
Thank you.
Gordon Greenberg 55:35
Thank you.
Zack 55:50
This has been The Pod Spotter where we showcase the pods that we think you should know about but if you feel like we need to know about a pod and we haven't highlighted it yet, please let us know via thepodspotter,com or Facebook or Twitter, or Instagram, or any other place where you put pictures of your kids. Thanks everybody.
This has been Zach Robidaas. The Pod Spotter is created by the Price Brothers produced by Oink Ink Radio associate producer Tori Adams, and is recorded and produced by Baker Sound in Philadelphia.