Paper Mill Playhouse

Thank you for having me.

For those who don't know, Ross has done many a show, but he is currently the composer of the Broadway musical Wanted, previously called Gun and Powder, at Paper Mill Playhouse.

Please go see it.

It is amazing.

I'm talking about what you just said, Mia.

Like, I remember I went to Paper Mill Playhouse in New Jersey where I grew up.

And there was a talk back with, I think, the cast of The Full Monty.

And one of the girls who came out, as they often do, with a baseball hat and wig off.

Nom, nom, nom.

Okay, so I saw it at Paper Mill Playhouse.

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

And,

That approach for the number was just something that came out of my head that I thought would be a cool way to do this number.

The first time we did it at Paper Mill Playhouse, Mark Bruni was like, yeah, I think that's cool.

Let's keep doing this.

That became the look of that number.

And so I don't know if they would like, it's not a super important thing, but things like that, it would be, you know, like probably wouldn't really land as well when it's like not there and not in London and stuff.

So I'm sure there will be some minor tweaks, but, um, But another one that I am looking forward to is called Wanted, which I saw the sort of preview or the tryout at the Paper Mill Playhouse when it was called Gun and Powder, which I thought was really great.

Like one of probably the most promising.

What's it about? Like new musicals.

What a voice, Charles McGregor as Edward Rutledge with that fabulous Molasses to Rum.

It is, uh, that kind of number, and it's the number that Jonathan Young, you know, Buffalo's own Jonathan Young, performed at the Paper Mill Playhouse, which attracted all that attention.

And now Jonathan is on Broadway, where he's the understudy for The Great Gatsby for both leads, for both Tom and Gatsby, and he's been going on as Gatsby, and from all reports is sensational.

But yes, it's a, it's the kind of role that gets attention.

This begins previews in nine days on the 15th of October with an official opening on the 8th of November.

This musical debuted at Paper Mill Playhouse.

At that point, it was called Gun and Powder.

It has since been renamed, possibly because you can't use the word gun if you want to access an entire swathe of social media advertising.

I, I wanna also like look at this from, I'm gonna ask maybe a couple of questions about, uh, grief and ancestry as well, um, because part of the reason I joined the co-producing team is my late father was a sharecropper.

And, um, I, I, I went to see, um, Gun & Powder in 2024 at Paper Mill Playhouse, and so then when I saw, Angelica, that your dad had passed, I was like...

It, it...

There was...

I did all of my high school shows, any community theater.

I did stuff at Paper Mill Playhouse because I'm from Jersey.

I'm a Jersey girl.

East Coast, West Coast.