Sign me up.

I love this show so much.

And then we had in our hopes perhaps a Broadway transfer, was not confirmed.

You know, we finished the show, said goodbye to the cast and crew.

And I said I might never n- see you again.

And I went home, and then we got the green light.

And it's just such a joy to see everyone again, to see my friends.

in New York.

I'm curious, like, uh, were those moments something that you had to find once an audience was there? Or did you feel that in the rehearsal room of like, "Oh, this feels like something's sparking here"?

Yeah, I think we got the main body of it in the rehearsal room.

We definitely knew which moments we wanted to cherish.

And then I think when we finally had it in front of a New York audience, we, we realized where to turn the dial up.

Because, you know, you, as you mentioned, that Perfect Justin line, um, there's a callback to it, um, where he says, "But you're just as perfect as Perfect Justin." And sort of this ridiculously sobering, like, y- we, I feel like with that line, it's like me throwing cold water on the audience.

... and you're a Tony nominee.

Woo! [singing] But two whole days.

How did you leave me in New York? NYC, J-O-K-N-Y, C-A-C-E.

Uh, what are Dougal's ideas about New York?

I think, uh, and they, and they are, it's funny we joke about the name.

It, they are very similar to mine.

Um, uh, you know, being from Lon- uh, England, uh, you know, my exposure to New York is through the sort of films and, and TV and, you know, the, the sort of m- media that we all consume.

And I remember my first time landing.

I was 21 for, for another job.

And, uh, it completely lived up to every single standard.

Mm-hmm.

And how do you guys manage, like, the physical stamina required for a two-person show? Like, what's, what's the recovery routine like after a show? [laughs]

I think I've just come to realize, like, I just don't.

Like, I think it's just like I wake up the next day and I'm like, "Am I okay?" Especially after this Tony campaigning, it's like, "Okay, that was a crazy day.

Do I have m- my range that I'm, I usually have?" And then some days it's like, no, gotta readjust that, work around that.

Um, so I think it's just, I've learned more than I've ever learned about myself in any other job during these past few weeks, and it's like the most liberating feeling knowing that you do have, like, control, and it's like, and, and how, how much, how much the audience doesn't know what's going on inside your head.

Which is to say, literally 100%, you know what I mean? So I think just, I think I, I've drifted into this sort of realm of anxiety and, and, um, sort of almost self-deprecation when I'm, like, not doing a show that is the same safety and comfort that I have known to be able to do it during a time where all I had to do was the show, do you know what I mean? So I think it's just learning, like, giving yourself an evening if you can, you know, after the show, like, drinking F loads of this.

This is vodka.

[laughs]

For somebody who has not seen the show, can you just, can you sum it up for me?

Yeah.

It's about, uh, essentially about two unlikely strangers.

Dougal is, is flying to America to see, um, his estranged father, and he's met at the airport by the sister of the bride.

So these two people come into contact with one another and they, and it's a sort of a story over two days about how they change each other's lives in a very unlikely, unorthodox way, a very unexpected, and it's very funny.

It's very sad.

There's a lot of beautiful moments where we really love to just move the audience into a, you, what you think you're getting is not that at all.

... at this point, right?

Where does that come from? And is any of that you?

I think I first thought it was a lot of me.

And then the more I came, the closer I got to Christiane, the more I realized it's actually more of her.

And it's less of me.

I think, you know, it's so interesting.

I think a lot of where Dougal starts and where he finishes, it's almost, it's like night and day, really.

I think he's much more sort of physically at peace and calm, and I think I never came to that conclusion by myself.

remember,

Nope, that's Queens.

Awesome.

She's called the Big Apple-

Apple-...

No one knows why, but she's my kind of town, and I'm her kind of street-smart guy.

I'll stroll up the Broadway.

I'll order a beer.

Um, Sam, how do they, how do those two, how do they create a fun dynamic on stage?

Can you unpack that and also sort of describe the play for us?

Yes, of course.

So firstly, just to start off with the play, it's only surrounded two people, Dougal and Robin.

Dougal being en route to New York to go to his estranged father's wedding.

where he is met at the airport by Robin, picking him up, who is the sister of the bride.

And that's sort of, you know, their adventures go on and continue through 48 hours in New York and see what they get up to.

It's lovely to play simple, probable people that, you know, when I say simple, I don't mean in a derogatory way, just sort of like believable that they exist.

I'm so glad I made my director's star.