William Finn

Since then, however, sequels have been a rarity on Broadway, and successful ones even rarer.

Sure, there's exceptions to the rule, like William Finn's Falsettos and Neil Simon's Eugene Trilogy, but many more writers and composers have failed trying to recapture their former glory.

As The New York Times puts it, quote, "Any stage sequel is a delicate operation, especially if the original work set the bar high." Take the 1931 political satire from George and Ira Gershwin called Of Thee I Sing, which also starred Victor Moore and had an impressive run of 441 performances and became the first musical to ever win the Pulitzer Prize for drama.

So a couple of years later, the Gershwin brothers teamed up again for round two, called Let 'Em Eat Cake, with the same producer and the same three lead actors.

... became what it was

... well, I mean, I was a huge William Finn fan, who's the guy who wrote the show.

And so I was always, I was just excited to, to meet him and work with him.

But when I first did the workshop of it, we were being paid $100 a week.

But I knew myself and I knew that many, many, many times in my life because I never had a corporate job because I never, you know, because I didn't even have a degree.

I went to NYU for three years and then When I was supposed to do my senior year, I was cast in a very, very, like, you might not know if you don't know the New York theater scene, but I was cast to be in a new musical at the Public Theater written by William Finn, like a major composer.

It was a big opportunity and it was a big deal.

And so I took a leave of absence from my senior year of NYU with every intention of going back, by the way.

Yeah.

Uh, William Finn.

Mm-hmm.

Oh, yeah.

like what you said? It's so funny.

I said that to a friend of mine who I knew Bill Finn like this, this, this much.

But I was speaking to a friend of mine who had worked with him quite a bit before we had begun rehearsals.

And I said, I cannot believe I get to sing in that song.