Stage Whisper
Whisper in the Wings Episode 568
[music] Hello everyone and welcome to a very exciting new whisper in the wings from stage whisper. I am so giddy because we have two of my favorite artists joining us today and this is like this is like an ice cream sundae with all the fix this is such a delight such a treat. Today joining us we have the creators and performers Nicola Dempsey and Rosie Dempsey. You may know them more though as Flo and Joan and they're here to talk to us about their new musical one-man musical which is part of the Edinburgh Fringe Festival. It's playing July 31st through August 25th at 7 p.m. at the Pleasant Stome Queen Dome. You can get your ticket to more information by visiting flowandjone.com. I am still pinching myself because I can't believe this is real I'm getting to speak to these. So why don't we waste no more time and welcome in our guests Nicola Rosie thank you so much for joining us today here on Whisper in the Wings. Do we have to whisper the whole time? No no please don't hurt your voices no no no. Thank you for having us. Yes thank you. I'm so honored that you're here I really can't believe this is happening I'm such a huge fan as I mentioned you before we started I saw one of your videos one of your songs I should say on TikTok and I was like I don't know who these people are but I have to know more. So the fact that this is happening I mean it's like interviewing your heroes you know what I mean. I was saying I never meet the hero you don't know enough about us yeah be careful these are high stakes. Not going so far so good. Joining us today with this new show one-man musical this is exciting so Nicola why don't we start with you can you tell us a little bit about this show yes so it is a we've written a one-man musical end of end of the point I think we've explained it a one-man musical it is a musical for one person to perform we are not in it but we are we will be playing the music so we'll be hiding in the wings, closing your drums and me on keys and then we've hired a wonderful actor George Foraker's who's going to play this man it is a it's it's a famous man I think you're listening to a hundred percent know who he is but we are avoiding using his name to give ourselves the longest chance of not getting a cease and desist is the vibe at the moment but it's yeah it's a one it's sort of an almost autobiographical musical about a famous man who once you are in the room you will know who it is but until that point we are trying to keep it quiet. That is incredible I cannot wait to see Jimmy Carter the musical no no that's amazing that's so enticing so Rosie let me ask how is it that you two came up with the idea for the show? The idea for the show is because well a few different things we were working on a big ensemble musical before this and constantly being warned that these ensemble musicals take a long time to do and cost a lot of money and we just we go to the Edinburgh Fringe a lot to do shows we wanted to go back and do and try a musical but with budgets in Edinburgh Fringe and budgets and musicals we were like let's just do it about one person and it's just going to be that one person on the stage keep the budget as low as possible and we were on we were staying in Canada with some friends and we went to Canada's Wonderland we were on a train at half seven eight in the morning big theme park big theme park yeah and we were like oh what if the musicals about this man and we came up with loads of ideas really fast and we're like yeah that sounds fun easy we'll box it out we can do it at the Edinburgh Fringe it makes sense it makes sense for this man to be at the Edinburgh Fringe so that is how that's the twofold way of how the show came about yes that's amazing I love that origin I love the mystery still I'm hoping that no more we are barreling towards the Edinburgh Fringe festival you know at this time of recording I think we are just under four weeks away you know let me ask the two of you what has it been like developing this show and Nicola why don't I start first with you on that it's been really interesting because we when we normally write shows we write musical comedy shows which are just the two of us on stage writing fun songs about whatever we've sort of occupied our minds with so drinking too much or horrible regrets or having an alien for a boyfriend but there's never too much of a we've never sort of restricted ourselves or sort of tied ourselves with narrative before it's always just been kind of a collection of songs and our thoughts for the year whereas with this we for the first time ever are writing the book the music and the lyrics and so trying to write something with a narrative structure and figure out what that is has been very interesting and challenging in a fun way I think so far I think we're nearly getting there and just kind of figuring out we did a lot of research on this person and so trying to figure out the things that you want to keep in and the things that you want to lose and that has sort of been very what we thought we what we thought it was going to be about when we first had the original idea of which sort of it's kind of morphed on a little bit from that as well so it's been it's just been interesting seeing how something with a narrative and when you're basing it on a human person like how that's kind of moved and changed over the last few months as we've been working on it yes it's changed quite a bit from the original idea yeah yeah I would say rose everything you'd like to add to that I think actually the one I was thinking that one of the things I know it's a little bit boring but one of the things we're learning so much is the we wrote we wrote the songs in our voice to make the demos and to try them in front of audiences but we're now passing it on to a guy called George and we're having to change some of the keys of the songs and finding a very silly and nerdy but finding that some songs when you change the key for a singer sound really quite different or we've got this love song in it and it was written in a flat a flat and it's just got this it's got the perfect sound that we're looking for but we've had to move it to a different key for George and we're trying to find what is the perfect key that is as close as possible to it to you know to the sound yeah so that he can still sing it yeah the kind of nerdy if people I'm sure there are normal musical directors and people who write those kinds of things no instinctively how to do that but because we've never had to we've only ever written for ourselves it's been really interesting figuring out those kind of really boring technical things of like oh of course this man can't sing the same in the same keys as we can that's not reasonable it's but yeah it's been really interesting yes difficult yes but a big learning a lot of annoying actually fantastic that sounds like such an incredible process amazing with the show I'm curious to know as you're taking it to Edinburgh Fringe is this the world premiere of the piece yes well yes it is for as long as it exists yeah it is if it gets to Edinburgh without being shut down yeah we're only doing three preview previews a bit in London and we're asking the audience to not spread the word yeah so hopefully it gets to there hopefully it gets to Edinburgh but yeah it will be the world the world premiere oh that's previous well then when it gets to Edinburgh which I know it's going to with such an iconic person that you're depicting in your show I'm curious to know is there a message or a thought you hope audiences take away from your piece and Nicola if I could start again with you on that yes well mostly as you know I was gonna say mostly our MO is always to make people laugh it's a like before anything else it's a comedy so if we're not making people laugh then we have failed but I think I also we're finding with this person that a lot of people know a lot about them but everyone knows something different so I hope I want them to learn a little bit more to round out their own knowledge and so that I know that I'm not the only person in the world that has all this information about this person in my head and also I a bit like you know when people are like think about where your burgers come from think about where your food comes from think about what you eat and where it's what it's doing for you and where you know how it's made this show isn't about Ronald McDonald this doesn't have been really bad that is not he is not the famous figure that we aren't talking about but maybe that it makes people think about how the sausage got made how the sausage got made the value of art who makes who makes it yes how they make it what you eat what you choose to eat and why they're famous and why why we remember them yeah and the lengths that they've gone to make sure that you remember them yes I suppose and whether we should or not yes I like those thoughts and it makes me even more interested to see the show you were just saying something about out there yeah but next year we are going to do Ronald McDonald the music but that is my yeah I think the fact that we're doing this show in Edinburgh probably says one of the biggest messages yeah it sort of makes no it makes realistically it makes no sense for this person to be in Edinburgh but the show existing in Edinburgh makes absolute sense for why they've ended up in Edinburgh yeah I would say Edinburgh's been messaging for us you know when people leave breadcrumbs down to like take you to a clue it's like we've picked up the bag of breadcrumbs and just disperse them everywhere yeah I can figure something out go best then you win you can watch the show but it doesn't feel like we're leading people in like a gentle normal way to be like if you just keep following here this is where you'll get to the answer we've just exploded the bag of breadcrumbs and they're like if you can find a few that's our sound good luck they get the bag first part and I'm really curious to know given the subject matter given your style and your your normal audience you know who do you hope have access to one man's musical and Rosie could I actually start first with you on that please I think it's really going to attract the deep-cut theatre fans I think that's going to be our we have found in we've done it we previewed it a couple of times so far just us doing read through of it and there are pockets of people in the audience who are really maniacally laughing at the very tiny details that no other no one is getting so I think the biggest nuggets are in there for theatre nerds but the person did is crossed over yeah this they have a public image and definitely during the 90s 80s and 90s they were in the papers a lot so I think general public people will also find it very funny I think even if you don't know a lot about it the person is naturally funny in general so it's it's a really widespread probably the same people who come and see our shows that just gigantic widespread that we can't pinpoint but we're very happy they're there very happy that they're there yeah yeah but I reckon the real gems are there for the little theatre band I want the theatre nerds in so that I know that they're laughing at all of the little bits that we're like I wonder if they'll get this I wonder if they'll get that and you can just say them like yes you're okay good we go then well on the second part of our show we love giving our listeners a chance to get to know our guests a little bit better pull the curtain back if you will and I would love to start with our regular first question which is what or who inspires you you know what playwrights composers or shows have inspired you in the past or on just some of your favorites and Rosie can I start with you first on this please yes I probably that in a musical theatre world probably what originally inspired us was going to see amateur productions of musicals yeah community theatre so it would have been the old kind of productions like the My Fair Ladies and Oklahoma and Sound of Music all we were probably that was probably the first kind of like theatre sounds that we ever heard and I still love all of those old musicals so much the Golden Age kind of things and then growing older I'm on like on the pop side I'm one played a lot of disco and you know like Beatles and it was 70s stuff a lot of that kind of music came through into ideas and then made the big Turner as a teenager and found Stephen Sondheim that's probably that Stephen Sondheim is probably like the you know the golden the golden goose yes that you always hope that you're achieving that I mean in the taste palette he's the tastiest thing and you always hope that you're yeah I'm rambling no my final answer is Stephen Sondheim there I love that I love that we landed on Stephen Sondheim it's so wonderful Nicola what about you what her who inspires you he would it's old Stevie would have been also up there but I feel like as well as well as the kind of amateur like Rogers and Hammerstein and all those kind of people that you get as a feeder we were real we were babies during the like the Alan Menken Howard Ashman gold years of Disney of Disney movies so a lot of the little mermaid beauty and the beast like those kind of like Aladdin yeah hunchback of Notre Dame hunchback of the shop like we're like the kind of bedrock I think of probably a musical theater sound that we didn't realize yeah and I only recently listened to Little Shop of Horrors properly and was like oh this is like one of the greatest things I've ever heard and like obviously knew that they had written it but just never put two and two together and was like oh obviously I love this because I loved all of that Disney music but and then also that kind of yeah you kind of well I now I really love David Yasbeck who wrote like Dirty Rotten Scoundrels and Yeah Women on the Verge like I think he writes really funny music and really funny songs and the rhythm of them is always really interesting like I just love how he uses music and the things that he chooses to write shows about and what's that bit in Dirty Rotten Scoundrels and she's like the sound thing French oh yeah the sound of that the surprise of French the guy is a friend yeah what is it the um the the air the way this French oh the the air is French the sea is French the way they say oh the way they say son Sarah's French the something French the guy's a French these rise of French it's so good he's really with McCoy and yeah and like really play and what's the song in the tipsy um the tipsy the people say that I know what's going to happen just how he I think we're very we write very wordy very like tricky songs like for ourselves and when I heard I know what's going to happen it was just like oh god why did I never write that song like what are those where you're like I wish that was mine but I every time it shuffles on my phone I'm like this just it snaps I love I love his music yeah I find it so fun that is also wonderful one another wonderful list of of inspiration there that's fabulous we loaded up that list we really I think we just mentioned every composer there's ever been actually Jerry heaven Jerry heaven I'll throw him in there oh yeah I class Jerry in the old musicals I play me the macrame blin I'm sure I will cry I'm gonna build it off of that I'm curious to know I mean I know you've been very busy with the show but have you seen any great theater lately you might be able to recommend to our listeners oh well I get theater hounds we sorry I said that my favorite thing in London at the moment is standing at the sky's edge which I don't know if any of the buzz of that show is gone yeah she's she's what's the word spread it's one of the most beautiful shows that it's just about human experience it's funny that I didn't realize that it's technically a jukebox musical but the music fits so perfectly and I didn't know any of the music of the person who wrote it and so to me I was like oh you've just made this beautiful musical and written these beautiful songs for it and someone was like no the songs already existed they made it but yeah it's human it's funny like visually it was amazing I cried like sobbed at multiple times in it and there was a woman next to me who was crying as well in a way where you're like I'm actually gonna check that this woman is okay because like I'm crying but this woman feels like inconsolable at the moment because it's just so I don't know why I don't know how they do it but there's just something that just it just hit in such a specific way that I was like oh I'm crying and this isn't gonna this isn't stopping it was just beautiful it's so hearty it's so joyous oh I love it so much I think it's I'm not sure how much longer it is on in London but oh my god it was like one of the best things I've seen in years I love it yeah I wonder if it work in America though because it is a very British feeling I think it's around the sort of Margaret Thatcher pulls on that strings a little bit and it's about a living situation which is quite in the UK a living situation in the UK which is very UK but then it's very like about the humans the human situation yeah so maybe it will it's lovely it's a really lovely yeah and I saw two strangers on a cake no two I was a string that's like a cake that's really all wedding things you know people are wedding people on a cake strings with it two strangers carry a cake across New York which I went to see they had like a Sunday matinee like 3pm or something and I was like I'm not doing anything on a Sunday I took myself to a little theatre trip and was very not surprised because that implies that I went in with like no expectations but I was very just like I haven't seen the show a few people have said it's good I'm I've got a free Sunday let's go and see it and again like for some reason it just like hit where I was like oh this is just like a solid it's two people it's yeah for some reason it wouldn't nor on paper it wouldn't be for me but for some reason I was like fair play actually this is great oh I really enjoyed it had a lovely afternoon a bit yeah it's nice I haven't seen anything in a long time but well I saw a play the other day I'm not very good with plays that I'm so intimidated by them I and I always feel like I just have missed something I'm really bad at information like with getting the information on the top of the show like the first five minutes is really difficult for me but I sort of I saw people places and things which I believe was in I think it was in America in New York a handful of years ago I saw that the other night they've they've put it back on with the same actress Denise can't remember her name incredible show very fun a play I would see again easily it helped me like play the game really cool show and the sound design I thought was just phenomenal it blew the speaker out it was so great I love those suggestions yes well let me ask you to what is your favorite part about working in the theater but Nicola can I start first with you on that please yeah I am finding at the moment with one-man musical and also we early on in the year did a workshop of this big musical writing called the revival and so there were 12 people in that plus us and the book writer Connor and I'm finding it as well that collaborating with me it sounds so lame but normally the only people that work on anything are the two of us just and it's a fight to the death of what things happen what things go and what things don't and you there's no outside like obviously like we love working together and it has worked very well for us but speak for yourself okay well I will but there's something about the like the collaboration of just having like loads of people to ask loads of people to work with loads of different ideas like George who is playing our one man and one man musical is like brought stuff in like two teeny rehearsals that we would never have thought of our director Georgie Georgie state is like just working with other people who were also like invested in the thing and have become excited for the thing with you is really lovely in a way that obviously like we're always going to be sort of hopefully excited by our own stuff but it's nice to be working with other people who are like and then we can do this and I've got this and I thought we could do that like it's been so lovely to unlike the small scale of one-man musical and also on the revival of people just having getting excited for stuff is so there's been so warming and also like very nice and reassuring that you're like we're not crazy this might be a good idea like we might be we might have something here it was so nice to not just be the two of us screaming into an abyss wondering whether we're losing our minds and whether we've got something or whether we should just give up has been I love working with other people I love it so much I don't know how people like stand-ups do it and I do want like 10 people around you to make things it's so fun I love that answer love that answer that is a testament to the power of theater we love a good collaboration Rosie how about you this is so annoying but I would honestly say exactly the same thing because we're at the earliest days of starting to work in theater because all of our career so far has been in comedy so and we physically play comedy in theaters our tours go to a lot of theaters so I always enjoy the general feeling of being inside of a theater that is the best yeah the smell of the little red seats yeah yeah yeah I go around and snip every seat I don't know about you but that's my favorite thing about working in the theater yeah the moment they get up off the seat yeah and the ice creams that's my favorite vision we are on our very early days so we have that sort of like naive glow yeah oh it's lovely when people suggest things isn't it cute that you warm up in two years we'll be like get them away from us I don't want anymore just ask enough to take a little box yeah oh I love that as well thank you those are fabulous answers now we've arrived at my favorite question to ask guests and that of course is what is your favorite theater memory I have one that's kind of like a collective memory and it's sort of a cop out because it's not pinpointing one specific thing but when I was like 1819 I was at college in the day and then would work in a petrol station in the evenings and then at the weekends where we lived in the UK when we were growing up you could get a train that was an hour into central London so it was really short in for us like a very short train and I would at the weekends me and my friends and like sometimes you like there were always groups of us we would go and see shows and would tick off like okay we've seen this one like all we did for like an entire year was just going to the west end and see shows and sometimes you'd go in for a matinee and then in the evening you would see like I remember we went in to see I think it was with you and Harry we went in to see Lord of the Rings of musical at half-cost too and then in the evening we were looking through the programme and there was an advert for Avenue Q in the back and we had both seen it but your friend hadn't seen it and we went to the box office like 10 minutes before it started and got it's the same as you like 20 pound seats to sit in the box and it was just for an entire year our weekends were just going up to see concerts and show that was how I saw I saw my first sontime which was a little light music with Hannah Woddingham and Jessie Buckley in it I saw like shows I spring awakening had just come to London then so we got see spring awakening and then you also look how should I fall was in there and it hadn't been like just seeing all of the and also like you're mixing in like mummamee or we will rock you because why not but it was just a year of going to see just anything we could get our hands on for like cheap as well or like sometimes you'd save up to see something because you wanted to sit in good seats and then other times you'd be like let's see what we can get for like we've got 15 flip left and we'd eat McDonald's in between because that was a week in afford because we spent all of our money on like train tickets and theater tickets and it was like one of my favorite years of my life the grind in the week and then at the weekend you're like the petrol station grind literally that I couldn't see the cajun fall this afternoon filling the pumps and then a bit of work it's a bit weird wonderful memory oh my gosh I love that I love that right so how about you what is your favorite theater memory I'm really trying to rack my brain because I don't think I have a favorite one but and my memory is so bad but one experience it did spring to mind was when we saw just after COVID and theater started opening Sutton Foster came over here and did anything goes at the Barbican and I as I said I do love an old fashioned big old hammy tap explosion I like a big bag explosion in the in my musicals too and it was the I think we saw on the press night it was the the big tap number anything goes at the end of the first act and I just remember like holding on to my seat so I was gonna explode because I was like this is so cheesy and they're tapping and Sutton Foster couldn't be any more perfect for this role we're all outside watching the theater it was just the best feeling and the trumpets and the taps and the smiles it was just like a little cheesy oh it was the best it really was the best and then Kurtz come down you interval Kurtz come back up and they do blow Gabriel go blow right it's up which is just another giant dance explosion the music was just so slick Sutton Foster I mean there's just no there's no one better it it was perfection for me it was the feeling the feeling of COVID being sort of over and theater being back was lovely was absolutely gorgeous oh I love that memory too another fabulous show I adore thank you both so much for those those are really really fantastic thank you for asking I'm so and I've probably not many of those memories I just my recall is so bad wrap things up I would love to know do either of you have any other projects or productions coming on the pipeline that we might be able to plug for you the only other the other thing that is in a pipeline but it's not it's not we don't have a set date for it would be the other musical that will work shopping so the revival the revival yes that ones are sort of big ensemble number big ensemble thing so we'll probably be workshopping that again in yeah there'll be some kind of workshop for it yeah a public workshop and why we're in Edinburgh yeah we're doing our own show in flown Joan show in Edinburgh as well yeah to claw some money back and because we love what we do and to claw some money back yeah that's in the the last two weeks of it so one moment is closed on for the whole of Edinburgh and then the Joan and Flow show is on for the last two weeks of Edinburgh so that's a kind of best of old new like best of with some new as well yeah it will be fun for us because we are just going to pull out the biggies all the songs that we love singing some new things yeah yeah yes that's exciting so some things we definitely definitely need to stay tuned for and that's a great lead into my final question which is if our listeners would like more information about one man musical or about you maybe they'd like to reach out to you how can they do so we're on everything at Flow and Jo yes social media is probably Instagram is what we use the most but we're on all of the we've got some kind of connection to all of the other ones in some way or another in in all some kind of form it's at Flow and Joan yes a fellow andy Jo and boom wonderful well Nicola Rosie thank you both so so much for taking the time to speak with me today I still can't believe that this has happened this has been such a pleasure so thank you so much for your time thank you thank you so much thank you yeah my guests today have been the creators and performers Nicola Dempsey and Rosie Dempsey they joined us to talk about their upcoming show being presented of course by Flow and Joan entitled One Man Musical it's part of the Edinburgh Fringe Festival and it's playing July 31st through August 25th at 7 p.m at Pleasant Stone Queen Dome you can get your tickets and more information by visiting Flow and Joan.com and we also have some contact information for our guests which will be posted on our episode description as well as on our social media post but right now you need to head to their website Flow and Joan.com and get your tickets for this new show One Man Musical I'm gonna call it now this thing is gonna sell out not only because of who's creating this but the actual show itself it sounds amazing I want to know who this mysterious character is I can't wait to find out so head to Flow and Joan.com get your tickets now for One Man Musical playing July 31st through August 25th now until next time I'm Andrew Cortez reminding you to turn off your cell phones unwrap your candies I keep talking about the theatre in a stage whisper thank you if you like what you hear please leave a five star review like and subscribe you can also find us on facebook and instagram at stage whisper pod and feel free to reach out to us with your comments and personal stories at stage whisper pod at gmail.com and be sure to check out our website for all things 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