SONG: "READY TO BE LOVED" FROM EDGES
JAMIE: Thanks for coming out! BOBBY: Yeah, that's our whole show. JAMIE: All downhill from here. BOBBY: Hey Jamie, tell them how you were scared no one would show up. JAMIE: We usually have actual performers doing this part. BOBBY: But it's great to be here. JAMIE: Let's see how long we can get away with this. BOBBY: That was "Ready to Be Loved" from Edges - [crowd cheers] - yeah, we got some Edgeheads in the crowd. I don't know if you know this, but the reason we wrote Edges is - JAMIE: Bobby had a crush on a girl. BOBBY: Yes. But more importantly, Jamie and I went to Michigan - [more cheers] DRUNK AUDIENCE MEMBER: GO BLUE! BOBBY: Just like that. We were in the musical theatre program and wouldn't you know it, we didn't get cast in the big show our freshman year. [gentle boos, Jamie plays a sad mournful version of "Corner of the Sky"] JAMIE: This was my audition song - Rivers belong where they can ramble, eagles belong where they can fly. I've got to be where my spirit can run free, got to find my corner of the sky! BOBBY: And mine was uh, "Moving Too Fast" because, I guess, irony. [Jamie starts playing a simplified arrangement] I'm gliding smooth as a figure skater, I'm riding hot as a rocket blast - By the way, I maintain that the audition pianist sabotaged me. He refused to play half the notes in protest. JAMIE: Hard same. BOBBY: And uh, what was that show we failed to get cast in, Jamie? SONG: "THE TENNIS SONG" FROM CITY OF ANGELS JAMIE: So you get a sense of why we didn't... BOBBY: Yes. You're all very lucky this stage isn't big enough for us to dance on. JAMIE: And that I'm sitting behind this piano. BOBBY: Right, I'm much better than him. Just so you know, as long as you'll never get confirmation. [Jamie starts playing and singing a bit of "I Don't Dance" from High School Musical 2 to cheers] BOBBY: So we wrote Edges, because we needed something to do - JAMIE: And because Bobby wanted to flirt with this girl who wouldn't give him the time of day until he said he wrote her a show. How'd that work out for you, Bobby? [Jamie peers into the audience] Wait, is that... oh my God, Bobby! She's finally - nope, still nope. BOBBY: Yeah, I haven't seen her since she graduated our sophomore year. But if you wanna know how that worked out for me, well - SONG: "WE TAPPED THAT ASS" FROM CRAZY EX-GIRLFRIEND JAMIE: You may notice we're going a little out of order. BOBBY: Yeah so, a little over a year ago, we wrote a little song for a little show about a guy who runs real fast, played by one of our favorites, Dylan Marrs - [crowd cheers] - yeah, you like him too. JAMIE: And it had some great showtune classics from shows like Guys and Dolls and some originals by this incredible woman named Xandi Cohen. [crowd cheers] Yeah, you like her too. BOBBY: Anyway, so we kept writing songs and you know, we like performing - that's why we're here tonight - JAMIE: But writing is just something that kept happening and it was something we had a lot of fun doing together, more so than on our own, and we realized... you know what... SONG: "TWO PLAYER GAME" FROM BE MORE CHILL BOBBY: Oh good, you know that one. Real good, right? I'd tell you to go see it but it's sold out. Crazy. JAMIE: Joe's one of the first people we met when we first moved out to New York, not to be actors - BOBBY: Sometimes to be actors - JAMIE: But only accidentally - BOBBY: Mostly to keep doing this writing thing. And what better place to be in if you want to write musical theatre than New York City? [crowd screams because there's nothing New Yorkers love more than New York except complaining about New York and ragging on New Jersey] JAMIE: And there were a lot of great young up and coming writers at the time - BOBBY: Some of whom you may know - JAMIE: Like one Kait and one Brian - [crowd cheers] BOBBY: Everyone expects us to do "Vegas", right? [Jamie starts playing something that sounds like "Vegas" as the cheers get louder] BOBBY: It's not "Vegas", assholes. SONG: "FREEDOM" FROM THE MAD ONES JAMIE: Kait and Brian were so important to our growth, it really can't be understated, because they started newmusicaltheatre.com - [crowd cheers] - which created a home for these young writers who maybe didn't have a Broadway-ready show just yet, but could start building a fanbase. BOBBY: Power of the internet, right? JAMIE: And the great thing about new musical theatre is you don't have to conform to the standard Broadway sound or, well, cast the standard Broadway leading lady, like a certain Tony nominee we're fond of, who was deeply influential in the writing of our first real hit. SONG: "FIRST DATE/LAST NIGHT" FROM DOGFIGHT [Bobby sings Rose's part, and Jamie stops the song halfway through and says, "Okay, raise your hand if you thought i was going to be the girl... and fuck all of you"] JAMIE: Lindsay Mendez put us on the map. BOBBY: We owe her a lot. JAMIE: And she's someone we met through the new musical theatre scene because she was doing cabarets all over the place. BOBBY: But you know, as much as we appreciated this new model of getting songs heard, we were always gunning for writing book shows over song cycles. JAMIE: And fighting against what seemed like, well, what everyone else was doing and succeeding with - BOBBY: Required a fair bit of... negotiation. SONG: "THE OTHER SIDE" FROM THE GREATEST SHOWMAN BOBBY: Oh good, you know that song. JAMIE: Hugh Jackman and Zac Efron, right? [wild screams] BOBBY: No need to show off, they're not here. I think. JAMIE: Wait, I... I think I see - [Jamie peers into the audience] - is that - Hugh Jackman and the Zef? BOBBY: I'm in the market for a new best friend by the way. JAMIE: But you know, it's funny because we tend to be known for... writing for the underdog. SONG: "WAVING THROUGH A WINDOW" FROM DEAR EVAN HANSEN JAMIE: So that one opened some doors for us. BOBBY: And it's funny because we were working on that show for what, ten years? And all of a sudden everything seemed to be happening at once - JAMIE: We wrote for some movies, TV, and then we landed a dream job - like, the kind you don't even really let yourself dream of - SONG: "A WHOLE NEW WORLD" FROM ALADDIN [this time, Jamie is indeed the girl] JAMIE: So yeah. Watch out for that one, coming out... next year? BOBBY: Next year. It's gonna be a good one. JAMIE: We think. BOBBY: Who knows with these Disney movies, they're so underground. JAMIE: But you know, dreams and all, it hasn't all been great. BOBBY: And if you look at the last two years we've had - JAMIE: Lucky, grateful - BOBBY: All that - but it's easy to forget that we've had plenty of setbacks in our journey. Hiccups. Stumbles. JAMIE: You could say our dreams have been... occasionally... smashed. SONG: "REWRITE THE STORY" FROM SMASH [there's a small riff from "Rewrite the Stars" that gets a huge laugh, to which Jamie says, "Oh yeah, people watched that one," and Bobby replies, "Yeah, we didn't think anyone would notice"] BOBBY: But enough about us. JAMIE: Yeah, a big part of the reason we agreed to do this show is because we wanted to highlight some of our favorite writers. BOBBY: Like Joe, like Kait and Brian, like Cy Coleman - JAMIE: Not that he needs it - BOBBY: Not that the others really do. JAMIE: Like we said, the new musical theatre community was... [Jamie starts playing "Dispensable"] indispensable in getting us on our feet. BOBBY: Not now. JAMIE: And it's so important to us that everyone here keeps supporting new writers, seeking out ones you may not have heard of, the ones who'll be writing your next favorite shows - BOBBY: Like this guy we met a few years ago and are huge fans of. SONG: "IT GLOWS" FROM EIGHTY-SIXED BOBBY: Yeah, check that one out. Eighty-Sixed by Sam Salmond, book by - JAMIE: Jeremy King. BOBBY: He's great. I think we met him - was it at the Larsons? JAMIE: Had to be before. BOBBY: If you don't know, the Larsons are a grant sponsored by the American Theatre Wing - JAMIE: This is a good segue into Rent, right? [Jamie starts playing "Seasons of Love"] BOBBY: We're not gonna do Rent. JAMIE: Bobby's right, for once. We're coming to the end of our night, so first we gotta say thank you to everyone at Feinstein's/54 Below - BOBBY: Thank you, Jen Tepper, for having us - JAMIE: Supporting us from day one - BOBBY: KJ and Amanda, for making us look and sound amazing - JAMIE: And to this incredible staff, please tip them exorbitantly. BOBBY: We know your drinks are expensive. They've earned it. JAMIE: We hope you enjoyed hearing a little of our journey, our influences, our favorite writers and stories. BOBBY: And given all that, it would be a disservice to leave without this song: SONG: "MOVE ON" FROM SUNDAY IN THE PARK WITH GEORGE BOBBY: And... that's our whole show. JAMIE: Thanks for coming out. [Jamie and Bobby take their bows to cheers and screams that refuse to die out, and only intensify once Jamie sits back down at the piano] JAMIE: Yeah okay, we can do another one. BOBBY: You may have noticed that we're missing a bit of a - I don't know, would you call it iconic? JAMIE: Important. BOBBY: Crucial part of our history here. A little movie we helped write some songs for. JAMIE: It's called Trolls. BOBBY: You're a fucking troll. [Jamie blows Bobby a kiss, which he swats away] SONG: "CITY OF STARS/AUDITION (THE FOOLS WHO DREAM)" FROM LA LA LAND |