Filmed Live Musicals

SuperYou

April 07, 2021 Luisa Lyons Season 1 Episode 18
Filmed Live Musicals
SuperYou
Show Notes Transcript

Host Luisa Lyons chats with Filipino-American artist Lourds Lane - book writer, composer, lyricist, arranger, and violin-playing co-star of the new rock musical SuperYou. The musical was scheduled to open off-Broadway in May 2020, but was postponed due to the pandemic. Instead, a concert version was performed on the back of pick-up trucks at a drive-in in upstate New York. The concert was filmed and is available to stream on Broadway on Demand!

We talk about how music inspires, how writing music for a touring rock band helped Lourds write a musical, the Medusa Festival, the intensely personal inspiration behind SuperYou, why the team defied industry malaise at the start of the pandemic and staged the drive-in concert, how the concert was filmed, and putting your work online.

Learn more about Lourds Lane at www.lourdslane.com  and SuperYou at www.superyoumusical.com

SuperYou is available to stream on demand until April 15, 2021 at Broadway on Demand.

Filmed Live Musicals is the most comprehensive online searchable database for musicals that have been filmed live on stage. Visit www.filmedlivemusicals.com to learn more. Follow us on Facebook and Twitter. You can also support the site at Patreon. Patrons get early access to content, no matter how much you pledge. 

Filmed Live Musicals is created by Luisa Lyons. Luisa is an Australian actor, writer, and musician. She holds a Masters in Music Theatre from London's Royal Central School of Speech and Drama and now lives, works, and plays in New York. Learn more at www.luisalyons.com or follow on Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook.

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Filmed Live Musicals is where musicals come home. Use the searchable database to find musicals filmed on stage to watch from the comfort of your living room! Visit www.filmedlivemusicals.com to learn more.

Follow us on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and YouTube. You can also support the site at Patreon. Patrons get early access to the podcast and site content, no matter how much you pledge. Become a Patron today!

Filmed Live Musicals is created by Luisa Lyons, an Australian actor, writer, and musician. Luisa holds a Masters in Music Theatre from London's Royal Central School of Speech and Drama and now lives, works, and plays in New York. Learn more at www.luisalyons.com and follow on Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook.

Luisa Lyons: LL

Lourds Lane: LA


LL: [00:00:00] Welcome to the Filmed Live Musicals podcast, a podcast about stage musicals that have been legally filmed and publicly distributed. The Filmed Live Musicals website contains information on nearly 200 musicals that have been captured live. Check it out at www.filmedlivemusicals.com. And now, on with the show!


[00:00:25] SuperYou is a new rock musical about the journey of a woman who reconnects with her dreams when her superheroine creations come to life. It was scheduled to open off-Broadway at the Daryl Roth Theatre in May 2020, but was forced to cancel its run due to the pandemic. The creative team gathered their superstrengths and staged a concert of songs from the show on the back of pickup trucks at a drive-in in upstate New York. The concert was filmed and is now available to stream on demand on Broadway On Demand. I am thrilled to welcome to the podcast the book writer, composer, lyricist, and arranger, and performer, Lourds Lane. Welcome, Lourds!


LA: [00:01:06] Hi! So happy to be here.


LL: [00:01:09] So thrilled that you could join us. When did you first fall in love with music?


LA: [00:01:15] I started playing music when I was three years old. I started at a really, really young age, but I don’t know if I was in love with it. There was just a lot of turbulence in my house, and I turned to music. My mom, luckily, was astute enough to get us some sort of lessons when we were really young, and that’s what changed the game for me, because knowing how to play the piano and violin was what would save me when there was a lot of fighting and screaming in the house. I would turn to my instruments. So it was my therapy, and at the same time, it wasn’t necessarily a joyful thing. It was like, I would turn to it to just get out of my head and escape. 


[00:02:17] And I didn’t really actually experience joy from playing music until this one time when I was seven years old and I jumped off the stage during a concert with my orchestra, and I started to play into the audience. And actually, it came from making a mistake, and I had such perfectionist teachers that I knew “I can’t really fix this,” so I decided to feature it, and I jumped off the stage, and in that moment people were so excited to have me in the audience and playing in the audience. That was the moment when I started to feel joy, because I realized, “Oh, music is about connection. It’s not about escape or running away.” And that was when I started to feel, “Wow, this is what music is all about. It’s about really embracing the audience.” Unfortunately, after that incident, my conductor said I made a mockery of classical music. So I once again turned inward, and I started to just finish concertos instead of just playing the violin and the pieces as is. I would create my own endings. And I started to press a little harder with my bow to see what it sounds like to distort it a little bit, and started to create my own style. I think that if my teacher had said, “You’re awesome! That was great,” I think I probably would have stayed a classical musician and just kept going down that path. 


[00:03:56] But because of that incident, I started to discover my own path of finding what gives me joy on my own with music and creating my own style. So that’s a long-winded answer to say it took me a while to figure out what in music actually filled up my soul, and the more I got connected to the audience, the more I felt the feeling of an audience around me experiencing what I experience and knowing that I was in service to them. That’s what really gives me joy.


LL: [00:04:31] Did you study music at… You went to Harvard, right?


LA: [00:04:36] Yes.


LL: [00:04:37] And did you study music there?


LA: [00:04:39] I was an English and American Lit major.


LL: [00:04:42] Oh, wow.


LA: [00:04:44] So I did music as… I mean, you couldn’t really do music as a minor, but I did take music classes, and I was just this quirky student who, instead of extrapolating a poem, I would write a song, and it would answer the question, and my teachers would say, “I don’t really know how to grade you.” But I somehow would get As because I was just this weird little misfit that would sort of march to the beat of my own drummer, because I was always twisting the answers and finding my own ways to just create my own world. I guess that became ingrained in me since a little girl; I have to figure out a way to create my own world.


LL: [00:05:40] That’s powerful. And that’s brave, to do that at Harvard.


LA: [00:05:43] Well, the thing is, at the time, I really wanted to go into music, but I got into Harvard really early, and you just don’t say no to Harvard, right? And I just felt like if I’m gonna be in that school, I wanted to still bring me to that school, and whatever made me tick to that school.


LL: [00:06:09] I feel like that resonates so much with what SuperYou is all about, which we will get to in a little bit. But I’m curious about your fascinating background, that you were a rock and roller, you were a rock musician for a while. Can you tell us a little bit about that?


LA: [00:06:27] Yeah, so I traveled many years with a rock band. I am a composer, as you know, and I play electric violin, and I play mandolin, and I play electric guitar, and every now and then there’ll be a piano, I’ll jump on a piano. But it was a really amazing experience to be on the road with family. I mean, my bandmates are my family, and I did it for many years, and it was a really tough existence, so as soon as I graduated from school, I was on the road in a van. I had so many student loans, and it took me years to pay back the student loans, but I did it, and figured out how to make a living as a musician, a touring musician, which is tricky. We were sleeping in the van a lot of times. We had to figure out ways to sustain ourselves and build a fanbase. 


[00:07:37] But one thing I did learn is how to create music that will make the audience pay attention right away. It was important to create songs like that, because we only had so much time to make an impression if we’re opening up for a national act, or if we’re opening up for a famous rock band, or if we’re opening up for a big band in that state. So it’s like, if we didn’t make an impression right away, people already checked out, and it was important for us to make that impression, because we needed to make a living doing this thing called music and we needed to make sure there was a fanbase when we got there and make sure that people remembered us. So I know how to write songs that will hook you in right away and make you feel something right away so that you’re paying attention, and I’m really happy that I learned that skillset. I learned how to fashion a set so that it’s like, “Okay, we got them. We got them within the first twenty seconds. We got them in the first minute. They are now leaning in, moving forward. People are moving up from the bar, people are waving their hands in the air.” That’s the energy that I learned how to create, and that’s the energy that I put into our show.


LL: [00:09:07] What led you to transition from writing rock and roll music, and I know SuperYou is a rock musical, but what made you decide to write a musical?


LA: [00:09:17] Actually, in my travels, I know so many amazing female rock musicians and singers, and they were like superheroes to me, and every year I would host this festival called the Medusa Festival, and it would pack out this club called CBGB, and it was a big deal. And it would gather all these amazing female singers and songwriters and musicians, and it was this platform to celebrate strong women, and that was really important at the time, because it was such a male-dominated industry, and women’s voices were not really heard. It was really important for me to celebrate all these amazing singers and musicians that I knew, that were my peers, that were my friends. And I thought, I’m doing this thing called Medusa Festival every year, and it was a big deal, and as a matter of fact, CBGB… You’ve heard of it, right? You know that club?


LL: [00:10:24] Yeah, of course.


LA: [00:10:28] It closed, right, and a lot of famous musicians got their start in CBGB, and when it closed, there was a final big show, big night, and the second to last night, it was a Medusa Festival, because they knew that we’d pack it out. They knew that it was gonna be an amazing event. So needless to say, I had a network of really strong women, and then when Medusa Festival ended, I really thought that I could get these singers and musicians and maybe create some sort of musical revue and feature them as superheroes, because they’re amazing. And so I wrote some songs, and I thought, “I’m gonna call my friends and ask if they wouldn’t mind singing it for a show.” And so I put up a show, and they were superheroes in the show, and it went over so well that people in the audience were like, “I want to know the story behind these women. What is the story?”


LL: [00:11:40] I have chills as you’re saying that. Wow, that’s very powerful.


LA: [00:11:45] Yeah, and the thing is, at the time, I was going through just heartbreak and depression and I was going through my own swirls, my own feeling of lack of self-worth, and to write the story, I was an English major, so it’s not like I can’t write a story, but I just wasn’t feeling in my power. And I remember that I was listening to music and there was a playlist that was on shuffle, and then there was this song that was on the playlist that started to enliven me and empower me, and I thought, “Gosh, I really wish I wrote that song.” And then a few seconds later I realized that I did write that song! And it was such an amazing moment, because that’s when my own songs, my own art, my creations, saved me. It was like a magical moment, and in that exact moment, that’s when I had the idea of creating a story about a comic book artist who learns to love herself when her own superheroine creations come to life. She needs her own artwork to save her, and that became the basis of the story. And I’m still writing the show. I have it, but you’re never finished writing until you actually get on Broadway, and…


LL: [00:13:26] And even then, the show is never finished. It’s only ever rewritten.


LA: [00:13:30] Exactly, exactly. So that’s the process.


LL: [00:13:37] It’s such a powerful, positive, joyful message, that your past self spoke to you, and that it was always in you all along. It’s kind of cliched now, but it doesn’t sound cliched the way… It’s so powerful, to…


LA: [00:13:56] Thank you so much.


LL: [00:13:57] It’s super-powerful. I’m curious if you had ever… Were you interested in the world of musical theatre? You grew up playing classical music, but was musical theatre a genre or style of music that spoke to you prior to this?


LA: [00:14:14] I naturally wrote dramatic songs, because I was inspired by artists like Queen, and Freddie Mercury was naturally dramatic, and I naturally write anthemic songs, big anthem triumphant songs. That was just my natural way of writing. It’s probably because of all that emotion I had as a child. A lot of my songs go from the initial feeling of discord and confusion, and then within a three-minute song, there’s a full-on trajectory to “I got this,” and then feeling empowered, and that was my natural way of writing. I mean, not exactly. When I first started writing music in my angsty early teens, it was all about angst, right, but then when I started to perform it, it was hard to perform it again and again, because I just didn’t want to hear myself whining all the time. I was singing, and I’d be like, “Alright, enough, enough! I want to feel good.” So I found that when I was singing songs that I would feel empowered, it would empower me, it was like, “Oh, everyone’s feeling empowered, too.” It worked to serve everyone else if I could take people on that journey. 


[00:15:39] So that theatrical element was always a part of my songwriting, even though musical theatre wasn’t what I did. I was in a couple plays, I was in a couple of… Was I in a musical? Maybe just junior high school simple things, but it was not like I was a musical theatre geek. But I was a natural dramatic musical writer geek. That was just how I naturally wrote music. And I loved the theatre. I was fortunate to be able to see Broadway shows. I’m a New Yorker, so I loved seeing theatre.


LL: [00:16:24] Do you remember the first musical that you saw?


LA: [00:16:29] I think it was Rent, actually.


LL: [00:16:32] Appropriate.


LA: [00:16:34] Yeah, I think it was Rent. I remember thinking, “Wow, this is really cool.” It was cutting-edge, and I thought it was inspiring, because I saw a lot of musicals on TV, and it was a lot more of the classical kind of musicals. It felt very far away to write that kind of music. But Rent was like, that’s home. I totally understood that. That really made a difference.


LL: [00:17:08] That’s so perfect. I love that. So SuperYou was scheduled to open at the Daryl Roth Theatre off-Broadway in May last year, and of course the pandemic got in the way of that. And you and your team decided to pivot, and you said hell no to this pandemic. What made you decide to go to a drive-in in upstate New York?


LA: [00:17:32] It’s funny because at the time, there was this general malaise in the theatre industry, and we were getting advised by so many people to just wait it out, do nothing, don’t go out in the world, don’t release any videos. Just don’t. Stop. Wait. That was the advice we were getting. But our musical is about uplift, it’s about resilience, it’s about getting on the other side of grief and pain. And our team was really, really connected in thinking that this music actually needs to be out in the world, this story needs to be out in the world, and we need to figure out a way, how to get it out there. So we did not heed the advice of waiting, and we thought, “We need to innovate.” And there was only one drive-in that was open at the time, and we somehow got in touch with them, and they said, “Let’s make this happen.” And so we tricked out this drive-in. Now, you can understand, it’s a little drive-in in upstate New York.


LL: [00:18:47] Four Brothers Drive-in in Amenia.


LA: [00:18:50] Four Brothers Drive-in in Amenia. And we tricked out that drive-in with our Broadway team and fancy sound and made it sound legit and awesome, and in order to stay socially distanced we got the cast on socially distant pickup trucks. Instead of thinking of what we can’t do, our team was always thinking, “What can we do?” So instead of standing ovations, we had honking ovations. It was the most remarkable experience. And it’s the most unforgettable thing ever, because at the time, people were hungry for some sort of entertainment. And as I said, the music is about uplift, it’s about digging in and finding your power. It’s about resilience. And it resonated immediately with this crowd in upstate New York. And people came in capes that they created themselves, and it was a festive, superheroic affair. It was truly amazing. We were the first show out there to perform live, and I’m glad we took that leap, because it was an emotional experience for the cast, it was an emotional experience for the creatives… You gotta understand, we were in isolation. So we had one Zoom rehearsal, and the one rehearsal we had, it was in torrential rain. We had all the obstacles. And yet, we are SuperYou. So it was magical. We found our inner strength, we found our power, and we pulled off these remarkable sold-out shows. It was amazing. It was really an amazing experience.


LL: [00:20:50] And you can see that in the stream, which is available on Broadway On Demand. There’s a great documentary, kind of making of, before the show, where you show footage of those rehearsals and you all standing on the back of the pickup trucks with umbrellas and ponchos and this pouring torrential rain.


LA: [00:21:12] We knew that it might rain, and we were prepared to perform in the rain no matter what. So we had these huge golf umbrellas and we were rehearsing in our one rehearsal how to navigate these umbrellas with the microphones and not get the equipment wet. And understand, I play electric violin, so to choreograph how to get the umbrella, pick up the violin, all of that needed to literally be choreographed. But see, that’s what live theatre is. Live theatre is like, a lot of things can happen, so the fact that we were all thinking on our toes and using our creative minds again, that’s what made everyone really emotional, because we all missed that. We missed being in a room together, thinking on our toes and creating together. And this is a very odd way of creating, in the middle of a pandemic on pickup trucks in torrential rain, but still we’re creating.


LL: [00:22:16] The ultimate testament to “The show must go on.”


LA: [00:22:19] Absolutely.


LL: [00:22:20] Come rain, come pandemic, we will put on a show.


LA: [00:22:24] Absolutely, yeah.


LL: [00:22:25] I skipped this, and I do want to go back to it, that you had released the cast album, or a concept album, prior to the drive-in performance, and that had gone viral, right, on TikTok?


LA: [00:22:42] Yeah. It was amazing, because we actually have experienced growth during the pandemic, because we constantly think outside the box, we constantly think about “What can we do to get our message and our music and our show out into the world?” And one of those things is just starting a TikTok page. And a few videos went viral, and within those videos, I innocently put, “If you want some sheet music for the song, just let me know.” Something easy-breezy like that. Then there were thousands upon thousands of comments of like, “Yes please, yes please, yes please! I want it! I need it!” That sort of thing. And then we needed a social media team to help us, because we didn’t know how to navigate that demand, you know what I mean? It was originally like, “Oh, well, I’ll just email you.”


LL: [00:23:47] Don’t underestimate the theatre kids!


LA: [00:23:51] The most beautiful thing is that every day, we receive these fans singing our music, and they are doing Duets, and they’re… Literally, we released a karaoke track of one of the songs, and they’re singing to the karaoke track, and it’s like every time I see fans singing our music, I weep. I weep. What else can you ask for? It’s huge that we’re making this impact when theatre is dark and they haven’t seen our show. Yesterday, someone said, “Thank you so much. This musical has changed my life.” The page is resonating, and we don’t have like a million followers, but we do have engaged fans. And that’s really the most important thing, is that these fans are paying attention, and they’re loving what the show is about and they’re loving the content and they can’t wait for us to be onstage. So that’s a huge win during a time when there’s no theatre.


LL: [00:24:59] It speaks to what you were talking about earlier, that music is connection. It’s not just about releasing a cast recording and people listen to it in their living rooms. By putting it on social media and making it accessible to people, you have created that connection, and that people have reached out to you, and it has resonated. There’s a woman in the pre-show documentary who talks about having driven ten hours in the middle of a pandemic to watch a show at a drive-in, and she had the words from the show tattooed on her arm. You cannot get more powerful than that. It just speaks to the power of music and the power of your music, which, again, it’s just so positive and joyful and has this really empowering, uplifting message that... A lot of musical theatre about women and sometimes by women is really dark and heavy, and it has its place and I love a lot of that music, but it’s so refreshing to have a show that says, “Hey, you’re awesome. Let’s celebrate that.”


LA: [00:26:09] That’s right. That’s one thing you can expect, is that we’ll take you on a journey, and believe me, you’ll cry a few times in the show. You’ll walk away feeling like, “I am awesome and I have a life to live, and I’m gonna follow my dreams.” And that’s our hopes, is that when you come to the theatre, you’re gonna feel uplifted and transformed. And music and art and theatre, especially theatre, has that ability to transform people’s lives. And that’s what we’re hoping for, is that you’re gonna get that connection and you’re gonna feel great about yourself.


LL: [00:26:46] Had you streamed your work or put your work online prior to the pandemic?


LA: [00:26:51] What was interesting is that when I was in a touring rock band, we sold tens of thousands of copies of CDs, but it was on CDs, right? And then I moved into theatre, and then there was this point where you could just upload your songs yourself onto iTunes, and…


LL: [00:27:11] Bandcamp.


LA: [00:27:12] And there’s a very simple process, right? As an indie artist, I didn’t go through those steps. I must’ve had two or three songs that was up on the platforms, and I just didn’t pay much attention to them. But now, since the pandemic, I’m releasing music every two weeks. So I have all this back catalogue of music and a lot of new songs. And so if you follow me, Lourds Lane, you’ll hear new songs around every two to three weeks, but twice a month, there’ll be a new song, because I gotta catch up now! I was always in the theatre, and there was always something to do as I’m building out the show, and the last thing I was thinking about was “I’m gonna upload my own songs right now,” cause I had to work on the show. And now, during the pandemic, it gave me the opportunity to get my own music out into the world. So yeah, it’s been an expansive time for myself as an artist as well.


LL: [00:28:17] That’s very exciting. I can’t wait to check out more of your content. So you filmed the concert at the drive-in. Was it always your intention to stream the show?


LA: [00:28:32] I don’t know if it was a thought to stream it. We were really fortunate that so many people believe, right? They believe. And so they donated their time to be a part of this. When I asked a friend to film, I had no idea that he was also gonna bring in jibs and his Emmy Award-winning team. Do you know what I mean? I didn’t know it was gonna be like that. And he was a new friend. But he just believed. He was like, “I don’t know, I believe in you. I think this is something. I think this is gonna be great.” He rounded up his team, and suddenly there were jibs and Steadicams and all this film crew. And when it’s filmed that beautifully, we gotta do something with it, right? But that was not the thought going in, “Okay, let’s make this a thing,” you know? We just wanted to be together. We just wanted to see each other. We just wanted to hug each other, which we didn’t really do. We touched butts, though, you know what I mean?


LL: [00:29:49] Forget elbows! That is amazing. Because the film is so extraordinary. Like you said, there’s moving cameras, I mean, it looks… Are the jibs kind of like cranes? Can you describe what a jib is?


LA: [00:30:08] Yeah, so we’re all on pickup trucks, and there are these crane-like things that just sort of… It just has a camera at the end…


LL: [00:30:20] Like with an arm with a camera on the end? Uh-huh.


LA: [00:30:25] And then it’s able to sort of move, this camera is moving in front of everybody, because there’s this crane attached to it. And it’s pretty fancy. And this guy won Emmys for Super Bowl stuff. It ended up being so beautifully filmed that it has to be a movie somehow. And when we finished it, we had a few offers and we went with Broadway On Demand for women’s history month. So for anyone who wants to see it, now is the time to see it.


LL: [00:31:00] Get thee to Broadway On Demand!


LA: [00:31:02] Exactly, exactly. We’re excited over the movie. If you haven’t seen the movie, you should really check it out, cause it’s emotional, and it was a moment in time.


LL: [00:31:15] It’s incredibly uplifting, and knowing that it was created very early in the pandemic really… And like you said, it was the first live performance in New York after the pandemic happened.


LA: [00:31:31] For a theatrical show, yeah. There were stars like… Keith Urban had done something. But with the backing that Keith Urban has, it’s a lot easier to put things together. When you’re a scrappy little musical, you put things together because people believe, because people have faith, because people believe in the mission, because we believe in each other, because we love each other, we miss each other, we want to see each other, we want to give to the world. And that’s the energy of our team. And when that’s the collective energy of our team, then we can make magic happen on a shoestring.


LL: [00:32:14] And I want to add that most of your team are women.


LA: [00:32:17] Yes. So we’re a women-led team, and it’s a beautiful thing. A lot of collaboration, a lot of beautiful communication, and shoutout to our director JoAnn Hunter, and to our music supervisor Wendy Bobbitt Cavett, and our music director Julianne Merrill. It’s amazing, the strength of women. And we truly are a team of women lifting each other up. Our lead producer, Melissa Jones, is a phenom as well, and between everybody, we just constantly support each other and think outside the box in a time when there is no box.


LL: [00:33:08] What would you say to other productions or other shows about putting their work online during this time?


LA: [00:33:15] Do it. Do everything you can. Don’t wait, create. You gotta understand, when theatre opens up, the tried and true shows will be the first to be featured. Everyone has been struggling financially, and so people are gonna go with the Hamiltons, they’re gonna go with the Lion Kings. And the shows that are new, we have to think of all the ways outside of the box for people to know that we’re important and we’re here to stay, and give us a shot! Give us a theatre! And the only way to do that is just get out there any way you can. Think outside the box. There’s lots of different ways to get your music and your mission and your art into the world. And surprisingly, you can get a fanbase even during a time of theatre darkness. It can happen. And it can be an avid fanbase that actually cares and responds, and we do a lot of events where the fans can talk directly to the actors and the creatives, and so our fanbase is growing and feels embraced, and we hope to continue to grow that. And it can happen. It can happen even now.


LL: [00:34:39] I know so much is unknown right now, but what do you think will be the future of SuperYou?


LA: [00:34:46] We’re going to do everything we can to get this into a theatre soon, as soon as possible, of course. Cause that has always been our path. But we have now learned that that path to Broadway does not need to be linear. There’s lots of different ways to get there, and so we’re having many, many conversations on lots of different platforms, from TV to movies to lots of different platforms. And we’re going to do what makes the most sense and what honors the work, and we just know that it’s gonna be awesome and you’ll see it soon. That’s all I can say. I hesitate to say, “This is what’s definitely happening,” because the world is so upside down. All I can say is that obviously we have the will. Obviously we have that driven team. Obviously we have the content that would resonate right now. So we’re gonna get it out into the world as soon as possible in some way, shape, or form.


LL: [00:35:57] And it is already out there with the film on Broadway On Demand! I’m very curious, you called it a movie. And so I have this kind of obsession with the idea that filmed theatre is not quite theatre, because nothing beats the live in-person experience, but it’s also different from a movie musical. So it’s something kind of in-between, it’s kind of part theatre, part film. Would you give it a different name, or do you think it’s still just a movie?


LA: [00:36:30] Our current movie on Broadway On Demand is more like a documentary of the experience of playing live in a crazy time of our history. Trying to get that together was a remarkable and uplifting experience. So it’s more like a documentary of this concert performance, and the behind-the-scenes of what it took to put it together. So I would most call it a documentary.


LL: [00:37:12] There’s another filmed live musical, a show, that was made a few years ago in London about the Brontë family, and it’s a rock musical, and they call it… Because it’s kind of part documentary about the family, they call it a rockumentary. So SuperYou, it’s a rockumentary.


LA: [00:37:33] Oh my gosh, I’m gonna go with that, then.


LL: [00:37:35] Please do. You can’t leave that…


LA: [00:37:41] That’s a good one. 


LL: [00:37:42] You can’t leave that show without feeling like you’ve been to a rock concert. The rock energy in it is so epic, even in a drive-in on the back of pickup trucks. That makes it all the more rock and roll.


LA: [00:37:57] Yeah, and I gotta say, the cast, they’re so awesome and such great sports, because there were so many obstacles. It was so humid, and it does things to your voice, it does things to your hair, it does things to your state of mind when everyone is sweating so much. And then it was torrential rain, and with all that said, everyone just gave it 110% and performed as if it was opening night on Broadway. I still get moved when I think about how beautiful it was for us to just get together during that time and bring this musical in whatever way we can to the world.


LL: [00:38:53] So powerful. I’m so inspired, this is very exciting. It makes me want to go create, just go do the thing.


LA: [00:39:03] Don’t wait! Do it! Do it!


LL: [00:39:05] So I have a series of quick questions that I like to ask all my guests. What is your favorite musical?


LA: [00:39:13] Come From Away.


LL: [00:39:15] Oh, me too. I love that show.


LA: [00:39:18] I love that show.


LL: [00:39:19] Do you have a favorite filmed live musical?


LA: [00:39:23] Oh, Hamilton.


LL: [00:39:25] Nice. Where do you stand on bootlegs?


LA: [00:39:31] I think that the more musicals can get out into the world, I think it’s better. It doesn’t take away from actually seeing it live. It actually brings more people to the theatre, so that’s my theory.


LL: [00:39:42] Oh, I love that. What do you wish had been filmed?


LA: [00:39:46] I can’t wait for the Come From Away film. I know that they’re filming it. So if you haven’t seen Come From Away, please see it, because it’s such a simple musical, and it’s got so much heart, and I’ve seen it many times, and every time I cry. It just touches me. And it’s so simple, and it’s true, and it’s about the human spirit and how we all can come together in times of crisis, and it’s just everything that I stand for. I love it with all my heart. So, that.


LL: [00:40:20] One of my favorite things about that show, apart from everything that you just said, is that when they moved into the Broadway Theatre, the trees that they used were just cut-down trees that were placed onto the set, and the trees started sprouting leaves. And that, to me, was the best metaphor for that show. I’m with you on that. I was so ecstatic when they announced that it was going to be filmed. My only sadness is that it’s not going to have a live audience. I wish they could have a live audience in that theatre when they film it, because that energy…


LA: [00:40:56] Yeah, the energy. Right, and actually, our music supervisor is the music director of Come From Away, Wendy Bobbitt Cavett. So she’s in the film, so you have to look out for her. She’s brilliant and amazing. They jump out at the end, and they jump out in another particular scene, where… You know the scene, so I’m not gonna give it away. Everyone, just see it! Just see it.


LL: [00:41:22] Amen to that. Finally, what would you like to see filmed in the future?


LA: [00:41:27] Well, the answer is SuperYou.


LL: [00:41:29] Yes!


LA: [00:41:32] If there were a SuperYou film, that would be pretty amazing, so we’re looking into all of that.


LL: [00:41:39] Oh, yes, That gets me so excited. Bring it on. Where can we find you online?


LA: [00:41:48] You can go to superyoumusical.com, or @superyoumusical is our handle on TikTok and Insta and Twitter, so follow us there. We also have a Facebook. And if you want to hear my music, I’m releasing music every two weeks, it’s @lourdslane, and check it out on Spotify and Insta, and every couple weeks there’s gonna be a new song, and they’re all different and they’re all dramatic and… Stay in touch, for sure!


LL: [00:42:37] And make sure to visit broadwayondemand.com to check out the brilliant rockumentary of SuperYou performed live at a drive-in in upstate New York. Lourds, thank you so much for your time today. It has been glorious to talk with you.


LA: [00:42:54] Oh my gosh, Luisa, wonderful to speak with you. Thank you so much.


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