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From Schitt's Creek to Big Cherry- Meet THE MINUTES Star Noah Reid
May 17, 2024
Watch a new interview with Noah Reid where he talks all about his theatrical past, the thrill of making his Broadway debut andamp; more. Television fans know and love him already as 'Patrick' from the smash hit Schitt's Creek. This season, Broadway audiences are loving Noah Reid all the more as the curious 'Mr. Peel' in Tracy Letts' The Minutes.
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Hello, I'm Richard Ridge for Broadway World
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We are once again back at the beautiful drama bookshop located on West 39th Street
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And my guest is a renowned actor and singer-songwriter, and he has known to millions of worldwide fans for the role of Patrick on the hit TV series Schitts Creek
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Well, now he is on Broadway making his Broadway debut, giving one of the finest performances of the season
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as Mr. Peel in Tracy Let's New Play The Minutes. Please welcome, Noah Reed
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I am thrilled to be sitting with you here at the Drama Bookshop. Yeah, well, great to be sitting here with you
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I've never been in this place before. It's a stunning, stunning place. Well, it's brand new, and we are sitting in the writer's corner
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Hamilton inspired with these chairs. I love it. It's also very gilded age and downtown abbey, I think
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That's right. The man's a fresh stuff going on behind the sea, right? It's an eclectic mix of things
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Yeah, but supposedly everybody sits here and writes. Well, we should get out our pens and typewriters
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You should have missed. I'm not much of a writer, but I spend time with some good ones
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No, good songwriters. I could. I could. I'd like to wall it in if I want to do that. A little privacy, you know
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Yeah, totally. Well, I want it, first of all, welcome to Broadway. Thank you. How does it feel
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Oh, it's, it's a, it is, it's a lot of feelings all at once, but it's a, you know, this has been a
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lifelong dream for me. I came to New York first when I was probably eight years old. I was doing
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the Toronto production of Beauty and the Beast and we came down here for our fittings and stuff
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and that was my introduction to this city and to Broadway and
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and I never wanted to do anything else since then. So this is the culmination of a lot of years plugging away
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And, yeah, honestly, couldn't have picked a better project to make an entry to Broadway with
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Yeah, because you were giving one of the finest performances of the season as Mr. Peel in the minutes
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You know, it's also your Broadway debut. It is. And I was with you all on opening night
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I mean, can you put it all into perspective now? Like, how magical was opening night for you
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It was a very emotional night. I mean, you know, that Broadway opening night house was such an incredible feeling
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and the audience is leaning in in a way that, you know, you kind of, through previews
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you're building up to that moment. Of course, you're, you know, you're building up to what feels like it's a culmination
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and really it's just the beginning of the journey, but incredible to be out there with that group of actors
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and, you know, having a couple of weeks of previews under our belts
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and just knowing that that, that, that, story that script is underneath us and would carry us all the way and yeah it was a it was a pretty
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fantastic moment you know because i know you've been offered broadway before and you didn't come here
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so when you got the script to the minutes after you read it what made you say yes i want to do this
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well i think to me it's just the it's the it's the it's the writing it's Tracy's uh incredible
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gift of of writing these i mean you know the track record speaks for itself and it and
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This play particularly in this time, it just felt like it was such an important thing to get to be a part of
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I couldn't really believe that I was being asked to come and be a part of it
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And I think it's rare now too to have such an ensemble piece that really feels like everyone's pushing their chips into the middle
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and every piece of it relies on the piece that has come before and the structure of that
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outrageously funny and also such a biting commentary on the world that we live in and the times
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that we're living in and yeah it was it was very exciting when you read a script like that it kind of
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takes your breath away and and uh yeah it was just pumped to to think about the potential of being
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mr peel because that's step and wolf i mean it's the kind of place they do of course tracy's from
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there and of course your incredible director yeah an adieu what was it like being in the room with
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Anna. Well, she's a rock star, and she's just a brilliant human being and a terrific consummate
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leader and collaborator. Just razor sharp, hysterically funny, deeply human, empathetic. You know, she and Tracy clearly have a relationship. They have a bit of a mind meld together
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that they just understand each other and the intent of what they want to put out into the world
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and they really trust each other too, which I think is a really key element of that rehearsal hall
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And, you know, when she would be like, oh, I think we need to tweak this
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And he's like, well, you're the boss. I mean, I think that's a pretty amazing thing to get to witness
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And also, you know, they have a wonderful rapport with each other, just kind of, you know, fencing with each other a little bit here and there
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which is always great to have a front row seat too. And Jan Barford, who is Anna's husband, who plays Mr. Carp in the show
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and so that's, you know, they've all known, all these people worked together on this show before
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and that you could feel that connectivity. Of course, for me, you know, I'm brand new to that world
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and so is Mr. Peel, so that feels right. But, you know, a terrific group and terrific leadership on this play
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and everyone has made me feel really right at home. Oh, yeah, because I love to ask actors
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like, what was that first table read like? Oh, God. Because it was so exciting. Was it for you
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It was. I mean, I was terribly nervous, of course. We're the new kid on the blog
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Exactly. It's a new experience. But also, you know, it was the first time that I heard the play out loud and, you know, was
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introduced to all of these people and their characters and hearing it for the first time
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I really feel like I had a sense of the story and the musicality of it and how it would
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sort of propel towards its wild conclusion. So yeah, I mean, it's a terrifying moment, but also a beautiful moment
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You know, everyone made a point of really welcoming me in. And I think I said something like, you know, I'm trying to keep it short
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but was like, sorry, thank you for having me and I'll try to be good
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You know, and then off you go. It's really, you know, it doesn't wait around to begin
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The train's leaving the station. The train's leaving the station and you're on it. Yeah, you better get ready to go
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What do you love the most about Mr. Peel? Well, I think he has a really strong compass of what is right and what is good
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And he really wants to make a positive contribution to the world around him
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I think that, you know, a lot of us have that feeling and sometimes we don't know how to execute that
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And Mr. Peel is clearly somebody who has decided to, you know
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you know, run for this position and get elected and try on a weekly basis to push things
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in the right direction in the town of Big Cherry. And, you know, I wish I were a little more like
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that myself. I think that that spirit of making a contribution and that contribution coming
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from the right place, not coming from an egotistical place. Of course, you know, it's a difficult
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thing to continually execute, especially when you come up. against some of these the contradictions you know the the the the human
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contradictions that exist within all of us and they certainly exist within him and but yeah I love I love that he I love that he wants to create he
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wants to be a good example he I think he's learned that from his his
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leadership system and he wants to provide that for his young child and and
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and for the society and for the town and I think that's admirable
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okay just living in the world of Tracy Lutz. I mean, the play thinks it's one thing
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and then it becomes something totally different. Yeah. And you all do too
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Yeah. Well, I mean, he has a knack with this kind of
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this balancing act between humor and danger and, you know, this cast
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excellently explores that line. And I think having him on stage, too
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and sort of, you know, guys. guiding us through that play as the mayor
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He's such a terrific performer and such a clear thought process. Obviously he knows the play very well intimately
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but yeah, it's a very cool experience to get to deliver this story with him on stage as well
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That must be the coolest thing. Not only is he the playwright, but he's also your co-star
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He's the boss, man. He's the boss. He's the boss. I want to go back to the beginning for a second
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Growing up where did your love for the theater begin Well I mean my family are all they all visual artists but the theater has been a huge part of their world I think particularly for my dad who well my mom was an actor in her young life I think in her school days and had that kind of the desire to perform
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And my dad probably, you know, I think he talks about a production of, um, um
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Oh god, my fair lady that he saw in London, Ontario as a kid that really drew him in
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And I think those moments where the theater reaches out and pulls somebody in, you know, they can be very powerful
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So my sister and I had the benefit of going to a lot of theater in Toronto, and Toronto has a brilliant theater scene, and it has certainly helped me get here in a lot of different ways
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but you know seeing some of the we have a Shakespeare in the park in High Park that
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I remember going to as a five or six year old and seeing Mid-Summer Night's dream
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and you know just having a blast at bottom turning into an ass
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and the whole thing I mean it's just that the magic of the theater really
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drew me in and activated some elements of my imagination that as I got older
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I knew I wanted to be a part of it if at all possible
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I had that performative instinct, probably more purely when I was a child than I do even now
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But it's an incredible thing to get to grow with. And I always have loved seeing shows and talking about them for hours afterwards
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and who saw what, who experienced what differently. And, you know, I think some of the greatest writing
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some of the writing that puts human beings directly in the cross-herom
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of what it is to be alive or what it is to be human and how do we make decisions
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and what ramifications of those decisions have. That's the thrill of the theater for me
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and the audience is implicit in that and the reader is too if you're reading scripts
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and, you know, it's, I don't know, it's an ancient art form and it's survived for a reason, you know
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So growing up you went to, is it at Tobico School of the Arts
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Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, at an early age? I was there probably, yeah, grade nine
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I was probably 14 when I started there. That was life-changing for you, wasn't it
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It was. I mean, having an opportunity to be a part of a..
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I mean, it's a public school, but it's a specialized. You have to audition to get in
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I understand they're trying to remove the audition process and kind of randomize that, which I think is really awful
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because I think that people learn differently, and if you're somebody who is different
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I mean, going to that school, to me, being different was a strength
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It was not something to be covered over. It was an opportunity to explore another avenue that could turn
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I mean, and for a lot of graduates of that school, it does turn into a career in the arts. And I don't know
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It was a terrific place to be a young person and to explore
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I can't say I was thoroughly well-behaved, but I did get to, I played John Proctor when I was 17
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You know, so that kind of thing, you, that has really, I think, solidified a foundation of the theater and the arts within my life
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And, yeah, I've benefited greatly from that. But you started out as Chip in Beauty and the Beasts in Toronto, right
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Yeah, when I was eight years old, yeah. How did you get cast? Well, I, God, I had really, yeah, great question
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I was six when I did a community theater production of Oliver
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I played Oliver at the music theater at Tobico. And I really wanted to continue to do this
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My parents were like, oh, God, okay, well, sure, if this is important to you
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And there was an open casting call for Beauty and the Beast
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And I might have had an agent at that time, but I went in for it and just, you know
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I remember driving to the audition, actually. my mom was trying to describe to me that a lot of people were going to be auditioning for this
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and she didn't want me to get too attached to it, get my hopes up. And I said something to her like, well, you know, somebody's got to get it
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Might as well be me. Why wouldn't it be? And how old were you? I was eight years old at that time
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Yeah. Well, you had that bug? I did. I don't know. I wish I could approach my life now with that much confidence
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It's harder as you get older to think it might as well be me
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Was it a big audition process? Were there a lot of people there? Yeah, I think there were
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I think there were. But, you know, I mean, when you get in the room, you have to approach it
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I think about that sometimes. I go, okay, well, if I'm in an audition, I've got to be having as much fun as I had at that time of my life
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It's not this nerve-wracking experience. It's an opportunity. You've got to go in there and, you know, show them what you got and enjoy yourself
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Because we have a lot of actors from around the world that watch this. and auditioning is a really strange thing
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Some people love to do it, they really do. And some people are terrified at it
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and they're like, Oscar and Tony winners. So I'm like, were you always good at it
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No, I think I'm somewhere in the middle there. But I started to, you know, when I was in my early 20s
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and things weren't going the way that I had wanted them to go, I was like, okay, I need to reframe this for myself
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because it's not, whatever I'm doing isn't working. And I started to think that an audition was not so much
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much me asking for a part. It was that they, whoever was casting this part had a need as well
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You know, they needed to fill this part. And so what I was doing was offering a possibility
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I could go in and say, hey, you guys need someone to fill this role. I can do it if you want
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This is kind of how it would be. All the best. You know, that's what you can do. The need for it
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sometimes, you know, can get in the way of enjoying it as much. And even it
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conversation I had with Anna D. Shapiro before we opened this show, she said, you know
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just start at the beginning and have fun. And I think that's got to be an element of it. You have
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to enjoy it or what's the point? I love that because a lot of people, like I said, who worked as
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kids, they were like, it seemed so much easier. It was like, I was going to go and get a roll
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Yeah. And then you put all the stuff in your head as you get older. Oh, yeah. Yeah. Well, it's not, I mean
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you don't, it's not a job when you're a kid. It's just something that you get to do, you know
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But you were Chip. I was. But I had no sense of what the business of, you know, what the business
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that meant I just knew that I got to hang out with all these brilliant performers and be around
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the magic of the show and the costumes and the energy. I just, you know, I never wanted to do
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anything else. And, you know, when you get a little bit older and you get a couple of, you know
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kicks in the shin, you go, okay, well, maybe this business isn't for me or maybe it's not going
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to happen the way that I would want it to happen. And it doesn't for a lot of people. I know a lot
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of brilliant performers who, you know, are finding other things to do with their life. And it
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it kills me because I'm like, man, the world needs to see these people. But I think the arts don't just exist also in the big spaces
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They exist everywhere throughout the many pockets of your life. And there's lots of opportunity for creativity to find its way into the cracks of life too
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So it's never, I don't believe that any kind of arts training or artistic or creative endeavor
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as ever too small or is ever a waste of time. I just think it's integral to being alive
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You've also done a lot of voiceover work through your entire career, but you started, how old were you when you did Franklin
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I think I started when I was nine. That would have been just after Beauty and the Beast, and yeah, what a blast
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That was a very cool. How much fun was it doing that and just doing voiceover work in general
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It was great. It really felt like it kind of, it used a lot of the theater work
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that I had been kind of learning how to do, and also added this kind of this purely vocal thing
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that you just had to know how to like throw your voice or, you know, channel it into the microphone
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I love doing it because I would miss a day of school and go in and see my friends who were playing the other woodland creatures
17:28
and we'd all, you know, hang out and do the show and have lunch. And, you know, it just felt like we were part of some little, like, club or something
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It was a blast. And you've done that throughout your career, voicing people. Yeah, more sort of
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Also, when I was a kid, I think I sort of stopped for whatever reason
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It just hasn't been a thing that I've kept up as much
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But recently did an audio book, which was an incredible experience, and it felt very much
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You know, I spend a lot of time in a studio playing music now, and that's sort of where I spend my studio time
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But doing that I was like oh right This feels very much part of my world as a kid going into studios and spending this time reading this material with these you know voicing characters and finding the subtleties that a microphone avails you
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Yeah. You know, that's very fun. Well, you've done a lot of theater throughout your career, doing the classics and contemporaries like, you know, John Logan's Red and so many wonderful plays
18:22
Yeah. But you got to play Hamlet. Yeah. Okay. Challenging? I mean, what was that whole experience like
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Yeah, it was very wild. I mean, it was a strange and, I think, quite a beautiful production of it where the actors were all also musicians
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and we were creating basically a live score throughout the show, and text was spoken into handheld microphones
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It was kind of like a Soviet rock concert or something. It was very strange
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And a lot of people would say that the microphone allowed them to hear the text in a way that you wouldn't normally hear
18:59
Shakespeare text, made it very immediate, very kind of coming in on you a little bit
19:08
And it allowed for us not to sort of like send it. It was very, it was, it could be quite close
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I think to be or not to be was the only thing that was not spoken into a microphone. And, I mean, what a part. I hope to get to revisit it at some point because it's, I don't
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think you ever probably feel like you got all of it. But incredible thing to get to
19:29
work on and dive into, I mean, it's such a, I feel like you could spend years, people have
19:37
spent decades on that part and on that story. And yeah, very, very cool to get to do that
19:44
No, because a lot of actors who I speak to, they're like, you know, these stars would be like, oh my God, I tackled that when I was this age. I'd like to do it again because I have this
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you know, this many more years of experience. I like to tackle that role again. It's like with Shakespeare
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like, I want to keep going back to it. Yeah. Well, I was talking to Austin Pendleton about it
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And he was like, well, I'd like to do it again. He's 82. So, I mean, who knows
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He can keep on playing it. He must be so incredible. I mean, your whole entire company
20:08
that you get to share that stage with, but I'm just sitting there watching the Austin Peltz
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and I'm like, he's genius. He is, he is truly remarkable. I spend a good chunk of the show
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watching him and Blair Brown on that side of the stage and just kind of, sometimes I have to remind myself
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that I'm doing the play, because I just want to watch them. You know, you've always
20:28
I've also done so many incredible films. I was turned on to one of your films, I think
20:32
in 2012, Oldstock. Oh, yeah. One of my favorite comedies. That's what my first was aware of you
20:37
No way. How much fun was it doing that film? It was a blast. It was a low-budget film that we shot in Toronto
20:44
And yeah, that was a great experience. A strange little story of a young man living in an old folks home
20:54
because he didn't want to engage with, he'd accidentally been a, well, he'd been a part of an auto accident that had, you know, affected a friend of his
21:03
quite significantly and, yeah, trying to work his way through it. It was offbeat comedy, brilliant script by Dane Clark and directed by James Genn
21:13
I had a great time on that. A lot of fun. A lot of fun in that. You're also known to millions of fans around the world, of course, playing Patrick on the hit TV series
21:23
Schitts Creek. There are Shits Creek books here. I mean, everybody has to do it. It's wild
21:27
everybody you talked to. I mean, how life changing was that role in that show
21:32
Yeah, it's definitely has, you know, it's the reason that I'm here
21:37
An incredible group of people, obviously, to get to work with and to be a part of that story, too
21:45
And that, I think that show really, a lot of people will say, you know, help people through a difficult time during the pandemic
21:52
And I think, you know, in general, it's approach to, the balance of humor and heart
22:00
really connected with people and you know it's amazing we haven't been shooting that show for many years and people are
22:09
still you know coming up to us on the street and letting us know how meaningful it was
22:14
a lot of people are coming to the minutes who have you know seen the show and
22:18
yeah it's I think I'll continue to look back on that experience throughout my life
22:24
and understand just how meaningful it was Okay, season four, doing your acoustic version, Tina Turner's Simply the Best
22:31
Not only did it go viral, it was on all the iTunes charts
22:35
Yeah, I mean, when you got to that table read, did it say Noah is going to, or Patrick is going to sing
22:41
Oh, yeah, yeah. Dan had said, and I had just read the script for the first time before the table read
22:47
and I went up to Dan and said, you're going to make me sing, huh? And he was like, yeah, and that song is actually, it's very important to me, so don't it up
22:56
I said, okay, thanks, Dan. So I tried not to. But, yeah, an amazing opportunity that he gave me there
23:07
And the license, I think, to, you know, run with that and arrange it myself and made it feel very personal, I think
23:15
And I wanted it to be something that felt like it could be from Patrick and not from me, you know
23:21
that it felt like it had to be in character and something that he could pull off
23:26
but it also had to be really good because it had to represent this moment of effectively a gift
23:34
you know, and a proclamation of love and understanding. And yeah, I remember Catherine on the day just, you know, struggling to, struggling to keep it together
23:45
and, you know, turning around and wiping the tears out of her eyes. I was like, I think this is working
23:51
They are like the biggest ego-free cast. Oh, yeah. I mean, everybody who works on that show
23:56
Yeah, I mean that, and that's from the top down, Eugene and Catherine, just, you know, the generosity and the brilliance of those two are, you know, if they're showing up and getting it done at that level, it really raises everybody's buy-in level
24:16
And honestly, I mean, the two of them, it's obviously a very storied career and, you know, those two together in that story
24:26
as those characters, just incredible to get to see up close. I want to talk about your music
24:32
You have three great albums. I told you I have to turn on to a lot of your music. The first album is called Song Summer Broken Chair
24:38
The second one called Gemini. And the third one, which I believe is coming out in June
24:43
That's right. Adjustments. Adjustments. And you have just dropped a brand new song from that album called Minneapolis
24:48
That's right. What can you tell us? Minneapolis was, we were doing actually the Schitts Creek Live up close and personal show
24:56
And one of our stops was in Minneapolis. And it was such a, there was just a strange day where everybody was off doing something else
25:05
I was kind of left to my own devices and just sort of walking around a city I'd never been to in the middle of the winter
25:11
And dealing with, you know, the shifts that were happening in my life. This was my first tour ever
25:18
It was very strange to all of a sudden be walking onto a stage and having people, you know, not just know who you are, but like, you know
25:26
ravenously applauding you when you walked out. It was a major adjustment
25:32
So I feel like the album, you know, deals with a lot of, whether it's pandemic-related or personally related
25:37
that the songs that are on that record sort of span this time period for me
25:41
where there are a lot of shifts and changes in my personal and professional world
25:46
and getting married and, you know. A lot of great things happen during the pandemic
25:52
You got married during the pandemic. I did, I did. You know, there was a lot of great things happened during the pandemic. And then there was like the whole Schitz Creek at the Emmys was during the pandemic
25:59
And there were just lots of things. And, you know, that show coming to an end and what was going to happen next, you know, that kind of unknown quality
26:07
And, you know, thankfully, I've landed in some fun projects. But you kind of don't really know where you're going to go after something like that
26:14
So, you know, it's a, yeah, a fun period of time. And I don't know, it resulted in some, I think, some really fun songs and had a great time making that record
26:24
I think it's my favorite of the three. Yeah, it's on all streaming. Yep, that's great
26:28
Right, so you met your wife, you were both guesting on a cop show, right
26:32
That's right, yeah. Called rookie. Well, you've done your research, Rookie Blue. Rookie Blue
26:36
Okay, but were you both guest starring on the show that one episode? Yeah, that's right
26:40
Yeah, that's right. It was pretty wild. We often talk about how we could have easily missed each other
26:45
She was just, you know, getting out of the acting world. The business, right? Yeah, yeah, making a shift into the world of health care
26:51
And we, you know, we spent, I think, maybe one day, one day on set together
26:56
That's crazy. Kept up for a number of years. And eventually we thought, you know
27:00
maybe we should do this. So yeah here we are Was there something that day like when you working or it so fast on these things I mean it very quick but we just really got along We just really got along And you know you have that feeling when you just want to spend more time around somebody
27:16
And, you know, thankfully, we were able to explore that. And you're about to become a dad
27:21
Yeah, another couple of months here. This is what a wild year for you
27:25
It's a little much, isn't it? No, I think so well. I love to watch great things happen to nice people
27:30
Oh, God. But it must be so great, though. It is very, very exciting
27:35
You got married, now you're having a baby. You know, I think after that I'd like to just chill out for a minute
27:39
Yeah, totally. It would be fun. But you're going to go on tour with your album. Yeah, well, we'll see
27:43
We'll see how that works. Was it one of the tours cut short due to the pandemic? Yeah, we got, I got, no, I was in Chicago, and we had, I think, we got probably
27:54
eight shows into a 25-show tour and shut down. So, you know, we'll get back out there when it feels like it's, um
28:02
I really didn't want to get back on tour before I knew that we would be good to go
28:09
Yeah, I know a lot of musical artists have gotten back out there and there's been a lot of sort of starts and stops
28:15
And, you know, thankfully, for me, it's like I get to play music
28:20
It's not my number one job. So I get to do these other cool projects and fit the music in where I can
28:28
But I would love to be out there playing some more shows. It's a pretty incredible experience to have a room full of people listening to your music
28:37
Did you write at an early age? Yeah, I think I started writing music when I was probably like eight or nine
28:45
but not writing songs necessarily until I was at the National Theater School of Canada
28:49
actually, and started writing songs from character perspective, almost as a way to explore a character's world
28:55
and eventually thought, well, what if the character's me? and, you know, write some of my own experiences and thoughts
29:03
And it's a great thing to, keeps me balanced, I think, a little bit
29:07
getting to reflect on my own experience and, you know, write something
29:12
I imagine this is what Tracy feels like on stage. He's like, I wrote this, you know
29:16
Hopefully, actually, he's not doing that. That would be a strange. I don't think he's doing that
29:21
Would you like to do a musical? I don't know. I mean, I think musical performers have about a hundred times more
29:29
talent than I do and certainly more discipline. I think I would be stretched very thin in a musical
29:34
I don't think so. You're really good. Oh, thank you, man. Is there like a classic musical as we're sitting, so we're also not only in the Hamilton end
29:43
we're sitting in front of this is like vocal scores of every brother. You know what, I'll get back to you. Let me pour over that shelf there and see if there's anything
29:50
Is there a musical that you were brought besides Chip in Beauty and the Beast? But is there a musical that you love like that, you know, you got on your playlist
29:55
God, I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. No, I'm not well-versed enough in the world of musicals, which probably leads to my trepidation
30:05
But I feel like it would be really easy for myself to expose myself as a subpar
30:12
No, or it would open the door. You'd be like, oh, my gosh, now I'll do a musical. It's like, you know, it's a lot of people have
30:17
Well, you know, spend some time with that shelf there and see what pops out
30:21
We'll visit that shelf before we leave this interview. Okay, your new series is amazing
30:25
It just kicked off on Amazon, Outer Range. Josh Brolin. Your mom is being played by Deirdre O'Connell
30:32
That's right. It's like one of the greatest New York actresses. No kidding. Who do you play
30:37
I play Billy Tillerson, who is D.D. O'Connell and Will Patton's son
30:44
The youngest of three Tillerson boys and dare I say the strangest of them
30:51
Billy is... Billy sings. Billy experiences the world almost exclusively through song
30:57
I see a musical. kind of arrived to him like their like prophetic visions or like yeah like a kind of a
31:05
pool of spring water or something that just comes out of the earth i mean he's such a
31:10
an elemental character and and enigmatic and i think you know beautiful and and dangerous like
31:19
the wilderness of wyoming that he's living in so um incredible project incredible cast
31:26
Lily Taylor also. Everybody. Just Imogen Puts, Tom Pelfrey, Lewis Pullman, just a ridiculously cool cast
31:35
And yeah, my friend Tamara Podemsky, who did rent here in New York
31:40
many, many years ago. Yeah, I'm being blessed with some pretty stellar ensembles in my life
31:47
and grateful to be a part of them. If you could sum up the best part of the experience
31:52
I know it's new with the menace, but I mean, it's been a dream of yours to come to Broadway
31:55
you're working in like in the most incredible play with the most incredible talented group of
31:59
ensemble actors like what are you enjoying the most i think really just you know beginning the play
32:05
and and not knowing quite how it's going to unfold throughout the the show and and getting to stand
32:11
in mr peel's shoes and and watch this this kind of wild meeting take place reminding myself to
32:19
come at it fresh every night and and you know relishing the opportunity i mean it's it's uh
32:25
to, when the lights come up and Tracy Letts is coming at you and, and you can feel the pulse and
32:34
the hum of the audience, that's a really special feeling and something that I hope to get to
32:41
do for many years to come. Yeah. Are you an early arrival at the theater or do you like to get there right at a half hour
32:47
Oh God, no, I got to be there about an hour and a half beforehand and, you know
32:51
old school. That's great. Yeah. You know, yeah. Nice to be around the people too
32:55
I mean, it's, COVID has reduced so many of the spaces that we get to be together
33:00
And so, you know, to get to the theater and see everybody before the show, have a cup of coffee and get into the groove a little bit
33:07
It's nice. You know, finally, because of your success on Schitt's Creek, you know, many people may be coming to the theater for the very first time
33:14
Like, oh, I love nowhere from, you know, this TV show. Right. I've never been to a show and you're going to introduce them to this whole new medium
33:20
You know, we all had those introductions from somebody. Yeah. What that means to you
33:24
Oh, it's incredible. I think that, you know, obviously this is the center of the theatrical world
33:33
And, you know, I think what Tracy is created here is incredibly special
33:39
And so if this is an introduction to the theater, then, you know, it feels like a pretty good one
33:44
And yeah, I mean, that's a special thing I hadn't really considered
33:48
But I know who those performers are for me and some of those shows for me growing up in Toronto and going to Stratford
33:54
and, you know, seeing shows at the Canadian stage and, you know, all of these incredible experiences
34:02
in my life that I look back on. I hope that this is a part of some foundational theater work
34:07
in somebody else's life. Okay, so we're walking out of the Hamilton area. Here we go
34:11
And this is, like I said, so this is musical scores and musical scripts
34:16
of every Broadway musical. Okay, all right. The Sondheims are down here, the Sweeney Todd
34:20
Spring Awakening. Spring Awakening. That's pretty great. Funny Girl, Godspell, Cabaret. There's Disney over here
34:26
What do you think if you were like, Noah, you should do this musical
34:30
What would it be? I think you should do how to succeed. Okay. Which I think it would be a great musical for you to do
34:34
All right, great. I think you'd also. We'll start there. You could be, let's see
34:39
You could be a Tulsa and Gypsy. Oh, Hades Town. You could do Hades Town. Oh, somebody was just telling me about this
34:44
Yeah, yeah, yeah. Oh, I could see you do anything like that. This one, Eugene Levy and
34:51
Oh, yeah, they were all in this. All in this, Marty Short, Paul Schaefer was the musical director
34:58
That's a pretty legendary Toronto thing. So I could see you maybe doing Godspell, right? Yeah, maybe I'll do the prepare the way of the Lord
35:04
Just sing the whole score. You should do a show tune album next
35:08
Like I said, you could do anything. This one, have a little bit of experience with this one here
35:11
Oh, did you do cabaret? We did it in Schitt's Creek. You did? Yeah
35:16
The MC for one song. Oh, so we should bring him back to Broadway in the revival
35:21
You know, I don't know. Those are some large boots to fill. Especially at Studio 54
35:27
Let's see. Is Beauty and the Beast here? Oh, man. Oh, I think they're out of it
35:32
They were saying, oh, but this is the... They're from the film. From the film. See, now I'm getting into my Beast years
35:39
It's moving out of Chip into Beast time. You could actually do the Beast
35:43
You could go into the Beast, right? Well, who knows? Lumier could be fun, too. That's a lot of hands up in there
35:48
But everybody told me it's all the hands up, and you have to go to physical therapy like at the end of the week, right
35:51
Thank you so much for sitting with me today. Thank you very much. It's been really nice
35:55
It's been really good. So anybody out there, like I said, Noah's giving one of the finest performances of the season as Mr
36:01
Peel with his incredible cast in the minutes. If you haven't gotten a ticket, go get one now and just see one of the finest things you'll see on Broadway
36:08
And we'll see you all at the theater. Take care
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