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Go Inside Rehearsals wit the Cast of BETWEEN THE LINES
May 17, 2024
The company of Between the Lines is getting ready to bring a beloved story to the stage! Rehearsals are now underway for the new musical, which is based on the novel by international bestselling author Jodi Picoult and Samantha van Leer. Betwen the Lines begins performances on Tuesday, June 14, 2022 and officially opens Sunday, June 26, 2022 at the Tony Kiser Theater.
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Hello, I'm Richard Ridge for Broadway World. One of this season's most eagerly
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awaited new musicals is Between the Lines, which is based on the beloved book
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Under the direction of Jeff Calhoun, it begins performances on June 14th at the
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Tony Kaiser Theatre, and we drop by the Open Jar Studios to meet the company
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You know, we've been working on this for quite a while. Tenacity is the name of
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the game in theater, especially now with the challenges. But I'm just so proud of
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everyone. This is one of the best creative teams I've ever worked with. They are energized and they are joyous and they all share passion for this
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story. And for me, the story is so meaningful because, first of all, it's
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for all generations. But it's a mother-daughter story, or a grandmother- granddaughter story. And it feels so right for now. You know, it's about
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connecting with people that encourage you and care for you and support you
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It's such a beloved book, and now it's turned into a musical that is coming to
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New York. I mean, it's got to be like the biggest, like, surreal pinch me moment
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It is. You know, it's amazing to see something that you loved as a book
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become something even more dynamic as a musical. I think people are going to love
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it because it's a spot of joy in a time when we all need it
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Yeah, this is... I fell in love with the novel, both novels. And now to have the
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opportunity to bring it onto the stage and bring all this joy and love and the
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thought of this, you can change your story if you don't like the story you're in. I think it's such an opportunity for my mom and I to have the chance to
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reopen a book that was written so long ago and to modernize it and make it
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represent the world around us. And our goal is just to have every single person
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who walks into this musical see themselves on this stage and feel represented. And see themselves, yeah
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This is a dream come true. When we started writing on this show, we were
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really young musical theater writers who hadn't really had any credits. And
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Daryl Roth and Jodi Picoult took a huge chance on us. And they believed in us. And
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since then we've gone on to do other things. But this has been the passion
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project of our entire career. And we just can't wait for people to see it
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I'll never forget the day that Daryl Roth looked at us and said, I'm going to
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raise the flag for you two as female writers. And she meant it. And she stuck
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by us through an entire pandemic. And that just is a testament to the type of
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producer and lovely person that she is. You don't find too many female empowerment musicals going on. And we
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have female composers. Jodi and Sam, it's based on their novel. And so it's a
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really empowerment for young women, I think. And to see stories like this on
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stage, I think is very powerful. And that's really what attracted it to me
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from the beginning. I mean, to piggyback on that, it's really a heartfelt piece. And it's for
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everyone. There's something for the young people. There's something for their parents. It's really for everyone. And there's so much diversity within the
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music, within the cast, within the ability to create dance. It's a
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wonderful piece. This is the best day ever, which is also a song on the show. But yeah, being
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back in a rehearsal studio, putting up a new show that's coming to New York
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it's absolutely thrilling, especially after the last two years that we've had. After the last two years of waiting for this day, it's a dream come true to be
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a part of this original cast and to be in the room creating from scratch. It's
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just such a gift and something that every artist dreams of. And I'm just
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elated. Trying to be as present as I can in every moment, just be like, I'm here. Like, this is not a dream. I'm not manifesting right now. This is real. So
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it feels absolutely amazing. It's wild. And it's such a sweet show. And walking into rehearsal that first
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day, holding my iced coffee and being like, oh my god, it's happening again. I
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can't believe it. It's truly the kind of ritual and tradition after two years
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And to be working on something new, and especially something this sweet that
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puts so much good into the world, it's a really lovely thing. This cast might be the funniest people I've ever met in my life. Most of our
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rehearsals are just laughter. And I genuinely mean that. Yeah, the time just goes by because we're having so much fun in rehearsal
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And the creative team is also so kind and warm and welcoming. And they said it
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on first day, the best idea wins. And it really does feel like that. One of our authors said this the other day, and I'm co-opting it. He said, we
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just want to bring some joy and hope into the world. And I think the hashtag should be joy and hope, hope and joy. I wore this. It says love. It doesn't say
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hope or joy. So that's a good story. But the point is, but the point is, it's just
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it's there. There's there's so there's absolute necessity and room for serious
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stuff that is examining the world that we're in or the worlds we've been in. I
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want it. I crave it. I also crave, whoo, and we are the latter. And it just just
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sort of a light, lovely romp. And that's delightful to get to read
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It's genuinely hilarious. It's genuinely touching. It genuinely turns corners you don't think it's going to turn. The music is beautiful. The script is well written
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And it's a lovely group of people and it goes by very quickly. It's it's exactly
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it's exactly what I want to be doing. It's exactly what I think people are going
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to want to see. We have control of our own stories. We can rewrite the ending. We
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can change the narrative. And and yeah, I think that's what I hope everyone can be
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passionate about leaving the theater. Yeah. And to add to that sort of the power of stories to move us and to change
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the way we think about our lives. And and I also hope they just walk away singing
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these amazing songs and kind of ruminating on these wonderful characters and the way that they interact with each other and the way that they change by the
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end of the play. It's it's really a moving a moving piece
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This show is such fun. It is really fun. The music is amazing. The songs are going
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to get stuck in your head. And I think it's going to be everyone's new favorite
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soundtrack to listen to over and over again. And I hope that people take away
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from it just not only just that feeling of hope and empowerment, but that they do
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have the power to create whatever life they want to live in. And they don't have to feel like they're stuck in a world that they wouldn't write for themselves
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And it's about whether or not happiness, like how you define happiness, is
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happiness mean your life is perfect? Does it mean your life's a fairy tale? Or
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does happiness mean that you are the hero of your story and you can write the story you want
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