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Video: Andrew Lippa and Rachel Tucker Get Ready to Celebrate 30 Years of JOHN & JEN
May 17, 2024
Direct from a London season, Rachel Tucker andamp; Lewis Cornay will reprise their starring roles in a brand-new version of 'John & Jen' by Andrew Lippa and Tom Greenwald. The performance, which celebrates the musical's 30th anniversary, will take place February 9, 2023 at New York's famed 54 Below. Watch a preview of the concert in this video!
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0:00
You should see this kid
0:12
It's frightening the way he reminds me of someone I once knew
0:23
Without giving anything away about what happens in John Jen. John and Jen is the story of a woman who has a relationship with her brother and later with her son
0:36
And those relationships bear a certain resemblance to each other. And she has a lot of pain
0:41
She's carrying a lot of baggage about her relationship with her brother, broken relationship with her brother
0:47
that she doesn't want to bring into the relationship with her son
0:51
But of course, as things go, the more we rail against trying to undo the past
0:55
We tend to redo the past. And so it's a moment right in the middle of Act 2
1:00
where she expresses to her brother who is not there that she wants very much to have her son
1:08
not repeat the mistakes of the past. And then she sings the song
1:15
It's so true. He sleeps just like you
1:25
You completely in the shade now It amazing how big this tree grew
1:37
It was very easy to fall in love with this music. It was not so easy to sing it
1:44
But through the rehearsal process with brilliant Michael Bradley and our lovely Chris Mann
1:52
who's MD at the show in London, For me, the score just, it just, it sings
1:59
It sings and it touches and it makes me feel things because I'm a mother and, you know
2:06
and I've had a very, very close relationship with, not my brother, but my sister maybe, you know
2:12
there's a lot that everybody will connect with with this score. I brought you a present
2:24
He looks just. just like you. Tomorrow he's going to camp and I can't do with it
2:37
You know, everything I've ever worked on as a composer or a
2:42
lyricist or a bookwriter or a combination of things that I've done to write musicals
2:47
I stay in the moment of the thing and I make the thing with the people I make it
2:52
And what I always hope in the back of my mind is that people will connect
2:56
to it in some way and people will want to revisit it I don write shows thinking that 30 years later that they going to have beautiful productions with unbelievably gifted people like this lady sitting next to me and Lewis and
3:12
the music team and the production team. So to have it, not only to have it done in spite of the pandemic, they were able to make the
3:22
run happen in London, then we filmed it and audio recorded it
3:27
Now we're doing this big presentation at 54 below, and I get to music directed, so all these years later I get to play my pretty challenging score, so I have to practice
3:38
And I know that it's just the start, now that he's growing up, leaving home, taking flight
3:51
You should see this kid, your namesake. I wonder back when I did that
4:00
If I knew that every time I'd call out his name, I'd be there again chasing you away
4:11
And that shitty goodbye and that terrible day And all that I know is I won't fail my son
4:19
The same way I fail you should see this kid I wish you could see this kid but that just like you Not only do we get to sing the score tell this story
4:39
This man will be playing on the keys, which I am super excited about. Get to play and sing with Andrew and Lewis
4:45
We will be reunited. Lewis isn't here to speak for himself, but he is the funniest, adorable, funny, cheeky, cheeky boy
4:56
And that's why I've got on so well. The chemistry between Lewis and I is..
5:01
It's on fire! You are not going to want to miss this
5:06
It's going to be so much fun. At 54 below, the roof ain't going to be on it by the end of the evening
5:12
That's all I can say. And bring a Kleenex. You always want back
5:20
You're not coming back. But I won't. My baby leave me too
5:35
No, I won't let me be just like you. Be just like you
5:49
Not like you. Happy birthday little brother
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