Video: Gideon Glick Cooks Up a New Book- Give My Swiss Chards to Broadway

Welcome to Backstage with Richard Ridge

I'm at the legendary drama bookshop on West 39th Street, and you know my guest from such shows as Spring Awakening

Little Shop of Horrors, and To Kill a Mockingbird. And TV fans know him from The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel and the other two

Well, now he is the author of a brand new cookbook with Adam Roberts

with illustrations by Justin Squiggs Robertson called Give My Swiss Chards to Broadway

Please say hello to Gideon Glick. I am thrilled to be sitting with you here

I'm thrilled to be here. At the beautiful new trauma book shop. It's absolutely stunning

I know, right? Yeah. I haven't been here enough. I've been here a couple times, but I feel like I need to come here more

Well, now that you're an author. Now that I'm an author. How does I feel when you hear that name, that word

Oh, Gideon Glick, author? It doesn't really register. I'll be honest. It doesn't

It doesn't. You know, it was interesting. We were talking about it. When the book came and I opened it up

I, it wasn't really seeing my name that like, that really excited me

It was seeing like this tangible thing that we had worked so hard on

And like seeing it come to life was really thrilling. And I just put a fire under my book

Yeah. Yeah. Well, I love it. The book is sitting right here. It's called Give My Swiss Chards to Broadway

You co-wrote this book with Adam Roberts. I did, yes. Illustrations are by

Justin Squeaks Robertson. Exactly. Yeah. So take me back to, first of all, how excited are you like this

like you said, you opened it. I mean, it's got to be really cool. It's so cool

It is so cool. It's not anything I ever thought I would even do

So that's what's even odder and stranger. It sort of happened during the pandemic

I was a little bored, as we all were. And I started tweeting about the idea of a kid's book that followed a Broadway star

who was a pizza named Bernadette Pizza. And then people started tweeting about it

And we started talking about it. and we started talking about different ideas like a bacon lane

or you know these kind of food ideas with Broadway and then my friend Adam Roberts who is an incredible chef

a food blogger and really really incredible writer we started talking about that idea and then

it kind of sprung to life out of there we thought okay well not let's not do a

kids book why don't we do a cookbook that is an homage the Great White Way

and thus get my Swiss charge to Broadway was born okay so first of all just so if you hear noise in the

background. It's a working book shop. The barista is doing their thing, making Broadway

lattes and everything else here, so I'm sure they'll have to come up a name like a Broadway

latte. Uh, Chicago we could do. Oh, okay. See, I go. So you know, there's going to be another book

You know that. Well, if the folks buy enough of them, maybe there will be another book, fingers crossed

A children's book with Bernadette pizza. Oh, that is, that will always be close to my heart

Well, trust me. That's true. That's your next book coming down the line. Just see you know. So how did you anatomy meet

Social media, just on Twitter. He started following me. I started following him back

I really liked his tweets. He wrote on The Real O'Neill. He's a really good writer

I knew his partner, Craig Johnson. He's a director. I was a fan of his work

And then we just became friends. Okay, so how did two of you write the book

when you're co-authors? Yes. Authors? No, okay. But did you write together on Zoom

Yes, yes. We were meeting all the other. the time. It all really started, and especially before we were like, are we going to do this or not

it started just us coming, like texting each other back and forth, just puns, recipe puns

And we were really just, it was kind of a bomb during the pandemic to have that because it would

really crack ourselves up. And then we got to like a hundred or so, and then we called it to 75

and then we called it to 50. We picked our favorite ones. And then out of that, we started, you know

expanding going inside and say, okay, what kind of recipe will this be

And obviously, Adam is the chef. And so he took a lot of the brunt of that

But like, for instance, chicken breast side story, we wanted it to be evocative of the musicals

So it's chicken breast, which is a great American dish. And then we have its pineapple marionated

And we have plantain. So we wanted to have Puerto Rico and America

like the Jets and the Shark. We wanted it to feel like the musical as well. I love this

Yes, there was a lot of thought that went into it. And then obviously, then we got Justin Squeez-Robertson to come in

Because, you know, a lot of cookbooks have photography, and we felt, photography doesn't work for this

This is about imaginations, it's creativity. It's theater. We wanted it to be, like, we wanted to have a vitality

And the first person I thought of was Squiggs, and we asked him, and he came on, and he really, like, makes the book sing

He really just like gives it a light force that is we're so thrilled about

So it's broken up into like appetizers? Yeah, so we have appetizes with a Z

We have soups and ballads. We have maim dishes. We have side by sides and sweets charity

So you know people are going to have like weekly parties now. Oh, I sure hope

Where they invite people over and say we're going to do these different theme nights, right

They're really good dishes too. They are good recipes. They are, they range from easy to complex, but they're not

This isn't, it's a fun cookbook, and it's, you could read it just as a book

but this also is highly functional. These are really, really good recipes. Okay, so like I said, the West Light Story one, you could put the original cast album on

That's the hope. Or any album, the many, you know, versions of West Light Story and cook

Well, that is the goal. So we have inside each recipe, something called Cooking Notes

which obviously are ways to help, you know, extra tips, and then also we call them listening notes

So there's trivia about the shows, and also perhaps not all of them have it

but songs to look out for. Because we hope that this is for people

who obviously love musicals and know musicals, but we also, if you don't know musicals

we hope that this is something that could help you learn about them. So this is more than a cookbook

It's multifaceted. I love that, I think. A multifaceted book. before we went on camera, I asked you, do you cook

Yes, and the answer is, no, I don't. I don't really cook. My husband is the chef, and that's kind of why it's very funny that I ended up making a cookbook

It's kind of ironic, and my husband likes to make fun of me for it a little bit

You're like, why do you write a cook book? But I have cooked a good amount

My husband has cooked even more amount of the recipes. And so what good is I kind of thought for me if I can do it then it idiot proof Yeah So there we go But if must be really great like when he cooked something for you at home from the book Oh yeah He made Three Penny Opera a couple days ago and it was delectable

Did you listen to one of the cast albums, maybe Rao Julia, the original Madilalia

I mean, I don't think he did. I don't think Three Penny Opera is in his register

B. Arthur was in that originally? I didn't even know that. Ed Asner, Jerry Orvo

I mean, in three penny opera? Wow, wow. When you, Ladi Leni is actually the only person that has won the performance Tony Award for an off-roadly performance

See? We're learning things. We're learning things. And it's probably in the book

It is in the book. It is in the book. It is in the book. All right. So, you know, so, oh, you're going to do a signing here

Yes, we're doing a signing here. So tell everybody. We're doing a signing here October 6. The book comes out October 4th

You can pre-order it now. But the signing is October 6, I think 7, or 715 to 8.30

here at the drama bookshop on West 39th Street just go to their website and it's really cool

you hear the barista going at it you can have any kind of coffee or anything else done while you're

here but they have everything here i mean the books here are absolutely amazing i keep getting

distracted because i go i want to read that book i want to read that book i know i watch your eyes catch like oh my god the ted chapin book everything was possible follies there's stuff everywhere

to catch your eye right here for all the um the joe's a path oh yeah where it all started

Yeah, totally. I mean, you know, who knows that there'd be a Hamilton

Yeah. You know, without someone like Joe Patton, you know, early on with everything he started

So, like, I'm so thrilled about this. You know, we have a lot of your other, like, your career is sitting in front of us

My career in books. It's so cool. And they're all available here. And where? The drama book shop

But, you know, I mean, I want to talk to, you and I have never spoken about Spider-Man

turn off the dark. And I saw the show numerous times during previews and after it opened

So tell everybody, You were part of the geek chorus. Yes, we were the geek chorus, like a Greek chorus

We were a group of four that would kind of come together to tell the tale of Spider-Man

And you were Jimmy Six? I was Jimmy Six. How did they give you that name, Jimmy Six

All of our names, and I unfortunately don't remember the other geek's names, but they all came from the comic book war and mythos, so they're all characters

So we appropriated the names because we felt akin to them, and those were a geek

are geek Spider-Man names. Well, the audience loved when you all came out during this show

Did they? Yes, they did. I knew you already. I was like, oh my God, Gideon's gonna come back on again

But I mean, when you look back at Spider-Man now, yeah. How do you, what's your take on that

The time you worked on, working with Julie. I mean, it all kind of feels like a fever dream, right? Yeah

Because I did, I think we did like three or four months of previews. And then when Julie, when they decided not to continue with Julie

they wrote our parts out as well. So it was, you know, three to four months is kind, that's a run

Yeah, exactly. That's an actual run. So it's weird to have done like a full run but not made it to the finish line

But it was, we're usually tame. We're like, what, come on. That is, it's a gift

A gift. I look back on it still was so much pride that I got to work with someone like that

an artist like that. Well, the first time I met you was in the original press room down at the Atlantic Theater

Oh my goodness. For that first press day, when you kids were so young at Spring Awakening

when no one knew anything. Nothing. I mean, when I talked to you all that, you were all afraid you were going to be let go or something

I mean, I've talked to Jonathan and Leah and you were always afraid like... Well, I think we had no concept of what it was, either

It's interesting because we did the, we did that reunion concert and then the documentary

And so there was a lot of, obviously, we reflected a lot

And I don't think I understood until then how young we were. Yeah

how profoundly young they were. And to have that kind of experience

such an anomaly of an experience. How life-changing was this show? I mean, because you have a family now

I mean, it's not just a group. You were a family that have stayed together. Yeah

Well, here's what's interesting also. You ask how life-changing it is, but again, at that age

I don't know if I could even perceive it as life-changing. Because that was, it was so early in my life

so it's really just a part of my life. I wonder if we did a spring awakening at like 35

That I think I'd have far more concept of a before and after

If it was spring awakening, I don't have that. Yeah. Which is funny. But looking back on it now, you realize how career changes and life changing

Seismic. Yeah, totally. Yeah. So you created the role at Ernst? I did, yes

Do you remember your callback or when you got the call saying you have this? Yeah, well, it was interesting because originally I was up for Mourlands

And so, like, I was part of that. And that's when I met Leah and Jonathan and John Gallagher

because we kept being paired off at each other. And then Gallagher got it, and it was incredible

And then I thought I was done. I thought, okay, so it's over

And then they did a workshop, and then I think they changed some of the cast members

and then I came back in. And then I got the part of Arnest

and then I didn't have a place to stay because I was a senior in high school

and I was living in Philadelphia, but I met Leah during the audition process, and she said, why don't you come live with me

So we lived together for the off-Broadway run. And I only really knew her because of that whole pairing system

Yeah. So what was it like the two of you being roommates that? I love that

It was that wild. I mean, we were kids. Yeah. True kids. I don't think she was even

how old was she? I mean, I was 17. I think she was maybe 1920. I mean, we were kids

I'm living in a studio. We live in a studio together. That's crazy. I love it

It was like summer camp. It was truly like summer camp. Who cooked? Neither

Come on now. No. We took takeout home. We did a lot of takeout, yeah

Because I knew her when she was like this big. Like a la ragtime

Oh, ragtime, lay mis, all that stuff. So I've watched her. We've been friends forever

So I'm thrilled that she's back on Broadway now. Oh, I've seen it twice. All right

I'm going. Oh, get there. No, I'm going. We're going like a week or two

Pretty amazing. My husband's like, get me. two funny girl with her like Doris, it's happening, we're going

But I just love that you met, and then you were roommates then. I know, I know

The world is strange and odd. I mean, it's, it's, uh, it's, uh, again, you say it's like family, it is like family

You know, you are, you are connected by this bizarre event that, like, no matter what

it's because it's such an anomaly, nobody, nobody has that experience by you guys

And we were kids. Yeah. You all went through it together. Yeah, and I've said this before

It's like, you don't. have a at that point you don't really have a network of people at this point I

have the you know the people that I I met and I many years to say okay these are my people At that point you don have that So those are your people no matter what Yeah Yeah You know you and I have spoken about this before

Significant Other by Joshua Harmon. Incredible play. All right. I had been going to the theater in New York and seeing play since I'm 11 years old

And I've seen everybody. All the Greats do plays. Your performance in Significant Other will remain one of my top ten forever

Thank you very much. And I was going to ask you, looking back at this, what that meant you being a part of this

and having a role that is like, I don't know, when actor meets material and material meets an actor

it doesn't always happen. It doesn't always happen. And then you get this explosion. Yeah

You know, it's interesting when I was asked to do a reading of it, which I knew is sort of my audition

Because it was for the roundabout. It was for everybody. And I read it

And I just, when I read it, it was like this magical. experience where I went, oh my God, this is, I have to do this

It doesn't happen that often. And sometimes it, you get it and sometimes you don't

This was a thing where I felt this like kind of, this force of nature where I said

oh, this is me, I'm going to do this. I need to do this

This is a, it spoke to me so much and I loved reading it

And I just kept reading it over and over and over again. And that doesn't always happen

You're actually excited to kind of come back to it and read it again and again and again and again

And then it just happened and it was a it was a real

Gift just a gift and what a cast incredible cast Barbara Barry

Lisey Mendes Saskolberg John Bellman Rebecca Naley Jones Luke Smith it just was the

It was a party, it was a true party people always say oh wasn't that really hard to do every day and it wasn't it really wasn't it was just I had the

best time of my life. And it was an exorcism of all these feelings too. And it just was

you know, it's interesting when you do a show that you don't leave the stage for. It's kind of like

I think of it like surfing. You just get on and then you just get off. And so weirdly, it's sometimes

I think, harder when you have to leave the stage and then come back and have breaks. I actually

like, or maybe I'm a glutton for punishment. I don't know. But I really like that kind of

concentration that it's so concentrated and then you're done. But the emotional arc that you take in that show it's so beautiful that you just

get to continue it and there's no stop. It's also just gorgeously written. So you don't have to do anything. I mean that's kind of the you don't have to push

you don't have to reach for it, you just say the words, you show up, you listen

and then it kind of takes care of itself. And that was, and that is, there's something called ecstasis, which is the Greek, it's ecstasy, but that's to leave

your body where you're just, you're not thinking, you're just being, and that's kind of what

I felt during that show. See, that's the kind of acting I saw. It's like you left your body

Well, thank you. That's great. And drama bookshops, they just get this in nonstop

I love it. Yeah, I think colleges do it a lot too, especially that scene in the second act between Jordan and Laura

I think it's a really meaty scene and it's also very, it's very universal, which I think is kind of what people responded to with that. Okay

One of your first did ones was speech and debate. Yes, yes. By Stephen Carrum

Yes, yes. Favorite memory? Oh my God. I can't. I don't have one. I mean, I got to do, I mean, Stephen's still a really, really good friend, which is profound, but also I got to do it with my best friend from growing up, Sarah Steele. I mean, we've been best friends since we were 11, and we grew up doing theater together in the suburbs of Philadelphia. And to get to do a play together in New York at that level was so incredible. And also at that point, I don't think we really knew what we were doing. It was in, so

We were kids. I mean, I think we were about 19. And so it wasn't craft at that point

It was just, it was just instinct and really special. And also just an incredible play

Now you're talking about instinct. You never took acting lessons, did you

I did not, no. Wow. Yeah. I grew up doing it. Yeah

And I was a kid actor in Philadelphia. And then, you know, my senior year I did Spring Awakening

Spring Awakening off Broadway and then I took a, I was going to go to NYU and I took the year off to do Spring

Awakening on Broadway and then I left to do speech and debate and then go to college. And I thought

I can take a class, and I've taken the classes here and there. I just didn't do conservatory training

But I thought, okay, if I had this, a lot of money going into this and it's a lot of time, why don't I try to do something that I know that I'll never do later in life

And so I, that first year, I just kind of was exploring different things

And then I really took to art history. I found it really, I responded to it

And all of a sudden, I, you know, in high school, I think I didn't have

I always wanted to do theater. And I thought, oh, I'm just going to be an actor, so I didn't take it very seriously

And this was the inverse. And so I took it really, really seriously. And I really loved it

And it was important to me. And so I feel really, you know, it's a doubt

We have a bledged sword. We live across the street from Juilliard, and there's always this thing where I go, I should have got the Juilliard. I should have, I should have trained. Like

what kind of actor would I be? But at the same time, there's this wealth of knowledge that I have

that I'm really, really happy that I have. And it's, I think, really helped me as a performer as well

You learned by doing and working with the best people. I've been very lucky

But you said instinct. Instinct is a humongous part of us. That's a big part of acting, too, in the point of, but you have that naturally

Yeah. Well, I think also not overthinking is a, I mean, I mean, obviously. Obviously you have to prepare and you have to do your work

And there is that. But then there comes a point where you just have to let it go

and just let it be and listen. And that's what you gotta do. I'm fascinated by that

But I spoke to a lot of great people. Great stars. I never took a singing lesson

They never took an acting lesson too. So I love that. Well, by Restration. Thank you

She also didn't even consider herself a singer, which was crazy. She considered herself an actress and then she was like

yeah, I guess I could do this. And then she started doing it. But she hadn't even trained. Wild

But I think if you just go for something in your life and don't listen to other people

and listen to those voices and everything else, just be. Yeah, just be

And I know it's a hard thing to do. I think it's also when you become myopic too. I think that can also be tricky

So why not experience the world? I think as a, as performers and artists, we should have a point of view

And that comes from experiencing life. I think that is more important than being career focused and being, you know, craft

focused to an extent. Okay. You got Tony nominated for your incredible. performance as Dill in Aaron Sorkins to Kill a Mockingbird

I mean there must I don even know where to begin to ask you like favorite memory but I mean there must be so many wonderful experiences Oh yeah Because we spoke a lot during that and you were like Richie this is just so magical It so magical

Honestly, getting to work with that cast, but specifically, Seleuk, you know, Bolger

I mean, that was, we were a real unit up there, and that was very, to do that nightly

It's a hard show to do, and it was also emotionally, but it was also hard to kind of, you know

traverse these adult characters and these kid characters. But we really had a volley and a language with each other

that comes out of from love, true, true love. We were happy to see each other every day

We used to cuddle underneath one of the dressing room tables and eat candy

I mean, we regressed, we were children. But it was a really, our connection was

I have been saying profound a lot, but in this interview, but truly profound

And I think it's, it's really, what made us excited to go on stage every day. Yeah

You would move effortlessly into film and television. And I know when you were doing Spring Awakening

you made your film debut opposite Cynthia Nixon and Ethan Hawke. Yes, yes, yes

I mean, how incredible was that to like- You really know your stuff, really? Hello, I've known you forever, but I mean, to have done Spring Awakening

never taken an acting class, and then to have worked on your first film

It was all like being on the set with them. Yeah. We actually did the, we filmed the film

before Spring Awakening. Okay. And that was, I mean, I was already a big sexist city fan

So I was like pinching myself that I got to work with Cynthia. But that was, you know, that was just, for me, it almost felt like a fluke

I'm like, what am I doing here? Because I was really, you know, I came up doing theater and not film

And I don't think I, you know, I still think I'm trying to figure out film and TV acting

because it really is a different, it's the same, but it's different. It's a different animal

It's a really different medium. And it's about economy of your body

and the way you express yourself. In theater, you really fill up a stage

Then you fill up a house, and you don't really have to filter as much. And in film and TV, it's different

Because I spoke to Jonathan, I said, Jonathan, did you grasp it right away

And he said, he made the Angling movie taking Woodstock. And it comes out of this big helicopter

in his first big scene. He said, I'm sweating in there, like just thinking it or whatever

And Anne kept saying to Jonathan, less, less, less, less, and he's like, is anybody going to hear me

He's like, yes. You know, but he said, it's true, though, it was like for him. It is true

It is really, really true. It is a different, it's a calibration process. It's like here, right

Yeah, yeah. But if you start doing this, all of a sudden, nobody is listening

Nobody's listening. All right, the other two, fabulous. As I put my fingers at you, as I throw my hand at you

The other two, what a fabulous series. I love that show. How much fun was that to do

It was super fun. I mean, I've never gotten to be a part of something. Well, actually, no, Maisel came after the other two, but where I was a fan first, where I really enjoyed the show as a spectator

And to then get to be a part of it is so neat because you're invested as an audience member and all of a sudden you're doing it too

But I've never laughed that much in doing anything. I mean, these are funny, funny people

And also we have like Kalina York who's a theater person. So it didn't feel like I'm..

And Josh DeGara, like I didn't feel like I was outside of my realm of comfort

And then Drew, Tarver is absolutely incredible. And I loved, loved working with him

We had good chemistry. We got along really, really well. And then you get to work with the grace like Ken Marino and Molly Shannon

I mean, like what a dream. I wish I could still be doing it

Okay. Take me back. Then the marvelous Mrs. Maisel. Yeah, yeah. I mean, that had it been a magical set

because you're in a whole other world. Truly, truly. And also that was, I was during the pandemic

That was like the first job I got during the pandemic. And that was a real sense of respite and relief

because, again, it is this kind of magical world. It is heightened and it's beautiful

It's like candy. And I got to play a weird of a magician. And I got to learn magic, which was really hard

but also gave me something to concentrate on. within the book. And also those are theater folk

Those are people who are theater actors. Those are journeymen actors who have been in the business for a very long time

And also Amy and Dan are their theater folk. And we do, we call them Wonders

We do it all in one take, I think. That's a big part of that show

And you don't move on until you've gotten like a whole take that is like you could

that they could print that. And they like to do it all. I think that is usually their goal

Because the writing is really rhythmic. And so to break that up, you don't want to break that up

I love that. Yeah. It's a challenging set, though, in that sense

Because it's, you know, those scripts are like, they're 90 pages for an hour-long show

So it is a lot of words that you're getting out. And it has a sheet music

Yeah. But they're theater people. Yes. And that's why they're good at it

You're on stage for the whole show. they're good at you know what to do exactly so finally we're sitting here with your book

I mean just tell me what's going through your mind I mean I mean it's so cool to be here right now

and to say oh this will be here yeah you know this is this came out of a lot of love it's a

it's an homage to the great white way and so it came from you know two authors and an illustrator

who just love theater and it's um it's a love letter and so there was a lot of joy that came

into making this and I think people will the readers will see that that it's um and not only that

but I think you know theater doesn't sometimes criss-cross into more mainstream mediums and

this is that this is a cookbook this is for it's not just for theater folk but it's a it's um

you know it's where two two passions can kind of coalesce and it's it's just so neat I I I I

To see it here and to think that very soon people will have it in their hands, it really

excites me. Okay, so the release date is... The release date is October 4th

We can pre-order it now. And then October 6th, we will do a signing here at the Drama Bookshop from 7 or 715

to 8.30. And it's published by... It's published by Countrymen, which is a part of Norton Press

Beautifully done. Gideon, I can talk to you forever, my friends, just so you know that, right? Yes

All right, everybody, get a copy of the book and go to the theater. We'll see you soon

Hi, guys