Video: Inside Rehearsals for Kennedy Center's BYE BYE BIRDIE

Lots of dates and no one to scorchee

Yeah, blue. Hello, I'm Richard Ridge for Broadway

Up next for the Kennedy Center's Broadway Stage is the beloved music is the beloved musical

Bye Bye Birdie, which will run from June 7th through the 15th

and we drop by the rehearsal room to meet the stellar cast and bring you a sneak peek

This is my second time throwing together a show this fast at the Kennedy Center

and Jeffrey Finn creates a really calm environment where everyone feels safe and feels like they are there to have fun

So that's already happening. On day four, we've gotten a lot done, as you saw

So I'm just thrilled to get to D.C. and be in that incredible historic theater. How excited are you to be a part of by, by

So excited. I mean, this is a show that means a lot to me. I did it when I was younger. I got my equity card doing it here at Encores and now with Mark Bruni. And now here we are, again, a considerable amount of time later. But, you know, but here I am. Yeah

I just, honestly, I've never, besides seeing the movie a long time ago, I've never had experience with the show. And especially Conrad getting to be a black guy for the first time, there's so many people that I'm getting to like lean into that I think maybe Elvis kind of took from, honestly. So I'm really excited

just to pay homage to some of these people and to put my own spin on it and, you know, again, just do something that's just a lot of fun

There are men of 1920 who are slow and recliscence I feel like everybody knows bye Birdie because everybody has seen like a high school or community production of it

And so it's lived on in that way. And so people are familiar with it

They're familiar with the movie. But to get to do it today at this level, I think it's going to be so exciting and refreshing

And I mean, Charles Strauss and Lee Adams, like their music and lyrics just live on their

timeless, this, like, classic musical comedy meets rock and roll. It's just, it's amazing

Kids, they are disobedient, disrespectful, oops. Noisy, crazy, sloppy, lazy, loafers, a lover on a subject, kids, you can talk and talk to your faces blue

Kids, but they still just do what they want to do. Why can't they be like we? We

We're perfect in every way. What's the matter with kids today? I was so excited when I got the offer

I was like, I need this. I need this fun, fun, hilarious role

and I need to be this man's wife. Absolutely. I can't believe it

I know. Yeah, that's wonderful. I'm playing Mae Peterson. What I love about her is she's mother with a capital M

I'm sort of mother with capital M in my own mind. I have a son. So I have a head start

in terms of this character. I just love it, and you're right. It's a little intimidating when you're

playing a character that's like a vocabulary word. You know what I mean? People know everything about her

already but hopefully I bring something special to it We see what happens Maybe not Rock and roll What they get it like we did What wrong with Sammy Kay What the matter with Not

Is it rock and roll. Why can it get us like we did? What's wrong with Sammy Kay? What's the matter with kids today? Is it such a beloved musical? Why do you think it moves on generation after generation and lives on

I think because it's hilarious and it's classic and it's fun and it tells somehow a true-ish sort of American story about what it is, you know, sing young kids off the war and like how we're kind of having to cope with that

and how we have to like sometimes go blow off steam and celebrate each other

celebrate the moments that we do have. And just there's so much to it, again, that's in good fun that we get to just celebrate

in the midst of all the chaos that speaks to the times always

I think everybody relates to it in some way. And the message is one of inclusion

It's not one of some of the ickiness that was in the original. Yeah

And so I think that and also the energy. You can't resist that kind of energy and that kind of the dancing and the humor

And everybody needs that. Yeah, the girl wants to rebel. The parents want her to settle down

She learns that life is not about rebelling, but about not conforming, but growing up

what the journey of growing up is all about. And I think that's what this is

And everybody goes through it. Everybody remembers. And a lot of people are parents now

and are having to deal with the same thing. Now my life is Rosie, since I found my Rosie, with a girl like Rosie, how could I be

I playing Rosie She incredible I just love her I love that she has such power and agency even though in her station she is a secretary and she you know you could feel like she doesn

have a lot of opinions or ways to move through the world, but she's resourceful and she finds

her ways. And she gets things done. She's smarter than anybody. And I love her, I love the relationship

with Albert is, you know, fraught because of his, he needs to grow a little bit, but she has patience

and she waits and it's beautiful. Well, just from me, listening to the material that I am responsible for

I just fell in love with these songs all over again, because I used to listen to this album in high school

like when I was in my bedroom drawing, and it was one of the LPs that I had, the original cast

And so I knew it, but I didn't know it, like, top to bottom. The score is unbelievable, and different styles

You know, it was just when rock and roll was starting to kind of seep into musicals, and so all of Bertie's numbers are, like

actually great, iconic rock and roll. songs. And then you have all the

Albert material. Talk to me is my favorite song in the whole show. I'm so lucky

Oh, have us a home out west. A nice little sweet and love to rest

And in every rose is in blue. This one grows sweeter than all of the rest

And that's my good. I'm too. I'm too. it shows me life is wonderful sweet beautiful song when love is right then what could be wrong

life is wonderful sweet beautiful song to me