[music]

Alison Stewart: This is All of It. I'm Alison Stewart, live from the WNYC Studios in Soho. Thank you for sharing part of your day with us. We've had some great conversations on the show this week. Isabel Allende was here yesterday. We spoke with Phil Dunster, who stars as Jamie Tartt on Ted Lasso about the end of the series. We also spoke to the stars in the playwright of King James, a play about friendship and basketball, and we had a rollicking conversation with the curators of the exhibit "It's Pablo-matic: Picasso According to Hannah Gadsby." If you weren't able to catch all of them in real-time, check out the All of It show page at wnyc.org, or you can subscribe to our podcast.

Let's get this hour started with an invitation to Attend the tale of Sweeney Todd!

[MUSIC - Stephen Sondheim: The Ballad of Sweeney Todd: “Attend the Tale of Sweeney Todd”]

Attend the tale of Sweeney Todd

He served a dark and a vengeful god

What happened then, well, that's the play

And he wouldn't want us to give it away

Not Sweeney

Not Sweeney Todd

The demon barber of Fleet street

Alison Stewart: The 2023 version of the show about the maniacal barber and his psycho significant other is up for 8 Tony Awards. Nominated in the best lead actress category is my next guest, a previous Tony winner, Annaleigh Ashford. In Sweeney Todd, she stars opposite Josh Groban Sweeney as the mischievous, murderous, pie maker Mrs. Lovett, giving an animated amorous and hilarious take on the character. Of course, it being a Sondheim musical, you bring in only the best for the musical supervision and conducting as in the pit at night, every night.

Billboard describes Grammy and Tony Winner Alex Lacamoire as Broadway's most beloved musical supervisor. Of course, you know him for his work in Hamilton, In The Heights, Dear Evan Hansen, and a whole lot more. Alex, welcome back.

Alex Lacamoire: Thanks for having me.

Alison Stewart: Annaleigh, nice to meet you.

Annaleigh Ashford: So good to meet you. So happy to be here. Yay, NPR. I'm a donor.

Alison Stewart: Oh, excellent. Like that. Alex, this is your first Sondheim show, right?

Alex Lacamoire: Yes.

Alison Stewart: All right. Even though you're a super pro and after you said yes, how did you prepare yourself to really dig into this big Sondheim show?

Alex Lacamoire: Well, the good news is I've loved this score since I was in my teens. I discovered it around when I was 15 years old, so I've known the music since then, 30 years. In terms of preparing for this rendition of it, the first part of it was just getting the score under my fingers and practicing all of it. I had played it when I was younger, but some of the harder passengers I skipped over. I'm like, "Eh, I don't need to do that." Then I was in a position where I had to play all the hard stuff.

Then I really got into the orchestrations, and I would go line by line, instrument by instrument for every single song to make sure I knew what each instrument was doing, how they were contributing. That led to me really gaining a huge appreciation for the orchestrations of the master, Jonathan Tunick. Because for our production of Sweeney Todd, we are using the original orchestrations that Jonathan wrote in 1979 for a 26-piece orchestra, which is how Sweeney was originally envisioned and designed.

We've not heard Sweeney on Broadway with an orchestra of this size since it came out in 1979. Then the last thing I did was I took conducting lessons to really just brush it up. I hadn't conducted full-time since I did Wicked back in 2005 when I left. I did not want to be the person to screw up Sweeney Todd, so I just had to really just fine-tune the aspects of it so I could really be there for the show and for the actors.

Alison Stewart: AnnaLeigh, you've done Sondheim before Sunday in the Park with George. Had you ever done this show before Sweeney Todd? Did you ever sing anything from it? Was it ever a rehearsal piece for you?

Annaleigh Ashford: For years, as an actor, people go, "What are your dream roles?" Since I was 20 years old, I've been saying that Mrs. Lovett is a dream part of my-- Since I was a kid, I've been like, "I want to play Mrs. Lovett someday." Other people were saying other parts, and I was saying Mrs. Lovett. I was a weird child. I would say this is a part of my creative marrow as it is many other artists of our craft. It's one that's special to so many of our hearts.

It's been both a dream and a challenge, and the show humbles me every day in some way. I learn something new about it. I learn something new about myself, but yes, it's truly one of the greats. It's like going into the canon of Sondheim is like going into the canon of Shakespeare. Each piece is unique, and has its own piece of his soul and heart and head. This one is especially special to me, and I think the audience and was to him, too.

Alison Stewart: What is it about the writing of this part that is so good? You've described it as one of the best parts ever written.

Annaleigh Ashford: Steve would always say it's a comedy. I think that surprises people sometimes. Like all of the great parts in the Shakespeare canon, it has both the dark and the light. Sometimes we think of her as being sort of a Lady M, but she's so much more than that. She's a survivor at her core. She's a woman who needs to survive in that time and space and place. The only way she could do that was through a man. In this instance, the man that walks through the door is Sweeney. I have all these clues in the text.

There's a line that I have right at the beginning, I would say, I always had a fondness for you. I did. She's always been in love with him. I think it's a story of survival, but it's through this man. In our production, I think we've found what was on the page, but really this sweet, strange, and unusual love story that I find there's such a beautiful combination of comedy and pathos that exists at every turn of the corner within the show. It's just all on the page.

Alison Stewart: I want to pick up on something Annaleigh said, Alex, something about what does it mean for you as the conductor to have to balance the darkness and the light?

Alex Lacamoire: One of the things I love about the piece, and AnnaLeigh pointed it out beautifully, some of the darkest moments in the show, some of the most tense moments have the most beautiful and glorious melodies. There's pretty women in such a gorgeous song, and that happens just before Sweeney's about to try to kill the judge by slitting his throat. It's the most gory murder with the most ravishing music underneath it. As AnnaLeigh said, everything is there for you. This is one of those pieces where there is not an ounce of fat on it. Everything is intentional. Everything exists for a reason, and it is so economical.

Sondheim crafted this entire score from the smallest amount of motifs and chord progressions and ideas. It's really wonderful to see this fabric of this unified piece that thrills you for three hours but yet does it in the most simplest of ways. It takes a master to make something simple sound sophisticated, and it is. At its heart, it's accessible and beautiful. Honestly, I just followed the music. It's all laid out in front of me, and that's all I have to do. Just stay out of the way.

Alison Stewart: I want to know about conducting school. [chuckles] What is conducting school like?

Alex Lacamoire: When I went to school, I went to Berkeley, and I got to conduct a few shows, and I got to conduct Wicked for almost two years, but Sweeney's a different kind of conducting. I attribute it a lot like dancing in the way that there are times that I lead and the actors follow me. There are times the actors are leading me and I follow them. Sweeney is one of those shows where I, as a conductor, have to be focused the entire time, because you don't really get to coach very much.

It changes so much and it drifts so much. You don't set the tempo and then forget it. You don't just rely on the percussionist to just get you through. You really have to lead and be the motor for the orchestra and for the show, and keep the pace up, keep the tempo up, keep the tension up. It's demanding, but it's a thrill at the same time.

Alison Stewart: My guests are Annaleigh Ashford. She plays Mrs. Lovett in Sweeney Todd, and Alex Lacamoire, who is the musical supervisor and the conductor. Sweeney Todd is up for 8 Tony Awards. Your version of Mrs. Lovett is really physical, AnnaLeigh. She's almost bouncy in a way. She got a little bit of Tigger in her. As you pop up from behind the counter in the pie shop, you're sliding downstairs, you're doing splits. She's also very randy. She's sexual. I was going to say horny, but I'm not sure if that's-- [laughs].

Annaleigh Ashford: You can say that.

Alison Stewart: Okay. She's kind of horny.

Annaleigh Ashford: She is. [chuckles]

Alison Stewart: She is. [laughs] What was your inspiration for this version of Mrs. Lovett?

Annaleigh Ashford: Approaching this role, I was excited, well, excited and scared, if I'm going to quote Sondheim, because I feel like Angela Lansbury left me such a beautiful roadmap. The women who played it before me, Patti LuPone, played it last on Broadway, again, left me such a beautiful footprint. Again, like we do in Shakespeare, I have to bring my spirit, my soul, to whatever is in the text. I went through, and again, mind the text, she says, "Again, I always had a fondness for you. I did." That was a clue to me that she always loved him.

Also, in Act 2, I say, "Me rumpled bedding legitimized," when I'm talking about going by the sea. That's a clue to us in the text that there's been some rumpled bedding for many months [chuckles]. Those two things for me were very helpful in keying into the relationship with Sweeney. This isn't just a partnership. It's a love affair. It may be very one-sided, but it's still a love affair. I thought that was really important.

Then physically, I, as an actor, find that I just naturally express myself physically and few of the moments of physical comedy are all based in truth. It's usually based in status. There's one moment in the show where I encounter the judge who has the highest status of anybody I've ever met, and I am of the lowest status. I don't know what to do with my body in that moment. What would I do? There's other moments physically where me and Sweeney Todd are the only people in the whole room that we are having a quiet, we're having a private moment, as they say, in acting class. What would I do privately to get his love, to get him to look at me? That's where it all came from.

Alison Stewart: I want to play a little bit of By the Sea, and in the psalm, he says, love it is fantasized about moving to the English seaside with Sweeney Todd because they've got all this financial success making pies out of people. What is something you'd like people to listen for? Maybe a decision you made in this song or a turn of phrase or a tone, Annaleigh, that you are going for.

Annaleigh Ashford: I'm yearning for a better life. Times is hard. I say at the beginning of the play, and even though our business is illegal and immoral, and disgusting, I'm not the one killing people, and all I'm doing is longing for a better life. Yes, that's what I'd love people to hear that.

Alison Stewart: This is Annaleigh Ashford as Mrs. Lovett in Sweeney Todd with By the Sea.

[MUSIC - Stephen Sondheim: By the Sea - from the musical play, Sweeny Todd: the Demon Barber of Fleet Street.]

[Mrs. Lovett]

Ooh, Mr. Todd

I'm so happy

I could eat you up, I really could!

You know what I'd like to do, Mr. Todd?

What I dream?

If the business stays as good

Where I'd really like to go?

In a year or so

Don't you want to know?

[Sweeney Todd, spoken]

Of course.​

[Mrs. Lovett]

Do you really want to know?

[Sweeney Todd, spoken]

Yes, yes, I do, I do.​

[Mrs. Lovett]

By the sea, Mr. Todd

That's a life I covet

By the sea, Mr. Todd

Oh, I know you'd love it!

You and me, Mr. T

We could be

Alone

In a house wot we'd almost own

Down by the sea

[Sweeney Todd]

Anything you say.

[Mrs. Lovett]

Wouldn't that be smashing?

With the sea at our gate

We'll have kippered herring

Wot have swum to us straight

From the Straits of Bering

Every night in the kip

When we're through our kippers

I'll be there slippin' off your slippers

By the sea

With the fishies splashing

Alison Stewart: Our engineer Juliana is-- she knows every word. [laughs] She knows every word. Alex, you have these? Annaleigh, I'm going to talk about you like you're not here. You have these two great instruments. You have this Josh Groban instrument and this Annaleigh Ashford instrument. What were you able to do with these instruments that you were excited about that maybe you hadn't been able to do before or that was even maybe even surprising to you?

Alex Lacamoire: One of the things I love about working with Annaleigh and Josh is that they are so in control of their instruments, and it is just so effortless for them. At least that's how it lands on me. I'm sure if I asked them, they would give me a different answer about what happens behind the scenes, but particularly with Annaleigh, one of the things I love about her is that when she's performing, it's never the same every night. She will have a different way to read this line and different gesture to accompany it, and a different thought, but it always sounds honest, and it always sounds true, and it sounds real. She keeps it fresh that way.

To me, it's like jazz. She's got this framework of these lines that she needs to say, but she'll find a new way to do it so that it feels honest and real. It is a delight to watch her do that because I am standing there, watching the show, and still laughing. Annaleigh still has me in stitches with the faces she makes. It's a true masterclass for me in terms of comedy and acting to watch her perform the show. It's a delight.

Hearing Josh Groban's baritone on this role, it's just perfection. Jonathan Tunick, who I mentioned earlier, the original orchestrator called Josh the Sweeney of the Century, and he just said that Josh's voice is just perfect. I just love how the richness of Josh's tone and sound. It sounds so easy for him to sing a role that is so hard. It's so difficult, and it has weird intervals and weird pitches, but Josh has a precision and a way to approach the material that is just so soulful and real and easy for him, and it just delights me. I'm really just wonderful to be working with these actors who I think are just total top shelf at the top of the game. It's a joy for me.

Alison Stewart: Annaleigh, what is a conversation or note you had from Alex that really has proved useful and helpful to you?

Annaleigh Ashford: Oh, I would just have to say this is one of my dear friends from the beginning of my career. Alex is the first music director that I ever worked with in New York City. I remember being in his apartment almost 20 years ago now, learning a score for a show that was then called Feeling Electric that became next to normal. There's nobody better. It's like just going out there and breathing with somebody, which is what you want from that person. He's like a security blanket. He's a piece of my heart as a human and as an artist. Yes, he gives the most beautiful notes. This score is so hard that sometimes we have to do like one a day.

Alison Stewart: Really?

Annaleigh Ashford: Yes, because they're so hard to weave in. It feels like the best way to explain it is those big tapestries that they made in the olden days that you see at the museum, and when you need to go in and change a piece of the tapestry, it sometimes takes a couple days for you to thread the needle and get it through. He's so patient with me and so kind with me, but what his notes always come from what I think Steve would have been so delighted by, always comes from storytelling. How do we tell the story the best? Those were always Steve's notes. They were always from, first and foremost, the point of storytelling. That's what Alex does so beautifully. He does what's on the page, but with heart, and soul, and guts.

Alison Stewart: What does that sound like? What would be an example?

Annaleigh Ashford: Sometimes they're, like I have been saying hands instead of hand in my friends because part of it, I haven't told you this, Alex, is because I have both hands going towards him.

Alex Lacamoire: [laughs] That's [crosstalk]

Annaleigh: [singing] You're warming my hands. Last night I did have to go. Alex was like, "It's hand, babe." I go, "Oh, I know. One more. Let me try it again." Last night, I had to put my one hand up. You're warming my hand, because it's hand. It's not hands.

[laughter]

Alison Stewart: I love it.

Annaleigh Ashford: Also what I said about listen to By the Sea with yearning, when we were working on the score in the early days, those are the conversations we had. What does she want in the song? Alex will say, "I can hear you needing something," or "There's a cry in this one note that helps us understand with the score and the orchestration, what we need in this-- and that for me, it's such an extension of working with Steve six years ago. Alex's vocabulary, his heart, his pathos, it's all an extension of what Steve, I think, if he was with us right now, would've held and wanted. He would be so pleased with Alex's work. I always just feel that in my heart.

Alison Stewart: My guests are Annaleigh Ashford and Alex Lacamoire. We're talking about Sweeney Todd. We will have more with them after a quick break. This is All Of It.

[music]

This is All Of It on WNYC. I'm Alison Stewart. My guest this hour are Annaleigh Ashford. She plays Mrs. Lovett in Sweeney Todd, and Alex Lacamoire who is the music supervisor and the conductor of Sweeney Todd, which is nominated for 8 Tony Awards. Something that I don't know if you both know because you're backstage. The line to get into the theater is so long. You're just walking. You're walking. I was with my friend. I'm like, "It's not ending. All right. We're going, we're going," and it just goes all the way down and around the corner and people are very excited, some people are in costume. There's a little bit of cosplay going on the day I went. I had forgotten how huge that theater was. The reason the line was so long is that theater is really, really big. Alex, how did that impact what you wanted to do, the sound, how you thought about the sound, just the size of that theater.

Alex Lacamoire: The good news is that we have a fantastic sound designer, Nevin Steinberg. One of the things we've learned about the sound in this theater and on this show, number one, all the musicians fit in the pit, which is a blessing. For folks who don't know, it's common for pits to not be large enough to hold everybody. Sometimes you put the drum set on the fifth floor in some random dressing room and pipe everything in with headphones and microphones and video cameras.

Even on Wicked, the harp is on the second floor, not in the pit. In Sweeney Todd, our production, everybody fits in the pit. By virtue of that, there's so much energy coming out of this open pit. The pit is open because one of the things we want to celebrate in our production is seeing all these musicians, these 26 musicians making this music. I say this because Nevin Steinberg, our sound designer, his big wish was to just get as much out of the way as possible so that the orchestra could mix themselves, they could perform the music with color, and with all the emotion that it needs. Just not make it feel overblown. There's something about this show that is acoustic in its nature.

There's not a piano in the orchestration. There's not a traditional drum kit. The bass is not electric. The show thrives on this very beautiful, lush sound. Regardless of the size of the theater, we just wanted to celebrate that sound, that acoustic sound. Fortunately, Nevin found a way to amplify this group, to fill this large space, but in a way that still feels intimate, that still feels real and honest and acoustic. That was our goal all along.

Alison Stewart: Please get t-shirts that say, "Everyone fits in the pit."

[laughter]

Alex Lacamoire: I love it.

Alison Stewart: So great. Annaleigh, what is the difference with playing with an orchestra of this size, with everybody in the pit as compared to other shows you've been in?

Annaleigh Ashford: It raises the stakes in a way that goes beyond words. You just feel it in your soul. Music moves us in a way that nothing else can. I'm always reminded that when people are starting to lose their memory, if they played an instrument or they sang, they can sit down and play and they can sing. That's just a reminder that it's a tuning fork to our soul.

To have an orchestra of this size and scope underneath you every day, feeling them and hearing them, like Alex was saying, it's very acoustic. There's certain instruments that I look out for, for certain songs to connect with. There's certain parts of the stage where I can hear certain instruments better than others. Every night I'm off stage at the very end of Joanna, right before I walk on.

It's one of those pinch-me moments every night where I just, ugh, take a breath and say, "Thank you, God, for this beautiful blessing of hearing this glorious score with this glorious orchestra every night." It's something that I think we've really made clear to audiences, but we can't remind them enough of how special this piece of our puzzle is.

Alison Stewart: Let's listen to another song from the show, My Friends, we're going to start about midway through the song, and Mrs. Lovett joins in. Let's take a listen, and we can talk about it on the other side. This is from Sweeney Todd.

[MUSIC - Stephen Sondheim: My Friends - from the musical play, Sweeny Todd: the Demon Barber of Fleet Street.]

[Todd, Mrs. Lovett]

You there, my friend

Come, let me hold you I'm your friend too, Mr. Todd

If you only knew, Mr. Todd—

Now, with a sigh Ooh, Mr. Todd

You grow warm You're warm

In my hand In my hand

My friend You've come home

My clever friend Always had a fondness for you

I did

Rest now, my friends

Soon I'll unfold you Never you fear, Mr. Todd

Soon you'll know splendors You can move in here, Mr. Todd

You have never dreamed Splendors you never have dreamed

All your days All your days

My lucky friends Will be yours

Till now your shine I'm your friend, and you're mine!

Was merely silver Don't they shine beautiful?

Friends Silver's good enough for me

You shall drip rubies

Alison Stewart: Alex, are you a conductor who makes eye contact with your actors?

Alex Lacamoire: Well, if they were looking at me directly, it would break the story. That being said, like there are moments every now and then we able to like throw a wink at each other because we're acknowledging something fun that happened, or a little mistake that we might have made along the way.

Alison Stewart: You're watching them though.

Alex Lacamoire: I am watching them. I'm watching the way they breathe. I'm also listening as well. There are times that I rely on my ears sometimes more than my eyes, but yes, I look to how they are performing, how they are breathing, how they are moving through to know where they want to place things. There might be times when they want to goose the temple a little bit.

It's a two-show day, and we're not feeling like we have our tank of gas that's full, if we might. I look to those cues for them to signal with their voices how they're performing, what they'd like me to do. It truly is accompanying. In that way, I really feel like I'm at the piano, which is my happy place because when I'm playing with the piano, I can just follow them and just be where they need to be. Truly now I'm accompanying still at the piano. It's just the pianos now, a 26-piece orchestra on Broadway.

Alison Stewart: Annaleigh, as an actor, what is your relationship with your conductor?

Annaleigh Ashford: Oh, he's another character in the scene for me. Just the way that the audience is another character in the scene for me. He's a scene partner. I said earlier it feels like breathing with somebody, and I feel like Alex and I just breathe together, the same way that Josh and I breathe together. There's this beautiful, yes, and give and take jazz about it all.

There are times where I tell him a lot, "Hey, I will follow you, follow you wherever you may go because that's really how I feel." I'll follow him to the end of the earth. Wherever he takes me, I'll follow that baton. Yes, it's a special relationship you have with your conductor because there's just so much trust on both sides.

Alison Stewart: I'm going to be completely cheesy and follow up on the word breathe. A couple of shows canceled last night, Hamilton and Camelot, because of the air quality. Jodie Comer had to leave the stage from Prima Facie because she couldn't go forward. How are you handling it, Annaleigh? How is your voice? What are you doing to take care of yourself?

Annaleigh Ashford: Thank you for asking. Yes, it's been a really challenging I'd say 24 hours. Also challenging as a leader of a [inaudible 00:27:42].

Alison Stewart: Oh, challenge-

Annaleigh Ashford: Producers also feel challenged. Unfortunately, I feel like I'm going to be completely honest, I don't feel like there was enough clear communication from all of our unions in terms of work conditions and work environments. I think that's something we all learned about COVID moving forward. We need to be exploring every possible option of safety, and what does that mean for everybody, and I think the city's figuring it out.

I walked up to the crews and dressers yesterday, and asked them how they were feeling, and everybody said, "We're doing okay, but we don't have to phonate. We don't have to sing." That was really kind. I felt really blessed and felt such the family of the theater coming together.

We as a company felt like we could do the show last night, so we did it without fog, which changed the look of the show but we were really grateful to have that be a way to navigate the space. We stayed on the lower levels of the building, and the producers took care of everybody's car rides home last night, which was really lovely.

Really it was a group effort of the producers, the company. Every single person that works in the building, from the orchestra to the crew to the front of house, to security being like, "Okay, how do we get through this together?" It's extremely challenging to sing during an allergy season and then you add on this level of pollutant. We don't smoke cigarettes when we sing most of us for a reason. It's like going out and smoking. Thank you for asking. Just lots of water and prayers and neti pots.

Alison Stewart: [chuckles] Neti pots. Yes, it's interesting, I love when people from theater would come into the studio, and it's always just a little extra texture. Alex, you've been here before, but I completely understand when people say, "Oh, we want to do it for Zoom, because if Annaleigh, if you and Josh get sick or are exposed to something, then it's a ripple effect. There's everybody in the cast, there's everybody in the crew. We have to be careful, and give each other grace, I think during this time.

Annaleigh Ashford: Amen. Last night, at the end of our meeting and deciding to how we were going to move forward and press forward for the evening, I just looked at everybody and said, "These are the moments when we really come together as a family, because that's where we are in that building. We are family creating this piece of art for people to come and view every night."

Alison Stewart: Alex, I do want to ask you about, there's been a lot of conversations. We've been talking about this great orchestra. Some shows are saying they're not going to use orchestras, they're going to use tracks, and that's going to be a whole big union issue. How do you think about that balance between the direction that musicals are headed and the fact that musicians need to be employed. When you're having those conversations with your friends, what are you talking about?

Alex Lacamoire: Yes, my take is the following. At the end of the day, I believe the show, the piece of art, the musical that you're trying to put on is what's going to dictate what you need in your pit. I've talked to people about this. Hamilton has 10 musicians. That show did not need 26. There was even a point after off Broadway where it was asked of me, "Hey, do you think we need to add musicians?" I went through the score, and I thought about it, and I'm like, "Well, we could add French horn here. Well, maybe we could have an oboe here." At the end of the day, when I totaled it up, those extra instruments above the 10 would've been playing for like 15% of the show. That does not make sense to me. Hamilton is a hip-hop show. That's what drives it, that's what it need.

I believe certain shows, yes, the size of orchestras are shrinking, I believe because the music dictates that that's what it needs to be. Now, I do take issue with certain shows that try to put a big sound and try to get by with a smaller orchestra when it really does need a larger sound, a larger body of musicians underneath that. That gets a little tricky. Me personally, I'm not a big fan of when I orchestrate my own shows, I don't love to put strings on synthesizers to try to make the strings section sound bigger than it is. The only time I did that was in a show I did call Bring It On, where we wanted the sound of synthetic strings. That was, again, dictated by the sound of music as it was a cheer show. Cheer music tends to be very electronic and very computer-based.

I think at the end of the day, you have to listen to what the music is wanting it to be. I understand that in shows there's a question of economics. It's still a business, so you try to find that happy medium. At the end of the day, if the show has a big scope to it, like Sweeney does or like Camelot does, then by all means, yes, you use a large orchestra. That's how those things were envisioned, I think. I feel like if a show needs a small orchestra, and that feels right to the music, then have at it. That's what it should be.

Alison Stewart: Sweeney Todd is now on Broadway that's nominated for 8 Tony Awards. I've been speaking with actor Annaleigh Ashford. She plays Mrs. Lovett, and Alex Lacamoire, he's the music supervisor and conductor. Take care of yourselves.

Alex Lacamoire: Likewise.

Alison Stewart: Thanks for being with us.

Annaleigh Ashford: Thank you so much. Thank you.

 

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