0:00
This is the first time it has ever been staged. This is the first time it has ever been done in front of a large audience, such as you very savvy, wonderful people, and we're delighted to share it with you. I've been hoping to work it out to be seen here in our development of reading series for a long time that's finally worked out
0:18
And it's exactly that it's a development reading of a piece that is on its way to a future. We're delighted to share with you
0:29
here it is called my Puttnaces. His wife was a little boy who didn't fit in
0:37
His parents took him to the circus, but he was bored. All those smelly animals, what's the point
0:44
But then on a trip to New York, his father took him to see the brand new movie version
0:49
of the King and I at the Roxy Theater. The little boy baked to see it a second time
0:56
and they did. Later that summer the little boy parents took him to see a very different king and I This one performed in a large theater tent with live actors
1:10
The little boy loved the fact that at the end of the show, after the king died
1:15
his majesty came back to life, acknowledged the audience as applaud and bowed to the audience
1:22
This was the first time the little boy had seen a curtain call
1:26
Josh, Josh, we're having dinner tonight with Ethel. Would you like to join us
1:31
Dinner with Ethel Merman? It is 1973. And I have just gotten my first job in New York theater
1:39
I'm an apprentice, Broadway press agent. We are definitely at the best table at the top of the sixes
1:46
the plush penthouse restaurant, on Fifth Avenue and 53rd Street. People around us are aware of a celebrity in their nets
1:56
At our table, conversation is a bit strange. You see Ethel Merman talks to her granddaughter like she being interviewed by 60 minutes These days everyone has press agents The Kardashians have press agents Every major sports figure has a press agent
2:16
Even Pope Francis has a press agent. But he has given a very fanciful title
2:22
President of the Pontifical Council for Social Communications. But call it what you will, he is still a press agent
2:31
After getting my master's degree in theater, I come to New York and get on-the-job training in public relations at Broadway University
2:43
Now, Broadway University is not a real place, but as how I have come to take of my education on the Great White Way
2:52
I take a course in the fine art of being interviewed taught by a practitioner without people
3:01
Professor Carol Chaney. No one gives better interviews or appears to lavish more love on a member of the press than Carol Channie But behind all that love and charm is a mastermind that plays every single aspect of publicity In the front of the room with photographer
3:22
snapping and TV video crew shooting, David Merrick is introducing the actress who's playing
3:29
the role of Naples. Unfortunately, the day before rehearsals, David Merrick fires the actress
3:37
We'll call her Mabel number one and hires Mabel number two without informing his press case
3:46
So as David Marek, he could be with Mabel number two, I am typically handing out press releases
3:52
on which the name of Mabel number one appears. But it really doesn't matter who Mabel number one
3:59
or Mabel number two are. Because three weeks into rehearsal, David Merrick fires Mabel number two
4:05
and I is label number three. So if the equal score, that is, three maples in three weeks
4:12
No wonder the show gets the nickname Matt and Maygate
