Cinco Paul

Yes, exactly.

That's from Carousel, yeah.

Yeah, I mean, to me, there is a trope in these musicals.

Often there's a song called Something Wonderful from King and I and another song from Carousel called What's the Use of Wondering?

You know, these women who sing songs where, you know, he has maybe these flaws, but I still love him.

you know, and so I wanted to play with that.

But this is a song where she has no clue that her husband is gay, but everything that is evidence that he's gay, she sees as a really positive quality.

Like he doesn't look at other women.

You know, and for her, it's all these really positive qualities, but also really in many ways, the mayor's story is at the heart of the show because he is one of these characters that back in the day could only be queer coded, you know, but because we have modern characters in Schmigadoo now and Cecily's character really likes to get involved in people's lives, she helps push him to,

proclaim to the whole town who he really is.

And Alan does such an amazing job with this character and really gives him depth and heart in a way that elevates it even beyond what I'd hoped he'd bring.

Yeah, I mean, that was the intention.

I never wanted the songs to be too jokey, if that makes sense.

You know, I really wanted them like, oh, that could genuinely have been a song sung in an undiscovered Rodgers and Hammerstein environment.

musical and and then it ends in a very you know and does an amazing job with a song and it ends in a really sweet spot right where she sort of wishes he could be who he really is she suspects that he's not being his true self she doesn't know what that actually means but she really wishes the best for him and loves him

I grew up in Phoenix, Arizona, so I didn't see a lot of shows live, but my mom really loved musicals and she had cast recordings for, I specifically remember Camelot, you know, loving as a pretty young kid and listening to it.

I was a weird kid, you know, singing, I wonder what the king is doing tonight in my room, memorizing.

the lyrics, but I remember, you know, Camelot and South Pacific and Guys and Dolls and hearing those a lot.

And so that's really, that's where my love affair with musicals began.

But also I remember seeing Singing in the Rain for the first time as a kid and