Michael Arden

In high school, you played the role of the club pianist and understudied the show's lead character, Franklin Shepard, in a production of Merrily We Roll Along.

That's pretty risky for a high school play.

Well, it was Interlochen Arts Academy.

So it wasn't just like, you know, your average public school production.

But yeah, looking back, I mean, to do Merrily in high school.

And coincidentally, I understudied Benjamin Walker.

And I got to later direct that show at the Wallace Annenberg in L.A.

And I certainly took a lot of my inspiration from that high school production.

I mean, that show is amazing because it's like about young people.

So I hope I get to do it again so I get to like do it, revisit it at another point in my life.

Yeah, I'd love to see you do that show.

I saw it recently when it was on Broadway and I hadn't seen it before.

And I had read a lot about the fact that it was one of Sondheim's sort of technical failures at the beginning.

You know, that it wasn't something that people were seeing.

They didn't realize the brilliance.

Yeah.

I just was absolutely mesmerized by that.

Oh, it's amazing piece of writing.

But when I read that you did it in high school, I'm like, what?

It took like decades for it to get back to Broadway and you did it in high school.