Andy's Play with Ed Helms

I used to have this idea of what home security was.

I thought it was like an alarm that goes off after someone tries to break in and that scares off the intruder.

Maybe it gets your neighbor's attention.

But what I learned is that's really a reactive approach.

By the time the intruder's in your home, it's too late.

And you know, that's one of the things I really love about Simply Safe because their system is designed to be proactive, not reactive.

And here are ways that they are proactive.

They use smart, AI-powered cameras to identify threats lurking outside your home and immediately alert SimplySafe's professional monitoring agents.

You also might be wondering, how do I design my home security system?

And I can tell you from personal experience, their website is so easy to use.

They literally have a toggle that says build my system.

And you click on it and you go through all the different features that they offer.

And there are so many.

I've found that really helpful.

Some of the cameras they offer are like the outdoor cameras, the video doorbell pro,

which that one I really like because you can see who's coming right up to your front door.

Visit simplysafe.com slash office ladies to claim 50% off a new system.

That's simplysafe.com slash office ladies.

There's no safe like simply safe.

Having people in your corner to help you makes all the difference.

And with State Farm, you can feel good knowing that whether you need coverage for your car, your home, or even boats, motorcycles, and RVs, you can choose the right amount of coverage for you.

With State Farm, an agent can help you along the way.

And if things get complicated and you have questions, you've got options too.

Go online at statefarm.com or use the award-winning app to get help from one of their local agents.

You know, this is going to age me a little bit here, but when I got my first car, My dad got me State Farm car insurance and there was no online and there was no award-winning app.

And I have to think my dad would be so happy that that was more streamlined now because it really is so helpful, especially the app.

It's right on your phone.

Talk to your agent to help you choose the coverage you need.

Have coverage options to help protect the things you value most?

File a claim right on the State Farm mobile app.

Reach a real person when you need to talk to someone.

Like a good neighbor, State Farm is there.

I'm Jenna Fisher.

And And I'm Angela Kinsey.

We were on The Office together.

And we're best friends.

And now we're doing the Ultimate Office Rewatch Podcast just for you.

Each week, we will break down an episode of The Office and give exclusive behind-the-scenes stories that only two people who were there can tell you.

We're the office ladies.

Hello.

Hi there.

Okay, hi.

It's Ed.

Hi.

Surprised, you guys.

We have Ed Helms here today, and we will be talking about Andy's play.

I didn't know if I was supposed to talk right away or if you were going to introduce me or that, but then you both looked at me.

We just stared at you until you spoke.

Okay, so yeah, I'm talking.

Now I'm talking.

I'm here.

Well, this is season seven, episode three.

It was written by Charlie Grandi, directed by John Scott.

Would you like a summary?

I mean, I would love to know more.

Ed, what do you think about a summary?

I love summary.

I love a summary.

Here it is.

Andy invites his co-workers to watch him in a community theater production of Sweeney Todd, which Michael is upset to learn he was not cast in.

The entire office attends, except for Erin, who steps in at the last minute to babysit for Cece.

And Angela is going to get another punch on her punch card from Dwight, but not for the reason you might think.

There it is.

What do we think?

I thought that was a fantastic summary.

It's actually, yeah, I re-watched the episode

in preparation for this, and that summary is spot on.

Oh,

thank you.

Yeah.

I wrote it myself.

I also thought maybe we want a quick summary of Sweeney Todd, the production that Andy is starring in, to give some context.

What do you guys think?

I want to hear it.

I went down the Wikipedia rabbit hole about Sweeney Todd, and wow.

Oh.

Well, I hope I cover it.

If I don't, will you let me know?

Maybe.

Oh, no.

I didn't commit any of it to memory.

There's just a lot of versions.

I don't remember.

I don't know anything about it.

So I won't know if, I mean, I know what is in the episode, basically, but I don't know the musical.

And I know the premise, but I don't know the story.

So anything you say is going to be fine with me.

All right.

Well, here we go.

Sweeney Todd, The Demon Barber of Fleet Street, is a real musical that first opened on Broadway in 1979.

The music and lyrics are by Stephen Sondheim, and the book is by Hugh Wheeler.

The character of Sweeney Todd, a murderous barber who goes around killing people, it originated in Victorian serialized fiction known as the Penny Dreadfuls.

Yes, I saw that on Wikipedia.

I have one little beef with your summary, actually.

Are you done?

You're not done.

I have a little more to say.

Okay, go for it.

Okay.

Sorry.

No.

Already one beef I've earned.

All right.

The musical was based on a play by Christopher Bond, where he introduced a psychological backstory for Todd's crimes.

And Steven Sondheim had seen this play, and that inspired him to write the musical.

Over 80% of Sweeney Todd is set to music, either through singing or an underscore to dialogue.

And the musical won both the Tony and the Olivier Award for Best New Musical when it came out.

When was that that it came out?

1979.

What's your beef ed.

Okay, so you said that he goes around killing people.

He actually is a barber and he murders people in his barbershop.

So really

people come around to be murdered.

Exactly.

Yes.

That would have been more accurate.

He doesn't go around murdering.

People come around to get murdered.

More accurate.

They come around for a haircut.

They come around for a haircut.

Then he kills them with the straight razor.

Right.

And then he opens the chair.

He has a lever and they go flying down into the basement.

And then he has a friend who...

turns their bodies into meat for really bad men's pies.

Aren't they really yummy?

Oh, yeah.

Sorry.

She has a song at the beginning that she has really bad pies.

Oh.

When the pies are people, then they're good.

Yeah, then people can't get enough of the pies.

Oh, my God.

I did not realize this part of the story.

Oh, yeah.

Oh, yeah.

There's a whole cannibalism.

I mean, it's like accidental cannibalism.

They sell them as mince pies.

Yeah.

But they're people.

It's like soil and cream.

It's people.

Yeah.

It's people.

Come on, people.

Yeah.

People pies.

People pies.

Wow.

The musical could have been called people pies.

It should have been.

It should have been, really.

I'm going to, yeah, we've got to write Steven Sondheim a letter.

Kidding out my old Temi type of it.

Well, Ed, we can't wait to talk to you about this episode and your experience.

We thought we'd start by asking you, do you have any musical theater background?

Have you ever been in musicals like in high school?

Well, yeah.

So I was in some musical

theater productions in high school.

And then I was in, let's see, I was in Joseph in the Amazing Technical or Dreamcoat.

Okay.

Oh, Jenna and I both have one we're wondering if you were in.

Keep going.

And gosh, I'm drawing a blind.

Oh, I was in Into the Woods, another Sondheim.

Oh, yes, Into the Woods.

Another Sondheim masterpiece.

And that was all high school.

And then when I was in college, I did, I was in a musical called The Cradle Will Rock, which is a really cool,

like a, during the Great Depression, it was written as like a sort of pro-worker.

Anyway, it's a cool piece.

And that's what I did in college.

And then I think that's it.

Wow.

No guys and dolls, Jenna.

We really were positively feeling like that'd be a good role for

Nathan Detroit.

Yeah.

Sure.

Yeah, guys.

Sit down.

Sit down.

Sit down.

Yeah.

Okay.

I don't, I'm not that.

I don't know guys and dolls.

And I wasn't in it, but I wish I was because then we'd have a lot more to talk about.

Did you do musical theater, Angela?

Oh, I mean, I was in the music man at my school in Indonesia.

Awesome.

I played Amaryllis, and we thought it was really funny.

We would give everyone a nickname based off their character name.

So everyone called me, I'm a real ass.

Oh.

Yeah.

So

your life has just been a series of nicknames.

People love nicknaming you.

Hambone,

I'm a real ass.

That was my big musical theater debut, but I actually get really anxious singing in front of of people.

I can be on stage doing, you know, zany comedy skits and things like that, but to sing in front of people makes me so anxious.

So I opted then to go into the more serious theater production.

Of course.

I see.

What about you?

Yeah.

I did in high school.

I'm not a strong singer, so I was in the dance chorus.

I've heard you sing.

I think you have a great voice.

Thank you for saying that.

I'm really self-conscious about it.

Well,

I think, anyway, I think have a great voice.

So you danced, you were in the chorus?

I did the dancing chorus.

And then my senior year, I got the lead dance role in Fiddler on the Roof.

I was the fiddler.

Wow.

To which I say, without me, it was just called the roof.

Wow.

Right.

You really, it's an important role.

I had no lines and didn't sing, but I danced my heart out and I pretended to fiddle.

Yeah.

That's awesome.

I just remembered another one that I was in.

What?

Godspell.

Oh, I was in Godspell in college.

Yay.

I should say.

Yeah.

And then, oh, and in college, I was in.

It's all dancing.

Bob Fossey.

Oh,

Chorus Line?

No.

The one.

Nice job, us just pulling out some Fossella.

Liza Minelli.

Cabaret.

That's it.

Thank you, Devon.

Thank you, Devin.

I was going to say Arthur.

No.

Yes.

And also in college, I was in Cabaret and I got to choreograph that.

So very like dance forward musicals are my thing.

I'm very impressed.

Thank you.

Okay, so we are here to talk about Andy performing Sweeney Todd.

Randy Cordre, we talk to Randy Cordre all the time.

He's amazing.

He told us the writers originally pitched the storyline over the summer between season six and seven.

How did you first hear about it?

Did they come to you and say, hey, Ed, we want to do a full musical.

You're going to sing a bunch.

Like, did you have any input?

I don't recall.

knowing anything about it before the table read.

I'm shocked and also not shocked.

Yeah, I mean, we were so so buried in whatever episode we were working on.

It's not like there was a lot of extra time.

But now that you mention it, I'm sure that I must have started rehearsing before,

like at least the week before.

Yeah, because that's hard music.

Sondheim is like crazy hard music.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Randy told us.

That on his schedule, he went back and looked in his files.

The only day that you guys had to rehearse all together as a cast was like the monday morning for half a day yeah at the theater and then we all came and started shooting the episode yeah does that sound right that does sound right but if you you know if you're paying attention to the episode there's not that much of the play that you see you know like it's not a ton of production time so I think we really only rehearsed a couple of things.

The much more complicated thing was the cold open.

Yeah.

Oh, yeah.

And that, because that was a whole song that we all learned.

And then there was choreography.

It looks in the execution, it looks spontaneous, like we're just running around the space, but obviously it was all meticulously blocked.

And all of the

fun, dramatic flourishes that everybody is doing in that scene, that I remember being quite complicated.

And having, and learning that song was, was very hard because, again, Sondheim, he doesn't like to write melodies that you expect.

Everything kind of goes in weird directions, and the rhythms are weird.

It's like the, that ends with like

the cadences like the demon barber of fleet street or something like that.

It's like a straight, you know, like a weird hiccupy thing and everyone had to get it right.

But yeah, there was, you were just saying earlier how you are nervous to sing in front of people.

And I love to sing, obviously, anyone who knows me, I love to sing, but I actually struggle with lyrics.

And so I really have a hard time memorizing lyrics.

And that can then make me really anxious in a performance setting or like, you know, if I have to, you know, like there were a few times I had to sing like long songs on the office and I, it just, yeah, it puts me in a panic state.

So that one, that cold open was really hard, but I don't know.

It was enough rehearsal time.

Were you singing live when you guys did that?

Or were you singing to like a playback recording?

It seems live.

it is.

It's all live.

That's my memory.

And even the stuff in the theater is live.

I thought so.

Yeah, that was my memory, too.

Yeah.

Oh, the

boom box is fake.

Like, there was, you know, obviously that was

play on the boom box.

And then, but, but I think they had a, they had a guide track sort of pumped in under the desks or something

that we sang along to.

But yeah, that was all real singing.

I remember the first take we did of that cold open when you guys came in.

We did not know anything.

We had not seen you rehearse.

Yeah.

It was a complete surprise.

I found it so delightful and amazing.

It was also my first time seeing all of the costumes, which were so well done.

Yeah.

And it was good.

You guys were good.

And I didn't know if it would be good or bad.

And I heard that you actually fought for the production of Sweeney Todd to be good and not bad.

I did.

Yeah.

I was very passionate about that because I don't think that

I rare, I mean, there are exceptions, but I generally don't think that like intentionally bad performance for comedy works.

It feels like cheap and easy.

And so I thought like my take on it was, and I was very happy that

everyone in production agreed that,

but there was a lot of discussion about it.

This is obviously an amateur production.

It's a little regional theater production in Scranton, Pennsylvania.

But there's no reason that

people in Scranton, Pennsylvania aren't like passionate about musical theater and extremely talented and coming from all walks of life and just really eager to do this.

And that maybe there's a really great director in the town who did a great job casting this thing.

And then when we made the decision to sort of commit to a really good production, that then also cascaded down into like, okay, so the costumes are really well done and the sets are going to look good.

And, you know, Andy has a big fumble with his cell phone in the production, which is kind of like that's the mess up.

But it's Andy messing up.

It's not like, it's not, it's not these, these like, you know, supporting actors who are, who came in to like, you know, really sing and perform for us.

They're not the butt of the joke.

Right.

They're, they're part of the fabric of this.

the premise of this episode.

And I was excited to honor them and honor that and honor, honor regional theater in that way.

I love that.

Cause I, I mean, I've been to great regional theater and we've all like supported like smaller theaters and came up and doing theater.

And I thought that was a great choice.

I'm glad you fought for it.

Yeah.

It made it so much more fun too.

Cause, yeah.

I think it also played into Michael's jealousy.

Like he had to sit through a great production that he wasn't a part of.

Right.

That Daryl's plumber was crushing it.

Yeah.

You know, because you can be a plumber and still kick ass in a musical theater.

That's right.

Yeah.

My favorite thing when Andy's phone went off was the fact that you

ruined the whole plot.

Oh my God.

Like it wasn't so much that the phone was ringing, it's that how Andy tried to justify it and he was ruined the rest of the planet.

Well, it's so great because the Sweeney Todd guy gets a huge laugh with like his improv about the bird shit.

Yeah, the little fix.

And then Andy just overcompensates as he always does and like goes way too far.

Yeah.

He has to has to pull it back.

I loved it.

Yeah.

It was really actually fun.

I have to say, like, you know, as a fan of musical theater

and then just sort of singing production stuff, like it was really, those parts of the office where Andy got to sing and do stuff like that was so fun.

You know, when he serenaded Angela and John Michael Higgins came on board to like put that whole a cappella thing together.

Man, it just like, it's really fun to put that,

you're sort of putting all that work in on the side or you're rehearsing in your trailer, getting everything kind of like, you know, you want it to be good and you want it to be tight.

And then you get to perform it for the cast and do it.

There was the closing time bar song.

Yeah, there are just a lot of great musical moments throughout the show.

You have one of my favorite lines in this episode, Jenna, which was when you guys check in with Ellie on the phone and you're like, yeah, no, it's great to see Andy singing in the right context or something like that.

I forget what the line is, but like, no, that is it.

It's so perfect because it is, that is, it actually, I agreed re-watching the episode, I was, you know, I thought it was, it was nice to see Andy singing in this context.

It's usually so intrusive and so like, you know, and that's part of the, why it's funny sometimes, but, but in this context, it actually was kind of, it was nice.

And,

it was part of something that was supposed to be that way.

And it really, it gave Andy, I think, a sort of authenticity in this episode that he really struggles with in most of the Dunder Mifflin universe.

Well, I loved the ending of this episode.

I think I re-watched it.

I don't know, three or four times.

It made me happy.

It made my heart happy.

And Daryl is playing Macy Gray's I Try on the piano, and Andy is just belting it out.

And you have this montage of all this group of people and where they're at in life and dealing with whatever it is they're dealing.

But you're singing Ed in that moment as Andy is like, it's like you're halftime at the Super Bowl, man.

You're just like everything, your whole body is into it.

And it made me so happy.

I just love that moment.

Randy told us that the original song for the end was My Heart Will Go On, the Titanic song.

That rings a bell.

Yeah.

He said you even even had to go into a studio and record it.

And he has like the only recording.

What?

That

of you.

We haven't heard it, but he said there is this impassioned version of you singing, My Heart Will Go On.

And then they couldn't get the rights to it.

And they had to change it.

I vaguely remember that, but I don't remember recording it or, but man, I want to hear that.

I know it for you from Randy.

Yeah.

He has a vault of pretty amazing things.

Is there any moment from this episode for you that like stood out for Andy as like one of your favorite moments?

I think there's a lot of really cool stuff in this episode.

The cold open is just so fun.

That's a really special,

special thing.

And it's Andy kind of like

it's a rare moment of Andy just living in his skin with so much passion and self-confidence, you know?

And that's really, really cool.

I think the, um i was proud of how the it's it's very short but the musical

um the solo joanna joanna yeah yeah um i i put a lot of work into that and um was really proud of how that turned out narratively the aaron stuff is is really poignant i i i thought that was really sweet you know aaron is just so detached.

So like, but it's, but she's clearly tapping into some longing for Andy by showing up and then,

and then him kind of getting it at the end and just being like, this, yeah, this is not, not good.

Yeah.

I loved Andy's earnestness when Aaron had to take the babysitting job when he's like, I get it.

It's a huge opportunity.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Oh my gosh.

He's checking his phone backstage.

One of the most brilliant.

Okay.

So this is actually funny because I was saying how I generally think that performing badly is a cheap joke.

Like, if it's if you're performing, you know, in a performance context and you're doing it badly on purpose, I don't like that usually, but the tag of this episode

of Michael Scott doing

law and order an entire episode

as a monologue.

So badly, it's so funny.

Like, I watched that four or five times.

It's just, it's priceless.

But how many people could do that and sell it, but Steve?

You know, because that I believed it.

I believed every second that that's how Michael Scott would have done it.

100%.

And, you know, Steve almost never broke.

On, I mean, he very rarely broke.

Right.

And I was watching that being like, he had to be cracking himself up.

Like, this was, there were, I guarantee you, there were a few times he broke.

You know, when he was slinging what, I don't know, what is it, a belt or a sash or something as the lady?

Yeah.

I know he broke doing that.

I know he, he had to have cracked himself up.

Or singing the theme song like.

Just, oh my God.

I know.

Priceless.

Do you guys, I'm curious, like

we made so many office episodes and

it's really funny to me the way fans

understand the episodes as these like very tight, coherent stories.

Whereas I find that from our perspective as the actors,

in looking at these stories from a production standpoint, it takes us a week to shoot a half-hour episode.

And then we go right into the next week of another episode.

And when you look back on it, it's just kind of this wash of work, right?

And I don't, for me, it's very hard to kind of remember the specifics of episodes and the specifics of like what was in what episode.

and i mean you guys have been really kind of studying them so it it's probably more front of mind for you but um

but i i am i'm i found this going back and watching this episode like it did trigger a lot of memories but it also was a little frustrating kind of realizing that what I don't remember.

And there's certain scenes, I don't know if you have this experience watching episodes of The Office.

All the time.

Where you're like, I don't remember shooting that.

I don't remember.

I don't even remember that day or what was going on.

And sometimes it's because you have some crazy thing going on in your life, or, but more often, I think it's just because you just don't remember every day at work.

And I got a little heart sick kind of watching.

There were some parts of this episode where I was like, oh, boy, I wish I remembered like.

just

you know that that that scene where we're all around the piano together yeah it's one of those rare scenes where almost everybody is like in a clump and it's with positive energy, right?

Usually, it's usually it's like, you know, a meeting in the conference room.

Yeah.

It's all crazy.

But like to have a moment where, where everyone's kind of in a good place and happy, it just, I remember watching that and thinking like, this is, this is so special.

Like, I love these people.

I love these human beings.

And it made me a little bit heartsick for the things I don't remember.

You're literally, your character has the line at the end where you say in the finale, you wish that you knew you were in the good times when you were in them.

Like that's literally what you're saying.

So true, yeah.

But it is true, though, because you work every day and some days stand out and some days don't.

It doesn't matter what your job is and acting is no different.

But sometimes I don't know the show the way people know it when they can just sit down and watch it all the way through.

Right.

And we cross-boarded episodes.

Sometimes we shot

three days in one episode and two days in another episode.

And it kind of becomes like when your kids mix all the Play-Doh together, you know, and you get that one big Play-Doh mound.

I don't know.

That's not very articulate.

I liked that metaphor.

I do too.

I feel like every conference room scene is one memory in my head.

So many of these episodes I hadn't seen since we filmed them.

Crazy.

But I'm so thankful.

Like a wonderful thing that we have.

Amen.

Yeah.

And when I do catch an episode here and there, it is like just hanging out with old friends.

Yeah.

It's just awesome.

I don't think I ever lost the feeling of excitement walking onto set about what was going to happen.

Like, what are these hilarious, wonderful people going to do to surprise me today?

And I, I can, and like you were saying, conference room scenes, like all of us getting in there, just being like this, something funny's going to happen.

Like, somebody's going to do something.

We all have the script.

We know what we're going to say, but it's still like, I can't wait to see how bj does this line or i can't wait to see how oscar does this line and then you know take after take it's just so warm and funny and there are of course times that you get run down and you get tired and cranky but i always

always would walk into that soundstage like feeling excited and real and remembering back i mean years how many years I worked on the show less than you guys, but seven years.

Almost as long.

Yeah, seven years.

And it that just always walking on that stage was

so, like, just

so fun.

And like,

what's going to happen?

Well, Ed, before we let you go, can you tell us a little bit about your music?

Are you performing anywhere with your banjo?

Are you still doing the bluegrass situation?

Yeah, so thebluegrass situation.com is still very much alive and well.

And that's just kind of a roots and folk bluegrass music

kind of community, news, blog, hub.

And that's great.

I have pulled back from performing a lot in the last couple of years.

I had kids and I'm just kind of

focused elsewhere, but I still play all the time, especially for my kids because they're a captive audience and they can't walk away.

And I'm eager to start getting back out there.

Yeah,

I've been playing a lot and I'm starting to kind of get more serious about practicing and

rehearsing, but there's not much going on in the professional space at this point.

Except Rutherford Falls.

Oh, yeah.

Season two is out now on TikTok.

Yes, indeed.

Rutherford Falls season two.

Very, very proud of this show, which I co-created with

an amazing showrunner, Sierra Teller-Ornelis, and Michael Scherr,

who Office fans know well.

That's going on.

We love it.

We love it.

And I want to say two things to you.

Banjo kids album.

Right.

That has crossed my mind.

I've been writing a lot of music lately.

I think I'm going to, I just, I think.

I would have loved that when Isabel was little because, you know, I don't know.

I had all the same songs that everyone had had forever.

And anytime there was a new kids song that had any kind of a fun tune, oh my gosh, I got so excited.

All right.

That might be the push I needed to get it done.

Okay.

All right, Ed.

We love you so much.

Thank you so much for coming.

Thank you for coming in the studio.

Yes, Ed is in here, you guys.

He's sitting next to us.

This is the table.

Yes.

He's next here.

Thanks so much for having me.

It's just so good to see you guys.

It's wonderful.

Warm my heart.

I love you.

Well, we're going to take a break.

We're going to walk Ed out, and then we'll be back to break down this episode.

This show is sponsored by BetterHelp.

You know, sometimes we turn to some funny places for support.

Maybe a hairdresser, a barista, maybe a random stranger in the bathroom for life advice, but not everyone is a therapist.

You can find your right match with BetterHelp.

BetterHelp therapists are clinically trained and credentialed.

They work according to a strict code of conduct and are fully licensed in the U.S.

And BetterHelp does the initial matching work for you.

So you can focus on your therapy goals.

You'll get a short questionnaire that helps identify your needs and preferences.

And then they will match you with a licensed therapist.

As the largest online therapy provider in the world, BetterHelp can provide access to mental health professionals with a diverse variety of expertise.

Find the one with BetterHelp.

Our listeners get 10% off their first month at betterhelp.com slash office ladies.

That's betterhelp, h-e-l-p.com/slash office ladies.

There is nothing worse than not having the tools to make impactful work.

For me, that is usually due to my lack of technical know-how.

I don't know how to

do all the snazzy stuff.

But Canva can make that a lot easier.

You can put all your workflow in one place, starting with the presentation.

Then you could like add in a whiteboard, you could drop in a video.

You don't have to jump between programs and tabs.

You can also invite your team to collaborate on any design.

So rather than like having to chase people down with multiple email threads, you can have real-time collaboration.

You can share ideas and visualize projects.

You can get their input right away.

So whether you work in a team of two, like me and Angela, or a team of 2,000, Canva lets you bring your big ideas to life as fast as you can think of them.

Put imagination to work at canva.com.

I remember when I left home and I had graduated college and I was getting my own apartment.

And I remember so clearly my dad saying, and you won't be able to do this every month the same, but every month make a commitment, save a little every month, and just try to make that a life goal.

That's something that Acorns does for you.

Acorns makes it easy to give your money a chance to grow.

Here's what it is.

It's a financial wellness app that helps you invest for your future, save for tomorrow, and spend smarter today.

And you don't need to be a finance whiz.

Acorns puts money into an expert-built portfolio to make sure you're investing wisely, not wildly.

Sign up now and Acorns will boost your new account with a $5 bonus investment.

Join the over 14 million all-time customers who have already saved and invested over $25 billion with Acorns.

Head to acorns.com/slash Office Ladies or download the Acorns app to get started.

Paid non-client endorsement, compensation provides incentive to positively promote Acorns.

Tier 2 compensation provided investing involves risk, Acorns Advisors LLC, an SEC Registered Investment Advisor.

View important disclosures at acorns.com/slash slash office ladies.

Angela, I'm just going to be happy all day now because we got to hang out with Ed.

I know.

We should tell you guys, we've actually been chatting with him for like an hour.

We talked to Ed for two hours.

Yeah.

I didn't want him to leave.

Me either.

And we did finally have to let him go.

Yeah.

We have to finish this episode.

Yeah.

Also during our break, we reached out to Randy and you guys, he's sending Cassie the audio file of Ed singing, My Heart Will Go On right now.

We are going to play it at the end of the episode.

I can't wait.

Yes, definitely stick around to hear this.

We heard it and it is truly, truly amazing.

Like, I got chills.

I know.

It was kind of a moment.

We're going to play the whole entire song.

Ed gave us his permission.

Enjoy, but stick to the end.

It's there.

It'll be at the end.

Okay.

Let's start breaking down this episode.

We talked about this a little bit.

This episode opens with this fantastic cold open, this performance of a musical number from Sweeney Todd surprises the whole bullpen.

Yeah.

And Michael is like, oh my gosh, I auditioned for this.

When did the cast list go up?

What part did I get?

How clueless is Michael?

We got a fan catch from Carrie F.

in Japan, who said, when Michael asks about the cast list, look at Creed's face in the background.

It is amazing.

And I feel like everyone should pause to see it.

Oh my goodness.

Did you look at it?

I did.

What's he doing?

He,

it's hard to explain, but it is a great look.

He looks almost like he's responsible for not casting Michael.

Like, I don't want to.

Yee, it was his decision.

It's amazing.

All right.

I have to go check that out.

Thanks, Carrie.

I was so impressed with this opening musical number.

I really thought we should hear these guys.

Oh, let's do it.

Andy?

Attend the tale of Sweeney Todd.

His skin was pale and his eye was odd.

Yes.

He shaved the faces of gentle men who never thereafter were heard of again.

He trod a path that few have trod.

It's Sweeney Todd.

The demon barber of Fleet Street.

Did you write this?

No.

Who did?

Steven Sane.

Who is he?

Swing your razor wide, Sweeney.

Hold it to the sun.

Sweeney, pull some blood of those who are lies.

What the hell is happening?

We had a fan question from Miriam L.

in Utah who wanted to know, how much did NBC pay in royalties for Sweeney Todd?

Miriam said typical grand rights can cost a small high school production thousands of dollars.

What did you guys pay?

Well, I checked with Randy Cordre, of course, and he said this really was a huge deal.

Quote, we basically had to produce a full-blown community theater production of Sweeney Todd embedded into a full-blown episode of the office.

And negotiating the music rights was complicated.

He said Eric Colgan, our post-producer, contacted the Universal Television Music Supervisor, Carrie Druton, about getting the sync rights.

That meant that we were allowed to sing the song ourselves.

We weren't going to like play a recorded soundtrack.

Yeah, there's all these layers to it.

But we also had to get something called grand rights because we were going to air it on television.

Oh.

There's a difference between just doing it on a stage and then committing it to television forever.

Steven Sondheim had to sign off.

They had to send him our script.

Really?

Mm-hmm.

He read our script?

He read Andy's play.

Oh my gosh.

Guess what?

What?

He loved it.

Aw, he gave us his blessing.

Ultimately, we ended up paying $100,000

and we got the rights to sing four songs.

And that's how we did it.

Wow.

I have a fan question from Sarah L in San Antonio, Texas.

What's up, Sarah?

Hi, Sarah.

Where did the singers come from for this episode?

Sarah, I love this question.

We'll tell you all about it.

Yeah, all the singers were cast by our casting director, Allison Jones.

And our director for this episode was John Scott.

Before he directed The Office, he had directed episodes of Glee, and he'd also worked as a camera operator and cinematographer.

So this kind of made him perfect because he knew how to blend musical performance and documentary style shooting.

This is the only episode of The Office that he directed, and thank goodness we got him for it.

I know.

He's a prolific director.

If you look him up, he's just done everything.

We also hired a musical supervisor for this episode who Randy called a musical genius.

His name was Nathan Wang.

He prepped all of the musical background tracks, attended all rehearsals, and he sat in on the auditions with Allison Jones and John Scott.

So the three of them found all of our singers.

Yes.

And Nathan, if you listen to this, Randy could not say enough wonderful things about you.

He just went on and on about how important you were for this episode.

played Beetle.

What a fantastic group.

And lady, how fun was it to see Tuba?

I know.

I know.

We should tell everybody who he is because he appeared on the office several times.

We even got a fan catch from Rob B.

in Los Angeles, California, who said, ladies, I think you need a Tuba tracker.

Oh, a Tuba tracker.

This episode marks the first appearance of Michael Tuba Heatherton in the series.

And he reprises this role in a deleted scene from season 8, episode 13, Jury Duty, where he pretends to be a police officer, only to be recognized by Daryl as a member of Andy's play.

I look forward to that deleted scene, lady.

Uh-huh.

But we will also see Tuba in the seminar as an attendee of Andy's seminar.

And we're going to see two of Tuba's clown headshots in Roseanne's talent agency in season nine.

And finally, we're going to see him as the minister in season nine, The Farm, and in the finale, Marrying Dwight and Angela.

He's just like Nelson Franklin.

He is because he played multiple roles.

Multiple roles.

Maybe the same.

Maybe he's a man who has many jobs.

Yeah.

Like the character Kirk on Gilmore Girls.

He worked everywhere.

I have never seen Gilmore Girls.

Whoa, really?

Yeah.

Oh, they talk real fast.

They do?

Yeah, that was the thing.

The dialogue, it comes out very, very fast.

Oh,

just a style choice?

Yes.

And you had to say your lines exactly as written.

I would not do very well.

This is not the show.

It's good you were not cast on it.

No, I was not.

Well, Rob B.

from Los Angeles wants to know, is it just a happy coincidence that Tuba was cast in so many one-off roles on the office?

Or is there another reason?

There is another reason.

First of all, Tuba's amazing.

We love him.

In addition to being extremely talented, Tuba was also married to our amazing script supervisor, Theda.

Yeah.

And Tuba was an actor.

He was a professional clown, just an amazing person.

Well, let's get into this episode because Andy has two comps for closing night of his show for Erin and her Gabe.

And he finds out Gabe isn't going.

He didn't think anyone else was going to go.

How happy is Andy?

He is so happy until it looks like nobody else is coming.

Like, yeah.

Jim and Pam's babysitter fell through.

Michael's real sour.

He doesn't want to go.

There was a series of talking heads here in the shooting draft, and several people share their thoughts on musical theater.

Oh, yeah.

Yes.

I really want to share with you what Stanley has to say and his feelings about standing ovations.

I'll be there,

but do not expect to stand a novation.

I am sick of going to shows and feeling like I need to stand when the show isn't that good.

You hear me, Steve Harvey?

What?

He's throwing shade at Steve Harvey.

I love the stalking hat.

I did too.

I've been to shows where everyone's standing up at the end.

It's almost like we stand up at the end of every show.

And then you feel bad if you don't.

Yeah.

And I had a little Stanley.

I was like, well, how are they going to know when it's a real standing ovation?

If we stand at the end of all of them, it's sort of like, you know, the participation prize.

But then I know what it takes to put on a theater production.

And you're like, you better stand up.

Just stand up.

We worked our butts off.

Yeah.

Just getting a show off the ground and from beginning to end, stand on up.

I feel both ways.

This talking head really made me laugh.

And then also now when you re-watch this episode, at the end, when they give a standing ovation, it cuts to stanley and he's got the biggest grump face because he has to now stand and he's really annoyed you know what it's funny i know they cut the talking head but everything about that shot of him like doing the obligatory standing ovation told me the whole story yep i knew all his feelings about it well lady dwight is not gonna go because the last time he went to the theater a man dressed as a cat sat on his lap I feel like Angela made him go to cats.

Lady, we got so much mail from people.

You did?

Kobe S.

from Wisconsin said, in my mind, I have come to believe that Dwight attended a local production of cats to appease Angela.

And I believe Andy was the cat who sat on Dwight's lap.

Because in season five, Employee Transfer, Andy dressed like a cat from a production of cats.

Yes.

I was so curious about that line that I went to the shooting draft to see if it said something like, Dwight glances over at Angela, Angela rolls her eyes or something like that.

It didn't, but I fully believe that Angela made him go to cats.

I'm with you and Kobe S.

Yes, Kobe.

Guess who wants to go to the play?

I know.

Angela.

I think this is proving the point that she goes to musicals.

And she says she would like Dwight to take her.

And he's like, just disrobe.

Let's get to it, basically.

And she's like, uh-uh.

No, no, no.

You have to take me to the play to get the punch.

I have a location alert for this scene.

Yes, it's a new location.

This is Dwight's office.

Now that he's the owner of the building, this is his business manager office.

Yes, and it's much nicer than his office at Dunder Mifflin.

Yeah, that's true.

He doesn't have.

He's just part of a desk clump.

Well, this was designed by Michael Gallenberg and built by Tim James, and it existed over on our warehouse set.

At four minutes 28 seconds, did any of you guys notice the picture of the drone, the predator drone, big picture?

It's tilted.

Yes, I did notice that.

I was wondering why it was tilted.

I figured it had to be on purpose because it's so obviously tilted.

I went to the shooting draft to see, and this is how it read.

Dwight is in his building management office hanging a picture of a predator drone and Angela enters.

Angela says, it's crooked.

Dwight says, yes, and if I come back and it's straight, I'll know someone was here.

Angela says, smart.

And then she goes on to say, I want you to take me to the play this evening.

And the scene continues as it aired.

Well, Dwight does agree to take her to the play, but he's not wearing a cape.

Okay.

This made me realize: does he always wear a cape to plays?

Like, he's not going to do his usual zhuzh for her.

Yeah, has she asked in the past?

And he wore a cape.

Maybe to cats.

Yes.

Angela's going to have a talking head where she says, Dwight and I have a contractual agreement to procreate five times, plain and simple.

And should he develop feelings for me, well, that would be permissible under item 7C, clause 2.

So I would not object.

So that little smile at the end that I do, I improvised.

Oh.

It wasn't in the shooting draft, and they really liked it, and they asked me to do it every time.

Oh, I love when we would do things like that.

I know.

It was fun to see it again because I remembered all of a sudden all those memories came back.

I was like, oh, yeah.

We thought maybe she would give away.

a little bit of her true feelings just for a second.

It would always just fill me with such pride as an actor if I was there performing for the director and the writer and I did something with something they'd written for me and they asked me to do it over and over again.

Yeah, yeah.

I was like, oh yeah.

Oh yeah.

I did it.

I did.

I love it.

Pam and Jim are in a pickle because they actually really want to go, but they don't have a babysitter.

Yes.

Andy comes in the kitchen and asks them if they could just keep looking.

And Pam's like, yes, we will keep looking.

There was a joint Jim and Pam talking head.

Yes.

About how much they love going to musical theater.

I know.

I know.

When Randy was giving us his insider info on this episode, for this scene, he wrote, Jenna, you sound like you have a cold.

Oh, yeah.

I did.

I think I did have a cold.

Yeah.

Well, it's time for the show.

The Loose Screw Playhouse is buzzing.

Yes, everyone has made it.

Yeah.

Phyllis is wearing her fur stole.

Yes.

And she's arrived with Bob Vance.

Stanley has brought his mistress, Cynthia.

There was a whole runner where Phyllis thinks Cynthia's hitting on Bob and she's ticked off.

I loved it.

I know.

It's in deleted scenes.

It's so good.

We had a fan question from Erin Y in Springfield, Ohio.

Where was the performance of Andy's play located?

Well, this was a little bit of trickery.

The exterior shot of the theater.

that you just see very briefly with no people in front of it, that was the Matcha Theater in West Hollywood.

We used an old stock photo of the theater and added graphics on top to say loose screw playhouse.

But the whole interior, the lobby, backstage, the stage,

that was the Assistants League Theater.

We shot there for four days and our base camp was in a Sears parking lot that was nearby.

Lady, I feel like there's a chance you went to Sears one day.

Maybe at lunch.

Sounds like you.

I'm sure I did.

Oh, I went there.

I liked that you just

remember of yourself going.

And you got so excited.

I remember this.

I was so excited.

You know, it's not easy to find a Sears in Los Angeles, California.

It's where I bought my first washer and dryer when I moved here.

Yeah.

And I had to go far into the valley to find a Sears.

Yeah.

My very first credit card was a Sears credit card.

Really?

That I applied for by myself.

I was so excited.

I had a credit card.

But only for Sears.

But only for Sears.

Wow.

My first pair of roller skates.

I ordered out of a catalog because I'm 100 years old.

We were living in Jakarta, Indonesia.

We got the Sears catalog and I ordered a pair of roller skates.

And eight months later, they were mine because it took forever.

to get anything overseas at that time.

Well, listen, I don't know what Sears is like today, but back in ye oldie days.

Ye olden times.

That's where you bought all of your appliances because they had wonderful warranties and great service.

Yeah.

Mm-hmm.

Michael is going to arrive.

And one of my favorite lines that teases up the best tag of any episode, I think,

is an usher says, hey, are you the guy that did the entire Law and Order episode for your audition?

Mm-hmm.

Oh my gosh.

The usher was played by Barbara Fisher.

No relation.

I think we should point out that Michael arrived with a giant bunch of helium balloons.

Oh, yes.

Yeah.

That are going to become a problem later.

Well, there was a deleted scene where he called to get flowers, but they were so expensive, he pretended that he lost reception and hung up.

And then he got balloons instead.

And then he got balloons instead.

Well, Andy is thrilled that everyone has shown up, but he notices the one person who isn't there is the only person he wanted to be there, which is Erin.

Yeah.

But she is who is babysitting for Jim and Pam.

Listen, the 13-year-olds have cornered the market on babysitting.

It's been a real tough industry for her to get into.

Yeah, she has this whole talking head where she says she really needs to get into the babysitting game.

And lady, I did a deep dive on babysitting.

Did you?

I'm very curious.

You know, my very first job was babysitting.

I started babysitting when I was 14.

What did you get per hour?

Oh, my goodness.

I can't remember.

I got a dollar an hour.

That's what I got.

And if there were two or more children, I got $2 an hour.

I just remember I babysat these twin boys who were so little.

They were like,

I don't know, five months old.

And I look back and I'm like, what were they thinking?

Leaving these twins with me.

I was so unqualified.

But I did take good care of them.

No one was injured on my watch.

Yeah, my best friend and I, we shared a babysitting summer job for this family.

They had three children, all under the age of seven.

The littlest was like 10 months old.

I don't remember him walking.

And

I would do like Mondays and Wednesdays.

She would do Tuesdays and Thursdays.

And then we would both babysit on Fridays.

And I must have been 15.

Yeah.

I couldn't drive a car if something happened.

Yes.

I didn't have a cell phone.

Nobody had a cell phone.

Nobody had a cell phone.

I think back on that time and I just think like,

what did I do with that baby all day?

I know.

I mean, they all lived, so I guess I took care of them.

I'm sure we did a good job, but looking back on it now, especially that we have kids, you're like, what?

Yeah.

It was bonkers.

I know.

Well, I did have a lot of energy and I do remember doing things like setting up a sprinkler in the backyard and we're all running through it.

And oh, I remember one time I babysat this little girl and I decided we were going to make our own newspaper.

I had had a lot of energy.

See, we were great babysitters.

What's your deep dive say?

Well, listen, according to Mom News Daily, the average cost of a babysitter nationwide right now is around $15 an hour.

And then parents.com tracked the average hourly rate for a babysitter in every state.

Ooh, state by state.

What's it for California?

Because Isabel said she wants to start babysitting this summer.

California is pretty good.

What is it?

It's around $17 an hour.

An hour?

Wow.

In Pennsylvania, it's $15 an hour.

The most expensive was New York at just over $18 an hour.

The least expensive was Louisiana at $12.49 an hour.

But listen, no matter what state you're babysitting in, All of the rates are well above the federal minimum wage of $7.25.

So this got me curious.

Started looking up minimum minimum wages.

Okay.

Because a lot of states have adopted higher minimum wages.

For example, the minimum wage in Arkansas is $11.

In Maine, it's $12.75.

But there are many states who do not have a state minimum wage and instead they just rely on that $7.25.

The minimum wage in Pennsylvania is $7.25.

And this would have been true even at the time that this episode was filmed in 2010,

because the last time that we had a federal minimum wage increase was in 2007.

This episode was filmed in 2010.

So the minimum wage was $7.25.

It is very likely that Aaron was going to earn more than that.

The bottom line of all my research is that babysitting is almost always going to earn you more than either the federal or your state minimum wage.

And Aaron was right to want to get into this side hustle.

Mm-hmm.

Babysitting.

Babysitting.

Well,

the play is starting and there's an important piece of information that is going to send Michael in a huge spiral.

Oh, it's so great.

Daryl says, hey, that's my plumber.

Michael's like, uh-uh, uh-uh.

No, no, no.

The guy playing Sweeney Todd, he's a ringer.

He's like a world-class actor.

Daryl's like, nope, it's in the bio.

That is my plumber.

He's never even been in a play.

They discovered him doing karaoke.

Michael's like, are you kidding me?

And then Daryl has one of my favorite lines in the episode.

He goes, shh, if we don't listen to the overture, we won't recognize the musical themes when they come back later.

I loved that too.

At seven minutes and 10 seconds, I want to give a shout out to our sideline musicians.

So we talked with Ed about how everybody was singing live.

The music was actually not performed live.

That was a playback.

soundtrack that had been prepared by Nathan Wang, our musical supervisor.

But we have some musicians pretending to play all the music.

They were Kevin Roberts, who was our keyboardist and conductor, Trey Balfour, who was our percussionist, Marina Manoukian, who was the violinist, and Tom Evans was our flutist.

Flautist?

Flautist.

Is a flautist a flutist?

A flautist is a flutist.

It sounds like flautus, like, you know, the dish.

It's a flautist.

Why aren't they a flutist?

I don't know.

What's wrong with, why are we confusing it?

Why are we changing all the letters?

It's probably a ye oldie timey reference

that we held on to for no reason.

Well,

okay.

Our flautist in his hammock was playing the flute.

How about that?

The show is well underway.

And you know what?

Andy's crushing it.

He really is.

He's singing his solo, Joanna.

I mean, Stanley is sleeping, but Jim and Pam are impressed.

So is Dwight.

Dwight is kind kind of like nudging the guy next to him like, hey, I know that guy.

Angela's going to get gum on her seat.

Gross.

She's got to leave.

Is she going to get gum on her seat?

She has to change.

Yeah, she does because it's gross.

Her body has touched some gum that was on a seat.

Dwight says, you know what?

I'm not going to tell you what happened while you're gone.

He refuses.

Do we have a new slash old tech alert?

What is it?

Kelly's going to ask Ryan for the time and he's going to show her a clock on his iPad.

We had a fan mail flurry about that iPad, Angela.

Ella Ward from Dallas, Texas and many others said, when Michael asks Andy in the beginning how long the play is, Andy says it's an hour and 45 minutes and it starts at 8 p.m.

sharp, meaning it should be over at 9.45,

maybe 10 o'clock with an intermission.

But later in the episode, when Ryan shows Kelly what time it is, his clock reads 10.07 and the first act isn't even over.

Why is the play already gone two hours and seven minutes before intermission?

Good catch.

Ella's question.

I went to the script.

It's not much of a help because in the script, it was scripted to read 9:35, which would still be off timeline-wise.

Right.

I don't know.

That's a good catch.

Well, ladies, should we take a break?

And when we come back, we'll go to intermission because a lot happens.

So much happens.

So, you know, Boarshead has been dedicated to crafting premium deli meats and cheeses for more than 120 years.

They know what they're doing.

And you're going to love their Boarshead Sweet Bees Honey Barbecue Glazed Chicken Breast.

It's honey drizzled and barbecue sizzled.

It's got all the things.

It's so good.

I love some barbecue.

And are you ready for this?

It is slow roasted and crafted with layers of proprietary glaze and a zesty dry rub, then infused with with the delicate sweet wildflower honey.

Boar's head, sweet bees, honey, barbecue, glaze, chicken breast.

It is perfectly balanced.

It is all the flavors you want.

Barbecue and real hickory smoke.

You can get it sliced fresh at the deli.

Do you hear how excited I am about it?

Get me that sandwich right now.

I love it.

And it's made with wildflower honey, which just gives you that little bit of sweetness.

And then you've got barbecue.

You've got some smoked paprika, some garlic powder.

Come on, get me to the deli counter.

Try sweet bees today and experience the flavor of authentic barbecue at your local Boarshead deli counter.

Boarshead, committed to craft since 1905.

Hello from my Airbnb.

I am

staying in an Airbnb while I'm in Chicago doing my play.

That's right.

You said it was great because your family was joining you for part of that time and you wanted a home.

I did because we're going to be here for a little while.

But you know, I have used Airbnb for shorter trips as well.

Yeah.

Are you ready for this?

What?

So one of my mom friends at the school,

she went to Iceland with her kids and they got an Airbnb.

In Iceland?

In Iceland.

Wow.

I was like, okay, you're going to have to tell me which one that is because that looked amazing.

Some trips are better in an Airbnb.

If you're traveling with a big group of friends, maybe a larger extended family.

If you want to get into a more local experience, I like it for this reason.

And here's the thing.

Also, if you've got a great space that you know people would love, you can Airbnb your home while you go and stay somewhere else.

Yes, and who knows?

Maybe I'll come stay in your place.

Your home might be worth more than you think.

Find out how much at airbnb.com/slash host.

We are back.

And the first thing that happens at Intermission is that the director of the stage production, Shelby Thomas Weems,

who was played by Phil Abrams and who I could not have loved more.

He's so fantastic.

There's more of him in deleted scenes than I want to share.

Really?

Yes.

I'm so happy to hear that.

He comes up to Michael and he says, if you keep auditioning with that same gusto, we will find a part for you, Michael.

What is this character he's created?

I love Shelby Thomas Weems.

There'll be another pep talk from him.

I'm going to save it.

I'm going to save it.

Lady, I'm so very excited.

Michael is still so sour.

He's going to steal a whole bottle of wine.

I love it.

Angela is going to show up dressed in tight jeans and a cute top.

They have just her old dirty gardening clothes.

What are you talking about?

Yeah, Dwight's like, why are you the seed catalog model?

Yeah, why are you dressed like a seed catalog model?

I wanted to read you the stage direction from the shooting draft because there was one little detail that Alicia, our costume designer, had to make sure was on my pair of jeans.

What?

And it was there for the whole show and I don't think you really catch it.

What is it?

All right, here you go.

Angela approaches Dwight wearing cute jeans and a gingham blouse.

They start to exit.

In spite of himself, Dwight's eyes linger.

The camera finds the clear plastic strip on the jeans that has the size.

Clearly, this was very calculated.

Oh,

she had just bought this outfit.

She didn't own any of these clothes.

She quickly changed and forgot to take the sticker on the side of the jeans off that says the size.

I've done that so many times.

Me too.

You walk around all day and then you get home, you go to put it in the laundry, and you're like, oh my gosh.

Yeah, exactly.

Okay, I love this detail because when I saw that outfit, I I was like, they made you too cute.

What?

It was, no, I'm like, I don't even believe it.

Like,

you looked so stinking cute in this outfit.

And it was like, it's too sexy.

It's too sexy.

The seed catalog outfit?

The seed catalog outfit.

It was such a departure from Angela's regular wardrobe.

And this makes so much sense.

She just bought it.

Yeah.

And you know what?

She's going all out.

Did you catch the platform shoes?

I did.

Well, also during this intermission, Pam is going to call Aaron to check in.

And this is where she's going to tell Aaron that the play is going great.

We talked about this scene a little bit with Ed.

Yeah.

He liked this line of Pam's.

Yeah.

I wanted to say that we got some mail from people who were saying they thought that Pam seemed a little unusually tense in this phone call.

with Aaron.

Oh, well, I mean, there's a lot more in deleted scenes.

I was gonna say, before the play started, there was a scene where Erin is texting Pam, but only a Cece.

Yes, it's so like bonkers.

Erin will only communicate with Pam and Jim as if she's Cece talking.

And that's why at intermission, Pam is like, do not put Cece on the phone.

She cannot talk.

Yeah.

That's why there's that edge and urgency to her.

Mm-hmm.

Backstage, Andy is checking his email.

Any last-minute messages from Erin?

Nothing.

There were more scenes backstage as Andy really starts to get down.

He's really bummed out.

I loved it so much because we get to see more of the director, Shelby Thomas Weems.

Give him a pep talk.

You have to hear it, Jenna, because as an actor, it's that classic pep talk that you get.

Can we hear it?

Andy.

Andy.

I know the sadness that you're feeling right now does not feel like a gift, but it is.

Use it.

Let it inform your performance

use it i'm so upset i just i think i should go home then go home conrad can do your part

i'm gonna use it use it

i can do your part i'm gonna use it

there are so many things about the scene that are amazing he's every director i've ever had every Every theater director.

Yeah.

I've ever had.

Yeah.

I really wish you could see.

I'm going to record it and show you.

I have to put it in stories.

When Shelby, the director, says, you've got to use it.

And then Andy's like, I don't know if I can.

He's like, well, then go home.

Conrad can play your part.

It cuts to Conrad.

No.

The person who played Conrad gives the most brilliant look, like, who?

Like, what?

It's so good.

Oh,

That needs to be in the episode.

It's really fantastic.

It really does.

While all of that was happening backstage, there is a quick cutaway to the lobby where Creed is giving a review of the play.

Unfavorable review.

Yes, his line is: unfortunately, in this ham-fisted production of Sweeney Todd, the real terror comes from the vocal performances.

Well, listen, it's act two now, and Michael is drinking from his full bottle of wine.

He's passing it around.

Yeah, it goes to Daryl, to Meredith, to Kevin.

And we got a fan question.

Okay.

At 10 minutes, 45 seconds, Victoria S.

from Chesterfield, Virginia says, I've got to know, was there a storyline cut out involving Kevin and a jacket that he wears to Andy's play?

Yes, Victoria, there was.

Yes.

If you see, he's wearing this, like, what do you call that?

Like a bomber jacket?

Well, they remind me of like the varsity athletic jackets you get when you make the varsity team.

It has the leather sleeve and then the fabric on the torso part.

Yeah, and it's embroidered with the name Kevin.

Yeah.

So there was a scene from before the play starts in the lobby.

Oscar's looking at old show posters and Kevin walks up wearing a sweeney Todd jacket.

And Oscar's like, Kevin, why'd you buy that?

And Kevin's like, it was cold.

And then the stage direction said, reveal the jacket is embroidered with Kevin.

Now, here's the thing, lady.

That's all I could find, was that little bit.

I was curious about this too, because not only did he buy this very expensive merch, but then he had it personalized.

And you can't buy it in the moment, personalized.

They can't just quickly monogram your name on it.

That was my thing.

I wondered if it was a cast member's jacket named Kevin.

Well, here's what I found.

In the shooting draft, there was a scene where Kevin goes backstage to meet the actress who played Mrs.

Lovett.

He is a huge fan of hers and has been to every show, kind of implying that he has a big crush on her.

Oh.

And she's a total stranger.

This isn't his first time seeing Sweeney Todd.

She says you've come to every show.

Yeah, he's like kind of obsessed with her.

And I think he got the jacket to impress her.

Wow.

If he had been coming to every run of the show, he had time to order it and get it monogrammed.

But in deleted scenes, there is a scene where Kevin goes backstage and he runs up to the person who plays Mrs.

Lovett and he says this.

Hi.

Kevin.

Hi.

Stuart, this is my brother Kevin.

Hi.

I can't believe you came to every show.

You were good.

Oh, thank you.

See, you never come to anything I ever do.

So what's the change?

We need to put mom in a home.

Wait.

Wait.

So in one iteration of this, in the shooting draft, she's a stranger and he's been to every show and he's her biggest fan.

I never saw this scripted anywhere.

So I don't know if this was something that they handed pages changed right then that day.

But in deleted scenes, Mrs.

Lovett is Kevin's sister and he's been to every show.

Wow.

But I think that explains why he bought the jacket.

Yeah.

We tried to do a little mom detective for you there.

Yeah.

We detective did, did, did.

That jacket would have been really expensive, by the way.

$100?

Easily.

It was nice.

Yeah.

We talked about this next scene a little bit with Ed, where Andy's phone rings in the middle of the performance, but that's not the only disturbance, is it?

No.

Michael is trying to set the bottle of wine in between his feet on the floor,

knocks it over, and it starts to roll down the whole entire audience.

This bottle rolls for 19 seconds.

It made me laugh every time.

I want to hear it.

Where do you suppose all the wigmakers of London go to obtain their human hair?

So you think.

So you think.

It's so long.

So, you

that's such a long amount of television time, ladies.

In silence, let a bottle roll.

I looked in the script at the script note, and it had a delicious little nugget that says, You think it's done, but it's not.

It was so great.

I mean, when they were looking at locations, I guess they had to make sure there was no carpeting.

Like, they had to be able, this was in the script from the beginning.

Yeah.

Ah,

well, that's not even all because then balloons start popping.

Yes, Michael loses control of his balloons.

They start popping and then a baby starts crying.

A baby.

Cece.

Aaron has brought Cece and is standing in the back of the theater.

Andy is so happy.

He says, She's a terrible babysitter.

We had a fan question from Sean M.

in Cincinnati who says, oh my gosh, I have been waiting to ask this question since you all started this podcast.

No, scratch that.

I've been waiting to ask this question since this episode first aired 11 years ago.

Oh my goodness.

At 13 minutes and 56 seconds, why is Meredith climbing onto the stage behind Andy's talking head?

Please tell me there is an answer because it keeps me up at night and I just need this mystery solved.

Sean, you've held on to this for a long time.

Did you notice it, Anch?

Because I didn't even notice it.

Sean, I didn't even notice it and I watched this episode four times.

I went back and looked at it and sure enough, yes, Meredith is climbing on stage behind Andy's stocking head.

So I went to the script and there is a very odd stage direction that is supported by nothing, but does say this.

Behind Andy, we see Meredith climb onto stage and jump up and down.

I think it was just meant to be like an extension of the mayhem, that it was like bottle, balloons, baby.

Andy's giving this talking head.

Meredith's jumping on stage.

Well, Meredith had drank most of that bottle of wine.

I think that's what it is.

When they passed it around,

she held on to it for a bit.

Exactly.

Wow.

Sean, I did not catch that.

That is hilarious.

Everyone can look for it now.

Great background catch.

Real good.

Jim and Pam are so ticked off.

They're going to take Cece home.

Pam says they won't ever be leaving the house together again.

Yeah.

This is our first time getting to meet little baby Cece.

What a cutie.

We used twins for Cece.

They were Sienna and Bailey Stroll, and they played Cece for the bulk of the show.

They were just the sweetest kids.

Their parents were wonderful.

I just loved these girls when I saw myself holding that little baby.

I mean, I held those girls a lot.

A lot.

I was with with them a lot.

You spent a lot of time with them too, off camera, so they'd be comfortable with you.

Yeah.

You were so great with them.

Oh, I would love to see them again.

I know.

Wouldn't that be amazing?

What's it like for them to know that they were baby Cece on the office?

I wonder because they're like, I can't believe it.

They must be almost teenagers now.

Yeah.

Maybe they, are they like 13 now?

I think they are, lady.

They'd have to be close in age to Isabel because when we filmed this episode, Isabel was a year and a half old.

Oh my goodness.

I know.

I measure everything.

It's like that thing you do where you measure everything that happened in your life by how old your child was.

I do that a lot for the office.

I have pre-baby years and then post-baby years on the office.

Yes.

Well, unfortunately for Stanley, there will be a standing ovation.

He's going to have to get up.

There is.

It seems to be motivated when the actor playing Sweeney Todd comes out on stage.

People loved his performance.

Michael starts to boo him.

Booz him.

So rude.

Meanwhile,

outside, Angela and Dwight are looking for Angela's car in the parking lot.

Did you catch this couplet of dialogue?

When Dwight and Angela are talking about how bad the show was, and Angela says that was more horrifying than nonsense?

Did you catch that?

She said nonsense?

That's the name of the show.

Yes,

she doesn't say nonsense.

Some people thought that.

She says nonsense.

So, nonsense was a musical comedy written by Dan Gogan.

It's very famous, lady.

Nonsense.

Yeah, I wasn't familiar with it.

Well, you know who is familiar with it?

Who?

Our very own Phyllis Smith.

She starred in Nonsense.

That's right.

At the St.

Louis Muni.

That's right.

So, you guys, here's the plot of nonsense.

The show starts when the little sisters of Hoboken discover that their cook, sister Julia, had accidentally poisoned 52 of her sisters.

They are in dire need of funds for the burials.

The sisters decide that the best way to raise the money is to put on a variety show.

So they take over the school auditorium, which is currently set up for the eighth-grade production of Greece.

You meet all of the nuns.

It's a full-on musical.

It features tap dancing, ballet dancing, an audience quiz, comic surprises, and it became an international phenomenon.

Well, we got a fan question from Candy B in Cartersville, Georgia, who said, My girlfriends and I make an annual pilgrimage to the Muni in St.

Louis.

Angela, the Muni is this huge outdoor amphitheater, and every year they put on a variety of big musical productions.

So when there is a kid, it's so big that you need binoculars sometimes to see the stage if you're back far enough.

But that's like part of it.

Like,

I would go as a kid, we'd get the binoculars, and you watch the show.

Candy said, one time we got to see Phyllis Smith perform in nonsense.

When she made her entrance on stage, she got a big laugh because another character asked her where she had been for so long.

And Phyllis pointed off stage and said, over there in the office.

That was her line, over there in the office.

That's fantastic.

Dwight and Angela's scene will continue.

And I wanted to read you guys the stage direction in the shooting draft.

Oh, lady, I wrote it down too.

It says, Angela stops and turns towards the wind, looking for her car.

Looking is in quotes.

The moon lights up her face.

The wind blows through her hair.

She looks stunning in a natural, normal way we've never seen.

Dwight is taken aback.

I loved this phrasing, a natural, normal way we've never seen.

And Lady Lexi T from Bermuda wrote in and said, damn, Angela, you look amazing.

Go, lady.

Thank you.

It was.

It was like.

Exactly

perfect.

Did they have a fan to blow your hair?

They had a fan and I had to turn just right so my hair didn't blow across my face.

Yeah.

And they also put little twinkly lights in the trees to kind of make it look a little bit more, you know, romantic.

The scene was really fun to do, especially playing someone who was so buttoned up for years to finally just even be in a normal outfit.

Yeah.

Here's how the scene continued in the shooting draft.

Angela leans in to Dwight.

She reaches for his pants.

Dwight sighs.

She reaches into his pocket and pulls out the hole punch.

Dwight says, was that in the way?

Get rid of it.

She punches the card and hands it back to him.

Good night, Dwight.

Angela climbs in her car.

Dwight watches her, completely frustrated.

Yeah.

He wanted to get it on and she was like, no, no, this will count.

Just coming to the play with me.

She's leaving him wanting more.

Mm-hmm.

We had to figure out exactly how we were going to choreograph that scene.

And, you know, Rain is so much taller than me.

So we were trying to figure out what their embrace looked like.

And, you know, he picked me up fairly easily.

So we went with that.

We had a fan catch from Maddie M in Minneapolis who said, old tech alert at 17 minutes and 20 seconds, Angela had to use the key to manually unlock her car door.

Yes!

Backstage at the after party, Michael can be found eating dried apricots.

He's eaten 30 of them.

I had to look that up, lady.

That seemed like too many.

He's had 30 dried apricots and a bunch of red wine.

How's the rest of that evening going to play out?

Well, I'll tell you, their recommended daily consumption of dried apricots is three to four per day.

What?

He ate 30?

He's eaten 10 times the recommended amount.

Oh, no.

It was about 480 calories of dried apricots.

And if you eat too much dried fruit in one sitting, it can cause gas, abdominal cramping, bloating, constipation, or possibly diarrhea.

Oh.

So that's what's ahead of Michael.

He has coming.

This is when Sweeney Todd, who is played by Robert Mamana, comes up.

Daryl says, you crushed it.

You did great.

And he sees Michael and says, you're the guy that booed me.

Michael's like, there are a lot of people booing you.

It wasn't just me.

And he's like, no, it was you.

And Daryl really calls Michael out on it.

He's like, how would you like that?

And he starts booing him.

Michael doesn't like it at all.

The actor who played Sweeney Todd has done a ton of stuff.

He's done television dramas, but also a ton of theater.

He graduated from the University of Arizona with a Bachelor of Fine Arts and he has been nominated and won several awards for theater.

He really was our ringer.

Yeah.

Well, Andy and Erin are going to have.

just, you know, their usual sweet but weird scene.

Yep.

Where Andy is going to show her how Sweeney Todd would kill people in the barber chair and they're just having the best time.

And she says, I'm so glad we're hanging out outside of work again.

Yeah.

And then he takes her into the audience and he shows her where her seats would have been, how it's the exact perfect place

to get the right acoustics.

It seems far back, but it's actually the best sound.

And that's when Gabe calls.

He needs some soup.

Gabe, they've really written him like a wet blanket.

He is.

It's true.

Well, Jim and Pam get home and they have that classic parent moment where the kid is happy in the car seat.

Maybe she's fallen asleep.

And they know if they get her out of that car seat, she's going to wake up.

So they decide to have their own nightcap out in the car.

Well, we got a fan question from Samantha G in Florida who said, this is more of a request than a question.

In a continuation of your scotch and splendid creation.

Oh, no.

No, we're not going to have Irish cream and orange juice.

No.

Samantha said, I wanted to see if you would be willing to brave orange juice and Irish cream.

Samantha,

it sounds like a terrible combination, but I'd love for you ladies to take one for the team and give it a try.

So lady, I brought in some Irish cream and orange juice.

I cannot believe.

you brought irish cream and orange juice.

I'll go get it.

It's in the fridge.

Are you supposed to refrigerate Irish cream?

I don't know.

I've never

had Irish cream.

It's like whiskey and cream, right?

And you mix that with orange juice?

I mean, normally you put it in your coffee, I think.

Oh, yeah,

it's yeah.

All right, I'll go get it.

All right, Jenna has gotten the

Irish cream and orange juice.

I have it.

Now, I don't know what proportions I'm doing here.

I'm so sad that Sam isn't here today.

I feel like he would want to be a part of this.

Sorry, Sam, but you're on a lovely vacation.

Abby, our guest engineer, surprise.

You get Irish cream and orange juice.

Just what you've always wanted.

This probably disgusting drink.

What do you think?

How much orange juice and how much Irish cream?

I feel like it should be mostly orange juice.

I mean, no, not on me.

Go light on orange juice.

Light on orange juice?

Heavy on Irish cream?

Well, am I supposed to shake this first?

Why do I feel like I should shake it?

No, don't shake it.

Don't shake it.

Found a recipe.

Oh, there's a recipe.

Yeah, it looks like five eighths a cup of Irish cream and then one and a half cups orange juice.

So it's mostly orange juice.

Yeah.

All right.

Okay.

And then you are supposed to stir it or try blending it.

Blending it?

Well, you know what?

Jim and Pam didn't blend anything.

So I'm

scurdling.

That's disgusting.

It's not.

Mixing it together.

It looks like someone vomited in their orange juice.

Angela, this is yours.

It's more Irish cream.

That's what you said.

You wanted it with the more weird curdling stuff.

We need something to stir it.

I'm going to go get a spoon.

Okay.

Hold, please.

Okay.

Here's a spoon.

It's not really helping.

That one is...

Not doing anything.

These two liquids don't want to go together.

That's clear to me.

Here we go.

Cassie, Abby, they are not running in.

Other times, I mean,

there's no movement from them.

They have not left their chairs.

They clearly don't want to drink.

You don't have to.

I want to go on record that for my beet vodka, people came in here at least at a quicker pace than this.

Yeah, I was excited for beet vodka.

This is, this looks really scary.

Yeah, it looks disgusting.

Abby did not know what she was getting into when she was like, I'd love to fill in for Sam today.

Everyone say hi.

Here we go.

Here we go.

Oh, it's not bad.

Yeah, it kind of tastes like a crimsicle.

Yeah.

It is.

It tastes like a crimsicle.

Yeah.

It's not as bad as it looks.

It looks really gross.

It looks disgusting.

I can't taste any of the alcohol.

It just sort of tastes like creamy orange juice.

It's not the worst thing in the world.

Well,

paint me surprised.

Yeah.

I mean, scotch and splenda, total surprise.

Beet vodka, absolute surprise.

And this one, not as bad as it sounds.

Not as bad as it looks.

I'm not going to order it.

Like I

would maybe order a scotch and splenda.

The look of it is so foul.

It's just foul looking, but it doesn't taste as bad.

Well, Samantha, there you have it.

Can I say something?

I hope so.

It's not sitting in my stomach.

I wouldn't take another drink, lady.

I would stop drinking it.

It's turning on me.

Is it really?

Mm-hmm.

Mm-hmm.

That one tastes more like orange juice than anything else, which is good.

You know that acidy feeling you get in your throat after you've thrown up?

Oh no, I'm taking a sip of water now.

Yeah, I used my water glass.

I'm gonna take that water.

Okay.

Well, fair warning.

It could turn on you.

All right.

Okay.

I will say that.

Oh, yeah.

I feel like I have a little bit of heartburn all of a sudden.

Yeah.

Are you guys feeling the heartburn in there?

A little bit.

Nothing yet, but now I'm scared.

I'm, I'm really glad we're near the end.

I'm glad this didn't come earlier in the episode.

All right.

I should eat a banana or something.

Yeah.

Where are we?

Concentrate.

Okay.

We are.

Andy is moping backstage.

Yes.

That's where we are.

And we're about to have that great scene that we talked about with Ed.

I absolutely love the scene.

Everyone's like, Andy, you were so great.

Come on, sing us a song.

Sing a song.

And he starts to sing.

And sorry, it's making me burp.

I told you.

I mean, how many sips did we take?

Like two.

I know.

And it is immediately, my body is rejecting it.

It didn't taste bad, but my body is saying don't.

My eyes said don't drink that.

first visually my eyes were like don't put that in your body

and now my body is never wanting me to ingest that again I took three sips I told that third sip is like I feel like something's burning in my chest okay I'm so sorry

I had to burst who wrote

who wrote this episode Charlie Grandy Charlie what have you done to us okay

anyway everyone gathers around I absolutely love this.

Daryl starts to play Macy Gray's I Try on the piano, and Andy sings his heart out.

I went to the shooting draft, Jenna, because I wanted to see if it mentioned the Celine Dion song that Randy told us about.

Yeah.

It doesn't.

This is what it says in the shooting draft.

Daryl starts to play, I would do anything for love by meatloaf.

Oh my goodness.

And Andy starts to sing.

And I would do anything for love.

I'd run right into hell and back.

I would do anything for love.

I'll never lie to you.

And that's a fact.

As Andy sings, Bob puts his arm around him.

Oh, that's the shooting draft.

Well, Randy told us that this song, Macy Gray's I Try, cost $25,000

and that Craig Robinson pre-recorded his keyboard tracks.

So while we're shooting, Craig is just pretending to play.

And the reason that they did this was so that they could keep the tempo of every take the same during editing.

So they could cut between.

The episode is going to end.

We mentioned this very briefly briefly with Ed, with my favorite tag.

I think maybe ever in the series.

We are going to see Michael's audition where he performs an entire episode of Law and Order,

including the opening and all musical interludes.

It starts with, in the criminal justice system, the people are defended by two separate but equally important groups, the police who investigate the crimes and the district attorneys who prosecute the offenders.

These are their stories.

And Michael goes, kung, kung.

Well, you know my love of law and order, so I thoroughly enjoyed Michael's whole monologue.

I needed it to go on.

I

couldn't get enough of it.

I could not get enough of it.

I went to deleted scenes.

I wanted to know if there was more.

Unfortunately, I couldn't find any other footage.

This is an email to Dave Rogers, I think.

It is.

He is the holder of all footage.

It is absolutely brilliant.

Every single second of it is magic.

And you guys, that was Andy's play.

Yes.

And a big thank you to Ed Helms who joined us in the studio today.

You can catch Ed's series, Rutherford Falls, on Peacock.

It's wonderful.

Ed, we love you.

And thank you to Randy Cordray for such great behind-the-scenes details.

And now, here is Ed Helms as Andy singing My Heart Will Go On by Celine Dion.

Every night in my dreams, I see you,

I feel

you.

That is how I know you

go on

far across the distance

and spaces

between

us.

You have come to show you

go

on

here

far

wherever

you are,

I believe that the heart does

go on

once

more.

You open

the door,

and you're here

in my heart, and

my heart will

go on

and on.

Love can touch us one time

and last for a lifetime

and never let go till we're gone.

Was when I loved you

one true time, I woke you,

and in my life will always

go on.

But parata duro near

afar,

wherever

you are,

I believe that the heart does

go on.

Yes, it does

once

more.

You

open

the door,

and you're here

in my heart.

And

my heart will

go on

and

on,

you're here.

There's nothing

I fear,

and I know

that my heart will

go on.

We'll

stay

forever

this way.

You're safe

in my heart,

and my heart will

go on

and

on.

Thank you for listening to Office Ladies.

Office Ladies is produced by Ear Wolf, Jenna Fisher, and Angela Kinsey.

Our show is executive produced by Cody Fisher.

Our producer is Cassie Jerkins, our sound engineer is Sam Kiefer, and our associate producer is Ainsley Bubico.

Our theme song is Rubber Tree by Creed Bratton.

For ad-free versions of Office Ladies, go to StitcherPremium.com.

For a free one-month trial of Stitcher Premium, use code Office.

So, you know, Boarshead has been dedicated to crafting premium deli meats and cheeses for more than 120 years.

They know what they're doing.

And you're going to love their Boarshead Sweet Bees Honey Barbecue Glazed Chicken Breast.

It's honey drizzled and barbecue sizzled.

It's got all the things.

It's so good.

I love some barbecue.

And are you ready for this?

It is slow roasted and crafted with layers of proprietary glaze and a zesty dry rub, then infused with the delicate sweet wildflower honey.

Boar's head, sweet bees, honey, barbecue, glaze, chicken breast.

It is perfectly balanced.

It is all the flavors you want.

Barbecue and real hickory smoke.

You can get it sliced fresh at the deli.

Do you hear how excited I am about it?

Get me that sandwich right now.

I love it.

And it's made with wildflower honey, which just gives you that little bit of sweetness.

And then you've got barbecue.

You've got some smoked paprika, some garlic powder come on get me to the deli counter try sweet bees today and experience the flavor of authentic barbecue at your local boarshead deli counter boarshead committed to craft since 1905 as a young adult finding the right path to your future can feel overwhelming It starts with Year Up United's tuition-free job training program Career Pathways.

If you're without a bachelor's degree but have a high school diploma or GED, you can get skills-first training to succeed in the industries you're passionate about, all while earning a weekly educational stipend to offset basic expenses.

From there, you'll have access to internships and hands-on experiences with Fortune 500 companies.

And with Europe United's job placement services and personalized coaching and mentorship, you can put your knowledge, skills, and most importantly, confidence into practice.

Apply to Europe United today and take the first step toward achieving the career you want.

Visit yearup.org to learn more.