(music)
♪ Magical mornings and afternoon delights ♪
(hands clapping)
♪ Far out friends and fantabulicious nights ♪
♪ Come on and sit Side By Side By Susan Blackwell ♪
♪ Sit your fat ass down and get Side By Side ♪
♪ By Susan Blackwell ♪
- Hey, everybody, it's me, Susan Blackwell.
Today, I'm Side by Side with my favorite
surrey with the fringe on top, look everybody,
from the Broadway revival of "Oklahoma!,"
it's Rebecca Naomi Jones.
- Hi.
- Hi, I don't know why I said "Oklahoma!"
like there was a question mark after it,
instead of an exclamation point.
(laughing)
Tell our friends at home where we are
and what we're doin' today.
- We are at a cafe that is in my neighborhood,
right around the corner from where I live,
called Ix.
- Now everybody knows where you live.
(gulping)
(laughing)
This is a beautiful restaurant and I'm super excited.
We're enjoying some,
I think these are like Guatemalan,
this is like Guatemalan hot chocolate.
- Yes, I think that is true.
- So, get ready for Auntie Susan to hit the roof, hooray!
And, what are you drinkin'?
- I'm having a very, very good matcha.
It is divine, it is,
it's like right at the top, you really taste the like,
that good, like matcha-y, gritty, powdery goodness.
And, then it's, there's a gentle sweetness underneath.
- This just became a food show.
- (laughing) I love food.
- This is some of the best hot chocolate I have ever had
in my life.
I'm 50 years old, and I'm going on the record.
- So, there.
(music)
- We're gonna kick it off with a little game
that I like to call 30 Second Life Story.
I'm gonna put 30 seconds on the clock,
you tell me your life story,
don't leave out the awesome parts.
Starting, how about now?
- Okay, I was born at Beth Israel Hospital.
And, my father started to sing to me when I was a baby.
And, my eyes lit up and I started
moving my fingers like this.
And, he ran, apparently ran through the hospital,
singing "She has long fingers, she's gonna play the piano."
He was very excited.
(laughing) I did play the piano for awhile,
until I quit when I was like 12,
'cause I didn't wanna practice a lot.
And, my teacher was very severe
and she could always tell if I didn't practice
like 45 minutes a day.
- You've got like five seconds.
- Oh, God!
I like people.
(sighing) I messed up.
(laughing)
- Super bonus, what is the title of that autobiography?
(laughing)
- Just, "Makin' It Work."
(laughing) Oh, no, oh no, it's not good.
I gotta work on my memoirs.
(music)
- You're making art on Broadway.
What the what is it like to be in "Oklahoma!"?
- It is very, very thrilling and fulfilling
to be doing "Oklahoma!" on Broadway.
I am constantly still surprised that we made it to Broadway.
- I hear ya.
- Because the show is so specific and so focused.
And, the kind of focus that we have onstage
is so acute and so still in so many moments,
that it just feels like a shock, constantly,
that we're allowed to just be simple and talk to each other
like real people on stage this way.
And, turn "Oklahoma!" into what feels like a play
with music.
- It's like a piece of performance art.
A piece of performance art, named "Oklahoma!"
exclamation, is a hit on Broadway.
- Yeah, it's weird.
- It's a sentence I didn't know I would say in this life.
(music)
Bagheera the panther, care to comment, Rebecca Naomi Jones?
- Wow, somebody's done her research.
- Deep cuts.
- Deep cuts, yeah.
First play I was ever in was "The Jungle Book."
Fifth and sixth grade production, Grace Church School.
- Like, the fifth graders
and the sixth graders got to audition?
- Correct. - What grade were you in?
- I was in sixth.
- Do you remember any of your lines?
Come on, reach deep into your butt hole.
- Oh, God (laughs).
- Come on, I know they're in there.
- I'll tell you what, I don't remember my lines,
but, I do remember my costume,
which was a, not exaggerating, full body suit,
like full, full body
- Like unitard?
- Unitard.
- [Susan] Yes.
- Black, shiny,
(laughing)
with fur accents.
- Be honest with me, did you love that outfit?
- I was obsessed. - [Susan] I bet you loved it.
- Oh, my God, I loved it, I thought I was,
like so hot in it.
But, the truth is, I had, like such a little,
middle school girl pouch, oh God, it was so,
oh, I saw pictures later, and I was like,
"Oh, that's what your body looks like."
'Cause I had little, like little girl boobies,
and, just like little kangaroo pouch.
I had actually a pretty big belly at that time.
- Let's take a look.
(laughing)
(growling)
(clapping)
Whoa!
- Yeah, bounty.
- Whoa, where do you think we should start?
- I wanna start right in front of me, 'cause, like
this seems like a good, like simple start.
- Great, I think I'll start over here.
- Great.
- Oh, my (beep) God.
(baby yelling)
- Be quiet, baby.
(laughing)
(music)
The first song I remember singing
in the Metropolitan Opera Children's Chorus was.
- Weirdly, Die Frau ohne Schatten,
which went, like (trilling)
(singing in foreign language)
(trilling)
(singing in foreign language)
(trilling)
No joke,
(laughing)
that's how it went.
- My go-to audition song is.
- One of my favorite audition songs is pretty random,
and it's a Amy Winehouse song, off her album, "Frank"
- Sweet baby Jesus.
♪ I couldn't resist him ♪
♪ His eyes were like yours ♪
♪ His hair was exactly the shade of brown ♪
♪ He's just not as tall, but I couldn't tell ♪
♪ It was dark and I was lying down ♪
(moaning)
♪ You are everything, he means nothing to me ♪
♪ I can't even remember his name ♪
♪ Why're you so upset? ♪
♪ Baby, you weren't there ♪
♪ And I was thinking of you when I came ♪
like, and that's how it goes on. (laughs)
- You dirty birdie.
- It's very dirty.
I mean, it's gotta be a specific audition for that one.
- That is so good!
My go-to karaoke song is.
- Björk, "It's Oh So Quiet."
- What?
(laughing)
♪ It's oh so quiet ♪
♪ It's oh so still ♪
(baby yelling)
- That baby's dueting with you, and I love it.
- Work, 'cause that's where we're gonna get to,
is the screaming.
- There you go.
♪ You're all alone ♪
♪ And so peaceful until ♪
(yells)
♪ You fall in love ♪
- Full voice, full voice.
- No, no, absolutely not.
It's too early.
- The baby wants it, the baby requested full voice.
- The baby's doing it for me.
- The song I love singing in "Oklahoma!" is.
♪ Starlight looks well on us ♪
♪ Let the stars beam from above ♪
♪ Sweetheart ♪
nope, I don't remember the words anymore.
I gotta have the lights and Damon and.
- She's literally performing the show tonight.
- Yeah, good luck to me.
(music)
- The name of the game is Hoodooyoodoo.
Who do you do?
- I randomly do a Björk imitation.
- Cough it up.
- Sometimes when we were in rehearsal for "Oklahoma!"
Patrick Vaill, who plays Jud,
and I would like to say our lines to each other
as though we were Björk saying them to each other.
And, so sometimes we would make each other laugh
in the dark.
- Oh, my (beep) God.
(music)
The name of the game is Low-Key Superpower.
If you could choose a low-key superpower,
what would yours be?
- I would like the ability to know how long
something was going to last.
Does that make sense?
- (laughing) That is the best low-key superpower
anyone has ever said.
- Like, if you're going through something shitty,
and you're like, if only I knew that I was gonna have
to be dealing with this for, like a year, or two months.
- Yes, so whether it's, like grieving
or sitting through a shitty play, you're like,
oh this grief is gonna last for two years.
Or, oh, this shitty play is gonna last for two years.
- Correct, or if you're, like really sick or something.
If you just know, so that you can like.
- On Thursday, this will pass.
- Correct.
- Put her there.
(slapping)
That's how you play Low-Key Superpower.
- I got one.
- Brilliant.
- Thank you.
(music) - Guess what time it is.
- Oh, God, just talk.
- It's time for Susan's Fantasy Jukebox.
I got your nose and you can have it back. (laughing)
But, first you have to sing me a song.
- Oh, God, okay.
♪ My God, I'm so lonely ♪
♪ So I open a window ♪
♪ To hear sounds of people ♪
♪ Venus goddess of love ♪
♪ Was destroyed by global warming ♪
♪ Did its people want too much, too ♪
♪ Did its people want too much ♪
- Keep singing.
♪ And I know no one can hear me ♪
- This has been another amazing episode
of Side By Side By Susan Blackwell.
♪ I just want somebody near me ♪
- With my sweet friend, Rebecca Naomi Jones.
♪ Give me one good movie kiss ♪
- Do yourself a favor, go see her in "Oklahoma!"
♪ And I'll be all right ♪ exclamation point, on Broadway. ♪
♪ Nobody, nobody, nobody ♪
You won't regret it.
♪ Nobody, nobody, nobody ♪
May I stop? (laughs)
(yelling) yeah!
(clapping)
- May I stop?
- May I cease to sing, please?
(clapping)
(music)
- Did you make out with him in that audition?
Look at you like you're trying to (beep) remember.
- I don't remember.
- I don't remember if I made out with John Cameron Mitchell
in an audition situation.
- I mean, I wouldn't be surprised.