(upbeat music plays)
- So glad you could join us, I'm Tamsen Fadal.
Well, Tommy Kail is one of Broadway's hottest directors.
He's got massive hits under his belt
like "In the Heights," "Freestyle Love Supreme,"
and of course "Hamilton," not to mention
the hit miniseries, "Fosse/Verdon."
Now, along with longtime collaborator, Lin-Manuel Miranda
he's bringing a Broadway legend back to life.
I caught up with Tommy at the new Drama Book Shop
to talk about his already stellar career
and why the book shop means so much to him.
This is a place that, you know, another location
but a place that has been very special to you
and your creative genius.
- Well, I don't know about that last part.
- Oh I do.
- It was important to me when I first got to New York city,
in early 2001.
I did a show with some friends of mine,
I had a little company called Backhouse Productions
with a couple of my pals, and Allen Hubby
who ran the book shop with Rozanne Seelen said,
"Hey, we're looking for a resident theater company."
And they introduced us to the space in the summer of 2001.
And that's where we rehearsed all of our early shows.
So "In the Heights" started down there,
"Freestyle Love Supreme" started down there.
And so many of the really foundational relationships
of my life as a person working in this business
and as a human being.
There's a line in "In the Heights"
that's a very clear reference to George Bailey
and the building and loan, and the savings and loan
from "It's a Wonderful Life."
And this is the closest we had.
Like if the book shop was not going to be there,
it was unfathomable for us to think about a world
where it didn't exist.
Because, you know this place was founded in 1917.
There were thousands, tens of thousands of people
that it had a significance to,
and our story was just one of those stories,
but the fact that we are part of a larger group,
to now reinstate this institution,
for so many people that cared about it
and are going to learn about it,
feels like this moment is meeting us
at just the right time.
- Do you ever wonder who is going to be,
maybe in the basement or be here creating,
who's the next you that uses your shop
to do what you all have done?
Do you ever wonder or think about that?
- I do, I think about that all the time,
because I think that, you know
she's walking around right now or he's out there
and if this place can be the kind of haven
that it was for me.
You know, when you work in the theater,
everything's so transitory.
Shows open and shows close.
So you're sort of always on the move.
You don't have a place to just be.
And I think that one of the opportunities that we have
at this shop is it gives you a place
to participate physically,
not just go there, grab a thing and leave
but to be around the energy of it.
And I found it so inspiring to be around
the great works of our time and what came before,
and be reminded of how we are standing on those shoulders.
(Musical number plays) ♪ So we cannot stop, ♪
♪ This our block in the Heights. ♪
- Let's go ahead and talk about "In the Heights,"
because we're right here.
I was looking at the Hulu doc,
before we sat down and there, was the one part
where you and Lin come upon a theater
and you're just looking at it like,
"Oh, this is kind of really happening."
When you go back to that moment
and look at where you are today, what do you think?
- It feels the same way as I did
walking into the store today.
You know, there's some stuff in,
there was a documentary about "Freestyle" that you mentioned
and Lin and I are in the basement theater
of the Drama Book Shop in that documentary.
Like we're sitting down there, like these two kids
who with their friends, you know, made this thing.
And then it went out into the world, you know
just a few blocks away to the Richard Rodgers.
And so to be back in that area, and again
theater is about creating feeling.
Theater is about emotion and emotionality.
When we save our Playbills, we're not saving our playbills
because it's a memento that says this person was
in the cast or she directed it or he directed it.
We're doing it to say I was there.
And this is what happened to me when I went to that show.
And this is what I felt.
And I went there with my mother,
and I went there with my friend, and I went there
with that person that I don't talk to anymore.
Whatever happened to him?
You know, all of those things are swirling around.
And so I think to walk into the bookshop
where every play that is on the shelf here
had some production, where countless people felt that,
I think it's why we all feel so connected to that.
And why I think there's a pervasive feeling in here,
of embrace.
(Jazz number begins)
- Television, do you think you're ever going to go back
into to doing some more for TV?
- Sure. - Yeah?
Are you looking at anything yet?
- I have a little television production company.
- A little television production... (laughs)
- Which is actually, the name of my company is
the address of the house George Bailey buys
in "It's a Wonderful Life," which is 320 Sycamore.
So yes, I have some things that I'm cooking right now
that are sort of, they're on the gas range being stirred,
you know, nothing ready to yet be served.
But what I try to do as best I can
is bring a lot of my storytelling, friends from the theater.
I've got a bunch of stuff that is directly related
to the theater, other stories about the theater
or people that you know who are up on these shelves here,
who have other stories to tell in different mediums.
But it's funny, you know, because I ended up doing
one of those live musicals
and then I made this television show
about Bob Fosse and Gwen Verdon,
and it was like, "Oh, like so, no more theater for you?"
I said, "I just made a live musical
and a show about making musicals."
Like I'm not going anywhere.
I don't know, where am I going?
I can't leave.
(upbeat electronic pop music plays)
- And as I was totally captivated by the bookworm statue,
guess who happened to walk into the store.
Our friend, David Korins, he's the man who designed
the Broadway sets for "Hamilton" and "Dear Evan Hansen,"
as well as the Immersive Van Gogh Experience
that's going on display around the country this year.
Turns out he also designed the bookworm,
and the rest of the new Drama Book Shop.
- All custom made specifically for this venue
and for this purpose, bookcases and casework, all of it.
Obviously this is our coffee bar.
- I can smell it and I can feel that I like it.
- I had a cup of this morning.
I had like the first cup this morning.
I was like, it's good coffee.
I can vouch for it.
What's happening overhead,
obviously breaking through this wall is our bookworm
and in my very first meeting with Tommy and Jeffrey
I said to them, you know,
I feel like you guys are doing this incredible thing.
You are kind of, single-handedly saving this institution
and it's one thing to make a shop, right?
And make it feel warm and welcoming
and a place that embraces community.
Yes, they're going to do that.
But we should also, because we're theater makers
find a way to kind of eventize it.
And so I said, I don't know what this means
but it would be cool to have some form of like,
architecture made with books.
That kind of meandered around the bookcases
and all this stuff and found its way and spiraled around.
And they were like, "That sounds cool."
And then Tommy said, "It might be kind of interesting
if it was actually a timeline."
And so it's actually a timeline of theater history,
starting with the Greeks, all the way down.
It travels over 2,400 years of theater history
and lands down there around 2020
where we ended construction.
And it's 3,500 pounds, 140 feet long, 2,500 books.
And Tommy walked in this morning, and was like
"Wow, this thing actually turned out
better than we thought."
It's one thing to scribble it on a piece of paper.
It's another thing to like, make it happen.
- I mean we're seeing a lot of things in person these days,
and we're impressed by them all.
- It's true, like the books exist.
- I love that though.
So did you guys, did somebody single-handedly pick out,
I mean you had to right?
- We did, yeah, yeah.
No, we single-handedly picked it out
and kind of strung them through.
There's a big metal armature that runs down the middle of it
and Hudson Scenic built it.
They're also the scene shop that builds "Hamilton."
- Sure.
- So we know them.
- Yeah, you've heard of them before, right?
- And they did an incredible job,
you know, engineering it and a building it.