Temu Renaissance with Hunter Harris and Peyton Dix

Hunter Harris and Peyton Dix joined us for some gossip about a director, a dramaturg, and disco Les Mis. We are now on YouTube. Be sure to follow us on there at @DefectorMedia https://www.youtube.com/@DefectorMedia where you can watch today’s episode. Subscribe to our newsletter for writing from Rachelle, Se'era, Jae, Alex, and Kelsey, plus blog recommendations and secrets! https://defector.com/normal-gossip-podcast You can support Normal Gossip directly by buying merch https://defectorstore.com/collections/normal-gossip or becoming a Friend or a Friend-of-Friend at supportnormalgossip.com https://defector.com/products/normalgossip. You can also find all kinds of info about us and how to submit gossip on our Komi page:https://normalgossip.komi.io/ Episode transcript here https://docs.google.com/document/d/1Icmkkvvb9Rk-JR770Yu8pcaSWPxyxf21ARHF4qK_0J8/edit?usp=sharing. Follow the show on Instagram @normalgossip https://www.instagram.com/normalgossip/, and if you have gossip, email us at [email protected] or leave us a voicemail at 26-79-GOSSIP. Normal Gossip is hosted by Rachelle Hampton (@heyydnae https://www.instagram.com/heyydnae/?hl=en) and produced by Se'era Spragley Ricks (@seera_sharae https://www.instagram.com/seera_sharae/?hl=en) and Jae Towle Vieira (@jaetowlevieira https://instagram.com/jaetowlevieira?igshid=MzRlODBiNWFlZA==). Our audio engineer is Samantha Gattsek. Justin Ellis is Defector's projects editor. Show art by Tara Jacoby. Theme music composed by Hrishikesh Hirway. Normal Gossip is a proud member ofRadiotopia https://www.radiotopia.fm/. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices https://dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices

• 0:01Speaker 00

  Hey there. It's Robyn from PRX. If you're a longtime listener of Radiotopia, you may know that we had a podcast that ran from 2016 to 2020 discussing every episode of the show The West Wing. Well, I'm excited to tell you The West Wing Weekly is back. Joshua Molina, who starred on The West Wing as Will Bailey, and Rishikesh Hirway, creator and host of Song Exploder, have reunited to discuss the hit Netflix political thriller, The Diplomat. Just as they did in their original run, they're discussing each episode of the series in sequence, joined by special guests from the show and from the real world of diplomacy. Rishi and Josh will be wrapping up the first season with a special live taping at Union Chapel in London on November 14th. Subscribe now to The West Wing Weekly wherever you get your podcasts.

• 0:50Speaker 01

  Oh, my God.

• 0:51Speaker 02

  Oh, my God. Oh, my God.

• 0:52Speaker 01

  What? Oh, my God.

• 0:53Speaker 02

  Oh, my God. Oh, wow.

• 0:55Speaker 01

  Oh, my God.

• 0:55Speaker 02

  Oh, my God. Oh, my God.

• 0:57Speaker 01

  What?

• 0:57Speaker 03

  Oh, my gosh.

• 0:59Speaker 02

  What?

• 1:00Speaker 04

  Hello and welcome back to Normal Gossip. I'm your host, Rachel Hampton, and in each episode of this podcast, we are going to bring you an anonymous morsel of gossip from the real world. Y'all, we did it somehow. Today's episode is the finale of season 10. This season has been so special in so many ways. We brought back a bunch of returning guests and some lovely new friends. We plumbed the depths of our inbox to bring you the most chaotic gossip possible all season long. We hope you had as much fun listening to this season as we had making it. Maybe someday I'll have the brainpower to actually process what 10 whole seasons of normal gossip means, but honestly, today is not that day because

• 1:44Speaker 04

  we've got some gossip to tell you and some incredible guests to tell it to. To celebrate, we have not one, but two guests who we have been dying to get on the show. I am beyond thrilled to say that Hunter Harris and Peyton Dix are here to gossip with me today. Hunter and Peyton are friends, writers, and co-hosts of Higher Ground's pop culture podcast, let me say this, which is often described as a glorified group chat. Hunter, Peyton, thank you so much for joining me.

• 2:14Speaker 02

  Thank you.

• 2:15Speaker 01

  You know we love to gossip.

• 2:16Speaker 02

  Oh, we're excited to be here.

• 2:18Speaker 01

  Listen up straight. Hold on.

• 2:19Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 2:20Speaker 04

  Well, I feel like y'all's friendship is kind of famous at this point, and I wanted to ask, on the gossip show, how do you feel like gossip played into y'all's origin story? Or do you feel like it did at all?

• 2:33Speaker 01

  I guess I wouldn't call it gossip how it started.

• 2:35Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 2:36Speaker 01

  We're gossiping about our teacher being hot or not.

• 2:38Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 2:39Speaker 04

  I think that counts. That 100% counts.

• 2:42Speaker 01

  Yeah, that's professional gossip. You get that, like, we're not doing this for truth or dare.

• 2:46Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 2:47Speaker 01

  It's like, I don't know.

• 2:48Speaker 02

  Run that mouth. But there are certainly things in college, like freshman year, that we would gossip about. I'm thinking specifically everything related to Rachel. Of course. Yeah. Just, she's so trifling. It's crazy.

• 2:58Speaker 01

  That's the real.

• 2:59Speaker 02

  I'm so grateful. The time she sends an email to me. Yep. She. From the side of the road. Don't even know how. Yeah.

• 3:06Speaker 01

  It's, yeah, it's my Facebook banner image of our messy friend sending me an email, being like, "Lost my phone. Can't find anything. I'm on the side of the road." And I said, "So, not my first of something, like, so I'm gonna screenshot this." Before I, like, call the police, but, um, yeah.

• 3:20Speaker 04

  I will say that you guys saying, because of Rachel, that trifling bitch, I was like, "Okay."

• 3:27Speaker 01

  And mind you, one of our best friends.

• 3:29Speaker 02

  Yeah, no, no, truly, like, and she knows, though. Like, she, and she knows that she's so chaotic. Like, Rachel is the type to text my ex to donate to her short film. Like, she really is.

• 3:41Speaker 01

  Oh, that did it?

• 3:41Speaker 02

  No, it did happen. She was like, "Text your ex and text this guy that I met that you went out with once." I'm like, "Wait, so, no."

• 3:49Speaker 01

  Honestly, I'm not mad about her getting her bag, though.

• 3:50Speaker 02

  Well, yeah, she is.

• 3:52Speaker 01

  Women in the arts.

• 3:52Speaker 02

  Ambitious. Yeah.

• 3:54Speaker 04

  What more could you ask for? Yeah, I was just like, damn, shots fired. But I forget there are other Rachels in the world, you know?

• 4:00Speaker 02

  Yeah, yeah, yeah. Sorry.

• 4:02Speaker 01

  You said I took that personally, my community of Rachels.

• 4:04Speaker 02

  No, we love Rachels. We do. We do. We do.

• 4:07Speaker 04

  Shout out to you, Rachel.

• 4:09Speaker 01

  She's gonna love this and I hate it. And clip it and post it.

• 4:13Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 4:13Speaker 01

  That's what she's going to do.

• 4:14Speaker 02

  And then with a donate link to her short film.

• 4:19Speaker 01

  God forbid a woman be an entrepreneur, okay?

• 4:22Speaker 04

  Listen, people don't want to get up off their asses and work these days, and it sounds like Rachel does.

• 4:27Speaker 02

  She, oh, very much so. Very much so.

• 4:29Speaker 01

  She took that confession and called her a heart.

• 4:31Speaker 04

  As a Rachel, I'm liking this person. I don't know why. I'm feeling a kinship to her.

• 4:36Speaker 02

  No, she's great. She's great.

• 4:38Speaker 04

  I'm wondering if you could tell me about, like, what you feel like your relationship is to gossip, both individually and as a pair. Like, do you feel like you share or talk about gossip differently with each other than you do just, like, by yourself?

• 4:51Speaker 02

  I don't think so.

• 4:53Speaker 01

  Yeah. I mean, sometimes it's contractually our job to gossip about celebrities on our pod, on a hot mic.

• 4:59Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 4:59Speaker 01

  But I do think gossip is actually so cathartic and so good for, like, processing through an emotion. And sometimes you kind of gotta get, like, the nasty stuff out first so that you can come to that person with, like, "Okay, here's, like, the real point." And I do think we're both good at that of being like, "I'm gonna, like, rattle off. I'm gonna say things you don't, don't press record, and don't write this down, and don't tell my mom that I'm speaking like this." But it actually helped me get to a closer emotion. I feel like we do that well with each other when we're like, you know?

• 5:28Speaker 02

  Yeah. I think what we talk about a lot, too, is like, that first moment when you, like, lock in with a friend, and you're like, "Oh, wow, we are like, we, we see each other." Like, that moment is, often comes out of gossip, where you look at each other like, "So what happened there?" Like, that is a really important and beautiful moment, I think, that happens in.

• 5:46Speaker 01

  Trauma bonding.

• 5:47Speaker 02

  A lot of, yeah, yeah, or call that. Totally.

• 5:49Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 5:50Speaker 04

  That's really beautiful. I feel like something I get around on this show is, it's important to be a bitch, and it's important to have a space where you can be a bitch. And for the person who's hearing you to say, "I know you're getting this out of your system, so you can approach this as, like, a whole person rather than out of anger." And it's nice to know that someone's not gonna judge you for that. I was just talking to my best friend, and I was like, "Listen, I love the person I'm talking about. I would fight to the death for them. I'm so mad at them, I'm gonna get a gun."

• 6:21Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 6:21Speaker 04

  And she was like, "Listen, talk your shit. I know it's important."

• 6:24Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 6:25Speaker 01

  My favorite text to send, and I think hers to receive is, "Can I be a bitch for a second?" So that's, that's just some good stuff. That's cracking the 80s to me.

• 6:35Speaker 02

  Yeah. Something I really learned from Peyton and our friendship, that it's not bad to set a boundary. Sometimes you have to set a boundary to protect your own feelings and to honor your own feelings, which I was and am still sometimes bad at. And I think gossiping is a good way to, like, get to the root of what's bothering me sometimes. Like, when I'm, like, how I'm telling the story is almost like the parts that I'm prioritizing. Even hearing myself back, in therapy, sometimes I'm like, "Girl, I sound like Amanda Batula." And it's like, "Okay, strict. Nope. No more. No more. No more. No more." And sometimes gossiping about yourself is a way to, yeah, to understand your own feelings better and clearer.

• 7:12Speaker 04

  Wow, I could talk about this for a while with you guys, but a little birdie told me you have some gossip for me.

• 7:17Speaker 02

  Oh, yes.

• 7:19Speaker 01

  We never come empty-handed.

• 7:21Speaker 02

  That is true. Something about us. Yes. Yes. We've got a little yarn to spin for you.

• 7:28Speaker 02

  This is something that we heard from a friend. And she was, like, in a sorority.

• 7:32Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 7:32Speaker 02

  And it was like, I'm not gonna say what school, what sorority, not your business, but basically, she had heard that a girl in the sorority, like, after they'd graduated, was low-key embezzling money from the sorority. The girl was, like, not the president, but she was, like, in a leadership role and had the checkbook.

• 7:50Speaker 04

  Yeah.

• 7:50Speaker 02

  And after graduation, a group of girls were, like, living together, they're all, like, moving out, and someone finds, after this girl had moved out of her, like, bedroom, a check that she'd written out to herself from the sorority checkbook. So then they're like, "Okay, well, let's do some more digging."

• 8:08Speaker 04

  Yeah.

• 8:08Speaker 02

  And then later, my friend heard that they found that she was, like, taking Ubers, had connected the sorority card to, like, all of her Uber Eats, Uber diner, like, DoorDash, whatever.

• 8:18Speaker 04

  She's scammy.

• 8:19Speaker 01

  This is kind of now becoming an episode about women entrepreneurship. Like, that's actually, like, there's a theme.

• 8:26Speaker 04

  I am a little bit like, sorority embezzling, how bad is it?

• 8:31Speaker 01

  She's saying, "Fuck the man," you know what I mean?

• 8:34Speaker 04

  Fuck the woman.

• 8:35Speaker 01

  Exactly. Exactly.

• 8:37Speaker 04

  Fuck feminism.

• 8:38Speaker 02

  Or is she just taking back her dues?

• 8:41Speaker 04

  That's a good point.

• 8:42Speaker 02

  Is she not just like, "You, you hold this $200 for me, and then I'll take it back at a later date of my choosing?"

• 8:48Speaker 04

  I mean, it's kind of like a tax refund, where you're like, "I loaned the government some money, and now they're giving it back to me."

• 8:54Speaker 02

  She said, "And I loaned my sorority some money, and now I'm taking it back."

• 8:58Speaker 01

  I didn't get a return on investment on this one, so she didn't get one internship. She get one good internship. No way.

• 9:04Speaker 04

  Exactly. She's like, "You know what? It's okay. We don't need a good APY. I'll just, I'll just take it back at the end of the year."

• 9:09Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 9:10Speaker 04

  What happened when they found out that she was embezzling money? Did anything happen?

• 9:14Speaker 02

  I think that they confronted her about it, but.

• 9:18Speaker 01

  There were no real consequences?

• 9:19Speaker 02

  Yeah, no, no real consequences.

• 9:20Speaker 01

  And it was, like, post-graduation.

• 9:21Speaker 02

  That's, yeah, that was the other thing, too. It's like, at that point, they're all, like, they're all seniors.

• 9:26Speaker 01

  The Nini Leaks quote.

• 9:27Speaker 02

  You wanna move on? You wanna talk about it? What? So what now? So what else?

• 9:34Speaker 04

  Low-key iconic of this girl, I'm not gonna lie.

• 9:37Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 9:37Speaker 01

  I would see her as an icon, but, like, our friend was like, "She low-key sucked." Like.

• 9:41Speaker 02

  Well, that's the thing. It's like, you can't be not, well, like, it's easier to be sneaky if people, like, fuck with you, because if a bitch you fucked with was like, "Oh, I've been embezzling," I'd be like, "That's crazy."

• 9:50Speaker 01

  Like, anyway, so, what are you gonna do for lunch?

• 9:52Speaker 02

  Truly, truly, I guess what it ought have gotten around.

• 9:54Speaker 04

  Sounds like lunch is on you.

• 9:55Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 9:58Speaker 01

  And I'm getting a drink. Yeah.

• 9:59Speaker 04

  I know, but it does feel like, unfortunately, I never find out that the girl that I like is embezzling.

• 10:05Speaker 01

  I wish I had an embezzling attitude about me, but I tried to steal from American Apparel one time, and I had a panic attack. And then I, like, paid double. I was like, "Actually, let's here, take all my money." It was horrible. All my friends had stolen successfully, were waiting outside, me flopped. I'm like, "Actually, I won all of it." It was horrible.

• 10:20Speaker 02

  But like, you're such a, like, sweet talker, smooth talker. I'm sure they'd just give it to you for free, low-key.

• 10:25Speaker 01

  And they'd be like, "I love your attitude."

• 10:26Speaker 02

  Yeah, no, really. They're like, "You know what? Take it. Keep it."

• 10:30Speaker 01

  That's true. That's true. Reframe.

• 10:32Speaker 04

  Sounds like you should start embezzling more.

• 10:34Speaker 01

  I should. Audience, let me know. Where should I start?

• 10:38Speaker 02

  I do like the idea of a sorority is like an organized crime ring. Like, there's a really iconic Amanda Bynes 2007 movie in that, you know? Like, that, that is like a coming-of-age movie that would have ate down on Disney Channel.

• 10:52Speaker 04

  It's true. I'm imagining Bling Ring, but at a college sorority.

• 10:55Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 10:56Speaker 04

  Um, your gossip kind of perfectly intersects with my gossip that I'm gonna give you. It's not about embezzlement, but it is about crimes committed by college students. Well, are you guys ready?

• 11:06Speaker 02

  I am.

• 11:11Speaker 04

  We've been cooking up a fun, special holiday project for y'all over here at Normal Gossip. And usually when work gets crazy, I kind of just try to continue my life like nothing's happening. But recently, thanks to therapy, this time around, I was like, what if I did not try to pour from an empty cup? And that is what growing feels like. If you've been thinking about starting therapy, then I think you should check out today's sponsor, Growth Therapy. Growth Therapy is built for therapy that actually feels like care. You can find therapy based on what matters most to you, like insurance taken, mental health specialties, identity, or night and weekend availability if you're working a lot.

• 11:57Speaker 04

  Book your first session in minutes and you can start in as little as two days. Sessions average $21 with insurance and some pay as little as $0, depending on your insurance plan. Prepare for holiday glimmers instead of holiday stress. Visit growtherapy.com/gossip to get started today. That is growtherapy.com/gossip. Availability and coverage vary by state and insurance plan. I'm gonna admit something embarrassing. I know, shocker. I have not had a bedside lamp for an undisclosed amount of months, long enough that I basically haven't read before bed for a really long time. And I only realized this because I'm hosting a friend and I was like, wow,

• 12:41Speaker 04

  they deserve to have a light by their bed at night. I don't. But this finally inspired me to find the perfect bedside lamp and I had a vision in mind. Wayfair, they had exactly what I need, which is one of those library style lights with like the green lampshade and little pull cord. I have been having this image in my mind of having one and now I have one because of course Wayfair had it. For all things hosting, Wayfair delivers high-quality, customer-trusted products for your home so you can host and celebrate without distress. When refreshing your home this holiday season, Wayfair delivers exactly what you need. Head to wayfair.com to shop all things home. That's W A Y F A I R dot com.

• 13:27Speaker 04

  Some of y'all may know that I used to host a twice weekly show about internet culture. And after doing that for three years, I basically abandoned social media. You can barely catch me online unless I absolutely need to. The one exception is Reddit. I swear to God, it is the one social media app that I check every single day because they have everything I need. I mean, I turn to my favorite subreddits like r/girldinnerdiaries when I'm bored or r/oneorangebraincell because who doesn't want to see an orange cat? Or sometimes I'm just looking for recipes or I'm looking for someone to talk to me

• 14:10Speaker 04

  about secret lives of Mormon wives. Reddit has useful answers, real perspectives, and communities built around whatever you are into or figuring out next. Download the Reddit app today.

• 14:27Speaker 04

  Our story today is about a very controversial topic, possibly the most controversial topic we've ever talked about on Normal Gossip.

• 14:34Speaker 01

  And we're the right ones for it.

• 14:36Speaker 04

  Theater kids.

• 14:38Speaker 01

  Hunter gets up.

• 14:42Speaker 01

  Let's do it.

• 14:43Speaker 04

  Well, I'm assuming you both have some thoughts and feelings about theater kids, so please hold forth. Are you friends with theater kids? Are you a theater kid? Where do you fall on the love-hate spectrum?

• 14:56Speaker 01

  I'm Peyton Dix and I'm an actress.

• 14:59Speaker 02

  Yeah, I actually did do theater growing up.

• 15:04Speaker 02

  Yes, I did.

• 15:06Speaker 01

  No, I know, but one time I was like, what were you, crew?

• 15:09Speaker 02

  And Hunter pulled out a Glock and shot me.

• 15:12Speaker 01

  Sorry, did she not deserve it? What do you mean, what are you, crew? If anything, first of all, I'm gonna be the director. I'm gonna be the auteur. Second of all, no, I was a child in a production of Ragtime. So that's why I know all the songs in Ragtime.

• 15:28Speaker 04

  That's incredible.

• 15:28Speaker 01

  But like, no shade to crew though, because crew is fab. Crew keeps that.

• 15:33Speaker 01

  Don't try to, look at her, look at her. So this is, she's interference is what's happening right now. What you're hearing right now is someone trying to enter the spin zone. Don't let it happen to you. I'm doing laundry. Okay, sorry. Yes, we love them here. Yes, see how we yes and that in the way.

• 15:49Speaker 04

  I cannot act or sing, but I do love musicals. Like unfortunately, if you put Hamilton on right now, I would be off book.

• 15:56Speaker 02

  I like that you said you cannot act or sing. Neither can a lot of theater kids. And that's something that we can, what we can see.

• 16:02Speaker 01

  There's a lot of evidence. Time and time again.

• 16:05Speaker 04

  Yeah, you're right. And this is actually similar to today's friend of a friend. Our friend of a friend today is named Erin and Erin is a newly minted college student. So the year is 2023, so Erin spent her sophomore and junior years of high school looking at Zoom, basically, and getting really into the Bridgerton musical on TikTok. Like luckily Erin's prom and graduation were canceled, but by the time she enters college, she kind of feels like she's never had like a normal school experience.

• 16:34Speaker 01

  Oh, wow, that's sad.

• 16:35Speaker 04

  So the moment our girl steps onto campus, she signs up for like a dozen listeners, including the one for the campus theater troupe, which means Erin is one of the first to hear that the 2024 Spring Musical will be none other than Les Misérables.

• 16:53Speaker 01

  One of the greats.

• 16:58Speaker 01

  And halfway, I stuck with you while everyone else said, be quiet.

• 17:03Speaker 04

  Exactly. The happy hate never had a home in my heart. Well, I guess I'm kind of just embarrassing myself in front of you guys today. This was like a safe space. I got really into the 2012 Les Mis movie, like one that a lot of people kind of agree is bad. Because of Russell Crowe.

• 17:20Speaker 01

  You're safe.

• 17:20Speaker 02

  This is the Anne Hathaway version, right?

• 17:22Speaker 01

  When she won the Oscar and said, it came true.

• 17:26Speaker 04

  This movie inspired me to join the Les Mis fandom on Tumblr. Like I was reading PhD analyses of the Victor Hugo book, which the fandom calls The Brick. This is how deep.

• 17:37Speaker 01

  Well, I heard that about you. I read a tweet about an article about you. No, but actually I was listening to an episode where your friends kind of like got your ass and they were like, oh, you're like a fanfic diva, aren't you?

• 17:49Speaker 04

  And I am.

• 17:50Speaker 02

  Oh, wow.

• 17:50Speaker 04

  And I am. It is, it's important to me as a person. So anyway, the campus theater troupe is doing Les Mis this year, but they're not just doing any Les Mis. Remember that 2023 is the year after Renaissance came out, the life-changing album? And these are college kids who have spent too much time online and are just really into the like incredible thematic symmetry created by mixing disco and its counterculture roots with the French Revolution. So these kids are doing disco Les Mis, complete with dance numbers performed on roller skates.

• 18:26Speaker 02

  Oh, the usher is in the room. Okay, okay. There's the spirit of usher in the room with us right now. Okay, okay, okay.

• 18:34Speaker 01

  I just saw an ankle break in my head, but I'm, I'm listening and I'm learning.

• 18:38Speaker 04

  Would you sign up for disco Les Mis if it was coming to your campus? I'm a little intrigued, I can't lie.

• 18:44Speaker 02

  Absolutely not. I, listen, I love the youth. I'm not gonna trust them with this execution. I don't think it's gonna come together.

• 18:51Speaker 01

  There's not a lot I say no to in general, which I should probably work on. But, so yeah, I would go off.

• 18:56Speaker 02

  No, she's signed up.

• 19:03Speaker 04

  I can see it in my head. Erin is also all in. Unfortunately for her, this troupe has a no-rejections policy for ensemble roles.

• 19:11Speaker 02

  Fuck that. I'm like, that's the participation trophy culture.

• 19:15Speaker 01

  Literally, I got in trouble in our college because we,

• 19:20Speaker 01

  like all the good dancers like basically unionized to be like, we can't just let anyone up in here. They're ruining the routines. And they were like, this is like not how we roll. And we had to have like a whole sit down about like who, who gets to be in. That is so funny. That's so funny. We lost, but whatever.

• 19:35Speaker 04

  Sounds like you don't like dancers of diverse experience.

• 19:40Speaker 01

  You got my ass.

• 19:45Speaker 01

  I'd be on tape with Cray's ass and my girl. Left the building. She said, oh, well, yeah, sorry. Not, not in my troupe. What is that? Not in my backyard?

• 19:57Speaker 04

  Nimby but for dance.

• 19:59Speaker 01

  Oh, my God.

• 20:03Speaker 01

  Back to our friend.

• 20:04Speaker 04

  Yeah, Erin.

• 20:06Speaker 01

  Erin, thank you.

• 20:07Speaker 04

  Yes. Well, if you show up to auditions, you are automatically in the show. So at the auditions, Erin meets the people who are running the show. Their names are Lucy and Florence. They are transfer seniors, so they're older than everyone else by a few years. Like, they took some gap years. So they're 23 and 24. The pandemic seemingly disrupted a lot of things for people at this time in their lives. I was very grateful I was not in school in 2020. I was like, OK, I don't have to deal with any of this shit.

• 20:35Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 20:36Speaker 04

  Lucy is the director and the show is her senior thesis project, while Florence is the dramaturg. Um, I did not know what a dramaturg was before this story. Do y'all know? What it is? Can you explain?

• 20:51Speaker 01

  It's like the person who researches, like, for the play, to make sure it's, like, accurate.

• 20:56Speaker 04

  Yeah.

• 20:56Speaker 02

  They're like the point person if you have a question about a time period or about like, uh, like that, right? Like, all the details and, like, context of the show.

• 21:03Speaker 04

  Yes. This is also what I found out when I Googled, what is a dramaturg?

• 21:07Speaker 01

  Kind of sounds like Emerson College. Okay, if you think about it. Yeah. Emerson College, it's like actually part of the, uh, admissions essay.

• 21:14Speaker 02

  Define dramaturg.

• 21:15Speaker 01

  Yeah, yeah, yeah.

• 21:17Speaker 04

  Well, according to the Kennedy Center, the role of a dramaturg refers to someone who works in the capacity of a researcher or an advisor. And a dramaturg described their role as, I'm there to ask questions and help answer them, which feels both like an answer and also raises more questions for me personally.

• 21:34Speaker 01

  It does sound a bit like a riddle. Yeah.

• 21:36Speaker 02

  Right?

• 21:38Speaker 04

  But what do you think a 24-year-old dramaturg is adding to this production of Disco Les Mis?

• 21:43Speaker 01

  Well, you know, this is the only time I'm gonna say 24-year-old adds a lot. Because if everyone else is 19, yeah, she knows.

• 21:50Speaker 04

  It's true. Well, something else important to know is that Florence and Lucy are best friends. On the first day of rehearsals, they explained that they were actually together when they got the idea for the show. They were listening to Renaissance on vinyl and the muse visited them in a glitter-covered vision.

• 22:05Speaker 01

  OK, yeah.

• 22:06Speaker 04

  Lucy also reveals that although she's still early career, her first drama teacher said that she could be the next Andrew Lloyd Webber, and her parents agreed. While Florence says that the first time she heard the Dixie Chicks sing "Landslide", it unlocked something for her about how synthesis is the nature of art. Our girl Erin is immediately in awe of Lucy and Florence. She's like, for the first time in my life, I'm working with real artists. Lucy and Florence explain that putting on the show will take three months, opening with a crash course on roller skating, followed by two and a half months of rehearsals and dance practice, a week off for spring break, and then two weeks of technical rehearsals, all for one week of performances.

• 22:47Speaker 01

  I was like, that's more than most actors get right now for, for their shows. That's crazy.

• 22:51Speaker 04

  Any concerns so far?

• 22:53Speaker 02

  It's her thesis project, you said? It's hard to have a thesis when you can't actually reject anyone from the production, so.

• 22:59Speaker 04

  So what's revolutionary drama?

• 23:00Speaker 02

  Yeah, it's like, OK, how to work with difficult people? OK.

• 23:03Speaker 04

  Well, Erin is ready to take this as seriously as she's ever taken anything in her young life. She's arriving early, she's staying late, she's practicing on her roller skates in the hallway of her dorm. She's having so much fun. She's making friends. They have a group chat. They stay up together until after midnight to get the blocking right. Like, these are overachieving theater kids. Erin feels like she's part of something bigger than herself, like a bee in a hive, except the hive is art, you know?

• 23:33Speaker 01

  Mm-hmm. And I've always said that.

• 23:36Speaker 04

  It only takes a couple of weeks for Erin to be like, actually, it is revolutionary praxis to set Les Mis in 1979. And she's not the only one. Everyone in the cast is drinking the same Kool-Aid. When Lucy says they're gonna replicate Bianca Jagger riding a white horse into Studio 54, except the white horse is gonna be bedazzled, like Beyonce's prop horse in Renaissance, popularly known as Renee.

• 24:00Speaker 01

  Of course, government.

• 24:01Speaker 04

  Everyone's mind is blown. Now, if this went up on Broadway, would you go see it?

• 24:07Speaker 01

  No.

• 24:08Speaker 04

  Really?

• 24:08Speaker 02

  Well, I do love a mess.

• 24:10Speaker 04

  I was gonna ask how much you would pay for it.

• 24:12Speaker 01

  I was assuming it was a gifted situation and, you know, in exchange, maybe for a story post or something like that.

• 24:19Speaker 04

  You said, I'm not paying for this. No.

• 24:21Speaker 01

  But I feel like I've seen some crazy things on Broadway. What's one more crazy thing on Broadway?

• 24:25Speaker 02

  That's true.

• 24:25Speaker 01

  Like, you know?

• 24:26Speaker 04

  Yeah. I mean, I can't lie, I'd pay at least $100.

• 24:30Speaker 01

  Support the arts.

• 24:31Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 24:34Speaker 04

  Well, our girl isn't just expanding her horizons artistically, she's also expanding them romantically with a guy in the main cast. His name is Gus, and he is a senior. So he seems very, like, mature and worldly to Erin, even though he is also a first-time actor. Gus is very tall, he has beautiful brown eyes, he's so hot that everyone in the cast calls him Hot Gus, even though there's only one Gus in the cast.

• 24:58Speaker 01

  That's my dream.

• 24:59Speaker 02

  Yeah, that's kind of.

• 24:59Speaker 01

  That's my dream role. OK.

• 25:03Speaker 04

  Well, Gus's role is Marius in Les Mis, and his costume is a see-through metallic pink pirate shirt. Erin doesn't have any scenes with Gus, and she, but she does see him, like, regularly in passing, and there's always, like, a little something going on. Like, they'll go out of their way to say hi to each other or find a reason to say hi to each other multiple times in, like, an hour. They both lean in when they're talking to each other, and they make eye contact from across the stage, enough that Erin's like, this is nothing. So, you're Erin, you're a college freshman who has not had a lot of practical experience with flirting because of the pandemic. How would you proceed?

• 25:42Speaker 01

  Hard for me. I was a hoe in high school.

• 25:46Speaker 02

  She's a good flirt, too. I've seen her in action, and oh my.

• 25:51Speaker 01

  To the point where I get made fun of, actually, where people are like, that's a wall, you don't need to talk to me like that. And I'm like, oh, sorry.

• 25:58Speaker 02

  No, she gets lost in it. I'm like, OK, come on.

• 26:02Speaker 01

  Let's keep it moving.

• 26:05Speaker 01

  Sorry. Oh, my God, I hate being myself. I'm gonna change. Oh, my God.

• 26:11Speaker 01

  No, it is, it is funny. Um, OK, I don't know. I guess I would say ask to run lines with him. I, that's like, um. I appreciate clarity. So I think I would just be a little bit forthcoming about what I wanted to find out what Gus wants. And then if I get rejected, then like, that's, I'm gonna have to deal with that after that. But maybe I would just do, like, shoulders back, titties up.

• 26:34Speaker 04

  Wow.

• 26:35Speaker 02

  That's, see, that's how she is. That's how she is. And me, let's run our, let's run lines together. Go to run lines together.

• 26:43Speaker 01

  Gus, get your pretty ass over here. Let's talk. No, and that's the binary right there.

• 26:51Speaker 04

  Well, Erin is, she's a little shy.

• 26:53Speaker 01

  Mm-hmm.

• 26:54Speaker 04

  She's enjoying, like, the cheeky little tension, and it's really fun to have a crush and have, like, a time and place where she's known.

• 27:00Speaker 02

  I'm in a crush recession right now.

• 27:02Speaker 04

  Listen, she's like, I know where I'm gonna go to get flirted upon. This is great. I don't need to change anything. And she's also a little scared that if things go wrong, she'll have to see this person, like, consistently for the next few months. So she doesn't really hurry it along. She and Gus have just progressed to the point of exchanging fist bumps when spring break arrives.

• 27:22Speaker 01

  I'm trying to find a way to make that, like, horny to me, but.

• 27:25Speaker 04

  A little lingering fist bump.

• 27:26Speaker 01

  Because I love, like, bro. I think, like, that's so sexy to me if someone calls me bro that I have a crush on.

• 27:30Speaker 04

  Yeah.

• 27:31Speaker 01

  A fist bump, it is a little too PG.

• 27:34Speaker 02

  I think Erin is being put in the friend zone. That's what I think.

• 27:37Speaker 04

  Well, spring break arrives, and no one from the cast is staying on campus. Otherwise, like, Erin might have stayed too. In fact, Lucy and Florence tell the cast that the two of them are going to Cabo for spring break, and they want everyone to party hard over spring break and come back rested and rejuvenated and ready to do the work. Have you ever had any friendships, like, change after traveling together?

• 27:59Speaker 02

  Oh, yeah.

• 27:59Speaker 01

  Remember Rachel?

• 28:03Speaker 01

  We actually had a crazy spring break there together.

• 28:06Speaker 02

  Was that New Orleans?

• 28:07Speaker 01

  Oh, wow. And that's all I will just claim on this podcast, but DM me and I'll tell you what happened. Travel can really show you somebody.

• 28:15Speaker 04

  Well, spring break comes and goes. Technical rehearsals start up, which are, as you know, the rehearsals that are supposed to have, like, everything integrated, like, the music, the lights, and the scenery. And Erin can't help noticing that the vibes of the whole production are, like, noticeably more tense now. But Erin's are friends to share her that that's normal, it's just what happens during tech week. Lucy, the director, calls the meeting of the whole cast. She says, look, I know rehearsals are stressful, but I don't want to hear about any of you lashing out at your castmates. And I don't want to hear any of you lashing out at me.

• 28:47Speaker 01

  I don't want to hear anyone lashing out at me is just crazy to say.

• 28:50Speaker 02

  So you've lost control of the crowd.

• 28:52Speaker 01

  Crazy announcement. Like, no, you've lost control of the room. You need to be.

• 28:56Speaker 04

  Wow. OK. Erin's like, I wonder what that's about. So she goes up to Lucy after the meeting along with some of her buddies, partially to check on Lucy, who despite just coming back from Cabo, does not seem, like, rested or rejuvenated at all. And also, Erin wants the gossip. But Lucy just says that someone said something very mean, and then refuses to go into any detail beyond that. It does not take long, however, for everyone to notice that Lucy and Florence are no longer attached at the hip. In fact, it's almost like they're avoiding even being in the same room together. So, you're Erin, would you investigate?

• 29:32Speaker 01

  Absolutely. Girl, I'm me, I'm gonna investigate. As Hunter, I'm gonna investigate.

• 29:36Speaker 02

  She pulled her clipboard out already. You didn't even have to finish the story. She's like, I'm taking notes. What's up?

• 29:41Speaker 04

  She's like, give me the iPad.

• 29:42Speaker 02

  No, no, for sure. Yeah, this, Hunter's so jealous of this, by the way, right now. She wants a stencil on the iPad so bad as she's twitching. Like, it's like a cigarette for her.

• 29:54Speaker 01

  OK, we're getting to the bottom of it. We're getting to the bottom.

• 29:56Speaker 04

  Yeah. Yeah. Erin's like, OK, I'm gonna try and investigate. But before she can, disaster strikes the production.

• 30:10Speaker 04

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• 33:40Speaker 04

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• 34:23Speaker 04

  Lucy had booked a couple of makeup artists that she had found on Instagram, who said they wanted to like expand their portfolio. And they're supposed to start working with the cast once tech rehearsals start, except tech rehearsals start and Lucy cannot get in contact with her makeup artist. Like, they completely ghost her. Do not respond to any texts, or emails, or DMs, even though Lucy can see them posting from a brand trip in Aruba. Because Erin always gets to rehearsals early, she hears Lucy and Florence fighting about this on the second day of tech. Lucy's like, "We can do a week of tech rehearsals without makeup." And Florence is like, "Absolutely not." She says she's not gonna lower her standards just because someone fucked up with the booking. And Lucy's like, "Well, if it's a priority for you, sounds like you'll be doing the makeup

• 35:07Speaker 04

  while I try to find some new makeup artists." And it's quiet for a moment before Florence is like, "If I didn't care so much about this show, I would quit right now." And then she says, "But I would rather jump in traffic before I let you take my name off this."

• 35:22Speaker 02

  Oh, it's serious.

• 35:23Speaker 01

  Oh, my god.

• 35:24Speaker 02

  Saying you can do the makeup yourself then is crazy. Okay, yeah, we're rolling with it.

• 35:28Speaker 04

  Erin overhears this whole conversation and she's like, "Wow, these are serious artists."

• 35:38Speaker 02

  That's kind of me AF, but yeah.

• 35:41Speaker 01

  That's how I guess you're a teen.

• 35:45Speaker 04

  Do you feel like these are serious artists?

• 35:48Speaker 02

  They're the most serious artists I've ever met.

• 35:51Speaker 02

  I would even say too serious. Yeah, yeah.

• 35:54Speaker 04

  Well, Florence is immediately overwhelmed by the extra work of doing everyone's makeup. Like, she spends so much time doing Jean Valjean's makeup that the actress who plays Cassette ends up having to do both Javert and Fantine's makeup. And after rehearsals that day, the actress that plays Cassette tells Lucy that she will never be helping with makeup again because it had cut into her time for vocal warmups.

• 36:15Speaker 02

  Mmm, important.

• 36:16Speaker 04

  Important. Erin's friends in the ensemble overhear Lucy bring up time management to Florence. And Florence just says, "You're seriously asking me not to do Jean Valjean's makeup correctly? He's in almost every scene." I'm just gonna pretend I didn't hear that. So on the fourth day of tech, Erin once again shows up early to rehearsal and Lucy is like, "Hey, I really like your makeup." Erin is over the moon. She's been incorporating more glitter into her look to really get into the mood of like Disco Les Mis. And Lucy's like, "Did you do your makeup yourself?"

• 36:47Speaker 02

  Oh, no.

• 36:48Speaker 04

  And Erin's like, "Yeah, I did."

• 36:50Speaker 02

  Oh, shit.

• 36:50Speaker 04

  Which is when Lucy's like, "Great, you're hired." Go tell Florence she's got help now. So Erin makes her way on over to Florence, who is just starting on Jean Valjean's makeup. And when Erin taps Florence on the shoulder, Florence is like, "What?"

• 37:03Speaker 02

  First of all, crazy. Okay, hold on, hold on.

• 37:06Speaker 01

  So let's try that one more time.

• 37:11Speaker 04

  And Erin's like, "Lucy brought me on to help with the makeup." And Florence just stares at her for a moment before being like, "Whatever, don't slow me down."

• 37:18Speaker 02

  It sounds like she can't get slower, but okay, yeah, totally.

• 37:21Speaker 04

  You said, "Sounds like an impossible thing to do."

• 37:23Speaker 02

  Right, okay.

• 37:25Speaker 04

  At this point, we are about 10 days out from opening night. How are y'all feeling so far?

• 37:30Speaker 02

  Bad.

• 37:30Speaker 01

  Not good. Not good, I'll tell ya.

• 37:34Speaker 04

  Yeah.

• 37:35Speaker 02

  I don't think we're gonna see opening night. I mean, with that attitude, I don't know.

• 37:38Speaker 04

  Yeah. Yeah. Well, despite the fact that Erin wasn't really asked, and now she has to show up early for rehearsal instead of doing it for like shits and gigs, she actually does really enjoy doing the makeup. She's having fun. She teaches the whole ensemble how to do their own body glitter. She's able to get Cassette, Marius, and Javert done while Florence focuses on Jean Valjean. And if she gets faster, she's even able to start putting like tasteful face gems on everyone. Plus, now Erin gets to gossip with at least half the cast every day. And she once again starts to suspect that whatever's going on with the vibes is maybe not just stress. Like, Lucy will go around checking in with people. She always has a Red Bull in one hand, and a clipboard in the other, and a pen behind her ear. And she's speaking more loudly than she usually does.

• 38:23Speaker 04

  She keeps saying, "I need to see smiling faces." And she's always asking people things like, "You're feeling good? You promise? Let's not have any surprises, okay?"

• 38:33Speaker 02

  I love her. I'm sorry. I'm not like, so I stand. This is just Sharpe Evans. Like, God forbid.

• 38:41Speaker 04

  Also, the disco horse is causing problems for this production. Covering the horse with sequins is taking more time than anyone had really anticipated. Like, if they're lucky and work really, really hard, as in through the night for the next seven days straight, they might have covered one side of the horse by opening night, which means that the horse can only enter from one side of the stage and it will not be able to turn left. And Lucy just keeps checking in in a way that even Erin can see is not helpful. Lucy's like, "We used real nettles when I was the AD for Shakespeare in the park in Sacramento, and no one has ever forgotten that, Ophelia. So just know, every sequin will be worth it."

• 39:23Speaker 02

  This, Loki, sounds like the pre-production of Renaissance Tour. Like, from the documentary. But yeah, totally.

• 39:30Speaker 04

  Well, with that in mind, do you have any predictions for how opening night's gonna go?

• 39:34Speaker 01

  I'm a glass half-full kind of diva, so I'm always like, "I think they could spin it."

• 39:39Speaker 02

  I think someone's not gonna show. I think someone's not gonna show.

• 39:41Speaker 04

  Well, surprising everyone, including me, when I read the story, opening night goes really well.

• 39:46Speaker 02

  Yeah, I knew it. I knew it.

• 39:49Speaker 04

  Lucy is like openly in agony, waiting for the reviews in the campus newspapers to come out.

• 39:56Speaker 01

  Okay.

• 39:58Speaker 01

  No, totally.

• 39:59Speaker 02

  Okay, it's so funny.

• 40:03Speaker 01

  Oh my god.

• 40:04Speaker 04

  But the buzz is actually mostly good. No one notices that the horse can't turn left. Though, the Socialist magazine does pan the production, not for the performances, which the writer says are strong, but for all the sequins and glitter, which are not biodegradable, which they say really distracts from the anti-capitalist message of Victor Hugo's Les Misérables.

• 40:27Speaker 01

  Okay, it's always someone, you know what I mean? It's always something from someone. But sure, okay.

• 40:36Speaker 04

  Despite this, ticket sales are strong, and by closing night, Erin is just grateful to have been part of something. Like, she feels like she's been through a trial by fire and come out the other side. It's time for the cast party. Erin's buddies in the ensemble tell her the cast parties have a reputation of being overly dramatic, which is not a surprise to me.

• 40:54Speaker 01

  Sounds like the production, yeah.

• 40:56Speaker 04

  Exactly. And since this is immediately post-pandemic, this is actually the first real giant college party that a lot of these kids have been to.

• 41:03Speaker 01

  Oh shit. I'm like, girl, what is about to happen with you guys? I hope he's safe.

• 41:09Speaker 04

  Erin and her friends assume there's gonna be drama, so they make plans for the next morning to get, like, hungover coffees to discuss what's going on. Most of the cast speculation revolves around a certain couple that everyone is expecting to get together. Cassette and Jean Valjean are a little item, which is a little incestuous, if you know the plot of Les Mis, but whatever. They were constantly side by side in, like, cast meetings and giggling and inside jokes together, so everyone's kind of placing bets on if they're gonna hook up at this party. So the party's at Lucy's house, it's off campus, it starts at eight. Erin gets to the party at 10.

• 41:42Speaker 01

  Okay.

• 41:42Speaker 04

  And she can immediately tell people have been going really hard on the jungle juice. Everyone is absolutely fucking gone. Like, these are kids whose brains have been melted by TikTok and they're trying to throw a real college party and unintentionally going way too fucking hard. Like, the jungle juice is as close as they can get to recreating the original Four Loko?

• 42:04Speaker 01

  That's crazy.

• 42:06Speaker 04

  Yeah.

• 42:07Speaker 01

  That's a lot.

• 42:07Speaker 04

  There are enough Jell-O shots for everyone to, like, eat their body weight in Jell-O. And for some reason, they're playing beer pong with Bacardi instead of beer. Almost everyone at this party is still in their costumes, so someone's in, like, a wig and hot pants, they are bell bottoms and, like, little vests everywhere, and right by the table, full of Jell-O shots, is none other than Hot Gus.

• 42:28Speaker 01

  Thank god.

• 42:30Speaker 02

  I've been waiting.

• 42:31Speaker 01

  We need this. We need one win.

• 42:33Speaker 04

  The collective inhale.

• 42:38Speaker 01

  Let's see how it goes, yeah.

• 42:40Speaker 04

  He's wearing his metallic pink pirate shirt, he's still got his face gems on. Erin does literally feel like she's in an episode of Euphoria as she approaches him under this, like, blue and red lighting.

• 42:51Speaker 02

  Her Nate Jacobs.

• 42:54Speaker 01

  Hopefully, your Angus cloud.

• 42:55Speaker 02

  Rue Bennett.

• 42:56Speaker 04

  Well, now that they're in a party setting, it feels like the flirting is immediately up by 10. Like, Hot Gus is complimenting Erin's pleather jumpsuit, his hand is, like, lingering on the small of her back. At one point, he's like, "So who is your favorite character?" And when Erin answers Javert, Gus is like, "I see how it is."

• 43:15Speaker 01

  That's a good one. I love to do that. Oh, so you hate me? What? Is it working on you right now?

• 43:21Speaker 04

  A little bit.

• 43:21Speaker 01

  Okay, that's him. Like I said, just move. What can I say?

• 43:27Speaker 04

  Well, you're Erin, how are you gonna play this?

• 43:30Speaker 02

  You know what I'm gonna do? I'm gonna say something and then whisper it, so it's like, oh, we have to go somewhere else to talk, like, quieter.

• 43:35Speaker 04

  Yeah, yeah.

• 43:37Speaker 01

  That's good.

• 43:38Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 43:38Speaker 01

  That's good.

• 43:38Speaker 04

  Well, 18-year-old Erin decides she needs to be more drunk at this moment. She needs a little bit more liquid courage. So she's on Red Solo Cup number three when she spots Hot Gus playing beer pong with Florence, and this feels like a perfect moment to resume flirting, except when she joins Hot Gus and Florence, it very quickly becomes clear that Florence is also trying to flirt with Hot Gus. The operative word here, though, is trying, because Hot Gus is not reciprocating in the same way he does with Erin, and it is clearly pissing Florence off. And this is both exciting and stressful for Erin. She's like, "Should I leave?" But she's also like, "I wanna stay."

• 44:21Speaker 04

  So she stays, which she does instantly regret when one of her friends from the ensemble rolls up with a Polaroid camera. Like, at first, it's fine, they just yell "Say cheese", and Erin, Hot Gus, and Florence all pose together. There's, like, a big flash, but then Erin's friend hands Hot Gus the camera, and she gestures at him and Erin and yells, "Why don't you two just kiss already?" before running away. Um, have you ever been wingmanned against your will?

• 44:47Speaker 01

  I feel like you've done that to me before. Yeah, I feel like, I feel like it's, I feel like it's happened once or twice. Because I just like to see what happens.

• 44:55Speaker 01

  This is my artistic spirit.

• 44:58Speaker 04

  You said this is improv.

• 45:02Speaker 04

  Yeah, well, Erin starts laughing really nervously, like, our girl is sweating. She's, like, yelling "Come back" to her friend because she wants to divert, and thankfully, Hot Gus is also laughing, but Florence is like, "I guess I'll just leave you two to it then." Erin and Hot Gus talk for a bit, but it kind of feels like everyone is looking at them now, and Erin starts feeling overwhelmed, so she makes an excuse to go chat with some of her friends, and as she's walking across the room, no less than three separate people come up to her to ask her what's going on between her and Hot Gus. Erin is getting, like, increasingly stressed out. She's like, "Okay, I know I don't have that much flirting experience, but I didn't realize it was bad enough that everyone can see it across the room."

• 45:47Speaker 04

  And then she's like, "I need another drink. I can't deal with this." So she goes for Red Solo Cup number four to recover.

• 45:53Speaker 01

  That's usually the one.

• 45:54Speaker 04

  It is now almost 2:00 a.m. when Erin realizes she has to pee. She goes to the bathroom and has what I feel like is one of the most universal experiences in the world, which is only realizing how drunk you are upon seeing yourself in the mirror. I actually tend to feel it when I'm, like, getting up from the toilet, and I'm like, "Ho, whoa." But Erin is in the bathroom mirror like Issa Rae in Insecure, except instead of hyping herself up, she's spiraling. She's like, "Am I bad at flirting? Did I royally fuck that up with Gus? Is that why the vibes are so weird?" And then she's like, "Erin, you've got to pull yourself together." Our girl is having her moment in the bathroom for approximately, like, six minutes, maybe seven, max. She's just convinced herself that the vibes are, in fact, not weird at

• 46:37Speaker 04

  all, except then she exits the bathroom and finds that fully two-thirds of the people who had been at the party are now gone.

• 46:44Speaker 01

  Oh, she was not in there for seven minutes, like...

• 46:47Speaker 04

  Her friends are gone, Hot Gus is gone, everyone has just emptied out while Erin was spiraling, because standing in the middle of Lucy's empty living room are Lucy and Florence, and they are absolutely going at it with each other. And standing next to them is the actor who plays Jean Valjean. He is soaking wet, red wine is, like, dripping from his hair, and staining his, like, billowing white shirt. Before Erin can even make sense of what she's seeing, Florence lunges at Lucy, and Jean Valjean, like, holds her back, and Florence is yelling, "I never want to see you again," to which Lucy yells back, "Thank god."

• 47:27Speaker 01

  Love it.

• 47:28Speaker 02

  Ate her up, ate her up, ate her up.

• 47:29Speaker 04

  And then Lucy turns to, like, the rest of the strikers at the party and is like, "All of you need to get the fuck out of my house." So we are almost at the end of our story. What do you think happened between Lucy and Florence?

• 47:41Speaker 02

  Maybe they fought over another guy in Cabo.

• 47:44Speaker 04

  Well, Erin, like, flees the scene, and she's like, "Wow, artistic differences are so serious."

• 47:49Speaker 01

  Girl, okay, we gotta grow up.

• 47:53Speaker 01

  Come on, let's go get you home. This is crazy.

• 47:56Speaker 04

  She gets back to her dorm and is, like, catching her roommate up on all the drama, and her roommate is like, "I can't believe you didn't get another chance to flirt with Hot Gus." And then she's like, "Okay, if you DM Hot Gus, I would DM my crush." And Erin is like, "Okay, fair enough, like, deal made." She messages Hot Gus and is like, "Do you wanna get coffee so we can talk through whatever just happened?" So the next morning, Erin wakes up hungover and confused. As planned, she drags herself out to meet five of her friends from the ensemble for coffee and a debrief, and when she gets there, everyone's like, "Ooh, here she is, the drama. We saved the seat for you right here." And they put her into a chair, like, right in the middle of everybody. And Erin's like,

• 48:37Speaker 04

  "What did I miss? Does anyone know what happened last night?" And everyone's like, "Girl, you happened. You were the drama." Everyone wants to know what happened with Hot Gus, and Erin's like, "Literally, nothing? Like, we talked for a little bit?" And so everyone's talking through the night, and also, like, the past few months of production. And it turns out, they all saw different things over the course of all the different rehearsals, and here's what happens as it's laid out at this brunch. So, right after casting, three entire months ago, Florence started hooking up with Jean Valjean. Important context, Florence is 24, Jean Valjean is 18. How do we feel about this entirely legal age gap?

• 49:19Speaker 02

  It's less the age gap to me, more that, like, that's his director, no? Like, that's kind of weird to me.

• 49:23Speaker 01

  There's a power dynamic there.

• 49:25Speaker 02

  Yeah. And also, did he only get the role because they were, because she liked him?

• 49:30Speaker 04

  Well, Lucy apparently walked in on Florence and Jean Valjean making out in the sound booth, and Lucy told Florence she had to break it off.

• 49:36Speaker 02

  Wait, this is also why Florence could do makeup on Jean Valjean for days.

• 49:41Speaker 01

  For days, till the room stank.

• 49:48Speaker 01

  Get your ass away.

• 49:49Speaker 02

  And that probably, honestly, probably she intentionally sabotaged the makeup artists. She found the horse about to go and branch up to Aruba. So that she could do the makeup on Jean Valjean. So she can take, so she can put him on and take it off.

• 50:02Speaker 04

  She messaged Charlotte Toberry and said, I have some artists for you.

• 50:06Speaker 01

  I've got just the girl. Yeah, hilarious.

• 50:10Speaker 04

  Well, Lucy told Florence she had to break it off because of the age gap, but also because of the power dynamic between cast member and drama tag were inappropriate. Lucy's like, you have to stop or you're gonna get us canceled.

• 50:22Speaker 02

  But not anybody can about sort of little podunk play. Oh, my God.

• 50:26Speaker 01

  Girl, they were waiting up at night for the reviews from the school paper, the socialist magazine.

• 50:30Speaker 02

  The school paper is Hunter hungover being like, listen, I saw what I saw. It was not that bad. She was out of our school paper. Let me say, I'm happy the school paper didn't have that policy that you couldn't reject people.

• 50:44Speaker 04

  Well, not only did Florence keep secretly hooking up with Jean Valjean, she also invited him to come to Cabo over spring break.

• 50:52Speaker 02

  I knew someone had relations in Cabo.

• 50:55Speaker 04

  Right. Which meant that Lucy and Florence spent that entire week drunk and fighting in the sun, but by the end of spring break, Jean Valjean was no longer interested, but Florence absolutely still was. And so no one knows for sure why Florence was going after Hot Gus so hard at the cast party, but it sure seems like Hot Gus was a failed attempt at a rebound or Florence was trying to make Jean Valjean jealous. But Jean Valjean was not paying attention because around 2:00 AM, he started making out with Cassette on the couch. And when Florence noticed, she got two solo cups full of red wine and poured them all over Jean Valjean and Cassette.

• 51:32Speaker 02

  So that's the abuse of power, I'd say.

• 51:35Speaker 01

  Again and again.

• 51:37Speaker 01

  Okay.

• 51:38Speaker 04

  And this is when Lucy started yelling at Florence. She's like, that is red wine? You are spilling on my couch and Jean Valjean is a child? Grow up. And this is when everyone started leaving and Erin missed all of this while she was having her six minute, 15 minute, half an hour drunk girl moment with the bathroom mirror. And so someone else at the table is like, Erin, did Florence apologize to you? And Erin's like, apologize to me? For what? Like, we had some weird conversations, but like, nothing really happened. And everyone at the table looks really surprised to hear Erin say this.

• 52:12Speaker 02

  Oh, she's been talking about you.

• 52:14Speaker 04

  Well, apparently when Florence was like, I'll leave you two to it and left Hot Gus and Erin alone to flirt, she went across the room and started complaining to a group of seniors that Erin was completely out of control and that she needed to be pulled off of Hot Gus.

• 52:29Speaker 01

  Okay, she's giving real big old loser, double loser, whatever, get the picture, duh vibes. Only because like, girl, you can't get any man, first of all, you gotta, something's, you can't keep a man too, that's hard. It's hard on the spirit and I get it, but damn.

• 52:42Speaker 02

  You don't have to like sabotage her.

• 52:44Speaker 01

  Everyone else.

• 52:45Speaker 02

  Like, just because she's talking to your rebound, the guy you're trying to use to make drama out of, I'm jealous, not girl.

• 52:51Speaker 01

  Also, they're kids together, right? Them same age?

• 52:53Speaker 02

  Yeah, you need to do some work within.

• 52:56Speaker 04

  Erin is like, this explains all the people who came up to me. The vibes were weird. I wasn't just spiraling. This post-party debrief is basically the end of our story. I do have a few updates for you before I share those, but I wanted to ask, do you think there are any villains in this story or are they just tortured artists?

• 53:15Speaker 02

  I think there are several villains.

• 53:18Speaker 01

  Everyone involved, including Erin.

• 53:23Speaker 04

  She's even Erin.

• 53:24Speaker 02

  Erin, girl, too naive, sorry.

• 53:27Speaker 01

  It's a wrap.

• 53:29Speaker 01

  Too naive, yeah. Let's move on. All right, you're really killing me.

• 53:34Speaker 01

  Florence definitely, Florence is battling demons inside for a certain, that's definitely happening.

• 53:40Speaker 02

  And Lucy, I'm gonna say, not getting involved more is too much.

• 53:44Speaker 04

  Yeah.

• 53:44Speaker 02

  Like, you need to step up and say, this is inappropriate, we need to figure this out. Because now everyone's feeling awkward.

• 53:49Speaker 04

  Letting Florence just do Jean Valjean's makeup for two hours, it's like, girl.

• 53:54Speaker 01

  I'm like, we all know it's not that deep on that look.

• 53:58Speaker 01

  Well, actually, all the sequins it was using and killing the environment or whatever.

• 54:01Speaker 04

  You're right. You're right. You're right.

• 54:03Speaker 02

  And I'm gonna say the horse is a villain in it too.

• 54:05Speaker 01

  Absolutely.

• 54:06Speaker 04

  You said Renee.

• 54:07Speaker 01

  Yeah, T-Moon Renee, yeah. You're wrapped, you're cooked.

• 54:13Speaker 04

  That is, you're right, that's a true villain.

• 54:14Speaker 02

  Don't ever work in this town again.

• 54:15Speaker 01

  And she won't. And she won't because she only got one side. She can't turn around. She only work one side. This ain't Zoolander, no, no, no, no way.

• 54:23Speaker 04

  Okay, well, we have a few updates today. The first is that to everyone's knowledge, Lucy and Florence kept their promise to never speak again.

• 54:31Speaker 02

  That's probably for the best.

• 54:33Speaker 01

  Kept their promise is so funny. The phrasing of that, like that reframe, that it's like thoughtful and not just some being hard headed, like under, how old are they, 25? Come on, yeah. We should have mentioned that, like, I like, I struggle with people under the age of 27. If anyone is still on the parents' health insurance, we don't need to be in conversation together. That's just how I feel, but.

• 54:54Speaker 04

  And that's so real.

• 54:56Speaker 01

  Like, come on.

• 54:57Speaker 04

  Yeah. The second is that Erin found out that her roommate lied and never DM'd her crush. So she was just like, I guess I just DM'd Hot Gus for nothing. But they did meet up to Gus about everything that went down, but away from the spell of the stage, they had zero chemistry.

• 55:14Speaker 02

  No.

• 55:15Speaker 04

  In retrospect, Erin's like, it was just the magic of the theater.

• 55:19Speaker 01

  I'm gonna beat her ass. I'm sorry. I'm gonna backhand her one solid dime.

• 55:24Speaker 02

  And you didn't get it, so whatever, move along.

• 55:26Speaker 01

  Mid Gus.

• 55:30Speaker 01

  I'm like, show me a photo.

• 55:32Speaker 02

  Gus better be hot.

• 55:34Speaker 01

  Gus better be, is probably one of those boys, it's only for some reason, all of, happens to straight girls to me, where they're like, let me see a pic, and they're like, oh, the fu, he doesn't really, oh my, no, that's Gus.

• 55:44Speaker 02

  But some of the photos are bad.

• 55:47Speaker 04

  I think it is universally proven straight men take terrible photos of themselves, of their friends. It's just like, of me?

• 55:55Speaker 01

  No, I seen a straight woman struggle to scroll, I said, you don't need to be going that far. I don't need to see him in 2018.

• 56:01Speaker 02

  Tag photos, though. Check his tags photo, yeah.

• 56:05Speaker 04

  Like, check the tag. A woman took a photo of him at some point and he looked good.

• 56:10Speaker 01

  His ex-girlfriend who did the work for you.

• 56:11Speaker 02

  He looked beautiful at his sister's wedding. Like, come on now.

• 56:16Speaker 04

  Don't you see the vision?

• 56:18Speaker 01

  Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

• 56:19Speaker 04

  This is not really able to me at all.

• 56:23Speaker 04

  The last update is that Jean Valjean went on to become an ensemble member on Broadway.

• 56:29Speaker 02

  So he was talented, okay.

• 56:31Speaker 01

  And a hoe, good for him.

• 56:32Speaker 04

  He credits Disco Les Mis with teaching him how to roller skate and how to not shit where you eat.

• 56:37Speaker 02

  I'm sorry that it was a hard lesson to learn.

• 56:40Speaker 04

  But at least you learned it at 18.

• 56:41Speaker 02

  Yeah, right, yeah.

• 56:42Speaker 04

  Some people learn it at 30.

• 56:44Speaker 02

  Yeah, and even, some people still haven't learned it.

• 56:47Speaker 04

  Yeah.

• 56:51Speaker 04

  Thank you for listening to Normal Gossip. If you have a gossip story to share with us, email us at [email protected] or you can leave us a voicemail at 2679 gossip. If you love this podcast and want to support us, become a friend or a friend of a friend at supportnormalgossip.com. You can follow the show on Instagram and TikTok at Normal Gossip. You can follow me on all social media at Hayden A. Subscribe to our YouTube channel at Defector Media to watch today's episode. Normal Gossip is written by me, Rachel Hampton, and Jay Tolviera. This podcast was produced by Sierra Spragley-Ricks and Jay Tolviera. Our audio engineer is Samantha Gatzick. Emily Cherish is our video editor. Theme music composed by Rishi Kesh Hirway.

• 57:35Speaker 04

  The co-creators and dowager queens of Normal Gossip are Kelsey McKinney and Defector's supervising producer Alex Tujong Loughlin. Justin Ellis is Defector's projects editor. Jasper Wang is Defector's business guy. Tom Lay is our editor in chief. This season was made in memory of Dan McLeod, who ran our merch store, which you can find at normalgossip.store. Tara Jacoby designed our show art. Thank you to Brandy Jensen, David Roth, Catherine Shu, Sabrina Embler, Chris Thompson, Dave McKenna, Patrick Redford, and Ray Rado for your help with this season. Thank you to the rest of the Defector staff. Defector Media is a collectively owned subscriber based media company. Normal Gossip is a proud member of Radiotopia. I am your host, Rachel Hampton, and remember, you didn't hear this from me.