Alison Stewart: This is All Of It. I'm Alison Stewart, and for our last conversation of the day, we're going to hear some music from the cast of a new musical, The Seat of Our Pants, an absurdist musical adaptation of Thornton Wilder's 1942 play, The Skin of Our Teeth. In the adaptation, the story of Wilder's allegorical play remains largely the same. The show takes place at the end of the world, through which we see the Antrobus family navigate a series of crises, from moving sheets of ice to a torrential flood. It's a story of human failure and resilience. A funny story and a tragic one.

Now it's set to great music. You can catch The Seat of Our Pants at the Public Theater until December 7th. A few weeks ago, the cast joined us here at WNYC Studios for a special live performance. Tony winner Ruthie Ann Miles, who plays Maggie Antrobus, Tony nominee Micaela Diamond, who plays Sabina, Tony nominee Damon Daunno, who plays Henry Antrobus, Ally Bonino, who you might remember her from Suffs, and multi-instrumentalist Michael Lepore, who plays various characters throughout the show.

Before we got to hear their performances, I asked Ethan Lipton, who wrote the music and lyrics for the show and adapted it from the original Thornton Wilder play, to discuss his first exposure to the work of the playwright.

Ethan Lipton: I think I saw Our Town when I was a kid, and later I remember seeing The Skin of Our Teeth in a college production, which I wasn't sure I totally got, which I think is an experience that a lot of people have with that play for the first time. Then I think, like so many great writers, you just revisit it over time and keep re-encountering it and finding new things in it.

Alison Stewart: When did you decide this could be a musical?

Ethan Lipton: I was approached by a guy named Jeremy McCarter at the Public about 12 years ago, and he was a huge Wilder fan, so much so that he is now the executor of the Wilder estate. He knew my work as a songwriter and a playwright. He reached out and said, "Would you have any interest in doing this?" He was working at the Public at the time where I had a relationship, and I think he thought my sensibility might work with it. I remembered the play, and I was like, "God, isn't that that bonkers play?"

Then I read it again with my grown-up brain, and I was just so touched by it. It's so ambitious and epic, and it's really playful about serious things. I Like to be playful about serious things. I felt like I couldn't say no. This was a playground I wanted to play in.

Alison Stewart: How do you decide the kind of music that you would like to write for a play like that?

Ethan Lipton: For me, I try to listen to the play. The play is so grand structurally, but it is also so provocative about these human archetypes. I knew that with the music, I wanted to try to get at the individuals within the archetypes. I wanted to create a little bit of intimacy with these people. I'm such a weird, idiosyncratic songwriter. I don't notate music. I don't play any instruments. I write songs like a five-year-old, which means I sing them until they have a form. I do that dozens or hundreds of times, whatever it takes, and then I bring them to my collaborators. Really, I was trying to listen to the play and find out what it wanted.

Alison Stewart: How did you figure out where to put a song in the play?

Ethan Lipton: Sometimes I've musicalized text by Wilder, just found the music that wanted to be with that text. Sometimes I've turned a single idea or line in the play into a song. It's really probing and pushing it around. When I started doing this adaptation, I was very polite with the play.

Alison Stewart: You were very polite with it?

Ethan Lipton: Yes. It's Thornton Wilder. He's a fancy guy. I wanted to be respectful, and then at some point, I was like, "Well, you can't be reverent and respectful with such an irreverent play. Then at that point, I really just had to trust my own intuition about what spoke to me as a song and what kind of a song that wanted to be in relationship to the other songs that were around it.

Alison Stewart: We're going to bring in Ruthie Ann Miles now, who stars as Mrs. Antrobus. The Antrobus family is presented as a real family, but they're also part of a bigger symbolic story, a biblical story. They've been married for thousands of years, as we learn. At the moment we meet her, what's important to Maggie Antrobus?

Ruthie Ann Miles: When we very first meet Mrs. Antrobus at the top of Act 1, her children are playing outside, and their maid has just let the fire go out. Now, we know that it's cold outside. Mr. Antrobus is not yet home, and we don't have any food or fire until he comes back home. The thing on her mind is getting her children warm. "What are we going to eat tonight, and make sure when my husband comes home, he's not in a bad mood? We have to collectively, as a family, get together, be good. We're going to put our best faces on for Dad."

Alison Stewart: She has an interesting relationship with her children. How would you describe it?

Ruthie Ann Miles: Mrs. Antrobus is every mom all the time. We have to wear 10 different hats all the time. She has to listen to them and give them confidence and feed them, and "Yes, yes, honey, of course, but also, you drive me absolutely crazy. If you ask me that question one more time. I hope I don't raise my hand at you today." She's constantly wearing these hats. It's complicated, but it's also real life, isn't it?

Alison Stewart: Is she maternal?

Ruthie Ann Miles: She is maternal. I think she's maternal, but she's a woman. She needs quiet. She needs her mental health back. She needs sleep, and she would really love the kids would just cooperate. "Be on my team, Kids."

Alison Stewart: Hey, Michael, can you come up to the microphone? This is Michael Lepore. We're going to hear a song that happens in Act 1. You're playing the telegram boy.

Michael Lepore: That's correct.

Alison Stewart: What have you come to communicate to the Antrobus home?

Michael Lepore: I've come to communicate a message from her husband, Mrs. Antrobus, which is actually not quite important or helpful to any of the world-ending situation that is happening, but then, before I head back out into the cold, I ask her for some advice on how to survive the end of the world.

Alison Stewart: Can you describe your outfit for people?

Michael Lepore: Imagine, just like a Wes Anderson yellow and blue telegram boy. My suspenders are super high up, and I have a sweet little hat, and it's amazing.

Alison Stewart: The song we're about to hear is Stuff It Down Inside, Ruthie Ann. She's the one advocating that we stuff it down inside. Why does she think that is the best thing to do in this moment?

Ruthie Ann Miles: Because if you let the cap off at all, you're going to blow. The best way to keep everyone moving forward, everyone safe, everyone happy, everyone fed, is to, you know what? Keep your emotions in check. Better yet, push it so far down you don't even see it.

Alison Stewart: This is Ruthie Ann Miles, Michaela Diamond, and Michael Lepore with Stuff It Down Inside from the new musical, The Seat of Our Pants.

Speaker 4: Mrs. Antrobus, can I ask you one other thing? I have two sons of my own. If the cold gets any worse, what should I do?

Speaker 5: What does one do about anything these days?

[MUSIC - The Seat of Our Pants: Stuff It Down Inside]

Just keep as warm as you can, and gather all your fears

Fold them in a pie

Seal it with your tears and bake that thing on high

When it's done, my dear boy

Don't even bother looking for a knife

Just open up right here, boy

And eat the whole thing in one bite

And stuff it down inside.

Stuff it down inside.

Keep it from your children

Keep it from your bride

You could share it with them

But there's a reason God gave us pride.

So all those awful feelings,

Could have a safe place to hide.

Pack all of your sorrow

Into a suitcase every night.

Think about tomorrow

Is everybody going to be alright?

Find some hope to borrow

From the faintest little ray of light,

And grind it up real fine

Pour it in a glass of wine

And stuff it down inside

Stuff it down inside

Stuff it down inside

Keep it from your children

Keep it from your bride

I could share it with them

No

There's a reason God gave us pride

So all those scary feelings

Could have a cozy place to hide

If you're having trouble dealing

Just stuff it down inside

Alison Stewart: We're having a special live performance from the new musical The Seat of Our Pants. We'll have more after a quick break. This is All Of It.

[music]

Alison Stewart: You are listening to All Of It on WNYC. I'm Alison Stewart. We are hearing a special live performance from the new musical the The Seat of Our Pants. I'm speaking with the man behind the music, lyrics, and adaptation, Ethan Lipton, plus a very talented cast, Ruthie Ann Miles, Michaela Diamond, Damon, let's see if I get it right, Daunno.

Damon Daunno: Nailed it.

Alison Stewart: Yes. Ally Bonino and Michael Lepore. Okay, Ally, you are up. You play a few characters in the show. We're about to hear a song that comes from a fortune teller. It's Act 2. What's going on in the scene before we hear this song from the Fortune Teller?

Ally Bonino: This song comes at a really fun moment. We're a little bit into Act 2, and it's a completely different setup from where we were in Act 1. Act 1, we are in the Antrobus house, and Act 2, we are transported to a boardwalk that is simultaneously in the 1920s, the 1950s, and out of time altogether. We are at a convention where we see the evolution of mammals in a very fun way, which I will not divulge here because come and see the show and see it for yourself. It's very fun.

We have a big tone shift from where we end at Act 1 into Act 2, and time has passed. We have moved on. We have come back stronger, and it's very jovial. The theme at the top of Act 2 is enjoying yourself. We're at the boardwalk. There are games. There are shining, sparkling lights everywhere, and then you have Esmeralda, the Fortune Teller, who is just this walking void of truth and holding the mirror up to a society that wants to look anywhere but in that mirror.

Alison Stewart: This is Ally Bonino with The Future.

[MUSIC - The Seat of Our Pants: The Future]

I can see the future on your faces

I can see what happens when you sleep

If I were you, I would avoid high places

Cause someday you're going to wanna take a leap

Keep an eye on things in Kansas City

Your partner will deceive you on a deal

I describe your termites as a pity

But the termites think your house is matzo meal

Watch out for your posture

Ease upon the wine

Cirrhosis of the liver and sclerosis of the spine

Bright's disease

Shin splints

You're going to have 18 grandkids

And they're all going to move in with you

Don't believe the charlatans of history

No one knows a thing about the past

Your own youth has now become a mystery

After you swore you'd find a way to make it last

The future is the only game to count on

And I'm the only one who knows this war

Someone here is going to hurt your feelings

And someone else will wish they'd hurt them even more

Watch out for your posture

Ease upon the wine

Cirrhosis of the liver and sclerosis of the spine

Bankruptcy

Apoplexy

Death by regret

Type Y

You'll try to be angry, but no

Just a whimper, and then, fini

Watch out for your posture

Ease upon the wine

Cirrhosis of the liver and sclerosis of the spine

Sclerosis.

Very uncomfortable.

What, you ask, will happen to old Antrobus?

Well, what becomes of any great man's rise?

He'll huff and puff and puff and blow away from us

Until a bolt of lightning strikes him from the skies

And then the rains will wash it all away

And then the rains will wash it all away

And then the rains will wash it all away

And then the rains will come

And then the rains will come

You will see shameful things before the deluge

And some of you will say, "Let him drown, he's not worth saving."

But you're Wrong

Keep your doubts to yourself

Again, there will be a narrow escape

The survival of few from destruction

From total destruction

And then the rains will come

And then the rains will come

And then the rains will come

And then the rains will wash it all away

Alison Stewart: That was Ally Bonino, singing from The Seat of Our Pants. It's so interesting in the show, Ethan. The show has deep roots in the Bible, from Noah's Ark to Cain and Abel. Let's talk about you coming up next. How did you think about composing music for the show while keeping the idea of the Bible in the back of your mind?

Ethan Lipton: Oh, gosh, I don't know that I had the Bible in the back of my mind.

Alison Stewart: What was in the back of your mind then?

Ethan Lipton: I was just trying to serve the play. I like 20th-century American music, and so the show has country and folk and rock and roll and jazz, Tin Pan Alley, and then a smudge of a lot of different things in there. Then I spent about a year this past year with Dan Kluger, our orchestrator, turning the songs into the music that we now have in the show, trying to make sure that it felt dynamic from song to song, but also that it felt like a cohesive whole, and hopefully that that swath of music and genres would feel epic in the way that the play does and in the way that the Bible does, that it would give it a scale.

Alison Stewart: At the microphone, we have Damon Daunno-

Damon Daunno: Hello.

Alison Stewart: -who plays Henry Antrobus. We learn that your character, Henry, used to go by the name Cain.

Damon Daunno: That's right.

Alison Stewart: He has some very violent tendencies.

Damon Daunno: Indeed. To the chagrin of my mother and father, I suppose.

Alison Stewart: What's going on with Henry internally?

Damon Daunno: That's a loaded question, Alison. I think what's going on with Henry internally is an absolute void of love. I think he just wants to be a part of the crew, to be held and seen and cared for and nurtured like everyone else he sees happening in his world. It's too late, Mom. This is Ruthie Ann Miles hugging me from behind. Listeners can't tell. Little too late. No, I think that as potentially one of the resident antagonists of some of the drama that happens, I always think that to empathize with a character, to find out what is in their heart and not judge them as the bad guy or the guy who's evil or does murdery things, those are all very results-oriented in these ways.

Actually, it's way more complicated than that, isn't it? Much like life. Much like Ethan Lipton's brain. I think that he represents a lot of the intensity of life. There is a yang to it all, isn't there? There has to be a Malvolio. There has to be someone that reminds us the other side of the coin is still the same coin. We're quick to shun, but I think he's there to say you can't necessarily get rid of it in life.

Ethan Lipton: He's still part of the family.

Damon Daunno: Thank you, Ethan. I am part of the family. Family.

Alison Stewart: You're going to sing Cursed With Urges.

Damon Daunno: That's right.

Alison Stewart: When does this come on in the play?

Damon Daunno: This happens in Atlantic City on the boardwalk, and, boy, Henry just wants to bust out, and he just can't. He lives his life in a proverbial straitjacket and just can't seem to get anything right. His natural tendency, though, is very passionate, and sometimes that means violent. Most of the time, it means violent. When he's told not to follow his gut instincts, he's constantly raging against his own impulses, and he wants to be free and just live and honor his impulses, just like everyone else.

This is a moment where, much like in life, where we win imaginary arguments, we replay a moment, and boy, we could have let him have it this way. Everyone around us supports you. This is one of those moments in Henry's head where we see him really speaking from his heart, finally.

Alison Stewart: This is Cursed with Urges from the new musical by The Seat of Our Pants.

[MUSIC - The Seat of Our Pants: Cursed with Urges]

Why can't I ever enjoy myself?

Why must I always deny myself?

Tell me why, tell me why, I can't do what I like

You say I gotta control myself

You don't know what a power surge is

You never seen a person cursed with urges

I decide how to employ myself

I can't lie, I gotta be myself

When I die, I'm going to free myself

Why can't I, tell me why, I can't take what I like

You say I gotta contain myself

You don't know what a power search is

you never seen a person cursed with urges

I decide how to remain myself

I go like this

Tell me why, tell me why, I can't go where I like

You say I gotta control myself

You don't know what a power surge is

You never seen a person cursed with urges

I decide how to deploy myself

I decide how to deploy myself

I decide.

Alison Stewart: That was my conversation with some of the brilliant performers and creatives behind the new musical The Seat of Our Pants, which is running at the Public Theater until December 7th. Listeners, if you like theater, you should know that tomorrow we'll be airing a full hour of Broadway on the radio with the new cast of Hadestown. After that, we'll hear from the actors behind two plays, Art with Bobby Cannavale and Queens with the playwright and two of its stars.

Tune in tomorrow at noon for a celebration of local live theater. That is All Of It for today. If you missed any segments this week, catch up by listening to our podcast, available on your podcast platform of choice. I'm Alison Stewart. I appreciate you listening, and I appreciate you. I will meet you back here next time.