Hey, theater people. Patrick here. Did you forget what I sounded like? Thank you all so much for your tweets, DMs, and emails telling us that you miss us. As most of you know, producer Mike and I have both been super busy with other projects. Me with True Crime Obsessed, my so-called podcast, and the upcoming season three of Broadway backstory. And Mike, with his new podcast,

we couldn't help but wonder, which is an episode by episode journey through sex in the city,

and you should all be listening to it. You can find any of those podcasts wherever you get your

podcasts. You guys, we had been making theater people nonstop for just about five years, and it was time for a break.

And we want to let you know that in the future, we're going to be making this podcast a little bit differently.

That is to say, we're moving to a seasonal schedule.

So we're going to bring you four episodes in a row over the next four weeks to wrap up our very long five-year, 150-ish episode season one.

And then the plan is to come back in the fall with eight to ten episodes covering the fall

season on Broadway, and then come back again in the spring with eight to ten or maybe more

episodes covering the spring season on Broadway and the Tony Awards.

We love you all.

Thank you so much for understanding that sometimes things need to change.

And now let's get to today's episode.

Welcome to the Theater People Podcast.

I'm your host, Patrick Hines.

You guys, today I'm super excited to welcome my friend,

the theater historian, author, producer,

and Feinstein's 54 Below programming director, Ms. Jennifer Ashley Tepper, to the podcast.

As many of you know, Jen is a force of nature.

She's all positive energy.

She's a beacon of knowledge, and she's the embodiment of a theater kid living out their dreams on Broadway. Jen is currently producing Joe Iconis' Be More Chill,

off Broadway at New York City's signature theater, and she's also directing this falls

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