[SPEAKER_01]: We really gave podcasts that we called that's a gay ass podcast.

[SPEAKER_00]: At the gay ass name for a gay ass podcast.

[SPEAKER_00]: Holy Toledo Bradley Gibson is on that's a gay ass podcast.

[SPEAKER_00]: And you always look divine.

[SPEAKER_00]: But today this ensemble is really just delicious.

[SPEAKER_00]: Bradley, thank you for being here and looking so gorgeous.

[SPEAKER_01]: Oh my gosh Eric, thank you for having me and thank you for that compliment baby.

[SPEAKER_00]: And it's just the beginning of the compliments will become because I have to tell you and the listeners that this man Bradley Gibson is unbelievably talented I actually met you just in a social situation first you were with our dear friend Tom Hamlet After one of my shows in New York I met you and I was like who the hell is this guy and next thing I know I'm stalking on the internet [SPEAKER_00]: and you are just a talent.

[SPEAKER_00]: If anybody listening doesn't know, this man Bradley Gibson played Hercules at Paper Mill in Disney's Hercules.

[SPEAKER_00]: He was also on Broadway in Rocky, also on Broadway in a Bronx Tale.

[SPEAKER_00]: Also has a gorgeous podcast with our friend Tom Hamlet and Dan Rosell is called GoodJudies.

[SPEAKER_00]: I was very lucky enough to be on that podcast, so you've got a lot going for you, and I want to dive into all of it.

[SPEAKER_00]: So Bradley, thank you.

[SPEAKER_00]: And first hard hitting question, how is your gay day going?

[SPEAKER_00]: We're recording on a Monday to do have a gay ass weekend or was aboring in straight.

[SPEAKER_01]: Um, I am doing great because it's Monday, meaning it's my day off.

[SPEAKER_01]: I'm in DC.

[SPEAKER_01]: I'm working on a new play.

[SPEAKER_01]: And so the weekend was not a very, uh, gay ass weekend.

[SPEAKER_01]: I guess maybe it was gay because that was in the Uterver Herschel.

[SPEAKER_00]: I mean, rehearsal is canonically gay.

[SPEAKER_00]: Is the play a canonically gay play?

[SPEAKER_00]: Are you giving queer in it?

[SPEAKER_00]: What is it giving?

[SPEAKER_00]: I'm giving lots in it.

[SPEAKER_01]: And one of the things I'm giving is queer.

[SPEAKER_01]: I play three different characters in this three-eyed play.

[SPEAKER_01]: And one of the characters is a gay man.

[SPEAKER_00]: What am I last to ask what the play is?

[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, absolutely.

[SPEAKER_01]: The play is called Fremont Avenue.

[SPEAKER_01]: I'm doing it at Arena Stage.

[SPEAKER_01]: play and it's about three generations of a black family in southern California and all the things that it's kind of a love letter to black men in general and a love letter to the black family and it's been a beautiful process so happy for you and I just it's kind of crazy to have a career in this fucked up industry because we're constantly it's sort of fighting for [SPEAKER_00]: stability and being valued, but to be able to like work at such a great place like arena stage and then on a play that actually is like this has such an amazing message.

[SPEAKER_00]: I'm doing my research already finding out that it's a co-production with South Coast wrap, it is running until November 23rd.

[SPEAKER_00]: So if any of our listeners are in DC, GoC Bradley in [SPEAKER_00]: This what looks like an incredible new play and also congratulations to you for just fucking booking like not only just work, but really great cool new work.

[SPEAKER_00]: Thank you.

[SPEAKER_01]: Thank you.

[SPEAKER_01]: It's been you know, I pinch myself daily because it's something that I've been wanting to do is, you know, I always got to do original new work and I've been lucky enough to do a lot of that, especially when it comes to musical theater and television and it's cool to say now that I'm [SPEAKER_00]: It's so cool.

[SPEAKER_00]: Well, and obviously the listeners know that for this episode, for this interview series, we will get into some sassy and horny questions, but I just need to get into the Disney of it all before we do that.

[SPEAKER_00]: It would be against my religion not to.

[SPEAKER_00]: When I was looking up your herstery online, someplace to said you did line King on Broadway.

[SPEAKER_00]: Some places said you did not.

[SPEAKER_00]: Did you or did you not do line King on Broadway?

[SPEAKER_01]: I did do it on Broadway for two years.

[SPEAKER_01]: It was 2018 until 2020.

[SPEAKER_01]: The pandemic was the shutdown was my last show in Broadway, as Simba.

[SPEAKER_00]: That's a dark beginning of the pandemic, which is having to say goodbye to a very steady Lion King Chuck.

[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, it was truly the end of the road for me.

[SPEAKER_01]: I was, you know, I was leaving the show that June anyway.

[SPEAKER_01]: So I was coming to the closing of that chapter.

[SPEAKER_01]: It just kind of closed a little earlier than I thought it was.

[SPEAKER_00]: Wow, and you played Simba then.

[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah.

[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah.

[SPEAKER_00]: Holy shit.

[SPEAKER_00]: And then so then so that makes sense then for why the Hercules came up because for again, anybody who doesn't know Bradley was Hercules at Paper Mill.

[SPEAKER_00]: Now the show we I interviewed Robert Horn on the main podcast for real in the book for Hercules and I know it's running on the West and now Have you heard of any Whisperings of if Hercules will come to the US?

[SPEAKER_01]: You know, there's always whispers about it.

[SPEAKER_01]: I've been working on that show with Robert Horn and the entire team for like five years now.

[SPEAKER_01]: Wow.

[SPEAKER_01]: You started in, yeah, and like 2020, we began the process of turning the show that was a one-act show in the park, right?

[SPEAKER_01]: And a part of our Shakespeare in the park.

[SPEAKER_01]: they turn that into a two-act musical because of the response of that production, right?

[SPEAKER_01]: So it's just evolved so much in the past five years which led up to paper mill and then you know post paper mill we've done [SPEAKER_01]: workshops and readings and things like that.

[SPEAKER_01]: And it's been in the production with Germany, to Hamburg.

[SPEAKER_01]: All right, right, first.

[SPEAKER_01]: And then it went to the West End.

[SPEAKER_01]: And you know, there's always whispers about what will happen.

[SPEAKER_00]: But, you know, I don't mean, no one actually knows what's going on behind the scenes at Disney, besides the people at Disney.

[SPEAKER_00]: So I guess we just sort of buckle up and go along for the [SPEAKER_00]: I'm going to put it in this post for the podcast because people need to see it, but there's a clip of you singing go the distance at the 2023 The Royal Variety Performance and the gigantic theater.

[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, you sound so I you sound so good You worked so good.

[SPEAKER_00]: I was telling my husband I was interviewing you for the pod and I was showing him the video We were just like watching it over and over.

[SPEAKER_00]: It's like [SPEAKER_01]: Oh my gosh, that's delicious.

[SPEAKER_01]: So that was crazy too because never did I ever think that I would be One playing hercules like right if I you were to a little kid in the movie theater in like 96 watching it never thought You happen and two what am I doing in London singing it for the royal family?

[SPEAKER_00]: I mean it's almost like your destiny was bigger than you could even perceive from a young age and I think that's actually a great segue into can we get a view into Bradley as a young closet of kid before he came out can you put us in the geographical place of where you were and then when did the first boy boy kiss end up happening?

[SPEAKER_01]: Hmm, I was born and raised in a small town and with Carolina called Pinehurst.

[SPEAKER_01]: Shout out to Pinehurst, the 911, more countless.

[SPEAKER_01]: And yeah, I was raised in a really, [SPEAKER_01]: conservative but you know liberal leaning conservative Mormon household that was raised by my great grandmother in a single parent Mormon household yeah can I ask you a question that might be considered to be not nice or okay but are there a lot of black Mormons no not at all so i'm i'm strange right i'm a gay black Mormon from small town north carolina who was raised by their great grandmother [SPEAKER_00]: And your great-grandmother, did she convert to Mormonism?

[SPEAKER_01]: Her mother-in-law was the first person to convert.

[SPEAKER_01]: So that was her great mother-in-law was the one that converted to Mormonism back in the day.

[SPEAKER_01]: I don't know what decade that was.

[SPEAKER_00]: But it was because Mormonism didn't start until like somewhat recently in American history.

[SPEAKER_00]: found in Grand Mother's, the pioneers.

[SPEAKER_01]: I think, you know, yeah, yeah, definitely was before African-Americans had the full rights to the priesthood in the church, which is crazy to sort of think that my family was in the Mormon church when they weren't [SPEAKER_01]: allow to fully seen as members with the full access of the religion because of their skin color and race.

[SPEAKER_01]: It's crazy.

[SPEAKER_01]: I don't know.

[SPEAKER_00]: Crazy.

[SPEAKER_00]: Is your family still part of the Mormon church?

[SPEAKER_01]: No.

[SPEAKER_01]: As people passed way and as younger people started to, you know, like me, I'm gay or just having, you know, not agreeing with certain things of the church.

[SPEAKER_01]: Not very many family members are members of the church anymore.

[SPEAKER_01]: No.

[SPEAKER_00]: I can understand why, and I'm always, I was just talking with the friend the other day whenever I meet an ex-mormant gay person, a very specific part of me goes out to them because I think that every person that grows up with a religion has to deal with the certain like limited beliefs that.

[SPEAKER_00]: some religious complaints on queer people, but I think that Mormonism specifically has just an interesting flavor of what you're not allowed to do a lot of certain things.

[SPEAKER_00]: There's so much emphasis on like, I don't know.

[SPEAKER_00]: White had a row have a million kids Perfection ring perfection and I'm like, oh, when you come from a place of like deep deep perfection That makes the level of Shame-ness and other-ness, and especially as a gay person We we put our ice in my heart out to you and it seems to be that you are thriving when was the first boy boy kiss done?

[SPEAKER_01]: The first boy boy kiss was in, was it eighth grade or ninth grade?

[SPEAKER_01]: I was doing a, I was doing a production of the music man, community theater, my second time doing it because of my first time.

[SPEAKER_01]: I did music man, junior, and I was here.

[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, you were.

[SPEAKER_01]: I tore it up, baby.

[SPEAKER_01]: I always told people like Hugh Jackman, who my Harold Hill?

[SPEAKER_01]: Jackman, you got trouble.

[SPEAKER_01]: You got trouble june your ends, okay?

[SPEAKER_01]: I had trouble the june your version, but this time doing music man was, you know, adults were in the show and I was in the ensemble and the guy played Tommy Gilles was like this gymnast queen.

[SPEAKER_01]: He was, uh, a couple of years older than me, went to like be opposing high school, like the rival high school.

[SPEAKER_01]: He was a cheerleader and a gymnast.

[SPEAKER_01]: He was out.

[SPEAKER_01]: He was like very, like lived in his queerness, didn't care.

[SPEAKER_01]: Like kind of was like kind of fucked the bullies, kind of energy to the point where all the bullies either loved him, everyone either loved him or they picked it him and he was strong enough to be like fuck y'all kind of energy.

[SPEAKER_01]: I'm going to be me.

[SPEAKER_01]: He was [SPEAKER_01]: such an amazing human being.

[SPEAKER_01]: I don't I don't know where he is right now, but shout out to him.

[SPEAKER_00]: Jake shot him.

[SPEAKER_00]: Jake knows that is called strength and that is on knowing your worth and who you are before the world can say otherwise.

[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, like didn't care.

[SPEAKER_01]: Like was going to be himself.

[SPEAKER_01]: And he was my friend.

[SPEAKER_01]: We were all kind of like, you know, the ensemble, the young kids, the teams were [SPEAKER_01]: We were besties.

[SPEAKER_01]: We were a click and he was actually someone who was telling me like he told me I know you're gay like he would in a friendly way like as my buddy, you know, and I will always kind of like No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, [SPEAKER_01]: And I was like, well, he was like, I'm going to kiss you and like, I know you want me to kiss you and like, you need to be kissed and he kissed me and I remember like, I remember that feeling of like, like my shoulders almost like relaxing and just feeling like, oh my god, like this is.

[SPEAKER_01]: That's kind of magical feeling that you see in movies or something.

[SPEAKER_01]: I remember feeling that.

[SPEAKER_01]: And not even it being that Jacob and I like each other, or we accretters on each other, but like it just, it, I could exhale in a way.

[SPEAKER_00]: He liberated them.

[SPEAKER_00]: That's, that's so well said.

[SPEAKER_00]: It's also like, [SPEAKER_00]: When you said that I had a vision of you seeing your future, yeah, in your future was more kisses that much of our felt real, real good.

[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, I've talked about it before, but my first boy kissed, there's no feeling like the electricity.

[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, literally.

[SPEAKER_00]: It was my first time kissing somebody in getting like rock hard like I just like I was also I was 19.

[SPEAKER_00]: I think I was a freshman in college And I just love hearing other people's experiences with their first and Jacob that was his name Jacob Jacob Jacob you read we thank him for his service Yeah, oh, yeah, so did you end up then coming out soon after that or did you wait I came out when I was 16 so that was freshman year that was like I think I came out junior year [SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, junior year because sophomore year, after my sophomore years, when I got my first professional job, I did a summer stock production of a chorus line in the mountains in North Carolina with all adults that were either in college or, you know, were actors from New York doing a summer gig and they were definitely very much, I played Richie.

[SPEAKER_01]: So I was on the line with all the people.

[SPEAKER_01]: So there was definitely a lot of conversation at first by company management and stuff saying like, [SPEAKER_01]: He's under age, you can't let Bradley drink, you can't let Bradley be a part of anything, which just made them kind of you like, come on Bradley, when I come, when I come drink this drink with us, when I come do this, like I learned so much about life at somewhere, you know?

[SPEAKER_01]: And I came home that next year and 16 is when I kind of started kind of pushing away from the church.

[SPEAKER_01]: subconsciously and consciously.

[SPEAKER_01]: And then kind of just having to have a conversation with my Nana, my great-grandmother, to be kind of like...

[SPEAKER_01]: I'll never forget that conversation.

[SPEAKER_01]: I actually told how to change the day.

[SPEAKER_01]: You know, I had stopped going to church.

[SPEAKER_01]: I was very involved in church.

[SPEAKER_01]: I was very, you know, I am a perfectionist in a way.

[SPEAKER_01]: I'm pretty hard of myself.

[SPEAKER_01]: And so I was determined to be the best Mormon, right?

[SPEAKER_01]: Especially being a closet at Mormon.

[SPEAKER_01]: I was going to be the best one ever.

[SPEAKER_01]: I was going to, you know, my, [SPEAKER_01]: Family is very female heavy, so I was determined to be a good woman man and going a mission and like I was gonna be one of the first to like Do this thing really right Yeah, right and But I started kind of not attending church and not wanting to attend and not doing those sort of extra curricular church activities not going to seminary in the mornings and [SPEAKER_01]: My grandmother also, my Nana, she didn't drive, so I drove her to church, right, and so I was preventing her from going to church and preventing her from her community and her friends, and there was she, she would either play it off or it would, I could ignore it due to like rehearsal or tech or show or something.

[SPEAKER_01]: within it came a lot of pressure a lot of pressure and then there was one Sunday morning where she was trying to get me to go to church and I was saying no and she just sat down and she just said like we got to talk about why like why aren't you wanting to go to church why is this so different I feel you not wanting to go or hesitation what is it yeah and I just and she kind of said like you got to tell me what it is and you got to say it.

[SPEAKER_01]: And I remember just crying and telling her I was gay and her responding with, I know.

[SPEAKER_01]: And I don't care.

[SPEAKER_01]: And I've known your whole life and I love you.

[SPEAKER_01]: And you're supported.

[SPEAKER_01]: And everything I don't understand, I want to understand.

[SPEAKER_01]: And like, [SPEAKER_01]: That's one of the, that's the moment I'll never forget in my life and a moment that defines to me, you know, unconditional love and even even when you don't fully understand, there's a way to unconditionally love the people that are yours, your beloveds and I try to move with that kind of love and for people that are in my life and my family.

[SPEAKER_00]: Nana Nana is that fucking girl that is she is yet embodying love and saying the right thing if even if I don't understand I want to and I love you unconditionally and that just makes me grateful for people like her [SPEAKER_00]: And it's clear why you've continued to spread that message yourself, I mean, if we get into some of the sort of ways that we have expressed ourselves and without shame, we are going to take a crazy right turn from that beautiful story about your grandma to morning topics.

[SPEAKER_01]: We have been together almost nine years and we've been married for almost four years amazing and how did you meet your man?

[SPEAKER_01]: We met.

[SPEAKER_01]: It was a Broadway love story.

[SPEAKER_01]: I was in a Bronx Tale.

[SPEAKER_01]: He was in a Latin, making his Broadway debut, a cast member of mine was leaving my show.

[SPEAKER_01]: And the girl joining my show and taking that track was one of his best friends.

[SPEAKER_01]: So we started hanging out and [SPEAKER_01]: He one night asked me like after we'd all been together like, you know, the texting after the fact and he was like, yeah, hey, we should we should go out for a drink like one night just us after a show I was like, yeah, sure, great.

[SPEAKER_01]: And he quickly was like amazing.

[SPEAKER_01]: Let's do next Wednesday.

[SPEAKER_01]: It was like a week from that day.

[SPEAKER_01]: Next Wednesday after our two shows will meet for a drink you picked the spot.

[SPEAKER_01]: And I'll be there.

[SPEAKER_01]: And which I was like, oh, wow, wow, I love it, I love it, I love it, I love it, I love it, I love it, I love it, I love it, I love it, I love it, I love it, I love it, I love it, I love it, I love it, I love it, I love it, I love it, I love it, I love it, I love it, I love it, I love it, I love it, I love it, I love it, I love it, I love it, I love it, I love it, I love it, I love it, I love it, I love it, I love it, I love it, I love it, I love it, I love it, I love it, I love it, I love it, I love it, I love it, I love it, I love it, I love it, I love it, I love it, I love it, I love it [SPEAKER_01]: He went to the wrong place.

[SPEAKER_01]: He was like 20, 30 minutes late.

[SPEAKER_01]: I had already made it through like one drink.

[SPEAKER_01]: And I kid you not.

[SPEAKER_01]: It felt like the world felt different when he walked in.

[SPEAKER_01]: Even though, yeah, you know, it felt different.

[SPEAKER_01]: And that one drink ended up becoming a dinner and a walk.

[SPEAKER_01]: And we have this moment where I walked him to the train.

[SPEAKER_01]: and we had like a little innocent little kiss.

[SPEAKER_01]: Like nothing crazy and like it started to slightly snow.

[SPEAKER_01]: It was, and I remember walking up town to my train and being like in the snow, being like buzzing, like what is happening?

[SPEAKER_00]: You know?

[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, we've been dating for our sentence as her story.

[SPEAKER_00]: Um, that's incredible.

[SPEAKER_00]: I love it broadly.

[SPEAKER_00]: Love story.

[SPEAKER_00]: I do.

[SPEAKER_00]: I do want to go now into what we call the paywall section where we bring up the paywall and let us go really horny.

[SPEAKER_00]: So let's um, am I able to ask if you to our monog or open?

[SPEAKER_00]: For the rest of this interview, head to sub-stack linked in the description.

[SPEAKER_00]: You can also watch bonus episodes with Mikey Grassefa from Deathbecomesher, Isaiah Rutledge, Sunset Boulevard's Demon Moon.

[SPEAKER_00]: We have Derek Cage, Patrick, Nick, Thanos, Mark, they're all hot.

[SPEAKER_00]: The stories are amazing and you should go check it out at sub-stack.com slash at Eric Will's linked in the description.

[SPEAKER_00]: I love you, bye!