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Gaze reading, where the greats drop by. Trendy authors tell us all the who, what, and why. Anyone can listen, cause we're spoiler free. Gaze reading. From poets and stars, to book club picks. Where the curious minds can get their fix. So you say you're not gay, well that's okay. There's something for everyone. Gaze reading. Hello, and welcome to gays reading a wets, the T I'm your host, Jason Blit, man. Welcome back to those. Who've joined us before. Happy to have you here. If you are new to gays reading. Uh, what's the T is our new series where we ask an author to describe their book using three words, starting with the letters. T E N a, it's been a really fun new series. Check out the couple others that I've done so far. Wherever you get your podcasts, speaking of like, and subscribe wherever you get your podcasts and leave us a five star review. If you can, if you have the time. It makes it so much easier for folks to find us when all of those things happen and it is greatly appreciated. Make sure to follow us on social media at gays reading. On Instagram, we have new giveaways every week. We are also over on YouTube. You can subscribe to the YouTube channel. The link to that is in the show notes and also in the link tree on the Instagram. And if you are unfamiliar, if you have not heard, I'm so excited to share that we are partnering with aardvark book club to provide and exclusive introductory discount, new members to aardvark book club in the United States can join today. Enter the code, gays, reading a checkout and get your first book for only$4. And free shipping aardvark book club.com to learn more and enter the code gays reading for$4 for your first book. Today I'm having tea with broadway's Chad Beguelin talking to me about his new debut novel. Welcome Chad

Jason Blitman: 2:09

Chad, thank you for joining me today

Chad Beguelin: 2:11

thanks for having

Jason Blitman: 2:12

time.

Chad Beguelin: 2:13

Yes.

Jason Blitman: 2:14

On my very first episode of this, I acknowledged that I didn't have a teacup. And so I was like drinking from a mug and I've since had multiple friends send me teacups just from listening to that episode which is very sweet. So I'm coming to you today from this like very classic,

Chad Beguelin: 2:32

Ooh,

Jason Blitman: 2:34

how cute is that?

Chad Beguelin: 2:35

it's like red delft or something.

Jason Blitman: 2:37

literally, it's China made in England. There's There's a little crown at the bottom. It's very,

Chad Beguelin: 2:44

That's

Jason Blitman: 2:44

legit. I know. So talk about tea time. It's empty because

Chad Beguelin: 2:50

actually gonna

Jason Blitman: 2:50

I just need the prop. If that's all I need. You are Here to tell us about your new and first, which is shocking to me, novel Showmance, uh, Chad, tell us what's the tea.

Chad Beguelin: 3:05

Okay if I have to sum it up with

Jason Blitman: 3:07

It's a good exercise for

Chad Beguelin: 3:09

T P A, it would be two enemies aroused.

Jason Blitman: 3:14

Okay, I'm obsessed because most people have done just individual words, but you made a very succinct, you told us the plot in three words, in three very specific words.

Chad Beguelin: 3:28

I was on the fence, because I also was going to use two erections aroused, but I figured I'd class it

Jason Blitman: 3:34

Yeah, that's fair, thank you. Though, two, Two erections aroused is almost more specific because then we know it's gay.

Chad Beguelin: 3:43

Exactly.

Jason Blitman: 3:44

Wait, I like I'm so impressed. I shouldn't be. Okay. Now we can unpack that. Let's tell us about the world of Noah and what's going on here.

Chad Beguelin: 3:53

it follows Noah, who is a failed Broadway writer. And he gets talked into directing his flop show at his small Podunk hometown community theater. And he basically writes everybody off as a bunch of hicks and they're not gonna know anything and they start making all of these really insightful suggestions and changes. His broken musical starts getting better and along the way, since it's a gay rom-com, there's his high school nemesis is everywhere and gorgeous and confuses things, and there's little sizzle that's little sizzle happens along the way. Don't wanna spoil everything.

Jason Blitman: 4:33

of course not. But as all rom coms tend to go, can surmise. There's being somewhat familiar with you and your work. I felt like there was maybe a little bit of Chad and Noah.

Chad Beguelin: 4:47

Just a little bit. I, he's a bigger dick than I am. I would never I would never yell at a room full of sweet apple cheek people,

Jason Blitman: 4:54

theater performers.

Chad Beguelin: 4:55

would you say?

Jason Blitman: 4:56

theater performers.

Chad Beguelin: 4:57

Yes, I would not do that. I would never do that. But yeah, it's funny because the idea of walking into opening night for the author or any of the creatives is horrifying because you're sitting there and you're nodding and you're smiling and you're taking pictures and you're doing interviews, at any second, the Times review is going to drop and it is, it's excruciating. And, I've had. Both sides of the coin for my first Broadway musical was The Wedding Singer. And the party's going along, everything's going great, all of a sudden the room gets really sort of odd and quiet. And I'm like, oh no, it's bad. And Ben Brantley did not like The Wedding Singer. And it was like thank you. Do you want it? But it was just, the vibe completely changed. People started leaving and there was talk of, are we even going to run? And so it was just, and it felt so like shameful, just, you just, it was just awful. And so it was, It's interesting to go back and relive that when I was writing that scene in the book because it's just, everybody knows, everybody's just looking at you or trying not to look at you with complete pity and, and I've had the reverse, I had with Aladdin, we got torn apart out of town in Toronto, we got killed, and so we changed every single thing about that show almost, like cut characters, cut songs, threw stuff out, and so I was assuming we'd get trashed in the times. And so I just went in and I was telling myself like, you did the best you could. And, what more can you do? And then all of a sudden, about midway through the party, there was this huge roar and this cheer from the dance floor, and I was like, Oh my God, is it good? And Alan Lincoln's agent ran up to me and he's it's a rave, it's a rave. And I was just like, this is an experience I've

Jason Blitman: 6:38

I was gonna say, a little bit of a different

Chad Beguelin: 6:39

before.

Jason Blitman: 6:40

huh?

Chad Beguelin: 6:40

Yeah, I was like, cause with Elf, Isherwood was so it was the first time having an opposite experience, but it was fun to get to take readers through what that feels like and how, because from the outside, I'm sure it just looks like, Oh, it's a nice party, free food. No, horrifying.

Jason Blitman: 6:56

This is your first novel.

Chad Beguelin: 6:58

it

Jason Blitman: 6:58

How was that journey different from writing a musicale?

Chad Beguelin: 7:02

It's totally different. The I'm learning all these new words. I am apparently a pantser. I'm a pantser.

Jason Blitman: 7:08

Huh. Huh. Yes. Yes.

Chad Beguelin: 7:10

Which means that I'm, I don't map it out beforehand, which is the exact opposite of a musical because you have collaborators. So every musical I've done, we've done an outline, we've song spotted, we've all agreed on everything, and then we go off and write, songwriters write the songs, and book writers go off and write the book, and then you get back together and put it together. There was none of that. I was just, I had a general idea of where I wanted to go. And it's also especially different compared to writing lyrics, because lyrics I always think of them as trying to build a ship inside a bottle. There's just so little space, there's so little real estate, that every word has to be perfect. And this was just like, no rules no, no outline, no nothing. But it

Jason Blitman: 7:50

Was that freeing or frustrating?

Chad Beguelin: 7:53

It was. It was freeing but it was also I had no idea if I could get it published. And I, kept thinking like, oh God, just tell yourself if you don't get it published, it was a good mind exercise. Or, you did it for yourself, or cause I didn't know the publishing, the fiction world at all. But it was also strange because I didn't have collaborators. So it was me just talking to myself and ruminating and there was nobody really other than my husband to bounce stuff off of. Yeah, it was totally, it was such a weird experience because you're by yourself. And then I had another word blurbs. I didn't know what blurbs were. So you have to get established writers to read and give you a quote for the book. And I had read Less by Andrew Sean Greer, and Less is Lost, the Pulitzer Prize winning Andrew Sean Greer. And, I just, this was way before the book, put it up and said he loved it, whatever, and tagged him in it, and he had said, I love the prom. And so I was like, later on I thought, oh, maybe he'll blurb for me. I, slid into his DMs and I was like, is this tacky? And he's yes, it is, but we all have to do it. So send me the book. So it was very generous of him to blur, but he also said, it's going to be very different for you. When the book comes out, because you're, he's people will be laughing, but you won't hear it. It's going to be, it's not like a show where you go and you sit and you go, this is working or it's not working. He said, it's just this really divorced process where you might get some feedback or you might get some reviews or people reach out, but it's not like the theater where they're loving it or if they're not. So it's, yeah, it's a really different experience all

Jason Blitman: 9:24

So isolating. And I, and authors all the time talk about Not knowing what's going to resonate with people and nor do they know in the moment, right? So they'll be on book tour and someone will say, Oh this thing meant so much to me. Or I love that this was a metaphor for a blank. And the person is Oh, that is not what I intended, but great. I'm glad that's what you took from it. There's so it's yeah, it's very interesting for it to be in a vacuum that way. I imagine it's not dissimilar from film, right? You're not. It's not that live experience in the moment. Though I guess you could walk into a movie theater and see how people are.

Chad Beguelin: 9:57

Yes, yeah, that, that's for sure. But it's funny because also the Marie Michaels is my editor and she's wonderful, but she was just shocked at how quickly I would turn notes around and I was like, I've just been dying for some feedback. I've been like. And my favorite thing now is a line edit, which is where they go through and they, I want to know more about this or I need to know where they're standing or, less of this Tolstoy. We don't need that, and it was I was just thrilled because it was, here's somebody who knows what they're talking about saying, how about we get inside this person's head for a little bit, so it was really

Jason Blitman: 10:30

yeah, it's funny, for you coming from theater, which is just so collaborative, to do something that is so individual.

Chad Beguelin: 10:39

As Luke says to Noah, it's like you love what you do and you take it. It's they're knocking it publicly, which is hard to take. It also just, it escalates for poor Noah because it starts with the cyborg thing and then it goes to the eye gouging and then it's just everything. The look, the book, the lyrics, and it's like everything is wrong. So yeah,

Jason Blitman: 10:59

so

Chad Beguelin: 11:00

It's, that's smile and take the notes. Yes.

Jason Blitman: 11:04

Okay. Since we're having tea, my prop, is there anyone that you would ever want to have a tea party with? Who is someone that you would dream to sit across the table from?

Chad Beguelin: 11:12

Definitely Joan Crawford,

Jason Blitman: 11:14

Oh, tell me more.

Chad Beguelin: 11:17

I Joan Crawford has this book called My Way of Life and it is, you can open any page and you will be able laughing so hard you're crying. It is so hilariously self important and just, it's like my favorite thing. And I just love to go back in time and just go to her apartment and just listen to her stories.

Jason Blitman: 11:40

You don't even need to say anything, you just want to sit there.

Chad Beguelin: 11:43

yeah, I just, I'll take a cassette recorder and just, yeah, no, she is this, I became obsessed with this book and now it's like my go to when I don't know what to give people, I'm like, here, just any

Jason Blitman: 11:54

So you wrote a book, are you a reader?

Chad Beguelin: 11:56

I am. Yeah. Yeah. I especially when I knew I was going to try and write the book, I started reading a lot of gay rom coms and getting enmeshed in the world, if I could.

Jason Blitman: 12:05

Anything that stands out to you as something else you want to recommend to people?

Chad Beguelin: 12:09

I really love the writer Alexis Hall, who wrote boyfriend material and husband material, and he's got a new one coming out called father material.

Jason Blitman: 12:16

I think it should be called Daddy Material.

Chad Beguelin: 12:21

British. So, you know, um, Yes um, exactly. Um, But yeah, I think he's great. I think his sense of humor is great and he always takes you someplace surprising. So yeah, big fan of his.

Jason Blitman: 12:35

fun. What are you looking forward to in this, your book coming out into the world thing?

Chad Beguelin: 12:40

I'm really one thing I'm really looking forward to, I'm doing some book signings, but my, the one I'm really looking forward to is I'm going back to my they asked me at my. I do a book signing and I was like, yeah uh, so that's going to be fun and, and the, that place was like a second home to me when I was growing up and they have, whenever I have a show on Broadway, then they do a production once the rights are released, or I'll get them the rights. And so it's really sweet. And so that should be fun. That should be.

Jason Blitman: 13:08

Yeah. Word on the street is they're sending out a Google form in advance for them, for you to write notes in.

Chad Beguelin: 13:15

Oh, good. Excellent. You can shout it from the audience if you want.

Jason Blitman: 13:20

Shout it from the audience. Chad, is there anything else that you're working on that you want to shout out that you should have that people should have on their radars?

Chad Beguelin: 13:26

I'm working on a new musical with the same creative team from the prom. And it's called Horrible People. And it's about a couple of broke friends who run this failing bakery and this horrible woman from the Hamptons comes in before she's gonna go next door and get plastic surgery and she falls down into their cellar and they think she's dead. So they're like, Let's steal her identity. The woman had said, no one's at my house. The kids are at college. My husband's out. And they're like, let's go. We'll take her car. We'll steal, as much as we can. So they get there, and of course, the family starts coming home one by one. And at the end of Act One, of course, you think the woman's dead. But of course, we go back to the bakery, and she's crawling out of basement. Dr. Caledon! Um, so, Yeah, so we just did a table read uh, with Beth Leavel as the horrible

Jason Blitman: 14:18

Huh.

Chad Beguelin: 14:19

Dr. Foster as the woman who steals her identity. So yeah, so we're gonna meet with Casey Nicola, the director and do some notes and then start shopping it around. Yeah, so it's a great group and we had so much fun on Prom and Elf that, it's a great

Jason Blitman: 14:33

Yeah don't fix what ain't broken, right? Isn't that the phrase? And Elf is on Broadway this holiday season?

Chad Beguelin: 14:41

Yes. It's coming back. This is actually the West End production. So I would,

Jason Blitman: 14:47

Oh, cool. Sure. Sure. Sure.

Chad Beguelin: 14:49

but it's it's that production.

Jason Blitman: 14:50

over there. Yeah.

Chad Beguelin: 14:51

Yeah. Yeah. So it's very, it is the set is. Pretty spectacular. And of course, Santa flies out over to the audience and

Jason Blitman: 14:59

Spoiler alert.

Chad Beguelin: 15:01

theater and yeah, you walk out and you're not in a Christmas mood. You have no heart.

Jason Blitman: 15:05

Oh yeah,

Chad Beguelin: 15:05

dead inside. It's just like very awe inspiring.

Jason Blitman: 15:08

course. No Jewish. And after hearing the song, there is a Santa Claus. I was a believer, full believer. Also every once in a while, I just shout out Line Dance Follow Me

Chad Beguelin: 15:22

Yes. Yes.

Jason Blitman: 15:23

from The Wedding Singer, which is one of my favorite opening numbers of all time.

Chad Beguelin: 15:28

Great.

Jason Blitman: 15:29

Chad, I'm so excited for you.

Chad Beguelin: 15:31

Oh,

Jason Blitman: 15:31

Everyone check out Showmance, which is out now by the time this episode airs.

Chad Beguelin: 15:37

Hope people enjoy the book and you know It's this there's nothing saying that it couldn't be made into a musical. So we'll see. We'll see what happens

Jason Blitman: 15:46

for every local Podunk community theater to Podunk. So funny. Chad, it's so nice to meet you.

Chad Beguelin: 15:53

Nice to meet you, too.

Jason Blitman: 15:54

for being here. And I

Chad Beguelin: 15:56

having me. This is great

Jason Blitman: 15:57

glad. I can't wait to, see all the things and what's to come.

16:00

everyone go follow us on Instagram checkout show mans by Chad Becklin and wherever you get your books. And I'll see you next week. Bye.