Changing Lives

[FRANK, spoken]
It's Frank DiLella with New York One's On Stage, and we're here for the opening night of Eleanor!, the Eleanor Roosevelt musical

[BARRY, spoken]
Let's talk process
(sung)
When I'm in character, I go insane
I stagger, I stammer, I sob
I make the audiences feel my pain
And if they don't leave depressed, then I've not done my job

[DEE DEE]
Each time I find a role like Eleanor
The artist inside of me thrives
I put on that wig and those prosthetic teeth
And know I'm changing lives
By the time I get tuberculosis in Act Two

[BARRY]
Even the people who are dead inside

[BOTH]
Will shout "Bravo!" on cue

[SHELDON, spoken]
The first review is in! The New Jersey Star-Ledger

[DEE DEE, spoken]
Don't tell me, unless it's a rave. Or a mixed positive

[SHELDON, spoken]
It says we're a hit!

[BARRY, spoken]
Oh my God!
(sung)
We're a hit and I think we deserve it!

[DEE DEE]
That's for sure

[BARRY]
Also, it means that this tour de force
Will not be forced to tour

[DEE DEE, spoken]
To Eleanor! May she run for eternity!

[ENSEMBLE]
To Eleanor!

[ALL]
Cheers to a show that's so inspiring
It's almost too much to sit through
And if we've won that might mean one more thing

[BARRY]
That in ten years or so, we'll do Eleanor 2!

[DEE DEE]
I can predict what the reviews will say
Before the next note has arrived
It's ground-breaking

[ENSEMBLE]
Earth-shaking

[BARRY]
Life-affirming

[ENSEMBLE]
Breathtaking

[BARRY and DEE DEE]
Gut-wrenching

[ALL]
Heart-aching

[BARRY and DEE DEE]
In two words, it's history-making
That's why every actor strives
For adulation
And compensation
That comes from nightly
Changing lives

[BARRY, spoken]
It's just what we do