On November 3, Crazy Ex-Girlfriend creator and Golden Globe-winning star Rachel Bloom and series executive music producer Adam Schlesinger hopped coasts to bring a taste of their show to a New York City audience at Feinstein’s/54 Below. Bloom and Schlesinger opened the show with a rendition of a ballad from Season 1 of the musical comedy television show, “You’ve Ruined Everything,” before diving into a talk back about the show and its music, led by Seth Rudetsky.
Here are 5 things we learned about what goes on behind-the-scenes of The CW’s hit show:
1. Tovah Feldshuh does push-ups before every take.
The four-time Tony nominee is incredibly fit. Not only does she swim laps every morning at 5 AM, the actor (who plays Bloom’s character’s mother on the show) does push-ups on set. Patti LuPone, who will guest star on an episode this season, got such a kick out of it she started demanding that Feldshuh “drop and give me 10!”
2. Bloom wrote “Where’s the Bathroom?,” Feldshuh’s big solo in Season 1, at 5 AM in the bathroom.
The songwriter says that’s a common time for her creativity to spark.
3. The Crazy Ex-Girlfriend team gets really creative when maneuvering network Standards and Practices.
In Season 1, the team wanted to refer to the odor of someone’s balls in a lyric. In order to comply with “S&Ps,” they had the character hold carpel tunnel balls in their hand. Ingenuity.
4. Bloom met co-star Donna Lynne Champlin long before she cast her as Paula.Like all good musical theatre nerds, Bloom stayed after a performance of the 2005 Sweeney Todd revival to meet the cast and get their autographs, but Bloom was particularly memorable. In an orange jacket and sparkly glasses, she met Champlin and company—and Champlin remembers it!
5. The key to writing funny songs is being ahead of the joke.
Bloom has a very clear vision for the show and the musical numbers in it. Rudetsky asked how she was able to consistently write such funny songs, and Bloom said that you need to stay ahead of the joke so that things don’t go from funny to cute. “I have an allergy to cute,” she said. This includes the pun-filled “Love Triangle,” the song the duo previewed at the event—set to air in the November 4 episode.
