'Floyd Collins' Press Day with Jeremy Jordan, Lizzy McAlpine, Taylor Trensch, and more (Mar 11, 2025)

·40 min·3 clips

In 1925, cave explorer Floyd Collins got stuck 200 feet underground, sparking America's first sensationalized media circus.

Alan starts with the room. This bonus episode comes from a press session for Floyd Collins, where cast and creatives spoke after a presentation about the show. The setup is plain and brutal. Floyd Collins follows a Kentucky cave explorer in 1925 who gets trapped 200 feet underground while chasing fame and fortune. Then the theater affection rolls in. One guest talks about becoming a kind of head cheerleader for the musical after seeing it again and again and meeting Tina Landau, Adam Gettle, and the cast. The Broadway arrival feels personal because the guest once wondered if the show would ever make that leap, then ended up inside it. The cast album gets treated like sacred teenage contraband. Another performer remembers listening every day on the way to high school with Wendy Stewart and screaming along to the riddle song with total comic abandon. Alan keeps things loose. He lets the joke breathe, then steers back to craft with a cave pun silly enough to take the edge off the serious question. The subject is depth. He asks whether the emotional arc makes the actors uncover new parts of themselves to make these people feel alive. Sean says he is shy in life but often plays people who take up space. H.G. Carmichael is the example, one of the outside figures entering the local world of the show, with Taylor named alongside him. The press-day format stays visible. Alan skips his usual closing questions and asks a show-related fun one instead, catching guests naming films they would choose. Jacob's Ladder comes up as a favorite. Walk Hard lands as the comedy pick, tied to a joking callback about a previous podcast. Even the housekeeping has a little backstory. Alan notes that Musicals with Cheese has ended, though the backlog remains and the current work continues under the cheese wheel. The episode moves quickly, but it still feels close to the room. Less press packet, more theater people talking through obsession, rehearsal, character work, and the odd rituals of loving a cast recording too much.

As heard by us

A loose, craft-minded press-day conversation framed by a Kentucky cave tragedy.

Alan Seales's Floyd Collins press-day special frames the musical through character, craft, and the Kentucky cave tragedy at its center. It begins with Floyd Collins, the cave explorer trapped 200 feet underground in 1925, and the rescue effort that became a media spectacle.

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Why you'd press play

You want Broadway craft with Floyd Collins, a 1925 Kentucky cave tragedy in the walls, and a movie detour waiting near the exit.

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