Broadway Icon Norm Lewis Joins “Living & Learning" Podcast With Reba McEntire

The hits just keep coming on Reba McEntire's “Living & Learning podcast. Spotify’s “Living & Learning with Reba McEntire” is currently airing its second season, where the country music icon and host Reba McEntire is letting fans join her journey to discuss and grow with some of her famous friends. This week’s  episode features a conversation between Reba and her Christmas In Tune co-star Norm Lewis. The acclaimed Broadway star and screen actor chats with Reba about theater, cherished holiday traditions and more. Plus, Norm brings up what Broadway role he thought Reba was born to play.

Below are key excerpts from the episode:

17:13-19:03 // Norm Lewis tells Reba about the time he forgot his lines when he was doing “The Little Mermaid” on Broadway:

Reba: “So going back to, uh, Broadway and being on stage, has there ever been a time where you messed up, you fell down.. you forgot your lines, something, you got a funny story on that”

Norm Lewis: “Yes. I will tell you that one of the funniest things that ever happened to me was, I was doing the show The Little Mermaid on Broadway, and I was honored to play the king. I was the father, King Triton, and I had just yelled at Ariel. My daughter and I said, ‘Go to your room,’ right? And she storms off. Well, you know, being that it's a Disney show, there's a lot of children that are in the audience, and there was this kid just out of the blue... I've been doing the show maybe a year, and this kid yelled out after I yelled and said, ‘I hate you.’ And I stopped and I looked in the audience and I couldn't think of my next line and I've been doing it a year, couldn't think of my next line. The young man that was playing, Sebastian the Crab, was an understudy, so he couldn't help me. So I looked at him and I said, ‘I don't know what to say’. And he said, ‘neither do I, sir.’ So we both kind of just folded our arms and we started walking around and I said, ‘This is really tripping me up. I don't understand.’ And seriously, I was making words up. And then all of a sudden, he said, ‘I have it’ and I said, ‘What? What is it?’ You know, thinking that he had, you know, the answer he was like, ‘No, that's not it.’ And then he said something that actually triggered the rhythm 'cause you get into a rhythm, you know, after doing the show eight times a week and we lost that rhythm because that kid said, ‘I hate you.’ Finally, he said something that triggered like where we could be and where we could end it and we walked off laughing for one and for number two, there were some people that were ready to go on for the next scene. They said, ‘Oh my God, I've never seen that scene like that,’ and they didn't know we messed up.”

20:53-22:23 // Norm and Reba discuss their favorite Broadway plays, plus Norm tells Reba she was born to play the role of Annie Oakley in “Annie Get Your Gun”:

Reba: “What's your favorite Broadway play to go see?”

Norm Lewis: “I have a few of them. I would say, Dream girls is definitely, you know, up there.”

Reba: “That was my first.”

Norm Lewis: “Yeah, yeah.” And then there's a show called Once on This Island, that Lynn Ahrens and Steve Flaherty wrote, That is such a jewel. It's a one act show that is based on The Little Mermaid, but it is, you know, it's an island show, and it has a lot of island music. I've done it twice now.. 20 something years ago on the national tour and then I got to play it on Broadway again, literally just two years ago, which was fantastic. Also, the show Ragtime will, I think, go down as one of our classics as well. One of my first shows that I ever did, I wasn't a lead, but I got a chance to do a featured, you know, sort of quartet thing was My Fair Lady. I think My Fair Lady is so perfectly written as a musical and a play, you know? So I love that. I love that.”

Reba: “I think my favorite play that I've ever seen... musical or play, I've seen it five times, was Jersey Boys. Dreamgirlswas my first. I loved Annie Get Your Gun and when I was sitting in the audience with Bernadette Peters playing it at intermission, one of my friends calls it halftime. At intermission, I said to my manager, husband at the time, I said, ‘I've got to be on the stage.’ And it was a dream come true to finally become Annie Oakley 'cause she was my hero from the time I was a little bitty girl.”

Norm Lewis: “Well, I've heard that. Unfortunately, I didn't get a chance to see you do it, but I've heard that you were, you were born to play that role.”

22:32-23:33 // Norm shares his holiday rituals and Reba shares something special she found for Christmas from Mama’s house: 

 
Reba: “I know it's not quite Christmas time here, but because we did the Christmas movie together and I gotta ask you, what are your holiday rituals?”

Norm Lewis: “Well, you know, it's funny. I grew up in a small town right outside of Orlando, Florida, and when I was younger, my dad would put the decorations up, and we had the tree and the da, da. da. And so since that time, I've become more of like, I have to have Christmas around me. I have to put decorations up. I have to, you know, play the Christmas music and, uh, just have that spirit. It's my favorite time of year 'cause that's when everybody seems to get along. Even if you don't like each other, there's something about that time of year that everybody gets along for at least a couple of weeks, you know, and there's joy in the world.I try to do this, I definitely put the Christmas music on after Thanksgiving.”

Reba: “I saw the other day in a catalog these record players that you can buy, and they've got a CD player with it and a cassette player. So I've got a lot of the old vinyl records from mama's House when Suzie and I were cleaning out mom and daddy's house after she passed, during COVID. Right when COVID started and I was going through her record collection the other day out at the farm and I found a Bing Crosby Christmas album. I cannot wait to play that this Christmas.”

At the end of the conversation, Reba and Norm switch things up by putting a fun Christmas spin on classic songs people know and love. They “Christmasfy” hits like “Friends in Low Places” by Garth Brooks, “How Deep Is Your Love” by the Bee Gees, “Signed, Sealed, Delivered I'm Yours” by Stevie Wonder among more.

“Living & Learning With Reba McEntire” is inspired and informed by the way Reba McEntire approaches life: with an insatiable curiosity, dedication to expanding her knowledge, and reliance on her own lived experience. 

Each week, Reba will continue to tackle numerous topics through informative and intriguing conversations with a variety of celebrity guests. New episodes will drop every Monday, free only on Spotify.