'Scrubs'ing Up: An Interview with Stephanie D'Abruzzo

The musical episode of the hit NBC hospital comedy Scrubs airs on January 18th on NBC at 9 PM ET. For this special episode, written by supervising producer Debra Fordham, the show contracted the Tony-winning writing team of Avenue Q – Robert Lopez and Jeff Marx. Plus (and coincidentally!) they asked Stephanie D'Abruzzo to guest star. On the upcoming episode, D'Abruzzo plays a medical patient who checks in to the hospital complaining of hearing incessant music. The hospital is very quickly turned into a stage. I checked in with D'Abruzzo to get the full scoop!

Robert Diamond: Hi Stephanie, thanks for doing this… I watched a screener copy of the hilarious episode last night and can't wait to hear how it all came together!

Stephanie D'Abruzzo: Wasn't it wonderful? I'll tell you what I can and what I've heard about the early part of the process, I naturally only got involved when I was casting..

That sounds like the perfect place to start then!

Deborah Fordham, who's been a producer and a writer on the show since season 1, came up with the concept of that particular plot outline. Bill Lawrence, who created the show, is a big theatre fan and if you haven't seen it before - they do a lot of musical elements in the show – pop songs, and great musical moments. One of my favorites was a West Side Story parody. On another episode, someone died and imagined their death to be like a Broadway musical and they staged it with a complete number. They make a lot of Broadway references too…

I caught that West Side Story episode, it was great…

Wasn't it? Bill had always wanted to do a musical episode.From what I've gathered, as the 6th season of the show began and no one was 100% certain if there'd be a 7^th, so Bill said to try it. Deborah outlined the concept and asked the show's medical advisor if there's any medical precedence of anyone hearing music in their head. First he laughed and then he came up with 3 different case studies.

I was wondering if there was any basis of that in reality? Something new to be afraid of getting…

Exactly! One was a history of someone who heard incessant Christmas music in their head, and there were a few others as well.

Ok, let's move forward – how did you get involved yourself?

Deborah had seen me in a show that I did Off-Broadway recently, I Love You Because and thought that I'd be great for that character and she convinced the powers that be to cast me.

Were you a fan of the show beforehand?

Yes, a big one! That's why it was great to do a guest spot, because it was on a show that I loved so much never mind that in general a guest spot is a great thing.

And was that before or after they'd hired Jeff (Marx) and Bobby (Lopez)?

I wasn't cast yet as that was happening, but she had me in mind and it was all happening in parallel from what I've been told. As they were discussing the musical episode, Zach Braff overheard the conversation and suggested that the guys from Avenue Q would be perfect to write it.

The press notes say that they contributed some of the songs?

Yes -- Paul Perry along with Jeff and Bobbie contributed songs. Jan Stevens, who does the show's incidental music contributed some music as well. Paul Perry is in the cast and recurs on the show once in a while.

Ok, they got you all on board, the episode was written and they got you out to Los Angeles for filming. What was the rehearsal process like?

It was odd because most sitcoms don't have rehearsal and they had a week's worth so I was out there for 2 weeks in total. The numbers are pretty complex and wonderful. The show's opening number for example has 50 dancers in a parking lot!

That's a big one!

All the musical numbers had 8 core dancers also joining us throughout it in the background, so we'd be with the choreographer a lot with everyone planning everything and figuring out where everyone needs to be.

And who were those dancers?

They were the crème de la crème of dancers from the LA dance world. Even with them as great as they are, it was still tough because I'd be in the middle of everyone on a gurney with it spinning around and around. The cameras had to get close, but one wrong move could have meant someone getting hit with the gurney! One take had a camera on the gurney, bolted to it to capture my reactions, which added an extra element making it more dangerous. It was very exciting and ambitious.

How closely did everyone work with the creative team?

We worked very closely with the choreographer, the director, the cinematographer and the lighting guys to figure out how it could be converted to film. Scrubs shoots in an old hospital and not on a sound stage so it adds an extra element of challenge. They did a great job of making it work in the space.

And what was it all like for you?

I spent most of the episode sitting or in a chair or on the gurney. Most of my performance was in reaction shots, so most of my week was figuring out how I could sit. The singing is all in my head so I had to be there so there were discussions on how I fit into every number.

Who did the direction and choreography?

The director was Will Mackenzie, who was in Hello Dolly! And many other shows over the years before directing. Lance MacDonald was the choreographer, and he's done all the choreography on Scrubs anytime that they've had a musical number.

What was it like for the rest of the cast who are much less used to musical than you are?

Everyone really had a good time, it was really intense for them with a lot of dancing for some and I'm sure very stressful. We also were all lip synching which is also very specific and exacting but everyone was just champs about the whole thing.

I think that everyone was excited and happy to be doing it. It was such a departure even though Scrubs does things like that because overall it's a very ambitious show. They do stunts and shots that no other sitcom would do. It thrives on that, but even with that in their history it was above and beyond. There's about 19 minutes of music in the 23 minute episode and everyone had a really good time. They loved it and all rose to the occasion.

Did everyone do their own performing?

ABSOLUTELY! Not a single note was dubbed by someone else, and not a bit of dancing either. I think that the crew also had a great time filming it because of all those challenges.

How much work was it to learn the numbers, get them set and to make them work for filming also?

I don't think everyone was aware of the amount of time that we'd need to give a musical theatre number justice. The days went longer than planned, but never wasted a second's time, because the crew was moving so fast that there was no downtime whatsoever.

Sounds like it – the musical numbers were recorded in the studio then?

Yes, they did all recording before I got there, the week before the rehearsal week and I did it when I got there. They worked with a vocal and other coaches. They were well taken care of.

Are you pleased with how the actual filming went and turned out?

The actual filming was glorious despite the long days. But, that's to be expected on any single camera show. We had a great time, because there's something about music that gets people in a good mood. Even though we heard the songs over and over again, they're so happy and catchy that as long and as frustrating as some things were, they were stuck in our heads and it was fun.

How was the rest of the cast to work with?

There wasn't a lot of grumbling and they were so welcoming to me, the whole team could not have been kinder as I came in and played on their playground so it was a wonderful environment to be in. It was a lot of joy. And, I miss them already, I do .

Glad to hear it – thanks for the scoop on the show which I know all of BroadwayWorld.com's visitors will be tuning into next week. What else are you up to these days?

I don't know what's happening right now, I'm making the audition rounds and am just trying to figure out what's next. I'm trying not to be too stressed about not doing something because the past few years I've been working non-stop. You never know when that phone's going to ring and what's going to be on the other end of it though!

I'm sure that your phone will be ringing with an offer very, very soon. Thanks for the scoop on Scrubs and I'm looking forward to seeing it again on Thursday!

Thank you too!

The musical episode of the hit NBC hospital comedy Scrubs airs on January 18th on NBC at 9 PM ET.