Jack: welcome to Metrofocus.

Camelot is back.

Brought great -- Broadway whale T. The musical has returned.

Heralded as a more modern reimagining of the tale, written by Aaron Sorkin, the show, called a royal delight by critics, features the familiar breathtaking score, together with extraordinary performances by a live 30 piece orchestra.

All contributing to five recent Tomi -- Tony nominations including Best Revival of a Musical.

Here's a preview.

>> ♪ this is the time of King Arthur And forgiveness is not weakness And justice is not revenge.

This is the time of King Arthur, and we reach for the stars!

By God, Excalibur, I will be a king and we will live through this.

You and I. Jack: we are delighted to be joined by the three stars of the show.

Tony who plays King Arthur, Philip, who plays Guinevere and Jody and portraying Lancelot.

Thank you so much for joining us.

Let me start off this conversation with a compliment.

My wife and I saw the show.

We have in the past, other than the 1960's first show, have seen every version of Camelot film and stage.

I will tell you this one was the most enjoyable.

I certainly got that sense from everybody else around us.

I think it's a good way to start a conversation.

Let me ask you all, it's a bigger question and bigger picture question.

I saw that the chair had said revivals had come back when we need them most as a society and I'm struck by that.

I'm wondering, maybe I will ask you first, what do you think it is about the show and this revival that we, as a society now, need or can appreciate?

>> I think it's asking a couple of big questions.

One being, is humanity innately good, or is humanity innately bad?

And, we can hold both of those questions at the same time to be true because I think there is a level of despair and questioning that we are all experiencing right now, especially coming out of a pandemic, coming out of basically a huge cultural revelation.

And we are seeking some answers to the questions that we have.

But I also think this show, at the same time, presents this idea of hope, and that, in all of our questions and seeking out what makes us good or bad as humans, ultimately there is hope and that hope lies in younger generations, that hope lies in future, and for me personally, I think it strikes a chord in this society that we live in and democracy and how does democracy work and how can we all participate in democracy to make it work.

Jack: Let me ask you each about your roles and I will come back to that notion in some things you just said and how it applies to each of you.

This is an iconic show with iconic roles.

Andrew, I'm wondering, is it daunting for an actor -- and if it is, maybe to what degree, to create a role now that is an iconic role in an iconic production that is -- that has lasted for decades, as an actor, how is that?

Andrew: Short answer is, yes.

It's extremely daunting, it's intimidating, but it's also such a unique and sort of dreamlike opportunity in the sense that you get to put your stamp on this, as you said, iconic character.

The two men who are most closely associated with this are two of the greatest actors ever to have graced the earth.

So when you think about it in that sense, it makes you want to go under the covers and never come back out.

But when you are given an opportunity that Aaron Sorkin writes a slightly new characterization with a new idea and new worlds, it's sort of like a pinch me moment that I get to put my name alongside these great icons and thinking of it moment to moment and the playing of it, that's where the joy and the beauty in this dream lies.

If you think about it as a larger picture of I have to go up against these great men, then it's sort of like you are in the water.

If you think about it as an addition to the already iconic thing that lays before us, it's such a golden opportunity.

Jack: Jordan, Lancelot, his own iconic figure, originally on Broadway, indeed a Broadway legend.

I also want to mention to you that my wife and I are one of I'm sure thousands of people who dance to, if ever I would lead to at our wedding, that was 50 years ago, it worked out well for us.

Jordan: Congratulations, that's awesome.

Jack: Talk about that, similar to what Andrew said, Lancelot is this legendary character and how do you go about making you him, him you?

Jordan: I had the luxury of hearing anything I knew about Camelot came from stories of family of friends who either listened to the album or had seen a touring production of the show and I always said how much of a fantasy it was, but I, myself outside of seeing the sword and the Stone, Disney, with really no relationship to the material, I had done a gala performance of it for years ago, and that was with the original script, so that was actually my introduction to the world of Camelot really proper and so I've just had fun exploring the romance and all the things that she talked about as well, and I echo Andrew sentiments, you can't really think about the fact that Robert made these songs famous when he made them famous because we are singing them for a new generation.

We just did a student matinee yesterday.

We have fresh years of kids who had never really seen Camelot, didn't really know the story, didn't know what was going to happen and it was one of the most electric experiences.

Like Andrew said, you just live in those moments and let that be your guide, let the relationship we develop as a cast, as a crew help us and hopefully develop that relationship with the audience as well, through this story.

And you learn so much, and I have just been on that wave.

Jack: What a great opportunity to bring it to children and introduce the con -- concepts of equity, marker C hope in conjunction with despair, to get young people to children -- young children to see it.

I have used the word iconic way too often, but it happens to be used appropriately.

I did a little research, there have been dozens of doctoral dissertations written about the character of Guinevere.

You -- your Guinevere is a little bit different, intentionally a little bit different.

Talk about some of the differences in the Guinevere that you portray.

>> I like to think that based on the time that we are living in and the opportunities that I have because I'm standing on the shoulders of amazing women who have created incredible characters before me, that we are living in a time where this is may be the most fully fleshed out version of her that we have ever seen, just because we are more evolved.

I think, to your point about these iconic roles and these iconic characters, something that Macy dog -- may seem daunting to people and that I find comforting is that these characters not only exist from Camelot the musical, the original musical that was done in the 1960's, but this is a story and a canon of stories that has existed for centuries.

It's a very old story and has deep roots, and it has many different versions and alternate ways of telling this story.

There some general through the lines that continue to be there, but I think that that only gave me permission to put my own stamp on it and to know and to be humbled by the fact that this is just a small notch in the canon of the story.

That we are coming forth and telling, and trying to serve our society in some way with this story, with these ideas.

Jack: People will go see it and will record dies your partnership with Guinevere and Arthur.

This is both Andrew and Jordan, you guys do a great sword fight on stage.

We are kind of used to -- if you gotta high school productions, a sword fight is to people with things going, banged, bang, bang.

This looks realistic.

There is moves, athletic moves.

Tell me about putting that together and how you go about creating that.

>> our incredible fight choreographer, who has been doing this for longer than any of us have been alive, he is a true storyteller.

So our first day of fight rehearsal was us talking about what story do we want to tell with the fight.

It's not just, to your point, a couple of guys banging swords around, it's two people who have a point of view and an intention of what they are doing in this fight.

So that was a beautiful way to come about fighting because it gives you a larger sense of purpose.

It's not just a sword fight, it is a story in it of itself.

So we started with fingers and saying I'm going here, I'm going there because I want this, and then graduating to bamboo sticks and then finally graduating to swords.

Which nine-year-old Andrew and I'm sure nine year old Jordan were freaked out we finally got swords.

The Dave get a Lightsaber in your hand as a Star Wars nerd.

It's just so fun to do.

>> I can recall when we did -- I feel like I said this and if I didn't, I definitely thought it.

I've been playing swords my whole life but I finally have someone to play it with.

I had this old plastic sword that I had gotten from an estate fear one year when I was a little boy, and I would always wield that theme, so to be able to do it now for a living is so fun.

And it's always maintained the state of play.

When that state of play goes away, that's when things get actually dangerous, and you can hurt yourself and those around you.

So like Andrew said, he considers himself a director, so the way he approaches it is as a scene.

Ultimately, that helps in the growth of the character so that we don't just get to a part of the show where it's like, that was an awesome sword fight, moving on.

It's like, what can we learn about these two, not just these two, but these three through the fight and finding the connection and always maintaining contact with everyone in this scene.

It's been the whole ensemble because the fight doesn't work if we don't have a great ensemble reacting to it in helping us.

As we say, we make each other look good.

We all helped, so it's a cyclical thing.

Jack: We can talk forever, as I said, this is absolutely one of our favorite shows ever, you all are spectacular, I mention the 30 piece live orchestra, which was such a delight in any day and age.

And what we ask for, what we hope for in our theater is to be both entertained and for it to make us think and I think this version does all of those things and you all should be congratulated.

Thank you so much for spending time with us, good luck as this continues to run and hopefully we look forward to talking to you.

Be well.

Thank you.