Story of season three

For me to have any confidence in leading a writers room and building season of a show like this with a cast like this, I have to feel I know this story in my bones. I based Oliver [Martin Short’s character] on an old theater professor of mine I was very close with until he passed away, Dr. Richard Mason — he was known as “The Mayor of Charles Street” down in Greenwich Village. The pursuit of a theatrical endeavor through the mind of Oliver, I knew, would require a big swing, especially when we decided that it made sense for Oliver to take a straight play and turn it into a musical. There was also going to be this very tenuous and twisty romance with his new leading lady — and that was all there before we knew who that leading lady wo

Casting the legendary Meryl Streep

It’s crazy. I was with EPs Dan Fogelman and Jess Rosenthal going through the opening scene for season three potentially being this actress walking onto a stage, auditioning for a part, and Oliver being thunderstruck by both the talent and the woman standing before him, and I said to Dan and Jess, “Well, the perfect person to play this part — you know who that is?” They’re like, “Who?” And I was like, “Well, Meryl Streep.” And they were like, “Good luck with that, John.” Then, literally two weeks later, I get a text from Steve and Marty saying, “Hey, Meryl Streep just reached out and said she’d like to talk about doing something together. Should we bring up the show?” I said, “Yeah!” And a week later, they said, “Meryl just said she’s in if you think we have something for her to do. Do we have anything good?” And I was like, “Oh, fuck.”

I pitched her the character over a very nervous-making Zoom. I said, “We open on your character, actually, in the very first scene, but you’re 10 and visiting New York from St. Louis with your mom, who’s bringing you to your first Broadway show, it’s called No Strings. And before I got any further, Meryl said, “I saw that.” And I said, “What?!” She said, “Yeah, I saw that with my mother … Diahann Carroll was in it. She sang this beautiful song.” And she started to sing “The Sweetest Sounds.” I said, “OK, I don’t know what the hell is happening right now, but Meryl, you have to stop because my head is going to explode. Those lyrics you just sang are on page one of the script I’m going to send you after we hang up. And she said, ‘What?!’”