-I loved seeing you.
Thanks so much for coming on the show.
-I'm so happy when I watch this show
and I'm happy when I'm here.
That John Fogerty thing was amazing.
-Wasn't that fun? -It was amazing.
-He was amazing. He crushed that one.
-You playing the kazoo like nobody's business.
-Come on. -I tried the jug and I go,
"I'm going to give up on the jug."
Yeah, I couldn't really play that.
-But it was a mini kazoo solo, so I liked it.
-You heard that? -I heard that.
-Respect. See? I love that you pay attention.
You're always great. I know that you're now living in L.A.,
but I know you're from New York and your show
was right here in the building. -That's right.
-When you come back to New York, does it feel like you're home?
-It feels like I'm home and I run right to Broadway.
-You do? -Yeah, I run.
[ Cheers and applause ]
-You always have good recommendations.
What did you see? What did you see?
-First thing I saw was Neil Diamond's show
"Beautiful Noise." -I've not done it yet.
-Now, you know, I thought it was a jukebox musical.
Just like "Mamma Mia." A little story.
No, I was sobbing at the end.
It's the story of Neil Diamond losing his ability
to play on tour because he has Parkinson's.
And his discussion with a psychiatrist.
And then Will Swenson. You know him. He's unbelievable.
Comes out, Tony Award winner,
and he plays Neil Diamond that we all know.
And then at the end... -No.
-...they performed together and mommy was sobbing.
[ Laughter ]
Jimmy, I was a blubbering mess.
-"Oh, no, I'm going to lose it." I love Neil Diamond.
-Oh, the finale. I don't want to ruin it for anyone
but the finale -- Go see "Beautiful Noise."
Now, the next thing you got to go see,
everyone's trying to get tickets.
"Sweeney Todd." -I saw that one.
[ Cheers and applause ] -Oh, come on!
-The whole cast is amazing. -Unbelievable.
-Josh Groban. -Annaleigh.
-Annaleigh Ashford. Oh, my gosh.
-Annaleigh Ashford is a Tony Award-winning
Lucille Ball with a voice of a god.
Funny, beautiful, hysterical.
-How funny was she in this thing?
Made me -- When she fell down the stairs.
-Fell down the stairs.
-The funniest thing, The funniest bit.
I am like, "Wow." I was so -- -And you know that
-Is not in the script. You know, the old lady
falls down the stairs on her heinie, cracking up
the audience was not in the script.
-She did that. -She made that up.
-She does it and she does it every night.
-Every night. It was unbelievable.
You have to go see.
And the boy from "Stranger Things."
-Gaten Matarazzo. -Oh, my God was he so good.
-Gaten Matarazzo was fantastic.
-Fantastic. What a voice.
-And I've never seen "Sweeney Todd."
-I knew it. I saw it with the original.
So it was not funny, though, in the original.
It's a depressing story.
They're killing people to make meat pies,
and then they're selling the meat pies.
-It's a tough sell if people don't know it.
I go, "It's about a barber who kills people
and uses the human meat for meat pies."
And they go, "Okay."
But somehow -- And then you hear this, like, "Pretty Women."
-Oh, yeah. -The songs you hear from there,
you go, ♪ No one's going to harm you ♪
♪ Not while I'm around ♪
I go, "That's from this crazy play?"
-That's from this crazy play. -It's beautiful.
-But it is so beautiful and it's so funny.
And I loved every minute of it.
And I think there's going to be Tonys all around.
But the best thing that I saw
was Sean Hayes in "Good night, Oscar."
-Really? -Now, Jimmy...
[ Cheers and applause ]
...this was an unbelievable performance.
He plays a real guy, Oscar Levant,
who had a lot of mental problems and drug problems,
but was a brilliant wordsmith
and one of the intellectual thinkers of the time.
He went on the Jack Paar show
in the middle of having a nervous breakdown.
They took him out of the hospital
for four hours on a leave,
had him perform on "The Tonight Show" and then leave.
-No. -And it's a true story.
And Sean Hayes. -I heard he's amazing.
-Oh, my God, Jimmy, when he came back to say hello
to all his guests, I started crying.
You know when you have that cry
that you didn't expect to cry and you --
I just was like, "Oh, Sean," like, I couldn't stop crying.
-Isn't that a weird thing about Broadway?
I feel so proud of them like they're my kids or something.
-That's right. -"I love you, buddy.
You did it. Get over here."
-Yes, "You do it eight times a week. How do you do it?"
-I had nothing to do with Sean Hayes at all.
But yes, I'm hugging everybody at the end like --
-He was -- Jimmy,
it was an extraordinarily brilliant performance
that I could not believe.
I was witnessing a guy that I've known and loved
for many years in this role.
I was blown away. He's going to win every award
and you should get tickets if you can.
-I love this. -That's my publicity. Thank you.
Good night. Good night. -That's all.
[ Cheers and applause ]
-But I love -- You're like --
Yeah, I go, "I'll talk about your podcast."
You go, "Jimmy, I don't need to talk about it."
-Yeah, whatever. Yeah, I have a podcast
wherever podcasts are sold.
"Rosie O'Donnell Onward." -Yeah. There you go.
-Go. Okay.
-But you are no stranger to Broadway not only supporting
but you actually -- I've seen you perform in --
Was it "Grease"? -I was in "Grease."
You want to guess who I played?
-Yeah. Rizzo. -Yeah. It wasn't Sandy.
Sometimes people ask me -- [ Laughter ]
People go, "You were in 'Grease.' Who did you play?"
And I just wait a second. And then I say, "Danny Zuko."
[ Laughter ]
-But you always say, you go, "I can't really sing."
You can sing.
-Listen, I'm not a singer
like the singers you see on Broadway.
And I grew up loving Barbra Streisand.
And if that's the one that you're going to hold high
as the highest voice you've ever heard, you're nowhere near that.
You know what I mean? -Yeah, exactly.
-So I know I can sing funny patter songs
and I know I can do the comedy involved,
but it's not like they're putting on a new musical
and they go, "You know, can we get that Rosie O'Donnell?
Because that voice is so soothing."
-People really -- No, yeah.
But you crushed it there.
And you know what you're also crushing is TikTok.
Yes. -TikTok loves you.
-I love TikTok. You don't stop, right?
-TikTok. You don't stop. -Exactly.
-But how did you get involved with TikTok?
-My daughter, who's 20 years old
and was very bored during the pandemic.
And her name is Vivi.
She's very beautiful, very smart.
And she told me that I had to do one with her.
And I'm like, "I'm not going to dance.
It's going to look ridiculous."
And so I did it just because I'm a mom.
-You'd do anything for your kids.
-But you do anything to make her happy for five minutes.
And then this kid who was like a 20-year-old kid,
copied it and made fun of me.
And then I went on and made fun of him.
And then it became like a thing, you know?
And I'm like, "You mean I can, like, have fun
and play with strangers on this thing?"
I think it's the best invention in a long time.
I hope they don't ban it because I really enjoy my TikTok.
-Yeah, no, I hope they don't ban it either.
-Yeah. -You're good at it.
-You can connect people to people, you know,
And I -- My daughter has autism and she's 10 years old.
And I connect with so many autism moms.
And, you know, when you have a niche like that
and you want to talk to someone who really understands,
I've met people and have real relationships
that serve my life through doing that.
And sometimes when you're famous,
you don't get to meet new people anymore.
You know, because people think that you're different than them,
even though you're just the same kid
that grew up on Long Island
and took the train in to see "Pippin."
You know, for the second act,
and I would hide and the ushers wouldn't find me,
and then I'd run and watch Jill Clayburgh on stage
and John Rubenstein.
-This way you can connect to people and you go,
"Yeah, I was that person."
-Exactly. And people, you know, on TikTok,
they don't seem so impressed with your celebrity at all.
You know, they're kind of like, "Oh, hi, Rosie,
What are you doing on tonight?" I'm like, "Yeah, frankly,
I'm watching that 'Horrible Love is Blind.'"
[ Laughter ]
The worst show on TV, ever been on television.
-That's so funny. -I'm going to hide in a booth
and only listen to you for six weeks,
and then I'm going to move in with you for two months,
and then we're going to see if it lasts.
Good luck, kiddies.
-Sounds like something I would watch. Yeah.
-Yeah. I don't recommend. -I think they can --
Also, if you are successful on the social media,
it's because you're honest.
I think people can smell a phony.
-It's so true. -They can sniff it out and they
go, "Oh, this is someone else.
This is someone else doing it for you.
You're not being yourself. You're not being real."
-Right? And we've had so much in our society
and our culture with lies and with misinformation
and with fakeness and what's real and what's not.
And what do the Kardashians look like before the surgeon?
[ Laughter ]
You know? Don't forget, honey.
Don't forget. That's all tricky, Pretend nothing, right?
Don't strive for that.
You know, you have to strive for something real.
And I think in our society with art now,
with music, with our culture, people want authenticity.
They want to be told the truth. [ Cheers and applause ]
By you. -Yeah. Real.
-That's all that matters, right?
-That's why we love you.
I do want to talk about your podcast,
"Onward with Rosie O'Donnell."
It's basically you were telling me
it's just you chatting with friends.
-Pretty much. You know, I turned 60 and I went,
"Listen, what do I want to do?" -Happy birthday.
-Thank you. -If I'm lucky, I'm actually 61
now, but when I turned 60 -- -Happy belated 60th.
-Thank you. When I turned 60, I went, "You know what?
I'm going to rent myself a place on the beach for one year.
I'm going to get a chef to cook me healthy food.
I'm going to lose some weight.
I'm going to feel better about my life
and I'm going to decide what do
I want to do with the last 30 summers
should I be lucky enough to live to 90.
What do I want to do?" Right?
[ Cheers and applause ] And so that's why the podcast
seemed like a wonderful thing,
because I get to be home with my kid and raise her
and I get to talk to friends
and still be a part of the pop culture,
but not so much in that it takes over your world, you know?
-Good. -That's what aging does.
You don't give a crap anymore, you know what I mean?
Yeah. [ Applause ]
-I want to -- We're going to go to commercial,
but I just want to tell you that when I started "Late Night,"
I don't know if you remember this, but you gave me
such great advice.
You were so nice to me. You said
what's it like and what are you doing for the audience
and how are you going to warm up, down to the last detail.
And I remember I was at an event, like a charity event,
and you were sitting next to me and you go, "Jimmy,
how's the 'Late Night' thing going?
You working hard?" I go, "I am, Rosie."
I'm writing, I'm working hard. I really want this to win."
You go, "Are you doing test shows?"
I go, "I am." And a test show doesn't air.
And so you kind of ask your friends or your neighbors
just "can you come on a fake talk show
and have me interview?" And I go, "I'm doing tests."
And you go, "I want to be on it."
-Yeah. -And you came on our test show
and I'll never, ever forget it. -Yeah.
-It was awesome. -And you were great.
And I'm so proud of you. I really am.
You're a wonderful man.
-Rosie O'Donnell. [ Cheers and applause ]
-Thank you. -"Onward" wherever podcasts --
-Anywhere. Anywhere. -Anywhere!
IHeart Radio app, wherever.
We'll be right about with Suga, everybody.
Come on, stick around.