Lessons of the Week: Sara Bareilles Buys Gelato Just Like Us, the Backstreet Boys Are Cirque-ing Their Butts Off & More

Happy Friday/Liza Minnelli’s birthday eve! We’re sure you have a busy schedule this weekend as you watch countless Liza clips on YouTube (just us?), but let’s kick things off with the Lessons of the Week. From songs about pie to songs about soup, it was a wild seven days on the Great White Way, so lets take a look below at what went down!

Sara Bareilles Uses ExtraCare for Ice Cream
With five Grammy noms and a forthcoming Broadway composing debut with Waitress, Sara Bareilles is one fancy lady. But when it comes to sweets, she doesn’t rush to the kitchen for “sugar, butter, flour.” Instead, she goes straight to the frozen aisle at CVS for salted caramel gelato. That sounds great, Bareilles, but hear us out: a warm slice of spiced apple pie with salted caramel gelato sounds far from a bad idea.

Jessie Mueller Is a Soup-er Singer
Forget gelato. Forget pies, even: Jessie Mueller is here to sing about soup. Paintings of soup cans, specifically. The Waitress star, along with fellow Tony winners Kelli O’Hara, Sutton Foster and Alice Ripley, has recorded songs for Pop! Goes the Easel, inspired by works at the MoMA. It’s like a fantasy Sunday in the Park with George where Mueller is Dot and George is played by the ghost of Andy Warhol. Revival, please?

The Humans Needs More Vampires
Stephen Karam’s The Humans is a chilling exploration of family dynamics, but much to its star Sarah Steele’s dismay, the one thing it lacks is vampires. Karam actually wrote the role of Brigid for her in mind and pitched it to her as a thriller. Alas, there are no monsters or dark princes in The Humans. If Andy Warhol’s beyond-the-grave Sunday revival is out of the question, how about Dance of the Vampires? You in, Steele?

BSB Wanna Rock Your Broadway Right
Everybody: A Backstreet Boys bio-musical is in the works. At the Disaster! opening night, Brian Littrell spilled all he had to give about the project, describing it as “Jersey Boys meets Cirque Du Soleil with Backstreet Boys.” We have no idea what that means, but we want it that way. So quit playing games, Littrell, and get back to writing a script, or practicing your silks act, or whatever you need to do.

Vincent Rodriguez III is Eyein' Brian
We all have musical theater crushes. Like Aaron Tveit. Or Bernadette Peters in this froyo commercial. For Crazy Ex-Girlfriend’s Vincent Rodriguez III, it’s Brian d’Arcy James—so much so that his audition book is filled with numbers sung by the Something Rotten! star. Same, Vince. Whether he’s wearing green, a doublet or a crown, we too are in the d’Arcy Army (a name we just made up for a Brian d’Arcy James fanclub).

Rachel Tucker Loves Getting Booed
If you'd like to make Rachel Tucker so happy she runs around screaming. here's a tip. Longtime Wicked principal dresser Kathe Mull revealed that when the cast secretly decorated Tucker’s dressing room in the grand tradition of “boo”ing, the Irish Elphie was positively thrillified. You should hang with Angela Lansbury, Tucker. From the looks of this totally undoctored photo, she loves Halloween, too!

Tailors Must Adore Jason Danieley
Jason Danieley is back in Chicago, and while he’s only weeks into his second round, he’s already on his third tux. The first, a sort of probation tux, was essentially just draped fabric. He blew out the pants on the second. Now, he’s wearing Huey Lewis' tux. It's worth noting Lewis was in the show a full decade ago. Give ‘em the old razzle dazzle, and maybe also a few extra trips to the dry cleaner.

Want to Write a Musical? Study Up.
There's no one right way to write a musical. That said, The Color Purple’s Brenda Russell, Allee Willis and Stephen Bray found success with a particularly academic approach: reading countless "how-to" books and repeatedly watching Sunday in the Park with George to get into the creating spirit. If you need another person on your writing team for your next project, call us. We have lots of books. And Sunday on DVD!

Derek Hough is a Family Dreamcaster
Derek Hough’s getting ready to sing in the rain on Broadway, but before then, he wants to bop-bee-ba, ba-ba-ba-ba-ba bee-ba for Teenage Baltimore. The DWTS favorite recently told us he would love to take part in NBC’s upcoming live Hairspray. He also has plans of supernova proportions for his sister, Julianne: Frozen on Broadway. Hey, it doesn’t hurt to broadcast your dream roles; look at Norm Lewis!

Don't Bother; Amy Spanger's Here...
If your dream role is Mrs. Wormwood in Matilda, you’ll need but one thing: cooter slams. Okay, two things: cooter slams and a mastery of clown makeup. While getting ready to go on, Amy Spanger showed us her actual clown kit she uses to complete the look. And she’s not the only one going full clown this week. Madonna also embraced her inner jester with a certain Sondheim tune on her concert stage. Isn’t it rich, indeed?