This could be one of the great Morning Joe moments of late.
This morning we had on Jordan Roth, who is president of Manhattan-based theater producing and ownership company, Jujamcyn Theaters. Roth joined us to talk about the recent Broadway boom, in which no doubt, the beloved musical "Book of Morman" has helped play a large part.
According to estimates by The Stage and Broadway Leage, Broadway sold 12.5 million tickets in the 2010-2011 season, and so far in 2012, box-office grosses are up 6.7 percent.
"Interesting thing about the recession...we were bracing for [the] hellatious," Roth says. "Maybe you're not going on your trip to London, but you can come with your family two and a half hours and take a journey."
All of which is great news. But things took a turn for the awesome when former RNC Chairman and msnbc contributor Michael Steele opened up about his love of the stage.
And the reason it was particularly awesome is because Steele is generally on to discuss pure politics rather than pontificate on Rachel Berry or Santana.
Here's what Steele had to say:
My first Broadway experience was my freshman year at Archbishop Carroll High School in Washington, D.C. – where I was a four-year member of the glee club. And coming out of an urban community where I did not have that exposure really opened up an opportunity, and it led to my doing a lot of theater and stage and stuff like that. And for this generation, their equivalent is “Glee” or “Smash,” [which are] opening up a whole new door for a fresh generation to come to that Broadway experience.
Steele then asked Roth about how "Glee" and "Smash" have helped with the Broadway resurgence.
But not before busting out his "Glee" bonafides.
"I love ["Glee"], by the way," Steele said. "You know, Rachel’s gotta work her stuff out, but she will. No problem. Santana, you go girl!"
Roth agreed: Completely. Those shows – “Glee,” “Smash” and others – they are introducing the vocabulary. The notion that people bust into song when their emotions become high enough that they can’t speak them is a sort of vocabulary conceit that is a unique way of storytelling.”
"I did that a lot as RNC Chairman, by the way. I broke into so much song," Steele offered.
"You can never go wrong by breaking into song. Put that on a t-shirt!," Roth chimed back.
And there you have it folks: Broadway brings the kids together on Morning Joe.