We spoke to Erin Stegeman (Music Writer & Director/Cersei) & Ace Marrero (Music Director/Khal Drogo) about Game of Thrones: The Rock Musical in New York City from October 10-29.

Is the musical based mostly on the TV show, the books, or both?

Erin Stegeman: The musical we do is based on Season 1, Book 1 with hints at the rest of the seasons, so it’s great if you’ve never seen Game of Thrones, it serves as a perfect intro, and if you’ve seen the other seasons you’ll get all the jokes and references.

Why did you want to turn Game of Thrones into a musical?

Ace Marrero: Erin and I had worked on a feature film, a rock opera musical called Once Upon a Time: The Rock Opera , which she directed and also wrote the songs for. We met Steven Christopher Parker and Steven Brandon, and spoke to them about their experience parodying Lost. They came up with the idea to do Game of Thrones.

Erin Stegeman: Steven Parker is a huge fan of the show and he called us because he wanted to make a musical with original songs, he knew we’d done that before.

Ace Marrero: They kinda came to us and asked if we wanted to make the music and be in it. I’m a huge Game of Thrones fan, so I was totally on board. Erin wasn’t as much of a fan, but she is one now.

Erin Stegeman: It’s part of my blood now.

You’re married. Do you watch the show together and avoid spoiling it for each other?

Ace Marrero: I’m curious to see what Erin says.

Erin Stegeman: I started watching it around Season 3, we have friends who throw these viewing parties so I’d come to those and participate. I went more for the social element really, I was so far behind that I didn’t really care about spoilers, but it didn’t make it less enjoyable. Season 7 we watched together.

Ace Marrero: Erin’s original apprehension was that the show wasn’t favorable portraying women. The beginning is pretty aggressive, I was trying to encourage her by telling her that the women end up being the best characters in the show. It was hard for her also for the violence, but this came into play in our show, one of our favorite moments is a song called “Stronger” sung by all the women, it’s a wonderful anthem, Erin wrote some additional lyrics for it, and it gives you a taste of where the strength in these characters is.

I know we’re all traumatized by the current administration, but its horrors have become such, that we end up seeing them reflected on TV and most kinds of fiction. Will they come into play in your show as well?

Erin Stegeman: Oh no, we absolutely hit it head on!

Ace Marrero: We have some references that are super specific and it’s funny because the jokes played differently before and after the election. We realized what we thought was over the top was in fact not farfetched.

Erin, how was it to come up with the sound of Westeros?

Erin Stegeman: I was given lyrics and an idea from the two Stevens, but they also gave me a lot of free rein, so I worked with my partner Peter Frintrup, we jammed and Ace would come and sing. The show’s theme song is so epic that from the get go we wanted our musical to have the same energy and movement, we started thinking about Queen, a lot of rock influences, since it’s parody we can do blues, metal, all the different kinds of rock in the spectrum. I like to write based on the characters, so I did some lyric adjustments, like Arya is kind of a street girl, so she’d be more hip hop influences, Sansa would be more lyrical, Ned Stark would be grounded in musical theatre but when he’s tense he goes into this cool tenor rock. I was thinking about the distinct genres the characters would have.

Ace, what was it like to orchestrate the piece?

Ace Marrero: We worked on it together, we had reference tracks we developed with the cast, we did a lot of work shopping. Even when we did it in San Diego and LA it was more of a workshop show.

Erin Stegeman: We were in rehearsals and didn’t even have the second act yet!

Ace Marrero: It also depended on who was gonna play the part. It wasn’t a cookie cutter situation, we had to tailor the songs to voices.

Erin Stegeman: We really wanted Robert Baratheon to have a nice baritone bass voice, but nobody came in with that. LA is full of baritenors and tenors, so we had to be very flexible. Creating a new show is so different than casting a pre-existing show.

Ace Marrero: Casting for New York was easier because now we have the reference of how we want it to sound. In the beginning we really had to adjust, but it also led to happy accidents.

I know there’s a cast recording out but I wanna see the show without knowing the songs. However I laughed my ass off reading the titles of songs like “Be My Hand” and “Dothraki Love Song,” so without being too spoilery how would you describe the show in terms of “it’s this meets this”?

Erin Stegeman: It’s more Rock of Ages, but we tried to keep it out of being too musical theatre-y, we wanted it to be a funny pop-rock show.

Ace Marrero: It’s tough to describe it, but I think it’s very accurate to describe it in the same way as the show, it’s all these different characters with specific personalities.

Erin Stegeman: You’ll love “Dothraki Love Song” (laughs)

You both have film and TV experience, what’s it like to take a property that’s so CGI heavy and turn it into something tangible?

Ace Marrero: It lies in having these very specific characters, they’re all very grounded in their own way. If we weren’t a parody shoe this would be harder, but in parody there is no boundary, you can be silly and the audience comes along for the ride.

Erin Stegeman: It’s kind of like the Monty Python story where they didn’t have a budget for horses, so they made horse sounds. We also really focus on the rivalry between the houses rather than the dragons.

Ace, are you allowed to have carbs when you’re playing Khal Drogo?

Ace Marrero: (laughs) I appreciate that question because currently I have to watch what I eat. I often get crap because I don’t usually watch what I eat, I try my best to stay in shape, I’m trying to do some extra boxing classes and eating less popcorn. When we ran in LA we had two casts, because we were in the middle of pilot season, my counterpart in the other cast was completely different in terms of body type. He got a muscle shirt, so we joked because I had to be shirtless.

Erin Stegeman: The other Khal Drogo was drinking beer and Ace is always doing pushups backstage before the show. It was so funny.

Cersei is by far my favorite character, I root for her which makes me feel terrible, so Erin, since you play her what would you say most people misunderstand about her?

Erin Stegeman: I agree with you 100%, it’s funny, the first time I watched the pilot and she came onscreen I was like “who is this crazy bitch? I like her!” she’s been my fave since. Lena is so great in the part, she’s a mother, she wants a family and love. Even if she’s crazy and self serving, she’s fearless and kind of an underdog. Even if she’s this nasty, evil woman, she’s an underdog. She outlives her father, her children, she is so smart, fearless, narcissistic. I have to say playing her has given me a little bit of courage, I walk a little taller now.

For more information on Game of Thrones: The Rock Musical click here.