Ok, here’s a story.

And like most good showbiz stories, it starts in a place you’d never expect.

Not with Neil Diamond.

Not even with Broadway.

But with Clark Griswold.

A few years ago, I was producing a reading of The Griswold’s Broadway Vacation. We had a last-minute casting change. (And if you’ve ever produced anything, you know that’s when your blood pressure spikes.)

So I picked up the phone and called Will Swenson.

And because Will is Will, he jumped in, saved the day, and gave us a Clark Griswold so hysterical, Chevy Chase himself would’ve bought a ticket.

Now here’s where fate winks at you.

On the final day of that reading, my then-associate, Valerie Novakoff Britten, whispered to me:

“You know Will does a pretty mean Neil Diamond.”

My ears perked up. 

So after the reading wrapped, I said to Will: “Thank you for bailing us out. And, uh, by the way . . . I hear you do Neil Diamond?”

His eyes lit up. “I love Neil Diamond.”

I told him I was working on a Neil Diamond musical with Bob Gaudio, Michael Mayer, Anthony McCarten . . . and Neil himself.

And without missing a beat, he said: “I’ve been waiting for this my whole life.”

And the rest? You know it.

He premiered the role in Boston.

He starred in it on Broadway.

He blew the roof off the place every. single. night.

And now—he’s packing his bags for Australia. Because he once said “yes” to Clark Griswold.

That’s this business, folks. One “yes” leads to the next. And sometimes those “yeses” change your career . . . or your life.

So thank you, Will, for saying yes back then, for saying yes now, and for carrying Neil’s songs across the globe.

To my friends down under: get ready. You’re about to get Swenson-ed.

And it is something to see. Grab your tickets here.