Josh Gad Has An Interesting Dream For The Cast Of Central Park
It's hard not to fall head over roller skates in love with the Apple TV+ animated musical comedy series "Central Park." Created by Loren Bouchard and Nora Smith of "Bob's Burgers" fame and Broadway actor turned voice-of-your-children's-favorite-snowman Josh Gad, "Central Park" is a delightfully funny series centered on the Tillerman family who reside in Central Park in New York City.
In addition to the typical familial strife, the Tillermans are often targeted by the ruthless socialite Bitsy Brandenham (Stanley Tucci) who intends to purchase Central Park and turn it into luxury condos and fancy restaurants. The show is littered with fantastic musical numbers, including a fourth-wall-breaking narrator named Birdie (Gad) who keeps the story moving and provides the audience with context.
The star-studded cast returns for a third season to deal with the endless saga of Bitsy's quest to buy the park, while Owen Tillerman (Leslie Odom Jr.) has to figure out a way to improve the park's reputation with the general public. The season will also see the return of Kristen Bell, who voiced Molly Tillerman (Emmy Raver-Lampman) in the show's debut season. Bell exited the role in 2020 to allow for a more equitable casting of the mixed-race teen but will be appearing in a new role as the sister of Paige Tillerman (Kathryn Hahn).
Gad recently spoke with Collider about the upcoming season and even confessed a dream he has for all of the cast.
Central Park Live?!
"Central Park" boasts a ridiculously talented roster of voices, with Odom Jr., Raver-Lampman, Daveed Diggs (who plays Bitsy's assistant Helen), and Rory O'Malley (who plays Owen's assistant Elwood) all performing in "Hamilton," in addition to the vocal prowess of Tituss Burgess (Cole Tillerman), Gad, Hahn, and Tucci, who all have numerous credits to their names. According to Gad, one of his biggest dreams is to get the cast together to perform the songs of "Central Park" in a concert.
"The luxury of having this cast is that it's one of the best casts ever assembled, but that also means that everybody is always busy," he told Collider. "I'm in Australia right now, shooting, and everybody's all over the globe, doing stuff." At the time of publication, Stanley Tucci is working on something in London, Kathryn Hahn is off working on "Agatha: House Of Harkness," and everyone else in the cast is working on the number of projects they've nabbed over the years, like Raver-Lampman who will be wrapping up the final season of "The Umbrella Academy."
Despite the scheduling difficulties, Gad has high hopes. "As soon as we have a moment where we're all in the same place, I think everybody would be so open to doing some sort of live concert performance," he said.
The third season of "Central Park" debuts on September 9, 2022, with the first three episodes of the 13-episode season. Each subsequent episode will be released weekly every Friday.