General Hospital: Behind the Scenes of Gio and Emma’s ‘Really Special’ Trip to NYC
The first part of the General Hospital/Aladdin crossover begins in the April 23 episode of the soap when Gio (Giovanni Mazza) takes his girlfriend, Emma (Braedyn Bruner), to New York City to attend a performance of the Broadway show, complete with a backstage tour. He also introduces her to his old friend, Michael James Scott, who plays the Genie in the stage production, all in scenes shot at the New Amsterdam Theatre in Manhattan. Mazza and Bruner opened up about going on location and taking a bite out of the Big Apple in a new interview with TV Insider.
Big City Life
Bruner said that when she and Mazza first learned about the crossover, they didn’t realize what it would ultimately entail. “I didn’t understand that it was actually going to be a part of the show itself,” she explained. “I thought we would just be going to New York and doing a promo of some sort. But then I found out that no, Emma and Gio are going to New York as part of the storyline. That was really, really exciting, because we just don’t go on location a lot at all. I know GH used to go a lot, but it’s just a rare, rare thing. So that felt really special.”
Of course, when they weren’t actually working, the two young stars took advantage of the opportunity to see the sights as their hotel was located near the theater where Aladdin is currently playing. “We went to Times Square at midnight, and they had this cool art installation,” shared Bruner. “We went to dinner. We shared a lot of pasta. They had just had that huge blizzard, so there was a lot of residual snow left on the ground. It was very cold, so we ended up having that first day off. We went to [The Museum of Modern Art] and looked at a lot of art, and then we went and actually saw Aladdin later that night, which was really cool and informative for what we do in the show.”
Mazza enjoyed the location shoot and their guest star, Scott, who balances his Broadway duties with playing Nurse Francois Dubois on ABC’s Scrubs reboot. “He knew all his lines, and he had a lot of material, and it’s hard to just jump into [working on a soap],” the young actor praised. “He just jumped in and had so much energy, and he was so much fun to work with.”
For his part, Scott declared his GH appearance as “such a cool opportunity.” And fans will see him again on Monday, May 4, when the second part of the crossover takes place and the actor brings a little Broadway magic to Port Charles by singing on stage at The Savoy. Scott takes his final bow as Genie on May 3 after a 12-year run and said that he Scott would definitely consider including more daytime work in the future. “It’d be fun to play some fun character on a soap,” he mused. “The fans are amazing.”
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