Somehow, about a year ago, I found myself backstage at Jazz at Lincoln Center. Rachel Bloom, the star and my co-creator of “Crazy Ex-Girlfriend,” was about to perform some songs from our show in Lincoln Center’s prestigious American Songbook series, and she had invited me to do a number with her called “JAP Battle.” Me, 50 years old, onstage, rapping. Everyone else who was about to be onstage (Rachel and Jack Dolgen and Adam Schlesinger, the “Crazy Ex” songwriting team) was a seasoned songwriter and performer. Me? I was about to perform in public for the first time since my high school graduation in 1985, when I sang, very out of tune, the Kenny Rogers classic “Through the Years” with my friend John.

So there I was at Lincoln Freaking Center. I’m from New Jersey; I grew up calling New York “the City.” So, yeah, Lincoln Center has a “freaking” in the middle of it. The giant floor-to-ceiling windows of the Appel Room made me feel like I was about to perform on the streets of Manhattan. I was scared, but what comforted me was the knowledge that I would be looking into the eyes of my supportive stage mother, Rachel. Yes, my stage mother is a woman in her very young 30s. And this is the story of how this young woman, and the other young people and women on our show, made me into an honorary millennial.