Episodes
Monday Jan 29, 2018
Minisode 2 - Allegro
Monday Jan 29, 2018
Monday Jan 29, 2018
Rodgers and Hammerstein had their first flop with Allegro (1947) a pet project of Hammerstein's coming on the heels of their smash successes of Oklahoma and Carousel. They would never stray so far from their established formula again after the swing and miss of Allegro. But what made it a flop, and what is the story behind its creation? Find out on our second Minisode.
Tuesday Jan 23, 2018
16. My Fair Lady
Tuesday Jan 23, 2018
Tuesday Jan 23, 2018
The greatest musical of all time? Perfectly constructed? A lot of musical theatre scholars consider My Fair Lady (1956) to be the best of the best, but what do Hannah and Jeremy think? Get ready to learn about Lerner and Loewe's greatest hit, and find out what all the fuss is about.
Monday Jan 15, 2018
Minisode 1 - Brigadoon
Monday Jan 15, 2018
Monday Jan 15, 2018
Welcome to our first Minisode! In weeks when we can't get a full episode to you, Jeremy whisks you through a musical we skipped over as not meriting a full episode, but one you should probably know a bit about if you want to be a complete Broadway faux-expert. First up is Brigadoon (1947), the first hit musical by Lerner and Loewe of My Fair Lady fame, a musical that we originally meant to give its own full episode! This is very much in the Oklahoma mold, just by a different writing team. Enjoy!
Monday Jan 08, 2018
15. Peter Pan (with Kate Herzlin)
Monday Jan 08, 2018
Monday Jan 08, 2018
This week, we welcome Kate Herzlin to discuss 1954's Peter Pan, directed by Jerome Robbins, and written by Mark "Moose" Charlap, Carolyn Leigh, Jule Styne, and Betty Comden & Adolph Green. Mary Martin played the role for years, followed by Cathy Rigby, and both produced celebrated televised versions. You might also remember the recent televised version with Allison Williams and Christopher Walken.
Kate wrote the book of a new musical version of Peter Pan, and she talks with us about the history of the character, and we all discuss what this show did for children's musicals and TV musicals, while also discussing whether or not it's actually a good show.
Trigger warning for a discussion of possible pedophilia near the end of the podcast. Once Jeremy begins talking about The Little White Bird, which is the J.M. Barrie story for which he invented the character of Peter Pan, you might want to skip the rest of the episode if you don't want to hear a quotation from the book which does not quite sit right to modern ears.
You can read about Kate's version of Peter Pan (which won Best New Work in the 2016 Philadelphia Broadway World awards) here: https://www.broadwayworld.com/philadelphia/article/Media-Theatre-Presents-New-Modern-PETER-PAN-AND-WENDY-Musical-20160117 And if you would like to hear more about this version of Peter Pan for your school or theatre, you can reach Kate here: kateherzlin@gmail.com
Here is the link to the NYTimes article about 2014 Peter Pan that we talk about in the show: https://mobile.nytimes.com/2014/12/06/arts/television/nbcs-peter-pan-live-starring-allison-williams-and-christopher-walken.html?referer=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.google.com%2F
Monday Jan 01, 2018
14. The Pajama Game (with Sharell Bryant)
Monday Jan 01, 2018
Monday Jan 01, 2018
This week, we welcome Sharell Bryant to talk with us about The Pajama Game (1954) with book by George Abbott and Richard Blissell, music and lyrics by Richard Adler and Jerry Ross, directed by Abbott and Jerome Robbins, choreographed by Bob Fosse, produced by Hal Prince (and others) and several songs were secretly written by Frank Loesser!
With the most star studded production team yet, surely this will rank among the best musicals of all time, right? Hahahahahahahahahaha no.