Interview with Laurence O'Keefe

I chat with Laurence O'Keefe, the composer of Bat Boy: The Musical, which was revived for a production at the 2025 NY City Center Encores. We talk about that show, and some of his other works. Two new songs written for the Encores show are premiered.

On this week's episode of 'On Broadway', I interview Mark Cabaniss, author of Miracle of The Music Man: The Classic American Story of Meredith Willson. Cabaniss steps back into the Golden Age of Broadway and brings to life the origins of this classic show, the music behind it, and the unlikely story of its creator. Interweaving behind-the-scenes accounts of people who worked with Willson, Cabaniss looks at his long and unusual career as a composer, conductor, radio personality, and flutist, which reached its pinnacle in The Music Man.

During a 3-year period, beginning in November 2021, Stephen Sondheim scholar Rick Pender and I reviewed every Sondheim musical. However, a taping of one episode was misplaced - Sondheim's only foray into TV musicals, the show Evening Primrose. That show, which aired on November 16, 1966 on the ABC Network, and starred Anthony Perkins and Charmian Carr (who played Liesl in the movie of The Sound of Music), is presented here.

I chat with Drew Bastian and Julianne B. Merrill, two cast members from the Off-Broadway, jukebox musical Music City. At the time of the interview, there was no indication the show would close, but the following day, it was announced that Music City would be closing on September 19, 2026.

This week, we explore the music of Charles Strouse. Long-time listener, Sharon Kahn, made a generous contribution to the Sounds of Broadway studios and earned herself the right to create a playlist for our streaming radio station or serve as a guest host for this podcast. She chose the latter and talks about the career of Charles Strouse. We play a generous number of selections from the musicals for which he composed the music.

My guest this week is Ethan Popp, a Grammy®, Olivier®, and three-time Tony® Award nominee, who is nominated this year for the Tony Award for Best Orchestrations for The Lost Boys. He is also the Music Director for the show. He has worked with some of the biggest musical acts in the recording business, including Queen, Tina Turner, Elton John, Stevie Nicks, Bono, Alice Cooper, and Smokey Robinson. In film, he was the Music Production Supervisor for the 2017 film “The Greatest Showman” and served as vocal coach for Academy® Award winner Rami Malek in the movie “Bohemian Rhapsody.” For the theater, he has served as music producer, music supervisor, arranger, and orchestrator for such shows as Back to the Future: The Musical, Mrs. Doubtfire, Tina: The Tina Turner Musical, School of Rock, Motown the Musical, Hedwig and the Angry Inch, Rock of Ages, and The Lost Boys, which is what we are going to talk about today.

I chat with Dr. Kristin Stultz Pressley, a Broadway historian and lecturer and the co-host of the Dr. Broadway Podcast. We talk about her new book - Jukebox Musicals: Crazy for You to MJ the Musical (Essential Musicals). The book explores a style of show that's dominated Broadway for the better part of two decades. Through a chronological look at the development of long-running hits, like Mamma Mia! and Jersey Boys, this book traces the Jukebox Musical from when it was an exception on Broadway to when it became the rule. Dr. Pressley was a previous guest on the podcast, when we discussed her first book, I Can’t Give You Anything but Love, Baby: Dorothy Fields and Her Life in the American Musical Theater, which was published in 2021.

On this week’s episode of On Broadway, I chat with Adam Gwon, an American composer and lyricist. He made his off-Broadway debut in 2009 with Ordinary Days. He has written eight other musicals that have premiered Off-Broadway and at major regional theaters across the country.  Gwon has been a recipient of the Fred Ebb Foundation Award, presented to aspiring composer/lyricists, as well as the Kleban Prize for most promising musical theater lyricist.

This week I speak with the composing team of Tom James McGrath and Amy Clare Tasker about their new musical Rising. Songs from the show are incorporated into the episode. Rising reimagines the 1916 Dublin rebellion through the inner life of Patrick Pearse, its most enigmatic leader. As he leads the charge against the British Empire, Patrick must reconcile his public role with the private self he has kept hidden – his queerness, his sensitivity, and his doubts. Fighting alongside him are a community of eccentrics: artists, bookworms, socialists and socialites. Together, they form not just a revolutionary force, but a chosen family.

I speak to Nicholas Brown-Cáceres, acting chief of the Music Division, and Cait Miller, senior music reference specialist, at the Library of Congress. They talk about Inside the Vault, a collaborative, interactive and virtual exhibit that will be accompanying the national tour of The Sound of Music.