Episode 19 - The Complete Stephen Sondheim

This week’s podcast episode is a conversation with Susan Dormady Eisenberg, the author of the historical fiction novel, One More Seat at the Round Table. Here’s a description of the book: Jane Conroy, tries to juggle her first theater job and her unexpected passion for a gifted singer in the chorus, Bryce Christmas. Part coming of age novel, part love story, part dish-filled history, One More Seat at the Round Table follows the comic travails of Camelot from its New York rehearsals to its lackluster tryouts in Toronto and Boston to its disappointing New York debut.

The 19th episode in a series on the complete works of Stephen Sondheim. Rick Pender, the author of the The Stephen Sondheim Encyclopedia, is our musical guide. For this episode, we feature the musical Off-Broadway revue, Marry Me a Little. The show is a musical composed of outtakes from Stephen Sondheim's early musicals.

I chat with Robert W. Schneider, an award-winning Director, Producer, Author, Educator, Podcast Host, and Artistic Director of The J2 Spotlight Musical Theater Company, about his new podcast – BROADWAY BOUND: THE MUSICALS THAT NEVER CAME TO BROADWAY. It features musicals that had set their sights on Broadway but missed the mark. The first season is entitled “Hooray for Hollywood” and looks at Broadway Bound musicals based on movies: Arthur, The Baker’s Wife, Breakfast at Tiffany’s, Busker Alley, Enter Juliet, Gone with the Wind, The Graduate, The Mambo Kings, Minsky’s, and Paper Moon.

This week I chat with Patrick Pacheco who helped the late Chita Rivera write her autobiography - Chita: A Memoir. Dolores Conchita Figueroa del Rivero – Chita – created some of Broadway’s most iconic roles, including Anita in West Side Story‚ Rosie in Bye Bye Birdie, Velma in Chicago, Aurora in Kiss of the Spider Woman, and Claire in The Visit. Patrick and I talk about these shows and such luminaries as John Kander, Fred Ebb, Bob Fosse, Jerome Robbins, Hal Prince, Judy Garland, Liza Minnelli, Sammy Davis Jr., Gwen Verdon, and more.

I speak with Matt Gould, composer and co-librettist, of the new Broadway musical Lempicka. We chat about the show and his approaching to writing music.

Author Stephen Cole talks about his fictional, time-traveling novel, MARY & ETHEL…and Mikey Who?, which has taken the real-life friendship with Ethel Merman and Mary Martin, tossed them into a blender and come up with a fantasy about a nerdy super-fan.

I chat with Martin Fitzgibbon, who was a young drummer in the band during the creation of the The Rocky Horror Show in 1973. In his memoir, Behind the Curtain: My Life and Rocky Horror, he discusses the show, giving his unique insight into how the musical and its participants became an overnight success and created a cultural phenomenon still going strong over 50 years later.

SoundsofBroadway's Stuart Brown talks about our current Bracket Challenge - Favorite Musical From the Golden Age (Oklahoma! in 1943 through the year 1964). Each week, listeners pick the winners in head-to-head matchups – just like ‘March Madness’ – until we narrow down the field of 64 to just one ultimate favorite. Vote now! Just go to SoundsofBroadway.com.

I chat with Van Dean, a Grammy and Tony-winning producer who has just launched a new record label, Center Stage Records. Previously, he ran Broadway Records. We talk about, among other topics, his new record company and the art of producing a cast recording.

The 18th episode in a series on the complete works of Stephen Sondheim. Rick Pender, the author of the The Stephen Sondheim Encyclopedia, is our musical guide. For this episode, we feature the musical The Frogs. The show is a musical "freely adapted" by Stephen Sondheim and Burt Shevelove from The Frogs, an Ancient Greek comedy by Aristophanes. The Frogs was originally performed in Yale University's gymnasium's swimming pool in 1974. The show was produced on Broadway in 2004 with the book revised by Nathan Lane and the score expanded by Sondheim.