OriginalCastPod

Intermission: A Lovely Chat with Kurt Peterson, Producer of 'Sondheim: A Musical Tribute'

I was very lucky to have the chance to chat with Kurt Peterson who produced Sondheim: A Musical Tribute and was in the original Broadway cast of Follies (1971). Kurt spills some tea on how the first Sondheim tribute came together, talks about his plans for the upcoming 50th anniversary, and what it was like to be in Follies before it was considered a classic of American musical theatre. You can learn more about Kurt and his work at his website: James Williams Productions Dot Com.

Douglas J. Cohen / SONDHEIM: A MUSICAL TRIBUTE - Original Broadway Cast Recording (1973)

Composer/lyricist (and former subject of this podcast), Doug Cohen is here for the first ever #Sondheim tribute.

Topics include: cut songs, Ethel Merman, Sondheim's singing voice, the glorious Nancy Walker, and drowning your babies.

Special Interview! 'Caroline, or Change' at the Astoria Performing Arts Center

Jeanine Tesori & Tony Kushner's Caroline, or Change opens tomorrow at Astoria Performing Arts Center. Patrick speaks with Dev Bondarin (director and APAC's Artistic Director) and leading actress LaDonna Burns (Caroline) about the show, their process, and why this is a show more people should be doing. 

The Original Cast at the Movies 16: Yentl (1983)

 
Perennial favorites Kari Ginsburg (Gypsy, et al.) and Roddy Flynn (Anyone Can Whistle, et al.) are here for Barbara Streisand's epic story about a woman pretending to be a man so she can study the Talmud and sing alone in the woods with candles. 

Ken Davenport / The Goodbye Girl - Original Broadway Cast Recording (1993)

Ken Davenport is a Tony Award-winning producer (Kinky Boots), podcaster, and entrepreneur and he's here to talk about a show that had all the ingredients of a hit but just . . . wasn't. He also tells us one thing he wished everyone knew about producers.

Topics include: knowing a show isn't working, 2nd-Acting-musicals, Falsettos, Falsettoland, March of the Falsettos, Tower Records, and Bobby Lopez. 

Intermission: Title of Song (w/ Robbie Rozelle)

 Some musicals have title songs and we cover a bunch: good, bad, and in-between. 

LIVE at Flying V Awesome-a-Thon Vol. 3!!!

LIVE SHOW STREAMING ANNOUNCEMENT

Joshua Morgan / Into the Woods - Original Cast Recording (1987)

 
Straight from Broadway's Imperial Theatre and Ain't Too Proud it's Joshua Morgan, Patrick's newest brother from another mother, here to talk about the Shakespeare of musical theatre and his classic work.

Topics include: Bombay Dreams, Sondheim Divas, 3rd weddings, the incomparable Joanna Gleason, and stage dooring John McMartin. 

Intermission: Bootlegs (w/ Kimberly Cooper Schmidt)

Kimberly and Patrick start out talking about My Fair Lady at Lincoln Center and end up talking about Be More Chill by way of the time Patrick went to an Arctic Monkeys show and Matt Helders wore a Go-Pro. 

The Original Cast at the Movies 15: The 5,000 Fingers of Dr. T. (1953)

 Logan Culwell-Block (Little Shop of Horrors 1982) and Kimberly Cooper Schmidt (The Light in the Piazza)are with us for Dr. Suess's movie for everyone who hated piano lessons.

NOTE: This episode was recorded at the Playbill offices in New York City after I had recorded 4 podcast episodes (coming to your feed soon). As a result, my voice is a little gone and I am very, very punchy. We talk about undershirts for awhile. It's a thing.  

Eliza Berkon / Godspell - Original Motion Picture Soundtrack (1973)

 Journalist/broadcaster/singer Eliza Berkon is here for a musical another show I can't believe took this long to come up.

Topics include: singing through braces, having a table dropped on your foot during a show, and ELIZA WAS ON THE SING-OFF OH MY GOD I'M FREAKING OUT!

Intermission: Problematic - The Musical (w/ Don Mike Mendoza)

 Golden-age musicals are problematic. Even the ones you don't think are problematic are problematic. 

Mary Myers / Songs for a New World - World Premiere Recording (1996)

It's our THREE-YEAR ANNIVERSARY so we've got a big episode with a big guest talking about a small show that has big ideas about small moments and long songs. Very long songs. So very, very long, these songs.

Topics include: Man 2 is the worst, Mic time for sad white men, why these songs are so long, why are all Man 1's songs gospel-infused, Woman 2's agency, Woman 1's agency, JRB's guest vocalizing, Catholic School, and why Billy Porter isn't on this album. 

DON'T FORGET TO VOTE!

Our Songs for a New World poll is going. The episode is cut, just waiting for your decision on how to release it. One, long 2-hour episode is currently leading by A LOT.

Intermission: Ragtime - The Book (w/ Elliot Dash)

Before it was a Flaherty/Ahrens/McNally musical, Ragtime was a Miloš Forman movie.

And before that, it was a novel by E.L. Doctorow.

And before that, some of the characters were real people.

And before that, some of those real people were real babies.

We don't go back that far. 

Patron Poll

Hello, Patrons!

So I've got a long episode coming up in the near future with actress Mary Myers on Songs for a New World. The episode cut will come out close to 2 hours. So I have need you to help me decide how to release it.

Please vote below!

The Original Cast at the Movies 14: Bugsy Malone (1976)

Lauren Halvorsen (The Wild Party) and Kenny Neal (Starlight Express) are here for a musical starring Scott Bao and Jodie Foster that is like the Little Rascals doing GoodFellas to the Xanadu soundtrack.

But that's not necessarily a bad thing.

Watch Busgy Malone (1976) on YouTube.

Rachel Barlaam / Legally Blonde - Original Broadway Cast Recording (2007)

Rachel is here for a show about exceeding your expectations that maybe doesn't exceed Patrick's expectations (or does it?).

Topics include: Challenging roles, Pippin, the joys of singing high, and the unattainable awesomeness of Jessica Vosk. Also Mean Girls. 

"What's the Matter with Henry" from <em>The Evolution of Mann</em>

A free mp3 download of the song "What's the Matter with Henry" from the new Douglas J. Cohen and Dan Elish musical The Evolution of Mann.

The full cast album is available now HERE!

Special Interview!: Douglas J. Cohen and Dan Elish's New Musical <EM>The Evolution of Mann</EM>

Composer/lyricist Douglas J. Cohen (No Way to Treat a Lady) and librettist/lyricist/novelist Dan Elish (13) are here for a phone interview with Patrick about the newly released cast album for their show The Evolution of Mann.

Patreons of The Original Cast can download a free mp3 of the song "What's the Matter with Henry?" from The Evolution of Mann right now.

Laura Esti Miller / Jekyll & Hyde - The Complete Work (1995)

We've got a dramaturg to talk about a musical that really could've used a dramaturg. A musical with more concept albums (5) than actual cast albums (1), the last one released fifteen (15) years after it opened on Broadway. A mega(?)- hit from American musical theatre's Saleri: Frank Wildhorn.

Topics include: Laura & Patrick's unironic love of this show, Laura & Patrick's ironic love of this show, Patrick's Colm Wilkinson impression, What Jekyll & Hyde thinks it's about, and What Jekyll & Hyde is actually about.

Intermission: Baby Meets Chess (w/ Broadway Baby Podcast)

Patrick is a guest this week on the wonderful Broadway Baby Podcast talking about Chess (shocker). Here's a snippet of the episode to whet your appetite.

The full episode is available HERE.

Enjoy! 

Anna Grace Nowalk / Beauty and the Beast - Original Broadway Cast Recording (1994)

While our topic is ostensibly the first Disney Broadway musical (and, as of this release, 10th longest running show in Broadway history), Anna and Patrick spend most of this episode on being a young actor and how one gets started in this business at such a young age.

Topics include: Social Anxiety in theatre, Young Cossette, and is the Enchantress the real villain of this story?

The Original Cast at the Movies 13: Cinderella (1997)

Beth Amann (Wicked) and Don Mike Mendoza (Hot Mikado ; Do I Hear a Waltz? 1965) are here to talk about Disney's version of Rodgers & Hammerstein's version of the Disney version of the fairytale. Is that right? It's a film they have each seen a thousand times and Patrick has seen 1.5 times.

Also lots of Air Bud talk towards the end.

It's a journey.

Watch Cinderella (1997): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fk9uuD86ufk

Intermission: Hope Theory (w/ Tia Shearer Bassett)

Did you know you could major in "Hope Theory?" Did you know "Hope Theory" was a thing? Patrick didn't.

Heather C. Jackson / She Loves Me - 2016 Broadway Cast Recording (2016)

Costume designer Heather C. Jackson is here to talk about one of the best musicals ever. Not that anyone’s ranking. But if we did, this would be high on the list. But we’re not ranking. (Like, high high.)

Topics include: Romantic atmosphere, (The Queen) Judy Kuhn (long may she reign), and how someone tries to kill themselves 20 minutes from the end of Act I & we don’t learn their fate until the top of Act II.

Also Patrick forgets names a lot in this episode. Like, a lot.

Intermission: High School Theatre (w/ Emma Jackson)

We were all in high school (some of you, statistically, still are), we all did theatre in high school (some of you, statistically, still do), we all had a tap solo sophomore year in Funny Girl that probably should've been cut but we can still do on command 23 years later . . . just me? We talk about all that.

Also parenting.

Katherine Riddle / Les Misérables - The Complete Symphonic Recording (1989)

Actor/singer/teacher Katherine Riddle is here for our third Les Miz episode covering the 3-disc, complete recording. Katherine has played Cossette twice and has some interesting insights into that most maligned of ingenues.

The Original Cast at the Movies 12: White Christmas (1954)

We close out our first year with a mega-episode about a mega-musical. Emma Jackson (Brigadoon - 1990) and Farrell Parker (A Chorus Line - 1975) can both recite White Christmas from memory. But don't worry, they don't. Much. Also Megan Reichelt (The Scarlet Pimpernel) stops by in the form of the written word!