ON BROADWAY

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.

I chat with Brian Stoll, an uber Broadway fan who has seen over 285 shows in the past decade, all at under $60 a ticket. He has developed a presentation, “Broadway on a Budget,” that he has presented at libraries and other venues, where he shares his money-saving tips on how to see Broadway shows, his love for Broadway, and even the history of the Playbill.

I chat with the composer, lyricist, and librettist Douglas J. Cohen about his book, How to Survive a Killer Musical: Agony and Ecstasy on the Road to Broadway. The book chronicles his decade-long quest to bring his musical, No Way to Treat a Lady, to the stage—writing, re-writing, and shepherding it across the US and Europe amidst all manner of adversity and plain rotten luck.

The 17th 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 Saturday Night. This was supposed to be Sondheim's first Broadway show in 1955 until the untimely death of the lead producer scuttled the work.  

I interview theater journalist Eddie Shapiro about his new book, “Here’s to the Ladies: Conversations with More of the Great Women of Musical Theater.” In the book, a follow-up to his work, “Nothing Like a Dame: Conversations with the Great Women of Musical Theater,” he sits down for intimate, career-encompassing conversations with yet more of Broadway’s most prolific and fascinating leading women. They include such luminaries as Barbara Cook, Kelli O’Hara, Heather Headley, Faith Prince, Stephanie J. Block, and Tonya Pinkins.

I chat with Danny Kornfeld, one of the stars of the new Barry Manilow/Bruce Sussman musical Harmony. We talk about the show and his life in the theater.

The 16th 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 Road Show (also known as Bounce and Wiseguy). Rick will talk about how Sondheim worked with a number of collaborators to create the show that never made it to Broadway.

The 15th 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 original production of 1994’s Passion. Rick will talk about how writer/director James Lapine and Sondheim collaborated on the show to create one of the composer’s most unique musicals.  

For the Halloween season, an interview with Robert Viagas on his book Good Morning, Olive. The book is about the ghosts that haunt Many of Broadway's busiest theatres and around the world.  Robert Viagas, was the editor-in-chief of Encore Monthly, the national theatre magazine. He has more than thirty-five years' experience, much of it working on Broadway with Playbill Inc. He is the founding editor of Playbill.com and is the author of 22 books.

I chat with Laurence Maslon, the author of the book, I'll Drink to That!: Broadway's Legendary Stars, Classic Shows, and the Cocktails They Inspired. “The book expertly mixes clever cocktails that pay homage to unforgettable Broadway shows with authentic recipes for drinks that played supporting roles in beloved shows. Mason provides a history of the cocktail on Broadway along with a trove of theatrical anecdotes." 

The 14th 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 original production of the 1987 Stephen Sondheim musical, Into the Woods, which ran for 765 performances on Broadway.

Interview with Michael Urie (Professor Robert Langdon) and Hannah Cruz (Cryptologist Sophie Neveu) who are starring in the American premiere of play based on the best-selling novel The Da Vinci Code. The show is playing at the Ogunquit Playhouse (http://www.ogunquitplayhouse.org/) through September 23.

An interview with Greg Dassonville (https://www.dassonvogue.com/), a stylist who has revolutionized how people approach shopping and wearing clothing for all occasions. Since his start, Greg has provided styling for The Tony Awards, The Emmy Awards, Broadway Opening Nights, Concerts, Editorials, and various Red Carpets for Movie premieres. For the 2023 Tony Awards, Greg provided styling for Tony Award Nominee Betsy Wolfe of & Juliet and for Adrianna Hicks of Some Like It Hot. On the podcast, Greg will talk about how he started his business, his views of styling, the collaborative nature of his work, and some of the celebrities he has worked with on the red carpet. Pictures of his work will also be available on the BroadwayRadioPrograms.com website.

On our podcast this week, I chat with Seth Bisen-Hersh, composer/lyricist whose musical, Love Quirks, ran Off-Broadway last summer. We talk about the show and issues trying to mount a musical in New York City. We also discuss his new film project and his hobby of creating crossword puzzles.