Broadway Binge

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.

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.

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!

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: [email protected]

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

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.

The Threepenny Opera, by Elizabeth Hauptmann, Bertolt Brecht, and Kurt Weill, was originally produced in Berlin in 1928. After a 1933 Broadway production bombed, it was re-translated by Marc Blitzstein for a smash Off-Broadway 1953 production that helped to create Off-Broadway theatre as we know it today.

The King and I (1951) by Rodgers and Hammerstein is a classic, and was Jeremy's first musical! We discuss how well it holds up in the present day, and compare it to South Pacific, with which it has a lot in common.

This week, we talk about South Pacific (1949) by Rodgers and Hammerstein! We discuss the musical's message of racial tolerance, its exploration of discrimination, and whether the show itself is problematic in its approach to dealing with racism. We also play a whole bunch of songs, because this is probably the best score we've talked about so far. Can it dethrone Oklahoma and Guys and Dolls? Listen to find out!

We welcome Todd Buonopane (@toddbuonopane) of the amazing Broadway Stories podcast to talk to us about Guys and Dolls, which he's been in SIX times. Guys and Dolls, with music and lyrics by Frank Loesser and book by Abe Burrows, is considered by many to be the greatest American musical comedy of all time. See where we rank it against the other nine musicals we've discussed!

Cole Porter returns in a post-Oklahoma world to deliver what is considered his magmum opus, Kiss Me Kate. We are not impressed. Trigger warning for sexual assault.

To listen to the songs we talk about, check out our Spotify Playlist, Broadway Binge Listen-Along, which can be found on our website, broadwaybinge.podbean.com