Scene to Song

Your favorite musical may be full of vamps and pedal points. But you don’t even know what they are?

So what are vamps and pedal points? And how do they change musicals?

Vamps are repeatable, utility-driven units. Pedal points are a sustained pitch that anchors a changing harmony to create tension and allow dissonance without losing the listener.

Music Featured:

“Old Friends” from Merrily We Roll Along

You can write to [email protected] with a comment or question or to be a guest. Follow on Instagram @‌ScenetoSong and on Facebook at "Scene to Song with Shoshana Greenberg Podcast." Sign up for the monthly e-newsletter at scenetosong.substack.com and consider supporting on Patreon https://www.patreon.com/scenetosong . Theme music by Julia Meinwald.

Here We Are, is the 2023 musical by Stephen Sondheim and David Ives, it was Sondheim’s last musical, produced posthumously. In this conversation we discuss surrealism in musical theater, the relationship of the main characters Marianne and Fritz, if this is this an unfinished work, and more.

Music Featured:

“The Road 1 (Part 1)” from Here We Are

“Oh, Look, Here’s the Embassy” from Here We Are

“Bistro a la Mode (Toast 2)” from Here We Are

“The Road 1 (Part 1)”  from Here We Are

“Shine” from Here We Are

“The Soldier’s Dream” from Here We Are

“Interlude 1: Marianne and The Bear” from Here We Are

“Dear Bill” from Operation Mincemeat

You can write to [email protected] with a comment or question or to be a guest. Follow on Instagram @‌ScenetoSong and on Facebook at "Scene to Song with Shoshana Greenberg Podcast." Sign up for the monthly e-newsletter at scenetosong.substack.com and consider supporting on Patreon. Theme music by Julia Meinwald.

Shoshana is joined by Christie Baugher back on Scene to Song to discuss melodic and harmonic suspensions as a musical-theater storytelling device.

Music Featured:

“People Will Say We’re in Love” from Oklahoma!

“Somewhere” from West Side Story

"Gethsemane (I Only Want to Say)" from Jesus Christ Superstar

“Pinball Wizard” from The Who’s Tommy

“Almost Forgotten” from The Fitzgeralds of St. Paul

“Yours, Yours, Yours” from 1776

From dancer to director, Michael Bennett reinvented what a Broadway musical could be.

Shoshana talks with Natalie Guevara, creator of Mirror Man: A Portrait of Michael Bennett and unlike many of our guests, she is someone who didn't consider herself a theater person until Michael Bennett changed that.

Natalie got interested because even though Bennett gave us A Chorus Line and Dreamgirls, his name barely comes up in the same breath as Sondheim or Jonathan Larson. Natalie noticed that gap and made it her mission to fill it!

They trace Bennett's journey from dancer to one of Broadway's most visionary director-choreographers, hitting Promises, Promises, Company, Follies, A Chorus Line (born from taped personal testimonies), Dreamgirls, and the unrealized projects cut short when he died of AIDS-related illness at just 44.

Music featured:

"Turkey Lurkey Time" from Promises, Promises

"Who's That Woman" from Follies

"Better" from A Class Act

You can write to [email protected] with a comment or question or to be a guest. Follow on Instagram @‌ScenetoSong and on Facebook at "Scene to Song with Shoshana Greenberg Podcast." Sign up for the monthly e-newsletter at scenetosong.substack.com and consider supporting on Patreon. Theme music by Julia Meinwald.

What do crossword puzzles have to do with "Send in the Clowns"? More than you'd think.

This episode, Shoshana is joined by Barry Joseph, author of Matching Minds with Sondheim, to explore Stephen Sondheim's lifelong obsession with puzzles and games, and how that obsession quietly shaped everything from his lyrics to his show structures to his closest relationships.

In the "Why Is This So Good?" segment, Shoshana and Barry dig into "Good Enough to Eat" from Schmigadoon! Season 2.

Music featured:

"Ten Years Old (The Fabulous Fifties, 1960)" from Sondheim Sings Vol. II (1946–1960)

"Hesitation (Reprise)" from Here We Are

"A Little Priest" from Sweeney Todd

"Good Enough to Eat" from Schmigadoon! Season 2

You can write to [email protected] with a comment or question about an episode or about musical theater, or if you'd like to be a podcast guest. Follow on Instagram at @ScenetoSong and on Facebook at "Scene to Song with Shoshana Greenberg Podcast."

Be sure to sign up for the monthly e-newsletter at http://scenetosong.substack.com , and consider supporting the show on Patreon. The theme music is by Julia Meinwald.

What’s your favorite musical that no one else has heard of?

Composer and lyricist Will Larche talks about indie musicals and the release of his new album, Bumps in the Bathroom: and other lost shows, which preserves songs from obscure, cult-favorite indie musicals that premiered in the East Village.

Music played in this episode:

“Clarity” from Lesbian Love Octagon

“Bumps in the Bathroom” from Bumps in the Bathroom

“Apple Pie” from BAIL OUT THE MUSICAL

Mentioned:

https://www.indiespace.org/

Is Glinda’s side of Wicked memory-based? And why is she so darn optimistic?

This episode, Shoshana is joined by actor and singer Jennafer Newberry, best known for serving as the Glinda standby in the Broadway production of Wicked after previously playing Glinda on the national tour. In addition to her performing career, Newberry is also a musical theatre faculty member at the New York Film Academy.

The main conversation dives into Glinda’s character arc in Wicked, exploring the idea that the story may be Glinda’s memory-based retelling of Elphaba’s life. Shoshana and Newberry unpack Glinda’s privileged optimism at Shiz University, the comic brilliance of “Popular,” and how songs like “Dancing Through Life,” “One Short Day,” and “Thank Goodness” reveal her gradual transformation. They also discuss the emotional weight of “For Good” and the leadership role Glinda ultimately steps into by the end of the story.

In the “Why Is This So Good?” segment, they analyze “Agony” from Into the Woods, exploring how Stephen Sondheim uses humor, structure, and character to elevate the song into one of musical theater’s great comedic duets.

Music featured:

“Popular” from Wicked

“Dancing Through Life” from Wicked

“One Short Day” from Wicked

“Thank Goodness” from Wicked

“For Good” from Wicked

“Agony” from Into the Woods

You can write to [email protected] with a comment or question about an episode or about musical theater, or if you’d like to be a podcast guest. Follow on Instagram at @‌ScenetoSong 

Be sure to sign up for the monthly e-newsletter at http://scenetosong.substack.com and consider supporting the show on Patreon https://www.patreon.com/scenetosong . The theme music is by Julia Meinwald.

Shoshana is joined by writer and theater aficionado John Verderber, author of Harry Reams Goes to Hollywood and American Father, longtime Little Red Light Theater associate, and contributor to Time Out New York, New York Magazine, and Everything Sondheim. We deep dive into Christopher Guest's beloved mockumentary Waiting for Guffman and the musical within it Red, White, and Blaine. In honor of Catherine O’Hara we thought diving into Waiting for Guffman was timely.

We explore what makes the film endure: its uncanny authenticity to the world of community theater, the emotional stakes bound up in the hope of Broadway recognition via the elusive Mort Guffman, and the genuine earnestness at the heart of its musical numbers. They also trace its influence on the wave of mockumentary-style comedies that followed.

In the Why Is This So Good? segment, Verderber makes the case for "The Dream" from Fiddler on the Roof.

Music featured:

A Penny for Your Thoughts from Waiting for Guffman.

Stool Boom from Waiting for Guffman

The Dream from Fiddler on the Roof.

You can write to [email protected] with a comment or question about an episode or about musical theater, or if you’d like to be a podcast guest. Follow on Instagram at @‌ScenetoSong and on Facebook at “Scene to Song with Shoshana Greenberg Podcast.” And be sure to sign up for the new monthly e-newsletter at scenetosong.substack.com. Contribute to the Patreon. The theme music is by Julia Meinwald.

"We watch a Holocaust play and we know that all of these people are gonna die. We watch an AIDS play and we know how badly it's gonna turn out." So what does it mean for a musical to be a period piece marked by tragedy?

In this Season 9 premiere of Scene to Song, host Shoshana Greenberg sits down with dramaturg Deborah Blumenthal to explore how musicals like Rent and Falsettos have transformed from contemporary stories into historical texts. They examine these iconic Broadway shows through the lens of the AIDS crisis, discussing how audiences experience them differently now than when they first premiered.

The conversation also features an analysis of "New York" from the 2024 West End musical Two Strangers (Carry a Cake Across New York).

In this episode, you'll hear about:

You can write to [email protected] with a comment or question about an episode or about musical theater, or if you’d like to be a podcast guest. Follow on Instagram at @‌ScenetoSong and on Facebook at “Scene to Song with Shoshana Greenberg Podcast.” And be sure to sign up for the new monthly e-newsletter at scenetosong.substack.com. Contribute to the Patreon. The theme music is by Julia Meinwald.

Five of this season's guests--William Forrest  (Episode 118: The Sherman Brothers' Movie Musicals for Disney), Rick Rhobajt Widen (Episode 121: Bible Musicals), Tara Krieger (Episode 123: Tim Rice, Benny Andersson, and Björn Ulvaeus's Chess), Nathan Platte (Episode 126: Meet Me in St. Louis), and BethAnn Cohen (Parody in Musical Theater (Ep. 127))--return to discuss topics from the season and answer listener questions and comments. We also discuss the song "Chim Chim Cher-ee" from the 1964 film Mary Poppins.