I love January hiatus! I am not only resting but prepping for the new season. Season seven! I can hardly believe it. The first episode of season seven will be released on January 29th, and I’m very excited about it. It’s a topic idea I’ve had for a while paired with the perfect person for it. I won’t say what it is just yet, but here’s a hint: there was a big movie released recently about the musical theater writer this topic centers around. You may be able to guess the writer, but I’ll be really impressed if you guess the topic. Stay tuned.
The season six finale live webcast is still on the Facebook page and is also in podcast form. One of my 2024 goals for this podcast is to create a YouTube page for the live webcasts and podcast episodes. I hope this will lead to more folks watching and discovering Scene to Song. Another way to spread the words is to rate and review the podcast on your podcast app. I would be so grateful if one of your 2024 goals included a rating and review (if you haven’t already) and spreading the word to folks who are looking for new podcasts.
And if you are not yet subscribed to these emails and want to be, subscribe here:
— Shoshana
Recent Episodes
Episode 103: Season 6 Finale
In this episode, six of this season's guests--Caseen Gaines (Episode 87: Eubie Blake, Noble Sissle, Flournoy Miller, and Aubrey Lyles’s Shuffle Along), Mike Meaney (Episode 90: The Lyrics of Yip Harburg), Christopher Culp (Episode 100: TV Musical Episodes Part II), Tammy Tuckey (Episode 101: David Bryan and Joe DiPietro’s Diana), BethAnn Cohen (Episode 95: Five-Year Anniversary Live Show), and Victoria Myers (Episode 102: Mary Rodgers, Marshall Barer, Jay Thompson, and Dean Fuller’s Once Upon a Mattress)--return to discuss the topics from the season and listener questions and comments. We also discuss the song "Home" from the 1975 Charlie Smalls and William F. Brown musical The Wiz.
This discussion was held live on Sunday, December 17th on Scene to Song’s Facebook page, and was recorded for this podcast almost in its entirety.
Music played in this episode:
"Home" from The Wiz
Musical of the Month
Ragtime by Terrence McNally, Lynn Ahrens, and Stephen Flaherty
Ragtime opened on January 18, 1998, but I saw an early preview the last week of December, 1997. I was 15 years old, and my parents took me and my sister up to New York over our school break. This was the first time I think I was aware of the idea of previews. My mother told us that because we were seeing the show in previews that we were sure to see the writers there. During intermission, we walked into the lobby and my mom pointed them out to me as though they were celebrities. I now wonder what was going through their heads as I spotted them that day. What did they think was or wasn’t working? What did they discuss in that 15 minute break?
I already knew of some changes because I had the Toronto recording called Songs from Ragtime: the Musical with the song “The Show Biz,” which was cut for the Broadway production. I see Ragtime as being formative in my understanding of how musicals are written and put together, not from reading or hearing actual accounts but from simply experiencing it as a listener and audience member. It’s fascinating when some of the process is visible.
Ragtime comes up in many Scene to Song episode discussions, most notably in a discussion about the song "The Night that Goldman Spoke at Union Square" in episode 24 on The Formation of White/White Jewish Identity in America and the Racial History of America Constructed through Musical Theater.
Also in January…
January 6: Lionel Bart's Oliver opens on Broadway (1963)! Listen to a discussion of the character Bill Sykes in episode 73 on Evil Characters in Musical Theater.
January 10: Fred Saidy, Burton Lane and E.Y. Harburg’s Finian’s Rainbow opens on Broadway (1947) and Happy Birthday, bookwriter James Lapine (1948)! Celebrating by listening to episode 90 on The Lyrics of Yip Harburg, and to episode 66 on Stephen Sondheim and James Lapine’s Into the Woods.
January 11: Stephen Sondheim and John Weidman's Pacific Overtures opens on Broadway (1976). Listen to a discussion of the song "Someone in a Tree" from Pacific Overtures in episode 19 on Political Musicals.
January 15: Forbidden Broadway opens Off-Broadway (1982). Celebrate by listening to episode 30 on The Musical Revue.
January 16: Jerry Herman and Michael Stewart's Hello Dolly! opens on Broadway (1964) and Happy Birthday, Lin-Manuel Miranda (1980)! Celebrate by listening to a discussion on "Motherhood March" from Hello, Dolly! in episode 17 on Directing Middle School and High School Students in Musical Theater and to episode 36 on Lin-Manuel Miranda's Hamilton.
January 26: Andrew Lloyd Webber, Charles Hart, and Richard Stilgoe's The Phantom of the Opera opened on Broadway (1988) and Happy Birthday, Michael R. Jackson (1981)! Celebrate by listening to episode 81 on The Phantom of the Opera and listen to discussions of Jackson’s musical A Strange Loop in episode 65 on Artist Characters in Musical Theater and episode 45 on The Illusion of the Everyman in Musical Theater.
January 27: Yip Harburg, Jule Styne, and Nunnally Johnson's Darling of the Day opens on Broadway (1968) and Andrew Lloyd Webber and Tim Rice’s Joseph and His Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat opens on Broadway (1982). Listen to a discussion of the song "That Something Extra Special" from Darling of the Day in episode 78 on The Musical’s Drive Toward Comedy, as well as episode 39 on Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat.
January 28: Cy Coleman, Dorothy Fields, and Neil Simon's Sweet Charity opens on Broadway (1966) and Paul Simon and Derek Walcott's The Capeman opens on Broadway (1998). Listen to episode 61 on The Musicals of Cy Coleman for a discussion of Sweet Charity and episode 63 on Latinx Stories and Bilingualism in Musical Theater for a discussion of The Capeman.
January 30: Happy Birthday, producer and director Harold Prince (1928)! Listen to a discussion on his work in episode 48 on Stephen Sondheim and James Goldman's Follies.
Find more musical theater history for January at musicals101.com.
New Musicals!
While Scene to Song mainly looks at musicals already part of the canon, I definitely want to highlight new musicals and musicals in development.
Dead Outlaw
How did I miss that there will be a new musical by The Band’s Visit’s Itamar Moses and David Yazbek next month? I haven’t seen much hype about this, but I’m very intrigued. It will play Audible's Minetta Lane Theatre in New York City from February 28th through April 7th. Notably, this marks Audible Theater's first-ever commissioned musical.
Creative Team: Book by Itamar Moses; Music and lyrics by David Yazbek and Erik Della Penna
Synopsis: Elmer McCurdy was an ambitious, turn-of-the-20th-century outlaw whose death at the hands of a Western posse ended a life of failed crime and alcoholism and began a brilliant career as a mummified side-show attraction that travelled the USA for decades. By the time this journey ended, his name had been forgotten and his desiccated body was hanging in a house-of-horrors ride at an amusement park in Southern California, spray-painted a day-glo orange. Then one day, a grip for the “Six-Million Dollar Man” TV show jostled what he thought was “just a dummy” and an arm fell off, revealing a human bone and beginning a hunt for the origins of this enigma.
Get more info on Dead Outlaw.
Something Wonderful
Some additional recommendations for January:
Event: Sondheim's Follies in Focus: A Conversation With Two Who Were There. Tuesday, January 30 at 6:30pm ET, New York City. Hear first-hand stories and insights from two individuals who were present and observed the magic of the original production. Ted Chapin, former President of the Rodgers & Hammerstein Organization, and Frank Rich, former Chief Theater Critic of the New York Times, in a moderated discussion of the impact of Stephen Sondheim's landmark work Follies. Ron Fassler, critic, blogger, and author of Up in the Cheap Seats, hosts.
Article: “Tina Fey on ‘Mean Girls’ Then and Now” in the New York Times. The Mean Girls movie musical is coming! Fey reflects on how different generations have reacted over the years.
Hosted by writer Shoshana Greenberg, Scene to Song brings on a guest to talk about a musical, musical theater writer, or a topic or trend in musical theater. The theme music is by Julia Meinwald.
You can write to scenetosong@gmail.com 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, on Twitter at @SceneSong, and on Facebook at “Scene to Song with Shoshana Greenberg Podcast.”
Shoshana Greenberg is a lyricist, librettist, singer, and theater journalist. Her musicals include Days of Rage with Hyeyoung Kim and Lightning Man with Jeffrey Dennis Smith. She has also written the opera “The Community” with Kevin Cummines. Her songs have been heard at venues from Lincoln Center to the Duplex, where she performed her one-woman show Not Coming Back. She’s written for American Theatre Magazine, is a contributing editor for the publication Musical Theater Today, and created and hosts the musical theater podcast Scene to Song. She holds an M.F.A. from the Graduate Musical Theatre Writing Program at NYU and a B.A. from Barnard College.